Alphapreneurs

Ep#6-How He Quit Corporate Job to Build Dubai's Top Pilates Studio | ft. Reza Alavi

• Rayhan Aleem • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Join us on today’s episode of #Alphapreneurs, , where host  Rayhan Aleem  chats with Reza Alavi, Founder and CEO of Real Pilates. Reza recounts his inspiring journey to entrepreneurship, which began with a book that motivated him to leave behind his growing career to make a lasting impact into people’s lives. 

His passion for Pilates became a catalyst for helping others experience the positive transformation it brought to him. Through this studio, Reza reflects on lessons learned throughout his entrepreneurial journey, including his attention to details, the importance of agility, and his guiding professional mottos. He also introduces us to new concepts like “Kaizen”, a Japanese improvement practice that entrepreneurs follow for self development. Throughout this episode, Reza offers a compelling look into resilience, innovation, and the pursuit of a global vision in the wellness industry.

👉 Follow Reza Alavi on :  LinkedIn:    https://bit.ly/4gD5w6F
                                               Instagram:  https://bit.ly/4iZ468m

👉 Website: https://real-pilates.com/

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𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗔𝗺 𝗜?

My name is  Rayhan Aleem, Founder and CEO of 𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 and 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀. At  𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 podcast I sit with top industry leaders for in-depth conversations that dive deep into their success stories, market dynamics, and firsthand tips on entrepreneurship and profitability. Whether you're just starting out or already running your own business, 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 offers something valuable for everyone.

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𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻!

Reza:

Look, if you want to lead particularly an organization that stands for, that works towards people's health and fitness and wellbeing, you need to be that yourself. I tell this to my team all the time. Every single time someone makes a mistake. I'm like, it doesn't matter if you learn from it, you continuously improve tomorrow. You're better the day after you're better. Still. I'm super proud that we were able to create something made in Dubai, born in Dubai. We made our mistakes. We strengthened through the years, but we now have a winning formula. And we can proudly export franchise out this model to the so called Western markets from where we usually import brands.

Rayhan:

Welcome to

Reza:

the

Rayhan:

Alphapreneurs podcast. I'm your host, Rayhan Aleem, founder of Tax Star and Alpha pro Partners. Join me on each episode as we talk to inspiring Dubai based entrepreneurs who share their stories, challenges, and secrets on building world class businesses. I'm pleased to have Reza Alavi join our show today. Reza is a founder and managing director of Real Pilates, a leading name in Dubai's fitness and wellness scene. After many years of working for some of the largest organizations in the world, he shifted gears to pursue his passion for wellness and opened three successful Pilates studios in Dubai. His focus on top quality instruction and client care has made Real Pilates a standout choice in the city. Reza, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Really excited to have you, with us. You're one of our early clients. You did something that a lot of people put off, and that is transitioning from a comfortable job to a unknown realm of entrepreneurship. Just tell us more about what, what made you think to move to entrepreneurship? what was the situation at work? I know you're, I've known you for a long time and you're, you're very passionate about fitness and, Pilates in, in, in particular. but yeah, how was that journey for you?

Reza:

look, first of all, thank you for having me. it's honestly a pleasure to be here. I hope it's going to be useful to, to the listeners and viewers. I always wanted to have my own company. I wanted to be the captain of my own ship. So that was probably the first element. But the choice of the industry and timing, those are probably the most interesting or insightful, conversations we could have is after having worked a number of years in, in, in a few different kind of corporate contexts and worlds, I felt like I was at the right age in terms of, I wasn't too young to be an experience and I wasn't too old to have too much experience and not maybe the. audacity that it takes or the courage it takes to do certain things. And I think in many of the conversations I have these days with maybe younger friends who ask me for advice or guidance, I realize that they, that's a key element. So the timing for me was, was perfect for me in my opinion, but from outside, it seemed odd because it was around 2008, 2009 that I made the move. during the time of the financial crisis. Exactly. So Dubai was, it was emptying. A lot of people were leaving, there was a, international crisis. I felt it was the right time because, I always knew that I wanted to do something that was tangibly valuable and useful to people. I wanted to have an impact. It sounds a bit old school and idealistic, but I actually genuinely believe in it. It's not, PR or marketing. it's really something I wanted to do in my life, which is actually one of the reasons I joined the last company in the corporate world I was with because their vision statement was enriching people's lives. It was, it was, it was a big driver for me. But I felt like I have a very little or extremely indirect impact on people's lives through the corporate world because you're one employee among thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, in my case, hundreds of thousands. so when I decided that I wanted to do my own thing, I wanted to make sure I select an industry in which I can have a tangible, measurable, qualitative impact on people's lives. So obviously the wellness world was clear to me. I had always been passionate about fitness movement. as a user, not at all as an instructor or teacher, but, and in my last maybe two or three years of the corporate world, I started going more often to the, gym for my own health and, mental sanity and balance and so on. And that's when I discovered Pilates, yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, all these mind, body, mind, connected movements, forms of movement. And Pilates was the most impressive, was like, I felt the results right away. I knew that there was a niche. I knew that, I, my background made me look at the opportunity also from a business perspective, market opportunity. And I, knew that there was a, it was something to be done. the stars were well aligned for me at the time.

Rayhan:

Did you have any doubts in terms of Making that move, what kind of, were there pressure from friends, family to say, no, you're in a comfortable job. stay where, stay where you are. Or were you, did you have the kind of mindset where, this is what I wanna do and now I'm at the stage in my life and this is what I'm, this is the steps I'm gonna take. Yeah. because there's many entrepreneurs, and I come across a lot of budding entrepreneurs and they're in full-time work. they see me run my accounting business and. a lot of my accountants as well, and they have this kind of mental block, right? Should I do it? Should I not? how was that? How was that decision for you? How was that decision making process for you?

