From Real Estate to Personal Trainer at age 55 w/ Heather

IGs to follow: heather gregory realtor, conniebegonnie, dr. ashley dwyer, amanda.thebe, mike doehla, jeb

She spent decades avoiding gyms, then a single question lit the fuse: which burns more calories, cardio or weight training? Heather’s answer, plus the surprising reaction she saw online, pushed her from curious to committed and straight into a personal trainer certification. What follows is a real-world look at how a midlife career change can work when you stop chasing hacks and start building skills.

We talk about hiring an online coach across the country, why logging food is uncomfortable but powerful, and how “eat more” can be the missing step for body recomposition when you’ve been stuck in the fat-free mindset for years. Heather breaks down what it’s like to learn macros from scratch, train with purpose instead of punishment cardio, and finally feel in control of results. If you’re searching for practical guidance on online coaching, macro tracking, strength training for women, or how to become a personal trainer later in life, this conversation connects the dots.

We also get into the bigger problem: fitness misinformation. From influencer hormone drama to supplement noise, we share how conferences, mentorship, and a strong coaching community sharpen your critical thinking so you can help clients with integrity. Heather lays out her next steps, including nutrition coaching, training out of a home gym, and starting with friends through word of mouth.

Subscribe for more honest coaching conversations, share this with a friend who’s thinking about a career pivot, and leave a review with the biggest fitness myth you want us to tackle next.

Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world!

Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Announcements

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up.

Meet Heather And Her Backstory

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Howdy, y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we have Miss Heather, CPT 1301. How are we doing today?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Awesome. It's a great day.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

It is a lovely day. We are on the opposite sides of the states. I'm here in California. You're in South Carolina. But I asked you before this, you don't talk funny. And why don't you talk funny? So why don't you tell us your story about where you're at? And I'm just giving you shit. But you got a really cool story and excited to learn more about you.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Thank you. Um, so actually, I'm originally from California for 35 years. Um, lived mostly, well, all over Southern California, went to college there, um, started my my first career there as a teacher, and then decided to move to Fort Lauderdale because that was where my family was going. And I figured it was too far to be too far away from them. So I moved to Fort Lauderdale and continued teaching there and retired early, about 10 years ago. Decided I was going to change the world of real estate and be a realtor with integrity, and started real estate 10 years ago. Um, still very active in that world and I love it because I am changing the world. Um, and then I met Aram about five years ago when I turned 50. So I met him four and a half years ago. Um and just pretty much ate up all the knowledge he gave me. He's he's an amazing coach, and he started the Real Coaches Summit. Um, I went to that the very first year, being brand new into fitness world, really. I had never really worked out. I hated gyms. I was the one who he he always tells people she didn't even want to step foot in a gym. Um, but I did. And um, so I started going to the Real Coaches Summit. I've been to every single one, met amazing people, have been able to really heighten my knowledge of like this past year was a lot of women's issues and things, and that was really, really interesting. Um, I've got to like fangirl. Um, I met Mike Dola there, Jeb Stewart Johnston, um, Andrew Coates, all these people that now, you know, I can see every year and be really excited to give them a hug and say hello.

Cardio Versus Weights Sparks Action

SPEAKER_00 3:05

And Aram posted a story that asked um which burns more calories, cardio or weight training. And his next story was I can't something like I can't believe how many fitness professionals chose weight training. And I was like, that's it, I'm getting certified. So he told me to go to show up fitness and I finished and passed the test for the first course. It was super, super valuable, and now I'm certified.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

And there's a lot to unpack with that. And I want to start with what motivated you to seek out a coach? Because I think that can be really valuable for our listeners because when you found Aram, you were in Florida. And yet, as we know, he's in California. So how did you serendipitously meet up with him? Was it an ad? Was it a post? Was it just popping into your stories? How did that happen?

