In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield sits down with experienced and passionate Pilates teacher, Jen Ruggiero. Jen shares her journey from dancer to Pilates teacher and the business owner of 'The Pilates Movement NYC'.
The episode delves into Jen's unique approach to teaching Pilates, how she mentors her team, and her experiences navigating her business through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tune into The Pilates Business Podcast to gain insights into Jen's strategies for success in the Pilates industry and how she continues to evolve her business.
GRAB YOUR FREE RESOURCE:
The Studio Owner's Guide to MASTERING REELS
📲 Follow Seran on Instagram @seran_spring_three
❤️ Loved this episode? Leave a review - your review helps spread the word about the show and I read each and every one!
🎧 Never miss a new episode! Be sure to follow or subscribe to stay up to date
Work with Seran:
🌟 Join the Thrive Membership and get the support and accountability you need as you grow your business
🌟Enroll in the Marketing Intensive and get everything you need to master your marketing and finally build a thriving studio business
Join my FREE FB group - and ask me your biz questions!
🤳 Join the Growing A Studio Business Facebook Community
In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield sits down with experienced and passionate Pilates teacher, Jen Ruggiero. Jen shares her journey from dancer to Pilates teacher and the business owner of 'The Pilates Movement NYC'.
The episode delves into Jen's unique approach to teaching Pilates, how she mentors her team, and her experiences navigating her business through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tune into The Pilates Business Podcast to gain insights into Jen's strategies for success in the Pilates industry and how she continues to evolve her business.
GRAB YOUR FREE RESOURCE:
The Studio Owner's Guide to MASTERING REELS
📲 Follow Seran on Instagram @seran_spring_three
❤️ Loved this episode? Leave a review - your review helps spread the word about the show and I read each and every one!
🎧 Never miss a new episode! Be sure to follow or subscribe to stay up to date
Work with Seran:
🌟 Join the Thrive Membership and get the support and accountability you need as you grow your business
🌟Enroll in the Marketing Intensive and get everything you need to master your marketing and finally build a thriving studio business
Join my FREE FB group - and ask me your biz questions!
🤳 Join the Growing A Studio Business Facebook Community
I love bringing on studio owners, who I'm also blessed to get to work with very, very closely, and today's episode is no different. I'm joined by a studio owner who's been in the Pilates business for over 20 years, and we're talking all about how to build a successful Pilates studio business, how to foster a really strong team and how to keep growing as a business owner. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio.
Speaker 1:This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah and I'm so glad that you are here with me again today. It has been a heck of a week. I actually lost my voice last week, but I'm really glad it's back because we get to have an amazing conversation today with one of my most wonderful Thrive members, jennifer Ruggiero, who is here from New York with me, and she has been in the business for a very long time and has a lot to share with us today. I'm so excited, so welcome Jennifer. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2:Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:So, if you don't know Jennifer, she completed a teacher training program with Romana Krasnowska in 2000. And then she opened her studio in 2006. Her studio is the Pilates Movement NYC. She's also a yoga teacher as well and completed her training in yoga, and she has also, more recently, opened a second location in Tarrytown, new York. And between 2006 and 2024, obviously a lot has happened, and I kind of wanted Jennifer to come in and share a little bit about that whole journey, all of the twists and turns along the way no doubt there are quite a few and to share with us a little bit about where she's heading going forward as well. So why don't we start at the beginning, jennifer? What kind of brought you into the Pilates world?
Speaker 2:So, like most people in the 90s, I was a dancer at SUNY Purchase and we had a Pilates studio there in the basement where dancers could go down and take lessons. You could take private lessons. There were mat classes that were held there that were actually part of our anatomy course in the dance department. We would do anatomy for like an hour and a half and then we would do Pilates, which I think was pretty unique at the time. Um, cause we're talking 1994. Yeah, Um, which was pretty unique and pretty awesome. Um, so I I got into it that way. I did not like Pilates cause I wasn't good at it.
Speaker 1:A lot of people feel that way in the beginning, don't they?
