We were lucky to catch up with Robin Berkery recently and have shared our conversation below.

Robin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.

The Covid-19 pandemic turned the whole world upside down. Everyone was challenged with restructuring their entire lives. The fitness and wellness industries easily saw some of the highest rates of business failure, loss of jobs, and reinventing of the way things were done before.

In March 2020 I had only owned Jazzercise for a little over one year. At the time of the shutdown our numbers were higher than they’d ever been, we were participating in local events, I was growing the business. We were thriving.

Upon the shutdown, the hundreds of Jazzercise members who for some had participated in group exercise for most of their lives, were moved to online livestream workouts. It was a huge shift and readjustment to everything we were used to. I moved the members who didn’t immediately cancel to online classes, trained my employees how to film themselves from home, and tried to keep the business running, as I felt everything I had worked so hard for slipping away.

We invited our members into our garages, kitchens, living rooms to do what we all needed more than ever before– movement.

As the months progressed, our classes went from online, to outside parking lots, back to our pre-Covid space, out of our pre- Covid space upon another shut down, etc etc..

Eventually fast forward to 2022.. The Capitola Mall was opening up spaces to small local businesses for very reasonable rent prices. A gorgeous studio was offered to me at a price I would have never been able to afford pre-Covid. My team and I scrubbed the 5,000 square foot space from top to bottom, hung a beautiful sign, and opened the doors for current, returning, and new members to do what we missed so much- dance TOGETHER in a space that was ours.

This was truly a silver lining.

About two weeks prior to the shutdown I was simultaneously completing my 200 hour yoga teacher training certification. In addition to Jazzercise, I was able to offer online yoga classes to members, family, friends, etc around the world. Yoga was such a lifeline during such stressful times.

Eventually I began to offer Yoga on the Beach classes at Seabright beach, down the street from my home in Santa Cruz. People starting telling their friends, and these classes grew. We have a wonderful following of local and visiting attendees who join us on the beach weekly for yoga in the sand. I continue to teach yoga online, in person in my Capitola mall studio. I also fill in as a substitute and organize and teach special yoga events.

Through both businesses, I have been able to plan and organize several fundraisers raising tens of thousands of dollars for local organizations. It has been an honor to watch how powerful our community is when we come together for these causes. Giving back feels good and it really is part of wellness. Healthy and happy people are generous and kind people.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was raised in a family that always appreciated the importance of health and fitness. My mom actually started Jazzercise back in the 70’s, even before I was born!

I went to college for Molecular Biology with intentions of working a 9-5 job in a genetics lab. During college I stayed in shape taking lots of Jazzercise and Yoga classes. Little did I know, a Monday through Friday career wasn’t in the cards for me. I was approached by my Jazzercise instructor/mentor at the time to get certified. This lead to me buying the business from her.

I now own two fitness businesses, and help run a local restaurant in Santa Cruz. I am so very grateful to do what I love and love what I do so much. Especially since I get to own a home and live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I am also extremely proud/grateful that I have found a career that I can help people live the best lives they can, and feel good doing it.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I feel so blessed to have lived the life I live, have the jobs, experiences, met the people, traveled to the places, had the ups and downs, etc. I have fully embraced this journey and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I was once interviewed and asked one piece of advice I would give someone looking to pursue a career as a health and wellness entrepreneur.

My answer– listen to your intuition, trust your instincts, and don’t do something just because you are told to do it. You will never be able to appeal or please every single person. Be yourself, and your tribe will come to you.

Contact Info:

• Other: Jazzercise Santa Cruz:
  https://www.jazzercise.com/location/capitola-mall-21503
  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558438870782
  https://www.instagram.com/jazzercisesantacruz/

  Yoga with Robin:
  https://yogawithrobin.arketa.fit/
  https://www.facebook.com/yogawithrobin17
  https://www.instagram.com/yoga.withrobin/

Image Credits

https://www.instagram.com/islandmusephoto/

https://www.instagram.com/shmuelthaler/