#1] The Story Of CHAARG

Welcome to… The CHAARG Podcast! Whether you recently discovered the CHAARG movement or you have been a CHAARG girl for years… listen to the story of CHAARG like you have never heard it before — firsthand from the Founder, Elisabeth Tavierne + the Director of Expansion, Sarah Clem. While it's been five years since the beginning of CHAARG, the mission is still the same: to liberate girls from the elliptical, ++ to empower every member to become the very best version of herself. Join us, + find your fit! <3

Notes:
-- Become a CHAARG girl at your university
-- Join us for #CHAARG35 [our newest FitPlan, open to members + non-members!]
-- 10 Min Sweat

Transcript

spk_0:   0:04
way. Welcome to charge Pod Guest. I cannot believe it's finally here. I feel like we've been talking

spk_1:   0:13
about a podcast. Four year. Um, but it is here, and we're so, so, so excited for it. I am Elizabeth. I am the founder of Charge. And we also have Sarah on who is basically my other half. We live together, eat, sleep, breathe. The only

spk_0:   0:33
thing we

spk_1:   0:33
don't do much is sweat together, which I feel like it's super ironic, because that's what charges all about. But we both have on our fit in different ways. However, we are just starting to do boxing classes together. We did one yesterday. How are you

spk_0:   0:50
feeling? Um, that yoga has had me. I didn't do that. Many chatter on goes, Let's just put it that way.

spk_1:   0:57
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I found out that I was doing my form completely wrong. Thio boxing. So, thankfully, I got help with that. Um Well, tell you guys more on instagram story, but

spk_0:   1:10
I know I said, why don't you introduce yourself? Yes. So I am Sarah and I'm the director of expansion for charge, and I basically am attached to the hip with Elizabeth so anything you see her do, I'm probably right there. Good introduction way. That's what. Yours. It was like, This is me and I'm attached hip. And I was like, I also got these and kittens

spk_1:   1:48
getting anything out. This is live our first podcast. We want to give you guys a little history lesson on charge. How I started charge and how Sarah became involved. So it's dive in to set the story it for you guys. I was in my sophomore year of college at Ohio State, just getting back from Christmas break. I had recently hung on my towel. Okay, quit the swim team at Ohio State. But I still loved health and wellness. I was actually an exercise science major, too. And so I knew that working out was still going to be a priority in my life. I had never been to a gym before, which I know sounds absolutely crazy because I'd been lifting weights since eighth grade. But as a swimmer, we always just worked out in our own private space. And so I remember walking into the gym for the very first time, and I was shocked. There was just this huge division in the weight room. All the girls were on the lipstick on the treadmill. In all the guys were in the weighted section, and I was literally the only girl in the weight room. All the guys were grunting and taking up space. Just sweating everywhere was so income uncomfortable? Not only that, but all the girls on the elliptical in general just looked so unhappy their heads were down watching the calorie and distance tracker. I am someone who is overly passion about health and wellness. I was that little girl. I don't

spk_0:   3:29
know if any of you guys can, really. But that little

spk_1:   3:31
girl reading her mom's shape magazine, Women's Health magazine and I even had a weight loss program for my parents at age like 11 which is a story for another time. But I can share with you guys. But it just sat in me to see that these girls weren't having fun while working out. I truly believe that fitness should be fun and that everyone can find their passion for fitness. They just need the opportunities to explore exercise. Best Ford ah, year to my junior year, I was in an orientation to exercise science class. And to be honest, I was daydreaming about what the heck I wanted to do with an exercise science degree. I wasn't interested in the typical science e jobs that a physical therapist or chiropractor, Dr I was interested in motivation and the well being of a human while daydreaming. I truly believe that God blessed me with the idea of charge. I had no idea what the name would be yet, but this idea came to me and I knew it was needed at Ohio State. The idea was to create a club that would liberate these girls from the elliptical. Every single week, the club would partner with different local studios. One week would be boxing the next yoga, another Zumba and so forth. My hope was by trying out trying these new workouts, the members would be able to find their fit. Not only that, but I really want to create a safe space for women to be able to try these workouts and also be supported by one another. I still didn't have many friends at the time that weren't swimmers, and so I really craved this connection of other females and I hope that charge would help girls find not only workout buddies but friends. I still remember not having a notebook in this orientation class, So I literally sprinted home after class, wrote all my notes down on paper text on my friends, told them about my idea and told them We need to start this at Ohio State and they were in soon later. The name charge, which stands for a changing health attitudes and actions to recreate girls, was born. For those of you guys who don't know, I know Sarah can say the same thing is so incredibly easy to star an organization on your campus. What was it like for Cincy?

