IAM185- Personal Trainer Helps Clients Embody Fitness As a Lifestyle

Noelle McKenzie is the CEO and co-founder of Leading Edge Personal Trainers. Her own experience in rising from being the underdog to a collegiate track and field Division 1 athlete has given her the wisdom to help people tap into their limitless potential through a mind and body approach to fitness.

Noelle helps clients embody fitness as a lifestyle transcending all areas of their life and not a means to an end. In 10 years she along with the help of her husband and business partner have built a network of 60 + clients both locally in NYC and online who despite having overly demanding careers and schedules have been able to master the balancing act of adhering to a consistent health regimen. This, in turn, has reshaped how they view themselves, enabling them to step into their true power and become the best version of themselves.

• CEO Hack: Realizing success and failure doesn't happen overnight
• CEO Nugget: (1) Trust the process (2) Be comfortable with making mistakes (3) See the bigger picture
• CEO Defined: (1) Being able to apply risk and reason (2) Embracing uncertainty

Website: http://www.leadingedgeny.com/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/bodybynoelle
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bodybynoelle
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fittribesisterhood/
Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelleEmckenzie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mckenzien/

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Full Interview

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Noelle McKenzie of Leading Edge Personal Trainers. Noelle, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Noelle McKenzie 0:37

It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem I appreciate having you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Noelle, so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Noelle is the CEO and co-founder of Leading Edge Personal Trainers. Her own experience in rising from being the underdog to a collegiate track and field Division 1 athlete has given her the wisdom to help people tap into their limitless potential through a mind-and-body approach to fitness.

Noelle helps clients embody fitness as a lifestyle transcending all areas of their life and not a means to an end. In 10 years she along with the help of her husband and business partner has built a network of 60 + clients both locally in NYC and online who despite having overly demanding careers and schedules have been able to master the balancing act of adhering to a consistent health regimen. This, in turn, has reshaped how they view themselves, enabling them to step into their true power and become the best version of themselves. Noelle, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Noelle McKenzie 1:37

I am

Gresham Harkless 1:38

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about your CEO story, and what led you to start your business.

Noelle McKenzie 1:45

So my CEO story actually started off as a side hustle, I got into personal training. After rising to the ranks as a division one track and field athlete, I had a coach that was phenomenal and believed in my abilities and helped me rise from a walk-on to a Division One collegiate athlete. And so when I moved to New York, I quickly learned that I had an act for inspiring others to really take control of their health. I worked for a gym for two years. And I felt like the values they had there didn't quite align with my own.

And because I was able to build such a strong collection of clients there, I learned that I have what it took to really motivate these people. And I didn't have to have the gym to do that. And so I jumped out on faith and left the gym after two years to start my own company. And this has since become my full-time job and it has evolved into a six-figure company.

Gresham Harkless 2:41

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, that's a side hustler's dream to be able to take a business that is a side hustle and to be able to make it into the business. But you've even taken it a step further because it sounds like you're making a huge impact on people's lives. So I wanted to hear a little bit more on like these people that you're helping out these clients that you're working with, how are you helping to make their lives better.

Noelle McKenzie 2:59

So our company is unique in that we are an in-home personal training concierge service. So, unlike gyms, where you have to have a gym membership to join, and then you have to pay extra for a personal trainer. And it can quickly add up with costs. We take out the hassle of having to travel to the gym because we travel to you.

So we travel to all of our client's homes and we personally train them out of their home gyms or their actual homes. Each of our programs is personally designed depending on our client's needs. We specialize in a variety of styles of training that involve calisthenics, yoga, and weight training, we focus on strength training, weight loss, mobility, and prenatal postpartum, you name it.

Gresham Harkless 3:40

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And that's huge. And I know when we were when I was reading your bio, you were talking about how these people are busy and your clients are super busy. And sometimes you're so busy, you have so many things to do, you don't have enough time it seems to work out but to have you been able to come to their home, to help them to work out so that they can reach their fitness goals is definitely a huge thing. So definitely, it's awesome that you and your husband have been able to accomplish that.

