We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kendall Baab. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kendall below.
Alright, Kendall thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
As I finished my undergraduate degree at California State University Long Beach, I was working as a personal trainer, a Pilates instructor, and a dance teacher with about 5 different jobs at one time. It was madness. I couldn’t do it for longer than a few months before I was so burnt out that I knew I needed to find a way to combine these passions under one umbrella. I decided to purse my graduate degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK so I could find some direction in the dance science world for my career. I ultimately ended up coming back to personal training with the new knowledge that I had gained in my graduate program. This made me an even better trainer in terms of coaching, cueing, and programming. I wanted to combine the educational aspect of training with the training itself. I decided to launch my business initially with a couple friends from grad school as a dance science educational business. As things progressed, I ultimately ended up taking over the business myself and combining my personal training hustle with the educational side of our original idea. I worked a LOT to figure out how to legally set up a business, how to build a website, how to take payment, marketing, etc. It was a lot of work, but I just did it and never looked back. I never had a plan B – I only focused on making this business work for me. And I’m so glad I did.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a Personal Dance Trainer and Dance Scientist located in Los Angeles, CA. Originally from Dallas, Texas, I was a member of the Southlake Carroll Emerald Belles Dance/Drill Team before moving to California. I was also a competitive studio dancer throughout high school. Later on, I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Science from California State University Long Beach where I continued to train in ballet and modern dance, and a Master of Science degree in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK where I completed dance science research involving perfectionism and self-efficacy in online dance classes and trained in contemporary dance.
I am a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and a BASI Certified Pilates Instructor with a dance specialization. I am also a Certified Health Coach, which has really given me a holistic perspective to overall fitness and wellness that I can pass onto my clients.
I created BodyKinect to allow for accessible dance science education for dancers and dance educators. With my continued involvement in the dance community today, it becomes more evident that this type of education is necessary for future and current dancers to sustain a career in dance and learn more about their bodies.
BodyKinect’s vision is to empower dancers with dance science education to promote their overall wellbeing and performance while providing safe and effective training. We offer 1:1 training sessions, online training programs, and studio workshops.
I am most proud of my business’ growth in the last couple years. We have reached thousands of dancers in person and online. This is a new movement for the dance world, and I’m so happy to be apart of it.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media is how I started building my business in 2020. At first, I was just posting videos of the clients that I had, and announcements for any upcoming workshops… Really simple things. Once short form videos became more popular with TikTok and Instagram, I started filming short videos with training tips and dance science education and started growing my audience. I learned a lot about branding, social media marketing, and video editing. It took a lot of consistent work, and my old videos are not the greatest! But as my skills developed, so did my marketing. I’ve become even more clear with whom my target audience is, and how I can help them.
My biggest advice for anyone who is just starting to build a social media following is to stay consistent and be really clear with your brand. I’m not just talking about the fonts and colors that you use… I’m talking about the values that you have as a business or personal brand and how you convey those values to your target audience. That’s what makes you stand out as a creator and how you build trust with your audience over time.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Yes, and I think this is a great way to continue to build your business and make a more recurring revenue. My main source of income is from my 1:1 virtual sessions that I do weekly with my dancers. This is my highest paying consistent offer. Other sources of income include more passive services, such as online training programs and on-demand classes. And lastly, I offer studio workshops in master classes, which are less frequent but still high-paying.
However, I would say other streams of income that don’t directly involve my offers include social media content creation. Instagram and Pinterest have been huge contributors to my 2022 revenue, and they are what continues to grow my audience, which in turn, grows my business.
I think it’s a great way to have multiple streams of income if they are all related to the same niche or business. I don’t wanna go back to 21 year old Kendall, who had five different jobs in different areas of fitness/movement. The streams of income that I have created now, still fit under the umbrella of BodyKinect and our values.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bodykinect.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/trainwithkendall
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/trainwithkendall
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/kendallbaab
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: n/a
- Yelp: n/a
- Other: Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/trainwithkendall Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@trainwithkendall?_t=8X1PkRYkgXq&_r=1
Image Credits