Pilates Business Podcast

The Beliefs That Are Silently Sabotaging Your Studio

• Seran Glanfield • Season 22 • Episode 216

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In this thought-provoking episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield tackles a sneaky but powerful force that may be silently sabotaging your success — your mindset. 🧠✨

While strategy, systems, and staff often steal the spotlight, Seran explains why the real transformation happens between your ears. Drawing on her experience working with hundreds of boutique fitness studio owners, she explores the essential shift from overworked teacher to empowered CEO — and how this shift can be the key to scaling your Pilates studio without burnout.

Perfect for studio owners feeling stuck in survival mode, this episode delivers a wake-up call and a gentle invitation to rewire your thinking for growth, profitability, and freedom.

👉 Tune in to learn how to build a business that works for you, not one that runs you into the ground.


Got a question for Seran? Add it here 👉

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Speaker 1:

What if I told you that the biggest bottleneck in your business right now might not be your marketing, your staff or your schedule, but perhaps it's your mindset? I know, I know it's a little bit fluffy, but stay with me, because in today's episode, I want to chat with you a little bit about this invisible factor that often is what separates thriving studio owners from the ones that find themselves constantly stuck in survival mode. So if you're tired of spinning your wheels, doing all the things and not seeing real traction, this is the reset you might not know you needed. Well, hi there, I'm Saraharen 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. Well, hey there, and welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. If you're new here, I'm so glad you found us. I'm so glad you're here. And if you have been following along for a while, or listening along for a while, welcome back. I'm glad you're here. I managed to pick up a little cold virus from one of my children over the last week and I'm still bearing the brunt of it a little bit. I'm feeling much better, but I sound terrible. So stay with me and I'm sorry for this, but I didn't want to miss sharing this episode with you, because here on the podcast, this is where I talk all things, not just business and marketing, but all things that go into developing and growing your business. It's for studio owners who really love what they do, who love the impact that their business makes on their clients, who loves movement and wants to share it with more people. And today we're zooming in on something that I think doesn't often get enough airtime we don't talk about enough. To be honest, in this world, we're often very focused on strategy, focused on the tactics and the tools and the latest and greatest software, but I think one of the biggest things that really sets successful business owners apart from those who struggle is mindset, is the entrepreneur mindset, and the truth is that most of us go into business because we find something that we love.

Speaker 1:

You love to teach right. You're passionate about helping people move better, feel better and live healthier lives. And when you decided to do that, no one handed you a manual that said oh, by the way, if you want to actually run a profitable business, a sustainable business, you need to start thinking like a CEO. And here's how you do that right. So what happens more often is that you kind of learn by doing Some folks stay stuck in that teacher mode, or stay stuck mostly in that teacher mode, and occasionally step into the leadership role, occasionally step into a management role, occasionally step up into that CEO role.

Speaker 1:

We hustle, we people please and we push through right. We figure out how to handle staff drama or slowdowns because of seasonality or cancellations and cancellation policies, and somewhere along the way perhaps we just sort of think, okay, this is how it it is, this is how it's meant to be, but it's not. And what I have found from working with hundreds of studio owners over the last decade plus is that there is often a difference between the studio owner who is constantly sort of on the edge, right on the verge of burnout, who is just feeling overwhelmed constantly, and the studio owner who is confident, who is calm, who is leading and probably also taking every Friday off. And the difference, the biggest difference. It starts with mindset, and so I want to clear something up as we dive into this, to make sure we're kind of all on the same page about what having an entrepreneurial mindset does and doesn't mean. I think that there is this sort of idea that well, perhaps to start off with, you might not even consider yourself an entrepreneur, and if you own a business and you started a business of any sort whether it's online or in person or a combination of both you have your own business and you are an entrepreneur. And that doesn't mean that you have to work 24-7. That doesn't mean that you have to live on caffeine although sometimes it's helpful and it doesn't mean that you have to keep coming up with more ideas and new things and new offers and new promotions and new classes to add, and truly that is not where I see the most successful studio owners sitting when it comes to their mindset.

Speaker 1:

The entrepreneur mindset in our space is about perspective and it often is a shift that happens, and I think that the earlier you can make this shift on your business journey, the better, and it is the shift that goes from being the one who thinks I need to do all the work to the thought that is, I need to build the thing that does all the work. So you go from being the engine turning right to building an engine that turns, and you know I like to help studio owners to build their businesses like an engine right and that it runs really smoothly, with all of the different parts that work together to help it to really move to grow right. And a lot of folks that struggle in business are folks who never quite make that shift. Perhaps you feel like you can't give up teaching as, or you think that you have to give up teaching. It's not the case, by the way. You can still still teach a hundred percent. Um that perhaps you get stuck in doing all the things. If your schedule is full and your revenue is still stuck and you still want to grow, there is something that has to change.

