Meet Jessica Winkelhausen Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Winkelhausen Smith.

Hi Jessica, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a daughter of a Marine & a motherless daughter today. I spent my early childhood moving a lot and living the military lifestyle. We lived on bases all across the United States and Adak Alaska. I never remember having a happy home. I had parents that didn’t get along and chaos was always part of my upbringing.

I had good parents & I now know they were doing the best they knew how. Since I was a little girl, I longed for a life that looked & felt so much different than my own. And deep down in my soul, I knew that someday I would create a life that I loved. I didn’t have many life tools, Very little knowledge. But I had the desire, work ethic, and a determination in my soul that was on fire to experience life on a level I had never seen.

While there are many seasons to my life, I’m going to briefly share the seasons that changed me. The seasons that took my breath away & even a season that almost killed me. In 1997 at the age of 17, I had my daughter Brionna with my high school sweetheart. I think it goes without saying that having a baby this young was scary and hard. I grew up with my daughter. I made a lot of mistakes. Those mistakes created a lot of guilt and shame. Emotions that I had no idea how to process and heal from.

But I tried really hard to make something of myself for her and for us. I graduated college with my Criminal Justice Degree in 2004 (the first person in my family to go to college) & soon after accepted a career job with Intel. Although it wasn’t the career I had planned for, it was one that I was thankful to have as situations in my personal space became heavy quickly. In 2007, my mom became very sick with cancer. We lost her suddenly after she had a stroke and went into a coma.

She died in my arms the night that I got her out of the hospital and into hospice in our hometown. She was only 49. I was 26. My twin siblings were 10 and now parentless. It was devastating. Hard. Scary. For the next few years, I lost my way. It was terrible. Sad. Dark. My depression was so bad, so bad that I thought it was going to kill me.

I left my job at Intel after I had my mom’s funeral. I couldn’t sit in a cubical anymore doing a job that I had no interest or passion in. Mom died and I started to believe that a really big part of me did too. So, I packed my bags and called my best friend, and moved to Nashville, TN. I told her that it would only be for the summer. The summer ended but I knew that I wasn’t ready to go back home and face the reality of her being gone. So, I stayed & I started to heal.

I knew this process would be hard, but if I chose to face the weight of what felt like the entire world and walk through the things that made me feel so sick & scared inside, I would eventually be able to reach so many others and help them. I realized that my story is my gold nugget & my healing was a lifeline for someone else. Jesus and weight training have always been a big part of my story.

They are two things that I know consistently make me feel better. I created Winks Fitness & Wellness in 2009 taking my first client in Franklin, TN, It was a special space to train clients and help them grow, heal, become stronger, and tackle the hard things that they faced by lifting weights and showing up for themselves. I’ve had the honor and privilege to train hundreds of clients across the US and each one has experienced major breakthroughs in their life because of the health & wellness programs that I created for them.

I’m going to switch gears here for a minute. So, hang on… During this time, I was also fighting the State of California for custody of my little sister. During this process lost everything. I lost my great grandmother’s estate to pay for the lawyers, I lost childhood friends because of a money grab that was happening between a family in our small town who were trying to take the kids and also the money, and I ended up losing my job because of how much time I was missing due to court cases.

I was so angry that my mom didn’t have a Will. After she died our lives were a mess… I think this season was harder than losing my mom because I was trying to find myself, I was deeply grieving & I was taking responsibility for another human being. It was frightening. There were so many nights that I would sit in my room and quietly cry… And I could hear my sister sitting in her room deep belly crying too. It was such a lonely time. But in my loneliness, I found Jesus. And, his promise for my life is what I held onto. It gave me HOPE and I hadn’t had that in years.

Winks Fitness and Wellness was the first of many business adventures that I have created. I now own a gym in Roseville, CA. Out of this gym, I launched The Sisterhood Collective. These gatherings have had up to 400 people who come excited for our panel of speakers that cover topics that most aren’t comfortable talking about but need to.

From how we deal with our shame and guilt to how we stay accountable to our goals, dreams, and desires for our life. No topic is off-limits. We love talking about the hard things. During the evening we provide good food, good conversations, cocktails, and shopping. I want our guests to leave feeling inspired, hope-filled, and connected in the good stuff and the hard stuff.

