326. How a 23-Year-Old Built a Waitlisted Pilates Studio in Just 1 Year, with Chelsea McBride and Raphael Bender

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Music.

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Welcome to Pilates Elephants. I'm here with Chelsea McBride.

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Hey, Chelsea. Hi, Ralph.

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Great to be here with you. I'm looking forward to hearing about your studio.

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So, yeah, you're in Port Pirie in South Australia, which is,

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I don't know, a bit north of Adelaide.

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Can you sort of give us the rundown of where you are, what you're,

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you know, describe your business, what you do, who you serve?

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Yeah. So, yeah, we're three hours from Adelaide, the middle of nowhere.

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There is towns around. Um, but yeah, I run a reformer studio. We have 11 beds now.

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Um, and yeah, I have six team members working with me. Um, and we're doing roughly

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50 classes a week at the moment.

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Awesome. And my, um, I mean, what I see is like 50 is pretty close to the maximum

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that you can run in a, in a group studio, like 55. I know I was really surprised

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actually. I found one studio the other day that they're doing 63.

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Um, but that's very unusual. Yeah, that's crazy.

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They're more suburban. They've got a lot of mid-morning classes with,

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you know, mums and things, so they can kind of add a lot of those in.

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But 50 is pretty good. 50 is very solid.

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And so Port Pirie, three hours north of Adelaide in Australia,

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for those of you who don't know, Adelaide's kind of like Australia's kind of

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third or fourth largest city, population like a million-ish, I think. Yeah.

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And so you're three hours north of there. Port Pirie, you're in the Great Australian Bight.

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Port Pirie, what's the population there, roughly? I'm going to say 15,000, I think.

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I haven't checked for a while, but... All right, but that gives us a rough ballpark.

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Yeah, we have a lot of people come in and out for work because we have a smelters

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here. So a lot of people travel here for work as well.

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Okay. And so, you know, like, tell me about, you've been open,

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you've been in the location in town like a year, roughly.

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And before that you were seeing one-on-one clients at home, right?

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So when did you, and you're quite young, you're in your early twenties, right? Yeah, 23.

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So when did you first get the idea to open a Pilates studio?

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Um so there's a bit of a story to it I

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had a bit of a um like hard time at

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school in my teenage years um and then

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that kind of went I mean I'm still young but went into early

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adulthood those feelings um and actually escalated to

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the point where I was having panic attacks regularly um and then

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I just knew that I wasn't looking after my body and I never knew thought there

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was anything like wrong with me necessarily I just knew my body was

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giving me like warning signs so then I started Pilates um

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like a girl was doing it here locally um and

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then she left and went to Adelaide which most people do from Piri and I was

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like what am I going to do now um and she was trying to find my way with my

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uni course um I have an exercise science degree and a nutrition degree and I

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was like I'll just add Pilates on the side to make sure I'm busy enough being

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in a small town I knew that I had to make my own way with it um and yeah now Pilates has become the

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full thing and the nutrition and the exercise science stuff is on the side.

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So yeah, then I thought I'll just start just doing one-on-ones from home and to see where it goes.

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But it was like, if I can sort of, me and my partner moved into our own house,

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I'm like, if I can pay the mortgage and the bills, like I'm happy.

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I'm just going to see where this takes me because what I was doing,

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I wasn't loving. And yeah, it just went from there.

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What were you doing before you became a applied instructor? I was working full-time,

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just an office job. which didn't suit me.

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Yeah. I like being around people. I like, I have energy to burn.

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So sitting at an office desk doesn't suit sort of my personality.

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So I was just doing sort of jobs in the government system to see whether I wanted

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to go into dietetics in that way with my uni degree.

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So yeah, I was working full-time doing full-time uni, which was a bit hectic,

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as it was. And then I went and worked for my mum and dad when I finished my

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uni and I did my Pilates degree.

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Well, we took Pilates qualification at the same time, which all got a bit much

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at that time, but we got there in the end. So.

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And, you know, when did you, when did you decide that you wanted to open your

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own business doing Pilates?

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Cause you, I mean, this is a very short timeline cause you're only 23 right

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now. It is a lot has happened in the last few years.

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Um, well there just wasn't the opportunity to really do it here unless I wanted

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to do it at a local gym, um, which I was pretty set that I wanted to do reformer and not mat.

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And the local gyms didn't really have a space, um, to have multiple reformers.

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So really I went into it knowing that the only option was for me to do it myself.

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And my parents have owned businesses, they've owned business for years.

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So I've always sort of been around people that have owned a business.

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So I'm like, why not me too? We'll just give it a shot.

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It's interesting what you say about having that double degree in nutrition and

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exercise science and then actually working as a Pilates instructor.

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I also have a degree in exercise science and a master's in exercise physiology.

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And I know a lot of people with that degree.

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I mean, basically, you're a glorified personal trainer with a four-year degree.

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And I make my money teaching Pilates these days as well.

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And I think there's actually a lot more opportunity as a Pilates instructor

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than there is as an exercise scientist.

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Yes. Once I finished my course, I'm like, what now? Especially being in a small

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town, I'm like, yeah, there's limited opportunities with things like that sometimes.

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Well, you've created your own

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opportunities. So how did you start out teaching one-on-ones from home?

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Like, where did you, like, tell us about how you finished your course and how

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you transitioned into seeing clients.

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Yeah. So when I was doing my course, we had to do a certain amount of teaching

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hours back then and I had sort of friends and family coming in.

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So I sort of started with that and I just thought the more people I could have

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come in for free, the more I'm going to learn. So it started there.

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And then I was like, once I sort of got confident, finished my course,

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I was like, I started charging people to come in, same thing.

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And I was very lucky. I was pretty on the ball with certain things and I got a mentor straight away.

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And they were really good with helping me with pricing and all that side of

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things as well. So they helped me set up my business properly as well.

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And they helped me with like how to market my services and stuff like that so

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I started doing one-on-ones for my parents house and then me and my partner

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bought our own house moved it to there and then it slowly I was doing it after

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my work at my full-time job and then,

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All those spots were full every night. So I was like, something's got to give

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here. So I said, sorry, mom and dad, can I drop a day off?

