In this interview, award-winning personal trainer & fitness professional, Katie Bulmer-Cooke talked to our own Paul Lancaster about why it’s important for busy business owners & leaders to stay (or get) fit & healthy if they want to be successful at work & in their personal life plus her own experience of starting & growing a business & appearing on BBC’s The Apprentice.
She also discussed the importance of taking a holistic approach to success, blending fitness, focus & the power of small, consistent habits to stay on track.
Here are the key takeaways from the discussion:
1. Health is the Foundation for Success
Katie emphasises that for high-performing business owners & leaders, being fit & healthy is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity.
- It’s All Intertwined: Your physical health, mindset, career & relationships are all deeply connected. Challenges in one area inevitably seep into the others.
- The New Necessity: Where fitness coaching was once seen as a luxury, it is now recognised by high performers as the essential foundation upon which all other success is built. Being fit & healthy provides the energy & mental clarity needed to achieve goals in your career & personal life.
2. From PT to Personal Coach: A Holistic View
Katie’s business has evolved from group fitness & personal training (PT) into what she calls ‘Personal Coaching’. This blend incorporates health & fitness with life coaching on topics like confidence, mindset & career development.
- Addressing the Whole Person: By addressing all pillars of a client’s life, Katie ensures that improvements in physical health are supported by a strong mindset & sustainable lifestyle changes.
- The Sabotage from a Good Place: Katie notes that sometimes resistance to change comes from loved ones who are trying to be kind (e.g. pouring a glass of wine after a stressful day), even if it sabotages the client’s goals. Having a partner or family on board with health goals creates powerful accountability & support.
3. The True Value of a Coach
While information on fitness & health is abundant, execution remains the greatest challenge.
- Information vs. Implementation & Accountability: Most people know what they should be doing (moving more, sleeping well, eating mindfully) but struggle with how to implement it consistently. A coach provides the accountability to bridge that gap.
- The Impartial Perspective: A coach, sitting outside your daily circle, can spot opportunities & blind spots that you can’t see, providing a truly impartial perspective that drives growth.
4. Skip the Extremes: The Power of Foundational Habits
Instead of trying to overhaul your entire life with aggressive New Year’s resolutions, Katie champions the idea of focusing on ‘Foundational Habits’ – the single, easiest action that triggers a cascade of other positive behaviours.
- Avoid ‘Too Much Too Soon’: Trying to go from 0 to 5 gym sessions a week overnight is rarely sustainable & leads to demotivation. Consistency beats intensity.
- Find Your Foundation: Identify the one simple thing that, when you do it, sets you up for a good day.
- Example 1 (Katie’s): Getting up at 4:40am. This single act is the foundation that ensures she completes her morning routine & feels like she’s “winning” before the demands of her family & work begin.
- Example 2 (Katie’s Client): Drinking a glass of water first thing each day. This simple habit led to other good habits naturally falling into place.
Katie said: “I’m always looking for the thing that’s the quickest & easiest to implement that yields the biggest results for my client.”
5. Master the Morning: The 5 Minutes of Discomfort
Morning routines are critical for success but the hardest part is often just starting.
- Doing it Before They Need You: The value of an early morning routine is completing your ‘personal pursuits’ (workout, self-development, meal prep) before others – kids, pets, work – start making demands on your time. You ensure you’ve invested in yourself first.
- Live with the Discomfort: Katie’s strategy for getting up early is simply asking: “Can I live with 5 minutes of discomfort?” She moves her phone away from her bed so she has to get up to turn off the alarm. Once she’s out of bed & through that initial chill/tiredness, the hardest part is done.
- Katie’s Morning Routine:
- 5-10 minutes of Stretching/Foam Rolling: ‘Prehab is better than Rehab’.
- Essential Admin Tasks: Answering emails, social media—the ‘nuts and bolts’ of her business.
- 10 minutes of Self-Development: Reading, journaling or listening to a podcast.
6. Making Habits Stick: Linking and Frictionless Design
To make a new habit successful, don’t break your current routine; simply link a new desired habit to an existing one.
- Habit Linking/Stacking:
- Example: A client who wants to drink more water links it to her existing habit of making coffee. Trigger: Turning the coffee machine on. Habit: Drinking 300ml of water while it brews.
- Frictionless Design: She makes it even easier by leaving two glasses of water next to the coffee machine as a visual reminder.
- Remove Digital Friction: Simple acts like moving social media apps on your phone into a folder away from the home screen, turning off all notifications (including email) & relying on a separate alarm clock remove the temptation for unconscious scrolling. For an extra motivator, Paul and Katie discussed setting your screen time as a visible widget on your home screen to track progress toward reducing time on apps. Paul added how he is focused on being a ‘creator rather than a consumer’.
7. Looking Ahead: Corporate Well-being
Katie is now focused on bringing her holistic coaching to the corporate world, helping businesses develop high-performing, healthy teams.
- Beyond Discounted Memberships: While discounted gym memberships are a kind gesture, true results come from personalised coaching that meets employees where they are.
- The Benefit to Business: A focus on team well-being leads to:
- Fewer sick days.
- Avoiding ‘presenteeism’ (so people are engaged, focused & more productive when they are at work).
- Increased staff retention & making the company a more attractive employer.
Want to work with Katie Bulmer-Cooke?
If you’d like to work with Katie on a 1-2-1 basis or bring her into their business to work with your team, visit www.katiebulmer.com
ps You can also listen to an audio version of this interview on Paul’s ‘SuperConnector Show’ podcast which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible or Spreaker via our ‘Podcasts‘ page.