We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Nassiff. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I think that if I could tell a younger version of myself anything, it would be to stop waiting. There’s no perfect time to decide to change your life, so the sooner you take action, the sooner you’ll find out whether it works (or if it doesn’t, which happens, too!)

Granted, I never planned to be a business owner. I started my business in 2021, after living through the shutdowns of 2020 and being in a corporate job that wasn’t fulfilling. It took me a whole year after formally registering as a business until I quit my full time job and dove into the fitness world.

I wish I had leaned in sooner – for a number of reasons: to build confidence, to network, to build brand recognition and trust, but mostly to speak it out into the world. As silly as it might sound, one of the biggest lessons I learned as I transitioned from working for someone else to working for myself is that there is a lot of weight and energy in simply saying things out loud. If no one knows what you’re doing or what you’re growing, they can’t support you. I wish I had learned that a little sooner, and not let the fear of judgment or failure be louder than the desire to develop my business.

And I still think I have a lot of room to grow here – there’s so much risk and fear in putting yourself out into the world and hoping or trusting that your vision and your mission will take hold and grow…and that fear can be paralyzing. But I keep reminding myself that if I don’t start now, then I’ll keep looking back and wishing I had.

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

I’m a movement coach, really. I started with learning to teach yoga (primarily Vinyasa) in 2019, got certified as a personal trainer in 2020, and as a health coach in 2021. In 2022, I quit my full time corporate job to start my own fitness business, Katie Nassiff Movement, which serves clients locally in Atlanta, and has a virtual component to support folks across the world.

I’ve always moved my body, but over the last decade, I realized that movement was a method for me to build self-confidence, resilience, and strength to live every day outside of the gym. After I started teaching yoga, I realized how much I love connecting folks to their bodies, and I got to bear witness to the impact movement and strength have on everything from mental health to chronic pain management, to pre- and post-natal lifecycles, and everything that it means to be a human.

A lot of the work I do toes the line between fitness training and therapeutic. Many of my clients come from the yoga world or are looking for support for post-injury or chronic pain support; but many are simply women who want to be able to hold their babies, push luggage into the overhead bins on planes, or carry their beach chairs across a parking lot without hurting themselves.

I’m so proud of the victories my clients share with me: that they felt strong going on long hikes, that their sex lives are improved, that they feel confident in their clothes, that they surprised themselves by doing activities that they’d never thought they could do before. That’s the magic! There’s so much more to movement and fitness than body building, and my business centers on helping people move to feel good.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The number of ideas that I’ve tried on and scrapped seems endless. Starting a business during a pandemic meant trying to figure out how to bring movement and fitness to the digital space; and as we moved away from shutdown, it meant learning how to transition back to in-person. The first 2 years of my business were spent launching and failing with new programs, tweaking coaching tactics, and it still feels like I’m constantly navigating and trying on new things to see what fits.

A few years ago, I tried to create a coaching program, which went pretty well. One of the pieces of feedback from my clients was that it would be amazing to have a group to go through the program with, so I re-launched the program as a group coaching situation, and it failed miserably. No one signed up. No one understood the purpose. That was a big learning curve for me, and it taught me how to let go of the things that simply don’t work, instead of trying to force them to make sense. There’s no time for that – learn and move on.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I’m really transparent, and I’m willing to share space. I think these are the two things that have really helped me grow and build a reputation in my world. I’m up front about what I do, how I can help, where my limitations are, and what types of investment clients can expect. I post my prices online. I try to practice what I preach. I refer out (often!) when I don’t know the answer or if it’s out of my scope. I also support other people in my space, and I think that matters a lot. In this industry, it can feel so deeply competitive, and people become very protective – which feels so silly to me, because movement isn’t a secret. There’s so much information available online about fitness and wellness, and to pretend like you know everything or are the sole source of information is so disingenuous. Instead, I love supporting other businesses and trainers, shouting out the physical therapists that I love, and giving my clients an honest and safe experience.

Building trust with my clients and network has been – hands down – one of the most important parts of building a brand and reputation, because with the amount of “competition” and free information out there, having trust means having folks share about you, believe in you, and want to work with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katienassiff.com
• Instagram: @katienassiff

Image Credits
Gabriella Valladares, Thu Tran