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So then I had Mondays. And then it was like from 6 a.m. Monday to 9 o'clock

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at night, I was back to back with one-on-ones.

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And I had 15 minutes in between. I'm like, this is not sustainable either.

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So then to me, the natural next step was how can we make this easier?

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And it's like, let's have more people in one room and do a group environment.

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So that was a natural next step.

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But yeah, one-on-ones is my starting point.

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And so you went straight from, you know, all day Mondays and then the rest of

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the evenings to you rented a place in town and put some performers in.

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Yeah. I knew if I didn't try it, I was always going to regret it.

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I'm like, let's just try it.

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And mum and dad were very good. They're like, if it fails, you can always come

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back here. I'm like, I always knew I sort of had that as a safety net.

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Mm-hmm and so like

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how do you I mean it

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sounds like you've kind of grown very

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organically like you basically started doing free for friends and family and

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then the word spread and then you started getting paying clients and the word

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continued to spread how do you get clients now I mean I know in in I don't know

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15,000 is not that small of a town it's not like everyone knows everyone but

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I know that you can I mean word does spread pretty quickly though yeah yeah

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so how do you get clients?

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I think I was lucky that I was offering a service that sort of purely needed at the time.

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And I had a deep interest in injuries and stuff.

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So when I was doing one-on-ones, I sort of was going from that perspective,

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but that's changed since.

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So I was having a lot of like physios encourage people to come because their

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books were quite full and they didn't have time to add Pilates on the side of what they were doing.

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So it was through like, yeah, Referrals, systems like that. Word of mouth is big in a small town.

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And then socials, Instagram and just...

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Like instead of just selling Pilates, you're selling like a fix to a problem that people had.

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And at the time that was back pain and things like that.

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And how did the physios know about you to send clients to you?

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I was lucky that was a small town and I went to school with some of their kids and stuff like that.

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And it's sort of gone from there. And I think as soon as you start,

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like if you give a good service, everyone's going to talk about how much they

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enjoy it and the results they've got.

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And I think it just worked out that little sort of crossover between their clients

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coming to me and then going back to them and saying, I've started Pilates, it's really helping.

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And then I think they've from there gone, all right, well, I'm going to send more people there.

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So it's just building that trust as well. Yeah.

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I think it, I couldn't agree more that it comes down to the results and the

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experience that you provide people.

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And if, if they love it and they get the result they want, it's like,

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why wouldn't they come back? Yeah.

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I think 100% you need to have like a really good service, especially in a small

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town. You can't just have people coming in all the time and like,

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like you have to try and keep the ones that do come in. So yeah.

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And so, you know, right now I know, I know that you have an intro off,

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I think it's like three for 60 is that is that what we have got

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rid of that one um because we found that that

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was bringing in a lot of price sensitive uh people

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that might not have sort of we're trying to go to just

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like a membership model um and we're finding it hard and they will sort of do

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their three um or they wouldn't even get to the three because the price was

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that little bit lower um so our intro offer now is the same as our two class

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per week membership you just do it for three weeks and then you have the decision

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to then go onto the membership from there it's no different you just to get

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a foundations guide as well to help you.

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So that's two classes a week for three weeks, run exactly the same as our membership,

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$50 a week, and it comes out weekly. So it was $150 in total.

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Okay. And how long have you been running that newer offer? We've been running

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that since about the start of the year and we've noticed a big difference.

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And what are the stats comparing that? Because as you experiment with different

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offers, as you put the price point down and you sell more of them,

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presumably, but then you have a lower conversion from that intro offer into the membership, right?

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I mean, as you put the price up, anyone who's going to pay $150 to try it is pretty serious. Yeah.

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So you'd have to do something pretty wrong for them to not continue on.

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But it's probably going to be

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harder to sell that $150 intro than it would be to sell a $60 intro. Yes.

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I think what we've found lately is we've actually had people,

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I think, from our content on our socials jumping straight onto memberships.

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And those that do jump onto the intro offers are the ones that are pretty serious

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and want to sort of give it a bit of a shot to see if they can come consistently

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before they jump on a membership.

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So we have found...

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That sort of not having that, I think that cheap intro offer was just like,

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everyone was like, I'll just jump onto that.

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Um, cause I don't know where to start. And I think sometimes when you have so

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many options on a booking system and sort of no one really has been to a reformer

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studio around here, they're like, I don't know where to start.

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So I'm just going to jump on that one.

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Um, so since we've changed that, we've had a lot of people just like saying

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like, I'm in, let's do it. I want to reach my goals. Let's just go straight on a membership.

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That's interesting. Cause when your intro offers the same price as the membership,

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It's like, well, why wouldn't I just start with a membership?

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And we've got no like lock-in and no cancellation fee or anything.

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So yeah, people just get straight. Well, is your lock-in like,

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well, aside from obviously the quality and the experience, is your lock-in like,

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well, you can go down to Adelaide and try the other Politi studio if you want?

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Yeah. Or is it? Basically.

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It's interesting. uh my i

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don't know i don't know stats on this but my my impression

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like from talking to a lot of studio owners is the studio

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owners i know in small rural towns and even

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regional like capitals are doing really well

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at the moment it's like it's just exploding not just in

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australia in the u.s in europe um the uk uh

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some of the most successful business owners i know are in

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like just this little obscure parts of the countryside um what

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what you mentioned before in your you

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know your intro you get there some kind of a foundations guide what is that

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um so it's just like some recipes um there's a little bit of like hydration

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recovery stuff sleep it's just setting we talk a lot about setting up like foundations

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in the studio of like all right you're doing a movement but let's make sure

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you've got your nutrition you've got your sleep you're focusing on your stress.

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So it's just like a little guide to get them started with us because then I

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do still offer nutrition.

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I just don't advertise it as much because I am quite busy at the moment.

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So it sort of just gives everyone a kickstart on their health journey with us.

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You said before, right at the start, that when you were working out of your

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parents' spare room, you were selling a result, you know, like get over your injuries and pain.

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And, you know, obviously now that's a little bit different because you've got

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a different focus. It's more about wellness and fitness rather than about injury rehab per se.

