We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brianne Snodgrass and Maddy Morrison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brianne and Maddy, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Starting 31Thirty Coaching was a huge risk for both of us from concept to launch date. Maddy had been training online with her own personal business and working an in person job for a time, and I was working full time as a personal trainer in person at a gym for my main source of income. Both of us were pretty comfortable where we were at, but both knew we wanted something different. Maddy knew she wanted to risk taking a step back from training and focus solely on macro and nutrition coaching, while I knew I was ready to have more flexibility and get away from in-person training. We both were praying through decisions separately until the Lord showed us we had the same goal and it meshed perfectly together. Yes, our goals aligned where we could train online, Maddy focusing on nutrition and me focusing on personal training, but the risks involved were pretty daunting. How do we start a business? How do we get enough clients to keep this as our main source of income? Will we be successful in a market that is saturated with fitness influencers and online trainers? These and so many more worries crept in our thoughts, but the potential for success, flexibility and what we knew we were being called to do outweighed those risks. Neither of us were new to risk taking, Maddy had started her own business years prior and moved multiple times. I quit a career in broadcasting years prior to start a career in the fitness industry, so even though starting 31Thirty Coaching was the most risky for both of us, it was also the one we were the most sure about because it was so very clear that God brought it all together. He brought the friendship, the same business goals and we desired a way to stand out in a saturated market. Our training is NOT about aesthetics only, we care about our clients’ hearts and minds and mindsets. It’s risky starting an online training business when it feels like everyone on instagram is doing that, but we know our skill set and value is in longevity and teaching women that they can take care of their bodies to be strong their entire lives, and that at their core, their fitness level doesn’t define them.

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

We are 31Thirty Coaching. The name of our company comes from Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Maddy and I wanted to start a personal training and nutrition coaching company that is affordable, accessible and faith-based. We value all of our clients and want them to know that we will help them be strong and learn life-long nutrition and workout habits, and that we care about their hearts and that their mindset is healthy toward fitness and nutrition. Maddy played NAIA Div. I college volleyball and has a background in personal training and nutrition coaching online for 5 years. Brianne played NCAA Division I college softball and after a career in sports broadcasting has been a personal trainer for the last 3 years with a specialization in prenatal and postpartum training. We provide a variety of services and payment options for our clients so they can receive the care they need at a price that works for them. We offer workout programs-only (not personalized) as our cheapest option, we also offer personalized macro coaching-only and personalized workouts only, but our most popular and our favorite option is our One-On-One coaching. With this option, all of the client’s workouts are personalized to them, their goals, and their strength level with a progressive overload format, and all of their macro coaching is specific to them. With the macro coaching, they also are able to ask Maddy any time for help with hitting their macro count for the day. For example, if they are going out to eat and are unsure how to hit their macros at a restaurant, Maddy will look up menus and give specific examples to help as well as tips for tracking weekly. We also check in with all of those clients every Monday to answer any questions, provide new information or provide the push that some people need to keep it going . We believe strongly in the fitness of the entire person. Maddy has a background of helping people deal with eating disorders as well and helps coach them through those incredibly tough mental battles. Our goal is to encourage women, keep them off of fad diets and keep them on lifelong habits that will build strength in single women, working women, moms, grandmas, athletes and anything in between.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy we have found early on for growing our clientele is referrals. Almost all of our new clients have come from current clients sharing success stories or just passing word around that they enjoy training with us. Word of mouth, referrals and client reviews have given more new clientele than any videos, social media or sales pitches we have attempted to this point.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

We met through our church’s small group! Maddy had been hosting the group for a while, and I started attending in 2022. We started to become friends and then found out her husband and my boyfriend (now husband) were in the same squadron in the Air Force. We are around a lot of military individuals in our area, so finding a friend who isn’t in the military with similar interests was amazing! Then, one day at small group we were doing prayer requests. I asked for prayers on finding an opportunity to train that was at a different gym or the resources to start my own company, Maddy asked me if I would ever consider coaching online, “heck yeah!” I said. We didn’t talk about it again for a few weeks, then we brought it back up, each worried the other wasn’t actually serious about joining forces and starting a business together. When we realized how very serious each of us was, we started getting everything in order and 6 months later launched 31Thirty Coaching!

Contact Info:

• Website: 31thirtycoaching.com
• Instagram: 31thirtycoaching
• Facebook: 31 Thirty Coaching

Image Credits
Clic: Content Marketing Studio