Airdrie Inside
Airdrie Inside, with host and long time Airdrie resident, Chris Glass | Bringing light to our homegrown and hardworking heroes.
Airdrie Inside
Sarah West: West Reformer Pilates
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In this episode of Airdrie Inside, Chris Glass sits down with Sarah West, founder of West Reformer Pilates. Sarah’s story is a masterclass in the pivot. After AI disruption shifted her career in international editorial, she returned to her roots as "Airdrie Royalty" to build something that couldn't be automated: human connection. From launching a business in nine months to architecting specialized programs for seniors and postpartum mothers, Sarah is moving the needle on what it means to belong in Airdrie.
“I just decided that I wanted to do this. Within a couple months, I had a business plan, a space, the funding... it all just kind of happened in nine months. It was like a literal baby." — Sarah West
Join the Community at West: westreformerpilates.ca
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I just decided that I wanted to do this. So within like a couple months, I had a business plan. I had a space to rent. Um, I had the funding all in place, like it was all ready to go. So I really it all just kind of happened in nine months. It was like a literal baby.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_02Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Airdrie Inside. I am Chris Glass. I am sitting here at Microacres again. Beautiful smelling facility. Make sure you check them out. Microacres has been such a big supporter of the show. I am with Sarah West. Sarah, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
SPEAKER_02It's absolutely my pleasure. Uh I have to disclose that you have tortured a member of my family at length at your facility. Uh, my wife is a huge fan of your Pilates studio. So uh that's what spurred me to ask you to come on the show.
SPEAKER_00No, that's amazing. We love having Kim in the studio. She's been wonderful. She like crushed out, what, 50 classes very quickly?
SPEAKER_02Yes. She got her 50 uh 50 classes of socks or 50 classes socks the other day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. She ripped through that really quick, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_02That's really good. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself. I know you have ties to the Airdrie area that go pretty deep. So give me a little bit about Sarah West.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So born and raised in Airdrie. Um, I grew up here. Um my parents actually met at the City of Airdrie Christmas party. So fantastic. Yes, my dad works for the city until he retired, and my mom still works at the city. She teaches um aquafit at Genesis Place. So yeah, really just, I don't know. Grew up here. I grew up as a competitive dancer. So I was dancing and baton twirling throughout my childhood, I guess, here in Erjury. Um, graduated from George Mack.
SPEAKER_02Go Mustangs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I went to UFC after I graduated high school and I got my degree in communications and media. And then after that, I actually moved to Germany for two years. So I did a study abroad um in Sweden and university, kind of got the, you know, a taste for living somewhere else and wanted to go back when I graduated. So I did that. I worked in editorial for um seven and a half years. I actually worked for Airdrie Life magazine too. I was Sherry's assistant to the publisher for a couple years. Um, yeah, and so I was working editorial and I don't know, just there's been a shift in editorial with the boom of Chat GPT and all of that. So um, and I guess in amongst that, I was also teaching dance. So I've been teaching at Elements Dance Co. in Airdrie since 2016.
SPEAKER_02It seems like all of the women in my life kind of overlap with you in some ways because that's Malia's dance studio is we were talking about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. No, I I love Elements. I love the community there. And um, Steph is one of my one of my best friends now. So it's been really cool to have like, I don't know, that community and then seeing that. And I don't know, with with things shifting and editorial, I kind of decided like, okay, what do I want? What do I want to do? I was working remote for a company in Germany, so I ended up getting a job over there. So I was fully remote um when I moved home, and I really missed being with people and being around people and like being, you know, building that community.
SPEAKER_02So that's kind of how West started was now when you're working in Germany, you must be working on the German clock. So you're doing mostly night hours or no, so I was actually running a North American team here.
