2021
Fitness Marketing
Fitness has always been a huge part of my life. From elementary through high school, I played club soccer and volleyball as well as school soccer and volleyball. I was always a very active person... By junior year, I had quit sports and began working with a trainer. I learned kickboxing which was extremely fun, a great workout, and a new way to move my body, and a great outlet for the stress, and being a junior, there was a lot of that. After a few months of kickboxing, I realized I wanted to begin lifting weights. I watched other clients in the gym and wanted to be strong and have more confidence in my body. After quitting sports, I definitely was not as active. I learned basics and trained with my personal trainer all the way up to my freshman year of college.
My freshman year of college was when I started my gym fitness Instagram account. This was extremely scary. For the first time, I was sharing my struggles, accomplishments, and everything in between with my followers. I vowed to be real on this account as I have always struggled with body image as it pertains to social media and false "perfection". I made posts about this, along with mental health and eating. I opened up about eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and even sexual assault. I began writing my own workouts and my knowledge of lifting and proper form grew. I learned more about nutrition as I counted my macros and researched protein intake. I also experienced a bulking phase for the first time which was not easy. I posted daily workouts with videos demonstrating how to complete the exercise. I even supplied extra details in the captions to improve form. My goal was to not only teach others, but I hoped to be relatable and push more people to feel comfortable and confident in the gym.
I gained a following on my fitness account, and my insights demonstrated my workout posts and personal posts were actually helping people! Many accounts saved my content and even shared it with friends. I was introduced to a woman named Paige Swenson, who worked at a company called Zyia. Zyia is a women's and mens activewear online store; they sell things from tank tops, shorts, and leggings, to hats, mats, and swim suits! They even have a children's clothing line. Paige was inspired by my fitness journey and my passion to familiarize other young people with correct forms and successful lifting plans. She wanted to bring me onto the team to become a Zyia representative.
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​Over many months, I worked with Paige to meet and discuss plans to post on Instagram. My goal was to post myself in Zyia activewear, and get my friends and family to buy clothing from the store. I would make 30% of my total sales. People who were interested in helping me would type in my code. I learned new techniques throughout my experience. I learned how to professionally communicate with my boss in a timely manner, how to create Facebook parties and partner with other representatives, and finally I learned how to target an audience successfully and bring clients to a business. Through this experience I worked on editing photographs, writing descriptive positive summaries about the clothing line, and engaging online with other team members.
In the future, I hope to gain more experience with digital marketing. Although this experience was with a smaller company with less learning components, I still was able to began to learn about sales and promoting a brand through social media. My knowledge in communication on platforms like Facebook have greatened and I have learned from other representatives various marketing tactics to increase views and income. I am thankful that I was able to learn more about my major doing something I love which is promoting fitness and lifting.