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This is Joy & Claire Episode 112: Health is a Feeling Not a Look with KAISA KERANEN
Episode Date: February 3, 2022
Transcription Completed: February 6, 2022
Audio Length: 43:33 minutes
Joy [introduction]: Hey guys. Welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of This is Joy and Claire. This week on the show, we have a very special guest, Kaisa Keranen. Kaisa is a personal trainer, a fitness educator, social media influencer. She is super fun, very innovative. We have been having conversations for the past year and a half – Claire and I are wanting to have more conversations around movement in a way that feels good, not as a punishment. And this interview is just that. Kaisa graduated from the University of Washington. She was a member of the track and field team there, and then she went on to get her master’s in exercise science, sports, performance, and injury prevention. So now she owns KaisaFit and just developed her own method of movement. She shares daily on her platform. You can follow her @kaisafit on Instagram, and then I’ll link everything in our show notes for you to find her. The other cool thing is her team was nice enough to give our listeners a discount code. You can try out her method for a month by using the code GGWOD. As in Girls Gone WOD. We are using that code because I am also going to release this episode on our Girls Gone WOD feed. We are just going to use that one code, GGWOD, and then I will also do a direct link in the show notes as well. Just open this episode, look at the show notes, click on the link. It will take you right there if that is easier. We had a great conversation. We talked all about her background and what led her into this field. She really lives and teaches by a motto that health is a feeling and not a look. Claire and I often talk about that as well. It’s really hard in the social media world to not compare. We are still going to do it, and Kaisa and I talk about that. We are always going to compare. That is always going to be there. We are always going to have our self-doubts. But how we can move through that and have a lifestyle that is fun and includes movement. I am really grateful that she gave us her time. She is really busy. She is really popular. I think you’ll love this episode, so thank you guys again for supporting us. Here is the episode with Kaisa.
Joy: Thank you for being here. We want to talk first and foremost about your background. I know you were an athlete. People know a lot about you already. You have a really dedicated following. This may be the therapist in me but take me back a little bit further. How were you like as a kid? What was fitness like in your family growing up?
Kaisa: Yeah. Well first of all, thank you so much for having me. Fitness and sports were really nonexistence. It wasn’t a priority I don’t think to either one of my parents. It was just that I had a lot of undiagnosed ADD and a lot of energy, and my mom needed me to have outlets. And so I was in every sport you could imagine, but I did this funny – and probably the therapist in you would understand – I did this funny thing as a kid. The moment my mom would take me to a sport – so let’s say gymnastics is one that always sticks out – they would ask me to compete. They would come to my mom and be like, “Your daughter is really, really good. We need her to go to the next level.” So my mom would come to me and say, “Alright Kaisa, this is so exciting. They want you to compete at the junior blah, blah, blah,” and I’d be like, “Nope, don’t want to do it.” My mom would tell me I was four years old telling her what I was going to do and what I was not going to do. So I never stuck with one specific sport until high school. My movement journey is – and now I think it was a gift because it allowed me to do so many different sports and activities, but it wasn’t until high school that I chose a sport, which was soccer.
Joy: That was soccer. Do you think at the younger age you were just like, “I don’t want to put my focus on one thing.”
Kaisa: No, no. I am a perfectionist by trade, and I knew even that young if I was going to fail at something it was going to be devastating.
Joy: Oh.
Kaisa: I think looking back, I just knew my little self so well that I could not handle that pressure, and I couldn’t handle what it would do to me if I failed at something. Because inevitably you are going to fail, and so I would just move on to a different sport.
Joy: Until you felt like the pressure became too big?
Kaisa: It wasn’t until middle school that I started to play soccer. And then it was right going into my freshman year in high school that my parents – I was really good, and select teams were asking me to play, which is a more serious team. I think I just was prepared mentally probably to be able to take on the pressure, so I made my decision to stick with that sport.
