We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenna Ventura a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 have always wanted to be self employed. Mainly because any company I worked for did not provide the all around wellness approach that I wanted to give my clients. Even though to many the pandemic was a curse and brought bad fortune… for me it was a blessing in disguise. The pandemic hit March 8th of 2020 and literally the next week on March 16th I announced that I was going to be providing free fitness classes to my community near and far using Zoom an online conference platform. I have worked in the fitness industry since 2010 so I already had a following from the several places I have worked with in the past including a fitness center in downtown financial district of Boston, MA. It only took about a few social media posts and shares for the word to catch on that during this very uncertain time someone was willing to create an empowering space (virtually) by holding others accountable on their mental and physical journey.

Little did we know we would be in the pandemic for 2 years! Acadia Fit started off as a free service for a few months until I decided to hit the ground running and create an LLC in June 2020. Since then I have been teaching and paying taxes as self-employed. Of course starting a business during a pandemic was a rocky start but I ended up figuring out what was working and what was not pretty quickly. My advice to you anyone who has interest in the entrepreneur life is to JUST START! I had a lot to learn in year 1 and 2, and sought out professional mentorship to help me achieve higher goals. But coming from someone who lacked finance skills and knew nothing about business management, don’t let that fear stop you from building a life of your dreams.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

A note from the owner: Jenna Ventura is a small business owner born and raise from Boston, MA. She has always been an athlete, a team player, and into exploring the outdoors. After receiving her degree in public health she got certified through NASM CPT and got her first job as a personal trainer working for a corporate fitness company. Fast forward several years and several certifications later, including Precision Nutrition level 1 &2, she decided she wanted to create something of her own and was working on it behind the scenes in 2018 while working a full time job. After hiring some business coaches she launched her first offer of online nutrition and fitness right before the pandemic hit in 2020. None of us could have predicated how long covid19 was going to last but the timing was on point for her business baby to emerge onto the online platform space. Acadia Fit currently has 2 offers, ongoing daily fitness workouts that resemble progressive overload training you would receive in a fitness center training 1:1 and also a 16-week macro-nourishment course build out to give you the step by step on creating a sustainable lifestyle toward your best self. Acadia Fit embodies having a full understanding of movement, nourishment, and mindset behind it all. It focuses heavily on nutrition (both science based and intuitively) but also on Sleep, Stress-management, and movement. Her favorite mottos, “fuel your future” and “rise to the occasion” “the mountain is you” are things she will say to her clients with additional explanation to help them level up and put themselves first once and for all. Finding passion in preventive medicine/injury, she must rather work with the client before it too late. To her, lifting weights is about doing things you enjoy that contribute to you feeling good. Yes of course looking good is important but that comes in time as long as you continue to prioritize yourself! Having the ability to slow down the aging process, continue to do things you love without pain and to explore new people, places, and things is what its truly about. Dont let your health be a limitation.

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

Every year I make an annual trip to Acadia National Park. This is a week long experience sometimes just a long weekend depending on the year. (Hence the name Acadia Fit). I started going in the summer of 2015 and have gone every year since. I have always enjoyed hiking and exploring but Acadia National Park is a new experience EVERY time I go and I am constantly reminded of what I have overcame to make this a tradition in my life. Its my happy space of mountains, the ocean, and remote Camping. Often when I am hiking a mountain there’s a point on that journey you just want to turn back, or the views at the moment aren’t as motivating to keep going, or your tired, and it made me realize that hiking is a true mental game. To be able to stop, pause and sit in that emotion for a bit and then proceed to tell yourself you can ascend this mountain, You can do hard things and you will is so empowering. I am not a firm believer of “pushing through the pain” but I am a firm believer that you can do anything you put your mind to you just have to try. Your mind is the difference between you seeing results or not. Its about giving yourself grace and telling yourself that your so close to that 10/10 vision and to not give up on that vision. I have build a lot of resilience physically but also mentally. I have ascended a LOT of mountains in the North East. I am now currently living in Colorado by myself and have even done some solo hikes and man those can even be the most rewarding because you truly are doing it for yourself and no one else. The more I hike and spend time in nature the more in tuned I have become with my Self and have build resilience on who I AM and what I offer with Acadia Fit.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Acadia Fit started off as a side hustle where I was making passive income on the side in addition to my full time job that was taking up 60 hours of my life. At one point (year 2 of operating) I had to make a decision to quit my full time job and make Acadia Fit #1 priority. I had so much resistance driven by fear of failure, being financially restricted and not being good enough to make it last…. all of which I had to overcome and take the leap to bring this vision to life. Much like climbing a mountain it was my turn back point, in which I had the option to close the chapter of working for others and start one to work for myself. This was huge because in doing so, I was able to bring to life my dream of living in Colorado. In Sept 2021 I quit my full time job and then in Sept 2022 I moved to CO, something that I have dreamt of doing since 2014. Here we are!

Contact Info:

• Website: acadia-fit-coaching.mykajabi.com
• Instagram: acadia_fit
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/186216406011879/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-ventura-9b07754b/

Image Credits
Surrounding Mountains of Denver, Colorado, iphone13