La Niecia Vicknair, known as Coach LaLa, is a fitness trainer, founder of Thrive Health Lab, and a passionate advocate for building healthier communities, especially for people of color and teens. In this heartfelt conversation, she and Kara dive into her journey from growing up in an overweight family to creating a safe, empowering space where health is about so much more than just working out. They explore the difference between athletic performance and true wellness, the mental and emotional transformation that comes with physical strength, and the real challenges of balancing mission-driven work with financial realities. Coach LaLa shares why setting boundaries is essential to avoid burnout and how prioritizing self-care allows her to support others more deeply. This episode is a powerful look at community, healing, and redefining what it means to thrive.
“You know better when you’re able to be exposed to other cultures and other mindsets. I think you’re also able to be a better human being.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Creating a Community of Health and Wellness
00:22 Introduction to The Powerful Ladies Podcast
00:35 The Power of Proximity
02:34 Meet Coach Lala
02:43 Coach Lala's Journey and Mission
05:24 The Importance of Busing Programs
06:47 Proximity and Community Impact
10:30 Athletics vs. Health and Fitness
18:27 Balancing Empowerment and Boundaries
24:33 Experience and Burnout
25:46 Transitioning from Trainer to Coach
26:07 Philosophy on Health and Fitness
27:02 Challenges in the Fitness Industry
29:46 Personalized Nutrition and Health
35:28 Empowering Clients and Community
40:11 Defining Power and Womanhood
44:29 Future Goals and Manifestations
46:44 Conclusion and Gratitude
I wanted to be able to create a community of health and wellness for people of color. So I became a trainer in 2015. The people in my families would not go to other gyms because it's almost I don't see me there, so how can I be there? So I want to open something and become a trainer.
That's La Niecia AKA, coach Lala.
I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Proximity is power. Let's say it again for those in the back. Proximity is power. It goes both ways. The proximity you have access to shows you what's possible, gives you the ability to try things, introduces you to things you never thought possible that can be seen how people live, who are rich or poor.
Learning about food or cultures, and as we talk about in today's episode, access to health and Wellness. It's no secret that rich people are healthier and living longer. Then all the layers of socioeconomic status below them. There are many people working on how to fix this because access to health and wellness should be a human right.
Today's guest, La Niecia AKA coach Lala had a really unique experience with proximity that completely changed her trajectory. It led to her purpose, passion, and entrepreneurial journey, which is transforming the wellness, access, and ultimately health of her community. This is a great episode. If you wanna learn more about what proximity power means.
Where there are gaps in health and wellness across this country, and also all the things about health and wellness that we might be forgetting about on a regular basis, from the mind body connection to mindfulness, to simply making sure we are moving and being as healthy as possible in the small moments.
Coach Lala is fabulous. I'm so glad that she is based in LA so we can do some things in person hopefully soon. And I really think you're gonna enjoy this episode. Her energy is fantastic, just like her hope is and why you can see that her community loves her so much.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Let's begin by telling everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is La Niecia. People also call me Coach Lala, and I'm in Los Angeles, California, and currently I'm a trainer who teaches Pilates Booty Bootcamp. And the list can go on and on.
You are well known for bringing. The fitness and then the coaching and nutrition, all the things that you love to talk about. Back to your home community. What is the story behind that and why does that matter to you?
We have to rewind back to my childhood and the type of family I grew up in.
I came from a family that's lack of a better word, is overweight. I wanted to be able to create a community of health and wellness for people of color specifically in the neighborhood I grew up in, which is like View Park Madera Heights. And we didn't really have access to the things that I had access to being bused out for school.
So I became a trainer in 2015. I loved it. At the time I knew that the people in my family specifically would not go to other gyms and would not go to get the help because it's almost like I don't see me there, so how can I be there? So I wanted to open something and become a trainer. Shortly after becoming a trainer, I lost my father to morbid obesity and that kind of post.
It's okay. Life happens. But once again, I didn't want people to have to lose a level one off of something that can be prevented. Just by taking care of themself a little bit better mentally, physically, and spiritually. That kind of poked me and opened up my gym Thrive Help Lab and.
Park area opened that gym, had it for seven years and now I closed that. But now I've pivoted what Thrive does. And we go into like schools, nonprofits we do talks, we do nutrition plans. We bring Thrive to the community. Now I also work for two gyms. So one is a Pilate studio, the other one is a bigger gym in Inglewood.
