In today’s episode of Everything Bootcamp, my guest is Amy Connell. Based in Texas in the U S. We’re talking about pivoting your fitness business during the pandemic. We also talk about when is it the right time to stop running classes? When does adversity become a sign that it’s time to stop?
We also talk about writing a book from scratch and publishing it. And the different forms a career in fitness can look like. The fitness industry is vast and there’s many ways we can help people.
Show Notes
- Amy’s first experience with the fitness industry (2:34)
- The joy of movement (4:47)
- Amy’s response to the pandemic for her business (6:37)
- The decision to pause her business (10:02)
- The process of writing a book (14:02)
- The big idea behind Amy’s book (16:59)
- Amy’s advice for other would-be authors (22:48)
- Rapid Fire Questions (25:28)
About Amy
Amy Connell is an NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach, and imperfect eater. She founded Graced Health in 2016 to equip women with simple and grace-filled ways to take care of and appreciate their God-created body … and enjoy a little chocolate in the process. Amy is the host of the Graced Health podcast and author of Your Worthy Body: Find Freedom in Health by Breaking All the Rules. She lives in the Houston, Texas area with her husband, their two always-hungry teen boys, and her stray-turned princess pit bull named Grace.
Links
- Book: Your Worthy Body: Find Freedom in Health by Breaking All the Rules by Amy Connell
- Book: The Joy of Movement by Dr. Kelly McGonigal
- Instagram: @GracedHealth
- Instagram: @kylewood_bci
- Facebook: Graced Health
- Facebook: Bootcamp Ideas
- Facebook: Join the Graced Health community on Facebook!
- Tool: Buffer
- Tool: Buzzsprout
- Tool: CoSchedule
- Tool: Later
- Website: GracedHealth.com
Full Transcript
Kyle Wood: Hello, and welcome to Everything Bootcamp. Today my guest is Amy Connell. Amy is a mom of 18 years, fitness professionals, 16 years, and owner of Graced Health there. She offers various health and fitness options, which we’ll talk more about later plus a podcast of the same name, which we’ll also talk about.
We connected last year when Amy invited me on her podcast of the same name, grace stealth already mentioned that we talked about community and fitness, especially during the pandemic. So today I’m very excited to have Amy on my show to be able to talk about Similar topics, but also different ways that you can like create fitness communities online.
So Amy welcome!
Amy Connell: Thank you Kyle. Yeah. Thanks you for having me. And I can’t believe that it’s been over a year since we connected last, so I’m glad we’re here.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. I thought last year’s time was weird. This year is time is weirder, I think.
Amy Connell: It’s a different kind of weird for sure.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. So, I’ve been enjoying, starting off these podcasts, eh, with a question.
So I want you to cast your mind back to, if you can remember your first group fitness session that you attended as a participant. And do you remember that?
Amy Connell: I’m trying not to laugh too loud. Yes. I remember that. Are you wanting me to go back and explain
Kyle Wood: it to you?
Amy Connell: Oh gosh. So I grew up dancing and I was involved in all things dance.
Um, so this is definitely going to date me, which I don’t have a problem saying how old I am, but in, it was probably 1990. Two and one of the members of my dance team, and I decided we wanted to go to a step aerobics class at our local gym. So in, in keeping in check of the fatness of the, fashion, the fitness fashion.
Those words came together really poorly. The fitness fashion I showed up in, I still remember what I was wearing. It was a Royal blue, shiny blue thong leotard, and by black biker pants with this like a three-inch stretchy band, of course, as you know, I remember what I wear more than anything, but it was a step of rubbish.
And it was really fun because if anyone has ever participated in that they know how rhythmic it is and remembering the steps and you really get to utilize a lot of that. Um, a lot of the elements that I had done all of my life and it was, it was so fun. I actually ended up teaching it. It would kind of when it was on the tail end of being in.
Jim’s but, uh, it was, I loved it. It was so fun, so fun, but I’m glad I’m not wearing that blue thong leotard anymore. I’ll just say that.
