Category: Podcast

Out of all the obstacles that trip business owners up and delay them on their journey to success  {and there are a thousand}, there is one big one that I’ve found tends to be the most common…

And I’d be willing to bet my bottom dollar you’ve grappled with it, too.

I’m talking about your website and all the pages, words, widgets, pictures, and pixels that go into it.

Just listing those things off is enough to make your shoulders creep up to your ears! Well, relax and lean in…

While you can absolutely go the DIY route, you likely know this is going to be the path full of resistance, but hey, if you don’t have the budget or the time, there are plenty of platforms and resources to help you pull your site together.

However, if you’re short on time and want to see a better return on your investment, pulling in the professionals is without a doubt the direction you want to take.

In this episode, I’m diving into the website buildout process that we’ve recently undergone with the new Studio Grow brand to give you the full bird’s-eye view and how to plan and prep for a proper website development process (yes, even if you’re doing it 100% or 50% DIY).

If you’re in need of a digital home that parallels the beauty of your brick-and-mortar space, or if you’ve made some shifts in your services and it’s time for a rebrand, or if you’re simply sick and tired of literally breaking your site by doing some seemingly harmless tinkering, you’re going to want to give this one a listen.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why you need to have a website and all of the most essential elements it needs to have
• What a rebrand really involves and why hiring the right people will get you going in the right direction
• Tips on how to get started with your rebrand {depending on your level of anticipated business} and choose the right platform for you
• The one hard and fast rule in website etiquette and the one thing every website has to have
• Why it’s all about the photos plus my thoughts on hiring a copywriter, and how to choose one that aligns with you and your branding

With Grit & Gratitude,

Lisé

“If only I knew then what I know now.”

It’s a sentiment many of us can nod along in agreement with, even if we feel like we did pretty well early on in our business journey.

So with that said, my mind can only wonder what my guest on today’s episode is going to look back on with hindsight of 20/20 because she is doing pretty darn good for a woman who opened her studio at 25…

As if opening a studio at 25 isn’t impressive enough, she built it into a 6-figure studio not long after.

Needless to say, yes she’s young, but more importantly, she’s vibrant, whip-smart, and has some of the sharpest business acumens I’ve come across, not to mention, she ties all of her progress to purpose.

That’s a lesson that many take too long to learn, sometimes until it’s too late and they’re shutting the doors on their business.  

Over the last year, I’ve witnessed Annie, and her studio grow exponentially, not just in profits, but also in the number of lives she’s changing whether that’s her client’s lives or those of other Pilates instructors who she is providing with employment and training opportunities.

Whether you’re a seasoned studio owner or a young instructor with an entrepreneurial dream, I think everyone can stand to learn a lesson from Annie’s outlook on how she views business.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How an initial spark in fitness evolved into Annie dedicating all of herself and her business to changing the lives of her clients
• Why it’s critical to recognize the power in your failures
• How Annie found her niche and area of focus, and she chose to go against the group model
• The marketing strategies that work for her unique business and why she developed a referral program
• Annie’s top tips and strategies for harnessing the power of your team

LINKS:

Learn more about and visit Upswing Pilates.

Connect with Upswing Pilates on Facebook and Twitter.

It doesn’t matter whether we think of ourselves as “risk-averse” or an adrenaline junkie, we all experience some level of fear when making significant changes or decisions, even if it’s just a twinge.

Part of this fear is our brain’s natural response to keep us “safe,” but what our brain doesn’t know is that it’s not keeping us safe from an attack by a wild animal (our brain’s primitive reason for this response), but it’s holding us back from expansion and growth.

That’s why it’s up to us to be mentally resilient and make the mindset shifts that will let us move past that fear.

So what does that have to do with today’s episode?

Well, by all intensive purposes the roller coaster of events that Misty Cauthen
went through in growing her first studio and expanding to her second would have had most people throwing in the towel saying, “Forget it, this is too risky…too uncomfortable.”

But not Misty.

Maybe it was the fact that, as she states, failing wasn’t an option and she had to make it work. Personally, I think it’s because she’s a powerhouse woman who can stare at difficult decisions and circumstances in the face and show them that she is a force to be reckoned with.

If you don’t know Misty, she’s the founder of Dragonfly Pilates, a student of The Client Cure who has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years, and one of the new faces of the Studio Grow brand!

In this episode, we discuss her journey to opening her first studio, the roadblocks she faced in growing her business, the move to open her second studio, and how she’s made decisions that have brought her business to the place of being a well-oiled machine.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How seasons of turmoil led to incredible doors of opportunity that opened for Misty
• Why she wanted to open more than one studio {and how her model has changed over the years from hiring to business operations and finances}
• Her biggest challenges with opening her second studio and how she worked through them and overcame them
• How different work relationships have changed Misty’s mindset and moved her business forward

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Visit Dragonfly Pilates.

Connect with Misty and Dragonfly Pilates on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Spot Misty on the Studio Grow site.

With grit and gratitude,

Lise

Starting a studio is serious business.

There’s creating a business plan, securing funding or figuring out how you’ll bootstrap, contracts (oh goodness the contracts), purchasing equipment, bookkeeping, and hiring…

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and that’s before any of the real fun stuff starts, you know, like getting your first clients and opening your doors!

Although all the “non-fun” parts of business are 100 percent necessary to thrive, there’s a case to be made that fun is also a key ingredient to studio success.

After all, as my guests on this episode explain, “You’re only going to stick to something you enjoy.”

And to be honest, I think that can apply to your clients just as much as it can apply to you as a business owner, and no one exemplifies that better than my friends and clients, Tali and Tammar, the co-founders of Off Road DC.

Off Road DC has quickly boomed into a two-location studio in the highly diverse city of DC that offers a trifecta of programs that simply stand out from the crowd of typical cycle studios, big box gyms, and CrossFit boxes.

But beyond their unique mix of programs, what is truly fueling their community’s fierce love of their studio is pure, creative fun.

We’re talking boy band vs. hair band themed rides kind of fun. Y’all, it’s contagious and absolutely the special je ne sais quoi that is opening the doors to a whole other world of possibility for their business growth.

Let’s just say; I won’t be surprised if you see cities other than “DC” after the words “Off Road” in the future.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Tammar and Tali met and together set out to create “The Cheers of Fitness Studios” {while both holding full-time jobs}
• The factors they believe have contributed to their incredible success
• What their clients experience when walking through their doors and how they continually infuse creative fun into the business
• The biggest lessons they learned from starting the business and then expanding to a second location
• Why they felt the need to change to a membership model and the shifts they’re experiencing with their people and profits
• Their approach to keeping clients in a highly transient market
• What’s next for Tammar and Tali {and why the status quo isn’t an option}

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Download the Growth Book featuring The 6 Most Important Fitness and Mindbody Studio Growth Strategies.
• Learn more about Off Road DC and pay them a visit when you’re in the city
• Connect with Off Road DC on Facebook and Instagram

With grit and gratitude,

Lise