Power To The Industry: A Boutique Fitness Podcast

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode:

“I think upon reopening, we're all craving to get that revenue back into our system and the biggest piece of advice that I would give people is to help that grow, be really kind and compassionate with your customers that are taking the opportunity to come in. They want to be there and they're going to want to feel safe even if they don't admit it. And I think that doing that and being smart about how you spend your dollars going forward is going to be who blooms as we come out of this and how many butterflies can get off the ground.

“And I truly believe that it's going to be as simple as, 'hi, how are you doing? Great. I'm so happy to see you again.' My piece of advice is customer service, customer service, customer service, and market your processes and protocols. If you don't have them in writing, get them in writing.” - Jordan Strauss, Owner, SWEAT 1000 Houston (https://www.sweat1000.com/studios/usa/).

 

 

About Our Guest:

Jordan Strauss is a seasoned International Business Attorney with extensive experience working in cross-border and multicultural deals. In 2016 he created a partnership with groundbreaking boutique fitness studio SWEAT 1000 in South Africa to bring a world class fitness brand to the United States.

SWEAT 1000 in Houston has quickly become one the leading US boutique fitness studios, ranking number eight on a list of the hardest workouts in the country (https://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/classpass-hardest-workout-classes). ‘SWEAT’ stands for Specialized Weight Endurance Athletic Training with the ‘1000’ representing calories burned in a groundbreaking 1 hour workout.

Integrating the components of interval training, functional training, core stability work, athletic training, and agility training it is the result of taking everything that is the highest level of physical training and putting it into a 1 hour dynamic, action-packed class that is different every single time.

 

 

About the Episode:

In today’s episode we explore the topic of reopening a studio. Jordan Strauss shares how Houston has already come together in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and how that better prepared their diverse community to band together through COVID-19.

Jordan offers his perspective on why he chose NOT to live stream classes during the closure, some ways SWEAT 1000 is innovating the cleaning game, plus he gets straight up mathematical on class scheduling and why you should be customer-service oriented now more than ever because it’s just good business.

Thanks for listening! If you liked this podcast you’ll LOVE our new white paper, Five Steps to A Successful Reopen After COVID-19 (https://zingfit.com/reopening-your-studio-boutique-fitness-trends/), which gives a step-by-step guide on how to relaunch your studio through savvy studio marketing.

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode:

“I think upon reopening, we're all craving to get that revenue back into our system and the biggest piece of advice that I would give people is to help that grow, be really kind and compassionate with your customers that are taking the opportunity to come in. They want to be there and they're going to want to feel safe even if they don't admit it. And I think that doing that and being smart about how you spend your dollars going forward is going to be who blooms as we come out of this and how many butterflies can get off the ground.

“And I truly believe that it's going to be as simple as, 'hi, how are you doing? Great. I'm so happy to see you again.' My piece of advice is customer service, customer service, customer service, and market your processes and protocols. If you don't have them in writing, get them in writing.” - Jordan Strauss, Owner, SWEAT 1000 Houston (https://www.sweat1000.com/studios/usa/).

About Our Guest:

Jordan Strauss is a seasoned International Business Attorney with extensive experience working in cross-border and multicultural deals. In 2016 he created a partnership with groundbreaking boutique fitness studio SWEAT 1000 in South Africa to bring a world class fitness brand to the United States.

SWEAT 1000 in Houston has quickly become one the leading US boutique fitness studios, ranking number eight on a list of the hardest workouts in the country. ‘SWEAT’ stands for Specialized Weight Endurance Athletic Training with the ‘1000’ representing calories burned in a groundbreaking 1 hour workout.

Integrating the components of interval training, functional training, core stability work, athletic training, and agility training it is the result of taking everything that is the highest level of physical training and putting it into a 1 hour dynamic, action-packed class that is different every single time.

About the Episode:

In today’s episode we explore the topic of reopening a studio. Jordan Strauss shares how Houston has already come together in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and how that better prepared their diverse community to band together through COVID-19.

