Fitness Meets Strategy

Speaker 1: [Music] 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 Christa girka is a National Certified physical therapist National accredited Pilates teacher CEO business mentor and podcast host she founded and scaled Pilates in the Grove a health and wellness company in Miami Florida to multiple locations and eight figures her mission is to support women on their journey to financial independence with a sustainable and profitable business and life thank you for joining us Christa tell us about your business Pilates in the Grove and what gave you the courage to launch it thank you so much for having me the opportunity to chat with you is really exciting Pilates in the Grove was started like a side hustle I am a physical therapist by degree now I consider myself an entrepreneur working in a pilates-based physical therapy practice in Miami Florida and we were using Pilates with our patients to help them get better and people loved it and I said to my boss at one point we have all this built-in clientele and then when they're done we're sending them to all of these studios around town it just seems silly to me I you know they're always asking where can I do more of this so he said well what do you think and I said well it would be great I think if we could have a place where they could do some small group classes we were an insurance-based facility and then doing private pay was expensive for some people and he said okay great let's do it and so two of my patients at the time and my boss said let's be partners I had no idea what business was I didn't have that modeled for me growing up my mom actually is an immigrant to this country never went to college she worked two jobs so I just didn't know what that meant but we opened a 300 squ foot space right across from my clinic and we started with group classes and that was in the middle of a recession I was too young to know we were going through a recession so I it ignorance was Bliss at that time and fast forward 12 years we are a multilocation multi7 figure business so very proud of that that's so smart because it's just like a rehab once you start to get better you want to continue and stretching is good no matter what kind of sports you're doing no matter your age it's such a good thing for the body yeah and that's really why I loved Pilates because I came from a strength and conditioning background I was was an athletic trainer I was an athlete in college and that's what I thought I wanted to go into and then I started working with athletes and I was like yeah this is a lot I don't really think this is where my energy wants to be spent so I started with Pilates at my clinic and I saw these amazing changes people were having in their bodies and also becoming more aware of things so becoming more aware of how they were breathing and becoming more aware of oh I Am shifting or moms for example we have kids carrying our kids on that hip all the time I don't understand why my w one shoulders down in all of my career whatever I've done professionally I'm a teacher at heart so I just love teaching people how they can help themselves and what's possible for them and that's transpired over everything in my career you grew your business from one location to multiple locations and eight figures like you mentioned congratulations such a big win for you share with us your approach to lead ership and what you think is the most crucial element for growth the person I had to become to be the leader that my company needed was the hardest barrier for me to overcome in growing the business when I first started I didn't know what I didn't know there was almost safety in that as the business started to grow I went from being a technician to then managing people and that was really hard because I could teach a Pilates class I could treat anyone that comes in with a low back with my eyes closed managing people is an entirely different skill set so I had to develop myself personally and that was challenging I'm super transparent about this I started going to therapy to become less reactive about things I'm very much a people pleaser I strive on external validation so when people if you do like the anagrams and everything I'm a three if people left me for example I'm going to quit I'm going to do something I took it very personally like I was a bad boss I used to get so angry and resentful and I realized I should be grateful that I was a part of their journey and I had a small piece in their growth and that they would remember that they you know worked at Pilates in the Grove and what kind of a leader I was it took several years what we've gone through in the last couple years almost forced my hand because we were forced to be separated where I couldn't micromanage anymore one of the best things a leader can embody is listening more than they speak and allowing ideas and Innovation to happen one of the biggest things that stifles growth in a company and Innovation is when people don't feel they can be vulnerable in front of their leaders and so they don't feel that their leaders trust them then people will just stop offering ideas and so we as leaders have to put ourselves at cause of that sometimes and say I need to be a better leader and there came a point in my business where I said my staff my team deserves a better leader than I'm being to them right now that's such good advice and thank you for being so honest because we all have our strengths and when there's so many different dynamics of leadership it's managing people it's managing the growth it's keeping up with all of the things going on within the business it's such good advice to say I have to look at myself and how can I