Hiring An Online Coach From Afar

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Well, actually, um, I lived upstairs from a woman that she's an attorney, but she also did um bikini competitions and would post pictures every so often of herself with the different weights that she would weigh. And you could see, like, even though she weighed more, she was way more fit and things like that. And I was always sort of inspired by that. Not that I'll get in a bikini, but just inspired by that. So I had texted her because I was tired of, you know, weighing what I weighed and feeling like I was working out really hard and doing all these things. And she's she gave me a ROM's information. And her exact words were, he's tough, but he's the best. Um so I reached out to a Rom a week before I was going on vacation with my family, and he says, write everything down. He he gave me his app that he uses. He said, Log your food. And I'm like, I don't know what a macro is. I I don't know any of this. And he's like, just log it, like estimate. And you know, I'm putting in like bites, half servings, all these weird things that I'm eating. And um he uh looked it over and it came down to that I wasn't eating enough. And so all of a sudden he gave me all these calories. And I was like, What the hell? Can I swear on here? Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, I was like, what the fuck? And the first thing he says is, I'd like to see you eat at least low fat yogurt, not fat-free yogurt. And I was like, Oh, you're fucking nuts. Like this, I'm from the fat-free generation. This isn't gonna happen, and I'm never gonna eat breakfast. And lo and behold, I did, and had like within eight months, huge body recomp um, went from being, I mean, I lost, I lost, obviously lost a lot of weight because I probably my my log was probably completely inaccurate because I didn't know how to log my food. And um, so I lost a lot of weight. I went to the gym. I went with my neighbor, she showed me around a gym. And I hired a coach to help me understand like that you, you know, you can eat, you need to train, how to train. Um, and you know, even though he's online and in California, he's been probably the one of the most valuable assets to my life.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And I think that's so cool.

Why Conferences Accelerate Learning

SPEAKER_01 6:37

And and it really highlights the stat that I talk a lot about in my book, where 90% of trainers quit within the first year because you've already done so much more than numerous trainers, and you just recently got certified. So when you look at you hired a coach, you get to see about how he or she communicates with you, being on time. And and from that side of the equation, you know, Rom's awesome and he's great, he's professional. He's he's hard like me in the sense that you know, at tough love and he's very vulgar. And I just we we mesh and we did a great podcast talking about it, and that's why I think that you know we get along so well. But for some, they they it may not, you know, it may not work with them. But the fact that you get to analyze that from a different lens now that you're gonna be a coach, you see why all that stuff is super important, and and he's doing what we want to do, which is get those referrals. He didn't tell his clients, oh, you got to go out there and give me a bunch of referrals, it was just natural. And then the second thing that you're doing, which a lot of trainers don't do, is you get that hands-on learning. So you've been to now four or five of these coaches summits where you're seeing the top names in the industry, whether if it's like you said, Andrew Coates on the social media side, he's in the trenches, he's doing 50 hours a week, or you know, an actual hormone specialist, not just some influencer who's trying to sell you some gut health stuff. And then, and then the most the cool thing about these is you get to interact with them and you go and you chat with them, and then and then you're like, holy crap, this is really cool. And and so it's almost like the the problem with what you're experiencing is you're getting this like little sphere of like that's how it should be. And I just really feel for a lot of trainers out there because they isolate themselves, they read a book and they're like, Well, what the heck do I do? And so let's talk a little bit about your next journey and and what you envision your personal training slash nutrition career looking like. Third

Training Friends And Women In Midlife

SPEAKER_01 8:24

career.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I know, right? So I I can sell you houses and keep you fit. Um basically, I think like my driving force behind this now is um being the age that I am, I'll be 55 this year. I have a lot of friends that have a lot of misinformation. And um, you know, and don't don't get me wrong, like I've I've I've told them, you know, here's here's a ROM. Go go to him. He's great. But I feel like a lot of people, you know, that's a step maybe they're not willing to take. So so I'm I'm close to them. I'm here. I have an amazing gym built out in my in my garage that I'm more than happy to train out of. You know, I I have everything to progress and regress, um, the movements. I I understand, you know, the the basics. And I mean, I've been there, I've been in the trenches. I I can go to a gym now and and see when somebody is their form is is not proper and I I question it. Um but I think my next thing, I'm also working on the nutrition certification right now, is I'd really love to just get my friends involved and and let them see how good they can feel, how doing the cardio, doing the walking, or or um, you know, oh well, I just ate this today. And, you know, the counting calories, that mental thing in your head that you're doing, I feel like I'll be able to support them better. And, you know, everybody's more willing to listen to someone that it says certified. Um, I'm not just coming at you, or it's not just, you know, I go to dinner, I I I don't track my dinners, I don't really care what I eat at dinner. But it's like if you live a day in my life or a week or a month or my regular day-to-day is obviously a lot more structured, but I'll send them pictures of me, my filet mignon, and sweet potatoes and vegetables. And it's like, well, I'm I'm hardly starving, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

I love that. And that's again so cool to hear because a lot of people just in general, they think that at a certain limit, like, oh, it's it's it's pointless. It's I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get the benefits. And then there's that whole fear factor because I I can only imagine being, you know, a lady in your in your 40s or 50s, and you go to the gym, and you got a bunch of meat heads throwing weights around, and they're just telling you, oh, they're mansplaining stuff. So they want someone who they can connect with and they can say, you know what, you're a 30-year-old dude. How are you gonna talk to me about menopause or any of this stuff? They want to be able to go to the source. And the cool thing about who you follow, your ecosphere is a great source of information. So you can say, Oh, I understand that misconception that you heard, but hey, listen to this podcast from this doctor, and here's another perspective. And then they go, Oh, wow, that's that's crazy. Because this influencer over here has a million followers, and she was saying A, B, C, and D, but yeah, she's also selling you a bunch of supplements that are going to benefit her, or this is an actual person who's in the trenches. And oh, actually, why don't you go hear them talk next year in Vegas and get into the community? And and so again, that's just you're in a really great position to help a ton of people. So, what are some of those next steps that you're you're thinking about from the business side?