Kyle Wood: I know waiting for that, that to come back in. You didn’t have the affections, they like cyclical, but yeah, that’s one that hasn’t quite come back in as it, since
Amy Connell: eighties.
Yeah. We need to just kind of keep that wind, keep that one in the back of the drawer.
Kyle Wood: Oh, that’s awesome. So that, that sounds like that gave you the, a bit of the bug for teaching group fitness being in that experience to music.
Amy Connell: Yeah, it was just something, I think that the group fitness environment I loved, uh, have you read the book? Uh, The Joy Of Movement by Dr. Kelly McGonigal.
Kyle Wood: No, I haven’t.
Amy Connell: Oh, you would love it. It is fantastic. But one of the things that she really highlights in there is just the psychology and the empowerment and, uh, all of the wonderful things that happen in a group fitness atmosphere. And when I went to college, that was how I continued to move. I mean, some girls would go out and run and some girls would run to the bars. I don’t know, but I was, I loved going into the group fitness rooms and that was really my that’s always been my preferred way of movement. So yeah, I was, I mean, in my early twenties I was doing it. And then once my youngest son was born. Uh, we had lived in one city. We moved to a new city and I started a program in my neighborhood where it was like a mommy and me.
So it was a place that I could go and actually bring my child and work out and create a community with that. So that’s kind of how I got into being a fitness professional, as I saw a need in my young family community. And. Uh, just decided, well, if it’s not here, I want to go ahead. I want to start this.
Cause I knew how instrumental it was in my first one. So that’s kinda how I moved into it. But yeah, group fitness has been a huge part of my story as someone who just enjoys, moving and enjoys working out.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. That’s awesome. So let’s fast forward a bit then to the start of 2020, so pre- COVID the, you know, it was then just a small blip on the news.
What we, yeah, it was happening. And so overseas, we had, we weren’t thinking too much about it. Uh, what did, what was your business looking like then? Like what kind of classes were you running at that point and what else we offering with your business?
Amy Connell: I did a hybrid of. Of fitness type things. So I did personal training and that was primarily in-person.
And then I also did group fitness classes outside, and which is really where I got connected with you because I did, um, Yeah, it was a subscriber of the bootcamp ideas. I led classes and they were mostly for like women in their thirties, or I’m sorry, like 35 to 55. And we would go outside the community that I live in.
Now keep in mind. I live in Texas and you know, everything’s bigger in Texas. And I’m really fortunate to have access to some multi-purpose fields out here, which by multipurpose, I mean that it’s like a turf field and depending on what sport is on it, it’s either, um, American football. It’s. American soccer or, you know, um, lacrosse, uh, what else do they have out there?
And they just have markings for everything, but it’s, it’s that standard like hundred meter distance. And I don’t even know what the width is. So. And that was a really great place to go because I didn’t have to worry about what grass, which is always a problem here. And it’s just, I mean, it’s, you know, that was just a really fortunate aspect of, of my business.
So when COVID hit in March, of course, we shut everything down for a while. And then when the business entity that was renting, those fields felt like it was safe to open. I reopened and not only did I hold my, uh, women’s my. Classes and that, by that time it was probably, uh, mid June or July early July of 2020.
Um, I also saw a need with some of the local high school female athletes, because particularly the volleyball. So I actually hosted some fitness and conditioning classes for those, uh, female or for, you know, for the teen athletes playing volleyball because their clubs were shut down. Um, and when I say club.
The, you know, the, the select organizations are the small groups and so they weren’t moving around and they weren’t going to competitions or, um, anything like that. And so I held fitness and conditioning classes for them just to help number one, keep them conditioned. And number two, what really I enjoyed doing was teaching them ways that they could strengthen and protect their body as they were doing the sport that they loved.
So teaching them about. You know, strengthening their gluteus medius and their gluteus minimus, and you know, all of these small things that, that when you’re 16 years old, you don’t care about so much. You just want to jump higher. But then I was like, well, this is why you need to strengthen it. So I moved into that and then.
