A conversation with Chantal Brodrick, fitness industry presenter and advocate

I always love it when I get to interview someone I already know, and this conversation with Chantal Brodrick was exactly that. We've crossed paths many times over the years, including when I watched her get inducted into the AUSactive Roll of Honour in 2025, so sitting down to record this felt less like an interview and more like catching up with a friend who happens to have one of the most fascinating careers in our industry.

Chantal has spent nearly two decades championing education and advocacy across the fitness industry. She's served on the board of directors for AUSactive and the Active Queenslanders Industry Alliance, she's a highly regarded presenter and MC, and she's built a career that started with a body pump class and grew into something neither of us could have predicted. Here's what she shared with me.

It started with wanting to be the instructor, not the client

Before fitness, Chantal spent fifteen years in sales and marketing in the media industry. She was the classic front row regular, always at body pump, always at spin, genuinely loving the environment. Eventually she started watching her instructor and thinking she'd love to do that too.

That curiosity led her to her Certificate III, purely so she could teach body pump on the side while keeping her full time media job. That was the whole plan. But once she was in the room with inspiring coaches and genuinely enjoying the learning, the plan changed. She went on to complete her Certificate IV, never having intended to become a PT at all. Not long after, she was offered a scholarship to become a contractor personal trainer for Fitness First, and that's how her fitness career actually began.

It's a reminder that the plan you start with and the career you end up with are rarely the same thing, and that's often exactly how it should be.

What those early days on the gym floor taught her

Chantal says the biggest lesson from her early years teaching group fitness was seeing, up close, the power of exercise. Not just physically, but in the community and friendships that formed in those classes. That early exposure shaped a belief she still holds strongly today: fitness changes lives.

What surprised her most was realising, almost by accident, just how many career paths exist within our industry. She hadn't set out to build a career in fitness. She discovered it was possible along the way, and that discovery opened the door to everything that followed.

Finding the overlap between fitness and business

After moving into personal training full time, Chantal quickly realised she missed the business side of her old career. A chance connection with JT from Active Management, who was already coaching gym owners, led to a new idea: what if they coached personal trainers on the business side too?

That was the beginning of PT Biz Coach, and by Chantal's own account, business education for trainers barely existed at the time. She spent this chapter helping PTs learn how to sell, market, structure and systemise their businesses, essentially helping them turn a passion into a profession. Looking back now, she was one of the first people doing this kind of work in Australia, long before it became the norm it is today.

Podcasting before podcasting was even a thing

Here's a fact that still makes me smile: Chantal was podcasting about fitness business years before most people even knew what a podcast was. What started as an audio show back in 2012 grew into a weekly show a few years later, and the early days came with a very unusual challenge. She and JT weren't just trying to educate trainers on business. They were also explaining what a podcast even was, and introducing people to platforms like Spotify and Apple, at a time when even YouTube wasn't mainstream yet.

She hosted the show for five years before handing it over, and it's still running today under new hosts. What struck me most was her reflection that so many of the lessons from those early interviews are just as relevant now as they were back then. Good advice tends to hold up.

The biggest lesson she took from years of interviewing others was the value of staying curious and learning from people both inside and outside our industry. She talked about the joy of stepping into someone else's world for the length of a conversation, and how her goal was always to send listeners away with two or three genuinely useful takeaways.

What she's learned from a career on stage

These days Chantal is one of the most recognised voices in our industry as an MC and event host, and I've had the pleasure of watching her work up close more than once. What struck me in this conversation was how much preparation sits behind the confidence you see on stage.

Ahead of any event, she immerses herself in the client's world. That might mean attending classes, meeting the team, and spending real time understanding how staff and members interact with a brand. She researches what's happening in the market, works closely with the client on what they want the event to feel like, and often steps back from social media in the two weeks before a big event so she can stay focused and give her full energy to the people she's representing.

It's the kind of preparation you don't see from the audience, but it's exactly why the version of Chantal you do see on stage feels so calm and assured.

Her advice for the woman just starting out

When I asked what she'd tell a woman starting out in this industry, Chantal didn't hesitate. She spoke about how huge the opportunity is, not just to build a career, but to genuinely impact other people's lives. She reminded me that most people who step into fitness do so because something happened to them personally, or to someone they love, and that motivation is worth holding onto.

Her advice was simple: let that motivation be your guide, and remember that this industry offers far more than the roles most people picture. Group fitness instructor, personal trainer, manager, franchisee, business owner, the person leading a major company. She's watched people work their way into every one of those roles, often never expecting to get there.

What's next for Chantal

Chantal has recently gone into partnership with an established platform in our industry to launch a weekly news show covering everything happening across the fitness industry in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Her goal is simple: the more informed we all are as an industry, the better we serve the people who walk through our doors.

Talking with Chantal always leaves me with the same feeling. This industry has so much more room in it than most people realise when they first start out, and the people who've been in it the longest are usually the first to remind you of that.

Chantal Brodrick is a fitness industry presenter, MC and advocate with nearly two decades of experience across education, business coaching and media in the active health and exercise industry. She was inducted into the AUSactive Roll of Honour in 2025.