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And also Pilates is just insanely popular now. You just have to say the word

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Pilates and people will do it.

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But it sounds to me like you are still offering, you know, a solution to a problem

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where you're offering more than just like classes.

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So what do you see as the, you know, as what you offer and what is your brand

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about and what are you trying to build there?

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So one of our values that we have is do hard things.

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So we really might like push people to like build mental

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and physical resilience to then be a better person

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for their kids um be better at their work um

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be better like loved one family member a friend

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um and we also a lot

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of people come to us because they want to get stronger so then

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we talk about like getting stronger so they can like

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they might get to a point where their kids growing up and they can't lift

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them as easily um so we focus on the sort of

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the result rather than just like no one i

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mean pilates is popular at the moment but people do want results so we try

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and yeah advertise for results it's like um flexibility like

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a lot of people come to us because i just want to like tie their shoes up easily

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or a lot of like our older members just

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want to be able to keep being independent as they

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get older um and not rely on people uh we had one lady the other day that talked

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about that she since she started she can turn around and like look out the back

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window of her car um so we just talk about like little life things um yeah and

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And just like the feeling of getting stronger is just amazing mentally and physically.

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So I think everyone wants that.

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For sure. And so what is your onboarding process?

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Like if I'm a new client, I come to your studio for the first time,

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like aside from just showing up and doing a class,

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like what touch points do I have or what do you do to turn me from a fearful

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rabbit in the spotlight to a regular member? Yeah.

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Well, at the moment we've actually closed books and there's a wait list.

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So people that join the waitlist we'll actually get a phone call to start with

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um from one of us to talk about like,

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obviously we've only got a certain amount of room so we want to make sure that they

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actually do have certain goals they want to hit and they are ready to

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sort of start on their their fitness journey um so we usually bring them talk

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about sort of where they're currently at and how we can help get them to where

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they want to be um so that's always a good start because then they if they have

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any questions um they usually talk to marie or i about like yeah any little

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concerns that they have.

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We also send an email as soon as they book their first class with all the information they need.

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And then when they get to the studio, like we are straight over to them,

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introduce ourselves, ask them how they're feeling, if they have any questions.

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And all my team knows, you tell them all the information that they need to know.

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Even if it's like overwhelming, like put your bag here, put your shoes here,

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come over here, here's a reformer.

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And then I also always introduce them to the people next to them and say,

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this person's been coming here for a long time.

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Like they'll help you along the way it's going to be a lot today but you'll

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get there um and then straight away you want to make sure you're giving them

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reassurance through the class as well,

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and always explain to them that the first class is the scariest and the

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one where you're going to feel the most uncoordinated and you're going to be like what

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the heck is happening i said it will get easier from there um so i just think

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reassurance and just giving them all the information because i think lack of

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information is what makes you probably the most nervous you don't know what's

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going to happen or what it involves so what have you what have you.

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I mean, it's been a very short journey, not a very short, it's been a very long

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journey in a very short time for you.

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And so you've gone from, you know, uni student to working in the government,

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to working for your parents, to seeing clients at home, to starting a business.

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And now you're, even within the business, you've gone from being the one person

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band at home to being the one person band in the shop in town to now having six employees.

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And so your role in the business like I know you still teach a lot

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but you are now leading a group of other

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people and so tell me about how you've

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grown or potentially what challenges you've had with with building a team yeah

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um so this has probably been my toughest challenge um because I've gone from

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yeah no staff at the start of this year to six um so I felt like I didn't even

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have room to like sort of just have one and sort of learn as I go.

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It's like, yeah, going zero to a hundred, which I feel like that's been my whole

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journey. So I'm like, I need to get used to that now.

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Um, but I think realizing, I think one thing that stood out for me was that.

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Okay, now I actually have to be organized.

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I have to know how we do things and why we do things.

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And I think I learned that like, I probably wasn't really leading myself properly.

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I was kind of just going through the motions and like I can't lead the

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team the way that I was leading myself

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what do you mean not leading yourself properly going through the motions I

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think I sort of just did stuff like running off vibes and gut

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feelings and then it's like I've had to actually like say okay

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this is where we are in the market and like what

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we focus on so we've gone more like the strength based reformer side of

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things rather than pilates I think I had

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to learn quickly because everyone come in with different ideas

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and then members were like this person does it different to

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you and I think they're so used to like how I

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did it and it was like and I was like well everything falls

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back on me so the girls aren't to know how to do it if

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I haven't given them away that we do it here so I

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think it's just like realizing the lack of like systems and playbooks and everything

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that I had in place and the like lack of leading myself and I was like this

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is not going to be able to be the standard if I have a team of like not showing

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up and we I call it dabbling me my mental court dabbling,

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dabbling in things like half doing jobs and doesn't set a very good standard

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for everyone across the board.

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And how did you, how did you, uh.

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I guess, go from, or how did you manage your own kind of ego or,

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you know, imposter syndrome to go from just being an instructor to telling other

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people how to do their job?

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I think like showing up as a leader for myself, like anytime that I had a doubt,

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I'd write down on a piece of paper, why are you having that doubt?

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Like there's usually a deeper reason. So if I was having a doubt on sort of

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telling someone how I wanted it to be done,

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I'd dive into why that would be and it's like

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well maybe you're not actually sure that that's how you actually want

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it done so you're sort of second-guess telling

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them because you're actually not sure and confident within yourself

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of that's how we do things here so I think I'd always sort of write down a piece

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of paper and then I'd also write out like if I had a scenario that I thought

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would go like I'm always I overthink everything like I'm a chronic overthinker

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so I always write out like a scenario and it's like, well, what would be true for that to happen?

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And then what would be true for that not to happen?

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And then you just adjust from there.

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Did you, are all the instructors you've got like people that you trained up?

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Because where do you find six instructors in the town of 15,000 that had no

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Pilates studios before you opened? Tough, tough.

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Majority of them were members or sort

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of people around the town that are sort of into fitness um that

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I reached out to um I find

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the members are really good because they like I

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found that those girls sort of know exactly how we do things um so they sort

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of just jump straight in and they sort of know um but yeah it's just people

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that I've found or people that have said to me that they're interested in doing

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their course and um they've gone and done their course and I've mentored them

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along the way a little bit um as well.

