Educator Spotlight: Brooke Bowersock

Interview Transcript

Dylan: Hello, Brooke. It’s me, Dylan.

Brooke: Hi.

Dylan: Welcome to the Educator Spotlight.

Brooke: Yes. Happy here. If you don’t mind giving us a start, just let us know a little bit about yourself, please. Okay. I’m Brooke. I live in Austin. I have been teaching for, since 2000, and I’ve been an educator for Balanced Body since 2016. I own Align Pilates Studios, and right now, we have three locations. So I have my original location, I in Austin downtown, and then I have my that opened in 2013. And then in 2020, we expanded to our second location. I took over a studio that was just kind of done when the pandemic decided to stick around, so I took over her studio in East Austin, and we’ve since, like, tripled in size. And then we just opened Houston, Align Pilates Studios Houston this month really. Well, actually January, January 1 was our full launch. So three studios yeah, busy, busy and just loving every day, grateful that I get to do this job.

Dylan: So how long has it been that you’ve had three studios? I mean, that seems like a lot.

Brooke: So I’ve had three studios since December. I had two since 2020 on, but I opened my first studio in 2004. So I’ve owned studios in Austin since 2004 in different capacities, sold businesses, bought businesses and yeah kind of had done, done it all, so yeah.

Dylan: Yeah. Sounds like quite a journey. I’m excited to, to dig into it. Tell us, like, even before you started all these studios or took them over or whatever, how did you get into Pilates? What drew you to Pilates? What’s, like, your Pilates journey like?

Brooke: Yeah, it’s kind of wild. I think we all… You know, I do these intros in every module, and so I feel like they’re all kind of the same story, just a little bit different. Somehow we found Pilates, and somehow it changed our lives, and somehow we decided that we were gonna teach it. That’s kind of where, where we all fall into it, and it’s it’s the same story. I was a college student. I was working full time during the day, a full time job, to pay for school full time in the evenings, and so very much on a budget. And and I took a summer school class. I was living a block from the beach, and I wanted to learn to surf because my boyfriend at the time was surfing. And I was terrible at it, and this summer school class was on the schedule called Conditioning for Dance, and it was, it was… It said, “Balance and flexibility, coordination.” It didn’t say Pilates at all, and if it would have, I would have never heard of Pilates anyway, so it wouldn’t have, like, been a draw for me. I just liked what it said it was going to offer because I thought, “Cool, this will help me surf.” It was a six-week course. It was Monday through Thursday, and it was mat Pilates when I got into it. We started doing pre-Pilates exercises, and we went through the mat. I had no idea that the lawsuit was going on and that’s why they couldn’t call it Pilates, but that’s why it was called Conditioning for Dance. I had been a soccer player my whole life for… up until my senior year of high school, and I had had this shooting pain going down my left leg that I thought was normal. I thought everybody had it. Within two weeks of that class… And I could not do the exercises very well at all, but still, within two weeks of that class, the pain was gone. And so I told the instructor, I’m like, “Hey, I’ve had this shooting pain. It’s gone.” And she said, “Well, that’s called sciatica, and that’s not normal.” And so that was the first kind of piece that it was like, “Wow, there’s something to this.” And then by the end of it, I just had this change in kind of how I saw my body moving, how I wanted to put in what, what I wanted to put into my body food-wise. It really was this catalyst for where, where I am now in so many ways. And so I couldn’t afford to do Pilates at the time outside of that class. At the time, there were no classes. Like, group classes weren’t a thing. It was private, and I definitely did not have the money for that. The teacher was like, “You should get certified to teach.” She told me who to go through. Balanced Body wasn’t an education thing in… at that time, so she told me who to go through. And she was like, “You can even open your own studio one day,” and I was like, “No, I’m gonna be a second grade teacher. I don’t wanna do that at all.” And it took me a year to get up the courage to finally be able to do it, and I would do, like, VHS’s at the time, however I could keep doing it, and then I finally got up the courage to go, and I went to Beverly Hills, and I took from Maria Leone, who’s actually a dear friend and is an educator for Balanced Body . I took my first training with her, and it was such a scary step, but I can’t imagine my life had I not done that. I mean, I, I truly am so grateful every single day and kind of in awe that this is my job, and it keeps getting better and better and better. And so I’m so glad that I took that step because I don’t know where I would be had I not taken it. Yeah.

