Career Champion: Taylor Freetage

August 1, 2018 Cami Fannin

Introducing a new series to this bloggity: Career Champions! One thing I love about the blogging community is meeting incredible, strong, beautiful, courageous and wildly talented, smart, innovative, entrepreneurial boss babes, chief chicas, inspiring women. Every month, I'm going to spotlight one of these incredible role models and share a little bit about what makes them amazing.

This month's champion is the lovely Taylor Freetage! We both went to TCU but never met until we connected on Instagram. She posts the best workouts, fitness tips and is so real + authentic. To top it off, she is so sweet and embodies what it means to be a boss babe! I can't wait for you to get to know her!

1) Anyone who finds your IG knows you're all about fitness and healthy living. Is being a fitness blogger your full-time?

Currently, health and fitness blogging isn't a full-time thing for me it is more of a hobby right now. However, I do hope to pursue it full-time in the future. I really love creating content and writing about health and wellness because it's something I am passionate about. I also love connecting with other women who are passionate about healthy living and self-love.

2) How did you get into fitness? Can you share more about your journey?

Initially I got into fitness because my freshman year of college I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. It honestly was the darkest time of my life. I felt like I had no purpose, I was becoming depressed because of how anxious I always was, I almost transferred schools, and I was constantly worried and paranoid. The only thing that made me feel less anxious was working out. It was a release for me and a place where all I could think about was the music in my earphones and the different exercises I was doing. The more I worked out, the more at peace I felt mentally, and once I saw how it was affecting my mental state, I was hooked.

3) How do you balance life, working out and maintaining your IG presence?

Balance is hands down the most important thing in my life. I am that person who is a total product of their environment so if my life is out of alignment, everything feels off. Every day I carve out time for the things that are most important to me. There are multiple factors that contribute to a persons overall wellness (spiritual, emotional, occupational, intellectual, social, physical, environmental) and every day I try to do minimum one thing that contributes to each category. Of course on some days there's more time spent in some categories over others, but generally I make a conscious effort to fill each bucket with as much energy as I can.

4) You just started teaching yoga too! Tell us about that.

I am currently teaching Yoga Sculpt, which is a heated, full-body, high intensity class that uses dumbbells and your body weight for resistance training. It. is. intense. The only "yoga" part of class is the 10 minute warm up at the beginning, so the name "yoga sculpt" is kinda misleading because it really isn't yoga at all. I am in the process right now of completing my 200 hour teacher training, so by August I will be certified to teach the full vinyasa yoga classes too! I love teaching and I honestly owe so much of my self growth to teaching because I have met so many amazing people in the process and it was totally out of my comfort zone at first, which is always good.

5) What's your other advice to women wanting to get into fitness, but don't know where to start?

I am so passionate about this because this applies to every single person. Everyone, no matter who you are, starts as a beginner. My advice is simple - don't give any of your energy to thinking about what others will think of you. The biggest thing I hear from women is that they are scared to go into the weight room, scared to go into the gym because of the intimidating environment, and just scared to make a change because of what others might think. My second tip would be to find out what type of exercise you absolutely 100% love. When I first started my fitness journey the only thing I would see on instagram was lifting super heavy to attain a certain body, but I didn't love that type of training so I found myself burning out. Now I do a lot of cross-training between resistance training, yoga, and cardio and I couldn't be happier. Find what you love to do because there's not one way to fit.

6) Any insight into building your Instagram and leveraging that presence to encourage others?

My biggest advice for building your Instagram and encouraging others through your page is to authentically add value to other peoples lives. In every post, every picture, and every thing you share it should encourage, inspire, and be genuine. Social media has a bad reputation as something that is evil, but there is a way to use it to do some serious good for the world. We all have the power to empower others at the tips of our fingers and that is so amazing. Now more than ever we need to be uplifting and loving each other, so take whatever it is you are passionate about and add value and enlightenment into someone else's life. If you focus more on adding something amazing to the life of just one person, people will come to you for things that they don't get as much of in the rest of the Instagram world.

7) Go back to your time at college graduation: what would you tell yourself now?

Breathe. Because everything is going to work out the way it is supposed to. As a college student it is so easy to get caught up in expectations from yourself and from others, but it's important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Right here and right now is all you have. Do your best in the present moment and rest easy knowing that you did everything you could and that it is enough.

8) How do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration through books and podcasts. I am a huge self-help book junkie but I prefer to call them "perspective changing books." I give most of my attention to books and podcasts about mindset, women entrepreneurs, content creators, and stories that inspire me and give me a different perspective about life and what I could do to constantly level up and grow. A few of my favorite books are The Power of Now, The Untethered Soul, and the Power of Intention. My favorite podcasts that I highly recommend to any women who is craving a little bit of boss babe perspective are The Goal Digger, Bucci Radio, and Earn Your Happy.

9) Who is your role model?

So, I actually have two role models. My first one is my overall life role model and that is my sweet mom. My mom raised my sister and I on her own and did everything in her power to make us happy, even if that meant she wouldn't eat so we could have McDonalds. She is the strongest, hardest working, and most caring woman I know and I strive to be like her in everything I do.

My health and fitness role model is hands down Anna Victoria. I found her Instagram a few years ago and she embodies everything I believe Instagram should be used for. She is authentic, raw, and genuine in everything that she posts and the community she has built around self-love is inspiring to me.