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

Hi Vanesa, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

When I finished high school, I was not very sure what to do with my life. I was torn between a career in sports and one in English Teaching. I was too young to know it then and I went with what my parents and other adults advised me. So, I ended up becoming a teacher of English.
I do love teaching, but that just wasn’t the right area for me. After a year or so, I grew tired of it and I decided to try my luck in the corporate world. That launched my path into reception, office admin, customer service and sales roles that I worked on for 10+ years.
But one day of 2018, as I was coming back from office, I finally reached my breaking point.
In 2015, my husband and I had moved from Argentina, our home country, to Dubai for his job contract. I was super excited about getting out, moving to a new country, learning about new cultures and, generally, all the opportunities for personal and professional growth.
After 6 months of exhaustingly looking for jobs, I finally found one… which I never really loved… I should have known better and tried to get out sooner, but I did like the people, made many friends in that company and had a really good salary. So, I stayed.
But I wasn’t happy at all.
I spent all the time I could in the gym trying to release the stress from the job. But I got to a point of so much stress, that I ended up injuring myself. Which meant I had to stop training. That was the final drop.
3 years in a job that made me miserable, simply due to the inability to ask for help to move on and make a change.
An injury that stopped me from doing the one thing I enjoyed.
I had to do something. It couldn’t wait anymore this time.

So, I sat with my husband, I cried and cried my heart out, I discovered I was completely burnt out and super unhappy, and finally allowed myself to accept it.
And we came up with a plan. We dug deep into my head and my emotions and bounced a lot of ideas for my future.

It was at that moment that I realized I really wanted to start taking more care of myself, being kinder, gentler and helping myself be strong and independent but from a place of love and self-care.
And I had this strong call to share my story and help other women get on the road to self-care from this self- love and kindness perspective.

So, I started my studies to become a personal trainer. And the rest, is history :)

Vanesa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Like I mentioned before, I got into the fitness industry as a way to help others in their self-care and wellbeing through movement and exercise.

When I started to dig deeper into what was being offered and what people needed, I discovered that, as women, we mostly tend to care for others and make others- family, friends, business, jobs- the priority instead of ourselves.

So I made it my mission in life to empower women with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to stay motivated and achieve strength, energy and a pain-free, autonomous life through engaging and challenging fitness programs.

Since the beginning, I’ve been helping thriving, busy women, get active, increase their strength and energy, and enhance their confidence and quality of life, with challenging but fun personalized fitness programs, tailored to their needs and wants.

Flexibility, kindness, self-respect and self-love, growth and autonomy are some of the values that define me and my brand.

It all started with one-to-one personal training sessions, and that is still the core of my business. I offer online sessions that can be done from all over the world. And for those in Madrid, you can catch me in person too.

A year ago, I started a side project: The Women’s Wellness Workshop. These are in person events in Madrid for women to spend a morning of fitness, fun, connections and self-care. I host these 4 times a year now! I believe these events are giving women the opportunity to take care of themselves with the support of a community.
I am super proud of having created this concept and hope to do many, many more! (we actually have one happening on September 22nd!)

More recently, and with a vision to help more and more women get stronger, and live long, healthy, independent lives, I rebranded and created GROW STRONGHER. This will include a membership platform that launches on September 16th. Women will have access to various types of workouts, simple, easy to access and do, and flexible in duration too! We know you are busy and the idea is to make the most of the time you have in your hands, for your health and self-care.

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

I would a million times make the same choice again.
Helping women with their health and fitness is and has always been my passion. And I find it completely rewarding.

I tend to think that the one thing I would change is that I would start right after high school, when I was not sure what to choose, I would choose the sports path.

But I feel like all the events that happened in my life, happened for me, not to me. I feel if I change the course of things, maybe I wouldn’t actually be doing this job today, maybe I wouldn’t have met all the extraordinary women I have met and helped, and I wouldn’t have reached this far in this field.

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

I believe that compassion, kindness, honesty and being flexible and understanding has helped me get to where I am. It can really make a difference.

There are millions of trainers out there and, of course, millions of people who look for a trainer.

We each work with certain clients and they choose us based on knowledge of the field itself.
But people choose, mostly, based on chemistry and connection too, following a gut feeling most of the times.

Both, knowledge and personality are important when a client chooses or not to work with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.growstrongher.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grow_strongher/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanesa-nicolosi/
• Other: https://www.growstrongher.com/womens-wellness-workshop