[Music] [Music] hello everyone happy Monday and welcome to
Women Lead TV sponsored by the Connected Women of Influence I'm Reena Vokoun the founder
and CEO of Passion Fit and the host of the show called Women Wellness and the Workplace I'm so
excited for our show today it's my first show of 2024 and I couldn't think of a better person
to kick it off with than my friend Sara Kooperman who is the founder and CEO of SCW Fitness she's
also an advisor she's a web uh webinar presenter she's been
on many podcasts she's a sought-after
industry leader in the world of health and fitness education and so without further ado Sara welcome
to the show well it's a pleasure to be here thank you for having me Reena I'm honored to be your
first guest oh well I'm it's wonderful to have you and I'm honored to have you and just a little
background on how Sara and I met we met I think Sara was in during the height of the pandemic in
2020 and um Sara and her team put together these amazing conferen
ces throughout the country um
for SCW fitness and um they had found out about Passion Fit her team and reached out to me and
so I partnered with them I pre uh presented at some of their amazing conferen is and I will be
presenting uh next month in here in California so really excited but I was immediately impressed
um with Sara and just how down to earth she is um and so yeah Sara I'd love for you to tell um
our viewers a little bit about your background um from our title of of this show is
from lawyer
to leader um so I'd love for you to share kind of your your history and how you got to where
you are today well that's really sweet um we ran and it was really it was such a pleasure
to meet Reena I mean she's an amazing presenter she's actually doing our keynote presentation to
everyone at our California Mania convention we expect oh my gosh over 500 people there so that's
for Fitness professionals um health and wellness fitness professionals and I actually started as
um I st
arted as a dancer when I was young and my foot grew wrong I was in toeshoes really early so
I had to get this foot operation because I I like I couldn't walk so I decided all right I'll just
go to college so in college I started basically um before I even ATT got into to college I
started rehabbing my foot there was no rehab like 40 years ago so what I did was I swam and I
sat in a hot tub and rubbed my foot I did my own physical therapy so by the time I got to college
I could dance and I a
uditioned for a dance company because I couldn't afford to pay for lessons and
they had an apprentice position open which meant you got free classes I was like ah I'm going to
get free classes so I went and I got the free classes I didn't make the apprenticeship I made
the company itself so I had to call my parents and say I want to go to school parttime and I want to
try being a professional dancer and that's what I did and I started teaching when I was with the
company and that's my heart
you know that's my that that's what I love so so I'll be honest
with you I hated dancing I hated staring at myself six hours a day and eating hardboiled eggs
and grapefruit and starving myself and Sh smoking cigarettes right so I quit the company finished
College decided I wanted to be a professional went to law school loved it what idiot loves law
school and I started teaching because in law school you get fat you know you're sitting there
studying the whole time and I started teaching in
the bottom of the English Department basement
which was next to the law school at Washington University in St Louis and the one of the teachers
started taking my classes and I got this huge Hall and I had 50 people three times a week paying
$3 ahead and it was amazing and I realized I'm making like $450 cash a week like over 40 years
ago which is outstanding and I finished my law degree and I passed the bar exam and I decided I
love teaching and I'm opening a studio and then at the studio
I loved teaching instructors any of
the new modalities and I I really was instrumental in helping low impact um kind of arise to the
occasion was right when it started so I believe in taking care of your body all right that is
the like the longest version ever Reena so that kind of tells you I started this business and
then trained instructors and my goal is finding better instructors than I am to teach different um
modalities and health and wellness and nutrition things like that yeah no I
love that I love that
you still to this day speak um so passionately about you know the things that you loved with
instructing and and dancing and but then to go into law school so what was the most challenging
aspect of making that transition because it's a big one um but you clearly did follow your heart
and 40 years later you're still thriving so what would you say was the hardest part though
and how did you overcome it um the hardest part for me was you know in a lot of ways you're
fa
milial wherever you however you're raised the expectations your family places on you and um you
you can choose the voice in your head you don't have to hear for me I didn't have to listen to my
mother's criticism finish your law degree marry a lawyer blah you know that's I did end up marrying
the lawyer but whatever um but you can choose the person you want to listen to and that to me was
one of the biggest uh that was one of the biggest challenges is getting my mother's voice out of my
hea
d I was lucky my father was very supportive of being creative and doing things you loved because
I don't think he did in his life he would loved music but he ended up selling men's pants I mean
