Latest / GlowInto / The Story of Rebecca Willmann
Transcript
- Jennifer Joyner: September at Glowin'2 is all about longevity. Not just how long we live, but how well we live, how we care for ourselves, and how we continue building a life that supports us physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. And throughout the month, we're hearing from incredible women who are approaching longevity from very different angles. Doreen Warfield at Studio Strong is talking about strength, movement, and why staying physically strong matters as we age. Jordan Kimler, a Premier U is helping women think about how we look, feel, and care for ourselves as we move through different stages of life. Alison Tyndall with Thriving Willow Coaching brings a more step-by-step approach, focusing on small actions, everyday habits, and sustainable changes that build into a healthier life over time. Dr. Gail Meest with Advantage Family Chiropractic is sharing how movement, alignment, and caring for the body can suggest for the long haul. Finally, Millette Johnson is reminding us that longevity also includes financial confidence and financial freedom in midlife. And then there is Rebecca Wilman. Rebecca's story brings us the idea of whole person health. Throughout the whole body, her work is physical therapy, running, and yoga. Rebecca looks at the body as something deeply connected: how we move, how we feel, how we recover. And how we take care of ourselves as a whole. But her story goes even deeper than physical wellness. Rebecca has also had to make difficult decisions in her own life, listen to what was no longer working, and choose a path that felt more honest and more aligned with who she was becoming. That is why her story feels so right for September. Longevity is not only about adding years to our lives, it is about creating a life that feels healthy, whole. sustainable and truly ours. And these are the conversations we want in Glow and Two. There are stories that remind us that wellness can look different for every woman. So these are the women of Glow'2. At 46, Rebecca Willman has built the kind of physical therapy practice she once wished she could work in. Whole body physical therapy running in yoga studio is not centered on rushing patients through appointments, treating one isolated body part, or ending care the moment insurance says the visits are over. Instead, Rebecca has created a practice where physical therapy, yoga, pelvic floor care, movement, And long-term maintenance can exist within the same philosophy. That philosophy grew from more than two decades of experience, frustration, experimentation, and paying close attention to what patients actually need. This is Rebecca Willman building a practice around the whole person. Rebecca knew unusually early what she wanted to do. At 16, a career interest program suggested physical therapy, and the idea immediately made sense because it combined three things she already loved exercise, people, and science. Going to Maryville University became one of her first real steps into adulthood. She graduated in 2003 with a master's degree in physical therapy and began building the career she had imagined as a teenager. For approximately 14 years, Rebecca worked within corporate physical therapy. She gained experience, but she also became increasingly frustrated with the high-volume insurance-driven care that could limit what therapists were able to do. And at times she was treating three or four patients at once. Insurance could dictate how many visits someone received, what diagnosed could be addressed, and whether additional care would be approved. And so Rebecca wanted more time with people. More continuity and more freedom to respond to what was actually happening with the person in front of her. About two years into her career, she also attended massage therapy school through a program designed for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. Hands-on and myofascial techniques, working involving the muscles and surrounding connective tissue, became an important part of her approach. That experience reinforced something she was already beginning to understand. Bodies rarely behave as neatly as diagnosed on paper suggests they should. And pain in one area can be influenced by strength, mobility, posture, connective tissue, movement patterns, or several things happening together. Have you ever had a business idea or even an established business and realize you're not quite sure what the next move should be? That's where Shannon Shores of Birdie May Consulting comes in. Shannon works with business owners who need clarity, strategy, accountability, and a trusted thought partner to help them step back, look at what's working, identify opportunities, and create a more focused plan for moving forward. Whether you're trying to refine your direction, Make sense of too many ideas or figure out what growth should actually look like for your business. Shannon helps bring the pieces together and turn them into actionable next steps. Sometimes what you need isn't another idea. You need someone who can help you decide which ideas are worth pursuing and how to move forward with them. Learn more about Shannon Shores and Bertie May Consulting. And discover what a little more clarity can do for your business. Rebecca's entrepreneurial story begins long before whole body and two generations before her own. Her grandmother created opportunities for herself during a time when women had far fewer examples of what independence and entrepreneurship could look like. She became the first person in her family to attend college, although that had not originally been the plan. Her father had intended to fund his son's education. And when Rebecca's grandmother wanted that same opportunity, she persisted. Her brothers ultimately chose not to attend, and she would become the one who went. During World War II, she played professional ball and traveled around the country before marrying Rebecca's grandfather prior to his deployment. Later, with a family of her own, she began taking on typing and memograph work from the dining room. The business eventually moved from the dining room into the basement and became a union print shop with its own building and printing presses. Rebecca's grandfather joined the business, followed by Rebecca's father and uncle. What one woman started at her dining room table ultimately became a family business that helped support them for roughly three decades. Rebecca grew up knowing that story and had an example within her own family of a woman who saw an opportunity to And she was willing to build something from it. Her grandmother also left Rebecca something tangible. For birthdays and holidays, she would often tuck $5 into Rebecca's card while putting another $25 into savings for her. After her grandmother died in 2008, Rebecca invested that money rather than spending it. And over time, she grew it to roughly four times its original value. Years later, when Rebecca was ready to start whole body physical therapy. That money became the startup to fund her business. I knew she would be proud that that's where her money went. A business started decades earlier by a woman working from her dining room had helped another woman in the family start a business of her own. Running has been a part of Rebecca's life since 2000, and she jokes that she plans to keep going on triple digits and eventually age into the senior Olympics until she is the only person left in her category. Running also played a role in one of the biggest turning points of her career. Rebecca had repeatedly tried to create a running program within the corporate physical therapy environment where she worked. She saw the need and she knew she could build something useful, but the idea continued to stall. And one day while running on local trails, the frustration became clarity. She wanted to practice physical therapy the way she believed it could be practiced. She was going to have to create the place herself. In 2019, Rebecca opened her own practice from a small rented room inside a gym. In February of 2020, she moved into her own suite in the same building. Then COVID arrived. For a moment, she wondered whether the business she had just built was already over. And when things began reopening, Rebecca had a waiting list. People working from home were experiencing postural issues, stress was showing up physically, and others had taken up running and biking during shutdowns. And we're now dealing with injuries. Rebecca hired another physical therapist, rented a second suite, and soon began looking for a larger space. She found her current building in October of 2020, closed on it that December, and opened there in February of 2021. Later that year, while also navigating major changes in her personal life, Rebecca entered a small business competition through the Small Business Development Center at SIUE and won third place. The prize money helped her build another part of a vision she had carried for years, a yoga studio, which opened in February of 2022. Yoga had never felt separate from physical therapy to Rebecca. She saw how it could support balance, stability, flexibility, breathing, mindfulness, chronic pain management, cross-training, and healthy aging. The name Whole Body Physical Therapy Running in Yoga Studio reflects Rebecca's belief that the body should be considered as a connected system. It also reflects her belief that people living with pain or physical limitations should not see themselves as broken. Years of working with chronic pain have shown her that physical pain can affect confidence, mood, relationships, independence, and the way someone sees the future. An athlete who cannot participate in the sport she loves is dealing with more than an injured knee. Someone who becomes afraid to move because movement has become associated with pain may begin changing an entire life around fear. So operating outside the traditional insurance model gives Rebecca more flexibility to spend time with patients and respond to the person in front of her rather than one diagnosis in isolation. And when people have enough time to talk, they often share much more than where something hurts. Chronic pain particularly interests Rebecca because no two cases are exactly alike. She also works with many people with hypermobility where connective tissue differences, joint instability, muscular guarding, and pro-preconception can influence the way pain develops and changes. Symptoms may move from one area of the