Recent St. Thomas graduate and personal trainer Hannah Studee used a network of fellow Tommies to establish a fitness training business last August with her Instagram fitness account @bodybystudee.
Drawing on connections she made throughout her time at St. Thomas, Studee organized a team of like-minded individuals who have helped to make her entrepreneurial visions a reality.
“We’re all in the same boat, we’re around the same age, have a similar mindset and goals and we all have our own career plans but in different areas… so it’s been really cool to collaborate with everyone’s different strengths,” Studee said. The Body By Studee instagram account now has nearly 1,000 followers as a result of the team’s efforts.
After earning an exercise science degree from St. Thomas last spring, Studee knew she wanted to become a fitness trainer. Success with her makeup business, Beauty by Studee, gave her the confidence to replicate that in the fitness world. As a trainer, she offers a variety of services including at-home workout plans, personal group or individual workout sessions and nutritional plans.
Kristina Pappas, a close friend of Studee’s who graduated from St. Thomas with a degree in business communication, has helped manage Body by Studee’s Instagram page from the start.
“Social media is something I really enjoy, and I would like to end up (working) in that field someday, so I thought this would be such a great way to do it, and it was just a perfect opportunity for us both,” Pappas said.
One of the biggest benefits Pappas has experienced from working with Studee has been “realizing that this type of work is one of my passions.”
“I’ve always known I’m a good communicator, I’m somewhat creative and I want to help people, but I never knew where to put myself with those strengths, so with this I’m finding that I feel really fulfilled with this kind of work,” Pappas said.
Pappas has enjoyed working for a program that works for her, saying, “you can just tell how intentional she is with how she personalizes her workout programs to your goals. She’s really thinking about the science behind it, and she has more credentials than the typical personal trainer, (which) is helpful when she creates your program.”
Lizzy Fasching, Studee’s college roommate, runs her own photography business and has been collaborating with Studee for more than a year.
“I always saw myself as a portrait photographer, but working with Studee made me realize that photography is an essential part of growing a business, and that’s the aspect of marketing that I’m most interested in,” Fasching said.
Studee has also involved St. Thomas senior Drew Bouman to produce video content. Bouman, a business major, sees the experience as a valuable opportunity to develop skills he will apply in his future career.
“I want to eventually create content for small businesses and help them with branding and all that stuff, so this is a great addition to my portfolio,” Bouman said.
The Body by Studee team agreed that the connections they’ve made at St. Thomas have been highly useful in the startup process. Studee encourages anyone considering starting a business to talk to their peers openly about their business concepts.
“After I got over the fear of what people thought, I just talked about my ideas, and once I (did), people were like, ‘I know just the person for that!’ So just talking about and not being afraid of what people think is important,” Studee said.
Pappas described a current project her team is working on and explained that “it’s all St. Thomas students helping out, and that just happened by accident.”
“We asked for volunteers, and they all just happened to be Tommies, and I think that says something special about the community St. Thomas has.”
Lauren Price can be reached at lauren.price@stthomas.edu.