Editor’s Note: You’d be hard pressed to find someone more energetic and positive that’s always ready to throw down with a high intensity workout. Such is the case for Nike Master Trainer Kirsty Godso. The New Zealand native grew up dreaming of working for the swoosh, and after years of honing her craft in the word of fitness training, she’s now one of, if not the, premier Master Trainers for Nike, with her own workouts on the Nike Training app, her own Nike training shoe, and a recently launched protein powder company called Made Of. Part of why we wanted to catch up with Kirsty is to see how someone like herself finds personal space when they’re constantly traveling; training everywhere from a gym to the hills of Runyon Canyon in LA. The answer? You better read up to find out.
*Note: this interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Ari Nonahal, StockX: Thanks for talking with us today. Could you introduce yourself?
Kirsty Godso: I’m Kirsty Godso. I’m a Nike Master Trainer and a health & wellness consultant.
I’m crazy passionate about anything related to movement, whether that has to do with clothes, nutrition, or physical activity. The way that you learn about people through movement is so special to me. I’ve met so many of my best friends through these crazy fitness experiences, whether they were someone I got to torture with burpees or someone that was a mentor to me or a fellow Nike trainer. I’ve also got to see some of the craziest places in the world through fitness, so I really describe what I do as being in the business of bodies because I don’t think just saying what we do in the gym captures all of what I do.
Like I said, I also care a lot about your nutrition. I actually care how you dress. I really like to translate the work we do in the gym and how it amplifies every other area in your life.
Ari Nonahal, StockX: Let’s talk about growing up in New Zealand and how you created this career path for yourself.
Kirsty Godso: Growing up in NZ is crazy because you are literally down at the end of the world. Most people think you are part of Australia — not true. I think the best thing I ever heard was on John Oliver when he said New Zealand is one of Australia’s imaginary friends, that was good.
New Zealand is really cool. It’s so green, the air is fresh, and you grow up playing a ton of sports. I grew up on a farm. My brother and I loved it. Both of my parents are pro golfers. I spent far too much time on a golf course, more than I’d ever like to be honest. But for me , I always loved fitness. I think it was after I had a knee surgery at 15 that I sort of really started to get a relationship with strength training. I actually never imagined I would go into fitness the way that I did. I have a double business degree – I studied finance and marketing. I only got my finance degree because I really wanted to work for Nike and I felt like I needed to differentiate myself from everyone else that had a marketing degree. I graduated and I applied for a job at Nike and there were no jobs. I was like “Cool! So what’s Plan B?”. I started working as a media buyer and then a brand manager. In this time, I got into being a trainer as a side hustle. I loved the gym that we went to and I was filming fitness DVDs. And it’s funny because that is how Nike ended up finding me down in New Zealand. So, it was a real round about way to get to working for Nike, especially a way I would have never imagined. I didn’t even know they had master trainers, like what is that?
I started working with them when I was 22 and now I’m 30. I’d like to say I’ve matured a bit but I’m not too sure how much (laughs). It’s been an amazing way to grow up with this family of trainers and people who are really your best friends. You learn so much. I couldn’t imagine my life now not being in the US. It actually got to the point where I was travelling for Nike so much internationally that I felt like a visitor in my own home when I would go back to New Zealand. I’d seen too much and I didn’t really know how to go back and exist with my work space there. Also, I just missed this community of people that I have met around the world and especially in the states. I’ve been happily living here for the last four years.
It’s been such an awesome experience with Nike and it has lead to so many other business and personal relationships that I never could have dreamed of.
Ari: What has been the biggest obstacle so far in your career and how were you able to bounce back from them?
Kirsty: My biggest obstacle in my career was definitely making a really tough decision in 2015 to give up a program that I helped create for a fitness company in New Zealand. It was a high intensity program that I was so passionate about, it was like a child to me. The company I worked for actually partnered with Reebok for five years, so I had to make the decision to either stay with Nike or to keep my program and go with Reebok. At the time I had never worked for Nike before. There was no guarantee of anything permanent happening with Nike. I figured it was going to break my heart either way, but I knew I owed it to myself to stick to my childhood dream of working for Nike and see what’s possible.
It’s interesting growing up in NZ because you don’t have opportunities everywhere and you have to really believe and work for something. The moment I made that decision it pulled this safety net from underneath me, like, “ok, it’s go time.”
I think a lot of the time when we make decisions that are really tough, we want a guaranteed outcome and the reality is you aren’t going to have that. I honestly think there is a value to fighting for something. Even if you don’t get it, there is always going to be something great to come from it, even if it is just a learning experience. There can be true value in not getting what you want. It sharpens you and directs you to something you were meant to have.
