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

Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have two defining moments. I got into the Health, Wellness, and Fitness Industry as a fun “side gig”. Teaching group fitness – AKA getting paid to workout – was fun and I enjoyed doing it as a “fun side gig”. I ended up teaching at local community college and one day at the end of the semester, a shy student who had taken my cardio class approached me and shared with me that she had been diagnosed with diabetes and at her young age this really scared her so she started taking my class 2x a week and within a few months, it had helped her reverse her diagnosis. She hugged me, thanked me, and walked off with pep in her step. I stood there dumbfounded for a few minutes because I didn’t really know this girl at all and I only interacted with her for 2 hours a week, and she felt that it had positively changed her life. That moment is when I realized exercise is really a power tool for health, not just fun. And then I thought to myself, what kind of positive impact could I have on peoples lives I if took this fun side gig and turned it into a full time passion? I want to do something everyday that makes peoples lives better. So I took a leap and dove into learning and teaching more in the exercise and fitness industry. But, it didn’t take me long to hit a roadblock. I was all geared up with education, knowledge, and passion and yet most of my fitness clients weren’t able to reach their wellness goals because of chronic joint and muscle pain. Their joint and muscle discomfort was limiting their ability to do the exercises that would transform their lives. So I started looking around the fitness industry for answers and that’s when I found Corrective Exercise. It seemed like a good solution and so I trialed it on one my clients. He had been wanting to lose 100 lbs but joint discomfort was limiting his ability to be active. So we used Corrective Exercise and zeroed in on his joint health and once his joint pain went down, his energy and happiness levels went up! So much so that he joined a dance class, met a woman, and got married! He never lost the weight. He thought his answer to feeling better was weight loss, but his life started to blossom once he improved his physical limitations and started living again. That’s when I realized that exercise isn’t just about looking healthy, it’s about having the physical ability to live your best life. I made Corrective Exercise my only focus after this point and I’ve never looked back.

Kelly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Kelly Williams, I am a Corrective Exercise specialist and I own Restorative Fitness which is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Corrective Exercise is exercise coaching that focuses specifically on joint and muscle health. People that would benefit the most from Corrective Exercise are people that feel like their joint and/or muscle discomfort is limiting them from doing their daily activities (walking, climbing stairs, lifting bags, etc.) or the activities that they love (exercise, sports, travel, dance, gardening, etc.). At Restorative Fitness, we work to improve the quality of your joint movement and balance so that the client experiences less or no discomfort with exercise and activity. We look to improve the quality of your life by improving the quality of your joint movement and stability. We offer one-one coaching both in office and live online (on Zoom), joint-friendly group fitness classes, joint mobility stretching, and free webinars and education sessions. We only focus on corrective exercise coaching because we believe it creates the stability and balance we need in our body to function each day with joy and energy. Six-pack abs are nice, but no more back pain is better. We’ve been in business for 6 years and we feel so lucky every day to work with our clients and help them live their most active, adventurous, and healthy lifestyle. We are proud to be a non-membership based business which means you only pay for the services you use. We find no joy in taking the money of people that don’t show up. We want you to show up and we want you to be successful. We offer free consultations and we’re happy to chat about how we can help you live better. Our motto is Move Better, Feel Better, Live Better.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I love sharing a message of hope with other business owners. One piece of advice : Celebrate ALL of your wins – even the small ones. Don’t skimp on this ever. I am so fortunate to do the craft that I love every single day. But I had to fight hard for this and I continue to battle to keep this every day. When I decided to start my own business full time, I was burnt out from my previous role in a corporate wellness company and my spouse at the time didn’t support my dream. It was an uphill battle from day one fighting burnout and a negative home environment. On top of that, most of my friends, family, and colleagues were not entrepreneurs and I caught a lot of unsupportive feedback from them too. They meant well, but they didn’t understand the risk I was taking. I realized early on that I was my own best champion. I looked around and all I saw was hardship and doubt. I knew I wasn’t going to make it in that negative world if I didn’t bring in my own light. So I made a promise to myself that I would celebrate every single win (since nobody else was going to) I ever had in the process of building my business. Meaning, I would take a moment with myself and do something specifically in honor of the great little and big things that I achieved. Sometimes it was something super small like telling someone about it or pouring myself a glass of my favorite wine! Sometimes it was something bigger like taking myself out or making myself my favorite dinner, or going to get a massage. There are so many milestones to celebrate – getting a logo, getting your website live, getting your first client, sending your first invoice, moving into your office, reaching your monthly revenue goal, launching a campaign, creating a course, hiring your first contractor, etc. I took my vow to myself personal and I celebrated everything and my journey to building my business started to become this goal accomplishment game that I loved AND felt rewarding (thanks to me)! I gained so much more confidence in myself and my abilities and best of all, I didn’t let everyone else’s fear take my dreams down. So if any small business owner is struggling right now, just know that you’re not alone and don’t forget to celebrate every single win – big or small! They matter.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Oh so excited to answer this! Two books : Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by Theodore B. Kinni. and Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. Be Our Guest is written by the Disney Customer Service division and it’s both a story about Walt Disney himself, his work ethics, exceptions and how these formed the Disney customer service as we know it today and it’s a book about how Disney the Company creates their hallmark customer service experience. They use a customer service matrix where they establish their customer experience values and rank them. Then they list out all their departments and customer touch points and explain in writing how each value is addressed in each department and touchpoint. Therefore, every single part of the business is aligned to deliver the customer the experience Disney wants. I used this model and made my own customer service matrix and it’s been so helpful to make sure I don’t have gaps and holes in my service, my messaging, my operations, etc. that would leave the customer feeling like they didn’t get what they wanted. It’s a great way to assess and check the quality of your business delivery and whether or not you’re delivering what you promise. Never Eat Alone is about how to leverage relationships to build your business, reputation, and be seen as an industry pro. It’s not about your skill in your profession, it’s about how supportive you are the entire industry and how others in the industry value you. Small business are so buried by the day to day tasks that we forget how impactful our connections can be to support our dreams. But, you have to be out there, connecting genuinely with people, not just running your business. It’s soooooo important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.restorativefitnessaz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restorativefitnessaz/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/restorativefitnessaz/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@restorativefitnessaz
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@restorativefitnessaz?lang=en

Image Credits
All images made by me with paid licensing. No credits to give out needed.