Beyond The Method With Frame Fitness Founder Melissa Bentivoglio

In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield dives into an inspiring conversation with Melissa, the creator of Frame, a revolutionary at-home Pilates reformer. 

Melissa shares her journey from being a classically trained ballet dancer to becoming a Pilates and fitness instructor. 

She discusses her passion for making Pilates more accessible and her dedication to improving the quality of life for everyone. 

Join Seran and Melissa as they explore the process of designing and manufacturing Pilates equipment, the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the fitness industry, and the evolution of Pilates in recent years. 

Don't miss out on this insightful episode!

Learn more at: https://www.framefitness.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Pilates is having a bit of a moment right now. That's no surprise to us. It's finally getting the attention it really deserves, and with the evolution and development of our industry comes new opportunities and ways of doing things. While equipment is not new to us in the Pilates world, the idea of having Pilates equipment in the home really is something that has been very difficult for so many reasons up until now. But today I'm sitting down with Melissa, the founder of Frame Fitness, to talk all about how she's planning on making Pilates more accessible with at home equipment.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Well, hi there, I'm Sarah. In Glanfield, I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio. This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah and I'm so thrilled that you are here with me today because I am here with Melissa.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Melissa helped to create Frame, a beautifully designed at home, digitally connected Pilates reformer that offers both live and on demand workouts. Now, pilates is not new to Melissa. She was a classically trained ballet dancer and then, like so many of you listening, became a Pilates and fitness instructor after falling in love with the method. Melissa truly credits her dedication to Pilates as having changed her life after years of very high level performance. Now, in 2018, she began designing her own proprietary reformer for use in her own studio, with the idea of making Pilates more widely available and accessible, so that everyone has a chance to really improve their quality of life and benefit from all of what Pilates has to offer.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Now, fast forward to today, in 2024, and Frame has been featured in all sorts of wonderful places and is growing rapidly, and I wanted to bring on Melissa today to talk a little bit about that journey in developing equipment and a little bit about where we see this going, because I think, as we're seeing, pilates is having a little bit of a moment right now, and we don't want this moment to end. We want it to see it continuing, and there is such opportunity out there, so I'm so thrilled for you to be here, melissa, welcome.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Thank you so much. You did a fabulous job at explaining or giving insight into the start of my journey with classical ballet and then just falling in love with the lines, the way, the movements, the method that is Pilates. And then, of course, within the Pilates world, there's a fair amount of evolution that's transpired even just in the last 10 years.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Of course, absolutely, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about when you started to think about designing equipment, and I think this might have been something that has crossed the minds of many of the listeners who are teaching or been teaching for a while, thinking about how can we make this more accessible. How did you get started with that? Because I think one of the first things that people run into is well, I don't even know where to begin, so where did you start when you started out on this process?

Speaker 2: 4:01

So that's a fair and extremely accurate feeling For anybody who's feeling like they have that entrepreneurial spirit. There is a lot that goes into first conceptualizing something that you ultimately want to manufacture, design, manufacture and then actually bring a physical product to life. So that entire process is quite complex, not to say it's not insurmountable. There's just a lot of research and work that goes into really just those initial stages. You have a concept. You want to make sure the concept has not been done so many times. So further has to be a novelty component to it.

Speaker 2: 4:47

And just really researching industrial designers, understanding ID, industrial design, understanding what's manufacturable, understanding the novelty that you want to bring forth. Do you have something that is going to have product market fit? That's a huge thing. So really just sitting down and just doing as much research in the beginning as possible and then, once you have honed in on something that you know you have a product, you have this idea. It always starts with an idea and then you know, a little like Hutzpah. So you have this idea and now you want to bring it to life. So of course research is critical to this, doing the proper research in terms of like. There's so many different types of industrial designers. There's so many different types of engineers. So really figuring out what you need for what you want to accomplish and then just rolling the sleeves up.

