Episode #514: Speir Pilates Approach to Community, Wellness, and Studio Growth with Andrea Speir and Liz Polk

0:00 I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows you to convert your website traffic visitors directly into leads. It's not just another chatbot, and it's not AI, but it allows a visitor to call, text, or leave a voice mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club instantly. MIT shows a study that if you contact the lead within 10 minutes, chance of them converting goes up 9 times that of the average. We got the Atlanta Clubs on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness Philly, College Park, Become one of the next halo companies to deploy the wizard.

0:48 It's easy to use. Go to the prospect wizard.com. Get a free 30 day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up, and let the leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them. This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC on location LA Convention Center South Hall. Take the back entrance. You'll see us right in front of the back entrance for noise control purposes. I had the pleasure of having our first podcast here with Andrea and Liz. We're gonna talk about Spear Pilates. We're gonna talk about pivoting careers. We're gonna talk about making people awesome, and we're gonna talk about business economics for all you entrepreneurs out there. So, Andrea, take it away.

1:29 Well, thanks for having us. First of all, this is an honor. And, yeah, we're excited to talk about Pilates with you today because it is a hot topic right now. There's a lot going on in terms of a shift toward holistic wellness. And if you ask us, Miploidis has been around since the twenties. So it's more people having an understanding and figuring out ways to make it something that could be, you know, a bigger offering and more digestible in terms of taking it from private sessions all the way to group. And, and that's what we're doing with Spear. We're trying to grow quality Pilates and make it more accessible and inclusive for as many people as possible. Awesome. So welcoming to the halo sector as of a year ago, Liz Yes. Officially from a recovering attorney, now is, moonlighting and and moving into our sector So congratulations on making that pivot Thank you. From Netflix. So talk about how your corporate experience, you know, kinda dovetails into what your passion is now and how, like, that knowledge base. Because I always tell people, like, go figure out how to do things and then do it yourself after you actually know what you're doing. So talk about that evolution. Yeah. So, I spent 10 years at Netflix, and then prior to that, I worked in film finance. So I I developed a and I'm I'm a lawyer by trade. And so I developed a, kind of a good understanding of what finance looks like. I think what I learned from that was that, you know, financing deals look the same or very similar across a wide range of industries. Anyway, so

3:01 I was working 10 years there. I scaled the business, grew, teams, learned how to lead people, learned, you know, from the leaders at Netflix Right. Really kind of absorbed the culture and understood what it meant to have a, you know, a real, you know, solid culture at a company. And so when I met Andrea, and we, connected on forming this business, I, that's where that's the framework that I was coming from. Yeah. Now were you a member and then seeked out the the the founder, or how did this connection happen? No. We started it together. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So but how did you guys know each other originally? Yeah. So I've been in Pilates for 18 years and teaching, well, I have at this point been in Pilates for 18 years.

3:50 And I love every kind of fitness. So I got as many certifications as I could in ballet barre, personal training, all of that, and figured out how to keep that form focused foundation of Pilates, which I connected with the most, but using these different elements to that, and that's sort of where we started, playing around with the formats. Where Liz came in is she has a passion for health and wellness as well, and we, we met through our husbands Okay. And we got to talking. Liz was interested in investing in something in the halo sector. Thank you for using the term. I appreciate that. And, you should do that the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna dig away. Band episode 34. And so so, you know, we got to talking. She was interested in investing. We realized how much we connected with each other on where we wanted the Pilates industry to go and, decided to become full partners. Yeah.

4:51 And I I actually was doing Pilates. I like discovered Pilates. It was kind of exclusive. Didn't feel entirely welcome at any of the studios Yeah. That I was going to. But then when I met Andrea, like, our values aligned, our, we were kind of like a yang to the yang. I'm I'm not trying to become a Pilates instructor. So so let me just to to for the for the listeners on on here, I started Integra Square by myself. So, like, I am the founder. It's a lonely place sometimes just, you know, trying to project. Hey. Everything's awesome. By the way, everything is awesome right now, so no issues. But during COVID, be the CEO of an investment bank in the health and fitness industry, probably not the best way to, you know, make a couple of shackles.

5:31 Anyway, the the the benefit of you being cofounder is the benefit of having a partner and and basically knowing, like, we're on a roller coaster. We're gonna have awesome days. It'd be great wins, and we're gonna get blown out some days. Right? If we're gonna use the sports analogy. So talk about without, like, specific, you know, things that have happened, but to say, like, hey. Like, I this is like I got a little bit of, like, a safety net or I've got, like, a cushion. No. I we can talk about that. Yeah. I, you know, from my corporate background at a, from my corporate background and, you know, I've seen ups and downs and I've seen how leaders manage through ups and downs. Yeah. And I don't know that Andrea had that experience working for herself as a Pilates instructor. So when we did hit, you know, that was our first wrinkle.

