This month’s interview is with Laura Zinck, who I met on Instagram a couple of months ago (- don´t you love the connections you can make online?). She is a dental hygienist turned fitness coach.
Read on or watch the full interview below to get her story!
How to become a fitness coach
Laura Zinck was a dental hygienist for eight years, having studied for six years to do so. It was a “good job” but she didn´t love it, and she was also having bad back problems. After a lot of brainstorming, she remembered her favourite thing: health and fitness. Today, she´s a fitness coach who helps women who have struggled with the cycle of dieting and binge eating to reach their goals without giving up their life (or pizza!) to do so.
1) At what moment did you decide it was time for a change?
I will say that my husband has been super supportive – without him, I would probably have been on the streets! I literally had no job… He definitely pushed me, he said, “You know what, just leave. We’ll figure it out, don’t worry about it.” And so I guess I trusted him and trusted myself.
So then I had to ask, “Well, what am I going to do now?” I did a lot of brainstorming and asked myself what I really love doing. In my spare time, I´ve always been at the gym or researching new exercises and diets and so on, and that was always what my friends and family asked me for advice on. Plus, I had struggled with binge eating for a long time. So I worked through my mindset issues around that – and now I help women do the same!
I thought, “You know what? It’s now or never. Why not give it a shot? If it’s what I really love, then it should all work out.” And, so far, so good!
2) What was the biggest challenge you faced in making the change?
I think it’s completely different than the idea that I had in my head when I first thought I would do this. I thought I would make a website, start an Instagram account and people would just flow to me! And I spent January, February, March, April – four and a half months – making my website all by myself, learning everything I could.
Looking back now, I could have done it without a website! Not a single one of my clients has come from my website. So that’s four-and-a-half months that I could have been actually building my business and getting clients. But I thought I needed this website and I needed to master Pinterest and figure out all the SEO for everything and start a blog and all this crazy stuff. And you really don’t.
Also just running a business in general. Being a dental hygienist, I wasn’t my own boss, so I never had to deal with any of that stuff. It has been a huge learning experience for me.
3) Where did you get the support you needed to make it happen?
Well, my husband could have said, “No, you have to go get a part-time job or something.” Instead, he said, “I don’t care what we have to do – I´ll get a second job to make this work for you. I know how badly you want this and I want you to be successful, so we’ll do whatever we have to do.” He´s one hundred percent supportive of me investing in myself and my business.
Then the first thing I ever invested in was an Instagram course. That led me to the girl who made the course and I ended up hiring her to help me with my first programme launch. And in October, I hired my first business coach. I found someone who was where I wanted to be, and I think that’s my number one tip: if you’re hiring someone, make sure they are not where you are now, but where you want to be. Her coaching was just calling out to me, it was everything that I had in my head that I wanted to accomplish. I felt like it was meant to be, like I had to work with her.
It was definitely super scary – it was a lot of money, and not money that I just had sitting in my bank account! So I thought, “Well, I’m just going to go for it.” Honestly, I would never be where I am now without investing in myself and taking the chance, knowing that you can benefit so much from other people´s help. Eventually, you could take the time and learn it all yourself, but that could literally take years.
4) What’s the best part of your lifestyle today?
When I was a dental hygienist, we worked three twelve-hour days each week. I would go to the gym before that, so I’d be up at 4.30 in the morning and get home at 7.30 at night for those three days, which were just a write-off. And then it might seem like I had a four-day weekend, but those days would be spent doing everything I couldn’t get done during the first three days!
Now, I can be home with my three dogs and spend time with them, and I go to the gym when I want. I love working with my clients – I love all my clients, they’re amazing. And I´m doing something I actually love. It’s like you don’t even think it’s possible, honestly, when you are just working in a job – “Oh, I could never do that!” But it’s totally possible.
5) What one piece of advice would you give to someone who is considering making a big career or lifestyle change?
Nothing has to be perfect, nothing. I know you think everything has to be perfect, but nothing does. Take that messy action and just do it. Because you’re holding yourself back with fear when you’re playing with your website for five months and you think that’s what matters; but it doesn’t. You have to step into that next level and just go for it. Take the messy action and everything will flow from that.
Laura’s mission is to empower women through food and fitness. Discover more on her website, Squatting for Snacks, or on Instagram and Pinterest.
