How Kristin Carnegie Built Monday's Through Real Content, Community, and Organic Growth

In episode 5, we sit down with Kristin Carnegie to talk about the real role content plays in building a business from the ground up.

From growing her personal brand to launching Mondays in Waterloo, Kristin shares how authentic content, community, and consistency helped drive real momentum before and after opening. We get into the difference between organic and paid media, why overly polished brands can miss the mark, and how showing the process often matters more than showing the finished result.

We also break down some of the early numbers behind the launch, including hitting 1 million profile views by week three, adding nearly 1,000 followers in the first five weeks, reaching 27,000 website views, and growing the team to 22 employees, all while relying heavily on organic content and spending just $850 on ads.

This episode is for anyone building a personal brand, growing a business, or trying to create content that actually connects with people.

If you’ve ever felt like social media has to be perfect to work, this conversation will change the way you think about it.

A podcast about what really goes on behind the scenes of building brands, businesses, and personal platforms. 

We talk marketing, content, branding, community, and the uncomfortable middle between idea and execution.
Built for founders, creators, and business owners who want honest conversations, not recycled advice.


Hosted by Matt and Olivia. Audio-only for now. New episodes regularly.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Episode five, we have Kristen on the podcast. I feel like this has been long overdue with all of our guests. I feel like we always have great conversations around content, marketing, what goes into organic paid media. So that's kind of the same approach with this conversation. It's myself, Liv on the podcast, and of course, Kristen. Thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Yeah, of course. I'm excited to be here and have a good little conversation this afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yeah. I I do have some like quick stats that I want to start with. Yes. And then from there we'll just roll into conversation. You hit one million profile views by week three after launching your Pilates studio.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

So from week one to week three, we got a million profile views.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

That's insane. And what were you averaging before then?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Around 400k?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah. Is that just through organic or paid too?

SPEAKER_02 0:55

No. I've only done$850 in paid ads. And those paid ads, I think it said it got us like$20,000 profile views.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay. We'll get more into that later. Yeah. But the account is now at just under 2,000 followers. Yeah. And you said you only spent$850 on ads, but the rest has been organic content.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I feel it goes back to the traditional way of doing content and adds into it in the non-traditional way of doing content. And you're much on the non-traditional way.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Oh always non-traditional.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Because you really lean into being chaotic.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yes. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Well, numbers are just technically chaotic as well. Like those numbers are very uns like un you wouldn't suspect those numbers like the first few weeks in as well. So with those numbers, we're really like I really want to say like they want to be along with the journey, especially while opening. So why we are even able to get like 400,000 views per month from like November, December, January before we open our doors was I was just posting every single thing on every single day and stories, like constantly keeping people up to date. So they felt like they were part of it, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Totally. Liv, do you want to go through the rest?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yeah. So your website has had 27,000 views in the first five weeks. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Amazing. The team that you have has now grown to 22, 22. Yeah. Nice. And in one month alone, you've had 630 unique people come through your doors.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

The first four four weeks around 630 people. I think we're a little higher now, but it's around 630.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

A lot goes into those numbers. A lot of people will read those numbers or see those numbers and think you've just done a lot of content and paid media and just a lot of advertising. But from what we've seen and what we've created together, it's just been iPhone clips, couple like high-quality videos, mainly all organic stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

All organic. A lot of it too, a lot of those numbers I did notice, especially UGC content. And that's not a paid ad, but technically you're giving them free money to come and do something and they tag you on their story. Like my first event before my first event, we had I think it was just under 250 followers. And from that first event alone in three days, I went up to 550 followers. So three days later, I gained 300 followers just due to 50 people coming to an event and sharing that on their stories.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Because you rely a lot on like micro-influencer content, people coming into your studio, your events, and just collaborating with you, creating them content for themselves. Yes. And now there's groups and accounts now where they're more so just like networking, and now they're creating these events for your event, basically.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah. So that brings a lot of people to even when you first launched your first event, their awareness that you got from that. It put you in the back of the phone.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

