287. Disrupting the Silence: Karena Dawn On Life Beyond 'Tone It Up' & Prioritizing Mental Health

Hurdle

Emily Abbate

Health & Fitness

5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tone It Up co-founder Karena Dawn has had her fair share of hurdles, both personally and professionally, evolving the popular workout brand and product line over the last 15 years. Through the highs and lows, she always comes back to one word: resilient. This week, I sit down with Karena and go deep into her upbringing, plus the chance encounter Tone It Up co-founder Katrina Scott at the gym, and how the duo evolved the company throughout the years. Plus: She talks openly about her experience navigating mental health struggles within her family, and how she hopes to impact others for the better moving forward.

Note: We discuss some sensitive topics in this episode, including suicide. Know that there are resources available below.

RESOURCES

The Big Silence

IN THIS EPISODE

How Karena is feeling about her move to Austin right before the pandemic (4:45)

Why she started The Big Silence Foundation and later wrote a memoir to share her story (6:10)

What progress can look like when taking the step towards bettering your mental health (12:03)

The peaks and valleys of growing personally alongside a brand like Tone It Up (15:35)

What comes with starting something from ground zero, both the good and the hard (17:25)

How to deal with (unsolicited) feedback and embrace change in yourself (23:30)

Turning to empathy amidst the hurdles that come with mental illness (29:05)

How Tone It Up changed come March 2020 (35:30)

How to create space for yourself and set smart boundaries (38:30)

What excites Karena right now (46:25)

Strategies for navigating grief and how to stay resilient when you feel incapable (48:20)

Karena’s word of the year (58:15)

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I started the Big Silence Foundation, I wrote a memoir called The Big Silence in order to make
0:06.1	sure that the little Karinas, the teenagers or the adults today aren't suffering in silence
0:10.8	and opening up those conversations and ending the stigma around
0:14.7	mental health. What's going on everyone? Emily Abadiadi here. You are listening to episode 287 of hurdle.
0:37.5	A wellness focus podcast where I talk to inspirational people about everything from their
0:42.2	highest highs and toughest moments
0:43.8	to essential tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.
0:49.0	We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My goal through these discussions is to
0:54.7	empower you to better navigate yours and move with intention so that you can
0:59.2	stride toward your own big potential and of course have some fun along the way.
1:06.2	For episode 287, I am elated to bring you
1:10.2	my conversation with Karina Dawn. You know and love her as the co-founder of the wildly
1:16.4	popular brand, Tone It Up, which has certainly gone through its fair share of innovations and iterations over the past 15 years since it was founded in
1:28.4	2009. She's also the founder of the Big Silence, a nonprofit organization that's focused on helping everyone
1:36.4	have access to mental health resources and, as she puts it, break the silence.
1:41.2	She's also a fellow podcaster. The show goes by that same name the big silence and I am so like I said
1:48.0	just happy that we finally had the opportunity to sit down and do this I
1:51.9	feel as though this has been in the work since gosh like maybe
1:56.1	2019 so yeah long time coming. In today's episode we talk about it all we talk about Karina's upbringing what it was like to navigate the hurdles within her home life
2:08.1	We also talk about the chance encounter between her and her now co-founder of Tone It Up Katrina.
2:15.6	I've also recorded with her. I'll include the link to that episode in the show notes and
2:20.8	how the two friends became roommates and then business
	...

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