Meet Megan Byrd | Joy + Wellbeing Coach

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

Hi Megan, what matters most to you?
Joy, Equity and Growth are my top 3 guiding principles in both my life and my business.

To me, joy is the whole point of life. It’s actually enjoying your life and truly thriving instead of just surviving. And everyone has a basic human right to joy, but there are obvious inequities present that don’t allow equal opportunity for all people to experience the joy they deserve. Equity evens the playing field and allows for more fair and inclusive opportunities to cultivate joy – for ALL people.

Growth guides us by extending an invitation to reach beyond limitations and continue learning for life. As we grow, we expand into the truest, most joyful and impactful versions of ourselves possible.

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.
My career – as an employee as well as an entrepreneur – has been in the wellness space. I began working as a personal trainer while I was in school and worked in a few gyms before settling in to corporate wellness. As I spent more time in the fitness and wellness space, I began to see the harm being done under the guise of “helping people”. I began to see how exclusive fitness spaces were and how they often ostracized people of color, differently abled people and folks in larger bodies. The mainstream fitness space was also hugely focused on aesthetics as opposed to the vast range of benefits that movement offers such as improved confidence, mental wellbeing and joy.

Gaining clarity about the dark side of the fitness and wellness space inspired me to start my own business so in 2019 I began training clients online. I offered virtual strength training with a focus on joyful movement and while the main focus was movement, a lot of my work with clients was in shifting their mindset about movement away from weight loss and exercise as punishment and toward self care and embodied movement.

As I continued to train clients online, I felt like something was missing from my coaching practice. I enjoyed what I was doing but I wanted to go deeper with my clients so I decided to get my life coaching certification and shifted my coaching practice to focus more on mindset, mindfulness and joy. This shift was a beautiful alignment with the work I was already doing with clients but it presented more opportunities to go deeper and have a greater impact!

What makes More Than Coaching different is my focus on more. You’ve likely heard someone say “there’s gotta be more to life than this”, or maybe you’ve muttered these words yourself. This feeling was a constant companion of mine for a long time and it took me a long time to actually start exploring it. Once I leaned in to my “more”, I discovered a new path forward and now I help others find their more. More joy, more excitement, more fulfillment.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I did Shirin Eskandani’s Wholehearted Woman group coaching program from January to June 2020 and I think it equally made me feel safe and connected while the world was falling apart around us due to Covid and also guided me on my path to becoming a Joy and Wellbeing coach. I continue to stay in touch with Shirin and listen to her podcast. I’m beyond grateful for her work and approach to coaching that has informed my personal life as well as my business.

Website: https://www.morethan-coaching.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megan.morethancoaching/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-byrd-b12574a7/