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What would you say, I mean, it sounds like a lot, but what do you feel like

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is working exceptionally well in your business right now?

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I think having systems, having playbooks and being very certain of not diluting

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yourself to keep people happy.

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I think I was doing a lot of that. And one day our classes would be really hard

:: 21:45

because everyone in the studio I knew would want to do the hard stuff.

:: 21:49

And then the next day and be

:: 21:52

like okay we're gonna go a little bit easier today because I'm getting eye rolls

:: 21:55

and no one's into it so I think holding a

:: 21:58

standard I think that's been really good I think having values that everyone

:: 22:02

knows that like we're about doing hard things so don't come in thinking that

:: 22:07

we're not going to do hard things I think also that's been good for our team

:: 22:10

too because it's like actually we step into doing hard stuff stuff that makes

:: 22:13

us nervous like this podcast for example,

:: 22:16

like I knew if I said no and my members found out, they'd be like,

:: 22:19

well, that's not doing the hard thing.

:: 22:21

So I think it's like having some, like some sort of culture of like,

:: 22:25

this is what we're about.

:: 22:27

And everyone sort of holds to that standard across the board.

:: 22:31

I think that's what's working well at the moment. I saw one of your other values

:: 22:34

is really just doing the, you said doing the 99%, you know, doing the basics

:: 22:38

right before you get to the fancy stuff. Tell me about that.

:: 22:41

Yeah. So doing the foundations.

:: 22:42

So that's why we give them a foundations guide at the start. so

:: 22:45

it's like there's no point

:: 22:48

coming in like all guns blazing and jumping on our

:: 22:51

unlimited membership and like going to all the hard classes and then

:: 22:54

burning yourself out and then we don't see you for three weeks it's like that's

:: 22:57

just like drop the ego and let's ease into it um or it's like there's no point

:: 23:02

doing all the work in the studio if you're not doing the work out the studio

:: 23:04

with nutrition and and recovery and that sort of thing so it's just yeah making

:: 23:08

sure you sort of do do the basics and you do it all the time so yeah like don't come in and.

:: 23:14

Get yeah we've haven't seen for two weeks so you've got to like catch up

:: 23:17

and get all the classes in and because our

:: 23:20

credits roll over too so we roll credits over for 30 days so

:: 23:23

if you're on the two class a week and you you miss two weeks like

:: 23:26

that's not just then go and catch up everything and then

:: 23:28

we don't see you for another two weeks like that's like focus on consistency

:: 23:31

over time because that's what's going to get you results and make you progress

:: 23:35

along the way and how does that value inform the

:: 23:37

way that you teach and the way that your instructors teach we don't

:: 23:41

do the fancy stuff i tell the girls all the time don't do the fancy stuff

:: 23:44

that you see on instagram that looks really good but then it doesn't like

:: 23:47

flow easily to a group class like let's

:: 23:49

just focus on the basics um we teach we

:: 23:53

try and change it up we do about like an 80 20 rule so we

:: 23:56

do like 80 percent of stuff that everyone knows and then 20 percent of

:: 23:59

like something different to change it up um but the

:: 24:02

80 percent it's like let's stick to the basics because that's actually where

:: 24:05

you're going to be able to up your springs and up your weights and actually

:: 24:07

see the progress through.

:: 24:08

The weeks if we're doing something different every every day

:: 24:11

then you're not going to go very far with it so I think

:: 24:14

yeah that I think bringing in those values has

:: 24:17

helped us instructors as well because I think you sort

:: 24:21

of get caught up and I think sometimes you think that your classes are getting

:: 24:23

boring because you teach so many classes in one week

:: 24:26

but it's like I've noticed and I

:: 24:29

try and really dive into all this stuff that our members are happiness

:: 24:32

when they can go onto a flow state and they're not having to think too hard

:: 24:35

about instructions and they know they can just come in and do their lunges in

:: 24:38

rows and then we'll change something tiny in there and then that's the classes

:: 24:43

that we always get the best reviews what what how did what happened when you

:: 24:49

made that change from kind of.

:: 24:52

Trying to read the room and, you know, toning it down when there was eye rolls

:: 24:55

to sort of holding the line and then defining your values and going,

:: 24:59

actually, no, we do hard things and we do it every class here.

:: 25:02

Like, did you lose people or did people just get with the program?

:: 25:05

How did the transition go?

:: 25:08

I was really worried that we're going to lose some people.

:: 25:12

And some people didn't love it, but then we have multiple class themes.

:: 25:17

So it was like, well, maybe this class theme is what

:: 25:20

you need to go to we have a stretch class on the program multiple

:: 25:23

times a week like maybe that's just where you go into and that's

:: 25:26

fine that's all you want to do so I think we got better at redirecting people

:: 25:29

to where they should be um but mainly people just got with the program and we

:: 25:33

grew massively since we've made some of these changes like I think people know

:: 25:36

what we're about to so we've had a lot of new people come in as well and I had

:: 25:41

a new person the other day straight away quote one of our values she was in

:: 25:44

a foundations class she's like do hard things I'm like, yes, love it.

:: 25:48

Yeah. It's, it's quite counterintuitive. I think many Pilates instructors,

:: 25:53

business owners, I think have, have the mistaken belief that when you kind of

:: 25:58

try to appeal to a broader range of people, you get more clients.

:: 26:00

I think it's the opposite. The more you say, no, like actually we're not for everybody.

:: 26:03

And we, you know, we stand for this set of values and this way of doing things.

:: 26:08

And if that doesn't work for you, totally understand, but it's like,

:: 26:10

that's what we do that's actually when you magnetically attract the people that

:: 26:15

that admire those you know those qualities and those values because they can see that you actually

:: 26:20

have you do stand for something it's not you're just not trying to just like

:: 26:23

be bland and beige and and not offend anyone yeah i know and you see it all

:: 26:28

the time like people saying like pilates is for everyone and it's like it is

:: 26:31

and you see that all the time but i've never taken that,

:: 26:34

approach because i just don't think that doesn't pull me into like if i was

:: 26:38

thinking that i was a client like flight is for everyone wouldn't really pull

:: 26:41

me in but do hard things I'm like yes that's sort of where I want to go and

:: 26:45

then it's been a lot easier for us as instructors too because like.