Reza:

I think it's really different from person to person. We are all the result of a multitude of factors. We think about many things when taking a decision. so as I mentioned before, I think. as long as one has, the, and a deeper belief in what he's about to do, I think it can work. I was extremely determined. I really wanted to do this. Around me, nobody tried to really stop me, but even if they had tried, I would have probably gone ahead and done it now. We need to be also grateful for the for some advantages that we may have in my case. My wife and I were both in the corporate world. We were both very successful. We were earning, decent amounts of money for as young salary people, employees in large corporations. And we had so this safety net that okay, she was still working. I left my corporate job. I took time. I actually took a good eight, nine months of planning, to make sure that I don't do, I don't commit too many mistakes that I do this well from the beginning or as with as few mistakes as possible, because there are always, things that we can do better. So I had that safety, I would say, but even without that, I would have probably gone ahead because I knew that I had, I believed in something that was worth it. I knew that from a market, study perspective, there was potential, there was demand for it. we started Pilates at a time when it was hardly known here. Nobody knew how to pronounce the word correctly. It was often mispronounced when clients walked into the studio. We had a few funny moments around that. But, I, we really believed that it could work. And within a few months, once it's, it did start, then, my wife as well left and joined me. And since then we've been, working as a, as a couple entrepreneur, who grow real bodies.

Rayhan:

That's nice.

Reza:

Yeah. often when I'm asked what it takes, most obviously takes a lot of stuff, but again, I come back on the courage to do it. And I think maybe your friends who are in the accounting field and some of them might be actually excellent. Often we come across, or I come certainly across people whom I perceive as more talented, possibly skilled or carrying even more potential than I do. the difference is, and I'm not going to name anyone, but I have a. Good friend who actually visited me recently. He has had over the years, a multitude of great ideas, business ideas. But this procrastination, this has it, hesitation to, jump, to take the risk. That's where, we're different, family circumstances, financial factors, personal motivations and other things come into the equation. So you need to take those into account. In my case, I decided that I would do it now. I was an avid reader of books, so I was reading a lot of self help, leadership, inspirational books. and, there, there were moments where I knew one or two books in particular really made me feel that, you know what, I really need to do this. I have to have the courage to do this. And actually the day I wrote my resignation letter from my VP for the corporate job, my last corporate job, was after literally the day after I finished one of these books. I'm like, that's it. I'm not waiting anymore. I'm going to do it. I'm going to resign, take some time, develop the idea, identify clearly what within the wellness or the fitness industry, which modality I want to use exactly. So I had a lot of things to many things to study and to prepare and to plan, but I decided that's it. So I put my letter and I prepared myself to for the whole process of, trying to convince me to stay. I was, I guess I was fairly good at what I was doing. So the company tried to keep me convinced me that this is the wrong call. It's very risky. It was 2000, late 2008. and, it wasn't the best time to, to leave your job. So I heard all of that, but I was so determined. So I was, it didn't work on me. So they said all of those things. I still did what I did and, zero regrets whatsoever.

Rayhan:

Yeah. No, I'm, I've known you for such a long time. And. No, real platez is obviously a household name in Dubai. you've done a great job. some of the things I'd like to reemphasize that you spoke about was, he's reading a lot of books before you started your business. And I think, as a CEO, as an entrepreneur, lifelong learning is very important to ensure that you continue to develop yourself because whatever you did, how you learn will impact your business. I like the fact that you mentioned that. you was single mindedly determined to do that. And I think that's very common in many entrepreneurs. if you're, if you have conviction in what you do, there's always going to be, resistance along the way, you do a business when you do a project, you set up a new, center, for example, but it's the conviction that really drives home and makes you a different entrepreneur to someone else. I think those are great traits to have. One of the things I do want to touch upon is I know a lot of husband and wife entrepreneurs as well. It's. I have many clients who also have husband and wife entrepreneurs, the husband and wife both work in the same business as well. What kind of, how does that work with you? What kind of advice can you give? you guys have been doing it for a long time. So from what I can see, you've done a really good job of it. If, sometimes it could be like you say, There might be someone who wants to set up a business, but, their wife has complimentary skills. Maybe sometimes they think about they should go into business. Sometimes they don't. What kind of advice could you give to that kind of person?

Reza:

I think one of the things that my wife and I did, from the early days, and maybe I was. The main driver behind this decision itself was to make sure that we understand that we draw a line, that we know what is personal life and what is professional life. that's the first thing, the first few years, it was impossible not to talk about work at home or not to talk about work late at night or on weekends or early morning because you're setting things up, you're in a big fight. It's about, to make things successful in a sustainable way. it's, really not a sprint. It's a marathon. So you have to be persistent, super patient and, and keep, working hard. It's good old hard work. but once things start, building up really, and you start putting in place, processes and systems, To guarantee the quality level and standards that you want to have, and you start strengthening your team, hiring the right people after having made a few mistakes in recruitments and so on. And you, you start having a really reliable, amazing team around you. Then you're in a better position to, to create that separation between professional and personal life. So one of the things we do is, we, at least now after, after a few years, now we're close to 15 years old and that's real party. So in a few months, thank you. In December, we're going to celebrate our 15th year. big chapter. And, one of the things we do is we honestly, we do not talk about work unless there's something really critical, urgent or some matter of, like some special situation, but, we don't talk about that. We take our time off. We make sure that we have that discipline because if you don't, especially in our case, we have two kids. If we were to talk about work all the time at home, that affects everything. And, I think one of my favorite words in the world. and I learned from one of my Japanese manager before or not the word itself, but the concept and its importance in life is balance, keeping balance in everything. So balance between personal and family life was critical for us. And you have to make certain rules. So we don't, we don't, unless it's urgent, we don't answer emails or, messages, et cetera, at night or over the weekends when we're on holiday, we're really on holiday with disconnect. And the team really does an amazing job at making sure they don't reach out to us unless it's absolutely necessary. and the other thing is that from the. the same way you make a business successful and you make sure that roles and responsibilities in an organization are clear, with whether you're a couple and working with your, spouse or not, or partner or not, we made that as well. So I run overall the business, I'm the managing director. At the end of the day, the box stops at me. I'm the owner. I decide, if we're struggling to decide if we can't reach consensus, if there are different opinions, conflicting opinions. I'm going to make the decision, but we made sure roles and responsibilities are clear. My wife is incredibly skilled, much more than me in the areas of sales and business development, et cetera, because that was her background in a completely different industry. So what she does is also that from the very early days, she started selling the teacher training courses and workshops that we offer at Real Pilates, all the Merithew branded programs like Start Pilates. So she handled that. So she's, heading or handling almost like a mini business unit within the company. Yeah. So it is separate, but when it comes to all big decisions, all final decisions, it stops with me. So there's no conflict from day one. It was clear that, we would have this, clarity around decision making processes and roles and responsibilities. And I think it's what made has made us successful. We have, friends who are couples and who work together. Yeah. who ended up having either problems at home as a couple or, who weren't great colleagues to each other because, they couldn't, create this separation. We're blessed enough to have been able to do that.