Speaker 2:I didn't like it. I was 18. I didn't like it. I couldn't do it Because as a ballet dancer I had a lot of muscular imbalances at a tight back, so it was challenging for me. And then my sophomore year, I got a stress fracture in my foot and I wasn't able to take my dance classes. So I was sent down. I called it the dungeon. I was sent down to the basement where the Pilates studio was and I took private Pilates every single day.
Speaker 1:Wow, which was awesome.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize at the time what it was setting me up for, until I got back into my dance technique classes and I only had to rehab my foot. The rest of my body, it was like I didn't stop dancing.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, and I didn't dance for six months.
Speaker 2:Wow, the long time, amazing. So after that I thought what is this Pilates method? Maybe I need to learn a little bit more about it. And Ramana and Bob used to come up to purchase and do teacher training for the dancers and for other people in the area, and I never was able to do it when they offered it because I was always cast in some show and so it never worked out. And then when I moved to Manhattan in 1998, I begged Sean Gallagher, who was our physical therapist at Purchase and was also running the Pilates studio back then in the 90s there, if I could work for him, and he said yes and he gave me a job.
Speaker 2:I worked as the administrative assistant for Alyssa Rosenberg, who was the teacher training coordinator for his business, pilates Inc. And I was her assistant for two years and I got a discounted teacher training program. I started taking sessions with Ramana, shari, bob, all the wonderful teachers that Sean had Michael Tone, sandra, cynthia all these wonderful teachers. I was a kid I was 20, 21, something like that and I didn't know at the time what I had or what I'm walking into. It was just all I knew. Right, I didn't know anything else and then I started teacher training in 1999. I actually graduated. I saw the memory on Facebook today. It was this week, the last week of April of 2000, that I passed my 600-hour exam. So Shari had ended up testing me, which was great and that was it.
Speaker 2:I got a job at REAB. I started teaching for Brooke Seiler. I was there for about five and a half years. I was her program coordinator where I helped develop the teaching schedule, group class schedule, come up with new classes. I interviewed teachers there. She taught me a lot like what to look for in a teacher when you're hiring somebody, because that's what I did there. I hired teachers, I brought in other teachers to host continuing education and after five and a half years I realized that my vision of what I wanted for myself was far beyond being an employee Right, and even though I love teaching, I actually loved the business side of it.
Speaker 1:It sounds like it that's kind of how all of the roles you had were sort of in that world.
Speaker 2:Yes, because I first did it for Sean and Alyssa and then I was doing it for Brooke in not a big capacity but just enough. Where I got a little taste. Yes, where I thought well, maybe I can do it. And back in 2006, pilates in Manhattan was just starting to expand. Right, you could count on your hand how many studios there were. There really weren't that many.
Speaker 2:Back, then they were very few and I had just moved to the East 60s on the Upper East Side and there was only one studio there, and I thought this is probably the time for me to do this, because I saw the teacher training programs expanding, I saw more people entering, I saw more programs coming up and about and I knew that Pilates was going to explode. I just knew it, so I just did it. I don't know how I tried to get a loan. Everywhere, no one would give me a loan. So I approached my family and they decided to give me the loan to buy the equipment and get the lease.
Speaker 2:Which was really the biggest obstacle was finding commercial space. Yeah, yeah, still is. Commercial space in Manhattan is not fun. It was way more easier in my second location in Westchester County, but in Manhattan it is quite the bullet. But I found something and I'm still there 18 years later, signed a lease in 2006 and stayed. It's a building where the first floor it's a pre-war doorman building that has apartments upstairs and then the first floor is like doctor's offices, and so I'm one of those offices that we converted into a Pilates studio. And here we are here you are here's later.
Speaker 1:So in your studio, what do you offer?
Speaker 2:So we offer private sessions, semi-private sessions in terms of duets two people, one teacher and then, in Manhattan, small group classes, mat tower classes. It's a combination of mat work and tower exercises. Currently we're down to three people in a class, but I could accommodate four if I move an apparatus out of that room.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, excellent, yeah. So you know, you probably started out. Was it just you teaching?
