A Career Path That Didn’t Go as Planned

Fresh out of college, I had my degree in Exercise Science with an emphasis in disease prevention. My brand-new fiancé, Brandon, had the same degree but with an emphasis in college sports. My plan was to move to Rochester, Minnesota, where I had completed an internship with a team doing truly state-of-the-art work in the area of workplace wellness. About a year after my internship, that team had a brand new facility opening its doors at the same time that I graduated. I knew they would have space for both of us. My heart was set on using my degree, but the opportunities there would have been wide open.

First Pivot: Choosing Relationship Over Relocation

Then Brandon told me, “I’m going back to school for construction.” His degree in Exercise Science would be going on the shelf, which meant my plan to move to Rochester was too. At the time, I thought it would just be a two-year wait until he finished school, and then we could make the move. Even though I was a little disappointed, his plan and his reasons mattered and were impactful for both of us. Rather than letting the change discourage me, I focused on gaining experience. I assumed that by the time we could move, finding a position there would be more difficult since they would no longer be hiring at the same pace as during their initial launch. During that time, I completed my ACSM Wellcoaches training, which I had first learned about during my time at Mayo. I also spent time working at a rural activities center, which eventually left me burned out, but it gave me valuable perspective. From there, I moved into a chiropractic clinic, where I enjoyed learning the ins and outs of how I could use my degree in different spaces, not just in the gym. If I had stayed in that role, it could have turned into a fantastic long-term career.

Second Pivot: Moving Home

Not long after, we found out we were expecting our first child. By the time Brandon graduated, the Minnesota economy was struggling. The 2008 downturn was hitting hard, and no one was hiring, not even for unpaid construction internships. At the same time, I was deeply homesick. We decided to move back to my rural North Dakota hometown while I was pregnant.

The difference between the two states was striking. While Minnesota felt stagnant, North Dakota was booming. My dad’s agricultural construction company was overloaded with work, and it was starting to expand into commercial projects outside of agriculture. Brandon was busy and happy.

Building a career in ND wasn’t as easy for me. When I told people what I had graduated with and what I wanted to do, many had never even heard of personal training let alone specific to disease management. My plan was still to open my own gym or studio full time, but I knew it would take time to get there. I started small and took other jobs within my field while slowly building a client base. Each step became a learning curve, and I found myself figuring out how to introduce an unfamiliar profession to a community that valued health but did not yet see it through the lens of structured programming.

Third Pivot: Motherhood and New Priorities

Then life shifted again. Kids came along, daycare shortages became a real challenge, and I made the decision to stay home for a while. This pivot was probably the biggest and hardest of my career. I was stepping away from a profession I had worked hard to build and was just beginning to earn the trust and attention of my local community.

Running a home daycare was incredibly fulfilling, and in an unexpected way, it allowed me to weave in my nutrition background. At the time, our household was completely gluten free because of my son’s sensitivities. Our local stores did not carry a single gluten free product, so it was either making regular 120 mile round trip drives while staying open for the weekday business hours or getting creative with well-rounded, wheat-free meals.

That creativity became part of how I cared for the children in my home. I wanted them to have nourishing, balanced meals, and I drew on everything I had learned about nutrition to make it happen. This season also opened the door to a new chapter in our health journey, which I share more about in my blog post, Our Journey with BioEnergetics.

Once the initial shock of leaving my career settled, I began training again, but only with close friends. When the time came to close my daycare, the choice was easy in one sense—I was ready to return to the work I had trained for. Still, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to the families I had grown to love and had helped care for in such a personal way.

Fourth Pivot: The Wellness Wave

Just as I was finding my rhythm again, the wellness frenzy hit hard. Programs like Beachbody and Whole30 were suddenly everywhere. I will never forget the day someone asked me, “Ashley, if you sell that to me, do I still come to see you?” That question made me realize just how much the industry was shifting.

At the time, I was training friends at home and exploring how I wanted to reenter the wellness workforce. I experimented with multiple network marketing opportunities, partly because in North Dakota, a degree in nutrition did not carry much weight. Legally, there were limits to what I could offer in that field, so these programs provided a way to work within those boundaries. The reality, though, was that the same programs were available to anyone, and many people grabbed them to build their own business plans.

During that season, I also opened a small exercise studio, taught faith-based nutrition classes, and eventually added BIE services to the mix. I loved blending all three and the way they complemented each other, but I eventually realized that network marketing was not where I wanted to plant my business roots. This eliminated the nutrition services that I offered at the time.

Then our community campaigned for and established a brand-new wellness facility. I knew that BIE would not be welcomed there, and my earlier burnout experience in rural Minnesota made me hesitant to start over in a community-board-run environment. In the end, I decided to close my exercise services as well. Competing with a large, well-funded facility simply was not realistic.

Instead, I focused entirely on my BIE practice, traveling throughout the Midwest to host pop-up session weekends. Business was going well, and I loved the chance to serve people in different communities while keeping my focus on the work I was most passionate about: stress relief.

Fifth Pivot: A Pandemic and a Question

Then COVID happened. With my business shut down, I felt frustrated that I could not go to work but I did not have much time to dwell on it because my little ones were struggling. They cried over homework, missed their friends, and wondered why we were sitting in the blazing summer heat for church in the parking lot when there was a perfectly good air-conditioned building right behind the pastor.

It was a tough season, and work took a back seat to helping my kids navigate all that change. What I did have time to think about was my faith and my relationship with Jesus. I realized how much my own growth through challenges, questions, and deeper study had changed me. I wanted that same faith-centered approach to shape my career moving forward.

For about a year, I went back and forth on what degree to pursue. I didn't even know what apologetics was until my admissions counselor suggested I look into it. I am so glad he did. That conversation opened the door to a completely new way of combining my skills, my story, and my calling into something that could serve people on a much deeper level.

Where I Am Now—and What’s Next

This next pivot is still forming. I have a clear sense of the projects God has put in front of me, but they need time to develop in the right way. That’s not easy for me, because waiting has never been my natural strength. And to be honest, there have been many points along the way where I have felt like I had missed something or failed entirely; pivot after pivot, plan after plan, with nothing “sticking” the way I imagined when I first set out.

But the truth is, those detours and delays have not been wasted. Every career shift, every personal setback, and every hard decision taught me something I could not have learned otherwise. They have changed the way I operate, the way I think, and even the way I write. They’ve deepened my empathy, sharpened my discernment, and shown me how to hold my plans loosely while keeping my calling close.

I used to think adaptability meant lowering my expectations or giving up on a dream. Now I see it for what it really is, being willing to take the next faithful step, even if it looks nothing like the plan I started with. God could have used me in any of my previous career paths, but I believe He is preparing me for something specific right here, right now. This time, I am choosing to build slowly, with prayer and intention, so the foundation will be ready when the next chapter fully unfolds.