March 31, 2025 • 33 mins
If you're in the Pilates world, you've likely heard of Gratz Pilates—the gold standard for classical Pilates equipment. But what happens when someone from the tech and gaming industry takes the reins of this iconic brand?
In this special guest episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield welcomes John Riccitello, co-owner of Gratz Pilates, who, along with his wife Elizabeth, purchased the company in 2023. But this wasn’t just a business acquisition—it was personal.
John shares his incredible journey of discovering classical Pilates after a major injury, how it transformed his life, and why he and Elizabeth stepped in to ensure Gratz continues to thrive. From reducing equipment wait times to expanding customer support, John gives us an inside look at the exciting changes happening at Gratz and what’s next for the company.
Tune in to hear:
- John’s personal Pilates journey and how it led to owning Gratz Pilates
- The challenges and innovations behind running a legacy Pilates brand
- How Gratz is improving craftsmanship, delivery times, and global availability
- What studio owners need to consider when investing in equipment
If you're a studio owner or passionate about classical Pilates, this episode is a must-listen!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've been in the Pilates world for any length of
time, you've probably heard ofGraz Pilates.
The name goes hand in hand withclassical Pilates.
It's what I learned to teach on, and if you're a classically
trained teacher, you probablyknow the feel of a Graz reformer
.
Today I've got a very specialguest on the show.
(00:20):
John is one of the new ownersof Graz Pilates.
He and his wife, elizabeth,purchased Graz Pilates last year
, and his background mightsurprise you.
He spent years leading some ofthe biggest companies in gaming
and tech, but what's reallyinteresting is that he didn't
just acquire Graz as a businessdecision.
He fell in love with classicalPilates, himself experiencing
(00:43):
firsthand the impact of themethod, and decided to fully
immerse himself in this world bytaking on the stewardship of
one of the most respected namesin Pilates.
So today we're diving into hisjourney, why he's so passionate
about classical Pilates andwhat's next for Graz.
(01:05):
Well, hi there, I'm SarenGlanfield.
I'm a business and marketingstrategist just for boutique
fitness studio owners like you.
If you're ready to be inspiredand make a bigger impact, you're
in the right place.
All you need are a few keystrategies, the right mindset
and some support along the way.
Join me as I share thereal-life insights that will
(01:27):
help you grow a sustainable andprofitable studio.
This is the Pilates BusinessPodcast.
Welcome back to the PilatesBusiness Podcast.
I'm Sarah, and thank you somuch for joining me today.
I'm here with John Riccatello,owner of Graz Pilates.
He and his wife Elizabethpurchased Graz last year and I
(01:52):
have been desperate to get Johnon the show to talk a little bit
more and share with us what andwhy, what Graz has been up to
and why he purchased the companylast year.
So, john, welcome, welcome,welcome.
It's been a pleasure to get toknow you over the last few
months.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, it's great to be here.
Thanks for having me, Simon.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
And it's been fantastic as someone who has
been part of the Gratz communitysince I first started teaching
and actually even doing Pilatesway back in 2006, 2007 in New
York City.
Gratz is all I've really workedon throughout the years, and so
it's been great to watchfirsthand as you've really sort
of taken the reins of thecompany and also see a lot of
(02:33):
the studio owners that I workwith get really excited about
the new energy and commitment tothe communities, and I'm sure
that it has kept you busy thislast few months.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I would say that that's very true.
Elizabeth and I fired bots lastJune.
We've been putting in this iscrazy to say 60-hour weeks
trying to get us where we wantto be.
It's amazing.
Sometimes I'm trying to leavethe office at 6.30 or7 and
Elizabeth's downstairs packingparts.
So we do everything fromfiguring out where our factory
should be to dealing withcustomers downstairs packing
(03:05):
parts, so we do everything from,you know, figuring out where
our factory should be to dealingwith customers for packing
parts and everything in between.
But we're really working hardfor the classical Pilates
community and that's why we'rehere and we both love it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That's great.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about how you and
when you first discoveredclassical Pilates and what
really kind of drew you in tothat method?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, without carbon dating.
Myself, it goes back decades.
You know mine, mine is a, Ithink, a pretty common story
among people that practicePilates.
I have one of those skiaccidents that, if you put on
television, you wonder if wesurvived.
Um, and and I did um, but I'm abig skier and I still ski a lot
(03:47):
and um.
What happened was that, um, Itook a bad tumble and um, I
ended up cracking a couple lowvertebrae l2, l3 and predating
adults, and while I recovered,you know, from that, okay,
grabbing my other surgicaloperation.
I had sciatica so bad I couldbarely finish a grocery shop.
(04:10):
So it was painful and difficult, and I tried a number of things
to address it, including takingadvice from a great surgeon on
what they could do for me with avery aggressive surgery, and
they told me that they weren'tsure that it was actually going
to work.
The surgeon, though, was smartenough to suggest that I could
(04:30):
get my course solved enough.
Perhaps that would address theissue, and so I started
searching for the right things.
I eventually met I did tryPilates before I met a woman
named Alicia Doyle in emphasisfor now Alicia Stone.
She's married, but she was myfirst classical instructor, and
(04:51):
while I was painful for thefirst you know several sessions
I quickly became addicted.
This is nearly two decades agoand at times I was training more
than seven days a week.
You know sometimes I'd have adouble session on a Saturday or
Sunday For me from barely beingable to walk for grocery
shopping, within a couple yearsI ran my first marathon.
(05:12):
I'm not much of a runner, sothat's a very big detail.
I kind of did it to prove thatI could.
But I've been practicingclassical karate consistently
since then.
I had a break a little bitduring colded.
My instructor left SanFrancisco and moved to Seattle.
I couldn't get anybodyface-to-face and so it was a bit
(05:35):
of a off-fairy for me.
I tried a number of differentthings, but I'm back to training
regularly, at least three daysa week, believe it or not.
The thing that gets in the wayof training more than three days
a week, believe it or not, thething that gets in the way of
training more than three days aweek is the company, because
it's very consuming forElizabeth and I.
We're just super busy with that.
So that's really the story.
And when it's worked, it'ssurprising to imagine that I'm
(05:59):
following an injury like that.
It wasn't the doctors thatfixed me, it was Pilates that
fixed me.
It may be stronger than it wasbefore and I'm wildly dedicated
to Pilates being a central partof my life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, welcome to the club.
I think, is everyone listeningis, yeah, it is.
It is amazing to hear storieslike yours and how powerful this
movement practice really is,and sometimes I think as
teachers, we often forget theimpact of this work, and so I'm
(06:33):
glad you shared your storybecause it does begin a journey
of for so many, of so much morethan just what happens in the
studio on the equipment.
So, yeah for sure, thank youfor sharing that.
So you didn't just fall in lovewith classical Pilates, so you
went all in and bought thecompany that builds the
(06:56):
equipment.
So what was it that sort of ledyou to that point and make that
decision?
Can you share a little bitabout that?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
One of the things that I've done, you know, after
I discovered Glass and Bladisfor me, was build home studios.
I'm lucky enough to have enoughspace to have a gym and you
know my gym you know, going backfor a very long time looks
pretty much like a garageshowroom.
It's what I originally learnedon, fell in love with.
Well, I've tabled the world andtrained on virtually every
(07:27):
Pilates manufacturer's apparatus.
The feel is different the senseof, for me, comfort, the
ability to get deep into my core.
There's something about Grazapparatus that I think and I
could probably define it for afew people, but I think it just
works better for a truepractitioner of Joseph Pilates,
(07:48):
classical Pilates, getting deepinto the core and it emphasizes
the way we want to move the gunproperly.
And so Elizabeth and I foundourselves with a new home and
rebuilding a studio back in 2022, and we put in an order for
essentially the whole complementof ground apparatus and we were
(08:10):
patiently waiting for it.
They told us it'd be 40 weeks,which you know.
Okay, that's too long, butwe'll wait.
But 40 weeks later, we arrivedat Bapulus and we resized and
where's our quantized apparatus?
And they said it'd be 20 moreweeks.
At 60 weeks we resized it,whereas our quantized apparatus
and they said it'd be 20 moreweeks.
At 60 weeks we resized againand they said they weren't sure
where it was going to come.
(08:31):
We had a number of machinationsand a few phone calls and we
were on these toasts anyway.
We ended up visiting with Ben orDavid Rosencrantz and his team
at the factory in Philadelphiain a way way sort of looking for
our work.
What I could see was somethingabout magical and difficult.
(08:51):
The magic was the company isstill making the apparatus
pretty much exactly as they didwhen they started building Gratz
apparatus the same durableconstruction, the same great
design, the same greatengineering.
But so many of the other thingsin the business weren't working
.
They couldn't produce enough,they didn't have strong enough
(09:14):
relationships with their vendors, they didn't have a fairly
miserable customer support teamand no tools.
They had no ERP system.
It was a difficult situation.
The company that wasn't longfor this world.
So Osorio and I gave someserious thought and we thought
we both love Festival of Fliesin a way that I think many of
(09:34):
your listeners would, but it'sreally important to us and we
have a deep affection for Robsand we thought we can't let this
company fail.
We stepped in and became thenew owners last June.
I'd say I thought it might be alittle easier than it's turned
out to be, but so far it's beensuper challenging for both of us
(09:59):
, rewarding for both of us.
But really the point was asimple one we love classical
Pilates, we love Bratz Pilates,bratz apparatus and we wanted
this company to thrive and servethe classical instructors
around the world in the way theyshould, not the way they had
them.
And so it was not a dollars arealive equation, although we're
(10:20):
not looking forward to taking alittle financial bath from this,
although we have so far.
The principal point was we wantto return Grottes to be better
than it's ever been before forthe Pilates community.
So that's what we're after.
It's important to us, it'spersonal tools.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, it sounds like it's really meaningful and
personal to you and you knowGraz is a company that's, you
know, kind of rich in thehistory of the classical Pilates
world and so it's wonderful tohear that you have got such a,
you know, a deeper purpose andmeaning to being at the helm and
leading it forward, and I knowone of the things that Gratz has
(11:04):
really focused on in the pastis that craftsmanship, is that
quality.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you continue to maintain
that as you're evolving thecompany in all the different
ways that you are today?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So I would actually say our ambition is not only to
maintain it but to improve it.
So while so many things weren'tgoing well for Graf's when we
interacted with the company andhired her to acquire it, one of
the things that was great islooking back over history.
The company never really gotconnected to what I would call
(11:40):
value engineering, and what Imean by that is company after
company.
If you look at Americanmanufacturing or if you look at
what you find in the food aisleof your grocery stores, it seems
like they package and repackageand try to figure out how to
take 5% of one part of it ormake the canopy on a Cadillac
(12:00):
just a little bit lighter,because you know why not you can
save $10 per operolus.
There's a certainsophistication in doing that.
Wax had none of thatsophistication, and so one of
the amusing parts of it is well,I would say critically, it very
much ran like a 1960s wood andmetal shop.
(12:21):
But it also meant they neverembraced what I've described as
sort of modern process of makinggross margins go up, and so it
probably contributed in part totheir bad state.
But they make a very expensiveto manufacture set of apparatus.
That's the good part.
They never screw with thedesign.
(12:42):
They also can't tell you froman engineering perspective why
the designs are as great as theyare or what the tolerances
should be, and I find, forexample, a batch manufacturer
that we get from our springsuppliers.
There's too much variance fromone set of springs to another.
It's a function of themanufacturing process and we can
(13:04):
improve on that and tighten itdown so that there's a more
consistent delivery for ourcustomers that we've been able
to achieve in the past.
The measurement on the inside ofa former edge-to-edge is 22.5
inches inches.
No one ever bothered to saywhat's reasonable tolerance.
There was an eight minutes is asixth image is a 42nd uh of an
(13:26):
h.
Now we had a wonderful head ofengineer ops working exactly
that issue right now.
So there's the variances aretighter, the delivery is better,
and then when we can find waysto improve something, we will,
and so whenever we're going togo through value engineering,
we're going to go throughquality engineering to keep
looking for opportunities totighten something down to
(13:48):
improve its performance.
Now, historically, people usebranch operations for decades.
I know I trained three days aweek with Amy Berger in
Philadelphia and she's trainingon equipment that she bought
secondhand that is close to 30years old.
It's still great stuff, but itdoesn't mean there aren't
opportunities to tweak on thepositive, and so we're going to
(14:10):
continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, my reformer that I have sitting just outside
this room here is I've had forover 10 years and it's had, it's
used multiple times a week.
So, yes, these, it is equipmentthat stands the test of time
and it sounds like you'rebalancing you know, staying true
to their designs and you knowthe what makes the grots so
(14:33):
grots and also innovating, foryou know what today's world can
offer to help maintain that forthe foreseeable future.
So it's great to hear.
So why don't you give us aquick update on you know?
You know you've been at thehelm now for you know a few
months and tell us a little bitabout what you know, what people
(14:55):
might have seen as changed inthat time improvements.
You've made things that you'vedone to perhaps share a little
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The first thing that we wanted to tackle was actually
the hurdle that caused us totry to acquire a company to
begin with, which was LeadTones.
