Why did I choose this name?
I chose this name for a very specific reason and that is because of the meaning of the words.
Empowerment means to give power or authority to. Impact means to have a strong effect on someone or something. 

Women's empowerment means to participate fully in economic life across all sectors as it's essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities.

What is The Empowerment Impact?
The Empowerment Impact is an online community of women who are empowered by fitness and nutrition and who empower other women to do the same.

This year my life changed a lot, I went through a lot personally and now I feel that I can help women in a way that I would have never been able to before. Because of this, I feel so much stronger mentally and emotionally and I've learned to not only set boundaries with other people but with myself as well.

It's really made me realize what Coaching has done for me. It's more than the physical change, it's more than the financial gain. Above everything else, Coaching has empowered me. It has helped me trust myself and believe that I am worth something so much bigger than I ever thought I was. I want to direct the training I do with my team, The Empowerment Impact, to one of empowerment and encouragement. I want to help women discover a new mindset they never knew they had. I want to instill just how much taking care of yourself empowers you and how you empowering someone else can really change their life, too.

I want exercise to not just be viewed as a healthy outlet but be used as one. I want to take away this negative and unpleasant view that's been created about exercise. "It's not fun, I don't have time for it, I can't do it," etc. Exercise is the most underused anti-depressant in the world.

When you go to the doctor they tell you to exercise regularly and to eat a balanced diet, right? That's never changed. So why, as a society have we become so accustomed to wanting to find the quick fix and try to beat around the bush? Those quick fixes are temporary. If you REALLY want to change your life, you have to do it the right way. As hard as the change might seem, it's baby steps and it's totally doable. You can do ANYTHING you set your mind to but at the end of the day, you just have to want it bad enough.

At the end of the day we all have the exact amount of time each day. It just matters how you CHOOSE to spend it and you spend your time on the things that are a PRIORITY to you. I want YOU to be a priority to YOU.

I want women to learn to put themselves first and to understand that it's okay to. If you've ever been in an airplane, you know that before you even take off they go over all the safety rules with you, right? What do they ALWAYS tell you about the oxygen masks? They tell you to always put yours on yourself FIRST, not someone else. Why? Because if you don't make sure you're taken care of yourself, how can you possible take care of someone else?

I want women to learn to put themselves first and to understand that it's okay to. I want to empower women to be the best versions of themselves and the healthiest and happiest versions of themselves. I want to boost the self-esteem of women, to educate women, to encourage women to make decisions, to connect them, to give them opportunities, to honor them, and to delight in them. This is what I've learned and this is what I want to share and instill in others.

Women should empower each other instead of being so judgmental and hateful of one another. I want to set the standards for our future generations.

"You are the most influential person you will talk to all day"


When did I start my own Online Coaching Business?
I started my own independent online coaching business in March 2015. When I first started, I was already working 85 hours a week. Yes, for real. No, that is not an exaggeration. So trust me, YES you DO have time! ;)

I was working at 3 different dental offices as a Registered Dental Hygienist and at a retail store part time. For where I live it's really hard to find a full time position in my career as a Hygienist. When I graduated from college I had to wait like 6 weeks to get my license to practice. I needed something in the meantime to make money because I still had bills to pay which is how I ended up working at a retail job. I was desperate for work and I needed it ASAP. I ended up staying in retail for a year just for the extra money and let me tell you... Dentistry is the only thing I have ever known. I HATED retail!

Anyways, so yes I was working A LOT and I was never home. I was gone from like 5am to 11pm basically everyday. I worked double shifts everyday except for Sundays. On Sundays I only worked one shirt. I remember going on a 5 month span and only having 5 days off, TOTAL.


How was I able to quit my job(s) with my Online Coaching Business?
When I first started my business I was able to quit my most dreaded part time job in retail within 6 WEEKS. That's all the time it took for me to start earning more from coaching than I did working my minimum wage part time retail job 25 hours a week.

Fast forward to my first 8 months into my business, I was able to go from working 4 jobs to 1! I'm not going to get into details with this one but what I can tell you is that Hygienist make VERY good money, so this was a huge deal for me!

Now, I work from home on my own time about 14 hours a week and I still do Hygiene about 15-20 hours a week.

I initially only planned on doing this for part time income, so what changed?
My goal was never to fully quit my job as a Registered Dental Hygienist because I just spend so much time, effort, and money into getting this career. I love what I do as a Hygienist and for me I never saw myself not doing it for life.

That is until I was told I wouldn't be able to...
Here's what happened.

In the fall of 2015 I started having really bad back and shoulder pain. I had noticed it gradually worsening at the start of that summer and by the fall I was literally in tears some days at work because it hurt so much. First I started seeing a Chiropractor three times a week for 6 weeks straight. I had a few deep tissue messages done per his suggestion and I came to every appointment and did everything he asked of me.

Unfortunately, I never got any major relief out of it and he referred me to a Physical Therapist. I started seeing a her once or twice a week for about 7 months straight. Again, going religiously and doing all the exercises and stretches I was supposed to do at home. There were several times that I thought that this was it, I finally found my relief.