Rayhan:

No, that's great. So you're an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur. we tend to work long hours. we tend to have disjointed social lives. We eat sometimes the wrong food, probably never go to the gym. You're, you're in the fitness industry. you've been in, you've, run your business for the last 15 years. And before that you knew the fitness industry quite well. Being an entrepreneur. you have to be able to, you have a lot of things on you. So you have your customers, your employees, you have your business, you have your family, you have to look after yourself, to make the best decisions to, to grow your business. Fitness from, in my opinion, obviously makes, takes a big chunk of that. And you need to take that very seriously. From your point of view, what kind of advice can you give to entrepreneurs and what kind of things do you do that kind of helps you, grow? Bring the energy every day to work and, help drive the business.

Reza:

It's a really good question. I think there's a variety of, of things that we need to do. I want to come back again, on the word balance again by maintaining balance between certain things. First of all, if you're in a business or industry where you are trying to help people lead healthier lifestyles, maybe a primary goal is physical fitness, but it's also mental fitness. And that's actually one of the key reasons I selected, Pilates or the impact it had on me was the mental kind of, focused, the serenity, the attention, the power to concentrate that it brought me, which I then carried to the corporate world. And I realized how powerful it is. Thank you. I think it's balance between personal, work life balance between work and then your personal life so that you are healthier when you come to work. at least in my case, it genuinely does still after 15 years, doesn't feel like work. it really is a pleasure. Still. I drive to, to work in with a lot of energy, a lot of motivation every day that hasn't changed at all. There have been difficult periods, I can't say that I was particularly happy or dancing every morning during the COVID years. But, but again, there are challenges, so you learn to overcome them. I would probably say important to maintain your, look, if you want to lead particularly an organization that stands for, that works towards people's health and fitness and well being. Thank you. You need to be that yourself. You need to be healthy yourself. You need to be positive yourself. So again, the books I was referring to play a huge role because if you continue to read, whether it's paper books or audio books, you listen to as you drive or eat, et cetera. you pick up ideas, you pick up ways and techniques. So for me, one of the books, probably in the last two, three years that impacted me a lot was, there are two books. One is by Robin Sharma, the 5 a. m. club. I've read that book as well. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still trying to join

Rayhan:

the club

Reza:

or Miracle Mornings, the concept of Miracle Mornings, the fact that essentially all of them say the same thing. The idea is, wake up earlier than everyone else, do a few key things that are important, that humanity has been doing actually for hundreds of years. And you just forget in today's modern world. And then suddenly your day is going to be literally magically better, and it's going to be better. So if you do a bit of reading, a bit of meditation, a bit of drinking water, a bit of walking or movement, any kind, even really a bit, we're talking 40, 50 minutes, 60 minutes in the morning, it makes a world of a difference. So once you start practicing that, and it becomes habit. once you do something very, set frequency and repeatedly, it becomes a really second nature. It becomes reflex. So once you do that, then you're almost immune to certain other problems that people face. The negativity, the, bad energy, all of these things that you carry with yourself during the day. And most people do. so then you go to work, you're surrounded. I'm blessed. We're in an industry where, who are my coworkers, who are my colleagues, their Pilates instructors, all of them eat well, sleep well and move. any human being who eats well, sleeps well and moves is bound to be probably happier than those who don't.

Rayhan:

Yeah.

Reza:

So then you're surrounded by people who are already happier, more positive, more smiling. so you create an environment that does that. And then people come to you, to your business to again, to, seek similar results. So it's a virtual cycle, one's a good mood leads to someone else's one's a positive energy or thoughts leads to someone else's. So on the bad days, when somebody comes with a bit of tension or anxiety or anger because caused by something else externally, you become an agent of, in a position to help them. you're capable to lift them up and to make them feel better. So my, my advice would be to maintain a balance across the board. And especially be consistent. I think one of the things I, that has made me more successful, maybe in more recent years, and maybe I was when I was younger, I did not understand. I heard the message or I read it, but I didn't understand how critical it was is consistency is doing something in a consistent manner. Not just you have a good month, you eat healthy, and then you go back to bad habits or you sleep well for two, three weeks. Then you go back to those bad habits or you drink too much or you don't drink or you don't drink enough water. You don't hydrate. If you stay, stick to a few key, simple rules, chances are it's going to work and you're going to end up, in, you, you will be in a state of mind. physically, physical and mental that where you can do incredible things, absolutely incredible. The creativity flows, the ideas come. If there's tension, you're able to diffuse it. If there are, disputes, you're able to resolve them, whether it's within the team or with external stakeholders. If there's a challenge that comes, you can then face it with grace and patience and still a smile on your face. And these things work, I promise it works. It's not, it's not stuff that you just read in books and you're like, Oh yeah, of course. In the book it's like that, but in real life it's different. No, if you actually do them regularly, it works every single day. I

Rayhan:

think I heard somewhere that how you start your day is how the rest of your day pans out.

Reza:

Yeah.

Rayhan:

And as an entrepreneur, you're making important decisions every day. you're growing your business, you have to make difficult decisions sometimes. You want to enjoy the process. And one of the things, you've mentioned very beginning was. you enjoy what you're doing because you're serving people, right? And so you're helping people get to that space where they can. make, you're making your impact, which then passes onto them where then they can make their impact, whether it's an entrepreneur or a mom, or, an executive who comes into one of your studios and does one of the classes. So, yeah,

Reza:

it's, very true, and I'll mention one thing is. people who come to the studio to do Pilates or a yoga session, who are they? They are moms who raise kids. They might be housewives. They might be businessmen or businesswomen. They might be, nurses, doctors, teachers, pilots, crew members of Emirates, et cetera. and all of them with their own, aches and pains and difficulties and challenges and stresses of life. so if thanks to what, we do, the surgeon or the doctor or the dentist who came. is a better surgeon, doctor, dentist. The pilot is a healthier pilot for all the, passengers in the aircraft. The teacher is a more patient, smiling teacher in the class for the students. The mom is better with the kids or the husband is better with the family, et cetera. it's, it's, how can I say, it's a huge source of motivation. It's what actually drives us. We want to try to make. The society, a better society, our city, a better city. So I love Dubai. I care about Dubai so much. I've, I've been here for almost 24, five years now.

