AYEDNICOLE

I was introduced to Rolling Proud Run Club in January 2026, during a season when I was still relatively new to Tampa. But while I may have been new to the city, I was not new to fitness. I was not new to service. I was not new to humility. And after more than a decade of building within fitness and wellness spaces, I definitely was not new to recognizing the difference between genuine community engagement and a gimmick.

Rolling Proud immediately felt different.

Coming from my experiences with fitness communities in Jacksonville, Atlanta and through my years at FAMU, I noticed something in Tampa that I had been searching for: an Afro-Black fitness environment that genuinely felt rooted in culture. Rolling Proud showed me a side of Tampa where the Black communities connected to USF, PWIs, FAMU, HBCU culture, Greek-letter organizations, young professionals, families and everyday people could coexist without everything becoming a competition.

Nobody needed to prove which institution was superior.

Nobody needed a microphone to establish importance.

People simply showed up.

And sometimes, showing up is the most powerful form of community service there is.

We Came to Run—Not Be Recruited

Another thing I genuinely appreciate about Rolling Proud Run Club is that, from my experience, they don’t force religion down people’s throats when everybody came outside to run, walk, fellowship and get active.

That matters to me.

I am a woman of faith. I can love God, practice my faith and still understand that every community gathering does not need to become a church service. There is a difference between allowing faith to influence how you treat people and creating a proselytizing atmosphere where people feel like they walked into something completely different from what they signed up for.

Sometimes people just want to run.

Let them run.

Let somebody put her headphones on.

Let somebody walk.

Let somebody train for her first 5K.

Let somebody laugh with her friends.

Let somebody have a difficult week and use those miles to clear her mind without somebody immediately turning her vulnerability into an opportunity to preach at her.

Rolling Proud, in my experience, understands that distinction.

I also appreciate that everybody does not seem to be fighting for the spotlight. Some people naturally enjoy being front-facing. Some people need more visibility than others. Some people want to organize, host or speak. That’s fine.

But everybody does not have to perform leadership to possess it.

I Don’t Need to Be the Pick-Me

That distinction is particularly important to me because I know what I bring into a room.

I come from Jacksonville. I developed professionally and creatively through Atlanta. I am a two-time FAMU graduate. I have corporate experience, business experience, fitness experience and plans extending far beyond social media.

But I don’t want to offer those things from the posture of a pick-me-sha.

I don’t need to walk into somebody else’s community and immediately announce every credential, accomplishment, business or connection so everybody understands that I am important.

I would rather exemplify grace.

Grace travels further than Instagram popularity.

I can be a corporate baddie and still be humble.

I can have the education, plans, professional experience and business knowledge to understand that sometimes I can be the company. I can be the machine.

And because of that, charging people is not always a necessity for me.

Sometimes charging is appropriate. Businesses have expenses. Professionals deserve compensation. Events cost money. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with earning revenue.

But charging is an option.

Service is also an option.

Giving is an option.

Sponsorship is an option.

Collaboration is an option.

Finding outside resources so ordinary people don’t have to absorb every cost is an option.

And when you have been blessed with knowledge, education, resources and the ability to build something yourself, sometimes the strongest flex is realizing that you don’t have to monetize every room you enter.

Faith Should Produce Fruit, Not a Fitness Sorority

What is not an option for me is watching people invoke God as a way to manufacture exclusivity, superiority or a sorority-like hierarchy inside fitness.

Fitness does not need another initiation process.

Women already experience enough pressure surrounding their bodies, clothing, weight, attractiveness, popularity and social status. They should not enter a wellness environment and discover another invisible ranking system determining who is cool enough, connected enough, spiritual enough, attractive enough or important enough to belong.

And faith should never become the justification for that behavior.

If God is being invoked in a wellness space, then I want to see the fruit of that faith in how people are treated.

Kindness.

Patience.

Humility.

Generosity.

Hospitality.

Compassion.

That speaks louder to me than somebody turning a fitness event into an unofficial pulpit.

Show Up for Your Health, Not the Hype

One of the biggest things I respect about Rolling Proud Run Club is the simplicity of the mission I experienced:

Come outside and move.

Come run.

Come walk.

Come fellowship.

Come take care of yourself.

That means something to me because I have spent approximately ten years building my own fitness journey and eventually developing Slaynetik Fitness and Experience The Drip™ around real people, real bodies and real transformations.

I have never needed a giant microphone or elaborate stage to convince women to move their bodies.

I don’t need to scream at somebody to prove I care about her health.

I don’t need somebody paying admission before I can encourage her.

