Building Community and Connections in Business with Lisa Druxman

**SPEAKER_1** (0:06)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Zocasz** (0:20)
Hello and welcome back to the show. We are kicking off a few episodes on the topic of community building. Today with our guest, we're diving into the great community she built. We are live, so send your questions our way. Also coming up on Tuesday, we have an excellent podcast on the community building that went sideways. It's a great look at consciousness and why Harley-Davidson and its community has had a major disconnect over the past few weeks. So welcome to the show. I'm Stephen Zocasz here with Mike Lusky. Mike, introduce our guest today.

**Mike Lusky** (0:53)
Thanks, Stephen. I really appreciate that. And we're really in store for a wonderful conversation today. As always, it's my pleasure to be here with our community.
And we welcome you back again to another episode of The Bliss Business Podcast. So all right. What's in store for us today? Today we have the pleasure of hosting a truly remarkable guest. Her work has touched the lives of countless women across our nation. Lisa Druxman, the founder of Fit4Mom, has not only built the largest fitness program for mothers, but has also created a thriving community that empowers women at every stage of motherhood. Lisa's dedication to blending fitness with a strong sense of connection has transformed Fit4Mom into more than just a business. It truly is a movement that supports moms in achieving health, wellness, and their life goals. So now for you, our listeners, in this episode, you will enjoy learning how Lisa turned her passion into a purpose-driven enterprise, that fosters authentic connections and supports women in their journeys. By applying Lisa's insights, you can truly enhance your approach to building community within your own business, to build stronger relationships, increased engagement, and a more meaningful impact on those that you serve. So no doubt with that, you can't wait to hear from her. So let's welcome Lisa Druxman to our show.

**Lisa Druxman** (2:32)
Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be with you.

**Stephen Zocasz** (2:36)
Lisa, how big is the Fit4Mom community right now?

**Lisa Druxman** (2:41)
Well, let's see. We are the franchisor. We have about 230 franchisees, just shy of 2,000 instructors. And we probably have around 50,000 moms actively taking classes. But certainly our reach is far bigger than that because we do have moms from every stage of motherhood. And this month, we are 23 years old. So we have moms who have been with us for 23 years, who started with bringing their kids to stroller strides and now sent their kids to college.

**Stephen Zocasz** (3:13)
I want to jump into that right quick. I'm just with my wife and she's kind of at that stage. Tell me a little bit about that, the latter stage mothering part of your community.

**Lisa Druxman** (3:26)
I mean, the program started as stroller strides. And so if you want, I'll share the story of how that came about. So stroller strides is a stroller based workout that moms do. It's a total body workout. And that was originally the business. It was just stroller strides. And that was what spread across the country. As my own kids grew up and the moms in our programs grew up, we realized what's next. And so we ended up creating more programs because the community was so strong that moms, so community really has always been foundational to us, that moms wanted to stay with us. So we ended up developing more and more programming so that we can support women in every stage of motherhood. So one of our programs for, that is moms only is called Body Well. And it's an eight week program. That's a transformational program where mom really gets a chance to get back to herself, back to her own nutrition, back to her own mindset, connecting very closely with other moms who are going through this fitness and transformational journey. So our story is all about motherhood, and that's where we're at with that.

**Stephen Zocasz** (4:38)
If you didn't have that, I mean, it feels like community is everything for this business. If you didn't have that in your, I mean, is that true? It's pretty much the heart and soul of the business?

**Lisa Druxman** (4:48)
Why? I wasn't looking to start a business. I was on maternity leave from being a manager at a health club 23 years ago. And I knew nothing about motherhood, and I was looking for community. I was looking for answers about everything from nursing to sleeping and all the things, and I felt very alone and isolated. And in those days, I didn't know of any kind of mom meetups or mom groups. So I started Stroller Strides, which again is a stroller based workout, knowing, hey, I can share my passion for fitness, and know I can help moms get back into shape after having a baby. And they can help me with all the questions I have about motherhood. And so a little class was started in my neighborhood here in San Diego. And the crazy thing is, apparently, I wasn't the only one looking for that, because we started getting requests from women all across the country within a few months of starting that class.