We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Allison Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Allison below.

Allison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for my business – Allison Hallie Fitness – stemmed from always being passionate about the health and fitness industry along with a burning desire to leave teaching.

I had been a middle school teacher for 9 years and each year I found my stress levels rising and my passion for the job lowering.

While teaching, I was a fitness instructor part time for a company called Krazy Fit and absolutely loved it. I loved connecting with a community of (mostly) women determined to take care of their bodies. I loved the feeling I got when I taught a class; absolutely lit up with joy and passion.

As I became more determined to leave the teaching field sooner rather than later, I had begun applying for jobs but none fulfilled another massive importance in my life: having flexibility with my family.

This realization caused me to look into starting my own fitness business that allowed me to create my own schedule and have freedom and flexibility with my family. After praying on this possibility, opportunities started becoming apparent as I scrolled through social media. The idea of creating a virtual program was something I had never considered, but believed I could make a reality.

So I got to work. I took my own personal experiences and struggles that I had gone through as a new mom, trying to find myself again with mental health and body confidence struggles, and put what I wish I had known sooner together into a virtual program so other moms could find their own confidence and gain strength and energy in a realistic and relatable way too.

Sure, this has been done before. Trainers and influencers are a dime a dozen on the internet. However, not only am I certified in both personal training and nutrition (something not everyone doing this online can say), I have a passion for NOT just giving out another cookie cutter plan. There is so much more to the female metabolism than food and fitness, and it’s time more women understood that. One of the primary things that makes my company stand out is the personalized plans that are put together based off the client’s current lifestyle. So that the changes we start them out with feel feasible, doable, and will make an immediate difference in how they feel.

I am so passionate about creating change for as many moms as I can reach. We all deserve to prioritize ourselves no matter what season of life we are in, and it is so completely doable no matter how busy we are!

Allison, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been a really active person. I did several sports in high school, participated in just about every group fitness class I could attend in college, and taught a fitness class as a part time job when I graduated. However, I was not prepared for the changes I would experience with my body and my mind after having my babies. What once worked, wasn’t really working anymore and I struggled with my confidence after my first. It took me a long time, lots of learning, and trial and error before figuring out how to fuel my body and what types of workouts actually worked before feeling like myself again.

Flash forward a couple months and I got pregnant with my second. I fell out of physical activity for that pregnancy but was able to take what I had learned after the first to get back to feeling like myself within 3 months of having him. That was until I had to go back to work. I had naively thought I would be able to carry on with my routine while juggling work, a home, a husband, and 2 kids under 2. I fell out of everything. Eating well, working out, taking care of myself, and my mental health took a nose dive. I finally hit a point a few months into working where I knew something had to change. I had little to no patience with my family, I always felt like garbage, and my confidence was decreasing by the day. So I figured out a way to make a change that was doable in my life. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it. It took a lot of personal growth and this time, a lot of lessons on mindset.

Now, here we are 4 years later. Another baby on the way and my most active and well fueled pregnancy yet. All while helping dozens of women accomplish their own weight loss, confidence, and energy goals through realistic methods and strategies.

I am so grateful for the work I get to do each day. My favorite feedback from clients always will be that the weight loss and body image goals turned out to be a bonus on top of a complete mentality shift in the way they think about themselves, food, and their lifestyle choices.

This is really a completely wholistic approach as I truly don’t JUST want my clients to lose weight. I want my clients to be able to create the lifestyle change that not only gets them feeling lighter, stronger, and more energized – I want them to be able to sustain and adapt that lifestyle forever.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I keep in touch with my clients through the third party app I use to deliver their program. Part of my program and brand is open, honest, and consistent communication. We need to be able to adapt and be flexible, especially as moms. I encourage my clients to check in with me at least weekly, and if I don’t hear from them, I will always check in with them. I give weekly feedback based on their struggles and ALWAYS encourage them to share their wins. No matter how small, it is critical we celebrate ourselves to foster positivity and evidence that we CAN do hard things. That while it is so easy to want to beat ourselves up for our little “failures” there is always something that we DID do well, and it’s important to focus on the those things so that we can foster more of it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I took a major pivot in life when I made the very scary decision to completely walk away from teaching to pursue this business. It ended up being a relatively quick turn around too as I made the decision to start the business in June and by the end of July was turning in my letter of resignation.

In hindsight, I had no idea what I was really walking into as a business owner. I thought I would be able to just starting training! Little did I know that would turn out to be a very small percentage of what I do on a weekly basis.

Going from teaching to being a CEO was a major shift, and I am so grateful I decided to invest in coaches to help me get to where I am today. Without their expertise, I likely would have had to go back to teaching.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allisonhalliefitness.com
• Instagram: @allisonhalliefitness
• Facebook: Allison Hallie

Image Credits

Jadie Foto