Today we’d like to introduce you to Celine Decatrel.
Hi Celine, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m Celine! I’ve always been passionate about fitness honestly, any type of movement. I’ve always loved trying different workouts and different classes.
My Pilates journey actually started because of an injury. I hurt my lower back at the gym, and I kept hearing that Pilates could help with recovery and strengthening, so I decided to try it. I ended up completely falling in love with it.
Fast-forward about a year, and I decided to get certified myself. I chose to do a really intensive certification because I felt like the fitness and Pilates scene in Miami was getting crazy. So many people were getting certified, but at the same time, I would take classes where I either left hurting or didn’t really understand what I was supposed to be feeling in the movement.
I wanted to really understand Pilates. The anatomy, the purpose behind the movements, and how to teach it properly.
Becoming an instructor also opened my eyes to a completely different side of Miami’s wellness scene. There are so many instructors, wellness communities and events happening here every single weekend.
I hosted my first big event during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that’s actually where the idea of “Wellness Pop Up” came from.
When I started planning it, one of the biggest questions was: where am I going to get all these mats and equipment?
Because if you want to host a class for 30, 40 or 50 people, suddenly you need that many mats. Then maybe you need weights, Pilates balls, blocks or towels. Buying everything for one event is expensive, and even if you do buy it, where are you going to store all of it afterward?
And I realized I definitely wasn’t the only instructor dealing with that problem.
Miami has such a huge wellness community. There can easily be three or four different fitness and wellness events happening in one weekend. There are instructors, brands, hotels, residential communities and wellness groups that want to host classes, but they don’t necessarily want to purchase and store an entire inventory of equipment.
That was really my lightbulb moment.
I thought, why isn’t there an easy way to just rent everything you need for your class?
So that became the idea: creating a wellness rental company where you can rent beautiful, cohesive equipment for your event. Mats, weights, Pilates balls, blocks, towels, whether you need 10 of them or 50.
And because I’m an instructor myself, I understand exactly what another instructor needs. I understand how important the aesthetic is, how the equipment needs to feel for the client, and how much easier it is when you don’t have to invest thousands of dollars into equipment just to host one event.
What started with me trying to solve a problem for my own event turned into realizing there was a real gap in Miami’s wellness industry.
I basically created the service that I wish existed when I was planning my own event.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road, but I think that’s part of building something from the ground up. One of my biggest challenges in the beginning was sourcing the right equipment. I didn’t want to just purchase any mats. I wanted everything to feel elevated, cohesive, durable, and aligned with the aesthetic of the wellness events happening in Miami.
Another challenge has been figuring out the logistics behind having a physical inventory. It’s one thing to have 50-150 mats; it’s another to think about storage, transportation, cleaning, maintenance, and making sure everything is ready to go from one event to the next.
I’ve also had to learn how to price the business properly. As an instructor, you naturally think about things from the instructor’s perspective and want to make the service accessible, but as a business owner, you also have to account for the real costs behind every rental and make sure the model is sustainable.
But I think every challenge has actually helped shape the business. I’m still learning what clients need, what works operationally, and where the biggest opportunities are.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Professionally, my background is in construction and project management, which might seem completely different from wellness, but it has actually shaped so much of how I approach my business today. My career has taught me how to manage budgets, timelines, logistics, vendors, and all of the moving pieces that have to come together for a project to be successful.
At the same time, I’m a certified Pilates instructor and have become deeply involved in Miami’s wellness community. I think that combination is what sets me apart. I understand the wellness space from the instructor’s perspective, but I also naturally think like a project manager. I’m always thinking about organization, efficiency, cost, and how to make something work operationally.
I’m most proud of being able to take skills from two very different worlds and bring them together. What started as me teaching Pilates and hosting my own wellness events led me to identify a real need for accessible equipment rentals for instructors, brands, hotels, residential communities, and other wellness groups.
I think what sets me apart most is that I’m not building this business from the outside looking in. I’m the customer too. I’ve been the instructor planning the event, trying to source 40 or 50 mats, figuring out equipment and costs, and realizing how unnecessarily difficult it can be. My professional background gave me the skills to look at that frustration and think, “Okay, how do I turn this into a solution?”
That intersection of wellness and project management is really where I thrive, taking an idea and figuring out how to actually bring it to life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I think luck has played a really interesting role in my story because some of the things that felt like bad luck at the time actually ended up leading me exactly where I needed to be.
Hurting my lower back at the gym definitely didn’t feel lucky, but without that injury, I don’t know if I ever would have discovered Pilates the way I did. Pilates led me to becoming an instructor, becoming part of Miami’s wellness community, hosting my first event, and ultimately identifying the gap that inspired this business.
Even that first event feels like a little bit of luck in hindsight. I wasn’t hosting it because I was trying to come up with a business idea. I was simply trying to create something meaningful for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in the process I ran into a problem that made me think, “Wait, why doesn’t this service exist?”
So I definitely believe in luck, but I also think you have to be paying attention when opportunities present themselves. A lot of my journey has been about taking something unexpected and asking myself, “What can I do with this?”
Looking back, some of my best opportunities have come from moments that weren’t part of the plan at all.
Pricing:
- Mat Rentals : $5 a mat (pricing always includes delivery and pickup)
- Hand Weights : $3 a pair
- Balls : $2
- Blocks : $2
- Ankle Weights : $3 a pair
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wellnesspopup.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellnesspopup?stkn=MWZiZ2ZpbDAzdm84Nw==
