Johanna Devries, founder of growwithjo, who is an online fitness trainer that's helping women train ... [+]
When Johanna Devries started training clients one-on-one, she joined the fitness field with a newfound perspective: “I had previously taken an unhealthy route of overexercising and doing it ‘for the looks’, but one day something clicked.” Devries had realized how potentially unhealthy the approach was and leaned into training clients with a balanced mindset. Her focus shifted from solely physical appearance to holistic mind, body, and soul development. This led her to launch her Instagram page, growwithjo.
After months of sharing workout routines and mindset hacks on Instagram, she was inspired to launch her first program ‘Big Booty Tight Tummy’. The program had sweeping effects performing instrumentally well in its first months inspiring Devries to go full-time with social media marketing and launch an online fitness personality.
“At this time I was still very shy about starting out on YouTube and felt like it would be too much work for me to take on myself. I shared a few videos here and there but it wasn't until I met my (now) husband who had been working on his channel for several years, that I was encouraged to take a stab at it. Having the support of my husband both in encouragement and actually helping me create the videos with his knowledge of videography, photography, and YouTube, motivated me to go for it,” she says.
Devries shares more about her start with online workout videos, how the growwithjo community has scaled to an app, and tips for those who wish to achieve their fitness goals.
The Secret Sauce of growwithjo’s Community
Instagram was the first avenue of growth for Devries community since she had launched on the scene due to a few of her workout posts going viral. But it wasn’t until after having her son in March of 2020 that she led her brand to a significant pivot focusing on supporting beginners who were starting again or starting for the first time.
Experiencing pregnancy, labor, and an emergency c-section put Devries in a place where she describes feeling like she was a complete beginner again on her fitness journey: “I had gained 50 pounds throughout my pregnancy, despite my efforts to stay active, and after a traumatic birthing experience, I felt lost on my journey and extremely discouraged. A thought emerged that I am not the only one who has or will go through this and I can help others find their way out of debilitating emotions. Many women; mothers or not, experience lapses in their journeys that make them feel isolated, shameful, and lost.”
In addition to starting the motherhood journey, Devries highlights March 2020 was also the start of the pandemic; a time when there was a national reckoning with isolation and varied feelings around the climate of the world. During this time, as she embarked on what she now calls her “bounce forward journey,” her husband encouraged her to focus on achieving 'one task a day’ and described the rest as a bonus. The task per day became daily walks. Then as Devries launched back into posting on YouTube, she was asked by her best friend to create a low-impact workout that she could do during the pandemic in her apartment that wouldn't bother her neighbors but was challenging enough to get sweaty and feel accomplished.
growwithjo's Walk the Weight Off series on YouTube.
The request launched her “Walk the Weight Off” series. Devries was astonished that this made her channel go viral. “Women all over the world were sharing my workouts with their moms, sisters, and besties because of how good they felt moving their bodies and letting loose in their living rooms.” As a byproduct, her growwithjo unified Facebook group grew very quickly to 60,000 members, the group is a place where support, accountability, and emotional connection has been taking place for her community. Devries shares she has been able to see how strong her community is because of that group.
“The one thing that I hear the most from my community is: ‘I no longer dread working out, in fact, I look forward to my workouts as an opportunity to enjoy moving my body and feeling good in my own skin. I see amazing results but that is secondary to the feeling of accomplishment and confidence that spreads throughout my life beyond my workout/wellness routine.’” That has been the secret sauce to both Devries fitness journey success as well as that of her community. It’s the glue she’s found that holds everyone together.
As the leader of this community, she’s made it her mission to bring her best energy to each workout and translate her joy into serving and helping those who wish to embark on a fulfilling journey of wellness. Because of this mindset and message, the growwithjo YouTube community has grown from less than 200,000 in 2021 to almost 3 million (2.86M) in 2022 with growth worldwide, beyond North America. Over the past 6 months, her team has also made partnerships in China to bring her content to an Asian market, amassing over 700,000 fans on China's popular Bilibili platform.
