In this interview on the Bloom health and lifestyle TV show, host Gayle speaks with Reena Vokoun, founder and CEO of PassionFit and author of The Wellness Empowered Woman. Reena shares her personal story of burnout after years working in Silicon Valley tech firms while raising two young children and supporting a partner with a demanding career. She explains how that experience led her to launch PassionFit in 2014, a company whose mission is to empower women to thrive personally and professionally through wellness, encapsulated in the motto “pursue your passion, be fit, and the rest will follow.” Reena describes the growth of a global community of women who engage in classes, workshops, retreats, and corporate programs, emphasizing that the approach is realistic, non‑perfectionist, and rooted in shared struggle. She outlines a 7‑step holistic wellness framework, beginning with an honest self‑assessment, defining a vision, building a plan, and recognizing the need for discipline, hard work, and community support. The conversation concludes with encouragement for women to lean on each other and a call to visit passionfit.com for more resources.
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The World Health Organization classified burnout as an occupational hazard, a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Reena Vokoun, the founder and CEO of PassionFit and the author of the newly released book The Wellness Empowered Woman, joins us now with her personal experience and how she's helping other women stay healthy through fitness and wellness. Welcome to Bloom, Reena.
Thank you so much for having me, Gayle. It's great to be here.
So Reena, I understand you really know at a personal level how easy it is to get into a stressed-out, fast-paced world that really can spiral. Can you tell us about your own personal experience and what you're doing now to help other women?
Absolutely. So I spent the majority of my career living and working in Silicon Valley. So working for large tech companies such as Google, Yahoo, CNET, and many others. And I'm also a mom of 2 boys, and my husband has an equally demanding career in the tech field as well. So I had many years of trying to, as a lot of women say, do it all, kind of balance motherhood and a busy career and also a marriage. And, you know, there's just so much that goes into daily life for so many people. And I experienced for burnout during that time. At the time that I experienced it and I decided to leave to start my own company, my kids were, you know, a toddler and a baby at the time. And, you know, I think as women, we try so hard to be all things to all people. We often neglect our own self-care, as I did as well. And I just took that experience of burnout and some health issues to really realize, you know what, I think it's time to see that there's a need out there for more education for women and professionals, because there's got to be a better way. We can't all be burning out at this great, you know, and continue to thrive in our careers and our lives. So in 2014, I started my company PassionFit, and the mission of the company is to empower women to flourish both personally and professionally through wellness.
Yeah, I was going to say your PassionFit motto is pursue your passion, be fit, and the rest will follow. It's a way of life that you live, and tell me how other women are receiving this message.
Yeah, I've had a great response. I have built over the last 7 years a PassionFit global community. So I reach hundreds and thousands of women online as well as, you know, through my client work and my coaching work. I have classes, workshops, retreats, and then I work with companies as well. And I've gotten a very positive response because it's realistic. It's not setting perfectionist ideals. It's taking into consideration the challenges that you may have. And I think the biggest takeaway from my message and my community is that you're not alone and we all go through struggles. I went through my own and that's what led me to start doing the work that I'm doing that I am so passionate about. And even in the book, I talk about what it means to live a passionate life. I talk about the motto that you mentioned, Gayle, and I've been getting really great positive feedback, which I'm so grateful for.
Oh, that's fantastic. So, but Reena, I think including myself and other women out there listening, we know what we're supposed to do. We know how dangerous it is being all things to all people and not putting ourselves first. I'm guilty of it personally, but I feel like I'm so caught up in the day-to-day that I don't even know where to begin. So what are some immediate steps that we can start taking to find this balance that you talk about?
Yeah, so I have a 7-step holistic approach to wellness. And one of the first things that I encourage my clients to do, and when I work with people, that's what we start with, is just doing an honest self-assessment, really taking note of where you are right now. And it may not be where you want to be. I know when I had to take that honest look at my life 7 years ago, I wasn't where I wanted to be. I was burnt out. I was stressed out. I wasn't the mom and the professional and the wife that I wanted to be. So be honest with yourself. Don't be afraid of falling short in your own eyes because the best thing we can do is be honest and then look at where it is, where is it that we want to go? What does the ultimate vision or future for us look like? And then start to build the plan to get there. It's not going to happen overnight. So I always work with my clients to make sure that they understand it's going to take hard work. It's going to take discipline and it's going to take a need for support. And that's where, you know, I really like to support my individual clients and my community, because without that support, I think on those really tough days when it's hard to stay motivated to exercise or to eat healthy or to get enough sleep, you have others in there cheering you on that have had their own struggles as well.
I love— that's my favorite part about all of this, is that you've built this community. And I think it's incredible because we do need to lean on one another. Reena, thank you so much for joining us on Bloom today.
Thank you so much for having me, Gayle, and take care.
You too. For more information, you can visit passionfit.com