There is something deeply refreshing about a fitness organization asking its community primarily to show up rather than making participation feel like another transaction.

That is why Rolling Proud is a fitness community I can comfortably stamp from my own experience and say: I would love to work with them further.

The Difference Between Community and Commerce

My appreciation for Rolling Proud became even clearer after participating in other Tampa fitness initiatives.

For a recent Tampa Girlies Fitness & Vibes breast-cancer-awareness event, I contributed Experience The Drip™ sweatbands through my Free Bandz initiative. I participated because supporting women and acknowledging breast cancer matters to me.

But I can support the purpose of an event while still asking questions about the business model surrounding it.

And I’m going to say it: charging people approximately $40 to come to a breast-cancer-awareness event that, from my perspective, started looking more like another Pilates class made for TikTok content was kind of wild.

But hey.

I did my Free Bandz.

I fulfilled the part that aligned with my values and my brand.

What other organizers decide to charge, how those funds are allocated and how they reconcile those decisions with the cause they are representing is ultimately their responsibility—not mine. I don’t know their complete financial structure, and I’m not claiming that I do.

But I can absolutely question what I personally experienced.

Because $40 for people to show up on grass with mats made me wonder whether the same energy, organization and resources could have been directed toward something even closer to the people represented by the cause.

Why weren’t we partnering directly with a cancer-treatment facility?

Could survivors or patients have been centered more intentionally?

Could there have been a clearly identified charitable beneficiary?

Could we have collected requested supplies?

Could fitness professionals have volunteered programming for patients, survivors or caregivers?

Could participating brands have contributed products directly to women undergoing treatment?

Could the community have been educated about screenings, early detection and resources alongside the workout?

Those are the kinds of questions I walked away asking.

And yes, I understand that events cost money. Instructors deserve compensation. Equipment, permits, insurance, logistics, marketing and operations can create legitimate expenses. Charging admission alone does not establish wrongdoing.

But when a serious cause becomes attached to an event, I believe the standard for intentionality should become higher, not lower.

Ultimately, everybody has to answer for the intentions behind what they build. My responsibility was making sure Experience The Drip™ showed up through Free Bandz with genuine service attached to it.

And we did.

When Service Starts Looking Like Content

Maybe I’m old-school about this, but I have seen this pattern before: content culture can sometimes make people want to look like they’re doing the work more than they want to sit quietly and determine what the work actually requires.

A camera can document service.

A camera cannot create service.

A TikTok can promote a cause.

A TikTok cannot become the cause.

And a beautifully edited Reel does not automatically tell me what happened after everybody packed up their mats and went home.

That’s the part of modern influencer culture I continue to question.

Sometimes it feels like we have developed this strange, social-media version of caring where everything needs a backdrop, matching outfits, a microphone, choreography and enough footage for three weeks of content.

Meanwhile, somebody actually living with cancer may need transportation.

A caregiver may need a meal.

A survivor may need community.

A woman may need information about where to receive a screening.

A family may simply need somebody to remember them after Breast Cancer Awareness Month ends.

That is why I would personally rather explore taking a future Slaynetik Fitness or Experience The Drip™ initiative directly into a cancer facility, survivor organization or community program where the need is already established.

No spectacle required.

Humanity Has Literally Changed, Chile

And that’s where Rolling Proud Run Club continues to stand out to me.

The model I experienced there wasn’t:

Pay us so we can show you community.

It was closer to:

We’re already a community—come outside.

There is a difference.

I get it, though. LOL.

Social media has changed how people understand visibility, service and even compassion. Sometimes people genuinely believe that because something looks impactful online, impact automatically occurred offline.

Those two things are not synonymous.

So I can laugh a little while still taking the larger lesson seriously.

Humanity has literally changed, chile.

But my standards for service don’t have to change with it.

I can participate, contribute my Free Bandz, acknowledge the positive pieces of somebody else’s event and still leave saying, This isn’t how I want my next one structured.

That’s not hate.

That’s discernment.

And next time, I want the Experience The Drip™ Free Bandz initiative even closer to the people we’re claiming to serve.

Rolling Proud Reminds Me of the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival

That is another reason Rolling Proud reminds me of the community energy I have experienced around Tampa’s Collard Green Festival.

The message feels simple:

Come outside.

Come see your people.

Come celebrate culture.

Come participate.

Come build memories.

You don’t have to turn every meaningful community interaction into a premium experience.

Sometimes the park is enough.

Sometimes the road is enough.

Sometimes sneakers, water, music and people genuinely excited to see each other are enough.

