How up open up a successful Pilates studio with Abbie Whittaker🔥

Do your due diligence. Make sure that you look at the numbers and like fully understand what is it going to take for me to actually have a profit here that I'm comfortable with, like a profit that I can— that is more than just going and teaching 25 classes at a different studio.

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I'm your host, Richard Turtungi, and in today's episode, we are going to talk all about Pilates. We're going to talk about what's happening in this space. It's hot at the moment, and I wanted to bring in one of our amazing clients and an amazing operator that is, that is really going full on and taking this, this wellness business to new heights. Her name's Abby Whitaker, and she's passionate entrepreneur, health and wellness enthusiast, strategic thinker, leader in the fitness industry, 12 years of experience in working in the fitness and wellness industry. And her big driver is community. And I know we say a lot community, community, community, but honestly, community at the moment is where it's gotta be. Creds, she's founded a studio called Inflow Pilates Studio in 2018. with the mission to provide high-quality group Pilates classes for the Sunshine Coast. She's my new neighbor up here. And I went to visit her studio and it's, it's, you know, the community is really buzzing in it and it, and it's really worked. I think you got your second studio launch as well, which is a huge success. Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Abby, I think I, we came across each other Maybe you came to one of our immersive events. It was great to have you there because that was actually in Sunshine Coast. And I was like, oh, and you made it last minute. I was so excited to have you there. And there was something about your energy and your, just your energy and your flavor that you're really a thinker. And I'm a thinker too, Abby. And sometimes people go, oh, Richard, you think too much. And I found another thinker, it's Abby. And so you think a lot, you think, but you create and you move fast. And I want to kind of maybe start with your journey of business. You've been in the game for 12 years. Maybe a broad question, but you know what I've found in Sunshine Coast is Pilates is moving really fast than I think other places from what I'm hearing and seeing and smelling and talking to people. Tell me about your journey of Pilates. Why? Did you open up Pilates Studio Up?

Um, so basically, I was— back in the day, I was working in the marketing industry, um, in like a corporate role, and I just decided that it wasn't for me. I didn't feel super, um, connected with what I was marketing and putting out. Um, and so I took a role in a gym, in a health club actually, and part of my like pay package was to do Pilates courses. So I did the matwork course and the reformer course, um, fell in love with it. And, um, a lot of our clients used to say, oh, I'm moving to the Sunshine Coast, do you have anywhere you can recommend there? And we'd always just be like, oh no, like there's none. There was none up here at the time. And a few years later, my partner and I really wanted to move to the coast. He's a spearfisherman, and we were just— at the time there wasn't a lot of jobs up here, and we just said, let's just— it wasn't this straightforward, but we were like, let's just, let's just do it. Let's just move there. Let's just start, make a way to make our own money there and have our own business. And I said, I can teach Pilates. I've got marketing background, and he had a sales background, and he's just really good with people. So yeah, we just kind of jumped in and did it. We just, I think we had $4,000 to our name that we had to live on for like 4 months. And we're like, we have to open by this month. Otherwise, like, we're toast. And yeah, that's just how it all started.

Right. Under pressure and making it happen. Now, opening a Pilates studio is no cheap It's not going out and saying, okay, I'm going to do some personal training. You're buying boxing gloves and putting the car on the weights. That's what I started off, in the car, got my weights, got the boxing glove out. I mean, you've got to buy reformers. Tell me about that process when you're not sure if it's going to work, the business, you're new to it and you go invest. Take me through that mindset that someone's out there, they're going, hey, I've got to open up a studio. It's the investment. How do I do it? Can you take us through that process?

Yeah, so I guess we, so we had both worked in like a similar setup to what we have now. And so we kind of had seen the process of how it all works in terms of financially. We did have savings financially, but we knew that we had to put everything that we had into it. And we also have, both of us have some parents who entrepreneurs and business owners. And I think my dad said to us, he said, well, do you know what? This is, it's actually just like a really cheap business course. If it fails, you'll learn a lot and you'll probably learn a lot more than you will doing 3 years at uni. And he just said, just jump, just take the leap, just do it. So that was kind of like the kind of thing that put the nail in the coffin. in terms of financially and getting it all set up. My partner's super amazing with spreadsheets, not my finest moment, but he's the one, he's got like everything set up like on a spreadsheet. This is what we need to do. We kind of figured out exactly how many, like what memberships we would need, how many people would need in order to, um, you know, start paying back like what we owed and to start making enough money to live on. And we were just like, let's just do it. Let's just do it. I think we just kind of, I don't know, we just knew that we could.