Joy: That’s pretty impressive. Most people, if you feel like you can’t handle pressure, all of the sudden, like in a group sport that relies on you, if you fail – that’s why I think so many people don’t do group sports because of the pressure that there is so much on you. But mentally you were in a place in junior high where that just didn’t bother you anymore. Now, I heard one of your talks. Forgive me for the name of where you were, but you were talking about being in a pretty rough spot, maybe it was high school, with depression or whatever was going on where you were feeling really sad. Telling your story on that platform, kind of choking up, was it more of telling that story for the first time? Because you were like, “I have never shared this before.” You don’t have to go into detail about what was going on, but what got you to that point and how did you work through that? I think a lot of people would benefit from hearing that piece.
Kaisa: Yeah, absolutely. I’ll try to tell this without getting emotional. So you are talking about NASM, which was the keynote speech that they asked me to give. This was probably three years ago, four years ago. This is going to sound crazy, but I am petrified of speaking in public. I got up there and fully blacked out.
Joy: It’s so funny how people are like, “You must be so extroverted and have no problem talking in front of people because you are on the public platform.” Totally different. Totally different from Instagram.
Kaisa: No, I fully blacked out. So my mom was in the audience, and I basically told her right before, “I am going to tell you something that is pretty difficult to hear because I want to tell this story. This is why movement means so much to me. And if I am going to get up and talk to my peers about my story, it has to be the whole story.”
Joy: Right.
Kaisa: So it was intense all the way around. And my story – to go backwards – my story is that movement saved my life. I was a mover when I was younger. But when I went to high school, it was my freshman year, I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues and a lot of depression. I think looking back, I was dealing with it before high school honestly. But high school came to that point where I didn’t want to live. I thought it would be a lot easier not to be in this world. I just, I really did not want to be here. I just remember having this very intense conversation with myself at 13 years old, however old you are, that I couldn’t do that to my mom. There’s four of us total. I have three other siblings. I just knew that if I was to kill myself, that would kill my mom, and my mom needed to be able to be here for my other siblings. I remember having this conversation with myself and basically just deciding, if I look at my entire life, what is the one thing that brings me any type of joy? And it was movement. At that time, it was my sport, which was soccer. So I just went full speed ahead into playing soccer 24/7. So as I evolved over the course of the next four years, I became a star soccer player, but it was really that movement had saved my life. It gave me an outlet to work through things. It gave me something to look forward to, and it truly saved my life. When I was talking at NASM and I was giving this speech, I was trying to convey a message of, we have so much power as trainers that we hold in our hands. And the gift and ability we have to help people work through very intense, traumatic highs and lows of their lives as trainers is something that I hope that we all understand and respect in a way that I am not quite sure that the industry is respecting right now.
Joy: Oh my gosh, yeah. That’s so amazing. So moving forward with that is you ended up going on to be a trainer. In a lot of the interviews I’ve heard – I’m paraphrasing, I don’t want to misquote you – but that you got into the field, and you were like, wow, a lot of this is about changing bodies. And I get it. We could go off on so many tangents. Look, I grew up in the 80s and 90s where fitness was spandex, and all of the sudden Kate Moss was the ideal. I was tearing out magazines of Tyra Banks and hanging them up in my bathroom like I want her abs. We grew up with that. That was really insightful. You just seem like a very insightful kid at 13 to put that together to say, “I’m looking for joy. What brings me joy?” That’s very insightful. And that also tells me the decisiveness piece, not to overanalyze, but then all of the sudden you walk into a fitness space which is probably male-dominated, and they are like, “This is how it is. We are just changing people’s bodies.” And you’re like, “Nah, it’s not for me.”
Kaisa: So you paraphrased a lot of learning experiences that happened. It’s actually hilarious when I look back at how naive I was about everything. Basically, I became a trainer because I was really injured in college. I ended up going to the University of Washington where I did track and field. I was really injured. I wanted to learn about my body because I knew that movement was so important to me that as a 21-year-old being so injured and not being able to move, how was I going to survive life? I had already been to some low lows, and I didn’t want to go there again. So I decided to become a trainer. Basically learned about my body, healed myself, and in the course of that fell in love with training other human beings and bringing something that I was so passion about to others. I just absolutely loved it. So here I am in a really amazing gym in downtown Seattle, and clients are coming in. They give you a client, and you have to talk to the client first and kind of win the client over. And client after client would be coming in saying, “This is so amazing. I am so excited to be here. I want to lose about 15 pounds. I want to look like this.” And I would keep telling them, “Okay. You are going to have to go train with her or her or them. I am not the trainer for you. I don’t do that. That’s not how we train around here.” This is literally 22- or 23-year-old Kaisa. Months went by, and I looked around, and I had no clients. So I am thinking, okay, this isn’t going to work. At some point in time, I have to have an adjustment in understanding that it’s my job as the trainer, and almost in some sense what I understood it to be their parent in this situation, knowing what’s best for them. But I also have to meet them halfway or all the way. I have to meet them exactly where they are at. So when 99% of people come into movement because they want to change the way they look, I have to acknowledge that and go along for the ride but show them something different. So my entire message after that was, I will never poo poo that that’s why you want to come into movement. That’s okay. But I will never cosign it. We will never measure, monitor, keep track of, we will never pay attention to what you look like after that moment.