body to another. Making it important to look beyond the obvious explanation. Her interest in the whole person care also led her to complete a plant-based nutrition certification through Cornell. While she does not function as a dietitian, she may incorporate general education around plant-forward anti-inflammatory eating when relevant to a patient's care. Rebecca also treats runners, CrossFit athletes, power lifters, and active adults. Who may return periodically for maintenance rather than waiting until a small problem becomes a major one. Exercise is equally important in her life, helping her manage stress, stay focused, parent better, and feel like herself. And the goal is to help people continue doing the things that make them feel like themselves, whether that is running, lifting weights, gardening, traveling, or simply moving through everyday life with confidence. One area Rebecca is especially passionate about is pelvic floor physical therapy. She wants women to understand that symptoms such as leaking when sneezing or jumping, painless sex, constipation, or pelvic heaviness may be common, but they are not necessarily something women simply have to accept as part of aging or motherhood. The demand for care is significant, with local weights sometimes reaching roughly four months. Whole body already has therapists with expertise in pelvic floor care, and Rebecca would like to add another as the need continues to grow. For all that Rebecca has built professionally, some of the greatest satisfaction in her life right now has little to do with work. Much of life outside Whole Body revolves around raising her two children, Harrison 17 and Harper 13. They have watched their mom take risks, build a business, and create a career on her own terms. My mom owns her own company, they say. It is something both kids have been known to tell people. Harrison is even beginning to show some entrepreneurial tendencies of his own. Rebecca also talks openly about how happy she is in her 40s. Her personal life does not look exactly the way it once did, and she has found that relationships at this stage of life do not necessarily have to follow a traditional blueprint. After 20 years together and 17 years of marriage, Rebecca reached a point where she could no longer ignore how deeply unhappy she had become. The final four years of her marriage had been difficult, and somewhere along the way the two twenty two year olds who had once fallen in love had grown in different directions. For a long time she lived in the uncomfortable space between staying and leaving. Ending a marriage felt like standing at the edge of a precipice, wondering whether she was willing to jump without knowing exactly what life would look like on the other side. Then something happened that gave her the clarity she had been searching for. I knew without a doubt, ready or not, I was going to do this. Leaving meant dismantling the life she had spent nearly two decades building. It was frightening, complicated, and deeply personal, but it also became the decision that changed the trajectory of her life. What Rebecca could not fully see from the other side of that precipice was that choosing herself would eventually lead to a level of happiness, freedom, and And contentment she had never thought possible. Looking back now, she understands that leaving the marriage was not the ending of her story. In many ways, it was the beginning of the life she had yet to imagine. If she could offer one piece of advice to her younger self, it would be this: if you ever look around at your life and you decide it's not where you want it to be, it's never too late to reinvent yourself. And after her 17-year-old marriage ended in 2021, Rebecca eventually entered a new relationship. She and her boyfriend maintained their own homes and their own lives, with independence existing alongside their relationship. Neither feels the need to measure commitment by whether they marry or combine households. Rebecca has created a life she genuinely enjoys, and relationship can add to that life without becoming its entire foundation. As she describes it, a partner can be the icing rather than the whole cake. Her forties have become a time of recognizing what works for her in business, motherhood, relationships, and life, and being comfortable with that. There is still so much more coming this September at Glowin' Two. Next week, we'll be sharing the story of Christine Blankert of Blankard's Vintage Market and the new business she's building, another story about creativity, reinvention, and what it looks like to build something new in this stage of life. We'll also be introducing Jodi of Remaking Jodi, whose story is all about personal style, reinvention, confidence, and having a little more fun. With who you are becoming. And throughout the rest of the month, you'll continue hearing from women who contribute their expertise to Glowin' Two, including Carlin Slayton and Amanda Swayne with Style That Evolves, and Felicia Ford with Inside the Workplace. Plus, there's another episode of Glow In Two on the way. And if you want to make sure you don't miss what's coming up next, sign up for the Glow Notes newsletter at glowin'2.com. The September issue comes out on Sunday, September 13th. With