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

Maddie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Well for you to really grasp the story behind it all, I feel like it warrants a proper introduction.

I’m Maddie Casadonte. A Jersey gal, the daughter of hustlers. I had the immense privilege of growing up in a dance studio, competitively and recreationally, and fell in love with the concept of teaching just about immediately. I essentially just wanted to take over every class I ever took in all honesty lol, to be just like my teachers. And about 7 years later, I was given the amazing opportunity to assist them at the age of 10 and never stopped!

It seems I kind of copied teacher I ever had, and brought their skills home with me. School teachers, dance teachers, my Mom as my Girl Scout leader. I didn’t play with dolls at home much, but I did sit about 20 of them up on my couch with mini chalkboards while I stood and taught them my homework in front of my easel lol!

I did a lot of that, lol.

And so, at a very young age, the only dream I ever had was to own my own dance studio, and be a math teacher during the day. Algebra specifically — it’s my jam haha.

But went on to college, decided majoring in Math definitely wasn’t for me. But my Dance minor remained, and I studied Strategic Communications instead (which helped with the biz down the line!)

I got into fitness shortly after, when summers weren’t filled with movement and I craved more movement. That’s where my personal weight-lifting / training journey began. And where so much “healing” began for me — the body composition goals I always wanted, building the confidence I always lacked, and eventually, coping the loss of my dad.

My strength journey started to become a huge part of me for those reasons alone.

And with my love for teaching, I always wanted to create a platform of sorts to share how fitness was changing my life so drastically. But I convinced myself it was “too left-field” because of dance and just let it be mine for a bit.

Fast forward about 5 years and 2020. I’m still on my non-linear yet steady path, and COVID hits. Months kept passing and we all feel it heavily in our different ways. So I turned to daily fitness more than ever during this time, to keep track of the days and feel like I was doing SOMETHING. And I felt it’s powers.

I wanted to share it so badly. So I said “f*ck it” and challenged myself on the excuse of it being “too left-field” for me to start an Instagram page, and took myself out of the equation and thought about how I could make the page serve others with a clever sprinkle of me in there. I was working out on my balcony in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, soaking up the beauty and letting my mind wander.

The teacher in me eventually got to thinking about fitness classes and boot camps. When the other side of my brain thought about how “Boots” has been my nickname for my family nearly all my life.

And I never ran to social media so fast for anything. I checked if the handle was taken, and started it immediately. Less than a week later, I had my first free pop-up class ever. It was so much fun and I loved the energy instantly. I kept them free, as COVID was hitting heavy and I was working on my certification.

Little time went by and classes had 5 people, then 10, then 20, and 30 kept coming. What started as a hobby quickly became a business, and with Google Meet classes turned into me launching a browser-app of our own!! The rest is pretty much history from there.

Personal training began shortly after that when my friends and class-takers started asking for it! Started virtually, and got to start in-person as well when the world opened back up.

About a year and a half later — I no longer was working my corporate job and was full=time Boots business bossin’!!

Maddie, 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?

Since I covered a bit (too) much in the last question lol, I’ll share here a bit more about my products and services here!

Boots Camp is a virtual fitness studio that offers transformational personal training, hosts daily 30 minute live classes, on-demand workouts, monthly challenges. But thrives the most off of the 1:1 connection it allows at each level.

Finding your groove in your fitness journey comes from being heard and seen. Whether it’s by you or your trainer, certain things need to be analyzed, and questions need to be asked.

I love to focus my clients on realistic goals that are enjoyable and attainable, and guide them week to week. From my expertise, that’s how to make a fitness journey last for life.

I’m so proud of convenience Boots provides and the REAL difference I have seen it make in peoples’ lives. But I’m most proud of the connection I have with each and every one of my class-takers and clients. There’s no greater honor in the world, than to be so personally part of others’ strength journeys.

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

I try to focus less on the number behind my audience, but more-so on the quality of the people who slowly find me, and end up genuinely connecting with Boots Camp.

While I am MORE than eager to reach our branches as far and wide as they can possibly reach, I try not to get hard on myself for the “numbers”. Instead, I try to simply focus on the people who are there because Boots speaks to them / helps them at their core and serves the approach to fitness they are looking for. I am to not try to be something I am not, or get anxious over what I am not doing.

Easier said than done for sure, but definitely something I’d want whispered in my ear at the start of my social media business presence.

So I just always aim to speak directly to those who I can relate to, and can help.

Because that’s what I CAN do <3

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Honestly, by word of mouth / recommendation, free trials, and through meeting new people in-person!

The number 1 element in what I do, besides the obvious which is giving the workout, is my relationship with my clients. Social media is a beautiful place to grow my business, but people can really understand the way I shine in my teaching when they feel the energy in real time I find.

I think it’s so powerful, and makes for such a strong friendship down the line too!

Contact Info:

• Website: studio.thebootscamp.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebootscamp
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bootsthecamp
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.come/thebootscamp
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thebootscamp
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-boots-camp-los-angeles

Image Credits
Second Square Media