We were lucky to catch up with Veronica Peterson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Veronica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

We have a small and extremely powerful team and we have from day one. My husband and I co-founded Bodied together. I have been teaching group fitness for around 13 years and he has been along for the ride for every second of it. His background is in food & beverage and his hospitality is unmatched which he has implemented in the way we connect with our community. The coolest part about doing this together is that he doesn’t just support me + Bodied – he actually sees this vision with me. We have a group of 4 founding instructors (including myself) and a studio manager that were all hand picked because of their ability to connect with people in and out of class. You don’t always remember the things that people say, but you do remember the way they made you feel. When I was putting this team together, it was important to me that the people who work at Bodied make everyone else feel like they belong here. These people are some of the most genuine, caring, uplifting, vibrant and magnetic people I have ever met. The thing that was crazy and hard about this process is that they all technically joined our team about 9 months ago when we thought we’d be opening much earlier than we did due to construction delays. Their dedication and willingness to pivot along the way is something that I will forever be grateful for and is a part of what makes this so special. Our entire team believes in this wholeheartedly and is committed to creating and building this from the ground up. I’ve never witnessed a team work together the way this one has to get us to this point.

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

I have been teaching group fitness in Denver for almost 13 years. When I first found group fitness – it felt like home to me. I grew up dancing so being back in a studio setting was comforting and familiar. I started my group fitness career teaching Barre and then over the years have also taught indoor cycling, Pilates, and boxing along with earning my NASM-CPT and starting my own personal training business. Group fitness is what I feel I am meant to do and I am proud to say that I have taught for some of the leading brands in this industry such as SoulCycle, Solidcore and Rumble. The part of my career that I feel the most confident in is the community I have built along the way. It is 100% the reason I continue to do this and also the reason I am able to take this leap. The people that make up the ‘experience’ that is group fitness are why it is so special. It is about so much more than just working out together – things happen in those classes that change people’s lives. It might sound dramatic to some but I have been lucky enough to witness countless transformations in those settings. My favorite thing to do is connect people. It is one of the things that I am the most excited for in building Bodied – introducing people to a new experience and the new connections that come with it. The most powerful part is that we are all starting out on the same level at Bodied. It has never been done before so we all get to come together to create, learn and grow from the same starting point.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What helped me build my reputation within this market is how much I care about the people who have chosen to work out with me over the years. It is a necessity for me to know who is in the room with me while we are spending those 45-60 minutes together. It has become more and more rare to have conversations with strangers but I prioritize getting to know people that I have not yet met in my classes. We are able to cultivate the community we have because we have genuinely interacted and discussed personal things – where they’re from, what their dreams are, what they’re afraid of, what they’re working through etc. I also invite people to truly get to know me as well so that while we are in the experience together, it is a full energy exchange, You can feel that when it is reciprocated.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This entire journey has required resilience every step of the way. We were slated to open in January 2023. I left my job at SoulCycle in December expecting to open Bodied shortly after. The entire process was about 8 months delayed. During those 8 months, we went through every emotion that I am sure you can imagine. As a full time instructor, teaching classes is not only how you make an income but it is also a huge part of how you stay connected to people and continue to foster your community. For me, it is also how I expend energy and tap in creatively SO not getting to do that for 8 months had a massive effect on me. I had multiple moments of feeling hopeless and like giving up. This has been a dream of mine for so long and I believe in it too much to let that happen. Instead, we decided that we would pivot for the time being and started hosting pop-up classes all over Denver for the last 8 months to help get our name out there and continue to build our community. Our community rallied behind us! Many different business owners granted us access to their space to hold the classes and we were able to meet so many new people along the way! We kept all of the equipment in our cars and would essentially bring our studio to wherever the classes were being held that weekend. It was hard. There is no denying that. We all knew that it was going to be worth it in the end so we made it happen and I am so proud of what we were able to do during that time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bodieddenver.com
• Instagram: @bodieddenver

Image Credits
Biz Young Taylor Vincek