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Wellness with Purpose: How Marisol Starr Is Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders
- EmpowerHer Ventures
- Oct 23
- 5 min read
As we close out October and head into the final stretch of the year, it’s the perfect time to
reflect on transformation, the kind that starts within and ripples outward. This month’s Women in Business Highlight shines on a woman doing exactly that: Marisol Starr, founder of Starr Wellness Collective (SWC), a nonprofit dedicated to shaping the next generation through holistic health, education, and mindset.
In a world that often tells teens and young adults to chase success before they understand what wellness truly means, Marisol is changing the conversation. Her mission is simple but powerful: to help young adults build strong bodies and strong minds so they can create strong futures.
From the Gym to a Greater Purpose
Marisol’s journey began in the fitness industry more than a decade ago. Alongside her husband, she launched Starr.Fit, a high-intensity training gym in Eustis, Florida. What started as a fitness facility quickly became a community hub where young people came not only to train, but to learn about life.
Over the years, Marisol noticed something deeper happening. Teens and young adults weren’t just seeking exercise routines; they were searching for mentorship. They wanted guidance on nutrition, financial literacy, and career direction. The realization that so many young adults lacked access to basic life skills education stayed with her.
By 2023, she made a bold move — selling the gym and leaving her corporate role in cybersecurity to launch Starr Wellness Collective, a nonprofit designed to fill that gap. Through fitness, nutrition, and lifelong skills training, SWC helps young people gain the tools and mindset they need to thrive physically, mentally, and financially.
The Turning Point That Sparked a Mission
Marisol’s passion for wellness stems from a deep personal experience. At sixteen, she was diagnosed with pre-diabetes after collapsing in a shopping mall from low blood sugar. The medical response focused on medication, not nutrition or emotional well-being; a pattern she later saw repeated in her daughter’s health journey.
When her newborn daughter suffered from severe reflux, nine doctors failed to help. It wasn’t until a homeopathic doctor identified a dairy allergy that everything changed. Since Marisol was breastfeeding, she eliminated milk from her diet, and within days, her daughter’s symptoms disappeared. That moment ignited her commitment to understanding nutrition, prevention, and the connection between mind and body.
Years later, when her husband decided to open a gym, she saw it as her opportunity to make a difference. What began as fitness coaching evolved into teaching the science behind health, resilience, and self-discipline; lessons that would become the foundation for Starr Wellness Collective.
Merging Corporate Strategy with Human Wellness
Having spent years in corporate America, Marisol brought her strategic mindset into her nonprofit work. She recognized that the same framework used to build successful organizations could be applied to building strong individuals.
At SWC, she encourages teens to visualize their ideal future, their “perfect day” ten years ahead, and then reverse-engineer the steps to get there. From budgeting and nutrition to emotional resilience and goal setting, her programs help young adults build both the structure and self-awareness needed for long-term success.
Her belief is that true wellness isn’t about treating problems in isolation. It’s about understanding the whole picture: how physical health, mindset, and financial literacy are interconnected. By teaching that balance early, she’s helping the next generation develop the resilience to lead with strength and purpose.
A Collective Effort
The name Starr Wellness Collective carries intentional meaning. “Starr” pays tribute to the legacy of her original gym, Starr.Fit. “Wellness” reflects her holistic mission, nurturing the full spectrum of wellbeing through fitness, nutrition, health, mindset, and financial literacy. And “Collective” underscores the power of community, rooted in the belief that it takes a village to raise strong, confident, and capable youth.
Marisol often credits the collective support that helped her own daughter thrive from teachers and mentors to neighbors and friends. That experience reinforced her belief that no one achieves success alone, and that collaboration is essential for real, sustainable impact.
Today, SWC continues to grow, with its flagship summer program expanding to multiple Florida counties and new masterclasses and webinars launching in 2026. Each initiative reinforces the organization’s mission: to move beyond quick fixes and build lasting change through knowledge, connection, and empowerment.
Mindset, Resilience, and the Power of Thought
Marisol’s approach to mindset was shaped by her readings in neuroscience and quantum thinking, particularly the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter, whose research on thought and emotion reframed how she viewed personal growth. She teaches her students that mindset isn’t a buzzword; it’s a physiological reality.
By training teens to replace negative thought patterns with constructive ones, she’s helping them rewire not only how they think but how they feel and act. That focus on mental resilience has become one of SWC’s defining strengths and a key reason her programs resonate so deeply with young people navigating today’s challenges.
Entrepreneurial Wisdom from a Purpose-Driven Founder
When it comes to entrepreneurship, Marisol’s philosophy is grounded in clarity, strategy, and service. She believes every business starts with a vision not just of profit, but of purpose. She encourages aspiring founders to begin with visualization: to imagine their future in detail and then map backward to the daily actions that will make it real.
Her second guiding principle is collaboration. Success, she emphasizes, isn’t built in isolation. Whether through coaches, mentors, or community networks, every entrepreneur needs a support system that challenges and elevates them.
And finally, she champions financial intelligence — knowing what you need versus what you want, making smart decisions early, and aligning your spending with long-term goals. It’s a lesson she teaches her daughter, her students, and now, through SWC, an entire generation.
Looking Ahead
Marisol’s current focus is expansion: growing Starr Wellness Collective’s programs, scaling its impact, and securing funding to make them accessible to all families, regardless of financial means. Her vision for the future is clear: a world where wellness education isn’t a privilege, but a foundation.
From her own health challenges to corporate strategy and nonprofit leadership, Marisol’s journey embodies turning experience into empowerment and vision into action.
As Marisol often says through her work, building strong bodies creates strong minds and together, they build strong futures.
Connect with Starr Wellness Collective:
Visit Starr Wellness Collective to learn more about upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and youth programs.
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