Joy: So then after working there, how did you then move on to build the empire that you have?
Kaisa: Well there was lots of courses and lots of twists and turns. But essentially, I saw from the very beginning that I wanted to be able to share my message because it was a little bit different. I wanted to be able to share it with a lot of people. And if I am training one on one or even in groups, there is only so many people that I can train with in a day. The issue with me was social media wasn’t around, and the only person I saw on a platform was Jillian Michaels on The Biggest Loser. And ironically, I wanted nothing to do with people losing weight. So I was literally sitting there, how is this going to happen? What am I going to do? How do I share my message with more people? How do I encourage more people to move? And eventually social media came along. So the moment it came along, I saw exactly what it could be used for and hit the ground running.
Joy: God. That’s really cool. I remember The Biggest Loser, I think we all do obviously. That show, I feel bad saying this, I used to watch it and cry at their stories. They made it so inspirational looking. We have had Bob Harper on the show. He’s a lovely human being. I didn’t ask him about his opinion about the show and what he thinks about it now, but I can’t imagine – did you ever see the episode with the girl that was literally – I think they have probably all developed some level of unhealthy eating habits, but she looked scarily thin when she won.
Kaisa: I didn’t see any.
Joy: Probably better that you didn’t. But basically when she walked out, Jillian and Bob, their faces were horrified, not happy. But my point is, thinking back when watching that show, I remember being happy for them and the way they packaged it. It’s so forward thinking of you to be pushing up against a system that is so all about weight loss. So then you decided to do what?
Kaisa: So then I decided to use social media. I felt like at the time it was a really incredible tool for me to put content out there. I had so many friends and family members at the time that knew I was a trainer and wanted to know, what should I do, what should I do? But didn’t have the means or the time to come in and see me. So it started off as a very small opportunity. I actually did social media in the very beginning with one of my friends. We just put movement out there. It was a really fun way to make movement accessible. It grew, and it blew up, and it became a really big platform in the course of half a year. We even had Michelle Obama shout us out. It was insane. We were at the very beginning of social media. Without going into too many details, at the time the friend that I was partnered with really didn’t want it to become a business, but it was becoming a business.
Joy: You couldn’t help it. It was just going.
Kaisa: We couldn’t help it. We were getting opportunities and deals. So we ended up parting ways. I had just gotten a taste of what it meant to be able to speak to the masses and to have something that I was so incredibly passionate about possibly reach people around the world I would never be able to reach or speak to in any other way. I was all about it.
Joy: So then, you are on this journey. I know that your main purpose and your main philosophy is around bodies are meant to move. I always get really in the weeds confused about how we can reach people to make it not about weight loss because it just seems like it’s so tangly, especially for women. I’m sure it is for men too, so I don’t want to leave the men out. But that is something that I am sure you see on a daily basis of fighting against social media, images, thinness, fat phobia. How do you ignore that noise and stay focused on what you need to do?
Kaisa: I think the gift of my really dark times growing up is that I come from a space where I really understand how incredible my body is and how my body saved my life and the only reason I am here today is because I found movement and an appreciation for my body. So I come from a very intense place and a very passionate place when I speak about my message. I also don’t bother spending time trying to fight the machine. Media and sex sells, that’s never going anywhere. I really don’t spend my time doing that. I spend my time trying to lead by example and show something different. It doesn’t speak to everybody, and I totally understand that. I think we have grown up our entire lives with a specific message, but I am just not willing to give up on what I believe in. I think that movement is an incredible opportunity that people have to connect to their body and to understand how lucky they are to have the body that they have. And why not move and eat well and sleep well and hydrate and do all these incredible things, not because you want to change your body but because you just want your body to be here for as many years as you want to live doing all the things that you want to do.
