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

Alyssa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My educational background is in Psychology and Professional Counseling, and for most of my career throughout my 20s, I was a full time event planner. Fast forward to early 2020… I had started casually nutrition coaching online on the side a few months prior. I had been a group fitness instructor for several years at that point. Cue March 2020… and all my events were cancelled indefinitely, the fitness studio closed temporarily, and none of us knew what was happening or what to do. I remember sitting at my dining room table, looking out the window, and thinking – I have to keep moving, I have to keep exercising. And if I am already realizing I need steps in place to make sure that happens, when I’m already used to working out 5-6 days a week, then a LOT of other people are probably going to need help to keep moving right now, too.

In that moment, I made a shift. I had no idea what I was going to do, or how. I was nervous to share publicly, but I knew I had to help people stay healthy. On March 20, 2020, I shared my first workout video online – and I have never looked back from that day.

I started to run with the nutrition coaching business I had virtually with a network marketing company and serving even more clients. I began filming my home workouts everyday, somehow learning to edit them myself (ha!), and posting 6 videos a week (which continued consistently into 2021). I grew a Facebook group to over 350 members where I shared these videos.

Then I began realizing people were going to need more. They need accountability. They need to know what to do and how to do it. So in May of 2020, I posted an IG/FB story that I would coach 5 people for 1 month in a 4-week fitness program that I wrote. I charged $50 and filled the spots right away.

I continued with filling small groups like this throughout 2021, watching the results people were getting and the power of personal accountability. Seeing them proud of themselves and making real changes lights me up. Yet something was missing. Something lasting and transformative was available for people but not in the format I had set up. My nutrition clients were separate from my fitness clients, and vice versa. However, my own story and journey is a holistic one… of personal trial and error, self diagnosis, doctors not helping, dermatologists not helping, medication not working, and issues not resolving. I had spent over 10 years, hundreds of hours, and thousands of dollars learning, studying, reading, listening, researching, and healing myself. I had finally drawn the holistic connection between physical, mental, and spiritual health for myself – but I wasn’t delivering that to my clients. I realized what else my clients needed. They need to know they are in control of their health and not a victim to their circumstances. They need to know they can even change the expression of DNA in their bodies through their food, brain, lifestyle decisions. They need to know it’s okay to ask for help. They need to know that health is a holistic, not compartmentalized, part of life.

In summer of 2022, I launched my business officially on my own. I hired a coach to grow myself personally, expand my capacity, and help me believe what was possible for myself and my clients. I completely shifted my coaching model and offerings to encompass a holistic fitness and nutrition approach. I started with groups, and then shifted to 1:1 custom coaching, which is what I offer now. I take into account my client’s goals, nutrition, time, stressors, symptoms, blood type, hormones, and schedules and empower them to walk into a lifestyle transformation for their health.

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

My name is Alyssa Chamberlin and I’m a holistic health and fitness coach. My educational background is in counseling – I got my Bachelor’s in Psychology, my MS in Professional Counseling, and later my MBA. I always had a heart for people and transformation but quickly realized that counseling was not the career of fulfilling that for me. I love bringing people together and through jobs in college I found myself in the event planning industry for 10 years, planning events locally, for a university, for local businesses and my own business too.

I got into the health world because of my own journey healing my body, skin, and frequent sickness/infections. While I was building my career in events, I was always doing something active alongside that – working out, teaching group fitness classes, leading pickup volleyball groups, coaching an online nutrition program, etc. I also spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars researching health, nutrition, and hormones in healing myself.

This led me to creating the outlet of what I do now – holistic 1:1 health, fitness, and nutrition coaching, totally online. I provide high level coaching to help my clients not only reach their physical fitness and health goals but also uncover why they aren’t at optimal health in the first place. I take them on a transformative journey from the inside out to heal and create lasting habits and changes in their own and their family’s lives.

I help my clients solve their underlying health issues, self sabotage patterns, inconsistency, and lack of personal accountability/follow through. I help them resolve health problems that medical doctors can’t seem to figure out, and I help them make data informed choices for their bodies and brains that work – that heal, restore, and revitalize their holistic health.

I tell everyone on a consult call with me that I am NOT your typical personal trainer! What sets me apart from other coaches is that I take a holistic and systemic approach. Everything in your program is completely customized, from your meal plan and fitness program to your coaching sessions, “homework”, and accountability. We look at your blood type, bloodwork reports, symptoms, history, food and body products in your home, work, life, family, stressors, etc. and boil it down to remove what’s not working and replace it with what does work – f or you.

I am most proud of the moments when my clients tell me that I have helped them more than any medical doctor for 20+ years. That I’ve given them the space to create more breakthrough than any mental health counselor or grief counselor. That I’ve been the vessel that has brought them connected and closer to God, their family, their marriage, and themselves. That they never liked taking pictures of themselves before working with me. That they are proud of themselves and have done things they never thought possible before for themselves. That they left toxic relationships and found love in new ones within our time working together. These are the moments that remind me why I do what I do, and that this was never just my idea in the first place. It’s much bigger.

For anyone considering connecting or working with me as a coach, I want you to know how much I care for your whole person health – your body, your brain, your heart. That you DO NOT have to feel the way you are currently feeling! There is more than a band-aid solution available for you. Health is possible for you, energy is possible for you, joy is possible for you, love is possible for you.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I made a big pivot when I switched from low ticket to high ticket offers. There wasn’t much of an in between phase – I just made the leap! I did this because I realized there were so many gaps in what my clients were getting from low ticket options, both from the limited time involved from and limited investment from them. There are so many factors involved with health issues – from food to workouts, from supplements to coaching style, from blood type to various diagnoses – and I wasn’t able to meet all their needs on a low ticket framework.

It was scary at first to believe I was worth charging “that much”, but I quickly realized my ability to believe in myself translated directly to my clients’ abilities to believe in their own health, healing, value, and worth. When I switched to only offering high ticket holistic health coaching programs, my clients began getting even better results. They realized their worthiness. They got to experience what it’s like to invest in themselves. They put in the effort and work more seriously, and they showed up for our sessions more consistently,

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I love all of my clients! I am very personal with them and do all of my coaching via Zoom and text messaging. We get to know each other because we are talking daily to weekly, checking in, I’m providing accountability, and they are constantly updating me on their food, workouts, roadblocks, changes needed, etc. We meet 3 times a month on zoom and message continually between those sessions. We actually get to know each other on a deep level, because health affects every part of life. I’m grateful that my clients trust me so much and that we are able to naturally develop this loyalty and connection because it is everything in this business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alyssachamberlin.com
• Instagram: @alyssachamb

Image Credits
Ashley Cheshire, Sara Harper