Episode 336
336. How Build A Studio That Attracts VIP Clients with Patricia Robinson
In this episode Patricia Robinson from Pilates Vita, London, breaks down how she built a boutique, premium-priced Pilates studio serving VIP clients in Kensington.
Find Patricia here:
Mentioned in this episode:
Get our help to grow your team
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
AdBarker - https://adbarker.com/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Pilates Elephants. I'm here with Patricia Robinson from Pilates Vita
::in Kensington, only you're not in Kensington at the moment, Patricia.
::Yeah, I'm not. I'm in Florida at this moment.
::I have a partner studio in San Francisco that it's Pilates Vita San Francisco.
::In Florida, I supposed to open, but I
::didn't have a chance in time to do
::that so i'm in florida at this moment next
::week back to london okay and we're
::here to talk about your studio and the business that you've built pilates vita
::now you run a studio in kensington which is in london and i particularly want
::to talk about that but you also have licensed your studio brand to other businesses.
::So can you just give us, please,
::a kind of high-level overview of the business in London and just,
::you know, what you do, who you serve, you know, that kind of thing?
::Well, London, I...
::To start out there, I'm going back a little bit in history just to explain a
::little bit who I am to make sense why I choose the model that I have in London.
::And it's a choice, different models.
::I had licensed my business long ago when I was supposed to do 2012.
::2012, I decided to kind of franchise the business, but I didn't want to turn
::my business into a supermarket.
::And I really respect the model of a small business.
::And I think when Pilates taught us was very individualized.
::And I don't like the business of Pilates to be turning to everybody doing fitness.
::I really love what I learned.
::And I have been very lucky that I had been trained by dual flexor and had a
::chance to go with other ones that Pilates itself trained because I'm an old lady.
::And I started long ago.
::So I come from the second generation
::of Pilates and I respect what Pilates taught and brought to us as individuals
::and understanding that we control the body with the mind instead of the body control our minds.
::And the conscience of Pilates...
::Through the movement, that's what I tried to turn into my business.
::At that time, in 2008, I had the chance to multiply my business.
::I had two studios in Denver, Colorado.
::And I had teachers that really wanted to work and learn with me.
::And I started training teachers in the early 2000s.
::And then they started opening their own business.
::They asked me how to open the business and I
::said I oh I'm sorry I got
::a call in the middle I start saying that
::I couldn't you know just do their business for them so that's when I started
::license I started teaching them how to turn their business into a successful
::business and I create three different models and a small one,
::a medium and a large one.
::It was their choice to create for themselves the ones that they want. My...
::My choice later in life, having all the sizes before, I had started with a small to medium.
::Then I grew up to a big studio. I even brought other options in the studio other than Pilates itself.
::I had yoga. I had spinning. I had other practitioners with a small room that
::they could do a compunction, massage, physiotherapy.
::And that was not my best studio, I would say, because it took me out of my real
::goal and makes up too much.
::I really believe that when you're doing Pilates, you should be concentrated with what is Pilates.
::And so I grew up to a point that I had several studios and I started giving
::to my teachers the chance to take over.
::And I left because I felt that I lost my business itself.
::I started being an administrator. I've been away from my clients and all my
::knowledge was like being away from me and my contact with the client that was
::the best of exchanging part for me,
::at least because Pilates for me is a passion.
::And I believe you only can be totally successful when you are a passion person for what you do.
::And I do for passion. So at that moment, I was making lots of money,
::but I was not making myself happy.
::And I decided to change the whole thing.
::I had an opportunity with Bellman Hotels that offer this space for free and St.
::Martin in the Caribbean. And I loved the idea to move to St. Martin. And I did.
::I opened a small studio there.
::With that, I created a retreat. and that was 2014,
::when I stayed until the 13 to the 14 18 I left San Martin because we had a bad
::hurricane and everything got destroyed,
::and in situations like that it's very complicated for insurance and anyways
::end of that story I had I had,
::People in Europe invited me for getting a retreat there.
::And I had been training teachers, one for Italy, another one for France.
::Anyways, I decided to go to Europe.
