Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Rochester
Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
EP#116: Ohana Fitness with Samantha and Erin
Ready to break free from fitness myths and discover a healthier, more empowering lifestyle? Join us as we sit down with Samantha and Erin, the dynamic duo behind Ohana Fitness and Wellness, a women’s only fitness studio in Shelby Township. Celebrating nine incredible years, they share their passion for creating a supportive space where women can focus on fitness, mindset, and nutrition. You'll learn about their inspiring journey and how they've transformed the traditional gym experience into a welcoming community haven.
Discover the truth behind common fitness misconceptions as Samantha and Erin debunk diet fads and extreme exercise regimes. They advocate for a return to simplicity—moving your body daily and nourishing it with wholesome foods. This episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips designed to help you embrace a healthier lifestyle with confidence and ease. Get ready to be inspired and motivated to take the first step towards a more balanced and fulfilling fitness journey!
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone and welcome to episode number 116 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have with us good neighbors Samantha and Aaron, and they're with Ohana Fitness and Wellness. Good morning ladies. How are you?
Speaker 3:Good morning.
Speaker 2:Morning. Thank you so much for being a guest today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for the chance.
Speaker 2:So let's start off by telling our listeners about your business.
Speaker 4:Awesome, so we are super excited to be here. First and foremost, so thank you for having us on. We are a women's only fitness studio, located in Shelby Township at 23, just north of 23 Mile on Shainer, and we are celebrating nine years in business this year and we offer all kinds of classes group fitness classes, we do personal training, training, nutrition, we even have an on-staff physical therapist and basically anything under the realm of women's health we have you taken care of.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. So tell us about your journey. How and why did you get into this?
Speaker 3:Well, it initially started I mean her and I together and transitioning into especially this new space we always had passion for health and fitness and we knew that there was something missing. There was something you know in the fitness world that we knew we needed to bring things together. So mindset, fitness and nutrition were like the trifecta for us to really make an impact in our clients, and so we started working on projects together and then, you know, became business partners at Ohana and it's just kind of transformed into this beautiful facility that we call our happy place, that we invite people into to work on their fitness. But truly it's so much more than just that and we do so many different things to help women and empower them and inspire them to live a healthier lifestyle.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was definitely something a passion of ours to be able to help women feel more comfortable in the fitness world too, Because when we started this back nine, 10 years ago, it looked a lot different. Right, there weren't a lot of places for women to go except like curves, which I don't even know if that exists anymore. And, and you know, it was really tough because you'd go to the gym and you'd have to get looks from people and not know what the heck you were doing, and it kind of just became this thing where it was like, OK, maybe one day I'll work out. Well, we wanted that one day to be now, and so we wanted to teach women you know, that it doesn't have to be so scary and give them a safe place to come to to like just work on themselves and refocus on themselves.
Speaker 2:And I think you guys have done a very good job of doing that and branding yourself. Thank you, thank you. So can you tell our listeners about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were actually just talking about this. There are so many myths and misconceptions out in the fitness world, especially related to diet and exercise. Right Every other day on the news you hear something about the newest way to lose weight or take this and drop 20 pounds, and it's hard as a consumer to know what is actually true and what you should do, especially with, like, constant evolving science and so what we really want to just like. We can give you one tip today it's that the number one thing that has always worked forever and that will not go away is to like consume in moderation and to get active each day, move your body more and just breaking it back down to the basics, like not obsessing so much about you know, if you had too many carbs that day or if your workout is intense enough or not intense enough. Like if we just go back to the basics and we really realize, like, move your body more and nourish yourself with good foods.
Speaker 4:That's the basis of it all. That's that's what's going to get you feeling good, and any of these fad diets that come and go a lot of times we're not really, they're not stemmed from a place of feeling good. It's about getting results and that's why they don't stick. That's why those results don't stick and you tend to have that rebound waking because I mean, if I told you, lisa, to never eat a single piece of pizza, or what's your favorite food? Pizza, pizza's good. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:I told you for the rest of your life you could never have another slice of pizza. Like that's just not my jam, you know. And same thing with Aaron Like he loves tacos. Like if I ever told her she doesn't, she could never have another taco again. Like that would not be great. And so it's really. We try to just like teach women that it comes from a basis of like okay, yes, we want to get results, but we also want to feel good doing it and we want it to last.
Speaker 2:That is good to hear Because, like you said, the health and wellness industry is a billion dollar industry and there's always don't eat carbs, or eat good carbs. Don't eat vegetables, eat these vegetables. Don't have this fruit, only have this fruit, and you don't know and as a consumer, you get very confused. So very good advice there, samantha, thank you. So tell us, when your ladies aren't working, what do you guys like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a mom of three, so my life is pretty much consumed there, so being with them. I just picked up a new, a new old hobby of rollerblading, so I do enjoy that and, honestly, like as as weird as it is my true, like happy thing that brings me joy is working out and moving. So any style of fitness classes or anytime I can get away and do something active, I do enjoy that. Or I'm just on the couch decompressing and spending time with my kids.
Speaker 4:Erin, you missed one thing going to Target.
Speaker 3:That's it. I'm trying to slow down my Target trips, guys, so I wasn't going to put that in there.
Speaker 4:When in doubt. If you don't know where Erin's at, she's at Target. You can always find her there.
