Melissa Wood-Tepperberg's Honest Struggle as a Mom of Two Helped Build Her Booming Wellness Brand & Community

Melissa Wood-Tepperberg has made quite the name for herself as a lifestyle and wellness influencer, and she says she owes her booming success and loyal following to one simple thing: Showing up as her honest, vulnerable, struggling mother-of-two self at the beginning of it all.

The fitness, wellness, and mindfulness entrepreneur has built a community of nearly 2 million social media followers who fell in love with her signature Melissa Wood Fitness (MWF) Method, which “sculpts beautiful muscle tone throughout your entire body using precise, low impact movements” and is a practice that aims to “build a better, stronger relationship with yourself,” according to her website. Wood-Tepperberg also offers a variety of fitness, wellness, and mindfulness content on her app, social channels, and podcast.

During a conversation with WWD, Wood-Tepperberg shared that she never had the creation of her own business in mind when she started sharing her wellness journey with others — she simply wanted to share her transformation with those who could relate to or be inspired by her.

“I didn’t start thinking that I was building a business,” Wood-Tepperberg explained. She continued, “I noticed a difference in myself, like, I started to see a change within that I didn’t think was possible before. And the more that I committed to this [fitness routine and wellness journey], and I kept coming back, and I would roll out my mats — especially on those days I didn’t want to do it — turn on my phone, and I would literally press start [to record a workout] and go back to my mat. I would go and I never edited a thing because I just wanted it to be the real experience of showing myself as I was with, you know, at that time, my son in a little bouncy chair on my mat most days.”

“And it was hard to show up,” Wood-Tepperberg said with candor. “It’s still hard today with two kids to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and do something to strengthen my mental health. But I started to really transform before my eyes and I knew I had to share this. I really didn’t know how, but I used the pillar of social media as a resource to share.”

The wellness guru reiterated, “I never got into the business to make it a business or make money. And I really think that that is what helped me focus on the purpose… And while things are growing and expanding, I really try to keep myself humble and rooted in this theme of what made this all begin.”