Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Quinn.
Anna, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I became certified as a personal trainer just over seven years ago! I was attending cosmetology school at Aveda in San Antonio, Texas, and I was working an insane amount of hours in addition to the full-time schooling (40hrs/wk) to support myself. One day when I was working out at one of the local Golds Gym’s, I was approached by their hiring manager. He asked me if I was a trainer, and when I told him that I wasn’t, he seemed perplexed. He told me that I engaged with the customers more than some of his trainers did, and he offered me a position as a trainer in his gym.
He offered to pay for my training certification if I would work for him. That certification was the first of 4 national certifications I’ve obtained – and I quickly realized that the same thing I loved about doing hair and makeup was the same thing I loved about personal training: every day I get to help women see themselves as beautiful; I get to encourage and empower women to see themselves as the beautiful, strong women that they are (and are becoming)!
I spent the next four years working in corporate gyms, including Gold’s Gym and Lifetime Fitness. I transferred from the Lifetime in San Antonio to a different lifetime, and shortly after I decided to go completely independent! Today, my training business is completely online. I train my clients through my Modest Muscle app. All of my clients have progress report check-ins with me via video chat, they submit form videos for review, and we even have an accountability coach working with us, Nana, who everyday texts anyone who missed a scheduled workout. The amount of accountability and adaptability I’ve been able to provide through these means of online coaching has been absolutely amazing to me. For less of an investment then in-person training, I get to help MORE women all over the world (in Atlanta, in Texas, etc) with a more hands-on approach than I could when I literally had a hands-on approach – and that’s priceless to me!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has NOT been a smooth road, not by any means! BUT I’M HERE!
Working for yourself is very challenging at times. If you want to have a pity party for a couple of days and shut out the world, nobody calls you to yell at you. You have to learn to yell at yourself, to reach out to those close to you for accountability – and to not be afraid of coming off as the “needy friend” when you NEED a FRIEND. My best friend, Tessa, who also works for my company, has listened to me vent countless times and has always been one of my driving forces to continue pressing on.
I tend to take things personally. Although rare, I have had clients who did not follow through with their commitments to me as their trainer – and because of this, they did not get results. I tend to beat myself up and wonder what I could’ve/should’ve done differently; I sit around discouraged and wonder how or why I failed as their coach. I’ve realized that I can support, motivate, and encourage my clients till I’m blue in the face – but if they don’t want it bad enough, I can’t do anything about that. I pray for ’em, I love on ’em the best I can, and I let them know that when they’re ready they can ALWAYS come back. And thankfully, most of them do!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Modest Muscle story. Tell us more about your work.
My company is actually in the middle of shifting from “Anna Quinn Fitness” to “Modest Muscle.” I changed the name of my app and over the next few months, will be opening my training app to other trainers. I wanted to give other trainers a chance to bring their clientele into my app and allow them to experience the results and freedom that come with a good online coaching system.
My online coaching is VERY different than most; I talk to my clients every day, we text them if they miss their workouts, we update their programs if they’re traveling/eating out/etc… Instead of focusing on a few weeks of intense work that they cannot sustain to get them to their goal fast, I take a sustainable approach to their fitness goals and customize every part of their program to be something that they feel they could be consistent with for a lifetime. I prioritize speeding up their metabolism, fixing their gut health and digestion, and finally shaping their bodies through resistance training the way they want to!
Modest Muscle was born with the concept of creating a movement of women who get noticed for their strength and their work ethic – not just their sex appeal.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck. I do, however, believe in favor. A lot of people believe in a “higher power”- I personally believe that higher power is God. Fitness is the venue I use to make His name known – and when I’m doing that, I notice I’m surrounded by incomparable amounts of favor. When I find myself striving and focusing more on making money or making MY name known, that’s when my “luck” seems to run out.
Pricing:
- 1:1 Online Coaching with Anna (for Voyage readers only): $997/3 months
- 1:1 Coaching with Modest Muscle Trainer: $297/mo
Contact Info:
- Website: www.modestmusclemvmt.com
- Phone: 972-787-0888
- Email: aqfitfam@gmail.com
- Instagram: @annaquinnfitness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annaquinnfitness/
- Other: www.getaqfit.com
Image Credit:
Professional images by Kelvin Lao, @klvnstudios on Instagram!
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