Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Allie Potter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Allie, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I’m a business owner, but I’m also a military spouse. As such, our family moves frequently (we recently moved across the country for the second time in less than two years!). Needless to say, transition and change are a regular part of my everyday life – and will be for the foreseeable future.
I used to see this constant transition as a barrier to building my business. I’ll admit, I still get nervous every time we have to pack up and move – because even for a business that operates primarily online, it feels like starting over in a place where it’s likely that no one’s ever heard of fuelED. It’s easy to think, “Why do I put myself through this? Why don’t I just work a ‘regular’ job?”
But I’ve decided to change my tune, and start seeing the change as an opportunity rather than a burden. Being a part of more communities means more people get to learn about fuelED. And in a lot of ways, entrepreneurship actually affords me opportunities that traditional employment likely wouldn’t. It allows me to be both a supportive partner AND a career-focused woman building my own professional legacy. The need to be flexible and “go with the flow” as a military spouse, while challenging of course, has prepared me for the uncertainty that accompanies building a business. It’s helped me become more comfortable with the unknown, so that I can continue to push forward.
My “word of the year” for 2023 has been STRETCH. I’ve worked to stretch myself – both physically (as we get older, we could all use a little more mobility in our lives!) and mentally (regularly getting out of my comfort zone). I think that the more we lean into change, rather than resist it, the more adaptable and resilient we become.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m the owner & head coach of fuelED, a company that provides nutrition education and support – helping people develop sustainable, healthy habits for long-term success. After beginning my career in nonprofit management, I followed my passion for healthy eating and living to work on growing fuelED full-time. Nutrition is about so much more than just weight loss – and my team and I love to show people just how freeing that knowledge can be!
We specialize in personal nutrition coaching, working one-on-one with people to help them use nutrition and habit-based behavior change to reach their health and wellness goals. We’ve got a small-but-mighty team of certified nutrition coaches to match you with the person best suited to you and your goals.
We also partner with gyms and fitness studios to, through nutrition, help them create an additional revenue stream while giving members the best chance of achieving the transformations they’re seeking. We also now offer employee wellness initiatives to help teams become their best selves – both in and outside of the workplace!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Experimenting – Trying a bunch of things, seeking what sticks – and then doubling down on what’s successful. (In other words, failing early and often so we can get to the good stuff.) 2. Outsourcing – Figuring out what I do best, where my time is best spent, and outsourcing the rest. I have absolutely no business designing my own graphics, for example.
3. Setting realistic expectations – Running a business isn’t supposed to be easy. I know we’re bombarded with messages about overnight success, but that’s not the norm. Slow and steady growth is what works!
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, I’ll tell you this: while running your own business is awesome, it’s also very lonely. I was entirely unprepared for how isolated I’d feel making decisions on my own. This was especially true at the beginning, but remains true even as I continue to build and grow my team. It’s only through seeking out meaningful connection with others who are “in the same boat,” and realizing that we all feel this way from time to time, that I’ve started to manage these feelings. My loved ones are great, don’t get me wrong; but it’s really my fellow business owners who have gotten me to this point.
Seek out like-minded people, be willing to get vulnerable with them, and the journey won’t be so lonely.
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?
If you’re an employer looking for ways to bring nutrition and wellness into your workplace, we’d love to connect. By partnering with fuelED, you can help your team develop the healthy habits needed to become their best selves—both on and off the clock. We offer a wide range of options, too; though they are best suited for teams or departments of less than 50 people.
Please reach out to me directly ([email protected]) for more information or to chat further. We’d love to help you reduce the costs of employee sickness, increase productivity, and improve employee recruitment and retention — all while building community and connection within your team!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://befuelednutrition.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/befuelednutrition/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/befuelednutrition
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/befuelednutrition
