Episode 36 of WIFA Waves is an extra special one! Lindsey and Jennifer chat with the WIFA Speaker's Academy scholars, as well as the program mentor, Lori Patterson. The women share their takeaways from the academy, their goals as speakers, what they are most proud of and how they will use the tools from the program to share their greatness with the world.

Listen to the full episode for all this and more! 

Registration for the next round of WIFA Speaker's Academy is now open! Learn more and register today! 

More about the scholars ↓

Tahnee Donkin

Tahnee is the Challenges Manager for Fitness And Lifestyle Group, leading fitness challenges across Fitness First Australia, Goodlife Health Clubs, Zap Fitness and Jetts NZ. Based in Brisbane, Australia, she also coordinates FLG’s fitness education program, providing professional development opportunities for fitness professionals. Previously, Tahnee was the National Personal Training Manager for Fitness First Australia, supporting 900+ Fitness Professionals across 61 clubs. With over 13 years in the fitness industry, Tahnee began her career as a Franchised PT at Fitness First in Melbourne before progressing to a PT Manager role across multiple clubs. She spent 5+ years at Goodlife Health Clubs as Regional Fitness Director in Queensland before relocating again to Sydney to take on the National PT Manager role with Fitness First Australia. As well as being a fitness presenter and content writer, Tahnee is an aerialist who spends her spare time travelling to beautiful destinations.

Lindsey Heiserman

Lindsey is a dynamic speaker, life and business coach and personal trainer. She has over 15 years experience working with humans on their mental, emotional and physical health. Her passion is helping you to create the life you actually want and to be your partner in building it. She completed her undergraduate degree at Truman State University with a focus in exercise physiology and her Master's in Psychotherapy and Career Coaching from Adler Graduate School. She also holds a Professional Life Coaching certification. When not working with clients or speaking, you can find her training for obstacle course racing, adventuring and traveling around the country, drinking coffee, and loving the cold Minnesota winters.

Kelly Lepley

Kelly brings confidence and courage to individuals and teams so that they can lead with intention! Kelly is enthusiastic about helping others fully engage in what drives them. She helps clients make decisions more effectively, increase productivity, accelerate innovation and execute strategy to advance both personally and professionally. As an Executive and Business Coach, Kelly specializes in Energy Leadership and Core Energy Coaching. She partners with high-functioning professionals and business owners to effectively navigate professional development pursuits, leadership transition, and operational planning in their business or organization. Additionally, she supports operational strategy and scalability for service-based businesses primarily in the health and wellness industry, founded on 17yrs experience in fitness operations. With 10 years of Executive leadership experience in a large corporate non-profit, Kelly is driven by a desire to align vision and accountability to help leaders transform culture and achieve sustainable results.

Carolina Paredes

Carolina is originally from Guayaquil, Equador, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She has been in the Fitness/Health industry for 6 years. She is passionate about getting people physically active, connecting them with their bodies, and helping them discover how amazing they are. She wants to help educate women and men about what good health and well-being really are and combat misinformation. She is always studying and training, because she loves it and loves being up-to-date with the new discoveries and better ways of doing things.

Jess Brock-Pitts

Jess Brock Pitts is the founder and owner of Enlighten Well LLC, a virtual boutique fitness and wellness studio. She is an LCSW, with a background in alcohol and drug counseling, a mom, a powerlifter, and a gym class drop-out turned certified personal trainer & group fitness instructor.

She began a fitness journey for weight loss and gradually discovered that it went way deeper than that. After finishing a triathlon (with little prior experience in any of the events), giving birth, and dealing with the body changes that come with childbirth and motherhood, she found she had to shift gears. She discovered intuitive eating, and started moving in ways that felt fulfilling and enjoyable, rather than punishing exercise meant only to shrink her body.

She loves the feeling of accomplishment that came with a challenge. In her personal training and fitness programming, she emphasizes body positivity, exercising for health and enjoyment, and empowering other women who are fed up the with dieting and fitness fads.

Jess is an ACE CPT & GFI, certified Girls Gone Strong Level 1 Coach, and holds several group exercise certifications, including Spinning and Boxing & Barbells. When she isn’t picking up heavy things and putting them back down, she loves hiking with her family.

Rachel Windley

Rachel became certified to teach Zumba classes in 2018. She started working at Weber State University in Ogden Utah. She was awarded Group Fitness Instructor of the Year in 2018. Weber State then offered her a scholarship to take the American Council on Exercise course and test to get her general Group Fitness Certification. She has taught, Cardio and Strength, Zumba, Cardio Dance, Step, and Hip-Hop kickboxing. Rachel specializes in fitness in every size, body acceptance and intuitive movement. In 2021 Rachel became a certified life coach and now works with her clients to gain body image resilience. 

Rachel lives with her new husband Kyle and dog Boo, together they enjoy hiking in the mountains and traveling the world.

Lori Patterson (Speaker’s Academy Mentor)

Lori Patterson is the CEO of VicteliB and the creator of Boot Camp Challenge® (BCC). Lori launched BCC in October 2001 with just 1 trainer. Now the BCC family has grown to over 250 BCC licensees and trainers and the program is being launched in 21 states, woot!

Lori is a Master Trainer/Specialist for AFAA and an ACE faculty member and holds additional certifications with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Wellcoaches. Lori is also a National presenter at conferences such as Club Industry, the SCW Mania’s and DCAC.  Lori has shown her commitment to the fitness industry by training over 300 troops and cadre while serving in the U.S. Army, sharing her knowledge as a fitness expert with such media outlets as Fox 2 News and Livestrong, and creating the Boot Camp Challenge® app! Hoo-Aah!

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