Jazzercise, Inc. Founder & CEO Judi Sheppard Missett Launches Book "Building a Business with a Beat"

The book, on sale June 25, features powerful insights into how Sheppard Missett dominated a male-focused industry and pioneered the aerobic fitness movement

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, the book also highlights how the global dance fitness company has achieved continued growth for five decades

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Jazzercise, Inc.

Jun 20, 2019, 09:00 ET

SAN DIEGO, June 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- This year, Jazzercise, Inc., the company that pioneered aerobic dance fitness and became a global phenomenon, is the first-ever dance fitness brand to celebrate the 50-year mark. In honor of the milestone, founder and CEO Judi Sheppard Missett is launching a book titled "Building a Business with a Beat: Leadership Lessons from Jazzercise – an Empire Built on Passion, Purpose and Heart" filled with the lessons she's learned after five decades of industry success. The book will be published June 25, 2019, by McGraw-Hill.

"Building a Business with a Beat," on sale June 25, features powerful insights into how fitness icon and Jazzercise founder Judi Sheppard Missett dominated a male-focused industry and ultimately pioneered the aerobic fitness movement

In "Building a Business with a Beat," Missett reveals for the first time:

Behind-the-scenes stories of how her original dance class of 15 women grew into the world's leading dance fitness program.
How she empowers women to create their own businesses and success using Jazzercise principles.
The secret to longevity and reinvention, plus customer retention (50 percent of Jazzercise's customers have been attending classes for 10 years or more).
How she spearheaded the women's fitness movement and invented boutique fitness.

In 1969, Missett was a professional dancer teaching classical jazz dance in the Chicagoland area. After seeing low retention in her classes, she learned that students were using dance as a means of achieving fitness goals, and not to pursue dance careers. With this information, she tweaked her classes and implemented new tactics that made it a fun and energizing workout class. Thus, Jazzercise – and the aerobic fitness movement – was born.

Before Missett, the prevailing attitude was that exercise was the domain of men – but she disrupted that idea by utilizing her passion for dance to create a cardio-pumping choreographed class. What started as a single class with 15 women has grown into a global fitness empire with 32,000 classes per week in 25 countries. Recently Jazzercise, now based in Southern California, topped $2 billion in gross cumulative sales. From the height of its popularity in the '80s, to today's format that features heart-pumping dance, HIIT and kick-boxing classes set to current music, the global fitness empire has stood the test of time and proved itself more than a trend.

In 1982, Jazzercise became the first fitness program to franchise as means of expanding across the country while providing franchise owners, the majority of whom are women, more power. By 1984, Jazzercise was declared the "2^nd fastest growing franchise" behind Domino's Pizza and today, the brand boasts 8,500 franchisees globally.

On June 28-29, 2019, Jazzercise will celebrate its golden anniversary with a two-day, international convention at the San Diego Convention Center. Nearly 3,000 Jazzercise enthusiasts from across the world will attend the weekend-long event that will be filled with dance fitness classes, live entertainment, international guest performers and big reveals about the brand's future. Festivities start Friday night, June 28, with Girls' Night Out Jazzercise classes and a Disco Pre-Party. The weekend will also feature a special anniversary apparel shop, behind-the-scenes tours of the corporate offices in Carlsbad, CA, and an interactive museum that chronicles the many industry "firsts" Jazzercise brought to the fitness world.

Given its proven grit, company earnings and global presence, Jazzercise, Inc., is gearing up to take on the next 50 years stronger than ever. To find out more about the 50 Years Strong Celebration, visit jazzercise.com/50yearsstrong. Pre-sale orders for "Building a Business With a Beat" are available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and more.

About Jazzercise
Jazzercise believes you can create a stronger, happier, healthier life through fitness. The company draws on the passion to motivate and inspire customers, instructors and employees to live healthier, fitter lives. Jazzercise develops fun and effective fitness routines and products that enhance the well-being of people of all ages. Learn more about Jazzercise at www.jazzercise.com.

SOURCE Jazzercise, Inc.