Dylan: That’s a great story. So you basically started Pilates because you wanted to surf.

Brooke: Yeah, and I still don’t surf.

Dylan: And then it became… It kind of, like, took over your life.

Brooke: It took over my life, yeah. It is, it is now,

Dylan: a good way, of course.

Brooke: Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Dylan: That’s awesome. Yeah, I love hearing people’s stories about how they find it. Usually, there’s some sort of, like, moment when, like, “Wow, I feel so much better doing this. I want to share this with others.”

Brooke: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty great. Do you do Pilates?

Dylan: A little bit. I’ve, I’ve… Since I’ve started with Balanced Body, I’m doing it more and more. I do it There’s a Saturday class at my gym. It’s like a mat class. So I’ve been dabbling with that, and it’s… I really enjoy it, so.

Brooke: Good.

Dylan: I can’t say I’m, like, super hooked yet, but I’m sure, I’m sure it’ll hit at some point. I do feel better. Like, my back feels better.

Brooke: Good. Yeah. That’s the goal.

Dylan: Mm-hmm. So let’s talk shop, Brooke.

Brooke: Okay.

Dylan: Tell me a little bit about your current business model. How do you describe your business as it stands today?

Brooke: Okay. So, I decided when I was when I started this teacher training idea of bringing it to my studios, and then I, like, accepted the fact that they would want me to be an educator, I thought I would just host things and bring people in. That’s back when I had one studio, I just had my normal studio. And it was it didn’t feel like enough for me to just teach a module a month and then not see these students, and to just, like, hope that they get all of the stuff I’m trying to pound into their heads over 16 hours in a weekend. It I knew it wasn’t enough, and so I decided to start a mentor program. And that’s not unique to me. I you know, I had that idea, and then I went to one of the conferences that Balanced Body brought us all together for, I can’t remember which one, and they had a couple people up on on the stage that were educators that were doing mentor programs. And so this was right when I was getting started. It you know, I’m not the only educator that does them, but I knew I needed a mentor program. And so, I created something way back before I even was an educator, a kind of a framework for how I would support the teachers beyond the modules, because the work is really when you start teaching, right? So if you don’t have somebody guide you when you start practicing teaching, you’re not you could miss so much. And so there was something so rich about my experience of getting certified, where I just kind of lived in a studio for two years, and you just soak up everything you can, from, like, the instructors running around to use something as a prop to help a client, or how they engaged with them before and after class, or, you know, how they work with each other. There’s just so much richness in being in a studio. So I knew that I wanted to do more than just teach the modules, and so I created this mentor program. At the time, I had to close down classes on the weekends of my regular studio to do the modules, and then if I wanted to offer classes to the mentor program, I had to figure out where I could fit those in in a schedule so I didn’t upset members. But the so I did one module a month and very little mentor program because my studio was operating at full capacity for paying client members in order for me to make my overhead. It had to from a business standpoint.

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: I did the best I could then, and it was great, it worked fine, but there were some limitations to running my teacher training and running my mentor program out of a fully functioning, regular to the client studio. So when I took over I’m I’m in the East location right now, I’m in my office and my virtual studio. And so when I took over what was called Feel Good Pilates in the second location, it was much smaller, it’s in a neighborhood that’s up and coming. The rent is much, much lower. And so we modeled this studio kind of like a beauty school. So the people like let’s take just a beauty school example. I’m gonna go to a beauty school salon to get my hair cut. I know that the person is in training. I know that it probably isn’t gonna be the best hair cut, but I’m paying a pretty good price, and so that trade-off is worth it. That’s what we did at East. So our East studio is a teacher training studio, so we run all of our modules over here. We now run, like four or five modules a month. We run our entire mentor program over here, and everyone who’s teaching at the studio either is, like, completing their hours to get certified or just got certified to teach. And everyone’s paying a lower price and they know that everybody’s in training. They work with I mean, our mentor program, we send, like seven classes a week, practice teaching, open studio times. It’s really built to walk the journey with the student, and then when they graduate, sends them off to other studios but they’ve learned how to work in a studio, how to work with each other, how to retain clients, how to teach all during that time. So that’s been really successful. It’s so fun, and it’s, like people fly in from all over to stay here for a while, to be a part of it, to get that experience. And so people were coming in from Houston a lot, like 10 people per module. I realized, well there’s a need for Houston, and and Joy was kind of picking up on this teacher training studio thing, this beauty school model. We test out a lot of people because I’m walking along the journey with them. And so we replicated the East teacher training studio for Houston. So I have a couple different business models, right?

