At The Time, This Was My Dream Job
~Georgia Brown
New Zealand
Georgia’s journey includes her going to going to the states for soccer and graduating as an interior architect, to playing for New Zealand football, to becoming an instructor at New Zealand’s #1 gym ‘Les Mills’, and now moving on to build her own personal training business Body By Brown.
What is the project you are working on?
Body by Brown, a personal training company. Body by Brown offers Personal Training both online and in physical sessions, depending on where I am located. In addition, I have 6 E-Books! “My e-books are there to bridge the gap for people who don’t want to commit to online training yet but need some sort of guide, so I’ve got different programs that offer something for everyone.”
My training style and philosophies at Body By Brown are Holistic as I think it is imperative to listen to your body. That every client is unique and needs a different approach. That your mental and emotional wellbeing is connected to your physical wellbeing, and vice versa. I like to create training programs that are sustainable long — term, rather than producing just short-term results. I truly believe that if you feel good, move well and enjoy life, the ‘looking good part’ will follow and finally your nutrition and hormone health need to be considered for optimum health and results. These philosophies are based on my experience personally and what I have learned through mentors and courses on health and fitness.
What was your inspiration?
“I was always a soccer nut growing up,” and the part of my game that was usually stronger at was my speed and athleticism/fitness. So I think that’s why I always worked extra hard on becoming fitter, faster, stronger, focusing on what I was already good at because that is what I needed to do to make these teams.
I got a scholarship to play in America where we had amazing strength and conditioning facilities. We had training sessions 3 times a week for 4 years. I had an epic coach, Coach Will, who was really intense and had a military-style approach. I hated him for about the first 2 years of college and for the last couple of years of college I ended up appreciating so much because he really knew his stuff and I learned so much from him. I started coming to training early and staying late after practice to ask him questions. So that’s where it kind of started. When I became captain in my senior year I got to organize pre- pre-season, after summer break where I made my teammates come in 3 weeks early before pre-season(Usually we only came in a week before) and I put everyone on the Body by Brown fitness 3 weeks pre pre — season training program! On a serious note, I pretty much organized 3 weeks for us to get in really good shape before pre-season even started. This way, we got to focus on soccer stuff rather than fitness for pre-season.
When getting back to New Zealand I got a job at a really good Architect firm in Queenstown. At the time, this was my dream job. I was super pumped! But when I started working I was like ‘oh my gosh’. Looking around at all these people sitting in office chairs who had probably spent their whole career doing this. I was thinking, I have WAY too much energy for this. I had my health and fitness podcasts playing in my ear, creating fitness plans for friends during my lunch break. All I was worried about was finishing work, getting home and getting out of the chair. I had a makeshift gym, I had spent time collecting bargains to put this home gym together. A $10 med ball from here, a $100 treadmill from there. I started making people programs, then I advertised for someone to be trained by me for 5 weeks. Mind you, I wasn’t qualified at this point. Still, someone put their hand up to do it and I created this 5-week workout program which in my head was the ultimate, how to get fit guide. I was thinking maybe I could sell these but wanted to test it out first. I wanted to prove someone a little more fit could do it and someone who really wasn’t fit could do it also. We did it for 5 weeks and it went awesome. I ended up turning it into an ebook and selling them online. I sold 100 copies and when the money came in I thought Oh my gosh, I would have done this for free! This is my passion. Why am I in this job that I don’t enjoy when I could be doing something I like? So I quit my job 3 months in, moved to Auckland to become qualified in PT, and started playing soccer again.
Les Mills had approached me after seeing some of my content online and asked me to come in for a job interview and I got the job! I did that for a year and thrived! I learned so much from all of the trainers around me and through it was nominated for the top young trainer in NZ!
What have been some of your highlights in your career so far… why?
One would definitely be being nominated as New Zealand’s top young trainer.
Also, walking away from a really comfortable salary to potentially nothing and honestly taking that leap and it working out! I did rough it but personal training is my passion and I’m glad I did.
Leaving my next job to gain more knowledge and be ready to travel as a trainer for Ben McLachlan on his 2020 ATP tour. (I talk more about this at the end of the article in my future plans).
I have created 6 E-books, that cover whatever you are looking for whether you want to feel strong, athletic, fit or all three! I have a special Hormone friendly workout book which includes the exercise programs that I have done in order to get my health back on track!
Another big one for me is that towards the end of last year(2019), I got offered a job with Crimson Education, which is the biggest, fastest-growing business in New Zealand. as their athlete movement analyst. They send me videos of their athletes who are trying to get scholarships overseas. I analyze these videos and pretty much write a report about their movement patterns, any injuries that I think might pop up due to the way they move, their strengths and their weaknesses.
What challenges have you faced?
I have had a few different challenges!
One was wanting to do it all and only having so much time in the day but then not having the brains to realize you can’t do it all but still trying to do it all and burning out multiple times. This is because it was my passion and it doesn’t feel like work, so you’re doing it from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, never taking a break.
Learning how to say no and learning how to get a better idea of what is too much and what is a good balance.
Being broke at certain times was also a big challenge. Especially when I was playing for NZ soccer. I was busting balls, training every night for soccer, while also driving to do mobile PT sessions, offering one hour sessions for $30 just trying to make ends meet.
Becoming a body pump instructor for Les Mills was really challenging. It really put me out of my comfort zone, standing in front of 70 people every week. I actually didn’t complete becoming a full instructor by the time I quit Les Mills which really hurt my pride because I never quit anything. However, I was just working too much, doing too much, and didn’t have the time to put into it.
The last challenge I’d mention is that I’ve had a lot of health challenges since I was 17, being diagnosed as narcoleptic & cataplectic which is when you constantly want to fall asleep. To put this into perspective, in my first and second years of college I didn’t have one class where I did not fall asleep. I would be too tired to walk 15 minutes home and so would fall asleep on a park bench. At half time, I would take a quick nap too! The pills I took were super intense too, which affected my hormones and so I had to work through that as well.
What you have found to be your best resources?
Other personal trainers! Learning from those who do the same things or are in the same field as me. One person, in particular, would be my PT (personal trainer) Manager at Les Mills (Bruce). Also, my parents have been a huge resource, supporting me, helping me make decisions, offering me their advice but yet still letting me make my own decisions.
What advice do you have for your peers?
Follow your heart. Literally do what you enjoy doing. Just follow your heart, think about what you enjoy doing and then make it a job somehow, because then you won’t be working for the rest of your life, you’ll truly be living your purpose.
Don’t rule out what you love doing as a career, I knew what I always loved.
When you do what you love, opportunities will flow and jump much quicker.
Do you have any future projects or ideas?
I want to move more into online training, which I have got a few clients for already. At the moment it will be more of a side income to being Ben’s trainer.
I am traveling with my partner Ben, on the ATP tour, as his personal trainer! He is a specialist doubles player. We actually went to primary school together as he is from my hometown in Queenstown. We started dating a year ago and in the beginning, I was like “I’m 100% not training you.” It’s such a big responsibility. That’s his livelihood, his income. He actually had to bully me a bit into doing some session here and there with him, where I was very nervous at first but actually, I got a few really great successes. I got him activating his glutes some more and got him pulling his scapula back, fixing his shoulder pain. These instances A. Created a trainer player relationship and B. Gave me the confidence to take on being his full-time trainer.