::And I had requests in London. I decided to open the best model for me,
::is the small studio, where I could do my passion.
::As I did when I was in Samaritan.
::Clients came to me that never did Pilates before. I could guide them for what is Pilates.
::I could treat them for two weeks, usually the time that they stay in the island for the retreat.
::And they could see the transformation in their own lives.
::And they could see the difference that made in their lives. And I found other
::teachers where they live.
::Most of the people in the island, because the island is half Dutch,
::half French, they come from everywhere. And the fact that I speak several languages helps, of course.
::But I could make them understand and feel what is Pilates.
::And I tried to contact the right teacher in the right studio for them where
::they live. and they keep going there when they go back home.
::So that was a very grateful experience that I had as well with a different model,
::different in Denver, the three models that I had.
::I went to London and I decided to do a small studio where I could give to the
::client my full time as I give it,
::to then in the island but I
::was not too small I could have three clients at
::the same time where I started in 2019
::and COVID hit
::when COVID hit people didn't
::want to share in the room if they come
::because a lot of people couldn't go you know we are closed anyways at that moment
::And I also developed a product that I put in the client's house where I could
::have support like a tower, kind of.
::And it calls Ike Lattice. And we'll be in the market soon.
::I just postponed to be to sell later because I have to find the right production.
::Right now it's coming next year. But anyways, I create the one-to-one after COVID.
::And my clients said to me, I don't want to share my room with anybody else.
::And my clients are usually people that can't afford the time with me.
::When they cannot, I give the chance for them to do with the teachers that I
::trained. Some of them charge a little less and we can accommodate as more as we can.
::When we cannot accommodate, we try to see if they can share the room with somebody
::else, but with true teachers.
::So they still feel in a private.
::So this is a model that I have and I'm open one more by February this next year.
::In the small way and very private.
::Usually, especially I see what's going on right now in the world of Pilates.
::That makes me a bit sad because it became not a real work as Pilates,
::but a mix of people that never have really trained and had no knowledge of the
::body and they put people in the floor or over the machines and they hurt people all the time.
::As a physio, they come to me to fix and I go like, wow,
::You know, why you go there if you know that this is not Pilates,
::but they call reformer Pilates. What?
::I don't realize why they don't call the method.
::They call reformer only.
::What I don't agree because I feel I pass my class with all machines,
::whatever they are and whatever, whenever they come.
::I need all the machines to create
::the session of course if I only have one I will use that one but I try to follow
::the method and also I try to create the consciousness of the movement through
::Pilates that is my certification so I use that with the clients all the time.
::I'm very happy with the small size I believe teachers, you know,
::that has strong knowledge, they should go for small size because they will have
::class who will pay for them.
::I'm fascinated. The reason I'm interested to talk with you about your business
::particularly is because of your business model.
::And what i really like uh about what you're doing is that you charge very high prices.
::And the business model that you have, because you have four reformers,
::and I think you have two chairs and a Cadillac.
::So essentially, it's quite a small studio, right?
::Two chairs, three reformers, one Cadillac, the Tonshue reformers.
::So I could use four. I used before in the beginning, and it worked before COVID.
::After COVID, my clientele specific in London, in the high-end area that I am,
::they really see the reason to pay a private, and I understand.
::Right. So that's why I'm separating right now. Half of the machines are going
::to the small other studio nearby. Mm-hmm.
::And so a lot of, I think a lot of instructors feel the same way that you do
::in terms of deriving like their
::greatest satisfaction is working directly with clients and, you know,
::observing that or being part of that
::relationship and being part of that transformation for people directly.
::And so they want to run a small intimate setup like you do, but,
::I think most instructors really struggle to put their prices up and to charge
::enough money per session that actually makes it a profitable business for themselves
::when they're only running small sessions.
::So I see all the time instructors charging, you know, 50 pounds for a one-on-one
::session or, you know, 35 pounds for a duet.
::And so why I smiled from ear to ear when I looked at your website was I saw
::that you charge £176 for a one-on-one and even when someone buys 10 one-on-ones,
::I think you still charge something like £158.
::Yeah, and for a trio, even if someone buys like a 10-pack, Like you're charging
::like 98 pounds per person, you know, for the trio, which is fantastic.
