Inc.

And All That Jazz

JUDI SHEPPARD MISSETT

JAZZERCISE

Those fitness classes you go to? She basically invented them.

At age 75, Judi Sheppard Missett is still dancing, still teaching, and still CEO of Jazzercise, the ur-dance-fitness company she founded and that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. She also has a new book: Building a Business With a Beat. Created when Jane Fonda was better known for Barbarella than for aerobics, Jazzercise today is a $100 million business with more than 8,500 franchisees, and it cracked the Inc. 5000 in 2010, at the ripe age of 41. The company not only forged fitness culture for women—It’s fun! It’s easy! It’s social! We don’t judge!—but also

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