How Jill Miller Built a Global Fitness Phenomenon

She overcame heartbreak and conquered obstacles that would have defeated many other people. She has hundreds of certified teachers teaching her method worldwide. She often appears in national media. And she has a whole slew of brilliantly branded products that must be the envy of every starry-eyed fitness wantrepreneur. But she is no overnight success... 

Jill Miller is the co-founder of Tune Up Fitness Worldwide and creator of the corrective exercise format Yoga Tune Up® and The Roll Model Method®. With more than 28 years of study in fitness, yoga therapy, and anatomy, she is a pioneer in forging relevant links between the worlds of fitness, yoga, massage, and pain-management. Her innovative techniques have catapulted her to a sought-after leader in the field of mind-body fitness and pain relief wellness. Jill has presented case studies at the Fascia Congress and the International Symposium of Yoga Therapists and is a regular at fitness conferences worldwide. She is also creator of the RX Series Program for EQUINOX Fitness Clubs and the Treat While You Train Program for 24Hr. Fitness.

Jill’s specialized Yoga Tune Up® teaching team includes hundreds of movement professionals and clinicians across the globe instructing her self-care programming to a  broad range of clientele; from those with chronic illness to elite athletes.  Her self-care fitness programs have become staples at fitness centers, spas, hospital-based gyms, CrossFit boxes, yoga studios and corporate wellness centers such as Equinox, Canyon Ranch, YogaWorks, Cedars Sinai, Apple, Google and more. Miller and her products have been featured in O Magazine, Self, Shape, FITNESS, Yoga Journal, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, Huffington Post, The Today Show, Good Morning America, FOX and is a guest expert for the LA Times and on the Oprah Winfrey Network's OWN Show. Jill’s critically acclaimed DVDs and self-care therapy products include Treat While Your Train with Dr. Kelly Starrett, Coregeous®, Yoga Tune Up® At Home Program, the Yoga Tune Up® Quickfix Rx Series, the Pranamaya produced Yoga Link series, and Gaiam's Yoga for Weight Loss. Jill is also the author of The Roll Model, released in the Fall of 2014.

This "How I Broke Into" interview is filled with stories of courage and self-discovery, and provides tremendous insight into how a global brand can result from the initial efforts of one person’s decision to forge a new path. Here are notes from the show:

Jill's love of yoga and fitness began early on. She has a love/hate relationship with business--she grew up in a solar community and her family's business was solar. She worked in the family business from a young age.

As a child, Jill was on the standard American diet, was overweight, teased, scrutinized. She discovered Jane Fonda's Workout and Raquel Welch's Yoga Program (Total Beauty and Fitness). She discovered how important a teacher, even one on video, is. But she overdid t with the videos and became anorexic.

We discussed "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981) with Jennifer Jason Leigh (I wrongly said it starred Ally Sheedy).

Anorexia/Bulimia is the #1 cause of death in teenage girls.

For Jill, falling in love led to a path to self-love.

She started studying shiatsu while attending Northwestern University, and this led to healing.

The Coregeous Ball is part of her product line; it's a soft, grippy pliable ball meant for self-healing.

She never planned to teach. But she was inspired by her mentor Glenn Black at the Omega Institute. Shortly before 9/11, she decided to explore teaching.

She enrolled in the 200 hour Teaching Program for yoga. She felt inhibited by the rigidity of the teaching program's failure to take time for body and tissue sense. She started to change the way she taught.

Jill became known for her lateral abdominal churning--Nauli Kriya--and had an 8 page spread in Yoga Journal.

Her mother worked for JetBlue, which has a family program of flights all over the U.S. Jill offered to fly to yoga studios all over the country.

"I had balls. And now I have a ball products business."

She does compassionate cadaver labs with Gil Hedley so movement educators can see the anatomy on the inside.

Yoga Tune Up does not stay in the yoga space.

Center for Pain Rehabilitation - Mitchell Prywes, MD, Danbury, CT

Hospitals are finally embracing all parts of well-being.

Tune Up Fitness has 500 teachers worldwide.

Jill's husband Robetr is a serial entrepreneur. 6 months into dating, he came to a 3 hour core workshop and couldn't believe how fast it flew by. He said, "We need to bottle this." The collapse of her mother and step-father's business made Jill reticent to build a business.

She licenses materials and products globally.

The Roll Model is being translated into other languages.

"Self care health care."

She has shared perspective with Dr. Kelly Starrett, best-selling author Becoming a Supple Leopard and Katy Bowman, author of Move Your DNA.

She doesn't quite feel like she's arrived yet.

We discussed the school system and deskbound kids. She recommended Starrett's Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World.

 I mentioned how much I enjoyed Starrett's appearance in 30 Days of Genius on Creative Live, in which he mentioned Jill.

She did programs on breath, fascia, and pre-natal fitness for Creative Live.

"We met at a time when all of us were trying to reach people."

Robert is her business backbone, loves building businesses. It's scary to go along with new initiatives.

Jill knew, in writing her first book, that she need to capture the soft-tissue soft tool market, so she did The Roll Model instead of a book on breath. That will be her second book.

She has become known as a go-to expert in the field of fascia.

She is impressed with Wim Hof's breathing method.

Her daily practice involves soft tissue self-care, walking, range-of-motion exercises. Josh Landis is a strength and conditioning coach that has been helpful.

Web sites include YogaTuneUp.com and TuneUpFitness.com.

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