Greetings, all!
We’re bringing you a special blog post today featuring the story behind CoreMotion Studios. Located in Fairfield, Connecticut, CoreMotion brings us a story of a woman who left her career as a New York City lawyer to become a stay at home mom, and later owner of a successful fitness studio. We had the opportunity to chat with Elise Zealand, owner of CoreMotion Studios, to find out more about her journey through this short Q&A.
Q: What made you decide to leave your successful career as a lawyer and become a full-time entrepreneur?
When I was working in-house as general counsel of a media company, I discovered that what really interested me was the business side, the strategic planning and operations, rather than the legal work. And I’ve always loved fitness — a lot more than I ever loved being a lawyer. I discovered the Megaformer in New York and was blown away by how strong I felt after taking just a few classes. Pretty soon I was hooked and I wanted to share my discovery with my friends and neighbors in Fairfield County, a community where we have a home and that’s very dear to my heart. It was an enormous leap of faith to start a business rather than go back into law, but I’ve learned more from this experience than anything else I’ve ever done professionally.
Q: I know you spoke about this a bit with Lindsay, tell us why you feel being an entrepreneur/business owner is more challenging than being a mom. What advice can you give other CEO mothers out there?
Being an entrepreneur, you constantly have to convince everyone around you — your clients, employees, business partners and even family — that you’re capable of creating and managing this new entity. You have to prove yourself and sell your product. In contrast, most people will give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re a competent parent and your baby’s cute. And there are so many moving pieces to a business that the work literally just never stops. At least a baby sleeps. Sometimes. I think CEO moms might as well let go of the guilt that comes from balancing a business with family, because they’ve made the choice to do it. And it’s important to tune out the negativity around them. I’m not saying to ignore constructive feedback or expert advice. But lots of people will have opinions about what to do with your business and that noise can get distracting. At the end of the day, you’re the business’s mother. And you know best.
Q: You offer a great program through CoreMotion called, “CoreNutrition.” Tell us about CoreNutrition, and why people should join in?
We are in the process of developing our nutrition counseling business because it’s integral to overall health. We want people to come into the studio and feel successful. For most people, real body change will require changes in their eating habits. I am a huge believer that your best body, inside and out, comes from a combination of eating well and exercising intelligently and with purpose. I used to sweat it out at a big box gym without giving much thought to what I was doing. Then I’d follow up with a 20-ounce smoothie that had more sugar than a donut. We want to help lift our clients out of old habits that aren’t working for them.
Q: How does someone join CoreMotion and/or sign-up for a class?
They can just go to our website, www.CoreMotionStudios.com!
Written by our Marketing & Social Media Coordinator, Taylor Bell!