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: I have like my teacher training studios, my beauty schools, and then I’ve got my fully functioning studios that are only certified experts, like cream of the crop. And we’re expanding those as well, so expanding teacher training studios and studios. Yeah.

Dylan: That sounds like just like a really creative solution, you know, because first of all as, like a client, if you were to seek pilates, like if you think back to, like when you were, like in college … and just starting out and you couldn’t really access

Brooke: Yeah. Right.

Dylan: maybe it makes it a little more accessible for those folks.

Brooke: It does. It’s

Dylan: So it’s good for them. And then on the education side, you almost have like this little incubator

Brooke: Yeah.

Dylan: for pilates future instructors because they can go and actually get the side education that I think a lot of well actually I don’t know but I’m guessing there’s not as much easy support to get those practical hours and that stuff.

Brooke: Yeah, it’s hard. Especially because, you know, you can do it within your educator studio, and that’s a great option, as long as the educator will let it. and I know too, like this is this is what I do now. Like I have some private clients that I teach, but very few. It’s like four a week. I’m not teaching any classes at my west studio. I have a I have a team that makes this all possible. This is a machine. I we have nine modules a month and I’m, you know, like I am boots on the ground with the students in the mentor program. This isn’t really possible for a lot of people that are just running their brick and mortar studios, and it’s them teaching most the time and they’re just doing a module here and there as, you a supplemental way to enhance the community and make some money. So yeah, I think it can be really hard. … hard for students to get their hours and it definitely, it’s, it, it keeps them, I mean, they are going. It, it’s up to them. They have to show up and be here. But, but we’re here ready to help support them.

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: Yeah.

Dylan: Fantastic. So I need to ask this question because it’s something that Joy was also curious about.

Brooke: Okay.

Dylan: If you were to break the success of your business or your framework into, like, pillars of

Brooke: Uh-huh.

Dylan: what pillars would they be? How many would they be? What would you say to that?

Brooke: Okay. I would say, the first, I mean, I’m not really I’m gonna answer the best that I can as far as pillars of the success go. I am all of this is self-taught. So I will say that. I am, I ended up, I don’t say this very often and I’m telling the world right now, I, the world of Balanced Body educators, I didn’t finish college. So, I ended up staying in California for, like, another year, and then moving to Texas. That’s where I was originally from, and so I ended up moving to Austin, not back where I was from, but to Austin. And I, I had gained residency in California, and I needed, I had one year left to finish school here. And so, I waited a year to gain residency, and then I started school, and then I found out that I was pregnant with my now 21-year-old daughter. And I was already teaching Pilates and I just was like, “Okay, I’m gonna take a break for while. I’ll come back to this later.” No intent of opening a studio at all. I had, was working at a studio, actually a Ron Fletcher Certifying Studio here, was teaching some classes at the YMCA, and I had a part-time job, like, at a restaurant. And then I had my daughter, I had a little studio in our, like, we had a little shed in our backyard that I had a little studio in. And then I subbed a class at a, at a, at a studio in Austin, a dance studio, and there was a space available, and I thought, “This cute.” And so that was my first studio. So, I didn’t finish college. I definitely have no business degree at all. My, my education was, like, teaching, which is definitely, I think, like, it’s the same thing. But I, I would say my pillars to success, first off, way back then, understanding that if I could make my instructors happy, that my clients would be happy. So, that was my motto. If I can, you know, happy instructors make for happy clients. So, I wanted to pay them well, I wanted to give them continuing education opportunities, I wanted to create community. So, like, community, huge. Whether that’s, whether that’s with my team or with my, my clients. But understanding that they, I needed to support them, and if I could make them happy, that was gonna resonate and come across to the clients. That, and learning. So I would say, like, community, big. Learning, I am a lifelong learner, I cannot stop. I have a session with Cara Rees or my mentor right after this at noon. Like, I can’t stop learning. Maria Leone was just here for a weekend workshop where I … And Leslie Logan was here at the beginning of the month. Like, I’m a big, big promoter of, of education, continuing education, really continuing to learn. And then, I think the last thing that I would say, and I don’t know if it’s a pillar, but it’s, it’s like, I, I have not forgotten what it felt like to be the student. So, I really approach every module as though it’s their first module, and they’re that terrified student walking in the door and they’re not sure if they’re in the right place and they don’t know if they can do this. And I want to dispel that, like, just dissipate that right off the bat and say, like, “I was that student and look what I’m doing now.” And I, seriously, every day, multiple times a day, look around, and I’m like, “How is this my job?” Like, I’m in an adult playground. I’m, like, barking at people what to do when they’re doing it. They’re, like, people are feeling better, I’m helping people, I’m helping people, like build their dreams. And now, even a step farther, people that I’ve been teaching for a while, I’m helping them become educators. Shereé is there right now in Balanced Body becoming an educator. So, I don’t know. I guess, let me see. Pillars. I would say community, education. These are, like, my values. Community, education, and opportunity, probably And I don’t mean opportunity for me. Like, I think about this a lot, because I really pushed myself a lot last year. I taught five modules a month, a lot. I mean, I really, I did, I overdid it last year. I was in growth mode. All set up for this year, which will be much easier. Time and space is coming. But I will say, there were multiple times where I’m like, “What am I doing? I feel like I’m really not being good to myself and pushing it too hard. Why am I doing this?” So I would get really, really clear on, like, what is my why? Because if I can know my why, and it’s the same with an exercise or how I, like, if I understand the why, then I’m good. So, it all boils down, if I peel it all back to we, my team, this whole thing that we’re doing, we’re creating opportunities. Opportunities, yes, for myself. It has changed my financial, like, my daughter is in out-of-state college and I can pay for that. That’s fantastic. For my son, I can put him through private school. You know, like, I can it gives me opportunities, opportunities for my kids to have this education. But opportunities for the people that are coming in to do Pilates to feel better. The teachers that are coming in to live their dreams, the educators. Now I have, I have three other educators on my team. It’s changing their financial futures. So, opportunity, I think. I don’t know. I guess those would be my three.

