Sticky Notes
Ever wondered what it's actually like to build a fitness business from the ground up? Meet Rosie and Leila, two Pilates instructors who crossed paths at a London studio and discovered a shared vision that was too powerful to ignore.
This podcast—Sticky Notes—is our real-time chronicle of building something from nothing. We're relatively new teachers stepping into entrepreneurship, balancing Rosie's big-picture dreaming with Leila's pragmatic planning. We're challenging fitness industry norms, particularly the narrow concept of a "Pilates body," and creating spaces where everyone feels welcome regardless of how they look.
Join us weekly as we document every decision, meeting, and milestone. Whether you're interested in Pilates, entrepreneurship, or simply enjoy witnessing the unfiltered journey of two women betting on themselves and their vision—we're glad you're here for the ride.
Sticky Notes
Virtual Connection: Building a Brand Across Continents (Ep. 5)
Recording remotely for the first time dropped us into a whole new reality—Rosie joining from Brest, France while Leila stayed back in London. Virtual podcasting brought its own mix of tech hiccups and surprising upsides, reminding us just how strange and wonderful virtual connection can be.
Besides the virtual podcasting, technology played both hero and villain this week. On one hand, we discovered the magic of SD card readers (editing time down from three hours to just thirty minutes—life-changing!). On the other, we faced our fair share of glitches and delays. Honestly, it felt like a perfect reflection of the entrepreneurial journey: moments of progress mixed with constant problem-solving.
One of the biggest shifts in our business so far came up during this conversation. We’ve decided to move our planned interviews with Pilates professionals off the Sticky Notes podcast and over to our soon-to-launch Honeycomb Studios platform. It wasn’t an easy call. We wrestled with questions around content accessibility, value, and how to stay aligned with our mission. It’s a tricky thing—wanting to share meaningful conversations with everyone, while also building something sustainable and high quality.
We also opened up about the emotional and physical toll of teaching Pilates while growing a business. Being “on” for clients while pushing creative projects forward is no joke. Finding time to move for ourselves isn’t just a luxury anymore—it’s a must. We open up about burnout, boundaries, and what self-care really looks like right now, teeing up for future Podcast episodes that delve into this topic much more
Still, through it all, watching this little podcast community grow has been one of the most rewarding parts. Each new listener, message, and share reminds us why we started this in the first place—and that it’s all worth it.
Have you faced similar challenges in your business? We’d love to hear how you’re balancing teaching with entrepreneurship, or how you’ve handled tough decisions around your own content. Come chat with us on Instagram @stickynote.podcast—we’re all ears.
episode five. We at some point need to figure out not a jingle, but some kind of little something. I'm looking at sarah, because she's a stinger and an artist so maybe she could write us a little sticky note sort of like, or even if we just knew seconds yeah, or like a little trill or like something on the keyboard, just some little intro sound.
Speaker 1:She's with it, she's listening. I feel she gets the vibes of the honeycomb studios yeah, so the biggest thing this week is that we're no longer in person together which is very sad. I think we will still have maybe two or three if we're no longer in person together, which is very sad. I think we will still have maybe two or three if we're lucky in person before a couple that are not in person.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it'll I mean it? Almost does look like we are in the same place, though weirdly, our background is almost identical.
Speaker 1:Just a tan wall, but Max might. If it can be in person, that would be great, and then we can film, like we could film two more before I go. It's just a matter of how much we have to talk about, and if we can get another, like two interviews, that would be great. But we'll just have to see, yeah Well do you want to talk about the interviews?
Speaker 2:That's like a sort of big set. Do Do you want to talk about the interviews?
Speaker 1:That's like a sort of big set. Do you want to leave that, because you've got to tease that with the Mac. Maybe we can talk about it. I have a place we can talk about it. All right, cool, let me put it in here. More to come, but firstly I just want to talk about how we're not together right now and we were going. The reason we're not together, right, I don't know what way it's going to go. The reason we're not together right now is because I'm in Brest, france. Layla is still in London.
Speaker 2:Holding down the fort. I don't know. Yeah, I'm still here. I don't know, still in London?
Speaker 1:She's holding down the fort. I am here on a trip with my soulmate Sarah, and her little sister and her mom are going to join us tomorrow. So we're here right now and we were just saying that we very easily could have just not filmed the podcast this week. But when I move to Salt Lake City for a little bit, we will be doing this virtually. I mean, we'll be doing it in person when we can, but a lot of it will be virtual. So we wanted to try and do it virtually and we were going to do it on Zoom, and then Sarah, who is sitting on the sofa a little bit in the corner away from me Shout out.
Speaker 1:Sarah Shout out. Sarah, feel free to come and say hi whenever you want. She also films or records work for the job that she has, which is also a podcast. It's a podcast, right Podcast. It's called Books and Cookies Conversations and she recommended Riverside. And then Layla mentioned Riverside in her research for a virtual thing we could use to record. So we're trying it. This is literally the first time we're using it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems very promising, and with Zoom, when I was also Googling it, there were easy ways quote unquote easy ways that we could use it to record, but it's not designed for that, whereas my understanding of riverside is that it is designed for this and it seems so.