:: 26:51

We've attracted the people that suit the way we teach. So we don't have that

:: 26:55

pushback that we were getting before.

:: 26:59

I mean, I think it's so, it is counterintuitive, but it's like when I think

:: 27:02

if, you know, just talking to the listeners for a second, if you've,

:: 27:06

I mean, if you just think about your own experience in life,

:: 27:08

like when you go and if you were, I don't know, if you had a,

:: 27:10

if you hurt your knee and you were looking for a physiotherapist,

:: 27:12

right? You hurt your knee playing soccer maybe.

:: 27:14

And you see there's a physiotherapist that like specializes in all ages and

:: 27:17

all injuries, et cetera. And then there's another one who's a knee specialist

:: 27:20

like which one are you going to go to you know it's like.

:: 27:24

So it's like of course that works the same in

:: 27:27

in pilates you know

:: 27:30

like we yeah pilates can be for everyone but it's like doesn't mean

:: 27:33

every studio has to be for everyone you

:: 27:36

know yeah yeah it's definitely definitely

:: 27:39

attracted more people to us whether then when if we stayed with the wear for

:: 27:44

everyone outlook um yeah and it hasn't put anyone off because i was very very

:: 27:49

nervous about that um but same thing i was like i'm just gonna take the leap

:: 27:53

and just try this because what i'm doing at the moment is keeping everyone else

:: 27:57

happy but it's burning me out

:: 27:59

trying to keep everyone happy um so i thought i'll just try and yeah i'm gonna

:: 28:02

look back when did you make that change we i probably went hard with it at the

:: 28:08

start of this year i think that same thing like i dabbled in a little bit it's

:: 28:11

like oh we're about this but like then we can be about this?

:: 28:14

And I'm like, from, yeah, about January, I'm like, no, this is what we're about.

:: 28:18

Um, I had a fantastic mentor for a while who gave me this one,

:: 28:22

this one, just when he said dabble it again for like the third time.

:: 28:25

I'm like, okay, that's definitely a thing.

:: 28:27

Um, that I had a mentor, she said to me, a business mentor, she said,

:: 28:32

if you're going to eat shit, don't nibble.

:: 28:35

Right. You just, you have to, if you're going to do a thing, the hard thing,

:: 28:38

right you just do it like don't don't

:: 28:41

dabble don't dabble and I think same thing like my staff came in about January

:: 28:45

and then they were like well what so we chat like I was trying to explain oh

:: 28:50

yeah like when this person's in we do this and I was like this is not gonna

:: 28:54

work like so I'm like no we're going hard with what we're what we're doing so

:: 28:58

and then yeah we all have a look back,

:: 29:01

it's funny you can you can kind of try and contort yourself and your business

:: 29:05

to fit every different person individually, or you can just have the people

:: 29:09

grow into the person that fits what you do as a business.

:: 29:15

And then everyone fits perfectly. Yeah. Well, it was funny how everyone stepped

:: 29:18

up. I'm like, I didn't even know you guys had this in you.

:: 29:21

Like you're picking up the heavier weights. Like how long have we been arguing about this?

:: 29:25

So yeah, everyone does step up. What have been the moments for you where.

:: 29:32

You, you were the most stressed or anxious or, or down about yourself or about the business?

:: 29:40

Like, what were the moments, were there moments where you, you know,

:: 29:43

like you said, when you made this change and you kind of were worried that you

:: 29:45

might lose people, for example, um, when you took on instructors and they realized,

:: 29:49

oh, everybody's doing it differently. I'm going to have to step up here as a leader.

:: 29:52

Uh, like were there moments, have there been, what are the moments,

:: 29:54

I'm sure there have been moments, what have been the moments where you,

:: 29:58

you know, were tossing and turning at three in the morning going,

:: 30:01

shit, you know, what am I going to do about this?

:: 30:04

It was, yeah, definitely, like I said, at the start of the year,

:: 30:07

I feel like that was my toughest moment because I was teaching like a lot of

:: 30:13

hours and the business had steady growth from there.

:: 30:16

And I just knew that like, I couldn't continue like doing the like massive days,

:: 30:22

like up at 4.30, finish at eight o'clock every day.

:: 30:25

Like I was like, I can't continue with like this. and the business was having steady growth.

:: 30:29

So then it was like, yeah, bringing in like people to help me.

:: 30:33

I think that took me a lot to adjust to.

:: 30:36

And multiple times I'm like, or maybe I just, cause we were going backwards

:: 30:40

as well at that time, a little bit with members and things like that.

:: 30:44

And I think I got to a point where it was like, this is all getting too hard.

:: 30:48

Do I just take a step back? And I think.

:: 30:52

It was, I had to go through a lot of like work myself to get me to a point where

:: 30:56

it's like, the problem isn't everyone else, Chelsea, it's you and you aren't certain about,

:: 31:02

I think like everything that come up in my life of like being a people pleaser,

:: 31:06

like overthinking everything.

:: 31:07

I think that all come up and I had to work through a lot of that stuff because

:: 31:10

I'm like, you can either step into the hard stuff and like move past all of

:: 31:16

this or you're going to stay stuck where you are.

:: 31:19

And at the time my partner was like it'd be nice to just have tea with you one

:: 31:22

night like at a normal time and I was like I can't keep and if I had a sick

:: 31:27

day like I got sick I knew like I'd have to shut the business I'm like this

:: 31:30

is not sustainable either so I think it was just,

:: 31:34

really stepping into doing the work to then be able to be the people like person

:: 31:38

to to lead people I think that really took me a lot and I had multiple moments

:: 31:43

where I was like maybe I won't do this.

:: 31:45

Like maybe I'm like, maybe this is not for meant to be for me.

:: 31:49

Um, but I was, it was a cop out. Like I just, I was getting uncomfortable.

:: 31:55

How did you, how did you take on that mindset?

:: 31:58

Because I think that's, that to me, that is the fundamental,

:: 32:02

there are two kinds of people in the world.