It was insane, like right away. Like that first event, I were launched it one evening, not expecting much. Evening one, I was expecting to say maybe 20, 30 tickets max. Like that's what I was looking for. Evening one, I sold 20 tickets. So I was like, okay, I have to expand. So I sold out, I couldn't do more than 50 people. That was my max I had to do. But I sold out those 50 people in six days.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

For having no follow for having 200 followers, 250 followers.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah. And I'm looking at these numbers again. And I know the process of opening the studio was super stressful. Everything went wrong. Yeah. Did you expect yourself to hit those numbers or what were you expecting?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Definitely an interesting question. My expectation on numbers was I obviously did tons of research in the area of what studios should be doing, what they shouldn't be doing, but I didn't look at the numbers too closely because they were like scary. They're like these big numbers, and I was just more seeing, okay, what I eventually have to make back wise, because I was doing all this construction. So I wasn't really thinking like what that actually looks like. And I wasn't until I was hosting these events and then that was like, oh, people are actually interested. They're actually showing up, they're actually buying these tickets. Like not until they happen. Because you're just like, you need to get it done. So now the numbers they are a little more shocking, especially having the profile views like on my Google profile and on my like website.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Seeing like the week before opening, like when our first class is launched, we had the 20,000 people on our profile. It was like, oh, okay. Yeah. That's a lot of people viewing me.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I know. Yeah.

unknown 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

And going to the one of my first questions I really wanted to ask was when you think about content today, what role does it actually play in your business and just growing the studio over time?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

I think it basically is like the majority of growing it, right? Like community is such a big aspect and such a big part of it. But nowadays, like people view things like to get them through their day. If I'm getting ready in the morning, I put have a YouTube video on it, somebody doing their day in the life, their morning in their life. Like I want somebody cool in the area who's gonna go to Mondays, their morning their life video, and I can watch on YouTube. That's what the girls love doing. They love investing their time into like other people's lives. It sounds silly, but it is what it is nowadays. Like you see that in Toronto, people are like going to like club like Solace or these cool places, and that's like really it is a big part of the marketing industry nowadays. It's just you want to be like the other girl. That is such a big part of the market nowadays, too.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's pretty relatable with the projects we go on.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

I would watch it like, oh, I now want to make what she just made for breakfast. Like it looks delicious. Yeah. Like it's like that. It's like you follow people's lives. And the studio, not that I'm making like a life, but it's a lifestyle at the end of the day. You are where you go every single day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I can attest. Everything live posts when it comes to food. I am usually taste testing it and is delicious. Jealous. Like it looks so good. It I was gonna say it's pretty relatable to the projects reshoot because when we talk about content and why we're creating content, the reason the why is very there's a lot of miscommunication around that. Yeah and people are a lot of they're confused about the end goal with the content. And like you said, it's more so about building brand awareness, trust, lead generation, getting people through your door. And is there anything else that I'm forgetting?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

No, even lead the thing about lead generation too is like some people focus on that number way too much, is like, how fast can you lose that person? How fast can you gain them? How much money can you gain them for? At the end of the day, is more important about A, their experience, but B, who else they're gonna tell and show and come with them next time. It's not necessarily like the one ad that somebody's gonna watch and make them come in. They have to see that video over and over like new videos, new content. If I just see the same ad and I'm scrolling my phone, I'm gonna almost block the account. I get annoyed. So it's there's that's where it gets a little tricky nowadays with those whole meta and meta ads and stuff like that. Because you want to see the organic content. I want to see, oh, that person, this is actually not a scary place to go walk into.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Staying on top of mind.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah, staying on top of your mind. You're like by the sixth time, it's oh, maybe I should go. Maybe this is something I should go do.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. I do want to talk about the early stages of even before the studio was even a thing you were doing. And take me back to the very beginning when you dropped out of school, you went all in on Pilates. Yep. With not really knowing where you were gonna end up. It's more so just building your personal brand. Which ultimately led to you opening up a local studio in Kitchener in Waterloo. Yeah. I obviously just did that in 30 seconds, but tell me more in depth of what went on behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