Speaker 1:I know, which is that was kind of the biggest thing about doing the virtual piece is that I was obviously wanting us to be able to make it work for our own use, but in terms of interviewing people, it would be one thing that was cool. This past week is next. I wanted to talk about just things we did this week and how this past week has been since we last filmed, and over the weekend, something that I was a part of was hosting this guy, john Claude, in the studio in Pi, and he came and did a workshop with us and I was sitting there thinking how cool would it be to interview, you know, maybe him or people like this at some point. But he's based in Munich. He has a studio called Bluebird Pilates there and it would be very cool to be able to travel and interview all these people, but also very convenient to be able to do it easily over a virtual space. We're back.
Speaker 2:All right, technical difficulty number one out the way.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I see the little thing that says actual recording is higher quality. Got it Okay. Technical difficulty number one. Let's talk about it. Okay, technical difficulty number one.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about it. Have you experienced it?
Speaker 1:We experienced it we took a photo of it which we can upload when we post this episode. Layla's Chrome storage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, browser, storage Browser storage, yeah, browser storage.
Speaker 1:And speaking of technical difficulties, I mean I guess it wasn't difficulty, it was a thing of growth that happened this week. I want to talk about the past week and what we both did, how it was going and you had a revelation with SD cards.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I didn't realize that we haven't. Yes, so I said that I was going to. I don't know if we mentioned it in the last podcast episodes or not, but I had meant I had decided to buy an SD card reader and an SD card in the hopes that I could transfer the files more easily from my phone to my laptop to edit. And, oh my god, I've never loved technology more than whoever created an SD card reader and an SD card. I mean, there was still a little bit of time for the actual file to be processed and saved onto the SD card, but I could just, once it was on it, I could just like connect it into the laptop and then drag and drop it, and I think the editing took me no longer than half an hour.
Speaker 1:When it used to take me three, yeah, or hours, and it was like frustrating hours.
Speaker 2:Because it was like frustrating hours because it was like I'm just waiting for things to upload. And this is here in the uk where we're like I've got like the house is connected to like a fiber, 5g fiber, like something that is supposed to be so high speed, and it was frustratingly not. Yeah, and I knew I was like there must be an easier way to do this. Um, so I've, I'm sure I wonder if people were screaming at us through the screens why aren't you using an SD card reader? Actually, I hope they weren't, because they could have messaged me and said oh, there's an easier way to do this.
Speaker 1:I think because I put it in a clip about not getting that error message on my photos app so many times. Oh yeah, I had a few people trying to explain to me what was going on and I just wasn't interested in that. It worked eventually.
Speaker 2:That's my thing, oh yeah, also like, for example, I uploaded what I believe to be episode three to our YouTube and then the file that I uploaded was the file that has been exported. That was episode three. And then when I looked at because I uploaded episode three and four at the same time when I looked at three, I just saw an 18 minute video clip and I was like this is not episode three. But I did the exact same thing for episode three and episode four and, lo and behold, episode four uploaded, no problem.
Speaker 1:I think episode three was just made to have some issues because I think you mentioned it in the previous episode that at one point we thought episode three might just not exist. There's no clips on our Instagram of episode three because we just didn't. It didn't come about that way, and then there were some uploading issues with the YouTube, so that's just how episode three was meant to go. After this, I'm going to see if I can get it back up.
Speaker 2:Maybe we can have a bonus episode, because I wanted to have episode three go live before four, so they would be on the thing chronologically. But four was ready to go and I was like, okay, I guess we just need to.
Speaker 1:I think it still went live correctly on like Buzzsprout, right? Yes, yeah, yeah, it's just. Youtube yeah, yeah, it was just the YouTube and just the YouTube and the YouTube's just extra, which was another thing about even doing this on Riverside. Um, instead of being super stressed about the, the video portion of it, that's kind of just extra, which I keep forgetting. It is primarily supposed to be audio instead of visual, but the visual is fun.
Speaker 2:Yes, I like. I cause I. I like being able to in my own time when I'm watching podcasts. Where I can?
Speaker 1:I like to have a youtube or something visually me too yeah um, and then it's nice, obviously, to also be able to listen to it just as an audio I think the one thing that's a bummer with doing it virtually is that I really like in the clips when we're looking at each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know that we're looking at each other.
Speaker 2:now Our clips aren't going to be as cute anymore.
Speaker 1:They're not going to be as cute, but that's just the way that it goes, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:That's one downside and I really do think I think I mentioned this last week. I think it will be cool at some point. You know, when I come back from my little trips and things to, we can just bank interviews and episodes and things of that nature. So biggest things from this week this past week, where I felt like I sort of touched everything based with reality again for the Pilates world and doing our business stuff and our podcast, there were just not loose ends but there were kind of some things we wanted to define better, some things we wanted to communicate about with the wonderful people who are helping us with the branding and the website and things like that, and just emails that I hadn't quite followed up on yet because two weeks previously I was doing Henley, like we said last week, and I was just very emotionally unavailable.
Speaker 2:We filled out our questionnaire, we said we were going to do that. Yes, we did. We filled that out and then we out, had a meeting and then everything we said in the meeting. When the meeting ended, rose and I had a secondary meeting, just us two, and kind of derailed everything we had decided on in the actual main meeting. So that's. I think things will start, yeah, in this episode it's really tough, I think.
