Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Lee Hollenbeck.
Kelsey Lee, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
If you asked me ten years ago what I’d be doing now, I wouldn’t have guessed melding my love of both on-camera production and fitness in a way that would reach so many people. My career and passion for fitness didn’t happen overnight, although it seems like a natural extension of having an active childhood since I was heavily involved with horses, dance and spending my free time running around outdoors.
What started as a little girl trying to be like her dad with a stationary exercise bike and a couple of pieces of home equipment turned into getting a membership at the local court-club and joining a girlfriend for sweat sessions on an elliptical. I was a high school freshman just trying to be in shape for the sake of feeling good and didn’t give weights or equipment outside the cardio room a thought – until I realized how redundant my ‘workouts’ would be if I didn’t. The allure of venturing out of the cardio realm developed into playing around with free weights and barbells in the gym, finding new confidence through sweat and iron, which turned into an outlet for ‘clinically diagnosed depression’ – or in other words, the hard knocks of teenage adolescence most of us have experienced alongside the silent bullying some people believe only exists in movies like Mean Girls.
The gym was somewhere I would go to escape mental fatigue, because at the time unless I was at home with family or adventuring around on horseback, I wasn’t exactly surrounded by the most uplifting types, but that’s a story for another time. Over the next few years, I discovered the joy of paying forward what I was learning and helping people find confidence in working out and making better lifestyle choices. Fast forward to today, having worked in the fitness industry for over a decade, and being able to create content that helps showcase my philosophy as a trainer and coach – that having a healthy and active lifestyle doesn’t need to be complicated, and that ‘health and fitness’ are not a one-size-fits-all; patience and consistency go farther than any crash diet, kill-yourself-workout craziness.
I get to work with some really great people on different jobs where I’m able to bring my experience to the table, and that’s become my favorite aspect of what I do. One of the TV series I worked on for the Olympic Channel (Global Games 2) was truly entertainment, inclusive of being catapulted in the air as a human target and a variety of other really laughable moments, while the most recent series I shot (Hitting the Wall) really showcased the level of dedication and sport-specific methods required to train like Olympic athletes. There’s nothing better than being yourself and doing what you love, so I’m always grateful to work on jobs where I’m invited to do just that.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The challenges I’m seeing as a trainer now are much different in comparison to those I encountered five, or even ten years ago. In my first year of personal training for a large gym, I quickly learned that sales and commissions were the only way to stay afloat or even employed. The tactics used to support the amount of re-signs a trainer needed didn’t match my idea of educating someone to feel good about exercise, with or without me. Training people in ways that require having a trainer with them during every single workout was never the kind of business I wanted to run, so private contracting became the avenue I’ve stuck with ever since and I let referrals be the basis of how I market what I do.
A consistent challenge in more recent years, especially since so much of what I do includes social media, has been mending damage to people’s ideas about taking care of themselves. There’s no shortage of misinformation flooding people’s social media feeds, and sadly there’s an element of hard work and commitment that seems to go missing in most of it. I’m not going to be the one who suggests drinking a wonder-beverage or doing some magical new workout will change your world, or that significant change is going to happen in just a few days or even weeks – often times those are the only things people want to hear, and when I’m not catering to that idea, those people tend to check out.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As a personal trainer and coach, I’ve worked with clients from just about every walk of life through group trainings, bootcamps, and individual sessions, teaching practical, fun, ways to maintain healthy and active lifestyles that make sense for people, individually. Most people who come to me have had a negative experience with fitness and/or nutrition, and I really enjoy being able to coach someone through a more sustainable process without feeling overwhelmed or burdened.
When it comes to creating content or working on projects for media, I get really excited about being able to remind people that being healthy and staying active doesn’t have to be complicated – it really isn’t rocket science, and that having fun should be part of the equation when it comes to fitness. Life is too short to overcomplicate or obsess over workouts and food.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Doing something you love while adding value to the world around you. It’s when we’re doing more of these things that we all win. We may not all be in our ‘dream jobs’ but we can all be doing at least something, at some level, that we really enjoy.
Contact Info:
- Website: kelseylee.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/kelseyleedotcom
- Facebook: facebook.com/kelseyleedotcom
- Twitter: twitter.com/kelseyleedotcom
- Other: youtube.com/kelseyleedotcom
Image Credit:
Olympic Channel for the two promo stills with “Olympic Channel” logo in top left of image
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