::And I think, um, obviously that's a, uh,
::that's a, I think that's a great business model and it's fantastic for someone
::who has that kind of artisanal, um,
::approach and who, you know, the greatest satisfaction you get is from working,
::you know, intimately with your clients.
::How have you.
::I guess what I'm really, really interested to unpack with you is essentially
::how you go about setting your prices and charging that amount.
::Now, obviously, you have a lot of experience and all of that.
::So I'm more interested in really just psychologically how you approach this.
::Because in my experience, I've talked to a lot of studio owners.
::Most of them struggle with putting their prices up.
::I understand that. And there's a formula as well.
::I think one of the most important points during a period of time that I thought
::to come back to Florida because after COVID, I had a house here.
::I am in a very expensive area.
::In florida i could apply the same situation
::here because that's the first thing
::it's a real state where you're going right location
::is the first point um my
::ex-husband is 35 years
::in the franchise world so i've been all the
::conference he was part of the international fruit stars
::in association direction I'm being with all the franchises you can imagine the
::world conferences and I could turn my business into a franchising instead of
::this I prefer to stay small I make money that I want in the size that I want I could do.
::Uh be very rich right now but
::it was not my choice i like the
::the balance the control the
::century whatever the thought is mind is my mind and that's how i up buying the
::business and for that i give them the first thing is the location high location
::people that has money to pay your session in the price that you want first.
::Second, high level of instructions, instructors and instruction for yourself.
::So I always keep studying as more as I can.
::I am not only a Pilates teacher, I'm also a physiotherapist.
::So if I have somebody with issue, I will apply the
::Pilates sessions through the issue that they have
::to fix So some countries
::or some places They allowed some states
::in America Because laws are different here From state
::to state They allowed you to apply to physiotherapy The
::sessions that the clients use So sometimes they
::can go and ask for the insurance to be repaid So that is one point that can
::be used as an option So in a way to register that, that depends on each studio.
::I would say the second point, very important, other than location instruction,
::the third, I mean, it's the machines.
::I work with balanced body in the high, high level of balanced body.
::My machine has everything that you can imagine in a machine.
::I mean, my reformers have, they all have tower, they all have the connector,
::they all have infinity bar.
::I don't get a guy who is six, two feet and put in the reformer that it's the
::same size for somebody of five feet.
::It's almost like you get a person in a bicycle that it's this short and give
::a bicycle that the paddle is so far away.
::How this person is going to do? It's going to hurt. Right.
::So quality.
::And it's again, it's quantity sometimes. Right.
::So that's a middle line there. And that's how I think, you know,
::my parents get there and they walk and they see the machines.
::They go like wow but this is serious i said
::yeah and this is serious i mean
::uh other thing is some people get a
::you know basement who wants
::to work in a basement without light right light
::is important machines are important the
::way that the place looks it's important
::especially for people that has money you know
::uh knowledge of the teacher of
::course is the basic because you can
::give like a half price your
::first session then the client come and
::it comes with the problem you don't know how to deal with so
::of course you're not gonna pay and if
::you do successful with one two three
::you can start with a little low price
::and start gradually going up but the
::thing is how i maintain up you maintain up
::because you give it to what
::the client was expecting if you don't they're gonna go away they won't pay but
::if you give a high service they want you they you become like a therapist in
::all the ways for that person.
::As Pilates was in his life.
::Uncle Joe, everybody goes and runs to him. Can you fix me? Yeah. What do you...
::What do you, what service do you give somebody or what expectations does somebody
::have at 176 pounds for a one-on-one?
::You know, do you kind of, you know, call them after hours? Do you know,
::do you provide hot towels for them?
::Privacy. I talk to them, first of all, I don't use my body or any other one to booking.
::You book with the person directly.
::The private person wants, a person who pays you high, they want high service.
::You are like a babysitter.