Comes Back to June last yearagain in 24, when we completed
the transaction, glatzwood'saveraging about 18 months for
(15:29):
delivery, but it was a toughsituation because they couldn't
deliver any faster than orderswere coming in, and so what was
happening was it was like aperpetual 18 months, and if
anything ever went wrong it waslonger, and so you know,
personally, I think that's kindof patently ridiculous.
That's just longer than anyoneshould have to wait.
Craftsmanship is one thing, butwe weren't so slow because of
(15:52):
craftsmanship.
We were so slow because wedidn't have enough space to
manufacture, because we didn'thave high-quality craftspeople
in business, because we weren'teffectively paying our suppliers
on time.
So when we did need springs, wewere last in line to get them,
and so so we came in, and firstthing we did was we got current
(16:14):
with suppliers and so they woulddeliver for us and then net
them and talk them through whatwe needed.
We also began hiring.
One of the problems with hiringprior to our arrival was that
we didn't offer benefits, so itwas an hourly wage for people on
the bathroom floor, but therewas no health or vision or
medical or any of that stuff.
And see, it was very hard torecruit good people, because
(16:36):
good people have choice, andwithin about seven or eight
weeks of acquiring the company,we put a great health program
together Everything from youknow, medical and vision to
disability and all the thingsyou want if you want to work for
a company.
And that enabled us to startrecruiting, and so we slightly
(16:58):
more than tripled the size ofour team since June of last year
and we brought in leadership inareas we've never had
leadership before, likeoperations and engineering and
engineering operations that typeof thing which allows us to
scale intelligently and dothings better on the factory
floor.
What that's resulted in is lotsof craft people on the wood,
(17:23):
metal shop, upholstery, assembly, finishing and slightly more
than actually almost 4x ourproduction Basically, as I said,
three, but it's up from thatand what that's enabled us to do
is to start to deliver a lotfaster.
Now what's amusing is we've donevery, very, very little on
(17:46):
marketing to sort of drivedemand almost nothing since the
acquisition.
We've made our website a littlebit better and we've done some
smart rings on SEO and the web.
We're not spending a lot ofmoney on it and the communities
were slumber so the orders wereup about 3x as well, which makes
chasing that faster lead timeweirdly harder than it otherwise
(18:08):
would be.
But we still brought lead timesfrom 18 on the largest
apparatus for six and for thesmaller apparatus for three
months.
Our ambition later this year isto bring everything in under
three, which I think isreasonable for someone to plan.
It does take several weeksactually to build these things.
(18:30):
If you continue with the highcraft orientation the company
has and we are going to continuewith the high craft orientation
the company has and we aregoing to continue with that it's
been rewarding.
But then when you go out withthe volumes and the orders come
in faster, there's so manythings that we're having to
chase and we're not yetorganized around the systems.
We need to support ourcustomers in the ways that we
(18:52):
truly want to.
We have a much better customerservice team than we used to
have and they're delightful andknowledgeable and helpful.
But they're also buried andwe're in the process now of
implementing our first ERPsystems and customer
relationship management systemsso that we will be on post-it
(19:13):
notes for getting back to ourcustomers, which are a little
hard to track, to having good,system-adjusted data to be able
to support our customers the waythey deserve.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, absolutely Well , I have to say congratulations.
First of all, that's a hugeaccomplishment to bring down
that lead time so significantly,and I know, I hear firsthand
how thrilled studio owners areand teachers are when they
discover that actually it's notgoing to take many years to get
their equipment, and so I reallyappreciate.
(19:44):
I know it's been a lot of workand you've made a lot of changes
in a short period of time, somequite radical.
Bringing tripling yourworkforce is a big deal right
and so a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, it's great to have a partner like Elizabeth.
She drives so much of it.
She, for example, is the keydriver, an important thing,
whether it's the health side,health insurance side, or
grinding or shipping and manyother things on the factory
floor.
She's as recognized down thereas any other people that are on
the factory floor.
She's as recognized down thereas any other people that are on
the factory floor?
(20:19):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You make a good team, for sure.
We work hard at it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you know you've obviouslygot some things that you're
still.
You have some aspirations stillthat you've yet to achieve in
terms of some of the things thatyou would love to see grats
kind of um evolve towards.
(20:41):
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your kind of the
vision that you have for gratsum?
You know, beyond the thoseaspirations and goals that
you've set so far?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
sure I mean I think you know I'll not make this a
half an hour answer because itcould easily be, but you know,
one of the things that I caredeeply about is we care deeply
about is the success of theclassical Pilates instructor, in
particular, those that own CVS.
It's a tough business out thereand I'm glad, jaron, for what
(21:16):
you do to advise this committeebecause they give me a lot of
advice.
One of the things we didrecently I wrote the most recent
blog on why classical and Iwon't walk through that.
You can read it in 10 minutes.
It's on our blog but it talks alot about why, and I tried to
bring down uh, the story intosomething you could encapsulate
(21:38):
in a few minutes talking tosomeone, versus, uh, reading an
entire book with so many, and Idon't know if you've done and
why that's important is, I thinkit's a message in there that I
think a lot of people could useto their own benefit on their
own websites.
People understand why classicaland help people trade up from
contemporary Pilates or otherforms of exercise they're doing.
(22:00):
So part of it is about reallydriving home the message that
classical Pilates is trulyspecial and the one thing I
think we hit on hard in thatblog was not just what people
already know but just tripleempathizing.
Here's how important the bondis between the student and the
teacher.
That hands-on connection to ateacher and the opportunity to
(22:24):
pursue the mastery of Pilatesover years or decades is truly
special.
So that's one thing that we getour visions really about making
sure that that's underscoredglobally in ways that I don't
think it has been and in theabsence of messages like that
perhaps has left us wheeling alittle bit with the onslaught of
(22:44):
contemporary and other thingsin the political market.
So Woodrum keeps solvingproblems, like right now when
most customers outside theUnited States order from RAS.
It's a miserable situation.
Remember you order a bag ofcoffee a bit from almost anybody
in the United States, acustomer in France.
We might ship it to a seaportor an airport.
(23:07):
They've got to clear customs.
There's all sorts of technicalforms they have to fill out to
get it through customs.
They typically organize theirown shipping from the port to
their studios.
We want to be able to establishfile operations in most of the
major markets we support.
In fact, they can order it, butit shows up in their studio and
they don't think about it, andso we're working very hard on
(23:28):
that side of the operation.
Another thing that we want tobuild out is a much broader
wholesale support.
So if they need reupholstery orthey need support or they need
maintenance, that can beafforded to them very quickly
and easily.
Now we partner with great firmslike Inapply, chrome
(23:49):
Maintenance and others to dothat, but the connection is
still difficult and it's stillunclear for most studios around
the world how they would getwhat they need, and so part of
what we want to do is just makethose things better and simpler
so that they don't have to worryabout my big list to set up
there.