improve in a as a leader and what areas do I need to develop I caution business owners too especially business owners like myself for example that we were the technicians in the business some of us don't have the business Acumen that maybe somebody who has an MBA that's investing in a certain brand does and we can learn it though it's just a skill like anything else and we can learn how to do it but when I sometimes see business owners and I put myself in this category too we become very much like I was oh they're doing this they're doing that they can't learn the training well I had to start learning to put myself at cause with this so if they're not learning the training what am I doing that is stifling that learning curve maybe my onboarding process is first of all maybe I don't have an onboarding process maybe it's just like hey you got hired here start working right or maybe I'm not asking for feedback enough or maybe I'm not listening to the feedback or I'm not holding my team accountable which I think is a really really hard skill to learn is to be able to hold people accountable in a safe space where you're not feeling bad about it someone told me this once that really helped she said you are responsible for your delivery of the the feedback or the news you're not responsible for their reaction to it I thought that was really helpful so it allowed me to see I can give feedback obviously in a tactful respect F mutually respectful way I am not responsible for their reaction to it such good advice because I think some of us are afraid to give feedback because they're like they're not going to like me they're going to get mad if they get mad that's something that's coming up for them and you can discuss it but you have to if we shy away from giving the feedback because we're afraid of them getting mad then it just piles up and then we become resentful and there's all sorts of other stuff that lead to that so again I'm not saying that we should deliver news in a harmful or derogatory way but if we're saying it and you have already built a team of trust then they can hear it and absorb it in their own time and if listen if someone keeps showing up late to work and you have to bring that to their attention it's a fact they're late to work so right what is your strategy for putting your personal needs ahead of your business needs so that is a great question it's important to create a business around our life so many people go into it creating their business first and then fitting their life into their business we have to create the life we want and see how our business fits into that I have started saying what do I want for my life right now what I want for my life we were speaking pre-show my oldest son is is 18 he's going to go to college I want to spend time with him in six weeks he's going to be gone from my home and so I've created my life now to block out time so that I can spend time with him and that's how I've created my life and I try to take Fridays for myself to do things whether that be with my kids or go get a massage or go on a walk with my dog I love to read the other thing that I really enjoy doing I just started implementing this year were CEO days a lot of people talk about them where I block out every quarter two full days I go somewhere probably local and I just focus on uninterrupted strategy for my business but that is also for me self-care because it allows me not to feel stressed for the next quarter I've planned it out I know what I can fit on my schedule I know what can't get on my schedule I will stick to those boundaries and I will learn to say no I love all of this advice because you're right once a quarter taking that day has to make you feel so much less stress because you have a a future plan in your mind at least a tentative one yeah exactly and it allows me to do kind of the higher level strategy I do work a lot from home though I have a brick and mortar location but my kids are home and the computer's going off or someone's texting me a question or I try to you know shut my notifications down it's not always uninterrupted but when I go away I'm not in my home environment so I can focus on what I need to focus on you're so in the business that taking that time away to work on overall strategy is great and I love that you say build your life first and see how your business fits in because so often we can think oh I don't have time for a run today the times I've done that but it's interesting because recently I made a shift where I'm going to get that in in the morning because my days go better my meetings I'm happier throughout the day and I agree with you I have 8-year-old Twins and from the beginning I said I don't want to miss out on these moments because there is going to come a day where they're going to want to be off with their friends even more than they are at eight years old and we can now create that you can work remotely it's always a blessing and a curse because then you you can always be on you can always have your phone on you but I think I took my son on spring break and we went on a ski trip but I was able to work from there I recorded podcast like we were talking about in the closet but I was still able to work you don't have to follow somebody else's model you can create a business that supports the life you are currently in because you have eight-year-old twins now but 10 years from now when they're 18 you're going to be in a different place in your life so if you have Littles at home you're in a certain season right now it will change when they go to school it will change when they go to high school it will change when they go to college there's nothing wrong with saying in this season what I'm