::Of that person in the full ways when
::it started you know they give me
::a client form i analyze the person upside
::down i try to see
::the emotional issues too because every client
::when they walk in i teach this to my my
::trainees the first thing that you ask is did you
::sleep well how's your day how you know
::some people they come to me and they
::fill it up the form they don't disclose what
::they do but just the way that they move i know exactly what they're doing uh
::and i've checked the spine i see i first thing i look at you see all the needs
::in their body and then i put them to,
::create a series whatever they need
::but i give them the first experience with the
::full experience and then i already sold my product right there because they
::feel attracted to the point that somebody care about their bodies like they
::are an individual and lately uh we are not individuals anymore.
::We are just one more number in the internet. Nobody exists.
::So now I'm there. I exist. They text
::me. I respond. Some people text me at midnight. I respond at midnight.
::Everybody book with me in the WhatsApp. And if a teacher is teaching,
::it's not me, we are in a group and we respond.
::If the client wants to talk directly with me, to go out of the group and talk directly with me.
::I take care of them as a full individual. And I think that attention is what,
::They pay me in the end of the story, you know. Some clients and teachers,
::they will be watching this.
::They know some clients comes for attention only.
::But I don't do only attention. When they come for attention only,
::I go like, you know, I'm going to make you cost-benefit today.
::You're not going to do just attention.
::We need to, you keep telling me your story, but you keep moving.
::And I move then with my hand sometimes. I go like, okay, I keep hearing you,
::but you're going to move.
::And they go like, wow, I got much better. I feel wonderful.
::Yes. The talking is very important sometimes, but the movement is crucial.
::Yeah, and some people don't want to move. They're going like,
::you come here to move, you know, cost benefit.
::You're not going to pay me this money if you're not moving. I take you out.
::And I tell my clients every day one important thing, if I get rich,
::I will pay them to come to me.
::Did you have a point perhaps early in your career where you struggled with the
::confidence to charge high prices?
::Well, I would say probably in the beginning, the first studio, when I start.
::Especially, yeah, I think when I got out of my home studio to the street studio,
::I think is the first fear, not only my fear, but a lot of the teachers that
::I push to have their own studios.
::They always get afraid in the beginning, not only about the price,
::but I still see this in many teachers.
::They go like, can you ask the client if they like me?
::I mean, no, I don't want to ask the client if they like you.
::The client will show that when they come back and you're going to see this.
::They will tell you, because if I do this for you, I'm not helping your confidence.
::I will be turning to, you know, just give you a lot, one more chocolate for the kid.
::You have to create that confidence, just, you know, creating for the client
::a chance for the client to give it back to the feedback.
::I asked directly the client the whole entire session, how do you feel this? Where do you feel this?
::Because my work, it's a conscious of the movement through Pilates.
::And it's how I teach my teachers, how I train my teachers.
::You know, the client has to connect with that part, the muscle that they don't
::even know that they have.
::And how you create that is making
::the person think about what they are doing. They have to be present.
::And when they finally find it, go like, wow, this is great. I found this.
::So this is already your answer right there. That's your confidence.
::At that moment, you made somebody change something that you wanted to give it.
::And what really strikes, or one of the things that really strikes me about you
::is that you have this very deep conviction in what you provide and the value of what you provide.
::And, you know, you've told me, I mean, I agree with a lot of what you're saying
::about absolutely location is very, very important.
::And obviously expertise. You know, I agree with a lot of what you've said there.
::But I think what really strikes me as something that you missed out is the conviction
::that you have is so important that I think all of those things, the location,
::the equipment, your training, your experience, all of that really combines to
::give you the confidence that you can help these people in a very profound way
::and that you should charge accordingly.
::So where do you think that, I mean, have you always had that level of conviction that.
::And I guess I did.
::I think it's something that born with me. I don't know.
::I'm very spiritual, I have to say. And I study quantum physics since I am very
::young, since 20 years old, like 40 years.
::Anyways, I'm being in the world of of certainty that if I give, I will receive.
::So I have certainty that even a very bad moments of my life,
::there was my life is very colorful.
::I would say I had very difficult moments even you know when I got it to my studio
::everything disappeared there's no machine anymore there's no walls the whole
::entire studio was gone and I look at the air and I said well let's do it again and.
::What you can do when you have no other chance, you know, it's like start from the beginning.
::And I always had my my brother, you should call me Phoenix.
::I said, no, I'm not Phoenix. I just when you have nothing to do,
::you have to trust. You have to do.
::My daughter born with a very rare disease. and they said one of the kids with
::her problem doesn't survive. I said, well, she will survive.
::Yeah, she's 35 years old and she has a normal life.
::I decided to spend 10 years of my life trying to study and find out the solution.
::I think since the beginning of my life, I was very young and I was young 20.
::So when that happened, I had a kid in my arm. It's my own baby.
::I had to figure out I don't want to lose my baby.
::So I worked and I found a solution and life continues.
::So I think at that moment, when I realized I could save my daughter,
::I said, you know, I think it's always a solution.
::We always can do our best to make it happen.
::It depends on your own interests. You know, people want magic.
::And I tell teachers when they come to me to interview, to learn Pilates,
::to certification course, I said to many of them, don't spend your money with me.
::I don't want to train you because I think you can do a better job in something
::else because you're looking for money. And if you're looking for money, this is not your career.
::Money is a consequence of what you do right.
::You know, if I look at you, make money, I go to study finance and go to Wall
::Street and try to play with the money.
::If you come to teach Pilates, you have to learn about the body,
::you have to learn about the human being, you have to learn about even the mind.
::Because people come to you, they will be in your lap.
::I had people with, you know, having panic attack when they come to the studio
::and they come to me and I go like, oh God, you came to Pilates?
::No, I can't because I have a panic attack and you want to help?
::I go like, okay. Okay, so you're going to have many people like crying when
::they are doing Pilatus, many.
::Most of my clients in Denver, I counted one day, they were doctors, high level surgeons,
::lawyers, I mean, CEOs of companies.
::And they always wanted time private with me at the end of their days.
::And especially psychiatrists, I had several ones crying with me. They lost a client.
::And they come to me because they felt through the body, they release.
::And that is where the system created by Pilates, the beauty of it.
::It's make the person in contact with their own body and they release,
::especially strong women I see a lot right now.
::They are so used to be in charge of everything when they you start doing the breathing and,
::they start letting go and they start learning they start because they come the
::especially when they come from the gym and they do boxing and go like oh god
::it's much more difficult this kind of people to teach than the one that never
::did Pilates and come and I want to learn.
::You, um, I think what really resonates with me about what you said there or
::what really stands out for me is something I've learned in, in business is that it is something,
::there's something, uh, the salespeople call commission breath.
::And what that means is like when, when you're desperate to make a sale to somebody,
::they can sense it, you know, they can sense that you don't have their best interests
::at heart and that you, you know, you want to sell to them because you want the money.
::Now that i've got no problem with making money
::i think it's fantastic to make money and i think people should be compensated well
::for what they do but you
::know what a great mentor of mine said to me at one point it really stuck with
::me in sales indifference makes the difference and what he meant by that was
::when you truly don't care if you make the sale or not and you just want what's
::best for the person then sometimes you will tell people like hey i don't think
::i'm the right person to help you here.
::Like you said, if you have somebody that you don't think it's the best thing,
::you will tell them, hey, look, I don't think we should work together.
::But then when you do think that it's in this person's best interest to work
::with you, you tell them that.
::And you say, hey, look, you need to come on board and work with me.
::And here's how we're going to work together. And here's how much it costs.
::And here's what you're going to get from that.
::And I think that indifference makes the difference.
::Another way of saying that is just being really clear on who you can help and who you can't help.
::And for the people that you can't help, just saying to them,
::hey, look, I don't think I'm the right fit for you.
::But then the people that you can help, I mean, it's almost a sacred duty to
::help them, to not let them go away without,
::you know, being like, they've come to you for help. Yeah, exactly.
::So many times I go on Sundays and that's my only free day and I go like,
::oh my God, but this person really needs me there and I will go.
::That day, not even the 170 something that I, I forget what was in my charge, but anyway, whatever.