Speaker 2:Yes, so it was just me. Yeah, I had no clients because I was teaching downtown Brook Studio was on Bleeker Street and I was opening up on 68th Street. And people in Manhattan, if you're not within a five block radius, no they're not moving, they're not coming to you. That's right. So I had no clients, yes, and I just built it from the ground up. This was before. I didn't even have a website. No, no.
Speaker 2:I had brochures that I left places. I was advertising in local papers that are like in these plastic bins out on the street. I don't even think they have them anymore. It was called Our Town and, like New York AM, I did a Village Voice ad. I just was randomly advertising oh, I did ValPack those ValPack coupons that you get for like windows and stuff. I was one of those. I did a ValPack coupon.
Speaker 1:See, and we complain so much now about all the social, all the digital media stuff, but actually it makes it so much easier. I spent a fortune.
Speaker 2:I spent a fortune on rent. Costs a lot and yeah, um, and you have to run them like over, over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not a one-time deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah I did a postcard where I hired a postcard agency to do an in a blast mail blast. I did that. And then, somewhere along the way I think it was like 2008 or so I got a website. I went with MindBody Online in 2009. That changed my life. That changed my life. I was using an Excel spreadsheet for private clients and for a group of classes. I just had a clipboard in the studio and people would sign up. And then MindBody Online came and changed my entire life. Yeah, and are you still with MindBody? I'm not. I'm currently with Wawa. Yeah, and I spent a long time. I spent about I don't know 14 years with MindBody 2009. Yeah, Through 2023.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, new 2023. Yeah, okay, and it was a long. You know in the software world that. You know it was a one-man band for a long time. You didn't have a lot of options and it was great. It did a lot of things and you know that whole world has evolved. So much has changed in the last.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really good what's coming up with the new companies coming out. It's exciting actually. Yeah, I think so. I think I'm always looking at them, thinking, well, what are they doing?
Speaker 1:That's kind of cool and interesting, yeah, right, and it's good to be able to move with it and incorporate it into your business as you have. So, yes, and change, yeah, you have to change, Right. So let's talk a little bit about that, because so much has changed, when you think back over the years that you've owned your studio and you're still offering, you started out offering privates and you added probably the small groups over time right, the industry today than when you know, maybe even not even way back in 2006, but sort of maybe even just 10 years ago. You know, looking back to like 2010, 2012, 2014.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot has changed. I feel. The industry has grown so much, which is wonderful. It's so great that Pilates. Everybody knows Pilates, because I spent most of my life explaining what Pilates was Correct. Yes, it is that is hugely different now. So it's hugely different.
Speaker 1:Even you know and I will say you know, we talk about this a lot when we talk about marketing there was a time where all I helped my studio owners to do was how to distinguish between Pilates and yoga. It was sort of a very it was. It was a lot of what we spent our time on, whereas now we're not doing that as much anymore.
Speaker 2:No People would call me and say what is Pilates? I was told I should do it but I don't even know what it is. I still have a whole section on my website about what is Pilates and I don't want to take it down, even though when I look at everyone else's websites, nobody else is really doing the big down, even though when I look at everyone else's websites, nobody else is really doing the big thing of what Pilates is. And I still have it up there because I just spent at least a decade talking about what Pilates was and why you should do it.