SPEAKER_00Ah, okay, that makes more sense. Yeah, so I was running an editorial team here. So I had a team of like 12 writers all throughout Canada and the US. And then um I ended up having to let them all go when Chat GPT really just kind of took over the world. Took over, and then I was being moved to part-time. So that's like really when I was like, okay, what do I see myself doing? And and noticed kind of the gap in the Air Drew didn't have a Pilates studio, and so here we are.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so my wife came home one day and said, There's a new Pilates studio, it's something I've wanted to try. Yeah. Uh, what do you think? And I'm like, I think you should, you know, give it a shot. I I don't know a whole heck of a lot about it. I know a lot more about it now, but uh, she went out and tried it and got addicted and just loved it. So tell me a little bit about West's journey. So West Reformer Pilates, that's the name of the company. Yeah. Uh tell me about its journey.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it kind of just started as an I an idea, honestly, um, but it moved very quickly. So I'd been practicing Pilates. Um, it was kind of like the natural progression of movement after being a dancer for so many years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so I loved it. I knew I'm not really a cardio girl. Um, I just love the low impact. I had ankle surgery and lots of you know injuries as a dancer. So the low impact like type of movement in Pilates was just so it felt so good for me and I felt all the benefits. And um, I don't know, I just like wanted to bring that to more, to more people. And so um it would have just been Jared and I got married in November of 2024. And then when we got back from our honeymoon, I just decided that I wanted to do this. So within like a couple months, I had a business plan, I had a space to rent, um, I had the funding all in place, like it was all ready to go. So I really it all just kind of happened in nine months. It was like a literal baby.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was, yeah, it was very quick, but it all kind of happened, I think, how and when it was supposed to, everything seemed to fall into place really easily, which was lovely. And I ended up opening with um a big group of founding members already, which was so awesome. And they're, you know, still with me today and just loving it and seeing the benefits and the other community's been super cool.
SPEAKER_02So, walk me through the process of taking an idea and being in a bricks and mortar place nine months later. So, what was the first steps you took? So, you're talking with your talking with your husband and trying to figure out what the next step is, and then yeah, then how do you take that to the next level?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Steph, who owns Elements, she was a really um, I would say, key mentor for me in all of this. So she was able to connect me um with her commercial real estate agent in Airdrie. So that was kind of like the the biggest piece for me with my marketing background. I felt pretty confident. Like I built the website, I designed the logo, I did all the branding. That to me is just like is fun. I'm not the kind of person who can just sit and relax and like do nothing. I always have to be productive. Um, so I remember I created the logo and I sent it to Jared, and he was like, okay, let's slow down. Like, let's figure out, you know, where you're gonna be and what the business plan is before we do all like the fun stuff. I was like, no, but the fun stuff is also important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I think I just kind of got rolling with it. And once we found the space and the landlord accepted me as his tenant, then it was I don't know, the space. I ended up getting really lucky. I didn't have to do too much inside, which was really huge. Like it was mostly just some cosmetic stuff and then ordering the machines and I don't know. So social media too, like Airdrie is such a um, it's just such a small town feel for the population that we have. Like everybody is just so supportive. So truly, like most of my marketing was either word of mouth through like elements or on social media, and it just kind of built like those Airdrie local Facebook pages and all of that, like the Airdrie moms, all of those. Like, I I love it because everybody's just so they're on it, they're supportive, they're like, oh yeah, well, new local business, we'll give it a try, that type of thing. So um, I was super grateful for the reception of the idea. Um, and I think because there wasn't a studio in Airdrie when I announced it was you know something that Airdrie lacked, and we're big enough to have, you know, to have something like that. So yeah, it ended up all just kind of falling into place in a weird but wonderful way. And when I look back on it, it it felt very easy, which I'm really grateful for. Yeah. And I don't think a lot of people can say that when they open a business. Like, I hear honestly some horror stories, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. They're like, Well, what's been challenging for you? I'm like, um the logo. Yeah. Nothing. I'm like, yeah, it's been, yeah, I don't know. It's been great.