She walked in on a Tuesday morning, sat down across from me, and didn’t take her jacket off. She was 52. She had been working out four days a week for almost twenty years. “I do everything they tell me to do,” she said. “And I still don’t feel good in my body.” That was the moment I realized the program she’d been handed was built for someone else, and the job in front of me was different than the one I’d trained for.
Nikki Polos has been having that conversation for thirty years. She started in synchronized swimming, moved into water aerobics, then into teaching land aerobics and personal training. She and her husband built a fitness business that grew from one independent health club into five locations across New York. She launched Workout Worthy as a virtual coaching platform during the pandemic, sold the chain to a private equity firm, and is now opening an 800-square-foot studio designed specifically for small-group sessions for midlife women. Three business models in three decades. One philosophy running through all of them.
If you are early in your coaching career and trying to figure out what kind of practice you want to build, Nikki’s arc is worth understanding before you start collecting certifications and chasing the widest possible client base.
