Life & Work with Caroline Pearce

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Pearce.

Hi Caroline, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I moved to West Hollywood six years ago from London. Back in the UK, my career was continuing to grow and succeed, but I was ready for new challenges, to operate on a bigger stage and for some sunshine! I’m a former International heptathlete and bobsledder for Great Britain, and like heptathlon which comprises of seven different track and field events contested over two days, I’ve always craved multiple different work projects and variety. I work as a television sports host and reporter covering UFC and Boxing for British network BT Sport as their US correspondent, and I run a fitness business whereby I consult, educate and content create for brands in the fitness and wellbeing space. Though two quite different careers, they’ve proven to be extremely complimentary to each other in many ways and given me an extra string to my bow in both.

When I retired from International competition myself, I decided I still wanted to perform and be around athletes and I still wanted to live an active life. Combining these passions led me down the path of sports television and the fitness industry, and my athlete mindset has been a big factor in my drive to succeed in my career. The goal setting, overcoming obstacles, fighting through adversity and belief that I can climb the mountain and achieve anything all stem from that athlete mindset, something I’m incredibly grateful for in the competitive and sometimes unforgiving bubble of Los Angeles.

My sports broadcasting career began in 2008 by me taking a camera and microphone to sports and fitness trade shows to create content for the organizers. I also started a YouTube series called ‘The Truth, Athlete Insights’ whereby I’d interview athletes I know or had connections too. I’ve always loved storytelling and unveiling what goes on beyond the game, in the mind and surrounding an athlete, and this project was just my way of showing I could connect with these athletes and show extra layers of them. It paid off as, combined with some formal broadcasting training, I soon landed my first proper television hosting role covering ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ competition for Channel 5 in the UK. In 2013 I had my major break, joining BT Sport when the channel launched as their lead host for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) studio show. Little did I know that this job would eventually lead me Stateside to California, where talking about fight sports would be the mainstay of my broadcasting career! The desk hosting role led to more on-location coverage Stateside, getting an additional job with UFC Fight Pass, the UFC’s digital streaming platform and then Fox Sports to cover select events for them too. I moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to be in a position to cover more major UFC events, sports and projects. I love being a part of launching a network and its sports coverage. As well as being part of the team to launch UFC in the UK with BT Sport, I joined Star Sports India later in 2016 for their first-ever World Championship of Kabaddi! This is the second largest sport in India behind cricket! And in 2018, I became the lead host on newly launched Professional Fighters League (PFL) on first NBC Sports and then ESPN.

Running parallel to sports broadcasting has been my fitness entrepreneur activities. I hold two degrees – a First Class Honors degree in Sports Science and degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. In a world of social media where everybody claims to be an expert, my education and research has allowed me to expand beyond the social posts and reels. I’ve authored a book ‘Better Body Workouts For Women’ and sit on the board of education for Power Plate where I’m also a global Master Trainer. I first came across Power Plate fresh off my degree when a knee injury was threatening the end of my track career. Power Plate is a vibration platform that stimulates rapid reflex contractions in your muscles to improve strength, stability, mobility, increase blood and lymph flow and improve your hormone profile. I was blown away with how it helped my knee rehab and pain and so was drawn to work with the company on their training, research and education. 20 years later and I’ve helped develop their products launched the technology all over the world and am still blown away by the work we can do to help athletes, fitness enthusiasts, certain health issues and the aging population.

I continue to work with Power Plate from my Los Angeles base and LA has been the most incredible place to grow my fit brand and business, where I’ve been surrounded by so many incredible trainers, tech experts and general inspiration. The opportunities have been even greater this side of the pond. As social media has grown, so have my online partnerships. I teamed up with FitOn App in 2019 as one of their trainers and we’ve seen the app grow to top 20 in Health & Fitness on the App Store. During the pandemic, we were able to build an even stronger community of home workout users looking for workouts and motivation whilst stuck at home. One of the most satisfying parts of this app is the people whose lives we’ve been able to impact and change for the better and we now have a strong community group feature where we can talk direct and members can support other members. FitOn is a free fitness app with an option to pay to go PRO for additional features and we continue to partner with the best trainers, nutritionists, meditation experts, martial artists and more in the business.

I also host a podcast called ‘The Health Hack Podcast’, in association with the metabolic tracker Lumen. Here I talk to doctors and other wellbeing experts on everything from diabetes, intermittent fasting and other diets, pre and post-natal training, muscle building and much more. It’s been the project that’s enabled me to merge my hosting and fitness passions in one place.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have certainly been a few!

Working as a women in a male-dominated sports world presented some obstacles in the beginning. When I first started hosting UFC on BT Sport, I was shocked at the online language and criticism used towards me by male followers of the sport. Often sexist and derogatory it meant I had to develop a thick skin fast! There are more and more women succeeding and crushing it in the sports hosting world, and a huge amount of support from my colleagues and fans on the whole, but it you’re worried what a troll sitting on Twitter in their bedroom is saying, it will be a tough ride! The key is to know your content so well that you don’t care what anyone online has to say. Or just don’t read it!

Say ‘yes’ and learn! This has been my motto when big opportunities have come my way that I’m not as well versed in as others! When I was first offered the UFC reporting role, my knowledge of the sport was a bit limited. But I recognized this was a way to get on a major network so I said yes! I engrossed myself in the sport 24/7 in the build-up to the network launch, became the biggest fan and now recount a ridiculous number of facts, figures and insights on the sport and athletes. But it took time and obsession that’s for sure!

Moving from London to LA – Although I was able to transition a lot of my work Stateside from my UFC reporting to Power Plate representation, I had to start from scratch with a lot of things. Building new contacts and connections, learning how businesses run in a new country, even the technical language associated with a live television broadcast had its differences. I felt like I was going back to school in many ways.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Sports Broadcaster – UFC and Boxing US correspondent for BT Sport Network. Fitness Entrepreneur – Power Plate Master Trainer and Board of Directors, FitOn App Trainer, Lumen’s ‘The Health Hack Podcast’ Host, Nurokor Partner.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I played the character ‘Ice’ in the revival of the hit TV Show ‘UK Gladiators’ on Sky 1!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carolinepearcetv.com
• Instagram: @carolinepearce
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolinepearce.tv
• Twitter: @carolinepearce
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWrUdVV-gdnbX6ZgoTRPLNQ
• Other: https://fiton.app/caroline

Image Credits
BT Sport Steve Albiston Photography Ryan Loco – PFL