Speaker 1:Did we? When did we have that meeting? That was after we filmed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we filmed wednesday met on friday with nikki. We had the meeting. That was after we filmed. Yeah, we filmed Wednesday. Met on Friday with Nikki. We had the meeting.
Speaker 1:Friday yes, it's really tough when you are building a business to the type of business that we're building, which is twofold.
Speaker 1:There's the Sticky Notes podcast, and then there's also Hex and there's also Honeycomb Studios and we won't go into too much detail about it on it here yet because it's still being built and hasn't been launched yet but one of them the idea kind of needs. It needs to exist in order for the product to grow, and so we were having conversations about, okay, what is the very clearly defined product then, when people are purchasing Honeycomb Studios, and we obviously see so much value in the idea that we had, but we just needed to sort of, we needed to make it crystal clear, and I actually think it's been really good for us to have a third party who's doing it for us, because she's asking all the hard questions Like what's the flow of this, what's the client actually signing up for, what's on the other end for them? You know, things that are obvious, but we have to kind of take the dreams that we have and execute them in a more logical way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, should we say, or one of the things I guess we could say, we'll cut it out if we decide not to? The original plan was for our interviews to be housed here on Sticky Notes. Yeah, housed here on sticky notes, um, but we've realized, and I think, as you pointed out quite nicely, um, I think the people we are hoping to interview are quite, you know, in the plies world. They're they're big figures, they're uh, important people and the friendships and relationships we have with them weren't just formed overnight. You know, they are relationships that we have put time into, time and energy, um, and whilst I'm sure they would love to sit in these sticky notes, uh, hall of fame, I think maybe there is a better, more legitimate place for those interviews to sit.
Speaker 2:So we are looking to shifting those interviews to live on, um, honeycomb. I was like what is everything? Even called on honeycomb studios? Um, yeah, and I think it would tie quite nicely because honeycomb studios is like your go-to place for that classical world and community. So I think it does actually fit better there than in between our episodes here that are documenting the business more than anything in the building of the business. And while we obviously touch on Pilates a lot, because that is what we do and that's what the businesses are. I think this is supposed to be ideally a little bit more business focused, or that's what we've been trying to build out. So we're looking to shift those podcasts over to Honeycomb Studios.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think actually it does kind of align with when we first started talking about Sticky Notes I don't know if it's actually in episode one, but it's somewhere either in our own conversations that we've had about it or maybe even in the podcast. We were kind of thinking, you know, maybe we'll have different series, maybe we'll have one that's talking about the building of the businesses, maybe we'll have one that's talking about or that's interviews, maybe there will be a few different kind of threads that we have going, and I actually think now we've kind of aligned back with that, which is that, to your point, there are people like Max, who's someone who works in our studio, who we're working on organizing as our first interview, which will be very exciting, but he has done a lot and is very highly trained and is a great resource. Excuse the bells in the background.
Speaker 2:It's a great resource. My washing machine is going as well, so I don't know if you can hear it. It's like clattering around in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:It's perfect, just part of it. Max is a great resource and we have built up exactly what you just said. We've built up that relationship over time and learned genuinely learned a lot from him over time and he's contributed a lot to this place that we work and learn from and has taught the teachers who are also teaching us. So for me it makes a lot of sense if we're having this hub which, in part, will be trying to educate about, you know, classical pilates and keep that world alive. To have those things behind a paywall it did make me feel kind of uncomfortable initially, but I think it does make sense and it kind of allows for sticky notes to be a separate thing and also, by the way we've mentioned this before the podcast has ended up being one of the harder things to do the hardest thing.
Speaker 1:Granted, we're having other people that we're paying to build out the website and do the branding, and so maybe those things would be harder if we were doing them. But even so, those pieces haven't been easy either, because it's a lot of decisions to make and it's a lot of conversations to have and just emotional energy and money. But the podcast is something that we are actually doing entirely on our own, and so I think it's totally fine to have a piece of it. Again, we haven't really talked about like if we'll directly connect the two or what that means. Maybe I can just talk about it, we could cut it or we could just keep it on here, the live conversation about it. Maybe there's a world where Sticky Notes has like the first five minutes of each interview or something like that, and then the paid version is behind a paywall. But it's tough decisions to make. You're like do I want people to have to pay for this?
Speaker 2:No, I think in my head, the way I've sort of reframed it is that it's the interviews are behind a paywall. Yes, but the paywall is not only for those interviews, it's for the whole community and website. True, and one element of the website is those interviews and that, like one part of that community space are those interviews and that like one part of that community space are those interviews. So it's almost like an add on to Honeycomb Studios, rather than you are paying this amount per month only to access the videos. I mean, we could always have a tiered subscription for people who don't have any interest in Honeycomb Studios but just want access to those videos, and that could be separate. And at that point, if you're choosing to pay, pay it.