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's really cool. Yeah. I uh you're 100% right about some of the Airdrie Facebook groups and and how quickly we had we had a guest on uh the other week who did some incredible things based on a simple uh Facebook post that kind of went viral.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh raised a ton of money for a good cause. It was a really cool, cool thing. But then to see to see that develop into uh from an online community to the community that you're talking about, and I've seen it firsthand. I've seen the effect that you could have on people who are trying to get back into their fitness journey. So for somebody who doesn't know anything about Pilates, which is me before this, I I knew there was a machine and that was it. Uh tell me a little bit about the activity and and the workouts and what you have to offer.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Well, so there's two types of PLTIS there's Map Pilates and Reformer. So we're a reformer studio, so we do use the reformer machines. It's all spring tension based. So that's where the low impact piece comes in, which is really great. Um, it's all based in breath work. So every movement has a breath, whether that's your inhale, your exhale, whatever. Your core is always on. Um, and it's slow, it's controlled, it's it's one of those workouts that you do and you feel it, but you're not like debilitatingly sore for five days after where you can't walk. Like it just um you slowly over time start to feel just so much stronger, and your everyday tasks feel easier.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And the mobility piece, so mobility, flexibility, posture, um, strength, core, like all of those things just kind of like line up and work together. Um, so we're really lucky. I have a team of 14 instructors. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I knew it was getting there, but I didn't know you so 14 people. So you go sorry, how long has it been open for since it's actually 10 months today? 10 months, and you're employing 14 different people at least.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's not including my admin girls, so um, that's just my instructors, which is really cool. And everybody, so everybody's fully certified, which was important to me from the beginning. Um, and everybody brings like their own little, I don't know, their style, their flair to teaching, and it just it works. And I am honestly, we all get along so well. There's been some really cool friendships that have come from, you know, this new team. And like it ha it hasn't even been a year, and every like, I don't know. It's just been I'm really lucky to have such a great group of great group of women teaching and different backgrounds and different styles, but all all super cool.
SPEAKER_02So So one would ask, like, is the next step opening a second studio on the uh I find it funny that you're on the east side of the city. And it's called West. Are we gonna actually get a West West report?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're not the only one to to make that comment.
SPEAKER_02But um obviously it's not named after a direction, it's named after a name.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, no, it's definitely, yeah, no, it's my last name, my new last name. I always joke to Jared. I'm like, ah, you can't leave me now because you know my business is named out, and he was like, it's a direction, you'll be fine. Like, obviously joking. Of course, yeah. Um, I don't know. I love I love the community feel, and I feel like if you branch out and you have way too many spots, you lose that connection. You lose that connection. So I'm not sure. It's hard to. I know it's important to think about the future, but it's also like we haven't even been open for a year. So I'm I'm trying to toe the line of like I think my members and the community piece is the top priority for me. So as long as everybody's happy and we keep kind of moving in a positive direction, I I don't know, I think the right thing will will come into play, but I don't know if I'm I don't really want to pop up in a bunch of different different spots. That doesn't like that doesn't feel aligned with what what we have going at West right now.
SPEAKER_02So that's really cool. That it seems like a very values-driven organization where your values drive it more than profit and then the money comes afterwards.
SPEAKER_00100% from the beginning before before I even had the space, I announced my core values on social media and they're on the wall in the studio. So everybody walks past them every day. And I don't know, it's something that we thought was really important to me from the beginning. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Here in Airdrie, we're at a point where like uh the census just came back. I I my guess like I actually had a guess in the city pool, and I'm guessing around 90, 96,000 or 97,000. I'm not sure if that's gonna be accurate, but it's gonna be close. For sure. Um with the city growing that much, there's such a need for entrepreneurship and people stepping up, and you've walked this journey and in an industry that wasn't here before, it's not like you could go, well, Erdri Pilates Co. was successful, you know, I could rinse and repeat that over here, you know, it's not the same sort of thing. What advice do you have for people who are walking this journey and taking that risk? Because it is a huge risk.