I’m so grateful. I look back at that decision to help guide me through other tough decisions. Trusting yourself is a huge thing that we don’t do enough. Trust yourself and if you want something, go for it.
Ari: Touching on constantly being on-the-go, how do you create your personal space while traveling?
Kirsty: A personal space for me is a place that I can really dial into energy. Energy is the most attractive thing about any person, that’s why I’m attracted to physical exercise. That’s why I love my catch ups with people to be when we’re doing something physical because you get to pull so much ore out of people. Personal Space for me is any opportunity to be in movement.
I’m kind of never not moving, so being on-the-go is just this constant state of a little anxiety, but also it’s the gas in my tank. I think creating a personal space for me wherever I go, there are some non-negotiables. I’d like to say I’m a high maintenance traveller. Even if I’m going somewhere for two days I will pack six pairs of sneakers because you have to be prepared for anything. I always take one variation of an Air Force 1, that’s just a general rule because I think that shoe is so classic and I will get married in it. Hopefully it’s some extreme custom from Virgil or something.
It’s funny when I go home to my actual apartment, which is actually my own personal space, I’m like “interesting….” (laughs) “…. So this is it.” My personal apartment is hilarious because what should be my food cupboard, or my pantry, is a sneaker closet. It’s the closest I’m getting to having an actual sneaker closet in New York because, you know, space is very thin. People open it up when they come over and they think there’s going to be snacks and they’re just like, “Oh.” I keep them all in boxes and they’re catalogued down. You’ll see a disastrous amount of AF1’s there are.
Ari Nonahal: I need to see that.
Kirsty: I’ll send you guys the photos they’re pretty impressive.
Ari: In the past you’ve spoken about having the right intentions for fitness. You can work out but if your intentions are just doing to be skinny or some other motive, you may not be in the right headspace. What are your intentions? What keeps you moving?
Kirsty: I would say the time that I have in the gym is the time that I respect the most. I’m a bit of a psycho. I listen to audiobooks while I train. I do believe there’s this very nice correlation between mind and body. I open myself up. My ability to receive is so high when I’m there.
When you’re in the gym, and this is for myself included, I think it’s so important that you’re in the gym and really being present. Don’t be on your phone trying to answer emails or try to facetime someone while you’re on the treadmill. Don’t do that. The gym is this unapologetic time for yourself.
That’s also part of the reason I love high intensity. It’s that it’s so confronting. A lot of times we dart away from things that scare us or when we get totally breathless, but there is something so absolutely freeing when you’re in that place that you think, “Wow, I actually might pass out.” It enlightens you. It opens you up to this space where you’re like, “damn, I did that!” You can now go and apply that to everything you do.
The way you move and the way that you treat your body in the gym really shows a lot about you as a person and the way that you show up, even if you’re in a class. Your ability to concentrate and just be in the room and doing the work, more so than doing it for what you see in the mirror, amplifies out to everything else that you do in your life. That’s why I love the gym. That’s why I always say take anything you want from me, but don’t take my workout time and don’t take my sneakers.
Ari: Can you elaborate more on the mental work aside from the physical aspect?
Kirsty: I say that movement is my meditation. I cannot sit still for the life of me. Mental work is incredibly important. You can do all of the physical work you want but you might never see this amazing body that you have or be able to appreciate it.
The thing is, when we think about mental work, we think about goal setting, therapy, or more of the traditional ways we typically speak about. I work a lot on internal dialogue and internal conditioning because that’s the conversation you’re having with yourself all day. You can be saying the wildest things to yourself and not even realizing the impact it has on everything else. I like to talk about having hand breaks. The moment you start to go into a spiral, just having a hand break and being like, “Wow, really? Is that what’s going on today?” I say to people, write that down! Would you say that to your dad? Is that how you would speak to a friend? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t, so definitely don’t speak to yourself that way. We’re all guilty of it but I’m saying to high five yourself and be on your own team! That’s where this mental work really comes in. Be open to learning. Be open to being wrong. I love The Four Agreements, which talks about not making assumptions, don’t take things personally, be impeccable with your word, and always do your best. I think those are four really easy things to remind yourself all the time. It’s a great way to put things in perspective.
You might be in the gym for one hour a day if you’re lucky. You’re living in your mind the other 23 hours so you really cannot ignore the other mental work that needs to be done. Ideally, you can learn to find more and more harmony. That is one of the most beautiful things as you get older, you do get more comfortable with things and you do get more confident in yourself. You are better to yourself and your non-negotiables. You see beauty in other things and have a really nice perspective.
Ari Nonahal: Cultivating a community is so important with your profession, what differentiates you and makes it that so many people want to work with you?
