We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful LaQuanza Raymond. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with LaQuanza below.

LaQuanza, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

Absolutely, and that’s Transformation School. I noticed the struggle with information overload, mundane boring approaches, and difficulty losing weight in the health and wellness industry. Why is it that health habits and weight is struggle for more than half of the United States including children? I thought to myself, how can I fix that because your mental and physical wellness is your life; your quality of life depends on it. I’ve always been creative and immediately started thinking of ways I could enter the industry with something unique, fun, and done in a way to help easily build consistency. Then I thought about what are some factors can contribute to the struggle like medical conditions, physical limitations, hormone imbalances, etc things like that. With the cost of healthcare and insurance there are a LOT of people who avoid doctor visits and usually its because they cannot afford the professional help they need. Lastly, I laid out all of those necessities and built a team of certified professionals in different fields that most of my clients I noticed may have struggled with and that led me to The Founders – The CPT, The RDN, The LC and the PT. Yes, a certified staff to help students with all-around life changing wellness. The mind, the body, the gut, and the mental are all catered to, but in a way that doesn’t restrict fun foods, start with extreme approaches, and is adjusted by a professional when the student is ready. There’s Welcome Week, Orientation, Meet and Greet, etc….just like a real college campus. We have fun challenges and incentives, the students can earn points, and it’s completely designed for them. It’s the safest approach, an affordable approach (done purposely), and the only one of it’s kind in the industry. Students come in waves. Each wave lasts 90 days and we’ll be in Wave 9 starting this month! We are currently working on our kids’ programs and adding more team members to keep up with the demand. We have a few more beta programs to run to have a complete curriculum for any man, woman, or child that enrolls. Building this school virtually has been a massive undertaking, but people NEED this and they need it LIKE this. I have yet to find a comparable program so I know that we’re on the right track because it’s a less dense lane that we’re in. We’re making healthy…cool.

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?

My name is LaQuanza Raymond and I am the CEO of Workout Buddy, LLC and the Founder and Creator of it’s virtual learning institution, Transformation School. I’ve been a part of the health and fitness industry as a trainer and coach since 2016. I have two beautiful children with my husband of 11 years who is the rock of our family. I grew up in a small town called Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Most people know it for it being the Crawfish Capital that hosts the annual Crawfish Festival, but I know it for being the city that taught me first hand about community. Community is crucial. I grew up the oldest of six children raised by a single mother and from early on I’ve always wanted to be help and not a hinderance.

Playing sports from 6th grade up to college, mostly basketball, has taught me that discipline, hard work, sportsmanship, teamwork and consistency first breeds improvement then success. I’ve always wanted to be successful by always being a good ‘help’. I played sports all the way up into college and have always been into fitness, anatomy movement, etc. So, I became a personal trainer, but only after I became a mom (2x C-section mom). I went into a depression early on in motherhood and was getting through the days via high-functioning anxiety and donuts. One day I looked in the mirror and did not recognize myself and I didn’t like it. I was in “mom mode” 24/7, on autopilot, coasting, and just not very mindful. I didn’t know how to prioritize myself without feeling bad, until I learned about boundaries and healthy ways to manage my mental health. I lost over 60lbs naturally, repaired my ab separation, and improved my sciatica in the process and I realized that moms need to know this approach. No extreme approaches and No restrictions.

I’ve since transitioned to a Mindset and Fitness Coach and have created programs like 14-Day Jumpstart and Hot Mama 360 to take the stress out of health. These are fully comprehensive programs that build from beginning that are packed with information easy to understand and simple to execute. They are also now a part of my Transformation School curriculum and will be available to our Summer 2024 students. What sets the school apart is that students have access to a team of licensed and certified medical and health professionals to help remove the guesswork in the process. Guess work is stress work. As a mental health advocate, I am team Path of Least Resistance at this point hehe. Fun also helps with stress so we do a lot of fun things to make their journey to healthy a process of growth and empowerment over stress, confusion, and information overload and we’ve been doing that since 2018 with our beta trials. This is the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it’s also the most rewarding and makes me the most proud. It’s going to give access where it’s been denied and change so many lives. I can’t wait until those who need it the most can experience it.

I help people build healthy relationships with food and fitness, but with themselves first. I offer high-level coaching hands-on coaching and what sets me apart from from most coaches and trainers in the industry is that I don’t go with trends or with what’s popular because that is where the income is – I’m here to make an impact first. My approach is unique in that it makes fitness fun and exciting. I coach on mindset and seeing how it cool it is to care enough about you to take better care of you. It all starts with movement and movement is truly medicine. Moving your body to power your mind is a scientific fact and so I focus on ways to move that make you want to move again and again and again. My classes are not traditional in the least and neither is my coaching style.

I am currently working on my M.O.V.E initiative. The acronym stands for Make Optimistic Vital Energy as it pertains to mental health. M.O.V.E is all about fun fitness to get your body moving as a healthy way to manage your mental health and has participated in numerous community events, back-to-school-events, youth mental health summits, as well has closed it’s first contract with it’s first learning institution in August of 2023 for it’s fiscal school year. The goal is to get turn M.O.V.E into a non-profit and have it in schools across the globe and we’ve already started implementing it as a free resource into Transformation School. M.O.V.E will be on tour across the state of Louisiana May of 2024 to raise funds and awareness for cause and to promote and advocate for mental health awareness. This is another free resource and I’m so proud to build up a community in need. I get to show people how to enjoy becoming a better healthier version of themselves mentally and physically, but have fun doing it. It’s a reason why I’m also instructor because we’ll kick butt, but we’ll have fun doing it. A lot is in the works and I am looking forward to our growth in 2024! The more we reach the more we teach!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started my business in 2016. It was a birthday gift to myself after having my first child. As an athlete coming up, I am no stranger to workouts so I was eager to loses the baby weight. I began 1:1 personal training with moms, women, men, and even senior citizens and that went on until Covid and I was forced to do virtual personal and small group training sessions via Zoom. This forced pivot was major because I have some anxiety with social media. I shared my transformation and they (moms) were blown away by my post C-section transformation and wanted to train with me. Luckily for them, I already had a 12-week program in place that I designed to mimic my approach as a mom as it pertains to weight loss called Hot Mama 360. I realized that a lot of moms were struggling with mental health which was affecting their mental health. Moms often feel forgotten about and unseen and unsupported. I began to focus more on coaching them through the process and have to safely and effectively approach their fitness journey. My job as a professional is to educate on safe ways to obtain better mental and physical health. Getting them to workout wasn’t the problem – it was the inner work and the inner belief in self. This is where I went from trainer to Mindset & Fitness Coach with a focus on mental health. My recent pivot comes with turning my online programs into an online membership. This membership caters to any mom whether she is pregnant, post partum, or an empty nester she has support and guidance on how to reclaim her life back outside of motherhood. As someone who has battled high-functioning anxiety and depression, lost over 60lbs naturally, and repaired her ab separation I am excited to guide, coach, and encourage moms on their journey to healing, health, and wellness.

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

Some of the books I’ve read that have significantly impacted my leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills, management skills, and mindset are:

1. Atomic Habits
2. How Highly Effective People Speak by Peter D. Andrei
3. The Power of Action by Daniel Walter
4. Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
5. Master Your Emotions by Thibaut Meurisse
6. Traction by Gino Wickman

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fitmomquan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitmom_quan?igsh=ZHEzdnVjYTEzb2N1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/CxLScGWkoxPERNHy/?mibextid=qi2Omg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEbXXUeczCDnFR8HJsHwWw