SPEAKER_00It is a big risk, yeah. Um I don't know. I think if you if you feel confident in and kind of like you said, like it was it's been very values-driven for me. If you feel confident in what you're trying to achieve, then I I I truly think you can do it. But it does take a community and it does, you can't just do it on your own. And I I've been really lucky to have such a good community, not only with my family and my close friends, but also with with Airdrie and the connections that my family and I also have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Have in Airdrie. So I think you can't be afraid of hard work. I think that's a that's a big one. Um, entrepreneurship, you can never turn it off. Um, you're always you're always on.
SPEAKER_02You're not punching the clock and going home at four. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No. So I think you have to be really passionate about what you're creating and what you're building. Otherwise, like it honestly doesn't feel like work for me. Like I love being there. I just have dog mom guilt sometimes, and I need to be home with my dog. Otherwise, I would be there all the time. Um, I do love it truly. And I think it also depends on the business people are trying to create because I think a service-based business is very different from a product-based business as well.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, we talked a little about that off-camera about how hard the retail space is. Service space uh is an interesting one. We've had a lot of gym owners on, uh martial arts studios, that kind of thing. And yeah, uh, there's a real need for that to kind of fill out that missing part, if that if you will.
SPEAKER_00Totally. And I think post-COVID, like people were craving the the human connection and being back with people. And you can do Matt Pilates workouts at home for free on YouTube, 100%.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or you could buy a reformer and do it from your house. But I think what what keeps people coming back to West is the people. And we started doing these like member milestone videos. So after some members have hit over a hundred classes, we do these little videos, and and every single one of them is, you know, said, like, what keeps you coming back to West class after class? And they just go, the people. Like it's the people, it's the teachers, it's the the other members that they didn't know before coming to the studio that now they're friends with, and it's always familiar faces, and and just like that connection piece. So yeah, I think I think things shifted after the connection piece was taken away from us for so long that now everybody's finally like, okay, we're back. We can we can connect, we can be a community again.
SPEAKER_02So I felt that that took a bit to come back too. People forgot how to be out in public again and yeah and how to build communities.
SPEAKER_00So that's good to see. Yeah, no, it's been really fun.
SPEAKER_02Uh, you mentioned a little bit about uh your family's connection to the area. Uh a fun fact, we had your father's uh predecessor or successor on this show, actually. For so it it's great to have a little bit of airdry royalty on, if you will.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I would go that far, but I mean, yeah, the city has been pretty much all I have known growing up. So yeah. Um, no, that's super cool.
SPEAKER_02I know my dad misses misses it sometimes, but uh for those who don't know, your father was the former CAO of of Airdrie. And uh from what I hear, he's now out in Cochrane a little bit, so yeah, I gotta keep my eye on him as a Mustang. I'm not a huge fan of Cochrane as a city, but uh, I do wish him well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fair. I think you share that sentiment with some some other people, but yeah, no, he's doing great. He's like traveling a ton, and yeah, I don't know. They're they're living the dream. And he's been at Powdi's a ton and has noticed such a big difference in like he had really bad knees. So um trying to get all these men in because it's so good for them and their mobility, truly.
SPEAKER_02My wife is trying hard to get me in.
SPEAKER_00Just come. Your first class is free. Come try, honestly.
