DeBlair Tate has always enjoyed an active life.
While a student at Winona High School, she ran track and played softball. After graduating, she said she attended college for a semester and enlisted into the military.
Through the military, Tate said she was able to go back to school. She moved to Atlanta, where she works full time as a loan officer, but, it was her part-time job that led her down an avenue she hadn’t really considered -- one that has been a blessing in disguise.
“I worked part-time at a gym selling supplements,” Tate said.
She said one day while at work, she was asked about competing in fitness competitions. Thinking that it would make her look masculine, rippled and not very lady-like, she said she shrugged off the suggestion.
“I turned him down and said no,” she said.
Tate said a trainer at the gym worked with a woman who also competed in fitness competitions, and he showed her a book of pictures of his client in competitions. She said he wanted the woman to convince her to compete.
“I was impressed,” she said. “It wasn’t anything like I thought it would be.”
She was convinced and decided to give it a try. That try led to Tate competing for six years.
“It was very different. You have to be very strong minded,” she said.
Tate said fitness training became her life to the point where she didn’t have much time for anything but work and training. She said every aspect of her life was dedicated to training for fitness competitions.
“I had to practice poses, turns. In the competition, you have to do routines so you have to think of creative routines, you have to tan -- almost be painted. You had to buy bikini suits, and they were expensive. It was an entire production,” she said.
Tate said she didn’t really have much time for friends or a personal life.
“When I would travel, I would have to bring prepared meals because I couldn’t eat what everyone else ate,” she said.
However, it made her focus, stay on track and stay dedicated like when she ran high school track going for the gold.
With all of that that going on, most people wouldn’t take on anything else, but Tate isn’t most people. She said people begin asking her if she was a trainer and if she would train them.
“I would tell them no, because I wasn’t,” she said.
However, more and more she kept being asked.
She said another trainer told her that she should do it. After some consideration, she began to take courses and get her certification – all while still being a full-time loan officer, an active military member, and training for her own fitness competitions. A lane that she never considered became her entire life for six years.
During that time, Tate said she was training over 30 clients from every walk of life, from celebrity clients to “regular” people. Then, she was deployed overseas.
Soon she found another interest, designing fitness clothing – 8figured.
“I wanted my clothing to mean something,” Tate said.
She said as a trainer, she had seen people deal with things such as low self-esteem, problems with body image. She said she wanted her clothing to represent everyone.
According to her website, 8Figured is: “It’s about accepting who you are and being an engineer of the body, you were given. Our bodies are priceless, and we should treat them as such.”
Tate said she and a friend went to work and began to do the research and create her first designs. She said the unique thing about her business is that there isn’t a distribution center behind her, and the clothing isn’t something she purchased and is reselling. Her clothing is designed uniquely for the person purchasing.
Tate said she began to push her designs, and many people were picking up on them. Which is how she landed a spot-on “Good Morning America.”
Tate said her publicist mediated the deal. She said when she learned she was going to be on “Good Morning America,” she was excited, and it pushed her to work harder.
Tate still trains, but she only takes on one to two clients at a time. She does “Trapping on Thursdays” on social media where she shows many simple workouts people can add to their routines.
Tate said when she was younger, she always knew that she would be somebody great, and she always wanted to help people and be impactful.
She said when she pictured her life, she never saw herself doing what she is doing now, but being asked if she participated in fitness competitions in 2007 opened up so much for Tate. And there’s still more to come.
