Fitness Franchise Secrets

Speaker 1: when you start to feel good and strong about your body that you do feel empowered in many aspects of your life and it's just how not not just how you hold your body but how you present yourself up out into the world and the energy you bring about when you enter a room and to your relationships whether it's your partner or to your kids or to your aging parents or any of those things having that strength and flexibility organically fuels empowerment hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Pure Bar founder Carrie D is one of the country's most sought-after Fitness Experts mentors and Industry disruptors from humble roots she started the Pure Bar franchise from a Janitor's Closet in Detroit she went on to open over a 100 locations around the US before selling it in 2015 she shares with us she's launching 044 and on to a new fitness Venture thank you for joining us Carrie you are the founder of pureb bar a franchise you started from a Janitor's Closet in Detroit you went on to open over a 100 locations around the US before selling it in 2015 how did you come up with the idea of pure Bar and what led you to the moment when you decided to make your

Speaker 2: leap and launch your business I started in metro Detroit in 2001 and prior to that I had grown up half timee on the soccer fields and half time in the dance studio so always had a passion for fitness and Athletics and choreographs fitness which then pushed me into group fitness when I was graduating from high school loved teaching group fitness and then went to college and Law School in Michigan and the whole time teaching everything under the sun group fitness wise as well as choreographing large venue events so like super bowls and SeaWorld and Disney and when I got out of law school all of those gigs were not making a dent at my loan payment so I took a job as a lawyer and I practiced for two years still teaching saved up my money and opened my first studio in 2001 and yes it was a Janitor's Closet because no one wanted to rent me space because I had no credibility no credit

Speaker 1: no investors when I heard that about you I thought I cannot wait to hear this but it's great that you pushed through and did it anyway I think the other reason

Speaker 2: was Boutique Fitness didn't exist everyone was still working out in the big boxes and the clubs and that's where I taught because Boutique Fitness just there were a couple yoga studios but certainly not like the Core Power and

Speaker 1: the Soul cycle and what we have today the concept was foreign to landlords as well as trying to explain what they called bar and Pilots instead of bar and pilates trying to explain what that was they didn't feel good about it so yes there was a little Janitor's Closet in the basement of this building with no bathroom it was about 600 sare F feet the landlord was storing all the mops in there and all the Janitorial equipment I said because you just run me that space and you're not making money in that space anyway and finally he agreed and then that's how it all started such an

Speaker 2: inspiring story that you pushed through you could have thought oh well I can't get space I'll do something else but I love that you just did it anyway that's a big part of being an entrepreneur is that you kind of just keep going there's always another way there's always a different way to look at things or a different way to get there you believe Fitness franchising is broken and that

Speaker 1: Co has changed the fitness industry for good yes let's start with why CO's changed the fitness industry for good and that is because it's changed the consumer behavior that was already starting before Co hit at first it was an education piece and convincing people that they were going to come and pay 20 $25 a class for only that discipline versus paying 99 for the month and getting all sorts of things all sorts of classes plus Child Care Plus a pool Plus plus a weight room and all that and you're like we're going to pay $20 for what justce pilates class just this bar class so that took a while to educate the consumer and then they realized oh the the programming and the quality of the programming and the teaching is so much better that yes this makes sense I'm not going to have my gym membership anymore and I'm gonna come to let's call it Pure Bar I'm G to come to Pure Bar five days a week I'm going to come six days a week well then enter all these other different modalities with bque Fitness and they said oh well I'm going to do bar one day and yoga one day and spin cycling whatever one day and boxing the next day that's great for the consumer as far as choices but for the studio owner as a business model it was taking a hit because the frequency is way down for the business owner and then you add in things like class path whatever that's a different topic I was going to bring that