men's trousers but so that was a tough transition and then um deciding when I passed the bar I kept
thinking all right I'll open a studio my husband was my boyfriend at the time my husband now very
supportive but I kept saying every time I'd hit a roadblock like I couldn't sign the lease the
lease wa
s too expensive on the building the building wasn't designated as that I could do
commercial purposes I mean all these roadblocks to get in your way my husband was very supportive
and saying you can do this just be patient you'll find something again it's finding that person that
voice in your head that understands your heart and it's very hard to do and financially it's very
risky as well like we had four kids I have four kids um and you've got to make these decisions
and you know your you
r kids's not gonna suffer if they can't do that second sporting or third
sporting event you know because you need to invest in your in your future that then will be helpful
for them in the long run so if I were talking to anybody who's thinking of really pursuing their
dream pursue your dream and just get ready to fail nine times out of 10 and get over it and get
get it out of your head yeah I I agree and I and I can relate to so much of what you're saying um you
know leaving corporate Amer
ica to start my company passion fit and all the fear and all of the the
worry about failure but yeah I think if you truly believe in what you're doing and you do follow
your heart as you're saying um and you know that there will be failure because that's just part of
an entrepreneurial Journey then that will allow you to keep going because you're setting your
expectations um you know grounding yourself in reality but still dreaming and moving forward so I
love I love that you've done that a
nd I'm curious um with SCW Fitness what is your vision in 2024
and Beyond it has grown so massively I've been watching the growth since 2020 and I'm excited
to hear where you want to take it next and I'd love for our viewers to hear as well it's again
I I always talk about that failure 9 times out of 10 and part of that also is yeah finding that
voice in your head but the other part is it's not just believing in yourself but it's getting
through things like in 2018 my whole office burned do
wn and the warehouse Reena I don't even
know if you know that but oh my gosh EV we lost everything and we had to go back and I'm sitting
there in the in the you know out in the car park washing bosu off to put them back on the truck
so we could go to the next conference um for the pandemic it really decimated the fitness industry
and it cut almost my events almost in half just because so many Clubs closed and so many studios
were permanently closed and so many facilities cut down on their p
ersonal trainers and group
fitness instructors you know the lower end of the totem pole for for our industry so for me I
was at 50% and so if I look at where the future is I am pleasantly shocked we started back in 2021
which was stupid we shouldn't have gone we should have waited until 2022 but we started in 2021 and
we did conventions in 20 22 conventions in 2023 and now thank goodness in 2024 we are back and
we are equal to our prepandemic levels and I am shocked and part of that I have
to attribute it to
some of my good friends in the industry that you might look at them and say isn't canfit Pro like
a competitor of SCW it's Canadian conventions and training organizations certifying organization
and I called up my friend MO Haagen who runs canfit Pro and I said you what's working for you
and she told me and then I she asked me what's working for you with the certifications and I told
her and it's asking for that help asking for that help to get you over the hump raise you
r rates
um um go back to doing some some tactial print work think about that think about telemarketing
that's a surp that was a real surprise to me but now cell phones actually can print out
the voicemail you're leaving for people so they everybody answers their voicemail because
nobody leaves voicemails besides some errant insurance company or your mother-in-law you know
something's wrong with the kids whatever so these little pointers were so helpful and I really think
when I look at 20
24 we're doing a lot of focus on Wellness um meditation we're at we're doing
meditation we're doing taichi we're had having scw just started a brand new certification um on
stretching with Abby Apple which is amazing that really works um um that helps individuals that
are that are stiff and then active agers we have a seat program supported EX excise for ageless
training which is doing amazing cheer workouts for older adults that it's supported we try to
get people to stand up and Reena we
are going to be launching a stand program St n d okay so
we have se s a t we're GNA have stand which is standing techniques for ageless neuromuscular
development St n d I can do this um so I think this act of aging and merging the the medical side
with the health and wellness side and trying to focus on recovery and it's also focus on strength
but it's not this pain to gain it's it's taking care of the body working on activities of daily
living for people in who are 25 or people that are 85
so yeah and you're right on I don't want to
say Trend because so much of Wellness isn't about Trend right it's those tried and true principles
but I know strength training has really made a big comeback this year and Recovery is a huge
focus and Longevity is a huge Focus so I love that you have this program and I remember when I
spoke last year at the California Mania conference there was a lot of focus on the the sitting um