Yeah. Love it. I think, I remember opening up my first place, I was so naive and naive, or the word green. I don't know if you heard that word green and just a bit cold around the ears or something. And you just go and do it, right? And I think that's the beautiful thing about business. It's a beautiful thing about opening up your first business. It's like, You need a bit of like just naive and you don't know what's around the corner. And I think people go, oh yeah, you, you should read this and do this. And we've all got to go through our mistakes, you know, and you just got to make sure you go through a bit faster and not, not, not unpack your suitcases.

Yeah. I think as well, sometimes when you are green, um, or have that naivety, it is kind of beneficial. Like for us, for example, with our machines, our reformer Pilates machines, we Um, chose to purchase pretty cheap machines.

Yep.

Um, because that's what we could afford.

Yep.

And it was fine in our community because there was no reformer here, so it was like nobody had anything to compare to, and people were just stoked that we were bringing this amazing, um, fitness here. But I think that sometimes when— if we had so much experience and so much knowledge and overthought that process so much we might have been like, well, there's absolutely no way we have that amount of money to get the machines that we actually are our end game. Um, and I think that maybe it would have, um, you know, stopped us from moving forward with doing the studios. Mm-hmm. Um, and I definitely see that with so many people. It's like, oh, but my website's not perfect, so I'm not gonna launch it. Or, you know, I can't have the machines I want, so I'm not gonna open it. I can't have this that I want, I'm not gonna do it. And it's Kind of just like, just do the thing and then just figure that out later.

Love that. Love that. Overthought the process. That is definitely a big one for a lot of people, including myself. We overthink. Get to it. Need something better? Get it done. Just get it done and then you'll learn from there. That's really good. All right. Let's just go a little bit into the studios. I think we've kind of maybe skipped that a little bit. Talk about the studios, what it's about. You've got 2, right?

So in 2018, we launched our first studio in Caloundra, and it's basically got 2 rooms. It's got a group reformer room with 14 machines and then a group, uh, mat Pilates, yoga, and barre room.

Yep.

And, um, basically it just runs on like a membership base or packs. Uh, I guess the main thing that we brought, like at the start when we first opened it, I wasn't like our community is everything. Like, I didn't, I didn't have that thought process. Um, like, it just didn't even come to me. Like, I was just trying to survive.

Yeah.

But I think that, um, we did kind of have— I did have an idea, and both of us had an idea that we wanted to be a safe place for people to work, work out. We wanted people to walk out feeling really amazing about themselves, um, feel nice, long, tall, lean, uh, to feel Like that they had given them time themselves some time to move and and time for themselves away from the busyness of our lives. We wanted it to be inclusive for all fitness levels, all body types, all genders, all everything. So we kind of started with that, and then I think as a result of our personalities. Joined, we created this beautiful community, and we also created like that really great vibe in the studio because I think that we're both we both kind of embody all those things that I just spoke about. So that layered with the fact that Pilates is actually amazing and is such a great form of exercise, it was just kind of really easy to. to pull it all together and to build that community around it because we're both so passionate about it. And we both, like I talked about working in marketing roles where we marketed something that, where I marketed something that I just didn't believe in. This, I like still to this day truly believe that anyone who tries it can benefit from it. And yeah, so it's like obviously there's passion behind it as well.

Yeah. So good. Tell me about Yeah, that passion, like when you started, like 2018, how many classes, like for anybody who's going, oh, I want to sort of scale up, how were you teaching the classes, all of them? Did you have instructors straight away? When did you sort of hire that first person in the studio to teach?

So we started off with 3 instructors, including myself. Actually, sorry, 4 instructors, including myself. And on our first opening day, I actually didn't teach. I had to go to my husband's nana's funeral that day. And so, we actually opened the studio without me actually being the instructor, which is pretty wild.