Joy: It’s also about educating the consumer, I would guess. Not to say that – I agree with that approach. I think it’s always important to ignore the stuff that you don’t want to feed into because it is not going away. Kind of like negativity or the comment section on social media sometimes can be a landmine. Educating the consumer, and I’ve talked about this some on our show before, making sure that people are aware that just because they see someone promoting blah, blah, blah greens or whatever teas that that is not going to get you the abs of the person promoting it.
Kaisa: I mean, absolutely. That’s one of the hardest messages to constantly help people understand. First and foremost, what you see is not really what is happening. In the fitness industry, we are the worst about it because fitness influencers or trainers, anybody that you see on covers, that is not even what they look like in real life. They are so dehydrated to get to that moment, so unhealthy to get to that moment to take one picture of what they think and the industry thinks is the peak definition of health and wellness, which is absolutely isn’t. So it’s just all one big lie, and I don’t know how to keep talking about this over and over and over again. But what you see should not be the definition of health, which is why I say all the time health is a feeling. It is not a look. What you are seeing is not healthy and mostly the result of a lot of airbrushing and alteration, and so many things are happening to make it seem a certain way. And genetics.
Joy: And genetics.
Kaisa: Genetics.
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Joy: And I love that you really spoke up about the hotel sleep. Because it turns out, not a lot of people like hotel sleep. So I was really screwing myself by trying to use that selling point. [laughing]
Claire: I felt so validated. High five to everyone out there that was like, “Hotel sleep sucks.” It’s the night you get back in your bed after hotel sleep.
Joy: It’s just everyone has their thing. Mine happens to be hotel sleep. It sounds like I’m the only one out there that really likes to sleep in a hotel and sleeps very well. It’s mostly because I don’t have cats crawling all over me or dogs waking me up.
Claire: Yeah.
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Joy: You know what’s really funny? Did you ever have a moment where you’re like, “I want the Tyra Banks abs?” When I was in junior high, I actually thought that was attainable where my body type is just not like that. I guess if you were going to really severely starve yourself, maybe for a day or two. But you know what I’m saying? I really thought body parts, you could get what other people have.
Kaisa: Yeah, it’s like Play-Do, like you can morph – no.
Joy: Yeah. So that’s a fallacy everybody. But I wanted to ask you, too, another thing. I am all over the place because I have so many questions. But the magazine cover thing. I know you have been on magazine covers. Do you have a rule where you are like, “Don’t airbrush me?” Or they just have to do what they do? Because I am sure people project that onto you.
Kaisa: Yeah. I absolutely ask people not to airbrush me, not to touch me. There was a specific magazine cover. I am really uncomfortable. I also like being in my sports bras and this and that, but there are certain things – I was younger back then, and there are certain things you can only push so far before they are like, basically, “We don’t want to shoot you.” They wanted me to roll my pants down really low and do all these things. So for me, I have definitely had moments where I feel like I have stood up for myself as much as I can and now it’s a decision, do I not even want to be here? Do I not even want to do this? I don’t look back and regret those moments. I think I’ve still stayed pretty true to what I was doing. There was a whole program that went along with the cover that they wanted it to be about looking a different way, and I wouldn’t do that. It’s part of me trying to meet people where they are at. I feel like if I could have the opportunity to, as some women are flipping through that magazine, to read my take on what it means to be healthy and well, then that was an important opportunity to take.
Joy: Totally. I remembered what I was going to say too. Because I want you to talk about your programs. I’ll link everything, Kaisa, on our show notes. But all of your programs and your approach to fitness – because here is the other funny thing. I have done all the workouts. They are kind of like diets where if you do this diet, you are going to get this body. I used to run marathons. I used to distance run. I still love running but not at that level. Whatever it be, CrossFit or weightlifting. No shame to Tracy Anderson. Claire would have a fit if she heard that name because she doesn’t like how she promotes this stick-thin appearance of unrealistic expectations. But it feels like workouts are marketed that you will get this body, and I kind of fed into that mentality. If I could just run a little bit farther, I will finally have those abs. Very, very silly. I get it. So what is your approach to the programming that you do and really educating people to not seek a movement for the outcome of a certain body type and to do it because it’s fun. How do you approach that?
