We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marisa Paradis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marisa below.
Marisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
I had a new client find out about my Glow in the Dark Dance Fitness party from an event page on facebook. She had been looking for a new fitness class for some time, and wasn’t finding what she was looking for. She arrived to the location that night and sat in her car for a few minutes and asked the universe (and her mom) to give her a sign if this was the class, the community and the place where she belonged. She was still grieving her mom’s passing and lost herself a bit along the way. As she walked up to the location, another client of mine greeted her outside, “is this your first time here?” It was! She offered to bring her inside and introduce her to everyone. As always, my incredible community was kind, welcoming and helped her get ready for class. During class, she got multiple signs from above that she was in fact in the right place and after class asked more about what I offered. She began coming 1x a week to our fitness classes and soon added on a 2nd class and eventually a 3rd. She made her way from the back row, up to the middle row and started to put herself out there with everyone in class. She was growing her community, she was moving her body and she started to become someone people looked for every time they came to class. After taking fitness classes with me for about a year, she knew she was ready for more. She felt as though she needed something more to help take her to the next level of her wellness journey, so she inquired with me about my wellness coaching programs. She wasn’t putting herself first and she needed help. So we began a 17 week wellness coaching program and slowly, week by week, her confidence began to grow, she started to do more and more things for herself and she truly started to remember her value to the world and all she had to offer. Her self-love began to grow and her waistline began to shrink. She took her life back into her own hands and along the way released 20lbs. At the end of the 17 week program, clients take part in an empowerment photoshoot with a local photographer. I had the honor of doing this clients hair and makeup for the photoshoot and when I was complete with her look and gave her the mirror she was in shock. “Oh My God” she kept repeating over and over and over again as tears streamed down her face. It was the first time she saw herself in the way she was feeling the shift inside and she was absolutely blown away by the whole experience and how good she felt when she saw the outcome of those photos. I love when my clients use all 3 elements of my business, because giving yourself the gift of wellness and self love and care is the greatest gift I could ever hope for you.
Marisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Marisa Paradis and I am a makeup artist, wellness coach and group fitness instructor. I started as a makeup artist over 15 years ago because it was something I was constantly being asked to do for friends from a very early age. Eventually I realize that I could make money doing something I was already doing for my friends and I went out to LA to learn more. I worked at MAC Cosmetics and several salons before branching off to my own business and I have been doing weddings, proms and photoshoots every since.
Along the journey, I started a wellness plan of my own, as I didn’t love the person or the body staring back at me in the mirror. I started with some nutritional support products and found a community of uplifting humans who told me daily that I deserved to be happy, that I deserved to do things that set my soul on fire and that I was worthy of loving everything about myself and my whole damn life. I wanted to help people discover that wellness wasn’t about a number on a scale, or the number on your jeans, but about what was happening inside of you. Your energy shift will allow space and room for everything else to fall into place, including any weight loss you’re looking to achieve. We work on your mindset and your small daily habits so you can properly take care of yourself and take steps to empower your daily choices around food, relationships and beyond.
From my own wellness journey, I also had this new found energy that I honestly didn’t know what to do with, so I started attending local Zumba® classes and couldn’t find an instructor that matched my vibe. I started in the front of the room but decided that to make class worth it for me, I should stand in the back and just rock out class in my own loud, crazy and high energy way, so I did. One day after class, a fellow member of the class followed me outside to ask me where I taught Zumba® because I was super motivating for her. At the time, I laughed but then quickly decided that if I couldn’t find the right instructor for me, that maybe I should just become one myself. I taught Zumba® for 6 years before I got stuck in the rut of following “the plan” and being sure to follow the rules laid out before me… I needed more freedom, more silliness and more passion to do what was burning in my soul and Shake It Up Fitness was born. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but all high energy, fun, weird, crazy and passionate movement. Dance Fitness classes became huge and suddenly people wanted more. My Group Fitness Certification allowed me to add more strength training options to my classes and now I have and teach a wide variety of classes all with the same feel- you get to be exactly who you are in class every single day, as long as you strive to continue to love her, allow her space to grow and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I used to think everything was hard, but only for me. My life was difficult, but it wasn’t for anyone around me. The truth is, I was making it more difficult by not asking for help, by not allowing people to see and hear my vision and then be a part of ensuring that vision came to life and by choosing roads that were safer, even if they weren’t the right fit. I had to start asking those around me about their hard, their difficult and hear their stories of struggle for me to recognize that it wasn’t just me. Then I had to start accepting help and asking for help in big ways. This is what led me to opening up my own studio last year… because I finally had the courage to say out loud that this was a big dream of mine and that in order to achieve it, I simply couldn’t do it on my own. I had to accept help, without the idea that I had to pay that person back in some way. I had to truly believe that all the years of me helping others without any desire for anything in return was finally coming back to me tenfold. It was such a shift in my perspective and now, I am happy when people offer to help and I try to continue to take it either small or big as often as I can.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
My clients come first. They are literally the only reason why I get to do what I love each day. They are incredible humans that have helped me build a wonderful community inside the doors of my studio. I try my very best to make sure each client is seen, heard and loved, with every ounce of my being. When my clients go missing from classes for more than a few weeks, I check in on them. I reach out as often as I can, I share about things that make me think of them and I build my community like it’s my full time job. Making my students have connections of their own has been a huge turning point for my fitness classes and what truly make us more than just another group fitness studio. My clients have formed friendships outside of class, and I make sure we take time to get to know each other several times throughout the year. We do potluck meals, pool parties, out to eat after classes and it’s become such a huge part of our group, that they even came together to throw ME a 40th birthday party at class one night. When you have a class full of people who are looking for you, loving on you and caring wether or not you show up, you’re more likely to get your ass off the couch and make it to class!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shakeupmakeupllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakeupmakeupllc/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shakeupmakeupllc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh11Fos1rxo&t=48s
Image Credits
Kaitlyn Casso Creations
Luz Photography
Ashley Abel Photography
Ashley Danielle Photography
Tasman Photography