It is wild, yes.

Yeah. But they did it. The girls did amazing. And so, at the start, I taught about 25 classes a week. Which one of my friends who was an instructor at the time was like, you know, that's not sustainable. And I was like, I know it's not sustainable, but I'm just going to do it for now because I want to get to know all the clients and I just want to be there and be present for everyone. And then after that, I kind of dropped down to maybe 15.

Okay. Yeah. Because you've got— I just wanted to sort of highlight You know, you opened your second studio up and you got this. Tell me about the decision to do a second studio. And, you know, it's hard to run one, you know, like sometimes we talk in this show like, oh, let's get to 100 and that kind of stuff. But going from 1 to 2 to 3, these are substantial different things that you need to do. What's the one lesson or 2 lessons that you learned opening the second studio up?

Um, so to be honest, the opening of the second studio has been a pretty, um, smooth process.

Yep.

I do think that like the main things when opening a studio is to really consider the location. Um, we almost opened our first studio in a location, um, in the industrial area, which I now looking back at it know wouldn't have been as successful as what we are with where we are now.

Yep.

Um, but from going from what— from going from 1 to 2, I guess the important thing for me is to always have that, um, presence in the community that I'm a part of. And I've always felt like if I had too many studios, I wouldn't be able to stretch myself across all of the studios. So, um, we actually partnered with someone that was a friend and also working with us at Caloundra to open the second studio. And she's kind of become that community builder, that face of that second studio. So that's worked really well for us. But I definitely think partnerships can be truly tough. And I think that if you are considering going into a partnership, just really consider it, make sure you have everything written down. You've got all the right legal contractual things put together so that there is little or no room for error.

So good. It sounds like you learned when you say it's smooth, it was smooth. You learn a lot from the experience. And I think the trust to open that second one, for anybody who's thinking about it, The third one, it's like, well, sometimes it's not that slow because you've learned all that in the first one. And then you open the second one, it's like, oh my gosh, this was easier than I thought.

Yeah.

You've done the hard yards there. So kudos to you. Super exciting. Now, all right, let's do a couple questions around marketing the business. What are one or two great strategies that you've used to grow The

studios? So one of our main strategies that we use is a funnel, like a short program that allows people to come and try the studio out for more than just one session. So we run a 21-day program. It gives people enough time to come try the studio, get a feel for it, get a feel for the instructors, the vibe of the studio, the community. And we— I usually find that if people sign up for that and they actually come to their classes, they are very likely to sign up just because they've gotten that experience and they kind of fall in love with it. Like, we know that they do. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting people in for their first class, literally, and then they're like, oh, why haven't I been doing this sooner? Yeah. So that's one of the things we've done. And then I think, I guess like the second one is just hiring really good people who then start to help you build that community. I know that's not really a marketing strategy, but I guess it is a way of marketing, I suppose.

Well, having a great service and getting some great feedback, referrals, testimonials, case studies, I think I think it's a very fair point. You

know,

we got— yeah, like you said before, like, you, you're in marketing with something you didn't like. Um, you know, this is probably where it's like, okay, I can use my marketing and make it something that I really enjoy. But yeah, the product's gonna be good. So I think that's a solid point. Make sure you have a great product, right?

Yeah, totally. A great product and a great team, because your team is a reflection of what you do, especially in our business where It has been set up in a manner where I don't have to be there full time or all the time. So you know your team; you have to just be able to know that your team are like on your same page.

Is it hard to find good team? What's your hack to finding good team members, Abby? Come on! That's the big question of 2023.

Team members, how do you find them? Geez, it's I definitely think it's hard. I think that we're at a point where people want to work for us because they then know that we're really good to work. for. But I was just talking about this with someone the other day. I think that good team members are quite hard to come across. And I think that we've just collected like one or two like really solid, really loyal team members every like year.

Yep.

And then so at Cloudberry, we've just got a really solid team. Like we've got, yeah, just those people who have stuck around almost since the beginning.

Yep.

Um, and then we've— we're building that at Petunia as well. So there's not really any hack. Like, we just put a thing out for instructors, or we have people approach us and ask us now most of the time.