It's really important for me to be with. My community specifically, I have a passion for women of color and teenagers because I feel like teenagers are forgotten generation. And they, we expect them to go out and be adults and we don't give them the tools that they need to be adults and know how to eat properly, know how to work out, et cetera, et cetera.
There's so many juicy things I wanna follow up on from that. Sheriff, I'm gonna start with, there's a lot of controversy about the bus out programs.
What is your perspective on them?
Huh? I think they're essential to giving opportunities to people that wouldn't having before I was bused out my entire life from elementary to high school. And even when I got a car, I drove out to high school. But I went to schools that were in Brentwood and in Palisades. Which gave me the opportunity to make connections and network with others, along with other people in my community that were able to come out to the schools.
I'm a big believer in kids being able to be bused in just for different opportunities. Being able to see different things. Yeah. Because the school system that was by me, it wasn't bad, but they weren't privy to for example, what I do now, like I saw. These wellness and fitness things that were just happening naturally and access to better food.
And the school that was by me just doesn't have that. And just having that network of people as well. Really big on that. Actually for our high school reunion, Ooh, was it 20 years too? I'm telling my age. We actually did a fundraiser. The money went tour towards helping kids go and get bused to our high school.
Because they took it away from high school. They have to pay to get bused out there now. I'm an advocate.
Yeah. No. And I think it's, proximity is so powerful. And, it's the busing story. It's also echoing back to the proximity that you're providing to your community Now.
Do you ever follow overheard la?
No.
So it's, they also have one for New York and some other cities, but essentially it's people will DM this Instagram account and tell them what they've overheard, like the scenario, oh, I need to follow them. You do. LA's is so on point. Sometimes it's hilarious and embarrassing, but there was one I read the other day that was like A kid to their mom.
Mom, do you know that so and so doesn't have a nanny? And the mom's yeah, not everyone has a nanny. And the kid goes, but then how does their mother go to Pilates every day? But these are real things. They are, they're real. These are real
things that even when I went to school, they were like, wait, what? And I'm like, and even for me, I'm like, wait, what? You have a, where's your mom? Yeah. It's and they'd be like, oh, my mom is my nanny. I'm like, you're a nanny. Okay.
Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. It's completely different worlds and universes and I don't know if we realize early enough in our lives and our careers how important proximity can be.
It doesn't mean it's right, but it's like there's an element of the proximity game that we can use to our advantage.
And every community has a proximity opportunity. I don't think we think about it enough but it's not who you know, but who knows you and what have you seen and what examples do you have because
It's a whole it's part of this podcast. It's part of what you're doing.
Yeah. If you don't have access to, other things and other experiences in different cultures. Like I love to travel and part of the reason why I love to travel, it humbles me a lot, makes me realize I don't need all things that I have.
And it also gives me a perspective of what life really means, but also what's out there and what's accessible and what it could be.
Yeah.
Case in point, me growing up in my neighborhood. I, most people in my neighborhood didn't take healthy wellness serious, but when I went to school, I'm like, wait, everybody's working out.
Everybody's eating healthy. Like what? So that it's something that I feel like had an influence on my life that I'm like, why don't we have that where I live? Even though I did have a very active mother. My mother definitely worked out every day. Yeah. Growing up. But yeah, just, you know better if you're able to be exposed to other cultures and other mindsets. I think you're just also able to be a better human being.
Yeah. It resets what's normal. It resets privilege, it resets, the shared humanity that we all have. Exactly. No it's, I am. My mind melts a little bit when I hear that somebody hasn't left their city or their state, let alone the country.
I'm like, you've just never even been to like Riverside or Phoenix. Like Drive, it's a people.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of people. Yeah. They don't have a reason to. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I don't, I have a curiosity gene that I'm like a, just because don't, you just wanna see.
Same.
Same. Yeah. I also think there's a big difference between promoting athletics in a culture and promoting health and fitness. Can you break down like how that distinction's defined for you?
Yeah, for me it's about coaching the whole body, which is mentally, physically, and spiritually comes along with that, right? Gotta get your mind mindset right in order to just accomplish a workout and then.
Being able to make better decisions. I'm really big. I it's funny, I had a conversation with the other day with somebody and they were like, this is your gift. Health and wellness is your gift. You being a trainer, you are good at what you do. And I'm like, and this is your passion. And I was.
