Meet Kia Lewis: Fitness Advocate and Sisterlocks Brand Ambassador

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kia Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kia, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
I’ve always wanted to help people in some way. At first, people knew me for being an athlete because I was an Olympic hopeful. I didn’t have sponsorship, so I had to use my talents of doing hair to support my lifestyle. At first, it was just, ‘let me do this until ends meet,’ type of thing, but seeing people’s expressions after doing their hair was a priceless euphoric feeling. I then realized my gift is helping people feel more confident about themselves, and it inspired me to keep going. What I do is more like being a hair doctor. By doing consultations I’m able to diagnose and give solutions to their issues. I take a holistic approach focusing on the whole person and their lifestyle and this method has impacted the lives of many in a very positive way.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I tell everyone, I’m an Athlete first! I played basketball in high school and ran track in college. I was very good at both sports, although basketball was my first love, I enjoyed the adrenaline rush of runners high I received from running and the track body was just the perks from the intense training. I ran for Lincoln University in PA and that’s where I qualified for Nationals my very first indoor meet. I went on to be an NCAA indoor/outdoor champion in the 55m dash and 4×400m dash. I made nationals for cross country as well my coach knew he had an anomaly in his hands, I was fast plus I had endurance so he wanted me to focus on the 400m dash. Being at Lincoln helped me quantify my talent. I now have a gauge of how talented I was and where that talent could take me. So, I decided to transfer to Clark Atlanta to further my experience. I qualified for Nationals here too but the training was not enough. So, I sought training from Coach Eric Campbell off the winners circle. There I trained with the best olympic medalist Angelo Taylor, Tissali Rodgers, just to name a few. I would work 40 hours at Whole foods market as a cashier then go straight to track practice 5 days a week. The training was intense. Unlike the other runners who had sponsorship from Nike and Adaias, I still had to earn my sponsorship. They had physical therapists and massage therapists, I had ice baths and epsom salt as my therapy not to mention I was a single mom of a toddler as well. It was tough juggling all of these responsibilities but I was determined to make the Olympic team. I trained worked, trained worked this was my cycle until one day after doing squats in the smithkline machine I herniated my L5 disc. It totally paralyzed me from the waist down. I couldn’t get up, sit down or lay down. I could see my olympic dreams quickly fading away as tears fell down my cheeks. All the hard work I put in was in vain. I had to find a plan B once I recovered and I found that plan in doing Sisterlocks. During my recovery, I learned that I would have to incorporate massage therapy, acupuncture, and other healing modalities to stay healthy and fit while I did hair. I got some business cards printed and passed them out to every natural hair person I came in contact with until all 5000 cards were passed out. After that most of my clients came by word of mouth because my quick twitch muscles not only worked for my legs they worked for my hands as well. So the word about how fast and efficient I was quickly got out there. 10 years into my career I had no social media presence until 2 years ago. A beautiful young lady by the name of Shanika Roberts said look you need a presence in social media she took over my instagram account and in a matter of 9 months I had reached 10k followers! She definitely deserves a Shout Out @shanrobertsphoto thank you lady much love. Now, I’m at a point in my life where I’m ready to step from behind the chair and pick up where I left off. Not with track but with fitness in general. It’s my lifeline. It helps me combat depression which I suffered from, from not being able to train like I used to. I decided with the help of life partner to launch FitnessAtl. A brand that will feature popular fitness instructors from Atlanta. People will be able to do various fitness modalities via live streaming. I’m super excited about my new venture because now I can help people reach their fitness goals. I love doing hair but I also love being fit and now I have the best of both worlds.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First since I love fitness we would visit DPAC which stands for Dog Pound Athletic Club at Fdl compound. This is a hip hop style rebounding class fused with low impact movements on a trampoline. Then we’ll get a smoothie from Eat Urban Fresh located inside the compound. Then we’ll go to the West end for the best kale wrap in the country. Tassili’s Raw Reality, get Slutified by SluttyVegan and have a walk on the beltline. Then I’ll have them watch “Diary of A Decade,” by Atlanta’s hottest creative Jason Orr to explore the culture and sound of Atlanta.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate my Shout out to Dr. JoAnne Cornwell, founder of “Sisterlocks”a registered trademark Brand that has helped with my financial independence by giving me a tool to be creative with doing natural hair. My husband Brad Lewis, who helps me with all my back end Technical stuff and unlimited support for my new fitness Platform FitnessAtl. Also, Habitat for humanity and the Warrick Dunn Foundation they both have given me a leg up on being a successful homeowner. Without the foundation of having a stable home success can easily turn into failure.

Website: Fitnessatl.com

Instagram: @myfitnessatl

Twitter: Fitness_Atl

Facebook: @FitnessAtl

Youtube: Fitnessatl

Other: www.kialewis.com www.DPACatl.com www.Sisterlocks.com

Image Credits
Mona @shutterandflaash