I was recently a guest on Julie Voris’ podcast – The Working it Out Podcast – and really wanted to share this episode with my listeners! Julie is the queen of fitness and we collaborate together as mentors and leaders. On this podcast, we dive deep into my story and find out why I am who I am today. If you’ve ever been curious about my my life up until this point, make sure to listen in!
“From a childhood gymnast (who almost went on to train for the Olympics), to a collegiate athlete, to a new mom at the age 20 living off stipends, to running a photography business (burning the candle at both ends), to finding her true joy in life in the health & fitness industry, to just recently having her 5th child and continuing to grow her health and fitness empire – Micah Folsom is a force!”
Show Notes:
2:06 Life With 5 Kids
Life with 5 kids is messy, beautiful, crazy, and all of the things. I certainly wouldn’t have it any other way! I’ve learned I’m definitely not the best toddler mom, but I am really loving the 10-12 year old stage with my kids where we can have more adult conversations – and I’m obsessed with the baby stage!
In Julie Voris’ case, she not only loves her girls, but she likes them too and that’s not something everyone can say!
5:10 Rewinding to the Early Days
I was always an athlete. I was a gymnast for 7 years, and competed at level 10 and Junior Elite for 2 years before I quit at the age of 11. At this point, I was burnt out. It was either move across the country and train for the Olympics, or completely quit and pivot in life. At this point I was practicing 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. When I shared with my parents that I was no longer happy, they loved and supported my decision to pivot.
I credit a lot of my discipline to my childhood of training and learning early on how to work through the hard.
At that point I decided to play every sport to see what I loved most and fell in love with volleyball. I ended up playing collegiate volleyball, met my husband in college, got married at 19 and had our first baby when I was 20.
5:10 Having Our First Child at 20
We had to grow up together quickly! I graduated college in 3 years so I could be on track with JD who was applying to vet school, and we wanted to start our family young.
Right after graduating, JD was drafted into the NFL to play for the Miami Dolphins for two years and it was crazy. We moved all over the place during his 2nd season and after two years, he decided to start his next chapter in vet school while I was newly pregnant with my second child.
5:10 Starting My Photography Business
I took up photography at this point in my life, and I started to really learn the ropes of it. I built this business for three and half years, and towards the end I was specializing in weddings and senior portraits. However, it got to the point where I was high fiving JD out the door. He would get home from school while I was on my way out to my sessions and it was wearing on our relationship.
19:38 Getting Introduced to Beachbody
When I was introduced to Beachbody, it was in the hotel at football training camp and I saw an infomercial in the middle of the night. I was nursing my first child, needing to lose the baby weight, and did short mini workouts in the hotel room.
I did Beachbody workouts for 4 years on my own as a customer. After having my 2nd baby and putting my health on the back burner again, I decided to start a new program and ended up wanting to become a coach a week into my challenge because I wanted the 25% discount and hoped I would be able to cover the cost of my superfood shakes. I didn’t fully understand how Coaching worked at first.
It wasn’t until my upline shared a video about her first $20,000 week that my mind opened up around what this actually could be for us. The seed was planted.
I decided to give my all into this business. My first big “why” was that if we don’t have over $100k of debt from vet school, we could have more wiggle room for where JD builds his career and where we could lay down some roots for our family. I wanted to live a life of choice.
We paid off all of his debt before he graduated and were able to buy a home we love on 40 acres right in the middle of both of our families. All the hard work was paying off!
31:00 Trust the Process & Do The Work
So many people feel like they don’t have the luxury of choice. In the beginning, I didn’t know how paying off debt and building this business would go, but I trusted the process and fully committed to figuring it out.
40:15 Integrating Business Goals with Family
I’ve always viewed this opportunity like motherhood. If I bring on a customer or coach, I will not abandon them. It became my identity! It’s just like being a mom, I don’t just not show up for my kids.
A couple years in, as my business continued to grow, I realized I either had to stop growing my goals or I needed to learn how to delegate. That is when I got a virtual assistant for one hour per week, a house cleaner once a month, and began taking those little things off my plate helped me focus on what I loved most and in alignment with how I wanted to spend my days. Eventually, I got a nanny to help with the kids so I can focus on work I love and then be full “Mom Mode” after I’m done.
47:00 Delegation
I had put this identity on myself that I never wanted help with my kids and that I had to do everything. However, I learned quickly that I was my best when I had a ‘break’ from motherhood to pour into my passion as a coach so I started with 2 hours a day with a nanny helper and grew to where we are now with 6 hours – 5 days a week. As the kids grow up, I will decrease the amount of time cause #toddlers.
56:20 What’s Next?
There are no more plans for more babes in our future! As your vision evolves, you don’t always know what you want. Paying off debt, paying off our home, and getting a cabin were our goals from the beginning. Now that Jonnie is loving volleyball and winters are so long here, we decided to build a gym where we can hang as a family and do what the kids love most. We’re also focused on leaving a legacy, setting our families up for success, and other fun stuff. This journey has been such an incredible blessing!
