Today, Sunday, March 8th, we join the celebrations for International Women’s Day. We seize this opportunity to interview some of ‘our women’, sport woman and business women, all of them managers of different sport centres that use our software.
They are:
ANGIE CAZAGOU
She discovered the CrossFit world seven years ago, when she was Artistic Director, but it wasn’t until 2015 that she opened her own box. Ever since then, she is the co-owner of Crossfit Dōko, located in Lognes, France, and the responsible of its communication campaigns and management.
DIANA CRUZ
she started out yoga as a way to let go of the stress from working in an advertising agency as the Creative Director. In 2019, what started just as a hobby, ended up as her mean of living when she established her own studio Bimy Hot Yoga Studio, in Pamplona, Spain.
JESSICA FALCY
Innate sportswoman, throughout her career has taught different sport disciplines; wakeboard, ski, snowboard, dance… but then she discovered CrossFit, felt in love with it and created All Elements, in Gland, Switzerland.
MIRIAM GARCÍA
She started to practice yoga in order to relax during exams period at university, but it rapidly turned to be her passion and finally her mean of living as she opened her own centre, El Bosque Yoga, in Madrid, Spain.
DANIELA RESTREPO
After studying engineering and working as strategic consultant, Daniela opened MEN. TO in 2007, a centre devoted to therapy, workshops and yoga, in Zaragoza, Spain.
DEBBY WILSON
Even though she studied philology at university, she didn’t hesitate and opened with her husband Crossfit Beaune, located in Beaune, France.
CARLA SÁNCHEZ
She majored in human nutrition and specialized in sports nutrition and she is personal trainer too. In 2011 she got her own nutrition focused space in television. A year later she created ‘Carla Nutricionista’, but it wasn’t until a little bit later that she established with her brother Gonzalo Boostconcept in Madrid. A unique centre that blends training and nutrition.
Sportswomen, how do you describe ourselves in this area?
Angie: I might be a strange case as I was for 15 years Artistic Director. Work that for the latest two years I even combined with managing CrossFit Dōko. That required a lot of my energy, but at the end of the day it was very rewarding.
Diana: The vision I have of the sport is the same with which I manage my company; we promote a healthy lifestyle, both individually and in the community. Sport is a very important factor of a healthy and conscious lifestyle.
Jessica: I describe myself as a woman who likes to improve continuously and who especially likes to compete.
Miriam: Being a sportswoman fits me perfectly, I have always been a very active woman and I tried many different types of sports.
Daniela: I am an entrepreneur whose goal is to share and show her passion to everyone and if it is possible to change the life of someone with such a valuable, beautiful and transformative practice like the yoga.
Debby: Within the sport world I have several roles, I am the coach’s wife, an athlete of our box and moreover the manager of it.
When you started in the sport world, did you imagine you were going to come so far?
Angie: Of course, I didn’t! Just the thought of creating a company terrified me. Besides, CrossFit was quite new in France and explaining the method to people coming from classic fitness centres was a complete challenge.
Diana: No way. I was completely focused in my career and I was lucky enough to work in what I had always dreamed of, but my experience shows how life can make a U-turn. Nevertheless, the knowledge I gained as a publicist has with no doubt been applied in the development of our company.
Jessica: No really! I have always had a passion for sport that I wanted to share with my closest, but I never thought this willingness to make people happier and healthier would bring me to where I am today, being the owner of my own box.
Miriam: Not at all, when I started my only objective was to release stress during exams period.
Daniela: Never. I have been practicing yoga the past 7 years and fulfilled several certifications, but it was always as a hobby. However, in a very short amount of time it turned from a hobby into to a vocation and finally a new career path.
Carla: My parents have always inculcated me that sport should be part of my life, I started to practice sport when I was very little and I always had short or middle term goals of it. I haven’t reached this just by chance, but because I have trusted everything I’ve been creating and doing, working on each project and risking.
Debby: Actually no. I never thought that watching the people that come to my centre improve and discover this real passion for CrossFit would bring me such satisfaction.
As of today, what is ‘sport’ for you? Which place it has in your daily life?
Angie: For me, sport is the best of the remedies. It allows you to release the pressure of a long working day and helps to age better. Right now, my life is 100% CrossFit and I am absolutely convinced of its benefits.
Diana: I think the sport is a way to start a healthier and happier lifestyle if it is practiced with discipline and awareness.
Jessica: For me, the sport has always been a priority in my life. I started practicing it when I was very young, nowadays I couldn’t live without it.
