Community Highlights: Meet Aesha Tahir of Tone and Strengthen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aesha Tahir. 

Hi Aesha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m an exercise physiologist on a mission to help deskbound professionals live better by embracing an unhunched posture. As a corporate wellness consultant, I design wellness programs for organizations and run an online wellness coaching business, Tone and Strengthen, LLC.

My journey in the wellness industry started eight years ago on the Spinning stage. After getting certified as a Spinning Instructor, I taught my first Spinning class to 30 road cyclists and received a standing ovation. I loved that experience and the ability to motivate others to achieve their health goals. Before that, I worked as a software developer. I was getting burnt out in that career and felt totally out of alignment. Teaching that Spinning class was when I realized I wanted to inspire others to achieve their fullest potential through health and happiness.

During my time at Corporate America, I led a sedentary lifestyle, leading to severe low back pain and sciatica. Although my painful days are behind me, I want to help other corporate professionals live pain-free lives filled with passion and vitality. My role as a corporate wellness consultant is a perfect merger of my expertise as an exercise scientist and a corporate professional. Now I create wellness programs for small businesses and corporations and deskbound coach professionals.

I’m also an author, columnist, and wellness speaker. As a wellness writer and speaker, I’m passionate about sharing my knowledge on movement, nutrition, and entrepreneurship. My work is published in Fitness Trainer Magazine and Personal Fitness Professionals, among others.

My book on discovering wellness through posture, “Unhunched,” will be released in May 2023.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been quite a journey so far, with many bumps on the road. Lacking any entrepreneurial experience and guidance has been a significant roadblock for me. My family is from Pakistan, and I’m the first female entrepreneur in my family. Having no entrepreneurial role model in the family, becomes challenging, especially when times are tough.

Learning the American business culture and climbing the ropes of entrepreneurship alone have been very challenging, to say the least. I learned every facet of running a business by experiencing it, failing, and redoing it the right way. From learning how to create a business plan to creating corporate proposals to creating and presenting corporate workshops while balancing the other operational demands of business as a solopreneur is very demanding. I have had to spend endless hours on content creation and marketing.

When the road gets rough, dealing with the cultural and family expectations of going back to corporate and leaning back onto the security of employment is a struggle too. The problem with that approach is that you won’t see results if you’re not all into the dream of your business.

The key to successful entrepreneurship is to go all in and tap into my inner voice for guidance. Ultimately growing independent and being happier with who I am is my absolute dream. Along the way, I am trying to fill the void by becoming a role model and a source of inspiration to other female entrepreneurs.

Running all the business components myself (so far to break even) also means exceptionally long work hours and the constant pressure to perform, which becomes very fatiguing at times. Finding a pace that keeps my business humming without grinding down is a challenge, but I’m learning from experience and pacing myself.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My mission is to help deskbound professionals live better by providing workplace wellness solutions. Being on both sides of the fence as a corporate professional who lived with pain and as a wellness expert makes me unique. My years of experience on both sides provide me the edge to understand the struggles of deskbound teams. I use different modalities to spread the wellness message, making my workshops fun and engaging.

As a result, I’ve helped many clients and deskbound teams unlock the door to self-confidence, courage, avoiding burnout, and pain-free movement by providing wellness coaching and education. Oh! Just so I don’t forget, I help clients with nutrition coaching and building healthy habits around food because I believe in the well-being of the whole self. What we eat makes us who we are.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
You’re going to like this one. My favorite childhood memory is of a birthday party. The year I turned 8, my parents told me they were going to have a family birthday and weren’t going to host a birthday party with my friends.

That was not okay with me! So, I took matters into my own hands and invited all my third-grade class fellows with handwritten birthday notes. I remember working on the invites at night when my parents would go to bed for a week (which seemed so long back then).

On my big day, around 5 p.m., parents started showing up at our home to drop off their kids. At first, my mom was astounded, but soon, she realized what I had done. My mom was kind and let all the kids stay. My dad brought pizza and cake on his way back from work.

My parents were pleasantly surprised at how I got my way and didn’t take NO for an answer. It was the best birthday party I ever had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://toneandstrengthen.com
• Book: https://aesha-tahir.presale.manuscripts.com
• Instagram: @tone_and_strengthen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toneandstrengthen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aeshatahir
• Youtube: Tone and Strengthen
• Other: https://pin.it/3iSWj9X

Image Credits
Caitlyn Stoille