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Tone It Up Founders Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott On Building A Fitness Empire And Why Community Is More Important Than Ever
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Tone It Up Founders Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott On Building A Fitness Empire And Why Community Is More Important Than Ever

Tone It Up-Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott-Athletechnews
11 years after they posted their first workout video on YouTube, Tone It Up founders Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott have built a multi-million-dollar wellness brand with a following of millions of women around the globe. Athletech News spoke to the duo about their journey to success, how they’ve set themselves apart from other digital offerings, and why they having building a strong community is key to getting through the pandemic.

Back in 2009, when most of the world turned to YouTube to watch Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A” music video, clips of President Obama’s inauguration, and the trailers for “Avatar” or the latest “Twilight” film, Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott were using the platform to build a multi-million-dollar women’s fitness, wellness, and lifestyle brand. The ladies have come a long way since their early days of amateur workout videos, and so too has their creation, Tone It Up. Over the past decade, the brand has grown to include a top-rated app, nutrition and fitness plans, and workout apparel, accessories, and nutrition products, and Dawn and Scott have become bestselling authors and the stars of Bravo’s “Toned Up” series. As pioneers of the social fitness movement, the founders have empowered millions of women around the world with their “friend-to-friend” approach, and they’ve maintained customer loyalty as the market has become more saturated and even in the midst of a global pandemic. Athletech News spoke to Dawn and Scott about the empire they’ve built, how the digital fitness space has changed, and what they see as the future of fitness.

Tell me a bit about the early days of Tone It Up. What was the initial idea and mission? Why did you choose to do it together?

We actually first met at the gym on a Friday night! We were both new to town and looking for girlfriends. As we got to know each other, we quickly realized that we both shared the same mission: to create a community where women can come together, uplift each other, and have fun through fitness. Our initial idea was to create a community through workout and cooking videos. Tone It Up has grown and evolved so much since then—we now have the Tone It Up fitness app and offer a full line of nutrition and fitness products—but our mission has stayed the same since day one. We are here to support and motivate women to live their healthiest, happiest lives.  

Notably, you founded Tone It Up long before digital fitness really took off in the way it has today. What was it like building an entirely digital brand at that time?

We were one of the first brands in the digital fitness space, so we really had to trust our instincts and pave a new way in the industry. We started by filming workouts and cooking videos with just the two of us and a tripod and putting them on YouTube. This was before Instagram even existed! At the time, we saw a deep need for fitness, wellness, and connection online. We took a chance on ourselves (even though so many people told us our idea was “crazy”), and it paid off! We grew organically and built a community of millions of women. Tone It Up’s early, organic growth showed us how much women were craving connection and an approachable alternative to fitness.

Tone It Up- Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott-Athletechnews2
Tone It Up Founders- Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott

As an early disruptor in the fitness space, how did you set yourself apart from established brands and appeal to consumers? How did you get them to choose Tone It Up over a more traditional gym or fitness program?

At the time, fitness felt really harsh. There were a lot of bootcamp style instructors who yelled and took a negative approach to exercise. So many trainers and brands were talking about how to change your body, like how to “flatten your tummy” or “slim your thighs.” That was never going to be us. From the beginning, we were committed to body positivity. For us, fitness is a way to feel strong, confident, and empowered in the beautiful body you have.

We wanted to create a community that reflected what we love about fitness—that it’s fun, empowering, and a place to come together with your girlfriends and feel comfortable and supported. Our community loved that we laughed and were silly in our videos. We can challenge ourselves in tough workouts then come together and have a glass of wine. At the time, no one else was approaching fitness that way, and it really set us apart.

There are many different facets to Tone It Up, from your App to your equipment line. How did you decide to embark on each, and what roles have they collectively played in building your brand?

With every product we create, it’s because our community asked us for it. Our mission is to provide every woman what she needs to live her healthiest life, so if we don’t see something already out there, we get to work innovating and create it. For example, in the early days of Tone It Up, our community always asked us what we eat in a day, so we developed our Tone It Up Nutrition Plan that details exactly what, when, and how we eat to feel our best. When our community asked us to recommend a protein powder, we couldn’t find one that we trusted and felt comfortable recommending, so we created our own Tone It Up Protein line. Most recently, our community was asking us what supplements we take and love—that sparked us to launch our first line of gummy vitamins. We are constantly in conversation with our community to find out what they need to succeed in their healthy lifestyles.

As the digital fitness arena has become more crowded in recent years, how have you continued to make Tone It Up unique?

We always come back to our original mission, which is community. Making fitness fun and putting connection first is what made us stand out when we started, and it still makes us unique today. We are so honored that through our brand, women have found lifelong best friends, bridesmaids at their weddings, and girls who they have never met in person but check in with and cheer on every single day. In today’s fast-paced and often disconnected world, that is truly unique.

Obviously, the pandemic has really pushed consumers to find digital solutions to their fitness. How have the last nine months impacted your brand?

This year has shown us more than ever how important community is. Having at-home workouts through the Tone It Up app and connecting through Instagram has kept us all motivated through this challenging time. Tone It Up has always been a digital-first brand, and in the last nine months, our community has used social media and the app more than ever to keep up with their workouts, feel balanced, and stay connected in a positive way. We’re so proud that through the pandemic, we’ve been able to be a source of positivity and a resource for mental and physical wellness for millions of women. As a company, we’re also proud that we’ve been growing and hiring during this time, so we’re able to provide more jobs amidst a pandemic.

What have been the major challenges or advantages Tone It Up has experienced during the pandemic?

One of the advantages of having a digital-first brand and a small, passionate team is that we can be nimble and shift quickly. We would usually work at our HQ office together and have big in-person fitness shoots to capture our workouts. Of course, we miss seeing each other in person, hugging each other, and shooting together—that has definitely been a challenge. But we were able to shift and shoot tons of content, from workouts to recipe videos to virtual wine chats, at home. Having this content come straight from our homes into our community’s homes feels fitting for this time we’re living in.

What do you envision will be the future of fitness going forward, and what do you think Tone It Up’s place in that will be?

We think even more women will be working out at home in ways that are convenient for their schedule and lifestyle. This year, we’ve heard from so many women who discovered at-home fitness for the first time because of the pandemic, and they’re committed to continuing it even when gyms re-open. Women are creating at-home workout spaces and really looking at their homes as their personal gyms. Tone It Up has always been the leader in at-home fitness with our app and line of fitness equipment, and we’ll continue innovating and evolving to provide women what they need. We’re excited to create new workout programs in the Tone It Up app, bring on even more trainers with diverse expertise, and launch more fitness and nutrition products to help women reach their goals. Next up is our Tone It Up in 2021 Challenge, beginning January 4th, which is six weeks of workouts, recipes, lifestyle challenges, and community support all designed to be done from home.

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