We’ve all heard of the work-life balance, right? Juggling everything else as well as work is never easy but when you get it right, it can be done. Well, have you heard of work, life, and competition balance? Our founder Collette Evans is doing just that, managing a business, dealing with life as well as participating in bodybuilding competitions this year.
A lot of training, prepping, practising for routines and drastically cutting down body fat while maintaining muscle mass. It is not an easy ordeal that anyone can just do all the while being able to supervise a thriving business.
So, who is Collette Evans?
Collette Evans is the founder of Picture Perfect Photography. She has been a photographer since 2002 and has had plenty of experience photographing many disciplines from fitness, commercial, events and weddings. Her passion for photography is still strong as ever which can also be said the same for her passion in her fitness and bodybuilding, first competing in athletic figure in 2016. She took her interest in nutrition one step further in 2017, when she qualified as a nutritional therapist, something that now helps her when designing her own nutritional plans to suit her fitness goals. Her passion for health and fitness has started since she was younger, taking up competitive swimming in high school, she’s also competed regionally in powerlifting, winning 2nd place more than once.
But since the pandemic, she’s picked up bodybuilding and with only 10 months into it she’s been prepping and getting ready for her first few competitions of the year, one in August with the Trevor Crouch and Ernie Taylor Classic and NPA and UKDFBA in September, going onto the IFBA British finals in October 2021. Working with her team of coaches and her personal trainer daily, support from her husband and with sheer determination, self-motivation, and discipline she has managed to pursue her passion in bodybuilding and was still able to be a leader and grow her own photography company.
Collette’s tips on winning at business and her passions:
Follow A Good Work Ethic
Show what you’re made of. It is important to find what drives you to max out your potential to work harder and smarter at work, life, passions or business. Collette has always had a clear idea of a strong work ethic since her dad also showed a steadfast business mindset which resulted in his success in his business. She was driven by the feeling of wanting to prove herself to him growing up. With success comes sacrifices, since her father was focused on the business he wasn’t as present at home as he would have liked.
It goes to show that if you want something you have to work for it and make it worth the sacrifice. Similarly, with Collette’s laborious prep and training daily, she’s sacrificed plenty of her free time to work hard at what she wants to achieve in order to compete on stage in 2016 and beat her previous stage package of 2021. Collette is work-ready when it hits 9:00am and turns up at work to do the job as well as be present in the company to support her team. Whether it’s her fitness or client projects, she keeps going to finish what she started.
At the start of the year, Collette didn’t anticipate that she would be competing in four bodybuilding competitions this year. By turning up and working hard her hard work was enough to warrant applause and hopefully an award on stage.
Get Disciplined
Make every day count. Collette always internalised that once you step on the stage, all eyes are on you and all you can do is your best. This applies to all contexts, whether it’s preparing for that big presentation in front of big clients or preparing for a fitness competition on stage. All the work is done, all the prep work is ready to be shown to everyone.
Collette has been training smart & hard since October 2020 with her PT. All the 6 am morning cardio sessions in her home gym through the winter lockdown months, every meal prep Sunday and every gym clothes washed repeatedly; laborious work but she internalised her belief and was disciplined to carry on even if it was draining- she kept going.
“You can taste the dream it becomes your reality”
Collette Evans
Having that discipline helps to find your focus on the important things in your life. There’s no such thing as not having enough time when you have the discipline to make time for everything that matters.
Be Organised
How will you create something that doesn’t exist? Plan and visualise. Look ahead and think about what you want to achieve and work your way towards it. Another key for success in managing business and everything else is planning your time accordingly and prioritising the important things. Every Monday Collette plans her week to ensure that she has achievable daily objectives to complete to be on track with what needs to be done in both the office and the gym.
She works very closely with her team to ensure that she is briefed on everyone’s tasks which helps with getting the whole team organised. This also helps to keep her organised so that she can easily oversee her team’s progress towards the success of the business.
Colette does not stop until what she’s doing is done.
Collette’s kitchen essentials that help her to save time are the Tefal Air Fryer, Morphy Richards Steamer and the ISO Meal Bag.
Have A Team To Support You
There really is no ‘I’ in the team. In managing a business it’s difficult to work on your own and you should get a team to support your business. It’s the same with fitness, Collette works very closely with her team ensuring that everything is set in place and everyone has their own goals at work to ensure that her business continues to grow. Growth in your team comes hand in hand with the growth of your business.
It’s the same with fitness, without her team of coaches and personal trainers it really would be difficult for her to attempt to compete in any bodybuilding competition. Collette relies on the support and guidance her PT Joe Brown of Emphasize PT, Sports therapist and coach, Nik to get her fit and in good health for her upcoming competitions. As we also know, presentation is very important on stage in order to showcase the hard work, which is why Collette also employs the help of a posing coach, she feels this has made all the difference to her confidence too. All of their support and efforts also contribute to Collette’s best performance on stage. It’s not easy to be able to step on that stage and compete all by yourself, a team that believes in you, even before you believe in yourself will always help make the journey of prep more enjoyable.
Take Accountability
Most people aren’t willing to do the work because they find easy ways outs or they’re not fully committed to putting in the effort. No one is responsible for your journey other than you. Colette found that you have to stay accountable for your discipline and be responsible for your own growth. This context can be applied to both business and training. At the end of the day, it’s on you that can take ownership of the situation.
“You’ve invested your own time, money, and effort and determination into this to get to where you want to be whether it’s business, life, fitness, everything.”
Collette Evans
Bodybuilding and mind-building are the same. Think about how you can get there and just do it. Tick those checklists of things that you need to do to get to where you want to be and start on your journey. This is your journey to success and no one else can take you there but yourself. You don’t need to compare yourself with anyone, it makes no difference to you because everyone else is on a different journey.
It’s about putting the effort in, how badly you want to succeed and how important it is for you to be the best version of yourself. Colette puts in the same effort in her passions whether it’s her business, her fitness or her family. The unimaginable amount of patience, effort and craftsmanship that goes into bodybuilding is not easy. Her efforts also translate when working closely with every single client at Picture Perfect.
Show the world what you’re made of and start that business, go to the gym, pitch to that client you’ve always wanted to work for. When you make that first move, it’s game over for everyone that ever doubted you.
Collette continuously uses her “Reminder” app on her iPhone to make sure nothing goes unmissed. During peak prep periods, this is where your brain can go to mush so you need to use technology to keep on top of work tasks.
Look after your nutrition
Running your own business and preparing to compete brings challenges. One thing that has to stay consistent is nutrition. Over the past 3 months, Collette has had the same meals every single day. Food prepping is key for Collette and she is known to pre-cook her food 2 weeks ahead of time to keep on track and save time each day.
Collette doesn’t count calories but uses MyFitnessPal to track her daily macros (protein, carbs and fats). She aims to keep sugars low as this can inflame the gut. Protein is weighed once cooked as it can shrink, carbs are weighed dry and veg is weighed also when cooked. This needs to be correct in MyFitnessPal to make sure you get the correct macro measurements for your body. Keeping everything the same removes a variable out of the equation and it gives Collette a true picture of how her progress is really doing.
Each day, Collette also takes around 30 supplements per day. These help her with brain and eye function, lubcriation of joints and gut health, which are all important when sporting low body fat.
As work never stops, Collette is also on the road photographing clients most weeks. She continues to meal prep and take everything with her in the ISO Fitness Bag and a cool box fridge. Been prepared makes sure she never has to eat out and can always stay in control. No meal is ever unmissed in the prep kitchen!
