Among the many roles women have during their lifetime, accomplishing their career goals remains one of the most rewarding experiences. In the ecosystem of multitalented women at Luminary, we are always listening for member success stories. From new ventures to pitches that turned into deals, our members are making power moves and securing the bag!

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SweatVacay is Taking Over Mykonos one Fitness Class at a Time:

Veronica Kennedy + Lauren Demarest, besties for the past 20 years, found themselves trying to find fitness classes while vacationing in Greece only to find little to no options, learn how this dynamic duo turned this into an opportunity for growth.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

We are besties for 20 years now from Naples, Florida. We moved to NYC separately but have both lived in the city 8 years now. We always knew we would be business owners. We just had no idea it would be together… and that our business suits would be more like bathing suits #BlazerLife4Eva! 

 

Today we are the co-founders of Sweat Vacay. Bringing workouts with local flavor to the world’s most beautiful vacation destinations. And we’re launching our Mykonos, Greece locations this May! 

 

What was the inspiration behind your business? 

We came up with the idea for Sweat Vacay about a year and a half ago while on vacation in Greece. We love working out and thought it might be nice to pick up a beach yoga class to break up all the lazy, local-food-induced-food-coma sun snoozing. And it was impossible. Few options. No regularly-scheduled classes. Nothing easy to book online. This was an obvious hole in the fitness space on this tourist-heavy island. This was something we could fix. 

 

With our complimentary backgrounds in Operations + IT and in Advertising + Brand Building, we went to work. Now we own an American and a Greek company. We hired amazing Greek trainers. Our local team will teach 4 classes a day. We offer poolside spin, beach and garden yoga, bootcamp, mat pilates, and barre classes. All outside. At the hottest beach club on the island. At a sexy new boutique hotel with 7 gorgeous beach villas. And in a walled garden in the heart of Mykonos Town. Are you coming to visit us, or what? ;)

 

Follow us on Insta, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube! @SweatVacay and for updates, join our Jet Setter Mailing List at https://www.sweatvacay.com

 

What is your mission and vision for your business?

Our mission is “Workouts With Local Flavor”. Our vision is to engage tourists in the best and most beautiful parts about where they have chosen to vacation through the lens of exercise. We work with local businesses, restauranteurs, hoteliers, concierges, artists + artisans and tour guides, and encourage our class-goers to feel like insiders by trying traditional local flavors, shopping for local treasures, and taking in insane local sunsets. 

Who/What inspires you?

We love the read, “Riding High: How I Kissed SoulCycle Goodbye, Co-Founded Flywheel, and Built the Life I Always Wanted by our fitness mentor and idol Ruth Zuckerman. It’s such a personal story. It is so very inspiring! We feel so lucky to know her. We know she will inspire you too!

Lauren and Veronica are in the process of gathering funding, you can help support their journey here.

The Luminary community is rooting for you ladies!

Be the change we want to see in the world and take action, like Wendy:

Luminary Member Wendy Qui is no stranger to the wise words above. After struggling to find clothes that fit her body type, she created Maydtofit to redefine the tailoring experience for women of all shapes and sizes, learn just how below:.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

As a petite woman, I’ve struggled my whole life to fit into clothing properly and seeing that this problem transcends across women of all body shapes and sizes, I felt compelled to do something about it. A staggering and enraging statistic is that 57% of US women feel that there are no clothes made to fit their body types. Instead of making our bodies fitting into clothes, we should be making the clothes fit our bodies!!

 

We anticipate to launch this summer, please follow us for updates on instagram @maydtofit.

 

What is your mission and vision for your business? 

We aspire to create a new standard norm of customized-fit clothing as part of everyday life without sacrificing on the brand or design of the clothing. We envision a world where women of all body shapes and sizes are embraced by the uniqueness of their bodies as reflected through their clothing and not simply reduced or defined by a size number. The accessibility to customized-fit clothing will instill confidence and control for women, a luxury in the past but a necessity in the future with May’d. 

 

What books/blogs/ Podcasts are you into lately?  

The Glossy Podcast- I love to listen to this when I’m commuting or need a dose of inspiration. I learn something new every episode, and that makes me very happy. I’m always rotating between a few books at a time both fiction and non-fiction I just finished “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Otessa Moshfegh, incredibly refreshing author that tells a strange and weirdly relatable novel and “Invisible Influence” by Jonah Berger – love a good book about human behavior.

 

Who inspires you?

Honestly, all the amazing women in my life. Growing up I’ve always been a “girl’s girl” and now I see myself as a “women’s woman”. I feel inspired by the badass ladies in my life (both in my close circles and those that I admire from afar) who do what they do and do it unapologetically. Especially Monica Mohan, my co-founder – she truly does it all and with incredible grace and elegance.

 

 

Feeling inspired yet? Add The Dreamcatchers to your queue of weekly podcasts to listen:

 

 

For us it is truly an honor to be the home base for all the various journeys women in our community are on, including Luminary members, Marissa Klein, and Jamie Sztoser-- Sisters, business partners/career experts at Choice Associates, and hosts of The Dreamcatchers – a podcast that focuses on real people with amazing jobs. Their interviews dig deep into how their guests got to where they are today and who/what inspires them. Recently, Marissa and Jamie recorded their podcast interview with Stacie Sussman right in our Luminary space! 

 

You can listen to the episode here and learn how Stacie was able to move from corporate to freelance, build a network, run a company and most importantly, BALANCE it all.

 

How's that for an extra dose of inspiration?