We were lucky to catch up with Ed Holmes recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ed thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?
As a coach, I’ve often been invited to speak on productivity hacks and time management strategies. And to be frank, it’s a topic I genuinely “nerd out” on. I understand the mechanics of squeezing every possible ounce of productivity from your day, overcoming distractions, and ultimately enhancing your value in the marketplace.
Yet, a persistent feeling began to emerge: rather than truly helping individuals thrive, I was, in some subtle way, contributing to a deeper problem. This feeling intensified, especially in rooms filled with highly driven professionals. It seemed the more tools I offered to intensify their focus and motivation, the more depleted they became.
Then, a pivotal realization struck me. I was essentially teaching individuals with dried-out sponges how to grip them even harder, only to be frustrated when nothing more emerged. I’ve become profoundly convinced that most of us are grappling with a being problem, not a doing problem—a truth I believe Corporate America is increasingly acknowledging.
I’ve discovered that it’s rarely a mere productivity issue that individuals genuinely struggle with. The relentless hamster wheel of continuous output is leaving people feeling utterly wrung out. The true solution, more often than not, lies in rehydrating yourself and cultivating the skills to consistently replenish your reserves. This ensures that when high-demand moments or seasons inevitably arise, you won’t find yourself completely depleted, but rather, fully equipped to engage at work and design a wild, meaningful life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Who We Are and Our Journey into Coaching:
At AXIOS Coaching, our mission is deeply personal. My wife, Britney, and I have meticulously crafted our coaching curriculum based on real-life experiences fueled by our passion for the powerful intersection of mindset work and physical well-being. Why? Because it profoundly transformed our own lives.
Ten years ago, we were stuck: overweight, living paycheck to paycheck, and I was grappling with addiction. We knew, deep down, we were capable of more. Our initial attempts to “get in shape” before our wedding led us to a local gym, a personal trainer, and a struggle with a nutrition plan that quickly fizzled. After the wedding, we found ourselves sprinting through city hall corridors in HIIT classes, convinced “gluten-free” was the pinnacle of health. We were caught in a frustrating cycle of losing weight, gaining it back, losing a lot, gaining even more—a relentless loop of motivation giving way to discouragement.
A pivotal moment arrived about two years into our marriage when we met Ronnie, a mindset coach speaking at our church. A single 45-minute conversation with him ignited an awareness within us – a realization that we were capable of so much more. When we asked him to coach us, his response was blunt yet impactful: “I will only coach you if you commit to group-based fitness five times a week. If you’re unwilling to push yourself physically, you won’t push yourself mentally, and then you’ll say my coaching doesn’t work.”
Ronnie’s mantra, “The truth is often harsh but always fair,” resonated deeply. He was right; we recognized our mental and physical weaknesses were compounding each other. That day, we signed up for CrossFit, Ronnie agreed to coach us, and the rest truly is history.
Our journey taught us that our identity is fundamentally shaped by what we believe about ourselves, and our brains instinctively align our behaviors with that identity. We needed a profound shift in how we perceived ourselves and what we believed we were capable of—an essential upgrade to our very identity. We discovered that our deepest mental and physical challenges were rooted in what was happening between our ears.
Drawing from over a decade of hard-earned lessons, intensive personal development, and profound mindset upgrades, we’ve distilled these experiences into the principles and practical tools we now share. We know this will change your life because it fundamentally transformed ours. We are thrilled to guide you in making genuine progress toward your goals, because the world truly needs the unlocked, most vibrant version of you.
The Problems We Solve for Our Clients: Closing the “Being” Gap
Many of our clients come to us feeling a profound sense of burnout, lacking clarity, and struggling with a disconnect between their achievements and their inner peace. They are often high-performers, accustomed to pushing limits, but find themselves in a state where their drive is leading to depletion, rather than fulfillment. The current state for many is a constant hamster wheel of activity that leaves them feeling depleted and without a clear sense of purpose or sustainable well-being. They yearn for authentic connections and a life that engages all their senses. We help them bridge the gap between this exhaustive current state and a future where they are rehydrated, resilient, and living with profound intention and joy.
Our Solutions: Guiding You to a Wild and Meaningful Life
AXIOS Coaching + Wellness provides health and personal development coaching, bespoke events, and inspiring speaking engagements. Our core offerings include:
Personalized Coaching Programs: We partner with individuals and couples, often through six-month partnership programs, to help them discover clarity and alignment, addressing the deeper roots of stress and fostering lasting change in all areas of life.
