the be.come project began just as grassroots as could be. After 10 years as an instructor, our founder, Bethany C. Meyers, began asking themselves some questions: How do you bring the boutique experience into the home without perpetuating body shaming and beauty standards? Could fitness be sold without promises of rapid weight loss and a smaller waist? If we shifted our mindset away from how we look and instead put the focus on how we feel, could we experience our body from a new perspective?
From there, the idea was born. One routine a week, repeat often, check in with how you feel, move virtually with others, and have an accessible instructor–all under the guiding principle of body-neutrality. The only question left was where to start?
Like any aspiring business, we sought advice and counsel. To be honest, our “counsel” told us it couldn’t be done – you can’t sell fitness without the “crack”, they said. you have to have before-and-after pictures, they said. progress can’t be measured without a scale, they said. And to that we said, we have to try. Because we know first hand just how damaging that “fitness crack” can be. And even though we weren’t sure if we could be part of the solution, we certainly knew we didn’t want to be part of the problem. So we set out to prove it.
We borrowed $3,000 from our biggest fan (thanks mom!) and shot our first four be.come routines as scrappy as could be. In January 2018, we sold our first month of weekly videos as a beta test under the name “The Be.Come Movement” to prove that in fact, it could be done. But we didn’t want to call it a beta test (because boringgggg) so we named it The January Project. During beta, clients started calling it the be.come project, and it very lovingly stuck.
This little beta test BLEW. OUR. MINDS. As we double, tripled, quadrupled, QUINTUPLED our sign-up goal, we quickly realized we didn’t need investors — our clients were the investors. So, we extended the beta project for two additional months and poured every penny we earned into building the first iteration of our app and website. Yes, you heard that right, we did the entire beta project without a website — just an instagram and a prayer. And then, with a little blood, a lot of sweat, and oh-so-many tears, we officially launched in July 2018.
We tell you this story because we think it’s so representative of who we are today. We continue to build — slow but steady, small but mighty, scrappy but chic — with our incredible community of people (that’s you!) supporting us along the way. Just so you know, when you subscribe to the be.come project you are supporting a queer-owned, womxn-owned, investor-free small business whose mission is to bring the message of body-neutrality to the world. From the very bottom of our hearts, we can’t thank you enough.