stories, features, and a look at what's ahead. You can find the GlowinTwo podcast wherever you listen, and you can always catch the newest stories, features, and updates at glowin2.com. So keep listening, keep reading, keep checking back because September isn't over yet, and there's a lot more coming. When Rebecca isn't working, running, or spending time with her family, there is a good chance a book or audiobook is somewhere in the mix. An avid reader, she makes her way through more than 100 books a year. Audiobooks help her fit reading into a full life, and she gravitates toward ideas that make her think. One book that recently caught her attention was Betty Frieden's The Feminine Mystique, the influential 1963 book examining the dissatisfaction many women experienced. When their identities were narrowly defined by marriage, motherhood, and domestic life. Reading it as a woman in her 40s creates an interesting contrast between generations. Women's choices have expanded dramatically, yet, questions about identity, fulfillment, independence, and what makes a meaningful life continue to resonate. From the outside, Rebecca's path can look deceptively simple. She opened a practice, it grew, she bought a building, added a yoga studio, and built a team. That version leaves out more than two decades of learning the profession, years of frustration inside corporate physical therapy, ideas that did not move forward, a tiny rented room, a pandemic arriving almost immediately after an expansion, uncertainty, hiring, growth. And constant adjustments along the way. Rebecca has also learned that growth does not mean personally doing everything. Whole body now includes Rebecca and her other physical therapists, along with yoga instructors and a Tai Chi instructor. Her role increasingly involves recognizing a need and finding the right person to help meet it. What comes next is not necessarily about becoming bigger, simply for the sake of growth. Rebecca wants to expand pelvic floor care. Add specialties and programs that make sense, and continue finding ways to help people maintain active throughout their lives. Entrepreneurship has become a creative outlet for her. The freedom to notice a need, imagine a solution, and figure out how to make it happen. Rebecca chose physical therapy at 16 without knowing where that decision would eventually take her. There would be decades of learning, a career she would eventually reshape, a business started in one rented room, motherhood, major life changes, and a chapter in her 40s that she now describes with genuine happiness. Her 40s have become a time of recognizing what works for her in business, motherhood, relationships, and life, and being comfortable with that. There is also a perspective that seems to come with this stage of Rebecca's life. Happiness does not necessarily require life to look the way she once imagined it. Her family has changed, her career has changed, and her relationships look different, but different has not meant less fulfilling. If anything, her forties have brought a clearer understanding of what she values. There is room for motherhood, quality friendships, work she loves, a relationship that adds to her life. Time for running and reading, and in independence, she has no desire to give up. It is less about following a prescribed version of what life is supposed to look like, and more about recognizing when the life you have built actually feels good. There are still programs to create, people to help, books to read, and miles to run. And Rebecca says: keep moving forward because everything just gets better. If your business serves Women 40 and beyond, Glow In2 is now offering introductory media packages designed to help you do more than advertise. We want to help you tell your story, share your expertise, and build a stronger connection with the women you want to reach. Our media packages can include a feature story about you, your business, opportunities to contribute your expertise through articles and educational content, a dedicated podcast episode. Where we tell your story, ongoing podcast advertising, social media promotion, newsletter exposure, and additional visibility throughout the GlowinTwo platform. The goal is to give your business more than a single mention. It is about creating repeated, meaningful opportunities for people to get to know who you are, what you do, and why your work matters. If you'd like to learn more about becoming a Glowin Two media partner, Reach out to Jennifer Joyner at glowin2.com or simply use the contact button at glowin2.com. GlowinTwo is for real women, real stories, and wisdom for what's next. Rebecca's story is a reminder that sometimes the biggest changes in our lives begin with a moment when we finally admit to ourselves that something no longer fits. And what I love about this story is that it isn't about having everything figured out. It's about listening to yourself, making the hard choices, and creating a life that feels more honest, more whole, and more like your own. Thank you for listening to another story from Glowin' Two. Where we share real women, real stories, and wisdom for what's next. And until next time, keep growing, keep becoming, and keep glowing into who you were always meant to become.