Kaisa: This is hard, Joy. Here is the thing. Most of the time, and I have had such an incredible opportunity to train amazing clients, amazing women mainly. And time and time again, underneath all of their want and desire to change their body was just a desire to be happy and to be seen and to think the world was going to love them more, their business place would love them more, their husband and friends, their family. So for me, I totally understand that we have this relationship with how I look means I will be in the world very differently. And the reality is, you won’t. So that perspective is where I try to come with movement, and I am so passionate about helping people understand. And really women. I am a woman. I connect in this way. But really helping women understand that your happiness doesn’t actually come from changing the way that you look. Much the opposite because I have experienced that. When the outside world thought I looked like the definition of health, I was my most miserable. Absolutely my most miserable. So I think for me, movement is an awesome way to get connected with your body and appreciate your body. We do that through performance, through movement, and through having fun. I am a goal-oriented person. I don’t mind if you set goals that you want to perform a certain way. You want to do a certain amount of pushups, a certain amount of pull-ups, you want to deadlift this, you want to sprint, run, whatever you want to do. But movement is a way to celebrate what your body can do, and I will celebrate the hell out of that with you. I will not celebrate being focused on changing the way your body looks.
Joy: So you recently posted about doing a February – you don’t like new year, new you, which thank God because I hate that saying. Can you share a little bit about your thoughts around new year, new you and what you said? I was almost just going to play it, but then I was like, no, I ‘ll just ask her because it was great. Maybe I’ll post a link on that too, but just go to her Instagram because she has this great talk about new year, new you.
Kaisa: The thing was, we were doing a video and the team wanted me to talk about new year, new you, what’s motivation for the team. And I just can’t help it. I feel so aggressively angry and mad about new year, new you. Because when we talk about new you, it’s always in the sense that something is wrong with the you that you are right now and you need to change it. We were talking about that right as we had gone through an entire year of a pandemic. I am sitting there so frustrated about what’s happening in the world with health and the wellness scene and not stepping up and still trying to push a message. If you are sitting here listening to me today, your body is something that got you through this pandemic. You know what I mean? Your body is the reason that you are here today. Why are we going to sit here in December, December 31, and talk about and point out all the things that we want to change about our body? They are all negative. It’s not like we are sitting here on the 31st being like, “I am so excited for the new year. I am grateful for my body. I am going to sleep more because my body deserves that.” That’s not where people come from when they talk about new you. It’s this whole running list of all the things they hate about themselves and all the things they want to change. So for me, it is just the shift in perspective. I don’t mind if you set new goals in January, but let’s make them positive.
Joy: Goals are great. That’s the other thing is it doesn’t have to be two different worlds or pick a camp. It can be great to have goals, but let’s not do it from a place of self-hate.
Kaisa: Absolutely. And that there is something wrong with your body or yourself. New you means that you don’t like the current you. I love the current me. She is a constant work in progress. Not just physically but everything. Mentally, I am constantly working on myself, how to become a better human, a better friend, a better family member, a better aunt. I am constantly working on myself. I am okay with who I am though, and I know I have worked my ass off to get to where I am now. Of course, there is more to evolve to, but I am not angry that I’m not there yet.
Joy: So maybe it’s – because I hear this so much around wanting to change bodies with working out and that’s kind of the mindset. I think maybe it’s people getting a little closer to self-love. Maybe they are not going to get there overnight. Maybe there is more that’s going on behind the scenes that they need to work out but inching a little bit closer to loving themselves to be like, “I am pretty awesome, and movement is a way for me to take care of myself.”
Kaisa: But then I have a whole other thing about self-love.
Joy: Let’s hear it.
Kaisa: Because I just hate the way that self-love is sold. Self-love is literally sold to us as if you stand in the mirror and you just look at yourself and say, “My big arms, I love them. My nose, I love it. I am worthy. I am happy. I am whole.” No you’re the fuck not all the time.