No, I think my passion really is more empowering people and health and wellness is just my gateway to be able to give them a tool to become the best version of themself, right? So number one thing to help with depression. Go outside and move. Get in the sun, get some exercise, and get the endorphins, get your serotonin levels up.
So like for me, it's bigger than being this big bodybuilder or bikini competition person. No shade to them. 'cause I did a Bekin competition, but I did just because one of those, I wanna see what it is. How do I do that? I did a triathlon a couple months ago, not because I'm into triathlons, in fact I hate running and I'm not the best swimmer.
But I wanted to challenge myself and see okay, what does it take to get there mentally? And then what do I have to do physically? What do I have to change in my diet? But for me, we do a disservice just coaching people to be an athlete. Although the top athlete programs teach mind, body, and soul, they teach you the whole gamut to make sure you're the best athlete.
It's bigger than that. Everybody needs health and wellness.
Like I was a college athlete and playing sports since I was five and the time period from when I started playing sports as a kid through my college career, like it was. We weren't talking about all those things. We weren't.
We weren't.
It was a, I feel the same way. I was on a cheer squad. I was an all star cheerleader. I was on step team. This is from like high school to college, and I was a top cheerleader. Sometimes I sit back and I think, how much more could I accomplish? How many more skills could I have gained if I had the proper nutrition and the proper mindset?
I just had my natural mindset I'm gonna go after it. I was always curious. I was always trying to find something to better myself, but it was never given to me. It was never given to me. I just saw what my mom did and she did the best she could. But other than that I didn't have those resources, but I think as a whole, athletes didn't have those resources in the past.
And now thank goodness we have this whole push on health and wellness that I have coaches. Football coaches ask me to come in and do mobility work 'cause they understand the importance of having mobility work if you're gonna go on the field and use your body as a weapon. As a weapon. Yeah. I think it's really important to just not talk about fitness and conditioning, but also the recovery, the mindset the nutrition that goes along with it.
It all goes hand in hand. Your nervous system is key.
Yeah. And I know so many ex-college, ex pro athletes who are like myself are now taking therapy and having to do much more somatic therapy. Because we did a lot of, our mental training was. The very patriarchal, be aggressive, get back up, go harder.
Go home. Yeah. Yeah. You start separating your brain from the messages your body's giving you, like you, your program to ignore it when it says stop.
Or push through or your congratulated or still playing the last inning. Of your game with a fracture foot. 'cause your life just go.
Yeah. And so this idea of coming back to listening to what our body says or dealing with, what is that book? The the body keeps score. Like coming back to all the emotions that we just had to push aside and stick in our hip or stick in our calve or wherever we store things, because we had to just keep going, which is, are valuable skills to have. Like it, the grit, endurance things are off the roof, but the.
Being able to find balance and being able to trust your intuition. Like you st you, we lo we've lost some of that in that old model of athletics and, in our lifetime we've seen it transform so much. And I'm like, you, I'm glad that we're bringing the whole person into the fitness now and athletics now. But I think it's definitely a journey for. So many people, and also being trained to push on the field for the purpose of winning is so different than having a lifelong habit of health and wellness. For yourself.
That was another need I saw another problem I was trying to solve by becoming a trainer.
Most of my certifications that I have, they're a little selfish. They're like to better myself, I cheered, I stepped, and then I got outta college. I was like, okay, so what do people do now? Because I'm like, okay, so all my life I've been in some type of sport. What do I do now? I don't even know like how to properly weightlift.
Nobody taught me how to do that. I don't know what mobility is. I don't know what these things are. But then some of my injuries start catching up with me. So I have like low cartilage in my knees. I was like how do I keep from being pain free? So I became a trainer, and then after I became a trainer, I realized that getting a certification and corrective exercise was gonna help me.
Better my knees. I wanna have back problems. So a lot of my certifications, breath work, like I realized I wasn't breathing properly. I hold onto my emotions a lot. Like I, it's taken a lot of work, but not everybody is trying to do that work. So I feel like it's been a charge put on my heart to be that person, to be an agent of change and meet people where they are, but push 'em to be a better version of themselves.
Yeah, no, I, I fully there are moments in this podcast when I just wanna be like, namaste. You were talking about you're use, you're using health and wellness as your channel, but your real mission is the empowerment. Like same like my mission's empowerment. I'm doing it as a business coach because that's how I can help the most people get access to whatever their amazing life wishes, it's a really different perspective to build a business around impact. I'm currently in the process of making impact or requirement for the clients I'm working with.