Speaker 2:You know what you're signing up for, um, and it could be seen almost like a patreon or like any, like, yeah, just a paywall of any other kind or like any extra content, um, but it's most more so for the two, like we had been talking about with nikki, it will help build out what you are paying for with Honeycomb Studios to make people maybe feel that they are getting more bang for their buck, but also, I think it does actually sit better on that website more than anywhere else, because it is it only we want to talk so much of. The website is about building out, you know, the legacy of joseph palatis and like the lineage of him, and we want to be speaking with people who are so close to that and really talk about that world and that almost like tree. So I think it sits so perfectly there as opposed to here, and for that to all be one big classical grouping and then this is its own sort of trial and error world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it does. I think this, specifically with the interviews and putting them behind a paywall, is a great example of how it feels so far to be running this business, especially with someone else and with the help of of why am I blanking on their name? Be More Design, nikki and Kate, is you can't just go off and have your own idea and sort of put it into the abyss with no real structure or definition, and we've talked about this from day one. But a really good thing about our dynamic, I think, is that I have kind of come in with these sweeping ideas and you've been very good at breaking down. Okay, what's the next step? What are we paying for this? What's like breaking it down in a very clear way.
Speaker 1:And then one step further is Nikki, who has, you know, there was some questions she was asking us on that Zoom meeting where we both had a moment kind of sitting there thinking, oh, okay, yeah, we do need to talk about this because it's important and you can't just skip over it, especially if you have which we do a very high idea of what we want the standard to be and the quality to be. So it's interesting how the process seems to kind of go have this idea, talk about it, feel like you have a very clear concept. And then you have another conversation or an idea and it gets totally broken down again. And then you have another conversation or an idea and it gets totally broken down again. And then you have to be comfortable letting it sort of sit and then just taking it step by step and conversation by conversation until the right thing comes about.
Speaker 1:And even after that meeting on Friday we had with Nikki Layla touched on this, but then we had a conversation afterwards and then we emailed her and kind of said, oh, here's what we're thinking. And she emailed back saying great, you know, this is a challenge for me. But yes, and I kind of left that, I saw that email and I sort of I have an idea of what I think that means that email and I sort of I have an idea of what I think that means. Who knows what she's actually going to produce for us. And I'm sure there will be more conversation after that where we're tweaking it down the line. But that's kind of a cool part of it, I think, is molding it alongside this vision that you have.
Speaker 2:Yes, I also think sticky notes was created or formed from the idea of what us wanting to show the reality of creating a business businesses in our case and almost those conversations that may for some people be just a regular business meeting, but it's almost like we want to show and project that to the audience and just for us to have a recount of everything. So it makes more sense to me that our episodes would be a little bit more maybe unfiltered, just chatty, our actual sort of brain dump and taking people through what may be like a windy process to get to our end results so windy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Little loops, whereas, hopefully, when we sit down to interview all these people in the Pilates world who we sort of have dreams of talking to, I foresee those interviews being much more polished planned.
Speaker 1:Me too. We'll have layouts questions. Researching the person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would be, and that's because, also, we want people to pay for them. Where we, you know, it's a behind a paywall, and so obviously we not that we don't put effort into sticky notes, but it's a very different type of product to just a regular podcast and, admittedly, today we knew that we would have to record it virtually and I did a bit of research on that last week and a bit last night.
Speaker 1:But we realistically got on a phone call minutes before. We said we would film it and kind of said, okay, how should we record it? And then, as we were doing that, I was in the notes app writing out a roadmap for what we would even discuss on this episode. So it is as you said, it's a bit more chatty, but we hope it reflects the winding road. And you know, actually it's been really interesting with Tristan, my husband, because sometimes I think he wonders okay, you have the business plan and you have X, y and Z, when does it happen? And I'm kind of the same way when does it happen? And we have a coming soon page which will be launched shortly, as soon as the URL windy road that it can be. I don't know if you felt that way as well, but I sort of thought, oh, okay, that's actually pretty soon no, I that what that one does excite me a bit more.
Speaker 2:Um, because I think there's also less that we have to produce from our end for honeycomb studios. I mean, obviously now there's the, the podcasts and some content that we would have to send over, but it doesn't stress me out, whereas I think once we have a date and a countdown for hex, that one will be a bit more okay. It's go time, because then it's like the videos that live in my head actually have to come to paper and actually be filmed and then, edited, and God knows what that editing and editing process is.
Speaker 1:But I think that they will. I think that it will be sooner than we think. Even I think that they're more, and we've sort of touched on this a few times, but I do think the timelines of the two is actually more connected than we think, and that excites me because also, the more, the deeper that we get into this, the more I realized that there's just so many things you have to lay the foundation for, and once it's laid out, you don't. Either the process is just easier or you don't even have to go back and, you know, do that piece again. Even thinking about us making, registering the business, setting, getting mics We've ordered new mics, so that's actually another sort of hurdle that we're… Nice fancy big mics, nice fancy ones a hurdle that we're choosing to take on.
Speaker 1:But you know, there's been a few things that we've sort of done them the first time, and it's been oh my gosh, how does this? Even even editing the first episode, I'm sure, or, for me, making the little clips for the Instagram.
Speaker 2:You've been go go go with them Now that I know how to do it. I saw Rosa. She's like been taking on. I'm like okay, I appreciate it, but it does just.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there will be parts that get harder in different ways, but it turns out that building the thing, laying the foundation, is a challenge. So it's an awesome challenge. I'm learning a ton. I've learned so much. Technical difficulty number two although this will probably be our last it's ended up being split up perfectly. We've learned that it's easier to have chunks, although maybe it'll be different with Riverside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it'll be different, because the chunks was mainly for sending things over, whereas now it should all just be on one.
