Defined by "Yes" Moments

Georgia Crowell's Summit System a "Yes" for Others to Redefine Their Own Health and Wellness

by Abby Meaux Conques

Lafayette native Georgia Crowell, founder and creator of The Summit System, got to where she is today via a whole bunch of “yes” moments. We recently sat with Georgia and talked about the Summit System and her journey that sparked it.

Georgia recounted a series of events that she believes led her to right where she is, stringing them together as a bunch of intuitive “yeses” which have prepared her to lead Summit today. Even the most unexpected circumstance was a hidden opportunity that, in one way or another, led to the development of a skillset she uses daily.

She mentioned that in the past she felt misunderstood by others who perceived her as spontaneous and flaky, but she always knew she was merely motivated by her extreme drive. “In hindsight, I realize that my decisions were never precalculated, but rather purposeful with intuitiveness. I just went with my gut and said ‘yes’ anytime it felt like the right thing to do, and that’s just the way my life has always been,” she explained.

Georgia’s yeses led to a move to Columbia College Chicago after high school, where she immersed herself in studying contemporary modern dance.

Her world expanded and she fell in love with movement. After graduating with honors in only three years, she knew there was more for her to learn and offer.

A lot of life and liberation happened in the years that followed, including a divorce and a move back to Lafayette. “I decided to open up a contemporary dance studio downtown called ‘Breaking Ground’,” she said. "My goal with Breaking Ground was to bring contemporary modern dance and improvisation to our community. This was before the 'So You Think You Can Dance' era so the only form of dance our town knew about was studio dancing."

Dealing with her divorce and being involved in an automobile accident changed the trajectory of her professional career. “I was told I couldn’t dance anymore due to my injuries, but my body needed to move. I couldn’t move the way I was accustomed to,” she explained.

That's when she invested in her first of three Pilates certifications. Through Pilates, Georgia was able to strengthen and rehabilitate her back. Around this time, Georgia took to the street for a different kind of rehab, an emotional one.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STUDIO C323 HEADSHOTS

“Running became my safe space...running saved me,” she said emphatically. “There was liberation in it…the street had no expectations...running didn’t care what I looked like, how fast or far I went. All I had to do was show up and the street would meet me halfway. Jesus met me there.” With running, she fell in love with movement again.

Georgia seemed to use every trial as a stepping stone to acquiring knowledge in her own wellness journey. As fate would have it, Georgia's pilates certification (a certification which landed her a job teaching multiple group fitness classes at Red Lerille’s Health and Racquet Club) led her to meeting the love of her life in a group class; a military-lifer, and now husband.

“So many steps along the way led to where I am today,” she explained. From Red’s to City Club to a move to North Carolina while pregnant with her third child and becoming a stayat-home mom, she obtained knowledge on various fronts regarding physical and mental health and wellness.

During her time as a stay-at-home-mom she also obtained a life coach certification. Things really came together for her when she began to study hormonal balances when it came to wellness. “The light bulb went off for me when I learned how stress affects our bodies on a daily basis and how individual that is...especially with everyone’s different physiology, not to mention, getting older! I knew I had clarity around an unspoken conversation that the whole world, especially our own nation, desperately needed to have. I knew I was being called to lead people and that feeling was bigger than myself,” she explained.

“Summit is a culmination of my own personal experience, including my own past dysfunctional relationship with food and hateful internal dialogue, along with every purpose-driven ‘yes,’ and all the education I picked up along the way.”

In 2018, while 36 weeks pregnant with her fourth child, Georgia and her family relocated to Louisiana where she began researching franchises to buy for weight loss programs. She never found exactly what she was looking for: that niche place where body, mind, and hormonal balance all fit together for wellness. That’s when she began to write her own program. “After 2 weeks of putting pen to paper, I knew something big was being born,” she said.

Georgia is not lost on the idea that a great team can make a good product better, so she sought out the knowledge of professionals in their own rights including naturopaths, licensed counselors, dieticians, accountability coaches,

and physicians to partner with who also wanted to treat the whole-person and improve the quality of life of patients. “Early on I had a vision that Summit would be a global business set right in the heart of our medical industry as an established and dependable resource for physicians. I don’t know how many people believed me that it would actually happen. It was such a grandiose idea at the time. Now, only two-and-a-half years later, we work with many physicians and have built an incredible staff who all have different specialties.”

The Summit System officially got its start in January 2019 and has helped over 400 clients since its inception. It’s different from other programs because of its individually-tailored programs, daily accountability coaching, and hormone-balancing focus with insight into the client’s relationship with food.

The program is broken up into 3 phases: The Basecamp Phase which is the initial 28 day gateway program that coaches you to lose up to 10% of your body weight, the Integration Phase that is a 4 month program guiding you through the process of integrating foods back into your daily diet while you continue to lose weight, and the highly customizable Re-Focus Phase, which is an extension that aims to prioritize a specific wellness focuses like exercise, gut health, lowered cholesterol, or psychology based goals like intuitive eating or self love.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STUDIO C323 HEADSHOTS

This month, the Summit System introduces a second program for the very first time. The Summit SlimBody Breakthrough is a 21 Day Challenge designed to boost your metabolism and rev up your body's ability to use fat for fuel. This new program is perfect for someone who may already be working out or needing the motivation and accountability to execute results.

Today, Georgia’s still wearing the hats she loves most: military spouse and now the mother of five children. As Summit’s CEO, she is learning how to manage time, how to motivate and support her staff, and how to build an infrastructure that can support the growth of the business.

“It’s funny because when I started Summit I was really good at helping people lose weight. Now my company helps people lose weight and my position has shifted to develop and support the company in its role. Today as a wife, mother and CEO, I am, by far, the most uncomfortable and grateful I've ever been in my life. I wouldn’t change one thing.” She’s seen nothing but growth in her wellness community, and hopes to continue to facilitate change in people’s lives when it comes to the whole person.

“I just want to continue to give people permission to explore and define their own rules for wellness, and walk beside them as they navigate that experience. It's my turn to help others experience a life-changing ‘yes.’ It's one of my greatest joys to watch how their ‘yes’ affects so much more than their scale weight. I just want them to say ‘yes’ to redefining health and wellness for themselves.”

You can get more information on the Summit System at www.thesummitsystem.com.