Because to me it's no, like most of my clients are heart led entrepreneurs anyway, so it's not a huge leap to go from, yeah.
Or not here to 10 x your business, which sometimes happens on accident, but it really is the whole person approach very much to how you're approaching fitness. That's a whole.
That's a whole nother podcast. Yes. Being heartfelt, but then you need to make money. So where? Where's the balance in that? Like she really needs my help. She can't afford it. Okay, I'll give you a discount because I can see you're losing your shit. Yeah. Let me give you something you can do. But then it's okay, but now I gotta eat. How does that work?
No. And so that was one of the questions I was gonna ask you, because I think that when you are building your business with a mission and you care so deeply about the people that you're serving, there's a whole conversation about boundaries.
So how do you balance your empowerment and wanting to help every person that you come across?
Let's just say 10 years ago, I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago, right? Yeah. I have gotten a lot more stern with my boundaries in defining what my real why is and who I wanna serve Before I went to serve my whole community.
Then I realized, no, maybe not my whole community. I'll do group classes for that, but my heart really leads with women of color and teenagers, teenage girls to be specific. And I really have some non-negotiables now. So Mondays are my days. I don't talk to nobody. I don't teach classes. It's my me day.
If I want a dilly and dally in the house, I do. If I wanna read a book, I do. If I wanna meditate, I do whatever it is I wanna do on a Monday. I do. And then I have my set times that I do my workouts. I'm also very. A lot more. This is my rate now. In the beginning, I feel like, okay, I can make it work, because at that time, let's be honest, I'll be very honest sometimes you're not as confident when you first start because you're like, I'm just not starting.
I don't know. I'll do you for this rate because I can still test out what you, but at this age and at the experience that I have, being a Nike trainer, working with schools, working with corporate. I know I have a gift. I know I'm able to feed into people the way they wanna be fed, and I'm not for everybody and I'm very aware of that.
But I will say just getting very clear on my why and what my non-negotiables are and my non-negotiables as far as my rate, so that when somebody comes around and they need some type of help. Then I will give myself, I, I have freed myself up this space to be able to help them the way they need to be helped versus me being spread thin, giving everybody for lack.
For, not for lack, but like for just an example, giving everybody a $10 rate for a private church session is not gonna be. Conducive to what I'm trying to do. Now, if I have my regular rate and everybody's paying regular rate and I have one let say somebody on a scholarship, then that's more doable. So I think you have to become very unapologetic, because if you don't take care of yourself and you drain yourself down, you get fatigued, then you're not gonna be able to serve. And being in the type of business that I'm in and that you're in we're very people. Service oriented. Yeah. It takes a lot of energy.
Teaching a class, feeding into people, giving it your all. Even if you've had a bad day God forbid, you start your cycle that day. It doesn't matter. They don't care. They came here for a workout, they, this may be the only hour they have for themself, and you have to show up and pour into them.
Get them to where they need to go.
It's so true and I was recently talking to a friend and we were catching up and. They were just going on and on about what's happening politically right now and how awful things are, and it just, I could feel the hope getting sucked out of the conversation and I was like, I have to go.
They're like, what? I go. I have to keep my Hope meter at a certain level. Because I have to be fueling my own delusions of the next things we're doing and why, like I have to be serving that fire. But then I have to be holding hope and possibility for everyone I talk to. All day long, you.
Have to host space. Yeah. And I think that's one thing people don't talk about. And so that's why some of my non-negotiables are like, when I'm ready to go, I wanna go if I don't wanna be a part of a room. But I also am very aware that has come with my age. So last year I turned 40 and something happened with my brain, with my nervous system.
If I don't feel comfortable, if I don't like where I'm at. It doesn't have to be a person, it could be a space, it could be. I don't really feel like going, I'm outgoing. Yeah. Just because I don't have it to give like that anymore. I have it to give for my clients and holding space, but it's a lot of holding space and it's a lot of sometimes figuring out a way to decompress from holding that space. 'Cause some people come into my places of work very heavy. Yeah. They may have lost somebody. They may have gained weight from a divorce. They may have. Just came outta surgery, whatever it is. They bring that to my class. They bring it to my personal training session. So just making sure you take care of yourself.