We just hop on, we do whateverit works.
(24:10):
You know.
Beyond that, we do want you know.
For most people around theworld when they autographs, they
don't know about studio.
They have no way of seeing it,and so if I, if you know,
autograph studio, there's many,many out there, but not everyone
has a direct connection.
So we're working on a lot ofdifferent things, like setting
up to our studio network,reference points or, if you will
(24:33):
like, almost showroomsituations.
A lot of things that we intendto promote as we move forward,
but year one so year of lastyear to year of this year is
primarily just two points Fixingmanufacturing and fixing
customer service.
And there are many things thatwill happen after that that
align to some of the points ofvision I just shared.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Wonderful, exciting times, for sure, for sure.
Now, perhaps, as a studio ownerwho might be listening to this,
or a teacher who might belistening to this, who is
perhaps in a place where theyare thinking about investing in
new equipment for their currentstudio, or opening a studio and
investing in equipment, that is,one of the biggest decisions
(25:20):
they make is to purchaseequipment.
It's a big financial outlay,and so when someone is thinking
about a full set Gratz set upfor their space, what advice
would you give them in terms oftimeline, how to think about
that investment and so on?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
First off, it is a big commitment to open a studio
and I have the pleasure to speakmany times a week to respected
studio owners that are openingtheir first studio.
Every one of thoseconversations is both
eye-opening and delightful forme.
Every one of thoseconversations is both
eye-opening and delightful forme, and also sometimes it's a
little scary if they haven'tthought through all the aspects
(26:00):
of running a business.
And, saren, I'm glad to haveyour business out there and your
podcast listeners wouldprobably know that seeking
advice is a smart thing to do.
But so, aside from planning on,you know we're six months in a
complete studio.
He's the way I'd probablyfaster than Matt and most of us
to come.
I still have a lot of theseconversations that I have Leave
(26:23):
me wishing I had more time tohelp.
A lot of them haven't.
They're going to buy anapparatus, for example, to teach
the welch or to teach classesof three, four or five at one
time, and they haven'tidentified yet who the other
teachers are going to be.
And, frankly, if you're lookingat a lead time, that actually
(26:44):
takes more time than gettingBlythe, apparatus and Grotsner
thought about where break-evenmight be for their business in
terms of the number of hoursthey need to train themselves
and the number of hours thatinstructors that they hire or
partner with, and so I you askedabout sort of how they should
(27:07):
think about it.
I think about it as a greatinvestment as long as they have
a plan, and that plan needs totake into understanding how
they're going to do this, whatthey're going to charge for, how
they're going to attract andretain customers like returning
customers aren't even providinga great hour session.
(27:32):
I almost did nothing back andthere's a lot more to running a
business than just offering theprogram.
And so I enjoy the conversationsbecause I think a lot of the
prospective city runners leavethose conversations probably
more worried than they mighthave when they got on.
But it sets them sometimes on ajourney of asking more
(27:54):
questions of smart people likeyou that can help them, and
talking to their mentors andreally thinking through how this
is going to work, how they'regoing to get their first evens,
how they're going to retainthose students, how they're
going to offer a supplementalprogram between individual
instructions and duets and bootsessions and, frankly, sometimes
for chopper rabbits they needit's interesting how often they
(28:15):
think about really well areformer or a CAD conversion
reformer or catalog, and theyleave out a lot of the small
bits and pieces that are sounique to the Pilates world and
that will help set them apart.
A lot of people are afraid toorder things like studio wall
units or gitzes, which are sounique to the practice that it
(28:37):
actually often ends up being theapparatus that makes people
want to come back.
Yeah, so I mean, there's a lotthere, and I find it exciting to
talk to them and I'm gladyou're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah Well, and I have to second that.
You know we have conversationshere at Spring 3 with people who
are looking to open studios.
You know, weekly, right now,and you know the very first
question I ask is the same onethat you do, which is what let's
, let's talk through what yourgoals are.
Your plan is, what are youthinking about, what do you want
(29:08):
this business to look like?
And then let's make sure it'sfinancially viable with that and
they sit really nicely together.
And when you do that run, gothrough that exercise.
It is.
So it is very enlightening,usually for the newer teacher or
newer studio owner or teacher,because it really helps to
(29:28):
understand where they might bemissing some information or
hadn't thought through certainthings.
And you know I always like tomake sure people are prepared
before they make the bigdecisions and commitments, you
know, and make sure they haveeverything they need to proceed
and have that plan in place.
And so we look at the numbersand then we also look at, okay,
(29:49):
well, how are you going to getyour first 10 clients 20 clients
, depending on where, businessmodel and their business, what
they want their business to looklike and then we look at, okay,
and what are the other bestpractices that you need to
implement in order for you tonot be working the same number
as you're working?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
number of hours as you're working.
Working, john, as long as theythink there's there's always a
cohesive plan, there's a,there's a good way.
If somebody wants to do astudio um, maybe it's part of
their home and it's 20 hours aweek and they want to have
another life that they'repursuing, that can work great.
They probably don't need fivereformers for that if they're
working on their own um.
You know, some people aresmitten by their business
success and they get out there,you know, with a small
compliment of apparatus and thenthey find that there's a lot of
(30:36):
demand for what they offer andthey start expanding and I've
seen many, many, many students'stories like that.
But it's important that they dothe goals and have a plan and
then that kind of gets themwhere they're at least making
logic a little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's really as important as really
important.
Well, I'm glad, I'm so gladthat you're really focused on
that as well and that you knowwe have some collaborations and
some more resources coming tothe community on all of those
things for sure in the pipeline.
But, you know, as we kind ofwrap up this conversation, I
really want to say thank you somuch for coming on and sharing
(31:13):
your story, and you know, Ipersonally, just as a member of
this community and someone whois, you know, just like you, you
know, adores the classicalPilates method, believes in it
and you know, practices everysingle week.
I'm glad that you're at thehelm and I'm excited for where
(31:34):
you're going to take GRATS next.
So, thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And thank you Sarah and her listeners out there.
Elizabeth and I are every dayin Philadelphia.
We try to help if we can anduntil then, until we meet, have
a great rest of your day.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, thank you guys.
So I'm going to link to theshow notes in the show notes to,
if you want to get connected toGratz and learn a bit more
about what equipment they canthey have available and to offer
you and talk to some of thebrand new amazing folks over
there, if you're interested inlearning a bit more about what
is possible when it comes toequipping your studio with Gratz
(32:09):
.
It will all be in the shownotes.
But thank you so much, john,for joining us.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
If you're listening in and you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with a fellowteacher or studio owner who
might also benefit fromlistening in to some of the
insights and tips that wereshared today.