Jordan offers his perspective on why he chose NOT to live stream classes during the closure, some ways SWEAT 1000 is innovating the cleaning game, plus he gets straight up mathematical on class scheduling and why you should be customer-service oriented now more than ever because it’s just good business.

Thanks for listening! If you liked this podcast you’ll LOVE our new white paper, Five Steps to A Successful Reopen After COVID-19 (https://zingfit.com/reopening-your-studio-boutique-fitness-trends/), which gives a step-by-step guide on how to relaunch your studio through savvy studio marketing.

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode:

Now is the time to figure out your plan to integrate you in-studio experience with your new digital class offering. Reopening your studio is the perfect opportunity to make changes and explore new pricing structures, class offerings and engage your community in a new way with new platforms.

About Our Guest:

Suhail Muqsood is the cofounder and co-owner of Wheel House SF, in San Francisco. Wheel House is a cutting-edge studio dedicated to the combination of yoga, core strength classes, and indoor cycling.

About the Episode:

In this episode Suhail shares about his experience as studio owner hibernating through COVID-19. He reflects on the opportunities presented to business owners in this time off and the blessing in disguise of being pushed into the digital class space ahead of schedule. Suhail also offers great ideas about reopening a boutique fitness studio. And the way live streaming and bike rentals are becoming part of his long-term business model as he looks to the future and life after COVID.

Thanks for listening! If you liked this podcast you’ll LOVE our new white paper, Five Steps to A Successful Reopen After COVID-19 (https://zingfit.com/reopening-your-studio-boutique-fitness-trends/), a step-by-step guide on how to relaunch your studio through savvy studio marketing.

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode:

Now is the time to really assess your fitness business. This is the perfect opportunity to review your Key Performance Indicators and figure out what has been working versus not working for you in the months leading up to this shut down. Businesses and brands that are thinking long-term will survive and thrive through the coming recession and those who invest MORE in themselves, their business, and their people now will come out of this stronger than ever.

About Our Guest:

KK Hart is a long time friend of zingfit and expert veteran of the fitness industry. KK is a Certified Consultant that owns and operates several wellness businesses, in addition to being the CEO of a boutique sales & marketing agency specializing in the health, fitness, wellness and small business industries.

With extensive experience as an international fitness and business expert, KK is regularly featured on Fox and The Huffington Post, among other media outlets. She has a Master's degree in Health and Business and over 15 years of experience specifically helping health, fitness, beauty and wellness businesses grow.

As a business coach and consultant, KK coaches on strategies for revenue, retention, pricing, sales and marketing. Her passion is to help you to become as profitable and self sufficient as possible! With many options to help clients to achieve their goals, KK is known to be a game changer and secret weapon for business owners. Her clients consistently become the top earners in their industry!

“Make your business stronger and start focusing on thriving instead of just surviving!”

You can now get 50% her course to learn how to set up your online virtual studio at http://kkhart.com/streaming-your-online-virtual-studio/

 

About the Episode:

We cover the new landscape for boutique fitness studios which will require a whole new mindset and set of KPIs as this global recession looms on the horizon. KK shares what she’s thinking about to plan for the future as a consultant but also as a studio owner herself.

She also talks about her different approaches to business planning for studios that are cash-strapped versus studios that are financially prepared to weather the storm. Plus we go into the many, many considerations one should make before deciding which platform to livestream or offer video on demand on.

Thanks for listening! We’ll see you next week.

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode:

Anything is possible with the right people and not enough time. Jen and Jamie have always pushed hard, but this latest crisis provided them with an opportunity to show up in a new way and be super consistent with the way they delivered their brand experience through video on-demand. They show up super authentically in the way they carry their brand forward and it’s totally worth it in the end because they have built such a strong tribe of staff and supporters that are all looking out for each other through this crazy, weird time we’re all living in.

