Meet Esmey Leon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Esmey Leon.

Hi Esmey, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Since I was five years old, I knew I was going to move to Los Angeles, California. It was always my soul’s calling to be in LA. What I didn’t know was that I would become a fitness professional as a private trainer and a group fitness instructor. What I didn’t know was that my in-person teaching abilities would translate later in life into on-camera fitness projects and I would in essence become a digital fitness instructor and trainer. I didn’t know that I would create a vocation leading workshops and getting to be on set filming workouts for top companies like Beachbody, Snapchat, Women’s Health Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, FitOn, Mad Dogg, Glamour Magazine, Quest Nutrition, and my most recent cherished partnership, Virdio 💜

Virdio is a new fitness app where anyone can experience a fun yet challenging, live or on-demand at-home workout that implements augmented reality without the goggles! It feels like a game and it brings the fun back into your workouts. I am so proud to be one of the founding instructors as we literally just launched this past week on Monday, April 11th. *Let me know if you want to try one of my LIVE workouts 😉

My fitness journey started with sports when I was just a little girl. I played volleyball, basketball and ran track and field in middle school through high school. I loved being on a team. I loved it all, winning together, losing together, the bus trips to different cities, and the camaraderie. I started my LA fitness journey at Loyola Marymount University where I was attending college. I remember taking a group fitness class with an energetic cardio kickboxing instructor and thinking, “I can do that, I think I could be good at that.” I then went to the recreation director and told her I was interested in becoming a group fitness instructor and I was met with nothing but total encouragement. Coincidentally, LMU was hosting an Aerobics and Fitness Association of America training that month and she would be able to enroll me for free! I know now that there are no coincidences and life was lining me up for a life path I had no idea I was embarking on. That moment would pave the way for my life purpose which is to help activate the qualities of strength, commitment, confidence, discipline, power, perseverance, and passion that live in us all. I help activate these qualities by using the tool of movement and my voice. For me, that is what working out is all about. It is not about needing to change you or even creating a “new you”, but instead it’s about remembering the true you. The true you that has all the qualities listed above (strength, commitment, confidence, discipline, power, perseverance, and passion) inside of you. They are always in there, but they need to be activated. Is there a better way than movement to activate them? If there is, I haven’t found it. 😉

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely….NOT. At the time I got group fitness certified at LMU, I thought of group fitness instruction only as a hobby. I never intended it to be my career and for that reason, I always kept it the background. Although I loved working out, fitness as a job was always part-time. I wanted to be an actress. By the time I graduated college, I was teaching group fitness super part-time, and I had gotten an agent and a manager, ready to hit the Hollywood limelight. Those were some of the most unhappiest and lost years of my life. I was an impressionable young girl trying to fit into what seemed like a wild city of angels for a small country girl (the town I grew up in only had a population of 1,000 people). For that and other reasons, I fell into a depression that I had never known before. A depression that would keep me in bed for days at a time and where getting up to take a shower was an accomplishment. There were days where the sunlight was hard to bear and where I could summon only enough energy to get to my job and then be back in bed. I had no idea a human being could feel so bad, I had no idea that a human being could feel so much pain. It was also during that time that I developed an eating disorder to cope with the pain of being me and the body image issues I had picked up in Los Angeles. I remember eating food out of my trash can. I was stuck in a dark, vicious cycle that seemed like eternity. Although I never considered myself suicidal, I often fantasize about walking into the ocean and never coming out. I was a zombie, and I cannot count the number of times I cried myself to sleep. Slowly but surely, I started to crawl myself out of this hole inch by inch with no medication, just my will to feel good again and my will to remember what it was like to be that bright wide-eyed girl who had moved to LA with great enthusiasm.

Despite this challenging time, fitness never left me. Little by little, I started to get better mentally, physically, and emotionally, and I listened to that little voice inside of me that led me away from acting and towards fitness. On a complete leap of faith, I decided to quit my bartending job and go full-time into fitness. I was to be my own boss with no safety net and with only a little money saved up. I was scared AF. I could barely fathom the thought of calling myself an official trainer since I didn’t even have one steady client. During this time, I started a bootcamp class of my own, my girlfriends were sweet enough to show up at times, but there were plenty of times when zero people showed up. I remember being so embarrassed because I had set up the “workout zone” and then I had to pack up because no one had shown up. At one point, my savings ran out, and I had 2 pennies in my bank account. I remember it felt like it was such a ridiculous thing to literally see 2 pennies in my account that I laughed out loud before the fear consumed me. I did not know how I was going to pay for rent, but as usual, somehow just enough money came through to take care of the basics.

Those are things that test us to see if we have the willingness to keep going no matter what. Those first two years of building clientele and building momentum in the fitness industry were very hard to say the least, but I am SO grateful I kept going no matter how many times I doubted myself and felt like a failure. I kept going because even though I did not know it at the time, something in me knew it was my true calling.

I am eternally grateful for this part of my life and the obstacles in it. It gifted me with great compassion for myself and the human existence that includes both tremendous joy and pain. If not for this time, I would never be able to relate to others in a deeper way. I learned and continue to learn the most effective ways to process different emotions in ways that serve my life and my life purpose to better serve others. It fills my heart with so much joy to look back to where I was and where I am now. I love what I do and I love that I get to remind people of the strength and power that lives in them too.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In a nutshell, I am an Online Coach, Digital Group Fitness Instructor, and Podcast Host. I have worked with top companies such as Beachbody, Snapchat, Women’s Health Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, FitOn, Mad Dogg, Nocco, Glamour Magazine, and Quest Nutrition. I am also the creator of the SuperWoman Wellness Workshop.

Currently, I am a trainer on the newly released Virdio fitness app where you can workout live with me from anywhere in the world! As I mentioned before, Virdio is a new fitness app where anyone can experience a fun yet challenging, live or on-demand at-home workout that implements augmented reality without the goggles! It feels like a game and it brings the fun back into your workouts.

I specialize in weight training, bodyweight, high-intensity interval training, and spin! I teach all of these modalities on Virdio except for spin, but I do teach spin on an app called Spinning Digital by Mad Dogg.

I also love sharing on my self-development podcast called Wake Up Naked available on Apple Podcast and Spotify. I love being able to share insights and lessons from life with those who want to listen 🙂

I am most proud that my entire life I have followed my dreams no matter what. I am proud I didn’t quit when things were really hard. I am proud that I get to make people feel better and assist in activating the strength and power in them using fitness and my voice.

Please be on the lookout for my online 90 day SuperWoman Wellness Workshop launching very soon!

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is living an authentic life true to my soul and hopefully, by being my true authentic self, I can inspire others to do the same. Right now, I have the privilege to get to do this through fitness and through my podcast called Wake Up Naked. It matters to me because inevitably a more peaceful and loving world will be created when more people are living out their true to their–DELETE authentic selves and following their truest dreams. That thought makes me happy.

Pricing:

• $23.99 Virdio Access. Live Classes. Use Code ESMEY10 for a special rate:) 

Contact Info:

• Email: esmey@onepowerevents.com
• Website: www.esmeyleon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esmeyleon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esmeyleon
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs5ZyB2aBNwzyWALZJyeoFw