The Business of Boutique Fitness
215: 5 Lessons I've Learned From SoulCycle
Do you remember when SoulCycle first burst out on the boutique fitness studio scene?
It felt pandemic…
People who had never been to a class were gushing about their friend’s experience exclaiming how they couldn’t wait to try it.
Your studio members may have even been gleefully swapping sweat session stories in your lobby.
And you may have found that your clients, while still adoring of you, chose to visit your studio one less time a week so they could also get in on the SoulCycle fun.
Over the years this has caused more than just a few cycle studio owners (and studio owners of all paradigms, really) to ask, “What gives? What is making SoulCycle this revolutionary phenomenon.”
And even more importantly, “How can we create something like this for our studio, too?”
Well, to put it simply, they’ve got a few “frenzy-building” factors working for them, but don’t for a second think that SoulCycle is the overnight success it appeared to be.
They started their empire just like many others… small and filling one seat in their first cycle studio at a time.
In fact, SoulCyclers who have been with them since the beginning, which is now just over 12 years ago, said that those first classes often only had a 9 to 10 people on a bike, and to get to the studio, you had to walk down a creepy passageway toward the murmur of more cheerful voices.
In addition to starting small, the founders and original core team at SoulCycle had some other foundational components that have contributed to their wild success, and I’m breaking them down for you in today’s episode.
But before you begin listening, I want you to keep this in mind…
SoulCycle did what all strong brands and sustainable businesses do, they cared about their clients and their experience more than they cared about themselves.
Sometimes that adage of “the customer’s always right” really means “let’s always treat the customer right,” and that begins with these five strategies you can learn from SoulCycle.
- How SoulCycle built a brand, not a business, and how that has helped them to develop their collective movement that entrances their audience
- The ways SoulCycle leveraged their small start to build an incredibly deep community and their process for turning new students into brand evangelists
- How SoulCycle’s hiring process and teacher training has shaped the SoulCycle standard and led to their large-scale growth
- Why rehearsing your client experience pays off in creating life-changing moments for your members
- The importance and mechanisms behind nurturing the SoulCycle phenomenon and forming a core expectation that gets people hooked before they ever step foot in your studio
With Grit & Gratitude,
Lisé