So basically what was going on, I was always more personal, or Instagram wasn't that big of a deep that deep of a thing. I was always a person who's gonna post stories, post something like that, like post often. And if people didn't like it, I was like, unfollow me. Like you don't need to follow, don't follow me then. Or like I say, keep following me because you're clearly following me for a reason if you're seeing this stuff. So I was always doing that, and then it was, I guess, or in 2026. It was November, December of 2024. And I was like, okay, I'm taking this, people are getting more serious, they're DMing me. I was just posting my workouts. I was not certified in anything at that point. I was just posting workouts, people were liking it. They're like, Oh, can you teach somewhere? Can you teach at an event? And I was like, Oh, like I'm not even certified to be doing this. I'm just in the gym trying to get fit. Like, I'm just like in university, need to take time to go to the gym, do things like that. But I was filming myself. And so when I started to get some of those comments, I was like, okay, and I was loving Pilates and I was getting really into it. So I was like, let me get certified, let me start that journey. But then that journey took off really quickly because I loved school. There was nothing wrong with school. But I had thankfully an education in high school where they're always telling you to take the next level, take the next step, do something cool. And then I came to Laurier, which is great school, but I was being told I was smart or not by a multiple choice test. And I was like, that was really hard. Because I was getting good grades even on those multiple choice tests. But I'm like, what is a social interaction? I'm sitting here studying these kids all day, and then at night we go to a bar. Like it just it wasn't like this is not like socially enough for me. So that same time in 2024, that fall time, when content kind of started going off, I got invited by brands to go downtown Toronto, do all these things, start UGC content, you could say like that.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

It started going off, and then I decided to say, let's take the leap. And I was not going to classes as much. Brands in Toronto, I'll pay you$200. I was like, I'll take$200 instead of a test. Not.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

And so it's the more and more I started doing it, I then reached out to you, Matt, and I was like, let's take some good photos and some little video content and see if I can have a little bit more of good content so like people are more invested in me, you could say. Yeah. And that was like the first kind of where we got started there.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

I remember our first conversation. It was more so around like why are we doing this? Yeah. Um and I think in your head you always had that idea of wanting to do something bigger in the space.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

I don't know, and I didn't know what it was even then. Like I even when I first met with you, Piloty Studio was five years out of the way. Or like some something in the community was farther out, but I knew I wanted to do something. I just didn't know at the point what even I could do. I was like, I'm just a young 20-year-old. Yeah. I was like, what could I do? And then I basically got led to a space in January of 2025, and I'm just a person where I get a vibe, I catch a feeling, and I said, okay, let's do it. Oh, I signed a lease that didn't go through at that point. That was a whole story. But that's when I decided to take the leap. So it was like end of January of last year. So a little bit over a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

It makes me think to my first conversation with Liv about doing content for her and how the plan to launch her own thing wasn't really it was just a thought at the time. Over time, I think doing the content, it made it seem like it was something that was possible. I don't know if you feel the same way.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, I definitely would say I had the idea in mind that I was like wanting to do something bigger. And I think we did have that conversation when we first talked. Because I was like, I think this could be something bigger and whatever. And that's where the content led me eventually. But it did take a lot of time to get to that point where it finally realized this is so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah, that mic is a little janky right now.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Until I realized that was like the next step.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yeah. Because that's a we've talked about it a lot, how when someone first starts to create content.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

You lose a lot of followers.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

That too. But it's also just getting a better idea of like why you're doing it, going back to your why. I think we've talked about this on previous episodes too. But also just like being overwhelmed with so many experts in the field telling you when to post, what to post, how to post it.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

It's not that serious.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

And it's more so just like you gotta do it and fix it later, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Find your own path to it too. Like some people take it. I get people a lot now, not that I have so many followers, but people who follow what I'm doing and asking advice in my DMs and stuff. I'm like, just do what you think is right in the moment and you'll see what you like to do and what you don't like to do. If you start taking what other people want you to do and other people's advice, you're not gonna have fun in it. And there's what's the point then? If you're not enjoying what you're doing, you're gonna get burnt out and hate it. Oh, yeah. So quickly.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

