Laura Conover grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, about 15 minutes from the business she now owns with her husband, Greg.
From an early age, Laura was interested in movement. She was the first of her siblings to show an interest in sports, and her parents learned the ropes alongside her from the time she registered as the only girl on the local tee-ball team through years of cross-country meets and two state championship softball titles. “When I was the only girl on the team, they never thought anything of it, so I didn’t either,” recalled Laura. “From very early on, they showed me that I could create my own path.”
While Laura opted to focus on academics when she enrolled at Penn State, she didn’t leave her love for sports behind. A public relations student, she put her studies to work doing PR for the Penn State athletics department, where she enjoyed staying adjacent to her love of sports.
After college, Laura moved to the DC area, where she hopped through a few positions early-career, primarily working in retail and events. She continued to feel plugged into her passion for an active lifestyle through most of these roles, like her work planning 5k events.
Her first job in the fitness arena was as a part-time instructor with Pure Barre while working full-time in a retail job selling wedding dresses.
Slowly, Laura began to feel the tug of her part-time passion project pulling her to pursue fitness full-time. “In my day job, I was surrounded by a lot of anxiety with clients feeling pressure to lose weight or look a certain way. In my part-time job, I could help people focus on moving well and feeling good about themselves,” she shared. She began to pursue additional fitness certifications and eventually pivoted to working in the fitness industry full-time.
Laura stayed on board as an instructor with Pure Barre and began coaching for Orange Theory, working her way up to Head Coach and then Studio Manager.
Working with two large fitness franchise concepts, Laura gained insight into the business operations of each brand. She started to see her passion for fitness merging with the itch she had long felt to own her own business. “Growing up, my parents were both attorneys,” explained Laura. “My mom was frequently the only woman in the room, and she made it known that she belonged there just as much as anyone else did, and they instilled this mindset in me from an early age, too. My dad ran his own business, and while he worked hard, I always admired the way he got to live and work on his own terms.”
But while Laura loved what she was doing and knew she wanted to work her way toward being a business owner in the fitness industry, burnout began to hit. “Everything about my life was very ‘go, go, go,’” shared Laura. “I was working as much as possible and working out as much as possible. The two-a-day mindset across clients and staff was draining, and while I remained passionate about making a positive impact in the fitness industry, I started to see that the way I was living my life was not healthy for me in a long-term sense.”
Laura first came to learn of MADabolic as a competitor in her market. She recalled admiring the sustainable approach to long-term health and wellness from her first encounters with the brand. “It caught my eye immediately, and I kept tabs on what was happening with MADabolic from a distance over the next few years,” she shared. A few years later, she and her husband Greg decided to return home to Connecticut to be close to family. Laura began to explore business opportunities, feeling the time was right to pursue her dream of launching her own business and knowing she’d want more control over her schedule. Again, she found herself drawn to MADabolic, feeling the brand offered a sustainable approach to the industry she loved.
“MADabolic’s strength, structure, and accountability drew me in during the discovery journey,” shared Laura. She opened her studio early in 2022. “I spent a lot of time working in an environment of ‘fitness for everyone,’ and I was tired of excelling at being average. I love the mindset of being a brand for high achievers and that MADabolic doesn’t water down the quality or the fire behind the brand.”
Now a small business owner and mom to two-year-old Mac, Laura continues to work at growing her business. Even in her first six months of operation, she has been grateful for the chance to build out a member base with a shared mindset. “The best part of the day-to-day is the members and the connections we build within this space,” she explained. “A good coach knows their clients personally, and it’s fulfilling to be a bright spot in someone’s day by helping them feel good about themselves through moving well, eating well, and balancing strength-driven training with sufficient recovery.
I love that MADabolic fills a unique void in a crowded fitness market, and it’s refreshing to pursue my dream with a brand that stands out and has an approach that’s both results-driven and sustainable for the long haul.”
MADabolic has over 75 studios operating or in development across the country. As the industry’s first and only strength-driven interval training franchise, MADabolic offers a results-driven strength training program, structured resources to ensure the success of studio owners, and a team of experts behind the brand. For more information about the MADabolic franchise opportunity, please visit www.madabolic.com/own-a-madabolic.
