Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karlynn Only-sydnor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Karlynn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

If I could go back in time, I do wish I had started my business sooner. Personal training or coaching wasn’t my first career choice, I originally studied to be a computer engineer. I had a passion for fixing things and solving problems. I also loved math. I would coach and train clients on the side for extra income but I never thought of it my main career. In the eyes of my family and friends it wasn’t a sustainable career choice. However, I did know that ultimately I wanted to be able to help people live healthier lives; It was something I had dreamed of doing since I was a kid.

As I was going further and further into my education as an engineer, I began to feel that this was not the right path for me. I couldn’t see myself fulfilling my passion in the direction I was headed and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. So I switched gears completely and began to pursue a degree in business. Once I started studying business, things started to make sense and I could see how I could do what I loved for a career. I still didn’t jump right in to forming my personal training business. I got a job with my local government and worked there for almost 10 years before I was able to do personal training full time. In those 10 years I got married, had four kids and finished school.

But I wished I had taken the steps to start my business in that 10 year span. I didn’t think I had all of the tools to start a business. I kept thinking that I needed more education, a gym space, equipment, and money to start. Plus juggling four kids and time with my spouse while trying to start a business from scratch is tough. I was in the mindset that I needed to wait until the kids were older. In actuality, starting earlier would have meant I could have spent more time with my older kids while they were little. It would have allowed me to scale my business faster and take more risks. When I started my business, l didn’t have a gym space or any equipment or very much money. I still don’t have gym space, I travel to my clients and use their space and equipment to provide training sessions. This has worked out great.

I wish I would have listened more to my gut about what I wanted to do with my career and how I wanted to support my family. I believe I let the fear of my own abilities to be successful stop me. I also think I let the advice of others decide what was best for me and my family. I did learn a great deal about myself in those 10 years but I still wished I had taken the leap and started my business sooner.

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

Personal training wasn’t something I had considered for my career. I started out coaching high school volleyball players. I played volleyball through high school and college so coaching was the natural next step. It was there that I developed my love for training fitness. I noticed I was really good at correcting form and teaching others about exercise. But I didn’t pursue that career path right away; I became pregnant with my first baby before I could really dive into the career and had to switch to something more stable to support my family. I got a job with my local government and continued to work as a trainer part time. My family kept growing as I had my second and third child, so I waited a little longer to pursue a career in personal training and stayed at my position with the local government. After I had my third baby I struggled with balancing life as a mom. I would look at myself in the mirror and feel disgusted with my body. Being a mom is amazing but no one tells you that you will have a mental battle of loving being a mom and still wanting the woman you were before you had kids. In college while playing volleyball I remember how being on the court made me feel. I could be in the gym and release all of my stress and anxiety; it was where I could be myself. So I began working out. Exercise helped me to feel like myself again. After a few months I not only saw physical changes but I felt better mentally. It was then I decided to finally get my personal training certification through NASM. In February of 2019 I received my certification and by April of 2019 I had my first fitness client. I worked as a part time personal trainer for three years then had my fourth baby.

While pregnant with my fourth baby, I worked out regularly and felt amazing. I realized other women might be struggling with the same things I struggled with as a woman and a mom. It was then I decided to focus my personal training services on women. In most places all clients were being trained the same, no matter if they were male or female. There was not much consideration to hormonal changes, the different phases of menopause or pre/postnatal when it came to training women, and I decided I wanted to be the go to personal trainer for women in my area. I wanted to provide personal training services that could help women in all phases of life. As a woman and a mother, I understand what it’s like to see your body change and feel like you’re stuck. It can be so frustrating trying to improve your health and fitness and not know how to adjust your exercises or nutrition to get the results you want. Having extensive knowledge on how the female body responds to exercise in different parts of a woman’s life is what sets me apart from other trainers. I educate women on the importance of strength training and proper protein consumption. They learn that to get the body they want they have to lift heavy weights and do less cardio. Lifting weights will not make you look “manly”. Weight lifting gives you the lean, sculpted body so many women desire. It also protects you from having other major health problems as we age.