Speaker 1: 5:51

That's right and thinking about also, you know, the different materials that you might want to use and what makes sense, not just from what you would love to use, necessarily, but what makes sense from a production perspective.

Speaker 2: 6:03

That is so further down the path of bringing a physical product to market, even that whole element of manufacturability. Oftentimes you have a concept, you have to feel very passionate about what you're doing, because that unwavering sense of I'm doing something meaningful and something that I know will not only there'll be appetite for it, but everybody is going to tell you that it's an obstacle, there's a hurdle and it's not possible.

Speaker 2: 6:36

I mean that's something that, if I were to give one piece of advice, let's say two, because they're kind of hand in hand, they're like a concurrent path of self-discovery, but everybody's going to say no. So you have to feel so strongly, vehemently passionate about what you're bringing to life in terms of that product and then also just trusting that gun instincts and I think that they're one in the same. Developing both at the same time is really, really critical when you are embarking on a journey of entrepreneurship 100%.

Speaker 1: 7:15

I'm so glad you mentioned that, because I think that when we often expect or we look around and we see people doing things like what you're doing, or seeing people taking big strides or doing things that are perhaps feel a little bit outside of what might be possible for others and it's always people always think that there was some sign or something that they knew that there was all going to work out. But I don't think that is the case, right, there's always a little bit of fear mixed with a lot of courage, but there's also this commitment that you're going to figure things out along the path, because nobody knows how to do all of this on day one, right?

Speaker 2: 7:52

It's also not a linear path, and if you go into something expecting that it's going to be linear and simple or even concise, that is when, I think, we do see a lot of failures within entrepreneurship or startups, because every day there will be 10, 20, 30 hurdles, obstacles, things go wrong, and you really just have to have, you have to possess that resilience and, again, like deep down, just starting with almost anticipating that you know things are going to go wrong, but it doesn't matter, because you're doing something that you know you were here to do.

Speaker 2: 8:35

And maybe that sounds a little more spiritual than others, but I think within the Pilates community, just like yoga, we are quite spiritual. We pull upon a lot of that. So I think just tapping into that is really, really important for for just staying with the journey.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Totally, and it doesn't matter what size business you have. I think that's the truth of it, this idea that it's very easy. I think that we often are, and I talk about this a lot but it's very, very easy to look around with the beautiful Instagram feeds and see the beautiful homes and the beautiful studios and you think, oh my gosh, that they must have it easy, right, Because they make it look easy, or it looks easy because it looks so beautiful and pretty, and it must be also easy.

Speaker 2: 9:18

It was probably very hard. In the beginning I had the beginning.

Speaker 1: 9:22

But also I think that what distinguishes people who are kind of make it and the people that don't and I've been thinking about this a lot recently because I think I'm seeing such an incredible amount of competition in our industry right now that I think we have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And if we think that it's just gonna be this easy, comfortable ride and it's just gonna be this smooth, flowing thing every single day of the week, that is actually gonna hold us back from being able to get to what you can get to right.

Speaker 2: 9:51

That's what I see a lot of.

Speaker 2: 9:52

It's that expectation, or it's almost like a naivete, that things are going to be simple, because that's just not. That doesn't possibly correlate to the journey of entrepreneurship, regardless of the scale. And I do think that I credit my first proprietary Pilates Reformer design back in 2018, because the struggles and the very specific hurdles that I had to jump when it came to even understanding the disconnect that lies between industrial design and being able to manufacture something it's quite vast and I went in thinking I tackled that initial I've like been in perpetual startup mode now since I was first opening up my studio, pre-pandemic, with a full gut job of a 4,000 square foot space and even the challenges of renovating and curating, you know, bespoke furniture and sound systems, and hiring Pilates instructors and doing certifications. You know it's really quite. It just requires basically all of you Right, and I think that first, that first journey for me, was eye-opening, but it also provided me with not only the insights but the mistakes because, let's face it, you have to make mistakes to know the right path.