:: 32:06

There are people who have an internal locus of control and say like,

:: 32:10

okay, there's the economy, me, there's the clients, there's the weather,

:: 32:14

there's the competition, there's the whatever, but it's like,

:: 32:17

well, I can't control any of that.

:: 32:18

But what I can control is how I show up and the culture I create and the standards

:: 32:22

I step for myself and for others.

:: 32:24

And then there are people that just say like, oh, well, I can't,

:: 32:26

you know, it's not, not my fault. It's like, it's the staff,

:: 32:28

it's the clients, it's the weather, it's the whatever.

:: 32:31

And I'm not exempt from doing that either. Like, you know, we all have moments

:: 32:35

where we play the victim.

:: 32:39

How did you go from, and the thing is when you're in those dark nights of the

:: 32:44

soul where like you can't get people to do it the way you would do it and it's,

:: 32:47

you know, people are cancelling their memberships and you're not having time

:: 32:51

with your partner or whatever.

:: 32:52

It's like, it's really easy to see that it's not your fault and you're doing

:: 32:57

everything right. And it's just like the world is against you.

:: 33:00

How did you take on that mindset of like, no, it's me and I've got to,

:: 33:03

I've got to make some changes here.

:: 33:05

I just knew that it wasn't helpful.

:: 33:09

Like having that mindset was just going to keep me stuck and then

:: 33:12

I was watching a lot of people that I admired in the industry at the time even

:: 33:15

though they were sort of from bigger cities or not from this state I was like

:: 33:19

well they're doing it so why can't I I think I've always had that mindset though

:: 33:24

I'm very stubborn and then I started like I never wait to ask for help

:: 33:30

and I think I started seeing us go

:: 33:33

backwards and stuff and I was like I'm stepping up

:: 33:35

and asking for help and I started working with a mentor and it's like he's like

:: 33:38

all the problems you're having right now are you and I'm like okay um but it

:: 33:44

was true and I think it's always true it's always true like I think me letting

:: 33:50

everything else have control just really would not have helped me it would have

:: 33:54

just like left me staying stuck in that spot for a very long time,

:: 33:58

um and I wouldn't have got anywhere so I think you you

:: 34:01

have control over everything and I think that's the thing too is

:: 34:04

like you have control of like if this is even not

:: 34:07

for you you don't have to do it so don't stay in the

:: 34:09

position and and which but I also feel like I've worked like I think that's

:: 34:14

just a pet peeve like even with nutrition clients everything it's like you have

:: 34:17

control over your situation like that's not just whinge let's find a way to

:: 34:21

move through this because what you're not changing you're choosing and you need

:: 34:25

to not choose to stay the same if it's not working for you.

:: 34:30

Agree. I like what you said before

:: 34:33

that, well, if you can see other people doing it, well, you can do it.

:: 34:36

And I think that is, um, you know, I, I often think that most of like,

:: 34:42

if I'm struggling with something, I'm like, fuck, I can't figure out how to get past this level.

:: 34:45

I'm like, well, there are other people doing it, so I know it's possible.

:: 34:48

Right. So it just, it's not impossible. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.

:: 34:53

And so that, you know, it's like, oh, meta ads don't work for me.

:: 34:56

It's like, yeah, no, I think meta ads can work. You know, like, uh.

:: 35:02

Uh, yeah, so I love that mindset and what, if anything, I mean,

:: 35:11

I know you must, cause there's no such thing as a business without problems,

:: 35:14

right? All you do is upgrade your problems. You get better problems.

:: 35:17

Um, and it's much better to have the problem of being too busy and have,

:: 35:22

you know, being full and whatever, needing more instructors.

:: 35:26

That's a much better problem to have than the problem of not having enough clients

:: 35:29

and not being able to pay the rent.

:: 35:30

But they're both problems and they both are real problems. And when you solve

:: 35:33

that problem, all that happens is you get to the next problem after that.

:: 35:36

You know, it's how do I open the second studio or whatever it might be.

:: 35:40

So right now, like what is the biggest constraint or pain point in your business?

:: 35:46

I think I strive to create problems because I know that good problems,

:: 35:52

good problems, because I know that it means that we're taking it to the next level.

:: 35:55

And I think the problem that I've created now is we've hit capacity with currently

:: 36:00

like where I'm at and being in a small town, we, that's not just instructors

:: 36:05

walking around. You have to train them up. That might take a few weeks.

:: 36:09

So I'm probably being pulled back onto the floor a bit more at the moment.

:: 36:13

And the problem yeah we just can't fit any more people into our

:: 36:16

little studio at the moment we've got no room at all

:: 36:19

I've got a girl that helps me with admin that

:: 36:22

sits behind the desk and I'm like apologize to her every day

:: 36:24

I'm like sorry there's so much stuff behind here

:: 36:28

like we're just outgrowing the current space we're

:: 36:30

in so I think that's a good problem but

:: 36:33

I think it's also the next problem is how do

:: 36:36

we like maintain and keep this

:: 36:39

level of people retained and happy i think

:: 36:43

that's because we've grown very very quickly so you

:: 36:46

said you've got a waiting list what's your utilization capacity oh capacity

:: 36:50

utilization we i don't

:: 36:53

i don't really know the art to start one but well on

:: 36:56

average like you've got 11 reformers we got 11 yeah yeah so

:: 36:59

out of you know 11 what's the

:: 37:02

average number of you know bums on reformers over the

:: 37:05

month i think in winter we ran a challenge so it was

:: 37:08

like we had 12 on the wait list for nearly most classes

:: 37:11

um which was crazy crazy um so we were very stressed so we were like closed

:: 37:16

books that's it like because our other thing is true we very much like don't

:: 37:20

want people paying for memberships and not being able to get in that's the other

:: 37:22

thing so that's what i said like we ran that challenge and i didn't i thought

:: 37:26

it would just keep people um sort of like coming through winter because we.