prioritizing is this and I love that you say you don't have to create your business like someone else's model that's giving someone permission to do whatever they want within the business which sometimes can be hard for a business owner because you think oh I need to do it a certain way honestly what they teach you in school was designed by corporate men in a boomer generation for the most part which had their wives at home you've created simple techniques to make the switch from hard to productive we'd love to know what they are oh yes are you working hard or are you making things hard because I'm Generation X we were taught put your head down work hard strive to be the best that's the only way you're going to get accepted especially as a female even though I didn't grow up with Title Nine when I was wanting to play sports there was no t-ball team for me there was no girls intermingling with boys so even my dad was like you're going to have to work really hard you're going to have to be smarter than all the other people out there and so that you you learn that growing up sometimes what we think is if it's not hard if it's easy sometimes we self-sabotage that work because we're like oh we don't deserve that money because it was not hard so I ask women this all the time I was like is it hard or are you making it hard one of the things I do is I use a project management system I love a sa and to me if it's not in a sa if it's not in my calendar it does not exist it's me too I'm with you there and I even have something like two o'clock it says from two to three I pick up my kids okay so like says two to three pick up my kids on the days like three days a week one of my sons has an online class so then he goes to school late so those those days I have that blocked off you should see my calendar too I'm nodding because I have the pickup times for my kids too I have to remind myself about that because if I'm in a call sometimes I have to remember oh I have to get off I have to go get my kids so I definitely recommend a project management tool and then I recommend I love the CEO days because it does allow me to prepare for the I do 90 days let's say for example I reached out to you about trying to be on the podcast but if you said oh can you do tomorrow I started being very intentional that if my schedule is full I have to say no setting boundaries is the easy part sticking to boundaries is the hardest part and there's ways to say no that you don't have to feel guilty about that's been the biggest thing for me this year I've even committed to not working past 3:00 I'm just energetically I'm drained by 3:00 completely agree if it's in my calendar it will happen I'll find a way to make it happen and I also like to time block I'll write out the day of what I'm doing from what time to what time and I completely agree at the end of the day I love to put the phone down and say okay my work is done what you do at at 3:00 I like to say okay I'm not thinking about this anymore because it gives your mind that mental break that we all need for sure I even set my do not disturb on my phone I don't get the slack beep anymore what did somebody say was it important should I not be important but if I don't hear it then I'm not worried about it you have three simple strategies to trim hours off your calendar starting tomorrow what are they I love time blocking like you do my first simple strategy is decide how many hours in the day you want to work also are you a night owl or are you like an early bird I technically am neither but I am much more productive first thing in the morning so I try to do all of my creative work first thing in the morning that first two hours is really if that means creating social media posts or writing or doing a real or something like that anything where I have to be creative I get done first some people are night owls some people are really creative my husband is he's super focused after like everyone goes to bed you're not I'm not because I'm a night owl I'm much more awake in the afternoon but it's interesting to think about structuring your day as transactional versus creative strategy number one is to decide and if you think you need to stop working at two because your kids come home at two or you're energetically not ready at two then focus on what it is that you need to get done turning your notifications off is really important so maybe I recommend some business owners too you can have an autoresponder on your email that says I check emails at 8:00 a.m. and 400 PM please note that if you're emailing me between that time I will respond to you in my email window that's what you can do so you're not checking email all the time that's a great boundary too I asked this question at the end of every podcast episode magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy things that bring me joy are helping other people help themselves when I help a patient realize that they don't have to have back surgery because they are invested in their program and are getting better it brings me joy when I help other female business owners realize that they can have the business that they wanted and so anytime I can do that I lean into that and I feel it when I'm doing things like this doing podcast interviews where I'm like I hope that something I said resonated with one person it lights me up inside and that really does bring me joy you have built an incredible business congratulations on all you've accomplished please share with us how and where we can find you you Pilates inthg grove.com or over on Instagram at Pilates inthg grve for my personal brand christ.com on Instagram at Christa girka 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