Pilates Studio Owner at 23 Years Old - Sheridan St. Claire

Alan Li (00:01) Welcome to opening soon, a podcast where we interview retail founders about how they started and run their brick and mortar businesses. I'm your host, Alan Li, I run Signs and Mirrors where we make beautiful signs and furniture for retail stores. I also help run FotoLab a self-portrait studio with locations in New York city and Houston.

Alan Li (00:43) Sheridan, thanks so much for taking the time. We're excited to you on the Opening Soon podcast.

Sheridan (00:47) Thanks, Alon. I'm so excited to be here.

Alan Li (00:49) So before we get started into symmetry, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background, what you were doing before, and what got you inspired to starting a Pilates Studio.

Sheridan (00:58) Well my name Sheridan St. Clair. I opened Symmetry Pilates in St. George, Utah. But there was kind of a lot of things that happened leading up to opening a Pilates studio. It definitely wasn't what I had originally planned. But I was a gymnast before And I kind of had developed a love for discipline and fitness and that sort of thing. But when you get older, there's not

that much to go off of from there. know, once you're an athlete, it kind of feels a little lost in the world and I wasn't doing like college gymnastics or anything like that. just kind of had to shift my focus, I guess you could say, on how I was going to work out and how I wanted to move my body and that sort of thing. ⁓ So I did it all the way up until about ninth or 10th grade. And then I shifted to

Alan Li (01:39) How long were you doing gymnastics for?

Sheridan (01:47) try like dance and cheerleading and some other things. And then they kind of just, you know, was like gave up on that. was just moving on with my life, I guess you could say. It's almost like when you get older as an athlete, either you do that as your full-time gig or you're done. Like there's nowhere to go really after that. ⁓ And I had started a program in Utah for exercise science and they kind of tell you when you start that, like either you're going to go on to be a physical therapist or...

Alan Li (02:03) Makes sense.

Sheridan (02:14) you know that's about it. And I was like okay well great. And so I took a semester to do study abroad and I did my you know some some schooling in Florence Italy and

Alan Li (02:27) I love

Florence. It's so beautiful there.

Sheridan (02:30) my God, it was incredible. And I was like, no one really works out here. It's very hard to find a quote unquote gym, a regular fitness facility. And I had tried Pilates just before I went there and I went and thinking, I wish I had somewhere to work out and somewhere that was like Pilates where you can rehab but you can also do something that pushes you, kind of how gymnastics did where you learn new things and you strive for new goals.

Alan Li (02:40) Yeah.

Sheridan (02:59) So I didn't do a whole lot of fitness there, but I realized like everyone's very fit. And you know, how is that?

Alan Li (03:01) Mm-hmm.

feel like everyone says when they go to Europe,

they come back losing five or 10 pounds even though they stuffed themselves with pasta.

Sheridan (03:12) It's so real, it's so real. I was shocked. was like, is this possible? And it wasn't working out. I would here and there go to the little gym that was around, but nothing like you would expect in the States where you have to work out every day and you have to do X, Y, and Z. So that kind of led me to be like, maybe this low impact working out thing where you feel good in your body and you walk and you do some light exercise or...

Alan Li (03:22) Yeah.

Sheridan (03:36) move your body in a way that just feels good, that's the key for them over there. They don't have like a rigorous training program or unless you're in a sport like soccer or like polo, water polo, things like that, like you're not really at your sport all day. So that was very, very intriguing to me, you know, coming back to the States.

Alan Li (03:53) Yeah.

Yeah. And you said you were doing rehab. that from, like rehab in your time from dance and from gymnastics, you were doing low impact. Is that what that means?

Sheridan (04:02) Yeah, I was actually kind of beat up after gymnastics. I mean, I was only like 19 and I had two bad rotator cuff injuries and my back was hurting, my knees were hurting. I was having to get like a sports massage every week at one point, which is expensive. And obviously not everyone can do that, but I was just like trying to hold on for dear life. And I met this woman that introduced me to Pilates and

Alan Li (04:13) no.

Wow. Yeah, I bet.