Speaker 1:But even so, we just had another little storage debacle and now we're back. Let me look at my roadmap again. Oh my gosh, there were two main things I wanted to touch on because I wrote out a roadmap, a podcast roadmap. One thing that has been just really cool, and I said it in the last episode too I just love looking at the BuzzCot app Buzzsprout, buzzsprout. What is Buzzacot?
Speaker 2:I'm looking at it now because I don't know what buzz. A cot small detail. I love the fact that I'm not recording on my phone, so I have access to my phone yes I feel it's an accounting firm in london.
Speaker 1:oh, have I just seen a sign for it or something? That's very confusing. Anyway, buzzsprout, I love so much that you can see the details all the details, all the downloads and it's just cool. It's been really cool to see over the last month how it's actually growing.
Speaker 1:You can tell and you can see where people are listening from, how it's actually growing. You can tell and you can see where people are listening from. And it was also very cool to see that, you know, for episode three, where there wasn't anything really put out on Instagram except that we released the episode. There weren't any little clips or anything. The growth was, you know, like something, but I didn't really think much about it. And then when more stuff was put out, there makes total sense, just so many more people listened to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, which reminds me I need to give you the I wasn't using my mic for the last minute and a half. That's okay, oh yeah, I could hear you quite well on my headphones. Something was still picking up, good good I need to give you the login for the tiktok, or if you send me over the clips and I will just post them onto TikTok, because that is where it's more likely to be sent out.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest, tiktok kind of freaks me out. All right, send me the clips and I'll send you the clips.
Speaker 2:Um, it just freaks me out, Cause I just it's another thing that I don't understand. No, you're good. I actually don't know if I know our password for that, so I think it's easier if you just-. Okay, easier that way.
Speaker 1:There's something else I was going to say. Oh, this was cool is? I had a friend DM me on Instagram and she sent me the sticky notes reel and she said, oh my God, this just popped up on my Explorer oh cute, just on my Reels. And then she followed it and it's interesting, you can see who's following you from. Where are they getting it? Are they getting it from one of our stories? Are they getting it from just seeing it on their Reels, on their Explore page, whatever? And I kind of had this fear before we started the podcast of am I going to become kind of social media obsessed? Because I find it very easy to get into with my own personal Instagram worrying about that type of thing, and I've done a lot of work to not worry about it so much. But I actually find with the sticky notes it feels really different. I'm more just excited by people caring, listening, engaging in it. It's just fun. It doesn't feel stressful, it just feels fun, which was the whole point of the podcast.
Speaker 2:So yes, and I think also doing it with someone has definitely taken off that pressure as well, because I feel like we are a team taking this on rather than, yeah, me just having to deal with it. Um, yeah, so I agree with all of that.
Speaker 1:100 yeah, it's just been cool. Um, yeah, so I want to touch base on that and I wanted to give a shout out to pina, because she was so sweet. She posted, posted on her Instagram story, two little clips. It was just funny and, honestly, that's. I think.
Speaker 1:At the beginning we joked a bit about what if no one listens to it and I kind of meant you know what if no one just out in the world listens to it? I hadn't really even thought about friends or family listening to it, but it makes me really happy. I actually had a phone call with my friend who lives in Denver and she was saying she was asking me about Honeycomb Studios because we hadn't caught up in a while and I was just sort of breaking it down for her and I was talking about you and I was saying, yeah, and Layla, you know, we met this way. She's like I know, and then she was sort of filling in the blanks because she had listened to the episode and that made me really happy. It's kind of cool to have friends listening to it, which I didn't expect I had someone bring up something.
Speaker 2:I met with my uni friends for a few weeks ago and one of them had brought up something that was said like three quarters into the episode. And I was like said like three quarters into the episodes and I was like whoa, how do you know this? Because I haven't talked to you about this, he'd been into it.
Speaker 1:Even pina said we didn't.
Speaker 2:You know, you would have had to listen to more than five minutes I remember what I was talking about before I got cut off the very first time. Yeah, um, because you're rafting, also like what I've been up to this week. I was trying to figure out. I was like god, why do I feel so tired?
Speaker 2:like, why do I feel like my brain is just that's what we're saying, like our brains are like filled, melting out yes, and I was like we're trying to launch one, almost two podcasts if we think of the second one, two businesses whilst I'm also now I've started the pt course yes, how has that been? Give me an update I opened it, did a few things and then I got stressed out because of everything else that was stressing me out and I was like, all right, it's going to be bookmarked for another day.
Speaker 1:That's more than you had done last week. Last week you said that you had signed up.
Speaker 2:No, I'm fully enrolled and I've got access to everything. I figured out what I need to do, all my coursework stuff so I'm trying to do all of that.
Speaker 1:That would be a cool, because I want to document that as well, so I wouldn't have to give the details of your knowledge.
Speaker 2:But I would just like to hear how you're feeling, what you're learning that's what's my brain's been taken up with, but whilst also teaching pilates and, like you know, generating an income and then also, in my own personal life, train for the the half marathon and all the other fitness goals and then also like to try to see friends and have a life and like sleep eight hours a night and you know, rest and recover and eat well so I was just that is why my brain is just going blah well, yeah, and why your body feels tired.
