Episode 82 - Lisa Druxman From Flyers To The Premier Motherhood Fitness Program In The Country

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. So, okay, guys, this is a special day. I have a guest on today that I've actually admired for a really long time. I used to work out with her program when my kids were little, and it's been remarkable to get to see the company that she's built and the people that are inside the company and how unbelievably inspirational each of them are. And you can tell what a system she's built and created to be able to empower people. And it's really remarkable to be able to witness that. And I love how it started, and we're going to talk about it once I bring her on, but I love how she started the company. It was out of her just not having time to exercise because she had just had her. I think it was her son. And she found a way for her and other moms to connect, to be able to do what they could to make it work while still being with their kids. And just the way it started, by taking responsibility for what you can control. And now this amazing business has been built, and constantly she's doing updates and making everything basically move through as her life transforms. So I'm so excited to welcome Lisa Drucksman to the show. Hi, Lisa.

Thank you for those really kind words. Just made my day with. With all of that kindness. So thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Yay.

Yeah.

And I know even when I went up to your place where your. Where your office is, I mean, it's just everything about you is, like, sparkling, you know, and just you can just positivity streaming through. And I just. I love getting to see that. That you. It's just. It's gotta be so cool knowing what you've created.

Oh, thank you. I think my favorite part of everything you said was how you just noticed the energy and positivity of the team and the people who do the business. That means the world to me. So than for recognizing that. Oh, good.

Well, for everyone that has not heard your name yet and actually people that have, they might not know your story. So I'd love to start off and have you tell everybody a little bit about you and your background and your story.

Yeah, my pleasure. My name is Lisa Drexman and I am the chief founding mom of Fit for Mom. We teach fitness for every stage of motherhood. We are the franchisor, so we have franchisees across the country. We do have classes in person classes for every stage of motherhood. So we've got Fit for Baby for pregnant women. We have Stroller Strides, which was our flagship program. That was what I started with in 2001. Strides, 360 Stroller Bar, Run Club, Body, Ignite, Bodywell. Really, I am telling you, we have got something for everybody. And the thing that all of our classes have in common is giving women the strength in motherhood. The strength for us to come together as a community. Physical strength and strength to be the moms who we want to be. Yeah. And it did all start when I became a mom when Jacob was just three months old. August 2001. So right now, at the time we're recording, it's our 21 year anniversary. I guess we're old enough to drink and yeah, that was when I started Stroller Strides.

It's gotta be so cool to see your son growing and then knowing that your company is kind of right alongside his growth too.

It's crazy. When we did the 20 year anniversary last year, all of my original moms showed up and they all said that they've been friends the entire time and that they all just sent their kids off to college together. So that's pretty incredible.

That is amazing. So walk me through. Let's just start back to 2001, Lisa, and just, you are a new mom. Do you have a three month old baby? And what got you to just all of a sudden decide to do this?

Yeah, so it really was one of those light bulb moments that people talk about. I was a new mom. I was on maternity leave. I was the general manager at a really large health club. And being in the fitness industry, I love to work out and knew that I wanted to keep working out, but I didn't want to drop my son off at the gym daycare. So I created a stroller workout that I could do with him and literally a light bulb went off. And I remember this walk 21 years ago as if it were yesterday where I said, know what? I bet I could help other moms get back in shape after having a baby. And they can help me with all the things I need to know about motherhood because I had so many questions about nursing and sleeping and all the things. So I started a class in my local neighborhood, really more than anything, just because I wanted to build a mom community and I knew nothing about it. And apparently I wasn't the only one looking for it because long story short, it took off and turned into a big business.

That's amazing. So, number one, you just created because you have the fitness experience. You just created your own stroller workout just to get keep yourself in shape. And then once you. You were doing that regularly, you figured this could be something other moms were interested in. And then you also were basically excited about connecting with other moms to help you with the areas that you needed help with.

Yeah, it's all about community. It really is. I think all moms are looking to connect and to not feel alone. There's so much loss in motherhood. I mean, it's wonderful, but there's also just loss in identity and change in your body. And so by having a support system can really give a lot of strength.

I love so much about this because it's really just taking what you can from a situation and then making it into something even better. And really just. It's unbelievable when you think about how it started. I was wondering, that first meetup, how did you do you remember, like the details about that? How did you do that?

