HustleSBE Cohort Three Graduate: Amie Dworecki
Name of Business: Running with Life, LLC
Website: Click Here
Business Description: Running with Life, LLC. focuses on premium run coaching for performance through holistic health to uplift your running and life, so you can reach your biggest goals.
At what point did you realize the dream of your business was real?: I first started running with my father when I was five years old, joined a gym when I was thirteen, ran my first 5K when I was eighteen, and shortly after became a certified group exercise instructor and personal trainer. So, health and fitness were always a passion of mine on the side while I pursued other careers. A good friend was a powerlifter in college, and we seriously talked about opening our own gym. But we decided against it because we loved what we did so much, that we were afraid we would get sick of it if it was also our job.
In my late 20s, I was working in the corporate world, and was not happy with my life in a cubical. I was not sure of what I wanted to do, but I knew that was not it. So, I decided to leave my job and sell everything I owned to travel and run around the world. Because I followed my passion, without preplanning the goal, I ended up breaking three world records for running marathons on every continent.
I then went through a stint as a journalist and got laid off about a year before my father, who was dying of cancer, passed away. Before he died, he told me to put off “work” if I could, because I did not want to look back and think that was all I had done with my life.
I went through a period of being very Type A, paired with some medical misdiagnoses that caused me to gain a lot of weight. Because I was on so many medications that affected my heart rate and blood pressure, I could not even run anymore because my heart rate would skyrocket. I gained 50+ pounds in a short amount of time. This is when I started researching holistic health, and through that, managed to get off all the medications, lose the weight I had gained and rebuild my fitness. Looking back, I could not understand why that happened, but now I think it was part of the journey for me to be able to help others.
It still took a while, again in part because I was afraid of getting sick of running if I also coached it full-time. I sat at the computer at one point and just did a google search on “how to help people be healthier naturally” and wellness coaching came up. When I read the description of what that was, I was instantly interested in it, and found out how to become trained and certified in it. Though I had been informally coaching others in running for years, I decided to get my official certifications in run coaching and go for it to help others improve their running and health to reach their big goals, because it has brought so much to my life, and I have seen it bring so much to that of others.
Owning a business was something I had thought about for my whole life (I am 48 now), but in 2016 when I became officially certified in these areas and established my LLC I knew it was “real”. But it is always a learning process. Looking back on it, I was not doing things on the business side right back then, and I am sure in another five years I will look back and what I am doing now and think the same thing. But we do not have to always do a perfect job to move forward, and nonetheless I have been reaching my goal of helping many others along the way.
Share a business lesson you have learned: I think it would be, that it can be good to step out of your comfort zone and risk failing, and again, everything does not have to be perfect to still get a good result (which is ironically something I discuss with my coaching clients as well).
Another lesson would be, if you like what you do on the side and want to do it full time, it might be better to go work for someone else doing it. If you run a business, you must like both what you do AND running the business (which I do, equally as much and why I am not sick of running and health plus helping others run and be healthier, ha-ha). Because really you are doing both.
Are you from the South Bend-Elkhart region?/ Why did you come or stay in the area?: Augusta, Georgia, but grew up in South Bend. I moved away after high school and lived all over, returning to help care for my mother after my father passed away. In all honesty I have tried to move away in the past several years a few times, but something keeps sending me back here. There is a reason for that, and I will look back and know it someday.
Share your favorite business resource. Why is it your favorite?: The internet and online learning! I enjoy using the library. A lot of great resources out there from which to learn. Another one is just talking to people. I think a lot of time people do not ask for things or for help because they assume the person will say no. Well so what if they do? Chances are they will say yes.
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The South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership, in collaboration with the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, is excited to launch Cohort Four of HustleSBE! Applications are open now through Friday, August 6, 2021 at 5:00pm. Businesses must be headquartered in the South Bend – Elkhart region, which includes Elkhart, Marshall, and St. Joseph counties in Indiana or Berrien and Cass counties in Michigan. Other criteria and more information about the program can be found at hustlesbe.org.
