We were lucky to catch up with Stacey Raeburn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stacey , appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

At the end of 2021 I was living in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I was working in a management position for the UK foreign office with responsibility for teams in both Abu Dhabi and Islamabad, Pakistan. I was earning decent money (more than I would have been as a civil servant in the UK, that’s for sure), I was good at my job, I had a beautiful apartment with a stunning view and a great group of friends. Not to mention the lifestyle in the UAE is very comfortable. But, I was not as happy as you would expect. I was exhausted from work, staffing was (in my opinion) a mess and the same old story of the harder you work the more is put on you was very much in full swing. I lived alone in the UAE and had spent 5 months of covid lockdown isolated in my apartment. I couldn’t see my family for Christmas 2020 due to travel restrictions and those restrictions had continued through 2021. Aside from going to work and the gym I was doing nothing. I wasn’t living, I was existing. My mental health was being dramatically impacted and I had pinned all hopes on traveling home for Christmas 2021. That was not to bed. My employer refused my annual leave over the Christmas period and I was trapped in the UAE again while my family remained in the UK. I’d been unhappy and desperate for a change for a long time but I didn’t know where to go or what to do. This event would be the straw that broke the camels back (pardon the desert related pun).

I knew I had to leave. I had been asked so many times by people in the gym if I was a personal trainer and if I could train people. I loved writing programmes for myself and had written some for friends but despite being qualified to coach swimming I hadn’t done my qualifications to coach gym based exercise and so I always just politely declined. However, part of me thought “I could easily do this”. I loved being in the gym, I loved helping people out and I had coaching experience from my time as a swimming coach. I needed to get qualified. In my own time while still working full time I completed my level 2 gym instructor and level 3 personal trainer qualifications. I continued to coach friends (for free) to gain experience and sought to learn everything I could about the industry. After a few months of coaching people for free in my spare time I began getting requests from people to hire me as a coach. I was still working full time and this was very much a side hustle but I had now made the decision to leave the UAE. I just needed to decided what I would do when I left. I found coaching people to get healthier fitter and stronger to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever done and I developed a real passion for getting my tiny number of clients results.

I made the decision! At the grand old age of 36 I made the decision to leave my corporate job, change career and embark on the journey to being a fully self employed fitness coach and personal trainer. Risk? Risk doesn’t cut it! I’d been out of the UK for almost 10 years. I had savings but zero UK footprint, I was leaving behind a stable and pretty good (tax free) income, all of my friends and attempting to break out in an industry that you could say is pretty saturated. But I felt I had something to offer that a lot of fitness professionals don’t … I’ve been through the transformation journey myself.

Prior to moving to the UAE all of them years ago I had been through my own transformation. I had lost 25kg and dropped 4 dress sizes and completely fallen in love with training. It hadn’t come easily and I had experienced the struggles, the failures and the days of wanting to give up. When I was starting this journey, the thought of going to a PT terrified me. Not because I didn’t want to work hard, but because I feared some young fit girl who had never been even a pound overweight judging me for letting myself get to the point I had. I would have been more comfortable had I had access to a PT who had experienced what I had and who knew that it wasn’t because I was a greedy lazy person. I knew this had to be my unique selling point! I also knew that if I wanted it to work I had to go all in and take the biggest risk I ever had.

On the 16th March 2022, much to the shock of my colleagues and managers, I resigned from my position within the foreign office and announced that I would also leave the UAE. I continued to try and build clients on the side while working my 3 months notice, sold off all of my furniture (for next to nothing) moved out of my apartment and on 1st July 2022 I returned to the UK. A handful of clients, no stable income and not a clue about running a business, but I was determined as hell and StaceFit Coaching was going to be a success if it killed me. (And kill me it very near did)

I invested in a business mentor, my first bad investment. I learned about bad investments from them, I didn’t learn much else other than I probably won’t invest in another. I poured every waking hour into my small number of clients to get results people would talk about. I learned as much as I could about marketing and tried to build my brand. I tried to put my name and face in front of as many people as possible. Things went well. I built up a good few clients and I had more coming in than going out. This was to be short lived. At the beginning of December 2022 I had had a mass exodus of clients due to lack of finances. I guess I have the cost of living crisis to thank for that. I kept telling myself “it’s ok everyone wants to get healthy in January, it will be the busiest month”. I was wrong. I gained zero new clients in January and I had so many drop off in December that I was back to living off of whatever savings I had to get by. There were times in January (while freezing beyond belief having not spent a winter in the UK in 9 years) that I was considering giving up, literally on the floor crying because I had failed. However, I hadn’t failed. I’d had a bad couple of months and it was probably a little naive of me to think that those months wouldn’t happen, especially in the first year of business. The feeling I felt being told I wasn’t allowed to go home for Christmas after being so isolated I. 2022/2021 rang in my ears the whole time and gave me the kick up the backside to keep ploughing on. “I will make this work! If I’m going to give my everything to a company then it’s going to be my company” I told myself every damn day!

