'It was a massive risk': Rising Star finalist and fitness coach Shelley on the grief that fueled her mission

Despite helping transform the health of thousands of people, it was a very personal event that inspired fitness coach Shelley Booth to reach the business heights she has scaled.

This year, The Courier Business Awards is shining a spotlight on a gamechanger in business with a new Rising Star award.

And Shelley, the creator of women’s online health and wellbeing programme The Feel Look Be Formula, is one of our four finalists.

The inspiring entrepreneur has a strong background in health and fitness, but first dipped her toes into what’s now a full-time business by launching bootcamps in Dundee.

Shelley (centre) with personal training colleagues who work on her Train Eat Sleep Repeat programme.

She said: “They were really successfully and I thought I had something there, so I took the risk and opened Train Eat Sleep Repeat, a cross fit box in Dundee. I left my job.

“I was a single parent at the time so it was a massive risk. And then after a few years people started saying ‘why don’t you try online?’. I decided to give it a bash.”

An initial trial with 15 local people proved immediately successful, with participants loving the on-tap access to Shelley’s knowledge and support.

A personal training mission

But her passion really shone through, too.

After all, Shelley started the business after losing her dad when he was just 56 due to his lifestyle, and that personal motivation remains at the heart of everything she does.

The resulting Feel Look Be programme helps women work towards optimal health through a holistic approach, addressing mind, body and soul – but it has wider impacts.

Shelley said: “When I train a woman, she takes it into the family home and everyone benefits – everybody starts working out together, doing walks and cycles together. It permeates the whole family.”

The business quickly grew from 15 participants to 250, then 600, and now has over 10,000 participants across the world.

A mother-and-baby gym session at Shelley’s Train Eat Sleep Repeat gym.

This success has transformed the lives of Shelley and her family, and it has now led to creation of a new online business coaching service called MentorMe by Shelley Booth, which trains women to start, grow and scale an online business.

She said: “Women are queuing up to see how I did it. It’s really incredible – women didn’t know they had these skills and gifts to give to the world, and just through my language and how I talk to them, they think ‘that could be me’.

“I had a working class mum and I was brought up in a working class area in Dundee, so it’s rewarding to see these women actually say ‘yes, I can do this’.”

Creating a community

For that reason, Shelley is keen to emphasise the importance of the community she’s building.

She explained: “I may be up for a Rising Star award but I think it should be Rising Stars. The whole ethos of this business is creating stars all around. These women are stepping into their power and as a result, the impact is going be far more wide-reaching than just me.”

And the local connection makes being nominated all the sweeter: “I’m hugely proud of Dundee so to be nominated for a rising star award in my hometown on the back of the success of what I’ve done the past few years, it makes me so proud.”