By Abigail Baker

Karena and Katrina, founders of Tone It Up, are real life best friends and business partners. You may recognize them from billboards across the world, the pages of SELF Magazine, Vogue, In Style, and Shape, the shelves of Target or you may have seen them featured on The Talk, Oprah, Ellen or Extra TV, but there are some things you may not know about these two. Karena and Katrina are putting a fresh face on health and beauty; Jane Fonda calls them the "New Faces of Fitness" and Marie Claire names them the ‘Power Duo’. Their hardcore following and influence over the globe is contagious and Karena and Katrina are well on their way to building an enterprise of products and media, branding themselves as the ‘it-girls’ of anything and everything.

When Tone It Up asked me to write their company bio, I gladly accepted to meet them at their fitness studio, named by LA Times magazine “One of the hottest fitness studios in Southern California”. On my way I stopped at a Jamba Juice in hopes to impress them with my healthy snack. While ordering my protein drink, I looked down and to my surprise their faces were there on the cover of Competitor Magazine. I guess it’s true that once you hear about something on its way up, it pops up everywhere. I became very excited to interview them.

As I walked up to their beach studio I could hear the waves and feel the ocean breeze. It was exactly what I imagined from watching their videos on YouTube. They reside just a block from the sand in a small beach studio. As I walked in, the two greeted me with smiles and hugs. Katrina excused herself and said, “Oh we give hugs, thanks for coming.”

The two are charming, charismatic and have a welcoming aura. I looked around; their studio is filled with Tone It Up tanks, lunch boxes, equipment and DVDs for clients. Shipments go out every day to their online viewers. Karena caught me looking around, “Do you want a tank?” She threw one to me. “Deal is, you have to wear it!”

We decided to take a casual walk on the beach so I could ask them about how they met and what their plans are for Tone It Up. Leaving the studio door wide open, they looked over to the neighbor, an older gentleman sitting outside his barbershop. “I’ll watch it girls.” They smiled, and Katrina said, “That’s Beryl. He watches over us and the studio.”

Walking along the beach, runners, skaters and bicyclists made their way around us. “This seems like the perfect, active place for you two.” Karena replied, “It’s our home. We wouldn’t trade it for anything.” I believed her. “Did you grow up here?”  “No, I’m from Indiana and Katrina’s from New Hampshire.”

Tone It Up began when Karena and Katrina met at a gym in Southern California. It was no coincidence that they would meet. They ran into each other everywhere around town: coffee shops, the farmer’s market, running on the beach and even the grocery store. Both were in the fitness industry and had worked for 5+ years prior to meeting each other.

Karena, a triathlete and sports model, grew up active and passionate about fitness. She studied Kinesiology and found love for triathlon at the young age of 22. “I want to inspire other women to become strong and to help them break out of troubles in their life.”

I asked, “Have you had a tough life?” “Let’s just say, everyone has their story. I’m an open book… I’ll write it someday. Fitness saved me.” “You need to write a book… I’d be the first to buy it!” Katrina nudged her and smiled.

Katrina, a weight loss success story, picked up her first Exercise Physiology book at the age of thirteen. Graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Health Science, she had big plans for her fitness career. “I envisioned my life as it is now. I wanted to help others that struggled like me. I could feel it. I knew this was my calling.”  She joked, “When I first moved to California I had no friends. How are you supposed to meet girlfriends in a new place!? When I met Karena at the gym she thought I was a crazy trainer trying to talk to her. It took her some warming up to hang out with me... or to return my calls.”

“Actually it took stalking me at Trader Joes!” Karena said under her breath. The girls laughed and said they hit it off right away with their personalities and shared values. “We had the same dreams and goals. We don’t do our job for ourselves every day; we do it for others, to inspire other women to live healthier, to be positive role models for our young following and to be able to give back someday.” Katrina said while putting her hair up. By the way, if you haven’t seen her hair, it’s a mane. It reminds me of a mermaid, just without any seashells or seaweed in it.

“What is it that you two do?  What is everyday like for you?”

“We easily work over 100 hours a week… we live and breathe Tone It Up. It’s our life. We wake up to thousands of women checking in with their workouts, posting recipes they love, inspiring other Tone It Up Team members with their stories or writing their own Tone It Up blog in the community. We send out emails with challenges and film workout videos on the beach. We’re also really active with all our viewers.” “We’re developing a lot of products too!” Katrina added. “Yes, we’re always working on our next project. Our last was a line of DVDs and fitness equipment with Jane Fonda.”

The girls talked about their partnership with Jane Fonda for a new workout brand, naming them as the younger generation of fitness. “We're still overwhelmed with happiness and are so grateful we have Jane as a mentor and friend. She's such a wonderful woman and supporter of Tone It Up.  She's always been an icon in our eyes.”

“How have you done all of this in two years?” I asked, knowing we had hardly even touched on new projects and what they have done together.

“When people ask how we’ve accomplished what we’ve done in two years, we say this has been over a decade in the works. When we met we both had careers in sports, videography and personal training. We created Tone It Up, bringing our personal brands together. We wanted Tone It Up to be a place that all women can visit and relate to.” They explained their biggest help has been visualization. “We visualized helping millions and just six months in, we realized we were well on our way.”

With over 17 million views on their fitness videos, they must be doing something right. Katrina reached for her phone, “Sorry, I forgot to put it on silent.” She looked down and caught up with a few tweets. “Do you girls do all of your own social media?” I asked because I can’t even keep up with my own Facebook, so I had to know. “We do. It’s a fulltime job between producing all our videos, uploading them, partnering with companies on video campaigns, interacting with our team members, doing giveaways and contests and even making sure we workout ourselves!” Katrina laughed pretending to do lunges as she was walking.

“What do you mean about partnering with companies and producing video campaigns?”

“This is a large part of Tone It Up; bringing great brands to our viewers. We have a following that trusts us and we take this very seriously. Each person that is subscribed to us is directly interested in what we have to say about workouts, food, what we suggest to wear for fitness and even beauty products. It’s not like a commercial where you might be reaching out to 30% of the people with what message you want to send, it’s 100% with us. So we partner with other brands that we truly believe in and think have a good synergy with us and a common mission. Karena and I are really passionate about helping other brands make their way to our followers. We care so much about our viewers, so we want them to have the healthiest and happiest life possible.”

The girls currently partner with Oakley. They go on fitness retreats with them, link to their site in their posts, create video content and video brand integration. It all started when Karena wore their glasses in every triathlon she raced in.  They also partner with Skechers, bringing Tone-ups, a cross training shoe and a new running line to their site.  When you visit ToneItUp.com, they have no ads and their videos are all free. They post regular video content talking about workouts, what’s in their gym bags, their lunch boxes and they do giveaways to keep their following motivated. Tone It Up is built around what Karena and Katrina love with an authentic and fresh approach to being active.

They have a membership to an exclusive part of their site and a nutrition program that their women follow. After meeting them, I was interested to go on their site to see what exactly I should be doing for my workouts, what I should trade up my nachos for and how to get their glowing skin. After talking with them for over an hour and watching them interact with one another as they finished each other’s sentences, I had to ask them, “Have you two been approached by TV?”  “We have. We’ve had to turn down things that didn’t seem right for us. If we do TV, it needs to be us, that’s the only thing we know how to do!” Karena said while reaching in her pocket for lip-gloss. “Oh, can I have some?” Katrina grabbed it before Karena could finish. Karena held her hand our patiently. “If we can just continue to be us, we’re happy. As long as people don’t mind chaos and seeing two very regular girls in a big world like this, then we’re fine.” Katrina said while bouncing her hand on a ledge that lined the sand. Karena laughed, “We should have had our cameras rolling yesterday. We had about ten moments of… ‘Is this really happening?’ We try to find the positive in every situation. Whenever we share an experience, so many viewers say they just went through that or they relate to our story. It feels good that we’re not alone --- and we’re sure it’s the same way for them.”

I had one more question when we returned to the studio. “What are your plans for the future?  Where will Tone It Up be tomorrow, six months or a year?” The girls smiled and looked at each other. Karena stumbled on an exercise ball and Katrina looked at me rolling her eyes. “I told her she couldn’t go one day without falling… Clumsiest girl I know.”  Karena grabbed a bottled water from the fridge and handed it to me. “I don’t know where we’ll be in a year, but I do know tomorrow we’ll be right here, filming and motivating others, because our women all inspire us to keep going. We don’t like to think about it too much, but we do have plans. We want to make sure our viewers have a place to go to get the right answers about health, to be positive role models and to continue on the path we’re on with producing original videos that people can feel connected to.”

Leaving, the girls walked me out handing me Tone It Up bumper stickers, a lunch cooler, another water for the road and a DVD. “Let us know when you try it!” I felt like they were my trainers and I needed to check in when I did the video. So of course, the first thing I did when I got home was pop in the DVD. What surprised me was I still felt like I was at their studio. A few times Karena lost her balance in the video and Katrina gave me those same rolling eyes. They laughed with me and worked me out for a very sweaty and challenging 30 minutes. When I was done, I settled at my computer.

Visiting their Facebook page to check in, I saw thousands of other women checking in with pictures, workouts and healthy recipes. It hit me. I was now part of their movement to bring Tone It Up to every home. They are my gurus. I couldn’t be more honored to have interviewed these two bright young women. They even turned me, a writer and anti-gym goer, into a fan.

As entrepreneurs with a caring attitude toward everything and everyone, these two will exceed any of their own expectations. Something tells me Karena and Katrina are well on their way to building an empire of products, branding themselves from head to toe and making every woman feel healthy and sexy…which is what makes them perfect for every home. After today, I want in on whatever they’re doing.

Stay tuned with Karena and Katrina.