And when the community trusts what you are building, partnerships can develop naturally without making ordinary people feel like they have to rob Peter to pay Paul just to participate in something marketed as community wellness.

My Next Free Bandz Initiative

That experience helped me make a decision about the future of my own giving.

For my next Experience The Drip™ Free Bandz initiative, I would love to explore doing something alongside Rolling Proud Run Club.

I tried another environment. I showed up. I contributed product. I acknowledged what was positive.

But being fair also means being willing to acknowledge what raised questions for me.

That’s growth.

I would rather give products away at a community 5K, run, walk or wellness initiative where I clearly understand what people are showing up for than participate simply because an event has beautiful marketing attached to it.

If money is being raised, I want clarity about where it is going.

If something is charitable, I want the charitable purpose to remain visible.

If something is commercial, there is nothing inherently wrong with that either—just call it commercial.

Transparency protects everybody.

Fitness Doesn’t Need a Mean-Girl Section

Another thing I appreciate about Rolling Proud is that I did not feel like fitness had been transformed into another popularity contest.

Fitness spaces should not become extensions of high school.

They should not become places where HBCU versus PWI credentials, Greek-letter affiliations, social status, rejection, popularity or who knows whom determine whether somebody deserves to feel welcomed.

D9 membership should not become a substitute for character.

PWI credentials should not become a substitute for culture.

HBCU credentials should not become a license to look down on somebody else either.

None of those things can substitute for how you actually treat people.

Some people carry old rejection into new environments. Some people carry insecurity into leadership. Some people turn fitness into another arena where women are expected to audition for belonging.

I don’t believe wellness should work that way.

Your body does not care which sorority you pledged.

Your heart does not care which university appears on your résumé.

The pavement doesn’t care.

Run.

When the Microphone Gets Louder Than the Mission

And ladies, sometimes we have to talk about the microphone.

When women grab the microphone, suddenly develop the preacher tone, start showing everybody how they gyrate (LOL)and turn a platform supposedly built around passion into a performance centered around themselves, I think it is fair to ask:

What exactly are we teaching at home?

Because if I have children one day, I don’t want them growing up believing every cause needs to become a business opportunity.

I especially would not want them believing that the first question surrounding cancer awareness should be: How much can we charge people to attend?

I would rather my child see something like Rolling Proud.

I would rather my child learn:

Get your shoes.

Grab your water.

Invite your people.

Find the park.

Show up.

Serve.

Run.

Build something meaningful.

Then allow genuine partnerships, sponsors and resources to support the mission without allowing those resources to become the mission.

That is community.

Articulation Is Not Shade

And let me make this part extremely clear.

This article does not mean I’m “throwing shade.”

I’m articulating.

There is a difference.

Articulation means I can appreciate what someone created while also analyzing what I experienced. It means I can donate products to an event and later decide that another community model better aligns with my brand’s future direction.

It also does not mean I am articulating from a position of believing I am better than anybody else.

I’m not interested in competing over whose school is better.

I’m not interested in somebody waving PWI credentials at me while I wave FAMU credentials back.

Education matters. But credentials alone cannot teach humility, cultural awareness or genuine service.

Those things show up in behavior.

And Rolling Proud reminded me that Black Tampa does not have to manufacture community.

Sometimes community already exists.

You just have to give people somewhere to meet.

The Verse: Let the Work Speak

“Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” — 1 John 3:18

That verse summarizes exactly what I took from this experience.

Community cannot live only in captions.

Service cannot live only behind microphones.

Health cannot live only in marketing.

Faith cannot live only in preaching.

And compassion cannot exist only when somebody purchased a ticket.

Your actions eventually reveal the mission.

That is why, as Slaynetik Fitness continues evolving and Experience The Drip™ continues its Free Bandz initiatives, I want to intentionally identify organizations whose community work aligns with the values behind what I built.

Rolling Proud Run Club gave me an example of what that can look like.

No unnecessary performance.

No forced spirituality.

No requirement that everybody prove why they belong.

Just people.

Culture.

Movement.

Health.

Community.

And love.

So no, this isn’t about proving FAMU is better than somebody’s PWI.

This isn’t about proving I am better than another woman.

This isn’t even about proving one fitness organization is perfect while another one is terrible.

It is about paying attention to the difference between platform and purpose, marketing and mission, commerce and community—and faith and performance.

Degrees can teach you plenty.

Corporate partnerships can give you resources.

A microphone can make your voice louder.

A social-media following can make you visible.

But none of those things automatically give you authenticity, grace or culture.

Some people may hold the credentials.

But they don’t hold the culture, baby.