Holly Braithwaite left her job to focus on a family and her passion for fitness, which she later turned into an international business direct from her home.
Holly, 36, from Liverpool, initially worked for online retail group Very as an assistant buyer for seven years. Despite the overall positive experience, backed by a friendly and supportive team, she knew she was in the wrong industry. She told the Echo: "I was never a person that could sit at a desk and be still."
Holly's real passion came from fitness, with her sister already established as a personal trainer. Holly swept her interest aside to ensure she "didn't step on anyone's toes" but she eventually pursued personal training courses during the weekend and after work.
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She added: "I've always been into fitness. It was always a path I wanted to do but in all honesty, I wasn't sure how to do it. I thought, I'll do these courses for a while and see how things go' but I already knew this is what I wanted to do."
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Holly left Very at the end of 2018, much to the concern of her parents. They were apprehensive about how Holly would stay afloat financially but gave their full support after seeing how happy and fulfilled a career in personal training was making their daughter.
Holly said: "I wanted to do something I loved going into my 30s. I wanted my career to be something completely different but something I loved doing."
She began her journey as a personal trainer after gaining her qualifications, gathering clients and managing a waiting list of over two weeks. Though she was doing what she loved, Holly was working "ridiculous hours." She said: "I was getting in to work at 5am and not getting out until 10pm. I loved what I did so I did it but I always wanted to have a family so I didn't know if I could have both."
Shortly after Holly began making leaps into her new life path, the coronavirus locked the world down and forced everyone to stay at home. The self-declared fidgeter still couldn't remain still even from the comfort of her house which spurred her on to deliver personal training sessions to those still needing them.
When the world went online, so did Holly. She began offering a range of training and fitness sessions over Instagram which soon built her a die-hard community of stay-at-home gym goers from around the world. Being able to deliver her training sessions, from home, a place she could also manage a potential family, made Holly think, "I never want to be on a gym floor again."
She added: "The hours I worked, if I wanted a family, I couldn't do them. When I looked at it long term, it just wasn't plausible and I kind of thank lockdown for pushing me towards where I am now. With a physical space, you're limited in what you can do and who can come along because it's only people around the area but by going online, we're able to go all over the world."
Holly's partner, Callum Webb, 32, joined her on the journey after he too decided an online residency was the best path moving forward. Together, they combined their experience and expertise to create POW8R in 2021, a training and fitness application with a global reach. With over 600 workouts and 600 recipes available to access at any time, combined with personal and bespoke advice for users, it's a far cry from their humble beginnings on Instagram.
The community built throughout the lockdown remained loyal supporters but the leap into a more professional sphere kickstarted what they both hope to be a lifelong and thriving business. On her family's reaction to POW8R, Holly said: "They're all very proud. Mum, Dad, my sister, they're all so happy and supportive."
A "POW8R pop-up" was put together in March, with another scheduled for July, in order to give the POW8R community a chance to meet each other in person, and for Holly to meet her online family. She said: "I'm so big on community. We speak to everyone through the app personally all the time but it was so nice to put a face to a name. It's nice to bring people together. People can come along and even if they don't know anyone there they can meet new people and feel welcome. It's lovely to see."
"Everyone has different things going on in their lives and even if they fall off they can get in touch with us and say, 'I've had a rough couple of weeks,' and we can help them. Just being that little bit more accountable and being able to help people know the help is there to get back into things is something we always want to push."
In 2022, Holly fell pregnant with her first child, Vogue. Now eight months old, the proud mum not only has the family life and business she's always wanted but she's also managed to share it with the POW8R users albeit accidentally.
Recalling the crazy 24 hours before Vogue arrived, Holly said: "I was on a live workout, and this was 12 days before I was due, but I had a weird feeling that morning. I didn't think anything of it and I went on and everyone who joined me on that specific workout were people that have been with me from the very beginning.
"About five minutes in my waters broke. I remember the midwife told me I don't need to go to the hospital until six hours later so I thought, you know what, I'm going to stay on. I powered on, got through it, and then later went to the hospital and had my first child. I eventually came back and told everyone what happened and they were all so happy for me. So yeah, everyone shared that experience with me."
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