December 9, 2025 • 22 mins
Why Client Poaching Isn’t the Real Problem in Your Studio (and What To Fix Instead)
Hosted by: Christa Gurka, PT, OCS | Fit Biz Strategies
If you've ever panicked because a client followed an instructor out the door… or you’ve worried that an instructor is “stealing” clients… this episode is going to flip that narrative on its head.
Inside our boutique fitness and wellness studios, client poaching feels personal — but it’s actually a symptom of deeper operational issues. And the good news? You can fix them.
In today’s episode, Christa breaks down why poaching happens, what’s really driving client loyalty (hint: it’s not what you think), and how to build a brand-first, team-centered system that keeps clients AND instructors loyal to your studio — not just one star player.
Whether you run a Pilates studio, private practice PT clinic, yoga studio, or any wellness brick-and-mortar, this is a MUST-listen as you head into 2026.
✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why “client poaching” is not an instructor problem — it’s a systems problem
- The #1 hiring mistake most studio owners make (and how it leads to client loss later)
- How unclear onboarding creates blurred boundaries, confusion, and client attachment to individuals
- Why clients start identifying instructors — not your studio — as the “product”
- How to flip your culture from star instructors to one cohesive team
- What healthy studio ecosystems look like (and what broken ones look like)
- The systems Christa used at Pilates in the Grove to maintain brand loyalty
- Exactly what expectations, policies, and boundaries need to be in place
- How to create a culture where clients feel connected to the brand, not one person
- The essential contracts every studio should have (even with ICs!)
- Leadership questions to ask yourself before blaming an instructor
- Why 2026 must be the year you build or rebuild your foundations
🔥 Key Topics Covered
- Onboarding mistakes that lead to client attachment issues
- How to set expectations around communication, scheduling, and boundaries
- Brand-first language that reinforces “our clients,” not “my clients”
- Building a team identity using mission, vision, and values
- Systems that prevent instructors from becoming irreplaceable “stars”
- Leadership habits that reinforce consistency and clarity
- What to say when clients want to follow an instructor
- How lack of systems leads to drama, confusion, and turnover
📌 Why This Episode Matters
If you’ve ever felt:
- “My clients only want THAT instructor.”
- “I’m scared to lose revenue if someone leaves.”
- “I don’t want people texting my instructors directly.”
- “I feel like I’m losing control of my studio.”
Then what you’re really missing is the ecosystem that protects your business, creates brand loyalty, and sets clear expectations from day one.
This episode will help you rebuild your foundation so you can scale confidently — with systems that support your team, your clients, and the long-term value of your business.
🔑 Episode Quote to Remember
“Client poaching isn’t the problem — it’s the symptom. When you fix your systems, culture, and expectations, loyalty shifts back to your brand.”
📣 Want More Support Building a Sellable, Sustainable Studio?
Inside Fit Biz Strategies, Christa helps female boutique fitness and wellness owners build profitable businesses with systems, structure, and clarity — without burning out.
👉 Follow @christagurka on Instagram
👉 Explore coaching programs at christagurka.com
👉 Join the Female emPOWERED community for more conversations like this
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Str (00:51):
Hey there everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Female Empowered Podcast.
Let me get my mic and everythingset up, so I'm ready to go.
So today's episode is, comesfrom a question that came up in
one of our mentorship groups inone of the Facebook groups.
(01:14):
About how to protect yourclients from poaching or from
instructors, and I'm using airquotes here, stealing clients
when they leave or going toother studios, et cetera, et
cetera.
And so what I want to talk abouttoday is I thought this was a
(01:35):
really interesting topic and Iwanted to say how.
Why client poaching or sealingis really a symptom of another
problem in your business.
So today, excuse me, what I'mgonna talk about, we're gonna
dive a little deeper into thisand really examine where this
(01:58):
comes from and what you can doto.
Kind of rectify it, change it,improve it, going into 2026.
So when a lot of studio ownerslook at.
Instructors taking clients orclients being poached, they
really look at it or as like,oh, my instructors are too
(02:20):
well-liked.
