We were lucky to catch up with Anakarina Pina Ramirez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anakarina, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I started building content in social media for runner’s strength training. Being a runner myself and a personal trainer I knew that combining both strength training and running I could show my followers how to avoid injury.
As my following grew, I started to get more and more questions on how to avoid common running injuries during training cycles toward marathon and half marathon training.
I knew how to implement this so I created an evidence based methodology based on my studies from personal training and endurance. I knew that for my methodology to work, my runners would need consistent followup and guidance from a certified coach, so I included this extra feature. Also from experience and coming from the pandemic I knew that our future client would need even more guidance with live classes that could include strength training for runners, cycling for runners, and yoga for runners. When all these resources were in place, I decided to deliver the service online through an app and a platform and our runners would pay a monthly membership to have all these services delivered easily to their watches, phones, or computers.
After putting these systems in place I announced our launch in social media and we were very successful getting more and more subscriptions and runners interested in our methodology around the world. I knew we needed more help in our marketing and we hired a service to deliver a better website experience, email marketing experience and a brand image. We were also announcing our business in local media and newspapers and participated in runner expos where we could target our runners and tell our story.
This meant growth, however it also meant being prepared for many challenges. I decided we needed more expert experience so I applied for a grant for minority businesses. My project won the grant and with the money we are now putting in place more processes to tackle the challenges that came with growing our clientele.
As a business owner I’m still learning. From educating myself on improving costumer service experience, to improve our sales process, and to lead my staff and delegate. I work many hours a day but I do have the satisfaction of doing something I am passionate about and I have the freedom to commit to the projects that I love and believe in.

Anakarina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am from Mexico City and married a very successful diplomat. When you marry a diplomat you move every 5 years which makes it difficult for professional growth in one industry. My professional life has had its twists and turns due to our moves – from working for branding and PR for Barbie, to working at a local Chamber of Commerce, to leading my school’s PTA, or running the alumni office at a private school. The only thing I had in common every time I moved is that I kept educating myself in sports and kept running marathons. I loved being a hard working professional during the day and coaching people in the afternoons at the gym or at their homes.
When Covid 19 hit the world I was out of a job and homeschooling my kids, still all my clients wanted to stay fit and keep training with me. That’s when I started delivering my coaching services online. It was time consuming, and I didn’t have the right tech in place, but I kept going not really thinking of a strategy or a business direction.
After my last move to Michigan I decided I could scale the online business but I needed to focus on one area, the area that made me the most happy and that I believed I for sure knew from my practice of many years. After running three Boston Marathons and at that time nine marathons I could tell you I’ve never had an injury. The people that I was coaching never had injuries even though they were training hard for marathons or to improve their body composition. After giving a hard thought I knew that I had a keen eye to understand strength training for runners. I thought I was ready to think through strategies and training methodologies that could improve the lifestyle of the runners around the world. So all I did was record videos with my phone and posting them on instagram. That brought the attention of coaches in Mexico that suddenly were asking me to come to their running clubs and coach their runners on strength training. I was also invited to TV specials on running and even to schools to advice coaches on how to observe their runners and make recommendations.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started my social media journey when I left job during Covid 19. I always thought it was like my storefront. However I did had mixed messages on my account. One day I was a personal trainer, the other day I was a busy mom trying to exercise, another day I was a runner…I think my followers, except my family I hope, was confused about who I was and what I was trying to convey.

However personally I was struggling too. I didn’t have a strategy for social media because frankly I didn’t know what I wanted to portray to the world about my life and my profession. I decided it shouldn’t be that complicated I was just going to create content and see how people responded to what I recorded. The more running content I made the more people wanted to see. At that point I was already coaching runners with Benjamín Paredes, an Olympian who wanted to get to know me better and my strength training methods. I started recording our trainings and it worked! Then I moved from Mexico to Michigan and I was afraid my followers would be disappointed since I wasn’t training with an Olympian. However I started doing weekly lives about what I learned from coaching with him and voilà followers kept watching. Since then I grew from a thousand followers to 30 thousand followers in Istagram and 20 thousand followers in Facebook in 2 years.

Social media for me is like a video game. I just observe what works in the platform that week knowing that in a few weeks what I thought worked, might change. Therefore my advice is that if you have a clear idea of the core of your business and the solutions you provide no matter how the “code” changes, you’ll be able to keep your message consistent and “play the code” to your advantage.

Don’t take it personal, if your video didn’t have enough likes, explore accounts that are similar to your niche and see what works for them, and may be adapt some of their content to your core message. Feel confident that the right people will start following you, even if it takes time. There is an audience for everyone.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Since my business is exercise and running I know that we need to follow up with our clients in a consistent basis. That keeps them calm when there is an ache or pain when training as well as when the nerves come due to their upcoming race.

We do like automated messages but the personalization of our business is key. Our certified coaches contact them weekly and we listen to the feedback of their training and how they are responding to their exercises and training plans. We have also many avenues of communication: chat, email, group chat, virtual calls and even live classes.

They also like that we always have their trainings on time, our app is professionally delivering their routines, our coaches are on time to teach their classes, and we always keep our brand image professional and clean.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.befitrunners.com/en
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_anakarina
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anakarinacoach

Image Credits

Photo by Jorge Sandoval