Life & Work with Rose of Apollo Beach Florida

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rose.

Rose, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Have you ever had your heart broken, endured a difficult marriage, encountered a narcissist, or faced a period of adversity that made you question everything you thought your life would become? Have you ever felt anger, grief, or pain so intensely that you had to decide whether it would consume you or become the fuel that changed your life?

If you have, then part of my story may feel like your story too.

After college, I began in a completely different career and followed the path I believed I was supposed to follow. But life has a way of stripping away the roles, relationships, and expectations that no longer belong to us. Through heartbreak, divorce, adversity, and rebuilding, I learned that we cannot always control what happens to us, but we can decide what we create from it.

I have always felt the emotions of both people and animals very deeply. I can walk into a room and sense someone’s pain, or watch a video and feel the suffering behind it as if I were there. For years, I didn’t understand what to do with that sensitivity. Eventually, I realized that empathy was not a weakness I needed to overcome. It was a responsibility and a source of strength.

I transformed my own life through fitness and then built a career helping other people become stronger, healthier, and more confident. Along the way, I became a vegan athlete, fitness professional, plant-based nutrition coach, author, entrepreneur, and gym owner. For more than 30 years, I have also advocated for animals and helped people understand that we can improve our health without causing another living being to suffer.

One lesson I hope readers take from my journey is that you do not have to suppress your anger, heartbreak, or difficult emotions. You can transmute them. Anger can become advocacy. Heartbreak can become compassion. Pain can become discipline, and adversity can become the beginning of meaningful service. When life hurts, ask yourself: “What can I build from this, and who can I help because I lived through it?” That question can change the direction of your life.

My greatest mission was inspired by a nine-pound rescued dog named Willow. Her life showed me how profoundly one small being can change another. In her honor, I founded Willow B’s Rescue Farm, a nonprofit with a vision to create a sanctuary where rescued animals can finally experience safety and dignity, while people facing trauma, loneliness, addiction, health challenges, or a loss of purpose can also find strength and healing.

Today, everything I build connects back to that mission: helping people become stronger, protecting animals, and creating a more compassionate world. I am sincerely grateful to Hidden Gem Interviews for inviting me to share this story and for creating a platform where entrepreneurs, advocates, and community changemakers can use their experiences to inspire others.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A smooth road may get you somewhere faster, but it rarely reveals what you are capable of.

My road has included heartbreak, divorce, major career changes, relocating across the country, rebuilding businesses, financial pressure, and the emotional weight of advocating for animals in a world that often chooses not to see their suffering. I have also spent more than 30 years promoting veganism in industries and communities where compassion for animals was not always understood or welcomed.

One of my greatest professional challenges has been refusing to fit into one box. I am a fitness professional, entrepreneur, author, vegan advocate, gym owner, and nonprofit founder. People often tell us to choose one identity and stay in our lane. I chose to build a larger lane where health, strength, business, human healing, and animal advocacy could exist together.

Taking ownership of an established gym brought another set of challenges. I stepped into a business that needed significant improvements, stronger leadership, and a renewed sense of community. I invested my time, energy, and resources into rebuilding it while continuing to serve members and manage the daily realities of entrepreneurship. There were days when every problem seemed to arrive at once, but quitting was never the solution. I learned to stop asking, “Why is this happening to me?” and start asking, “What is this teaching me, and what is the next move?”

Building Willow B’s Rescue Farm has required a different kind of courage. Creating a sanctuary is not simply about loving animals. It requires funding, land, planning, partnerships, education, and the ability to keep believing in a vision before other people can physically see it. One of the hardest parts is knowing how many animals and people need help while not yet having all the resources to help them. That urgency can feel overwhelming, but I have learned to turn it into focused action.

The most valuable lesson I can share is this: do not waste your adversity. Let it sharpen you. Turn rejection into redirection, anger into advocacy, heartbreak into compassion, and fear into preparation. You do not need to have every answer or resource before taking the first step. You need a purpose powerful enough to keep you moving while you figure out the rest.