Sheridan (04:31) she helped me heal in like three months. I mean, I was at the point where I was gonna need surgery for both shoulders and she's like, no, like, let me show you the way, let me show you what Pilates can do for you. And so I was in like a class of like, I mean, all my friends in class were like 60, 70 years old, like using it for rehab. And I was like, I kind of love it here. Like, and I don't have to overly extend myself how I did in gymnastics. I can just do functional movement that makes me feel good.

and get the same results, if not better.

Alan Li (04:58) Yeah.

And this was the classes in Italy.

Sheridan (05:02) This was just before Italy, this was in Utah, and there was only one or two people that did this type of Pilates where I lived. And then I went abroad and I actually came back and was still, there was nowhere to do it, so I moved to Oahu, Hawaii. And...

Alan Li (05:10) Mm-hmm.

I have a funny

story, it's much longer, but that's where I met my wife. I met my wife in Oahu. Yeah, yeah, we got married there last year.

Sheridan (05:22) You what? wow, amazing. Yeah, mean,

that's incredible, congrats. I met this amazing woman there that taught on the North Shore and she let me kind of just shadow her and work a couple hours here and there. She didn't have a ton of work for me to do but I did some Pilates classes and I'm like, this woman is amazing. want this community. She had the coolest set of clients and

Alan Li (05:30) Thank you.

Sheridan (05:51) People just love to move their body. So after that I came back to Utah with the same problem. I was like, there's still nothing for me here that's like that. So I'm gonna have to create it. Like I'm gonna have to be the person that just makes it happen. And that's kind of how everything started.

Alan Li (06:08) Wow. I love that. feel like Hawaii is also another one of those places where, I spent quite a bit of time there, ⁓ where it's also kind of like Europe, you're eating a lot and, you're really mobile, you're outside, you're going to the beach, you're surfing, you're hiking, and you just feel really great. compared to, you know, being back in, I guess the continental U S, or we might not have as healthy of habits.

Sheridan (06:29) Totally, and those people, they like to push themselves. Everyone I met in Hawaii, was very interesting. They loved to move. They just did a workout class. They'd already surfed in the morning, and then they still wanted to come to Pilates. And I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. They're very invested in themselves, and I want a place like that where I live.

Alan Li (06:47) Yeah.

Cool. So you have the idea for, want this community where I live in Utah. What are the next steps? What do you do to start this journey of creating your own Pilates studio?

Sheridan (06:59) I wish I could say I had great timing, but I did not have great timing. I was finishing up my degree in St. George, Utah, where I live, and I was like, I want to open this studio. This was about 2019. And so I started looking for the plans, like, you know, where to set up, how does someone even go about finding a space?

Alan Li (07:15) Mm-hmm.

Sheridan (07:22) Luckily, a lot of my family's been in business, all different sorts, so they were very helpful. you know, this is actually how you find a place to rent and then you have to build it out. And I was like, what do you mean? It's not just ready? It's not set up? It was very nerve wracking. I was at the time, 23, dealing with like contractors and electricians and landlords and all the stuff that I was so not ready for.

Alan Li (07:31) Yeah.

It's daunting. Yeah.

Sheridan (07:48) But it turned out that the build out was taking longer than I had anticipated. So it was bleeding into 2020. Yeah. So Anticipate is starting January of 2020 and then boom COVID hits. But I already was paying rent from the beginning of February. Yeah. So that was a challenge.

Alan Li (07:54) no. I see.

2020. ⁓ no. And

did you sign I guess a few months earlier and then you had a few months to build it out and then February is when you started the lease after the abatement period?

Sheridan (08:22) Exactly, they're like, this is the date when you gotta start paying rent. Like we do all the renovations and stuff like that. I had originally planned for something much bigger. My first instinct was like, I want this to be a wellness studio. Because I saunas, I loved cryo, I loved massage, all this stuff. So I originally named it Symmetry Studios. And then it was meant to be Symmetry Studios Pilates, Symmetry Studios Social Club, that sort of thing.

Alan Li (08:43) Mmm.

