The Brand Edit No. 6: Fit Happens, Malton

When you hear the words personal trainer, what do you picture? Someone incredibly fit, shouting encouragement while you desperately try to finish another set of burpees?

For this edition of The Brand Edit, my North Yorkshire branding photography project, I spent the day with Angela from Fit Happens in Malton.

After spending time with Angela, I think that's probably missing quite a large part of the story. Angela has built a fitness business for people in their 20s right through to clients in their 80s.

A business where fitness isn't really about how you look. It's about staying strong, feeling better, building confidence and hopefully being able to keep doing the things you love for longer. And that was the story I wanted to capture for the sixth edition of The Brand Edit.

Building Fit Happens from scratch

Angela grew Fit Happens from an idea that fitness could be fun, accessible and something ordinary people could actually enjoy, she thinks outside of the box, keeping things interesting whilst building a community for everyone involved.

Today, the business offers personal training, group sessions, boot camps, open gym and app-based workouts, giving people different ways to exercise depending on what works for them and their life.

The more I spoke to Angela before her session, the more I realised that what she's building goes much further than exercise.

Her clients range in age from their 20s to 89, which I think tells you quite a lot about the environment she's created.

Her bigger mission is to help people live healthier lives. Exercise is obviously part of that, but Angela is also continuing to expand her knowledge around nutrition and the different things that contribute to our long-term health and wellbeing.

It's a much bigger picture than simply getting someone through a workout.

When your business has grown but your content hasn't

One of the reasons Angela applied for The Brand Edit was because she'd found herself stuck on a bit of a content hamster wheel. And I think a lot of small business owners will recognise that feeling.

You post what you're doing. Then you post something similar the following week. Before you know it, you're trying to think of another way to show essentially the same thing. The problem wasn't that Angela didn't have anything to talk about.

Quite the opposite.

There were so many parts of Fit Happens that people couldn't necessarily see online: The community she'd created. The relationships she has with her clients. Her knowledge. The work she's doing around nutrition. The different ways people can train. The support and encouragement. The progress that isn't necessarily visible in a before-and-after photograph.

So the question became:

How do we photograph what Fit Happens feels like, rather than simply what it looks like? That's where branding photography gets really interesting for me.

Showing the person behind the personal trainer

We actually started Angela's Brand Edit away from the gym.

I wanted to show another side of her business first: the learning, planning and knowledge that sits behind the sessions her clients see.

We photographed Angela studying and working, alongside some of the nutrition elements that are becoming an increasingly important part of what she does.

Then we headed into Fit Happens itself..

We photographed open gym sessions, progress tracking, Angela working one-to-one with clients and the interactions that happen naturally when she's doing her job.

Those interactions mattered. Because anyone can put a photograph of gym equipment on their website.

What someone considering joining Fit Happens really wants to know is: Will I feel comfortable there? Will I know what I'm doing? Will somebody help me? Will I feel out of place? Will I be judged because I'm not already fit?

You can't answer those questions with a photograph of a dumbbell. But you can begin answering them by showing people what it actually feels like to be there.

The photograph that definitely wasn't on the shoot plan...

And then there was the sauna...During our conversations, Angela mentioned how much she loves using the sauna in winter to do her admin.

So, obviously, we turned it into her office.

We photographed her sitting inside reading and studying, and it ended up being one of those slightly ridiculous ideas that makes complete sense once you know the person behind the business.

It's also exactly why I don't like planning every single photograph before a branding session. Some of my favourite images happen because somebody says something in passing and I think:

"Hang on. We need to photograph that."

Those little details are often the things that make a set of branding photographs feel like your business rather than a collection of generic images that could belong to anybody in your industry.

You don't have to look like a fitness person to belong in a fitness space

I think this was probably my biggest takeaway from photographing Angela. Fit Happens isn't built around one type of person. When your clients span almost seven decades, you're not selling exercise to one demographic. You're helping very different people find a way of moving that works for them.

And that's an important distinction.

For someone who already loves exercise, walking into a gym might not feel particularly intimidating.

For somebody who hasn't exercised for years, is getting older, is worried about their health or simply doesn't know where to begin, walking through that same door can feel completely different.

That's why showing the atmosphere around a business matters.

A potential client isn't only deciding whether they want the service you're selling.

They're also deciding whether they can imagine themselves there.

What Angela's Brand Edit taught me

Every business I've photographed for The Brand Edit has taught me something slightly different. Angela's has made me think about belonging.

If there's a barrier stopping somebody from choosing your business, sometimes the most useful photographs aren't the ones showing what you sell or what your space looks like .

They're the ones that quietly say: You'll be comfortable here. There's a place for you too.

Hot Toddi taught me how much personality can become part of a brand.

The Homestead Kitchen in Goathland reminded me that sometimes what you're really selling is an experience.

This Other Eden in Helmsley showed how important the person behind beautiful

products can be.

Apeman Interiors in Nunnington was all about the knowledge, instinct and craftsmanship behind what someone sells.

And Carla Louise Nails in Norton made me think about how we photograph care,

expertise and standards rather than only the finished result.

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The Brand Edit is evolving

Six businesses in, I've learnt an enormous amount from this project.

And interestingly, one of the biggest lessons came when I found myself on the other side of the camera. At the end of August, I had my own branding photography session with another photographer. Being the client instead of the photographer made me look at my own process completely differently.

One of the biggest things I learnt was to slow down.

I'm naturally someone who wants to squeeze as much as possible into a session. I see another idea, another corner, another part of the story and think, "Ooh, let's get that too."

And there's absolutely a place for that. It's how I create the big, varied image libraries my full branding clients need.

But my own session reminded me that creativity also needs space.

Space to play with an idea.

Space to notice things.

Space to try something that might not work.

And space to take one part of a story and explore it properly rather than racing towards the next photograph.

That's something I'm bringing into the next chapter of The Brand Edit.

Rather than asking "How much can we fit in?", I want to start asking:

"What's the story here, and how creatively can we tell it?"

It means The Brand Edit will continue to evolve alongside me. I'll still be discovering brilliant businesses, digging into the people and stories behind them and creating a collection of photographs for each one.

But I'm also going to use these sessions to experiment more, push my own creativity and explore what branding photography can be. Because six businesses in, I've realised The Brand Edit isn't only about giving North Yorkshire businesses better photographs.

It's making me a better photographer too.

The Brand Edit is back in October...

Actually, twice.

I'm going to be choosing two North Yorkshire businesses for October's Brand Edit, and I'm really excited to see where this next version of the project takes me.

If you've followed the first six businesses and thought, "I'd love you to do this with mine," this could be your chance. Keep an eye on my Instagram for October applications and all the details on how to enter.

And if you're looking for a full branding photography session rather than The Brand Edit, you can find out more about my North Yorkshire branding photography sessions on my website.

Whether we're creating ten photographs around one brilliant idea or building an entire image library for your business, the starting point is always the same: What do you want people to understand about your business before they've even met you?