Shontelle Dubois is our DOZ Show Preferred Guest for this issue of DOZ Magazine, and indeed our very first DOZ Show Preferred Guest. She is nothing if she is not a fighter! From a childhood characterised by abuse, to a ghastly motor accident, depression, failed relationships, job loss, eviction, and ridicule, Shontelle Dubois has seen it all and succeeded despite it all. Read this extract from Shontelle’s DOZ Show interview and be inspired by her determination to get back up every time life has knocked her down!
Let’s talk about your childhood, the dreams, the challenges and the lessons that you took away from that season of your life.
My childhood is usually something I don’t really talk about. It wasn’t pleasant. I’m sure I had some good moments, but for the most part growing into adult I only remember all of the bad things because it was so frequent. My mum was physically and emotionally abusive, and I would go to school with bruises. She would give us licks, but it wasn’t like regular west Indian type quote, and unquote lick, it was severe, and we would have those bruises or like dried blood from wounds that aren’t closed yet and stuff like that. I’d go to school and get questioned about it and children’s day would come, and they would have meetings, and I don’t know, I still don’t know what her issues were or why she was so violent and verbally aggressive, but all of that taught me to be the person that I am today. That’s why I am so thick skinned if you want to say that because I’ve already been through all the criticising and tormenting and all that. I’ve already gone through that since I was four years old. So, to me, that’s my normal. So, to have somebody in the outside world do it, it’s like, been there done that. (She laughs.)
A few years ago, you were involved in a seven-car accident. Briefly share that experience with us.
Well, it was like one car stopped to let someone out. I guess their house was close by and they just stopped in the right lane. I was the third car. So, the second car stopped, I stopped, the car behind me stopped, and then I guess the last three or four cars they didn’t so the pile-up happened, and I went into the car in front of me. I got hit from behind and went into the car in front of me. And then I had to do three years of rehab I had to do therapy as well because my psyche was a little off and the physical damages, I still experience I have like severe back pain, and when I first started to lose weight after my accident I would pass out during sessions and had trouble walking. I really had to rebuild myself up including my mental as well. It’s from that experience that I really felt the need to reach out to people who are going through any type of trauma whether physically or emotionally and use my example to show that you can’t give up because I was told certain things, but I surpassed what I was told.
You are not a quitter.
(She laughs) It’s not in my vocabulary. I refuse to give up.
Shontelle, following your accident, you must have thought, the worst is over, but then you lost your job and you were given an eviction notice. Will you please share with us that experience and how you turned it around?
Well, I was working at my place of employment for fifteen years. I had a senior management position there, and there was a lot of new management coming in from the outside, so there was a shift in the way they were kind of running the company and a manager came in and she from day one had it out for me for whatever reason. It felt like there was really an employment sweep that was going on and a lot of people got fired not just me. But they would find an excuse to let go of somebody that wasn’t justified, and we couldn’t question. So long story short after fifteen years I’ve never been written off, I had a strong reputation there, everyone loved me, the clientele loved me, it was a perfect place for me to be, I was fired for a reason that didn’t even make sense. Or apply to me. I was already behind in my rent prior to getting fired, and it just so happened that that same week is when they served me with the paper to go to court. My daughter was with me, so she saw the eviction notice as well. It was probably one of the worst times of my life. I did try to put my resume out there and get another administrative or managerial position. No one hired me, no one called me back, and I submitted my resume day and night. And it was my mentor that was like, Shontelle, you lost 105 pounds, all you’ve got to do is the same thing you did to yourself to other people. And at the time I was like a little bit nervous about it. Where am I going to train? And then I started applying for fitness positions and a lot of them you have to have experience, and I didn’t have any experience on paper. So, my mentor, again I called him crying, and he’s like just find a place and train. Go in the park, go here, go there, but it was winter, and here we have snow. Our elevators weren’t working so we were forced to take the stairwell, and I’m high up like over twenty flights, and I have to walk upstairs. So, I parked in the basement, and I was going up from the basement. From the basement to the first floor there was