Elisabeth Tavierne founded CHAARG while studying at the Ohio State University. She noticed a divide between men and women in the weight room and took it upon herself to help girls find their fitness.
In the 5 years since the company began, it has grown from a single chapter to 52 chapters at universities nationwide. Elisabeth is building a national health and wellness brand, and empowering girls everywhere.
READ FULL TRANSCRIPTHi, everyone. It’s Brian Walker. Welcome to a new episode of the Brand Lab Series. With me is my co-host, Natalie. Good morning, Natalie.
Good morning, Brian.
So I’m super excited to have another founder with us today. Elisabeth Tavierne is the founder and president of CHAARG which is a huge, fast-growing brand that she actually started at the Ohio State University over five years ago when she was a student. It’s growing into a super fast national health and wellness brand that empowers women. And I think she’s really gonna have an interesting story about how the company came about, how they are harnessing the power of both community, word of mouth, social media and more. So I’m super excited and I know, Natalie, wellness is a big part of your life as well.
Yeah, for sure. I love to exercise.
Well, I know you do and I need to make more time in my life for exercise as well, but why don’t we get started with the show, and I’m happy to have Elisabeth join us here in studio. So Elisabeth, welcome to the Brand Lab Series.
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Tell our audience a little bit about your story and how CHAARG came to be.
Sure. I actually shared this story yesterday and it took 30 minutes to share just one part of the story. So I’m gonna give you guys the fastest version ever. But, basically, I came to Ohio State as a swimmer and after two years I realized I didn’t wanna swim anymore. So I hung up my towel, which means quit the swim team but I still was very passionate about health and wellness. I majored in Exercise Science, so I knew that working out was still going to be a priority for me. I totally remember this day so vividly but I had never been to a gym before. I’d always just worked out with the swimmers in a private space but I had lifted weights since eighth grade. And so I walked into the gym for the very first time at Ohio State, and that’s when I saw just this huge division in the weight room. All the guys were on the weight side grunting and just sweating everywhere, it’s uncomfortable. And all the girls were on the treadmill and elliptical.
And it’s not that those machines are bad per se, I love working out on the treadmill ,but for me, seeing their faces, they didn’t look that they were having fun, they didn’t look happy. They were constantly focusing on how many calories did I burn or what was my distance instead of just enjoying fitness for the sake of having a good time and working out. I truly believe that fitness should be fun and that there is a fitness for everyone. Our whole goal with CHAARG is finding your fit. So I believed maybe that exercise might be Zumba, maybe it could be yoga, or whatnot, but these girls just need to find the right opportunity.
So a couple of months later, I had the idea of CHAARG, and that essentially was just a student organization focused only on women. And every single week, we would introduce them to a new workout studio, so they could learn about different types of fitness. So that’s the short version. It quickly caught on just due to the power of social media. I was really lucky because my senior year of college, I had to take a full-time internship. So I talked with my professors, and I was like, “Is there any way I could make starting CHAARG as a “business” be my internship?” And they said yes. So I was really lucky to be able to test it out if it would even work as a business and luckily it did. And so after I graduated, I knew that I had to really do this thing. And so it’s been a little bit over five years now and really still has the same exact mission. We definitely do a lot more, but our core mission, which is just helping girls find the passion for fitness, really is the same.
So that was much shorter than 30 minutes. So well done.
Did my best, yes.
I know we’ll talk a little bit later about the social media influence on the rapid growth of your company, but talk about the name itself. Where did that come from?
Yeah. So I knew I wanted it to be an acronym, I’m not sure why. But I was riding to Pumpkin Patch with my boyfriend and we were just coming up with names of “what should it be?” We wanted to have some sort of fitnessy word and he was a huge Chargers fan. And so he’s like, “What about CHAARG?” I’m like, “Oh, I like that a lot.” And so we just bounced back and forth ideas. And so the acronym stands for Changing Health Attitudes and Actions to Recreate Girls. So it worked out perfectly.
Yeah. Well, it’s an interesting spelling on CHAARG, but it’s a very cool acronym that if someone who is a marketer and who has heard a thousand acronyms over the years, a lot of them are pretty lame. That one’s actually pretty cool.
Thank you.
So when did you know that the brand had spread beyond OSU, and how did you ensure, as you scaled to CHAARG, that you stayed true to your vision?