Sheridan (08:48) So big dream. And then I realized in 2020, I'm like, I gotta pivot, I gotta shift. Like we gotta just make it the Pilates studio. We'll build out the rooms or fill them, I guess, later. And so I ended up changing my name to just Symmetry Pilates at that point. And I was like, you know what? July of 2020, we gotta go. I can't be sitting here with no people.

Alan Li (09:11) And you were paying rent since February to July and you couldn't even open. my gosh. How big was the space and roughly how much is rent in St. George, Utah?

Sheridan (09:15) Exactly. So that was like, nerve wracking.

It's changed a lot, especially since 2020. St. George, Utah was one of the number one fastest growing cities in the United States, actually. And so what rent began as was not what it is now. I mean, there's so many people, they just knew like, oh, people are coming here. They want the space. They're gonna up the rent and whatnot. So I have a 3,100 square foot roughly place.

Alan Li (09:34) Whoa.

that's quite big. Yeah.

Sheridan (09:52) which is big for a Pilates studio. Yeah.

But at the time I got so lucky. was like, oh my God, it's on the street. It has these gorgeous windows that you can see out and all this greenery. And that was doable for me at the time. But obviously as the years went on, like 2021, 2022, they can raise the rent based on like the market and things like that, which I also didn't know about. You think.

Alan Li (10:16) you didn't negotiate

in fixed increases in the rent.

Sheridan (10:19) It was negotiated, but there's certain factors that if the market goes up, you can go up a percentage, right, within that. So they were smart, they had that planned. I obviously didn't know what the heck any of these numbers meant. I'm like, you know, this number looks great, I can do this, whatever. So I still feel very lucky. I think people starting out now would even have a much harder time finding a place as big as mine.

Alan Li (10:27) Mm.

Sure.

Sheridan (10:45) for what I have negotiated it to. But yeah, in the beginning it was like, they were a little lenient because of COVID. Everyone had a different story, but in Utah, we opened up much sooner than everywhere else. We were only closed for probably eight weeks, locked down, and then you kinda could feel it out, see who was willing to come work out and that sort of thing. But it definitely took me longer than that to feel comfortable, so.

Alan Li (11:03) Mm-hmm.

Sheridan (11:11) beginning of July 2020, I fully opened.

Alan Li (11:13) Okay,

gotcha. And I know you said you were thinking about the cryo and saunas. Right now it's just a Pilates space in the 3000 square feet or is it other things too?

Sheridan (11:23) Exactly, it's just Pilates and I wanted to do all these things but at some point you're just like, let's just be really good at what I'm good at and that was doing Pilates and teaching clients, teaching instructors. So right now we have eight reformers and we have eight Wanda chairs which is another piece of Pilates equipment and then we have two private training rooms.

and I ended up knocking out one of the rooms that was a massage room just to make it feel even more spacious for the clients. And I really loved that decision. That was about two years ago that I did that.

Alan Li (11:55) Cool. And how did you get the word out after you were able to open in July?

Sheridan (11:59) It was all word of mouth. It was like kind of like a secret society. It's like, did you know that there's Pilates going on down there? And it was like full neighborhoods of women that were like, this neighborhood is coming to Pilates and this neighborhood would tell all their friends. I mean, those clients from the beginning were amazing. I still actually have most of them at the studio still. And

Alan Li (12:06) Huh.

Sheridan (12:24) Some days it'd be one person in class, so really they were getting private sessions for the price of a Pilates class. So they weren't mad.

Alan Li (12:30) Amazing. And Pilates classes, how much?

Like 30, $40?

Sheridan (12:34) Yeah, like a drop-in class would be that and then a private session would be, you know, a hundred something dollars. So they were coming with their friends, they got private Pilates and that started to build the community and I honestly did not run any ads hardly at all. didn't even know how to market to people so I would just tell everyone and give out like little cards that said come take a free class and if you know, you know, you know, that sort of thing.

Alan Li (12:58) huh. mean,

was this like you're giving cards out on the street or at the mall or you're telling your friends or how did you know that inception start?

Sheridan (13:06) It was just, I mean, yeah, anyone you meet, you have to be very like vocal, I would say, which was hard for me because I didn't want to feel like that person that was always talking about Pilates, but at some point that's where you get to when you're on a studio. know, every person you're like, you could try Pilates or you could use Pilates. Here's my card. And so I just had to be like, have no fear and just tell everybody.