6:12 COVID was our first major wrinkle. We I think what I brought to the table or what we had was to, you know, we can have a conversation. And then I really push to make decisions quickly, make smart decisions quickly Yeah. And move on. And I think without having that confidant, that person that you can go to that, you know, brings something else to the table, brings another perspective to the table, it's really hard to do. You gotta get lost in your own head sometimes as a as a founder and entrepreneur. And, like, you think, like, the walls are crashing in, but they actually might not be. But you've you're you're you're in your isolation effectively. You know, I use this term a lot. The guy told me this, like, 24 years ago. I used to work for it. His name is Peter Brockway. He's one of my mentors. He said experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Yeah. And, like, as you learn and kinda move around, what are some of the things, Andrea, that you've kinda noticed about how your own brain works or how you, like, think about Pilates from when, like, you started and say, like, well, like, this footprint is actually architected not, like, randomly by design. Yeah. But I, like, I want certain things to happen, and I want people to experience it, in a certain way. Mhmm. And I wanna talk about that because I think sometimes people build a studio Mhmm. And they're like, you stop me. You say shit, dude. Like, only 35% is, like, revenue generating, like, Pilates room. Yeah. And it should really be, like, 80%, which you have a small check-in. Like, we don't need to have showers here. So how how would you have you, like, shifted from, like, I love the modality. It's a great workout. People get results. I don't know why I'm talking like this, but I am. Hey, dude. What's up? Okay. Good. How has it changed, like, your

7:45 perspective? Yeah. So I think I think what's great is our core values are the same. We know what we want. That being said, we're open to understanding the learnings that we've had along the way. So especially with COVID, seeing what worked. We started with a group class studio. It was great. We realized having that ancillary revenue stream of the private studio was major. So instead of sort of sticking with what we thought was gonna be the most successful, just doing the group and just having this many reformers or x, y, and z, we honed in on those learnings, and we added a private studio next door. That's smart. But I would I would say that when you you you asked about Andrea's perspective and how it's changed Yeah. One of the things that, you know, when we had pre COVID, you know, I think Andrea had a very emotional connection to how Pilates operated Yeah. Sure. Sure. For all of those years.

8:44 And I'm always asking questions like why why are people paid this way? Mhmm. Why why is it this is why we're a great partner. Need somebody to come in. Like, I always I always ask questions like that also. Like Yeah. Why do you do it this way? Like, why is it set up this way? Yeah. You know, what's the experience you're trying to have here? And it's almost like you gotta, like, script out, like, how I want you to feel, how I want you to to walk through the space, how you experience it. So I think it's great that you bring that perspective. Like, it like, I'm not ingrained in anything, so I'm just trying to learn. Yeah. And is there, like, a reason to this or just, like, the shit happened randomly and no one's changed it? Exactly. And I think what works about both of us is we both are very confident in our perspectives, but we're also open to hearing the other's perspective and finding that middle ground. So Yeah. I think that's one of the things that's been successful for our partnership, especially. We don't wear the same hat. We respect each other. It's been 7 years of that, and it's been, Yeah. Yeah. So so we got 2 locations right now in, in LA. Uh-huh. You know, as you kinda looked at the build out and the size and and how many, Pilates, reformers you have, you know, talk about the the without going through the actual economics, but talk about here's the amount of look of, of machines. I I feel like it's optimized and and kinda stays true to your experience. Mhmm. And then how you think about whether if you're bringing an investor at some point and and wanna grow to 10, like you say, or 20 or or 50. Mhmm. What's some of, like, the special sauce of this business? Yeah. I'll say the the special sauce, there are a few areas. One is, talent density. We're really highly focused on who we

10:17 hire at the company. And taking care of those instructors. That's something that was my background and experience at other studios was sort of bring in these instructors, let them do their thing, work them to the bone, and then they're out. So Yeah. Building the culture within our team Yeah. Outside of the experience the clients are having. We want this to be a family, and that seeps out into the experience. Yeah. Are they all full time employees? They're not all full time employees, but they're all employees. Got it. Okay. The the but to that point, we have formats that we have, that Andrea has masterfully created that, kind of integrate something. I I was talking to her earlier. There's a concept at Netflix that they use called con, context not control. And you can't have context not control without good talent, but Yeah. It's the formats provide a lot of context around why. And then the control part for the teacher is they can incorporate their like an authentic, piece of them into the formats, which creates an experience that, frankly, we've learned over the last several years, the clients actually feel. So They they you want their personality. You want their creativity. That's why we were hiring them and making sure that they can get paid a high enough wage that and have enough opportunity of growth to make it a full time job.

