Meet Faith Ellis

We recently connected with Faith Ellis and have shared our conversation below.

Faith, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

For years I have felt as though I was meant to do something, something meaningful that allowed me to help other people. I didn’t know what that was. I wasn’t interested in being a doctor, or a therapist – those things required skills and subjects I wasn’t the most successful in. I actually went into marketing. But, I was determined to experience different things, take classes, try to find new things I enjoyed because it would have to be something I could be passionate about, right?

As I went through different things over the years, nothing stuck. Nothing felt right and I constantly had this hollow feeling like something was missing. I’d been on my own fitness journey for a while and then considered, maybe it was training. I got certified in personal training and did that for a bit but something about it just wasn’t exciting me. Designing programs, working 1:1, I felt limited and restricted. I found it difficult to stay passionate and only wanted to focus on my own fitness and health. Fast forward, in my 30s I discovered kettlebells. I absolutely loved using them and started to use them as a tool for the majority of my training. My passion grew so much and I loved the results, the confidence they provided me, I began researching and sure enough – there were certifications as a kettlebell specialist!

I am now a Level 3 certified kettlebell specialist and have been teaching pop-up classes in Burlington, North Carolina for the past 2 years as well as offer 1:1 coaching for women online through (predominantly) kettlebell training plans and simplifying nutrition. I help women to find the confidence in strength training with kettlebells and overcome the stigma of women lifting weights. My focus is beyond aesthetics and I strive to show people the mental health benefits of consistent exercise and aim to inspire people to have fun with fitness through simplifying workouts and to release the rigidity that a workout has to look a specific way, or you need to workout for an hour, 6x a week. People are so overwhelmed with the information they find online my goal is to simplify it and get back to most of the basics.

In addition to online fitness coaching for women, I began another side of The KettleBelle that is for other coaches, too. As a marketer and an entrepreneur, I know the work it takes to run your business and it requires you to wear many hats – one of them being a marketing expert. Fitness and health coaches should be helping other people, which is why I offer content marketing services for other coaches. I’m a unique multi-sided business doing what I love and what I’m good at. I get to help women struggling and overwhelmed with their fitness and nutrition goals, and I am helping other coaches help more people by taking over their content and marketing responsibilities. I really feel this is exactly what I was meant to do all along and I am super excited to see the business grow and the reach we achieve.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The KettleBelle is an online fitness and content marketing brand. I have my college degrees in marketing and have worked in the industry for the past ten years. I am credentialed in kettlebell coaching and have held my personal training certification through ACE, with over 10 years in the fitness industry. It’s been crazy meshing the two worlds and having a multi-business brand, but I love both. I provide marketing services for fitness and health coaches so they can focus on clients, not content. I’ve written and strategized for years and I’m good at it, plus I work in the fitness industry so it just fits flawlessly.

Additionally, I offer 1:1 fitness and health coaching services for women. My goal is to simplify fitness and nutrition for women so they can get real and long-lasting results.

I am never competing with my marketing clients, I want them to succeed and their niche or ideal clients, are very unlikely my own. My clients trust me, their information and clientele stays private. In no way am I ever conflicting with their efforts and vice versa.

I’m really proud of 1) my abilities to be able to offer such a unique business to multiple people and 2) just having an idea and really running with it. Many times we have an idea, but people don’t do anything with it. They’re afraid to fail. Failure is only when you give up and we’re not giving up. There are times we have to pivot, but stopping is never an option.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Collectively between Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook The KettleBelle has over 15,000 followers within the past year. This has taken a ton of time and consistency where all of 2024 I spent posting 2x a week on YouTube and daily on Instagram and Facebook. Honestly, it is a full-time job in itself and extremely draining. For those starting to build a social media presence, I’d advise you to really nail down where your audience lives, which platform, and hone in there. The KettleBelle is reassessing being on social media because frankly, my clientele is more on LinkedIn for one side of my business and forums (such as Reddit) for the other side. Social media has a very low conversion rate so if you’re looking for some brand awareness, it is a good option, but really consider what you aim to get out of it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing up I was in a really sad family environment. Our childhood was emotionally and physically abusive and from a really young age we were forced to find our own independence. We would work, cook, clean, go to school, come home, do chores, and repeat – there wasn’t much of a childhood. Around 17, I was forced out of the home and while I was still finishing high school, I was working, sleeping in my car, at friends houses, and ended up renting a room from an elderly lady. I put myself through college and got my Master’s degree, all while working full-time. I think this forced me to become resilient because I wasn’t left with much a choice. It was either that, or give up. And then what? I think now it gives me tenacity to keep pushing even when you feel like you aren’t getting anywhere. It doesn’t make it easier, but instead of looking to give up and quit, I look for ways to redirect myself and my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thekettlebelle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekettlebelle
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KettlebelleNC
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faithengenellis
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekettlebelle