We were lucky to catch up with Eva Meier recently and have shared our conversation below.
Eva, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience has a lot to do with the fact that I have a chronic physical disability. I spent a long time in unexplained physical pain which started at a very young age. I remember thinking it was normal to have lower back and knee pain when I was 7 or 8 years old. It wasn’t until my teens that I started to understand that something wasn’t quite normal, but because I looked “young and healthy,” I was largely dismissed. I remember being at a doctor’s office in my early 20’s and mentioning this “hypermobility-disorder-thing” that I thought could be the answer, and him immediately responding with “Oh no, it’s definitely not that.”
In my mid-20’s, after many more years of searching for an answer, I received a formal diagnosis of ‘Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder.”
My search for answers in my own health journey was one of the primary drivers that helped build my resilience in business. It taught me a key lesson – trust yourself. There have been many times over the years – related to my health, business, and personal life – when the easy choice would have been to disregard my intuition. But true resilience comes from trusting yourself and following through, even when it’s not the easy path.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The Line Method is a multi-disciplinary fitness-approach that incorporates elements of physical, mental, and emotional wellness into your workout. I freely admit that I began developing The Line Method as a purely selfish endeavor. I had tried so many different types of workout – weight-training, Pilates, yoga, barre, among others – but I had yet to find a style that could accommodate my specific needs with a movement disorder. I found that I would often enjoy and benefit from some elements of each fitness style, but others would leave me feeling worse. So I started developing my own process that was based on my intuition and really listening to my body.
Some days that meant pushing myself with high-energy exercise or heavy weights, but other days it meant focusing on my breathing and not feeling the need to push myself as hard. What was most surprising to me was how much emotion I worked through during this development process. I found that I had a lot of pent of grief around my body and how much I had pushed myself to be “normal” when my body was so clearly different.
It was insanely liberating. And that’s what led me to founding The Line Method as a studio. I realized that there was very little space for people to experience actual growth in their wellness – physically, mentally, and emotionally. High intensity, boutique class studios were all over the place helping people “feel the burn,” without ever actually connecting their body and mind.
I’ve since then built a team of incredible instructors who teach The Line Method, and I’ve been able to step back into more of a strategic growth and development role. I’m so excited to continue to develop the studio and the method so that we can grow this new wave of holistic fitness.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My ability to push through fear, my ability to pivot, and my empathy.
My ability to push through fear did not come naturally to me. But the more I did it, the easier it became. People often talk about the “risk-taking” attitude that entrepreneurs have, and to some degree, it’s true. You have to be willing to take (hopefully smart, calculated) risks. But few people talk about the mountain of fear most people have to push through in order to start that forward momentum. It’s scary, and uncomfortable. At first, my mentality was more along the lines of – “Okay, if we don’t do this thing, we’re gonna go broke. So put your business-pants on and just do it!” (Some great internal dialogue.) But as I was faced more frequently with challenges and risk, I found I was more confident in my ability to make decisions, and trust them.
I think that segues nicely to my next skill which is my ability to pivot quickly. Let’s be honest, sometimes you take a risk and it *doesn’t* pan out the way you hoped. I’ve always been quick on my feet when it’s come to pivoting and finding creative solutions to unexpected problems. That ability has been invaluable to me in building the business.
I have always been an empath. I love people, I love learning their stories. That has been an immensely valuable skill in building my business. My company and brand are all about helping people move and feel better in their bodies. It would be impossible to do that without empathy.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I love telling this story…
My mom was a huge catalyst in beginning my journey into business ownership. I remember when I was 24, and The Line Method wasn’t even a fully formed concept yet. I was working as the manager of a spa, making very little money, and teaching private sessions part-time. My mom and I were sitting on the front stoop of my childhood home, and I was telling her how I wanted to go out on my own and start a studio. My mom asked what was the biggest thing stopping me from doing it. I told her it was fear.
At that point my mom turned to me and said, ” Well… I think you just need to go ahead and do it then.” I quit my job the next week, and here we are 5 years later.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thelinemethod.com
- Instagram: the.line.method
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thelinemethod
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelinemethod/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@eva.at.the.line.method