Joy: Like toxic positivity.
Kaisa: Yes. It’s totally toxic positivity. So when I went on this other rant, I’m like, self-love is being okay with being on this roller coaster ride with yourself for the rest of your life. There are seasons that are high. There are seasons that are low. But you know that you got your back and that you are going to make it through and that you appreciate everything that you are doing for yourself and your body. At the end of the day, yeah, love is a practice and an action that is happening, so it’s self-love. But self-love is not just this thing that you sit and tell yourself in the mirror.
Joy: Yeah. Like, I think I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me. I totally. agree. I totally agree. I am 100% against the whole, “Just love yourself. And positive affirmation your way out of it.” I don’t know one person who really can do that.
Kaisa: And you don’t have to love all of yourself.
Joy: No, yeah.
Kaisa: This is what I say all the time. There are so many things about myself, who I am as a woman and what I look like, that I don’t love. But I don’t focus on those things. I don’t focus on them. I don’t sit in them. I don’t dwell on them. And this is a practice. This happens every single day, just like you go to the gym, just like you work out, it’s repetition after repetitions. For me, the practice is don’t sit in that, don’t dwell in that, and tell yourself something that you do love, and just walk more towards that Kaisa. Right now, I am in a space of absolutely loving business, loving this new program that we’re doing with Start Moving and really loving what I am doing and feeling so connected and passionate about it. So that’s what I walk towards more, and I forget about the fact that my arms are big and I don’t like them right now. Who fucking cares?
Joy: Yeah, we are never going to get to this enlightened state of – and it’s so funny that you say that too because it is a matter of your thinking and going, what am I telling myself every single day? Am I focusing on the things that I don’t love about myself? Because we are never going to get to a place of complete and utter bliss about our bodies. We are just not. We aren’t wired that way. We are wired for criticism. We are wired for self-criticism.
Kaisa: The reality is all the way back to saying if we were all to take a moment and get honest with ourselves, we all think that when we change our body, when we look the ideal image that we have in our head, we all think there’s all these other things that are going to come with it. Right? For me, I am a single woman. I think if I change my body, maybe I am going to meet my partner. We all think these things. It’s not true. It’s literally not true. There’s so many other things that need to be addressed on the other side of you thinking that you need to look a different way, and those are the things that we have to start talking about. Because in reality, when you start running towards the things that bring you joy in life, you forget about, for me, the extra big arm or – you know what I mean? It doesn’t hold so much weight anymore. You don’t care about it as much. It never goes away.
Joy: It never goes away.
Kaisa: I’m telling you right now, it never fucking goes away, but it means less to you. It means so much less.
Joy: You’re giving it less power.
Kaisa: Absolutely.
Joy: I like to call it “less airtime.” Don’t turn the radio dial onto that. Just turn the radio station.
Kaisa: And then I always have to remind myself, if you think if somebody comes along – for me. I use that as a bad example. But if somebody comes along because I look a certain way, I don’t want to hang out with them.
Joy: Totally.
Kaisa: What is this that I am telling myself?
Joy: Yeah. And would you say a little bit that this comes with living and learning. I don’t want to downplay youth, but there is so much in my 20s that I was more insecure about and in my 30s was getting a little bit better. Now in my 40s, it really is what Oprah says that every year it gets better, that you become more comfortable in your skin. But I don’t want to blanket statement that either. I think that does come with practice, the daily practice of saying, well maybe I quiet the negative voice for just a couple minutes today. And then maybe tomorrow I quiet it a little more. It’s not just this overnight thing that happens where we are not listening to that piece, but I do think it comes with time and age and just being tired of that. Like I work with a lot of clients too where they are coming to me and they are like, “I am tired of carrying this. I want to be done with carrying this.”
Kaisa: Yeah, I totally think it’s age. Because the older we are, the more reps that we are allowed to have or that we can have. But I also think with age comes more of an understanding of who you are.
Joy: Yeah, that’s true.
Kaisa: I just think for me, one of the best things has been just constantly focusing on the things that bring me joy in life and looking at my body, even if I every morning do look at my body and [grossed out sound]. I for five seconds have that and I’m like, fine, whatever, go do something else. It never goes away, but I think we just learn to practice in a way that gets rid of it a lot faster and that we are so much more comfortable and confident in the things that we are doing in this world.
