There are only a few people on the face of this earth that can actually tell me what to do and I will do it. I think most people are full of shit and don’t know what is going on. So, if you are going to tell me what to do, it better work, and there better be a method to your madness. And that person, who HAS a method is Cathy freaking Savage! Cathy has been by my side as a friend, coach, and confidant for 20 years because she knows her shit!
Since the early 1990s, Cathy has been the pioneer in successful coaching and who created the TEAM CONCEPT in the industry. Her coaching programs were the first and most prominent all-inclusive global training program of its kind.
I am so excited that I got this woman to come and talk with me and give you guys some insight on what makes a great coach because she is that great coach. She has been this amazing coach to thousands of women and has been by my side rooting me on since we started working together back in 2005. Cathy was my first ever coach, and now she is a mentor and lifelong friend. And having been in this industry for 30+ years, she knows what it takes to make a great coach and she knows how to encourage others to find that great coach that can help them reach their goals, gain confidence, and get them to where they want to be, the right way!
When Cathy started in the fitness and bodybuilding/competing industry, no one had coaches. People had these big burly trainer dudes. They didn’t let you talk to other women or show your body before the show, and for Cathy, it didn’t seem right AT ALL! So, she knew that there had to be another way to do this. So, through her experience seeing what needed to be changed led her to start doing it completely differently. She went freaking rogue in the ‘bodybuilding’ industry and that sisterhood that formed all started because of her!
All these women had this same goal’ But back then it was so different, and it was considered this weird thing to do! People in their lives didn’t understand but when these women got together, there was this beautiful bond to relate to one another and support one another in these groups and in this safe environment! It was more than awards and the wins and magazine covers, It was women becoming friends who were from totally different parts of the world and would not have met otherwise!! We all shared this same bond that lasted longer than the show which grew into lifelong bonds and relationships! (take Cathy and me!!) This wasn’t her initial intention when she started this, but it created this true sisterhood.
Now the reason why Cathy was my coach was that I loved her approach. Of course, we heard horror stories about the competing world, but she made it known that we don’t have to look like bodybuilders, and we don’t have to be as strict. Instead, beauty was a part of this. If you go to extremes you are not going to look pretty! As a result of not eliminating food groups from a nutritional standpoint, the girls that worked with Cathy would show up beautiful!! The girls looked different and that is because of ‘Good Fat Oil’! Our nutrition, our stress analysis, our mindset that no one was talking about back then. That is what we did and that is what we focused on. We focused more on aesthetics than leanness. We focused on confidence!
‘My mother told me to be a certain way to be. Confident, charismatic, and not to rely on the physical. When I instilled this in coaching, women showed up differently! So, I implemented this into the philosophy of coaching, that it’s not all about what we put into our mouth. And it worked’ – Cathy Savage
I truly believe that we were the pioneers of that to find their voice, their charisma, and their strength. If they can do this, what else can they do in their lives” It was a total game changer!
People think that in order to achieve something it has to be extreme! The sorority of suffering we call it. You want to suffer; you want to be dramatic’ And women joined Cathy and her organization thinking after they got started that what they were doing was NOT a diet. They didn’t think they were eating ‘healthy’ to their standards. So, a lot of these women had to be reprogramed in the way they thought about food and fix this mindset that you have to stay on the struggle bus. We showed women that dieting does not have to be extreme to be solid.
I say this all the time and I always stand by it’ ‘You can go long; you can go hard. But you can’t go long and hard.’ And if your current coach is telling you the opposite of this and telling you hard is the only way’ it’s time to look elsewhere because they’re not going to last long in this industry!
The way Cathy coached was so masterful when you really stop to think about it. She was using food as fuel. That way, when the body needed to respond closer to the show, the bodies started to react. And other coaches didn’t get that. They thought that more was better. And instead, we treated the person as a whole person. We are more cerebral with our philosophies to get people into the best shape of their life! This is a lifestyle change! You want to wear a swimsuit on vacation, etc. Ok! Let’s do this! It is going to be the same philosophy, you just don’t have to go to the extreme, you respect the body, and fuel the body to change it!
I just don’t understand why it’s such a hard concept!
