We recently connected with Serenity Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Serenity, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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’d like to believe I had a pre-mid-life crisis. Let me explain! There was a moment in my early twenties where I knew with certainty that my calling involved fitness and personal training, but I always felt like there was something missing. I’d find myself constantly questioning if this was the ONLY thing, I would be doing for years to come. So, I did a little soul searching. This forced me to evaluate things outside of fitness and personal training that made me feel uplifted and happy. The first thing that popped up was shopping. Now, I have not always loved shopping. During my teen years, I struggled with my self-image and had a hard time feeling comfortable in my own skin. However, by the time I became a young adult and started attending community college, I had enough confidence for 10 preteen versions of myself. With that confidence came a therapeutic love for clothes, especially gym clothes.

I knew that walking into a workout with a new, vibrant, unique outfit truly made a difference in my mood and performance. At that moment it all clicked! I discovered the missing piece to my pre-mid-life crisis and now just needed to figure out how to execute. The execution part was not easy at all. I have an extremely difficult time asking for help, so it took a lot of time and research to determine what the appropriate steps were to establish a retail ecommerce business. Very long story short, I was able to successfully find vendors and an ecommerce platform that allowed me to launch Workout Envy fitness apparel September of 2021. The evolution of the brand continues and the learning through the course of this business journey never ends, but I take on each lesson with grace and ultimately, I’m overjoyed that my brand has the capacity to reach anyone, anywhere within the United States. The goal was to find out more of what I authentically love. Now I have the power to translate that same uplifted, fun and confident feeling I have when wearing these outfits to others. That has made all the difference.

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

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up, there were never too many conversations about health and exercise. Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen any adult in my family exercise.

The neighborhood I grew up in had no fancy juice bars, Chipotle or salad shops in sight. Not to mention, being raised in the Haitian culture meant grandma was going to grab her machete, kill live chicken and prepare it amongst other cultural dishes. Which meant the meals would be loaded with salt, fried and basically had little to no nutritional value.

In 2005 my father and paternal grandmother passed away from cardiac arrest (commonly known as a heart attack). My father was 35 and my grandmother was 64. To make matters worse, a few years following the death of my father and paternal grandmother, my mother suffered a heart attack and endured open heart surgery.

It wasn’t until I had to visit my mother in the hospital that I realized this tragic pattern had to stop with me. My families lack of health knowledge, health habits and health options were killing us!

I started off by reading and researching ingredients listed on nutrition fact labels, mostly to ensure my mother was adhering to doctors’ orders. From there, I started exercising by going on walks, which later turned into jogging which eventually became full out sprints.

The therapeutic effects that exercise gave me were unheard of. Exercise became my outlet, a way to cope with the traumatic experiences I survived as a child. The therapy I received from living a positive and healthy lifestyle propelled me right into my passion for leading others and inspiring others to lead a positive and healthy lifestyle too. I’ve been finding ways to grow and expand with the local community ever since.

I am proud to call my self the owner of Flex4me Fitness where I supply one on one and small group personal training and the owner of Workout Envy where customers can visit www.workoutenvy.shop to purchase fitness apparel.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

In order for me to get the initial capital for my business I had to develop a money management plan. This plan consisted of saving a specific/goal balance. Then, I would then refer to an allocation list. The allocation list, gave me guidance on the expenses for things like vendors, business consulting and ecommerce setup etc., which allowed me to distribute the saved money appropriately.

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

Overall, there have been so many pivotal moments in my life, but one moment in particular was when I saw a motivational speech on YouTube. The speaker asked the audience ” Have you ever walked into a grocery store?” Of course the audience says “YES”! Then, the speaker stated “If you ever walked down the bread isle, you’ll notice there’s usually hundreds of brands for the same types of bread……. Stop letting the idea that everything has already been done stop you from doing something!” This was a major game changer for me. The moment I ever felt like the market I wanted to get into was oversaturated, I’d think about the bread isle at the grocery store.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.workoutenvy.shop
• Instagram: @workoutenvy.shop and @workout_envy
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/PE2vKmzZ380

Image Credits
Photographer : Brandon Fields