September, which was kind of when school started back up for us here, uh, it was, it was a weird hybrid situation with our school district. And I just didn’t feel like my community of moms could commit to, um, showing up at the same time that they normally do, because some of them had kids at home. Some of them didn’t, some of them they could leave at home to that.
May you know, it was just, it was like, you know what, that’s fine.
Kyle Wood: Sorry, Amy, by hybrid, you talking about online and face-to-face learning for kids at school. Is that what you mean yet? Okay.
Amy Connell: Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. And then at the same time, my costs went up because all of a sudden, everybody was wanting to use these fabulous multi-core purpose fields.
Yeah. So my cost actually doubled and, uh, because they increased the rates and then they put a two hour minimum on it, even though I only needed it for 45 minutes. So I, um, I just said, you know what, I need to do this, or I I’m going to pause it for now. And I also really wanted to focus on this book project that I was working on.
And I have not yet gone back to, um, group fitness with my women’s. I did over the summer. I did the volleyball again, and I did just general team fitness again, but I haven’t gone back to like that core group that. Uh, really that I really loved. It just hasn’t quite made enough business sense for me to do that.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. What was that like? Cause I can, I’ve definitely come across all the trainers being in similar situations where rent prices get to the point where they’re not really making any, you know, they’re sort of breaking even, but, and the thing that usually keeps them going is their clients. What was that like sort of with these clients who’ve trained with you for awhile.
Having the let go of that. Like that would have been a tough decision.
Amy Connell: Yeah, it really was. And honestly, Kyle, when I told them that, Hey, look, I’ve just got to pause this. I felt like I betrayed them. I could just see it on their faces, like, but. They didn’t say this because they’re too kind and gracious, but it was kind of like, but we’re a community and now you’re leaving us.
And so, yeah, I felt really, really badly about that. Um, I will say I have. Definitely stayed in touch with a lot of the clients. I mean, we’ll go walk. I, to me walking is one of the best ways that I have found to connect with my friends, regardless of if they were clients or not. And so we’ll get together and we’ll go walk or every now and then we’ll, um, get together for lunch or maybe a happy hour or something like that.
But yeah, that was, that was hard. That was definitely hard, but it had just gotten to the point that I was almost paying to. To run those classes. And I also knew that I could, um, that I could make more money. I mean, if it was just F I did it, wasn’t a purely financial and business decision, but I knew that I could make more money, uh, doing virtual training out of my home.
Cause that, that. Was relatively low. And then the other thing that you really can’t put a price on is your time. And I needed time. I needed time to be creative with my writing. It was, this has been a two year project and I needed time to focus on that. And it was just the right thing to do, but it was still the hard thing to do.
Kyle Wood: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I, I think that’s the. The tricky, Elena, that’s usually the advice, like if train isn’t, that situation is it’s going to be a tough conversation, but you can’t. How long can you, can you sustain? You’re either running at a loss or. Like running for cost. Like at what point are you going to start getting bitter and feel resentful and then that’s not helpful for anyone.
So you need to find a way to, to change things up and for you, I guess. Yeah. You mentioned we’ll can talk more about that now that you have this sort of project in the background that you’re working on. And I’ve spoken to quite a few authors and, you know, taking on a book sounds it’s. Yeah. It’s not something you can kind of like, I mean, I guess some people do sort of half, half, but yeah, it is something that requires a lot of your attention doesn’t it? And kind of a grit and determination.
Amy Connell: Yes, yes. To all of that, I, there are a lot of different ways of approaching a book. And even though I am self publishing, this one, I really wanted it to be, uh, some of my legacy. This is obviously fitness and health related stuff is not the only part of who I am.
I I’m, I’m more multifaceted than I probably portray myself to be online, but. Was important to me to get it right, and really, to kind of step into the next phase of education for not only, um, you know, women and, uh, potentially teens, but also I think it’s good for other fitness professionals to hear maybe.