Miriam: My daily life is full of sport. Besides the yoga classes I teach, I have my personal practices, I go to the gym and attend Brazilian Jiu jitsu classes applied to personal defence, therefore sport takes up most of my life
Daniela: For me, sport is one of the many tools available to help you live in the present moment. I just believe is something you should bring with you the whole day. Is when we assimilate the exercise made, that our mind and body receive the benefits of it. Sport is health, and as health it takes up my whole day, whether I am practicing the activity itself our receiving its benefits.
Carla: The sport is my life, a way of feeling better, enjoy and disconnect. I like it and it motivates me. Whenever I have a trip the first thing that goes into my suitcase are the sport clothes, afterwards comes the rest of the luggage. But my sports shoes and tops can never be missed.
Debby: The sport takes up a great deal of my day. CrossFit is my way to escape from the day to day stress, is my moment for, when I only think about challenging myself.
What is the hardest about managing a sport centre?
Angie: CrossFit requires a lot of implication when you are the owner of the box. Our community asks a lot from us and sometimes is hard to put a limit between the personal and the working lives.
Diana: I guess that generally speaking the demanding schedules for the coaches is the hardest thing to balance, as we have to work when everyone else has free time, and that can affect personal relationships.
Jessica: When you manage a CrossFit box the size of ours in Gland, the most complicated part is to take over several tasks; training, the marketing campaigns, the sales point, the management… and all the key issues of the running of a box.
Miriam: Without doubt, the management, which takes over a lot of my time, but is completely necessary.
Daniela: For me, the hardest thing of managing a centre is remaining loyal to your value proposal and having a strategy. Furthermore, being entrepreneur in Spain is not particularly easy.
Carla: I love my work, not only the one I do in Boostconcept, but also when I have to work for the media or for other companies. I guess the hardest thing is to be able to reach everything, it is a lot of work and most of the times without a fixed schedule.
Debby: There is nothing easy to manage, the only thing I would say is that it is impossible to satisfy everyone all of the time.
What is the most satisfying part?
Angie: When our members come and talk to me about their victories or how a personal issue was solved thanks to CrossFit. That is the best reward.
Diana: Being able to see the positive changes in our attendees, that is the best part of our job. It is also very rewarding to see that people feel comfortable in our space, that little by little they feel part of it and they start to consider it their second home.
Jessica: It is all about watching our clients happy, specially, watching them leave the centre with a smile on their face, that is priceless.
Miriam: When the participants come and tell you they are leaving better off how they arrived and that they were looking forward to the yoga class because they had a horrible day.
Daniela: Watch your members smile, see how they connect with such a beautiful and kind discipline as yoga and how it can quickly transcend to their personal and working lives.
Carla: I have treated numerous patients that suffered from a wide variety of conditions, and the fact that days go by, and they continue to trust you, they reach their goals and being by their side while their accomplish them, is with no doubt the most rewarding part of my job. The secret to success is to go step by step, not setting goals too ambitious to be performed in a very short amount of time.
Debby: The most rewarding part is watching the progress and satisfaction of the members of our club, as well as seeing the beautiful community we have created.
A referent…
Angie: Jason Khalipa, of whom I recommend you to listen his podcasts.
Diana: Our sister company Queiron CrossFit.
Jessica: Alain Mottier, my business partner and fiancé.
Miriam: Anyone that can inspire me to reach my goals.
Daniela: It is more an educational referent: my teachers, my classmates and their teachings.
Carla: My father and of course my family, and all the people that has supported me since a started my path.
Debby: Michel Wilson.
An achievement…
Angie: CrossFit Dōko, has a great record and our athletes tend to outstand in the competitions they attend to, but in my opinion our greatest achievement is being able to improve our member’s health daily.
Diana: We are an affiliated studio to Evolation Yoga, there are only three of them in Spain. It is yoga community based in Santa Bárbara (California, USA) that connects the best professional and studios with very high-quality standards.
Jessica: See how what we have created with passion grows and evolves as our client’s second home, that is a constant success.
Miriam: Establishing my own yoga school by myself.
Daniela: That coming to MEN.TO is like coming home, with your friends, practicing yoga, laughing and having a good time, and that everyone who comes to our centre has such a human quality and beautiful vibe.
Carla: Having created such a wonderful project as Boostconcept, continue working and growing and the fact that there are more and more people trusting us every day.
Debby: Being able to combine my business woman role and my role as a mum.
Thanks to all of your kind words, with no doubt heartfelt, gratifying and motivating for all those women that have dreams like yours to achieve.