# Ep 72. Sara Kooperman on Building SCW: Resilience, Reinvention, and the Future of Fitness Education

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/start-before-you-re-ready-7047661/ep-72-sara-kooperman-on-building-scw-resilience-reinvention-and-the-future-of-fitness-education
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/start-before-you-re-ready-7047661/ep-72-sara-kooperman-on-building-scw-resilience-reinvention-and-the-future-of-fitness-education.md
Podcast: [Start Before You're Ready](https://stenobird.com/podcast/start-before-you-re-ready-7047661)
Published: 2026-02-23T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://startbeforeyoureready.transistor.fm/72
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/84fdb37d/780c79b5.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/start-before-you-re-ready-7047661/episodes/ep-72-sara-kooperman-on-building-scw-resilience-reinvention-and-the-future-of-fitness-education
Duration seconds: 3084

## Resource

This episode of Start Before You’re Ready features Sara Kooperman, founder and CEO of SCW Fitness Education, who has spent over 40 years shaping the fitness industry through her MANIA® conventions, certifications, and continuing education. We talk about how SCW grew from a single workshop to six national MANIA® conferences, why live and hybrid education still matters in an online world, and how Sara continues to create affordable, accessible learning for group fitness instructors, personal trainers, and studio owners through events, livestream summits, and free monthly webinars. Sara shares her unlikely journey from dancer to lawyer to fitness entrepreneur, including opening (and closing) her first Chicago studio, taking big risks on credit cards to launch new cities, and what those failures taught her about leadership, money, and resilience. We also dig into the current state of the fitness industry, why in-person certifications and connection are so powerful, her perspective on GLP-1 medications and active agers, and her best advice for aspiring fit pros: ask for help, take risks, expect to fail, and keep going. SCW Fitness Education: https://scwfit.com -- Let’s connect! IG: @kellys_bootcamp My website: https://kellysbootcamp.net/

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## Transcript

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