We were lucky to catch up with Megan Hardy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Megan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have always been active – from a young age I was the kid that spent more time in a tree than I did on the ground. I played soccer and danced, went to college for dance and danced with a professional company post grad. So fitness has always been a part of my life in one way or another. Since I can remember, I have had an interest in health and the human body. In undergrad I was taking classes on dance, anatomy, and somatic studies while also working at the campus gym.

However, in college I developed some really bad eating habits. I would be late-night studying and then binge on food from the vending machine in my dorm, then restrict my calories the next day, rinse/repeat.

Post grad I was in some toxic relationships, I felt unfulfilled at my corporate job at the time, and I was experiencing major “WTF” symptoms – like no one prepares you for real life after college. I went through a pretty rough season where my dog died unexpectedly, I had just broken up with my toxic boyfriend, I had an emergency appendectomy and couldn’t dance, and then I went back to the toxic boyfriend because it was at least comfortable and familiar. So once again I turned to food for comfort. Just this time instead of eating to stay awake while studying, I was now binging on food at night for comfort. It was like my escape from the work day and a life that I wasn’t happy with.

This lasted for a few years. I was not my ideal body composition, but with excessive exercise and restricting food during the day, I managed to stay “thin” so people never knew that I was a closet binger.

Flash forward to today and I am more fit and “toned” than I have ever been in my life, with less body fat and more muscle definition and the best part is I have FOOD FREEDOM. I finally found balance between my fitness goals, nutrition, and social life. There are no foods that are off limits for me and I don’t have to worry about girls night or date night “ruining my progress”. Since I don’t restrict myself, I no longer binge at night. (Yes, sometimes I still have way too many bowls of chocolate chips!) but I don’t use food as a coping mechanism or see food as the enemy like I did before. I finally figured out a way to heal my relationship with food, achieve my ideal body and my ideal lifestyle.

I knew there were so many other women out there struggling with the same things and I felt called to share my knowledge with them so that hopefully they could learn from my journey and experience for themselves the same food freedom that I had.

So a seed was planted in my mind back in 2015 to start a health & fitness business, but I just didn’t know what the business looked like yet. The fitness and nutrition world is so saturated with coaches and trainers and I knew I didn’t want to open my own gym or work as a trainer at a gym, trading my time for money and paying half of my earnings back to the gym. I dabbled in ideas like starting my own fitness clothing line, but I never saw those ideas through to completion.

In 2019 I was targeted by a Facebook ad from a Fitness Business Coach who introduced me to the idea of online fitness & nutrition coaching – now THAT interested me. I would be my own boss and help women on their health & fitness journeys without giving all my time to a gym. I started working with that business coach and quickly got my baby (aka my business) “Fitness Uncharted” up and running.

At the time I was still working a corporate job while starting my “side hustle”. Within a few short months, I had gained enough clients to where I couldn’t manage both my corporate job and my business. I had to make the scary decision to quit my corporate job (which paid very well by the way) and go all in on my business. Within the second year of working for myself, I more than 3x’d my corporate income. I had no idea if my business would be successful or not, but I knew from the jump that it was a worthwhile endeavor and there was purpose behind my mission.

The name “Fitness Uncharted” was placed on my heart back in 2015 (before I even knew what the business would look like) and the name was inspired by the idea of improving not only our physical fitness, but our mental, emotional and spiritual fitness as well. Looking at the whole person versus just one component of fitness. Asking yourself what area of your life have you left “uncharted”? Because for me personally, back when I was binging and restricting I was technically “fit” by the world’s standards and BMI standards (don’t even get me started on BMI) but I was not mentally or emotionally healthy – my relationship with food was not healthy. So that’s why the Fit-U mission goes way beyond getting women into exceptional shape (although that’s a perk haha), but we care much more about the person they are becoming during the process.

Now, I have a team of coaches who work with me and we get to help women become the healthiest, fittest version of themselves inside and out. We are helping women step away from traditional “diet culture” (which isn’t sustainable) and are showing them how to create a body and lifestyle that they absolutely love. Our clients are becoming leaner and stronger, coming off of medications (supervised by their doctors), no longer battling depression, regaining their energy and spark for life, improving their relationships and completely transforming from the inside out.