Yeah.

We always just meet them, see if they've— they feel like a good fit for us, and then also if we're a good fit for them. And then from there, we get them to come to a trial class, and kind of we might ask some of the clients how they felt about the class, like Separately after the class, and then we'll kind of know if they're going to be a good fit. And sometimes you think they are and you mentor them and train them, and then they go somewhere else and it's kind of crappy, but it just is what it is.

Love it. Now, I just quickly want to touch on some other parts of your entrepreneur world, and you've got an app as well, the Inflow app. And was that a COVID app? Was that a pre-COVID app? Where did that come into the game, Abbey?

Um, that was a postnatal app.

A postnatal app? Yep.

Yeah, so basically, um, I had just had my baby and I just was thinking, I was just thinking I want to be able to spend more time at home with her and not always feel like needing to go to the studio. And I just thought, what a better way to do that than to create something that can be enjoyed by more than just the local community, um, to the world.

Yep.

Um, and that's kind of where that came from. It's been a very rocky road, but I'm still— I think we're just almost at the top of the mountain now, just going over that last little hump with it. So we launched it and now we're re-releasing it. It's got lots of, um, updates, lots of things that have— that are going to be amazing on it. So I'm excited about that.

And what's the app? Call it out. What is the download of it?

It's called Inflow Active.

Inflow Active. Very good. Download that. It's a great app. Got it on my phone. All right, let's— I just want to sort of finalize some things. And like, what I'm hearing in this conversation, a couple things. One, community. Two, just get it done. Get it— get the work done. Don't overthink it. You've talked about having a supportive partner and great team. You've got a great team, good business, good team. They want to come and work for you. Can you just maybe give a couple more advice pieces on someone who is interested in starting a fitness or wellness business and they're in their head about it, Abby? They're going, oh my gosh, I can't afford the rent. I can't do this. I don't have the money. There's a competitor up the road. Um, what's some lessons that, you know, you could give to your younger self, Abby?

Um, so I just want to point out one thing that I didn't mention before. In our first studio, we had no competition when we opened.

Yep.

In our second studio, we have multiple competitions where we opened. Um, launch was just as successful in both, and Both are just as successful as each other. So I'm just going to say that about competition before I start.

I like that. I like that.

I think my thing with, for anyone who's kind of thinking of doing it, is the first thing is actually just do your due diligence. Make sure that you look at the numbers and fully understand what is it going to take for me to actually have a profit here that I'm comfortable with. a profit that I can— that is more than just going and teaching 25 classes at a different studio, right?

Yep.

So that's like my main thing is I just sometimes look at businesses and I just think like, did you even like think this through? Like, did you, you know? And I just think that that's really important. And I think that that's something that my husband definitely has instilled into me is just Actually knowing your numbers, because yes, you can hire accountant, all that stuff, but at the end of the day, you need to know your stuff before you get started. From there, you can work backwards and go, okay, do I think that I can get 100 members? Yes. Okay, perfect. How am I gonna like take those steps back and make that happen with the lease and stuff? Obviously, within those numbers, You have to have budgets for what you're willing to pay for your space, um, and that fit into that. Otherwise, you could just end up paying a crazy lease for your dream space, but you're losing money. So I think that one massive piece of advice is just do that work to actually understand it. And if you don't understand it, make sure someone else helps you and helps you understand it. Secondly, um, with— when it comes to competition, my take on competition is that there is enough— like in a small Pilates studio of 14 machines, there is enough people in these areas and where we live to fill up tens or hundreds of Pilates studios, right? So maybe not hundreds, but like say there was 20, there's still enough people to go to all those studios and benefit from the movement. So for me, we just try not think of people as competition. We just think of them as another great way for people to find out about Pilates and get into the movement. And because we're very different to other studios. We have our own flavor, our own flair. We just feel like people will come to us who align with our flavor and our flair and want that energy and that vibe. And, um, the other studios, they'll go to those studios if that's more of their thing, and that's completely great. As long as they're doing Pilates, then awesome.

