Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Chantal Brodrick, the brilliant voice behind the Fitness Business Podcast.  Her and I chatted about a number of things including the work I am so grateful to get to do each day.  

In the transcript below you will see a portion of our interview and my thoughts on change, and why for so many people and organizations change can be painful.

The Fitness Business Podcast; click below to listen to the whole interview. 

Chantal :

Now, Lindsey, you actually, in your role within the industry, you help people and you help organizations enjoy transformational change. Can you explain to us what is the most common example of a major organizational change that a fitness facility might actually experience?

Lindsey :              

Mm-hmm (affirmative), absolutely. Well, so transformational change, to me, doesn’t mean you have to be okay with it per se, but really grappling with this idea that we’re all in constant motion. The idea that things will be the same for any period of time is a myth, and that the more rooted in reality we are with an ideal plan, the more successful we can be.

So when I think about a lot of the … whether it’s the fitness organizations that sell equipment, or education, you know the clients that I work with, and also the health clubs that they serve, I think that change is the theme that we see the most, that people have a hard time confronting, because it’s such … Our consumers, today’s consumer, the fitness consumer that’s coming into the club, or even the club operator that’s consulting with an equipment provider, because of the digital era, and how fast things are changing, it’s really less about knowing the right answers. It’s more about being agile enough to open your mind to not knowing everything, but knowing the right questions to ask.

So in a lot of the work that I do, it’s focusing on agility, and how can health clubs, how can the people supporting our industry think about today’s consumer, and how their life is radically changing on a regular basis, and how to support that. So whether it’s systems implementation, to organize people within the club, whether it’s the companies implementing strategy to support what’s coming next.

I think what’s a big part of our health clubs is if I can order up, on Amazon Prime, all my groceries, and have them delivered, and that’s the consumer experience I have through Amazon, if my health club doesn’t have similar features and functions in the way that I check into the club, then there’s going to be a miss, and the consumers are going to start to lose faith in our industry if we’re not up with it.

Those kinds of changes are a lot of the things that I help fitness facilities think about, and then help providers also consider.

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Agility, change and ability to adapt the cornerstone's of change management and what it can take to create lasting change for both companies and people. 

What do you think, are you or your team undergoing a large change? What do you find the most difficult aspect of this process? 

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business advisor, Founder, writer & keynote speaker to the fitness and wellness industry.  For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2o

“The Women in Fitness Association exists to create opportunity for Women, to give them a voice in the fitness industry and create opportunity for any woman interested in growing her career. ”

— Lindsey Rainwater

Click here to learn more about the Women in Fitness Association. 

This past year something super exciting happened, and is very near and dear to my heart, a movement that is absolutely going to change the face of the fitness industry and welcome in a whole new wave of female leadership.  

The Story...

Last year, I attended the women in leadership summit at IHRSA, the experience created at the summit was like no other I’d had the chance to be a part of in our industry.  Being in a room full of brilliant women in support of our industry was like a deep exhale, a complete breath of fresh air and I didn’t want it to end.  Upon returning home after a fabulous week of  making new connections and seeing old friends, I came home with the desire to feel what I felt in that room at the summit.  I wanted a place where there was easy access to female mentors and a tight knit group of women to regularly collaborate with, I began my search to find a group that offered this kind of support, exclusively for women.  Once I realized it didn't exist, I knew what needed to happen next.

The rest is history... 

The Women in Fitness Association opened for membership May 31 of 2017 and by September we had formed a board of directors, bylaws, not for profit status, and over 60 women as associate members with global representation and corporate sponsorship. To date, we have over 80 members, three corporate sponsors, two meetings under our belts, serving over 200 women in total and an event planned to take place in San Diego the week of IHRSA. 

Not a day goes by that I am not daydreaming about what WIFA can and will become.  I think about all the women I know that want to run companies and be mothers and love travel, I am so excited that we’ve created a place to collaborate about how to accomplish that and so much more! 

None of this could have happened if I did not have an army of women supporting me in this endeavor! Our board of directors and founding members have carried our success through word of mouth and trust and belief in what we are doing.  Their brilliance and desire to lift women up to reach their fullest potential is humbling and truly exciting to be a part of. 

If you have not checked out the Women in Fitness Association, go to the website to see our upcoming events and ways to join.  I look forward to this being the beginning of something absolutely wonderful,

I am incredibly grateful for my mentors that said "why not, just do it", their ability to see what I was capable of before I could is what aided in my taking this leap of faith.  Thank you. 

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business advisor, Founder, writer & keynote speaker to the fitness and wellness industry.  For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter@LindseyRainH2O