Meet Akilah Bailey

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Akilah Bailey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Akilah, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Major moves I’ve made in life where all driven by hope and confidence. Never being the prototype yet coming out doing the unexpected and doing it well. Those things shaped my mindset, it keeps me living on hope and possibility. I started a dance exercises class, that morphed into a wellness business that influenced me to become a fitness coach. My presentation, size, and occupation are not one that commutates Fit anything. Yet somehow, I didn’t let that stop me from fulfilling a need I deemed necessary for people like me. I did it, overcame the odds that came with it, won, lost, thru ups and downs I kept with it. That’s where my optimism came from…. It’s the experience of achieving victory when they thought you couldn’t win. Putting myself out there knowing the challenges that where ahead but standing tall to them fuels my determination. I took enough hits to know that even If something doesn’t work, I can figure out a way to make it work.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Putting together a puzzle requires figuring out where the pieces go, knowing what the picture looked like makes it easier. Unfortunately, we are not privy to our life at a glance. Instead, we get bits and pieces each day that are all a part of the puzzle called life. I had no idea that life as I know it would be like it is now. I’ve taken pieces of every experience I encountered as a tool to aid people in their wellness journey. Body Werk Fitness is more than a business, it’s more like ministry to me. It supports and influences body positivity, but it also gives hope to those with physical limitations. With Body Werk I love to have my clients focus more on how they feel rather than how they look. Getting pass the challenges of size and ability is how you can push a person towards an optimum outcome. That’s what I do! With my workout classes, energy, content, movement I come up with, information and tools I give, all serve a message of hope and possibility. With not just my coaching skills, but the run of my life has been a marker of prevail. Being completely transparent allowing my falls and raises to be seen so that I’m relatable to those who need my help. Many may know me now as Coach Akilah but in my personal life I have many hats. Home, I’m a wife to my amazing husband (Carse), in ministry I’m Pastor Akilah (Freedom House CC), at work I’m just Mrs. Bailey. I’ve been in early education for over 20 years now, so teaching is my passion. It goes right in line with instructing my workout classes. My workout classes are out the box and very energetic…that’s me BIG Energy.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Being consistent, I never quit or closed when it got bad. My clients know that no matter what I’m going to show up. 2, Passion must stay on, everything I do and create is done from love and wanting others to win. 3,Bing creative, you have to keep up with things going on but at the same time make them functional for you. If your going to start a fitness business it must be for the people and not you. In this filed so many are looking to do this because they seen what they can do for their own body. The ultimate success is when your clients gain life long skills.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Right now, I’m looking to land some collabs with plus size clothing brands and connect with other Body Inclusive trainers in my area. We need representation in the gyms and fitness centers.

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