Joy: Right.
Kaisa: And that’s what I always say. You are more than your body, so go focus on all the other bad ass things that you are doing.
Joy: Yes. It’s not about what size you wear, it’s not about how much you bench press or whatever. It’s about what Claire and I talk a lot about too is wow, our bodies are so amazing. My body recovered from Graves’ disease. Claire birthed two humans. Our skin holds our organs in. We kind of joke about that, but it’s true of all the other things that our bodies are doing on a daily basis just to keep us alive. So it’s a great message that we just need to keep saying. So moving on to your business and your brand. Can you talk a little bit about the Just Move?
Kaisa: Yeah. Because I have it on.
Joy: Yeah, I love that sweatshirt. Listeners, she is wearing this awesome black – it looks like a sweatshirt?
Kaisa: Yeah.
Joy: And “Just Move,” every letter is in a different color, and it’s giving me awesome rainbow vibes, and I want one.
Kaisa: I love it. So for me, essentially, when I started with social media, I understood the power of social media, and it allowed me to have a platform. One thing that I always knew in the back of my mind is I don’t want to be doing this alone. I am one human being. I am one trainer. I am only going to resonate with so many people. I really want to be doing this with a bunch of other trainers and a bunch of other like-minded human beings. Because if I want the world to move, it’s going to take a whole lot of other humans to do that. So we had the concept of Just Move for a long, long time. It wasn’t until last year though that we were in a space to actually make it all happen. So Just Move is a monthly subscription. Our focus is really on bringing movement to everybody and every body. So we specialize not only in beginner, intermediate, and advance. We also have a start level for people that are just getting into movement and have no idea what to do, have never moved before. Maybe they are recovering from an injury. I want everyone to feel welcome. We have all the movement that you can think of. Yoga, strength, cardio, core, every movement. And then dance because it’s super fun. And some people, that’s the way they want to move. So we are constantly expanding what it means to move in your body and celebrate your body through movement.
Joy: And I’ll post links for all of that too. Everything that you have is on KaisaFit. In case people want more information, I’ll post all the links there.
Kaisa: Thank you.
Joy: Now on a very shallow funny note as we end this, I know you love shoes. And I wish I could turn the camera around because my husband is a big sneaker head.
Kaisa: Really?
Joy: Yeah. And he’s got like – I mean, you could probably talk hours talking about the types of – so are you a Nike person? What kind of shoes do you love?
Kaisa: Well, I try not to say just what I like.
Joy: Okay. We won’t say it. Probably branding, but maybe Schmike?
Kaisa: I’m a Schmike person. Yeah, and I have been my entire life. The funny, funny story is that I won a crawling contest. I couldn’t crawl at the time. I scooted myself. I won a race. There is a picture of it. It is proven. And what I won was a pair of Nike shoes. I was so young. I was 9 months old.
Joy: Stop it. That’s so cute.
Kaisa: That’s how it all started. I just blame it on my mom for putting me in the race at Nordstrom. It’s not my fault. Since then, I have been absolutely obsessed. I think people think it’s like a new thing. I’ve been obsessed. My grandpa would take be shopping for my birthday every year. I was in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, all the way into high school and I got one new pair of shoes every year, kept them pristine. Obsessed.
Joy: Oh, that’s so cool. My husband is the kind of person who will be online waiting for it to drop. Gets a ticket to get a waitlist or whatever. We’ve gone to all the cool sneaker shops in San Fran and New York City. We found one – where do you live right now?
Kaisa: I live in Seattle.
Joy: Okay, you are still in Seattle. Have you ever been to the secret sneaker shops in New York City that are like – I’ll have to tell you. They are ones that you literally just have to know where they are. You have to know somehow through some secret message board. There is no sign on the door. You just walk in. It’s so funny. He took me to a few where I’m like, are we safe over here? Because you don’t know what you are walking into. Is this an actual store? But that’s how obsessed he is.
Kaisa: I’ve got to talk to your husband and get the Intel.
Joy: Oh my gosh, be careful. He would talk your ear off about shoes. No, he’s great, he’s awesome.
Kaisa: I would love that.