Speaker 2:And I think one of the big changes, honestly, is not just the internet but the medical community really has embraced Pilates, and I'm between multiple hospitals my business is between Sloan Kettering, near Presbyterian Weill Cornell and Lenox Hill Hospital. So I get a ton of referrals from doctors, clients calling or emailing and saying my doctor told me I needed to start Pilates, or my physical therapist released me from PT, told me I needed to start Pilates, or my physical therapist released me from PT and now I need to do Pilates and that I think, with the endorsement of the medical community, it has really changed how many people are willing to give Pilates a chance, even if they don't know what it is. It's just my doctor told me I should do it. I'm doing it, great, okay, let's, let's go, let's go and that then a lot.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that the one of the challenges that we now face, which is just a just a nuanced difference, which is that it's not about what is pilates, it's now about maybe what, what kind of pilates offering you? Yes, yes, and you know it used to be, and you know we, maybe some people are, and you know it used to be, and you know, maybe some people are still in that world, but it used to be sort of contemporary or classical, right, and that was very much, though, in my sort of, from my perspective, just like an internal kind of issue.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree Separation, distinction.
Speaker 1:I should say, is what the word I'm looking for is. But the external, like the clients that are really like the most, most population, they didn't really know what Pilates was and they didn't really really didn't know what the difference really between the two. That's right, right, but but now you know, I think, that we have a very broad range, right, and there's not just two types, there's many, many, many types and there's a lot of things. The umbrella of Pilates and we can, you know, we can have all sorts of conversation about that, but you know what, how you know, when you talk about when people come to you looking for as as as as a recommended by their physician, their doctor, the medical advice they've been given, that puts you in a particular kind of niche of the industry in terms of clientele. So what does that look like for you in your business?
Speaker 2:That, yeah. So because we've had so many doctor referrals, a lot of physical therapist referrals, I feel like we specialize in getting people out of back pain at my studio. I mean the amount of hernia discs, sciatica, spinal stenosis, I mean the list is endless. And you have to continue educating yourself as a teacher. And I make that very doable for my staff, right? I give them money towards continuing ed. I try to bring people in to teach continuing ed. They get free classes at the studio. It's important because the science changes. Important because the science changes and so you have to like be up to date on the science and the protocol for the specific conditions that you see.
Speaker 2:And when I was in teacher training 24 years ago, there was a lot of talk about like a normal healthy body. I actually don't even know what that is anymore because we don't see them. I mean a normal healthy body. Everybody has something, right. You reach a certain age and everybody has something. It could be something old right, like my stress fracture in my foot bothers me every once in a while. You know random things. So normal healthy body in my eyes. I mean we're all healthy, right, we can all be healthy.
Speaker 2:But then there are people that come to us that really aren't right. I do have cancer patients from Sloan Kettering that come to my studio. We've had Parkinson's patients. We've had Alzheimer's patients come to the studio. So it's just educating my staff how to deal with the different types of bodies they're going to see staff how to deal with the different types of bodies they're going to see. So I've been very hesitant to claim a niche in the industry, even though I know that I should or I've been told multiple times that I should because I feel like I've seen it all and I've had to adapt and I can't really I don't want to control who is coming to my studio. I want anybody to feel comfortable coming to my studio with whatever condition they have. So even though we have success with back pain and back conditions, I should say I don't really advertise that.
Speaker 1:Interesting Is that because you tell me what's the thought behind that, the thought process behind that. Interesting Is that because you tell me what's the thought behind that.
Speaker 2:The thought process behind that. So I'll say on my website, like improve your posture and increase your strength, help ward off osteoporosis, osteopenia, like I'll make suggestions towards it. But I'm not claiming to be a master or a specialist at any one thing, for a few reasons. One, I'm a Pilates teacher and I'm not a physical therapist or a doctor, so I can't diagnose the condition nor really treat it. I can if someone tells me their diagnosis from a doctor or a physical therapist. I then can give the Pilates exercises that I know help that and then pull from the over 500 exercises in the method that we're so grateful to have and then come up with a plan for that person. And that's one of my most favorite things to do with having a staff. I have 11 teachers right now. I love getting on the phone or in person or on Zoom now and being like okay, let's workshop this. What are you going to do with this client? You're stuck, you're not helping them get out of sciatica. Let's figure it out. What can we do? What exercises can we give? Okay, we tried that, it didn't work. Oh, and that's what makes Pilates so fun and interesting.