::It's no number that day. it
::is a service yeah it's
::like that's what
::I think the doctors should act sometimes and
::it's you know it's giving
::and the university is going to give you back some
::in the other ways it's if
::you love what you do you're going to do it because the the
::really payment for me for a
::teacher in the end of the story it's a
::review when they send me some reviews on
::google i mean you can read the reviews that
::i have i have i have a
::younger girl there today she sent a picture even
::put in instagram she's so happy with
::the transformation of her back she came
::to me after using years of the corset
::and suffering she was going to a surgery and
::that she's not in the surgery she's one year with us she said she's feeling
::the best of her life and she's beautiful and i and she felt bad before now she's
::like a flower opening you know and she's super happy and she wrote a beautiful review.
::There's no money to pay that, you know. Not even a thousand sessions she will
::pay that feeling of, it really helps someone. Yeah.
::How do you, a two-part question.
::How long does your average client stay with you? And how do you get new clients?
::Well, since I opened in London, I have many clients that never left.
::I have very key clients. I have a lot of very important people,
::clients that, you know, doesn't need to disclosure.
::But they bring friends um they sometimes they push the entire film which comes to me.
::What i'm doing here and they go like oh mom or dad i have one she tells the
::father i want to go to pilates more times a day go like,
::And I know she comes in the emotional side. I call the father and said,
::your daughter needs a psychologist, not me.
::Anyways, going back to your question, I have probably a lot of clients that came from clients.
::The worst of month in my case is the biggest one ever.
::Google, people Google. And if they have problems, they prefer to come to me.
::People that are more, my plants are very high-end, I'm not saying high-end for
::rich people, but high-end in the needing, okay?
::People that have issues in their bodies, they don't go and just work out with
::someone who doesn't know what they're doing. They want a solution.
::They want, or if they don't expect solution, at least they want you for being
::taken care correctly, okay?
::So this is the line of clients that comes to me.
::And they become very loyal because I present solution back and it changes.
::The changes change their lives so they feel comfortable with.
::They bring family, they bring friends, and that keep going and going.
::Of course the reviews are important and people when they come now they always
::look for reviews they analyze you especially because it is expensive so they
::want to be sure what they are putting their money for.
::And what else was the other question?
::How they come? You know that's the answer both of those questions my next question is.
::Well, you know, people who have, you know, high income, they often tend to travel
::a lot or they have, you know, work things, et cetera, so they can be sporadic in their attendance.
::So how do you manage that? I notice you've got a 48-hour cancellation policy,
::but like, how do you manage, like, you know, I imagine a lot of your clients
::sort of go to the south of Portugal for the summer or the winter or whatever,
::you know, how do you manage that?
::Much more than that my clients
::are jet set they travel whenever
::they want you know they don't need the summer to travel uh and when you're in
::london um they are like living in london they say they live in london they have
::a housing in france they have housing this and how i mean.
::It is a puzzle. And that's a big part of the work.
::And maintain teachers as well in the puzzle with me because teachers have to
::be okay with the situation.
::That's why I asked 48 hours because I respect teachers' hours.
::I mean, if my client canceled a day before, I had one that canceled today for tomorrow.
::I just, you know, early morning in London and I made sure that the teacher knows
::early because I don't want to create for her a problem in her life.
::So I try to be nice at 48, sometimes I go for 24, but my best clients,
::believe it or not, are the most important people.
::They are very serious CEOs of big companies.
::They know their schedule and they send me for the month.
::And I know they want to keep their hours when they're in town so what I create is like I tell.
::People like if you were okay I have one she comes three times a week Monday
::Wednesday and Saturday and she's the best she sent me a month before what she
::wants but she knows is gonna come changes,
::So when she tells me, because she's super nice, I try to be nice too.
::And I give her 24 hours and I tell the teachers and the teachers agree.
::So we give her extra care because she does give us an extra care.
::But people that just cancel less than 24 hours and don't give the schedule before.
::I charge them like anybody else. So we have a flexibility, I would say.
::But what happened is this, when you are in towns like London,
::it's different town to town, okay?
::When you're in towns like London, that is very, the changes of travels are variety.
::Cheap it's not like
::when you Paris people travel during the summer when
::you London people travel period and high-end
::people travel period so I try to accommodate one one goes the other one comes
::back in the summertime we have a low low season yes so you don't count your year like months.