Speaker 1: 11:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:30

And being able to identify those mistakes that, potentially, are quite common are also something that's very invaluable. That's why advisors people who've done it before, people have seen it before whether it's raising capital or manufacturing a product opening studios surrounding yourself with people who've done it before is really, in my opinion, being able to identify the hurdles before they happen, so that you have pivot, so that you have another path and you're not just stuck. So that first 2018 design. When I designed that proprietary farmer, it took years. I understood the difference between rapid prototypes, functional prototypes, changing the prototypes, the iterations that occur when you're bringing a physical product to market, the patience required.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:20

You think it's going to be instantaneous, like I have this design. It's sketched on paper. Oh my God, I have it now designed on my computer. Wow, that render looks so real. Okay, I actually wait for that real render to be a physical product in real life. A lot of patience.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Yes, a lot of patience, determination and patience and sticking with it, like you said, for sure. So 2018 gave you the opportunity to sort of perhaps actually gave you kind of some preparation for then kind of round two.

Speaker 2: 12:51

It allowed me to move in a more efficacious but also expeditious way, because I had just gone through this for three years.

Speaker 1: 13:02

So then you went on and you decided you wanted to develop a second reformer, and this time integrating technology and digitally connected screens with UI, UI interface, user interface. All of the things, yes, all of things. So really, if I'm going to, you know, to give people a visual, it's like kind of like reformer combined with the Peloton screen, right, yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 13:31

It's been coined the Peloton of Pilates from every top editor in North America. Yes, I think you. Women's health, yes, I'm quite used to that comparison now.

Speaker 1: 13:42

But I think you know, and we've seen how much I mean. You know, when we think about what's happened in the Pilates world in sort of the most recent sort of two years, you know well, maybe before, maybe longer actually, but we've been seeing growth right. But now we're seeing, I mean it's hyper growth, the numbers are staggering, how many. I mean even you know large big box gyms are buying reformers and putting. You know it is staggering. And you know even within and just staggering in terms of this industry as a whole. You know the digital, the virtual and in studio fitness world is going to grow, I think, from 15 billion today to 250, no, no 250, no 256 billion by 2032. I think, as we're just seeing, I see multiple growth, multi kind of multiple growth over the next eight years. It's just going to be enormous, yeah you're right, it's staggering.

Speaker 1: 14:44

It's, it's, it's incredible, it's exciting also.

Speaker 2: 14:46

It's exciting yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:47

And I think that what that tells us. I mean, clearly, there's demand for access to different types of movement practices inside the home and outside the home, right? And you know who would have thought that people would have wanted to buy spin bikes to put in their homes back in 2010, right?

Speaker 2: 15:08

That's right yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:10

That's exactly what everyone went and did, right.

Speaker 2: 15:11

That's right. So that. So Peloton paved the way for the feeling of community outside of physically being in a spin studio. Yeah, exactly. And what they were able to do was remarkable, because now you see Peloton's not just in people's homes, they're everywhere. They're at every hotel all around Europe. It doesn't matter where you travel, there is likely a Peloton or a connected, a tech enabled, connected piece of equipment, regardless of whether it's a bike, a row machine, treadmill, and even some independent pieces of fitness equipment also have some tech component to it.

Speaker 1: 15:54

And I think it. What we've seen, though, is that you know we have to ignore the pandemic, because obviously that just throws everything, all the numbers off, but we haven't seen a decline in studio, in studio visits even though we know many of those clients have at home access to some sort of gym equipment, whether it's a Peloton bike or something right. We haven't seen this decline and so it's very it's kind of an interesting because it's sort of additive to the lifestyle.

Speaker 2: 16:26

So when I was raising, we raised so frame, sort of near the middle, yeah, middle of the pandemic we started raising our seed and we raised $5 million in capital from the most strategic of fitness investors tight ends really in the fitness industry and it shockingly not to me but to others we're all from massive brick and mortar fitness titans and I often said, even though we had been experiencing something that was extremely unprecedented in terms of the distancing and the isolation that we, our model, was never to look at that, because I knew and it could have just been more an intrinsic or just a feeling, but I knew that that was not a sustainable model or a way of life.