Noelle McKenzie 4:02

Yeah, something else I just wanted to add on that I forgot. We've recently branched out and we started offering online training as well. So we can reach people outside of New York, which has been really monumental in our expansion process, and tag along with the fitness of courses, nutrition, and diet nutrition. And so we incorporate a style of flexible dieting, which is called macro tracking.

So we help our clients be able to make choices that allow them to still splurge and enjoy the things they love. But also practice mindful eating. And so it's sustainable, meaning that they can this is a style of dieting that is long-lasting and it's not something that you will quickly burn out from.

Gresham Harkless 4:43

Okay, so it's not like those fad diets are things that you can do for more than a week or a day. Yes, those lifestyle changes really make the impact exactly because you're trying to do that for the rest of your life so that you can have a healthier and more active lifestyle I imagine so it's great that you guys can incorporate both that for people that are in NYC, but also people that are outside of the borders of NYC.

Noelle McKenzie 5:07

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 5:08

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be kind of like your differentiator or what you feel kind of set you or your organization apart.

Noelle McKenzie 5:18

So when we establish our company, we quickly decided that we wanted to focus on quality over quantity. And so what that means is, we realize that by attracting higher-level clients, upping our price point, right, so it's we're not really appealing to the everyday person, we're appealing to a higher level clientele, which is the base that we want to attract, it meant that we would have to turn down business early on in our you know, in our development process, which was hard, especially when you're concerned about every dollar, but because we really believe in quality over quantity, we figured that we could have half the amount of clients in the long haul and be earning twice the amount of profit.

And the best thing about this approach is that we've been able to have a very high retention rate. So we don't have to deal with monthly or yearly turnover, and having to shop around for new clients. We have a clientele base that we've attracted, who are very loyal to us because they honor and appreciate the lifestyle approach to training that we so much tell that we so much focus on.

Gresham Harkless 6:29

Yeah, that makes sense. And I love kind of like the concierge model as well, too. Because you're coming to people's homes, you know, you're in their home, you know, you're they're welcoming you to their home to be able to reach those goals and the fact that you've been able to kind of change the model so that you're attracting the exact clients that you want. And it's kind of like a great win, win, win situation. I think that's something admirable that a lot of business owners can take into account.

Noelle McKenzie 6:50

Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to just add to that a lot of trainers struggle with who are trying to build their own businesses because they think that having as many clients as possible is the way to go. And then what happens is, again, you don't really have the same amount of retention with people who are paying less money, when you're not investing enough, you don't value it enough. And so it's not something that is something that they really look forward to and really value.

Gresham Harkless 7:17

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, we need, like you said, because you're helping people make lifestyle choices. So it's not something you do for a week or a day or an hour, it's something that you're going to be doing for a long term. So you want to be able to make that investment. And by paying those additional costs, you are basically valuing that. And you're also probably getting a lot better service and a lot more value clients that you have as well.

Noelle McKenzie 7:43

Right

Gresham Harkless 7:43

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And a CEO hack might be an app, it might be a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient.

Noelle McKenzie 7:56

Right. So I think for us, it's a habit. And it's that realizing that success does not happen overnight. Failure also doesn't happen overnight, you have to have a long-term focus. And so for us, we were always thinking about the big picture and not the day-to-day or even month to month, you have to expect failure, because that's part of the growth in any business model. And so just really having a long-term game plan and not being afraid of failure, not having a fear-based mindset is really going to help set you up for the long term. Most businesses fail within the first year.

So if you can remember that, when you are going through your first year, if you're not at the place that you want to be just remember that and also know that it usually takes an average of about five years for any new business to really become sustainable and successful.

