Des Moines Parent Spotlight: Aly Davis of Fit and Fierce 515
Aly Davis exudes positivity. It’s seriously contagious. That’s part of why she’s so well suited for all her roles — owner of Fit and Fierce 515 in Waukee, founding member of a Waukee women-owned business leaders group and so much more.
Des Moines Parent connected with Alysha to learn more about her and her journey.
Give us a little background on yourself.
My name is Aly Davis, and I am a mother to four children, two dogs, and a small business!
I was raised in Waukee and graduated from Waukee High School in 1999! I am now raising my own family in a MUCH bigger Waukee and have proudly had my oldest son graduate from Waukee High School in the Class of 2020. He now studies at Iowa State University. My oldest daughter is in her senior year at Waukee with acceptance and plans for attendance at the University of Iowa next fall. My younger son and stepdaughter are in their 8th and 7th grade years at both Waukee and Waukee Northwest schools. We are a house divided at the high school AND college levels!
Professionally, I was an Expanded Functions Dental Assistant for two different women-owned and operated dental offices over my two-decade career. I gained vast amounts of ethics, respect, and strength from both during and after my tenure with them.
I have enjoyed over 20 years of being an active and involved presence with my kiddos both at school and in their activities — volunteering as a PTO committee chair and classroom parent for them as well as coaching their activities or being a team manager.
I was a Lactation Peer Counselor for a number of years, supporting new mothers in their breastfeeding journey and all that can be in triumph and tribulation. In 2012, I was recognized as Milk Mother of the Year from the University of Iowa Mothers Milk Bank for my own breast milk donations to newborns in need.
I am currently a founding member of Good DAAE Waukee, a Waukee women-owned business group established in earnest to empower and elevate our fellow local women business leaders. Through this we have established the Good DAAE Grant, where we come together with pooled funds for a new local woman-owned business to help them go from start up to scale up. Or, this year, we donated to Waukee Area Christian Services to impact local families in need through their food pantry or with financial assistance for shelter and utilities.
Additionally, I am a Waukee Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassador and enjoy being a cheerleader for our business members and celebrating their achievements and growth as the backbones of our vibrant community! I recently joined the editorial board of the new WaukeeTalkee Podcast hosted by Leisa Fox and will be co-hosting a regular segment titled “WELL Waukee,” combining my passions of Waukee and wellness as a resource for our amazing community!
Could you give us an overview of your business and what inspired it?
I started as a client at this studio myself in 2013 when it was Kris’ Hot Yoga, eager for fitness after three pregnancies and that feeling an active lifestyle provides!
What I didn’t expect was the community and the way that they and my time at my mat would get me through all of life’s sticky moments ahead … health, relationships, parenting, finances, and more!
In early 2020, the studio ownership changed but I remained, as this place and these people were a large part of who I was. I felt driven to further into my instruction certification and began teaching at the studio during this time. In the spring of 2023, an email was sent out announcing that our beloved studio would be closing, and I knew what I had to do.
After a passion filled and determined 16 days, with a permanent goodbye to a 20-year career in the dentistry field and with a fellow instructor who held the same love for our space now as my business partner and a supportive team of family and friends beside me, we opened the doors and our hearts to Fit and Fierce 515!
Keeping the doors of this one-of-a-kind space open to the community and for wellness to be available at various levels and needs was a perseverance I had only felt before in motherhood. The goals — OH THE GOALS AND POTENTIAL — we saw for this space to reach and touch people made it an easy choice of where I needed to be and what I am meant to be doing. We breathed love and light into every corner, and today, we have 19 experienced instructors, all whom create custom classes in our 10 offered formats. These knowledgeable leaders are able to provide modifications, which allow them to not only provide a variety in every class but to also support clients to practice safely and successfully where there may be different levels or restrictions to be considered.
We’ve grown with wellness partners in the studio through a Licensed Massage Therapist, Physical Therapist, Body Tempering Professional, Functional Nutrition support, and our Dry Salt Therapy (Halotherapy) studio addition. We’ve also created an in-studio local market offering an opportunity to showcase goods and services of other hardworking and talented individuals and cultivating our uniqueness and space of uplifting energy. You’ll experience a presence of positivity, accountability, support, celebration, motivation, and encouragement throughout our space in abundance!
What are your favorite parts of your business?
Providing a space for people to do the physical and mental work they need and supporting them is one of the greatest privileges of my life, aside from raising four incredible humans. Also, the devotion and responsibility I have as a local small business owner in my hometown and where my family lives and grows. Being a part of what makes Waukee wonderful is a gift I wake every morning with a clear awareness and respect of. The wellness cooperative we are building here in our studio community, is our Waukee community. The neighbors, teachers, friends, business owners, community leaders, and households our kids have play dates at … those are the physically and mentally well people in our neighborhood communities who enter and exit our studio doors. I love that I can be a source of wellness for a place and people I care so deeply for!
1) After we opened our Dry Salt Therapy Studio last January, we gained a client who had an aggressive Rosacea flare up to her face. After a few treatments in our space, she called me and with a choked voice told me she wanted to share something that just happened. After asking if she was okay from noting the emotion in her voice, she told me she was at work and a coworker had told a joke. She said that as she laughed, she was braced for the pain that had come to expect from a wide smile due to the flare up of Rosacea on her chin and cheeks but, this time, there was no pain. She could smile again pain free because of the inflammation improvement from the salt sessions. So then, of course, I’m boohoo-ing on the phone with her.
