My Stuff: Mandy Gill
My Stuff: Mandy Gill
The athlete and trainer shares the high-impact tech tools that keep her company going strong
After a series of unfortunate events during her childhood, and a teenage bout with anorexia that left her at a dangerously low weight of 80 pounds, Mandy Gill turned adversity into positivity. The Vancouver native is now an internationally recognized nutrition and fitness guru who motivates others to live a healthy, fulfilled life through her company, MGM Fitness. She also helps them reach their fitness goals using the Mandy Gill Personalized Fitness App, which allows clients to interact with her and review their progress. “As soon as they wake up, their workout shows up on their phone, and they hit ‘start.’ The moment they finish, that pops up on our phone.”
Gill, now 31, was named 2017’s YWCA Woman of Distinction and has been a Reebok-sponsored athlete since 2010. She appears regularly in the media as a fitness expert and travels around the world speaking about healthy body image. Here are the high-impact tech tools she uses to keep her business going strong.
My phone
Gill calls her iPhone X a lifeline, which she uses to communicate with clients, sponsors, and staff. “I can check in with clients to make sure they’re hitting certain requirements when it comes to their workouts,” she says. “[With] Facetime, I can see my client halfway across the world doing a squat.”
My productivity apps
To manage her time and schedules, Gill relies on Google Calendar. “It syncs with everything so I can access it really easily,” she says.
She also uses personal-task manager OmniFocus to remind her of follow-ups and to-do lists. “If I’m with a client but need to make a quick note to follow up with them in three weeks, I open the app, hit the date I need and why I’m following up, and it will pop up on my phone – not only seven days in advance but on the day I need to do it.”
My communication tools
Gill says the main communication tool she and her staff use are their smartphones. “Mondays are our meeting days, so we [conference call to] set up the week and recap what happened last week.”
To avoid being inundated with calls and emails, Gill puts her phone on airplane mode twice a day for 90 minutes each, in order to power through her work, “otherwise messages eat up a lot of time.” She and her team also use Google Drive to store and access shared files and folders, and to synchronize their devices.
My software
Gill is a fan of small-business accounting software Wave. “We use it for tracking expenses, creating invoices, collecting payments, getting reminders about them, as well as a couple of features which link up to your bank account,” she explains. “It’s great to be able to put everything into specific categories – entertainment or media appearances – when it comes time for taxes.”
My social media
“We use Instagram primarily, and sometimes Facebook for marketing and promotions,” says Gill. “We get a huge amount of business through them.”
As a corporately sponsored athlete, Gill has also incorporated Instagram’s “swipe up” feature. “People who are interested in certain products that I’m wearing can go directly to the link” and shop for the item, she explains.
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