spk_0:   6:08
We just needed a president treasurer like secretary and to go through this kind of orientation writing the Constitution and by allies. And then you were pretty much done and your club as long as you have, like 10 members, which is crazy but also amazing.

spk_1:   6:29
And that's exactly what it was like at Ohio State. We only needed 10 members. That is probably the thing that surprised me most. Waas. I thought all those 10 members were going to be my friends, but there were so many girls who I didn't even know who end up joining because they were just so passionate about the mission as well as a club. We had a Facebook and Twitter. Instagram wasn't even a thing yet, which is so funny to think about. But through those social media accounts and also just through learning about charge, you know, from friends of friends, people started emailing me saying, Hey, my friends at charge at Ohio State, can you help bring charged to my university? And that summer, I remember receiving over 20 emails from girls at different universities, one of them being Sara. And that really was the moment when I realized charge could be so much more than just an organization at Ohio State. Charge could really be a movement. So, Sarah, I kind of want to give them, like, to her. And I love just for you to share how you heard about charge. And then why you want to start at

spk_0:   7:47
your university? Yeah, I heard about charge from my best friend Kellan. Definitely have to give her a shout out, because without her, I would not be sitting here right now, and Kellen told me about charge because she knew that it was something that I would love. Um, I grew up as a very active kid. I rode horses. I was a runner all throughout high school, and I just always loved kind of being a girl on the go. I remember in college I went to Ohio State my freshman year, and I had a pretty rough year kind of transitioning into college and ended up transferring to the University of Cincinnati to be closer to home. And I was really happy down at you. See, I was feeling like I had finally found kind of a place where I could thrive, But I still knew something was missing. While I was there in the second that Kellan told me about charge, which was at Ohio State, I immediately knew that was what had been missing from for me at U C. And of course, I really wanted anything that was at Ohio State to be an opportunity at U. C. Which is where I was then, um too. So it really just clicked. Um, and I knew I had to do it.

spk_1:   9:22
Ah, Out of all the applicants, Sarah was by far my favorites. I still remember the day which is is actually we were just looking at it. It's been almost exactly six years from the state. It was around this time in November, December. But we met at a coffee shop in Columbus and I basically handed her a stack of papers and was like,

spk_0:   9:49
Can't wait to have you start charging at you See, which probably freaked her out. Oh, my gosh. Were you scared after that meeting? Yeah. I drove up to this meeting in Columbus, which is like two hours from Cincinnati. Not really having anything to expect. I couldn't even think of questions to ask. And she handed me this bag full of stuff, including it. Like a binders about different positions and what not and what charge was. But it also had a charge T shirt, some Victoria secret pants. And after I got all of these, I felt like I had to dio e mean, if someone gives you free pants like, what are you supposed to do it that way? And I hadn't really thought through the fact that I had never started something in my life, ever. I was never the president of clubs in high school. I was never the president of anything. I didn't really know if I was that girl who could be a leader. But God blessed me with this sense of just, you know, even though I didn't know how I was gonna do it, that it was gonna happen and stopping by my parent's house on the way home from you see, I kind of just started telling him I was like, Yeah, I'm going to start this club. It's going to start, you know, in about five weeks because we're almost to the spring semester, and that's when we're gonna launch it. And my parents just kind of looked at me and they're like, What are you doing? And I told my mom is like I just met Elizabeth, you know, she started out Ohio State, and now she wants to grow, And I'm gonna be the one to do what you see, and they just kind of like, Yeah, and no idea what I was about to get myself into. And they were just like, as long as school is still the priority E, I think that's what they said. Um, and little did they know that I was about to become a part of something that would change my life.