Yeah, and its hard. Taking care of ourselves is hard enough, and then we're like volunteering to take care of everyone else. It's but it's, it is, it's such an interesting thing of, it's a mix of our boundaries with ourselves, our boundaries with going into like I, one of the biggest things I've learned, and I think anyone who's a coach has to experience this, but truly anyone who's a service provider, you're always gonna be some element of coach.
If you're doing social media for a client, you're still gonna have to coach them through some things. It's just how working with people and their hopes and dreams, whether it's personal or business works like I have to remember that I have to stay on my side of the street. And as much as I wanna scoop up their whole business and be like, I'm just gonna take it over here and we're gonna make it, and you just stay there.
I can't I it has to, if I'm empowering people, I have to do that action. I can't do it for them.
And that comes from experience, right? Because, oh, Lala used to always be like, okay, also, because I am very aware, I have a lot of skillset. That may not go into the realm of, I'm a trainer or I'm a coach.
I know how to do websites. I know how to do, yeah. HR stuff. It just comes from experience of what my old jobs were. And I realized sometimes I would do stuff like, 'cause I knew I could do it in 10 minutes, where it might take them two days. And I was like, why are you picking this up? Because I'm like, lemme just fix it because I see the vision, and I'm like, no, I'm no longer doing that. So a lot of it comes with experience and being burnt out. Specifically having the gym for seven years. Keeping it, six years keeping it afloat. Wait, no it was seven because I celebrated six and seven. I close it the seven. And surviving the pandemic, I became very burnt out.
So burnt out that I closed my gym almost a whole two years ago. I'm just now coming over that. As far as like being on a, my head, constantly being on the swivel, constantly pivoting, trying to figure out if we were opening, if we were closing, figuring out where money was coming from, figuring out where money was coming from my own personal build.
Figuring out okay, I still gotta be here for this person because they're a autoimmune disorder, but they still need to work out how do I make that work? It is just, it was just, it was a lot. And I've done I've done a lot of work, but who I was even a year ago is not who I am today. And I think that's what probably attracts people to me, is that they constantly see me doing the work.
I'm not, yeah. That's why I don't call myself a trainer a lot of times. That's why my name is Coach Lola. Yeah. Because I'm a coach, so I'm gonna educate you, I'm gonna empower you. I'm gonna tell you why we're doing it. You could still continue to do what you wanna do. I don't care. Like when people come to me and they be like, what do you think about this?
What do you think about that? I'd be like, I'm not into diet. What I was like, I'm not into it. I'm not into scale, I'm not into diet. I'm into like what your bill of health looks like. And then how do we get your bill of health to be good? No high blood pressure, no high cholesterol. Then I want you to feel good in your body.
And a lot of that starts mentally, right? We live in la it's easy to quickly go down that rabbit hole of I'm not skinny enough, I'm not enough, I'm not tall enough, whatever it may be. I need more Botox. So I'm just here to let people know like they're okay. I'm okay. But at the same time it's healing for me too.
I'm not perfect and I admit that, but I do the work. I have a therapist I do my workouts. I try to eat clean. But I really have a passion and love what I do.
I also think coming back to the boundary around like what you're worth and what you're charging to access, your zone of genius and your magic.
My experience has been that whenever I've been more excited about the possibility of someone in their business and they've asked for a discount and I've given one, they, there's like a different level of showing up. And I think you mentioned the word scholarship 'cause there are some people who you know are gonna be coachable and do the work and you're like, you know what?
Here's a plan, it's gonna last this long. There's a lot of rules I put around them now, like
it's gonna be this for this long and then it's gonna go up. Or you're, we're gonna limit what you have access to. There's a balance behind it. But nine times outta 10, when someone's asked for a discount, they haven't done the work.
And it's infuriating because you're like, no, I'm trying to reach you. And I remember being in. A leadership type class or program, something continuing ed, and someone asking me what my mission was and I said something like, to empower everyone. And they're like, it's a lie. And I was like, what? They're like it's not true.
Let's think about all the people who if they showed up, you'd be like, nah.
And it was such an interesting thing to think about. Who I'm actually willing to empower because there a part of me that wants everyone to feel that, but who can I actually move? And it's such a different way to think about not even who like a dream client is, but who I can best serve.
It's a completely different, it's exactly how
I feel, which is why I got very specific with where I try to make my programming go now, where I'm trying to go, where I'm going to go. Let's take this into positive terms, where I'm going, where I'm headed, and who I'm impacting. And I'm very unapologetic about it too.