What kind of language are we using around our clients and by language, I don’t mean like cursing or F-bombs or anything like that, but just what kind of messaging are we giving them unintentionally? Um, I know shame is a big word to you as, as it is to me and, you know, unintentionally creating shame. If, you know, if we’re talking about rock hard abs or something like that.
Uh, but yeah, the book that book was. Uh, huge project. Uh, I have a feeling that when I get to my next one, I may not be as neurotic about it as I’ve been with this one, because this one being my first, I’m just really throwing everything I have into it. Yeah. It’s been worth it. It’s, it’s a beautiful book.
And I can say that because I did not design the outside and I did not design the inside, but instead. Gorgeous book. I’m really proud of it, but it was something that was important to me to leave a mark and to create a ripple of a different way of thinking about our health and our body.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
Yeah, I’ve got a question for you and then I’d love to ask you a bit more about the process that you sort of took of taking on writing your book cause it’s huge. So like whenever, you know, someone else I like following a lot talking about shame, a lot, love following Brene Brown, someone else I like following for business stuff is Seth Godin
I mean, in his videos he’s always got like these, like, you know, these like Ikea shelves they’re just like books. Um, you know, it’s just stacked. Just like hundreds of books. And he talked him one of his videos about how, like, the reason he has that is because the reason he loves books is because each one is like an idea.
It’s an idea that someone’s had. An idea, and a conversation is fleeting. But the person might remember it possible, but you know, in 20 years that ideas gone but a book like immortalizes that idea. So that someone 20 is 50 is a hundred years from now can go and read that book and read about this idea that you had, and it can still be shared with the world.
So what idea is it that your, you feel like you’re trying to share with your book?
Amy Connell: That’s a great question. And I have not heard him say that, but I completely agree. Um, the idea of my book is all of these. And I’m using quotes. No one can see them, but I’m using air quotes, health rules, or maybe some might say myths that people hear and feel like they have to abide by.
Um, and then they feel. They feel shame. They feel like whatever they’re doing is not enough because they’re not doing all of the things that the, that the motivating a fitness professional might be telling them, or, or things that they’ve heard, or there’s headlines that come across on your news feed or on best sprout or social media or something like that.
So it really takes all of these health quote rules and debunks them using. Exercise science using nutrition science. And then I do that, um, through a lens of my faith as well. So there’s absolutely hard science in there. I think I say, you know, this is not a compilation of my woo thoughts. Like these are, this is real stuff that I think somewhere along the re it has just gotten either.
It’s kind of like that telephone game. I don’t know if you have that in Australia, but in the states we would grow up and someone would say something in some, someone person’s ear and then they would whisper it and then they would whisper it to the next person. And then they would whisper it to the next person.
By the time it got around a circle, it was totally muddied, you know, just total jumble. And so I think sometimes that’s what, that’s, what happens with, uh, with the health industry, with, uh, with diet culture and, uh, you know, sometimes. There are also things that we create in our head. So for example, some of the chapters that I have in the book are, um, no pain, no gain.
And I know maybe the original intent of that is like, oh, you want to be sore tomorrow, but people start to thinking, oh yeah, pain is a badge of honor. Oh, I’m hurting here. I’m I’m I’m hobbling because I. Did burpees all the way around a 400 meter track or, you know, or something like that. Pain is not good.
Yeah.
Kyle Wood: Pain is, is a warning. Is your body saying stop.
Amy Connell: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then things like. Carbs are the enemy. And I know that there’s a lot of different ways that people feel best with eating, but in general carbs are not the enemy and the right kinds of carbs can fuel your, fill your brain, well, fuel your body.
Well, and just things that like that, that have been trickled down and whispered from person to person, to person. And I don’t think that the way that people are grasping onto them and trying to incorporate them into their life is really the, what was. Intended with that in the first place, if that was even a real thing.
And then of course, as a woman who, um, you know, in, in my mid forties who grew up with a lot of body image issues, I talk a lot about body image and why we think we need to look a certain way. And, um, and you know, there is no, you know, the perfect body and that kind of.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. Yeah, that sounds awesome. And well, well needed.
