Everything I do is about helping people preserve and cultivate more of their own most precious personal resources: time, energy and money so they can achieve any goal, fitness or otherwise, get the most out of every day and always put their best foot forward. As you strengthen physically, you fortify yourself mentally as well. I’m about mind-body connection in the most practical sense of the term. The Rule of Awesome is everyone’s favorite of my life strategies and a total game-changer. It goes like this: if it’s not awesome, don’t do it. Applied to fitness, this means if you bite a brownie and it’s not an AMAZING brownie, don’t finish it just because it’s there. Applied to clothing, it means if it doesn’t make you feel fabulous, don’t buy it. If it’s already in your closet, give it away. The point is to elevate your life by having less, but of more options and better the best quality you can afford. And, make no mistake, being discerning about isn’t about avoiding calories or holding out for designer clothing. When we take the time to be discerning about the things we spend our time, energy and funds on, we aren’t just deciding that the things we choose are worth it, we’re telling ourselves that we’re worth it as well.
I had the pleasure to interview Actress, Celebrity Trainer and Fitness Expert Andrea Marcellus. Andrea’s mission is to help busy people create healthy habits that will improve their lives.
Thank you so much for joining us Andrea! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I
got into fitness when I was studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of
the Arts. I had a really traumatizing accident in the summer between my
Sophomore and Junior years of school that took four surgeries and years
to heal. I started taking classes at an amazing studio in NY at the time
— Molly Fox’s place — as
something I could do to make myself strong
and confident again as fast as possible. In the process, I ended up
soaking up technique and inspiration from two amazing instructors, Terri
Walsh and Petra Kolber. They have no idea, but they taught me how to
teach.
Throughout
the years, fitness was my bread and butter while I was busy working on
an acting career, then dabbled in stand up comedy and ultimately ended
up a screenwriter. My first feature film to actually be made is coming
out in 2020 — A Nice Girl Like You, starring Lucy Hale. I never expected
my
fitness career to overtake my entertainment industry aspirations,
but over the past three years, that’s exactly what has happened. And I
couldn’t be happier. The work I do now to get my message across about a
personalized, positive approach to fitness takes absolutely every skill
I’ve ever developed. It
feels great to push myself in every possible way as I work to help others improve their lives, both physically and mentally.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One
of my best friends, Nicole Ferry (Tuminello), played a pivotal role in
getting my business off the ground and is to this day my top advisor. We
were roommates when I was 21, my first year out of NYU. At the time I
was teaching at Crunch gyms around NYC while working as an assistant
in
the marketing department at Clinique International and doing theater
and any acting job I could find in between. Nicole was working in
advertising at the time and has since become a branding guru. When I
started my company, we had a series of meetings over several months to
figure out how I might scale for a larger audience what I do so
effectively for people one-on-one.
Working with Nicole, I was finally able to fully understand what it is that drives me — my mission: My goal is to help busy people maximize their lives by conserving and expanding their most precious personal resources: time, energy and funds. She also helped me codify the personal “best practices” I developed to help me stay focused and driven throughout my life despite considerable hardship and disappointment. My 5 Life Strategies, the foundational time and life-maximizing principles upon which my brand has been built, are the product of a decades-long friendship, deep respect and understanding. Her point of view is gold to me. The words gratitude and blessed simply don’t cut it when it comes to describing what it’s like to have a friend like that is my corner.
Can
you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were
first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When
I was 20, I taught my first step class in NYC to a packed room of about
75 people… and about 67 of them left. Keeping my head up and seeing
that class through to the end was one of the hardest things I ever did.
After the class, I was absolutely devastated and couldn’t have been more
ashamed to face the club manager. But her response wasn’t only
unexpected, it was one of the greatest lessons of my life: namely that,
perspective is everything. The manager said that she needed to elevate
the club, but didn’t have the budget for high-level instructors — until
my audition. She said I could absolutely hold my own with the best in
NYC but, since I had no experience, she could afford me. It was pretty
funny. Then she gave me the best piece of advice ever — she said believe
in yourself and never “teach down.” If people don’t get it, slow down,
but never “dumb down” what I have to offer. Give people the opportunity
to catch on and ramp up — and when they do, they’ll love you for it. It
was confidence-cementing, life-changing advice and I truly wish I could
remember her name to thank her.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Your
best body starts in your mind. My goal is to first address the mindset
necessary to make your fitness goals attainable, sustainable reality and
then offer a practical method to get you there. Both my book, The Way
In: 5 Winning Strategies to Lose Weight, Get Strong & Lift Your
Life, and the AND/life app feature my real-world, small daily goals
approach to fitness that takes into account your whole lifestyle
–including your social life. But both work on your mentality as well so
that life events — good or bad –
won’t ever totally stop your progress. The plan makes the body. The mentality makes it permanent.