Well, I love that. I think that's my favorite part of this whole conversation, the end. Just in regards to around how you look at competition, you know, the abundance of people, the right people go to you, the right people go to other people, but, you know, be happy for them. They're actually having movement and, you know, they'll— the right people will come to you. I think that's a really great way to look at that. And I think that's definitely some 100% energy that you give out. Like anything, it's you can be the first or you can be one of the first, then all of a sudden there's more. And it's like, and, and you look at competition different ways, like, oh well, I was here first. And then, and then you drown in that sorrow and it's like a story. Yeah. Um, but I love the way you look at it. It's like, yes, just there's an abundance of there. And I think that's a beautiful way to look at, um, look at that because it's totally true. You know, we have Australia that has— most of Australia is not in gyms or health clubs or Or exercise routines, and there's still a lot of work to do overall. So I think that's a really good way to look at it. Beautiful way to look at it. Anything else, Abby, that that we've missed today? I guess I think you've answered all my questions I had for you. Tell me about the future of Inflow, the future of Abby. There's a lot of a lot of exciting things on the horizon. Is there anything? Is there anything that you

want to share with us, Sabi?

You know there is. You know I do loaded questions. So up to you what you want to share, but I'm generally interested in your entrepreneurship. I'm interested in your excitement for business. And I think that's such a beautiful thing to have, excitement about business. And you give it a crack, you give it a go, and you make things happen. What's on the horizon for you next, Abby?

So I feel quite passionate about moving a bit more into like a mentoring phase or time in my life or whatever it's called. I do love business and I love that I've been able to create such an amazing business around something that I truly believe in. And I want to help other people do the same. I'm not super interested in franchising. But I'd like to go as far as, as close to franchising as possible without franchising. So I want to help people. I want to take people away from feeling like they're our competition and into having their own thing and being guided through these steps to be able to launch successful Pilates studios. So I think I would really like to go into that. space, and I've really stepped into everything that comes with that, like teacher training, things as small as, you know, merchant— like merchandise that they need, pieces of equipment, etc. So I think I'll definitely be moving into that phase a lot more this year. But there's also— I also just have so many ideas and so many things That I want to do, but I think that's the main one for this year.

Love it. And I love hearing your ideas and things. And I genuinely love when I used to have this thing, Abby, where it used to be like an idea book and we had like a book, me and my business partner. We just, every time we wrote a one-page idea out and by the end of it, I think we had like 100 pages in this book. And sometimes it's just the beautiful art of creating. Creating an idea, seeing, seeing if it makes sense. Sometimes you may not launch it, but it makes something else work way better. Yeah. So I think it's a— I think entrepreneurship's a beautiful concept. And I, you know, I think you've done a great job. I think you've done a great job on getting the studios where they are at the moment. Sorry, I just— my mic. I think you've done a great job on getting the studios where at the moment. And yeah, look forward to the next stage, Vabi. I think we'll have you back here. And I'm glad, I'm glad these studios are pumping along at the moment.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me and look forward to our next chat.

Thanks, Abby. Now, where can everybody hook up and see what you do? Where can they connect with you, Abby?

I reckon the best place to connect is on Instagram at Inflow Pilates Studios. But if you don't have Instagram, www.inflowpilatesstudios.com.

Awesome.

Yeah, or if you just want my personal life with abs, two D's.

Life with abs. That's it. Get on, get her on the gram.

Get me on the gram.

See what life with abs is all about. Thanks so much, guys. If you enjoyed this episode of the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show, you can go to website commarketing.com.au to see more, hear more of these episodes, or see them. You can go to YouTube and you can see You can see what we look like on YouTube. Hey, Abby, that's probably good.

Yeah, hopefully looking good today.

Head up. Yep. So guys, thank you so much. And if this episode has affected you in a positive way or a negative way, and you think, you know what, I need to get this information to somebody— I shouldn't say negative, but it's going to be a positive way— share it with another fitness business owner and say, hey, I liked 3 Minute 30 Whatever you said, you should do it for yours. That's a great way that I learn when someone shares, like when a personal friend just shares with me and they say, listen to this, I'll listen to it. So you're gonna change someone's life if you do that. I'll catch you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. Bye for now.