SPEAKER_02I wanted I wanted to touch on that though, because uh it so like one of the first uh things I started doing outside of the sports that I always did as a kid and then kind of inherited was martial arts. Like I got into Muay Thai. Getting punched in the face is a pretty huge barrier to whether you can keep doing it or not, right? So hard sport to get into. I mean, I think it's for everybody, but a hard sport to break into. This seems like uh an athletic um uh uh process that anybody can do. So talk to me about how that's important and why that's important to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so something that I think sets us apart is we have different series for different demographics of people, truly. And one of our most successful series is our removal series, and that's our 65 plus series. And we have some seniors who have been with us for the last four months, and it started as a six-week thing. And at like week four or five, they were like, we don't want to stop. Oh, wow, we need to keep going, and it hasn't stopped. We've had like we've had two groups who have gone consistently. Now in September, they want to go twice twice a week. And the most requests I get um over email for classes are senior series, yeah, which is so cool. But I think like for seniors and and movers who maybe haven't been moving for a few years, it's such a I don't want to say easy way to get back into movement, but it's it's again, it comes back to that low impact.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00It's easy on their body, it's easy on their joints. If they've had hip replacements, knee replacements, we can work with that, we can help with that, like all that strengthening and everything. So the seniors have been a huge, wonderful demographic that has been so fun to have. And now they're like all besties in class too. So they go for coffee after class, and it's just like they have their own little community within West, which is so fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We also did um a little movers class, so it was moms with their babies, and that was very popular. We're bringing it back in September because there's not a lot of places that offer workout classes with your baby. And if you're fresh postpartum and you come and it's an inclusive space, and nobody cares if you're breastfeeding in the middle of class or changing a diaper, or you know, chaos is ensued because one baby cries and then all the other 11 ones think that they need to cry. Um, so it was it was chaos, but in the best way, and that has been really cool to see. So that's been like another, you know, demographic. And we have we did a golf series, so we had um we had 11, 11 guys in there, and it was typically, I would say because we ran it Friday during the day, it was more like retired men.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And loved it. And they, you know, some of them now have done over 50 coming up on a hundred classes with us because they just noticed such a difference in their mobility and their flexibility and their core and their like. Sore back is gone and I can touch my toes now, and like all sorts of just like really tangible things that they were able to see came from coming to Pilates. So I do want to get more men in. We're looking at doing a bit of a like an athletic kind of situation.
SPEAKER_02So this is a challenge to all the men who listen to Airdrie inside to give it a try. Including all of those football players who might be out there. Yes. Range of motion is huge in that sport.
SPEAKER_00Literally, like any sport, any and like we have a teen program going on this summer, and we've had some, you know, some teens come in and they're hockey players, and they're like, well, we just need to, we need something else to work on our core and our stability and our mobility. And I'm like, this is literally the perfect place for you to be in your offseason for training. Like it's yeah, so kind of like working towards getting more. I don't know. People are like, oh, Pilates, it's such a women, like a female oriented kind of workout. But I am like super pumped to say that we we have quite a few men who come regularly, which I think is cool. So um yeah, I don't know. Lots of different demographics, and it's been really it's been really fun. It's been it's been fun to see.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's been fun watching your journey from from my lens because it started to become such a big part of uh my wife's life and what she's been able to accomplish and the confidence that she's getting from it, and uh and how much she just comes home so energized with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I wanted to end by asking you, I think, a pretty important question because we started talking about values. Uh, what is the value set for West?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we have five core values on the wall. Um, welcoming, willingness, worthy, wonder, and well-being. So I did all W's to fit in with the branding theme. Um, and not only are those core values for our members, but they're also for my team. So there's something that I really want the team to also bring. So, welcoming, of course, I just from the beginning wanted to be a very welcoming, inclusive space for every everybody, everybody to be able to come and experience what Pilates could do for them and just willingness to learn and grow and also fail sometimes. But, you know, just kind of feel and then the worthy thing I think was a really good one for me because there's a lot of people who have been out of movement, and I just want everyone to feel like they're worthy of being there and they're worthy of moving their body and they're worthy of being a part of the community and you know, being a part of something bigger, but also worthy of giving that time for themselves because I think a lot of us, like moms and other business owners, they just get so wrapped up in doing things for everybody else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I don't know. I can't remember which other ones I said. Anyways, there's five, they're on the wall.
SPEAKER_02I I love I love that worthy one, right? Yeah, and yeah, it it really hits home. Uh yeah, I really appreciate what you're doing for the community. And uh it's my honor to have you on the show today. So uh thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you. Is there anything you want to say to close the show? What if you had one message to somebody who's listening, what would it be? Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_00Um, you deserve it. You deserve to move your body. And I don't know, I think you're just come try. Your first class is free. If you don't love it, you don't just come back, right? But I don't know. I think it's it's a place for everyone. I love that.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much, Sarah, for being on the show. Thanks for having me. And thank you for being with us here at Airdrie Inside. We're gonna be back with more great episodes coming up shortly.