Angela Han is a lawyer, founder of Angela Han Health, and a personal trainer based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Angela runs a growing fitness community called “Fit to Practice Society” that offers mental, physical, and professional health coaching to more than 200 international members from the USA, Canada, and the UK. Angela leads weekly group fitness courses and entrepreneurial workshops to help her members, who are mainly lawyers, maintain healthy lifestyles, and remain “Fit to Practice.” Read on to find out how you can get connected and try Angela’s holistic approach to personal training for yourself.

So, tell us a little about yourself. We're really interested in knowing about you, your passion for physical activity, and how you started your side hustle in personal training.

So I grew up in South Korea and I came to the USA for college. When I first came here, I went through a bit of a culture shock. Because of the culture shock, I was bulimic for seven years. In the middle of law school, I decided to overcome bulimia and was able to do so through exercise.

I didn’t know that exercise was going to be the tool I needed for recovery, but when I felt stronger physically, it helped me recover mentally. I didn’t realize that physical fitness was something I would be building off of, because when I went to law school, I was planning to take a job from any firm that would hire me.

After graduating from law school, I realized that I really needed to be in a field that lit up my heart every day. One day, I was watching this video about finding your passion, and they were saying that you could find your passion by looking at your biggest pain. I knew right then and there that my passion would be in healthcare, whether it had to do with mental, physical, or whatever else. For the longest time, I was looking for a job in healthcare, scouring the job boards 24/7, but then I finally found a job that I’m really grateful for. My boss is just fantastic, and I learned a lot about healthcare law and corporate law, all of the things that I always wanted to learn as a lawyer.

So, what is healthcare law? Can you tell me a little more about that?

So, healthcare law mostly has to do with regulatory issues, as healthcare is very much regulated by the government. 

Awesome! Thank you for your vulnerability and for sharing your story. Walking through adversity really does help us get stronger.

Yeah, absolutely!

So, you got into law. You started practicing in the healthcare industry, how does that lead into "Fit to Practice" your personal training side hustle for fellow lawyers? 

Yeah, so the personal training aspect actually began at kind of the tail end of law school, when I saw that I wasn’t getting hired. I didn’t have a job lined up for after law school, and so I thought ‘Okay, I need to develop more skills in something, but it also has to be something that I’m interested in'. So, I studied for the personal training certification, right before the bar exam, and I failed by one question.

Which one, the bar exam of the personal training certification?

The personal training certification! I failed by one question, so I said ‘I gotta take it again but I have to wait until the bar exam is over first.’

You were a little busy at the time.

Right, exactly. So when the bar exam was over, I got certified, and I walked into the nearest gym and said ‘I just got certified and I can work for you. Also, please teach me how to be a better trainer.’ So, I worked at that gym for a few months until I got the law job I currently have. There were no gyms around me, so I set up personal training online.

For a few months, I was working with clients here and there and then I decided that I really wanted to work specifically with lawyers because I saw the extent of the mental health crisis in our profession. Reflecting on how much exercise helped me to overcome those types of challenges, I wanted to provide that same type of support for other lawyers.

That’s Amazing! So how do your fitness clients find you? And is it only lawyers that you focus on or do you help others as well?

I mostly work with lawyers, but there is a small handful of my clients that are not. I would say that probably 99% of the people I’ve worked with have passed the bar exam at some point.

With what you’re doing, do you see changes in people? Do they seem more comfortable in their own skin?  Relieved?

Yeah! I was actually struggling in my business for a year or two, but it took off recently, right after I gave birth actually in March.

Congratulations!

Thank you.

You had a baby in March? And you look awake! You must have had lots of practice staying up late going over all those cases.

Right (laughs) You know I saw that we were all stuck at home and I just started offering free workouts every week online.

So is most of your work online?

Yeah, it is. So, as I started posting workouts, I started to build a community and now I have a list of over 200 people who are subscribed. We have a slack community of over 80 people and we also have 44 paying members who are working out with me on a weekly basis.

That’s amazing. What does your demographic look like? Is it a split between men and women?

It’s mostly women. And maybe less than 10% are men.

Your Tagline is "Mental, Physical and Professional Health".  Describe what you do and how you help others.

I coach for mental and physical health with exercise and teach lawyers how to find their side hustle for professional health.

• PHYSICAL HEALTH: The physical part involves the exercise itself. I work out with groups Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and on Saturdays we do yoga.
• MENTAL HEALTH:  The mental aspect is the fact that we’re doing it together as a community supporting each other. The way I train is not bootcamp style. It’s not weight loss or fat loss or anything like that. It’s about really trying to maximize the efficiency of a workout so that you feel better and not in pain.
• PROFESSIONAL HEALTH: In terms of professional health, I don’t really care so much about what happens during the 9 am-5 pm. What I care about is helping people find fulfillment outside of their 9-5 jobs through a side hustle. Through my side hustle called "Mastermind",  I teach other lawyers how to start their own side hustle. It’s been successful because often they have this nagging feeling that they are meant for more than just being a lawyer. So that’s the professional health aspect.

What kinds of things are you seeing people do as a side hustle?

Some examples include financial coaching, life coaching, career coaching, and small business legal work.

So, all very entrepreneurial?

Yes

Tell me about your workouts. Are you programming yourself? Is it mostly weights and cardio?

It’s minimal equipment, you really only need two 5-pound dumbbells. We have three circuits: the first circuit is legs and cardio, the second circuit is arms, and the third circuit is abs. We do two exercises for each circuit 40 seconds each 3 times.

Your community is really cool because it's holistic; it’s personal, professional, and social stuff too. How active is your slack channel? Is it very active?

Yes! Actually, it’s more active than I thought it would be. It was meant to be a place where people could access information for registration and for my paying members to have a place to ask questions, but I’m also just beginning to learn about memberships, and it seems the typical industry standard is the 1-9-90 rule. Where 90% of the membership is inactive, 9% of them are sometimes active, and 1% is always active. That expectation is met. And I think that I would have been very disappointed if I expected everyone to be active.

You’re offering more than just a place to come and workout, people are connecting personally and on a professional level. You get each other and likely have a pretty quick connection. It’s a great idea! Do you see this as always being your side hustle? Or do you think it’ll become more?

I mean, it’s only called a side hustle because that’s the standard phrase but it’s really my, well I don’t want to call it a job…because a job implies that you have to do it, but I see it more as a project.

I grew up in a house full of entrepreneurs, my dad always said if you want to retire from your job it’s not the right job. A job should be something that you love to do all the time, and he was very true to his word, he did what he loved until the day he died. He was a general contractor, so he was building stuff all the time. So, in my head a job is just something you love to do, and you just do it. And hopefully, you make money while you do it!  

Exactly. (laughs)

Do you find that most people who come to you are less experienced and looking for direction, or are most already experienced in their physical activity?

I think it’s a combination of people who know that exercise is good for them, and people who are craving community, or just want to have a class on their calendar for accountability. Typically, they’re not hardcore athletes.

I’m glad to hear it, I hear all too often people say that they want to try a new physical activity once they’re good at something, but the point isn’t to be good, it’s just about moving your body and connecting with people who have the same interests as you. 

One of our goals is to help women, especially now during this whole crazy Covid-19 pandemic. People are craving human connection and togetherness, and as a lot of sports and clubs are re-opening and getting back to play, we're working hard to connect women to sports providers and health professionals who can help them stay healthy. We're looking forward to introducing lawyers to you and "Fit to Practice".

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