First Clients And Brand Building

SPEAKER_00 11:42

So, from the business side, I think I've already actually like um one of my really good friends here. Um, I already kind of put it out to her. I asked her to be my guinea pig. I said, how about we work together? You know, let me know when you're ready. I mean, I'm not pushy with anything, so I wouldn't be pushy with this, but I did ask her, you know, let's let's work together. Um, and you know, her response was really cool. She's like, awesome when I have that amazing body. I'm just gonna tell everyone, Heather Gregory. Um, I did with my um with Chris Little, who is my media mentorship. I bought the domain Heather Gregory Fitness. So I'll have Heather Gregory Realtor, Heather Gregory Fitness. Um, I've already had a couple of people reach out to me um once I finish the nutrition certification to help with that, and even have just given me some phone calls to say, hey, you know, how do you make this smoothie have more protein and less crap, you know, baby steps, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

But um I think just by doing that word of mouth, I did get to help um a neighbor with her macros, and she had tons of success. And of course, I was, and this was even a little while ago, um, and I was showing Aram what I was doing, and I'm like, Do you think this is good for her? I mean, and he was like, Yeah. So, you know, it's just in my nature to to do that. So I think the next part of this this journey for me is I would like to have the nutrition coach in place as well, and then jump off. And, you know, I've been following, like I was listening to um one of the the videos for the nutrition coach and how you can add that in to generate more income and stuff. So that's really the next part. And then of course, I already signed up for the Real Coaches Summit next year that I know you're speaking at. So I'll be, I'll actually won't sit in the back this time, I'll sit right in front.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

That's great. And I I can just see already my mind just going through from the posts that you did about getting certified. I mean, people are obsessed with followers. I think you have about 3,900 followers, and some would say, Oh, you know, that's a lot if they have 100, or it's not enough if they have uh, you know, whatever boat you're in. But you had so many comments, and I just think that's so cool because it shows that your community and your life experience from teaching as well as real estate, you have those roots. And so you just like just like you said, you start getting people results. I did a really cool podcast with one of our instructors, Cody, very similar, where change of career trained a bartender, put in a lot of time and effort because he didn't have people lined up to work with him, transformed her. Next thing you know, he's training her husband. Her husband owns a billion-dollar company, and now he's running the wellness department. Yeah, these are things that you would never think about, but it's like you just you're doing it and you have that passion where, like you said earlier, you want to help people and you want them to know, you know, the better option and not just following blindly and and educating, which is really neat to see because when they start doing it, as you found out firsthand with a ROM is like, holy shit, this actually starts to work. And and I don't have to be this cardio bunny or or whatever. I can I can learn to do it a more efficient way. And I just feel for a lot of people today, because when you learn, it's like they're they're running a race and they're they're running a mile and they have a 50-pound backpack on and they have the wrong shoes and they have the wrong attire and they're frustrated because they see everyone else doing it. But then the advice that they're getting isn't from someone who is an actual coach, they're just giving their anecdotes. And so now that you're in the the other side of the situation, you can say, no, yeah, one, I was in your shoes, but now I'm in the right position to help you and help you do it properly. So you don't have to go on these crazy diets or you know, do a hundred hours of cardio per week. It's it's a really neat process. And

Cutting Through Fitness Misinformation

SPEAKER_01 15:41

I think ultimately that's why we do this is to help people.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Exactly. And and and it's true, there's so much right now, there's um there's so much fake news in the fitness industry, and you know, everybody's doing it to make a buck. I mean, I I I don't know if I can name names, but I was using this protein, this very easy protein shake thing that completely changed. And I'm like, well, now I can't buy that because you know it was upsetting. And and you know, there's all these people attacking women and the hormone shit. And I'm just like, no, you know, and there's there's so many great people that actually make sense. And and like I said, this past conference was very women focused. I mean, Amanda Thebe was there, um, Connie Bigani, you know, all the Dr. Dyer, Diet Dwyer. I mean Dieter. Yeah, it was amazing. It was so nice to have that that kind of information coming through. Um, and I'm just, you know, I I'm glad that I have people that can point out what's not right and what is, and and I'm glad now that I can be that person too.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

