We were lucky to catch up with Innocent Amara recently and have shared our conversation below.

Innocent, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How has Covid changed your business model?

Our story began in 2014, as we wanted to provide a way to have group fitness classes brought to the doorsteps of our patrons. To make this vision become a reality, we reached out to multi-family housing communities in the Atlanta area. After having many years of success, COVID hit. In person classes came to a screeching halt and we had to quickly pivot. We knew that our customers loved Yoga, Zumba, and having shared an interconnectedness for these types of offerings. Our next phase came in the form of creating an athleisure line. From that time on, we have entered into different verticals such as Vegan snack products and have really seen our brand blast on to the scene. To this day, our goal is to make our customers look and feel amazing!

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

My name is Innocent Amara, and I’m the founder of EnvivaCor. From an early age, I’ve always loved being active because it puts me in such a good mood and I knew that I wanted to make others have a similar experience.

Being a son of an immigrant father, my ambitions were always pushed into the direction of medicine. I remember being very young and my parents purchasing me a microscope so that I could dissect frogs to learn about anatomy.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Exercise Physiology, as I prepared for medical school. I began medical school and after few short months of attending classes, decided that even though I spent my entire life wanting to be a doctor, that this path was not for me. I wanted more…. I wanted to impact a large group of people and show that simple lifestyle and mental shifts could help prevent disease and lead to a better quality of life.

My brand is about health and wellness but it’s deeper than that. I truly believe that we can do better as a society and teach people that small but powerful lifestyle changes can have compounding results.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Staring a business is easy! The true pain comes from running a business. It takes grit, resilience, and the removal of self doubt,. Loved ones will try to understand the why of your ambitions but they never truly grasp it.

From personal experience, my struggle started when I began to scale. You don’t quite understand how much capital you need in the first few years. The bulk of your money is going into marketing, products, and trying to grow market share.

If you are in this phase…stay strong! Always refer back to your “Why” and allow that to be your guiding light. I wanted to give up many times because things just got to hard but I refused to throw in the towel. You have to find a way to silence that little voice in your head that is saying “they were all right, just give up”. Once you push past that barrier, doors will open that you didn’t even know were there.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding a business can take on many forms and it will be individual for each person. I personally believe that you should bootstrap in the beginning until you find a formula that works. My journey is that I would always make 24 month goals. I would work 2-3 jobs, and invest as much as I could to ensure that I had capital.

This method does take longer than a business loan, other financing sources, or borrowing from family members. However for me, it was about proving something. I wanted to start my business without owing anyone but rather sacrifice my own blood, sweat, and tears.

After many years of doing this, it gives me pride to know that I don’t owe anyone. I made something out of scratch, that has not only monetary value but also intrinsic value.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://envivacor.shop/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/envivacor
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/envivacor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5y-igZNMcMBr8mOEwvoWg
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/EnvivaCor/page/74D4833E-1483-4FB2-A21E-7E651C9A1A81?ref_=ast_bln

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