Speaker 2: 17:22

So I always looked at it like the hybrid. You know, I wanted to transcend the way Pilates was practicing many ways, but most importantly, accessibility, having it in hotels and regular fitness studios that otherwise don't have Pilates reformers, because we know that there are so many Pilates studios and they're amazing and people love their studios. But oftentimes when I was traveling for work, I could seldomly ever find an actual hotel that had a Pilates reformer and I want to continue my practice. Obviously, I'm also Matt certified and I love aspects of Matt as well, but I love reformer.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Right, and I think everyone is now seeing. You know, we've, we've seen how the Pilates world has also evolved in that, you know there was, I think. I don't. I no longer think that when people think of Pilates in the general population, they're thinking of Matt Pilates or thinking, even now, of even yoga. Right, we used to say, we used to sort of say, oh, the joke is like, pilates and yoga are not the same thing, but everyone kind of lumps them together.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Well, even statistically, they are under the same umbrella. I'm actually often asked that question also, and we're waiting for new data. I'm excited for the new data.

Speaker 1: 18:37

I think now there is there is such a much high level of awareness for the differences between the two and especially.

Speaker 2: 18:48

There are so many differences, so many, but there's also many similarities.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Oh yeah, no, for sure, for sure. I mean for sure, and I think that, but I think the that the use of equipment is how it's very, very easy to differentiate between the two and in the past, because of there was such a lack of access to equipment.

Speaker 2: 19:07

Yes, it was Matt Pilates versus yoga, and also it was highly contingent on what type of yoga you were doing, because many power yogas were quite similar to Matt Pilates. So I actually look at what's going on with Pilates and I actually liken it to the evolution we saw within the yoga world Because yoga became so. I mean, it had started as something that was traditionally perceived as very meditative and it evolved into, you know, there's acrobatic yoga, there's traditional, there's prenatal, post angle, there's jock yoga, there's power yoga, which I've done, power yoga classes that are so cardiovascularly challenging, hot yoga, and so you're just seeing it, you're seeing the application of it, applied in so many like a plethora of ways, which is why yoga became so popular amongst males and professional athletes and women and young and old and everybody, because it wasn't just one style or type of offering. And I think that we're seeing the same similarity, the same evolution, explosion, hyper growth within the Pilates world.

Speaker 1: 20:20

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So I want to change direction, because you are not only an entrepreneur, you're also a wife and parent of three children and two dogs.

Speaker 2: 20:34

We have this new one on my lap right now because he won't stay quiet.

Speaker 1: 20:39

So you know this is a very large project you've been working on for a long time, so tell us a little bit about what it looks like to manage that, because obviously you're traveling a lot, you're involved in big conversations, high level discussions. How do you manage your time, your focus on your energy?

Speaker 2: 20:55

So time management is something that I perceive as leading. You want to be able I want to be able to manage my time and, having said that, the way for me was actually just amalgamating and just sort of like the investment of family with this business, because it was much easier for me to block time and to manage when I was opening up my studio. There was much less travel involved and it did. It was more of a, you know, an eight to six type day, so my children were all at school and I would be home for dinner most times or I'd bring them to site visits. You know, often there was some travel to New York because the industrial designer I was working with was based in New York, but it was more infrequent.

Speaker 2: 21:44

This startup is I don't even know if it's still called startup. It's been three years now. There's been so much hyper growth and just growth and scalability and the potential and the capacity and shooting content, videos and what those days look like. We'll take over a studio that we work, that we film out of NeoU in New York City and we are there five am to seven pm every day for a week and that will yield, on average, 50 to 60 post-produced videos. But the work that goes into those shoot weeks tremendous. And then there's, you know, like I'm in New York in a week and a half two weeks now and I'm doing social with women's health and I have GQ coming in and there's constantly interviews and demo weeks and we're traveling and there's business meetings and there's investor.