Speaker 3:Either doing a drive-up pickup something I forgot at the grocery store or I'm wandering the store for my next house project.
Speaker 2:There you go my next house project For me, I am a soon to be mom.
Speaker 4:So I am 21 weeks pregnant and with my first Thank you. Yes, it's, it's so exciting for us. So actually a lot of my time has been consumed by getting the house ready and building a registry and all of that stuff. But when I'm not doing that, me and my husband love going to concerts. That's like a big thing of ours, so we're constantly either at a concert venue or looking for the next one to go to. I love being outside in nature and just doing anything outdoors. I've been trying to convince Aaron to go to a pool with me, so if anyone's got their pool set up for us, yeah, truly, just uh, spending more time outside and enjoying, you know, live music that is amazing too.
Speaker 2:And then I know I just watched on the news this morning that somebody did a um a trip to england to go to the taylor swift concert and it was less expensive than buying tickets to go to her next concert in Indiana.
Speaker 4:I have my gosh, and they got a little guest appearance by Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 2:So right, Right oh my goodness. So, ladies this is next question is a little bit, I guess, a little bit tougher here, but can you describe for us one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say because of that challenge that you're better for it and are stronger?
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely COVID, especially for talking to other business owners that might be, you know, listening to this podcast, I think that it was definitely something unexpected. We could have never been, you know, prepared for that. And so in the fitness industry, if you didn't know, we actually were mandated to close our doors for over six months, so we couldn't run business as usual like some other businesses around us. So we had to get super creative as to how we could still continue to serve our clients, because rent was still due, credit card payments were still due, we still had staff that we were hoping would continue to teach for us in these new ways that we were creating, like at home workouts, and so we still had payroll to to cover so these.
Speaker 3:That was probably the hardest and still one of the things that I think we're still moving through today because of, you know, that time period. It really slowed us down. Number one and number two, we had to find and create new ways to make money and, obviously, serve our community. That was, you know, needed us. One of the best things I think we learned from that was we can get through hardships like that, especially those unexpected things and we know we're resourceful, we're creative and we will find a way. It's never easy to go through something like that, but what it definitely made our community stronger and made us stronger and more willing to think outside the box.
Speaker 3:Sam and I have always been, you know, super creative beings and we do love what we do, so we're constantly buzzing with ideas and things we want to implement and all of that. But normal day to day life tends to get in the way. So with COVID happening, it really ignited us to like move into a direction where we knew we wanted to go. We didn't know how to do it, so we were kind of hesitant, but like we didn't have another option. So specifically moving to like a virtual platform and now, since COVID, we perfected it and so you can actually take classes from home, even if you don't live in the area or maybe are hesitant to come to the studio, that sort of thing we do have that option as an online member. You can take classes while we are teaching, live and be with us essentially in the studio, but from home that is great, especially if you travel.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 4:So something that's really been on our mind lately is that even as Aaron and I go and try out different fitness classes and and go, you know, do our own types of workouts, it's even hard for us to step foot into somebody else's studio because it's nerve wracking, like it's scary to go and try something out. You don't know what to expect, you've never been there. Are you going to, are you going to be able to keep up? Like all of these fears kind of creep in your head, and so many women are scared to try out our studio because they feel that same way. And so we wanted to just remind every woman that is like contemplating, coming and trying out or going and is streaming a class live from home that everyone starts off as a beginner. Everyone, no matter what fitness level you're at or anything, it all starts with your first class. And so, no matter how many times you've taken a fitness class or where you've worked out at, like, you share that with the other women in the room. And every single time somebody walks into the room at Ohana and it's their first class, like they're like wow, I didn't like, it's welcoming, it's warming. It's like you're walking into this space where it's like oh okay, people see me and they understand me and it's okay to be nervous and it's okay to be hesitant.
Speaker 4:But at the end of the day, that's why our instructors are so great is they're able to help women feel comfortable, no matter what stage they're in. So you don't need to be an expert in fitness, you don't need to be a certain age or a certain body type. You will be able to keep up. We provide modifications for every single move we do. We're very, very stern about that to all of our instructors. Like they are very educated and know like, okay, if somebody can't do something, you just offer them a different suggestion, because really, at the end of the day, it's just about moving our bodies more and getting healthy together, without any judgment around you know, without people looking down on you, because you can't do a push-up or something like that. Like it's not like that at Ohana at all. But you won't know that difference until you actually step foot in the studio.
Speaker 2:Makes total sense. So our listeners are now intrigued. How can they learn more? How can they contact you? Where are you located?
Speaker 3:So, as she said, we're at north of 23 Mile on Shainer and we're in a plaza with Russ's I think it's called auto. It just changed, it transitioned out, and then the Underground Dance Studio is on the corner as well, and we you can find us on our website at Ohana fitness and wellnesscom. We do have an Instagram. It's at Ohana fitness and wellness, and then Facebook as well. We're very active on social media, and then you can find us personally too, if you have any questions. I'm at Erin Saba with an underscore on Instagram, and she is at Samantha Dawson with an underscore.
Speaker 2:Okay, perfect. Well, thank you, ladies, for being a guest today on our Good Neighbor podcast.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast, Rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, Rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPRochestercom. That's GNPRochestercom, or call 248-988-9640. 9, 6, 4, 0.