Ten years ago, I got my first fitness certification.

This week, I renewed it, & it has me reflecting. Ten years ago, I had no idea where that little piece of paper was going to take me.

Shortly after getting certified, I started my first fitness job at Get Fit Athletic Club, which opened in October 2016, as a way to just get out of the house as a stay at home mom. That gym was where my fitness career really began.

I taught my first group fitness class there. I coached people there. I eventually led a team of instructors there. I learned how to stand in front of a room full of people and somehow convince them to trust me.

I made mistakes there. I got better there. And I met people who helped shape the career I have today, & the person I am today.

This photo is from the very first class I ever taught, & looking at it now is a little surreal.

Since then, I’ve become a trainer, group fitness instructor, running coach, yoga teacher, program director, consultant, international speaker, & author of ACE/NASM/AFAA/ACSM-approved continuing education content.

I’ve coached celebrity coaches and fitness tech executives. I’ve taught in acute psychiatric settings. I’ve presented on stages & cried through standing ovations as I wondered “how is this real life?”. I’ve worked with people one-on-one, in groups, and now at a scale I never could have imagined when I taught that first class. And somewhere along the way, through professional experience, academics, and my personal life, I became especially interested in the question that connects all of it:

What actually helps people change their lives?

Not just how to write a workout.
Not just how to motivate someone for a day.
But how people build habits, develop confidence, find connection, overcome friction, and eventually start seeing themselves differently.

That’s the part of fitness I’m most fascinated by now.

So here’s to the certification that started it all, and to the young woman in that old photo who had absolutely no idea what she was getting herself into.

Ten years later, I’m still here. & past me is so incredibly proud. She changed her life.

#fitness #behaviorchange #coaching #retention