I'll show up in all the spaces. I'll give you who I am. I'll give you what I call the Lala Show. You'll laugh, you'll burn, you'll feel better. But I'm very clear on who I wanna touch on and who I know I can touch. Reach. There's been too many times I feel like I've been in rooms as a teenager, as an adult, and I don't feel seen, I don't feel heard.
I don't think they even understand where I'm coming from. You wanna talk to me about food, but you don't even know what gumbo and jumbo light is. That's a problem for me personally, because that's where I grew up on eating. So how are you gonna tell me about this? And you don't know anything about how I grew up or what foods I normally eat. So how can you help me with a meal plan? And you're putting me on food, I don't even eat at all. And so now it's not sustainable and I'm gonna fail.
And even like right now in TikTok, I saw the whole thing about three meals a day is. A, what is it? It was a colonizing system.
And I was just like there's so many layers to this, but it's, yeah. We've been, do we, there's been this approach of three meals a day. I don't know where it came from. Most people dunno where it came from, if you're in the us. And then if you just look at diet fads in general, they're like fast, don't fast.
Like I feel like today it is so overwhelming to try to do the right thing in so many different directions.
There's so much noise in health and fitness. There's so much noise in how to have a successful business.
And there's so many people that are influencers. And not certified professionals.
And there's a big difference there. So people are following people because their workouts look cool, but I'll look at it and I'll be like, okay, so what muscle group is that hitting? Yeah. Okay. So why are you adding to jump in there? Now you're leaving, missing the stability part of the move. It's so many things.
It's this is great, but now you're, now I see all these people in the gym doing stuff just wrong. I'm like, I can't save everything, honey. Yes. But it's, I think it's a lot of noise. And that's why I don't do these here's a meal plan for you. Like a cookie cutter meal plan.
What I have done is these are a list of foods that are like clean eating, but at the end of the day, I tell people that doesn't, to their body, yeah. Listen to their body and get tests done. So for example, all my life I thought I was just lactose intolerant. I'm gonna find out I'm lactose in gluten and actually gluten affects me more.
I'm not like, I'm gonna go to the hospital. But I noticed after doing like a cleanse or two, I do aerobatic eating now and soon I was, as soon as I would eat something with gluten in it, my stomach would get bloated and I would start, I would just feel uncomfortable. These were signals, once again, as you said, the athletes would ignore certain signals.
These are signals that people are top to ignore. And growing up I realized, I thought being full, feeling full with how you were, so that was normal. Because nobody taught me anything different. But then again, nobody knew I felt like that until I learned how to prop properly eat, and oh, I don't need to eat until I'm stuffed.
Oh, okay. It's better if I eat this food in the morning, this food in the afternoon, this one at night. 'cause this one digests better because, oh, maybe I shouldn't go straight to sleep after I eat. It's those little things, but your body will always tell you, and people ignore what their body is telling them.
And if you don't know, go get a blood test done. There is a whole science between eating sweet, hot for your blood type. Yeah. And fasting, that's a whole nother thing that people ask me about. I do fast, I personally fast. I fast once a week on Mondays, which is my daily day, where I just have fluids, water, maybe tea.
I pick like maybe 5:00 PM for the day, four and 5:00 PM 24 hours fast. But that helps with your cell turnover and keeping you like the, in the key toes and making sure that your body is rejuvenating correctly, and it mentally, I just feel better. It's not like I'm starving. I know what I'm getting into.
My mind is right for the week. So it's so many layers of health and fitness. It's, it is overwhelming. Even as a trainer, it could become overwhelming because I'm like, okay, because just like being a doctor, they're always having new studies and if you are a. A trainer that wants to be of service to people, it's our job to get that continued education right.
What I learned 10 years ago is not the same things that I'm learning now because science evolved and they're like, Hey, actually we told you milk was good. Now it's bad. Oh, oat milk was good. Now it's bad. It's good, but not in abundance. So like just having to It is a lot. It is a lot. Even as a trainer.
That's why I'm here, to try to help people find their way and keep it simple. I'm just all about keeping it simple. Making it sustainable for you. And I never cold Turkey people, unless somebody is trying to get ready for a wedding or a bekin competition is when I go, okay, these are your strict rules.
No. You can't have this. I'm not that trainer. And if you want that kind of trainer, you need to find somebody else. I'm not gonna. Be this very strict trainer. I'm not gonna hold your hand. You have to be the part type person that wants it a little bit, and I'm gonna guide you and I'm gonna empower you.