About Our Guests:

Today I’m talking to Jamie Lanza and Jen Azzarelli, the co-founders of CAMP Tampa. With their passion for healthy lifestyles and creative outlets, Jen and Jamie combined their playful nature and talents to create CAMP Tampa —a boutique Cycle, Yoga, Circuit, HIT (hot interval training) and Stations studio.  Between Jen’s experience as a sous chef and robust background in the hospitality industry and Jamie’s ten years in experiential advertising and brand development, these two have built and fostered a new culture of group fitness and yoga in Tampa.

This is only the beginning for the dynamic duo as they push each other to create and innovate every day. With more than 40 different class styles, spanning over 300 classes per week, childcare, a 1-acre campus, community garden and 105 employees, these mother hens are never bored. They share that Creating CAMP has been the most challenging and fulfilling adventure for them both. A place where they, and all their CAMPers, may truly be happy and free.

 

About the Episode:

This is a fun episode because CAMP Tampa is such a unique brand. CAMP is so much more than a boutique fitness studio, it's an immersive experience on a sprawling campus designed to bring all CAMPers back to that sense of wonder and joy they felt as a kid on those warm summer camp days.

In this episode Jamie and Jen share about how they dealt with the coronavirus crisis, which led to them freezing almost 4000 memberships and packages overnight. In a herculean effort they were able to produce and offer high quality video on demand classes in just four days! Their new online studio camptampa2go.com has allowed them to continue to support their staff of 105 people and stay engaged with their beloved community.

Jamie and Jen have so much passion for what they do, and learning about ways they are continuing to engage their team and their community is truly inspiring. Listen now to find out what they did to pull it all off!

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To learn more about Camp Tampa’s video-on-demand launch, read this case study (https://zingfit.com/blog/case-study-how-to-launch-your-studios-video-on-demand-classes-quickly/) written by their design agency, Solmark Creative. To see what they’ve built or to get a little CAMP into your life go check out camptampa2go.com.

Thanks for listening! We’ll see you next week.

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Today I’m talking to Barry Ennis and Shay Kostabi, the co-founders of Fitness Career Mastery a consulting agency and educational platform for fitness entrepreneurs, geared toward elevating the client experience through immersive, high quality fitness programs and services. They also host a weekly podcast for fit pros and business owners featuring experts from all over the globe digging into topics ranging from sales and marketing, to coaching and cueing.

Both Barry and Shay are international master trainers, consultants and peer mentors. With over 20 years of combined experience they've coached 1000's of instructors and worked with independent boutiques as well as corporate fitness facilities in 5 countries. These two have been featured in magazines, on demand videos and live-streams in multiple countries and are passionate about sharing their knowledge with the future of fitness.

You can find them at fitnesscareermastery.com and on Instagram @fitnesscareermastery.

I'm really excited for this episode because it could not come at a more pertinent time! With the coronavirus sweeping the nation the boutique fitness industry is in its first big crisis. In today's episode Shay and Barry share their insights on how boutique studios should be approaching video on demand and live streaming and some majors do’s and don’ts that will set them up for long-term success.

We talk about the dangers of turning to public platforms like Facebook and Instagram to live stream classes, both from a client-safety standpoint and from a business perspective. They also share the many, many considerations that studio owners and instructors should make BEFORE they start live streaming classes and how to course correct if they’ve already jumped the gun.

There is also a light at the end of the tunnel, and in this episode we explore some of the opportunities to improve your business. And the complete overhaul that our industry is undergoing, and how that might actually be a good thing.

The biggest thing you’ll learn from this episode: SLOW DOWN and be thoughtful about the direction you want to take your brand. Putting together a cohesive digital offering is about so much more than speed and quantity—it’s about quality and consistency with brand experience your clients have come to expect from your studio.

To get 15% off of Shay & Barry’s Learn to Livestream Course, go to fitnesscareermastery.com/learntolivestream (fitnesscareermastery.com/learntolivestream) use the code ZINGFITLIVE.

 

Thanks for listening! We’ll see you next week.