Mika Stefano has built two businesses under one name. One plans your events. The other might just save your sanity.
Let’s be honest about the events and marketing industry for a second.
It’s brilliant. It’s creative. It’s the kind of work that gets you out of bed in the morning because no two days look the same. It’s also relentless, chaotic and if you’re not careful, it will quietly swallow every boundary you thought you had.
Mika Stefano knows this better than most. As the co-founder of STRONG PR, Marketing & Events, a Johannesburg integrated creative agency handling everything from corporate events to media campaigns and award dinners, he lives that reality every single day. Late nights, demanding briefs, the particular madness of year end season when every client suddenly needs everything at once.
The difference is that Mika has something most people in this industry don’t.
He owns a gym.
Two Businesses. One Philosophy.
STRONG PR, Marketing & Events and STRONG, Joburg’s only treadmill-based HIIT boutique fitness studio at Moove, Melrose Arch, share more than a name. They share a founding belief that how you treat your body directly determines how well you’re able to show up for everything else.
“The balance is everything,” says Mika. “The chaos of running an agency is real. The deadlines, the pressure, the constant output. If you’re not doing something to counteract that, something physical, something that forces you to be present in your body – it catches up with you. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it.”
Mika’s own fitness journey is well documented. He lost over 30 kilograms and went on to build a studio that opened in March 2021 and this year celebrated its fifth anniversary. But what’s less talked about is how that journey changed the way he runs his businesses.
Movement as a Non-Negotiable
At STRONG PR, staying active isn’t just encouraged, it’s woven into the culture. The team understands that physical activity and mental wellness aren’t separate conversations. They’re the same one.
Some of them train at STRONG, which, admittedly, is not a bad perk when your boss owns the gym. Others bring their own flavour to staying active. Co-founder of STRONG PR, Marketing and Events, Herkie is a Hyrox athlete while Kelsey does kendo and Conan plays soccer. The form it takes doesn’t matter. What matters is that the team moves and that leadership understands why that matters.
“I’m proud of the culture we’ve built,” says Mika. “I want people to be energised, to be creative, to bring their best thinking to the work. Movement is part of how we make sure that happens.”
It’s a simple idea. It’s also one that the broader events and marketing industry has been slow to truly embrace, not just in policy documents and wellness presentations, but in actual day-to-day practice.
What Mika has created at STRONG is a space that removes every excuse not to move. No experience required. No particular fitness level needed. The studio’s format, music-driven HIIT classes combining Free Motion treadmill training with floor-based equipment, is structured to challenge seasoned athletes and absolute beginners in the same session, at the same time, without either feeling out of place.
“I wanted a space that welcomed everyone,” he says. “Some days you walk in feeling like a beast. Some days you barely made it off the couch. Both are fine. You show up, we do the work, you leave feeling better than when you arrived. That’s the deal.”
Five years in, that deal has built one of Joburg’s most quietly loyal fitness communities, led by a trainer team that includes Herkie, Paballo, Coral, Kaybee and Matt, and Mika himself.
“The classes are set up to be inclusive which is rare and they encourage a diverse group of people to be the best version of themselves. 60 minutes of a clear head, tons of fun mixed in with a few giggles.” – Thirosha Chetty, STRONG member
This July – Come and Move
Mental Health Awareness Month feels particularly relevant in an industry that prides itself on delivering for everyone else while quietly neglecting to deliver for itself. If your team is heading into the second half of the year already depleted, the answer isn’t another strategy session. It might just be sixty minutes on a treadmill with good music and someone in your corner pushing you through it.
Mika would love to show you what STRONG is about firsthand, he teaches classes himself, and there’s no better way to understand the space than to experience it. Come for a class. And if you want to grab a coffee afterwards and talk about what your year-end events calendar is looking like, even better. Two conversations worth having. Both in the same morning.
First class is on Mika. DM @strong_za on Instagram to book, or visit www.stronggym.co.za for class schedules. STRONG is at Moove, Melrose Arch, 11 The High Street.
Mika Stefano is the founder of STRONG gym and co-founder of STRONG PR, Marketing & Events, Johannesburg.