Alan Li (13:11) Mm-hmm.

Yeah. People don't understand. I think how the sausage is made very often in the early days, to build the early client tells when you're nobody and, to always be selling it's, it's difficult, but it's necessary to get off the ground. So then you told a few people, they got their friends in their neighborhoods to come. What was the reception and,

Sheridan (13:43) 100%.

Alan Li (13:50) what was the feedback that you got from your customers.

Sheridan (13:53) We had a lot of, I would say, different clients in the beginning. It shifts every year, it's very interesting, but in the beginning it was a lot of, our demographic was moms, some that had just had babies, some that had kids that were leaving for college. We also are a retirement community in a sense. St. George was for a very long time, so we had some 60, 70, even 80-year-old clients coming into group. ⁓

Alan Li (14:19) Hmm.

Sheridan (14:20) And I think at first it was tough for people to understand. They didn't know what this was, even though I knew like LA, New York, all these places had been popping off with Pilates. I was trying to describe to them and honestly just show them. Like we have a free class that's their first intro. And if you can get people to come to the intro, that's when they really understand what it is because they start to feel it in their body, even in 30 minutes. They're like, huh, like this is different. And I like.

Alan Li (14:28) yeah.

Sheridan (14:47) the way that this feels. So just getting them in there and letting them try it really.

Alan Li (14:48) Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And do you lean into a particular style cause I know that for you Pilates was a method to ease your pain that you're having. Is that an area that you focus on or, what, type of Pilates do you, do you lean into?

Sheridan (15:04) We are a, I would say more of an education-based studio. So we host a Pilates studios training called Bassi Pilates, which is a very well-known, very rigid, structured, precise Pilates program. And I love having all of my teachers go through that first because it really teaches you where Pilates started, which was about control and precision and

flow as well. So I have all of them go through my training, but then we also all love to do continuing education. So it is a blend of all the different types of Pilates that we've ever done. And the basis of it is educating people. So whether you're here for rehab, whether you're here to tone your muscles or whatever, we are going to educate you on how to do that to the best of your ability, because we know that everyone's in Pilates for different reasons. And

Alan Li (15:31) Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sheridan (15:57) Not everybody likes to have Pilates that feels like boot camp or Pilates that is extremely slow, right? People may have been in both types, so we're very in the middle of just technique, education, breath work, that sort of thing.

Alan Li (16:11) Gotcha. And how many employees did you have when you started and how are you spending your time today

Sheridan (16:17) I started with two really amazing employees. It was them and then me, two teachers. So the three of us just held up the team. that worked for us for a long time. But then I realized how big this was going to be. And I started training teachers and had the, becoming a host studio for Bassy Pilates, which really catapulted us into being able to add on so many more teachers. So right now I have

five Pilates instructors, one bar teacher, and front desk staff, admin staff, that sort of thing. But for the longest time, it was me wearing every single hat you could possibly wear. Yeah, too much. I was doing too much.

Alan Li (16:51) which is oftentimes the case with businesses.

And how many classes do you offer per day? And what's the reception like nowadays?

Sheridan (17:01) People really want options, so we try to give as many options as we can. We start at 6 a.m., we go into the mid-afternoon, usually around the 1.30 to 3.30 time we host private sessions, and then we go into the evening classes. A lot of our clients are teachers or nurses, or even just moms that can't get done with everything until 5.30, 6. So we like to have a blend of the morning and the evening for her.

Alan Li (17:24) Mm-hmm.

Sheridan (17:27) everybody.

Alan Li (17:28) which times are more popular? Is it the weekends and then guess after work and before work

Sheridan (17:33) Yeah, it's loaded up. All of them. mean, like I said, it's so nice. We have all types of people. I mean, there's wait lists at every time. Yeah.

Alan Li (17:40) wow. So you're,

you're fully booked all the time. That's great. That's really great.

Sheridan (17:43) Fully booked, yep. Yeah, they

begged me to open the second one. The second studio, yeah, in St. George.