Uh, I know even working with my clients, I would often sort of unpack a lot of that with people when they come into class and be like, oh, duh, he’d be like, uh, you know, like I remember there was this crazy diet going around for a while. Where you are in the eight, like mate for the first two weeks. And like the guy who created it ended up getting like judged.
Um, and then. Yeah, like mate and a tablespoon of oats a day. And then you basically decided like reintroducing foods. And it’s like, actually, there’s a lot of data that shows that elimination, diets don’t work long-term and everyone will be like, cause then I need carbs for two weeks, like dropping all this weight.
Cause it’s just like inflammation and water and stuff like that. And like, this works so good, but then not many people even made it through those first two weeks because it was so extreme. And then they just. Go back. And then every time you do that yet builds, like, I think you’re talking about it builds that language in your head isn’t it? Doesn’t it? That you’re a failure that you can’t lose weight that you can’t keep it. And then, and then that fades into the yeah. The cycle of, of, yeah, just nastiness.
Amy Connell: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well it’s, if it’s not going to work, then why bother? Or if it didn’t work last time, I’m not going to try. I mean, there’s a whole lot of really negative self-talk that can get in, get into that.
And, and I completely agree. I dig into one of those. I think that chapter title is called there’s one best diet and it gets into me like, no, actually, you know, what’s research backed what. Uh, realistic. What’s sustainable. Like let’s really think about what we can do before we just blindly accept whatever the latest and greatest diet plan is that someone is trying to profit off of.
Kyle Wood: So for other trainers out there who might be like, oh yeah, I’ve been kind of wanting to write a book, but I’m not really sure. Like in like three minutes. So like the short version, cause obviously we could talk about this for a long time. What was kind of like your process for writing the book? What was like the most, or maybe what was like the most important thing for you that helped you go from, I’ve got an idea from a book for a book to.
Now you have you, you’ve finished the…
Amy Connell: It’s it’s actually, so I have, yeah, I’m holding it up. It’s it’s the, yeah. Where the, but it’s, um, it’s the author proof. So you can see Kyle, you can see this little line that goes across that says not for resale. So I’ve got the real ones coming very soon, but by the time this comes out, it will be out on Amazon.
Um, boy, I tell you, I think the number one thing that I can recommend for someone who was wanting to write a book is to write. Yeah, we have a lot of ideas coming around our head and really what I did. I mean, I wrote most of this, I wrote during COVID and, uh, during lockdown and shut down and I made a goal of writing 500 words a day, four times a week.
So that equates to 2000 words. And if the general book, I think this book is like 64,000 words, but. The, you know, the average size book is 50 to 55,000 words a minute. Okay. My finance degree would tell you that I could do that in my head really quickly. And I’m having a hard time for like 25 weeks, 25 to 30 weeks.
Then you could get a first draft of your book done, but there’s a lot of things that go, um, go along in our head. And so I would say when those come in, do not assume you will remember those ideas. So get a note in your phone, get Evernote. That’s a really great way of tracking. However you can consistently track those.
Just the idea, just five or six words to remember what your remember that jumping off point and then schedule in. The however long, it takes you to write 500 words for me. I could normally get them done in about 30 minutes. So it’s not like I’m sitting at my computer all day long. It’s just downloading a whole bunch of gargly goop.
That doesn’t make sense. It’s all crap when it first comes out, but then you can go back and then that’s when you start massaging it and self editing and making things work. But I would say, yeah, number one. Take note of your, um, of your ideas when they come and, and schedule in time to write at least four times a week, if not.
Kyle Wood: Awesome. That’s. Yeah. And that sounds very achievable. It’s really about that. It’s like what? We teach our clients with exposition it’s consistency. You just gotta keep showing up.
Amy Connell: Yeah. Well, and it’s also training your brain and it’s training that, that, that writing muscle, I mean, just like we can’t expect to go drop down and do 200 pushups.