Speaker 2: up inter class fast that's right

Speaker 1: probably a win in the consumer column but making it much more challenging for Studio owners to be profitable so then with Co and the move to online fitness because people needed to be able to work out at home that shi away at it again and so here we are post the height of the pandemic and consumer Behavior really has permanently changed personally and from what we're seeing and not that people aren't going back to the studios because they absolutely are and the studios offer something different in an in-person instruction is he replace placeable in my mind but the frequency is even less because now you have a consumer that's maybe going into the studio once or twice a week and then let's say she she wants to work out um at home once or twice a week because it's efficient and that's to deal with parking especially if you have kids you can squeeze it in you can do it in your pajamas all that stuff and then she wants to be outside maybe walking or running or hiking or doing something with a friend out in nature that's a it's a fabulous combination however you kind of look at the studio owner again and go well how is she going to make money and and the franchising model has just not been set up to accommodate that especially for a single unit franchisee so I think moving forward with Fitness franchising you really have to take a look at how it's been done and how the consumer Behavior has changed and then evolve into what it should look like moving forward and I'm smiling because I'm someone who got used to working out at home or going outside and I just signed my son up for swimming lessons and I thought oh I belong to this gym maybe I should go in and start being in the gym again because you're right it's sometimes it's more efficient and I have twins and younger kids it also shifts throughout a person's life too most definitely so yes I have twins too my twins are nine I have two niney olds and a 10-y old I have two nine-year-olds too a boy and a girl so you get it you get that phase of life we see that with Studio ownership we see that with consumers and now I see I have a little Studio here in Carmel and it's different the cycle of life now that their kids are starting to get older they're able to come back into the studio and there's just much more of an appreciation for being able to be in person and connect with other women doing something for yourself versus for your kids as a mom you connect with other moms like on the soccer sideline or when you're waiting for gymnastics pickup or whatever but it's different when you're working out together it's a different kind of energy and connection because it's like you're there for you you're not there for your kids it breeds a different energy in a different conversation and I laugh because in the early days but we're always like okay I have classes every hour in the hour I got to end right at 50 minutes and get the next group in and out and now at this studio here with this life cycle I'm kind want to back the classes up because everyone needs to stay around and be able to talk and I want more time I also note that instead of them wanting to be here four or five times a week they want to be here once or twice a week and then they want to do the program at home again like we just talked about they want to be outside so there is a way there's definitely a way where franchising can work and the fitness industry can work I just think it needs to be retooled it needs to be

Speaker 2: rethought yeah so they're gonna be a hybrid Y how do you think women and men

Speaker 1: approach Fitness differently I've been teaching for 30 years mostly women I can tell you from my experience women well how they work out is different from what I see with most men and it could be because the kind of programming I create is always choreographed and to the beat it's musically driven but that's a big distinguishing difference is that the at least the women that come to the programming I put together they like to move to the beam and and not that they're necessarily on the beat but they like that it's driven by the music and man it's mostly background noise and I also think women like that flow they don't like the downtime in between positions right because I I find that our brains are kind of neurotic mine included and and so it needs a lot to think about to keep it in the room in my body body whereas men I find they kind of like those breaks they like to take a

Speaker 2: break between things you're so right

Speaker 1: we're so planned and rigid and scheduled so when you get to do something that flows it feels good to your mind and your body it does I've always recognize that and that's why you'll hear me say time and time again I would never bash any type of workout or movement because in in my mind any movement is good movement it's better than no movement but I do believe there's a difference in quality of programming and a lot of really great programming comes from programmers who understand the importance of flow and how to choreograph for flow meaning if I'm choreographing for a reformer program what x amount of exercises I can do without having to do a springload switch why because every time I have to go reach down and switch a spring it gives my brain an opportunity to leave the room and now I'm thinking about did I pack some and's lunch then I come out of my body and I'm no longer getting the benefits that I could be getting so that's where that comes in I know I feel better mentally when I feel good about

Speaker 2: myself physically how are you inspiring

Speaker 1: women to do this I think it happens organically that when you start to feel good and strong about your body that you do feel empowered in many aspects of your life and it's just how not not just how you hold your body but how you present yourself up out into the world and the energy you bring about when you enter a room and to your relationships whether it's your partner or to your kids or to your aging parents or any of those things having that strength and flexibility organically fuels

Speaker 2: empowerment it's so true because often we think oh if I work out I'll be tired but it's the opposite when we work out we usually feel better afterwards and especially if we do it consistently yeah

Speaker 1: you definitely should it used to be like if you feel like you've been hit by a truck it was a sign of a good workout and it's like well actually that's not true you should feel like you've worked but you should have feel energized and that's what your workout program should do for you many Fitness studios are

Speaker 2: owned by private Equity today what has been your experience and what do you

Speaker 1: think about it so my experience was I opened my first studio in 2001 and then the way I started fueling the capital to grow it was I would build up one and then I would end up selling it to usually a teacher who had been in working in the studio really understood the brand was a great fit and then I would move to another city location do this the same thing so go in Grassroots nobody knew about it Build It Up find the sign and build the team and then sell that one and then take that cash and so that's how I got to 100 was really by starting that and then franchising people came in and then they started wanting to open their own location so at a 100 locations it was myself and two employees and is a very different running a franchise system versus running your own concept the concept that you founded that you're really passionate about as you can imagine I mean there's a ton of legal and accounting and and audit and Reporting and management and it's a beast it's a franchising is a different beast and I found that I had put myself in a position where I wasn't really doing much of what I loved anymore and I was running the system as I should have been and at that time it needed a lot more infrastructure so with with franchising in location numbers it has a certain feel from like 0 to 50 50 to 100 and then when you get towards 100 it it really shifts as far as like what it's going to need and I saw it and I didn't want to be the person to build out that infrastructure I had fallen in love I had gotten married I was pregnant with my son and it was the first time that I got a little nervous of like all my chips are on the table here what if something happens I need to pull some chips out and I don't want to build out this infrastructure and looking back now though it's taken me a long time to see this I had a lot of fear over the size I didn't have a mentor and running a company that size and not having anyone supporting you got a little scary so I decided though it was a good time to bring a private equity and I sold a majority interest resigned as CEO and moved over to chief of innovation so that was my introduction to private Equity was that first deal