That's why I never I had people say, Oh, you should do this and do this, do a whole shoot day. And I was like, no, like it's that's not for me. I'm not a planner like that. That's not how I function and how I work, and sticking through like finding what I like to do, just taking it day by day, yeah, led me to actually enjoy this.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I think that makes me think of like our content sessions. There's content where it's off the cusp. It's as things are happening, it's in real time. Whereas there might be some bigger projects where we're planning ahead, let's say it's an event or a new studio or we're launching a new product or service. I think those are the things that you have to think about before you create. Whereas creating content for a studio or a business owner, you have to follow the trends, but you also have to create authentic content just in the moment, too. Yeah. Behind the scenes content, I think I did a video of this a couple days ago, but like behind the scenes of showing people what is actually working and what is being done right now inside the business.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

My next question is almost like a two-parter on your personal brand side and on the Monday side. Looking back, we'll start with the personal brand. Yeah. Looking back to your early days of building it, what type of content really moved the needle for you?

SPEAKER_02 13:47

It's always an interesting one. I feel like the more unique style ones, the more where I was having fun in it being like authentically myself and more organic in them, like I was speaking to the camera. I hated those, and I would I didn't post them off in but vlogs with myself speaking, and I those would get so many more views. And I was like, oh, but they don't seem good. They don't seem like very curated and stuff like that. And but then those ones would do so much well, so much better than my curated ones where I was like, okay, let's film today. I had those days like, okay, I'm gonna film today. Post a video like that and be it would just do horrible. And then I would do the next day, I just mean something chaotic that I enjoyed. Like for me, the videos that did so well in the beginning were just like the inspirational montages I was posting, or like the big quotes. Like those anything to do with a quote or something that came up in my mind, it's relatable to other people so well. Like I did, I remember this one video, the first one I got on Instagram that got over 10,000 views in my personal account was just like me. I made all these clips of me dancing. Because I like to dance in public. It's something I do. And so I put all those clips together and I posted it, it was just like random. It took two minutes, and that video got like over 10,000 views. And I was like, oh, okay. So it's really it was hard in those moments because you're like, I put effort in another video and it got nothing. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Are you looking at that video that kind of did well for you in looking at the analytics and be like, why did this work?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah. It's clickable, it's viewable. It's a trending, it was a trending audio and it was on people's reels tab. It was something where it's you don't have to know the person to like the video. Yeah. Sometimes other things where it's like, here's my day, my life, and who I am. They don't know who you are. Why am I interested yet? You need those clicky videos first, where it's I can just watch this and have fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

A lot of the conversations we have are like creating content with intention. And if you're just posting mindlessly with no real thought behind it, I think sometimes it's fine, but like most of the time it's like, who is it speaking to?

SPEAKER_02 15:29

I remember that day with that video is I was having a really horrible day, honestly. And I was looking back on all these videos of me having a good moment, and I was like, okay, like I was having a probably shitty ass day, but like I put them all together, I was like, okay, let's just post this. Like I was not feeling good about myself. And people are like, oh, like just yeah, just dance through life. And that's what it was to the song, like from I think it's wicked. It was like dancing through life, and I was having so much fun. Then I was like, oh wait, okay, I was smiling. Some of those days I remember even those clips sucked, but you can have good moments in the rough. Like, so you have I followed it. My videos I enjoyed doing too is like when you follow along with what your life is going through. Like your life isn't always shunshine and rainbows and happiness and the internet thinks it's that way, but it's not.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

It's really not.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

So have has your approach with your personal brand changed from the beginning? You talked about setting up your phone one day and just like having those filming days.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Yeah, definitely those don't get to happen anymore. Not as much. No.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Okay, so are you just creating in the moment and just posting right now?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

I think a week at a time, for sure. So I definitely more planner now. Like back then I wouldn't I would just I was also a university student. I had nothing to do.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

So now when I have so much to do, I do plan. Like I plan, try to do two weeks at a time. Okay. And but I just give myself an idea. And if that day it's not happening, it's not gonna happen, especially for my personal brand. Life is so crazy.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