2) A woman in her late 50s/early 60s approached me one day after her class. She was new to our studio but had been taking regular classes for six weeks or so. She asked if she could hug me and told me that our studio was so special to her to have found us. She had so much joy in movement from our classes but every instructor welcomed her so warmly and supportively. She said all the clients were so friendly and kind. She told me she loved our space and that after the loss of her husband, it was the home, family, interaction, and involvement her heart needed. She wanted me to know that what we’ve created here is so special and that I should know the value in what that means to her and certainly means to others. Well, my heart could have just exploded at that and the genuine gratitude in her eyes.
3) Having the platform to make a difference and be involved in a pragmatic capacity for the community, from donating to fundraiser and charity raffles, to providing services to events and contributing to their success, to working closely with Waukee Area Christian Services for drives or even being a regular donation drop site. The BIGGEST moment was after the Greenfield tornado and the catastrophic impact on the community, I went live on Facebook to say that our studio was a drop spot for any items from the needed list and that we would get it down to them if anyone wanted to drop items. I had no idea how people would respond to this call for action at all or even see my post … and then the door opened to a man with diaper boxes stacked in his arms taller than he was, and it opened again and again, over and over to people coming together for a neighboring community in need. I cried so many happy tears as our studio lobby FILLED — it literally took a trailer to haul it all down — with essentials for these people. Our studio was a constant buzz of people coming together, and seeing that human kindness, generosity and spirit was overwhelming to witness. That my little voice was heard, and my little studio was filled, and for a BIG CAUSE with a BIG IMPACT is MY WHY!
How do you juggle your parenting responsibilities with your business responsibilities?
Tap into my team. They say it takes a village, and it does! I have older children who are able to help transport or run errands. I have a retired mother and mother-in-law who live nearby willing to help whenever the call comes for the many directions we run at one time. I have a husband who understands and supports me and often asks “How can I help?” Pride and ego has no place here. If you have people in your corner who are rooting for you and can contribute to the success you’re driving toward, you bet I tap into that team! Allowing my husband to make dinner so I can get payroll done at the kitchen table fills me with gratitude, not a feeling of failure at the help. Training and employing my daughter to work our studio front desk for clients so I may make the Saturday soccer game outside of the studio fills me with happiness at the opportunity and work ethic she is gaining while I’m able to be present for my child. I’m grateful every day for this team, even if sometimes it’s a circus!
Prioritize priorities, period. It took me many years to realize I’m not a bad wife or mom if there’s a dirty bowl in the sink all day or a pile of towels that has needed folded for three days. If that dish happened or the laundry stacks up because my business demanded my time and to meet expectations for clients and the quality they should expect, then that’s what choice needed to be made in the juggle. My job at home is to provide love, comfort, nutrition, and support, and that isn’t defined by everything being in its place or a perfectly tidy kitchen. The time and demand of that would be too great a takeaway from what’s truly important. So, my paying clients may have folded, clean, gym towels and sparkling toilets while my family may dig for socks in a pile on my bed or have a smatter of toothpaste in their bathroom sink …but guess what, THEY ALL FEEL LOVED AND VALUED AT BOTH PLACES.
What are some of your favorite things to do with your family around the metro?
Outside of the studio I am carpooling or cheering on my kids at soccer and volleyball, or my husband at softball and soccer, too, so lots of bleachers and sidelines fill my time. We enjoy golfing as often as possible, and the Des Moines dining culture has a large presence in our life, too. Bike rides along our wonderful trails, including a stop to the Waukee Ice Cream Shoppe, playing disc golf at Waukee Centennial Park and their movies in the park, supporting fellow local business owners or attending hosted events is our primary focus when we choose to spend our time or finances outside of being home together. We love to rent paddle boards and kayaks at Raccoon Park or spend time at the beach as well as the trails and outlets for our pups to cool off and splash around. A picnic at Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Waukee Arts Fest and Winterfest are very eagerly anticipated in our home, and of course following Des Moines Parent for new places to explore or check out!
What’s your ideal parent day or night out?
If we don’t eat at home, then we are definitely supporting local at any number of family faves or checking out someplace new! We are big into watching for community events and festivals (especially food festivals … clearly we are a food motivated family, haha) otherwise, opportunities for cheering on local sports (Iowa Wolves or ICubs), being outside as often and long as possible, and anywhere friends are gathering!
What’s your number one parenting tip?
Pick those problems and don’t project.
Taking a paused moment when that frustration sets in to really decide if whatever is upsetting at the moment is REALLY worth the anguish to you OR your children. Is it really that or something else that this triggered?
Yes, my son didn’t get his chores done before pressing play on fun BUT he’s riding bikes with the neighbor kids, not off vandalizing property. Yes, my daughter’s room looks like a retail bomb exploded in every corner BUT it’s not a call that she’s been caught shoplifting.
Do these actions still require attention? Absolutely! But maintain a level of perspective of how much worse it COULD be to help you constructively navigate your response to it. Creating chaos for yourself or for your child is NOT constructive. Also, an awareness of if the uncovered peanut butter jar on the counter is what really has you fuming or if it was the trigger to the unexpected hiccup or inconvenient mishap that happened earlier and separate from these little human’s awareness and, more importantly, responsibility. Believe me, this is an ACTIVE practice for me still at 44 years into life and 22 years into motherhood!