Becoming a Steward of Your Own Life
Podcast

Today I sat down with Cayt Miller, CoFounder of Hoopie Strength and Conditioning. Cayt grew up in Pittsburgh and spent 14 years as a competitive swimmer before falling in love with strength training and eventually competing in powerlifting. She’s spent the past eight years working primarily as a personal trainer, helping clients build strength and pursue better health. She is also a licensed massage therapist, though she is not currently practicing. Her personal story includes years of wrestling with a disordered relationship with food and exercise. The process of healing, discovering her values, and meeting her husband, Cody Miller, reshaped how she sees health, purpose, and the role fitness plays in a meaningful life. Today, she and Cody live in Alabama with their two pitties, building Hoopie Strength and Conditioning together.

She is very multipassionate. Beyond coaching, she loves being the primary homemaker—cooking, baking sourdough, running a dog treat business, gardening, creating a home, and spending as much time outside as possible. Those hobbies anchor her pursuit of deep health and shape the whole-person approach she brings to her coaching.

Cayt joined me on the podcast to share her journey from disordered eating and performance-as-worth to a life centred on stewardship, capability, and intentional living. What struck me most about our conversation wasn't just Cayt's transformation—it was the systematic framework she's built to help other women make the same shift. This isn't surface-level "lose 10 pounds in 10 days" coaching. This is deep, identity-level work that actually sticks.

10 Key Takeaways from Why Suffering is the Best Teacher for Coaches

Dark Times Reveal Core Values

Cayt's appendix ruptured two weeks before her wedding, landing her in the hospital for eight days. In that hospital bed, her core values became crystal clear—time with loved ones, health, meaningful work, and presence. She didn't have the language for them yet, but the priorities were undeniable. As coaches, we need to help clients reflect on their own challenging moments to uncover what truly matters to them.

The Shift From "How Small Can I Get?" to "What Can I Do?"

Cayt spent years in sixth and seventh grade counting calories and obsessing over getting smaller. Powerlifting changed everything by shifting her focus to capability and performance. The question became "what can your body do?" rather than "how little can you weigh?" This reframing is crucial for coaches working with clients, especially women, who come in appearance-focused.

Service Requires Presence

During her college years, struggling with disordered eating, Cayt wasn't present. She was consumed with how she looked, what she weighed, and what she was eating. She describes herself as "not an active participant" in her own life. True service to others—the foundation of good coaching—requires that we first show up fully in our own lives.

Values Give Meaning to Monotonous Days

Most of life isn't exciting wins and peak moments. It's the daily grind of showing up. Cayt emphasizes that values give meaning to these monotonous days. Without clearly defined values, you're just going through motions. With them, every small action becomes purposeful.

Stewardship Means Taking Ownership of What You Can Control

Cayt uses "stewardship" the way I use "agency"—it's about recognizing what's in your control and doing what you can to the best of your ability. There's a lot we can't control in life, but we can steward the things we can with full ownership and responsibility.

Small Wins Stack Into Confidence

Not hitting snooze. Getting up when your alarm goes off. These seem trivial, but they're the first action of the day—the first opportunity to prove to yourself that you do what you say you'll do. Cayt is adamant that these small, consistent wins build the confidence needed for bigger challenges.

Awareness Comes From Stillness

One of Cayt's core non-negotiables is stillness—taking time to sit with yourself, putting the phone down, and being bored for a few minutes. This creates the awareness needed to check in: Am I living in alignment with my values? Am I showing up the way I want to show up today?

The Performance Mindset Shift Requires Identity Work

Cayt's transition from cardio-as-fat-loss to cardio-as-performance wasn't a light switch moment. It took years and required a fundamental identity shift. She had to believe she had value beyond her physical appearance or performance metrics. This is the deep work that creates lasting change, not the surface-level program adjustments.

Believing in Someone Instills Confidence

When you feel someone believes in you, confidence is instilled. As coaches, one of our powerful tools is speaking things over people before they believe it themselves. Walking the walk, showing what's possible, and consistently affirming "you're capable of doing hard things" changes how people show up.

Excellence Is Doing Your Best With What You Can Control

For Cayt, excellence isn't perfection or hitting arbitrary metrics. It's simply doing what you can control to the best of your ability in that moment. What's excellent today might be baseline tomorrow, and that's the point—excellence evolves as you evolve.

What I appreciate most about Cayt's approach is that she's not selling quick fixes or surface transformations. She's helping women figure out who they want to be and what they value, then reverse-engineering the habits and systems to get there. That's the work that actually matters. It's harder to sell because it doesn't fit in an Instagram caption, but it's what creates the kind of lasting change we should all be after as coaches. If you're working with clients who keep yo-yoing or can't seem to maintain results, the answer isn't a better program—it's deeper work on identity and values. That's where real transformation happens.

Find Cayt

Website - www.hoopiestrength.com

Persona IG - @caytmiller

Business IG - @hoopiestrength

YouTube - @hoopiestrength

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