The road has not been smooth, but it has made me resourceful, resilient, and deeply committed to helping others. Every obstacle has strengthened my belief that the most difficult chapters of our lives can become the very chapters that prepare us to make our greatest impact.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What if becoming stronger could transform more than your body? What if improving your own health could also help protect animals, strengthen your community, and give someone else hope?

That question connects everything I do.

I am a fitness professional, vegan nutrition coach, author, entrepreneur, animal rights activist, nonprofit founder, and the owner of Anytime Fitness in Apollo Beach, Florida. Although those roles may appear different, they all serve the same purpose: helping people become stronger while building a more compassionate world.

In fitness, I specialize in helping people create realistic, sustainable change. Many people enter a gym already feeling intimidated, judged, frustrated, or defeated by programs they could never maintain. My approach is not about punishing people for where they are. It is about helping them recognize what they are capable of becoming. I want people to leave stronger not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

As a longtime vegan athlete and plant-based nutrition professional, I also challenge the belief that people need animal products to build muscle, improve performance, or live a healthy life. I have lived this message for more than 30 years, competed as a vegan athlete, coached others, and wrote No Bull: Vegan Fitness for Beginners to make fitness and plant-based living more accessible to people who feel overwhelmed or do not know where to begin.

What sets me apart is that I do not separate health from compassion. I believe true wellness should improve our lives without requiring another living being to suffer. My work helps people understand that every meal, workout, business decision, and act of kindness gives us an opportunity to become healthier and more conscious of our impact.

I am especially proud of creating Willow B’s Rescue Farm, a nonprofit inspired by my rescued dog, Willow. Our vision is to build a sanctuary that rescues animals while also helping people through fitness, plant-based nutrition, education, gardening, and healing-centered programs. I want it to become a place where animals who have experienced neglect or exploitation can finally feel safe, and where people who have experienced trauma, loneliness, addiction, or a loss of purpose can rediscover their own strength.

I am not interested in building success that ends with me. I want every business, platform, and skill I have developed to create a ripple effect. If I can help one person reclaim their health, help one animal escape suffering, or inspire someone to turn compassion into action, that impact continues far beyond anything I could accomplish alone.

That is what I want to be known for: proving that strength and compassion are not opposites. Together, they can transform lives.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck gets far too much credit for work people never witnessed, and far too much blame for circumstances we still have the power to change.

I do believe chance, timing, and circumstances exist. We do not control every person we meet, every door that opens, or every hardship that enters our lives. But calling every success “good luck” can erase the years of discipline, sacrifice, preparation, and rejection that came before it. Calling every setback “bad luck” can also persuade us to surrender our power.

In my life and business, the moments that might look lucky from the outside were usually preceded by years of work no one saw. I kept learning, took calculated risks, walked into unfamiliar rooms, built relationships, and continued moving even when there was no guarantee that anything would work. An opportunity is only valuable when you are prepared to recognize it and courageous enough to act on it.

I am not interested in toxic positivity or pretending that thinking happy thoughts will magically solve real problems. Difficult circumstances are real. Financial pressure is real. Heartbreak, exhaustion, and injustice are real. But our internal state still affects how we respond to them.

That is why protecting your nervous system matters. Rest, movement, boundaries, self-care, and being intentional about the people around you are not luxuries. They help you think clearly, make better decisions, and remain open to possibilities you might miss when you are constantly operating in survival mode. Energy is real, not necessarily as magic, but as the condition from which we make choices, influence others, and build our lives.

My advice is to create more opportunities for “luck” to find you. Enter the right rooms. Spend time around people who challenge and inspire you. Develop your skills when no one is watching. Protect your energy without isolating yourself. Make your work visible, and keep taking action.

You may not control which door opens, but you can become the person who is ready to walk through it. To me, that is not luck. That is preparation meeting opportunity.

Pricing:

• No Bull: Vegan Fitness for Beginners — Available on Amazon in paperback and digital formats.
• Support Willow B’s Rescue Farm — Tax-deductible donations of any amount are accepted at willowbsrescuefarm.com.
• Anytime Fitness Apollo Beach memberships — Pricing varies by membership plan. Contact the club for current options and promotions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://willowbsrescuefarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowbsrescuefarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61578545901857/
• Other: https://fitbyrose.com