Every Monday I get an email from The Strategy Lab, it’s a short one with the subject line ‘power prompts’. Every Monday these few words turn my unmotivated tired mind on its head for I am immediately inspired. These thought-provoking one-liners offer us to question what’s important, why we do what we do and why we NEED to keep going for it! I have vowed to continue this Monday Inspirational game. How, you ask? Every Monday I am going to deliver you some pretty passionate words. Words from exciting motivated hustlers. You know those people that just radiate good energy and happiness? Those people that just make you want to get excited about life. Our first interview of the series is with our local fitness babe. The beautiful Monique from BodyCraft left us feeling completely uplifted and 110% inspired!
Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to become a Fitness Trainer?
Hi, Kayla Thank you so much for having me.
I love your work, your style and your passion. I’m excited to now share my passion for the health and fitness industry with you!
I grew up on the beautiful Central Coast in which I’m lucky to still live and work here today! Wherever I end up in the world, Central Coast will always be home!
I was inspired to become a fitness trainer based off the way I felt when I engaged in fitness. Being Fit and healthy makes me happy, I want everyone to experience this happiness!!
Thank Monique for your kind word, we are so happy you are with us today! So tell us a little about BodyCraft, what were your intentions and inspirations in starting the business and how has it grown throughout the years?
I created BodyCraft in 2012 when I first started working as a Personal Trainer at Anytime Fitness Erina, at this stage I was only running one on one sessions and group fitness for the gym. In January 2014, one of my friends approached me asking if I was keen to start a couples boot camp for a fun social thing for our group of friends. I started donating a % of each of my friend’s rego to charity and created a Charity Challenge. The word got out about my Bootcamps and next thing I knew, 12 people grew to over 80 Bootcampers. Now we have 3 Instructors and 8 Bootcamp sessions a week!! The vision was to create a Bootcamp that would not only make a positive impact to the individuals who joined it, but to the greater community. So I enhanced the growth and I strive to continue to grow. I’m excited for what the future holds.
What is BodyCraft Boot camps unique point of difference?
As mentioned above we believe in making the most of every situation, helping the as many people as possible and changing as many lives as we can. BodyCraft is not focused on making money rather focused on make happier people! We provide a level of support, help and care that I believe differs from many other companies and have combined it with university-level education to ensure we provide the best training experience. BodyCraft also only employs trainers that practice what they preach and have the same passion as I do for people, for health and for fitness.
If you were to give advice to women starting a business; what would that be?
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!! No one else will chase your dreams for you, and if you don’t chase your dreams you will end up working for someone who has!! Life is too short to just live a comfortable life. If you want to start a business in something you’re passionate about… DO IT!! If you have that passion it can’t go wrong, as you will do everything you can to ensure it shines!
- Research your industry
- Learn from successful entrepreneurs
- Keep an open mind.
- Surround yourself with hard-working people who encourage you, who uplift you and who support you.
- Work hard and keep your focus on the positive’s not the negatives.
- Keep your eyes on the future, not the little scary steps.
- DON’T let anyone tell you your dreams are stupid.
- You’re never too young to start an empire and your never to old to chase a new dream!!
What is a day in the life of Monique like?
A day in the life of Monique is a busy one! I’m a go-getter, and a ‘yes man’ haha!
I start my day with my 6 am Bootcamp, then often squeeze in a coffee with a friend, then off to work at Anytime Fitness with Personal Training Clients, then from here I’m off to the University of NewCastle Ourimbah Campus, from here I’m then back to my afternoon clients and my night Bootcamp! Each day differs between my client bookings, so my own training with always be squeezed in but at different times each week. I’m also a fitness model so pick up a few jobs here and there. I play Netball and Oz League, so I have weekly training for this at the moment, and then in the summer time I’m a competitive beach sprinter, so I train 3 days a week.