My clients only wanna work withthem if she leaves, I'm gonna
lose revenue if it feels like.
The instructor is the problemand the instructor having access
to the clients and then theclient's wanting to go work with
the instructor or leave when theinstructor leaves.
But what I really want to do inthis conversation is just
reframe this for you a littlebit and, and really dive into
(02:43):
the fact that client poachingclient.
Steals clients leaving is justthe symptom.
Your sim systems, your systems,your processes, your
expectations are actually thecause of that.
So here's what's actually goingon underneath the surface when
if you're experiencing this alot, one you hired without
(03:06):
clarity.
You basically just need aninstructor to cover one or two
classes.
You hired someone and you'relike, okay, go teach.
You brought someone on withoutclearly outlining the
expectations aboutcommunication, boundaries, your
mission, vision, and values, howclients are shared across the
team, et cetera, et cetera.
So you didn't ex.
Extend, articulate theseboundaries and these
(03:30):
expectations from day one, whichis problem number one.
You assumed that people know,you assumed that they would act
appropriately.
You assumed that.
They would even knew that thiswas an issue and they assumed
that because you didn't sayanything, what they were doing
was fine.
So there was basically no sharedboundary when it came to this.
(03:54):
And so this is how problemsstart.
You, you fail to position yourbrand as the leader of the
client relationship.
So it's exactly one of thereasons that I didn't name
Pilates in the Grove afterChrista Gurka.
I named it something entirelyout of me because I wan from the
very beginning.
(04:14):
For the the clients to be thebrand's clients.
We were one big, cohesivecommunity.
All the clients were clients ofPilates in the Grove, not of
Christa Gurka, not of Terry, notof Kelly.
They were all clients of thestudios.
So it was very clearlyarticulated, articulated to
everyone.
That message, that branding,that mission and vision from the
(04:37):
beginning.
So if an instructor was ever oh,my client, my schedule, my
people, I want you to recognizethat that didn't start at Day a
hundred that started on day one.
And so we clear even myself,we'd be like.
Our clients, our community, theschedule.
Okay, so can you rescheduleJane?
Not my clients, right?
(04:58):
So what happened was youaccidentally built a system that
revolves around star playersinstead of a cohesive team.
And that's okay.
You didn't know any better.
And this episode, hopefully whatyou'll come away with this is
knowing better.
And when you know better, you dobetter.
So when we create.
Companies and brands aroundindividuals, what happens is
(05:22):
clients think that theinstructor is actually like the
product instead of your studio.
So let me give you a quickexample.
Something that came up recentlywas a studio owner was panicked
because an instructor had askedher clients to follow her to a
new space.
I am.
This, the, this instructors, twoof them actually were leaving to
(05:43):
open up their own location.
And even though they had aconversation, obviously con,
even though the owner and theinstructors had a conversation
about how to roll out thisnarrative, people talk and it's
a very small studio.
It's a very small town.
And so what's gonna happen issome people might leave and then
that also is a big.
Fear driven, reactive, reactingsituation for an owner in terms
(06:07):
of loss.
Right?
And so one of the things I wannasay is you can't a hundred
percent prevent somebody fromleaving.
You just can't, attrition willhappen.
But what you can do is create asystem around how what the
client is bought into is thecommunity of Pilates in the
(06:29):
Grove, for example, not just theinstructor.
Okay.
So when there are no boundariesset during hiring, when there's
no expectations set duringhiring, when there's no, when
none of that is articulated,Then it becomes a problem later.
There are no guidelines aboutcommunication, scheduling,
client relationships.
(06:49):
You know, at this point clientshave, personal text numbers and
they're, they're talkingdirectly with, with the clients,
talking directly to theinstructors, and it just creates
a lot of, of, it just sets youup for an issue down the road
usually.
So what happens is we have toreally look at the ecosystem of
your business.
(07:11):
In its entirety.
And when the ecosystem isunclear, then people will create
their own ecosystem.
They'll create their ownprocesses, they'll create their
own understanding.
