Our Principles
The best systems are designed around people, not the other way around.
Odla Studio was built on a simple belief: meaningful growth doesn’t happen by forcing people into systems never designed for them.
It happens when we start with the person.
When we listen before we prescribe, when we understand what’s getting in the way, and we create enough support, challenge and space for someone to discover what they’re capable of.
That philosophy runs through everything we do at Odla, whether we’re building strength, building a brand or building a business.
The meaning of Odla
In Swedish, odla means to cultivate.
Cultivation is intentional. It’s less about forcing growth and more about creating the right conditions for it. Paying attention. Giving something, or someone, what’s needed. Creating the right conditions.
That’s the way we think about people. Most of us don’t need someone pushing us harder, or telling us who we should become. We need to feel understood, supported, and given opportunities to build confidence through doing things we didn’t think we could do. Yet.
That idea sits at the heart of everything we do at Odla.
Dani’s story
Dani has spent 15 years working in brand, marketing and communications, most recently as a Brand Director. Much of her work has been about helping people find clarity in complicated ideas and build something more intentional around what they do.
After years of struggling with her relationship with her body, Dani found EMF Fitness and a personal trainer who changed the way she saw herself and what she believed she was capable of.
Dani set out to become a personal trainer because she wanted others to experience what her personal trainer gave her: support that starts with understanding the person first.
When she began working toward her certifications, she thought personal training would be something she did in addition to her full-time brand strategy work. Recently, after facing some health challenges, Dani realized she needed to make some big changes in her life and decided to step away from the career she’d spent 15 years building. It was then she began to get clear on what she wanted the next chapter of her work to look like – on her terms.
So, she’s worked hard to build something that brings together two parts of her life that, until recently, she’d thought of as separate.
Whether she’s helping someone build strength, helping a coach, or helping a professional bring the business in their brain to life, she’s doing much the same thing: listening, finding what’s getting in the way and building from there.
That became one of Odla's foundations: growth isn’t something we force. We create the conditions that make it possible.
Dani’s credentials & experience
CanFit Pro Certified Personal Trainer
Competitive Dragon Boat Athlete
Small Group Training Experience
Former Children’s Dance Teacher
15 years in Brand, Marketing & Communications
Small Business Strategist
Experienced Writer and Editor
Marketing Operations & System Development
Board & Community Leadership
Grant Writer
Content Strategist
Website Designer
Meet the person before making the plan
There’s no such thing as a perfect program. There’s only the right approach for the person in front of you.
That’s true whether we’re writing a training plan or helping someone figure out what their business actually needs.
At Odla, we don’t begin with a predetermined answer; we begin with curiosity.
Odla's ValuesMeet You There
Understand the person, the business or the situation before deciding what comes next.
Reduce Friction
Find the unnecessary barriers making progress harder than it needs to be.
Build Capacity
Develop the skills, strength, systems and confidence that make progress sustainable.
Expand Possibility
Use that growing capability to make things possible that didn’t feel possible before.
Different ways to grow.
Same way of getting there.
Odla Movement
Odla Movement’s programs are about building strength, confidence and capacity through training that starts with you. Here, fitness is about discovering what your body can do and building enough trust in yourself to keep going.
Odla Brand
At Odla Brand, our goal isn’t simply to help coaches, practitioners and helping professionals achieve better marketing. It’s finding clarity, stronger systems and a business that supports the work you do, instead of getting in the way.
Belonging isn’t a buzzword here
For Dani, creating spaces where people can show up without explaining or minimizing who they are is deeply personal.
Dani is queer, and her spouse is trans. They’ve been partnered for seven years (married for two), and Dani has had the privilege of witnessing her spouse’s beautiful transition. Walking beside Currie as they transition has made her even more aware of how much seemingly ordinary environments can ask of people before they ever get to participate.
This is a big part of why Odla offers dedicated queer and gender-diverse fitness programming.
However, inclusion here isn’t simply a separate program or a statement buried at the bottom of a page. It’s part of how we think about the work itself. For us, it’s a verb – something we practice every day, because we know what it means to not feel included. It means noticing the small things that can make someone feel welcome, safe, and considered before they ever have to ask.
We want people to focus their energy on what they came here to do, not on figuring out whether they belong.
People shouldn’t have to earn a sense of belonging before they deserve support. And support works better when the environment respects the whole person.
What we believe
We believe people deserve to be met where they are.
We believe the best systems adapt to people, not the other way around.
We believe confidence comes from capability, not comparison.
We believe sustainable progress matters more than performative success.
We believe thoughtful design is a form of care.
We believe growth is cultivated, not forced.
Growth that doesn’t require you to abandon yourself
Dani’s trainer, Annette, changed the trajectory of Dani’s life because she saw something in her before she could see it for herself.
Odla grew from wondering what might happen if more people could have that experience.
If more people felt seen before they were asked to change.
If more people found spaces where they felt they already belonged.
If more people left feeling stronger, clearer and more capable than when they arrived.
That’s what we are building.
Odla wouldn’t exist without Annette. She changed the course of Dani’s life and still inspires her, teaches her, and cheers her on every step of the way.
You don’t need to become someone else to grow. You need space and encouragement to become more fully yourself.