Alan Li (17:49) a second studio.

Wow, that's impressive. And I mean, your space is so big, you could probably fit more reformer machines in there, or is it now like divided up into certain areas, you would actually have to open another physical space for another studio.

Sheridan (18:06) think this is great question. I always wanted to have a small boutique studio. The max amount of reformers that I want is eight. That could change one day maybe in a different space, but I feel like eight is such an amazing number because you can still see everybody, correct them, give them modifications versus a studio that has 10, 12, 15 reformers. Like way harder to have control of.

Alan Li (18:23) Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sheridan (18:33) their bodies and help them through the exercises. even though I could fit more, I've chosen to keep the space very open, airy, and focused on a small group.

Alan Li (18:43) Yeah, and that's probably a better experience for your customers too. Yeah, I've spoken to a few other Pilati Studio owners. They say around the eight to 10 range is sort of the max that they would do. And some are saying that more than that could even be dangerous for people if they're not using the machines correctly.

Sheridan (18:59) Yeah, 100%. I think the industry has changed a lot since I opened my studio. And I think social media makes it look very easy, I'm sure, with so many industries. But it does get to a point where it can become dangerous if you don't have a fully trained, highly trained staff, and you go over this threshold of how many people you can have in a group. Because we're about one person watching 15 people do...

you know, this exercise on a machine, it can get crazy in there. I've seen it all.

Alan Li (19:26) Yeah.

I'm sure.

Well, that's really amazing that in just a couple of years, you're fully booked now. What were some of the challenges that you faced to get to this point?

Sheridan (19:39) would say some of my biggest challenges are mostly from the admin side. think a lot of things that people don't see, which is dealing with software issues. I've gone through three different software companies since I opened. Booking software. I use Arqueta. Yeah, I would recommend them. They offer now

Alan Li (19:51) Hmm.

Like booking software, which one do you use now?

Okay, and you recommend them?

Sheridan (20:05) we've just launched an on-demand platform and I really wanted my clients to be able to have something on the go when they travel. We have a lot of people that leave town or are snowbirds and things like that. So I didn't want them to have to use multiple apps or a confusing booking software. I wanted the Symmetry Pilates app and you can do it in person or on demand and the software I have now is very good for that. But it took us a while to get there.

Alan Li (20:29) That's really cool.

You said it's called Arqueta. And then they also give you a mobile app that you can upload on demand classes onto.

Sheridan (20:39) Yeah, you can use their platform for multiple different things. I think that's a misconception of what people don't understand about software as well is you pay for say mind-body, which is a little lot of people start with and that was my second software and There's so much that costs there's so many add-ons so you can start with the basic plan and everybody books on the same thing But if you want your own app and you want your own identity from

that software, you're gonna pay a lot more. And if you want on-demand features, you're gonna pay a lot more. So we pay like, you know, the highest price for the software, but because I want it to run smoothly for the clients and I've seen how difficult it can be having the wrong software. And so now I'm just all in with like a software that works and people that are there to support you if there's glitches.

Alan Li (21:05) Yeah.

That's good to know. I also own a couple of photo studios and we switched software, booking softwares in the beginning as well. We're on a Acuity now. We don't require a mobile app, is, it works well for us, but I remember making the switch and then switching all the customers over and how much of a headache that was. And like, I was so nervous that people wouldn't be able to book because there were already...

people scheduled on the old software that I needed to migrate to the new software and with the appointments line up. So having to do it three times for you, I'm sure that was a pretty nerve wracking experience.

Sheridan (21:55) Yeah, which you can tell, they probably didn't tell you in the beginning how much of it would be manual. ⁓ They make it seem easy. They make it seem like, if you're gonna switch apps, you just come over to us and we'll help you out. And that took years off my life doing the second app transfer because at that point we had about 2,500 accounts accumulated. And so much of that was manual.

Alan Li (22:01) They want to keep you locked in. They don't want you to leave.

Wow.

Sheridan (22:22) I would recommend anyone who's gonna do the switch. If you're not loving your software, do it in the beginning. Find something you love because five years down the line, switching your software, it's a big thing.

