Andrea Metcalf is a bonafide Chicago #BOSSLADY in the fitness, wellness and entrepreneurial spaces. Her reach extends far beyond just Chicago, though – she is also known on a national (and even global) scale. From the moment I met her, I knew she was an unstoppable force who will achieve anything she sets her mind to (the list, of which, is nothing short of exhaustive). I also knew I had to interview her for my Faces & Places series.
Andrea’s career began as a fitness instructor – from there, she’s coached, launched gyms, opened studios, starred on TV, created a TV show, became a writer and an author, launched a conference, traveled the world and finally, is flipping the fitness industry on its head with a fresh take on the fitness studio model. I sat down with Andrea to talk about tips on
- how to expand your brand into new industries
- the value of persistence and how to negotiate
- how it is possible to do everything you want to do in your life
MZ: So Andrea, I know a lot about you – but for the benefit of the readers, tell us a little bit about yourself.
AM: Where to start. About 35 years ago I started teaching my first group fitness class – which is a lot like what jazzercise was; thong on the outside, Reebok gym shoes, headband, almost a mullet – so you get a good visual of what that was like. From there I built that into a lot of different entrepreneurial spaces – coaching high school sports, running a Bill George Youth Football League cheerleading program and even a 15-year gymnastics camp – but always teaching group fitness. And then I ended up opening my own studio – and it was that time that my career went more national. Rob Stafford of NBC (who was not with NBC at the time)’s wife was in PR and she also came to my classes and said that I should audition for a fitness segment NBC was going to do.
So I went there and worked with Robin Meade on the weekends, doing healthy segments once a month for about two and a half years – and then cold-called the president of NBC and said ‘you need to hire me’. And he did. He hired myself, Sergio Rojas and Saran Dunmore – the NBC fitness team. We were the first fitness team in Chicago, let alone the country. We did a ton of events and got to know the media.
At that time I started my own fitness studio. And I started pitching the Today show. I used to send over 5 ideas every Monday. And then, all of a sudden, local NBC Today reached out and that blossomed into a two and a half year relationship with NBC Today – I did 13 appearances, as well as over 30 appearances on Good Morning America.
From there, I decided to create my own TV show called Fit Today which evolved into Living Healthy Chicago, now in its 12th year running. Eventually, Tribune filed bankruptcy, I finished out my contract, and the producer of the show went on to be the host. So I went to New York to do a show called Better TV, which was broadcast in 69 markets (Chicago was not one of them).
So across the country, I was building a national brand, not really realizing it. And then I was approached to write my first book, sold 15,000 copies and did a national TV commercial… and somewhere along the way started writing for Oprah.com. I had a regular column with them, which turned into writing for Huffingtonpost.com and a lot of other online media platforms.
I started liking the production thing so much I put on 12 live-streamed TV pilots with a live studio audience – and it was there I got hired by Women’s Forum Digital Media to produce over 2000 videos in 3 years. We did everything from lifestyle content in the health and fitness world to recipes, cooking demonstrations, interviews – and it was during that time I produced the first Women’s Dream Conference (which is going into its 5th year) to highlight some of the amazing women I had met.
Then I sold my fitness studio and my weight loss center and started moving in with people and living with them to help them lose weight. I auditioned for the biggest loser and went out to LA for two screen tests, but ultimately was told I’m a little too old for it – that my ‘shelf life’ wasn’t quite there – but it did lead to more national TV segments. So fast-forward to 2018 – I’ve opened up the first “fitness mall” called Studios Fuse. Which has had a lot of hiccups and bumps and growing pains but it’s finally starting to come together 6 months later.
MZ: What’s the idea behind StudiosFuse?
AM: Studios Fuse is born out of an idea similar to a WeWork, with community involvement and a shared workspace. Hang 5 is more of an experiential studio that focuses on the benefits of the large balance board/surf board (as featured on Shark Tank). And we have some other studio tenants that create different workouts, but share the locker rooms and front desk staff. My big focus is making this solution for boutique fitness studios and potentially malls across America that are losing foot traffic due to brands going online. And I think that’s going to be a big trend for the future.
MZ: It sounds like you’ve gone from stepping stone of success to stepping stone of success to stepping stone of success – it’s incredible.
AM: Well, I think I feel like I’ve done a little bit of everything that you can do in the fitness industry – from having a book to a DVD to creating content online, products – bringing products to market; and I’ve done QVC and Shop NBC. I’ve traveled around the world – for speaking engagements or doing a television spot at Mount Kilimanjaro with the ovarian cancer survivors from Houston, TX.
Which is a funny, coincidental story – I was sitting next to someone on the plane and they pulled out my book and I started to cry. A flight attendant came up and said ‘is everything okay?’ and the woman said, ‘oh, I have her book!’ and the flight attendant said, ‘I have your book too! Have you met Shana?’ and Shana was the trainer who was organizing the ovarian cancer trip to Kilimanjaro to raise money – and I just brought the TV segment along with it – it was amazing. This pure chance of luck of relationships. It was really freaky because I’d never felt like my book was a big deal until that moment. To have something happen like that was just so surreal.
MZ: So to go along with that – I’ve asked this to people before – do you feel like your path to success was a lot of proactive hustling, or was it just opportunity knocking at the door? Or luck?
AM: A lot of proactive hustling. A lot of, ‘oh, maybe this will make sense.’ I remember when we put together my first media deck and I went out to PR agencies, I had just done a Today show segment for Mission carb-balanced tortillas because it was all about fiber and this product was something I really used and loved – and all of a sudden an agency from Texas called me up and said, ‘we’d like to use you as a spokesperson.’ And I was so taken aback, I was like – ‘what does that mean? Do they pay me to do that?’ And what they paid me was very significant. And I thought, ‘well wow, if this PR agency reached out to me, I should reach out to all the PR agencies in Chicago.’ And I did that.
