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

Hi Sajie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

I’ve been blessed with countless success stories from my clients but my most impactful has to be my client who started training with me at 318 pounds and after 22 months of consistent training and eating clean we were able to achieve a 100lb weight loss goal to 218. I never seen someone work so hard towards a goal! It inspired not only me but so many others around us. She became unrecognizable but still maintained her same spirit from when she started, it was definitely a defining moment for me as a trainer. We did that!

Sajie, 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?

Good morning everyone! not sure what time it is wherever you are reading this but I hope you’re having a great day! My name is Sajie and I am the creator of SajieJayFitness. I unofficially began my brand in 2017 by documenting and sharing my personal fitness journey via IG! I felt like posting and being transparent about where I was at with my fitness journey would help hold me accountable and it did all while also inspiring many others to join me.

I got my start into this industry through firsthand experience and these were the skills that my trainer/mentor saw in me that pushed her to encourage me to become a personal trainer, she believed that I would be great at it and she in fact was correct. I had mastered consistency and discipline within myself and was ready to transfer those skill sets to encourage others to do the same. I have currently been on my own personal journey now for almost 5 years and I have been successfully assisting women on their journeys for over 3 years now.

I currently offer personal, small group, live virtual and online training to women, I also have an online store that I sell merchandise such as t-shirts, crop tops, workout gloves, jump ropes, resistance band and online workout programs.

The problem that I solve for my clients really has been community and visibility in the fitness arena that has allowed them to show up for theirselves in a very safe space. Getting into shape can be daunting and in this day and age of social media I feel like fitness has such a narrow representation of what “fit” looks like and it’s the furthest thing from the truth. Fitness is not one size fits all and that’s the message I preach to my clients. I feel like the safety I’ve created in my community of women has allowed my clients to thrive and achieve results beyond their imagination not only physical but mental and emotional as well and having a trainer who is still very much present on her own journey creates vulnerability and transparency which is so important in any successful relationship. I believe these are the things that sets me a part as a trainer. I AM NOT DONE and therefore I have unintentionally become my #1 sold product because I do not promote quick fixes! the goal is always a lifestyle change as that’s the only way to maximize your results in the gym.

I am extremely proud of my brand and it’s growth! My mission is to touch as many women lives as possible by pouring into them and letting them know that they are not alone in their struggles with their image. Instead of bashing and tearing down their appearance I want them to love what they currently see and know that that is not their final form if they don’t want it to be! there is always time to redesign and become the BEST YOU! whatever that may look like to you as long as you’re willing to put in the work.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have to personally give IG a shoutout for assissting me in unintentionally becoming a fitness trainer lol. See on October 30, 2017 I reached the heaviest weight I’d ever been in my life. I was 186lbs and I was only 24 years old at that time and I was fed up with myself and my poor habits. I had already been working out consistently but my diet was terrible. I wasn’t really maximizing my time in the gym and I felt horrible when I would see all the women I was training alongside constantly improving while staying the same so I made a plan! I knew that would be my last day doing the same thing over and over again. I was ready to tap into my full potential and I did.

Posting! I built my audience by posting consistently on IG! (I am still very cosistent today) even though I hated how I looked at that time by posting I ACCEPTED how I looked and by accepting where I was truly at allowed me to take my power back and now I can change my narrative. I checked in every single day I worked out (Sunday- Saturday) and I didnt care about the look of things because I told myself this isn’t my final destination as long as I stayed the course. Through posting and full transparency I gained so much recognition and support along the way! You see I understand why they say “just start” because along the way you truly do receive so much assistance all because people already see you doing the work for yourself they know you won’t misshandle them.

My best advice to anyone trying to build a social media presence is to be present! Social media is a great tool to get whatever you’re doing out but you must actively share! While you may not see it right away just know the key to true success in anything is consistency and as long as you’re posting everyday intentionally your community will find you!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A major lesson I’ve had to work on and still working on is creating a healthy relationship with food. I say this because in fitness food & diet is the most important thing to master to truly see changes within your body. Why? Idk I didn’t make the rules but we have to abide if we really want to maximize or sessions in the gym.

A little backstory… When I was young and learning about food phrases such as “don’t leave the table until your plate is clean” ran rampant not only in my household but seemed like that was normal every time I visited family as well and I realized that that doctrine is what birthed my issues with overeating which in turn is what caused me to put on so much weight at such a young age. I have struggled with eating properly the majority of my life and that is also a huge reason behind why I told myself I would take a stab at the #75hard challenge because it forces you to choose a diet and stick to it for 75 days straight with zero compromise (I’m currently on day 43!) and it sounded like the best way to force myself to sit down and approach food from another angle.

I know now that the lesson that was really being taught was to not be wasteful as someone worked very hard to provide that meal I just wish I understood differently at that time but now that I know better my job is to do better and I am and will continue to do so as I grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: sajiejayfitness.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sajiejayfitness

Image Credits
@mediabyanna @ghost_town_photography