Meet Amber Fraley of Lebanon/Gallatin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Fraley.

Hi Amber, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
After having complications of pregnancy mainly. Brought on by poor health habits and being overweight, I decided to make some changes in my health. Wanting to set a good example for my 2 daughters I began my journey of working to improve my nutrition and exercising. Eventually, I lost a total of 70 pounds from my highest weight and I felt transformed! I was enjoying exercise for the first time in my life which eventually led to getting certified and teaching my own classes- Zumba, SHiNE Dance Fitness & PiYo. As more and more people asked me for guidance with their own health goals, I wanted to find the knowledge and skills to help them so I became a Certified Health & Wellness Coach through Wellcoaches.

Before getting into the health & fitness space, I worked in the nonprofit/social services/mental health industry. I felt like I was totally out of my wheelhouse of expertise as I signed up for my training. Little did I know that health coaching skills were right in line with the mental health work I had been doing, using evidenced-based mental health modalities that I had studied in my Psychology undergraduate program and practiced in my mental health case management position. This gave me great confidence that this was a great pivot for me in my career.

As I went through the training, I realized there weren’t a lot of “health coach” positions out there at the time, especially not in the small Kentucky community I lived in. So I began to figure out how to start my own LLC even though I had no desire really to have my own business. However I felt so strongly that coaching was something I meant to do, I quit my mental health job and started Positively Well Coaching 5 years. ago. Immediately after finishing my training, I started coaching people in my community and continued teaching fitness classes. I was full of passion and wanted to continue growing and learning. I decided to start preparing to get credentialed with the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching to hopefully set myself up for more opportunities in the future as this agency was pursuing the ability for coaches to bill insurance. After passing my exam, I then got certified through Precision Nutrition to further my knowledge in nutrition.

2 years later, I relocated to Tennessee because of my husband’s new job. I found a great gym in Lebanon that gave me the opportunity to teach fitness and offer health coaching so I decided not to transfer my business to my new state. I have now been at Sports Village Fitness since 2019 and have continued my learning journey by adding Pilates Mat & Reformer and Pop Pilates to my fitness certifications as well as ACE Certified Weight Loss Specialist to my coaching certifications.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think there are always challenges if the journey is worthwhile and I’ve had my share like anyone else. Early on my struggle was learning to establish and run a business. I really loved coaching and teaching fitness but I didn’t love the marketing and bookkeeping parts of owning a business. I also didn’t like how consuming it was to own a business. I’m naturally a person of balance and being a business owner doesn’t lend itself to being balanced. It’s a pretty all consuming process. I have learned that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Even though I believe I have the ability to run a successful business, I have learned that I don’t want to and that’s okay.

My next challenge came when I moved to Tennessee. After working so hard to establish my new business, I literally had to start all over with both my fitness and health coaching. Most people don’t realize that in this field, it takes time in a new setting to build trust and find new clients to serve. Thankfully I found a great gym to be a part of but it was still a slow process and during that time of building, the pandemic hit and shut the gym down for a period of time which was a big setback.

Another huge hurdle I had to deal with were some health issues. I was struggling with some significant fatigue that seemed to worsen over a couple of years and the pandemic slowed the process of me getting into a doctor to follow up on the issue. By the time I did, I had quit teaching a cardio class I loved because I couldn’t physically keep up and was experiencing many other symptoms including major headaches, heart palpitations, irritability, mild depression, weight gain, loss of strength and many other frustrating symptoms. I felt like I lost the person that I had worked toward being for years! I was leading people to be healthy and strong and I felt anything but healthy and strong which really was a major head game. Thankfully now, I feel a lot better and am working on getting back to feeling my best again now that I have my energy and positive mindset back. It’s hard but I’m getting there!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets me apart from other health/fitness professionals is that I have struggled with being obese and unhealthy. Being healthy and fit definitely was not in my nature growing up or even in my early adulthood. I tried to lose weight and failed many times. I tried exercise and hated it! I feel like that helps me understand others who are currently in that place. My approach to help others is to seek to understand them first, let them choose their goals and support them in a non judgmental way. I like to help people find a healthy balance and don’t push extremes that they likely will not stick to.

I’m also known for my holistic approach to health goals. Because of my mental health background, I know that we cannot physically make strides forward if we are struggling mentally and emotionally. It’s all connected. So people seek me out as a coach to help with things like weight loss of course, but they also work with me on stress reduction, life transitions, life balance, self-confidence and more. My goal is to help people be healthy in every way and that goes way beyond the scale and body measurements.

How do you think about luck?
I believe that people are placed in our lives for a reason, sometimes it’s for a season and sometimes just a moment. I look back at some key people that were placed in my path that helped me move forward in my fitness and coaching. When I was teaching a fitness class a random lady came to my class and I introduced myself and went about my business. At the end, she came up to me and gave me some great positive feedback in “lingo” that clued me in that she had some knowledge in the field. I found out she was a kinesiology professor at a local college and she told me she taught her students how to teach group fitness. I thanked her for not telling me that beforehand as my nerves would have been shot! I took the opportunity to ask her to meet me for coffee so I could ask her what she knew about health coaching. She helped me figure out what program to go to and connected me with a great man in the area who helped guide me in starting my LLC and even designed my logo. Since then, that lady has become a dear friend and mentor through the years who has helped me with every step along the way through her knowledge, encouragement and support.

Another chance meeting happened when I taught my first fitness class in Gallatin. A lady introduced herself after the class and was so kind to ask if she could pass my info along to some connections of hers in the area to help me get established teaching more. The next day I was contacted by the owner of Sports Village where I am working today. I met the owner shortly after and felt like she was just the kind of person I wanted to work for. She has given me the opportunity to share my skills and grow at Sports Village and I’m so thankful!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sportsvillagefitness.com/health-coaching
• Instagram: @positivelywellamber
• Facebook: @PositivelyWellAmber

Image Credits
Jessica Campbell Photography & Laura Trantum