And my biggest goal is to give people the tools to do it on their own so I can go help the next person.
It, and it takes time, people who wanna work with me one-on-one, it's six months or a year because it takes time to make all these adjustments. And when I've coached people in the health and wellness space who ha with their businesses, I'm like, they're like, we're just gonna do like a six week program.
I'm like, cool. And then I, you're abandoning your client. Why? Have they made it through a birthday or an anniversary or a holiday? There's so much more. Guiding to do and like also knowing how long it, the science today about habit forming, it's like, could be seven days for one person. Could it be 120 something for another?
And let's not talk about the demographic I wanna deal with, which is women and teenagers. There are so many changes, right? Yeah. There's puberty, there's pre menopause. There's menopause, there's babies, there's so many things that. It's my job, I feel to be able to hold space for them mentally, but be able to push them physically, but meet them where they are.
Women have a tough job out here. The nurturers and showing up for everybody else, and then we're trying to show up for ourselves. I'll give a prime example. I have a client that I started postpartum. Four weeks after she gave birth to her fifth child and she was like, I wanna get after it this time.
We got after it, we've been training for six months straight. She lost a lot of weight. She's still not at her goal. She's feeling better. And she had a cancel starting that last week. And she was in tears because she was like, life flights? I didn't go into details, I assume it's money or whatever it is.
And she just started crying 'cause she was just like, this is the only thing I had for me. And now I feel like I have nothing for me. And I can do it on my own, but I can't because it was like her accountability was me showing up. Twice a week to make sure. And it was also like I was her barrier.
Okay, all the kids and they start waking up. I either A, keep them occupied with a weight and I'm like, here you go over there and do some weights. Follow up Mommy is doing, or no, mommy needs her time today. So it's just it's holding space. It's so many things. I really love what I do. I really love du and it, it start disheartening when stuff like that happens, and then I'm like. In my mind right now, racking away, how can I still service her so she does not feel like she's losing herself again to her five kids and having to show up for them now, she has nothing to show up for herself. So she just doesn't wanna get back in a cycle, and I understand that.
Yeah. It's a scary thing when you have to give up a routine or a habit that you just rely on so much. I, I had to do zero physical activity for two months and I'm not good at doing nothing anyway. And then to not be allowed to do like absolutely anything was so bizarre and depressing. It by the two month mark, I'm like, I can't do this anymore, can I? These restrictions have to come off because. I need at least a walk.
I need to do these other things. Like I can feel my body being like, why did you abandon us? Yeah. Yeah. Your community is so important to you and what are changes that you've seen that you are really proud of from your community?
It's not even physical. It's mental. Yeah. People. I have had clients who were very introverted before, just not comfortable, and I wouldn't even call them an introvert because they're not introverted now. It was just empowering them to see themselves in a light that maybe others never saw themselves as saw them as before.
And give them that confidence to be like, girl, you just threw a whole hundred pound tire over. He can't even do that. Like that's one thing I've been very proud of. Another thing is seeing my clients empower each other and give each other accountability. Saying Hey, where you been at?
Oh, I see you've been working, you looking good. Seeing the community that I formed become a community for each other is very satisfying. And of course people hitting their goals that they set, like their weight goals, but for me it's the mental, it's people going on their first trip.
Internationally with me because I've done that before where I've taken some of my clients in international trip and they never thought it was feasible before. And I held a whole like budgeting workshop. And I know, see, this is why I say I'm a coach, because it was more than just fitness for me.
It's like you've never stepped foot outta your neighborhood. Let's go on a trip and I'm gonna organize this trip. I can't afford it. Let's figure out why you can't afford it. You can't afford it. Look at this budget we just made. So it's just getting people to once again, see their greatness, being able to do the things that they're curious about, but they don't have somebody to support them.
But seeing my community come together for each other is the most rewarding part of my job. Yeah.
That's a great segue to how do you define the words powerful and ladies, and do their definitions change when they're, those words are put next to each other.
The powerful to me is not really about power.
It's about almost being powerful is being able to relinquish your power so that somebody else can be powerful, if that makes sense. Yes. Like I'm a very. Which I'm working on. I'm a humble person, but it's time to become, step into my power and not be as humble about my accomplishments and things that I've done.
