Kenzie Wesp | The Format Fitness / True Form Fitness
Owner & CEO, The Format Fitness and True Form Fitness
Kenzie Wesp is the founder of Format Fitness and True Form Fitness, a collection of studios in Nashville and Franklin focused on Pilates, Lagree, and community-driven workouts. In this video, she shares how taking over her first studio at 21 sparked a journey of entrepreneurship, purpose, and building spaces where people move, connect, and belong.
An Unexpected Leap
Kenzie Wesp didn’t set out to be a business owner—she just loved movement. At 21, a senior at Belmont University, she was offered the chance to take over a fitness studio in Franklin, Tennessee. Her passion for fitness and curiosity about business collided, launching her entrepreneurial journey.
Learning by Doing
Fresh out of college, Kenzie embraced the mantra: “I don’t know now, but I’ll learn it.” Early successes and failures taught her resilience, problem-solving, and the art of building businesses from the ground up.
Building with Purpose
Kenzie’s studios—Format Fitness and True Form Fitness—are more than workouts. Guided by faith and a clear “why,” she creates spaces where people move, connect, and find community, turning fitness into meaningful experiences.
“Every decision I make in my studios is rooted in one question: What’s the why behind this?”
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My name is Kenzie Wesp. I am a 25-year-old entrepreneur here in Nashville, Tennessee. I own three different businesses, one of which is called the Format Fitness, which we're in right now. It is a heated Pilate studio. And then I also own two Lagree studios called True Form Fitness, which are again, lag Green Me.
Former studios in Nashville and Franklin. My story's unique in how I got into entrepreneurship because I was 21 years old. I was a senior at Belmont University just down the road from here, and I was asked by actually my current employer, I had been teaching at Egree Studio, known as Studio Novo. I was teaching there, and upon graduating, the owner of that studio asked if I would be interested in taking over one of her locations that was located up the road on Caruthers in Franklin.
And one thing led to another. I took over that studio in April of 2022, just a couple months upon graduating college, of which I was gonna be a psychology major, so it made no sense, but it was perfect. I had always been obsessed with movement, and so really that opportunity got me into entrepreneurship and one thing led to another there and just became obsessed with the art of business and of working with clients and opening up concepts.
My year at VA Brentwood Academy was. So amazing as a senior there and walking in as a senior, I learned so much about what it's like to a value, not only your faith, but also to integrate your faith with everything that you do. And that is something that I really tried to embody here at the studios. Um, you know, we are a faith-based business and just growing up.
Um, with an awareness and, and being a senior there, um, and having an awareness of, you know, faith really does fuel you farther. Um, we just have seen that really again, allow us to be set apart in this industry. Early successes and failures are, there's a book that is way too big for us to read right now because when you're 21 taking over a business, I don't really think there is any such thing as success in the first couple weeks of that.
And so, honestly, I mean, I don't even think I could truly put into words what all went on that first. Couple months of me being a business owner, but it was a lot of Google. It was a lot of calling on friends and overall just. I kept saying the sentence like, I'm not good at it now. I don't know it now, but I'll learn.
And I think that that has been such a staple in my career as an entrepreneur is when I don't know, because how am I supposed to know when I've never had experience and when I've never had, you know, a shared understanding of what the answer should be in this situation. Um, I've leaned on that statement of, I don't know now, but I'll learn it in the future.
Advice for. Firing entrepreneurs. Number one is have a vision and stick to it. I think the only way to again, quote unquote, fail or not succeed in the business that you want to open is to lose sight of why you're doing it. And here at the studios it's. So important to me to have a why behind everything.
Whether it's how we're building a space, what we want people to feel like the why behind that is gonna help our build out. Or if it's the concept we're creating fitness wise, what is the workout? What is the why behind it? Why are we working our muscles in that way? Or you know, you could take it as far as the concept itself.
Why do you. To create it. Um, the one question I like to live with and the biggest piece of advice I give to all who come to me and say, how do you do what you do? I always encourage them to fix a problem because there's millions of fitness studios in the world, right? But what problem do I wanna fix? And, you know, I've noticed that there's just a lack of community when it comes to fitness studios and there's a lack of understanding of why people actually even walk in these doors.
It's not always for a workout, but it's for them to meet. Somebody and to find a friend or to have community and people around them encouraging them into something new. And so that is kind of fixing the problem. I noticed, and I've seen such a great response to it, if you are interested in seeing any of our businesses, we have our own custom app for the format and an app for True Formm.
You can get on that app, you can connect with us, and it's a really easy way to not only book your classes, but also schedule your classes. If you are just wanting to follow along with the brand, then you can follow us on Instagram at the format Fitness on. Instagram for the format, and then at True Form Fitness on Instagram for true form.
And then my Instagram is at Kenzie Wesp.
Why We Share These Stories
We believe that celebrating Tennessee’s entrepreneurs will inspire the next generation of bold thinkers, risk-takers, and community builders. Entrepreneurs don’t forget where they come from—and they carry the power to transform not just their businesses, but entire neighborhoods, towns, and local economies. See more entrepreneur stories from the Patton Foundation.