Joy: But he’s a big sneaker head. So you have such an awesome style. In my opinion, you have an awesome style. Where do you get your fashion inspiration from? Where do you get that?
Kaisa: I don’t know. It’s really funny that you are asking me this because I just had to do a little write-up about this. And I don’t know. I have this one thing where I don’t want to be like everybody else.
Joy: Oh my gosh, that’s like me.
Kaisa: So my inspiration is trying to not wear what I see everybody else wearing.
Joy: Oh my gosh, I am the same way.
Kaisa: Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I’ve been like that since forever where I am like, if I see everybody wearing this thing, I kind of want to stand out and not look like them.
Joy: That’s so funny. Yeah. I mean, I am still putting glitter on my face. Someone we recently talked on the podcast about getting your colors done. I didn’t know that was a thing. Basically, what colors look best on you? There is a whole process of things that you can be analyzed for which colors are your best fit. I was like, that sounds horrible. I would never want to know exactly what to wear. That sounds suffocating to me.
Kaisa: Sounds limiting.
Joy: Give me rainbows and glitter exploding everywhere. All the colors. I don’t try to match. I think matching is boring. Anyway, that’s great because I think that just shows – and your nails look great.
Kaisa: Thank you.
Joy: She has these awesome long black and white creative artsy looking nails. I heard on another show that you had to do that because – did you get Covid and you needed to get your nails done or something because you were getting antsy?
Kaisa: I did start getting these done during Covid. You all won’t be able to see. They are ridiculously long, and I do lift weights, and I do work out in them. Again, it’s just another – I just feel like these are ways to creatively express myself.
Joy: Yes.
Kaisa: I am a very creative person. So I am in my nail phase for now. Covid did it to me.
Joy: I love it. Now, you’re like, “I’m hooked.” I’ve got these press-ons, but I’m a nail person now.
Kaisa: I love it. It’s so fun.
Joy: Okay. And so ending with a couple fun ones too. Are there any favorite products that you’re using right now? Our listeners love that I talk about product because I am a product person. Any face, hair, whatever or any favorite shows that you’re watching?
Kaisa: I am going to start with products. This sounds like a push because I rep them, but Therabody, hands down, favorite products. If anybody has questions that is listening, please DM me. I answer all of my DMs personally. Because for me, there’s been so much that I am recovering from the last several years Therabody, hands down, favorite product. Their mini Thereabody gun –
Joy: Yeah, it’s like a little vibration gun. Cool.
Kaisa: And it really does work. Favorite thing ever. Favorite show right now. So I am currently watching Marcella on Netflix. I am into all things crime related. So if you have them, please let me know. I was so upset when Killing Eve ended because I thought there were four seasons, and there are only three. So upset. So those are mine. I am trying to find more to watch.
Joy: Like true crime? Yeah.
Kaisa: Yeah, I love crime. And then product wise, I don’t know. I use so many different products. Shampoo! I will say –
Joy: You’re like, “I wash my hair!”
Kaisa: I do wash my hair, and people always ask me about my hair. I wish they would rep me, but they won’t even listen to me. Prose, the shampoo.
Joy: Oh yeah, I’ve heard about this.
Kaisa: Anybody listening right now, I have gone through the most ridiculous, expensive shampoos because I have curly hair. I can never find anything that works. They want you to buy so many creams and curls and all this and that. So annoying. I don’t have time for that. So my friend suggested Prose, which I was like, this is totally an Instagram gimmicky thing. This can’t be real. Love it. I’ve been doing it for a year.
Joy: You stand by it.
Kaisa: I love it. I stand by them. I’ve gotten so many people hooked. I don’t get paid for this. They don’t even pay attention to me.
Joy: Hey Prose, get over here. Yeah.
Kaisa: Prose, come on. Love it. Take the quiz. Do it all. I have the curl cream that I do at the end. Love it.
Joy: Okay, alright. Y’all, you heard it here first. Well, thank you so much for your time. Like I said, this was really a great conversation. Really just the mission that we are in alignment with, so we support you one thousand percent, and we will make sure all the links are in our show notes so listeners can find you. You can go to joyandclaire.com and you can find us @joyandclaire_ on Instagram. That’s it for this week. We will see you next time.