active aging and being able to do exercises in a seated position
so I think that's fantastic
and you've really opened up an audience that's so Broad in terms of age and life stage and and
that really goes to show that health and wellness and fitness can be for anyone um so I love that
inclusivity that you've created um and I have a copy of your wonderful book fit for business and
I've started to read it and it's so inspiring you are so inspiring and I would love for you to tell
our viewers a little bit about this book um what you know inspired you to wri
te it and maybe just
some key takeaways that might entice them to want to read the whole thing oh that's so funny when
I started writing it I was who is I was oh my God what's her name she's the CEO of Facebook and she
wrote lean in oh my gosh Cheryl sber she loved her book but I was listening to it as a book on tape
as I was jogging so this was quite some time ago because I'm a walker now I am not a jogger anymore
I used to be a crazy jogger every single day um and I was reading her book a
nd I love her I think
she's fabulous but she's the CEO and she kind of inherited this company and she had you know she's
got these words of wisdom and I thought to some extent I mean she went through personal trauma
I guess losing her husband things like that but like I sit here and I go you didn't start this
from scratch you don't know what it's like to literally walk into a bank in stretchy clothes and
say I need $5,000 to make it through December or I can't pay my staff what am I going t
o do and
to convince them to give you this money that you have to pay back and and build a relationship
with this bank and then learn that I need to walk in with a suit I am not wearing Lyra anymore when
I walk into I am a professional so I think when I would listen to the book on tape I got very
inspired so I'm a big I'm a big like I'm a bad person I'm a cell phone person so I would listen
and I would kind of stop while I was running and I would send myself an email using Siri in my phone
and I'd and I'd write something and I would talk about the challenges of starting a business and
what it was like and listening to the voices in your head and how do we overcome this and what
are some of the strategies I use to survive my office burning down failure for conventions oh
my God I held a convention once we only got 74 people registered for La Mania nobody heard of La
Mania why because I had to give all these refunds personally call all these presenters get yelled at
by sponsor
s and people and survive so I dictated this book inspired you know inspired by reading
lean in and then I just kept going and I think a lot of it I don't know how you feel Reena but a
lot of it is like sometimes personal therapy you know it really helps helps you get through these
Hard Times absolutely yeah I mean I'm actually working on my second book right now and and I
understand that I think it can be very cathartic as an author and a writer to um yeah kind of put
some of those learning
lessons into into your writing and to share your stories and and share
your learnings both failures successes so that you can help other folks but also help yourself
in the process for sure I think there's nothing more cathartic than writing and if you can write
to create a good you know good in the world and an opportunity for other people I think that can
really be inspiring so I love that in inspired you and and you are showing another side of running
a business from the ground up um yo
u you know bootstraps and all as an entrepreneur um so I love
your honesty and your vulnerability in that and it makes people feel better about themselves in the
long run it's about it really is about helping others it's about saying yep you know what my
mother was abusive and my mother was an addict and I had to figure out a way to survive that and
somebody's going to read that story and go oh my God I can so relate I can so relate and then look
and they go you know if you can do it anybod
y can do it and the failures I actually uh I consider
myself to be a relatively funny person like I really wish that I could have been doing standup
comedy when I was younger because I really like it I like Point poking fun at myself and kind of you
know talking about others and making it seem more human um and that I really do feel like it sounds
so TR but it makes the world a better place makes people feel more comfortable and and vulnerable
about themselves and not as frightened about th
ings that they need to share and just you know
get over it get over it right and maybe not take yourself so seriously and yeah maybe use humor
to get through difficult times and relate to one another I love that so what would you tell you
know other what's your advice for other women um regardless of Industry um who want to you know
start their own business you've already shared some great tips about you know blocking out um
you know other voices or opinions and not being afraid to fail and
you know taking these risks
um but do you have any other advice from your own experiences or from the book that you'd like to
share I I love how the world thinks that equality is just there now okay like you can do anything
your your sexual orientation your race your this you're that we aren't there yet we aren't there
yet and you are going to encounter situations that you know I always say like the 50-year-old white
men okay I we're in an industry and I know Reena you know your like your
Ted Talk is amazing and
we encounter situations um where there's sexism for me it's been pretty pretty substantial and
