Real Health NZ is a women’s wellness and fitness website helping hundreds of busy women achieve their health and wellness goals from the comfort of their own living room! The company is owned by Renee Norman and Jenna Smith, who together hold qualifications in sports science, personal training, health coaching and motherhood! We spoke to them to find out more.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
We came up with the idea to start Real Health NZ after seeing so many women overwhelmed by the health and fitness industry and all the jargon that comes with it! After a combined 15 years working in the fitness/sporting space we knew that so many women find gyms threatening and food confusing.
For many the thought of the gym is pretty scary. Loads of equipment, long mirrors, an audience, that feeling of “am I doing it right”, the fancy workout gear and ½ naked women… it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea.
When it comes to nutrition there are so many diets, trends and fads out there…go into a book shop and one diet book says one thing, then sitting on the shelf next to it is another that says the total opposite! There’s the this diet and the that diet, pills, potions, patches and shakes…It’s hard to keep up.
We wanted to create something simple that reminded women to get back to basics in the kitchen and encouraged simple and fun ways to get active.
Whilst the fitness and wellness space has blown up and it’s fantastic to see more people prioritising their health, what it’s also brought is a whole lot more confusion, more labels, and loads more programmes/diets which are unsustainable.
We wanted to create something simple that reminds women to get back to basics in the kitchen and encourage simple and fun ways to get active. We also wanted a place where women could connect, encourage and support one another as well as have their questions answered.
Initially we thought about starting a local programme but we knew it would only reach so many. Hence the reason we decided to go completely online.
Our aim is to help as many women as possible learn a sustainable approach to fitness and nutrition we want to teach them that it doesn’t need to be an all or nothing thing. We are on a mission to help as many women as possible take the word “diet” out of their vocab and focus on building a lifestyle that’s simple, gets results and lasts forever… because it is possible!
This ripple effect is what drives us each and everyday, it’s something we feel incredibly passionate about and proud of.
Seeing mums posting pictures of them fitting in workouts around naps, creating our recipes, growing veggie gardens and seeing them getting active and doing our workouts with their children is awesome!
We are on a mission to help as many women as possible take the word “diet” out of their vocab and focus on building a lifestyle that’s simple, gets results and lasts forever… because it is possible!
What’s even better is that once mum’s on board and has those healthy habits created, what we are seeing is that the Real Health NZ lifestyle has ripple effect in impacts the whole family in the most positive way. This ripple effect is what drives us each and everyday, it’s something we feel incredibly passionate about and proud of.
The Launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
It’s funny how things change and evolve when you start a business…Initially we didn’t do any live videos and all our videos were filmed in stunning beach, lake and forest locations. We had this idea of bringing a little “retreat-like” feeling into our members homes. We spent hours filming, re-filming and editing trying to make every video perfect.
Fast forward a year an a ½ and two babes later, and well let’s just say we don’t have the time for trips to the beach and long nights editing videos! While we still have an exercise library for our members, we now do the majority of our workouts using Facebook live and this is what our members love.
We keep it very real during these workouts and anything can happen. We’ve had baby spews, breast pads fall out and piles of washing in the background. But hey – that’s reality isn’t it?! Our members get to see that we too get puffed, make mistakes, haven’t organised our dinner and didn’t get much sleep last night. Our members tell us that it’s the real and authenticity that keeps them coming back for another workout.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Learning to take imperfect action: For too long we tried to make everything perfect. Now with two babies and a growing business we don’t have the time to check everything 10 times. We trust that each other will do our jobs 100% and now we just get shi* done! It’s amazing how much more productive you become when you don’t have time to worry about the fluff.
Realising each others strengths: After spending 18 months working in each others pockets we know each other very well. We both have very different strengths, we know who is good at what and we capitalise on each other’s genius zones.