But powerful to me is being able to put other people before you, but also putting yourself first. It is a fine line and delicate balance, but knowing when. You can help others and be of service and pull them up. Putting ladies with powerful
as a woman, no. But in the world of society that we're in, yes, we do have to show up differently. 'cause being powerful us powerful for us is not just one thing. It's all the things. It's all the things being powerful and showing up in your workforce. You may be the only woman in standing your ground and sticking up for other person who is being walked over, coming into your home life, being powerful, leading your kids, and beside your husband or your partner.
I do think being powerful as a woman holds a different weight than being powerful as a man because we do all the things and nobody's coming to save us. We gotta do the work.
We sure do. We ask everyone the podcast where they put themselves in the Powerful Lady Scale. If zero is your average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you rank yourself today and on an average day?
It's a good question. I would never give myself a 10. That's just who I am because I always know there's room for improvement. So it would never be a 10. I would say it's seven, eight. I'm human. Okay, perfect. We, I have some days where I'm like, I don't wanna be, I wanna be solved. I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna talk to nobody.
I don't wanna make any power moves today. There's others day, other days I'm like, get outta my way. I'm taking charge, I'm doing this I'm taking you with me. Let's go. So I would say like a seven, eight, never a 10. Never a 10. There's always something that can be done.
It's so interesting to embrace complete power.
While still knowing that we're not fully cooked.
It's a really interesting base to take up because Yeah. Usually we're told not to take it up until we're at the top of Everest and you're like, how about right. What We're not celebrating every stage that it took to get here.
Take up the space. Listen, I'm not gonna lie, I'm working on that in therapy. So yeah, taking up the space and sitting in my accomplishments. And if there's one thing you know, I can behoove other women, is taking that time to recognize yourself. That you're showing up even on the days you don't wanna show up. You're giving it your all.
You're giving it the best that you can on that day, and that's all you can do. That's okay. How you show up today and doing the hard thing is how you're gonna show up later and it builds character, but it also, you should feel empowered for doing the hard things and still showing up even when you don't want to because you know there's a bigger picture.
Yes. This is a very. Supportive, connected. Let's pay it forward, make magic happen type of community.
What is something that's on your, to manifest, to-do list your wishlist. What do you need? How can we help? What do you wanna put out there? To the universe called powerful ladies?
Because my word for this year is alignment and I'm just really clear on getting opportunities and serving. Things that are in alignment with who I am, what I wanna do. So my focus this year is providing mobility and breath work for people. We hold our breath a lot. We hold onto trauma, getting people those simple tools of moving better.
A lot of times people are in so much pain. So getting into the rooms, getting into the businesses, get into the corporations where I can do one to many of training people with mobility, breath work. Pilates and booty work. Boot booty. Booty work. Booty boot can't work. Yeah. But yeah.
So any of that at group level is what you're wishing for?
Group level, corporate level, nonprofit. Getting paid. Let's not forget that. Yeah. They're getting paid. I'm worth it. I'm. I've done the work. I'm continue to still get certifications, but basically being able to be put into rooms where I can teach people to do mobility, breath work, and how to move their bodies at any age that they're at.
And mobility work is important for anybody, no matter what their age is. If you don't use it, you lose it.
Yes. So for everyone who is eager to hire you, support you, follow you, come find a class you're doing, where can they do all those things?
I have a website, coach lala v.com. Also have my Instagram coach, Lala v. My Instagram is the most active. It's so up to date as far as like where I'm at, what I'm teaching, what events are coming up. How you can contact me and what's coming up on the pipeline. I would say one of my goals this year is to create kinda like retreats. Like they may be one day retreats, that's like mobility and recovery and breath work, and being infusing that with other women of color that may do way speed work sound baths.
So stay tuned.
I love it. It, it's so refreshing to me to meet women like you who are doing things with their heart in such a way, and focus on the alignment and focus on giving it away to other people. We as women have such a huge to-do list globally for things that we know need to be fixed and upgraded at all levels. And it gives me peace of mind knowing that you are like holding up the world in your corner. So I can be like, okay, if you, we've got another person on the team. We're growing. It's not just us by ourselves. So thank you for the work you do. Thank you for who you are, for your community. It's been such a pleasure and an honor to talk to you today, so thank you for your time.
Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Coach Lala. Hire her and work with her as well as learn more about powerful ladies. Come hang out with us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com. This episode is produced by Amanda Cass, and our audio engineer is Jordan Duffy. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