In 2022 I left my full time job with my local government to put all my energy into my business, KAOS Performance Fitness. It is challenging being a mom, a wife and a business owner but I don’t regret taking on this challenge. Today I am most proud of the impact I have had on my clients. All of them have had physical transformations but the mental transformation is what excites me the most. I have seen my clients have a roller coaster of emotions during their training sessions. They experience the feeling of power through strength training. Watching them challenge themselves with weights and overcome physical and emotional barriers gives me so much joy, I love it. KAOS Performance Fitness has become the top personal training service for women in Sacramento, California. We really focus on meeting the needs of women and educating them on how to prioritize their health and fitness. Each client is treated individually and has a training program based on their goals, weaknesses and lifestyle. We are slowly building a community of women who all share a common goal, to become a stronger version of themselves both physically and mentally.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Initially when I started out coaching/training I did it to earn extra income. It seemed like the perfect side hustle since I had played volleyball. I would do one-on-one training sessions with high school athletes on the weekends to help offset my expenses. I didn’t think this would be something that would go anywhere. My intention was to do it until my full time job allowed me to make enough money to support my family. I bought a net I could set up in a park and a few balls for training. This worked great and my clients loved it. We would work on passing, setting and hitting skills. I would also teach them positioning on the court and the rules of the game. I really loved working with the older, more experienced players because we got to really perfect their skills and get them ready for college level volleyball. My training became really popular and I started to have a waiting list for my training sessions. I was making the extra income I needed but felt I could do more. This gave me the idea that I could start a profitable coaching business. I just didn’t know how to start a business. I continued providing volleyball training sessions for a few more years and thought the first step to starting a business would be to get a certification. While getting my certification I learned about personal fitness training and how it could be applied to my volleyball players. I also realized I may want to shift my focus to fitness training. I began to put myself out there as a fitness trainer and got my first client. She was a woman who was looking to lose weight and wanted to avoid taking weight loss medications. I was so excited to help her with her goals while also learning how to be a personal trainer. This experience taught me that I didn’t have to have all of the answers. It also showed me that I could make an impact in the lives of others. I successfully helped her lose over 50 pounds and find her love for hiking. From there I began to increase my marketing efforts to more people in my area. I was hoping people would just find me and hire me, but it’s not that simple. I needed help so I hired business consultants to help me learn how to find clients and retain them. The consultants taught me how to run the business, how to look at the metrics and apply it to my marketing strategies. One of the biggest things I learned from them is how to no longer think about my business as a side hustle, I had to start thinking about it as a business. I highly recommend anyone who is looking to scale their business to hire a business consultant who is familiar with their type of service. With my consultants guidance I was able to scale my business to the point that allowed me to leave my full-time job. I took a leave of absence to make sure leaving was the right thing to do because I still had a family to support. After a month, I made it official and left my job with my local government. In 2022, I became a full-time personal trainer. Although I am not currently working with the consultants, I am still using the business processes they taught me. Those processes have helped me to find over 30 clients. Those processes also helped me to reach $10,000 in monthly revenue.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

2023 was my first full year running a business full time. It was going great and I was learning so much from my consultants and listening to others in the same field. My clients were loving my programs, I had a full schedule and I was able to spend more time with my family. But things changed when summer of 2023 began. Most of my clients and potential clients are women, including moms and since their kids are out of school often they go on vacation for two months. I was unaware of how much this would hurt my revenue. I was struggling to get my clients who were moms to resign after May. And trying to sign new clients in the summer is extremely challenging. My revenue went from $10,000 per month to about $6,000 per month. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the summer or if I had made a mistake in leaving a job with a stable income. Doubt and depression took over and I was stuck and almost ready to quit. None of my strategies to sign-up more clients seemed to be working. It was time for me to change things up because I knew I couldn’t stay in the mindset I was in. But there wasn’t a lot that I could do to make people want to work with me. The summer is a slower time of year for personal trainers. This is something I had to learn by going through it. I learned that I need to set myself up for summer during the successful months. I also learned how to continue moving forward and run a business even when the money isn’t coming in as fast as you would like; the business still has to operate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kaosperformancefitness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaos.performance.fitness.llc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlynn.alexandria/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaosperformancefitnessllc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kaosperformancefitness

Image Credits

Spartan Inc, Ms Health and Fitness Magazine