Gresham Harkless 8:47

Exactly, exactly. It's that marathon mindset that I usually like to talk about where your understanding is you're running a marathon, it's not a sprint. So just like you're talking about from a fitness standpoint, that you have that mentality with your clients, you also have that in your business. So that's definitely a great reminder for us. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Noelle McKenzie 9:13

So for me, it would be to trust the process, again, reminding you back to what my earlier point which is that success doesn't happen overnight. If something doesn't work, don't give up, just change your approach, and be really comfortable with making mistakes, some of our biggest mistakes lead to our greatest successes. I can remember a time when I had lost $5,000 overnight from a business decision that at the time I thought was going to be really effective for growth. But it actually later taught me that that wasn't the route that my heart and soul really wanted to take for expansion. It just wasn't fitting with where we wanted to go. So it was a learning lesson.

And so rather than getting crippled by it, I took the loss and I learned from it, and again, there's always been there have also been many times where I've had to turn down clients, as I said early on in our business because we were really trying to attract quality over quantity, many clients who just weren't willing to match our price point, people who weren't willing to invest long term, we had to sadly turn away with the mindset that we had a bigger picture that we were focused on. And so that has really set us up for the sustainability that we have today.

Gresham Harkless 10:24

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that's definitely a great reminder, a lot of people forget that there's energy with everything. So sometimes when you have those clients that aren't your ideal client, or helping you to be in alignment, that energy that you're playing with them could be placed somewhere else or attracting the right clients and the people that you're looking for. So that's a great reminder. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners on the show. So, Noelle, I want to ask you what being a CEO means to you.

Noelle McKenzie 10:53

Being a CEO, for me means being able to apply risk and reason and being able to embrace uncertainty, because you can never predict which route is going to work for you, you can have a vision, but you have to be moldable. And be willing to change direction when something doesn't work, you can't be afraid of failure, you have to be willing to do what others aren't willing to do.

So you have to be willing to do the uncomfortable, make the tough decisions, you have to be forward-thinking in your approach, always look at the big picture where you want to be headed, you know, 5 years from now, even 10 years from now. And you also have to remember that fast results don't always equate to success. So longevity is really the key here.

Gresham Harkless 11:39

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And is definitely in alignment with everything you've been speaking about from the philosophy of your company, to how you work with your clients. And also a great reminder for us to remember as CEOs is that it's definitely a long game. And having that vision and looking, 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line is really how you are able to be a successful CEO, entrepreneur, business owner.

Noelle McKenzie 11:58

And it not gonna be easy, right? You have to be willing to accept trials and tribulations rejection, and lots of ups and downs. The other thing I wanted to add is that success is not linear. So even when you're doing really well, you have to be prepared for things to turn south occasionally. And then how to recover from that. It's totally normal. Nothing is a straight path. So just be open to that.

Gresham Harkless 12:22

Yeah. And it's a good another great reminder, just because the business itself is cyclical. So you have the ups and downs, the highs and lows over a rollercoaster ride. So understanding that is normal is okay. Because it is part of what every business owner goes through. And sometimes when it happens, people are like freaked out and say, hey, I didn't expect that to happen. But if you know that that's normal, and you know how to kind of correct that, or that's just part of the process that can definitely be peace and knowing that

Noelle McKenzie 12:47

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:48

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Noelle, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you don't want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then how best they can get a hold of you.

Noelle McKenzie 13:00

Yeah, so first of all, we are always accepting new clients, both in person if you're local to New York City and online. And we also offer nutritional advice along with fitness training so that you can have a very well-rounded program for you. And you can contact us online, the best way to probably reach us is at our website, which is leadingedgepersonaltrainers.com. Or if you are active on Instagram, you can find me @bodybynoelle, which is my first name.

And there you'll find my contact information so you can email us directly. Have any questions we'd love to hear from you. Oh, and let me also add a little gift from us to you. We are offering a complimentary phone consultation to discuss any fitness needs if you have any questions before jumping in, and we'll be happy to help you with that.

Gresham Harkless 13:49

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much for offering that and we'll make sure to have all the links in the show notes just so that you can follow up with Noelle, and hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Noelle, thank you so much again for taking some time out and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Noelle McKenzie 14:02

Thank you so much for having me.

Outro 14:04

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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