In this episode, we're excited to introduce our guest, Becky Searls. We recently met Becky at Rails World and learned about her business, Better with Becky—a fitness training program focused on people with a growth mindset. Over the past year, she worked with her husband Justin to build her first product, Build with Becky, a personalized workout program and fitness app built in Rails, which launched publicly during the conference! We chat with Becky about her professional journey starting as a K-12 educator, becoming a fitness instructor, building her own business, and now moving into the product owner role to develop a custom app.

More About Becky

Becky Searls is definitely not another influencer, and she’s more than a personal trainer. Her experience in education, embrace of evidence-based research, and personable judgment-free approach sets her apart in an industry famous for baseless hype and scammy practices.

Spending over a decade as an accomplished foreign language teacher, Becky truly has the heart of an educator. When she learns something important, her first thought is always how to best share it with others. She also knows life's greatest lessons are found outside of the classroom. So as she dives deeper into research papers spanning health, fitness, nutrition, and psychology, she can’t imagine keeping all the useful things she discovers to herself.

That's what Better with Becky is: the place she translates cutting-edge science into practical tools and everyday advice for the rest of us.

That may explain why, as her debut product, Build with Becky doesn't look like other exercise programs. Yes, it will give you a great workout. But you won't believe how much you'll learn along the way, without even realizing it. And yes, you'll probably see progress toward your fitness goals. But don't be surprised if you also gain deeper insights that connect with other parts of your life. That's just part of what you get with Becky!

Training and certifications include:

• Master of Arts, Education (The Ohio State University)
• National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Personal Trainer (NSCA-CPT)
• Mindfulness-Based Behavior Change Facilitator
• Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified Coach (PN-L1)
• USA Weightlifting Level 1 Certified Coach (USAW-L1)
• Pain-free performance specialist (National Academy of Sports Medicine)

Relevant Links

Better with Becky

Beckygram (which syndicates her Instagram)
Becky's YouTube
The Empowered Programmer (Justin's Rails World talk, featuring Build with Becky)

In this episode, Jess and Jeremy chat about leveling up professionally, the importance of community and personal growth, and the challenges of starting new things. Jess shares several things that have inspired him recently, and Jeremy gives an update on Liminal and shares some ideas he has around discoverability challenges in the Rails ecosystem.

Referenced

• Bunch of Guys video clip
• Raise your standards video clip
• “Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.” - Jim Rohn
• Liminal forum app

In this episode, Justin Searls (open source author, speaker, and co-founder of Test Double) joins us in-person at Rails World to talk about his career, speaking, consulting, the One Person Framework, and building a web application for his wife's fitness business, Better with Becky.

Follow Justin
Website
Twitter
Mastodon
LinkedIn

Relevant Links
The Empowered Programmer talk
Test Double
Breaking Change podcast
Fred Brooks
RubyKaigi
The One Person Framework