Yeah, I really wasn't looking to start like a business, so I created a flyer, I put it around my neighborhood, and I think I had four moms show up to the first class. I mean, I think I still remember their names. And again, I wasn't really looking for anything more than that. That really filled it for me. But what was funny was I got a call from the local news station and they said, lisa, will you come on and do a fitness story tomorrow morning? Really, they just needed a warm body. I used to do their fitness segments and I'm like, I'm on maternity leave. And then another light bulb went off and I'm like, I'm going to promote Stroller Strides like it's a business. And it so wasn't that we had to put my home cell phone, personal cell phone, or my personal email on the green screen. And I promoted a grand opening class that didn't even exist. And I said, it's going to be at Mission Bay on this date. And sure enough, when I got back from the Studio, there were 70 emails from women who wanted to join or start classes. And I had 40 women show up to that grand opening. And that was when I told my husband, I don't have to go back to work. I can turn this into a business. Wow.

And the thing that I think a lot of people don't realize, and this is why I'm actually, I'm thinking about this being a piece of the formula for the do the thing formula, which is what I'm dissecting through these interviews, is that idea of you not having to think of what the end is yet you just are following almost like the breadcrumbs. Right.

You just. Next step.

Yeah. And it's so cool because that's what gets everyone into that analysis. Paralysis is when they're going 40 steps ahead. And that's good for sometimes depending on what's going on. But when you're just exploring an idea, that's what you did. You just created this flyer, you passed it around, and you didn't care who showed up at that point. You just said, whoever shows up is great. And then the four moms that were there.

It's still what we teach our franchisees today. I mean, realize when I started it, there was no social media. There was very little on websites and stuff. We didn't use any of that. There was no Facebook. It was pure, just word of mom. So you needed to have a good class and have people talk about it. So with our franchisees, sometimes they get very caught up going, no, I need my website to be perfect or I need my email funnel to be perfect. No, you don't like, yes, we've got all of that for you. But you need to have a good class and you need to talk to moms. That's where you start.

How do you get them? Is that all you say? And does that solve that anxiety that's in their head, or do you have to then kind of help them through that more? Is there anything else that works for them?

I mean, we coach our franchisees quite regularly. We have a pretty great onboarding program where we really walk them through how to set up their business. Most of the moms who come to us as a franchisee have never owned a business before. They don't have an mba. So it's funny, our franchisees are everything from accountants to artists to teachers, nurses, all women who maybe realized that their career they had didn't fit who they wanted to be as a mom. And so while we're teaching them how to teach a fitness class, we're Also teaching them how to run a business. And so much of what we teach at Fit for Mom is how to balance and integrate. I think integrate is a better word. How to integrate work with life instead of work versus life. So many moms, so many caretakers are burned out. So lot of our content is teaching them how to take care of themselves.

Yes. So here's what I'm really curious about is you. You took this idea from the flyer to the four Moms and then built it into this insane business. Right. And so you've had to. And this is kind of. I experienced this too, where you almost like are growing up in your business, right?

Absolutely. It's.

You're trying to catch up to it with the growth. And I'm just wondering, how did, how did you do that? Because I feel like everything you've done is so systemized and your culture is so strong and enriched. I mean, I'm just wondering what that took.

Yeah. I believe in Kanai. Constant, never ending improvement. Who I am today will not be recognizable to the person that I'm going to be a year from now or five years from now. I don't recognize the person I was last year. I'm committed to growing and learning and you don't have to know all the things. I mean, we are so lucky to be living in a world of Google and a world where you can listen to this podcast. You can learn from the best of the best on podcasts. You can take online courses, you can join masterminds, you can learn from people who are one step beyond you and figure out wherever you want to go. So we have been figuring it out for the last 21 years and we continue to every stage of business. So depending on who's listening is different. To get to your first hundred thousand dollars takes a certain skill set. To get to your first million takes a certain skill set to. I find that it's the 3 million mark is the next one and then at 3 million to 10 million is completely different skills. And so you have to not only uplevel yourself, but up level your people, your processes, your systems.

Have you had a favorite mechanism for learning in terms of what's really helped you grow?

