Kayla Itsines started working for herself when she was 18. At that time she did not see herself as an entrepreneur and had no idea that in less than 8 years she would top the Forbes’ list of the world’s top social media influencers in the fitness world. But she did know what her goal was: to help and motivate women.
While working as a personal trainer at a gym in Adelaide, Itsines identified an opportunity for creating a workout especially meant for women focusing on arms, legs and abs. And in 2014, along with her partner and fellow personal trainer Tobi Pearce, she built the ‘Bikini Body Guide’ fitness programme.
Pearce who is now the CEO of this great fitness empire, began his journey into fitness when he was working as a personal trainer to pay his way through college. He met Kayla at a gym and the two started dating in 2012.
Their goal was to educate and support women throughout their fitness journey and help them feel stronger and more confident about themselves.
Today, Itsines has 11.5 million Instagram followers and over 30 million downloads of her app Sweat. Together, Itsines and Pearce also landed on the 2016 BRW Young Rich List, with an estimated combined wealth of $46 million.
What’s unique about Itsines is the extremely engaged and supportive community of over 20 million women across the world who use her 28-minute workouts (shelling out $19.99 per month), best-selling books and fitness accessories.
When it comes to her community and her clients, Itsines has always stressed on building a supportive and welcoming environment where every individual can just be themselves. One of the major reasons why she’s so relatable to such a wide range of followers is that she never makes it about herself. She always focuses on the fact that her brand is based on the transformations and success of other women.
Itsines has often talked about the significant role social media, in particular Instagram, has played in helping her reach so many women and build the BBG Community to what it is today.
But she didn’t start out with a social media strategy. In fact, when her little cousin suggested she use Instagram as a way to showcase before and after transformation photos of her clients, she hadn’t imagined how she was at the brink of becoming one of the Internet’s biggest #fitspo icons.
On his part, Pearce has been the driving force on the commercial side of the app. He’s a passionate entrepreneur with a tremendous growth mindset and is known to invest a lot of time learning about all the different aspects of his business so he can be a better leader.
And that’s how these two young Australians have become the power couple of the fitness world, building phenomenal success and influence in a remarkably short period of time.
Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce are number 7 on our KBB Power List as voted by you.
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