like this little area right by the exit emergency door, and nothing happens there, it’s about the size of a parking space. So, I sat there, and my daughter was like mum, what are you doing? (She laughs.) And I was like just give me a second. And I was sitting on the stairs asking myself if I’m crazy. I was like, Shontelle are you really thinking this? Are you? And I was like, no I can’t do this. Can I do this? And then I looked around; it was so dirty, I guess this is like where most of the kids in the building they kind of like chill. So, there were like wrappers and beer bottles and a bunch of other stuff, condom wrappers and drug-related items in there and I was like, I wonder if I clean this up every morning what it would be like. I just questioned everything. I sat there for about forty-five minutes and then I went upstairs with my daughter and I literally just started thinking what I needed to do to train in the stairwell, so I thought I was going to wake up every morning and clean it and the next morning I did it. All I did was clean it, and then I sat there, and I was like, okay now what? (More laughter.) Then I went on Instagram, and anyone who complimented me on my weight loss I sent them a message and I told them I am a trainer and I have a gym. And for a long time no one showed up, so I started making posters and handing it around, and still, no one showed up. And then lucky for me I had two people who gave me a chance, and they showed up, and I ended up training them for close to nothing, but then they got mind-blowing transformation results and then it all just kind of started from there. Every client I was training, within a month they were losing like 30 pounds, so that’s how I started the 30 days transformation programme.
So, while you were doing this, people began to ridicule you. They called you the stairwell trainer and all sorts of things. How did it impact on you and your psyche and what did you do to stop it from breaking your focus?
It affected me a lot; I’m not going to lie. Like it broke me down. Some days, I wouldn’t want to go in there and then when I was in there, in the stairwells, and I knew 6 o clock is when everyone starts coming home, I would get very nervous because people are going to see me in there and people are going to pass by because the elevators weren’t working. But my daughter would go in the stairwell with me, and every time she was there she looked like she was in like happy land. She would be running, and she’d be like, mum can I do this with the client? And it just gave me that boost of confidence and it kind of distracted me from the negative parts that I would have while being there so I would literally just use her as motivation. That’s why I say she did way for me than she even realises, but people were very mean, and a lot of people will tell me, oh don’t listen to what people say but how can you not listen? It’s like sometimes people think that you can just turn off those feelings, but you can’t because it’s hurtful. But at the end of the day, my programme was gaining results people were losing weight so that in itself made me say, I can’t stop. I would continue every day, and now the same people that were talking about me then are asking me to do videos with them it’s so funny. Sometimes when they message me in my head, I’m like, oh yeah? And it’s like they think I forgot what they said and did. I don’t know how they’re brave enough to message me and ask me for advice, but it’s a compliment. Now, I see it as a compliment.
Tell us, how has your business evolved since the day you began to use the stairwell as your gym? And I know you’ve also created some amazing products so please share that with us also.
Okay, so I have a studio now, and I opened in what is considered one of the wealthier areas in all of Toronto. So, I have my gym, and it’s fully equipped. I opened in February of 2018, and by May, three months later, I’ve completely sold out, which blew my mind because I was not expecting that. So my wait list is growing, people write me and say I’m still on the wait list get me in. And I say, I’m working on it. I’m trying. (She laughs.) So, I created the Dubois Belt, Dubois Shaper, and the men’s vest. So, the Dubois Belt is like a latex mid-section belt, and it basically cinches you in and helps you to sweat, so you lose water weight, and it keeps you nice and tight and helps with your form. And I noticed that a lot of people were wearing that to the club. So I would go to the washroom any time I went out, and the girls would be like, Oh my God, are you Shontelle? And I’d be like, yes. And they’d be like, look. And they’d lift their dress, and they have the Dubois Belt on. Then I was like, okay I need to create something that people can wear when they’re going out, like an undergarment that does the same kind of thing, but you can wear it out to like a club or a party. So that’s where the Dubois Shaper came in. And the men were like Shontelle, what about me? What do we get? Then I created the Dubois Vest. So, I have those three products, and in the new year I’m coming out with the Dubois kit that will have all your essential things that you need to do a home workout.