Honestly, the thing that probably comes into my head quickest is audible and podcasts. I don't go a single day without listening to a book or a podcast. On the weekends I read for pleasure. But during the week, every single day, when I walk my dogs, I'm trying to grow as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a manager. So I would say I do lots of things. I do coaching and I've done peer groups and masterminds. I've done all those things. But I think the easiest thing and the most consistent thing that I've done is just simply listening to podcasts and listening to books.

And that helps you. That's what I've noticed recently is just like all the new portals that open just from being able to have that as a daily routine.

Absolutely.

How does the accountability work with your. With your company? There's a lot of programs that are out there, and this is something I'm really investigating now. I'm looking at 12 step programs. I'm looking at online programs, I'm looking at fitness programs. And you know how like the gym, right. How many people are going to quit the gym after a certain amount of time? The same thing. Whether you're learning about productivity or stocks, if it's an online program or some kind of program that you follow, people can fall off pretty easily. And I, I just see the success rate is so great with the way that you've run your company. So I was just wondering if there was a certain system that you set in place to give them their own sense of accountability with each other, or is there something that you've done to kind of orchestrate that space for that for them?

I think so much of it is just setting out the map, really. We kind of set out what's your North Star? What's your why we always find out what our franchisees why is because it's very different. For some franchisees, they want to make six figures and some franchisees just want to make a little extra money and be home with their kids. So once we find out their why, we help them reverse engineer what are the goals that you want to set and how do you get there. And we have a pretty good example online education platform for learning the business and learning how to teach the classes. That is step by step and you check the boxes and you don't get to move forward until you've completed it. So I think beyond that, having a coach. So you get a coach with us for the first six months of being a franchisee, when you know that you're going to be meeting with your coach next week, you're going to get your homework done like you just do it. And we also have peer connect groups, so the franchisees meet monthly with small groups and same thing. They set goals with each other, both personal and business. And you check in on those goals and they're green, yellow, or Red and nobody wants to be red. So I mean, it happens, but it keeps us accountable.

And then with the green, yellow and red, how does that work? How are those differentiated?

So green means like, I am totally on track with my goal, doing great. Yellow means I'm a little bit off track. I'm experiencing some stumbling blocks. Red means nope, I am. I'm not following through. I've dropped the ball. I'm not doing it totally off track.

It's so cool hearing you talk about the way you've run, that you've run the business, because I'm almost done with dissecting the formula and every piece that I've looked at so far, we've almost talked about them all. So that's why I want to kind of read them back and then see if I'm missing anything. But surrounding yourself with like minded people, which is what you're, you're creating that space for them to, to do that, that. I'm still not sure how I'm wording this yet, but the breadcrumb idea of following the next step and not overthinking things down the road, educating yourselves, whether it's hiring, mentor, listening to podcasts, audibles, things like that. You've even mentioned reverse engineering your goals. That's so funny because that is one. But normally people don't say reverse engineer part, they just talk about the goals. So that would be the other part, finding your why. And then the accountability piece, which is the weekly meetings with the coach, it sounds like, and the peer group, the monthly peer groups as well. Oh, before we move on with that peer group, is there anything that they do in there to draw each other on or is it?

Yeah. So we have a structure for how the peer group meetings are run. So they first do check ins, they'll do a 1 through 10 rating on how they feel personally, professionally and in business. We separate out professional and business because especially as women, we tend to compartmentalize all the numbers. And so professional is, how are you doing as a leader? How are you doing professionally? How do you feel versus businesses? How is your business doing? So we, we check in with everybody on how they're doing, we check in on everybody's goals. So they do a quick goal check in and then they, they celebrate what's good. We, you know, really focusing on like what's kind of the top best thing that's happened since we last connected. And then they spend most of the time on a deep dive and they vote together on a topic that they want to deep dive and the format we do that is IDQs, which is what is the issue or ask questions about it. So everybody asks questions to make sure they understand it, then they do a discussion and then they come up with a solution.

I love every single little process and system you have. It feels like it's so intentional to be able to create the culture you want and then also the outcome too.

And I didn't make any of this up. So this, this, this really comes from what you were asking before. This is how we've evolved. These are things that we figured out. So they're a mix match of lots of different programs, lots of different things we've. And then you evolve it and make it your own.