If we haven’t been doing pushups at all. No, you start off with me. Five. And then the next week, maybe you do 10 a day or something like that. So, yeah. It’s, I mean, it’s the same concept from the fitness perspective is training your writing muscle and just getting it in consistently.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. I love that. Thank you.
All right. Are you ready for the rapid fire round? I am. All right. So first question, and if, yeah, like I’ve got these, so if you get, let me know. What are the top three things you do each week that you found help your business? Correct.
Amy Connell: Well, the first thing I already mentioned, which is I schedule in, well, it’s kind of goes along with what I talked about.
I schedule in my to-do list. So if I know that I need to, uh, prep at podcast episode and edit and do the socials and all of that kind of stuff. I know that in general, that takes about six hours per episode for me to do so I will schedule that in throughout the week to get something like that done. Um, I also.
State. I try, not always great, but I try to stay focused on, um, by remembering my why and, uh, who I’m there to serve, because there are a lot of shiny objects I have learned over the last couple years that I am more of a visionary than I ever thought I was. So all come up with a lot of really great ideas, but there’s no way that I can get them done.
I have to stay. I’ve got to stay in my lane and finish the task at hand. Otherwise nothing is going to be good. And I’m just going to have a whole lot of open-ended projects out there and, you know, and the lanes we can change lanes. Right? And we can take new new highways or roads or something like that.
I mean, if we’re going to stay on. Terrible analogy, but, but just kind of staying focused and staying between the lines, I think has been really helpful for me. And th and that’s honestly, I mean, that’s how I was able to get this book done/
Kyle Wood: I know that feeling well.
Amy Connell: Yeah. Yeah. And then the other thing too, on a more practical level is I do invest in some tools that help me save money or save time.
Uh, they cost money, but they save time. So like, I schedule. I try. I’m not, I haven’t been graded this lately, but I try to schedule all of my social media through. I use Later, there’s buffer is one there’s CoSchedule. There’s all kinds of different ones, but I scheduled those a month in advance or at a minimum a week in advance.
So that way it’s all done. Cause I love engaging and talking to people online and I really hate putting content out there, which I probably shouldn’t admit, but it’s just, it’s really hard for me, me a little bit.
Kyle Wood: So you, you like batch that, try and do that in one go?
Amy Connell: Yes. Yes. And I have a rhythm of what I, where I know I want to serve and where my community feels served.
So I’ll do a fitness related one. I’ll do a mindset related, one, a food related, one, a faith related one. And that way it at least starts to kind of narrow it down. And then I do things like, um, I use Buzzsprout as my podcasting provider and, uh, they have. Great tools like, um, magic mastering. So when I upload it there, I pay an extra like four bucks a month.
I mean, it’s relatively inexpensive and they make sure that the audio is really good, which you can do that for free on Auphonic. But it, the whole process takes like an hour, even though you’re not sitting there. So just little things like that to me are worth the time to do it because that way I can stay focused on.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. Awesome. I love that. And thanks for some specific tools there. All right, next question. What is your favorite song or perhaps a band to work out to.
Amy Connell: Well, a lot of it really depends on what I’m doing. I mean, if I’m doing a mobility or a yoga, that’s very different than getting out there and doing box jumps, but I kind of feel like you can never go wrong with something, like imagine dragons, radio on Spotify.
For me, at least that normally will give me some good quality stuff. Um, and then the other thing, one of the resources, so this book. EV almost every chapter has a resource in the back. So some of them are recipes or some of them are journal prompts and reflections. And then I have a lot of workout stuff.
In addition, To all of that. One of the, one of the resources is a walking playlist because one of the chapter titles, which is a rule to break is walking isn’t worth my time. So I created a playlist on Spotify called your worthy body, which is the name of the book. So your worthy body walks and it’s kind of.