I did keep ploughing forward and any slow month I had just gave me a jolt to push even harder. I’m now approaching Christmas 2023 and my business is growing every month. I have new enquiries every week, an amazing group of clients on my books and my clients are getting incredible results. I have clients all over the world from UK to the Middle East to the USA. I’ve helped women get rid of “mum tum” and feeling confident and sexy again in just weeks working with me, I’ve got an Army cadet make weight and pass her fitness test to keep her place in school and I’ve helped someone who genuinely didn’t think they would live past 40 lose 50kg and get fitter and healthier than they have ever been. I am so grateful to get to be a part of the journey for so many amazing people …. And I’ll definitely be spending Christmas with my family this year because no one can tell me I can’t!

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’ve pretty much answered this in the last answer. Sorry I got very excited about it.

Essentially I got into this industry because when I was beginning my journey I didn’t feel like there were many relatable coaches out there and it made even talking to a coach very off putting and scary. I want clients/potential clients to hear my story and see my journey and think “hell if she can do it then so can I”. I wasn’t an active kid, my family joke about the fact that I am never out of the gym now but my teachers could not get me to do PE for love nor money when I was at school. I was a notorious party girl BUT I CHANGED! Now I hardly drink alcohol, I’d rather be in the gym than in a club and I feel a million times better for it! I want other people who are like I was to know they can change! If they want to of course.

I never want my clients to feel like they are over restricted or that they can’t do this one their own. So my whole service is based around having a flexible approach to fat loss but also continued education so that each and every person I work with has the confidence to go it alone when they feel ready. Yes I provide nutrition and training plans for my clients but I also provide accountability, daily support, a number 1 cheerleader (that’s me) and numerous resources to help educate and support everyone of them. This isn’t a crash diet, it’s a lifestyle change and that’s for life so learning as much as possible is crucial.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Word of mouth is i(in my opinion) the ultimate marketing tool. Think about it, if you were going to have someone come and tile your bathroom, you would ask friends, family, colleagues etc for recommendations. Your going to have cosmetic surgery, you won’t stick a pin randomly in a newspaper, you will go to someone who has been recommended, who’s work and results can be evidently seen. The same applies to the fitness industry. Anyone can call themself a coach these days, as I said earlier “saturated market” but not everyone is a good coach. Yes I have had clients off of social media and the odd that have randomly come across my website but ultimately the majority of my clients have come from recommendations from people who have worked with me or who know me personally and have seen my results for themselves. This is why my absolute top priorities in business will be 1) how I treat my clients and ensuring their experience of working with me is the best possible and 2) getting epic results!

If I’m going to take someone’s money I want them walking away feeling like I was worth every penny!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I keep in touch with clients through numerous channels. Instagram and Facebook both through normal direct messages and in closed groups. Team WhatsApp groups – I love these because even if the team don’t need anything from me it has created community and they all spur each other on. There is also an instant message feature in my custom built app where clients can message me privately. I mentioned accountability before and this is a huge part of the service I provide so I have clients check in weekly via my app and I provide both written and video feedback in response to these check ins. I like to ensure feedback is always sent the same day that clients check in so that it’s timely and relevant to where they are in their journey. I’m a big believer in encouraging engagement among clients too so I’ll run challenges for a little friendly competition (involvement is completely voluntary and never a requirement) like a step challenge with prizes for the winner. Challenges will always be something that ultimately will benefit the clients journey even if they don’t win a prize. In October a team of my clients are doing sober October together to raise money for Macmillan cancer support. A team event that makes people feel they are part of something while having the health benefit of not drinking alcohol and the added bonus of raising money for a good cause. I like my clients to feel like they are part of something not just on a diet!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @StaceFit_
• Facebook: Stacefit coaching