We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abby Pagud. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abby below.
Abby , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?
One of the reasons I started my company without even realizing it was my frustration with how the industry acquires its customers. Most health and fitness companies prey on peoples insecurities to make a buck. This leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. When an individual is ready to seek help to improve their health, the focus should be on the path moving forward. Being aware of health history and behavior trends from the past can help determine the right course of action that needs to be taken. However, this knowledge should never be used AGAINST the individual to add more salt to the wound. The other issue I see a lot is the lack of evaluation prior to recommendation. Too many times have a I seen people jump into a program ready for change only to find themselves injured within the first 3 months because they had no business performing exercises from the program they were involved with. Not only does this become discouraging for the client, but it also sets them back from their goals. If proper evaluation of a clients status physically, emotionally, and nutritionally. This entire hiccup could have been avoided. It is great to want change for the sack of improvement, but only if it is done efficiently. We no longer live in a world of “push through the pain” or “no pain, no gain”. This is a old mindset that needs to be dropped and its time to embrace our current state….work with what we got and evolve into the new version of ourselves.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Even before Kapitol Health was started, my philosophy when working with any client is to mold myself to the client not the other way around. All of us are completely unique. We each have different genetic make-up, different upbringings, and react differently to things. Acknowledgment and understanding of an individuals health history truly determines how to get them to were they want to be. There is no cookie cutter concepts that can be applied. Initially, I never intended to become a business owner. My path some how created it for me as I witnessed things within the industry that I noticed needed changing. I have always been passionate about athletics as a child. After an extreme head injury my freshman year of highschool, I had to put the basketball down and find another passion. To my surprise, this injury lead me into the golf world. My drive for excellence has always pushed me to learn the most I can about a subject leading me to graduating early and attending David Leadbetter Golf Academy for 2 years. Training at this facility truly broadened my horizons and knowledge not only for the game, but also my understanding in how nutrition, exercise, and mentality influences performance. Following my training years, I attended college to acquire my bachelors in health and wellness so that I may enhance my knowledge through kinesiology and nutrition. Upon completion of my Bachelors, I entered the workforce to begin my career focusing on others instead of myself. As I built my career, I continued with my studies through National Academy of Sports medicine and became certified as a personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist, performance enhancement specialist, golf enhancement specialist, and senior fitness specialist. So that my knowledge was not just centralized around the physical, I also became a certified nutritionist through Precision Nutrition in addition to specializing in myofascial release techniques from my 4 years working for a chiropractor.
It only took 3 years working in the industry for me to realize that life has its roadblocks for all of us. No matter how hard we try to stay on track with goals, there are times that life throws us curve balls that require us to sacrifice from our schedules to be where we need to be for our family, friends, and work obligations. The industry needs to be better for the sake of our clients. We need to help sooth the chaos and help them stay on track with their goals. And so Kapitol Health was created.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Well as I mentioned, life has its obstacles. My family and I had been fully rooted in the northern suburbs of Chicago with no intention of moving. My husband was working hard and moving his way steadily up the ranks in his field. I personally had a reputation that brought clients to me and never had to experience the marketing world. When life throws you curve balls, they can turn your world upside down. And sure enough…our path was directing us towards Texas. In the summer of 2017, my family and I picked up our roots in Chicago and moved to Mckinney, Texas. I obviously had a hard time saying goodbye to my clients and my co-workers since I worked 6 days a week all the way up to the day before we closed on our house. Did I mention that my youngest was only 8mths at the time. The human body is amazing how in times of stress we are able to accomplish the impossible. Some how we were able to prepare our house for selling, work full time, pack a 4 bedroom house of 3 adults, 3 kids (ages 19, 8, and 8mths) , and 2 dogs, and resettle in Texas all within 6 mths. Graciously, a good handful of my clients continued training virtually and still train with me to this day. This allowed me to keep up with the overhead costs of running my business. Now to see if the business would succeed in a new town where no one even knows who I am or my reputation that I had worked 6 years to create! I remember driving in the car with my husband and asking him how do I build a business in an unknown town. He simply stated “you join the chamber of commerce”…my exact response was, “what’s a chamber of commerce?”. My husband was in such shock he almost had to pull over. He began to emphasized how ridiculous it’ was that I had owned my own business since 2014 and had no clue what a chamber of commerce was! I was so fortunate in my career that my reputation preceded itself and I never really had to do that little thing called marketing. After detailed explanations from my husband on how one begins to market their business, I believed that I could totally take that on with my personality and my love for getting to know new people. And so, thanks to many AMF or business owners and friends I have made in the Mckinney area….Kapitol Health is a huge success. Our move to Mckinney also lead me to connect with amazing business partners that is making it possible to create a huge dream of mine that was envisioned in my 2nd year of training. A dream that had remained on a self for 5 years and over the last 3 years has been in development!
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I mentioned earlier that one of my dreams is currently in development. With this new avenue of my business, it is significantly changing my approach in the marketing world and the experience for new clients. Over the past couple years, I have been creating an app that will be able to reach a whole new demographic for the company. The idea is to provide people with answers from the professional without them having to engage or pay a heavy cost. The purpose of this app is to provide free nutritional and exercise recommendations AFTER assessment questionnaires are completed. Over the years, I have noticed companies that claim to provide this only to to find the company pitching for guides/programs for a price. Even worse, the individual that filled out the questionnaire receives NO answers AND continue to be stalked via email for years! This needs to change ASAP. The Kapitol Health app will be free to download for all users and ALL will be able to get the answers they are looking for without being harassed with emails or purchase prior to being provided answers. If the user wishes to get additional services such as customized to their needs workouts and food planning. They can choose to subscribe for an affordable cost. They will also have the option to acquire additional virtual services for training, life coaching, and nutritional consultation if so desired. I’m tired of people in the industry being greedy monkeys and not providing people with the answers they need to succeed with their health. Because the Kapitol health app does not launch until summer of 2022, I did not want to leave people hanging. Therefore, I have written 20 programs available on my website. Each of these programs is designed for a specific target area and consists of video demonstration from yours truly. Each program can be broken down to providing up to 5-6 different workouts. The other thing that is great about these programs is they can all be performed in the comfort of your home with little to no equipment. This way each program can travel with you and all of these exercises are geared towards getting you into motion but not pushing you into injury. If you already have a pre-existing injury. 5 of these programs have been created to make sure all your rehabilitation needs are at your figure tips so you can finally heal those aches and pains for good. This year we also added a Kapitol Health shop which includes humorous and motivational apparel, oils for specific alignment issues, and gift cards for loved ones you want to help in achieving their ideal health. Obviously, this changes our target market and has caused me to reach outside of my comfort zone to start the Kapitol Life podcast to help educate people about all things pertaining to life. The idea is to reach people where they are but also give them an opportunity to know me and what my mission is not just for the company but for helping the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.kapitolhealth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kapitolhealth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kapitolhealth4
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-pagud-984462a5
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KapitolHealth/status/1161684845157900288
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9ILn_UxSaWKXLRkYP_7UA
Image Credits
Fred Mahusay-Fredshots Photography