So then the other piece that I'm still exploring, if I'm including this in the formula and I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on this. It's just that idea of surrender, kind of letting into the flow. It doesn't necessarily have to. It could be spiritual if you want it to be, but it also could just be kind of like flowing with whatever's next and not feeling like you have to resist everything. I'm not sure if that's anything that you've had to incorporate.

Yeah, I'm trying to. First of all, I love that and I think you should incorporate it. I'm trying to think of how that really ties into what we teach and what I. I mean, even what I experience in my own life. I. The thing that bubbles up for me on what you just mentioned is I really honor and hold sacred the different seasons. Different seasons of my life as far as being a mom. Different seasons as in really the world. And then just. Just how your energy flows. Like as a woman especially, our energy changes each month based on our cycles. Right. And so I really honor that there's sometimes a month that I am so focused and so gangbuster on work and there might be a day or two where I'm just not feeling it and I'm not that productive and I've learned to stop fighting it. And so this is where, when you said surrender, that what bubbled up for me. I'm okay with giving myself space to go recharge, to take a break. Like, I believe greatly that there is benefit and power in taking that break and recharging. I think that we burn out when we're pedal to the metal all the time. Is that how you say it? Yeah.

So, yeah, that's kind of what bubbled up for me when you mentioned the surrendering.

Thank you. That's what I was looking for, because I'm looking for some more language around it to make it mean exactly what I'm hoping. And I think you. You gave more context to it. What do you think or have you noticed? What helps you recharge the most?

For me, I have to be in nature every single day. So I start my day with a walk with the dogs, and I purposefully take the path where I'm walking on a dirt trail instead of on cement. So nature is essential. Being in my garden. And I think one of the best things that happened with the pandemic. You mentioned my office. We actually got rid of our office after a year and a half of nobody being able to use it at the pandemic. And so we're all working from home. But the benefit of working from home for me has been I'm very intentional about taking breaks. And so I'll go take a break and go work in my garden, or I'll take a break and walk the dogs. And that recharges me. And I feel like almost the more breaks I take, the more productive I am. Like, it used to be that I would hit three o' clock because I always started early and I'm just fried. And it would be such a hard push to keep going. Now it's almost like my energy is almost unlimited because I work in kind of intervals in the day.

What do you think gets in their way with being able to do the thing?

Motherhood. Motherhood is our greatest blessing and our greatest curse in our business. They bought the business because most of them want to be moms first and foremost. They struggle regularly. When they're working, they feel like they should be with their kids. When they're with their kids, they feel like they should be working. When they try to do both, nothing goes well. So teaching. We teach a lot about how to strategize your time. So even if a franchisee tells us they only want to work three hours a day, just how to time block, how to batch, how to break, and how to be really smart and efficient with that time to make it work.

You're helping people lose weight, get fit. And then also you do have. Oh, my gosh, the thing that I miss. And I don't know if you still do this. That Covid happened was that spray. I don't know if that was like an always. If everyone does. There was like the spray she did at the end of the workout.

Oh, yeah, very. It's not. You won't necessarily find it at every location, but Very often at the end of a class, the instructor will do some lavender spray or some lavender cool towels, that kind of thing. So yes, all those we really, we try to surprise and delight.

And I think that's what, it's what makes you feel like you're part of this movement because you get to like the fact that they had that moment of you honoring your body and the work that you just did. I mean, that's, that's not something you find.

I love that you experienced it that way. That's the intention.

So doing the thing for weight loss, doing the thing for fitness, that's a huge thing. Is there a system for that or are they just kind of coming and they work out or they don't?