Kirsty: Honestly, I like to challenge people. I like to make it fun. I know it sucks sometimes, I’m feeling it too. That’s the great thing when you’re training with people because they can see that you’re struggling too. Even if you do my live program on the Nike app, I’m doing everything with you and trying to talk at the same time. You can see that I’m not killing it all the time. There are moments where I’m like, “take a breather guys!” I think you can always tell that I care about you. Maybe I’m going to annoy you in class because I’m going to be on you. I’ll say, “No you can do that again” or “don’t stop 10 seconds early.” “If you prematurely quit on this, how many other things are you going to prematurely quit on?” So I think I’m a little confronting, in an appropriate way, and I like to call myself an energy dealer. That’s what I’m doing.
But you also have to create this safe place for people to come in and be like, “Oh cool, I can be weird.” You can openly like fitness or can openly hate fitness and that’s fine! We’re going to work on this together on improving that. I love nothing more than when people come to class and they’re like, “this is the last place I wanted to be today but I know you’re going to change that for me.” I’d rather have people spend that time with me in the gym and we sort it out before they go home to their loved ones, even if that’s a pet. I’m happy to take on some of that stress they had during the day. Sometimes I think that’s where I face burnout because I’m also receiving energy from these people. There’s nothing more special than going around the world and seeing the relationship that different cultures and different people have with movement but we’re still speaking this global language of what it is with fitness. it’s really special and really cool.
Ari: What is the ultimate high for you when it comes to fitness?
Kirsty: The ultimate high for me in fitness is when I feel like I’m not getting one more repetition or I’m possibly not getting 3 more seconds, and I do it. I have that coach mentality in my head that’s like, “No! You’ve got through worse before.” I think that’s the most important thing with high intensity or any type of fitness. If you got through it once before, you know you’re going to survive. You learn these thresholds and that you can push a little more.
I’ve always been curious and I just want to know what’s possible. When you’re in the gym and you push yourself to such a place, it unlocks this new level you didn’t know existed. That’s what happens when you really go after your fitness and show up for yourself. You have to show up for yourself in such a way that you can continue to show up for other people. That’s what I rely on fitness for. It’s never going to let me down. The gym never lets me down, even if it’s somewhere outdoors, using a step I find somewhere, a tree, anything. It’s always going to dramatically change your day.
Ari: So that high that you get from a workout pushes you throughout the day?
Kirsty: Yeah, I think there’s so many energy leaks everywhere throughout your day. Obviously working out takes your energy but fills you up so much more. I wish we would prioritize simple things more often. We might sit at work all day at a desk and think, “I’m too busy to give myself 30 minutes to work out,” but it’s probably one of the greatest things you could do for yourself. Maybe just saying no to some extra obligations to have some time alone to have some peace and quiet, where you can just focus on your body and mental state. Shifting between parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system and just getting out of your head for a second. That’s my favorite thing about being really breathless. You can’t really think about much else than just trying to breathe.
Ari: What are you most proud of in your career so far?
Kirsty: There’s a lot of milestones that I’m proud of. I always wanted a workout on the Nike app, now I’ve had multiple. My first actual program just dropped on it which is really cool. We never knew if that would actually happen. I really wanted a shoe with Nike, which everyone said would never happen, and I had a training shoe come out with them last year. I think as you go along, you realize it’s not actually that goal that mattered to you so much. It wasn’t about the workout on there and seeing your name. It wasn’t about the shoe. It’s about the experience that people have with those things. Even the same when making my protein powder, I could be having the worst day with work and someone could message me and say, “Hey, I just wanted to say your protein powder changed my life,” and then I feel like I’m going to cry.
I honestly think my proudest moment with my work is just those exchanges where people reach out and just say, “I hated working out and now I work out 4 times a week using the Nike app.” That means the most to me. Even if i mildly changed someone’s approach to their body, their fitness, and wanting to show up for themselves a little more, that is the most value for me. Knowing that I can make people feel better about themselves, that’s the greatest wealth for me.
Ari: Being someone who’s constantly pushing limits, how do you avoid burnout?
Kirsty: I’ve hit burnout a few times in the last year. I actually got really ill and had shingles from burnout. I was catching too many red eye flights, thinking I could go straight from shoots to other jobs, going back and forth between LA and New York sometimes three times a week. It was honestly the best thing that ever happened to me thought because I was taking myself for granted. I needed to have that low to have a slap in the face and realize I really can’t do that. It took four months to rehabilitate my leg because the pain was through the sciatic nerve.
It was one of the reasons I started to make a protein powder because I was pretty offended on how distributing the ingredients are in most protein powders. Being from New Zealand, one of my biggest transitions coming to the states was the food and not having great access to some of the foods I was used to. I’m a celiac so finding food that I can really eat that I’m not going to have a crazy reaction to that wipes me out for four days and I can’t turn up to work, I can’t risk that. I need stuff that I can take with me on the go so I have confidence that I can do my job.