it's not for me it wasn't about standing there crossing my arms setting my feet apart and doing
the Wonder Woman stance I do that in my bedroom I do that in my bathroom before I go on to present
but when I'm talking to individuals that I kind of have to convince that I am intelligent that I am
worthy that I am successful I have to do a softer introduction I have to adapt an
d that's hard to
do because you don't want to think you're and pardon me I don't want to offend it but you don't
want to feel like you're sucking up to somebody but you have to make yourself approachable and
that's one of the lessons I kind of had to learn and I do that through humor and I do that by you
you know the compliments and trying to understand things but I don't want to belittle my talents
so it is juggling and it's a balancing so that's another thing that I would share with peopl
e
is don't be surprised if these are some of the situations you're going to encounter and doing a
softer approach rather than such a strong angular approach where you reject them and they reject you
sometimes it does help to work from within I liked I like that I can say I'm a lawyer I truly believe
in education even though oh my gosh I can count to eight backwards that's my second selling point
right you know I teach Fitness classes but I read my hotel contracts because we do seven very la
rge
events around the country I have to talk to the general manager of the hotel that has worked and
I'm going to say his way up because every single one of the hotel directors I work with around
the country from Washington DC San Francisco Orlando Atlanta Dallas Chicago and Boston they're
all men and I have to be able to communicate and self-deprecate a little bit and I'm not talking
sucking up because when push comes to shove and I need to negotiate I'm as good as the best as as
anyone b
ut it's interesting it will be a challenge so so think about it get over it and again pick
those people that you want in your head my husband is always so wonderful and my dad was so wonder
you can do anything SJ SJ is my nickname Sara Jan like I walked off a farm in Chicago not okay um
but it's it's my husband I remember once I was in this whole room of men and I was one there were I
was a lesmills agent I think you know Reena for 10 years I distributed one of the six territories
in the US
A at the largest Geographic area but the same size um I would say population area and
I was the only female agent of a group fitness program worldwide and I would and I know America
I know group fitness I know personal training I know America and my husband he could see I
was just getting so frustrated because I was being completely ignored he would lean over to me
because I made him come with me to the meetings and he would lean over to me and say you're the
smartest person in this room an
d I'm like where did that come from but it's having someone have in
your back and like I have a bunch of girlfriends like I said Mo haen I talked to a county where
ailla was very supportive and Gilbert's very very supportive I've got like some amazing friends
and supporters and and ask them for help listen to them hold your own but but don't put people off
it's a balance it is a balance that's yeah very very good advice and it's great that you have
so many people in your corner to support y
ou especially in those those tough moments that
that inevitably happen in those meetings and whatnot so I love that you shared that um and is
there anything else you'd like to share with our audience and where can they find you where can
they purchase the book again fit for business um would love um for you to um allow people to
connect with you well the book is on Amazon so you just have to type in fit for business and just
Sara Kooperman and and you'll find it it's right up there um the t
he other thing I that I do want
to share is it's okay to be yourself like I I'm fabulous with an Excel chart but you put me in a
kitchen and it's it's going to get ugly you know it's it's not working um so it's okay you don't
have to pick some traditional roles to feel value in yourself and I it's kind of weird but like
you can have it all I have a great marriage I've been with my husband since law school we've
been married 36 years together 41 years I have four Sons I have a house of testo
sterone I got
a son 3330 28 and 26 they're all doing wildly different things one's a pro hockey player the
other one has his PhD and bioinformatics the other one was selling door-to-door paint services
and the other one works at a bank you know in Investment Bank house there they're all different
but you can be successful as an entrepreneur have a good marriage have kids be kind to yourself and
gentle to yourself don't let other women in your neighborhood judge you because you bring Store
br cookies to the you know to the PTA meeting um and find your friends and Reena I consider you a
friend thank I'm really honored that you included me in your new and exciting TV show thank you so
much Sara I consider you consider you a friend as well and it was just such a pleasure to chat with
you and hear your advice to help other women out there so thank you so so much for joining us
today and sharing your wonderful stories they were very entertaining as well I think that goes
hand in h
and with the the comedy thing so thank you so much and yeah uh tune in next time our
next show is going to be happening in April so stay tuned for more details for Women Lead TV
sponsored by the Connected Women of Influence I'm Reena Vokoun the host of Women Wellness
and the Workplace thank you so much thank you
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