Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Rosamaria Rago, founder, and CEO of Rise Mind Body Ltd., located in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Self Love Expert and Body Intuitive. I guide women on a journey of self-love towards self-discovery and life purpose using a mind-body practice.
With popular media today, it's so easy to fall into the pressures of feeling beautiful "enough" and has lead to creating a relationship with the body that is driven by vanity. I help women redefine and recreate an authentic and loving relationship within themselves and their bodies that is sacred.
Tell us about yourself
I was a division one athlete, and I was passionate --or more obsessed--with fitness. I always wanted to help people, and I knew it would be in the form of health and fitness. I completed an internship at William Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan, with the idea of becoming a doctor. After my experience, I realized I wanted to help people before they got to this point. So I graduated, went home, and became a personal trainer at Goodlife. I became the top 5 trainers out of 2800 in the nation for the company.
However, My fitness obsession turned into an eating disorder. My fitness became a form of control to compensate for what I was losing control over. My parents divorced, faced financial hardship, domestic abuse. Controlling my weight was the only thing that I could control. Within a two-year period, I got into four serious car accidents and one near-drowning experience. In the 4th car accident, I nearly died. I was hit by a car as a pedestrian, hospitalized, and now have a metal plate in my arm. After this experience, everything about exercise hurt me. The More I worked out, the more weight I gained; I felt inflamed and less motivated. I fell into depression. The only thing that worked was meditation and stretching. I was unknowingly restoring my relationship with my body and my heart. As a result of it, I tapped Into feelings I didn't even know I had.
As I started to discover depths of myself, and restored my relationship with my heart (that I didn't even know needed restoring), everything about my life started to repair itself--relationships became richer, my business exploded, I had more energy, and overall l felt more like myself.
As my relationship with my body and myself shifted, so too did my approach to training my clients. It wasn't until I shifted my approach to training where I saw the true transformation in my clients' lives. Not only were they losing weight and getting results, but they too were feeling restored in their whole being and in all areas of life.
Through the evolution of my journey and my approach to fitness with my clients, I became known as the Self Love Expert and a Body Intuitive. My business grew rapidly simply from referrals due to the results that I was getting with my clients. People were no longer coming to me for training. They were coming to me for all kinds of things: relationships, eating disorders, grief, depression, chronic pain, etc. It became deeper.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
The biggest accomplishment as a business owner is the impact and the beautiful community I have created.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The hardest thing is caring deeply for each person I work with. Putting structures and systems in place has been an integral part of my business growth that has allowed me to focus on what I d best--which is to be of service.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Follow your passions.
- Lean on your strengths!
- Have a plan!
- Focus on Impact, not income-the money will come.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.risemindbody.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risewithrosa
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamrosarago/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosamaria-rago-051454ab/
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.
Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.