For me, reading books, time with my friends, being in the gym, and being outside is what I need to make sure I don’t burn out. I live in New York which really knows no boundaries. It seeps into every second of your day. Even doing simple things, like turning off instagram notifications so you don’t need to be disrupted by that all the time. I stopped apologizing for everything and being like, “Hey so sorry I didn’t get back to you.” I thought to myself, “why am I sorry? I’ve been training people back to back for hours.” Some of these things might seem insignificant but can all lead to burnout and they’re stress.
It’s also important to understand how we grow and evolve as people. Sometimes it’s not the best option is to be absolutely crushing yourself from the gym. Sometimes it’s going and hanging out with friends, watching a movie or reading a book. Understanding that there’s physical conditioning and there’s life conditioning where you just need recovery time. You see the craziest changes in people’s bodies when they’re just happy. You treat your body well. Be in a relationship with yourself at all times. You can make yourself happy.
Lizzie Kassab, StockX: Can you talk about the importance of getting outside and unplugging with nature?
Kirsty: The craziest thing that we do is we take for granted all of the time how amazing earth is. If you can, get outside, breathe some fresh air, and just have a moment to walk with a friend. Do something that touches with nature a little bit more. You can get an amazing perspective really quickly. Grounding back down, taking in silence, breathing, observing, seeing dogs, seeing birds, maybe just people watching. It’s such a great way to instantly calm down. It’s precious. Being outside is one of my favorite things and such a luxury that we forget about. It’s not always about riding in a car or sitting at a fancy restaurant, just go walk on some grass. I think you’ll be pretty surprised at how enjoyable that is.
Ari: When you’re in Los Angeles, do you find yourself outside all of the time?
Kirsty: When I’m in LA, I’m outside all of the time. People will laugh at me because I’ll be like, “Be there in 15 minutes.” They’re like, “What? It takes 15 minutes?” And I’m like, “Oh, I’m walking.” Being in LA feels like such a treat. I feel a huge difference in my body whenever I’m on the west coast. Being outdoors more is so calming for me.
Ari: Sounds like LA is a good move for you.
Kirsty: Yes!
Lizzie: What is something you feel is really true to you that you wish more people knew about you?
Kirsty: I’m an extrovert it seems like all of the time but I also am an introvert too. I need time to shut down. If anyone can see footage of me when I was first a trainer, I was terrible. I would teach classes with my best guy friend and I would not speak. That was something I really had to pull out of myself. The way that I did that was to create kind of have a stage name: KiYonce. She transfers over a lot into real life now. (laughs)
Even if you think that you’re shy, you have it in you to be as extra as you want to be. Just make sure whenever you’re being something that it’s you. The most interesting thing for me is that the way that I dress, the things that I care about, the things that I say, what I read, what I listen to, yes we have influence all around us but it’s just genuinely what I care about. That’s who I am. I am just a girl from New Zealand who’s a crazy tomboy that loves sneakers. I’m not trying to be anything else than unapologetically who I am. I think that the moment you can get that internal GPS of who you are, it’s going to help you navigate so much clearer with everything else in life. If anything I kind of wish people knew at the base of everything I’m just like everyone else.
Ari: What excites you?
Kirsty: I think being in business is what really excites me. It turns my brain on. And honestly, you burn crazy calories when you run a business (laughs) it’s stressful.
But it’s fun, it sharpens you all the time. You’re always learning. I think the moment that I am not learning is when I know I need a new challenge on something. You have the opportunity to learn all the time. My friends give me grief all the time, because they will be like “hey wanna come to this party.” And I’ll be like “oh no, actually I am really deep in this book.” (laughs)
Ari: You have a big Nike training program going on right now, what’s next for you?
Kirsty: Nike is a really amazing brand. For me, they’re more like a friend than a brand. They’re almost like a sibling I’ve grown up with. They allow me to be me and they encourage that.
I think really what I’m most excited about right now is Made Of, which is my protein powder. And I think because nutrition is clearly such an important piece of everything we do. But for me about people having confidence and making good decisions for their body. And whether or not you are buying products that I make, I just want people to care about what their stuff is made of and understanding what they’re fueling their body with. You can take that across to anything else.
What you’re made of is the people around you, it’s the way you communicate with yourself the way you show up for yourself. Even when things suck. I’m interested in how you show up for yourself on your darkest day. I think that tells me the most about people
I think that being a woman in business is something I always wanted. It’s given me so much scope of other people and understanding things, and I am really excited to expand that.
Really it’s about instilling confidence in people that they are making better choices for their body and continuing to show up for themselves.