Getting in shape in a sustainable way is all about consistency. My method builds confidence by keeping the bar low and including your social life in the plan: the small daily goals of the method “magically” turn into life-changing habits that get you to your goals and keep you progressing. The plan is grounded in 5 practical mindset strategies for when “life” happens so you have the time and energy for fitness and never get derailed. It’s truly a mind/body approach aimed to build both physical and mental strength.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The
purpose of my AND/life app goes far beyond being a great resource for
workouts and recipes. Grounded in a unique, permission-based approach to
fitness, the app helps people ingrain the four, simple daily goals of
my method as habits. To amp up this process — and make it even more fun —
we are about to launch Challenges. Your brain creates habits through
repetition and reward. The purpose of Challenges is to get you to repeat
and track your daily goal choices over and over and to receive
rewards/recognition for hitting minimum achievement levels. The
Challenges start with just one day and level up to 21 days. If a user
completes all the possible Challenges on the app, she/he will have
practiced beneficial habits for three times as long as necessary to
start making a habit. Not only will Challenges transform bodies, they
will also — and more importantly — transform minds. I’m so excited for
people to start diving in!
Outside
of my app and promoting my book The Way In, I am starting my second
book. It’s about It’s about life maximization and how my 5 Life
Strategies can help you preserve and expand your own most precious
personal resources: time, energy and funds.
I’m
also diving into hormone research — we are just scratching the surface
on regulation of hormones and taming imbalances that affect weight loss.
Also, microbiome research and gut health, which are potentially hugely
important pieces to the fitness puzzle. Life strategies and daily habits
will still be #1 in
determining your overall fitness, but there are
areas of health research that must be mined for more science-backed
solutions to help people.
What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?
We’re
a small organization, so everyone has to be able to do a little of
every job — including me. This allows for an egoless environment where
all contributions are valued as equal and important to the process of
getting a job done well. It also helps me understand what hidden skills
and talents people
may have that are being underutilized. Most often,
people who are given appreciation and doable challenges tend to thrive.
I try to set people up to succeed using both.
What advice would you give to other female leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
I don’t have a large team — YET
None
of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is
there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get
you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I
have the deepest respect and gratitude for everyone who has ever taken
one of my classes, trained with me or shared their stories in asking for
my help. I wouldn’t be where I am without the trust they show me in
sharing their goals and challenges. Every person with whom I work gives
me the opportunity
to learn something new and increase the base of knowledge and experience I have to offer guidance to others.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Right now I’m working hard on introducing my first game-changing products to the world — my book The Way In and my AND/life app. Goodness is what it’s all about.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience” and why.
One
of the main reasons I’m anywhere in life at all is simply because for
me the word “No” is nothing more than the first two letters of the words
“Not Yet.”
You
are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that
would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what
would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
The Rule of Awesome.
Everything I do is about helping people preserve and cultivate more of their own most precious personal resources: time, energy and money so they can achieve any goal, fitness or otherwise, get the most out of every day and always put their best foot forward. As you strengthen physically, you fortify yourself mentally as well. I’m about mind-body connection in the most practical sense of the term.
The Rule of Awesome is everyone’s favorite of my life strategies and a total game-changer. It goes like this: if it’s not awesome, don’t do it. Applied to fitness, this means if you bite a brownie and it’s not an AMAZING brownie, don’t finish it just because it’s there. Applied to clothing, it means if it doesn’t make you feel fabulous, don’t buy it. If it’s already in your closet, give it away. The point is to elevate your life by having less, but of more options and better the best quality you can afford. And, make no mistake, being discerning about isn’t about avoiding calories or holding out for designer clothing. When we take the time to be discerning about the things we spend our time, energy and funds on, we aren’t just deciding that the things we choose are worth it, we’re telling ourselves that we’re worth it as well.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Never complain. Never Explain.
I
first learned and adopted this Katharine Hepburn quote in my early 20’s
and it has served me well. It helped me move past a victim mentality
developed during some tough times in my childhood where my ego was
easily bruised by failure and criticism and I’d waste precious time
rehashing the situation over
and over. One of the greatest lessons
you can learn is never to waste the opportunity of criticism by
defending yourself. There’s great strength in accepting it when you fall
short and deciding to listen instead of speak so that you can learn how
not to repeat the mistake. My confidence doesn’t come
nearly as much
from my successes as it does from my failures. Developing personal
power is all about failing with grace, learning quickly and getting
right back on the horse.
Some
of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment
read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with
whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
He or she might just see this if we tag them.
James
Corden. When I saw his rebuttal to Bill Maher’s suggesting that “fat
shaming” should make a comeback, I recognized the truth he spoke. So
many people I’ve worked with over the years have expressed to me pain
like that which he so eloquently (and pointedly) shared with humor.
Shame is such
a huge factor in people not being able to make
beneficial changes in their lives. The last thing we need to do is add
to that. I have visions that James Corden and my team could work
together to put a dent in the obesity epidemic — the leading cause of
preventable disease in the United States, and dramatically improve
lives. Or may he and I could just sing in his Range Rover — that would
be pretty great too. 😉