So, backtrack a little bit, we expanded to University of Cincinnati. That was our first, kind of, tester school for the expansion process. And the woman who started it, Sarah Clem, she’s actually still with me today, as the Director of Expansion. And it took off in Cincinnati too, we had I think 150 girls right away and Ohio State was now at 300 at that time. So I don’t know, I just think it’s an idea, a mission that a lot of girls really feel strongly about, and it was something that was missing at universities.
Well, kind of building on that, it’s almost really truly a movement not just a brand itself. So as you kind of continue to grow, first of all, how do you recruit this massive national army you now have of CHAARG Girls, and talk about who makes a good CHAARG Girl.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to do any recruiting, which is really nice. Because of social media, girls found out about CHAARG through their friends who were members at Ohio State and University of Cincinnati. So we just continued to get emails from girls at other universities, asking us if we could help them bring CHAARG to their university. So I created an application process and it’s gotten a lot tighter over the years, because we do get a ton of applications, probably around 50 to 100 per semester. That’s kind of how CHAARG was able to grow so fast. In terms of what makes someone a CHAARG Girl, there really isn’t any requirements, and that is one of the beautiful things about CHAARG. You can be an Olympic athlete or it can be a girl who’s never worked out. And so we just encourage girls to join if they are interested in learning more about health and fitness. We’ve had Olympic athletes be a part of CHAARG, which is crazy. She was from Costa Rica, I wanna say. We’ve also had girls who have never worked out in their lives join CHAARG.
So when you think about this period is this when you were still an intern/founder?
I was in school, yeah.
Yeah. Then so you go from Columbus, then to Cincinnati, and then what was the next school?
We expanded to three schools. It was Michigan, Pittsburgh and Dayton.
Oh, very cool. Well, as a marketer, word-of-mouth and social is the best kind of marketing ’cause it’s the highest impact with the lowest cost.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that’s very exciting, that you have that.
Yeah, so I was going to ask that too. I noticed one cool thing you’ve done is you’ve built this community on social media where you have a ton of engagement. So what have you noticed that worked well and what didn’t work well as you were growing your audience?
We encourage all of our girls to create an “InCHAARG” Instagram account. So for me, it’d be “Elizabeth_InCHAARG” and it allows the girls to really connect with other members across the country in this super personal way. I know that Instagram can almost be this highlight reel for a lot of us, and I know I do that too for my personal account, but with these InCHAARG Instagrams, it really is a very authentic role of their life and their health and fitness journey. And so I think that’s what makes us really just this positive, empowering force.
Building on that, I know Anna who knows you, one of our marketing managers, as she was starting to pull some of the research before the show, I was super impressed as the founder of this organization that has grown gangbusters the last five years, that you’re not yourself above sharing your own vulnerabilities online. I mean you just made the joke that a lot of people use social media as like, “look how great my life is”, “look how cool my car is”, “look at my vacation”, “look at this”, but you as the leader of this organization, have actually shared some of your own vulnerabilities in that kind of platform? Why do you do that?
I just love writing. I’ve been that person who’s had diaries since probably age five. I think I had a diary in kindergarten, but it’s always been something that has helped me heal, writing, and I know it’s so important for girls especially in college to know that they are not alone, nowadays with social media – social media is an amazing thing, and social media ultimately helped CHAARG grow, but social media can be very, very ugly when it comes to comparing yourself to others. So I want to just remind girls that, yes everyone goes through things. This is very normal and I want it to share also my process of how I deal with challenges.
And then how do you ensure a strong customer experience across the board, all over on these different campuses and sights?
It really comes down to our leaders. We make sure we choose an ambassador who really knocks our socks off. We have a crazy, crazy amount of interest of college-age women wanting to start CHAARG chapters, and we get so excited about that. But ultimately, we know that it’s really important, especially for those founding chapters to have an incredibly strong leader who has the time to dedicate to building a CHAARG chapter.
In many ways, fitness is so core to your brand, but you’re also providing, not just a community, but a service. But as you continue to grow, you could obviously, pivot in a number of directions. I’m starting to see your brand pop up on product. I know we were kind of, at one point neighbors here at 1871. I know you’re launching your own podcast and you could certainly go into the media realm. So there’s a lot of opportunities there as you continue to grow. So what really excites you about all those areas that you can pivot into?
Possibilities really are endless, and that is the beautiful thing about a wellness company. There’s constantly new trends going on and just different things you can do. But really, really excited about the podcast that we’re launching. I’m also excited about doing more in-person events across the United States. I am excited always for new apparel. I hope to have a space, eventually, I would love a CHAARG studio too.
