Leeds prison worker launches new business in lockdown
From personal development on the inside to personal training on the outside
 
When a prison worker from Armley, who is a qualified personal trainer, was put on furlough, she decided to use her skills to help others stay fit whilst at home in lockdown.
Katy Padam, 37, ran a series of free Instagram live workouts each week from the attic of her home which she shares with three generations of her family.
 
She said: “I’d gone from working inside the locked doors of the prison where I loved being a personal development coach to finding myself without a job to go to and having to spend most of my time inside my family home.
“But as a trained life coach, a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and personal trainer, I knew it was mind over matter and this was a challenge that so many people were experiencing.
“So, I decided to use my PT and life coach knowledge to help others online.”
 
Katy had also been working as a fitness instructor in her spare time in boutique gym Trib3 in Leeds City Centre and F45 training in Manchester northern quarter, another 2 jobs she was “gutted” to not be able to do in lockdown.
“With all my experience from prisons, gyms and overcoming my own life challenges, I decided to do something positive and see the time as an opportunity to help others as well as share my love of exercise and my ambition to become a personal trainer full time.”
 
Katy who had previously used her Instagram @katypadam to share her love of travelling, going out with friends and self-development, began to focus on her passion of sharing content to help others become fit and healthy and “most of all confident.”
“I have always struggled with my self-esteem, but I found that fitness, life coaching and my mindset helped me to overcome any blips in confidence.
 
“Initially I was petrified about delivering live workouts online as I’d only ever coached people one to one & in Group fitness classes, in real life so it was out of my comfort zone.
“But I pushed through it and committed myself to a weekly timetable so people could make sure fitness and a good routine was part of their day whilst being confined to the home.”
Within weeks Katy built up a strong online following, all from the attic in her family home which she had also grown up in.
 
She even got request for personal training clients over zoom and FaceTime.
 
Katy said: “The live video workouts helped people to see the real me and that I just want to help.
“Then when I got the bad news that I was actually being made redundant from the prison, this period had made me realise that I can help people just in a different way.”
 
Again, with several social media posts, Katy’s business ‘Coached by Katy’ was up and running and she was overwhelmed with the interest.
 
Katy now runs Zoom classes, one-to-ones online and offline, park bootcamps and online coaching plans. For more information, follow @katypadam on Instagram or email: coachedbykaty1@gmail.com
 
More about Coached by Katy in her words:

• Prior to lockdown I worked full time at a male prison in Leeds
• A couple of nights a week I would work at Trib3 Leeds and on a Saturday at F45 Manchester teaching group fitness sessions.
• In lockdown I was furloughed from the prison and gyms shut.
• At the beginning of lockdown, I started doing free live Instagram workouts 4-5 times a week. I did this till the end of May
• The last week of May I posted on my social media that I was offering 1-2-1 PT in the park and via zoom. I was amazed by the response I had from people wanting me to train them
• I began doing PT in the park and via zoom and within a couple of weeks my diary was full.
• After a couple of months of doing this, I became worried about my role at the prison as I was so busy with PT, wasn’t sure how I would fit in both jobs once the prison asked me to come back to work.
• In August I became redundant, although I was sad as I loved my job at the prison working as a personal development coach, helping prepare prisoners for release. I was happy that I had set up as a PT during lockdown.
• I am now working as a full time PT, doing training sessions in parks, peoples' gardens, via zoom and I run park bootcamps too.
• I have also recently set up as an online personal trainer.
• I registered my Business “coached by Katy” and I’m absolutely loving being self-employed and growing my business
• During lockdown I was on bestfit TV where I did a televised Fitness session
• I was also on Punjab radio and interviewed by an ex England cricket player Monty Panesar, discussing all things health and fitness

 
FOR INTERVIEWS, CONTACT KATY PADAM DIRECTLY ON: coachedbykaty1@gmail.com or call: 07838303726
 
 
By Sophie Mei Lan 
Co-founder of EvokeMediaGroup.co.uk 
Blogs at mamamei.co.uk / yorkshirefamilies.co.uk / blogupnorth.co.uk 
 

• Fitness therapy and team building for families, couples and friends.
• Harrogate Personal trainer offers social bubble training for bubbles to work out together either at home or in a private studio.
• Pandemic causes rise of relationship struggles and fitness issues.
• Exercising as a social bubble can boost your relationship, health and fitness.
• Training together and doing something positive can help build your mind, body and social bubble.
• “Keeping fit with a loved one or in a group is a great way to motivate yourself and one another as well as making you more accountable and keeping you on track.
• “It’s also a great way to build and strengthen relationships as well as making you feel strong and confident.,” Body Transformation Specialist Mike Green.