Speaker 1:I was just talking to sarah today about how, when you're starting a business, it feels. I find I'm thinking about it a lot. I know that lots of people have jobs that are very emotionally taxing and really tricky, but we're investing time and money and energy into something that isn't yet returning. In a lot of ways it is. It's super fulfilling and it's really enjoyable and I love a lot of things about it, but financially there's no return on it yet, and so there's.
Speaker 1:I find sometimes it's easy to just try to work on it all the time, think about it all the time, and sometimes there's A just not work you can do, and B you just have to let it. Actually, I had this with the podcast. I was editing the little clips and I had, I think, three or four and I was going in to edit another one and I just thought I don't need that. No, I don't need more than that, and then I just let it go and I let it sit and I moved on. But it's very hard to think okay, I know that this isn't running when I'm not doing it or when you're not doing it, you know, and eventually it will be a thing that's hopefully not running itself but obviously has been built and is sustainable, and right now it's not that, so we have to. It is tiring. It's just. It's always in the background and it is tiring.
Speaker 2:I think we're also both in very busy times of life. I think there are many other times in this last year when it would be easier to start a business? Yes, it would have been easier. Not just one like all, all the businesses.
Speaker 1:All phases of life. Another big thing for me has been I'm moving, which is you anyway, but I will be continuing my work at Pi, and so a lot of my mental energy has been the past week especially put into really trying to nail down what that's going to look like before I'm no longer in the country in the same time zone. So we're bringing on some new people to help out with things, but it takes conversations and it takes onboarding people and it takes going in and making because I do all of the calls for people interested in really anything in the studio, but mostly teacher training and so even just going in and making sure that I'm not just available to be called at what will be 2 am my time or 3 am my time there's just been so many little things I have to make sure are not falling through the cracks and that's very tiring. Also, tell me if you feel this way, because my final question was going to be how are you feeling lately as a teacher, now that you kind of have this? First of all for you you've recently added on another studio and you're teaching a lot, but you're also expanding beyond teaching, so I was curious how you felt about that and my piece to say on it was that I am doing a lot of talking in my life and it is very tiring. Teaching is talking Before teaching. You're talking After teaching. You're talking because you're having those little wrap-up conversations and you're touching base and you're making sure your clients are seen and heard and all the things. And then before this, even I do the teacher training calls.
Speaker 1:On Zoom, now I had one scheduled and as it was wrapping up, I thought to myself, okay, I have 30 minutes to then sort of decompress before we record the podcast. And then I saw that someone had joined the Zoom meeting right at the half hour. I thought what? And I went to the email and saw that someone had scheduled… a call and I had just missed it. So then I did another half hour of talking and then I was standing there like and it's just having these conversations? Every meeting is, and it's a silly thing to complain about, but it's not just talking, it's the way that you talk, it's intention. Teaching takes emotional energy and I just had been doing a lot of that.
Speaker 2:No, I'm curious how you felt. A lot of this I went through initially last year, last summer, when I had just um graduated my or finished my teacher training and I was over the summer and I was at pie and I was basically took every single bit of cover that was coming.
Speaker 2:I remember that you were cover queen. I lived in that studio and you were working crazy hours because it was just I was coming and going. Um, it meant that I wasn't taking care of myself because I wasn't eating well, and I just eat I, if I mean, I look back at photos of me then and I I can see the ones where I look happy and I can just see how exhausted I was. Um, and a lot of people recently have been telling me oh, you look great, you look great. And you know, I've leaned out for sure, and I've put in my fitness has been able to take a priority again. But it's not the outward physical leaning out, I think, it is just that I've been able to take care of myself again and and eat and, you know, actually move with intention for me and give myself the time in my day and that has become a non-negotiable for me is my own practice, my own fitness, because, sort of like, what you're going through it is just you are dealing with so many people, you're talking to so many people that your social battery is draining. I remember having decision fatigue at the end of every day of teaching where I didn't even know what, I didn't even care to what I was eating. I would just scroll under the room and I was like, just give me something. Because, like you're saying, it's not only the decisions you're making with your actual clients, whether it be a class and making sure everyone is moving safely and together and no one's going to fall, whether it's a one-to-one, and you're trying to figure out how you want to cater for that client's physical body and their needs. It is a lot of giving out, giving yourself and like your own energy to people, and so that was a lot already and then adding on, obviously, this business which excites me so much and it has been really satisfying an itch in the back of my brain that I was starting to miss from academics and I was almost thinking should I ever go back and do a master's?
Speaker 2:But this has sort of taken over that um want to go back into the, the, the academic world, and so has the PT course. I've only just started it but I'm I'm feeling like a student again and I think what has been keeping me sane through it has been my workouts. I've transitioned to doing also a little bit more of like endurance focus and a bit more intensity in my workouts, where I have gained that physical ability that I can push a bit more intensely. And I think even last week, after we recorded, I was so I told you I really don't want to go to my workout, but I know I'm going to feel better afterwards. And I did and I almost I just sweated it out, that like funk of like the day not from our recording, just like from life um, being a person, from being a person, and it's a chance for me to get to be a client again, to train at a studio and not have to be the person making the decision. And even on the days where you don't want to show up, I mean I did my first box jump on the higher level. So you know, you know, and I was like I didn't even want to be here and now I'm sort of showing myself that I can do something. All of this ramble to say I found that because we give so much of our time and our energy to clients and to the business, it's been really important for me to make sure that I'm prioritizing myself in, you know, an hour and a half a day, or an hour to an hour and a half a day, and for me it's come through through fitness to have the actual like physical release has helped a lot mentally and it's been a great balance for me. Like that I also.