So it's really about examininghow you talk about your culture,
your expectations, and leadingfrom the front, and learn how to
build systems where loyalty isto your brand.
(07:34):
Like I said, not one individualperson.
So let's break down.
We don't wanna happen.
So let's break down when thisgoes wrong.
Again, we said, weak onboarding.
There's no clarity ofcommunications.
There's no expectations set.
There's no explaining how thebrand or the instructor client
relationship works.
There's no training on whatlanguage to use.
(07:57):
There's maybe no contracts evenput into place.
There's no policies aroundboundaries.
Instructors are giving theirclients their personal phone
numbers.
Instructors are the ones thatare supposed to be scheduling
their clients privately, whetherthat be through dms or whether
that be through text.
There's no team culture.
Instructors don't see themselvesas part of a brand.
(08:19):
They see themselves asindependent agents.
And so there's, and then, andthen lastly, there might be no.
Leadership narrative.
maybe there's no, this person'sa leader, this person is,
setting the mission and vision,setting the brand identity.
And so instructors just fill inthe silence like on their own.
So I've, I've heard this before.
if you don't set the culture inyour company, it will be set for
(08:42):
you.
So what does it look like whenyou flip the conversation to a
healthy ecosystem?
clear, clear expectations whenyou're hiring and onboarding.
So things like, here's how webuild brand loyalty at Pilates
in the Grove.
It's not around the individual,it's around the team.
(09:04):
Here is our mission and vision.
we, especially like one of the,core values at Pilates in the
Grove was we over me.
So it was very much a teamoriented approach.
We talked about how our, theclients are the studios clients,
they're not individual clients.
We refer internally as a team.
So you can say things like, ourteam will take great care of
(09:27):
you, or.
I'm on vacation next week, butyou know, Sarah's going to take
all of my clients.
So we did that very frequentlyso that we understand.
And one of our kind of liketaglines was like one team, one
mission, one goal, right?
And so, you wanna have that.
You wanna have a team identity,you wanna have a shared mission,
(09:49):
you wanna have sharedexpectations.
You wanna have shared ownershipof client.
Success.
Okay, so some of the.
Systems we implemented in thestudio to make this happen was
all scheduling goes through thestudio.
We had full-time administrators,so all scheduling goes through
(10:10):
the studio that way.
(11:59):
You know, for my instructors, Iwas like, your role is to come
in and teach a really amazingclass, and the administrators
can keep track of the schedule.
All communication goes throughthe studio.
make sure that your clientsaren't texting you to cancel.
They need to go through thestudio directly.
All payments go through thestudio.
Alright?
So those are big things, and ifyou're thinking, I don't have an
(12:21):
admin person, I allow myinstructors to do it, then you
have to have clear expectationsand clear conversations around
what that actually means.
Remember, leadership presencesets the tone and sets the
boundaries around how yourinstructors will perform.
It's about being consistent.
(12:42):
It's about following through,and it's about modeling the
behavior that you want to see inyour team.
One of the things I did all thetime, and I really, really
encourage owners to do this, isuse brand first.
Languaging that makes clients,again, loyalty to you as a
studio or a clinic.
Okay, so.
(13:04):
Whether you're a, a pelvichealth practice or a studio, or
a yoga studio, we as a wholeteam take care of our clients
here.
Okay.
Our method works because we allteach using the same philosophy.
One of the reasons it's great tohave employees over contractors,
okay.
I'm unable to do that time, butlet me introduce you to another
(13:26):
instructor that will be a greatfit for you at that time, right?
This shifts the identity of yourbusiness from my clients to our
clients.
And again, this was a big thing.
A we over me.
core value where we reallywanted our instructors leaning
into how they can help eachother out.
We frequently subbed eachother's classes.
(13:47):
Oftentimes when we had clientsthat would come five days a week
for privates, they switchedinstructors.
And that was a very intentionaldecision by me from the
beginning for many reasons.
But one of it was to create bandbrand loyalty.
Okay.
The other thing you can do isobviously there are contracts
that you can have, but, You canhave non-solicitation and
(14:10):
non-disclosure agreements, evenif the person's an independent
contractor.
