Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenni Mcnamee

Hi Jenni, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

Movement has always been a huge part of my life. As a young girl I was in many sports, and had a career in cheerleading and dance, which later became my full time work as a young adult. I started coaching when I was 16, and that blossomed into a love of working with others. I continued to coach cheer and began a career as a dance and fitness trainer throughout my college years. I graduated college with a double Bachelors degree in Anthology & Sociology and began working in the field of Substance Recovery and Community Action. It was here that I learned my passion for helping people in the mental health capacity along with physical health. I had full intentions of going to law school to further my passion for community advocacy, however my husband and I had our first child very young and it changed the course of my life. A few years later we had our second son, and I was fully immersed in the Recovery & Advocacy field and finding myself drained mentally and physically. I had continued as a Dance and Fitness Trainer all those years as it was my only outlet for stress and the big emotions that came with being a full time working mother.
Then Covid hit… it changed the game for me entirely. My day time career became almost impossible to stay on top of with so many people slipping from recovery and the mental health workers seeing the tolls it was taking on people. My dance and fitness career came to a stop and I was drowning. After some long conversations and lots of over thinking, I made the decision to step away from my full time career to focus more on my children and renovating life for our family. During that break, I decided to start posting live workouts online for people in my community to do from home. It took off very quickly and before I knew it I was hosting 3-4 free live workouts a day! I was connecting with people again in my community, and globally. People would write to me telling me that these workouts were what was keeping them going. It gave them something to look forward to everyday when the world was shut down, Soon those live workouts became a small community on their own, and when restrictions started to slightly lift I became hosting classes for 3 people at a time out of my home gym. Soon I started hosting larger group classes at local parks, and beaches. One thing led to another and I began hosting personal training sessions, and by 2022 Covid guidelines we lifting and we knew it was time to move our tiny project to a bigger space. Now in 2024 we have moved t0 a 2,000 square foot facility. We offer 25 classes a week for 20+ people in each class. Our classes range from strength training, indoor cycling, yoga, pilates, and more. We have over 15 Personal Training clients weekly, and offer special events almost every month. We have a staff of 10, and members that love to spend time in our beautiful custom space that my husband built from the ground up! As I sit here writing this, I truly cannot believe how far RAD has come since 2020, and how truly fortunate I am to be living a life I love. RAD Fit stands for Rise Above Doubt, come for the workout but stay for the community!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

No journey has ever happened on a smooth road! Building my business was one of the most mentally and physically taxing experiences of my life. The hardest part of starting RAD was simply realizing that not everyone would be happy for me. Stepping out to build a dream that I have had since I was a teen, was not going to work for everyone around me and they let me know it. Judgement, lies and rumors, nasty messages, and people simply walking out of my life became a reality. The fitness industry is extremely competitive, and often people would rather never speak to you again than collaborate and work along side you. I spent a lot of time working through the hate and the anxiety to get to a point where now I simply say “let them talk”. I truly believe that it helped build my back bone, and has been the reason why I do not take things so seriously anymore. There is plenty of room at my table for everyone.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

My official job title outside of business owner is Group Fitness Instructor, and Personal Trainer. With that title I specialize in Beat Based Movement, and Functional Training with men, women, and children. If you were to ask anyone around me they would most likely tell you that I am a Community Coordinator, Mental Health Advocate, Self-Care Guru, or Motivational Speaker. The beauty of my job is that I can decide how this studio runs, and I choose to focus on the community aspect of group fitness rather than the number on the scale or the aesthetic of a thin body. This outlook has helped to cultivate a beautiful judgment free space where every single person can feel free to be exactly who they are. The support and love that each person has for each other when they walk through our front doors is truly amazing, and that is what sets us apart from the rest. I will forever be most proud of the way that myself and my staff help people see themselves in a whole new light. I may be teaching a workout class, but at the end of the day it is far more than that.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?

There are two characteristics about myself that I feel have played a huge role in the success of RAD. One being that I am a dreamer and a doer. I have big dreams and goals in my life and I am never satisfied until I have acted on them. I crave the chase to always be better and do better. The second is that I always show up as who I am, authentically. I learned a long time ago that you will never be everyones cup of tea, but when you show up unapologetically your people will find you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://radfitstudios.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RADfitstudios

Image Credits

McKenzie Finnerty