Today we’d like to introduce you to Lashawn Gee.
Hi Lashawn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
From as far back as I can remember in my youth, I have loved sports. All sports, but specifically track and field. FloJo was a huge inspiration to me. Although shy and observant, I loved being around groups of people to watch how they interacted with each other. I joined the track team when I was 13 and became a star athlete. Breaking records, earning All-State and All-American honors. I had great tutelage, great support, and camaraderie with my teams throughout middle school, high school, and college. I moved from VA, earning a full scholarship to compete for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and just knew that my next step was to compete in the Olympics.
After an injury during my freshman year in ’99 and the passing of my father in 2001, my focus became to just solely graduate. Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to truly solidify in my mind what I wanted to do with my life after college and sports. I’m sure most new college graduates probably feel that way. I got my first real full-time job working with a non-profit organization and was with them for a year. During my time there, I also got into coaching high school track. I fell in LOVE with coaching. I left the nonprofit organization to work at a university in another city, so it was goodbye to the Durham/Chapel Hill area (it had been home for me since I moved from Virginia) and on to Winston-Salem. I realized I loved coaching even more when I was working with college student-athletes. Eventually, I got married to my boyfriend from college, but as God would have it, that wasn’t it for me, and after 15 years (including dating, 7 1/2 married, and 2 1/2 separated), we divorced in 2018. While married, though, I experienced a plethora of ups and downs in my work life, mostly downs. The strain of not being able to secure work I loved or truly sometimes, even securing work period, became heavy on me and emotionally, I was tapped out, I became anxious and depressed. During my ebbs and flows of work, I realized I loved helping others in the way I did it best; through coaching.
In 2015, I started my own fitness and wellness company. I used my expertise and education as an athlete and coach to create a brand that focused on in-person and virtual fitness coaching. I loved it! I would do Livestream workouts at 6 am on Periscope and train people throughout the day, either in person or online. I also did Livestream conversations around fitness and wellness. It was there that I learned something I loved even more than fitness coaching, and that was sharing the importance of being disciplined, taking care of self, and building healthy habits in order to reach your goals. In 2018, I shifted my brand from fitness to focus on discipline and mindset. I tried to remove fitness from my life completely, but it always crept back into my life in some way, shape, or form. My aim was to serve female student-athletes and teach them discipline strategies that would help them navigate academics, athletics, and life after sports (it did take some time to get clear on that).
During this time, I became licensed as an educator and began teaching health and PE at a local middle school. Ironically, I taught all girls. It was perfect. I was able to consistently teach my strategies to my students and work on my messaging through them. I was able to begin to get visible for being a discipline and mindset coach, and I began speaking to students and other educators on the importance of activating discipline, wellness, and healthy habits in order to work well and live well. I was also able to publish my first book, The Jump That Counts: Embracing Discipline So You Can Win at What Matters. It shares accounts of my life and how, when activating discipline, I was able to achieve big successes and goals and also get through a lot of trials I experienced.
During my second year of teaching, the school decided to blend the classes, so now, I was teaching boys and girls. I feel I still created impact, but the feeling I had from the year before was diminishing. After a ton of prayer and weighing options, I decided that it was time to move on. I loved teaching, but I felt that it just wasn’t the same. I wasn’t serving the purpose I felt I was hired for, which was teaching to all girls in my department. At the end of the school year, and after 21 years of living in North Carolina, I made the huge jump to Atlanta, GA. Moving here, I thought it would be easy for me to get a teaching job and just pick up where I left off and also continue to build my brand, but that was deemed to be a bit of a challenge, too. So, since I moved here last summer, I have been pouring my all into my business and brand, with the goal still being to create transformation for female student-athletes and also women challenged with being in or who have been experiencing unhealthy emotional relationships through speaking and teaching strategies on how to activate discipline and also implement healthy habits and ditching unhealthy habits, like procrastination. The journey is still happening, and I’m so excited to see what I continue to create!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! This has not been a smooth road. Since starting the journey into entrepreneurship with my business in 2015, I’ve experienced separation and divorce, a layoff, surgery with heavy complications, and two moves! I’ve worked a full-time job and I’ve worked many odd jobs trying to remain diligent in growing my business. I may not be going about this in an ideal way, but it’s the way that always seems to pose itself. I don’t suggest this route to everyone. I am not averse to taking big jumps, AND there are consequences with that. One thing that remains steady is my constant faith and my resilience and diligence to press on and make it happen regardless of my circumstances. When rent, car payment, insurance, and bills are all due, you do what you need to do to make it happen!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My brand is ElleGee (“LG,” my initials) Wellness Solutions. I am a speaker/coach/author who specializes in teaching discipline, wellness, and habit-building strategies to female student-athletes and those young women experiencing unhealthy emotional relationships so they can navigate academics, athletics, and life after sports. I teach them to work well and live well! I’ve created a space where I’m known for helping you #disciplineyourday.
I created a program called Discipline Therapy that teaches my Carpe D.I.E.M. Method to help those who learn it implement the strategies I teach. I’m set apart from others by the way I teach and also knowing that I’m still very much relatable to my demographic, even though I am almost 20 years removed from college (I always say that coaching track has kept me young!) I also am getting to be who I needed when I was in college. That’s what I’m most proud of. You don’t often hear of teams getting to do inner work on their discipline and mindset habits. I think if this was something available to me back when I was in school, I wouldn’t have made as many mistakes as I did. Everyone is challenged with some battle that they don’t share with the world. That outlet is necessary for healthy progress and I get to be that for them.
Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to be consistently speaking and coaching. I’m looking forward to when I can plan IN-PERSON wellness retreats, helping women get unstuck in their mindsets and start taking action on and achieving the goals that actually matter to them in the long run.
In anticipation of in-person coaching, I’m still available for virtual coaching. I also just completed my inaugural 5-day virtual summit called the Women’s Discipline and Mindset Summit, where I sat down with women in finance, nutrition, sports, and women making jumps in entrepreneurship. I also featured 4 women-owned businesses to showcase their products and offer more visibility to them. I’m looking forward to hosting this summit regularly, in person and virtually.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@theellegee.com
- Website: www.theellegee.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/theellegee_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/driventodiscipline
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheElleGee_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQQTFSWnaMlvcos66enh2vg
Image Credits
Brandon Malcolm – MalcMedia Jasmine Womack Melanie Mattis