Speaker 2:I teach classical Pilates pretty much from what Ramana, shari and Bob taught me I don't really stray. Once in a while I'll pull from my yoga teacher training or from other courses I've taken, but I really don't stray from the classical method. I don't feel a need to. There's so much there, I don't feel a need to. There's so much there. There's so much there If you really look into it and dive into it. There's so much there and I can just pull okay. So this exercise is working on the reformer. Let's do it on the chair, let's do it on the Cadillac or let's figure it out.
Speaker 2:That's what makes Pilates interesting. It's not boring. I hear that all the time. Isn't teaching classical qualities boring? I'm like a detective. My favorite thing is to have a body in front of me and see if I can use my vision and what I'm seeing and then form a session spot on the moment, because you can't prepare. You prepare a lesson and then the client comes in and says, oh, I fell down the stairs yesterday, yes, and my knee hurts and my back hurts, and then your lesson plans go out the window. So you kind of need to already know the system and how it works so that on the spot, in the present moment, you can adjust your teaching, sometimes your personality, to what is happening in front of you. You got to read the room.
Speaker 1:Read the room Exactly, and I think that's what you know. As you've mentioned quite a few things, I think one of the things that's really interesting about what you do is you've got, obviously, a team of teachers. Over the years, you've probably hired many, many, many many teachers and it sounds like what you have a culture in your studio of really supporting the individual wherever they're at. And so how do you, when you go to find new teachers and bring them into the business, how do you bring them into that culture? Because you know, I know that you care tremendously about upholding a. You know the business you've built right and the standards you've set. So what does that look like? And it sounds like you do a lot of mentoring.
Speaker 2:I do do a lot of mentoring. I, even though I'm a classical Pilates teacher, I have hired contemporary teachers, so I have, and I have a few on staff right now, so I and we sort of blend well together. So when I'm interviewing somebody, I'm looking for someone who is open to still learning. That's my biggest question is do they still take lessons? Do they still take classes? Are they taking continuing education? Do they work at studios where there are other teachers around? Because when you're by yourself it is challenging to continue to learn, especially as a new teacher.
Speaker 2:They used to tell us that when you first get certified, it takes five to 10 years to really really hone your skill and you got to be surrounded by as many different types of teachers as possible. So I've created that culture in my studio. But I'm looking for somebody who also, when they teach, they don't sound like a script, Like they didn't learn specific words, to say that they're actually looking at the person in front of them and then talking to that human rather than well, I was told to tell you to draw your inner thighs together, stuff. I'm going to say so, it's been interesting, but that's what I'm looking for. And obviously someone who completed a teacher training program of, you know, at least 500 hours. And they don't even have to have been, they can be right fresh out of a program.
Speaker 1:Because you're looking for a, you're looking for a sort of a character trait. You're looking for someone who is, who is, who is looking to learn, and that's not. You know, that's not just based on sort of their resume. You know, that's about how they approach, their approach to teaching and how they share with your client.
Speaker 2:I'm still a student. That's my favorite part. I'm like I still take a private lesson all the time. I'm still a student. I'm still in continuing education courses, and not just for teaching, but for business. That's right. I mean, I'm in your group, which I love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm in your group, which I love. Yeah, well, I think there's a lot of parallels because, you know, we talk about it from a teaching perspective to be always, be open to learning, be continually evolving, and I think that also, I mean it applies to the way that you approach business too.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yeah. I, when I joined Thrive, I was looking to like refresh the way I thought about my business Because, with COVID shut down, we were mandated closed from March until September in New York City and then, when we opened, there were a lot of restrictions on us. It was tough. My business didn't fully come back until really until like January 2023. I mean, we're talking years to rebuild that.
