Kellie
We’re running a series on our instructors – but the side you don’t see in the studio every day. Get to know our team even better through these interviews and hopefully we can all connect on an even deeper level.
Today we’re talking to Kellie. There are really no words to fully capture Kellie and her passion for connecting with people. Since joining our team as we opened Liberty Station in 2017, Kellie has grown into our instructor trainer and a leader in our community. If you’ve taken her class you’ve felt her passion firsthand and we can think of multiple times when Kellie has evoked some major emotions in class. A lululemon ambassador, cancer fighter, and most importantly, awesome person, Kellie inspires us everyday and is sharing a little bit about her background with us today.
Kellie Kellie Kellie. We’re all focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, but you’re also battling breast cancer. How are you feeling?
This is hard. I’m making sure to check in with people and appreciate everyone who is checking in with me. I’ve actually been overwhelmed by people offering to help; it’s amazing how aware and understanding everyone has been.
As I did before all of this, I’m trying to read as much as I can, listen to podcasts, and just generally “be a sponge” and absorb as much information as I can. I stumbled across DJ Nice live feed DJ sets and am loving those.
I’m helping out as much as I can with Luca. On my good days I’m trying to read and dig into educational resources; on bad days, I numb with comedy. My mentor is helping me a lot. I try to stay moving as much as possible.
**editor’s note** Kellie is currently going through chemotherapy and is very open about the process on her Instagram. If you would like to, please feel free to donate to her family’s GoFundMe.
We are blown away by your strength and we know so much of that comes from your background. Can you tell us a little bit about your life growing up?
I was raised in an extremely conservative home, as in I wasn’t allowed to wear pants growing up. My parents were very religious; I remember watching movies about the Rapture when I was 5 years old. I was only allowed to listen to Christian and classical music. As crazy as my upbringing was, ultimately I’m grateful for that structure and respect my parents’ choices.
Fast forwarding to college, I went to a private Christian college, where again I wasn’t allowed to wear pants, students couldn’t go on dates, and girls and boys had to be in different elevators/stairways. It’s like living in a bubble, and yes this school still exists.
True or false: you were married to a man.
I was a secondary education major and in my senior year of college I did an internship where I worked for a youth pastor. We fell in love, got married, moved to California, and I was a youth pastor’s wife for 5 years. Yep…believe it or not, I was a pastor’s wife.
True or false: you are no longer married to a man.
We moved out to California and it was the first time I had been exposed to people who are gay was and I realized “oh, I’m gay.” I think I always knew — I had a crush on my park ranger camp counselor when I was 5 years old — but ultimately I came out to him in 2005 and shortly thereafter I was in a relationship with a woman.
While ending the relationship was difficult, he handled the divorce and everything really well. He treated me very fairly and we’re still in touch. My family has unfortunately chosen to not wholeheartedly accept me and only recently have I been able to set that aside and I have chosen to love them unconditionally and to respect their decision. Ultimately I am grateful to be out of that bubble and to be more open-minded.
Post-marriage, pre-SPARK. What did you do?
I wanted to go to school for physical therapy but it was during the last recession so I decided to join the military to help cover the cost of education.
I worked as a Communications Specialist (basically IT) and a Commercial Satellite Imagery Specialist in the Air National Guard, a part of the Air Force. So, for example, when there were wildfires, we would take the satellite images to provide to FEMA or firefighters.
How did you get into fitness?
I could have continued with the Air Force and was doing well financially but I had gotten into fitness and loved group fitness classes. I started going to Barry’s Bootcamp and it helped me become more self-assured and more self confident.
So for a full year, I worked my full-time job as a Commercial Satellite Imagery Specialist and was able to audition and gain a role teaching part-time at Barry’s. That year of teaching group fitness as my side job made me realize I needed to be working in fitness full-time. I took the big leap of stepping out of my federal role and jumping into the studio manager position at Orangetheory Point Loma in January 2015. Shortly thereafter, I shifted into the head coaching role and am still teaching at that location. I just celebrated my 5 year anniversary there!
I was coaching at Orangetheory when Isis (my wife) and I were in a bad car accident. We started riding at SPARKCYCLE during our recovery and I fell in love with it.
The love is mutual and all around. Can you share a little about your family?
I met my wife, Isis, at a dinner party then we started dating and got married on March 25, 2017 (just celebrated 3 years!).
We both always wanted kids and we decided it would be best if she carried our baby. We did a few rounds of insemination and then did IVF which luckily took on the first round.
Isis gave birth to our son Luca on May 12th, 2019. Luca has given me so much joy. He’s been even more loving; he’s so intuitive. He’s advancing so quickly. He’s standing up on his own, he’s going to walk any day now and we get to see all of that.
You are so positive and a true inspiration. Can you leave us with a final motivational quote?
This was the quote I shared on my last day of teaching at SPARK and the day before my surgery:
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. Do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt