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Harrogate Personal Trainer is on hand to help social bubbles with group fitness sessions in a private studio or online in their homes.
People “fearful” of gyms led to Personal Trainer Mike Green acquiring his own private studio in Hornbeam Park, Harrogate, North Yorkshire where he has launched his social bubble packages to offer bespoke workouts for all bubbles to help boost their fitness, relationships and overall wellbeing.
Body Transformation specialist Mike says that exercising together can enhance relationships, improve your health and it is a cost effective way to have your own “in house” personal trainer.

He said: “Exercising as a bubble will give you something positive to do together whilst improving your workout as people tend to be competitive and it also makes you more accountable if you’re wanting to lose or gain weight and muscle, if your whole bubble is on a healthy mission together.

“It goes without saying, that exercise boosts your endorphins so you feel happier together as well as stronger and it’s a great therapy too as lots of bubbles talk through any issues during the workouts or overcome them by doing something fun together.”

Personal Trainer Mike Green, from Jennyfields in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, who runs Green Health PT says that he has seen a surge of people wanting to follow his exercise and diet plans as a bubble in order to get back into shape following the uncertainty of this past year.
34-year-old Mike, a former footballer, has had a range of couples and families taking up his offer to train together in his studio and at home online due to word-of-mouth of the positive impact it is having on people’s relationships and their happiness within their bubble.
‘Mike Green Body Transformation Specialist’ for busy people offers a range of ongoing support online or in person, or a mixture of the two, as well as, 30-day challenges and 8-week body transformation plans.

Mike said: “I can tailor the plans and programmes to suit anybody regardless of their schedule, background or goals. I love working with a wide range of people of all ages and sizes, I just want people to achieve the results they crave.”

For more information and to book a free consultation, go to:
https://www.greenhealthpt.co.uk/ or email: greenhealthpt@gmail.com

You can find Mike Green on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @greenhealthpt and he is located at Hornbeam Park inside Harrogate Business Park, behind Harrogate Climbing Centre.

 
By Sophie Mei Lan
Co-founder of EvokeMediaGroup.co.uk
Blogs at mamamei.co.uk / yorkshirefamilies.co.uk / blogupnorth.co.uk

I would describe myself as a creative who loves the digital world and the opportunities it creates for me to work online and still sue my creative flair. 

I run Evoke Media Group who tell stories for businesses, brands and organisations through multi-platform content aka whatever platform will tell a story best we will use, or we will adjust the story for a desired platform, so it is as powerful as possible. This can be through (primarily) video content and words but also through simple graphics, photography, images and people e.g. influencer marketing which is online word-of-mouth marketing through ‘social media influencers’ with a relevant following and community. 

Isn’t it the tech world vs the creative world? 

I think a decade ago when my business partner Daria and I first started our business venture, I would have separated our roles too - Daria was the ‘tech’ behind-the-scenes person and I was the ‘creative’ person on the screen who would write the stories, come up with ideas for content and share the content. But I quickly discovered how the two worlds no longer collide, but they are in synergy with one another. 
Daria would design and maintain websites, make pretty graphics and content of which we both had creative ideas for. I muse and she does. But we are both digital and both creative. 

I have been brought up in a family of art lovers and artists, my mum Panni Loh is an artist for example and my sister Gemma Slack is a fashion designer and my aunties love art too. But growing up I would have said I am not an artist or creative because I didn’t create visual art such as paintings and drawings. But as we all know art is much more dynamic than that, I love to dance, teach bellydance and move! There’s a reason why I love dance and art as a therapy it is a way to express myself and so is the digital world. 
Like with art, the digital world is diverse, it’s not just for “IT geeks” or so they are dubbed through the stereotype but there is a plethora of opportunities for creatives to work online and express their creative flair.

From sharing artwork on Instagram to creating graphics, editing videos, building websites, there are so many ways to express your creativity digitally. 

And as with all art, dance and drama… there are many mediums and ways individuals can choose to express themselves. Some actors may love on screen work, others may love the stage, and some may love to write… and they can do that online too! 

I now also coach social media skills to individuals and businesses which people see ‘separate’ to my creative side. But like with art, we need to keep an open mind. I express myself a lot online and pretty much everything I and we do these days is digital in some way. 
Whether I am designing simple graphics through the Canva app or photoshop or Daria is editing using Final Cut Pro… we are both and we are all creative in our own way. 

Better still, the online world has opened up many opportunities for us creatives to work online. Whether that be designing websites or social media content or writing blog posts or thinking of catchy ads using keywords. 


How creative can you be online? 

You can be so creative, and I even teach dance online, I vlog, I write and pretty much everything I do, I utilise the digital world in some way. Being online specifically is a lot more democratic for me as well as anyone can learn to be creative and create amazing content, so it really is a great platform for all artists, creatives, writers and everyone to express their creative flair and even get paid too! 


By Sophie Mei Lan 
Co-founder of EvokeMediaGroup.co.uk 
Blogs at mamamei.co.uk / yorkshirefamilies.co.uk / blogupnorth.co.uk