Get to know Judi Sheppard Missett, founder and CEO of Jazzercise

You may have seen images of people dancing in bright leotards emblazoned with the phrase “Jazzercise” on television or maybe in your real life over the past five decades.

The story behind this long-lasting franchise is one that starts with Judi Sheppard Missett. She was a professional dancer and dance teacher in Chicago when she had what she called the “ah-ha moment” that would send her on a journey in business that would lead to a $100 million empire.

The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 and Sheppard Misset, 76, still teaches classes. With the help of her daughter, Shanna Missett Nelson, who serves as president of Jazzercize, the business is still operating in 25 countries with 8,500 franchises.

From her home in Vista, Sheppard Missett joined the Name Drop San Diego podcast to share the lessons she’s learned along the way. Read excerpts below or listen to the full episode in the podcast player above.

How’d you get the idea for Jazzercise?

In Chicago, I was teaching this dance class and I had a lot of women in the class ... and a lot of them would come to class, take a couple classes and then I’d never see them again and I thought, “What am I doing wrong?” So I thought, “I’m going to ask them what’s going on.” And they’d say, “Well Judi, we really like the class, you know, but you’re teaching it like we’re going to go on and become professional dancers. We don’t want to be a professional dancer but we want to look like one.” That was my ah-ha moment. I thought, OK, I’m going to do something different and turn them away from the mirror and make it fun and base it in dance so they could really work out and feel good about themselves and maybe change their bodies and it worked, so I just kept doing that.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Surround yourself with people who lift you up. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are and you can’t lose that way. And don’t get your ego involved with it. ... Really it’s three things. First, you listen to your gut, then you use your head. You think about those two things and then you follow your heart. ... I think that’s what has guided me through everything, not fancy models of business ideas or any of that. It just was — what feels right and create winning situations for everybody? When you make a decision to do something, you have to think, is everybody going to win when I do this? If you can say yes, then go for it. Even if everybody else tells you, “Don’t do it,” if your gut is telling you do it, then you better do it. That’s what’s guided me through a whole heck of a lot of things.

What advice do you have about staying consistent with exercise?

Well, the first thing I would say to you is you’ve got to like it. Pick something you enjoy. ... Find something that you like and then set smaller goals for yourself. Let’s say you decide you want to do Jazzercise. You immediately might say, “Well I’ve got to do it every single day.” Well no, I don’t think so. Then you get tired of it. I think changing out, if you can find two or three things you really like, then you can go back and forth. It’s like cross training. I think that helps people to continue to work out and not stop training. You don’t have to do it for two or three hours a day really. Start out with 30 minutes a day. That’s pretty doable. ... So I think it’s taking it easy, being good to yourself, not trying to do too much, but just starting out that way. And then what you’ll find is it’ll sort of become addictive. And you’ll think to yourself, “Oh gosh I’m not feeling great. Oh I know why. I didn’t take my walk today.” And then your body kind of tells you what you need to do. And then the other thing that motivates a lot of people in our classes is they go to the doctor for their checkup and the doctor says, “What have you been doing? My gosh, your cholesterol is down, your blood pressure is better.” ... Then the doctor says, “Don’t stop, keep going, because it’s keeping you healthy.” When you can take control of your health like that, that’s a great motivator.