During Covid, it became a challenge to build community. I knew that we needed one another and that staying connected was vital. So, I launched my podcast In Every Season. My podcast has the same heartbeat as the other businesses I own.

It’s a creative way to stay connected and talk about things fun, hard, silly, and current so that I can process my beliefs, feelings, and perspectives with others who may be completely different than my own. Simply put, I wanted to create a safe place to connect and grow. I have the honor of having my incredible co-host Tess Deterding, Owner/Attorney at Deterding Law and a local Sergeant.

A few things are in the works. I’m getting ready to open Smithville & Co. in Loomis, CA. This is a unique project where I’ve taken an old smog shop in a small town and flipped it into a stunning healthy eats, healthy drinks & cool hang-out place. The vision is to have multiple locations across the US. Franklin is on my list of cities next.

Creating wealth and health by doing things I love and I’m passionate about means everything to me. My husband and I own a real estate and investment company where we are expanding rapidly in the next few years. With investments in Bartlett, TN & CA. We believe through our investments, connections, and visions we will be able to create other unique ways to connect people, their dreams, and communities across the US. We are invested in creating generational wealth as part of our legacy for our children.

I wanted to spend some time sharing the first part of my life because those seasons were so hard. They lacked joy, direction, dreaming & hope and I know firsthand that we all experience these feelings & seasons. I feel like a lot of times people who are on the move creating businesses, who have wealth, the fancy this and shiny that rarely ever share the true journey of how they arrived or the hard things they encountered along the way.

As messy as it can get, and sometimes still gets it’s important to face the mountain before you and believe that you have everything you need to climb it. Your mountain may be a divorce, financial stress, sickness, loss of job, not being able to have a baby, drugs, alcohol, rejection, abandonment, depression, anxiety, lack of confidence, anger, fear, sadness, or death of a loved one, betrayal, rage, lack of hope.

The list goes on and on… Whatever your “hard thing” is… It was NOT put there to stop you. It was put there so you would learn and develop the tools and character, spirit, and strength you would need to conquer it. And, when you do. Because you can and you will. Remember where you started. Remind yourself that you are made to do hard things. and then give your wisdom to the next person.

No matter what you do for a living, how much money you make, what color of skin you have, or where you come from. You hold a GOLD NUGGET and someone around you needs you to be transparent and share your journey with them.

It’s always a little scary to let strangers into my space but I hope that by doing so you are encouraged to do the things that God has placed on your heart and to chase every single dream that you have big or small. You are designed to do incredible things and this world needs us to show up and dream. This world needs us to build those dreams.

This world needs us to connect and help one another live our dreams.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a business owner always has its bumps in the road. I’d say these last couple of years have been the most challenging.

When you’re not around people as much as you’re used to and operating in business per usual you can lose your creativity and your sense of humor in all things. At least, that’s how I’ve felt.

I want to be in a community with people doing life with people and growing with people. I appreciate this more than ever now.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Jessica Winkelhausen is a leading expert in the field of fitness, health and wellness, transformations of the body, mind & spirit, mindfulness, and self-love.

As a Pro fitness athlete, author, successful entrepreneur, corporate wellness coach, fitness trainer, life coach & motivational speaker, she offers a variety of life tools to promote sustainable health, wellness & spiritual well-being.

Through her authentic coaching methods, and programs, she has helped countless people connect with their souls, have transformations with their bodies, strengthen their minds, and fall in love with themselves and their lives. She creates a culture that is undeniably powerful and positive. Her energy and zest for life touch you from the moment you experience it.

Most recently, Jessica has taken her passion for human potential and created a safe and exclusive fitness studio in Sacramento, CA. Winks Fitness and Wellness, a women’s empowerment fitness community. She coaches elite business professionals, moms, moms-to-be, students, 65+, children, fitness and bikini competitors, and those with special needs.

Each program is created to deliver results in strength training, agility & conditioning with an emphasis on mindfulness, community, and mindset. Jessica reaches and transforms thousands of women per year.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I believe people will be more open to investing in their health.

Body, mind & spirit. It is my hope that through my gym, podcast, gatherings, and healthy eat businesses people will start to understand and value the importance of healthy living & the benefits of making it a priority.

Contact Info:

• Email: jessica@winksfitness.com
• Instagram: @fitnesswink
• Facebook: jessica winkelhausen wbff pro