So non-solicitation activelymeans that someone can't
technically come and takeclients from your business or
take vendors.
But more than anything else,it's really important that you
articulate why this isimportant.
(14:31):
Okay, this is really importantto say what your expectations
are.
Good, solid people, they wantclarity.
They need clarity, okay?
Contracts simply protect you andprotect your employees, from and
reduce drama.
They protect you from, Ambiguouslanguage.
And he said, she said, I wantyou to think about things and
(14:55):
you can even ask your team, teammembers if they understood this
from the beginning, right?
So.
One of the things, this is whereif you follow NLP or
neurolinguistic programming atall is how can you put yourself
at cause, so before blaming, andthis goes as a great example for
a lot of different things, butbefore blaming the instructor,
(15:17):
blaming someone else, I want youto think, did I clearly
communicate expectations duringhiring?
Did I train this person on ourmission, vision, and values and
our brand language?
Does my studio foster teamidentity or is it really more of
(15:38):
around star player identity?
Did I wait too long to have ahard conversation?
Have I created a system whereclients are naturally loyal to
the studio, not necessarily toone particular instructor.
And if you didn't, then maybeyou gotta go back and look at
those systems.
(16:01):
Maybe you have to do a betterjob of, onboarding people.
Maybe you have to do a betterjob about talking about these
things.
All right.
Maybe you need to have a betterchecklist when you onboard.
Do you have your contracts andagreements in place?
Do you have your studio identityand your brand voice and your
(16:23):
mission, vision, and values andtemplates ready for client
communication?
Are you setting up expectationsaround texting or reaching out
to clients directly?
Are you having regular check-inswith your team?
Are you able to address redflags early?
My big thing was always if youthink something is GR gray area,
(16:44):
come to me and ask me If youthink it's a gray area, then it
might be a gray area, and so whynot just come to me, have a
conversation, say This is whathappened.
What do you think?
Just put it out on the table isthe best thing you can do as an
instructor, as an employee, andit's the best thing you can do
as an owner.
If someone's I'm not reallysure, just have say, come to me.
(17:07):
I would love to discuss thiswith you so that we can both be
clear on what the next stepsare.
So have that discussion withyour team members.
Right.
But it really, really, it reallydoes come down to you setting
these expectations and thentalking about them over and over
(17:29):
and over and over.
And I'm not joking over and overand over and over.
Alright.
It is really important that youstop looking at the, the.
What you're thinking is aproblem is not really the
problem, it's a symptom.
Okay?
If we equate that to movement,someone could be having pain in
their back, but their symptom isreally that their hip doesn't
(17:51):
move well, and if you justmassage the back, the problem's
never gonna go away.
So if you think it's oneinstructor and she's a bad egg,
or he's a bad egg and you gotrid of them, but you didn't
clean up the system of properlyonboarding properly, talking
about building a culture brandidentity first, that.
Issue is just gonna come back inanother hire, and another hire
(18:11):
and another hire, and you'rejust gonna continue to bang your
head against the wall wonderingwhy this is so hard, or
wondering why you feeleveryone's trying to screw you.
Well, it's not.
It's just that you haven't takenthe time to create the right
system and process in yourbusiness.
So I'd love to leave you justwith poaching clients.
(18:33):
Isn't.
Really all about yourinstructors.
Sometimes it is, sometimes itisn't.
It's about the structure thatyou have in your business.
So when you lead from a place ofclarity and confidence and
culture, you create a studiothat no one wants to leave your
(18:54):
not your instructors, let aloneyour clients, they're, they
build a community and a loyaltyto the brand itself, not
necessarily one in particularperson.
Systems don't restrictcreativity in, in, in other
words, they actually reallyprotect it.
Systems give people claritySystems, give people
(19:16):
consistency, and that's whatthey look for in a job.
Clarity, consistency, positiveleadership from the front.
So if you are worried aboutthis, if you are worried about
people taking clients, then whatI would say a hundred percent is
lean into this in 2026, make2026 the year that you are gonna
(19:38):
build your foundation from theground up.