Alan Li (22:33) Yeah. I'm curious for your mobile app, is it just for customers who have come to your studio or is it available for other people that haven't been to your studio as well?

Sheridan (22:44) It's available for everyone. We launched the on-demand version in February of this year. So anyone anywhere can access Symmetry Workouts. We offer mat and reformer Pilates on there. We also have some stretching and some lifestyle videos. I really wanted people to be able to access our teaching style and our attention to detail from anywhere because I know that there's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of people doing Pilates but

It's nice to know that the people who you're taking from, whether it's online or in person, have extensive training and have certifications to back it. Like I said, everyone in my studio certifies through the same certification. Even if they were already certified, they do a second cert and they do continuing ed and they do so much training that I wanted people to have access to something like.

Alan Li (23:35) That's really cool. When did you launch the app and how much does it account for in terms of your revenue?

Sheridan (23:40) We launched it in February of this year. Well, the app itself for the studio in St. George, Utah was switched over last October. It's made everything so much more seamless for our clients. And then we added Symmetry On Demand in February ⁓ of this year. But it's a lot different. It's like a whole new step in business of figuring out.

Alan Li (23:58) I see.

Sheridan (24:04) How do you not just market to the people that are in front of you, but now we need to market to the whole world? And how do you get your word out there and have the manpower to do something like that?

Alan Li (24:10) Yeah.

How do you do it?

Sheridan (24:16) I'm figuring it

out, I've realized that it can't be just me. That's the way I started and that's where a lot of entrepreneurs start, but I think hiring people as soon as you can who are good at their job is the tip I would give to anyone. Like, hire your team as soon as you have the funds, as soon as you can afford it, to help you create a big dream. Otherwise, you're gonna get run down and, you know, it's a lot to manage.

Alan Li (24:42) Hmm. What do you think are the key hires that you're missing now to take it to, I guess, the next step?

Sheridan (24:47) For me, would say social media has become like a huge part of everyone's business. I'm sure you can relate. Like now you not only have to create a great product, but you have to figure out how to market it and stand out amongst everyone. And I think that's been the biggest challenge is finding a social media team that can help facilitate the growth of that. So I'm still in the search of, know, is there someone that can be an extension of me?

Alan Li (25:01) Yeah.

Sheridan (25:14) in the way that I want to portray symmetries for the world that can do what I do, but on a much larger scale. So still in the works.

Alan Li (25:21) Totally.

No, content is so important nowadays and capturing attention is so difficult because there is so much content out there and then you have to differentiate and spend so much time editing and thinking of concepts. I think it's definitely a full-time job in and of itself.

Sheridan (25:38) Yeah, so I praise all the founders who are creating content and running pretty much a social influencing campaign. Like we're all influencers at this point, just trying to keep up with everybody out there. And so, you know, it is a big job, but I think it does bring like this fun creative side to the business where you can make videos and visuals and kind of show why you're different on social media.

Alan Li (26:04) Yeah. And I'm curious for your space outside of the machines, how did you pick out the furniture and the design and the renovation? Did you do that yourself or work with agencies?

Sheridan (26:14) I am not a designer. I love to say like my mom, she came in and she's like, let me help you. So it's definitely part of her design and what she likes. She's a very minimalist, modern person. So a lot of like chrome, black, mixed in with the wood. So I feel like it's a very pretty space. It's nothing's too overwhelming, but I've noticed as I've grown and I've...

figured out what my eye for design is. Like I slowly switch pieces out and you know, we could use a different kind of energy here or that sort of thing. But in the beginning you kind of just, you got to fill the space with where are people going to sit? Where are they going to, know, what mirror, what sign, what, you know. So she was a huge help for that. She loves design and things like that. But I think if I was to design another space definitely would go the interior designer route because it's going to last you

Alan Li (26:50) Yeah.

Sheridan (27:05) so long and really embody what you want people to feel when they come in.

Alan Li (27:10) Totally. Yeah, I heard that, I forgot who said this, but when you have a physical space or you're providing a service in a physical space, your space is part of the product. So it's so important to pick out the right pieces and convey what you want through your design.