On the weekends, my favourite thing to do is go exploring outdoors, find cool running tracks or go on a bushwalk and finish with breakfast in a café! I do also enjoying surfing, I play my sports on the weekends, I’m a volunteer lifeguard, I love exploring new restaurants for dinner, hanging with friends, my boyfriend and family, and love a good night out here and there!!
Well, it sounds like your a pretty busy lady! I honestly don’t know how you manage to get it all in! Now, your six-pack and body are pretty amazing. What is your diet like?
Do you believe in cheat days?
Aww Thank you lovely! You may have heard the saying ‘Abs are made in the kitchen’, unfortunately, it’s true haha! You can train 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but you CANT out train a bad diet!!
Here are a few tips:
- I don’t live by a strict diet, I believe in balance!! No balance leads to binging!
- I HATE diets, they often promote deprivation thus also leading to binging and diet dropouts.
- I eat a balance of fats, proteins, and carbs.
- I eat lots of vegetables as they provide essential nutrients to the body (eat lots of greens)
- Eat fresh fruit (2 pieces a day)
- I eat from the land and avoid packets and processed foods.
- ORGANISE! I often meal prep on a Sunday for my whole week so I’m organized and have my nutritious meals ready, no excuses!!
- Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day- its usually 2 poached eggs on gluten free bread, with avocado, lots of wilted baby spinach, mushrooms and a latte!
- If I want to go out to eat… I DO! I love to dine out with family and friends, it’s about making healthy choices out!
- Yes, I believe in cheat days- but not days as such, I don’t tell my clients… Sunday you can have a whole day of eating crap. I also don’t like the word ‘Cheat’ as this word leads to negative connotations, cheating isn’t a good thing in life. You have worked so hard training and living a clean healthy life, you deserve to be rewarded so I call them ‘TREAT’ meals!!
Have you always been passionate about Active Living?
Growing up no matter what was going on with school clicks, or assignments, taking one hour out of the day cleared my head and left me feeling on top of the world. I loved all forms of physical activity and grew up being the kid who was in every school sports team!
How has social media helped promote your business?
I created a ‘BodyCraft Health and Fitness’ Facebook page for my boot camps, and within a week of creating it, I had so much more interest in people joining. As people are on social media every single day, when I uploaded photos, quotes, transformation photos people become aware, informed and excited to learn more and join the BodyCraft Family. It sure has enabled my business to grow.
Instagram has helped BodyCraft but in a different way, Instagram has helped my business be promoted more on a personal level with myself, and people become interested in more working with the business.
What does the future hold for yourself and BodyCraft? Any exciting projects coming up?
I’m a dreamer, each day I dream of new and exciting areas to grow and take BodyCraft.
I’m also a dream chaser, so I’m excited for what the future holds!
Im going to chase my dream of completing my university degrees to further help people reach their goals, athletes, clients with injuries (rehab) and nutrition. I’m going to chase my dream of opening up my own studio in which the BodyCraft Babes will train, and I desire to open a clean eating café attached to this facility which will recover and refuel my clients bodies with nothing but clean raw dietician approved meals. I would also like to work more in the media, writing workouts for magazines, healthy tips, blogs, TV.
But at the end of the day, I’m a Personal Trainer with the dream to change as many lives as possible, so working hard at this every day is my exciting project!
In 2014 BodyCraft business raised/donated a total of $22,498 through its boot camps, fundraisers & Nutritional Seminars. Monique is positively impacting our community as well as guiding people into living healthier happier lifestyles!
Thank you so much to Monique!
Are passionate about active living? What inspires and motivates you? Know more creative inspiring go-getters that need to be featured? Comment below!
BIG LOVE,
PS Sorry this was such a long post I just really wanted to share everything Monique had to say. Hopefully, it does the job and inspires you in some way 🙂
PPS If you want more inspiration from some incredible women you can check out ‘Introducing Glamazon App ‘ and ‘Bird Black Interview‘ and ‘Vegan Magazine, The Lush Scoop’