::You count as a year.
::So, take the months of freedom, August, everybody doesn't want to go,
::but there are people that control on them.
::Especially, I would say, especially the Arabics come to London a lot in that time of the year.
::So they feel some schedule of the ones that left.
::But for the fixed ones, they are with me for seven years, they hold that time.
::I advise the new ones that said, well, I'm giving this time to you,
::but that belongs to that person when they're coming back that month.
::But people buy packs, right?
::So, when the person buys the package, if they travel one week, I don't care.
::I give it to somebody else that space. But the other week, because they bought
::a pack, I already put the money in that session to pay that and that and that.
::So, they have to have a credit to book a session.
::And essentially, you just manage your schedule.
::You give preference to your long-term clients but
::when they're out of town you sell those times to other people exactly
::and the process is i create a system that on the schedule and my system advise
::me when it's finishing so there's a red flag and comes the lies and they say
::to me okay this person needs so i text the person your sessions are finishing when i.
::Maintain your schedule please send the payment great
::what uh you know what what would you say is your biggest challenge in business
::or the or the what's the thing that is really not operating at the level that
::it could or that you would like it to,
::I think my bigger challenge is humans.
::My best one is not, I mean, the best part of my life is my dog.
::But humans are the most complicated ones. And I would say, especially humans
::that can buy anything because they think money can buy.
::So it's a challenge. And I call there's a lot of princes and princes that come
::to us and we have to make them understand there are the princes and princes there too.
::So that is a little bit of challenge because we have too many high profile people
::thinking, oh, but I am that person.
::And I go like, yeah, so in God is God, right?
::So that's it
::that is a little bit of challenge when you deal
::with this level of clientele they have
::to get to the ground feet and say yeah everybody
::is important you ask me that time
::you have that time you want this you have that
::but there are rules give rules
::for vips it's not a very
::easy thing to do so one challenge
::another one i would say
::it's find the right
::teachers to work together because especially
::pilates i mean old old pilates teachers all the time i'm not saying old people
::but people that comes from my generation they have a lot of ego and they go
::like Oh, but I am the best.
::I go like, no, we all together working here.
::We humans working with other humans.
::And we are doing the best to work together. You know, another feeling of ego.
::I think the most difficult part of it in the business is the ego of the clients, ego of the teachers.
::And the fact that some teachers think, oh, this is my client.
::No, the client came to the studio.
::You taught the client.
::The client is still from the studio. It's a client from the studio.
::I brought the client here and we're working with the client together.
::That can be a problem, have been before for me.
::Right now, I don't have this problem because I think I address this very well
::in my mature stage of Pilates Studios for so many years.
::It's it's uh it's it's a
::i'm continually reminded that uh there are
::no solutions only trade-offs and in business all
::you get to do you know when you solve one problem all you do
::is you create a different problem and we just
::get a choice of which problem would we prefer and so
::problem when you work with uh with vips
::is is they have a ego and
::they have very very high expectations they're very demanding and
::the same when you work with highly expert instructors because they're kind of
::the same in that way yeah teach those instructors is the harder part of it because
::they will they know everything and they go like okay but just looking for this angle,
::what is your goal with the business i mean do you want to grow the business
::you said you're opening another studio like ultimately what is your goal.
::I love to train teachers. I really would love to diminish seeing clients and
::training teachers and create small studios like mine and support them in this,
::you know, creating like a partnership with the new one that they open.
::That is my ultimate goal because I want to diminish my time.
::I've been doing this the last two years. And also
::I want to launch the iPilates where I
::will have a platform where teachers will have an online studio inside of my
::platform with the product that will give people have a chance to work from home.
::And, all right, so... I have another one. Sorry.
::I have a goal that I can talk more about the real Pilates.
::I'm really pissed off what you're doing with Pilates lately.
::So all of that seems to me on the surface to be in contradiction with what you
::said right at the start, where you said you didn't want to spend time on the
::admin and running the business. You wanted to spend time face-to-face with your clients.
::No, but I want to spend time face-to-face with the teachers.
::The teachers now are more my clients. I don't want to do the online teaching.