Speaker 2:A lot of sweat, a lot of tears, a lot of phone calls with peers and friends, but we all sort of banded together and New York City, which is great. We got this like community together. We met all the time on Zoom. We talked about ideas for like Zoom classes and how we're going to get our businesses going and vendors that we were using for COVID. So there was a lot of support here with Studio Onus, which was really awesome and really fantastic People I'd never met before. I didn't even know they had a studio right, because Manhattan is so big there are some studios I didn't even know half of these studios existed, so it was awesome. And then, yeah, and then 2023, more teachers started coming into the city, more teacher training programs started up again and I was able to hire and rebuild my business. I'm still not at staffing levels of pre-COVID. I'm getting there, but I'm not 100%. But we're good. We're good. It's growing and it's been doing really wonderful.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I bought equipment for my home during COVID when businesses were closing and I had moved out of the city to Tarrytown, new York, and I had a little studio in my home for myself for just selfish reasons. Tarrytown, new York, and I had a little studio in my home for myself for just selfish reasons. And then, being a part of Thrive and working with you privately and really working on my business, I hadn't actually looked at my business like that in a very long time, probably since before COVID, because I was in survival mode. I was in. I just got to be able to pay the rent, pay my teachers, pay myself and like pay my bills.
Speaker 2:And then when I saw things starting to even out and I thought you know, really start like building this company again and like get the numbers and setting goals and looking at my KPIs, which I had never done ever. Now I do it every month. Now I do it every month. That's right. That's right. That's right. I have my CEO checklist. That's right. That's right. That's right. I'm very committed and I do it. And I just woke up one day, as you know, and thought I think I'm going to open up a business in Cherrytown.
Speaker 1:I know, and what's always so fascinating to me is how much energy people get from that um, from being in a group like thrive, and it's overlooked, so we don't talk about that enough, but there is a lot you, you. It energizes you as a business owner in the same way that maybe like if you went and did like an amazing conference on pilates, like energize, you know, you're like come back and you're like, oh, this is, I'm excited about this again.
Speaker 2:And I forget how much I know about business because I see myself as a Pilates teacher. I'm a business owner, I am a business owner, right, but I'm like kind of self-identifying as like I'm a Pilates teacher, like that's what I do, and the business owner is kind of like separate. Yeah, even though I'm so proud of what I've built Like I counted the other day in QuickBooks I've like I've employed 85 teachers.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was going to. I was going to see if we had that data point.
Speaker 2:Yeah 85 employees in 18 years is significant, like that's. That's a lot, so I'm super proud of all of that. You know it and that's a lot, so I'm super proud of all of that. It was never really a goal or an intention of mine, it just sort of happens along the way. But what I love about being in Thrive is somebody will ask a question and then I'm kind of surprised that I know the answer. I'm like oh, I actually know the answer to this question, because you forget how much experience you have from running the business, especially from we had no like website and scheduling studio management software right until now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you've been there through the whole yeah and then some, and now next, now the two locations, two locations growing, growing, growing, yes, and changing, and it's so interesting.
Speaker 2:When I first opened vinhatton I had everything like I did one order from ruts, I got it in six weeks. Six weeks like I had my space, I was cleaning, I'd like it was. I just open tarrington's a little bit different because it's a little harder to get equipment, so I've had to like piecemeal things together and so I don't have all the studios not set up 100% as how I would really like it, because I had to piecemeal things and I've had things ordered and I'm still waiting for some equipment. So that's been interesting. That's a little different scenario for me. But building it again from the ground up is really kind of exciting, and even from a teaching perspective, because I've had a lot of the same clients in Manhattan for 18 years.
Speaker 2:Now I'm teaching brand new people that have never done Pilates and I've got some apprentices that I teach now that are in teacher training programs and that's been very rewarding for me because it makes me talk about Pilates in a different way. They're not my employees yet, they want to learn and so that's been super fulfilling and makes me think about you know, do I want to do teacher training? Do I not want to do teacher training. I know we've spoken about it. I never wanted a teacher training program because it's a huge responsibility. I worked at two studios that had them and it is, or three studios actually that had them. It's, it is a lot. It's a big commitment. You are making a very big commitment. To teach someone to teach Pilates, I would have to revamp my entire like schedule. I wouldn't be able to teach as many clients as I do it would be a different business model, an additional business.
