Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Brooke Van Ryssel, owner of My Body Fitness + Nutrition, located in Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My Body Fitness + Nutrition is Winnipeg's first Body Inclusive fitness and nutrition company. Having worked in the health and fitness industry for over ten years, I knew that when starting My Body that things had to be different. I created My Body to bring body inclusivity to the health and fitness world, a place it has been either absent or just unwelcome for far too long.
In October 2018, I opened the commercial location of My Body, a Body Inclusive group fitness gym and community space! The My Body studio operates in Winnipeg, on Treaty 1 territory, the lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dene, Dakota Oyate peoples, and the heart/homelands of the Metis Nation. Then due to a number of factors, COVID being the main one, we closed our commercial location and moved to almost entirely online operations as of February 2022.
We now offer live online group classes seven days a week in a variety of styles: 30-minute HIIT, 30-minute Mobility, and 60-minute Yoga classes, intentionally created and accessible to all fitness levels and ALL BODIES. In the Spring of 2022, we will be launching a few new offerings:
-My Body On Demand: A brand new subscription service of pre-recorded virtual My Body classes. All your favorite My Body classes and instructors are available to you 24/7 in the full library of pre-recorded classes!
-My Body at Home: A brand new sector of our Personal Training! Simply put, your trainer comes to you! Within city limits, your My Body trainer will come to your home and do your 1 on 1 session in your space, bringing all necessary equipment!
-Pop Up In-Person Classes: We will be popping up hosting in-person group My Body classes in all styles all across the city! (When COVID + Weather permits)
We also offer Holistic Nutrition consultations using a Fat Liberation/Heath At Every Size (HAES) approach! (By appointment only). We are committed to the work of being Body Positive, Fat Positive, diet culture-free, advocates for mental health, feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, and we are made up of members and accomplices of the LGBTQIA+ community. We acknowledge that work and education in all of these areas are never done and are committed to continual education and contributions to our community.
Unlike the traditional gym model, My Body's focus is not on aesthetics but rather on how you feel and what you are capable of because there are so many other reasons to move and nourish your body that have nothing to do with its appearance.
My Body is an intentionally safe space for ALL humans to sweat, laugh, and learn together in a truly judgment-free inclusive environment, all because they love their bodies. We are committed to making real change in and outside of the industry with My Body through dismantling and rejecting what's become the traditional health + fitness model for gyms which is rooted in white supremacy, fatphobia, and ableism. We work to do this with a focus on community, never-ending education, and actively working to help as many people as possible to discover Joyful Movement!
Tell us about yourself
I started working my first two part-time jobs when I was 14. I worked retail and washed dishes at night for about three years. I landed another retail job at a small business and worked odd jobs on the side as well for the following nine years, one of which was getting my certification and then working as a freelance personal trainer. Long story short, I always kept busy and was doing multiple things at once, and I knew in the back of my mind I was going to run my own business one day; I just didn't quite know what it would look like. After gaining more experience participating in and working in the fitness industry, I began to realize how incredibly toxic and exclusionary it was. Incidences of racism, ableism, fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, other forms of discrimination, as well as toxic diet and fitness culture, were so widespread within the industry. People were not being welcomed; people were being actively shamed and harmed, and rampant fatphobia and ableism where people were being pushed past their mental, physical and emotional limits even to the point of injury. All for the sake of attaining what these environments were trying to sell the "perfect body." When I worked with my clients before my business began, I never measured, weighed, or took any 'progress' photos and tried not to focus on aesthetic based goals but still, a lot of the training I received in my original certifications was rooted in diet culture, and I wanted to shift even more and continually sought out additional education/training.
However, toxic fitness environments like the ones mentioned above still actually ended up pushing me into an eating disorder. After going through recovery (even though those who have had an ED will tell you recovery is never really over), I began to shift the way I was treating my body and working with my own training clients. I realized that if I was going to start and run my own gym/community space, it would need to be different. It would not only need to be a space where everyone was welcomed and celebrated but also actively accommodated. Then in 2017, while attending nutrition school in Vancouver, I was in a brutal car accident. This accident caused several injuries that I still live with to this day which caused me to become physically disabled and live with chronic pain every day. Due to this accident, I did have to delay the launch and opening of my gym, but there was no way I was going to let it stop me from achieving my dream of starting My Body Wpg! So instead of starting in January, we launched in October 2018, and it's been a wild ride ever since. Having this accident occur in a lot of ways motivated even more the centering of accessibility in the My Body space/classes everything. Being someone who deals with pain every day and also needs modifications for a lot of exercises myself, it was crucial that this was provided to every single human being who joined our class. So that no matter who they are, where they come from, or what their accessibility needs are, we are here to accommodate them and allow them to enjoy the gift of Joyful Movement.
What motivates me the most is the feedback from our incredible community. The first time someone said, "This is the first time I've ever felt comfortable moving my body in a gym before." it brought me to tears. "Because I Love My Body" is our company's tag line and also what we cheer out at the end of every class to celebrate ourselves and our bodies for showing up. I really believe that true active inclusion and accessibility in all its forms can change the world, so to even be a small part of that is a gift.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Honestly, I would say my business accomplishments would be building the incredible My Body community we have worldwide now and also hiring my incredible team. They are such a source of gratitude and pride for me because I wouldn't be where I am today without any of them.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
For myself is making sure I'm respecting and staying within my physical limits as someone who lives with chronic pain. Which is very difficult a lot of the time and makes me think of the phrase... "Love what you do, and you never work a day in your life." Personally, as a business owner, I can attest it's the absolute opposite of that; if you love what you do and it's your passion, you can find yourself working non-stop. So long and short, the hardest things, if I had to narrow it down, would be boundaries and just the stress of it all, whether financially or just the weight of the responsibility of it all.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Do your research and take in all the education you can get in your field. On everything, and I do mean everything! From writing your business plan to finding loans/grants, searching for what, if any, permits you need, to what others in your industry do that you want to do better or that you like.
- Never be scared to ask for help. In a society that values perfectionism, we're taught that asking for help makes us weak and seem unintelligent. Asking for help allows us to learn and grow, and that is pretty much the bravest, most incredible thing I think a person can do.
- Connections are everything. I mean real connections; building relationships with people is one of the best ways to grow your network and your business. Whatever product/service you are selling matters; what people are actually going to buy into is you and your values. Don't be afraid to share them authentically. Not everyone is going to like you or buy what you're selling, so to speak, but realistically you don't like everyone and buy everything, so it makes sense, right? Show up as yourself for yourself and with true connection with some true support that you need to bloom.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
SO much, but I'll leave it here because I'm sure I've given enough for a novel!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.mybodywpg.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mybodywpg/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mybodywpg
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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