Dylan: Do you see a, like, a unique opportunity in Pilates right now?… like versus times in the past?

Brooke: Oh, well, I it’s

Dylan: Is,

Brooke: well, I think our modules started selling out about, for sure, two years ago. So I I think, I think is Pilates more popular than it ever has been before? Yes, for sure. Is that bringing more people through the door in both the studio aspect and the teacher training aspect of it? Yes, for sure. I think, I think it’s, it’s an interesting time. I call it the wild, wild west of Pilates. It’s But I think we all have … I’ve done this forever. You know, there have been so many waves ’cause I started this so long ago. There were other waves where it was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s four Pilates studios on the block.” You know?

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: And we’re definitely back there now where it’s like, there’s eight Pilate studios on the block. And I think my philosophy, it’s the same with the instructors. Like I’m, we stay in our lane, and we continue to do just the best job that we can do. And if I’m giving the best experience to my people that are walking through the door, if I’m giving the best experience to my students that are walking through the door, then at the end of the day, I can feel good about what I did. And so I try really hard to create community within the Pilates out there and to be a place to send their people that wanna get trained and need continuing education. But aside from that, like I’m not … I’m just staying right here and trying to do the best job that we can do and make the experience here the best that it can be. And so I think it’s two things. I think because we do that, we’re known for that experience, and it, it, our end, the popularity is bringing through, people through the door. So I think it’s both.

Dylan: I see.

Brooke: Yeah.

Dylan: You mentioned community a number times now.

Brooke: Yes.

Dylan: And I think from the little bit Joy has told me, that’s something that you do really, really well. She said you, you focus really well on the customer

Brooke: Mm-hmm.

Dylan: and engaging people. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the things you’ve tried that really build community and some of the

Brooke: Yeah.

Dylan: maybe have, have been a flop?