Speaker 2: 22:47

It's just, it's so time consuming that the only way I was able to tackle being the CEO as well as also one of the instructors on the platform we have a very small team, so it's boots on the ground. There's a lot of trouble involved. I mean we recently put reformers in several hotels in London, england. There was like three trips back and forth to London to solidify those deals, to also help with the install, and this same thing happens in LA, new York, miami, and we also happen to be Canadian, so there's just a lot of travel.

Speaker 2: 23:28

So I just started including my children as much as possible. For me as a mother, that was my only way, because I know that I read. You know you can't like, you have to be able to structure your time and you have to be able to shop the computer. And I read these things and I think, wow, they are lovely concepts, but it is actually just not plausible when you are running a company, or even a company of my magnitude right now, even when we started fulfillment and shipping and we're doing factory site visits, and there is no simple way to manage. So I just started including them.

Speaker 1: 24:08

Yeah, that's what, and you know, I think, when you have a, when you're in a position where every week looks so different, that's just what you have to do, right?

Speaker 2: 24:17

So it worked for me. It wouldn't work for everybody. I'm also very I can be very spontaneous and unstructured and yet still be so impactful, whereas I know there are other people that really require those like being in the office and having you know, producing in a very specific environment. I can do anything on the go.

Speaker 1: 24:40

Yeah, and I think you know it's. I think that that is really important, because you have to be able to find what works for you right, and I think if you try to follow advice from that works for someone else. Even you're trying to kind of fit yourself into their kind of world. I think that's. That just is a recipe for disaster.

Speaker 2: 24:57

Especially for mothers, because they're all we often do like. Working mothers often do experience guilt, missing things, particularly if a lot of travel is involved, and I actually I decided years ago that that would never be me. I'm super hands on mom. I take my kids out of school probably way more than the school likes, but I make sure they're tutored. They come to those weeks when we're in New York I had my two girls we were doing an install for the Santa Monica proper and a few other business things in LA and so I brought my two eldest and they were on my business trip for four days and prior to that I brought my son, who was in Miami because we were doing work there for a couple of days. So really for me that is the way I'm most efficient.

Speaker 1: 25:49

Yeah, yeah, you know it's. You've got to find a way that works for you, and it's great that you've been able to do that and have that ability to do that.

Speaker 2: 25:58

I also have a support system like my mother is amazing and she stays in the home when we are traveling. If we are bringing the kids because it's not always great to bring them Like I'm going to LA in a couple of days, they're not coming on that trip because we were all just in Miami together.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Right? Yep, it's an. Every week is different. Every week is different. So tell us a little bit about where people can come to learn a bit more about you and about frame, and about what's next for you.

Speaker 2: 26:28

Oh, our website. At wwwframethitnesscom, we are also sold on Goop under their wellness, so we're actually on their shop on Instagram as well as on their website, and we also have our own frame reformer, so our Instagram is frame reformer.

Speaker 1: 26:48

Awesome. I'll add all of those in the show notes and I encourage everyone listening to go and check it out. Well, I want to say huge congratulations, melissa, on how far you've come. I have got no doubt that the next phase of the journey is going to be even more incredible, and I wish you the best of luck.

Speaker 2: 27:05

Thank you so much, and I had a really great chat.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Me too, and I hope you come back on here and let us know what happens next, because I know it's only one of these Totally Fantastic, awesome. Thank you so much. Well, I hope this was helpful and insightful for you as you go about building your boutique fitness studio business. If you love what you heard today, I would be so appreciative if you could take a quick minute, go to wherever you're listening to this and read this podcast. It would mean a ton to me and help to get this podcast out there into the world so that more teachers and studio owners, just like you, can feel encouraged and supported on their journey in our industry. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So, whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.