The goal of a good coach is to get someone to maintenance. Not to rock the body like never before! We want to get them to level 5 so when something comes up you just have to tweak a few things to crank it up a bit. BUTTT! If you act like a race car level 10 all the time, your body is going to say I GIVE UP, SCREW YOU! I am going to inflame you and hold water and hold onto all things that are good and go in relation mode. So bringing you to maintenance and keeping you there is an art form and you have to have someone who gets it and understands that this lifestyle is really about maintenance!
Stay in that beautiful zone! Know what works for my body and stay there! If every woman could conceive of that, they wouldn’t beat themselves up for eating a brownie and having a glass of wine with friends on the weekend!
Ladies’ When we have a lot of these Insta-coaches that are promoting themselves versus the clients they serve, that’s also a red flag! And unfortunately, there is a LOT of that out there. So, you guys just have to do your due diligence of who is serving and getting results to a multitude of people, not just one type of person. And those are the people you want to align with the people who have had a lot of experience with transforming the lives of women in all facets! There is no one way to do it, so you have to work with a coach who has worked with a plethora of people and how they can work with them!
Patience, persistence, resilience, and consistency through tough days and you will find beauty in the final project. You just have to have the idea that this process is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. And the transformation of any kind takes patience!
Our philosophy really told the story of being your healthiest. ‘I want you to have a family later, I want you to be healthy later.’ And we want you to take your experiences with this journey and pivot it into your passions. This road for women is not going to be an easy road. It’s not all sunshine, dolphins, and rainbows, and it is really about kind of embracing those moments but understanding that real resilience starts when you have those challenges. And you have the confidence to get through it.
When you hire a coach, that coach is guiding you, but you have to decide what way you are going to go! And we did a really good job of pouring that belief into our clients, and still do, that they can do anything. But you have to believe in yourselves! We can guide you, but we cannot believe FOR you. We are there for your support system, not your cheerleader. We have to be the strategist for you, but you have to be the one who believes in themselves enough to listen to a coach and understand this is a project and a strategy!
With a coach, this is a collaboration! You have to like the person who is coaching you! And there should be NO fear there! There is no, ‘Kim do this, do that!’ It’s a collaboration, not do this or die thing okay!’ It’s going to be more of a, ‘How do you feel when you do this”, instead of DO DO DO’
When I started this, I didn’t go into a fitness competition thinking it was going to change the trajectory of my life. But it also changed my thought process! It is a strategy. Your body is a business. You cannot bleed a business dry and expect it to be prosperous. You have to take care of your body. You have to take care of your mind. You have to respect the process and you have to respect who you are working with.’I will say this with full confidence. And you know, I don’t just say things, I only say things that I truly mean from my heart. But there is not another person on this planet that I’ve had a professional relationship with, that has been such an enriching experience as I have with you. Because you’ve been there through the good times, the bad times, you were that shoulder for me to cry on, that logic that I needed at the time where something was a challenge, and your loyalty, your education, your wisdom, all of these things were wonderful for me. But they’re even more impeccable for the people that you work with. Because you want a coach who has all of those qualities. And let me tell you, that doesn’t really exist too much anymore. It’s a rare, rare quality, and you are a gem! You are a consistent, solid person. And you’re an incredible coach.
So, for anyone listening here, if you’re on the fence about working with Kim, I can wholeheartedly tell you that you’re not just going to get a one-dimensional anything you’re going to get everything you need to be successful with your own transformation! ‘
What is one thing that makes you feel magical’
Well, one thing that makes me feel magical is being a mother. I know, that’s probably l going to get some eye rolls. But it’s really the one thing that I know that I’ve just been really pretty darn great at. It’s the one thing that lights me up in a way that makes me feel that I don’t have to be the main character all the time. And I can see the actual legacy of my work if you will. And so when I say being a mother, it’s yes, it’s to my two children, but it’s also to all of you. And so being that mother character is really what makes me feel magical, whether it’s my own children or the 1000’s of women that I’ve been able to work with. It’s really been an honor.
LINKS
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website: https://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
Cathy Savage Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/cathysavageofficial/
Cathy Savage Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/CathySavageOfficial
Cathy Savage Fitness/Media Coaching
https://savagecoachingagency.com/