Rayhan:

Nice.

Reza:

It's a, it's second home to me.

Rayhan:

You've seen everything.

Reza:

Yeah,

Rayhan:

From when it was just like sand too.

Reza:

Yeah, When Sheikh Zayed Road was just two, three lanes. And now it's all these lanes and, there were no interchanges. The first interchange was defense roundabout because that was pretty much the defense lines of the city. the central prison of Dubai was in Jumeirah one next to where we have the studio now. Now it's, deep in Al Aweer and so on. Yeah. It's the good old days. And I feel we owe to this city a lot. it's allowed to people from all walks of life, backgrounds, cultures to come and prosper here. for me, it's very important that you. believe in something deeply, and you stick to that despite the hurdles, the obstacles, the naysayers, then negative people who might come along the way and try to, defocus you from your mission. So once you maintain that, you tend to find the solution to the problems that you will have. You will find the right people. You attract the right talents to yourself. and most of the time, the clients like we're in love with our clients. 99. 9 percent of our clients are absolutely amazing, remarkable people. Some of the words, reviews and stuff they write about us. Really make us emotional at the studio, me and my team, we absolutely love them. Of course, from time to time, we will make someone unhappy because we were either imperfect or we didn't do something well enough. Or maybe, it's a reflection on their challenges and their own anxiety and so on. It's not really about us, but they're just angry at the situation or whatever. But they're a very minute, sample. It's a very small sample. By and large. All our clients are in love with this space we have.

Rayhan:

I

Reza:

remember a couple of years ago in our social media handles, when we have three lines to define our business or in our bio on Instagram whatever it is, I decided to just write place of happiness. I thought of RealPlanet as a place of happiness. I just want people to come there and live happier than. How they came in, that was really the goal. We chose the modality of Pilates. We could have done something else. I was interested in other aspects of the fitness industry, but I just thought Pilates was the most, maybe amazing route to that. And I'm super happy to have done that, but you have to really believe in it. And one of the things I will mention here is people always ask me, why is it that you offer also teacher training programs? So why do you train so many instructors? Obviously we can't hire all the batches, hundreds and hundreds of. of instructors that we train. You're giving

Rayhan:

away your secret sauce as well, right?

Reza:

Yeah, a little bit, but it doesn't matter because again, it's the same belief in the same vision. So all these instructors we train, go out there, work of course for our competitors, or set up competing studios or join hotels or gyms or other chains within the wellness industry. But they are also healing and making other people happy. We, if we train them well and they're great instructors, they're going to go. So ultimately I'm still enriching. We are still enriching people's lives, but through them at another location. So it doesn't appear on my PNL. I don't see that, but, it appears on my emotional qualitative PNL, my personal PNL, which is why I'm so proud because we have trained over 5, 000 instructors in 15 years. clearly we cannot hire all of them. We have, we're about 30 in my team. So that means every single studio you go to in Dubai or the region, chances are you're going to find one, two, three instructors that have probably been trained at our facility. and that's what I was telling you. It's being consistent with why you do things. And then you continue. And now, of course, we try to offer higher quality and services and everyone else so that we stay the reference in the market, but it doesn't mean they're bad studios out there. And, there's plenty of potential for everyone.

Rayhan:

Yeah. But ultimately, like you said, it's not. It's your vision is what you believe in, right? It's the greater good you believe in, Pilates, you're running, Pilates classes in your studios, but you also, training instructors to, to become Pilates instructors as well. and it just goes to show that, when you do love what you do, you can do it for a long time. You can be profitable, When customers like what you do as well, it gives you that self satisfaction that you're making an impact. numbers don't lie. yeah, congratulations on that.

Reza:

Thank you. Thank you. I, we, I'm happy that we are where we are and I'm happy that. I'm not the only one like everyone across our team and organization believes in this and everyone is driven by similar goals and the same mission, the same desire to help people lead healthier lifestyles. And then, things work themselves out. I'm a big believer of the law of attraction. So when you usually send good energy out there and you do good things, chances are it's going to come back. Yeah. Yeah. Every time.

Rayhan:

The rest I've known you for quite a long time now, one of the things that strikes me is when you go to one of your studios, it, you feel in Dubai, you feel like you're in a, not a five star hotel, like a Mandarin Oriental type atmosphere vibe where you go in, you got big doors, you have a really nice reception, would, You feel like when you go in that experience of doing a class just gives you that more motivation, more joy out of each session. and one of the things I noticed about you is that you have a very strong attention to detail, you think about things in, In depth before you sometimes take certain actions. And I think that's very commendable because I'm the opposite. I'm just all guns blazing. And many entrepreneurs I've come across many entrepreneurs and some of them are again, I didn't just go for it, but you do. you tend to think about things a little bit more, you're more measured person. And I think that's important because if you think about, world class organizations and world class businesses, the guys who are at the top or the girls who are at the top who are able to create this. world class product, they have these qualities. I want to know, how did you come about that? is it something that you, were you always born like that? Or is it something that, over the years it's what you've attained? How'd you make sure, how'd how'd you maintain that, that kind of eye for detail on that, Yeah,

Reza:

I think you're, you're right first about the fact that I, pay a lot of attention to details. but again, I think, just coming back to the concept of balance, we need to put both of us in a mixer and blend it and probably a good average of both would be nice because that's some, sometimes it's also good to, to go maybe, faster with certain ideas. Now, the attention to detail is, I think, paramount. It's extremely important. a part of it must come certainly from my upbringing or my personality. It must be in my genes. So it's not something that I have, necessarily worked on or targeted to obtain. Part could be personality related, so it would need, a bigger expert to explain that. But, part of it is also learned and, practiced. I, I, since my childhood, I was always a huge fan of Japan. I don't know why. I always. loved everything Japanese, whether from the time it was the cartoons or toys or electronics when we were kids, et cetera. So naturally when I entered my business school, I grew up in France and I did all my education in France. When I went to my business school, I literally actually selected this business school because they had the most amazing exchange program with a, with the Japanese top kind of elite university in Tokyo. I knew I wanted to spend some time in Japan one way or another. in total, I've lived 30 years in Japan. not continuous, three consecutive years, but, three times one year, I would say, one year I was a young trainee in a tiny trading company in a city, in the city of Nagoya, the third city in the country, and I was living with the Japanese family, that's where I really learned the language and got familiar with the culture. More in depth with the culture. second year, I was a student in, in the university with the exchange program. And the third year I was working in a Japanese factory. I was in charge of a project of, know, how transfer from, glass making, factory to, one in the Middle East here. these three years spent in Japan, first of all, made me love the country and the culture and the food even more than what I thought. And that's where I think I maybe realized the importance of this attention to detail that you're pointing at, Japanese are renowned for. Precisely their attention to the smallest, tiniest little details, whether it's in their manufacturing processes. I was blessed enough when I was a student at Waseda University to visit, major plants, whether it was Toyota or Honda or beer factories like Kirin or Asahi or Shiseido, the cosmetics company or so many other factories because they had, excellent relationships with these. So we were, taken on tours and we studied their concepts. we, We, I was so in love with everything that I was seeing that I think it, it got imprinted in my mind, I realized, and not only within, sorry, the business or the manufacturing, I would say world, but even in their family structures, I lived one year with a family, their restaurants, the way they eat, the way they decorate their food, the importance of certain, that's cleanness, that neatness, that simplicity, Concept is this Japanese way, you look at someone's desk there, it's clutter free, it's organized, really one or two items there. These are things that impacted me a lot. And I realized that most of the world is not like that. and there's must be a reason why everything made in Japan has a higher quality, whether it's a manufacturing product, whether it's electronics, whether it's clothing items, whatever it is, because they pay attention to detail. so I think that's probably where I picked it up. And when I opened the first Real Plotty studio in Palm Strip Mall in Jumeirah 1, most of the studio's decoration, everything was Japanese. And the idea there was I wanted to create a mini Japan for myself, in Dubai. The doors were like, looked like sliding, most of our studio, like workout rooms, the doors were sliding doors with, I couldn't import rice paper doors because of humidity here, but we came up with a solution to make it look like that, but it was glass. We had bonsais, we had colors, the wood you mentioned a couple of minutes ago, that was from there. And to date, if you go to the JLT studio, every door of the room, you will see that there are, squares on the doors with glass. It's very Japanese style. In the reception of all our locations, you will find a commissioned painting of Fushimi Inari, The orange color gates near Kyoto in Japan. All of this is why, because I think there's a element of excellence when you pay attention to details, when you, Every little detail matters. If you do minute, small improvements in everything, every single day, you're bound to achieve excellence. There's just no way around it. So if today you do something better than yesterday, and tomorrow you do it a little bit better than today. You're going to, you're bound to achieve incredible results. Exactly.

Rayhan:

Kaizen.

Reza:

It's actually one of our four, company values. It's in our employee handbook. Kaizen is my favorite word, from Japan, which means continuous improvement. And I tell this to my team all the time, every single time someone makes a mistake, I'm like, it doesn't matter if you learn from it, we continuously improve tomorrow. You're better the day after you're better. Still, you're Then you have understood Kaizen, and it's implemented across major plans like Toyota across the board in Japan. it's a cultural thing. So attention to detail matters a lot. And I think coming back to discussion around entrepreneurs and setting up businesses, a lot of people forget to pay attention to a whole bunch of very important, critical details. When you're developing their first business plan or the first sketches of what they're going to do, they take certain things for granted or because in particularly today, maybe not 15 years ago, but today on social media, on Instagram, et cetera. Everything looks easier, like success looks easier, more at reach. It looks like, Oh, you could be successful in two months and you're going to have such a social media presence. And as if that means success, they forget them to pay attention to really the important details that matter. I try to share this kind of habit of mine around Kaizen with all of my team, which is why we. It's one of our company values. It's written in our employee handbooks. Anyone who joins our company, regardless of the position, during the onboarding process, we spend time talking about Kaizen. And, because it's critically important. And I think, that's what makes Japanese people absolutely exceptional people.

Rayhan:

So Reza, as a, as an entrepreneur running a business, you have your ups and downs. obviously in the beginning, you mentioned when you first started the business, your wife was working, you was, running the business solo. So having been through that, I know that the first few years would have been tough. you grew the company, you had two studios and then COVID came and it you I wouldn't say your business dropped significantly, but everyone suffered from COVID. Of course. and now we're going for another cycle in Dubai where population's increasing, but more and more people coming in, more people understand, and appreciate what you're doing here, with real Pilates. what would you say as a management team, as a company have been the key things you've been proud of? Throughout this journey that you've been through so far,

Reza:

I think, obviously during the first few years, the elements of, patience, perseverance, staying determined and focused on your goals and, overcoming challenges, were key, but what I probably want to focus on now, and I would like, maybe listeners to reflect on or benefit from is, is understanding the importance, especially for small and medium size. So most entrepreneurs were going to have small companies, maybe with workforces of anywhere between five to 10, 20, 30 people. So we're not talking large scale corporations. I think people should, understand and focus on the importance of agility, being able to develop an agile, mindset and management style. this was absolutely key for our survival and our, becoming again prosperous when COVID hit, when COVID happened, city was locked down, shut down. people were scared, habits changed, even when the city reopened, et cetera. So

Rayhan:

just to remind listeners as well. In COVID, a business like yours would completely be a game changer, right? We were, yeah. Because you have to wear a mask. You can't touch anything. You've got to keep, I'm sure people will still remember, but just to remind the listeners. yeah. Of

Reza:

course. Of course. and, we were, it's an anecdote now, it makes me smile, but it was very tough at the time. We were the first sector that closed down. So the city was still open. We received the instructions from the Dubai sports council. I remember on a, it was, on a day at around 1115, they said, you have to mid day, that was literally minutes to close down, to shut down completely your operations. And then of course, within days and weeks, industry after industry sector, after sector, closed down until this city went into shutdown and we were all at home and, all of that. So we were among the first to close, and we were, probably one of the last to open simply because we have physical contact with people's bodies. So it's natural. So when we reopen, you're absolutely right. We reopened with some of the harshest, measures and standards or, restrictions imposed on us, for good reasons. I'm not, questioning them, but it was very challenging from as a business because not only instructors had to wear initially masks and gloves, Social distancing within classes now for classes where you operate with 10 reformers, for example, for us as a Pilates studio, you suddenly are forced to have only four reformers because you need to leave three meters between two machines. Then you have to put partitions and you have to put so many different things in place, the ventilation systems and so on and so forth. We're not going to go into those details, but the important thing was, okay, how do you react to these changes? How do you react to these difficulties?

