In this interview, Reena Vokoun shares how a decade‑long corporate career at Google, Yahoo, Reebok, and GE led to burnout and health issues, prompting her to launch PassionFit in 2014 with a mission to empower women—and anyone juggling multiple life roles—to thrive through wellness. She explains the suite of services her company offers: corporate wellness programs that include workshops, online courses, coaching, and consulting; individual and group coaching; an active‑wear boutique; a blog and YouTube channel; and fitness, yoga, and dance classes. Vokoun emphasizes the importance of setting attainable, schedule‑friendly goals to overcome the common barrier of “busy‑ness” and to model healthy habits for families and communities. She provides a concrete example of how she would tailor a program for a corporate client like Fox KUSI, combining holistic talks on mindfulness, nutrition, movement, productivity, in‑person classes, online resources, book giveaways, and feedback loops to align with company culture. The conversation ends with a prompt for listeners to follow her on various platforms to stay updated.
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It is so good to see you today, and our pleasure to introduce you to a local wife, mother, and fitness expert who said goodbye to the corporate world and hello to her passion. She's taken a lifelong passion for fitness, health, and wellness to educate you. Reena, we are going to talk about being a wellness empowered woman and so much more today. You launched your company PassionFit, and it's a really unique journey. So tell me how you started.
Yeah, so about 9 years ago in 2014, I decided to launch a company with a mission of empowering women to flourish both personally and professionally through wellness. This came after about 16 years working in corporate America for companies like Google, um, Yahoo, Reebok, and GE. And I loved my career in marketing, sales, and digital media, but I hit a point of burnout trying to balance my family with my career. My husband and I were a dual career couple in Silicon Valley with 2 young kids. Our sons were a baby and a toddler at the time, and it was a lot to manage. And that burnout started to turn into health issues. And even though I've always had a lifelong passion for health and wellness my whole life, I just realized, you know what, I'm not even able to take care of my own health and well-being, and I know others are probably facing those same struggles. So that's when PassionFit was born. I decided I wanted to find a solution not only for women, but anybody that's trying to manage multiple areas of their life, and I want them to be able to take care of their health and well-being so they can be at their best.
I actually got to meet you at a luncheon, and I quickly got my hands on your book, The Wellness Empowered Woman. There are so many great tips in here, but you're also going into the workplace and educating people. So tell me a little bit more about the services that you provide.
Yes, so I'm very passionate about corporate wellness because I worked in Silicon Valley and I saw so much burnout and so much stress and anxiety. So I have a corporate wellness program through my company, PassionFit, and it involves workshops and education, online courses, teaching people how to balance their home life and their professional life, teaching them how to fit movement into a busy schedule, how to eat nutritious meals for you and your family even when you're on the go. So yeah, so that's one of the services that we offer, as well as coaching and consulting for individuals and groups. We have an online boutique of activewear and healthy lifestyle accessories, a blog, a YouTube channel, you know, I teach fitness, yoga, and dance classes, and I'm also working on my second book.
Why was it so important to you to give people goals that are attainable and to create fitness and wellness programs that fit various schedules?
Yes, because I think that's probably one of the, the biggest deterrents to being able to live your best life, right? I talk to a lot of different clients, I interview people, and I think that busyness and that fear of putting yourself first— I think a lot of people feel like they have to take care of their families, their careers, and their communities, and then they put themselves last. So I really wanted to find ways for people to see that you can still fit these healthy lifestyle behaviors and practices despite everything else you have going on in your life. And it's good for things like disease prevention and management and to really help you optimize your life and set a good example for your children if you have kids and others in your community.
And you, of course, if you work with a corporation, are going to tailor a program to their needs. But could you give us an example of what something might look like? Hey, maybe you come into Fox KUSI or something, what would that look like?
Yeah, absolutely. So I would come and I would do sort of a comprehensive, holistic talk about all the different ways that you can practice wellness with mindfulness to manage stress, for healthy meal preparation, for fitting fitness or movement into your day, and also how to be more productive because in the workplace that's really important too, to leave you time then to care for yourself. I'd also offer up online courses. I offer livestream and in-person fitness, yoga, and dance classes, so I'd probably come to the office and maybe do some classes and give people that as a future resource to come work with me online. I'd give away my books to the employees and, you know, we would track participation, we'd get feedback to see what's working and what's not because ultimately, as you mentioned, every company is different, every company culture is different, so it's very important to really adhere to the culture and make sure you're speaking to employees in a language that really you know, they, that they can understand.
All right, and as I said, people will see more of you on The Localist SD, but where can they stay in touch with you in the meantime?
Absolutely, if you go to passionfit.com, that is the hub where you can find everything. My book is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com, and I'm very active on social media on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more. So come find me, and I'm happy to help in any way I can. Coming up on
