Today we’d like to introduce you to Kira Macoun.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kira. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My business partner and I started our business at the ages of 24 and 25. That was over 10 years ago. We “opened our doors” in January of 2008 as traveling trainers: we went to peoples’ homes and trained them in their living rooms with minimal equipment. We started our business with barely any capital, about $2,000 total, and no experience in personal training outside of our certifications, and definitely no experience in business. Comfy Fitness took off in no time! By the time October rolled around, however, we were hit by the economic crash and lost about 2/3 of our business. For the next several years both of us maintained 2-3 jobs outside of working and building Comfy.
Carrie and I moved in together in that first year, also, and turned our duplex apartment into a training studio. For 4.5 years we worked out of that training space and even hired on another trainer! When we outgrew that space, we moved into our first commercial space in March of 2013 in Bucktown where we’ve been ever since. Presently we are shopping for even bigger space, as we are outgrowing our present location with 4 trainers on staff and 2 mental health counselors who specialize in sports and health psychology.
Presently we are launching a 3 month coaching program called Comfy Lifestyle where participants will walk away having created a whole new healthy habit in their lives like a HABIT. We ran our first version of it from February to April and it was a huge success! We are excited to add this to our services.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In short, no. I hate to go to this place first, but I made $30,000 last year while my business partner made around $20,000 while living in Chicago and Los Angeles proper. Bringing in a living wage has always been hard for us, and the road is still not what I would consider smooth.
I mentioned previously that we started our business the year of the economic crash. That was the first real heartbreak – less than one year from starting! I was personally working at a restaurant at night, usually until 10 or 11 at night, waking up at 4:30 am to train by 5 am, running downtown to teach corporate group fitness in the afternoons, then training evening clients all while doing a side gig of posting antiques on eBay for a guy out of Evanston.
The road has been rocky at best. It’s only been one year since I’ve only had one job: being the owner and a trainer at Comfy Fitness.
Beyond the money, there have been many other rocks in the road. Some boulders. Two years ago my business partner expressed that she didn’t want to do our business anymore. She was burnt out and not passionate. She had been heading up our books and back end and she was tired after 8 years of that. Carrie wanted to move across the country and do something else. Ultimately we created something new with each other: Carrie would still work the business remotely on the creating and bookkeeping end and draw from the business as an owner and administrator… but we were both still not being paid as owners and administrators. Something had to change.
After that, we did the largest financial investment in our business ever: we hired a consultant to help us. Last year we changed everything about how we did everything: we substantially raised our prices, we changed the percentage our trainers were earning, and we changed our training packaging. Again, we lost more than half of our clientele inside of this change. Not only that, however, one of our oldest and best trainers chose to leave our company and she did it with no notice and via email. It was personally heartbreaking.
Today Comfy Fitness is financially stable, and Carrie and I continue to strive toward owning a business that takes care of us and our trainers financially while creating an environment for our clients that is welcoming, compassionate and empowering.
Comfy Fitness – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Comfy Fitness is a community-oriented space that creates empowerment and love for the human body and psyche. We believe that each and every one of us have the innate ability to be fit in their own right, regardless of body size and shape.
We specialize mainly in Functional Fitness Training: a modality of exercise that is meant to balance imbalances of the body that frequently cause chronic pain. People who come to us are looking for freedom in their mobility. From that functional and sound foundation, we can then build true strength and endurance.
We are also offering sessions in Clinical Somatics: a modality of exercise that re-calibrates the function of the body at the level of the nervous system. Basically a re-education of how the body has programmed itself to move through experience and trauma. Much of our chronic body pain comes from the body activating in disfunctional ways – think neck and shoulder pain from sitting too much at a desk – we magically take that pain away.
Beyond what we offer our clients in the way of fitness, we also understand that the mind can be a powerful enemy or ally of the body. That’s why we offer therapy through our practice if clients choose to use it. Our therapists have specializations in Sports and Health Psychology and work with folks around anything from eating disorders to performance anxiety to setting and reaching goals and everything in between, helping to reframe for people what it means to be healthy.
We take an incredibly compassionate approach in our three-month Comfy Lifestyle program, understanding that most people need accountability and patience inside of creating new healthy habits in their lives.
And beyond that, we also run workshops featuring small business owners, both inside the health industry and out. Presently our calendar of events include a workshop about the basics of the core (run by an independent trainer in Chicago), having great sex for life (run by the owner of G Boutique), a foam rolling workshop (being run by an independent Thai massage therapist), food prep and weight loss (being run by a former chef turned health coach), and a time management and scheduling workshop being run by yours truly.
We also run a quarterly Day of Healing where movement and energy healers create a full day of meditation, gentle movement modalities, Reiki and Biofield Tuning. Beyond that, we ran 8 weekends of phone banking for Progressive female Congressional candidates in the primaries and throw quarterly parties called The Rebel Rousing for community activists to recharge and curb “resistance fatigue”.
What I am most proud of as a company is that we have refused to succumb to the dominant narratives of the fitness and health industry where the go-hard-or-go-home, all-or-nothing approach is king. In fact, we do not even mention weight loss on our website. We approach the body through the lens of appreciation and respect and not negativity or positivity. When people see the miracle that is the human body, their actions will follow suit.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Comfy Fitness is out to change the conversation around what it is to be fit. I often ask myself what this looks like in reality, and I am not totally sure yet, though I constantly think our effectiveness lies in the world of social media. If I have to set a marker, I’d say a following of 250K people or more would be a good start!
As far as personal success, I’m already there. I shift people’s realities daily by empowering them in their lives and bodies. I love my job. I love it so much and I can’t imagine doing much of anything else.
Pricing:
- Personal, Partner & Team Training ranges from $80 – $30 per session
- 3 Month Comfy Lifestyle Program $400/month
Contact Info:
- Address: 2115 N Damen Ave Chicago, IL 60647
- Website: comfyfitness.com
- Phone: 312.373.0727
- Email: getcomfy@comfyfitness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/comfy_fitness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comfyfitness/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ComfyFitness
- Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/comfy-fitness-chicago-4
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