Speaker 2:I went to, went to I mean I have also pulled my SI joint in the last 24 hours. Like that is not Brutal. Yeah, it's not fun. So I'm sitting with a hot pack and some ibuprofen tablets in me. So fitness is also. It has its downfalls.
Speaker 2:But I mean I went to the competition. I think we mentioned that I was going to. I went on Saturday. I went on Saturday and the team that won the women in that team absolute weapons machines, I would venture to say they were 20 times stronger than their male counterparts. And not that it's a competition, but like also one of the women was like three months or four months postpartum and like was just killing it. I love that and I was just like I looked at them and I was like, wow, I have a girl crush on you, like you are so impressive. But it was also sort of rewired and this is a whole, completely different tangent that I want to touch on at some point. But it rewired how I looked at fitness and for me and what I saw, my journey in the fitness world to be separate from our businesses, just like in what I wanted to train for.
Speaker 1:And so that's almost really ignited it. Maybe we should bookmark that as our next week's topic. Before we start interviewing people, we can talk about how Pilates has fit into our fitness journeys and what those journeys have been, because I think it's super interesting actually. And what those journeys have been because I think it's super interesting actually and most people's most teachers stories of how they got to Pilates which actually isn't the case for me, but a lot of them are around injury. Yeah, I don't know if that's the case for you as well, so it would just be there, but it would be cool yeah it'd be cool to talk about why should right.
Speaker 2:That would be a cool episode and I feel like we both have a lot of like opinions about the fitness industry as well fitness journeys.
Speaker 2:And yes, then I was gonna say oh, another episode we could do, especially if we want to batch a couple where we're together in person. My mom mentioned we should define um, what stuff with pilates, like when we refer to a cadillac, a, a reformer, a tower. Because my mom was like, oh, I can understand, like some of the things, and she was like I can get a grasp, but you guys should explain a bit more.
Speaker 2:And I think, while we do, try to give like one sentence explainers, an episode. All things Pilates would be actually right.
Speaker 1:We should do that. All things Pilates, writing it down, cool, sorry. And then I was going to say, like my last note on sort of how we feel as teachers right now is, I think, something that maybe people don't realize with fitness instructors is obviously there's a lot of jobs where you're, as I said, speaking, communicating, it's one-on-one, or maybe it's you in a group, and that is exhausting and I want to acknowledge all of that. And also, I find the best thing about being a Pilates teacher is that for a lot of people, especially if you live somewhere where it's expensive, as it is in London, absolutely for a lot of people, it's an hour that they are putting aside money and time for them.
Speaker 1:And I have people who are close to me who do Pilates or even just whatever their workout of choice is, and that is their hour, their time. They're getting away from their job, from their kids, whoever whatever, and it is very it's the best thing, because I think I've said this in a previous episode I have times where the actual last thing I want to do is go into the studio and teach and then I always so far leave, even if I feel tired. I feel better because I had that hour with X amount of people and it shows. I mean, some clients come in and they're grumpy and whatever. For most people I feel like they're coming in.
Speaker 2:I think people like to take it out on their fitness instructors, which I get when you've had a bad day. We are sort of like an easy target. But I agree 100%. There are days every Thursdayursday when I go to teach my evening class when I just want to stay on my couch and not leave up until the moment I start the class. I don't want to be there. And then the second. I'm doing my first and it's a mat class so I'm doing quite a bit of it the second, I start my half roll back.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh I love this here, yeah, and I think it's okay to recognize that. It also is exhausting and I actually do more on the admin side than I do teaching. So I don't have those days that are six or eight hours of teaching, but I've had a few days that have been even just four hours. Four or five, that's a lot. Four hours, four or five, that's a lot. And it's a lot to be providing that hour for someone with the energy that you want to meet them with every time and people get different versions of you. There's times where I come and I feel better than on other days, but it is tiring. So lots of acknowledgement to any teachers who are listening and anyone who does a profession where you're having to really show up emotionally is tiring.
Speaker 2:That's why I also appreciate that Pies Privates are 50 minutes, because you have 10 minutes to sort of clean up the equipment, have your wrap-up conversation with your client, sort things out, and then it gives you five to six minutes to decompress and just take a moment before your next client. I've been over at Equinox that's the new studio that I added in and the privates there are 55 minutes. So you've got five minutes before the next person comes in, but within that five minutes you're wiping down the equipment, putting it all back together and having that sort of wrap-up convo, checking in with your client when you're going to see the next.
Speaker 2:So you end up with about 30 seconds before the next client is in, so it's a bit more back-to-back than it's. I've been at pie, um, I also think at pie I know a lot of the regulars, so if I'm like I need to run down, we'll start a few minutes late and finish a few minutes late. It's always all right with them, uh, because you have that longer buffer before the next hour.