Speaker 1:

And if you've worked for someone else and then you went to open your own studio, you might still find yourself in kind of like an employee mindset. You might be that person who is looking for someone else to sort of to, to, to, to give you that task list right. And employees are types of people who follow task lists, whereas entrepreneurs are types of people who design the list, who hand out the list. Right, they are stepping back. They're making decisions that create more time or more freedom or more money in their business Maybe not immediately, maybe later on.

Speaker 1:

And so the question is when you're thinking about your business, are you making daily decisions like someone who is an employee, or are you making daily decisions like someone who is a visionary, a leader, a CEO? Because if every hour of your day is tied to you showing up and delivering, then that is not leading your business like a CEO. That is creating a job for yourself, where you are the employee doing the job. And you know, I want to just really clarify and sort of repeat what I mentioned earlier, which is that the shift doesn't mean that you have to stop teaching and doing the things that you love or doing things that you don't like doing in your business, but it means that you need to be able to step into that role, into that leadership role, and look at your business as all of these different moving parts that need your care and attention, but that you may not be doing the things in each part of those business, and so you want to build a business that works for you, right? Not a business that you are working for and not a business that even, potentially, constantly needs you in it all the time.

Speaker 1:

So there are some, often there are some sort of sneaky beliefs that actually kind of keep you stuck in this place. And this is very normal, um, if you think some of these things, because you know, as humans, we are biased to keeping ourselves safe, and keeping ourselves safe often means holding on to things that we think um and holding onto them as um to keep us safe, cause we know what that feels like. And so sometimes we're even holding on to beliefs that we don't even realize we're holding on to, although we're operating from that place. So you might not be walking around saying I can't grow, my business can't grow, but if you believe that no one else can teach like I do, my clients will leave if I raise my prices or I can't afford to hire any help right now, then all of those thoughts are truly shaping your results and the reality is that your business can't outgrow those beliefs, and most of us picked up these stories along the way without even realizing it. Maybe it came from a past experience, maybe you saw another studio fail and internalize that playing small is safer. Maybe you never had a mentor show you what's possible, Maybe you've never been around successful studio owners.

Speaker 1:

But when you operate from that fear-based beliefs, even just very subtly, you build a fear-based business, one that probably never scales, one that's very reactive and probably one that will eventually completely exhaust you. So I want you to kind of think about, get curious about your thoughts this week. Think about your thoughts and think about whether or not there is a belief that you are holding onto right now that might be keeping you safe but might also be keeping you stuck. And what if that belief is optional? So have a little bit of a think about the way that you're thinking about your business. When you discover some of these things, it is truly so incredible to perhaps give you. It might give you the opportunity to perhaps shift some of these beliefs, to change the way you think about your business, and that can be so powerful for your business growth.

Speaker 1:

So we certainly want to make sure we're aware of the thoughts that are holding us back, the thoughts that we have about our business or about success in our business and what that looks like and, I think, the other part of having a strong entrepreneurial mindset is the idea of what it really takes to be successful, and I think that when we focus only on the successes, I think we're setting ourselves up for failure. And so I know that sounds a bit of a strange thing to say, but what I mean by that is, if you only focus on your success and you're not willing to tolerate some challenges along the way, you're not willing to tolerate perhaps failing in some things or things not going as well as you want, then you will never actually reach success, because behind every successful studio is a series of bumps in the road, challenges, things that come up, things that they had to pivot away from towards. There's always, as I always say, there's always something that comes along and I get it. Failure sucks, it really does. A new instructor doesn't work out. You raise your rates and someone leaves right. These are all things that happen when you are building a business, and I think the perspective that you can get, especially when you surround yourself with successful studio owners, really opens up your eyes to what it's really like to be an entrepreneur, because failure isn't the opposite of success, it's more like part of your success. It's part of the process, um, and you know, it's a bit like. It's a bit like tolerates failures and challenges is a bit like working out. Right, you don't get stronger by avoiding discomfort. Right, you're going to get challenged along the way and you'll get stronger through it and because of it.

