When Melissa Wood-Tepperberg decided to reinvent her career, she felt like she was at the bottom of the rock. .. Instead of looking for her next gig as a waitress, she says she decided to “look inward” and study yoga, Pilates, and nutrition.
In 2015, Wood-Tepperberg began sharing her personal training method, called The Melissa Wood Health Method, with others. “The more I heal myself and slowly start connecting to all these things that are improving me, the more I connect the dots and start sharing those little things step by step, the people watching Made it possible for them to really feel this, too. “
Currently, Melissa Wood Health has thousands of subscribers who pay $ 9.99 a month for training. The first entrepreneur has attracted nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. In 2021, Harvard Business School published a study on her success, Melissa Wood Health: How to Win the Creator Economy.
“I started in the living room over six years ago,” says Wood-Tepperberg. “I had a $ 24 tripod from Amazon. I used the phone.” Initially, “My office was my living room.” Currently, she has a spacious white and beige workout studio and office in the luxurious Noho area of Manhattan.
“It’s incredible to be able to have a space that I can visualize and literally appear for years, and bring it to life,” she says.
“Give yourself space to take care of yourself.”
The idea that self-care takes an hour is not feasible, says Wood-Tepperberg. “If I didn’t have time to concentrate on my workout, I thought it would be a 20-minute workout, but what can I do in 20 minutes? That was my idea.”
Her understanding has evolved. Now, one of the pillars of the Melissa Wood Health Act is that it’s important to prioritize your health through attention and exercise, says Wood Tepperberg. “Give yourself space to take care of yourself, whether it’s a walk, a 10-minute stream, or a meditation while taking a bath.”
As a parent, she knows it’s not always easy. But as she learned through her experience, it’s important. “I’m really good at taking care of myself now because I know how life feels when you’re not there,” she says.
When Melissa’s son was born, she moved her body “a tiny moment when he was taking a nap or when he was sitting in a resilient chair.” “I feel better than ever in her life. I felt this level of comfort and comfort in her heart,” she says.
“I’ve become a completely different person,” she says, as Wood-Tepperberg begins to incorporate mediation, attention, and movement into her daily life.
“I focused on the impact it had.”
Changing the mindset is a great place for anyone looking to start changing, says Woodtepperberg. “I really believe that there is infinite power to live in each of us when you strongly believe that anything in your life is possible.”
But when Wood-Tepperberg started filming and sharing workouts online, she didn’t feel that way. “When I started, I was still in the process of really learning to accept and own who I am,” she says. “So there was certainly an element of this self-consciousness, but I was able to really overcome that fear because I focused on the impact it had and the lives of others.”
On the first day of shooting the training, “I used to have the tripod at the wrong angle and didn’t put the mat in a dark, fully visible place. I didn’t have a microphone and I couldn’t really hear it, but I Didn’t care. I really let go of everything, “she says.
Getting out of her own way and focusing on how to help others helped Woodtepper Berg find purpose and meaning in her life and career, she says.
To be successful as an entrepreneur, “trust your gut”
“The most important thing I’ve learned to be an entrepreneur is to always trust your gut,” says Woodtepperberg. “There will always be people in a room who are smarter than you, in a particular space, but after all, the decisions I make are based on this inner knowledge. Deep intuition.”
Most importantly, she says, you have to believe in what you’re doing. “I know what this way of life did to me, and how it turned me inside out. I appear in different beings. And I believe in the work I share very strongly. So it will do the same for those who are willing to devote everything and really prioritize themselves. “
Instead of using indicators like money or followers, “I define success by your level of happiness in your life. I think that’s the most important thing,” says Woodtepperberg. .. “After all, it’s about how fulfilling and happy you are about doing the little things.”
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