It depends on which class they're joining. So if they're joining a stroller strides class or one of our stroller based workouts, it's funny, they come for the fitness, but they end up staying for the community. But what makes the fitness probably more special than they even realize is that it's designed for a mom's body. It's designed for the changes that happen during pregnancy. A woman's body will change more in 9 months of pregnancy than a man's will in his entire lifetime. We really work hard to create workouts that are going to help align her posture recenter her core, restrengthen her core, restore her pelvic floor. There are so many things happening in this fitness class that they might not even be aware of that that's the intention of it. So that's very purposeful in our workouts. It's not like you just go do burpees because that's what you see everybody else doing. Like, we think about what this mom's body actually needs in all of our classes. Our thing that we're working on is we want it to be this place that people feel a sense of positivity and a place of connection and strength. I've worked in the fitness industry for 30 years and let's face it, 85% of people don't work out. Most people have. There's no virgins in fitness anymore. And what I mean by that is everybody has exercised before and maybe not liked it or not had a good experience or felt like it's, you've got to be beating yourself up. We really work hard to create an exercise environment where you feel incredible. Doesn't mean it's not challenging you, but it's very positive, very supportive. There's no body shaming, there's no language that's body shaming. So that's our thing in fitness.

And then as far as the community you've built, what do you think has been the biggest way that you've been able to create that?

You know, it happened organically because when I started, I started it just as a fitness class. And what happened was all of a sudden moms asked, hey, can we do a playgroup afterwards? And then mom said, can we start doing a mom's night out? And then moms would say, hey, we want to do a meal train for this mom who's pregnant. It happened organically and then once we saw that those things worked, we now really coach and train our franchisees on. These are the things that you offer that build community. There's so many things you can do to build community. Most fitness companies don't think about traditions that you can have shared purpose that you have. All of those things, I think are what really has made the company so special.

Yeah, I love that so much of this has happened organically just from being able to be that visionary and be able to put this into place. And then people have been so inspired by that and really just sort of followed and then leading now their own path within your company.

Definitely, yeah, I came up with the idea, but it has been built with the love and hard work of many, many people over the last two decades.

So.

Cool.

So we talked about the franchisees and what's the hardest thing for them. What's been the hardest thing for you as you've been going?

Same motherhood.

It's the same because I started the business so I could be a mom first and foremost. Now as my kids grew up, the business grew up up or vice versa. So now it is no longer a struggle because I am mom to a 21 year old, so he's a senior in College and a 17 year old who's a senior in high school. So they no longer need me. They used to. And so I have more than enough time to work. So it is no longer a block. But that used to be the hardest thing was just finding the time to really, really focus on the work and move the company, but still be the mom that I wanted to be. Be.

Well, what would be your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the thing?

I'm going to go with Simon Sinek. Start with why first. Figure out why you want to do it. I believe in vision. What is the vision that you want to have for whatever the thing is, whether it's weight loss, fitness, the business that you want to create. Most people never think further out than a year. Like they do a New Year's resolution, right? So. So that's them thinking a year. Where do you want your life to be in three years from now? Where do you want your life to be in 10 years from now? Whatever it is. And so create the vision, then you create the strategy. Okay, what are the things that need to happen to make that vision come true? And then I think the last part that most people forget about is scheduling it. Those steps need to actually hit your schedule. They need to make it to your appointment book. Otherwise it doesn't happen. So that's how you bring it to life. So vision strategy, schedule would be my piece of advice.

And what do you think for vision when you were saying, like, what do you want your. Was it. What do you want your life to look like three years from now? Give an example of what that would look like.

I spend a decent amount of time dreaming and getting out of working on my business. So every quarter we take an unplugged day. Every employee has to take an unplugged day. And it's a day to day, daydream, recharge, do yoga, do whatever you want to do. I take a day to really think about these kinds of things. And so I'll go through all aspects of my life and I think about financially, where do I want to be? Where do I want to be with my health, where do I want to be with my marriage, with my relationships, with fun, with friends, with adventure? And I start to think about it and think about what's possible and then think about, okay, out of all those things, what's most important that I actually want to create a strategy for?

So good. Well, is there anything I did not ask you that you wish I asked you?

That's a great question, I guess how to find a Fit for mom class.

Which I would. That's a great answer. Go to Fit for Mom and it's fit with the number four mom.com, whether it's to find a class or find out about becoming an instructor or a franchisee and just joining our community.

Thank you so much, Lisa. This is incredible. It was so such an honor to be able to talk to you about this.

Thank you, Stacy, for having me on your show and best of luck to you with the podcast.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on doing the Thing that you'd like answered. How about an inspiring do the thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all of you about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothothing callcast. Co or email us at hello at dothingpodcast. Com.