Brooke: Yeah. I mean, we … The, I was, before the pandemic, I was bringing in at like celebrity Pilates instructors like once a year for workshops. And so that is a big thing of who I’ve always been, even from way back in 2004. And so I, I just want, I wanna better Pilates as a whole and not be competitive. I wanna, I wanna be collaborative, not islands. And so that kinda translates to everything. So I knew that if I could be a place to bring continuing education in, then I could build that community more. And so that’s been, a method for me to do it within the Pilates community here in Austin and Texas and beyond. And then when the pandemic hit, that all stopped obviously, and then we, in like April of 20 … I don’t know. No, December, October of 2020 or 2021? 2021. I was doing a lot of teacher training. We had expanded over here already. This model, this beauty school model, was killing it. The people were happy to pay less, teachers were coming through the door. It was so fun, and it still is. So we were really focusing on getting new teachers going, and I realized, “Okay, we’re getting back into the studio to teach finally.” It was October. “I think we’re, like we’re all hungry for some continuing education.” So I did a summit. I did a conference where I brought in like eight instructors, and that brought in people from everywhere. So I think finding ways to keep this community going with continuing education is a big piece of what we do. Now a … my students are breaking off and opening studios. There are eight on every block in Austin. And a lot of them are my students, and I don’t wanna be like, “Oh my gosh, you can’t …” Somebody said to me a long time ago when I was just doing this, it was like my ex-boyfriend’s mother. She was like, “Brooke can’t teach teachers how to teach because then they’re gonna be her competitors.”

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: I was like, “No, they’re not. They’re not gonna be my competitors ’cause that’s not the way I roll,” you know? Like the more, the merrier. Let’s … As long as we’re respectful and honest and transparent with each other, you know, good, go, do it. And so that’s the real opportunity and kind of legacy that I think I’ll continue to build is like yes, they’re going out there and they’re getting, they’re opening their own studios, but then they’re coming here for continuing education. They’re coming here to send their people to learn to teach so that they can join their team. So I think as far as that goes, that’s how I do the community piece. As far as the students themselves, like there’s, I’ve … Because I do this for a living, I’m teaching five modules a month, we’re doing nine modules a month between all the educators, and I have the mentor program, I understand the gaps that are there between communication they’re getting and what they’re not and what their experience is. And so I, I have been bridging that gap for a while with the mentor program, but with our own communication. You know, we have a big … I don’t just like … There, they get a lot of like emails with tips, and I have a a YouTube channel, and we have over … videos that they can watch. So it’s just like making sure that the students have a clear understanding of how they can get the resources they need to fulfill what they need, what those things are. Like we’ve, have our own guides. We do, like this is our little corporate office.

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: Like all the manuals live there. This is like our work station over here to where we build all these folders out.

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: Every module, we have this whole like folder. And then behind me over here is like my reformer for my virtual studio because this is also like this moves out and this is where I do my online modules. So they, I think, just communication, is probably, communication, understanding where the gaps are for the students, and trying to fill those in without being, you know, overly annoying I think.

Dylan: How did you like get that mindset where, you know, you’re not fueling competition? Because I know that can be definitely like a do you, feel like that would be a, a barrier to some people’s success if they’re trying to like like see, see each other as, as competitors versus collaborators?

Brooke: I think it’s a barrier. I think it’s, I think it’s bad energy, number one. Like who

Dylan: Mm-hmm.

Brooke: feeling that way all the time? Not me. I love my job. I wanna feel good every time I come here. And so, yeah, I just, I’m not … It’s really hard when you’ve got … We have, like, 53 employees, so, you know, and most of them are women. And so, you know, even just taking it to one studio. In my first one, like, I don’t allow for, like, competitiveness within the studio. I don’t allow for gossipy. Like, I don’t want that sort of … I don’t want to have to come to a place that I don’t wanna walk into ’cause it doesn’t feel good. And so, that is just kind of how it … I think because that’s how I wanna operate in life, that those kind of … It spreads everywhere to where I don’t wanna be … Like, I, it will work better if we work together. This … Owning studios can feel really, really lonely, and really, really scary. And anybody who’s watching this that’s an educator that owns a studio knows exactly what I’m talking about. And especially because most of us don’t have a business background. So, figuring out the numbers, figuring out, like, all of that, it it can feel really, really scary. And I think if you don’t lean on your peers that are going through similar experiences, it’s just gonna be so much worse. So, you know, like Maria was just here for her workshop. We spent three hours at dinner talking, you know? It’s like, she’s owned studios for as, you know, longer than I have, and it’s just like, it feels really good to create community within. And I think everybody here in Austin know, that knows me and that their students have gone through, like, they know. I get people, studio owners reaching out to me all the time, like, “Hey, I have a question.” You know? And so, I think we can help each other. We don’t need to be, to be afraid of each other, or talking bad about each other, or, you know, anything like that.