Sheridan (27:24) Yeah, 100%. And that's what they see when they first come in. So there's a lot of things I've changed since the beginning of just what I want to see when I go into a luxury boutique Pilates studio. What do I want to feel? And I think that comes with time and growing up, know, not 23 like when I started. you know, we changed out some of the pictures and some of the some of the things like that. So.

Alan Li (27:40) Yeah.

And that's, I assume, you found our signs as well.

Sheridan (27:51) Yes, yeah, you guys got the marketing, you got me. I was like, these are really cool. And I have a guy in town that does stickers. so anytime I do an event, I have the heavy mirror sign. And every time we do a Pilates event now, whether it's Lululemon or we have an evening event or whoever we're partnering with, we brand the sign. And people love it. They love to take pictures in it.

Alan Li (28:16) cool and you switch out

the stickers with your your sign writer.

Sheridan (28:19) Yep, with whatever event that we're doing. So like we're doing a new series called Symmetry After Dark, which is kind of like nervous system reset, that sort of thing. And we just take the sign and redo the decals and everything like that. But people love it. People love to take pictures in it. So it's cool.

Alan Li (28:33) I love that.

I'm so glad to

hear that. How big or how important are events for you in terms of doing them at other locations or working with cool local businesses?

Sheridan (28:43) It's become a huge part of my brand because it helps you connect with everyone in the community even if they can't come into your space at that current moment. We've worked with a lot of local brands. We've done events with Lululemon which has helped get us like a lot of exposure and move and do different things in different spaces because changing it up from just being in the studio, it makes it feel like even bigger. So we do...

many events throughout the year, whether it's the winery or the local beach club and things like that. So it's big for us.

Alan Li (29:19) That's really cool. And for these events, are you outreaching to these other businesses to say like, hey, we should do something or is it them reaching out to you or a combination of both?

Sheridan (29:30) Usually it's combination depending on who wants to facilitate the partnership, but it is still relatively a small town. So we have the people that work for certain brands are coming in to actually just do their practice at Symmetry and they fall in love with it and they're like, wait, I own a business, let's do something together. And so it's really organic a lot of the time.

Alan Li (29:45) Hmm.

That's awesome. What does your day to day look like today versus I think when you first started, you were doing a lot of teaching, doing a lot of everything. Now that you've hired a few more, where are you focusing your time on?

Sheridan (30:04) My time currently is more about balance, if you can say that. I went on 110 % for the last four years of just pure drive and ambition and everything, adrenaline, honestly. So since I started my new app and have things more structured, I've been focusing more on

Alan Li (30:20) Yeah.

Sheridan (30:28) scaling the business, taking time for myself to work out, to meditate. I do all of my Pilates workouts on my own app. So it's kind of fun to get to use this thing that I've created. right now I'm just focusing on building a really strong team. And by the time this comes out, we probably will also have gone through, it's a rebrand, but we also like to call it an upgrade. So we're actually transitioning to a new logo.

new colors, new visions and all that stuff. So that's been my focus for probably the last six months.

Alan Li (30:59) Awesome. For other people who are interested in opening a Pilati studio in their own town, I'm curious what advice you'd have for them.

Sheridan (31:09) This is a great question. think now at where I'm at in my business, would say have three times more of the money than you originally planned. It's going to be very expensive. Not that it's not doable. I think also people with a dream, you will find a way to make it happen. And what I wish I would have done in the beginning is lean on my community a little more.

I definitely thought I gotta do everything myself, this is on me, and there's so many people that want you to succeed, so if you know someone locally that can help you set up the business, help you start an LLC, help you understand what it's really gonna take, or like a mentor, reach out to people. I think there's a lot of people that would have helped me in the beginning, but I just didn't know to ask.

Alan Li (31:52) Yeah, that's honestly part of a reason why I wanted to start this podcast because I feel like there's a lot of resources out there for other types of industries, but for brick and mortar, it's a little bit lacking. When I was starting my photo studio, I didn't know anything about TI or abatement or how to look for spaces or think about design. And to hear from successful founders like yourself who have opened a brick and mortar space,

is really cool and hopefully insightful for them.

