We were lucky to catch up with Marissa Walch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Marissa, appreciate you joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I was very lucky to get to start doing what I love while I was in college and then immediately dove into the industry full time. I knew how to work my connections, I loved working with people and I worked really hard to get the certifications I needed quickly so I could advance my career. I worked for everyone, anyone and pretty much all over the place. I always said yes, but I always made sure I was taking care of myself – enough sleep, workouts to myself and personal time. People told me to try and “move up” meaning become a gym owner, manager, etc. but I knew that while I was young I wanted to run with the individual clients, classes and events and I am still doing it and love it. I just do everything on a much larger scale now, get noticed by larger brands and have really gotten to work with some amazing people in the industry who challenge me to be my best and better.

The work I am doing when I am not seeing a client or teaching a class has become equally important to the in person and filming work that I do which I never thought would take this much time. I work a lot, but I am thankful that I love what I do so I don’t mind doing it. I make sure that I am caught up on emails, event updates, client workouts, schedules and more because then when it is time for my workout, dinner with friends or personal time I am able to separate myself for those few hours and let work sit by itself for a bit. Balancing what you feel needs your energy, how to handle stress (good and bad) and effective communication has been a key part of my success because I can peacefully say that I can handle the next big thing; thankfully due to all of the opportunities I have taken and run with in the industry. I am always looking for what’s next while looking back on what’s been good for me and my community. They are the true rockstars in my world.

Marissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Marissa Walch is a full-time, certified fitness professional and fitness enthusiast based on the east coast. She has worked in the fitness industry for more than a decade, and she loves to share her knowledge and passion for living a healthier life with her clients. Marissa was the recipient of the Best of Baltimore, Fitness Trainer award for the Baltimore Sun and was runner-up for the Best of Baltimore, Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer award for Baltimore Magazine. Marissa teaches a variety of classes, leads large events and provides personal training to clients both in person and virtually. She enjoys leading classes such as yoga, spinning, boot camp, TRX, tread and shred, hot vinyasa, yoga for athletes and other specialty yoga classes.

Growing up in North Carolina on Lake Norman, Marissa loved to be on the water and play team sports. When she went to college at University of North Carolina at Wilmington where she fell in love with fitness. She hopes to inspire everyone she meets with her passion for fitness, whether it’s in a group fitness class or private event. Her clients have fun, feel stronger, and sweat!

Marissa is an avid learner and holds many yoga and fitness certifications, including:

Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 and 300 hour
TRX Trainer
Mad Dogg Spinning Instructor
AFAA Group Exercise Instructor
AFAA Personal Trainer
Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) Yoga Instructor
World Paddle Association Certified
First Aid CPR/AED Certified
Where to Find Her:

In Person and ZOOM classes – available on her website – www.marissawalch.com/classes
YogaWorks at Home, largest virtual yoga platforms
Under Armour Performance Center, powered by FX Fitness
Capital SUP Annapolis
University of Maryland, Baltimore (UM)
Wanderlust Festival, four-day, annual yoga festivals

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

COVID was a large pivot for everyone, but I personally was experiencing a lot of success with my clients and classes during early 2020 and when the world shut down I literally felt like everything I had worked for was literally gone. (Festivals, classes, events, etc.) I was devastated that I had worked to get X amount of classes on a schedule, built up my clients, etc. and now it all didn’t matter and I had no where to work. I was shocked at first when people wanted to train with me online and that my slightly small YouTube channel at the time almost instantly grew overnight. I knew how to produce content so I ran with it and filmed workout after workout as well as created online classes and personal training. Now that most of the world is back to life again it’s amazing how much of my work is still online with large group corporates, clients and classes. There is a wonderful virtual Community that greatly benefits from these services due to their schedules, locations or another personal reasons and I’m happy to offer virtual and in person services now that I feel truly are equally successful.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I personally believe that being involved in my community, taking other instructors classes and being on the same level as everyone I work with truly helped me become a well known fitness, yoga and wellness professional in the area. I work just as hard as everyone else does not only in my job, but on myself and that helps me realize what others need and reminds us all that we all have something we are working on or towards in life. I try to use my community partners to create events which benefits both of us and I continue to work hard towards figuring out what does our community need, what do my clients need and how can I serve them better.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marissawalch.com
• Instagram: @marissawalch
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/marissawalchllc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissawalch/
• Twitter: @marissawalch
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/marissawalch
• Other: Pilates House

Image Credits
I have there rights, they are my photos.