Dylan: Yeah, it’s

Brooke: know,

Dylan: … to stay, like you said, you know, really focused on the instructors you work and the students and the

Brooke: … and when you’re wrapped up in … like, all that stuff. Drama. Yeah, no, no thank you. Yeah

Dylan: So, is there something … Like, looking back at the start of your journey, there’s many other that are starting out. They want to make

Brooke: Huh.

Dylan: bigger part of their

Brooke: Huh.

Dylan: they’re, they’re struggling.

Brooke: Struggling.

Dylan: Is there any

Brooke: Yep.

Dylan: you would give to, like, your past

Brooke: Huh.

Dylan: you were first starting out?

Brooke: … I think you just have to make it work with where you are now, you know, in, within your business. So like, at the time that I started, I could only do one module a month, and it was … I was teaching, you know, 27 hours a week on top of that. And I knew I wanted to give more support, and I gave what I could, right? And I didn’t have these expectations of doing what I’m doing now. There’s no way. I wouldn’t have I would have never imagined that I’m doing what I’m doing now. So, just start with where you are and accept, like … Give the little bit of extra support that you can give. I think that, that’s really what the students are looking for, I think. I think in the beginning, I spent a lot of time reviewing what I was gonna be teaching, you know? The week before, I would watch the videos, I would go through the PowerPoints, and I would go through the hour-by-hours, and I made my own hour-by-hours that were a little bit more guiding for me, that in, in what I needed, and I, I was more nervous about teaching the right stuff, even though I knew I wanted the student experience to be good. I mean, I knew that. But I wasn’t really … I didn’t know, I hadn’t been taught how they need to learn, how they’re going to learn to teach. And so, I think go back to, like, when you’re feeling overwhelmed about what you’re gonna teach. You know, definitely review your stuff. You know what you’re gonna teach. You do know this work, or you wouldn’t be a master educator, or whatever we’re called now. And try to really like, zoom in on what the client, like, the customer student experience is, and how you can help them. I think I was maybe more me-focused in the beginning ’cause I was so scared. But I’m definitely, like, now all I care about is, like … ‘Cause I know this stuff. I mean, I can tell you exactly what we’re gonna be doing in Reformer One all the way through. I teach it so often, so now I’ve spent the past year or two really doing research on how students learn, and how to help them. So, yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1<|agent|><|en|>

Dylan: What’s one big thing that you learned about how students learn, or …

Brooke: I think that it can be overwhelming for them to have to go teach every exercise. I, we, we all do it differently. We are all given a guide on how this is supposed to go. And from my understanding, we all do it a little differently. I definitely have my students practice teach. So, they go through, we go through kind of this cycle where I’m gonna teach out an exercise, they’re gonna watch me teach it to somebody, I’ll teach it to a small group that some students are watching that. Then, I’ll do that for, like, six exercises that go together, and then I put ’em in groups, and they’re gonna practice teach some of those. I used to have ’em in pairs, and I would teach one exercise, and then teach it to the group, and then have them go teach that exercise. Bring them back, do the next, do the next, do the next. And so, everybody taught every exercise, and it was just too overwhelming for them to do that many. I think being strategic about, like, how you put them in little teach-out groups, and how they can … I think they retain the information better if you do not every exercise, but they still practice teach.

Dylan: Awesome. I wanna be cognizant of your time. I think we’ve gone a little bit over.

Brooke: Oh, have, have we? Okay. Did … answer all your questions?

Dylan: I got a … more for you.

Brooke: Okay.

Dylan: …first of all, who has helped you along your journey? Do you have any mentors or team members that inspired you or that made a difference?

Brooke: Oh my gosh, I think probably my clients, big time. I’ve had the same clients forever. They are like family. They’ve been along the way with me doing all this crazy stuff, you know, just “Go, Brooke, go.” My ex-husband, who was the guy who was surfing in California that I wanted to learn to surf with, he is probably my biggest cheerleader. We share two daughters, and he’s my “Go, Brooke, go.” And definitely, I could not do this without my team. Like, I have, I have a team of educators, but I have a team that this teacher training studio thing is a beast, and it’s in two cities. So, my team for sure. Joy’s been a big, a big cheerleader of mine as well. So that’s been really nice because no one really knew what I was doing. I’ve been doing this for like 10 years now. Nobody was really paying attention, and Joy started to see and was like, “What is she doing over there?” And so, I think, yeah, I think they’re all super helpful.