And you are gonna build a brandfirst team centered ecosystems
where your clients won't juststay loyal to you, but they'll
stop thinking about individualinstructors the product and
really start seeing your studioas the place that they never
(19:59):
wanna leave your clinic as aplace that they never wanna
leave.
Your people, your admin.
All of your therapists, and theyknow that you've created a
system and they, they just feelgreat in this environment and
they don't wanna leave this evenif their favorite instructor
left.
So I really, really, really wantyou to think about this.
(20:20):
The next time you're like, oh,someone didn't do what I wanted
them to do in the business, andI don't care if this goes with
them taking clients or tellingthem about the new studio
they're going to, Not coveringfor other people or failing to
show up on time.
All of this starts with you asan owner having a fully built
(20:41):
out system.
A fill it fully built out systemthat gives your new team members
and all of your team members theroadmap for how to do everything
in their business, what'sexpected of them, how they're
gonna be assessed in yourbusiness, who they can go to
when they have a question.
(21:01):
And then you have to put this onrepeat over and over and over
again so that everyone is clearand rowing in the same
direction.
Well, I hope you enjoyed thatepisode.
It was fun to record.
It came from a real lifesituation and I'm sure if you're
listening to this, many of youhave either heard about
(21:22):
situations like this or possiblyeven experienced it yourself,
and this is where as owners, wehave to go back and be like,
what could I do better to nothave this happen in the future?
So I hope you enjoyed thisepisode.
Until next time, my friends.
Bye for now.
Hey there everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Female Empowered Podcast.
Let me get my mic and everythingset up, so I'm ready to go.
So today's episode is, comesfrom a question that came up in
one of our mentorship groups inone of the Facebook groups.
(01:14):
About how to protect yourclients from poaching or from
instructors, and I'm using airquotes here, stealing clients
when they leave or going toother studios, et cetera, et
cetera.
And so what I want to talk abouttoday is I thought this was a
(01:35):
really interesting topic and Iwanted to say how.
Why client poaching or sealingis really a symptom of another
problem in your business.
So today, excuse me, what I'mgonna talk about, we're gonna
dive a little deeper into thisand really examine where this
(01:58):
comes from and what you can doto.
Kind of rectify it, change it,improve it, going into 2026.
So when a lot of studio ownerslook at.
Instructors taking clients orclients being poached, they
really look at it or as like,oh, my instructors are too
(02:20):
well-liked.
My clients only wanna work withthem if she leaves, I'm gonna
lose revenue if it feels like.
The instructor is the problemand the instructor having access
to the clients and then theclient's wanting to go work with
the instructor or leave when theinstructor leaves.
But what I really want to do inthis conversation is just
reframe this for you a littlebit and, and really dive into
(02:43):
the fact that client poachingclient.
Steals clients leaving is justthe symptom.
Your sim systems, your systems,your processes, your
expectations are actually thecause of that.
So here's what's actually goingon underneath the surface when
if you're experiencing this alot, one you hired without
(03:06):
clarity.
You basically just need aninstructor to cover one or two
classes.
You hired someone and you'relike, okay, go teach.
You brought someone on withoutclearly outlining the
expectations aboutcommunication, boundaries, your
mission, vision, and values, howclients are shared across the
team, et cetera, et cetera.
So you didn't ex.
Extend, articulate theseboundaries and these
(03:30):
expectations from day one, whichis problem number one.
You assumed that people know,you assumed that they would act
appropriately.
You assumed that.
They would even knew that thiswas an issue and they assumed
that because you didn't sayanything, what they were doing
was fine.
So there was basically no sharedboundary when it came to this.
(03:54):
And so this is how problemsstart.
You, you fail to position yourbrand as the leader of the
client relationship.
So it's exactly one of thereasons that I didn't name
Pilates in the Grove afterChrista Gurka.
I named it something entirelyout of me because I wan from the
very beginning.
(04:14):
For the the clients to be thebrand's clients.
