Overcoming the odds: Fitness entrepreneur turns adversity into success

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

August 25, 2025

TOWN OF SHEBOYGAN – Long before Dena Miller started RISE FITNESS 24/7 FITNESS | TRAINING | WELLNESS, she said she was unknowingly laying the groundwork – one early morning workout, one hard lesson, one quiet dream at a time.

A certified personal trainer, Miller said it wasn’t one single moment that led to her becoming an entrepreneur, but a steady accumulation of experiences.

A bumpy road

Born in New York state, Miller said growing up, her family struggled financially – moving around a lot, which meant she changed schools quite often.

“In general, my childhood and home life were not the best,” she said. “But I’ve always looked at that as being the biggest character-build for me. Coming from a family that didn’t really have a structure or means of teaching kids how to be grown, sound, successful adults, I just had to figure it out on my own by what I was seeing in the world first-hand.” 

Miller said she dropped out of school when she got pregnant at age 16.

“I never set foot in a high school,” she said, adding that she got her GED shortly after having her first child. 

“Statistically, I’m not supposed to be in this position of being a very successful business owner,” she said. “But from a young age, I decided I wasn’t going to be like my parents – I was going to pave the way in a different direction, because I knew I was meant for more and I knew I could achieve it.”

Miller said she attended the University of Phoenix, graduating with high honors in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in health administration, with a minor in health facilities management.

After college, she said she relocated to Wisconsin by way of New York, Florida and Illinois – first moving to Kiel, before later choosing to move to Sheboygan.

Miller said she secured a job in human resources with Kohler.

During that time, she said she was going through her own fitness journey – “I had lost about 40 pounds.”

“People started noticing the changes, and they all wanted to follow me to the gym,” she said. “Even my co-workers at Kohler started working out with me, calling me their life coach.”

Miller said she really enjoyed helping people and teaching them more about the exercise she was doing.

“I always wanted to work for myself, and one day I had an epiphany that this is what I wanted to be doing,” she said. “I decided to quit my job, because I felt if I was going to do it, I was going to do it full force. And that was it.”  

However, Miller said it wasn’t an easy decision – “but I have faith in myself and knew I could figure it out.”

A business is born

Within a week of leaving her job, Miller said she found a location for her first gym and wasted no time moving forward.

“It was tiny – 11 feet by 14 feet – which was basically the size of a small bedroom,” she said. “But it was downtown on Eighth Street, which is where I’d been looking, and it suited my needs as I was getting started.”

In August 2020, armed with her degree, excitement and determination, Miller said she opened Dena Marie Fitness, offering one-on-one personal training by appointment only.

Though the timing wasn’t ideal – in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – she said she spent the first couple of years getting established, creating a brand and brainstorming new business name ideas.

“I was trying to come up with a new concept of how I wanted my brand to be and so forth,” she said. “As I was going through that process, and COVID at the same time, I came up with RISE FITNESS.”

Miller said she believes everything bad that happens in life is something one can figure out and rise above, “no matter what it is.”

“I’ve kind of lived my life by the motto ‘to rise from the ashes,’” she said. “That’s where my business name came from.”

Meanwhile, Miller said her business was growing to the point where she was outgrowing the tiny space she was renting, and in 2022, she bought the entire building her tiny gym was in.

She said it took some convincing, as the owner of the building – which has a total of six office suites – planned to use the rental income for his retirement.

“[But], I was super persistent,” she said.

With the building purchase, Miller said the business name was formally changed to RISE FITNESS 24/7 FITNESS | TRAINING | WELLNESS.

Using a Small Business Administration loan, she said she gutted the entire building and turned it into a 24-hour gym.

“So, instead of having an 11-foot-by-14-foot space, I [now] had 2,000 square feet – the entire building,” she said. “And instead of [offering just] one-on-one training, I turned it into a small, 24-hour gym. I got equipment, not everything I needed, but I made it work.”

Business thrived for the next 18 months or so, but Miller said she knew change was again on the horizon.

However, due to the space’s capacity limitations, she said she could only have so many members, which restricted her growth.

A dream come true

Miller said the dream she had in the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey – luxury fitness with high-end equipment – has finally come to fruition.

Selling the Eighth Street location at the end of last year, she said she planned to open a brand-new facility in North Town – a 99-acre, mixed-use development project, located northeast of the Interstate 43 and Hwy 42 interchange in the Town of Sheboygan.

Three months later, Miller said the new RISE FITNESS facility opened its doors.

The new 7,700-square-foot location, she said, was custom-built and painted exactly how she wanted and boasts state-of-the-art equipment, all made from Life Fitness and Hammer Strength. 

“From squat racks, dead lift platforms, cable units, free weights and all the strength machines you could possibly think of, [we have it],” she said. “I also have a good variety of cardio machines, which overlook the nice view on the outside. I specifically put those there so people can look outside while they’re exercising.”

Miller said she offers private, personal training by appointment only and small group classes at the gym, including TRX, BOSU, Resistance Training, HIIT, CORE, Stretching and Total Body Strength with Bars.

Classes, she said, are limited to five members, ensuring the participants’ “comfort, form and technique are at the top of mind throughout each session.”

Miller said RISE also has a wellness spa that offers two high-end massage chairs and two infrared saunas. 

She said it is also heavily insulated, so those using the spa aren’t disturbed by anything going on in the gym. 

Miller said her hands have literally and figuratively touched every aspect of the facility, from the choosing of the equipment to the layout of the facility, to the design of the logo, to the creation of the website.

“Everything at my gym was a thought in my head at one point, including what I wanted it to look like, how the floor was designed, the carpet I picked, the wall colors and the way the building is designed,” she said. 

Miller said RISE has a retail area where people can purchase something to eat or drink or RISE apparel.

A believer in total transparency, Miller said she has all of RISE’s prices on the website – RiseFitnessSheboygan.com. 

“Most gyms won’t give you their prices up front, but I give people everything up front so they can think about things and make the decision that’s best for them [about membership, etc.],” she said.

Miller said her three-year-old Doberman Pinscher, Onyx, is RISE’s unofficial mascot. 

“She’s a strong girl and kind of fits in with the space,” she said. “She’s a very friendly girl who is very well loved by the members. She enjoys walking through the gym and checking out everything and everybody.” 

The future looks bright

Miller said RISE membership is currently around 200.

“My goal is 400 by the end of the year, and I’m on target to achieve that,” she said.

Looking ahead to the future, Miller said her goal is to possibly have a second location in the next two to three years.  

Coincidentally, the North Town developers are already searching for land and investors to do another “community” like North Town – and Miller said they’re talking to her about opening a second location when they do. 

“They’re impressed with my business and want me to grow – and go – with them,” she said.

Miller said she’s also had people inquire about RISE FITNESS franchises.

“My response is ‘absolutely not,’” she said. “My business is a representation of myself and of my life. It’s literally built on a foundation of chaos and crisis. And it’s this beautiful facility that sends the message that ‘You can be here or come from this, but you can also have this.’”