Speaker 2:But, um, yes to to echo what you're saying it is, it's very tough and even because I think also with the admin stuff that you do, it means that whenever you have been in the studio, people assume that you are in admin mode or I can approach you mode.
Speaker 1:Always, always. So when I went into the studio a few weeks ago and I had so many other things I had to do and I just had to be there for five minutes because I needed a physical thing in the studio to do an admin piece, and I walked in and just said to, there were a few teachers sitting outside and I just said I'm only here for five minutes and I have to go because I just knew there would be when you have them in and people are so nice about it there's no one who's rude about it, but it is.
Speaker 2:You have to set the boundaries or else you're just gonna be and then even clients who, because they know that anything to do with their memberships or anything with the studio is through you, um, and I think that is where, yeah, there needs to be almost a full-time person in the studio, for people will come up to you.
Speaker 1:I'll be writing an email or doing a task, hands on the laptop or hands on the keyboard, and you'll suddenly hear a little voice and you're sort of catching up halfway through the sentence because you kind of think no way are they talking to me, because if they were they would have said when you have a minute or whatever. But people will just come up to you and start saying a request and then you have to turn and sort of recalibrate and I'm really bad at saying I just need to finish up this one thing. One reason why Holly is a great boss is she'll come in and she'll say it's not the same line every time, but she'll say something along the lines of are you in a zone or are you available? I like that. Sometimes I'm in a zone, so we have a lot that we can. We can keep brainstorming topics because we just came up with some good fun.
Speaker 2:I think it would be cool, even if it was maybe and I know we spent a whole chunk of this episode talking about how sticky notes is supposed to only be about the business or like setting up the businesses I think it would be cool to maybe have a couple more personal episodes, or just like our experiences especially whilst we can be in person um to have that content and whilst I think the next few things with the websites, there are a few things that we can do, but it is now.
Speaker 2:I think there are less decisions to make in the next few weeks, so it does work well that we could sort of batch up some more personal, focused content.
Speaker 1:Let's backlog some for sure when I'm back on the 23rd. Let's, we can put aside some time and just backlog some, even if we record for two hours and then that gets split up into two episodes or something we can yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm more than happy for us to do that. Is there anything else that you wanted to say for this week?
Speaker 2:I don't think. So I'm trying to think of what else I've been up to, but it feels this week has really flown by. I was like I feel like we just recorded a few days ago, but it has been a whole week, so it's been a whole week. It it's nuts. Time is flying by. Just go teal over myself Ooh. Yummy Yay.
Speaker 1:Good soup.
Speaker 2:Anything we didn't touch on that you had in our roadmap.
Speaker 1:Not really. I think we're chugging away. Decisions are being made and I think maybe not next week, but definitely in the next two weeks we'll have a lot more to actually put out into the world that people can listen to.
Speaker 2:I know I'm excited to have something that I can actually show to people that I'm like. This has been what my brain is so concerned about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess the final thing I would what my brain is so consumed with. We're keeping it close to our hearts right now because it does take so much kind of energy to build out. And A I don't want more opinions on it, and B I just think I really want it to be so clear and defined for the people who I really hope will use it. But I just don't want to muddle anything up by putting things out there before it's been, before we have the. You know like we're trying to document the behind the scenes of it without really clearly just saying what it is, because it just I feel like we've all done it.
Speaker 2:If you've been watching and listening, you may be able to start to piece together what is coming, but it's exciting. It's exciting if you're in the classical world.
Speaker 1:Be excited be excited because there's a good, good resource coming soon for you. And, yeah, thank you to everyone for continuing to listen and support and touch base with us when you see us in person, because it's really fun I love it. It's really, really fun. So we'll see how the editing of this version goes and we'll wish me luck I can maybe help too now because I have access to it I think it should be if all the files are on my laptop, that should be fine to just like drag and drop a piece together.
Speaker 2:I think it's been working well. If you're happy to keep clipping, I think that what we've been yeah, does that work for you?
Speaker 1:Do you mind doing the longer bit? And then the only thing I was going to ask is and we can keep this in because it's kind of interesting Do you mind if? Because at first I was sort of waiting until last week. I waited until I got kind of like the full edit and then I made the clips, because I don't know what is necessarily going to make it in there or not, but last week I just used the first I think I had you had successfully airdropped to me the first 20 minutes or something.
Speaker 1:So I just made clips of things that I was pretty sure that wouldn't get cut and I thought, even if something doesn't make it in, it's fine.
Speaker 2:I'm more than happy. You can put whatever you want. Okay, cool, it can be like as far into the episode or as early into the episode. Um, perfect, yes, so this will be cool because you'll you should have this file.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'll just be able to do it. Yeah, awesome, yay, partnership, partnership. Co-founders. I feel like that's it for episode five. How?
Speaker 2:cool.
Speaker 1:I'm really proud of us and I, halfway to double digits, I was thinking that we just gotta keep going cause it's cool, it's really fun.
Speaker 2:Alright, anything else, see you next week thinking that it was it's, we just got to keep going because it's yeah, it's really fun. All right, anything else next week? Oh, see you next week, nothing I think it's up to you about the podcast. Okay, podcast, see you next week. See you next week. Bye guys, bye whoa.