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

Kim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

A year and a half into running my business full-time, I was diagnosed with cancer. And it was a brutal reminder that life can turn on a dime, regardless of your fitness level and preparation.
I went from living a normal life to spending 18 straight days in the hospital – after never having spent a night in the hospital in my life. I found out that I had a 7.5 inch tumor in my chest and was diagnosed with stage two Non-Hodgkin’s, Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma.

I was 46 years old when I was diagnosed and had recently launched a new program that brought on 12 new clients. My time in the hospital and the side effects of cancer made it difficult to communicate even the most basic information.

I had planned to spend time introducing myself and building relationships with my new clients. It was more than a little disconcerting to suddenly be in a position where I had very little control over the information that needed to be shared, not just with my clients, but with my community in general.

The reality of that situation was a slap in the face. Working for anyone else, I would have had access to short term disability, and potential options for income while I went through treatment. But being my own boss and my only employee meant that if I didn’t work, there was no income coming in.

Throughout the process, I leaned hard on systems I have developed before I got sick. A few important business lessons I learned over the course of my next 6 months of treatment included :

1. Having a calendar that I could easily share with my wife so that she could see any clients that were scheduled and communicate with them if for some reason I could not.
2. Creating a client info list that my wife could easily access for information on how to contact my clients.
3. Having a reliable, knowledgeable colleague who was able to fill in and help me manage the bi-weekly check ins for my various groups so that there would be continuity with accountability, even in my absence.
4. Enhancing my existing automated payment system so that I could safely and accurately project my monthly income, even though I wasn’t in a place to convert any leads. I at least knew my baseline income.
5. Learning to embrace the “good will” capital that comes with going above and beyond for your clients, especially in the service industry. My consistent approach of over-delivering value with my clients meant that many of them offered to continue paying me regardless of whether I was able to offer them service.
I was fortunate that I was able to continue working throughout my treatment with limited interruptions, but it was a relief to know that my clients were offering me some grace if I needed to reschedule.

It was eye-opening to see how quickly life can change, and it also highlighted the importance of having systems, especially if you are a one person show.

Kim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

How I get into the industry:

I was a communications major in college and looking around at most of my friends at the time, it seemed that everyone but me knew what they wanted to do as a career. I knew I liked writing, I knew I wanted to help people, and I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher.

But beyond that, I was lost.

When I graduated from college, being a personal trainer or a business owner weren’t on the table for me; I thought that being a personal trainer meant being good at science, and that owning a business meant having a brick and mortar place. Ultimately, I held 29 jobs before becoming a trainer, and even then, I only pursued it seriously when I was laid off from a job in higher education.

By this time, I had begun to lift weights on my own and had worked with a few coaches, so I began to better understand how the profession could look. Eventually, I took an unpaid internship at a gym just outside of Boston, commuting from Maine to the gym on Mondays and sleeping on the couch at a friend’s place. At 37, I was the oldest intern there. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but I learned a lot. The most valuable thing I learned was that I wanted to coach general population clients and not athletes.

From that internship I was hired full-time at a small gym in Maine, and after six years there I went full time into Kim Lloyd Fitness, where I had been working at training clients online part time.

What services do I provide?

I provide both group and individual coaching online.

The problem I set out to solve with clients is helping them get over the hurdle and get started with a strength training routine. I found that the barrier to getting started in weight training felt insurmountable to many women and so I set out to do everything I could to break down the process into small, tangible, doable steps.

In 2021, I wrote and published “Start Where You Are: A Beginner’s Guide to Lifting Weights and Feeling Great” and have a 12 week group program with the same name. The book helps you make the plan for joining a gym or working out in your home and also includes three months of programming to get you going. When I found that some people needed accountability in their journey, I created a 12 week program of the same name to provide extra support.

Many of the clients from those programs remain a part of the Kim Lloyd Fitness Neighborhood, staying connected to the community through my app and monthly group zoom calls.

Clients come out of my programs with a clear, realistic, sustainable approach to their fitness and nutrition habits.

I help clients understand and embrace that behavior change is a process and not a one-time quick fix.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I first became certified as a trainer, I never really thought about being a business owner. But my first client was an attorney who recommended I get my LLC, which was a big milestone. Another significant milestone was starting a website, with the specific intention of writing a blog.

As someone who liked writing, blogging about fitness was a natural transition. Writing about material forces you to know it better, so while I was new to training writing helped me learn and helped me to grow an audience.

So the third most important milestone was starting an email list. While it’s still a relatively small list, I send out several emails a month and find that most of my leads come through email.

The other advantage I had was working for a small gym that was still in the first five years of business. I was able to witness what it looked like to build a business from the back end and discovered that I enjoyed solving the problems of growing and serving a fitness business.

While still working for the gym, I began Kim Lloyd Fitness (added an LLC) with the specific goal of training and working with clients online. This helped supplement my income, but also positioned me well for a post Covid world where people grew accustomed to working out online, whether that was by following programs in an app or participating in a live workout.

Eventually, I got tired of the one hour commute each way to the gym and decided to go all in on my business in 2022.

Once I left my full-time job at a gym and went all in on my own, my first metric was hitting 20 clients, and then 30 clients, and also the revenue marks that came with additional clients. My main area of focus outside of serving my clients is doing more workplace wellness talks, because I really enjoy corporate wellness. I enjoy public speaking and moonlight in stand-up comedy, so I jump at any opportunity to educate and speak to groups.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

My logo is a basset hound, modeled on our first dog; I wanted a logo that was friendly and approachable. After a short time in business, I changed my tagline to “Be Strong, Be Kind” and eventually started handing out stickers with my logo and tagline.

I wasn’t thinking about brand awareness at that point, I was mostly just thinking about spreading a message of kindness. A few months after going into business full time I was on a flight when the woman next to me asked what I was typing. I told her it was a blog post, and then gave her a sticker, which also had my website on it.

Three months later, when I was advertising my 12 week program, this woman, who lives in Texas while I’m in Maine, reached out. She had joined my email list (through my website) after looking me up, and decided to join my program.

Even though I have business cards, I rarely hand them out. Instead, I hand out stickers with a basset hound holding a weight, and a message of kindness. Because you never know when that is going to lead to a new audience member, a new lead, and possibly, a new client,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kimlloydfitness.com
• Instagram: @kimlloydfitness
• Facebook: Kim Lloyd Fitness
• Linkedin: @kimlloydfitness
• Twitter: @kimlloydfitness
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kimlloydfitness
• Other: https://startwhereyouarestopthinkingstartdoing.buzzsprout.com

Image Credits

Kevin Morris