Colin turned pole dancing into a home-party business by recognizing women would rather learn privately than in studios. He scaled it to every U.S. state and appeared on Ellen, deliberately skipping brick-and-mortar to outlast the fad. His core lesson: move fast because everyone else is thinking the same thing.
This is how I ended up running a pole dancing business. I'm an opportunist at the end of the day. So, you know, of course in the early 2000s, there was this fitness craze of taking poles out of strip clubs and putting them into yoga studios. And then I got approached by a lady and she said to me, Colin, what do you think about this opportunity? And I said, I can tell you 95% of women will not do this in the studio because they're too embarrassed. So we created home pole dancing parties. We were in every single state in the US. We were on Ellen DeGeneres, major TV shows. But the reason why I got into it, there was an opportunity. But the one thing I wanna share with you, it was a fad. I knew it was a fad. I knew it would come and go. I knew this was gonna be a fitness fad. So I set the business up really well for all our business owners that came on board with us. And I said to them, listen, you don't get brick and mortar. These are home pole dancing parties. When the fad fades, you can keep on going, but you haven't got this ball and chain around your neck of brick and mortar. When you see opportunity, it doesn't mean always jump at it, but do you have the opportunity to run with things, assess it correctly, Don't wait, because if you're thinking this opportunity, there's 10 other people in the world thinking about the same opportunity, and by the time you wake up, it'll be gone. Run with great opportunities. I always say the early bird gets the worm. Some people say, yeah, but early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese at the end of the day. And I'm like, that's really funny for me, but at the end of the day, I live by early bird gets the worm. Don't wait. Jump at things that are the best opportunity. What's the worst thing that can happen? You have a learning experience.