spk_1:   11:49
God bless. Sara's parents have done so much for charge.

spk_0:   11:54
Yeah, we'll have to do a little episode on my parents.

spk_1:   11:57
Yeah, and their recipes. T them. Yeah, way amazing. Ah, Question that I get asked a lot is what were the steps I took to create the national aspect of charge? I was really, really fortunate because I had to complete a full time internship at Ohio State to complete my exercise science degree. So I asked my professors if there was any way I could create this national aspect of charge as my internship. And thankfully, they said yes. And that's how I was really able to test out if charge would even be something that girls at other universities would be interested in. Thankfully, it completely thrived at U. C. And it was still thriving at OS you. And so Ohio State continued as a student organization, while I work to create a leadership training for every charge chapter, an exact team so that they would have all the resource is to help every member of charge feel welcome. Supported and ultimately learn how to allow girls to find their fits after graduation. I knew that I had to continue leading this movement full time, even though it was a huge risk. And that's something that I didn't think about the risk at the time at all, to be honest. But looking back and learning about so many startups,

spk_0:   13:22
90% of

spk_1:   13:23
startups fail to me. Charge was so much more than my work. I didn't even call it work. It really was my baby in my life. I had a mission that I needed to accomplish, and I was going to do whatever I could to keep it alive and to change girls lives. So after graduation, I moved back into my parent's house, which I lived at for two and 1/2 years. Sarah lived with me for a little bit and again. That's another story that we can share with you guys, because that was really, really challenging. But thankfully, now we are in Chicago, and that's where the quote unquote charge H Q. Is. So If any of you guys live in Chicago and want to visit us, we love getting coffee with girls or sweating with you guys, but who knows where we'll be? We might be somewhere different in a few years. We'll see. But right now Chicago is home. Five years later, I cannot believe it spent over five years. But the mission of charge is still the same. It's to bring charged every university in the United States, if not the world, to empower every member to become the best version of herself. Charge started as this fitness organization, but it has evolved to become so, so, so much more. It really is a total mind body spirit movement. It is a force of good that is so much more important than I could have ever imagined. We sometimes say this, which it's kind of. So the charge logo is of Bolts Raya lightning ball. And so we believe that charges this energy, this electric energy that allows every woman to feel worthy to feel supported, to feel enough to feel loved, to feel complete, to feel beautiful and to be the best version of herself. We celebrated a five year birthday party a couple months ago with all of the ambassadors, an exact team who make this movement possible, and we were looking at. How many girls were a part of charge about the years? The number is over 27,000 which is incredible. It blows their mind. I remember still this moment at the national retreat a couple years ago when the girls were sharing their stories and one of the girls got up, she stood up and she said I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for charge and it literally gives me tears because if she was the only girl who was changed by charge, it would be enough. And the beautiful thing is, there are so many stories that are similar to this that were changed by charge and we want to start sharing those. And that's one of the goals of this podcast. To is just share community more because you girls, you guys, other routes of this community and it's just it's so beautiful. We we look at you guys every day on Instagram and we want you guys to be shown to everyone else because you guys have accomplished so, so so, so much And you guys should be so proud of you. We are so proud of you. Breath. This movement is just getting started. And that's the most exciting part. The future is charged and we cannot wait to see where this year takes us. Thank you guys so much for being a part of the ride. We love you so much.

spk_0:   16:59
Have an amazing day and charge on side down, baby.