A curated list of all of my favorite songs that I liked to move to. So honestly, I mean, it sounds somewhat narcissistic, but it’s not meant to be, but I really enjoy just pulling that up and I’ll just listen to that whenever I’m working out. Cause I know that I’m going to like the songs. Yeah.
Kyle Wood: Awesome.
Thank you. And next up, because especially because we’ve talked a lot about the pandemic and how it’s been very disruptive to all of our careers. I feel like a lot of trainers are at cusp of like, they’ve probably used this time to get clear about what they want to do next. So where would you like to hit next with your business or career?
Amy Connell: Yeah, it’s been a great opportunity to really reflect and figure out what’s important to me. And what am I, what am I the most passionate about? What I have discovered about myself is I’m really passionate about. So I would love to, um, get into speaking more in a couple different realms. One is, you know, I mentioned I’ve kind of have a faith based element to this.
So I would love to get into more churches where there’s either women’s groups or mom and daughter groups, because what I’m learning is. Is teen girls will listen to me because I’m not mom, I’m saying the exact same thing that mom is saying, but I’m not moms. So they’ll listen to me. And particularly with regard to body image stuff and, and you know what to eat and all of that kind of stuff.
So that’s one area where I’d like to get into. Um, I would like to. I w I don’t know how to do this quite yet, but somehow get into the education of, of young female athletes and, uh, protecting themselves from injury. And, you know, I, I’m not necessarily like a sports specific, but just. Here’s how you can feel your body well.
And, um, you know, if you’ve got a double header or a lot of games, then, you know, maybe let’s not eat McDonald’s on the way to a game, you know, something like that. Um, yeah. And then the other thing too, which is more of a pipe dream, but I’ll just go ahead and put it out there in the universe is I will, I would love to spend some time.
Um, talking to other fitness professionals and, and really working on reframing the mindset of why we exercise and how to support, uh, their participants, their clients, particularly those who are over 40, because I, all I can speak of for is over 40 women. Cause that’s kind of more my specialty, but it’s just a different mentality than the 25 year old.
You know, th they are fantastic and they can do a lot, and there’s nothing wrong with them, but it’s, it’s a different mentality. And I think in order to serve your clients best, you kind of need to have a deeper understanding of what’s important to them. And it’s not always how they look and how, and the size of their body.
Kyle Wood: Yeah, I think that’s so important. I’m thinking about a lot of the franchises that are fitness franchise that had taken off here and there pretty much all targeting people sort of between 20 and 35. And so, yeah, I think. That’s such an important underserved population and yeah, I would love to have you back again.
Just looking at the time, but I’d love to have you back again. Maybe just to talk about that. maybe even with like, another couple of trainers who are also working on this, we can do bit of around table, so people…
Amy Connell: yeah, that’d be fantastic.
Kyle Wood: If people want to find out more about your book. Can you give me the name again and the tagline?
Amy Connell: Absolutely. Uh, the title is Your Worth Body and the subtitle is Find Freedom And Health By Breaking All The Rules. It’s on Amazon. Yeah. So you can just type in ‘your worthy body’. Um, Amy Connell. That’s C O N N E L L. On the interweb I call ’em I’m I go by the name of Graced Health. It’s G R A C E D health, because that’s a huge part of my, um, my messaging is just incorporating grace and it doesn’t have to be perfect into our health, into our movement, into our eating, uh, and I will have a link there of, uh, going out and purchasing it.
And then I can, Kyle, I can also provide a link to you to. It put in the show notes. And so people can just get down in the show notes and, uh, if that would be helpful to you and just click on that and then go directly to, to Amazon.
Kyle Wood: Yeah. I’ll add that in the show notes below. Thank you so much, Amy. It was a, yeah, I can’t believe it’s been a year.
It was so nice to connect with you and talk with you. And I felt, yeah, we could’ve talked longer and definitely want to have you back again.
Amy Connell: I would love that. I love talking shop and it’s really fun to be with like-minded people. So thank you for having me.
Kyle Wood: You’re welcome.
Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.
Great podcast! Im in for the roundtable! 🙂
Yes!