Sounds like there’s a ton of paths that you could go down. So the podcast, let’s talk about that for a second since you’re on the other side of the microphone on a podcast. Have you figured out the name of it yet? And how can people learn more about that?
So we were thinking about, “What should we name this?” Just going super simple, the CHAARG Podcast. It’s going to be just inspiration for the typical CHAARG member. But we also want a little dose of sweat, and so at the end of each podcast, we’re going to be sharing five to 10 minute workout that our listeners can do, which I think will be a really fun and unique spin on podcasts. We will be launching in January, so stay tuned for that.
I can see for our listeners who can’t, like all the passion in you as you talk about this company, or this organization that you built, and all these different opportunities, talk a little bit about the other side of all of this. So as someone who runs a brand, marketing and co-creation company, there’s so many buzz words around entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, being a founder, being a millennial, it’s almost like this trifecta with you. So talk a little bit about what that journey was like. Because we’ve had some interesting people on over the last three seasons, but I don’t ever recall meeting a founder who essentially created a company out of her own internship, which is very cool. Talk about what that journey was like as you as an entrepreneur and as a leader, what kind of surprised you along the way? What excited you? Maybe, what was a disappointment?
I’ve never really identified as this female founder. I want to be more comfortable with sharing that, I think comes from just super, almost too humble uproots. I feel like I don’t even deserve this. How did I create this community? It’s not me. ‘Cause it really isn’t just me, it’s the entire community who’s helped build this. It wouldn’t be what it is without all of our members. I think my biggest challenge has just been too trusting. I think that’s maybe something that a lot of females struggle with. I never thought of CHAARG as a business, and so I would not really pay attention to finances. I wouldn’t really be strict on legal matters that are important for all businesses. So I’m working on that. I’m trying to get better at that. But I’m so blessed, CHAARG really is my life. It’s so much more than just my work. It’s how I live. How I breathe. And I know that I’ll be doing this forever.
And Natalie, that reminds me a little bit of our conversation with the Simple Mills Founder and CEO, Catalan Smith, when she talked about her passion for Simple Mills, and creating this out of her kitchen. But then as she went along, she realized how much more weight would be on her as a CEO, and everything from having those difficult conversations, which as a founder myself, I don’t love to have, but you kinda have to have sometimes. So, I know you said that CHAARG is really core to your life. And I can appreciate that as someone who started a company seven years ago, as well. But take CHAARG aside for a second, if that’s even possible, what are some other areas, or what are some other things that kinda motivate you and interest you outside of CHAARG?
I love traveling. I definitely wanna travel the entire world. I love spirituality. I love just connecting with humans. I love coffee dates. And just really understanding a person. And also, really digging deep to understand what a person’s purpose is in life, and what makes that person their best self.
So what’s the favorite place you’ve been? And what’s the place that you want to go next?
Favorite place is Sidney, Australia. I was actually born there. So I need to live there for a couple of years of my life. I am in love with the beach, and the people, and the food. Next on my list, I’m going to Jamaica with my family in a couple of weeks.
Good time of the year to get out of Chicago.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Well, that is very exciting. How can our audience learn more about CHAARG and you?
Instagram – definitely our most popular social media account. So it’s just CHAARG and our website is CHAARG.com.
So Elizabeth, I’m so pleased that you could join us today. I have learned a lot about you from someone on my staff. And then once she pulled together a lot of the research, I was so impressed by everything that you’ve done, and that’s before I even had a chance to sit down and hear your story first-hand. To build an organization at any scale, at any level. I always say, anyone can start a business the trick is staying in business. So to everything growing so fast and to celebrating your fifth year and all the things that you talked about that are on the horizon it’s super exciting. So thank you for coming and sharing this story, a little bit of your advice and wisdom with our audience, and thank you for being on the Brand Lab Series™.
Thank you.
I wanna thank our listeners for joining us in the Brand Lab today, and to invite you back next Tuesday, as we continue our journey of today’s most innovative brands; as we learn how they empower employees, engage consumers, design products, and co-create experiences together. Until next time.
To hear other episodes of the Brand Lab Series, visit brandlabseries.com or visit iTunes, Google Play, iHeartRadio or Stitcher. Follow us on Twitter @BrandLabSeries and if you have any questions or would like to participate in a future Brand Lab, email us at info@AEMarketingGroup.com.
To learn more about CHAARG, it’s CHAARG.com. Or you can visit us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @CHAARG
Tags: B2C, Healthcare, Brand and Marketing, Customer Experience, Entrepreneurship
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