:: 37:31

Last winter was quite hard um so one of

:: 37:34

the prizes if you hit the amount of it was 16 sessions in eight weeks and then

:: 37:40

you got a free t-shirt to say that you completed it um i think as soon as we

:: 37:43

said t-shirt it like went crazy and way more people joined than what we expected

:: 37:47

um so we had a long wait list but now that's starting to ease off now that challenge is finished and,

:: 37:53

and we've added some more classes and stuff since then so but and so what is the solution.

:: 37:59

I don't really know currently. It's a good problem to have.

:: 38:02

It'd be definitely a bigger space, but then being in a country town,

:: 38:06

there's not much commercial real estate and it's a tough one.

:: 38:10

So we're just going to keep doing what we're doing at the moment, but we're going to try.

:: 38:15

And we always joke, like if we had a class every hour, we feel like we'd have people every hour.

:: 38:20

And we do have more room to add classes. We're not doing Sundays and stuff.

:: 38:26

So the biggest constraint on your business right now is instructors.

:: 38:29

Instructors, yeah. I don't want to take anything else on myself.

:: 38:33

And so do you have a, I mean, you've hired six people, so you've obviously figured

:: 38:38

out something about how to do that.

:: 38:40

Do you have a process, like do you have a pipeline of instructors?

:: 38:43

Yes, we're getting there. But I found that moving forward, I think we need people

:: 38:48

sort of that, like we've got a lot of girls that are amazing,

:: 38:52

but they have other jobs and stuff.

:: 38:53

So I think moving forward, we need people that are fully, I think with where

:: 38:56

we want to go and the goals that I have and sort of bringing some more nutrition stuff like I need,

:: 39:02

like yeah not just casuals that sort of can do here and there I need people that are,

:: 39:07

that in and can see the vision of where we're going and pushing it forward so

:: 39:10

I've got one staff member at the moment that doesn't have another job she's

:: 39:13

just working with me um and that's been amazing I think that's where we're going

:: 39:16

moving forward my experience with that is,

:: 39:21

it's a double-edged sword because when that person who's teaching 20 classes a week,

:: 39:28

goes on holiday, you're like, shit,

:: 39:30

you know, how do I cover the 20 classes? Yeah.

:: 39:34

It's tough. I find that there's probably not really, I haven't found a good

:: 39:39

fix for this yet because both ways I'm like, I don't know, it's finding it hard.

:: 39:44

Yeah. I think that, I don't think there is a perfect solution. I haven't found it yet.

:: 39:49

Let I don't know if you'd find it, but, uh, I, you know, the solution that we

:: 39:53

use now is we, we have a teaching team of eight and we have like one full timer,

:: 39:59

one part timer and everybody else is sessional and that works best for us.

:: 40:04

It's not perfect, but it's, it's, it's the best when we had more full timers.

:: 40:10

We didn't have enough work for the people that were full-time and.

:: 40:15

But you do need at least somebody there that has that continuity across the

:: 40:19

week, knows all the clients' names, you know, knows all of the foibles of the

:: 40:22

air conditioning system or whatever it might be.

:: 40:25

Um, yeah. So I think like one or two, like more permanent people,

:: 40:29

and then you do need a rotating roster of people that can come in and cover

:: 40:32

and do those other things. Yeah.

:: 40:33

Sorry. That is what we're doing. So I'm probably looking for one more person

:: 40:36

like the, the, um, girl I have now, and then we're definitely like still going to have casuals.

:: 40:40

Um because they're amazing and they pick up stuff if we

:: 40:43

can't do it and like the girl that's working at the moment like she's probably

:: 40:47

not going to be doing the weekends if she's here all week so we need people

:: 40:50

for the weekends if we want to add sundays we need people for sundays so we

:: 40:52

definitely need a mix of both there's definitely room for both but i think moving

:: 40:56

forward i probably need like we've got a few casuals now so the one i'm looking

:: 40:59

for currently at the moment is someone,

:: 41:02

like the one i have now and so there are two ways you

:: 41:05

can get more stuff obviously you can hire in extra humans

:: 41:08

and so you can promote people from within the your your client

:: 41:11

roster and i'm sure you know with the number of

:: 41:14

clients that you have and how fanatical they are you could

:: 41:17

easily find people to tap on the shoulder and say how do you want to

:: 41:20

do you want to work here although there's

:: 41:23

like a six month turnaround on the match of going and getting certified but

:: 41:26

it's like oh well the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago but the second

:: 41:29

best time is it's today right um but then there's also a conversation you can

:: 41:34

have with those people who are casual and you can say hey look what would it

:: 41:38

take for you to pick up an extra 10 shifts a year and,

:: 41:41

and quit your other job or drop down two days at your main job or whatever it

:: 41:44

might be? Have you had those conversations?

:: 41:46

Yes. The jobs that the girls have are sort of jobs they love and they're hard

:: 41:51

jobs, they're shift work.

:: 41:52

And so, yeah, I've had those conversations with the girls, but they're happy

:: 41:57

doing what they're doing at the moment, which that's, I also love honesty. Like I want to be told,

:: 42:02

so I can move forward too with what we're doing. And so what is your pipeline?

:: 42:06

Are you going to tap members on the shoulder? Is that the strategy?

:: 42:09

Yes, but I'm being fussy with sort of who I want in and stuff like that.

:: 42:14

So me and the girl that I have in at the moment, we're trying to brainstorm

:: 42:18

our next approach with it.

:: 42:21

But yeah, same thing, like where we're going, we need the right type of person

:: 42:25

to fit, like with character-wise and wanting to step into doing hard things.

:: 42:31

And I think that's like, yeah, where we're going, we need the right person.

:: 42:35

It surprised me that you said brainstorm because it seems to me that you're

:: 42:38

super clear on what you want and what you don't want. So like,

:: 42:41

what are you brainstorming?

:: 42:42

Brainstorming members that are coming in and whether they fear.

:: 42:45

I think my mentor tells me all the time too.

:: 42:47

I know I keep talking about them, but don't try and fit the job around the person

:: 42:53

you want to. Oh yeah, good advice.