I think that's really what separates like the content redo. You do a lot of UGC iPhone stuff in the moment. And then the stuff we're creating is more so it's it's thought out, it's worth intention, and we're planning ahead of what we're creating.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

For sure. But not to a crazy part where we're almost doing like a batch film day. Like I feel like that's something we've never hit those. I see a lot of companies or businesses who do those like batch filming days where I'm like, I'm seeing them in October where Santa Claus hats. I'm like that trending audio might not even be there four weeks from now. What are you doing? Yeah. And they post it later. I'm like, you're being and I was like, that was two examples.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

It's no longer relevant to the tech.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

It almost to me feels unauthentic.

unknown 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

And like that whole day you wait almost you could have wasted. Yeah. We're pre-knowing what we want to film, but in an aspect of what is our overall brand, who we're reaching for.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah. I remember my first job out of school, I was in the marketing department, and it was around Christmas time, we had someone come dressed up as Santa Claus to read the office a Christmas book. And I was told to film it. With just no real idea of like why we're doing this. I think it was more so just trying to hit on more community content and be more involved, but I think there's way more better things to do than that.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah. Intention.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Make it intentional.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Totally. Live anything.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

That's my like take on it. I think the more you plan, like the more like unauthentic and genuine it is. And I think you lack connection with people when you my mouth is on the code.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Sorry, I'm just looking at these audio levers, making sure they're fine.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

I lost my train of thought. But yeah, I think like planning two weeks in a head is like probably the best you can do, or even just doing it the day of. Like I'm notorious for doing that. Or the night before.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Which is so wild because your stuff is so beautifully carryated. I look at your stuff like I could not do that half the time. Like my life is way too chaotic.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

I feel like you get a lot of comments about how just perfectly laid out your account is and your grid is.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah, but that's my OCD.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

No, but it's not your I guess I could say it just it's just beautiful. It's like it looks really laid out and clean.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Everything meshes to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I like I have a hard time visually looking at like my page when it's like all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

I've gotten worse with that now. I'm now turning into that. Like somebody wants to do UGC something, I'm like, hey, but I can't be on my page because the cover's not right. It doesn't match the group profile. And it drives me crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I always go back and forth with that. I feel like there's a if there's two or four talking head videos of me and it's my face back to back, it's like I gotta remove one of those.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I'm still thinking of the brands that look like because I was more brand focused too, like a year ago. Oh my gosh, it was just brands. Like I remember last February, I gave myself a challenge where it was I at least every single day had to tag three brands in a story or post or something like that. And my goal was to have them share me to your to their story, like five brands a week. That was my whole goal. And like brands that like you didn't think they were gonna.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

So like I've spent all of February doing that. I made, I think, like last when that happened last March, I made like almost like$5,000 off just doing that. Like just from brands sharing money to me and like giving me free stuff and it's so useful for brands.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

I get so much out of it.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

100%.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

I want to go deeper in the personal brand side quickly before we touch on creating content for Mondays. Just like your advice for people who are just starting to create content and build a personal brand, whether that's for doing more UGC work or if they have the idea in the future of building something like another studio or their own business.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Okay. Yeah. Some of my I've had obviously the last few weeks, especially, people coming up to me and asking these questions and things like that. I think the most organic content you can do it in the way to make it, like you can do UGC stuff, great, fantastic, but don't make it feel UGC. So I have some people who they clearly saying, I'm here to go do this and do this here today. Just make it like it's a day in your life. Like make it like it's your lifestyle and it's way better. Like you can't tell half the things. Like I probably know you're gonna probably talk to him soon, but that buddy Ariel, he's all around here in Laurier, and that's why UGC with him worked beautifully, because we just meshed in with his lifestyle, right? So it it already fit in. The way he posts, it's already with his lifestyle. So it's the same thing when I was doing like personal brand, was everything that already fits within my lifestyle, I was going for. So some people are like, okay, you're inviting them out here. If it's not to do with them, it's you have to stay organically with yourself. Like already post it like it's your life. Like it's if you're already working out that day, sure, include the brands there, include those, but don't make it feel like you're putting so much effort 100% right away. Make it feel like it's still meshed with who you are.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

