Meet Becca Graham | FIT4MOM Fort Worth Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Becca Graham and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Becca, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I prefer a “let’s try it and see if it works” mentality when it comes to risk. Growth cannot come without taking risks. From a business perspective, I can always shift back to the baseline if a risk doesn’t go well. Whereas, if I never take a business risk, I am missing out on potential growth opportunities. There have been many times that we’ve tried adding different programs, class times, and locations that didn’t stick. I could look at those situations as “failures” but instead, I use them to reflect, re-evaluate, and make more informed decisions moving forward. In my personal life, taking risks has been life-changing. Marrying my husband at age 21 was the best risk I’ve ever taken. Signing up for foster care at age 24 while also raising our one-year-old son also felt like a huge risk. However, we now have the honor of raising our daughter who came to our home through foster care. We recently took another risk and responded to a random Facebook message about a kiddo who needed a forever-family and now he is a beloved member of our family. If I had let all of the unknowns, possible negative outcomes, and fear outweigh opportunities and potential for something beautiful, I would have missed out on knowing some of my favorite people in the whole world.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
FIT4MOM Fort Worth is a fitness community focused on providing a welcoming, encouraging environment for women in any stage of motherhood. We have a variety of moms, making it a safe place for women to be who they are without judgment. Our community consists of type A moms, fly by the seat of their pants moms, young moms, older moms, moms of many kids, moms of one kid, women who have experienced miscarriage and infant loss, women who experience infertility, adoptive moms, moms of typically developing kids, moms of kids with special needs, bottle-feeding moms, breast-feeding moms, moms who had vaginal births, moms who had c-sections, homeschool moms, private school moms, public school moms, working moms, stay-at-home moms, etc. I’m proud that it’s a community where people feel welcome no matter what their motherhood journey looks like. We consistently tell moms, “You are not alone.” Although women ignite their physical strength through our classes, we love watching women discover their mental and emotional strength too. During every class, we implement four types of connection: Mom-to-Mom, Mom-to-Kid, Mom-to-Instructor, and Mom-to-Self. This allows each woman to leave classes feeling holistically filled up. When women are holistically aligned with themselves and their community, they are better able to engage fully as moms, partners, bosses, employees, co-workers, friends, and community members. We all benefit from women prioritizing their physical, mental, and emotional health. I don’t think there’s ever been a business that didn’t face challenges. The most recent challenge I navigated was moving our entire business online in March due to COVID-19. FIT4MOM Fort Worth is built on connections and community. Removing our usual avenues to cultivate relationships through face-to-face classes, play dates, and Mom’s Nights forced us to be creative and flexible. We created online game nights, taught live-time fitness classes where the instructor could still interact with all participants, and dropped off craft kits for moms to use during online play-dates. It was an exhausting season but we made it work. Thankfully, we are back in person now for most of our classes and events. I look back on those six months with gratitude, knowing it got me out of a entreprenual rut and unified our team through the challenges.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Fort Worth has so much to offer! First priority: taking advantage of the Trinity Trails. A favorite activity for my husband and me is to ride bikes from Clearfork Trailhead to Backwoods Paddle Sports at Panther Island. We park our bikes, kayak on the river for an hour, then ride our bikes to HG Supply Co. for food and drinks, and finish out the bike ride back to Clearfork Trailhead. For an indoor option, I would take my friend to the Museum District for the day. Fort Worth has several outstanding, well-known museums like The Modern Art Museum and The Kimbell Art Museum. We are so lucky to have access to high-level art and creativity in this city. A night out would consist of dinner at Nonna Tota on Magnolia Street to enjoy to-die-for pasta made from scratch. For dessert, we would stroll down the street to Melt Ice Cream (the Vegan Chocolate is my favorite!). We would then head downtown to the Scat Jazz Lounge for drinks and music. To top the night off, we would walk to Thompson’s Bookstore for drinks in the password-protected speakeasy. A few other Fort Worth favorites of mine are burgers at Rodeo Goat, coffee from Craftwork Coffee Co., shopping at Tribe Alive, visiting the Fort Worth Zoo (ranked as the number one zoo in the nation!), dinner at Joe T. Garcias patio, donuts from Paul’s Donuts and Subs, and of course, taking classes with FIT4MOM Fort Worth at Clearfork Trailhead.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Where to begin?! Hands down, the most influential author both personally and professionally for me is Dr. Brene Brown. The more I develop as an individual, the better I can lead and participate in my profession. Studying the Enneagram has also been an incredibly helpful tool for me in understanding myself, my team, and my clients. In particular, the book “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective” by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert gave me insight that I deeply needed. My Life Coach, Jody McQueary, with Untangled has been vital in my journey as an entrepreneur. Jody has assisted me time and time again with digging through assumptions, negative thought-cycles, and obligations to find what I really want out of my personal and professional journeys. I highly recommend her to anyone needing clarity. I have a small group of other FIT4MOM franchisees across the country who I meet with every month. These women are a safe place to problem-solve with and find encouragement because we are all in the same business. They have lifted me up more times than I can count and given me the inspiration to keep going when entrepreneurial burn-out is lurking. Thank you Lauren, Nicole, Mindy, Missy, Jen, and Celinda! Having a supportive partner while running a small business is a game-changer. My husband, Otha, has been my biggest cheerleader and sounding board through my business ventures. We are a solid team in sharing household responsibilities so that we both have the capacity to pursue life-giving activities and jobs outside the home. Raising four kids and running a small business is no easy feat, but Otha is the absolute best partner I could have asked for to tackle it together.

Website: fortworth.fit4mom.com
Instagram: fit4momfortworth
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Fit4MomFortWorth

Image Credits
Lisa Nottoli Mallory Mcdonald