Speaker 2: and that was 2012 thank you for being honest about that because so often when we're going to have kids or something we're doing a life shift we look at our lives and think can I keep up with this do I even want to keep up with this like you said you can do the operation side but maybe you want to focus on something else because look at what you had built yeah a lot changes after you've had children as an entrepreneur and I can speak to that firsthand because I'm building another company right now and launching it currently and there was there's some naive to being able to do things when you're younger when you're not a mom and a perfect example is like if I write a check now for something I equate it to tuition or grocery whereas before if I was going to write a check for something business related and it had a lot of risk associated with it it didn't even really phase me because it was like well I'm just taking care of myself and I don't have really anything to lose so it's very different now it's heavier it's harder it's definitely harder so

Speaker 1: tell us about what you're creating now

Speaker 2: yes so after I had three kids and turned 40 and I had been doing the bar style workout for a very long time loved it served me well and I found myself though plateauing like not not maintaining or or getting the results that I used to physically mentally I couldn't stay in it like we just talked about staying in your workout which to have a workout that worked so long for me says a lot about that programming but I I was entering a different phase of my life I wanted heavier resistance larger range of motion I wanted to put my sneakers back on like IED to do I just needed something very different more dynamic range of motion so I got to work at creating that we were living in Boulder at the time and oh I've always needed like a tiny little space to work out at home I asked my husband to tear down this little shed in the backyard that had a lawnmower in it and there was a Cross Beam across the top when he tore it tore down the interior and I was like there's a spot to get resistance from overhead and then we had moved to Denver and I had this little tiny incubator Studio there that I was prac iing cuz I was trying to get the cardio into the actual workout that was something else I also needed I didn't have time to do with the kids I didn't have time to hike or cardio and my strength training is just not happening like I needed everything to happen in 45 minutes then in Denver I was working on that piece and the pandemic hit and so I thought how am I going to get this workout to freestanding so you could do it at home if you needed to without being in a studio and having a wall uh and so then I worked on the plyo box and then um we moved out here to California and I had that last reformer piece come in because I was trying to figure out how to get their programming onto the reformer the programming is this athletic style of bar and pilates and it's on a resistance wall that I created a petric box free standing on the Poo box and or on these marthew performance reformers it fits the bill for everything I've worked on it's just a natural progression evolution of programming it's called 044 the O stands for Michelle Obama and the 44 and numerology symbolizes a business that's meant and it's built to help others so that's where the O and the 44 come from and so that is the concept I'm launching right now so I

Speaker 1: love that and it g gives a combination

Speaker 2: of strength training and cardio it sure

Speaker 1: does allinone and where are you in

Speaker 2: launching I have a little incubator Studio here in Carmel California and we were testing markets I have two fantastic groups of teachers in Maui Hawaii and Vale Colorado I know we're like in the three most obscure spectacular places going to Maui in a

Speaker 1: week so oh yes okay we'll introduce you

Speaker 2: and so I really started testing the programming there because me it's I've always been about who are the best people for the brand the best teachers and the best geud owners rather than

Speaker 1: geographically where should we put this

Speaker 2: which in franchising it's pretty standard procedure that you grow a region at a time just for efficiency sake but I never did it that way I always just went with people first I had people in ve and Maui and so we started testing it out in those markets and here CU I'm here and it's gone extremely well so very well received everyone's super excited about it and thus the very recent decision to franchise the system so that's what we're working through now

Speaker 1: nice it's awesome yeah magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy we've talked about all the things you love to do but what is way that you make sure to find and live your joy each day

Speaker 2: a lot of Joy comes from being present and not being in the past and not being in our heads and not being in the future trying to stop and pause and this is

Speaker 1: good advice because I know a lot of our listeners do not slow down and we have to intentionally think about slowing down doing those things for ourselves

Speaker 2: it's true one thing I've noticed that helps me personally especially with the kids is eye contact if I can look at my kids when they're talking to me it makes me stop versus most of the time I'm doing 55 things while I'm talking to them that presence brings Joy you're not going to be present all the time it's impossible for all of us you can do a few moments every day it's a start thank

Speaker 1: you for joining us today you built an incredible business and I know you will build an incredible second one can't wait to try it out and learn more about it please share with us how and where we can find you and where we can find

Speaker 2: 044 yes so the website's 044 way.com because the overarching brand is 044 way and it is the same Instagram thank you for joining me thanks having me

Speaker 1: on thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave