Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Kooperman. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Sara, CEO of SCW Fitness Education, WATERinMOTION®, and S.E.A.T. Fitness, is a visionary leader that has transformed the fitness education community. A successful business owner and advisor, she is a keynote speaker, published author, webinar host, podcast presenter, and sought-after industry leader. Sara has launched seven (7) successful MANIA® fitness-professional conventions & Business Summits, another six (6) Streaming Conferences, and over 40 live and online certifications. Her company has touched more than 100,000 Fitness Professionals face-to-face and engaged another 300,000+ in virtual connections. Having produced over 600 Fitness Instructor Training videos, written several books, and been published repeatedly in magazines and newspapers, Sara is well-known for her creativity and impact on the health and wellness industry. She has a unique ability to share her passion and devotion towards fitness education through her humor, enthusiasm, and her effervescent no-nonsense personality.
Sara is committed to sharing her knowledge and expertise as a fitness industry leader for the past 4 decades through speaking engagements across the world. She is a favorite presenter for the IHRSA, Filex, canfitpro, Athletic Business Show, Medical Fitness Association, International Council on Active Aging, JCC, Club Industry, YMCA, Illinois Park & Recreation Association, AYP, IDEA, FitPro, Marriott Vacation Club, Gold’s Gym, WIFA, Nevada Recreation & Park Association as well as over a dozen international events throughout the world. Sara is also the former Owner and CEO of Les Mills Midwest, which she successfully led for over 10 years.
Sara is an attorney who graduated from Washington University School of Law and completed undergraduate work from Cambridge University in England. Sara was selected as a gold Medal winner distinguishing her as a business leader who has contributed to the economic health of her community. She also is the proud recipient of the Illinois State Business Woman of the Year and AEA’s Global Award for Contribution to the Aquatic Industry.
Having been a former adjunct faculty member for the Kenneth Cooper Institute, ACSM, NASM, ACE, and AFAA, Sara serves on the Gold’s Gym Think Tank, is on the canfitpro Advisory Panel, was a founding board member for the Women in Fitness Association (WIFA), and is a proud inductee into the National Fitness Hall of Fame. Sara currently serves on IHRSA’s Headlight Committees for Facility Standards and is also a Co-Host of IHRSA’s Talks & Takes Monthly Talk Show. Recently nominated for the IDEA Fitness Leader of the Year Award, Kooperman won the 2022 Most Innovating Fitness Pro by Fitness Industry Technology Council. Sara has left an indelible mark on the fitness industry as a whole.
SCW Fitness is proud to offer a wonderful event in Orlando annually (every April) attracting over 700 fitness pros! www.scwfit.com/florida
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! I have never met an entrepreneur that said it was easy! I started in Group Exercise. I actually owned a small studio. When I finished graduating law school when I was in law school and I was trying to figure out a way to pay rent and just basically support myself. So, I started teaching this thing that was back then called “Aerobics”. And because I used to be a dancer and I’m a runner, I kind of squeezed it together and started teaching. And it grew and grew to the point. I was having 50 people in a class Monday, Wednesday, Friday paying $3 each making $450 cash a week. And I thought, I kinda like this idea. I like working three hours a week and making money. And I thought aerobics was going to catch on. And so, when I graduated, I opened a studio.
I sold my studio, closed it after a year because I made more money in one day doing educational workshops than I made owning the studio the entire month. And it was my passion. I loved training others to be better and shine. I enjoyed sharing ideas and creativity with my peers. I began by teaching people how to teach low-impact aerobics. Aerobics first began with high impact – everyone thought that this was the be and end-all of exercise and the only way to burn fat and get in shape. This was the beginning of group exercise. Everybody thought if you don’t jump around like a moron and ruin your knees and your hips and damage your lower back, which of course is all our secret mission as fitness pros… how much pain can we really cause in others and endure ourselves? But my thinking was … how can we exercise, and do low impact moves that burn fat and tone which engaging more people in a fitness regime. That was my passion. Get more people moving! So, I started doing training other instructors on how to do low-impact exercise.
I loved training others, but I could not teach everything, so I found other trainers who did other things better than I did and I expanded our workshops to include, strength and floor work and other diverse programming.
Then one day I decided that I was going to do a conference in Chicago. I approached various clubs (including Midtown Athletic) and other companies (like SPRI products) and asked them if I could do this for them. They both said “no”, as did a few others, so I decided to just do it myself. I took out four credit cards, crossed my fingers (toes and any other extremity I could find), and launched our first convention. I made this decision one night walking through downtown Chicago (with my then-boyfriend who is now my husband of 35 years). We were drunk and walking bar to bar during an event called Midnight MANIA … so I decided to call it Midwest MANIA and I launched it that fall.
Surprisingly enough, we ended up with like 800 people who came! It was crazy! And I really liked it.
People were happy. Everyone loved it. I found my sweet spot and I was able to pay off every credit card, and still had enough to sock away to do it again the following year!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
For 40 years, SCW has always been proud to be the fitness education and respected certification company of choice for Personal Trainers, Group Exercise Instructors, Small Group Training Leaders, Aquatic Exercise Professionals, Cycling Instructors, Mind-Body Experts, Sport-Specific Training Educators, and many more. This outstanding Family of Leaders also supports Managers, Directors, and Owners of clubs and facilities nationwide with our Health & Fitness Business Summit and sessions.
As the largest conference leader in the world, MANIA® offers seven Professional Training Conventions annually in Washington, D.C., California (San Francisco), Florida (Orlando), Atlanta, Dallas, Midwest (Chicago), and Boston — and now, online too with our Live Stream MANIA® Fitness Pro Conventions! SCW serves over 7,000 health and wellness professionals at our events, and we reach more than 300,000 virtually through our SCW OnDemand program, Online Certifications, and Continuing Education Credit (CEC) programming options. Watch for our FREE Webinars that continue to drive the business of fitness forward.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Lessons from the pandemic for me …I always laugh when people talk about “pivoting.” When people ask me “how did you pivot so quickly running 19 online events over the 24 months of the pandemic. I have to chuckle, actually, I throw up a little in the back of my throat. Business IS pivoting. Business is throwing out mountains of VHS tapes and tossing cases of cassette tapes and moving – always moving, always changing. Business is watching your office burn to the ground (like what happened to me in 2018) and building something new in its place. Business is movement – like a shark – if you don’t move you die. SCW was always moving. And I really don’t care if that movement is forward, sideways, or round and round in a little circle.
Welcome to the pandemic, and welcome to the pivot.
A pivot is just putting one foot in front of the other, turning around to see what is behind you, and swirling back around to move forward. It is a simple dance move, a simple step used constantly in group exercise and must be done to the beat. You need to respond to the music. Move with the times and be combined with other moves to flow, and fly. Pivoting provides a needed break to a choreographed routine. It provides a new perspective; it is that little extra sexy step to break the monotony and go back to repeat the chorus. Pivoting is only done by the best, at the right time, with the right move, supplying the top people with a needed refrain.
I love to pivot.
But I did not know how to live-stream our workshops or classes or any of our events from a conference. But you figure it out. I thought the best way to start would be to begin small. If we begin by streaming our certifications all we would then only have to set up one camera and film one person, on one topic. But where to begin, and when to start? Luckily, we found livestreaming back in 2019 and were able to transition it in 2020 to handle and entire conference of 200 sessions.
Pricing:
- $259 for a 3-day conference of 150+ sessions
- $199 for a full-day SCW Certification
Contact Info:
- Website: www.scwfit.com
- Instagram: @scwMANIA
- Facebook: #SCWMANIA
- Twitter: #SCWMANIA
Image Credits
www.sarakooperman.com
