Today we’d like to introduce you to Maja Miller.
Hi Maja, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I spent most of my adult life grinding. I was a Division I scholarship athlete, got my MBA at the age of 24, and was the youngest Director at the Fortune 50 company at which I was on the officer path, but by the time I was in my late 20s, I was sick. I spent a lot of time going to traditional doctors who wanted to prescribe a pill for each symptom I was feeling, which included anxiety, depression, IBS, and skin issues. I knew I was too young to go down this road, so I saw a functional nutritionist. There, I did some tests that weren’t covered by insurance but provided a ton of insight into why I was feeling the way I was.
It turned out that I was in the 99th percentile for mercury toxicity and had a lot of other nutritional deficiencies that were all the root causes of my symptoms. Then, I fell down the rabbit hole of functional nutrition, and around that same time, I discovered Pilates. It didn’t take long before I decided to quit my job, move to Austin, and start Kor180, the first boutique Pilates studio. While completing my classical Pilates certification, I designed my own Pilates reformer and created my teacher training program. I launched Kor180 in 2013, and before I closed the studio right before COVID-19 in 2019, I won Best Pilates Instructor, Best Cycling Instructor, and Best Cycling Studio almost every year we were in business.
During that time, many of my clients, although they were working out a lot, couldn’t lose weight and felt sick, just like I did back in California. So I designed a Nutrition program and generically called it the Transformation Program mostly because I wasn’t positive anyone would want to sign up. At a time when ClassPass came to the Austin market and was putting studios out of business, I took a different approach after they had cut prices in an attempt to compete on price. I decided to provide more value through nutrition coaching and triple my costs. During my time in the transformation program, I often would suggest that my clients go to their doctor to have labs run because some of the things they were experiencing reminded me of autoimmune conditions, etc. When they requested the labs, their doctors often said things like.
“No”
“All moms are tired.”
“That’s just what happens when women get older.”
I knew I had to return to school to run these labs for my clients whose doctors were refusing, so I became a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner. It’s a fancy way of saying that I run clinical labs to determine the root cause of my client’s symptoms. I then use those labs to create tailored protocols to reverse those symptoms once and for all. My clients, on average, see 12 doctors before they finally find me and find relief. When 2019 rolled around, I decided to shut down the studio to take time to heal my body because old habits die hard. Starting my own company was significantly more complex than the corporate grind. Becoming a mother was on the horizon, but then COVID-19 hit, and I was so thankful that I decided to close my doors before that happened. During COVID-19, I was able to find some much-needed rest and healing. I was my first client, client and I developed The Inside Out Protocol during that time. I now work 1:1 with high-performing high-performing individuals looking to feel the best they’ve ever felt in their bodies.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not smooth sailing at all. I left everything and everyone I knew in 2012 to move to Austin, where I didn’t know a single person, to create a health and wellness lifestyle brand. Thank goodness that I was naive and didn’t realize how unlikely success would be. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it. About 2 years into launching the brand, we were the most popular boutique studio in town and had waitlists of 20+ clients for almost every class, so I didn’t focus on customer acquisition. So after ClassPass came to town, which used 40M+ in venture funding to subsidize and unlimited membership to multiple studios for $49/month, my revenue almost overnight was cut by half, and my expenses doubled as we decided to open an additional studio. Like so many other studios at the time, I almost went out of business. It was a hail-mary idea to create a nutrition program called the Transformation Program, and it exploded. We were generating 30-40K in additional revenue monthly, but it almost killed me. I was hiring and training new instructors, planning a wedding, building a new studio, and trying to dig out of a $150k hole due to the ClassPass competition. Just as things were going well, my father and co-founder decided to leave our mom and family to be in a polyamorous relationship in Maryland. None of us have spoken to him since. He was living a double life and did some pretty sketchy stuff in the business, so my attorneys advised me to shut down literally overnight. You literally can’t make this stuff up. I can laugh about it now and be grateful for the doors that have opened up, but it was a very dark period for me professionally and personally. All of this was happening as I was going through my fourth round of IVF treatments.
I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Maja Miller Wellness?
I’m the founder of Maja Miller Wellness, and my signature program is called the Inside Out Protocol. I use clinical labs to determine why my clients are sick after their doctors can’t or won’t help them. I’ll use those same labs that look at blood chemistry stool/blood/saliva/hair samples to determine the root cause of their symptoms. Then, I create tailored protocols that use food, rest, energy work, stress reduction, and smart supplementation to reverse their symptoms. I have a 100% success rate. What sets me apart is that I create tailored protocols for my clients because their metabolism is as unique as their fingerprint, so anything they do to heal and get healthy must be tailored to their unique situation. My signature container is 8 weeks, where we go through 4 phases.
- Phase 1: Seen & Heard
Assessing, in detail, exactly what’s going on with your body and life that may contribute to your feelings. I ask ~400 questions about your environment, physical symptoms, and stressors. This allows me to connect the dots of different stressors in your life over time and identify the pattern of symptoms, allowing us to understand which systems of your body are in a state of metabolic chaos. At this point, we will see your healing opportunities, and there will be a clear path forward that gives my clients some much-needed much-needed much-needed hope. - Phase 2: Root Cause
Running tests (based on collecting your saliva, urine, blood, stool, and hair) will explain the symptoms mapped out in Phase 1 above and provide the information necessary to create a plan to reverse those symptoms once and for all. - Phase 3: Quick Wins
While waiting for the results of the tests, we start making some basic lifestyle changes that can make a big difference in how you feel. This is the low-hanging fruit that provides 70% of your results. The other 30% is the test results and supplements that speed up your recovery by up to 50%. I’ll help you make simple changes to how you eat, sleep, and move your body so that you can stabilize your blood sugar, reset your circadian rhythm, and improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. This is the foundation on which everything else is built, and you need to get these things right to help. - Phase 4: Power Plan
When we get your test results back, I’ll be able to understand which systems in your body need to be supported and the sequence in which they need to be supported. For example, many of my clients focus on diet and exercise at the beginning of their wellness journey but have gut issues preventing them from losing weight. That means no amount of eating less and moving more changes the number on the scale. I’m allergic to cookie-cutter plans. Now, I’ll be able to get more detailed about the lifestyle changes that will be best for your unique situation. This might involve making specific dietary recommendations, specific ways to handle stress better, and specific supplements that will be helpful to speed up your recovery. - The Container
This program consists of 5 one-on-one calls with me, a $2000 budget for clinical labs, your tailored plan to reverse your symptoms, unlimited access to me via DMs, and a private support group. - The Investment
The current investment for this program is $7k, $2k of which goes towards your baseline labs. - The Right Person
The right person for this program is someone who has been successful in many other areas of life and is ready to finally succeed with their health so that they can feel like themselves again.
We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking.
I’ve risked it all many times over. When I told my work colleagues and friends in LA that I was leaving to start a fitness studio, they thought I was losing my mind and my career was over. I did it anyway. It was risky to close a successful brand down and try something new specializing in nutrition, which is my passion. And my biggest risk was having my son 7 months ago. I had no idea how that would impact my life, but as it turns out, it’s been my biggest accomplishment to date. I can’t believe I had ever wasted one minute thinking that being a mother would never be enough.
Pricing:
- The Inside Out Protocol $7,000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://majamiller.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maja.j.miller
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/majamiller
Image Credits
Weston Carls & Lenee Willilams
