Every Friday I am going to feature a woman that I adore. They exude all the qualities of an Alpha Female and I want to dig into their lives to get some nuggets of knowledge to help us all live happier, healthier lives balancing life & work.
Definition of an Alpha Female
An Alpha Female is a powerful and assertive woman. Her confidence is due to her being an intelligent and intellectual problem-solver. Being an Alpha Female is a State of Mind based on choosing ambition and being proud of it. She strives for a happy and healthy work/life harmony.
She is the brightest star in her constellation. When an Alpha Female stays true to their authentic selves and their missions they shine. An Alpha Female puts herself first because she deserves self-care and love. She knows that work/life harmony is found by staying true to your priorities and what makes you happy. She is never complacent about striving for better and nurtures relationships with all the people in her life.
Welcome To The Show Kelly Sullens!
Kelly Sullens is a renowned personal trainer and the owner of Arrowhead Fit Body Boot Camp in Arizona. She has a love for fitness that inspires her to change lives daily. As a female entrepreneur, she’s a role model for women, both in fitness and personal achievement. Kelly loves that women are the largest chunk of Fit Body Boot Camp’s audience, and she continues to inspire women to take action to make positive changes in their lives.
What do you think of the definition and how are you an Alpha Female?
I love the definition of an Alpha Female! I think it applies to me perfectly. I have always tried to show my authentic self and let that guide my decisions in my life and in my business. People know me as super outgoing and energetic, which I think is important, but I think the most important part of being an Alpha Female is having a clear vision for what you want your life to look like and then making it happen.
That’s a huge part of why I chose to buy my own Fit Body Boot Camp franchise. FBBC primarily caters to women who want to “have it all.” Many of them have families, many of them have full-time jobs, and they want to keep supporting those things without sacrificing that dream body they work so hard for. I could see myself in them, so I realized the best way to share my gift and my passion for fitness would be to open my own FBBC and lead them in their personal transformations.
What are you most passionate about?
I’m most passionate about health and fitness because I know that those things affect everything else in our lives. You can never have a quality life and give the most of your personal gift if you don’t have a healthy body to support you. Plus, I want to feel sexy and beautiful! And I love helping other women reach a place where they feel sexy and beautiful too.
I also LOVE Fit Body Boot Camp. Their approach to fitness is totally in line with my own values. They are results-focused, meaning they tailor everything to make sure you lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way. There’s no crash dieting or pushing yourself to dangerous physical extremes—it’s all about making empowering, ongoing lifestyle changes that keep you fit, give you confidence, and give you energy.
And most importantly—it’s not just about the scale. At FBBC we track your numbers just to keep you accountable and make sure that we’re helping you make progress, but our true goal is always to make you healthier and happier. We believe that all women are beautiful already, and all we need to do is give them healthy habits and empower the community to let that shine through.
What does work/life harmony look like for you?
What work/life harmony?? LOL, just kidding. 😊 My work/life harmony can pretty much be described in two words: split schedule. We work hard both early in the morning training members for about 5 hours, have a break during the day and go back to our boot camp in the later evening until about 8 PM. Waking up at 4 AM every day is extremely difficult but what I love most about this schedule is that it allows for flexibility during the day to get personal errands out of the way, as well as gives us family time when most other people are working and away from their family. Even though a split schedule is very draining sleep-wise, I consider myself lucky to have family time during the day when most others don’t have that kind of opportunity. Truth be told, in order to make sure I get enough sleep and to make sure I don’t burn myself out, most days I take a nap during the day!
Share with us a time when work/life balance was out of wack? What was the aha moment that taught you it was ok to take care of yourself first?
My work/life balance was WAY out of whack when we first opened our boot camp last year in September, which was also the first time we started implementing the split schedule. I barely knew what was happening and felt like I was flying through life without blinking. After almost 4-5 months of literally flying through life and really grinding on our business, my voice was taking a toll (it was so bad that you could barely understand what I was saying), my marriage was taking a toll and my relationship with family was taking a toll. All of the sudden, one day I ended up having a phone conference with another highly respected boot camp owner and fitness guru, I had the “AHH HA!” moment. He told me that in order to preserve myself and to make sure that I don’t burn myself out (not to mention, make sure that I’d always have the ability to be there for my clients) was to expand my team and told me that I couldn’t do everything myself. It hit me like a ton of bricks. From that moment on, I was on a mission to find passionate people from among my current boot camp members, who would want to grow and be part of the opportunity to change others’ lives through health and fitness. Now, I have 3 amazing coaches and 1 fantastic front desk coordinator. Oh yes, and a voice again. 😃
How do you nourish yourself?
Great question. Since I am a fitness professional and a nutrition coach, it’s SUPER important to me to “practise what your preach”, so to speak. Overall, my husband and I cook healthy, whole foods in bulk and then prep individual meals and snacks daily. On days that we’re on the run or our schedule is really busy, we also incorporate meal replacement shakes so that we’re never stuck without a healthy meal.
What is your weekly fitness routine like?
I work out 3-5 times a week, depending on what that week’s schedule is like. Just like properly nourishing my body in the same way I teach my clients, I also “practice what I preach” in terms of boot camp. Meaning that my fitness routine incorporates boot camp only and no other fitness practices like yoga, spin, going to a traditional gym etc. When I work out, I work out alongside my clients, which helps to give them an extra boost too. Plus they get a kick out of seeing Coach K sweat. LOL!
What are your daily habits for winding down at night and reducing stress?
On a daily basis, I prep what the workout will be for the following day to help save set-up time at night. That gives me more time for dinner at home with my husband and mom and allows me to disconnect from the business, reduce stress and mentally prepare for the next day. In addition to that, my husband and I will typically watch one TV show from bed to help us wind down after a long day.
What are some pain points of being an Alpha Female that you have to problem-solve for?
Since becoming a business owner and an Alpha Female, I’ve had to face multiple different hurdles. One of the biggest ones is properly managing myself and my time. My initial reaction to most things is the mentality of thinking “I’m superwoman so I’ll just do it all”. But I’ve come to realize that I’m only one person and that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything myself. Everything means: training in all boot camp sessions, day-to-day business operations, cooking all of our food, keeping our home and gym clean, going grocery shopping etc. Since learning that I can’t continue to spread myself so thin, I’ve built up an amazing staff who help to make sure that our business continues to run smoothly. Another pain point that I’ve had to face is the business relationship between my husband and I. When we opened our business, we hadn’t ever before lived AND worked together so we’ve had to define our separate roles within the business. Looking at where we are now, we have been able to both separate out different tasks, as well as share others, based upon our strengths and weaknesses. Based on his background and experience, he’s our photographer, videographer, social media guru, marketing guy, etc. Whereas with my experience and background, I am the trainer, the nutrition coach, the motivator and handle all of the day-to-day operations, among other things.
What is your definition of happiness?
My personal definition of happiness is first and foremost, helping others do and experience things they’ve never thought possible. There is absolutely no better feeling than being able to impact others’ lives through health and fitness. I also think that it’s a combination of giving back and being active in our community, having the ability to be my own boss, having financial freedom, having flexibility within my day to spend with family and lastly, getting LOTS OF SLEEP! Haha!