Exploring Life & Business with Michelle Mazel of Gymnastics Express

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Mazel

Hi Michelle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When I was young, my mother put me in dance at the early age of two because I was apparently “painfully shy.” Dance became my first love and through that, I found that because my stature was pretty compact, gymnastics came pretty naturally for me. My mom enrolled me in a gymnastics class at the age of eight and I found myself developing a love for everything that gymnastics encompasses-I felt like I could fly! By that age I wanted to quit dancing and solely focus on gymnastics. I was in the gym from that point on through the age of eighteen every night straight from school for 4 hours each and competing on weekends. I loved it because not only did I develop some amazing skills but more importantly I was developing incredible friendships with teammates, discipline of hard work, responsibility, competitiveness, and the ability to overcome both winning and losing. Major life lessons were learned in that gym, day in and day out. Gymnastics for me, taught grit. The ability to push through when life doesn’t go your way.. I owe that to my coach who is my stepfather, Jeff Conner.

Besides growing up in the gym, I also worked in the gym. I taught many adaptive gymnastics classes to those children who were less fortunate than I. When I started teaching, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. My stepdad was such an inspiration coaching me throughout my career that I wanted to follow in his footsteps and instruct and coach as well.

Back in 1985 my stepdad while we were still living in Iowa owned a gymnastics club but he wanted to start children even in their earlier years if he could so he was lugging lots of preschool gymnastics equipment into the childcare centers. If you can only imagine how tedious of a process that was. Then one day, he came to my mother and said he was going to renovate a school bus into a “gym on wheels”. She looked at him like he was crazy but he went for it anyway. He purchased a school bus, tore all the seats out, carpeted the floor areas and sidewalls and drove it to childcare centers, marched the kiddos out into the bus and hold a 30 minute class right inside the bus. Such an ingenious concept!,They own the Gym Bus business in Columbia MO and have been servicing their area since the late 1980’s!

So, I graduated high school and that is when my journey of competing stopped but my wish to teach for the rest of my life began. During my college career in 1989 my stepdad was coaching the collegiate women’s gymnastics team at the University of Missouri while I decided to focus on my studies of Physical Education and I was honored to become a Cheerleader at Mizzou during my time there. My mother handled their Gym Bus business and I worked for them during my college years while majoring in Physical Education. Here’s the really humorous part…because I was working for their Gym Bus business upon my graduation with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Edication in 1994 my parents had asked me what I would like for a graduation present. Most students upon graduation ask for money, a car or a trip. Well what I wanted was a really big wish of mine. You see they had a fleet of five Gym Buses at that time-I wanted one of their buses to take to St. Louis so I could start my own business and the rest is I guess you could say-history!

From that moment, I have had successful businesses in St. Louis, Atlanta GA, Hilton Head SC and now going on 11 years in Kansas City.

My passion is I hope to help develop a sense of grit with all of the super valuable things gymnastics teaches to my tiny gymnasts!!!

My husband also finds his passion working on the Gym Bus daily and we have a couple of very experienced staff members as well.

My husband and I live in Overland Park Kansas. We have a 9 year old daughter and an 8 year old son whom both participated on the Gym Bus! Our daughter had taken her movement abilities into competitive dance and our son is doing gymnastics at a local club! We also have 2 Portuguese water dogs who love to go on walks and swim! In addition to my passion of working with preschool age children and participating in being my own kids biggest cheerleader, I never lost that passion for dance! Even at soon to be 55 years old I compete in Latin Dancesport across the USA in my free time!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a fairly smooth road and definitely the few negatives of the business are far outweighed by the positives. Just the simple fact of being able to do what I love for a living is beyond a gift and such a blessing for our lives!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Gymnastics Express?
Gymnastics Express is a mobile preschool gymnastics program that services childcare centers, church preschools and daycares around the Kansas City area. Our tiny tumblers range in age from 12 months “walkers”through the age of 6 years old. Early intervention is the key to promoting a healthy lifestyle. Our Gym Bus has carpet on the floor area and side walls and we march the kiddos out to the Gym Bus and provide a 30 minute class right on the Gym Bus at their childcare centers! We can take up to 10 kiddos in a class. We start with a musical warmup which consists of skipping, galloping, sit ups, pushups, etc. Then we move onto 2 different pieces of apparatus. We may have the tall balance beam, rings hanging from the ceiling, trampoline, donut rides, etc. (We have a storage bus full of preschool gymnastics equipment and we rotate it weekly for the lesson plans.) We also will touch on 1 of 8 different sport drills.
The kiddos love it because they are taken out weekly for their lesson which is sorta like a weekly consistent field trip, the parents love it because of the convenience factor. (Now they don’t have to take them to lessons after a long day at work or on weekends) and we love it because the kiddos learn so much being contained in our Gym Bus area which is very valuable and conducive to learning! We are proud to say that we’ve been in business for over 35 years!

How do you think about happiness?
It makes me happy to see the smile on the tiny gymnasts little faces when they complete a skill that they haven’t done before or they perfect a technique that they haven’t yet been able to do. Their sweet spirit in their eyes says it all! Such a wonderful & satisfying feeling! That makes me happy. And of course their hugs!!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gymbuskc.com