Pilates Business Podcast

Still Doing It All Yourself? Here’s Why That’s Sabotaging Your Success

• Seran Glanfield • Season 22 • Episode 212

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Running a studio often means wearing all the hats - teaching, managing, scheduling, and handling emails. But if you're stuck in this cycle and feeling overwhelmed, it’s time for a shift. In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield shares how to transition from an overworked instructor to a confident studio CEO.

You’ll learn:
 ✔ The mindset shifts that will help you break free from the “I have to do it all” mentality
 ✔ Key leadership changes to help you build a sustainable, profitable studio
 ✔ Actionable steps to free up your time and focus on growth instead of just getting by


If you’re ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and step into your CEO role, this episode is a must-listen! 🎧


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Speaker 1:

Well, hey there, studio owners. Do you ever feel like your business won't grow unless you are the one who does it all? Maybe you find yourself constantly stuck in the day-to-day and somehow you're still not seeing the growth that you want. Well, it's pretty common, which is why, in today's episode, I'm diving into the three biggest mindset blocks that keep the most passionate and talented studio owners, just like you, stuck in a cycle of overwork, and I'm also going to share the leadership shifts that will finally help you step into your role as successful CEO. Well, hi there, I'm Saren 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.

Speaker 1:

This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Well, hey there, and welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm your host, saren Glanfield, and if we've never met before, welcome. And you probably should know that I've been doing this a while almost, I think, 13 years now. I've been helping boutique fitness studio owners just like you, to build profitable and sustainable, but perhaps most importantly, deeply fulfilling studio businesses, and every now and again, we're going to come across some challenges. We're going to find some things that pop up and perhaps hold us back a little bit, and so today I want to share with you particularly one of those things that I see quite often and that is a topic that many studio owners struggle with and I think it's true for perhaps business owners across many different sectors and that is the shift from being an instructor or a teacher to becoming the CEO and leader of your business. Now, I know from speaking to hundreds of studio owners over the years that most of you did not start your studio because you just happen to love business and marketing and numbers. You probably started it because you're passionate about the movement, about Pilates, about yoga, about bar spin, dance, cardio and all of the other incredible modalities that you offer in your studio. And deep down underneath it all, you do what you do because you want to share that with others. You want others to feel their best as well, and I absolutely love that about this industry.

Speaker 1:

But the reality is that you can be the best instructor in the world, but that doesn't necessarily make you a great business owner. In fact, what we find is that there are two very different skill sets that you need to be good at both, and most likely you've invested in your skills as a teacher, as a movement practitioner, as an instructor, and perhaps there has not been quite as much of an investment in developing your skills as a business owner. And that's very, very natural and very normal, and that's usually when people get in touch with me, when they realize that they've taken their business as far as they can go or they're uncertain about what's possible or next for them. And so that shift from being an instructor, I think, to being a CEO is actually one of the hardest transitions for boutique fitness studio owners, because it requires you to do a couple of things. It requires you to not only have the awareness of perhaps that lack of skills, perhaps holding you back, but it also requires you to do something about it.

Speaker 1:

So I want to share with you today some of the things that often are holding studio owners back from really tapping into that potential that their business holds. So if you're constantly in the weeds, maybe you're the one teaching a lot of the classes or a lot of the private sessions that you're teaching. You're adding the admin work alongside that and it's a constant juggle. Or maybe you have a small team or are growing a team and you're having a hard time stepping into that leadership role. You are not alone, and that's why today, I want to talk about some of the mindset blocks that often will keep studio owners stuck more in that overworked instructor role than in that leadership role, and I'm also going to share a little bit about what it takes to be a good leader and what those skills look like. And I'm also going to share a little bit about what it takes to be a good leader and what those skills look like. And then, because I care about your progress and growth and having your business grow with you, I'm going to share some actionable steps designed to really free up your time and focus on that growth instead of just surviving.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about perhaps the biggest mindset block that I see and this is something that perhaps people are not even that vocal about when we first talk and that is the mindset block of the I have to do it all mentality or I am the only one who can do this in my business, and this is the belief that really you have to do everything for your studios to succeed. Right, and this might sound familiar, especially if you have been. You've perhaps built your business up yourself and you have been a teacher or are a teacher in the business. Perhaps you're also the client relationship person. You're the front desk scheduler, you are the social media manager, you are HR, you're the front desk scheduler, you are the social media manager, you are HR, you're the cleaner and all of those other things in between. And I get it that perhaps when you start a business, you are most likely going to wear many, many, many hats, but it's likely that you might also still be there many years later when your business has grown. And if you're still wearing all the hats, then the reality is you're not setting yourself up for scale. You're instead setting yourself up for burnout, and that is not a good place to be my friend. So the truth is, if you are doing everything, if you're the only one who can do everything, then it's possible that you are the bottleneck to growth in your business.