Speaker 1:You know, like we see that we see our business as one business, but oftentimes inside of a business there are multiple different businesses, especially in the Pilates world, because I would consider a class based business to be different from a private based business. They're different businesses, different clients actually, sometimes different, looking for different things. Teachers you need that are slightly different. So often think of like there's one business here but it's actually not. And when you start to add in a whole new kind of project like a teacher training program, it's actually a different business. And and so you kind of are now running, you know many businesses, and when you run, when you think of it like that, you're like oh, of course I can't teach as many hours, of course I'd need to find someone else to help me with this, and so, yeah, it would need a bit of a. We would need to restructure. Jennifer.
Speaker 2:We would have to restructure. I would have to get bigger space. My students are small. They're about 800 square feet each. It doesn't really lend for apprentices just sort of hanging around and observing the space. It doesn't really welcome that the way it's set up. So I would definitely have to move things around.
Speaker 1:But also remember there are many ways to do that too. There are many ways to do a teacher training program, true Right. Like there are many ways to build and grow a business, there are many different. You know, no two Pilates studios are the same. It might look like on the outside. I have small classes, I have duets and I have privates, but every studio is different and teacher training programs are the same way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm starting to see that those of us who have been teaching two decades or more probably should enter the teacher training space, because there are a lot of people out there doing teacher training programs that have only been teaching a couple of years. Right, you have a lot of people out there doing teacher training programs that have only been teaching a couple of years.
Speaker 1:Right, you have a lot of experience to offer and you and you know it's a gift you can give to the industry.
Speaker 2:To be honest, which I didn't really realize until I started teaching apprentices. Right, right, I didn't because, with my staff, it's just sort of what I do.
Speaker 1:It's just part of my every day, yeah you know, and to some degree, I mean you know, with the degree of mentorship that you offer to your teachers. You know you almost have a kind of post post teacher training, continuing education mentorship program within your, you know, as a as you know you do, because many, many studio owners don't offer that level of support.
Speaker 2:I know and I've guideline like what do you do with a client that comes in with back pain and their first lesson? I've like wrote out the whole lesson I. I've like all this stuff and you don't really, because over the years you just sort of do it and then you look at your files and your computer and your and your wow and you're wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:You find stuff I've done a lot of.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of. There's a lot of good stuff here.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, I found the notebook I used to write in when I was cause. I did my teacher training in New York, also with Ramana, and I live downtown and so I would take the subway up every day and I had this little red notebook and I would write in it all of the people that I was teaching, all of the notes about what this thing, all of that kind of outline for what I might be able to give them and when and what it makes sense, and all this stuff. And I found it the other day and you're like really in it there's a lot there. But yeah, so it's amazing when you, over the years, how much you, how much information you create, that is perhaps you, you could use in lots of different ways that would support other people in lots of different ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just didn't. You don't even know what you have. No, you don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I do, I see what you have. Well, I want to say thank you so much, jennifer, for coming on sharing your amazing journey with us, and I'm so excited to see what you continue to do and grow. Next, I know there's more to come, but why don't you let everyone know where they can learn more about you and get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:learn more about you and get in touch with you. So my studio is the Pilates Movement. I have two locations New York City and Tarrytown. My website is PilatesMovementNYCcom or ThePilatesMovementcom. They both lead to the same place, or you can email me info at PilatesMovementNYCcom and I teach in studio in Manhattan only one day, and then Tarrytown for four days, and then I teach on Zoom Yep.
Speaker 1:But Jennifer still has a really strong virtual studio.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have over 25 virtual mat classes a week still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 2:Incredible.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again so much. It's been a really always such a pleasure to chat with you. I love our sessions. It's been wonderful, always a pleasure. And thanks so much for listening in you guys. I hope this was helpful to you all as you go about building your boutique fitness studio business. If you loved what you heard today and you would like to support everyone else in the industry, please go to wherever you listen to this. Please rate and review this podcast. It would mean a ton to me and to everyone else listening. Thank you so much. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.