Dylan: That’s awesome. What’s in the future for you? What are you looking forward towards? And then, what are some of the like barriers that you see going forward with your business? And then what are some… I guess this is like three questions in one.

Brooke: Okay.

Dylan: And then what, what excites you, either about business or life?

Brooke: Okay. Let’s see. What was the first one? The first one was where do I see my business going? Right now, I think, right now, I am really excited about this year. Last year was my crazy year of growth, and now, I’ve told my team this, I’m telling my family this. Like, this is the year where we’re not doing anything new. We built a lot of systems last year. We built a lot of processes last year, and we built more studios last year. We’re gonna sit back and we’re gonna watch all of our hard work kind of start to roll, tweak it, see where we need to make changes, but just watch all of our hard work from last year, like, come. I can also see now time and space. I’m about to roll… I’m looking at calendars. I am about to roll into six days of teacher training in a row. I have tomorrow, mat one for three days, then I go to Houston for three days. But then, and this never would have happened last year, I don’t have another module until the 21st. I have time and space. And so, that’s where, that’s what I’m looking forward to right now is watching all of our hard work kind of come into play and improve it. But sitting back and enjoying that, that hard work. I think that the industry itself… I’m a little nervous, but I’m also like optimistic always. I think that what I’m nervous about is there’s so many crazy things happening in like studios opening with videos and some of them hot reformer, like, and 30 reformers in a room. I think we’re all hearing this stuff. I am afraid that that’s gonna come with a lot of injury, and I don’t think it will last, I think because people don’t understand that it’s not as simple as being on a spin on a bike. It’s not the same. I think injuries will happen. Those things are gonna close down. I think that it’s a matter of time before those sorts of things kind of fall away. I think that those of us that are doing Pilates with integrity and teaching it the way that we always have, we’ll be fine. We’re gonna stick around. It’s gonna be great. I think we might have some damage control that we have to do if some people’s experience with Pilates were those. But, you know, again, I’m just gonna keep doing the best that I can do and keep just going, you know, stay true to who we are, what our why is, and and, you know, no sense in worrying about things that we can’t control. And then I forgot.

Dylan: Well, awesome. Awesome.

Brooke: Did you have another question?

Dylan: I’ve got a ton questions, but I just want… I know you’re busy.

Brooke: I have a 12:00 with Kara, but I can go right up until then. I’m fine with that.

Dylan: Okay.

Brooke: actually don’t remember what the other question was.

Dylan: What has been like a key highlight of your journey? I know you mentioned, obviously, clients have really inspired you.

Brooke: Yeah, clients have definitely me.

Dylan: but is there…

Brooke: Yeah. I

Dylan: Is there

Brooke: probably my thing that I feel like has had the biggest impact on my trajectory is a couple years ago, Joy brought us, like 30 of us together. She does this thing where she does small groups sometimes, and I was in a small group sometime, and then she does small groups elsewhere that I’m not part of, but I was a part of this one small group, and it was like… I don’t know what it was, but she brought in Kara Reecer, and basically, for the first part of every day, Monday through Friday, we got to work with Kara and listen to how Kathy Grant, one of the first generation teachers, taught a course that she called Before the Hundred. And first day, it impacted how I’d been doing these moves for 23 years. And then, I kind of became obsessed with Kara and started studying with her, went through her Heritage training. I now I’m still working with her. I’m about to go have a session with her, and I’m sending like four of my teachers again in, in March, and I’ll be there too to study with her. So, it’s had the biggest impact, that one experience has had the biggest impact of who I am as a teacher. It’s made my teaching so much easier, whether that’s clients, whether that’s students on how to teach, and I can’t like I’m just so grateful because that really veered me in a direction that I wasn’t expecting.

Dylan: So, you’re glad that you attended that, that small group?

Brooke: So, so glad. Yes. Yeah.

Dylan: Yeah.

Brooke: It was great.

Dylan: Cool. That’s all I have for you today, Brooke.

Brooke: Okay.

Dylan: Thank you so much for the time. Really glad that you’re leading the charge of educating people in Pilates.

Brooke: Pretty fun. It’s the best. It’s the best and it only gets better. So okay. Glad… Hopefully, hopefully I helped other people out there who are, who are in this journey.

Dylan: I’m sure.

Brooke: Yeah. Okay, and then it was really lovely to meet