We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Gallagher a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

7 years ago I was living in Phoenix, Arizona for a corporate job with General Motors. I had just graduated college with my engineering degree and I was following the “normal” and “expected” path by society standards. I did however still have a love and passion for dance that I’ve had since childhood, so I began getting into some drop-in adult hip hop classes once a week. One thing led to another and I began meeting other dancers, taking more and more classes, and then I landed my first paid dance gig. It was at a lowrider supershow at the Arizona Cardinals stadium, and we performed with some local rapper on a tiny, rickety stage in the lawn outside of the stadium. While this gig only paid me a measly $50, it was still the eye-opening realization that I was worthy of being paid for this craft of mine that I had spent my entire life training in. I knew there had to be more opportunities like this one. And funny enough, 7 years later to the exact month of that first gig, although I am living in LA now, dance brought me back to the very first place I was paid for dance at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium, only this time I was dancing on the field with Rihanna in the Super Bowl Halftime show. Talk about a full circle moment! This is never something I could have planned or anticipated but it’s one of those really cool moments where life rewards you/surprises you in ways you never thought possible when you follow your true instincts and desires.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a working industry dancer and fitness trainer in Los Angeles. I coach group fitness classes at F45 Training as well as train private 1 on 1 clients. I have been a dancer since the young age of 3, but it wasn’t until I was 24 that I got into fitness. I was fresh out of college, 40 pounds overweight, and very unhappy with my body. I was in a relationship at the time, to whom I had confided in and told him I had it on my heart to get in the best shape of my life and dance for the NBA Phoenix Suns. He told me that was never going to happen. Clearly we did not last very long together, and I was pretty hurt at the fact that someone didn’t believe in me when I did. So I used it as fuel, put my head down, and got to work. For 8 months straight, I was in the gym lifting weights, doing cardio, eating more protein, eating more vegetables, and cutting back on alcohol. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I set out on this journey, but I simply knew that my desire to change was bigger than any fear or any other excuse holding me back. So I went all in, did my own research on what to do and how to perform exercises I’d never done before, and I was relentless about it. I truly fell in love with the process and the healthy lifestyle I had now created for myself. I did lose the weight, and I did end up dancing for the Phoenix Suns for 2 seasons. I literally changed my entire life in 8 months and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of to this day. And what started as being fueled by wanting to prove someone wrong, it ultimately just led me to finding my most authentic and happiest self. I now get to help others make similar transformations in their lives, where I didn’t have any help or guidance in my own journey. Changing your body is not an easy thing to do, but I’ve really come to learn that the majority of it is actually mental/ a total mindset shift. With that said, a current project I’m working on is a 12 week full body transformation guide that I will be releasing on January 1st. It will be available online for purchase on my website, and it will include all of my fitness “hacks” and tips that helped me in my journey, a full workout program, a full guide to nutrition, as well as a mentality portion to keep your mind strong when it wants to quit, and essentially make the mental shifts that will support this physical transformation to be a lasting one, as opposed to a quick fix.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was still living in Arizona but I knew I wanted to eventually move to LA and be an industry dancer, I was working my corporate job to stack money, and also dancing for the Phoenix Suns at the same time. I got signed to an LA dance agency during this time, and started getting auditions out there. Now, the reason most creatives in LA don’t work a corporate 9-5 job is because you can’t just dip out at 2pm on a Tuesday to go make an audition and expect them to be just fine and dandy with it. So what I did was use my sick days whenever I got auditions, drove 6 hours one way to go to LA, went competely off the grid on social media so no one knew I was lying about being sick, did the audition, drove 6 hours back, and then come back to work the next day as if none of that had happened. Obviously that was completely exhausting but when you want a dream bad enough, that’s the kind of crazy that will make things happen. Luckily I eventually did just move to LA and now it’s a lot easier for me to attend auditions, but sometimes I have to remind myself of those times where I went through all of that to even remind myself of how resilient I am. It makes your success feel even more worth it when you know you’ve been through the trenches like that.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are 2 books in particular that have really helped me shift my mindset in an entrepreneurial way that I think all artists/creators/entrepreneurs can really benefit from. They are “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Eker and “Rich as F*ck” by Amanda Frances. And I stand by their impact/importance so much to say that I don’t even think reading them one time is enough. I have read both of these in the traditional book form but I also have these on audiobook where I will play them and re-listen to them as I’m driving through traffic. The reason these books have helped me so much is because they really deep dive into the ENERGY of money, which is something hardly anyone talks about. As artists, we have been conditioned our entire lives to expect not to earn much. But that does NOT have to be true and I want every artist to get on board with this type of thinking. The law of attraction says that you get what you expect, so we must re-wire our minds to expect greater, even as artists. So clinging to the phrase “starving artist” is doing more harm than good. These books truly transformed all the limiting beliefs I had about money and helped me (and continues to help me) shift my internal money blueprint. I didn’t even realize that I had a ceiling I was afraid to earn more than. I was stuck in this broke loop and never saw my bank account reaching higher than a certain amount, or if I did, my fear of having money would manifest an expense to come along and bring that amount down again. And it’s just crazy to think how many artists are in that same boat. I am so proud and humbled to say that I now earn more money as a dancer and fitness trainer than I did from my corporate job in Arizona. But it didn’t happen until I truly decided internally that I was worthy of receiving more. Shifting my mindset/beliefs about money was the biggest game changer and these books played a huge role in that transformation for myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katiegalfitness.com
• Instagram: @kaatiegal (dance) and @katiegalfitness (fitness)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatieGalFitness?mibextid=2JQ9oc
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kaatiegal?si=I1rltywmEmyg1VKW

Image Credits
Alissa Roseborough Ashlee Kristin