11:41 This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and 1 month free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services. So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.

12:37 You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is real. You know, one of the things that that I see around the industry, because it's gonna, probably gonna say what you're gonna say. I go to Soul Cycle. I'm, like, part of that cult. Mhmm. I go based on who the instructor is, and I will modify my schedule Exactly. To to basically go to that instructor at that location. I'm willing to travel modestly in New York City. There are com there are companies and programs that have been set up like Orange Theory. Mhmm. Orange Theory is basically saying, like, it's the program. That instructor is a team leader. Okay? And I'm, like, basically boxing that person in by their title. Mhmm. Because I don't want you to choose a class based on a team leader. I want you to choose a class who can optimize the amount of people that I get through here per day. Mhmm. So when you take a look at, like obviously, I wanna treat everyone like a family. I also don't wanna, like, like, promote everyone like they're, like, the rock star because the rock star salon hairstylist owns the salon, unfortunately. And when that person leaves Right. You gotta rebuild. So how do you guys think about, like, that yin yang, if you will, or that that trade off? So I look at with in terms of talent and instructors, who represents our brand the strongest, who has our same principles and values and really exudes exactly the experience and the personality and the passion that we want. So when we have them, we we push to make them a star within our space. It's not about, I wanna be the face of this. I want us to collectively be a brand. So from the start, that was really important to us.

14:08 I because I hadn't experienced that at other studios. It's sort of you do something in the media, and it's hidden. You know, the owner doesn't necessarily wanna share the spotlight, and I wanted to create a space where that was not the case. So identifying who these key players are within the teaching team, letting our PR team know everything about them so they can be promoted, representing our brand, go out, you know, work events, do all these things, and that to me is how we grow and we scale in terms of talent and having these leaders. Yep. So, inevitably, we've got a lot of investors that are looking for concepts in the boutique space over the last from, like, 2,000 March what? 2 March 2020 until basically, like, January 2023, nobody returned my phone call. And I'm trying to get money. Right? So now the phone's ringing. So at my event tonight, I'm gonna be like, look. I I can tell you I don't have to give you data. I can just tell you, like, 6 private equity firms called me last week and wanna invest in the fitness industry.

15:05 Like, that's my tell. Right? It's, like, 6 plus 6 instead of minus instead of 0. As investors listen to this call, I think there's very interesting things about the the Pilates modality. And I wanna go through a couple of them, and I want you guys to add to it. The first one is no one has become the low cost leader in Pilates. So everybody who's in the Pilates space says, I recognize the value that I'm that I'm delivering. You're gonna get results probably better in the mirror on your your commitment of time to results better than any other modality, I think, of Wynn Pilates. Mhmm. During COVID and after COVID, people are like, look. I got my own machine. I'm not jumping around, so I I feel safer. Mhmm. And I'm already socially distanced. Mhmm. Right? And the other thing is the Pilates instructor doesn't have to do the workout like they're doing their soul cycle. Right? So they're captain, like there's one guy who's, like, a professional tennis player who plays, like, 5 sets a day, and he, like, plays does 5 soul side class. The average person can't do that. Right. So so either, like, expand on some of those points or add on, you know, or or add some more bullet points of, like, what makes us unique from an investment standpoint that maybe is not on the surface like a tell? Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, that's one of the biggest things is physically we don't have to do it with them. So having the different ways in which you can deliver, an hour of Pilates, you can do that for 8 hours a day as an instructor. You can do a mix of group classes, privates. You can film for our on demand platform, which has actually been really interesting. We started that during COVID and seeing how that

16:38 opened up opportunity with, brand recognition in different states. We can see our analytics and our metrics on that. And, and when we opened after COVID, seeing who stayed, who came back, and and what that looked like, and it really was very much a hybrid from the people that we talked to, on the on demand platform. What did they do? Did they stay? Did they go? What we've learned for our business is that our on demand platform is more actually the clients don't overlap. So we hear from a lot of fitness folks, at we went to another conference. Oh, those are the same people that are coming into your studio, and they weren't.