Sheridan (32:22) Yeah, I think if I had the access to what I have now with, you know, even just the internet and where we're at today, like it would have probably, I would have made different decisions, but I'm so proud that I just put my back into it, not knowing what I'm doing. And truthfully, you can create anything if you just have like that drive and that heart for it.

Alan Li (32:42) Yeah. So I know that you have the app, and that's a focus area for you. Are you thinking of also opening a second location as well?

Sheridan (32:50) I think yes, it's definitely something I want to do. think we'd, you know, I'd love to go in the direction of just continuing to help people and you know, how does working out in your 20s and 30s look different from when you're 40 and 50 and when you're 60 and 70 and creating a full wellness experience that involves recovery and.

you know, putting time into yourself, not just for 50 minutes, but maybe somewhere that people can hang out a little bit longer and enjoy the space that they're in together.

Alan Li (33:22) Yeah. Is there a chance that you want to do the cryotherapy and the sauna and the other pieces that you had originally thought of?

Sheridan (33:30) I think the possibilities are kind of like endless at this point. think just when I feel it and the time is right, I'll know, you know, this is what I really want in my space. I've been really into red light therapy, not as much cryo. I've realized that I'm more of a warm, heat person than a cool person. So, you know, sauna, red light, massage, all those things, I think definitely I could see in my next space.

Alan Li (33:55) That's super exciting. So, you know, looking back on your journey over the last four or five years, I know that you mentioned you would have leaned into your community bit more, but is there anything else that you would have done differently with sort of this hindsight vision?

Sheridan (34:08) I would say the key takeaways would be very, be very in tune with yourself. You can't please everyone and you never will and I spend a lot of time trying to make everything perfect and I think truthfully the right people will come to you and the right clients and the right staff will want to work for you and will be aligned with your vision.

You know, just know that not everything is gonna go perfectly, but if you stay true to who you are and why you started this business, then everything kind of flows seamlessly and you can cope with the lows, you know, because you know there's gonna be highs.

Alan Li (34:43) Yeah. If people are interested in reaching out or learning more about you and symmetry, what's the best way for them to get in contact?

Sheridan (34:51) We have a lot of connections on social media. So my Instagram is Sheridan St. Clair. And then we have the Symmetry.pilates Instagram. We also have SymmetryPilates.com where you can have access to the app and things like that. We're in the app store. So if you even just want to try the on-demand workouts for a free trial, you can download the SymmetryPilates app. But I do...

a lot of stuff through Instagram and things like that, just helping new founders and new Pilates instructors kind of see, you know, where can they really take this thing?

Alan Li (35:25) We'll include a link to all those in our show notes. And yeah, I love your Instagram and your Pilates page Instagram. Is that all you right now? You're posting everything? my gosh.

Sheridan (35:36) Yes, yep, I run currently

still four Instagrams. So we have Symmetry Active. I also made a clothing line last year. So Symmetry Active, Symmetry On Demand, Symmetry Pilates, and then Symmetry Social, and then my personal account. So five actually,

Alan Li (35:52) are you using a content

calendar or how are you managing this?

Sheridan (35:56) more of the type B personality when it comes to social media. So when I get that spark of creativity, I'm like, boom. Usually in the morning I start with social media right when I wake up, whether it's already been planned and scheduled or that sort of thing. I would like to transition into more of the content creator, social media team space, but I just haven't found the right person yet.

But I know that when I find them, they're gonna do an amazing job at being an extension of me.

Alan Li (36:24) Well, Sheridan, thanks so much for taking the time. This was really awesome. And I'm sure a lot of people interested in Pilates and brick and mortar will be really excited to hear this. So thanks again.

Sheridan (36:33) Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. It's been amazing.

Alan Li (36:36) Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, feel free to visit openingsoonpodcast.com for all of our episodes online. If you run a retail store and need updated furniture or signage, please feel free to visit www.signsandmirrors.com. Lastly, if you have any feedback or would to be a guest on the show, email me at alan, A-L-A-N, at signsandmirrors.com. I promise I'll respond. Thanks for listening.