How things started How they changed Where I'm at today!

Where I started...

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Becoming pregnant at 16 and then again at 17 led me to rely on various forms of government assistance such as food stamps, WIC coupons, Medi-Cal (state insurance), housing projects, and women's shelter aid for abusive relationships. After leaving an abusive relationship while pregnant with my second child, I worked two jobs as a single mother – hustle became my middle name.

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Like so many women....

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I was raised without any education on nutrition or healthy eating habits. I fell ill and landed in the hospital with a gallbladder on the verge of bursting and weighing 202 pounds.

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When I started to make a change...

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I experimented with various diets and exercise regimens. Working in the medical field for a decade, with a side job at Golds Gym Daycare, which sparked my interest in fitness competitions. Eventually, I found a somewhat consistent routine with diet and exercise, but I would often fall off track every few months, leading to inconsistency. I collected fitness magazines for years, absorbing all the fundamental knowledge about fitness.

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Got married, had baby #3, and eventually became more interested in strength training

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How My Business Started...

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I had a crazy idea after roaming a fitness forum- Oxygen Mag for women- and saw there was such thing as pole dancing for fitness....Did research and found an MLM that sold the poles and a business model to do mobile pole dance parties. 

I called up my sister and asked if she wanted to do this and her reply was “pool dancing? We don’t own a pool”. To which I corrected her and said “No silly, POLE dancing”. She said “I don’t know how to dance like that” and I said: “neither do I, but I think we can figure it out!”

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We dove in and I started a biz w/my sister as a side hustle teaching women pole dancing in their homes in 2007 (Pole Dance Parties for women - our first biz name was Sassy Sisters Pole Dance Parties)

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It became insanely popular as no one in our area was offering this. We eventually started opening up my home 1x a week to teach lessons to 2-4 women in my home. 

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Then it became 2x a week and eventually 3x a week, and that's when we decided to look for a local spot- found a space 450sq feet and took the plunge!

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We called our physical location- Venus Pole Fitness- we wanted to inspire women to feel like Goddesses!

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We still had zero idea what I was doing with business- popped up 4 poles, googled how to run a business and eventually I learned how to do sales and marketing + PR and got multiple local news outlets in for interviews and the business was born and growing!

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Many years later the business grew to its current location of 2500 sq feet and has morphed into a few iterations from Pole dancing, adding a bootcamp component, and eventually after COVID converting to strictly personal training for women.

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