Expanding To The growwithjo App
The growwithjo app is a product of the realizations Devries had re-starting her fitness journey postpartum: “I created the app to be an aid to anyone who feels lost on their journey and needs a set plan that is customized to their needs. The app is not just a fitness app; it's so much more.” Upon downloading the app, a newcomer receives a set of questions to gauge where they are on their journey and where they want to go. This also supports the growwithjo team in creating a customized meal plan–according to each person’s preferences.
growwithjo app featuring trainers, share screen workouts, and healthy meal options.
In addition to nutrition and fitness, the app also offers mental and spiritual ways to get a user engaged on their lifelong journey to wellness and happiness. The Balance feature in the growwithjo app contains meditations, breath work exercises, devotions, scriptures, sleep sounds, podcasts, and nature sounds. All of these are created to help the user recenter themselves at any point of their day. “As a mom and businesswoman, I know how hard it is to get a moment to yourself,” Devries says. The growwithjo app prompts users daily with reminders to take time to themselves for a workout, meditation, or even just a couple of moments to breathe.
“The amazing thing about the growwithjo app is that it takes into consideration the feedback of the community. We recently introduced a SharePlay feature in collaboration with Apple to connect users with their friends (anytime and anywhere) to get a workout in together in real-time,” the fitness leader shares. The feature syncs the workouts on both friends' screens so they can chat and train. So many women have found that the app has been a game-changer for taking care of themselves more consistently in a new way.
Tips For Reaching New Fitness Goals
When asked about her top tips for those interested in reaching new heights on their fitness journey, Devries shares the following:
- Mindset first: “Where your mind goes, your body will follow. Believe in yourself, then take action. You need to have unwavering faith that you can accomplish your goal and then stick to your plan of action. Understand that your mind is just as involved in the process as your body is. Find 1-2 ways to exercise your mind throughout your fitness journey; ie. through meditation, breath work, affirmations, reading books, or listening to podcasts. Pairing mental exercise with physical exercise is one of the best things I did for myself on my fitness journey as it encouraged me to grow and see results in more ways than just physically.”
- Build self-confidence by implementing new healthy habits one at a time: “Each time you follow through on your word for yourself—completing a workout you said you would do, meditating at the time you said you would, or preparing a healthy meal when that was in your plans—you build confidence because you start to trust your own word. This is why I say build healthy habits one at a time. When you try to implement several different tactics to get toward your goal all at once, it's easy to "fall off" or "fall out of routine" because you have set so many expectations on yourself in addition to your regular habits and responsibilities. Develop one habit at a time until it becomes natural, then introduce more. Your fitness journey is not a race or a competition.”
- Take the guilt out of "falling off the wagon" or "falling out of routine": “This will become easier if you are focused less on your body and more on your mindset and health. Longevity and consistency on your journey come from focusing on all the benefits of being healthy beyond how often you work out or how long. When you have breaks from exercise, it's not always because you are ‘lazy’ or ‘inconsistent’. When you feel guilty or mad at yourself for falling behind or getting out of routine, it's just creating an even greater barrier to you taking care of yourself in maybe a new way.”
- Understand that your journey and your needs are unique: “Treat your personal journey that way by eliminating comparison and finding what works best for you.”
An Ode To The Future
In the future, Devries hopes to translate her app and YouTube workouts so women all over the world can enjoy working out in their living rooms–or anywhere. “The impact that I have seen from the English-speaking women throughout my community is too large to not share beyond a language barrier,” she describes. Viewers can look for new growwithjo channels starting with French, Spanish, and Portuguese on YouTube and even more translations within the growwithjo app.
“My personal goal as a founder is to go beyond influencing online and sharing my experience, insight, and inspiration with the world through public speaking; speaking life and joy into women who need it most,” the growwithjo founder closes.
