Stephanie Mwaura -Fitness consultant and wellness Instructor at Wellness Solutions

Stephanie Mwaura oozes confidence and zeal as she speaks about the topic closest to her heart, fitness. She is a fitness consultant and wellness instructor at Wellness Solutions. Wellness Solutions’ main focus is posture. They carry out postural assessment and design a program that helps their client rehabilitate their posture to improve his/her daily life. They also carry out team building by combining fitness and play. Besides working at Wellness Solutions, Stephanie also has her own brand called Fitness by Stephanie. She provides consultancy services, fitness inspirational talks, personal training and fitness writing. She has been in fitness professionally for over 7 years but vividly recalls where it all began.

Eureka moment

Stephanie has been in fitness professionally for around 7 years. She gained inspiration to pursue fitness as a career when she was a hospitality and tourism management student at Kenyatta University. She was extremely active in sports, a fact clearly proven by the fact that she was the captain of her university swimming team. “I keep saying that fitness chose me. I was encouraged into sports by my parents,” she said. While in an aerobics class on campus, she would voluntarily tell people what to do. One of the participants noticed this in one of the sessions and asked her if she was an instructor.  “I said no but he insisted that I was so good at it. It’s at that time that I thought of pursuing it professionally,” she recalls.  She was asked to coach her swimming team after graduation and gladly did so. After this, she furthered her studies by getting a post-graduate diploma in fitness instruction.

Stephanie demonstrating an exercise routine

Challenges faced

Stephanie’s main challenge was being a female fitness instructor in a male dominated field. “Most clients are usually female and choose male instructors,” she said. This posed many challenge in terms of getting jobs. In order to stand out, she decided to start writing. This made more people learn about her services and built her credibility. She also struggled to get a work environment that allowed her to thrive. “In the beginning I was working in a gym and people only came when not in the office,” she recalled. This would leave her idle as the gym halls were empty for most parts of the day. “It was a ghost town in the morning,” she joked. She overcame this challenge somewhat by chance. While writing for the ‘Gym Tracker’, Stephanie went to Karura Forest to interview her current boss. “I came to interview my boss and asked for a job,” she said. She now feels more comfortable working in the outside environment of the lush green forest as compared to working at the gym. She is grateful that her current job also allows her to build her personal brand.

Stephanie demonstrating an exercise routine

Harness Your Brilliance course

Stephanie first interacted with James Karundu, lead facilitator of the Harness Your Brilliance (HYB) course while looking to sharpen her public speaking skills. She attended the Speak to Transform seminar also facilitated by James and signed up for the HYB course thereafter. Stephanie learnt numerous lessons from taking the course.

“HYB made me realize that there is a market for you regardless of the job you are in as long as you clarify what you are doing to meet that client’s needs,” she said. The clarity she got from the course enabled her to know what she is doing, who to targeting and how to package her services. “Assignments pushed me to realize that when you put in the work you get results,” she added. Applying lessons from the course enabled her to increase business significantly in the past 3-6 months.

Future plans

Stephanie aims to be Kenya’s biggest fitness brand and one of Africa’s most recognized fitness speakers. She would also like to start a Kenyan fitness clothing line. “The fitness clothing we buy is from abroad and does not complement African figures,” she says. Passionate about sharing her fitness knowledge, she would also like to write a book in the near future.

Parting shot

Stephanie urged more women to take up fitness instruction as it is a good career. She has found fulfillment from improving other people’s lives by helping them make the right health choices. “I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing the lives I have changed,” she said. She concluded by advising people who want to get into fitness to start small and lead by example as one needs to be healthy and disciple before training others.

Please follow and like us: