Meet Natalie Germaine | Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Germaine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always wanted to start my own business…. I didn’t know what I wanted to do though- I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sell a good or a service, but I was constantly thinking what could I do that I love enough to make a business out of it because if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. In order to stay physically fit, I would run 6-8 miles a day,.. I would take an hour and just run. After each baby I had, it was a good way to get back in shape, About a year or two after my 4th baby, I woke up one morning and just did not have the desire to run any more. I remembered Kelly Ripa talking on her show Live with Regis and Kelly about her trainer, Anna Kaiser. Kelly looks great and has great muscle tone, so I thought I want to do what she does, so I googled Anna Kaiser. When I did, I found an old youtube video she did of a 10 min arm burn out. I tried it and thought it was so difficult. I looked further in to Anna and found her on demand platform where she basically had a video camera in the back of her NYC studio and it recorded her classes. You could try it free for a week- so I signed up and now I can say that almost 6 years later, I haven’t run a mile since and I enjoy every workout every day! I thought, if I love these workouts this much, there must be hundreds of women in my area that would love them as well. I even dm’d Anna on Instagram and told her she had a cool concept that she needed to franchise. About 9 months later, she announced her partnership with xponential fitness and so I bought in at the beginning of 2019. A year later, my build out began along with the pandemic… We opened our doors in Gilbert, AZ on June 25th, 2020, the day the governor shut gyms down,,,, needless to say, it’s been a struggle ever since. But a true labor of love. I was not given any PPP loans because I was not in business in 2019- I didn’t have any full time employees then,,,, so it’s been very difficult to stay ahead!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I graduated from BYU with a degree in Business Management and was recruited out of college to work for Pfizer, After working for them for 4 years, I left when I got married. Once we started having children, my husband and I decided that I would like to be at home raising our 4 kids (3 boys and 1 daughter), so I didn’t work while they were young, Once my youngest started pre-school, the timing for AKT popped up and so I thought it would be a good time to start it.
The brand is not my own, but I absolutely love it and love everything about it because it has brought together a great community of women from all different backgrounds with one goal in mind- to create a better version of ourselves by showing up every day and doing a difficult workout that is fun and very effective all at the same time!!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Gilbert is a great little town in AZ with many fun places to eat and to see. I would take them to downtown Gilbert one day and take them to one of the many restaurants there… Dirks Bentley has a bar there with great country dancing, We could go to a different restaurant every night since there is such an array of great food. Culinary dropout one night, Barrio Queen for great mexican food another night and LoLo’s chicken and waffles on another night. We would fill our days with either shopping at San Tan Mall, hiking South Mountain or Usery Pass and if weather permits, we could also go tubing down the salt river and see the wild horses. On the weekend, depending on the time of year, we could catch a Diamondbacks, Suns, or Cardinal game.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband, Joe has been a huge support throughout the entire process of opening and operating the business. Without his love and his support, I could not do this.

Website: https://www.theakt.com/location/gilbert

Instagram: @theaktgilbert

Facebook: @theaktgilbert

Image Credits
https://chrisfraileyphotography.pixieset.com/20220724_gilbert_lifestyle_akt_fitness/ Chris Frailey code 4613