And I really appreciate it ifyou could go ahead and rate or
review this podcast.
It would mean so much to me andhelp to get this out there into
(32:36):
our wonderful community.
Did you love this episode andwant more?
Head to spring3.com and checkout my free resources that will
help you run a profitable andfulfilling studio business.
And before you go, one lastreminder there is no one way to
(32:57):
do what you do, only your way.
So whatever it is that you wantto do, create or offer, you've
got this.
Thanks again for joining metoday and have a wonderful rest
of your day.
If you've been in the Pilates world for any length of
time, you've probably heard ofGraz Pilates.
The name goes hand in hand withclassical Pilates.
It's what I learned to teach on, and if you're a classically
trained teacher, you probablyknow the feel of a Graz reformer
.
Today I've got a very specialguest on the show.
(00:20):
John is one of the new ownersof Graz Pilates.
He and his wife, elizabeth,purchased Graz Pilates last year
, and his background mightsurprise you.
He spent years leading some ofthe biggest companies in gaming
and tech, but what's reallyinteresting is that he didn't
just acquire Graz as a businessdecision.
He fell in love with classicalPilates, himself experiencing
(00:43):
firsthand the impact of themethod, and decided to fully
immerse himself in this world bytaking on the stewardship of
one of the most respected namesin Pilates.
So today we're diving into hisjourney, why he's so passionate
about classical Pilates andwhat's next for Graz.
(01:05):
Well, hi there, I'm SarenGlanfield.
I'm a business and marketingstrategist just for boutique
fitness studio owners like you.
If you're ready to be inspiredand make a bigger impact, you're
in the right place.
All you need are a few keystrategies, the right mindset
and some support along the way.
Join me as I share thereal-life insights that will
(01:27):
help you grow a sustainable andprofitable studio.
This is the Pilates BusinessPodcast.
Welcome back to the PilatesBusiness Podcast.
I'm Sarah, and thank you somuch for joining me today.
I'm here with John Riccatello,owner of Graz Pilates.
He and his wife Elizabethpurchased Graz last year and I
(01:52):
have been desperate to get Johnon the show to talk a little bit
more and share with us what andwhy, what Graz has been up to
and why he purchased the companylast year.
So, john, welcome, welcome,welcome.
It's been a pleasure to get toknow you over the last few
months.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, it's great to be here.
Thanks for having me, Simon.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
And it's been fantastic as someone who has
been part of the Gratz communitysince I first started teaching
and actually even doing Pilatesway back in 2006, 2007 in New
York City.
Gratz is all I've really workedon throughout the years, and so
it's been great to watchfirsthand as you've really sort
of taken the reins of thecompany and also see a lot of
(02:33):
the studio owners that I workwith get really excited about
the new energy and commitment tothe communities, and I'm sure
that it has kept you busy thislast few months.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I would say that that's very true.
Elizabeth and I fired bots lastJune.
We've been putting in this iscrazy to say 60-hour weeks
trying to get us where we wantto be.
It's amazing.
Sometimes I'm trying to leavethe office at 6.30 or7 and
Elizabeth's downstairs packingparts.
So we do everything fromfiguring out where our factory
should be to dealing withcustomers downstairs packing
(03:05):
parts, so we do everything from,you know, figuring out where
our factory should be to dealingwith customers for packing
parts and everything in between.
But we're really working hardfor the classical Pilates
community and that's why we'rehere and we both love it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That's great.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about how you and
when you first discoveredclassical Pilates and what
really kind of drew you in tothat method?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, without carbon dating.
Myself, it goes back decades.
You know mine, mine is a, Ithink, a pretty common story
among people that practicePilates.
I have one of those skiaccidents that, if you put on
television, you wonder if wesurvived.
Um, and and I did um, but I'm abig skier and I still ski a lot
(03:47):
and um.
What happened was that, um, Itook a bad tumble and um, I
ended up cracking a couple lowvertebrae l2, l3 and predating
adults, and while I recovered,you know, from that, okay,
grabbing my other surgicaloperation.
I had sciatica so bad I couldbarely finish a grocery shop.
(04:10):
So it was painful and difficult, and I tried a number of things
to address it, including takingadvice from a great surgeon on
what they could do for me with avery aggressive surgery, and
they told me that they weren'tsure that it was actually going
to work.
The surgeon, though, was smartenough to suggest that I could
(04:30):
get my course solved enough.
Perhaps that would address theissue, and so I started
searching for the right things.
I eventually met I did tryPilates before I met a woman
named Alicia Doyle in emphasisfor now Alicia Stone.
She's married, but she was myfirst classical instructor, and
(04:51):
while I was painful for thefirst you know several sessions
I quickly became addicted.
This is nearly two decades agoand at times I was training more
than seven days a week.
You know sometimes I'd have adouble session on a Saturday or
Sunday For me from barely beingable to walk for grocery
shopping, within a couple yearsI ran my first marathon.
(05:12):
I'm not much of a runner, sothat's a very big detail.
I kind of did it to prove thatI could.
But I've been practicingclassical karate consistently
since then.
I had a break a little bitduring colded.
My instructor left SanFrancisco and moved to Seattle.
I couldn't get anybodyface-to-face and so it was a bit
(05:35):
of a off-fairy for me.
I tried a number of differentthings, but I'm back to training
regularly, at least three daysa week, believe it or not.
The thing that gets in the wayof training more than three days
a week, believe it or not, thething that gets in the way of
training more than three days aweek is the company, because
it's very consuming forElizabeth and I.
We're just super busy with that.
So that's really the story.
And when it's worked, it'ssurprising to imagine that I'm
(05:59):
following an injury like that.
It wasn't the doctors thatfixed me, it was Pilates that
fixed me.
It may be stronger than it wasbefore and I'm wildly dedicated
to Pilates being a central partof my life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, welcome to the club.
I think, is everyone listeningis, yeah, it is.
It is amazing to hear storieslike yours and how powerful this
movement practice really is,and sometimes I think as
teachers, we often forget theimpact of this work, and so I'm
(06:33):
glad you shared your storybecause it does begin a journey
of for so many, of so much morethan just what happens in the
studio on the equipment.
So, yeah for sure, thank youfor sharing that.
So you didn't just fall in lovewith classical Pilates, so you
went all in and bought thecompany that builds the
(06:56):
equipment.
So what was it that sort of ledyou to that point and make that
decision?
Can you share a little bitabout that?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
One of the things that I've done, you know, after
I discovered Glass and Bladisfor me, was build home studios.
I'm lucky enough to have enoughspace to have a gym and you
know my gym you know, going backfor a very long time looks
pretty much like a garageshowroom.
It's what I originally learnedon, fell in love with.