We were one big, cohesivecommunity.
All the clients were clients ofPilates in the Grove, not of
Christa Gurka, not of Terry, notof Kelly.
They were all clients of thestudios.
So it was very clearlyarticulated, articulated to
everyone.
That message, that branding,that mission and vision from the
(04:37):
beginning.
So if an instructor was ever oh,my client, my schedule, my
people, I want you to recognizethat that didn't start at Day a
hundred that started on day one.
And so we clear even myself,we'd be like.
Our clients, our community, theschedule.
Okay, so can you rescheduleJane?
Not my clients, right?
(04:58):
So what happened was youaccidentally built a system that
revolves around star playersinstead of a cohesive team.
And that's okay.
You didn't know any better.
And this episode, hopefully whatyou'll come away with this is
knowing better.
And when you know better, you dobetter.
So when we create.
Companies and brands aroundindividuals, what happens is
(05:22):
clients think that theinstructor is actually like the
product instead of your studio.
So let me give you a quickexample.
Something that came up recentlywas a studio owner was panicked
because an instructor had askedher clients to follow her to a
new space.
I am.
This, the, this instructors, twoof them actually were leaving to
(05:43):
open up their own location.
And even though they had aconversation, obviously con,
even though the owner and theinstructors had a conversation
about how to roll out thisnarrative, people talk and it's
a very small studio.
It's a very small town.
And so what's gonna happen issome people might leave and then
that also is a big.
Fear driven, reactive, reactingsituation for an owner in terms
(06:07):
of loss.
Right?
And so one of the things I wannasay is you can't a hundred
percent prevent somebody fromleaving.
You just can't, attrition willhappen.
But what you can do is create asystem around how what the
client is bought into is thecommunity of Pilates in the
(06:29):
Grove, for example, not just theinstructor.
Okay.
So when there are no boundariesset during hiring, when there's
no expectations set duringhiring, when there's no, when
none of that is articulated,Then it becomes a problem later.
There are no guidelines aboutcommunication, scheduling,
client relationships.
(06:49):
You know, at this point clientshave, personal text numbers and
they're, they're talkingdirectly with, with the clients,
talking directly to theinstructors, and it just creates
a lot of, of, it just sets youup for an issue down the road
usually.
So what happens is we have toreally look at the ecosystem of
your business.
(07:11):
In its entirety.
And when the ecosystem isunclear, then people will create
their own ecosystem.
They'll create their ownprocesses, they'll create their
own understanding.
So it's really about examininghow you talk about your culture,
your expectations, and leadingfrom the front, and learn how to
build systems where loyalty isto your brand.
(07:34):
Like I said, not one individualperson.
So let's break down.
We don't wanna happen.
So let's break down when thisgoes wrong.
Again, we said, weak onboarding.
There's no clarity ofcommunications.
There's no expectations set.
There's no explaining how thebrand or the instructor client
relationship works.
There's no training on whatlanguage to use.
(07:57):
There's maybe no contracts evenput into place.
There's no policies aroundboundaries.
Instructors are giving theirclients their personal phone
numbers.
Instructors are the ones thatare supposed to be scheduling
their clients privately, whetherthat be through dms or whether
that be through text.
There's no team culture.
Instructors don't see themselvesas part of a brand.
(08:19):
They see themselves asindependent agents.
And so there's, and then, andthen lastly, there might be no.
Leadership narrative.
maybe there's no, this person'sa leader, this person is,
setting the mission and vision,setting the brand identity.
And so instructors just fill inthe silence like on their own.
So I've, I've heard this before.
if you don't set the culture inyour company, it will be set for
(08:42):
you.
So what does it look like whenyou flip the conversation to a
healthy ecosystem?
clear, clear expectations whenyou're hiring and onboarding.
So things like, here's how webuild brand loyalty at Pilates
in the Grove.
It's not around the individual,it's around the team.
(09:04):
Here is our mission and vision.
we, especially like one of the,core values at Pilates in the
Grove was we over me.
So it was very much a teamoriented approach.
We talked about how our, theclients are the studios clients,
they're not individual clients.