17:18 I I wanna touch on an add on to our Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kitchen order. I mean, it was a that that's great. The more you can provide, the better it's scalable. I wanna touch touch on the just scaling the high quality, low cost. I mean, there is some value. Like, we don't wanna undersell what we're offering. So one is we don't really do we don't do free offers and all of that because you are getting high quality instruction from people who are certified in something, which is a little different than like a spin class. Right. The other thing that we learned is that having we we figured out a way to have we have, instructors that have been with us for 7 years. 7 the entire time. Amazing. We figured out a way to retain teachers. Then we also have a vision on how to scale that. We also feel like we've addressed another factor of, like, boutique fitness really targeting a young, young, young audience and really kind of expanding our client base because we have experienced teachers. We have this mix of private and, and group, and, and we have just good leadership. The other another differentiator for us is community. People are looking for that Mhmm. In their space.

18:30 And one thing I'm seeing, with Pilates, as we're talking about, Pilates is having a big boom in, you know, all aspects of it right now, on demand, mat work, reformer work. But one thing we're seeing specifically in Los Angeles right now is almost going back in time a little bit. It's becoming a little bit more exclusive, invite only. You have to have x amount of social media followers to even ask to come in. It it it's this shift toward this. The show house or something? Exactly. It is. It's There are plenty of I was, like, 40 years old. My buddy's like, dude, I'm, like, applying to Sohu. Should we know anybody? Like, really helpful. I'm like, bro, you went to, like, University of Pennsylvania, like, president of, like, Yahoo Sports. Like, it's okay. You you'll get it. It's like you should put this pressure on yourself. And so And so gotta apply to pay, like, 6,000. It's gonna be nuts. No. We're seeing that. Decide. Yeah. Bring it back. And so one of the differentiators with us and one of the driving forces with our brand is we wanna make sure that we really make it clear that it's an inclusive environment. You can sign yourself up. You can come. You're part of a team. So instead of trying to buy in to a team or be invited, we're inviting you in, and you still get that you're a part of something, you're part of a group. And so that's a big driver for us right now in keeping those blinders on, making sure that's an offering in the fitness market in terms of Pilates. Okay. So to get that with our real estate and our build out and all of that that kind of plays a huge role. What's the square footage on the average for the 2 locations?

20:00 So the average for our 2 locations are 5th 1600 square feet. That's it. Alright. That's it. And then many reformers are in each one? We will cap out they're 11. 11. Okay. And then we we'll cap out at 12. We have 2, additional studios in the works right now. Awesome. And you're going for 12? California? In Southern California. Yeah. Got it. Have you been looking at locations that were ex fitness facilities and and be able to do any kind of easy rework or no? No. We look at, most of our spaces have been blank, new construction spaces that we build out from scratch. So But what we're looking at are the neighboring tenants, the area, what the experience is because Pilates, the client generally does want that experience. They wanna get a coffee afterward. They wanna come with friends. They want that community angle. So making sure we can find a space that has that offering is ideal for us.

20:54 And we also, we're not we're not willing to work with every single person in the world. Like, there there is a certain we look at the landlord. We look at who the, you know, who's the, real estate group that we're dealing with. Yeah. All of those things come into play. And the other thing about picking up another gym, the aesthetic of Sphere is not really inspired by what gyms looked like yesterday. This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose, higherdose.com. They are the leader in workout recovery products, infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as PMF mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You gotta get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your market, having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for $200 per month where they paid 39 to you, let's become an expert in workout recovery if we are already an authority in workouts.

22:11 Higher dose, check it out. There's a wholesale code, and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy, and sweating, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout. So so a couple of points. You know, I I showed you the back of my jacket here. Like, you can't have artificial intelligence until you have intelligence. You're building this community. Obviously, you guys are high touch, and you wanna have a relationship with your members. What what software do you currently use? For for your Mariana Tech. Mariana Tech. Okay. Great. We we know Shannon. We had just spoke at one of their events. You know, what I was saying to them is, like, you gotta help the studios get as much information.

22:56 Like, I gotta know Reporting. Do you have kids? Do is your do you have a daughter who's on, like, a cheerleading squad or field huggers? Is there somebody in your community in your in your family that I can help optimize what they're doing? Also, like, what are your triggers? Like, do you have anxiety trying to find a parking spot? Let me pick you up. You all get another member to pick you up. I got a problem with waking up early because I try and do, like, a 6 AM, soul cycle class here with Emily. Sorry, Emily. I missed last week. Maybe, hopefully, she got paid on that. It's cancellation. Anyway, sorry. I'm like, at 5:30, I decide whether I had a good night's sleep or not. Uh-huh. And then I make that decision. If I had another member that says, hey, man. I'll pick you up at 5:35. Like, I'm going. Right? I'm not gonna, like, cancel. It's embarrassing.