Well, I've tabled the world andtrained on virtually every
(07:27):
Pilates manufacturer's apparatus.
The feel is different the senseof, for me, comfort, the
ability to get deep into my core.
There's something about Grazapparatus that I think and I
could probably define it for afew people, but I think it just
works better for a truepractitioner of Joseph Pilates,
(07:48):
classical Pilates, getting deepinto the core and it emphasizes
the way we want to move the gunproperly.
And so Elizabeth and I foundourselves with a new home and
rebuilding a studio back in 2022, and we put in an order for
essentially the whole complementof ground apparatus and we were
(08:10):
patiently waiting for it.
They told us it'd be 40 weeks,which you know.
Okay, that's too long, butwe'll wait.
But 40 weeks later, we arrivedat Bapulus and we resized and
where's our quantized apparatus?
And they said it'd be 20 moreweeks.
At 60 weeks we resized it,whereas our quantized apparatus
and they said it'd be 20 moreweeks.
At 60 weeks we resized againand they said they weren't sure
where it was going to come.
(08:31):
We had a number of machinationsand a few phone calls and we
were on these toasts anyway.
We ended up visiting with Ben orDavid Rosencrantz and his team
at the factory in Philadelphiain a way way sort of looking for
our work.
What I could see was somethingabout magical and difficult.
(08:51):
The magic was the company isstill making the apparatus
pretty much exactly as they didwhen they started building Gratz
apparatus the same durableconstruction, the same great
design, the same greatengineering.
But so many of the other thingsin the business weren't working
.
They couldn't produce enough,they didn't have strong enough
(09:14):
relationships with their vendors, they didn't have a fairly
miserable customer support teamand no tools.
They had no ERP system.
It was a difficult situation.
The company that wasn't longfor this world.
So Osorio and I gave someserious thought and we thought
we both love Festival of Fliesin a way that I think many of
(09:34):
your listeners would, but it'sreally important to us and we
have a deep affection for Robsand we thought we can't let this
company fail.
We stepped in and became thenew owners last June.
I'd say I thought it might be alittle easier than it's turned
out to be, but so far it's beensuper challenging for both of us
(09:59):
, rewarding for both of us.
But really the point was asimple one we love classical
Pilates, we love Bratz Pilates,bratz apparatus and we wanted
this company to thrive and servethe classical instructors
around the world in the way theyshould, not the way they had
them.
And so it was not a dollars arealive equation, although we're
(10:20):
not looking forward to taking alittle financial bath from this,
although we have so far.
The principal point was we wantto return Grottes to be better
than it's ever been before forthe Pilates community.
So that's what we're after.
It's important to us, it'spersonal tools.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, it sounds like it's really meaningful and
personal to you and you knowGraz is a company that's, you
know, kind of rich in thehistory of the classical Pilates
world and so it's wonderful tohear that you have got such a,
you know, a deeper purpose andmeaning to being at the helm and
leading it forward, and I knowone of the things that Gratz has
(11:04):
really focused on in the pastis that craftsmanship, is that
quality.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you continue to maintain
that as you're evolving thecompany in all the different
ways that you are today?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So I would actually say our ambition is not only to
maintain it but to improve it.
So while so many things weren'tgoing well for Graf's when we
interacted with the company andhired her to acquire it, one of
the things that was great islooking back over history.
The company never really gotconnected to what I would call
(11:40):
value engineering, and what Imean by that is company after
company.
If you look at Americanmanufacturing or if you look at
what you find in the food aisleof your grocery stores, it seems
like they package and repackageand try to figure out how to
take 5% of one part of it ormake the canopy on a Cadillac
(12:00):
just a little bit lighter,because you know why not you can
save $10 per operolus.
There's a certainsophistication in doing that.
Wax had none of thatsophistication, and so one of
the amusing parts of it is well,I would say critically, it very
much ran like a 1960s wood andmetal shop.
(12:21):
But it also meant they neverembraced what I've described as
sort of modern process of makinggross margins go up, and so it
probably contributed in part totheir bad state.
But they make a very expensiveto manufacture set of apparatus.
That's the good part.
They never screw with thedesign.
(12:42):
They also can't tell you froman engineering perspective why
the designs are as great as theyare or what the tolerances
should be, and I find, forexample, a batch manufacturer
that we get from our springsuppliers.
There's too much variance fromone set of springs to another.
It's a function of themanufacturing process and we can
(13:04):
improve on that and tighten itdown so that there's a more
consistent delivery for ourcustomers that we've been able
to achieve in the past.
The measurement on the inside ofa former edge-to-edge is 22.5
inches inches.
No one ever bothered to saywhat's reasonable tolerance.
There was an eight minutes is asixth image is a 42nd uh of an
(13:26):
h.
Now we had a wonderful head ofengineer ops working exactly
that issue right now.
So there's the variances aretighter, the delivery is better,
and then when we can find waysto improve something, we will,
and so whenever we're going togo through value engineering,
we're going to go throughquality engineering to keep
looking for opportunities totighten something down to
(13:48):
improve its performance.
Now, historically, people usebranch operations for decades.
I know I trained three days aweek with Amy Berger in
Philadelphia and she's trainingon equipment that she bought
secondhand that is close to 30years old.
It's still great stuff, but itdoesn't mean there aren't
opportunities to tweak on thepositive, and so we're going to
(14:10):
continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, my reformer that I have sitting just outside
this room here is I've had forover 10 years and it's had, it's
used multiple times a week.
So, yes, these, it is equipmentthat stands the test of time
and it sounds like you'rebalancing you know, staying true
to their designs and you knowthe what makes the grots so
(14:33):
grots and also innovating, foryou know what today's world can
offer to help maintain that forthe foreseeable future.
So it's great to hear.
So why don't you give us aquick update on you know?
You know you've been at thehelm now for you know a few
months and tell us a little bitabout what you know, what people
(14:55):
might have seen as changed inthat time improvements.
You've made things that you'vedone to perhaps share a little
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The first thing that we wanted to tackle was actually
the hurdle that caused us totry to acquire a company to
begin with, which was LeadTones.
Comes Back to June last yearagain in 24, when we completed
the transaction, glatzwood'saveraging about 18 months for
(15:29):
delivery, but it was a toughsituation because they couldn't
deliver any faster than orderswere coming in, and so what was
happening was it was like aperpetual 18 months, and if
anything ever went wrong it waslonger, and so you know,
personally, I think that's kindof patently ridiculous.
That's just longer than anyoneshould have to wait.
Craftsmanship is one thing, butwe weren't so slow because of
(15:52):
craftsmanship.
We were so slow because wedidn't have enough space to
manufacture, because we didn'thave high-quality craftspeople
in business, because we weren'teffectively paying our suppliers
on time.