Rayhan:

Yeah.

Reza:

Now, obviously COVID is a major one, but it could be other, maybe less, dramatic, changes, but market changes, competitive landscape, pricing, regulatory changes. something around transportation in your neighborhood, making it difficult for people to come and go any other things that change. What I want to focus on is how critically important it is for entrepreneurs to adopt an agile way of thinking, understand the importance of adaptability, adapt themselves to those circumstances. At RealPolities, we never liked to, to dwell on things and to look back and then worry about it and cry on how difficult it was, et cetera. We would say, okay, look, this is happening. It's tough. It's difficult. What can we do about it? so when the studios were completely shut down and you have all your instructors sitting at home, they can't teach. At the time, Zoom wasn't a big thing. It just was starting and so on. How do you teach online? How do you go online? How do you create connections, networks, accounts, so on, or in face of other difficulties or challenges, whether it's manpower related, whether it's regulation related, whether it's operational challenges that you might face because of the building you are in or in the neighborhood where you're located. because a competitor opens next door or whatever it is, we always analyze the situation quickly. take, concrete measures to improve the situation. They might not be the best, but we take measures right away. We act right away. We make changes. so this, I think, willingness to change, willingness to pivot when it's necessary. and this agility that we have developed is probably one of our unique strengths today. I really think of it as a unique, not selling point, not a USP because it's not a selling point, but a unique management point, for, my team. And I'm incredibly proud of that. And it makes us so strong that in advance, I don't know what the next challenge is going to be or the next sudden obstacle that's going to appear ahead of us. But I know exactly how we're going to deal with it because we will pause. We will look. We'll analyze, we'll decide what's best together, and then we implement it right away. The time from the lead time between the problem starts to we've already started implementing a solution is extremely short with us. And that's one of my biggest sources of pride in my team. And it's something I would advise any entrepreneur to try to develop. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen. There's no magical solution. We've made tons of mistakes. Don't get me wrong, but we made sure that we're always agile. We're always. adapting to the situation, to the circumstances. The market has changed. In the past, certain things mattered. Certain marketing tools were important. Today, other marketing tools are important. When I opened Real Platties, there was no social media or so little that it didn't matter. We had to still print flyers and put them on people's, car shield, car windshields, do above the line, do below the line, send direct mails, do things like this, which you wouldn't do today because you're going to do ads on, you're going to do search engine optimization. You're going to do Google ads, you're going to do Instagram and Facebook ads and so on, but adapting to those, adapting to the new technologies, adapting to changes, adapting to obstacles. It's an attitude more than anything. So developing that ability to that agility, I think it's absolutely critical. Yeah, a

Rayhan:

hundred percent. even with the new wave of AI, for example, you need to adapt. You need to be agile, you can't just ignore it because your competitor will start using it. so yeah, no, it's great. Great insights. It was the

Reza:

same thing when they introduced, the VAT, that's a completely accounting related, regulatory kind of change. It's mandatory for everyone. yeah. quickly understanding how can we do it. And we made mistakes. We were sometimes advised strongly by, by advisors at the time. That was before I found you guys and you helped us out with everything else. Thank you. no, it's true, story. adapting to that, adjusting quickly, doing it the right way. Now we were using a software or a CRM system that didn't cater to that. Okay, fine. That's the limitation. What can we do about it? tomorrow, if there's going to be some other regulatory changes, whether it's around licensing or. or any other standards that are put in place. I have zero worries, absolutely zero words because I know my team, is agile and will learn to quickly adapt and come up with a solution. And that actually makes us stay, stand out and make us still stay market leaders in our industry in the Pilates segment, by far, because I think this is a, this is an attitude more than anything.

Rayhan:

100%, 100%. I want to talk about, expansion plans. Obviously you've got studio in Jumeirah studio in JLT, many entrepreneurs, and you've got experience of expanding, you, you started off with one studio, then you're running another one as well. And for some people, it's a very big jump to take a very big step to take. some businesses, a franchise, I know that you're quite active in the franchise and many entrepreneurs would like to know how that works because when you're set. I come from a finance background, so I know the different ways to expand. That's what we learn. But someone who could be a very good, I don't know, marketing person or someone who's a fitness instructor or someone who's, a restaurateur, They may not. Know what the most effective way is to expand, but you've obviously, you've got a blueprint already. tell us more about how does franchise work for you? how'd you see that being more beneficial than let's say, getting a bank loan and setting up more, more sites. Yeah, obviously we spoke about the attention to detail to the brand. I understand and I know that, you do care about the brand and you want to make sure that you have the right partners on board as well. can you give us more insights into that, Claude?

Reza:

Of course. Of course. since our goal, our vision, as I said at the beginning, is to try to enrich people's lives, have a bigger impact on the world around us. the, it's completely natural and obvious that we're going to want to have more locations, therefore be able to service more people. Absolutely. whether it's new neighborhoods in the same city of Dubai, whether it's tomorrow in Abu Dhabi with, where we are in touch with potential candidates, whether it's in neighboring countries, obviously, Saudi Arabia is a big booming market right now. this is something we want to do and why franchise, obviously our kind of business, and especially the scale and the quality standards with which we want to, operate and we operate with today, requires quite a bit of capital. So if every time we were to open our own studios, it would require that capital, that time and energy investment. but, so that's why from that angle, of course, franchising would make a lot of sense. And that's why we're, we have started, we already have our first franchise operating, in Maydan in Dubai. it didn't start without its own challenges because obviously the contract was signed pre COVID and COVID put everything on hold. And then they started, it was difficult. They faced particular challenges, which were very linked to their geographical location. You supported them a lot. We tried as much as we can. We were in the best franchise or because it was our first experience as well. So I'm not going to say we did everything perfectly, but as I was saying a few minutes ago, we were trying to be as agile as possible with every situation that was happening. Today, the end result is that they're extremely successful. Yeah. And their biggest worry today is how can we expand and have more space so that we can serve more clients? So that's, that's what makes me so happy in terms of franchising. so the reason why, I find it how can I say potential carrying is not just from a business perspective, that's okay. It's going to, every time you open a franchise, a franchisee is going to pay you initially a flat franchising fee. And then on monthly sales, they will pay you a percentage royalty, whatever it is, six, seven, 8%, depending on industries and so on. it's the fact that. It puts me again in a position to enrich people's lives, not the end user's life only, but the person, the entry, the second, the other entrepreneur who, like me a few years ago, wants to own a business in the field of health and fitness or wellness, who wants to leave the corporate world behind, or who was a housewife and the kids have grown and they have free time on their hands. Or, who wants to change careers because they're tired of, politics at the office or whatever it is. I have the opportunity to give that person, a well proven method with processes that will lead to tangible results. Of course, profitability, so money, but also, an impact on, again, on the society at large and their communities. for instance, the Maidan studio is owned by an Emirati woman whose dream is to help her community and, expats as well. so if tomorrow there's a, this young person in this city or somewhere in Saudi Arabia, whether it's in Jeddah, Riyadh, Khobar, or wherever it is, where they can, thanks to our formula, establish a business that's, helps people lead healthier lifestyles. I feel like we're triple achieving our goal because not only are we serving end users through that particular franchise location, we are creating jobs. Indirectly because those instructors are formed, et cetera, that business owner might then tomorrow open other franchise locations, et cetera. So it will grow. That's, very consistent with our goals from the beginning. Now, the franchise method is really nice. It's very, it's a faster route. So we could, if for example, it takes me to, let's say two to four years to develop, and put in place one successful wholly owned location in those same two to four years, I might be able to open five franchise location. And with the right, processes in place, I can get that to, to, to those to be successful. so obviously the speed, the speed at which we can grow and how many more people we can reach and help, is important, but probably the risk, or I would say the, concern, what I need to remain focused on is how do we do so without compromising On our values, on our ethos, on our personality, what makes Real Plot is unique. And, so that when you walk into a Real Plot studio, whether it's in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, wherever it is in the region. And beyond that, because I, eventually I would love to go to Europe and particularly France for obvious, link, links I have with there. I would. love. It's very challenging for me to be able to, replicate the same experience to make sure that the end users at any studio will have that same feeling. Now we've nailed it with Maidan because I think today anyone who goes to the Maidan location doesn't even realize that it's actually a franchise. It's often not known. it's just a real party studio. You could buy your package in Jumeirah and attend classes in Maidan or vice versa. And we do have clients who actually go at, different locations. I would like now to do this more, with, with, a larger, wider geography. how we're going to do that based on the same principles. We're going to be adaptable. We're going to be agile. We're going to learn. We're going to learn from best practices. We're going to benchmark with others who have done that. And we will be coming back to the attention to detail you were mentioning before. We will continue to pay attention, even if it slows down a little bit, our growth or the speed of our growth. Who do we choose as a franchisee? Yeah, that's pretty important. Because I could go tomorrow and pick up a big group with very deep pockets in Saudi Arabia. someone would say, Oh, we have a hundred million dirhams or reals to, to invest in this. And, let's do this. It's not necessarily aligned with who we are and how we are. I would rather work with the new young generation, aspiring people who want to change their countries or their societies for the better. And, and even if it takes a bit longer to identify those individuals, I think I will have, we will both have both sides and much. Longer, enjoyable, relationship filled with more success and also pleasure, pleasure in doing business and helping people. So franchise for me is absolutely the way forward. It's not to say I wouldn't open our own studios and, I'm not gonna, reveal any secrets now, but, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few months or maybe next year, there's a, we come up with another studio, like Holyown studio in Dubai, simply because sometimes there's just an opportunity to which you literally can say, no, that there's this location, you could make it happen. You could make it successful. And fortunately enough, we are, solid enough and we've recovered more than recovered from the COVID time. So we are, again, in a position where we could invest and, into new fully owned locations as well. so if I find the right candidate, I'll do it with a franchisee, but if I don't, we will, open ourselves. I'm not a huge fan of necessarily, bank loans and so on. It's maybe. Partially has to do with maybe my management style, my way of thinking. I think my philosophy towards work or business now is not maybe the best time for loans given the interest rate levels and so on. But I'm not close to that. If circumstances change or the right opportunity is there, potentially that could be a path. But for me, the most. immediate, obvious, enjoyable path ahead, which will lead also to great, profitability for both us and the franchisee is, is, yeah, franchise expansion through franchise. So definitely the region, the GCC is a primary focus. I would like to do a little bit larger in the region, but obviously there's some instability, geopolitical situations in some of the countries that a few years ago could have potentially been, you know, potential targets. So we will have to wait for those, but beyond, as I said, I would love to, to explore Europe as well. one thing I want to emphasize, Rehan, it's super important because it's a source of pride is, people bring business, foreign businesses and brands. They bring their franchises to Dubai. I'm super proud that we were able to create something made in Dubai, born in Dubai. We made our mistakes. We strengthened through the years, et cetera, but we now have a winning formula and we can proudly export franchise out this model to the so called Western markets from where we usually import brands or bring in, bring, franchises. It's with a lot of pride that I would, I look forward to the day where we would open, franchise locations in Western markets like France, the UK or Germany or Italy, et cetera. made in Dubai, a brand made in Dubai, born in Dubai, which grew here. and I know for a fact, because I obviously I'm in touch with a very wide network of Pilates studios across the world, since we're the Merithew licensed training center. So we're connected to the entire network. I have absolute faith in the standards of quality that we have achieved and what we offer is world class studio like the real party studios in Dubai could easily benchmark the benchmark against the best studios in Australia, in Japan, in Western Europe, in, North America and whatever. and that is a testament to the hard work of, the entire teams I've had over the years past and present and, all the stuff we can do together. So for me, definitely that franchising a Dubai born brand, is a, big dream and actual goal.