Speaker 1:

Now, the most successful studio owners, the most successful CEOs they delegate, they build systems because they know that their time is too valuable to spend on every single little task. So the mindset shift that you have to make at some point in your business and it might be day one, or it might be year one or might be year four is that, instead of I have to do it all, ask yourself what is one task that I can delegate this week? Now I want you to start small, and maybe it's handing off, perhaps putting together content for your marketing efforts, maybe it's delegating to a front desk person more of that scheduling, or more of that subbing requests and so on. Bringing in someone to help you and sit in that role of being able to perhaps you hand things off to is going to help your business to grow, without a doubt, and the goal is not to overhaul your entire studio overnight. It's likely this will be a process for you to as you develop that skill of delegation and as you train folks in your business, but it's it's about starting to reclaim your time, bit by bit, and allowing yourself to perhaps focus on some of the, the, the needs that your business has of you that you cannot focus on if you're doing all of these small tasks that you can perhaps delegate. So, instead of thinking I have to do it all. I'm the only one who can do it this way or this. Well, think about what is one thing that I can delegate this week. Now, that is really common. And I think once you've broken through that mindset block and you realize actually how freeing it can be to have other people in your business helping you, then we face the second mindset block that is really common, and that is the fear of fully stepping into your CEO role.

Speaker 1:

Now, so many studio owners hesitate to call themselves business minded. In fact, more often than not, I hear phrases like I'm not a business person, numbers are not my thing, I'm not cut out to be a boss, I don't want to be a boss, I hate telling people what to do I don't have, I'm not good at marketing, and all of these stories that we tell ourselves actually often have an impact on how we show up in our business. And so if you've ever thought any of this to yourself, even if you haven't said it out loud, I want to stop you right there, because leadership is not about knowing everything. It's actually about having a vision for what you want for your business and guiding your team and your business and your clients toward it. Toward it. You do not need an MBA to lead Truly. You do not. In fact, some of the most successful business owners I know do not have an MBA, but what they do have is a vision and they have a direction.

Speaker 1:

And so often, instead of telling yourself what you are not, why not replace it with what you are? So shift the story and instead of saying I'm not a business person, I'm not a numbers person, perhaps try saying to yourself I'm learning to be the leader my business needs, I'm becoming the leader my business needs. Or maybe you can even say I am the leader of my business. And these are powerful shifts. And you'll find that as you start to recognize some of these thoughts popping up perhaps they show up in random times, perhaps when a team member questions you on your pricing or a client pushes back on something Recognize these thoughts as they sort of come to you and be mindful and have awareness for the way that that makes you feel. Because if you can shift your thinking towards being what is possible for yourself and what you're capable of, you'll find that it's really powerful for your direction of your business. You start showing up more as the leader. Decisions get clearer, boundaries get easier. And what happens is everyone steps up alongside you. So you may not be quite in that zone yet, you might not feel like the leader yet, but if you tell yourself you're not that leader, you will never become that leader. Likewise, if you are prepared to try, you're prepared to believe in yourself, then you'll find it comes a whole lot easier At some point along the way.

Speaker 1:

Everybody falls into this trap of this third mindset block, and this one is really sneaky and often it's tied to really a deep sort of feeling, perhaps from you know, early in our lives, and this is also somewhat of an addictive mindset, I think too. And there is this sort of associational belief that if you do more, if you push harder, if you work harder, add more classes, say yes to everything, push yourself a little bit more, then your business will finally take off. And I want you to tell you something really important right now that I want you to remind yourself, perhaps as you're sending emails late into the evening, and that is that more hours does not necessarily mean more growth. More hours does not necessarily mean more growth. You might not need to work harder, you might just need to work a little bit smarter.

Speaker 1:

And I want you to think about how you're spending your time. Are you spending time on things, on tasks that actually move the needle, or are you just perhaps doing the busy work? And I would encourage you to think about the way that you spend your time over the course of a week and think about what it is that you're actually doing, perhaps over the course of the next week that is actually revenue generating. And then what is just busy work? And this kind of ties into some of the things I spoke about earlier, which might help you to identify what things you might be able to hand off and delegate quite quickly, because once we sort of disassociate that work hard to more growth or more revenue or more income, then we start to see things a little bit differently. We start to see where opportunities exist to perhaps make things a little bit easier for ourselves, and you start to see a shift, perhaps in the way that you think about your time. Once you see the difference, you will start shifting your focus to the things that actually grow your business. And again, all of this is tied to the way that you see your role and the way that you spend your time in your business. And so if you're just filling your time with busy work, with more work, with more hours, hoping that's going to lead to growth, then just know that you're setting yourself up for a continuation of working that hard for as long as you can, right, and that, again, is just the fastest path to burnout. So I want you to disassociate that If I work harder, I'll make more money. I want you to disassociate that and think about where can I spend my time that will actually move the needle and have the biggest impact. So those are the three mindset blocks. Quick recap here Number one is the I have to do it all mentality.