So when we did need springs, wewere last in line to get them,
and so so we came in, and firstthing we did was we got current
(16:14):
with suppliers and so they woulddeliver for us and then net
them and talk them through whatwe needed.
We also began hiring.
One of the problems with hiringprior to our arrival was that
we didn't offer benefits, so itwas an hourly wage for people on
the bathroom floor, but therewas no health or vision or
medical or any of that stuff.
And see, it was very hard torecruit good people, because
(16:36):
good people have choice, andwithin about seven or eight
weeks of acquiring the company,we put a great health program
together Everything from youknow, medical and vision to
disability and all the thingsyou want if you want to work for
a company.
And that enabled us to startrecruiting, and so we slightly
(16:58):
more than tripled the size ofour team since June of last year
and we brought in leadership inareas we've never had
leadership before, likeoperations and engineering and
engineering operations that typeof thing which allows us to
scale intelligently and dothings better on the factory
floor.
What that's resulted in is lotsof craft people on the wood,
(17:23):
metal shop, upholstery, assembly, finishing and slightly more
than actually almost 4x ourproduction Basically, as I said,
three, but it's up from thatand what that's enabled us to do
is to start to deliver a lotfaster.
Now what's amusing is we've donevery, very, very little on
(17:46):
marketing to sort of drivedemand almost nothing since the
acquisition.
We've made our website a littlebit better and we've done some
smart rings on SEO and the web.
We're not spending a lot ofmoney on it and the communities
were slumber so the orders wereup about 3x as well, which makes
chasing that faster lead timeweirdly harder than it otherwise
(18:08):
would be.
But we still brought lead timesfrom 18 on the largest
apparatus for six and for thesmaller apparatus for three
months.
Our ambition later this year isto bring everything in under
three, which I think isreasonable for someone to plan.
It does take several weeksactually to build these things.
(18:30):
If you continue with the highcraft orientation the company
has and we are going to continuewith the high craft orientation
the company has and we aregoing to continue with that it's
been rewarding.
But then when you go out withthe volumes and the orders come
in faster, there's so manythings that we're having to
chase and we're not yetorganized around the systems.
We need to support ourcustomers in the ways that we
(18:52):
truly want to.
We have a much better customerservice team than we used to
have and they're delightful andknowledgeable and helpful.
But they're also buried andwe're in the process now of
implementing our first ERPsystems and customer
relationship management systemsso that we will be on post-it
(19:13):
notes for getting back to ourcustomers, which are a little
hard to track, to having good,system-adjusted data to be able
to support our customers the waythey deserve.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, absolutely Well , I have to say congratulations.
First of all, that's a hugeaccomplishment to bring down
that lead time so significantly,and I know, I hear firsthand
how thrilled studio owners areand teachers are when they
discover that actually it's notgoing to take many years to get
their equipment, and so I reallyappreciate.
(19:44):
I know it's been a lot of workand you've made a lot of changes
in a short period of time, somequite radical.
Bringing tripling yourworkforce is a big deal right
and so a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, it's great to have a partner like Elizabeth.
She drives so much of it.
She, for example, is the keydriver, an important thing,
whether it's the health side,health insurance side, or
grinding or shipping and manyother things on the factory
floor.
She's as recognized down thereas any other people that are on
the factory floor.
She's as recognized down thereas any other people that are on
the factory floor?
(20:19):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You make a good team, for sure.
We work hard at it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you know you've obviouslygot some things that you're
still.
You have some aspirations stillthat you've yet to achieve in
terms of some of the things thatyou would love to see grats
kind of um evolve towards.
(20:41):
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your kind of the
vision that you have for gratsum?
You know, beyond the thoseaspirations and goals that
you've set so far?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
sure I mean I think you know I'll not make this a
half an hour answer because itcould easily be, but you know,
one of the things that I caredeeply about is we care deeply
about is the success of theclassical Pilates instructor, in
particular, those that own CVS.
It's a tough business out thereand I'm glad, jaron, for what
(21:16):
you do to advise this committeebecause they give me a lot of
advice.
One of the things we didrecently I wrote the most recent
blog on why classical and Iwon't walk through that.
You can read it in 10 minutes.
It's on our blog but it talks alot about why, and I tried to
bring down uh, the story intosomething you could encapsulate
(21:38):
in a few minutes talking tosomeone, versus, uh, reading an
entire book with so many, and Idon't know if you've done and
why that's important is, I thinkit's a message in there that I
think a lot of people could useto their own benefit on their
own websites.
People understand why classicaland help people trade up from
contemporary Pilates or otherforms of exercise they're doing.
(22:00):
So part of it is about reallydriving home the message that
classical Pilates is trulyspecial and the one thing I
think we hit on hard in thatblog was not just what people
already know but just tripleempathizing.
Here's how important the bondis between the student and the
teacher.
That hands-on connection to ateacher and the opportunity to
(22:24):
pursue the mastery of Pilatesover years or decades is truly
special.
So that's one thing that we getour visions really about making
sure that that's underscoredglobally in ways that I don't
think it has been and in theabsence of messages like that
perhaps has left us wheeling alittle bit with the onslaught of
(22:44):
contemporary and other thingsin the political market.
So Woodrum keeps solvingproblems, like right now when
most customers outside theUnited States order from RAS.
It's a miserable situation.
Remember you order a bag ofcoffee a bit from almost anybody
in the United States, acustomer in France.
We might ship it to a seaportor an airport.
(23:07):
They've got to clear customs.
There's all sorts of technicalforms they have to fill out to
get it through customs.
They typically organize theirown shipping from the port to
their studios.
We want to be able to establishfile operations in most of the
major markets we support.
In fact, they can order it, butit shows up in their studio and
they don't think about it, andso we're working very hard on
(23:28):
that side of the operation.
Another thing that we want tobuild out is a much broader
wholesale support.
So if they need reupholstery orthey need support or they need
maintenance, that can beafforded to them very quickly
and easily.
Now we partner with great firmslike Inapply, chrome
(23:49):
Maintenance and others to dothat, but the connection is
still difficult and it's stillunclear for most studios around
the world how they would getwhat they need, and so part of
what we want to do is just makethose things better and simpler
so that they don't have to worryabout my big list to set up
there.
We just hop on, we do whateverit works.
(24:10):
You know.
Beyond that, we do want you know.
For most people around theworld when they autographs, they
don't know about studio.
They have no way of seeing it,and so if I, if you know,
autograph studio, there's many,many out there, but not everyone
has a direct connection.
So we're working on a lot ofdifferent things, like setting
up to our studio network,reference points or, if you will
(24:33):
like, almost showroomsituations.
