Steve Collins:The Way Up Fitness
Author's Review: Steve Collins & Rebecca Ammeter--The Way Up The Way Up is very new to the health and fitness industry, and the business is just starting to make a name for itself. It was the most interesting to me of the health and fitness brand names that I have analyzed because it is 100% based on scientific principles, but it still manages to make health and fitness feel fashionable. Although the success of other individuals who have established similar programs has shown that an individual's amount of experience can sometimes constitute the same amount of credibility that a formal education can, I still believe that having that background in exercise science and behavioral psychology as well as an accredited certification as a nutritionist will be advantageous for Collins in the long-run in gaining the trust and confidence of potential clients and in attracting a larger following than competing programs.
Rather than using social media and other digital platforms to build the credibility of the business (as Kayla Itsines and Adam Bornstein have done), Steve Collins and Rebecca Ammeter are doing the opposite; Collins already has an impressive, highly-credible background in the nutrition and fitness field, but many of the most popular competing health and fitness brands in the market are run by individuals with less education or experience who give the impression of having high credbility via cultured use of social media and other digital platforms to market their brands and programs. Therefore, in adapting to the health and fitness industry of today, The Way Up is utilizing nearly every digital resource available to help grow the business as well as to operate it: they have created accounts for each of the most widely-used social media platforms; established a uniquely-designed website and a blog that emanates the clean, classy style of the brand; published e-books so that their nutrition program can reach a much larger, even global market; and finally, made use of several different forms of communication technology in order to establish a virtual health-coaching program that is available to anyone no matter where they live or what their schedule is like. This is possibly the biggest advantage of establishing a health coaching program that is virtual and can be conducted exclusively through the use of communication technology--while The Way Up is based in Australia and Switzerland, it can attract and accept clients living anywhere in the world.make a name for itself.
Program Summary
Who is Steve Collins?
According to his description on The Way Up's website, Steve Collins is a "world class personal trainer, exercise and cardiac physiologist, certified nutritionist, entrepreneur, speaker and writer with an impressive client list."
What is "The Way Up"?
The Way Up is an all-encompassing health and fitness lifestyle-changing program based in Australia that focuses on body and mind. It's not just about helping people reach their health and fitness goals--it's about much more than that. It focuses on helping people enhance every area of their life and becoming the best, happiest, most energized version of themselves that they can be. The program is based on the most effective and up-to-date principles of the fields of nutrition science, exercise science, and behavioral psychology, and it has been tested over a period of 12 years.
The opening page of the business's website (pictured above) gives off a peaceful, welcoming vibe that serves to draw people into the program, and when you explore the rest of the website, Steve's own peace of body and mind is evident in his words and even in the theme he chose for his website, which is simple but contemporary, and in the pictures that he chose to act as the background of the site, which are scenic and calming. This atmosphere that characterizes The Way Up's brand as a whole is what intrigued me the most about Collins and his program.
Health Coaching
Like Adam Bornstein, Collins offers a virtual health coaching program, but it is different from
Born Fitness in one dynamic way: Steve only takes a select number of clients at any given time. He does this so that sufficient time may be devoted to each individual client so that he may form a strong personal relationship with
each of them. For those clients that he does accept, Steve creates a secret group with them either on Facebook or via e-mail where he uploads personalized diet and exercise plans and communicates with them daily. Every week Collins helps clients establish new goals to work towards and sends them new recipes that fit his or her individualized nutrition plan. He is available to his clients by e-mail, Facebook messaging, or even by phone at any time, any day. He shows that their success really matters to him personally, and that he is totally and completely invested in helping them reach their health goals--he even makes phone calls to clients just to check in every now and then. Daily communication is essential to the program as it helps clients to feel like they are not alone in their health journey as well as provides a resource of accountability so that they don't stray from their goals or give up before they can reach them.
Nutrition Plan e-Books
For those clients who are not able to join the program because it is full or for people who are very self-motivated and don't feel like they need the help of a personal coach, The Way Up offers a nutrition plan which can be purchased separately from the coaching program via two e-books: The Body, and Everyday Lean Eating. The Body is a "blueprint" for clean eating for life, while Everyday Lean Eating is a book of recipes that follow the guidelines given in The Body, which focuses on eating whole, non-processed, real foods in reasonable portio
ns to help program clients increase their energy, clear up their skin, and lose fat while building lean muscle in the healthiest and most efficient way possible.
Blog
One thing that I love about The Way Up's blog is that it makes helath and fitness stylish and trendy; it has two categories, one for Lifestyle & Beauty and one for Fitness & Nutrition. Rebecca Ammeter, Steve's co-founder of The Way Up, does the branding, marketing, and modeling for the business, and she writes a majority of the articles featured on the blog. She is described on The Way Up's website as a "committed health and beauty ambassador who travels the globe in search of the latest trends, both fashion and fitness," and this is evident in the blog design and featured posts. The blog contains the kind of articles you would expect from a health-coachinng program--motivational tips, new discoveries, technology, and exercises trending in the fitness industry, and daily health hacks that can help you further enhance your lifestyle on your health and fitness journey--but it also features articles spotlighting the latest and greatest (yet affordable) activewear trends as well as superfood trends that will work to clear up your skin and help you care of your body so that you can look your best both in the gym and on the street. The incorporation of these kinds of articles amplifies the chic, high-class ambience of the brand which I feel distinguishes it from other health-coaching programs like it that are similarly-priced.
Social Media
Instagram: Rebecca and Steve use this account to post pictures (which retain the peaceful and chic personality of the brand) to promote new blog posts with a link to the site in every caption as well as promote the brand by using a variety of healthy living and fitness tags so that the account will come up in user searches for a multitude of fitness-related topics--the brand's Tumblr is used essentially the same way.
Facebook: The Way Up uses its Facebook account to post pictures, share new blog posts, promote limited-time offer deals on the nutrition and coaching packages, and share program-user testimonials. The link The Way Up's website is included at the end of every post.
Twitter: The Way Up uses Twitter to post motivational statuses and quick health and fitness tips as well as to share new blog posts and recipes with hashtags so that more people than just those who already follow them can see it if they search for a related post.
Pinterest: The brand's Pinterest is my favorite of their social media accounts because it contains all of the same posts they put on their Instagram (with links to the website) on their "Activeliving" board, and the rest of their content is organized into separate boards for activewear, recipes, smoothies, healthy treats, lifestyle & beauty, and motivation. This account organizes The Way Up's content in a pleasing and impressive way, and it makes it easy for users to find exactly what they're looking for from the brand when they visit its page.
Check out The Way Up's full website at http://www.thewayupfitness.com