::I'm doing a lot of form and I let it go just for to have more teachers learning the method.
::I really wanted to spend time with more teachers because I don't have much of
::my time now that I want to spend full time in a studio.
::So if I create these teachers, I can fly, come back, and I see my clients.
::Every time they get to London, I see my clients.
::But I have somebody there to take care. It's almost like my dog stays with somebody
::when I travel. When I come back, my dog is there.
::I don't call my dog, but the people that I love, You know, I miss them.
::I can miss my dog when I come back. I want to see them.
::I want to have. And that's what I want to do with all the teachers, create their studios.
::When I come, I can teach them and the teachers can take a little freedom when I'm in town.
::And I would love to do this in many places because that's, you know,
::the way to keep seeing and helping and create the community.
::They help each other and I put them together I love that is there anything else
::that you would like to share you know we have an audience of probably 3,000
::to 5,000 people that are going to listen to this episode.
::I would love that people realize that, especially teachers, as I said,
::my goal now is more than the client self is being with the teachers.
::I would say the teachers will be more my clients now.
::I wish they're doing a deep work in their bodies, not their own bodies,
::but in the client's bodies.
::They study more. They really look at the method as a method itself instead of fitness.
::Pilates gave us an incredible tool and information.
::And the method is unbelievable, capable to give a lot more.
::And I think people took this as a very superficial ways to do it lately in turning to stupid,
::I would say, what I see lately.
::And I wish people take it out of the surface level of Pilates to take more deep.
::I wish the teachers could be more like the teachers that were in my time. We had to study.
::We really had to go through the process of the Pilates method.
::You don't do courses of a week and you call yourself Pilates teacher.
::What do you see as the biggest, I guess,
::your biggest constraint or the biggest challenge for you in making that transition
::from running your own studio to, you know,
::teaching teachers and having that model where you help people set up their small
::businesses and, you know, help them flourish?
::What is the biggest obstacle to you doing that?
::I think it's just time and money. back to everybody uh well i can invest a little
::bit more money and time to do it and uh i'm that's what i'm doing in the next couple months so,
::investing more time and i don't do any marketing i should you know put a more,
::might go into the marketing.
::I never did. I would say I hide myself a lot in my own little walls.
::I should be more exposed.
::And yeah, I think that's it. I'm going to give a different perspective on that,
::which is I think that my experience with very high-end clients is they often
::prefer when you are not widely known and accessible and you're a well-kept secret
::and they only get your name through word of mouth through somebody that they already trust.
::Yeah. So I think that your lack of marketing might actually be one of the things
::that helps you get more clients in your particular market.
::Yes, you said so. I believe totally. You said the stone of the story.
::Yeah, you're totally right.
::Probably that's exactly what it is. Love it. Yeah.
::Patricia, it's been really great talking with you. I appreciate your perspective.
::You've got an unusual business model, not in that.
::Many, many people run small private duet trio businesses, but I've not met anybody,
::maybe one other person, who charges very premium prices and has a very clear
::target avatar and is doing so well with that model. So I congratulate you.
::I think it's been really helpful. A lot of people, I think, will get a lot from
::listening to this episode.
::I would be super happy to talk to anybody that needs my mentoring.
::And I want to put it here that I am happy to create a training program to each individual that needs.
::I believe every teacher, every one attorney to be a teacher,
::a good teacher, they need time, at least one year of study.
::And that's what I give to my trainees.
::Last year, I said, oh, I'm done with the story to train teachers.
::And one girl came and asked me so much because she tried everything before.
::She made me change my mind. And through the point that now I wanted to do exactly that only.
::And I realized that she taught me how much this is good.
::And so I'm very happy to be the grandmother.
::Well, we'll share your details in the show notes and people can connect with
::you if they want. So, yeah, thank you very much. That would be great.
::Thank you very much for being part of the podcast and all the best with your
::business. Sounds amazing.
::Thank you. And it was a pleasure and I'm honored to have that time together
::here. I learned with you too.
::You gave me the storm. maybe that's the fact that I'm hiding that's what my clients told me,
::thank you so much it was a pleasure likewise.