23:37 Yeah. So I feel like there's a lot of things that we could do and put into the Mariana Tech database of, like, here's everything I know. And when the when the front desk person checks somebody in, they're not looking at their phones. They're looking at my LinkedIn. Exactly. At my Instagram. They're fine. Like, who is this person? Mhmm. And then how come not everybody's having their birthday here? How come they're not doing their book club in Pilates? Right. How come they're not doing coffee in Pilates? Yep. So I know some of the things that you guys are saying, like, I got a certain amount of hours. I pay a 100% of the rent no matter Dunkin' Donuts is 18 hours to 24 hours, and I'm open 4. Yep. You know, I'm not so how do you guys think about hours, volume, and monetizing or optimizing relationships? Not monetizing. I'll start with Liz, you're up. I'm up. I'll start with She's excited, guys.

24:18 I don't catch you. This is not a video. Like, we're fired up. Finger go. We are all leaning in right now for something, but you buck lean into the mic. Fire it up. So, we, since day 1, have been about making sure we operate almost like hospitality. I've spent a lot of time going to lots of, you know, hotels and places where they actually act. I mean, I feel expected when I show up. We want everybody who comes in the studio to feel expected. We keep track of information that they give us so that we can do that. I think that's that's since day 1, a huge, huge part of it. And part of what we look at when we are looking at, like, Mariana Tech or Mindbody or whatever where you know, all of those, services because, you know, we wanna be able to track that and do that easily. So that's that. What else, do you have a about, like does has anyone had a birthday party? Has anyone asked you, like, hey. Can I use a space? Like, talk about some notes here. I don't know why people are not, like, jumping on this. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me what you're doing, and then somebody in some other area that's not competing with you can take this idea. Go ahead. Yeah. One of the things restricted from the LA County. Go ahead. I I actually I've seen this grow since the world reopened with COVID. A lot of businesses want to do team bonding events in a health and wellness space, which has been, really great that it's not just happy hour now. It's, you know, additionally, Pilates classes. So we we take notes on clients. We have the front desk. We have our managers. Everybody's going through. We emphasize standing up. We don't

25:50 want people sitting behind the desk. They're up, they're walking around the desk, the managers, the teachers, they're greeting people. We're taking notes so we can, again, encourage and track their progress. Talk to them about doing birthday parties and doing events. We've had bachelorette parties. Yeah. We've even had baby showers because you can do Pilates when you're pregnant. We have a a venture fun coming in to do a class in a couple weeks. Yeah. So Awesome. We had a podcast come in with all of their influencers. Yep. We've had lots of filming. People you know, we live in LA, so there's, productions going on. Right. We've had, you know, people it it and by the way, I brought Netflixers in for group classes and, other groups like that. So it's just it's it's it's the community. It's how you reach out to community. It's how you market your studio. Yes. By any chance. And we talk about this via newsletters, social media. We, you know, do it in person. So it's always in people's minds that this is beyond just the workout.

26:48 And and we also go to other studios, our peers, and and go go to other, boutique studios, have our our staff go, and we collaborate with, you know, like, complimentary, modalities like boxing and others. And having that sense of community amongst our peers is also important. I found when I when I entered the business, none of the Pilates businesses business owners ever talked to each other. Everybody thought that everyone else was, like, you know, competing and stealing all their client, you know, their clients or their teachers. But it's important to have a community. So so I would say and for the investors that are listening to to this call and trying to find a a a an opportunity to, you know, what we say, like, play the space or, like, you know, back back at entrepreneurial management team. Given your background, it's kind of like when someone says, is there a management team? What is a management team composition? Mhmm. Who do I need to add to the team? So I'm glad you guys got together and our partners here because I think it's gonna make a a big difference in if you wanna go and and get outside capital or if you wanna kinda indicate like, hey. Look. I've got all these bases covered. If we grow, obviously, we're gonna go ahead like a CFO. But, like, everything operationally, strategically, and, like, the nuances of how this business works, like, we got that covered. Yeah. So let in closing here, if you got any quotes that you live by or, we gotta leave a little quote library. If you have 1, great. Please share it. If not, we can put hands in, go halo, and hit the hit the bell. I kinda wanna hear the bell again. You sound like I mean, I I've I just I'm entrepreneurial. I live

28:19 by, you know, not being stuck in in the mud. Like, you gotta you gotta look around you and see what's going on and be able to pivot. So Alright. So to keep moving forward, we now have a new Halo Pilates platform. Liz and Andrea, Spire Pilates. See you in location 1, 2, 3, or 4. Soon. Thanks for coming on. Yeah. Alright. Thanks for having us.