Meet Melanie Killens! Habits & Accountability Coach
VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT
Photo: Melanie Killens, Melanie Killens Coaching
Some people's stories prove that rock bottom can be the very best starting line. Melanie's is one of them.
I'll say it: Melanie's daily Instagram Stories are something I genuinely look forward to. They're real, relatable, and never preachy, which is exactly how our conversation on the Rain or Shine podcast felt. We recorded on a cozy morning just before Christmas, and she opened up about the year everything fell apart, the $10,000 decision that changed her life, and why the habits that matter most are the ones you'll never want to do. So for this Visionary Spotlight, I'm pulling from that conversation to bring you her journey, in her own words.
Tell us about your business and how it started.
Melanie's path to coaching started somewhere unexpected: network marketing. She joined a company with powerful female leaders who taught her about mindset, energy, and how you show up, and she spent every day in her parents' garage taking courses and soaking it all in.
"I thought, I want to share this, but I wanted the product to be me." She realized what lit her up was helping people build self-trust, confidence, and self-esteem. So during COVID, she moved away from selling products and launched her own coaching business.
How did you navigate a major setback in your business or life?
2019 was the year everything collapsed. Melanie had come home from working overseas, moved to a small Northern Ontario town, and bought all her furniture, washer and dryer included. She was committed. Then she left a job she thought she'd stay at, and her boyfriend at the time showed up, loaded her things into his truck, and told her he didn't want to date anymore. She was drinking too much and felt unhappy with her body. "All these things I'd dreamed for myself were falling apart."
She remembers the exact moment it turned. "I was wrapped in a towel, crying on the side of my bed, hungover, thinking: this cannot be where I'm at in my life. I've traveled the world, I've done cool things, I'm good at what I do."
Through a Tony Robbins program, she made three commitments: end the relationship, move back in with her family, and invest $10,000 in a life coach. Then she rebuilt, one step and one habit at a time, with a full 12 months of someone holding her accountable. "That's why I am where I am today."
"It's not perfection, it's practice."
-Melanie Killens
What does habits coaching actually look like?
Most of Melanie's clients come to her for help with fitness and nutrition, thinking they should be able to do it alone. But as she points out, we've always had someone holding us accountable, whether a coach, a teacher, a parent, or a mentor. "Then we become adults and it's like: do it on your own."
Instead of the all-or-nothing January 1st approach ("that lasts a month if you're lucky"), she starts small. Someone who hasn't worked out at all might begin with two 20-minute sessions a week, built around the time of day and type of movement that actually fits their life.
The piece she felt was missing from her own coaching journey was self-love. "Self-love doesn't always mean pushing harder. It might mean going for a walk, or writing an apology letter." Over time, her clients drop a pant size and gain confidence, and they realize it was never really about fitness and nutrition. It was the mindset behind it.
Photo: Melanie Killens, Melanie Killens Coaching
What's the biggest mistake people make with their habits?
Trying to go it alone. "If you could do it alone, you would have done it already."
What Melanie loves most is watching clients around month three, when the shift really starts to show. They stop beating themselves up and start saying things like, I didn't work out this week, but I got out for a walk and spent time in nature. "When we break a promise to ourselves, it hurts and hits our self-confidence, just like when a friend breaks a promise to you." Having someone in your corner who isn't your bestie is what's missing for most people.
How do you balance a part-time job and a growing business?
Melanie has made her part-time teaching job work for her business. "When we have all day to do something, we take all day to do it." Having to be at work by 11 a.m. means the business gets her focused morning hours.
She's also fiercely protective of the morning routine she's kept for almost eight years: up at 4 a.m., journal, coffee, workout. When she took on early-morning fitness classes, the routine slipped, and she noticed other areas of her life slipping too. So she let that job go. "Ultimately, I want the coaching business to succeed and be my main source of income."
The hardest part? Keeping her own healthy habits. "Exercise is always the first thing to go, and it's the thing I need most." And learning, as someone with anxiety, how to put the to-do list away half done.
What’s something you always do?
Wash her face before bed, every single night, even though she can't stand it. "I get water all over the sink, all over my shirt. I'm not someone who can wash her face without making a mess." She does it because she hates waking up with mascara on even more, and because it's a nightly reminder that she can do hard things. "These are habits you're never going to want to do, and you do them anyway because you want that feeling on the other side."
What's the most unusual job you've ever had?
Two stand out: working the front door at the Legion's 50-plus singles night while she was in college, and her all-time favourite, a job at a heli-skiing lodge out west. She'd helicopter in for two weeks, then helicopter home for seven days off. "All I did was laundry, but I also ate and skied with them. It was really fun."
How do you wind down after a busy week?
Watching The Young and the Restless with her mom, a show her mom loved when Melanie was growing up, and colouring with a new colouring book and pencil crayons while a podcast or Netflix plays in the background. Simple pleasures that feel like real self-care.
Advice for other entrepreneurs having a rough day?
Acknowledge the part of you that doesn't want to do it, and then do it anyway. "It's okay to not want to do it. And then you do it anyway."
Then come back to your why. For Melanie, that's building a community, moving beyond traditional teaching, investing in her nieces' college fund, and one day taking them on a trip to Paris. "Those are the things I think about when I need to write the Instagram post I don't want to write." And when in doubt, ask yourself: what will future me say about this?
“These are the things that are simple, but not easy.”
-Melanie Killens
A resource that’s added value to her journey?
The program that sparked Melanie's turnaround in 2019. One exercise in particular, making three concrete commitments to change her life, gave her the starting point she needed to build momentum from rock bottom.
Melanie's full story, including how to work with her, can be found on her website and Instagram.
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