Tailored Team Coaching and Workshops: For organizations, we craft bespoke coaching programs designed to enhance team dynamics, achieve collective objectives, and ensure high performance without sacrificing well-being.
Engaging Speaking Engagements: We share insights and strategies on holistic well-being and peak performance, tailored to specific audiences.
We don’t just offer productivity hacks; we guide you in understanding how to consistently replenish your reserves so you can engage fully in high-demand seasons without drying out.
What Sets Us Apart: A Whole Person Approach
What truly distinguishes AXIOS is our whole-person approach. We don’t just focus on outward success; we address your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs. Our guidance is rooted in a blend of deep wisdom, genuine compassion, and an adventurous spirit. We believe in making complex concepts simple and practical, creating immersive and transformative experiences that engage all your senses. We build authentic relationships where clients feel safe, heard, and truly understood.
What We Are Most Proud Of
We are immensely proud to have guided over 100 individuals, couples, and teams towards finding clarity, alignment, and unlocking their full potential. Seeing our clients transform from feeling stuck to embracing wild, meaningful lives is our greatest reward.
What We Want You to Know
If you’re a high-performer feeling the strain of constant output, or a leader seeking to empower your team beyond mere productivity, we want you to know that there’s a different way to thrive. Your struggle isn’t a flaw; it’s an opportunity to rehydrate and replenish. We invite you to schedule a free discovery call with us. It’s a chance for us to understand your background, the obstacles you’re facing, and the meaningful goals you aspire to achieve. Let us be your guide in discovering a path to sustained vitality and a life truly lived.
Have you ever had to pivot?
ur greatest pivot began when Brit and I both decided to resign from our full-time jobs at the same time. We knew we needed a change, but weren’t sure what it was. As we explored the business we wanted to start, we noticed a pretty constant theme: people asking to come workout at our home gym and help them with their relationship to food. It seemed obvious to us, it was time to start personal training.
About a month later, we both had certifications in nutrition and designing workouts. We dumped most of our savings into remodeling our garage into a gym and were taking on clients. The rush of starting something from nothing was exhilarating. Seeing our clients, who would have never joined a traditional gym, start pushing themselves as they trusted our encouragement and challenge in what they were capable of, was the best feeling ever!
There was a shift though. About a year in, Brit and I started dreading heading out to the garage to train our clients. Our conversations started to question if we really wanted to scale the gym. We knew we loved our clients, and were committed to working for ourselves, but how we were doing it just wasn’t fitting right.
In the months that followed, we realized it was the conversations before and after the workouts that we deeply loved. The mindset work around how to effectively respond to stress, navigating tough relationship and leadership issues, and how to show up better in life and work – that was what really lit us up. We came to this conclusion: what made what we offered special was not the personal training. But our deep commitment to helping our clients get clear on what mattered most to them and then supporting them in the work to see that be accomplished. The decision was pretty easy to make. We “closed down” our gym and relaunched as AXIOS Coaching. What has followed is a constant obsession with understanding stress, and how we can leverage it to our advantage instead of it tearing us down.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
We’ve officially been full-time entrepreneurs for four years now, and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride with plenty of close calls! Thankfully, none of them have involved payroll, since we don’t have employees yet, but we’ve certainly had some nail-biters when it came to covering our own expenses.
I’ll never forget one specific moment. Our dog, Thor, needed a routine tooth cleaning at the vet. I dropped him off, signed the usual paperwork, and honestly didn’t think twice about it. But when we went to pick him up later that day, the bill hit us like a ton of bricks – it was almost triple what we expected! My stomach dropped; there was no way we had that kind of cash on hand.
What followed was a frantic, silent scramble on our phones, a desperate process of creatively transferring funds between lines of credit and credit cards. We just barely scraped together what we needed to walk out with the bill paid. The drive to my in-laws’ house was eerily silent. And when we finally pulled into their driveway, we just sat there and cried. The emotional and mental weight of constantly living on the edge was piling up, and it hit us hard.
But here’s the amazing part: as we calmed down and took stock, that moment became incredibly powerful. Even though the financial stress was overwhelming, we realized something with absolute certainty: we knew we were on to something genuinely good. Not just for our own personal growth, which had been massive, but also for the clients we’d already successfully helped. And in that moment, sitting in the driveway, we were 1000% done working for anyone else. We still look back at that very moment in my in-laws’ driveway as a “cementing” moment – a crystal-clear confirmation of our commitment to build AXIOS.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://axioswellness.com
- Instagram: axios.coaching
- Linkedin: AXIOS Coaching
Image Credits
All our own photos