We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Browning a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I had been teaching yoga for quite awhile, but I wasn’t enjoying myself, and I wasn’t filling my classes. Everyone in LA was teaching Vinyasa Power Yoga. I had purposely trained in other types of yoga, because I’ve never really enjoyed Vinyasa Yoga. But when I applied to teach yoga in LA, no one would hire me, because they said what I was teaching “wasn’t real yoga.” So I decided that I needed to give in and teach the yoga everyone “wanted” to make myself marketable. I went back to college to finish my degree, and I had a homework assignment: find successful people in a wellness industry, and interview them about how they attained their success. I was working at a popular yoga studio at the time, so I was able to interview yoga teachers who were the foremost in their field. Their stories completely surprised me! Each one of them said something similar…that they taught their type of classes, because THEY enjoyed that type of yoga. Not only that, in the past they had been rejected for it! One teacher said he was literally fired from a studio for trying to teach something different. They all had been told that no one wanted “their” type of yoga. But they stuck with it. They kept going. And the people who were like them, who were looking for exactly what they had to offer, eventually found them. This changed my entire perspective. I didn’t need to bend myself to be marketable. Maybe it takes some time, but I realized if I kept teaching the way I enjoyed, the people who wanted exactly what I had to offer, they would find me. And they did!

Rachel, 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?

I’m a Certified Health Coach. Which means: I look at the overall “picture” of someone’s health, and see exactly which areas they need assistance with, and help them in those areas. I’m a certified Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher, and Massage Therapist. Some clients come to me wanting to improve heart disease risk. Some want help with chronic back pain. Some people want to build muscle, or prepare for a long hike. I help with the parts I am qualified for, and then I help them find other professionals. I also act as an advocate to get them the correct care with their doctors.
I really focus on a healthy relationship to food, and not doing things with “quick fixes.” I want my clients to feel comfortable in their body, no matter what part of the journey they’re on. I want them to feel heard, and their sessions to focus on the things they want to improve.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

In the wellness field, learning to listen to what people actually want and need-opposed to what we think they need-is so important. There may be someone who has high cholesterol and heart disease risk. The solution to that seems simple and straight-forward: eat more fruits and vegetables, move more, reduce calories. But humans are not simple equations, and someone’s relationship to food (and their body) is much more complex. That client may not feel they are worthy of self-care, they may be used to caretaking for everyone else. They may have associations with food as comfort, and might need to explore that. They may be scared of exercise, because they had an embarrassing memory associated with it. So sometimes, as practitioners, we have to be willing to pivot from our plan and explore other avenues. In the end, food and movement may still be the solution, but the journey to get there is going to be different for everyone.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I’ve had to learn, is not to make decisions based on fear. In 2008, my entire business crumbled. I loved working in my field, but I thought I needed to have a “secure” desk job to make it in the world, so I went back to school. I thought I wanted an office job to feel safe. Just a few months before graduation, I freaked out. I realized I hated sitting all day. I hated being inside. I couldn’t do it…so I started over in the wellness industry. The biggest difference, was now I was starting over with tons of student loan debt, for a degree I’ve never used a single time.
Every time I’ve made huge life decisions out of fear, I’ve regretted them. Every time I’ve took a chance, I’ve didn’t regret it. (Not that I haven’t failed, I just used those failures as a way to learn and grow.)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.RachelBrowningWellness.com
• Instagram: @rachelbrowningwellness
• Facebook: @coachwithRachel
• Linkedin: @rachelbrowningwellness
• Twitter: @rbwellness
• Yelp: Rachel Browning Wellness