:: 42:55

I think that's where we're currently at is like

:: 42:58

looking at like members that we think

:: 43:00

would probably be a good fit but whether they're actually a good fit for

:: 43:03

what we need right now so that's what we're brainstorming

:: 43:06

at the moment but don't you just can't you just like i mean

:: 43:10

i'm guessing you've got actually a literal list of things that you want in this

:: 43:15

person right you know like they must have these values these beliefs in these

:: 43:19

attributes whatever you've got that list right yes and so you and so the next

:: 43:25

step after that is you say okay so the person who has these values, beliefs, et cetera,

:: 43:29

they're going to want these specific tangible things.

:: 43:32

Like, you know, they want coached. They want to be coached. They want to be told the truth.

:: 43:36

They don't want to be mollycoddled or sugarcoated stuff. They,

:: 43:40

you know, like whatever the things are, right? You know the things.

:: 43:44

And so, and you just make tangible examples of those and you write it as a job

:: 43:48

description and you say it and you give people the opportunity,

:: 43:51

right? You say, hey, look, here's the job.

:: 43:54

Here's the person we're looking for. Here's the person we're not looking for.

:: 43:56

Here's who it won't suit. If you want these things or don't want these things,

:: 43:59

this is not going to work.

:: 44:00

And if you do want these things, it is going to work.

:: 44:03

Does that fire your soul? And you'll see people's eyes light up or not. Yeah, yeah.

:: 44:10

Yeah, definitely. So I guess, yeah, I mean, I would just put it in front of,

:: 44:17

if you've got a list of 10 people that are maybes.

:: 44:21

Your proposal in front of them to see whose eyes light up.

:: 44:24

Yeah. You know, try and unsell them on the job. Yes. That's why I try and like

:: 44:28

almost nicely scare them off.

:: 44:31

And then I'm like, okay, if they get through all of that, then they'll be fine

:: 44:34

once I actually start. But yeah. Yeah.

:: 44:37

Um, what ultimately is your goal with the business?

:: 44:42

Definitely a bigger location one day. Um, and we want to bring in like all the

:: 44:47

foundation. So I want to, I want to have room to like take on nutrition,

:: 44:52

um, like even workshops and one-on-ones.

:: 44:55

We want a recovery space.

:: 44:57

Um, we want to maybe go into a little bit more like stuff outside of reformer exercise wise.

:: 45:03

Um, yeah, that's probably all I'm going to give away at the moment, but yeah.

:: 45:09

You're, you're the mind body club, right? That's your, that's just you.

:: 45:14

I'm surprised that that, that URL wasn't already taken.

:: 45:18

The MindBodyClub? Yeah, .com. Yeah, nah. Yeah, I did lots of research into it, nah.

:: 45:25

Was that one of the criteria that you had that's like that web address has to be available?

:: 45:30

Yes. When you chose a business name? Yeah, yeah. And I knew that I wanted it

:: 45:34

to be like a focus on mental health and the body.

:: 45:38

So, yeah. I feel that name represents both.

:: 45:43

If you were, if, I mean, you've got a platform here. the

:: 45:46

people listening to this are going to be Pilates instructors

:: 45:49

and especially studio like if someone's still at this point in the in the podcast

:: 45:53

uh they either are a studio owner or they want to be a studio owner yeah you

:: 45:59

know what would you like to say you know you've got a platform here what do

:: 46:02

you want to say to those people I think um I've said it multiple times like,

:: 46:09

step into the hard stuff push through what

:: 46:12

your own comfort zones because it's just

:: 46:15

going to be more proof of what you can do and always

:: 46:19

reflect on yourself and how you can do better I'm always

:: 46:22

on a like relentless path of how can we do

:: 46:25

better um and I think we create enemies so

:: 46:28

we don't have any competition really like a set for local gyms

:: 46:31

or anything but we're very different to them so I think we create like

:: 46:34

if someone was to open a studio today what stands us apart from them so I think

:: 46:40

if you are in a country town like create I shouldn't say enemies but create

:: 46:45

like things scenarios of like that will push you to be better like one percent

:: 46:50

better every day and I think,

:: 46:52

if you're always continuing to be better then you will always have people stay

:: 46:57

and you always have people coming in and you always have people that want to

:: 47:01

be part of your team for the right reasons,

:: 47:04

and just get everyone involved on the vision and the culture.

:: 47:09

I think that's, I think that's really good advice. If I was,

:: 47:12

if I was, I mean, not that I'm going to, of course, but if I was,

:: 47:15

if I was contemplating opening up a Pilates studio in Port Pirie and I had to

:: 47:20

compete with, with you, with all of your massive popularity,

:: 47:23

I know that my, my pitch would be like sick of the waiting lists at MindBodyClub. Yeah.

:: 47:30

Would be like no wait lists. We are always, yeah,

:: 47:34

like, how can we create FOMO and, like, this is the place to be and deepening

:: 47:41

our roots within the town and, yeah, always pushing to be better.

:: 47:47

It seems like you've built something really that has a lot of meaning and gives

:: 47:51

a lot of value is not the word.

:: 47:56

I mean, it kind of is the word, but I don't mean that in a kind of a, you know, trivial way.

:: 48:02

Like you're really enriching people's lives, I think is probably a better way

:: 48:06

of saying it. We call it a third space.

:: 48:08

We're giving people a third space outside of their work, outside of their house,

:: 48:12

where they can come be themselves and push to be better.

:: 48:16

And be fanatical members of your tribe. Yes.

:: 48:20

Club. I wanted club in the name too, because I'm like, I want this to be a club.

:: 48:24

Like I want this to be about community and stuff like that.

:: 48:27

So that's why it's a mind and body club. Do you have the values up on the wall

:: 48:29

or where do you, where do your clients learn?

:: 48:31

We have them on our website and on Instagram, but everyone's personal favorite

:: 48:35

is, is, am I allowed to swear? Yeah. Well, it's too hard. It's too hard shit.

:: 48:39

Do hard shit. And we talk about it all the time in classes. When everyone starts

:: 48:42

like dropping off cause you know, they're getting tired.

:: 48:45

I'm like, come on, we're here to do hard shit. And then they're all like, yeah, we are.

:: 48:49

That's everyone's personal favorite. That's awesome. Great, great talk.

:: 48:53

Thanks for coming on Chelsea. Thanks for having me. It was great.

:: 48:57

Music.