And I'll throw everyone's IG into the the notes from the podcast and also the this the summit in 27. And Aram is also gonna be teaching for us now twice a month, and we're excited to have him get more involved. And I'm all about just the diversity in the sense like you know, we have three lady RDs, and then now we're gonna have coaches who are doing the nutrition side just to get different perspectives. And I think when you learn from a community where everyone's aligned, but it's okay to have different opinions or different processes. It's when you get the real divide where it's like you're way over there and you're telling me to eat freaking carnivore and you're way over here and you're saying, Oh, drink, you know, raw weird stuff. It's like, how about we just try to meet in the middle and let's remember why we're doing this? It's to help people. You know, we don't need to create this crazy cult, but let's try to dissect through the crappy information and you know, surround ourselves with a great team. And when you have those people you can go to, because people reach out to me all the time, like, oh Chris, I saw this. I said, Well, go take a look at this person, go take a look at this person for an alternate approach because I don't want to just give you my biases. I think it's important for you to use that critical thinking process. And a lot of times we just follow blindly. And that's, I think it's one of the unfortunate things with the process for becoming a trainer or a coach, is you read a book and they don't really teach you how to critically think through that. You know, Dr. Dieter, he's a very, very smart individual and he helped write the NASA book, but you don't get to speak to him. You get to speak to him when you go to a conference. But a lot of people, you're reading this information, it's very esoteric, and it's like you're drinking from you know fire hose. You're like, Well, what the heck did I just read? And then ultimately you just give people your anecdotes. Whereas when you're in a community and you get asked these questions and you can, oh, you know, Ram's gonna be teaching on Thursday. I got a couple case examples, or I have some of my ladies who are frustrated with this, and here's my macro thing, and here's some other pointers. Let's see if I'm aligned with it, and then he's gonna give you his feedback, and that's how it should be.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

That's how your classes are though, too. The show at fitness, yeah, like your your show at fitness classes are um, you know, super helpful. Like everything's explained to you. Um, I think I I I said to a rom, I'm like, can you just start adding anatomy to your program? And he laughed, but you know, like really understanding the way it works and then you know, looking it up and seeing the little muscle guy that moves around and everything, um, that really solidifies for the movement. And, you know, all the the people that I've spoken to um were super helpful with that as well. So, you know, I'm I'm not learning just to answer A, B, C, and D. I'm able to like be able to talk about it if it comes up.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Yeah, and that's you have case examples. You go to an anatomy class with Tyson who works at Lifetime and he's he's in the trenches doing it, and then you get that answer. And I think that's just versus, and it's not knocking trainers that do this, but it's just unfortunate because this is what they do. They go to a Reddit, they go to a Facebook, they ask a question, and you don't know any history behind that person who's giving you that answer.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

So it's like you're literally just taking random advice versus someone who you know is actually doing it.

Advice For Career Changers

SPEAKER_01 20:08

What would be that piece of advice for that 55-year young lady who wants to make that transformation into a new career and she's thinking about going into fitness? What would that advice be for her?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

For her, I think definitely if it to reach out to you for Show Up Fitness, I think for the first thing though would be hire a coach so that you can get a feel of what it is you're going to be doing for other people. Hire a good coach, hire me. There you go. But hire a good coach and um definitely look into it and and and figure out that you know why you're doing this is to help people. And I would a hundred percent recommend your class. It's self-paced, you know, it's um easy to understand, and there's so much support. I mean, that's that's really huge. Like if you have a question, I mean, you would respond to me within like an hour, if not less. Um, Tyson completely helped me, spent an hour with me going over some things that I had issues on. Um Megan was super sweet and helpful, even though she was my tester. But like she was very helpful at the end of the test and sweet. And then there's you there's so many resources in there. Like you can go back. I I can't tell you how many videos I favorited and went back over and looked over that really worked. And then, you know, I was able to reach out to Philly to help me and you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

And again, you're meeting these people in the conferences, and you got some show up people over here. And you know, we're really excited because the materials uh it's time to renovate it. And with our new partnership of First Forum, we're gonna do a lot of the stuff at their headquarters. We're gonna have a seminar out there, and we're just gonna keep on upgrading the information to allow for students who really want to turn this into a career to have the right resources. And so, where can people find you on socials?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Heather Gregory, uh, Heather Gregory underscore realtor. And um, on my Facebook, I'm just regular Heather Gregory.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Well, well, thank you for taking the time today. Looking forward to meeting you in person. Time flies, it's gonna be you know, March before we know it, in 2027.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Have a great day. We'll see you. Bye.