A lot of things that we intendto promote as we move forward,
but year one so year of lastyear to year of this year is
primarily just two points Fixingmanufacturing and fixing
customer service.
And there are many things thatwill happen after that that
align to some of the points ofvision I just shared.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Wonderful, exciting times, for sure, for sure.
Now, perhaps, as a studio ownerwho might be listening to this,
or a teacher who might belistening to this, who is
perhaps in a place where theyare thinking about investing in
new equipment for their currentstudio, or opening a studio and
investing in equipment, that is,one of the biggest decisions
(25:20):
they make is to purchaseequipment.
It's a big financial outlay,and so when someone is thinking
about a full set Gratz set upfor their space, what advice
would you give them in terms oftimeline, how to think about
that investment and so on?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
First off, it is a big commitment to open a studio
and I have the pleasure to speakmany times a week to respected
studio owners that are openingtheir first studio.
Every one of thoseconversations is both
eye-opening and delightful forme.
Every one of thoseconversations is both
eye-opening and delightful forme, and also sometimes it's a
little scary if they haven'tthought through all the aspects
(26:00):
of running a business.
And, saren, I'm glad to haveyour business out there and your
podcast listeners wouldprobably know that seeking
advice is a smart thing to do.
But so, aside from planning on,you know we're six months in a
complete studio.
He's the way I'd probablyfaster than Matt and most of us
to come.
I still have a lot of theseconversations that I have Leave
(26:23):
me wishing I had more time tohelp.
A lot of them haven't.
They're going to buy anapparatus, for example, to teach
the welch or to teach classesof three, four or five at one
time, and they haven'tidentified yet who the other
teachers are going to be.
And, frankly, if you're lookingat a lead time, that actually
(26:44):
takes more time than gettingBlythe, apparatus and Grotsner
thought about where break-evenmight be for their business in
terms of the number of hoursthey need to train themselves
and the number of hours thatinstructors that they hire or
partner with, and so I you askedabout sort of how they should
(27:07):
think about it.
I think about it as a greatinvestment as long as they have
a plan, and that plan needs totake into understanding how
they're going to do this, whatthey're going to charge for, how
they're going to attract andretain customers like returning
customers aren't even providinga great hour session.
(27:32):
I almost did nothing back andthere's a lot more to running a
business than just offering theprogram.
And so I enjoy the conversationsbecause I think a lot of the
prospective city runners leavethose conversations probably
more worried than they mighthave when they got on.
But it sets them sometimes on ajourney of asking more
(27:54):
questions of smart people likeyou that can help them, and
talking to their mentors andreally thinking through how this
is going to work, how they'regoing to get their first evens,
how they're going to retainthose students, how they're
going to offer a supplementalprogram between individual
instructions and duets and bootsessions and, frankly, sometimes
for chopper rabbits they needit's interesting how often they
(28:15):
think about really well areformer or a CAD conversion
reformer or catalog, and theyleave out a lot of the small
bits and pieces that are sounique to the Pilates world and
that will help set them apart.
A lot of people are afraid toorder things like studio wall
units or gitzes, which are sounique to the practice that it
(28:37):
actually often ends up being theapparatus that makes people
want to come back.
Yeah, so I mean, there's a lotthere, and I find it exciting to
talk to them and I'm gladyou're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah Well, and I have to second that.
You know we have conversationshere at Spring 3 with people who
are looking to open studios.
You know, weekly, right now,and you know the very first
question I ask is the same onethat you do, which is what let's
, let's talk through what yourgoals are.
Your plan is, what are youthinking about, what do you want
(29:08):
this business to look like?
And then let's make sure it'sfinancially viable with that and
they sit really nicely together.
And when you do that run, gothrough that exercise.
It is.
So it is very enlightening,usually for the newer teacher or
newer studio owner or teacher,because it really helps to
(29:28):
understand where they might bemissing some information or
hadn't thought through certainthings.
And you know I always like tomake sure people are prepared
before they make the bigdecisions and commitments, you
know, and make sure they haveeverything they need to proceed
and have that plan in place.
And so we look at the numbersand then we also look at, okay,
(29:49):
well, how are you going to getyour first 10 clients 20 clients
, depending on where, businessmodel and their business, what
they want their business to looklike and then we look at, okay,
and what are the other bestpractices that you need to
implement in order for you tonot be working the same number
as you're working?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
number of hours as you're working.
Working, john, as long as theythink there's there's always a
cohesive plan, there's a,there's a good way.
If somebody wants to do astudio um, maybe it's part of
their home and it's 20 hours aweek and they want to have
another life that they'repursuing, that can work great.
They probably don't need fivereformers for that if they're
working on their own um.
You know, some people aresmitten by their business
success and they get out there,you know, with a small
compliment of apparatus and thenthey find that there's a lot of
(30:36):
demand for what they offer andthey start expanding and I've
seen many, many, many students'stories like that.
But it's important that they dothe goals and have a plan and
then that kind of gets themwhere they're at least making
logic a little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's really as important as really
important.
Well, I'm glad, I'm so gladthat you're really focused on
that as well and that you knowwe have some collaborations and
some more resources coming tothe community on all of those
things for sure in the pipeline.
But, you know, as we kind ofwrap up this conversation, I
really want to say thank you somuch for coming on and sharing
(31:13):
your story, and you know, Ipersonally, just as a member of
this community and someone whois, you know, just like you, you
know, adores the classicalPilates method, believes in it
and you know, practices everysingle week.
I'm glad that you're at thehelm and I'm excited for where
(31:34):
you're going to take GRATS next.
So, thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And thank you Sarah and her listeners out there.
Elizabeth and I are every dayin Philadelphia.
We try to help if we can anduntil then, until we meet, have
a great rest of your day.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, thank you guys.
So I'm going to link to theshow notes in the show notes to,
if you want to get connected toGratz and learn a bit more
about what equipment they canthey have available and to offer
you and talk to some of thebrand new amazing folks over
there, if you're interested inlearning a bit more about what
is possible when it comes toequipping your studio with Gratz
(32:09):
.
It will all be in the shownotes.
But thank you so much, john,for joining us.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
If you're listening in and you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with a fellowteacher or studio owner who
might also benefit fromlistening in to some of the
insights and tips that wereshared today.
And I really appreciate it ifyou could go ahead and rate or
review this podcast.
It would mean so much to me andhelp to get this out there into
(32:36):
our wonderful community.
Did you love this episode andwant more?
Head to spring3.com and checkout my free resources that will
help you run a profitable andfulfilling studio business.
And before you go, one lastreminder there is no one way to
(32:57):
do what you do, only your way.
So whatever it is that you wantto do, create or offer, you've
got this.
Thanks again for joining metoday and have a wonderful rest
of your day.
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