We refer internally as a team.
So you can say things like, ourteam will take great care of
(09:27):
you, or.
I'm on vacation next week, butyou know, Sarah's going to take
all of my clients.
So we did that very frequentlyso that we understand.
And one of our kind of liketaglines was like one team, one
mission, one goal, right?
And so, you wanna have that.
You wanna have a team identity,you wanna have a shared mission,
(09:49):
you wanna have sharedexpectations.
You wanna have shared ownershipof client.
Success.
Okay, so some of the.
Systems we implemented in thestudio to make this happen was
all scheduling goes through thestudio.
We had full-time administrators,so all scheduling goes through
(10:10):
the studio that way.
(11:59):
You know, for my instructors, Iwas like, your role is to come
in and teach a really amazingclass, and the administrators
can keep track of the schedule.
All communication goes throughthe studio.
make sure that your clientsaren't texting you to cancel.
They need to go through thestudio directly.
All payments go through thestudio.
Alright?
So those are big things, and ifyou're thinking, I don't have an
(12:21):
admin person, I allow myinstructors to do it, then you
have to have clear expectationsand clear conversations around
what that actually means.
Remember, leadership presencesets the tone and sets the
boundaries around how yourinstructors will perform.
It's about being consistent.
(12:42):
It's about following through,and it's about modeling the
behavior that you want to see inyour team.
One of the things I did all thetime, and I really, really
encourage owners to do this, isuse brand first.
Languaging that makes clients,again, loyalty to you as a
studio or a clinic.
Okay, so.
(13:04):
Whether you're a, a pelvichealth practice or a studio, or
a yoga studio, we as a wholeteam take care of our clients
here.
Okay.
Our method works because we allteach using the same philosophy.
One of the reasons it's great tohave employees over contractors,
okay.
I'm unable to do that time, butlet me introduce you to another
(13:26):
instructor that will be a greatfit for you at that time, right?
This shifts the identity of yourbusiness from my clients to our
clients.
And again, this was a big thing.
A we over me.
core value where we reallywanted our instructors leaning
into how they can help eachother out.
We frequently subbed eachother's classes.
(13:47):
Oftentimes when we had clientsthat would come five days a week
for privates, they switchedinstructors.
And that was a very intentionaldecision by me from the
beginning for many reasons.
But one of it was to create bandbrand loyalty.
Okay.
The other thing you can do isobviously there are contracts
that you can have, but, You canhave non-solicitation and
(14:10):
non-disclosure agreements, evenif the person's an independent
contractor.
So non-solicitation activelymeans that someone can't
technically come and takeclients from your business or
take vendors.
But more than anything else,it's really important that you
articulate why this isimportant.
(14:31):
Okay, this is really importantto say what your expectations
are.
Good, solid people, they wantclarity.
They need clarity, okay?
Contracts simply protect you andprotect your employees, from and
reduce drama.
They protect you from, Ambiguouslanguage.
And he said, she said, I wantyou to think about things and
(14:55):
you can even ask your team, teammembers if they understood this
from the beginning, right?
So.
One of the things, this is whereif you follow NLP or
neurolinguistic programming atall is how can you put yourself
at cause, so before blaming, andthis goes as a great example for
a lot of different things, butbefore blaming the instructor,
(15:17):
blaming someone else, I want youto think, did I clearly
communicate expectations duringhiring?
Did I train this person on ourmission, vision, and values and
our brand language?
Does my studio foster teamidentity or is it really more of
(15:38):
around star player identity?
Did I wait too long to have ahard conversation?
Have I created a system whereclients are naturally loyal to
the studio, not necessarily toone particular instructor.
And if you didn't, then maybeyou gotta go back and look at
those systems.
(16:01):
Maybe you have to do a betterjob of, onboarding people.
Maybe you have to do a betterjob about talking about these
things.
All right.
Maybe you need to have a betterchecklist when you onboard.
Do you have your contracts andagreements in place?
Do you have your studio identityand your brand voice and your
(16:23):
mission, vision, and values andtemplates ready for client
communication?