Rayhan:

Yeah. And I look forward to it. Look forward to seeing more, more locations. I guess you're going

Reza:

to have to open more firm, more locations for yourself. We're going to need accounting services.

Rayhan:

Thank you very much. One thing I just want to touch upon is, in with franchising, you mentioned the fact that processes. I'm a very process orientated person, and I guess you can't franchise a business unless you have processes. I know this is a bit of a boring topic, but you want to talk about some of the processes that you have with, with, real plates and how that translates for, when you try to franchise out.

Reza:

Yeah. So we, first of all, we, When I don't know something myself very well, I try to hire experts in the field. So when we were developing what we call the franchising kit for RealPlot is the package of solutions and benefits and value that we add to the franchisee. we, hired, world class consultants specialized in franchising. And, it's with their help that we developed the whole model. So today, if, if tomorrow somebody, we find the right candidate and we sign a franchising agreement that franchisee will get full support from A to Z, from, early stages, design and layout of the unit, even fit out contractors we would recommend. We don't impose with fit out contractors, then, staffing recruitment, logistics, which equipment to buy, how to do the layout in each room. which packages to sell, which software to adopt to service your clients, which marketing tactics and strategies to put in place. pricing, promotions, HR, everything we support. And all of this is documented. Obviously we've learned a lot from our first franchise. I'm sure that the second one will be way better organized and, more detailed, et cetera. I wouldn't be surprised if the third is better than the second and so on and so forth. We talked about Kaizen and continuous improvement that has to apply across the board. So and obviously once we reach probably the third or fourth franchise, we would look at setting up a dedicated franchising division within the company, like hire staff whose full time and sole job is to only support the franchisees. Right now, we have a strong team. We have someone in charge of marketing, someone in charge of Facilities and resources and studio experience someone in charge of education and someone in charge of everything that has to do with customer service. And, and of course myself, I look at the strategic level of things and maybe finance and accounting. we are providing this support to our existing franchisee. tomorrow we will continue to do so even with bigger strength as we're strengthening our own team. the processes, we have standard operating processes across the board for all the touch points I mentioned. whether it's how to design, how to develop a class, how to conduct a class, how to do, quality control on those, how to communicate with your clients, how to book sessions, cancel, how to manage, customer complaints or grievances or suggestions. How to, market your brand in your neighborhood, how to attract, or generate new leads, et cetera. All of this is in place and all of this is now documented. So the franchisee would get all, a detailed package with all of these things. And in return for this, incredible value that we add to them. Of course, we are paid a percentage royalty on a monthly basis. That's so that's really the deal. What we're telling to those young aspiring entrepreneurs who want to open is you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to make, commit the mistakes that we committed that we made. You've got, yeah, you've got a brand in place. You've got the most respected Polaris brand in the region. honestly, there are people in Saudi Arabia or in other Emirates or other neighboring countries in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and so on, Oman. who regularly contact us and say, we would love, when are you coming? When are you coming? So that means their reputation is already has spread through the network of instructors that we have trained and any new facility, any new fitness facility that wants to add Pilates to their offering knows that they can come to us to get that. So then automatically those, Instructors who are trained at some point, they want to leave those big gyms or big, big box kind of structures and open their own boutiques to deal with attention to detail with quality and so on. And that's where they reach out to us and they start talking to us. So I think it's definitely the way forward. and, again, we would, we offer standard operating processes to, SOPs, detailed SOPs, across the board. So they don't have to worry about anything. It's literally just invest the capital. Have the motivation, but be driven with the right, similar compatible values and ethos, the ones we have.

Rayhan:

no, that's really good insight. And I think, for the entrepreneurs who are looking to franchise their business at some point, it's really good eye opener in terms of what you have to go through to prepare your business to get to that stage. Before we wrap up, just want to say, obviously, thank you very much for joining us. I've learned so much more than what I've learned in the last few years since I've been working with you. I think you have an amazing story. You've achieved a lot. Thank you. put your flag in Dubai. and you've, you've contributed so much to this, to the industry here, fitness industry here. what's the best way for our listeners to get in contact with you?

Reza:

obviously, as, a brand, so we're, present across, most of social media. but to get in touch with me personally, I'm, Of course you can, contact the studio through the website or, through LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn and it's going to be easy. It's going to be just Reza dxp. So that's my LinkedIn, profile or handle and, but most importantly, I'm a bit old school and I still love a face to face, interaction. So anyone who wants it, I know. So I would invite people to come even if they don't do Pilates to come to the studio chances are you're going to find me standing at the reception, talking with clients, with employees, with. with team members, we're visiting guests, et cetera. And my door is absolutely always open and not just to our clients, but literally, honestly, there's so many people around our, universe of health and fitness who come to seek advice, to ask something, to share an experience with me. So my door is open. You can find me at any of our studio locations, but on social media, obviously we're on Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn. You will find me personally. And, the website is real-pilates.com. We actually revamped it and we went live yesterday. So we have a brand new website that we worked really hard, the last two, three months on it. And it's also a reflection on how we've evolved. I think really we're at the beginning of a new chapter for Real Polaris. and this is going to be kind of year one of this, second chapter of our life.

Rayhan:

Congratulations. I look forward to it. Any final closing thoughts?

Reza:

Thank you very much for having me. No, really. Honestly, I'm very grateful. It's a great opportunity. as you speak and you share your experiences, you also, develop ideas inside and you start remembering or noticing that you need to focus on certain things. and also a lot of gratitude towards you and your team, because obviously it's been many years now that we're working together and you handle all our accounting and finance, and it's, been a blessing. and one of the things we do is as our part, as part of the franchising, obviously we want, harmony and, alignment between us and the franchisees. So I hope you will continue to follow us in any market where we will go. You will open offices and provide accounting services. We

Rayhan:

will always follow you. Don't worry about that. I still need to come to one of your studios.

Reza:

Yes.

Rayhan:

And that's going to happen soon.

Reza:

I hope so. I look forward to it. You're most welcome. And again, thank you for having me.

Rayhan:

Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us on the Alphapreneurs podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe and give us a five star rating and a review. Your feedback is appreciated. For show notes and more, check out the link in the description and connect to me directly on LinkedIn and search for Rayhan Aleem. See you in the next episode.