We were lucky to catch up with Gabby Cusimano recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Gabby thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

TW: Mention of assault
Everything’s connected! I was working as an athletic trainer for a few years and loved getting to learn how different bodies move based off different sports and really starting to see everything moving together and how “victims cry louder than the criminals” from a pain standpoint, where you’re experiencing pain typically isn’t what’s actually causing the pain. I then started working in a physical therapy office with everyone from weekend warriors to NFL combine athletes. Honestly, I didn’t know how to make friends without having the built in buffer of school so I went to a yoga class.
I then had a friend come visit me and he ended up sexually assaulting me on a Friday night. Having gone to my now routine Saturday morning yoga class 3 weeks in a row and not wanting to be in my apartment alone, in total fight or flight I found my way to class. It was a heated, power yoga class. I stayed in child’s pose the whole time. Toward the end of class my teacher came and gently pressed my hips down in an assist and in that moment, hours after the biggest trauma of my life, I knew everything was going to be okay.
A few weeks later I joined yoga teacher training, went through life coach training to learn how to ask better questions and have continued my studies since!
After 1 year in the physical therapy office I was sick of insurance dictating what I could and could not do for patients, sick of the Corporate PTO debt I was in because I took time off following my assault and so I quit.
I started my company Soul to Sole Wellness. Which at first looked a lot like physical therapy and traditional rehabilitation with some meditations and body scans thrown in.
Then, my clients began to evolve. One woman, an ultra marathon runner, hobbled in and as our relationship grew, I had what I call a “download” or an “intuitive hit” to share my story of assault with her. As I shared, tears ran down her eyes, not just for me, but for herself. She began to share her story, a similar story. And when she left my table that day, her whole being shifted. Everything’s connected. I dedicated my studies to the learning about fascia, how we carry emotions and how emotions are made in our bodies and have made it a mission to share with other practitioners for the ripple effect is real. If I can teach you about somatics and healing through the physical body, you then share that with your clients and them with their friends and family, I am able to heal the world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always been fascinated with how the body works and how it’s put together. I have a degree in athletic training and biomechanics, I hold my CES through NASM, E-RYT through Yoga Alliance.

While I was in my yoga teacher training back in 2014, our anatomy teacher came in and said we needed to find a common language and chose anatomical vocabulary to be our common language. From 8am – 7pm both Saturday and Sunday she tried to drill anatomical vocabulary which is basically latin into wannabe yoga teachers during the 3rd weekend of teacher training. After the weekend the other trainees and myself circled up and they had a million questions that I was able to answer. I realized we did have a common language, English. I was the only person who really understood what our anatomy teacher was saying the entire weekend. I have two degrees in it!

Isn’t that what entrepreneurship is all about!? Finding a hole, seeing a need a filling it?! So I started teaching the anatomy portion of yoga teacher trainings. From there, studios began to ask me to see 1:1 students to support them through alignment, aches and pain and eventually started teaching workshops on myofascial release, nervous system regulation, anatomy 1o1 for their instructors, yoga for back pain, yoga for athletes, sculpt it was endless!

I was able to volunteer with non-profits and corporations for mental health awareness for yoga girls, AncoraTN which supports fighting human trafficking and offering continuing education and safe movement to instructors and movement professionals in over 10 states.

I’m most proud of the mission I support, making continuing education around embodiment, the nervous system, hormone balancing digestible and tangible for all. My scholarship program for my courses continues to expand my reach to underserved populations.

The program that I am most proud of is my signature program, Body Love.
As my education around emotions, where they live in your body, how they live in your body, how they get trapped and different tools to release them has expanded this program has expanded. I have taken nearly 100 women through this program, and it has evolved with each cohort. The transformation that this program has brought to women has led to divorces (in the best, most authentic way!), six and seven figure businesses, moms who went from feeling overwhelmed and exhausted to feeling grounded and confident in their day-to-day and have the tools to support them through the crazy toddler days. I’ve taken everything I have learned with nearly 1000 hours of continuing education and 100’s of hours working 1:1 with clients and put it together for women looking to receive these practices and yoga teachers, energy workers and practitioners looking to share these practices.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The number one way to grow your clientele or build any sort of successful business as through word-of-mouth. That way you know the people walking through your doors are typically trustworthy, here for the transformation and they’re most likely going to pay you because they probably want the transformation that the friend who referred them had.

Having the KLT or know, like and trust factor is the key to any sale. If somebody knows you, likes you, and trust you.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There is an essay by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD called Helping Fixing or Serving that found me at the most perfect moment. The essay is simply about asking yourself are you serving those around you or are you showing up to help or fix them? It reminds us that no one is broken. It reminds us that when you help someone it shows you your strength, but you never help from a relationship between equals. That when we serve, we draw from our experiences and we support and lift up those around us. Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. And it puts finding that purpose back into the other person‘s hand instead of offering your life advice.

As an entrepreneur, when we show up from a place of service we are building a legacy. Always come from a place a service and when you find yourself wanting to fix or help, use it as an opportunity to slow down, check back in and see if you’re still on your path or perhaps you’re following a shiny object.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.soultosolewellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gab.delorenze
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gab.delorenze
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabby-delorenze/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@soultosolewellness
• Other: https://gabdelorenze.teachable.com/l/products

Image Credits

Mary Craven