MZ: One thing you brought up earlier (as well as at a panel I saw you speak at a while ago) that’s really stuck with me is that you literally pitched 5 ideas every Monday to the Today show. Did they ask for them?
AM: Oh no – I never heard from them. I got the name of the producer of the 8 AM hour because he was a Chicago contact with NBC (at one time). This was before you could really look things up – I used Hoovers, which was a way of finding out contact information – and I did that for one month (at $700/month) and then I took them and started reaching out.
And I think my proudest moment (booking the Today show was a big deal) but when I got to talk with Andy Cohen that I had and idea for television and I pitched it to him. He said ultimately it was too much like their housewives idea – but to keep sending them ideas if I wanted to. That’s the power of calling and following through.
MZ: So you had a wild ride of a journey. This is probably a really tough question to narrow down – but what’s one of your biggest takeaways from your journey?
AM: There’s so much I’m learning right now – there are a lot of people I’ve mentored and helped along away and they’re doing so well in their own careers – and then you’ll have your own self-doubt… so I’d say the biggest takeaway is to try and always be happy where you’re at. Take a step back and look at where you are and what type of a mountain you’re on and where you’ve climbed to get there, and embrace it and just be grateful for it.
MZ: So you have had so many different opportunities – from a TV show to a book, to studios – did you just decide that you wanted to try everything? Or was it really about the opportunities that came? And related to those opportunities, what’s your creative process like?
AM: The book came because I was doing the TV show, and written content
was starting to be on that multi-platform distribution - the head of NBC at the time had said to me, ‘if you’re going to be successful you have to have multi-platform distribution to be able to access consumers at all different times because one medium is never going to get them.’
So in that space, I was like, ‘I should write a book.’ And I had a very, very big contract – and through that time I had just gotten divorced, and a businessperson came to me and said I can help you make a lot of money. Well they did, and they stole a lot of money. And while I was doing this contract negotiation and signing the deal, that got in the way. So it fell away.
And all of a sudden, I had already pretty much written a book – and I had no one paying for it. And that’s when Simon & Schuster reached out to me and offered to pay me a couple thousand and I was like, ‘oh no, I need to make more money off this.” So I researched and found 3 companies that did backend deals with books and I negotiated a deal.
And I think you’ve got to ask for things, and you have to remember to negotiate and that’s really hard because we are so passionate about what we do. Those conversations about money are hard. So hard, I invented Michelle at AndreaMetcalf.com – Michelle is my assistant (who was me) who would negotiate the contracts.
MZ: I know you’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, you’ve swum the Great Barrier Reef – it seems like you really enjoy travel. So what’s the most recent or most favorite place you’ve ever been? Or both?
AM: It’s not about the place – you’re always discovering, and warm weather is great, but it’s really about the people you’re with – it’s not the one location. And people are the common denominator in those relationships we build. And how you connect.
MZ: So I love when I get to interview people from Chicago – I’m always curious. Where’s your favorite place in Chicago?
AM: Oh my gosh – I think it’s a bed, with crisp sheets and pillow cases. Especially with the amount of work that’s gone into what we’re doing right now. We’ve got Studios Fuse we’re trying to build as a brand, the Hang 5 and yoga space, and I still have my personal training and personal brand.
MZ: So you said something that brought up a question – you have so many different things going on. You have studios, you have a personal brand you’re balancing, you have family – how do you balance it all? How do you feel like you give enough time to everything?
AM: You don’t. You’ll always second-guess yourself – should I take that off the table, should I stop doing something – but there’s so much drive and excitement about it. I will say, probably my loved ones get cheated every once in a while because they don’t get the best part of me all the time, and the fact that they still love me and accept me, that’s when I know I’m in the right spaces. So balance is something that we all strive for and we’re all working hard for.
MZ: I do have one last question that I always ask everyone because you never know where it’ll go – is there anything else you want to share, related to career, entrepreneurship, life in general, with the readers?
AM: This is a great day to ask because we’ve had some crazy things going on. Being an entrepreneur is the best and the worst part of your day sometimes. There’s so many great highs and there’s flexibility, but ultimately it does come down to you, and there is that space you’re going to find where you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I can do it, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore – I want to quit.’
And I have said I wanted to quit many times in the last 6 months… and then the emotion kind of falls away and you realize, ‘okay, I still have to get up tomorrow and I’m gonna be doing it.’ So choose your attitude, and go after it, and I think that’s the best place you can be in.
MZ: It’s so encouraging to hear you can do all the things you want to do and be passionate about and find time to do them. And you learn from them and you fall over and you pick yourself up and you keep going. It’s really inspiring.
AM: Remember, you’re multi-faceted in your life. It’s kind of like the electrical powers – there’s solar, nuclear, coal – and they’re all on these different dimmer switches of where things come from in your life, and what’s giving you energy, what’s brightening you up.
And as long as you have something that’s giving you energy, you’re gonna be able to keep pushing through things and keep creating. And don’t be afraid. What’s really holding you back? What’s the worst thing that could happen? If you have your health, and your family, and a roof over your head, what could be better than that?
About Andrea
Andrea Metcalf is a health/fitness expert, speaker, author, trainer and influencer with a background in exercise science and numerous other trainings and certifications. She has appeared on NBC Today, Steve Harvey, USA Today, Oprah.com, Reuters Health Report, More.com, Better TV and a number of local Chicago Stations.
Recently she opened StudiosFuse, a “fitness mall” in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood that includes multiple fitness studios, community workspace and healthy refreshment options.