Unfortunately for me, the pain never stayed away longer than a few days, it always kept coming back and it felt like we had to keep starting from square one all over again. She was wonderful and did anything and everything she could think of to help me...until my last visit.

It was spring of 2016 and I will never forget it as long as I live.

I got out of work and went straight to my appointment after lunch like I did every Wednesday. It was cold and raining and I remember thinking how bummed I was walking in there that the weather still hadn't warmed up yet. I walk in and sit down in the center chair, the same chair I always sat in. After a few minutes she called me back and I could tell something was different. We go back into the first room and she asked me how I was doing and I told her I was so frustrated with it because it seems like no matter what we try we can never get it to stay away. I remember her looking at me with no expression and taking a second a respond. "At this point, I feel as though I am just wasting your time," she said. She told me she felt that she had done and tried everything she could, she had ruled out every possibility and had come to a conclusion. She said, "At this point I feel that your back and shoulder pain is chronic and the only thing that is going to make it stop, is to stop doing what's causing it so I hope you have a back-up plan."

I remember instantly feeling numb and getting chills all over my body, I still do to this day just thinking about it. I remember feeling like my heart just fell out of my chest. I remember feeling like there was a frog in my throat and at that point I couldn't even bring myself to respond. I tried to pull myself together because I didn't want to burst out crying in the room. She gave a minute to process it and told me that she was dismissing my case and if I ever wanted to come back I would be more than welcome. I just nodded, I didn't know what to say. We walked out of the room and the girl at the front desk asked me if I wanted to schedule for next week and all I could say was, "No."

I walked out of the building and I remember not even realizing the cold anymore. I got into my car, I sat down, and I instantly had this huge rush of emotions overcome me.
I can't even describe how that felt. How it felt to know that all the debt I just went into, all the time I dedicated to school, all the work I put into getting where I was at that point just felt like it was for nothing.

I remember calling my mom and telling her the news but I never opened up to anyone else about it, I just pretended that everything was okay and I went on with my life. I did what I knew how to do best, not talk about it and smile anyways.

I spent weeks questioning my career choice, wondering if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. Let me just say, that it doesn't effect most people this way, at least not so early. I am one of the rare few that unfortunately for me, my body just can't handle it the way that most people's can. It's not really anyone's fault.

So, I went back to the drawing board, something I never imagined I would have to do. When I was deciding on what to go to college for my main three things I was deciding between were Nursing, Dental Hygiene, and Nutrition. To be honest, I decided against Nursing because I didn't want to have to work nights or weekends or holidays, ever. I decided against Nutrition because the closest college to me that had Nutrition was "too far away" for my liking and they didn't have a Criminal Justice major. Sounds dumb I know but I wanted to be as close to home as possible and I wanted to be able to go to the same college as Devin who was going to Criminal Justice.

Have I always had an interest in Fitness and Nutrition?
I've always been super interested in Nutrition. For as long as I can remember, I remember taking different items and flipping them over to see what they had in them. I remember wanting to know what vitamins and minerals each fruit and vegetable contained. I wasn't a super healthy eater growing up, I was basically a pain in the ass because I was super picky and I didn't like anything. When I say I didn't like anything, there are so many things I refused to try and I still assumed I just didn't like them.

Physical Fitness is another thing that I've always been super interested in. I remember being super little and watching my mom workout to Billy Blanks Tae Bo and Boot Camp. I always stood on the couch behind her and tried to do it too. She was a roller bladder and I couldn't roller blade to save my life. I skipped out on every Roller Rink birthday party growing up because of it. Even those ones with the four wheels on them, yeah I couldn't even do those ones. So instead, whenever she roller bladed I would ride bike beside her and I would keep pushing her to go fast and encourage her to do more. She went through a lot of wheels during the summer. Growing up I was in gymnastics from a very early age, I won awards for push-ups, sit-ups, running, you name it. I remember doing Zumba, Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire at home when they first were released. My mom led by example because she always make exercise a priority so I learned to do the same.

My dad, the boys, and I had our own little lifting team in our basement where we got the whole neighbor involved and would get together and have little competitions a few nights a week. We would make circuit trainings and we had a chalk board with all of our own PR's on it.

When I got into grade school I got into basketball and I loved it. In middle school I did basketball, volleyball, track, and cheerleading. I was really good runner and my dad always said that if I worked hard at it that he believed I could beat the school record. Even when we would run together up our road after school I just never got tired. I was a killer rebounder in basketball but I always got to aggressive and took it a little too serious. Let's just say that I got fouled out of every game.

Aside from that I would always make obstacle courses at my house to do. I would always sit down and make these crazy workout routines that I swore I would follow and my brother would always laugh at me, they thought I was crazy.

I always have this thought in my mind that even though I really do love what I do as a Dental Hygienist, maybe I should've gone for something in Physical Fitness and Nutrition.

I don't want to go back to school, I've make a lot of progress paying back the student loans I have now that's to my coaching business but I just don't want anymore debt. Luckily with my own coaching business I didn't have to.



Where can I find The Empowerment Impact swag?
We currently have lounge pants, tank tops, and a mug available! You can find all of our merchandise by clicking HERE! If you have any requests please send and email to RachelFaulFitness@yahoo.com with the subject header "TEI Swag Request."

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