Are you setting up expectationsaround texting or reaching out
to clients directly?
Are you having regular check-inswith your team?
Are you able to address redflags early?
My big thing was always if youthink something is GR gray area,
(16:44):
come to me and ask me If youthink it's a gray area, then it
might be a gray area, and so whynot just come to me, have a
conversation, say This is whathappened.
What do you think?
Just put it out on the table isthe best thing you can do as an
instructor, as an employee, andit's the best thing you can do
as an owner.
If someone's I'm not reallysure, just have say, come to me.
(17:07):
I would love to discuss thiswith you so that we can both be
clear on what the next stepsare.
So have that discussion withyour team members.
Right.
But it really, really, it reallydoes come down to you setting
these expectations and thentalking about them over and over
(17:29):
and over and over.
And I'm not joking over and overand over and over.
Alright.
It is really important that youstop looking at the, the.
What you're thinking is aproblem is not really the
problem, it's a symptom.
Okay?
If we equate that to movement,someone could be having pain in
their back, but their symptom isreally that their hip doesn't
(17:51):
move well, and if you justmassage the back, the problem's
never gonna go away.
So if you think it's oneinstructor and she's a bad egg,
or he's a bad egg and you gotrid of them, but you didn't
clean up the system of properlyonboarding properly, talking
about building a culture brandidentity first, that.
Issue is just gonna come back inanother hire, and another hire
(18:11):
and another hire, and you'rejust gonna continue to bang your
head against the wall wonderingwhy this is so hard, or
wondering why you feeleveryone's trying to screw you.
Well, it's not.
It's just that you haven't takenthe time to create the right
system and process in yourbusiness.
So I'd love to leave you justwith poaching clients.
(18:33):
Isn't.
Really all about yourinstructors.
Sometimes it is, sometimes itisn't.
It's about the structure thatyou have in your business.
So when you lead from a place ofclarity and confidence and
culture, you create a studiothat no one wants to leave your
(18:54):
not your instructors, let aloneyour clients, they're, they
build a community and a loyaltyto the brand itself, not
necessarily one in particularperson.
Systems don't restrictcreativity in, in, in other
words, they actually reallyprotect it.
Systems give people claritySystems, give people
(19:16):
consistency, and that's whatthey look for in a job.
Clarity, consistency, positiveleadership from the front.
So if you are worried aboutthis, if you are worried about
people taking clients, then whatI would say a hundred percent is
lean into this in 2026, make2026 the year that you are gonna
(19:38):
build your foundation from theground up.
And you are gonna build a brandfirst team centered ecosystems
where your clients won't juststay loyal to you, but they'll
stop thinking about individualinstructors the product and
really start seeing your studioas the place that they never
(19:59):
wanna leave your clinic as aplace that they never wanna
leave.
Your people, your admin.
All of your therapists, and theyknow that you've created a
system and they, they just feelgreat in this environment and
they don't wanna leave this evenif their favorite instructor
left.
So I really, really, really wantyou to think about this.
(20:20):
The next time you're like, oh,someone didn't do what I wanted
them to do in the business, andI don't care if this goes with
them taking clients or tellingthem about the new studio
they're going to, Not coveringfor other people or failing to
show up on time.
All of this starts with you asan owner having a fully built
(20:41):
out system.
A fill it fully built out systemthat gives your new team members
and all of your team members theroadmap for how to do everything
in their business, what'sexpected of them, how they're
gonna be assessed in yourbusiness, who they can go to
when they have a question.
(21:01):
And then you have to put this onrepeat over and over and over
again so that everyone is clearand rowing in the same
direction.
Well, I hope you enjoyed thatepisode.
It was fun to record.
It came from a real lifesituation and I'm sure if you're
listening to this, many of youhave either heard about
(21:22):
situations like this or possiblyeven experienced it yourself,
and this is where as owners, wehave to go back and be like,
what could I do better to nothave this happen in the future?
So I hope you enjoyed thisepisode.
Until next time, my friends.
Bye for now.
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