Member Monday - Featuring: Brooke Beneze
Brooke at last year’s NOMAD NATION Q4 meetup in Park City, Utah
Brooke Beneze is a native of New Hampshire, but currently resides in Raleigh, NC with her beloved Corgi (Romy) and her cat (Ivy). At the risk of sounding redundant, she has a huge passion for travel and exploration–making it her top priority this year, alongside fitness.
This isn’t anything new; she first realized how much she loved to travel when her mom took her on a trip to Europe (Paris and London) at the age of 12. She also attributes a large portion of her wanderlust from TV shows she watched growing up, hosted by Samantha Brown, a travel channel television host who built a name touring exotic places and documenting them.
“I always thought, I want to do that,” she explained while discussing her background with us.
The goal of traveling for a living seems to be a common thread within our community.
When Brooke graduated college in 2016, she jumped straight into the corporate world where she worked as an accountant. However, like many of us starting out, quickly realized she didn’t love what she was doing. The silver lining was that this job led Brooke to Raleigh, NC; where she decided to get her personal training certification.
Brooke eventually left her corporate job at the end of 2022 (!) to launch her personal training business and online program, while simultaneously working on a real estate venture–making her a great candidate for our Member Monday series!
Brookie B Fit, is the name of her fitness program that officially launched this month. The program she started is primarily oriented around building habits, and is excited for the launch of an app later this year for her programs. That said, she has already begun filling up her schedule with multiple clients (to start your habit-building journey now, contact her through Instagram for a consultation).
Brooke’s first group course started on January 9th, this month, which has personalized programs including works outs, meal plans, grocery lists, journaling, and figuring out your “why.”
As an advocate for combining mental and physical health, Brooke centered the fitness program around helping people focus on those, rather than just dieting or losing weight. “It’s about living a healthy lifestyle and loving yourself.” Her mission statement is: to help people gain structure and confidence with exercise while building a sustainable, balanced lifestyle.
So far Brooke has visited 15 countries, and her goal is to add a new country every year. Her favorite place so far is Hamilton Island, Australia, seconded by Greece (a place she’s visited more than once). One of her all-time favorite memories was cruising on a boat at night between Greek islands, “It makes you actually slow down for a minute,” she said, “the inclination to be able to pause and take it all in, this is why I love to travel.”
During the pandemic Brooke wanted to get out of Raleigh and decided to take a solo trip. She went to Tulum (where we happened to host last year’s Q1 meetup!), spending most of her time there alone, but did manage to make a few friends along the way. These new friends ended up being far more than new acquaintances, and they now go on many different trips together, a phenomenon that many of us have experienced. This is part why we think building a global, digitally-connected community is so critical.
Brooke has done a handful of solo trips as well, and would highly recommend them. “There are moments when you’re lonely, but in those moments you reflect and get to know yourself better than ever before. One of the best parts is that there are no rules. You have the flexibility to do whatever you want.” Her advice is to be intentional during these times, and really try to figure yourself out.
Brooke says with the launch of her online business, she’s really on her way to being a “true nomad.” According to her, this is a major part of why she joined NOMAD NATION in the first place. “I am so excited about the option to hop from these tiny villages all around the world, with incredibly flexible leases.”
She thinks that people who have the unique energy to live a nomad lifestyle are incredibly special and wants to spend more of her time around them, “they take more risks, are ready to book flights on short notice, are often entrepreneurs, and almost always genuine, incredible people.”
As soon as she saw an article about the group, she immediately called Zach (NOMAD founder), whom she had never met, saying “I need to join!”—she did shortly thereafter.
Brooke loves that the community continues to bring in people who are creative, ambitious, driven, culturally aware individuals, and is looking forward to its growth.