While entrepreneurship has its hills and valleys (like John Maxwell says: “No leader has 2 good days in a row”) it is the most rewarding work and I’m blessed to be a small part of these ladies’ health journeys.

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

I believe I answered a lot of this on the last question! But for further detail…

I offer 1:1 fitness and nutrition coaching services and work primarily with women who want to build a healthier relationship with food at the same time as improving their body composition (reducing body fat and building muscle). Many of the women that we work with have either tried a lot of unsustainable diets in the past or have never quite been able to reach the body composition that they want despite being super consistent in the gym and “eating clean”.

Fitness Uncharted is not a “quick fix” or another “diet” – it’s a lifestyle program that was built with our clients’ LONG TERM health in mind. Most people don’t have a problem losing weight or body fat, they have a problem with MAINTAINING it. And that’s the problem that The Fit-U is here to solve. We teach women how to improve their metabolism and transform their bodies by building more lean muscle.

We take a balanced approach to health & fitness and teach our clients the skill of learning how to eat appropriately for their fitness goals at the same time as enjoying life. Our goal is to help women step away from the all or nothing mentality and to focus on becoming 1% better every day. As cliche as it sounds, the people who are most successful on their fitness journeys are striving for progress not perfection. At Fitness Uncharted, we hold our clients accountable while also empowering them to take their health & fitness into their own hands so they are not always reliant on a coach or trainer.

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

Some of my favorite entrepreneurial and leadership resources are:

1) The Ed Mylett Show (podcast)- Ed speaks on all topics to level up your life: business, health, leadership, entrepreneurship. I did not grow up in an entrepreneurial family (no one on my mom or dad’s side was an entrepreneur) and so it was engrained in me from an early age that we are supposed to go to school, graduate, and then climb the corporate ladder. I didn’t know any other path existed. Listening to podcasts and innovative leaders like Ed Mylett (who also came from nothing) is so encouraging and insightful. As an entrepreneur it’s a balancing act of finding contentment with where you’re at so that you can enjoy the journey while also striving for bigger and better. It’s hard! But it’s possible.

2) John Maxwell Leadership (podcast and books) – John Maxwell once said “No leader has 2 good days in a row” which accurately depicts the volatile rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. But somehow, that quote actually brought me some reassurance that I wasn’t alone – that other entrepreneurs are experiencing similar trials and also if I am expecting more hard times to come, then the hard days won’t catch me by surprise (or at least not as much haha). John Maxwell’s advice on leadership has drastically impacted how I coach and lead my team. A few more Maxwell quotes that directly apply to business and leadership: “Attitude is a choice. Pick a good one.” and “You’re not what you think you are. But what you think, you are.”

3) Atomic Habits by James Clear (book) – This book is life changing for developing small habits that apply to business, health, fitness and every area of life. It can be very overwhelming being a business owner, but this book is a good reminder that we have to take it one day at a time and break it down into bite size chunks. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Have you ever had to pivot?

One of the most recent times that I had to pivot in my business was when one of my coaches put in her notice that she was quitting. Thankfully it was not for any bad reasons – she was a new mom and felt that she needed to focus just on being a mom for a season. Naturally, I was frustrated by the inconvenience at first – she had a full roster of clients that I would have to transition over to my other coaches and people don’t like change, so I was ready for a good amount of pushback. However, the transition could not have gone smoother, all things considered. I personally got on Zoom with each client to introduce them to their new coach and many of them were actually very excited about the transition. I also hired a replacement for the coach that was leaving and the new coach that we now have on the team is a ROCKSTAR – she is such a great coach and culture fit and all of her clients love her. There have been so many inconvenient and stressful moments like this during my time in business, but somehow it always works out for the best. I think that’s something important to remember as an entrepreneur, especially on the dark and stormy days – there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitnessuncharted/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littlemegers
• Other: Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefitu/ Podcast: The Muscle Makeover: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/muscle-makeover