Speaker 1:

And so if every time a client didn't want to take that next step, instead of asking or thinking, oh my gosh, it's because of me, am I a good teacher, or was it my prices? You start thinking about okay, well, what data did I just get? What can I review the customer journey? Can I think about where there might be opportunities for me to improve what I'm doing here? And that's what entrepreneurs will do. They will approach it with a growth mindset of what information can I learn from this experience? And then how can I come back stronger?

Speaker 1:

And that's how you build resilience, that's how you innovate and that's how you stop taking every dip in revenue or unsubscribed email completely personally. So you know, when you look at any successful studio owner, they have a very high tolerance for challenges. They expect them, and I have to say this was something that I learned myself a long time ago and I think that it has served me quite well. And it is a tough pill to swallow, for sure. But I know that starting. You know, when I sit down at my desk on a Monday, I know that there are going to be things that work great for me and there are going to be things that come along that are going to not be so great, and we have to be just curious about what those things will be and willing to learn as they come up. So the next time you're wondering and thinking, is this going to work? Is it not going to work? Think about, am I willing to lean into this process? Am I willing to ride the wave? Am I willing to, when something doesn't work, come back, revisit and learn from it?

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's talk about the calendar next, because at some point this hits everyone. Okay, your schedule is full. I could feel you, I everyone, I mean, I don't know someone who isn't busy with, especially when you're an entrepreneur and especially if you are also a caregiver or a parent. Um, you are learning as a teacher. You're learning as a business owner. You're maybe managing your schedules and other people's schedules and there's a lot going on in your world, right, and it probably feels like you're doing a lot, but maybe it feels like your bank account isn't growing because of it, and the reality is often that's down to the way that you're using your time. And so what we know is that if you are working for someone else and you have a shift that goes from 8am to 12pm and you've got clients during that time, you're filling your time with clients as a teacher, but entrepreneurs are investing their time.

Speaker 1:

So a mindset shift looks like thinking about time and what return you're going to get on that time, and thinking about where is your time not just your time, but also your energy and your effort best placed for your business? Are you spending multiple hours a day putting together that reel because you're not too comfortable putting that together and you're trying to find the right thing when you could be delegating that and creating months worth of content in those two hours and delegating the creation of all of that to someone else who could be far quicker at it, perhaps enjoy it more than perhaps you do and probably get a better return on that time that you have right. And so there are things that only you as a CEO can do in your business and there are things that you can delegate to others. And so when you start to think about okay, where can I add capacity in my schedule? It's not about necessarily taking things off of your list of to-dos. It's about how can I take things that I'm doing already and move them to someone else's calendar potentially right. Or how can I take off something that isn't actually giving me any return at all.

Speaker 1:

So have a think about what is on your calendar for next week. Are these things that are helping your business to grow, are they things that are maintaining your business, or are they things that are draining you and your energy? And again, having awareness for this is going to be a total game changer, because we don't want to keep you busy, we want to keep you leading. So each of these ideas I just shared with you is a bit of an invitation, a chance to really think about how you're operating right now and perhaps ask is this serving the business that I really want to build? So, whether it's your beliefs, your fear of failure or your time management this is not about judgment, by the way I want to empower you to become the business leader that you want to be, and it it often starts with your mindset and when you perhaps discover how you can shift some of your mindset, you'll find that your strategies might start to work a whole lot better. So quick recap. I just want to give you a quick recap.

Speaker 1:

We talked about the mindset of a successful entrepreneur and it's not about pushing harder, it's about being smarter with the way that you think. It's about your beliefs and the beliefs that you have about your business and your business success and your business growth. And so when you are aware of what you're thinking, it can help you to perhaps shift some of the way that you're thinking about your business and perhaps that will lead to the better results and more of the results that you want. And I have to say you know this is something that is a practice. It's not like a one and done thing. It's a shift that doesn't happen overnight and it's something that we have to sometimes sort of train ourselves to do on an ongoing basis.

Speaker 1:

But I do recommend that if you want to build a business that works for you, not the other way around, then you have to have the right mindset. Got you thinking do you see what I did there? And you are ready and you want to really, really, really nail this and step into that CEO mindset, but you want a little bit of help and guidance on what that really looks like, then I would love to invite you to learn more about my Thrive program. Inside, I help you to step into that role of leader, entrepreneur, and help you to build the habits and skills that will lead you towards the success that you want, with coaching and resources and playbooks and tools and checklists and action plans. All you need to do is show up and let Thrive be your system for growth and success.

Speaker 1:

So I hope this was insightful for you as you go about building your boutique fitness studio business. And if it was, be sure to never miss another episode by hitting that follow or subscribe button wherever you listen to podcasts. 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.