Speaker 1:

We, we, we, that is, we don't want that, we want to. We want to be able to delegate, and that does mean that sometimes you might have to take B plus work from your team members. You might be able to make it look prettier or do it better or say it better, but you also cannot do it all. So the sooner you can hand off tasks, the better. The second thing is the fear of stepping into leadership, and the more you tell yourself you're not a leader, the less likely to become a leader you are. So let's shift the story, let's change that and lean more into perhaps telling yourself, reminding yourself that you are becoming a leader you are even, in fact, the leader of your business and then, finally, this very deep rooted mindset of I just need to work hard and then I will be successful, or I need to work harder in order to be successful, in where working harder means more hours and there is a time and a place for that.

Speaker 1:

Perhaps in the early days, like I said, when you're wearing a lot of hats, that might be the case, but if you're still doing that, three, four, five years in, it's not ideal. And even if you're in the early phase of business, you want to make sure you're designing and building your business in a way that allows you to be able to step back a little bit across all of these different roles that you have. Now that we know that, some of these sneaky mindset blocks that can hold us back, I want to talk about the shifts that will help you to step into your CEO role. Okay, and these aren't really complex strategies, right, but they are really powerful and they are things that you want to, or I would say, habits that I see the most successful CEOs utilize in their life. I mean, especially when it comes to their business, and that will really help you to show up as the CEO that your business needs you to be right.

Speaker 1:

So, number one I want you to set boundaries around your time. So the CEO time is not the same as instructor time. If you're teaching 25 hours a week, that does not mean that you are running a business for 25 hours a week, because that doesn't include the time for planning, strategizing and making high level decisions. You want to carve out time to be the CEO of your business, especially if you are teaching many hours, and that means you probably need to block out around one to two hours a week for that CEO time, where there's no classes, no client calls, just focused business work. This is where you're focused on your growth strategies, on your retention strategies, on your lead generation strategies, on your operations and so on, and this one shift alone can change everything. So, action item block out that time on your calendar. If you're anything like me, if it's not on my calendar, it will never, ever happen, and so block that time. That is a quick, easy way to make sure that you are finally stepping into that CEO role and taking control of your time.

Speaker 1:

Number two you cannot scale your studio alone. You want to build a team that supports growth of your business, whether it's a part-time front desk or a virtual assistant or even additional teachers. Bringing in support will free you up to lead your business forward. So perhaps start by choosing some of those most energy draining tasks for you Everybody has them, the things they least get least excited about and when it comes to their business, and then perhaps look for the easiest way to delegate some of those tasks, because, remember, you are not supposed to do it all. Number three if your studio falls apart when you take a day off, then you have a systems problem. So you want to have systems that in your business, processes and procedures that allow your business to run seamlessly without you. Start with just one area perhaps new client onboarding or class scheduling or marketing or subbing and map out a simple three to five step process. That's the beginning of a system that you can automate or delegate. Simple, right, super simple. So if you're listening and thinking, this all sounds great, but I'm just not sure where to start, not sure what's the right way to do this, and it perhaps also feels a bit overwhelming and I'd like some direction, then I hear you and that's exactly why I created Thrive.

Speaker 1:

If you haven't heard of Thrive, thrive is my business coaching program that is specifically designed for boutique fitness studio owners who are ready to step up into that CEO role and finally take control of the growth and scale trajectory. Inside Thrive you get access to that strategic guidance to help you to become the business owner that you want to be. Perhaps you want to be running your business from out of town, perhaps you want to grow your business to sell, or perhaps you simply want to tap into that potential that you know is there for growth. You get access to processes, systems and templates to help you streamline your operations. You get coaching from me so that you can help build a team, build out your marketing plans and actually enjoy your business. Plus, you get access to marketing strategies that will attract clients without you having to be in hustle mode 24-7. And all the tools that you need to shift from being the doer to being the CEO.

Speaker 1:

It may not be easy. It might be slightly uncomfortable for you, but it's a whole lot easier when you've got someone alongside you and I believe it's absolutely possible for you and you don't have to do it alone. So if you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start to build a studio business that truly supports your life and that is incredibly fulfilling for you, then check out Thrive. You can go to spring3.com forward slash Thrive. I'll also link to it in the show notes. All righty, you guys. So let's do a quick recap before I head out.

Speaker 1:

Today we covered those three mindset blocks that keep studio owners stuck in that overwork, why doing it all and fearing the leadership and over hustling are really keeping your business and yourself small. I know there's more out there for you and I want you to tap into it, which is why I shared some of those leadership shifts that will help you to step into your role as a CEO, those action steps that are going to help you become the CEO that I know that you can be. And remember, your studio probably doesn't need more of you. It might need just a different version of you, one that leads with vision, not just effort. And if you're ready to take the next step, please check out Thrive at spring3.com forward slash Thrive.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for listening. I would love to hear which of these mindset blocks you have perhaps found awareness of in your life, and let me know I'll catch you in the next episode. Let me know I'll catch you in the next episode. 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.