A lot of people, they just it gets too fake right away. Otherwise, I feel like.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

You could tell they're trying to be a UGC creator. Yes. I don't think that it looks great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

I agree. Liv, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

No, I completely agree. There's nothing worse than bad UGC content. It's fake and it's But there's so much of it.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

There is so much of it. And I I've already experienced some of it too. No hate, I still love the content.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I think we all go through it though.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

We all go through it.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Like we're all at a starting point. Somewhere. Yeah. And so if I look back to a year ago or two years ago, it's like, ooh, I'm surprised they posted that. But like at the time I thought that was great.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Especially though back when I really started what the brand started getting me to do was I was just taking the content for them and then sending them the clips. Like I I wasn't posting on my personal account. Because if sorry, if I'm not a boxer, I'm not gonna go post a boxing video. But they wanted me to come, so for sure. And I have make they liked my entertainment, my funniness, my dancing, my it was my videos were entertaining. But then full solely that day on my story I posted the boxing bag. So they so people started to get an idea. And then weeks later I posted my first reel with boxing. Now I already did three different videos for them. But now my clientele or my followers, my viewers, they're already seeing, oh, this is already part of her life. Now that makes sense she's posting that. Otherwise, if I just posted a boxing reel, let me go downtown to Rumble and go.

unknown 22:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

No, it's what are you doing? That's not you.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

It brings me back to when I started running and training from a marathon. I was not a runner, I was not branding myself as someone who ran before. Like I was struggling to get to one kilometer. But I remember I posted me, myself signing up for the Toronto Marathon. And every week I was just more so documenting what I was doing week in and week out. And I had people come up to me like during that summer being like, Oh, I see all your running content. Are you have how long have you been running for? I'm like four weeks.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And so people just assumed me by as the runner, basically.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

It's weird. Yeah. I tell people too, like, this is like a little last comment. Like, you I warn the people right away too. The internet will believe they know you, but remember, they never will. Right. You have to I tell them, I like, remember, those people will never actually know you. They think they do. That's the biggest thing I tell these people, and it's the hardest part still for me to remind myself.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

The internet still never knows you and what you are doing every single day and who you are.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

There is a perception. And I don't know how that video I'm going to post, they are going to perceive me. That's something I'm struggling with nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

I watched a video by Alex Mosey on YouTube who has Have you heard of him?

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Yeah, yeah. Watch his stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Millions and millions subscribers. One of the go-to people for just business. And he was talking about his promoting, his promotion up leading up to his book, and how he was just doing an ungodly amount of content. And how he explained, like, whenever he would go on a walk, at least three people would stop him and say hi to him. And every time he was like, Oh, are you coming to the book launch? They were like, What book launch? And so it's like he thinks he's doing so much content leading up to it, and everyone knows about it, but realistically, like no one knows about the book launch he's promoting.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

They know who he is, but they don't Yeah. It's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

It's going into going into Mondays and the content around building a team and just the studios and the classes and everything. Um, I feel like this is gonna be a big conversation around that, but like what has moved the needle for that business and getting people through the door?

SPEAKER_02 25:03

I will admit it's still to do all with my personal brand. So that's something I also personally struggle with because Mondays is a brand, yes, correct, but I am also Mondays. Because I am a sole proprietor, it's not like I am a 50-year-old man who is now wanting to get into the Pilates world because of the billion-dollar industry. That's the truth and the fact. It's turned to a billion-trillion dollar industry the last few years, and a lot of these new Pilates studios popping up. The owner is nowhere seen in the business. It is just a brand. Fortunately for me, I love it. It's a blessing, but it's also sometimes a curse sometimes that I am the brand. I started myself off as the first ever time posting Mondays as a collab post with my personal page. So that has already set me up as me is Mondays.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

I am the face of the brand.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

I am the face of the brand, which I don't ever hate, but some days that balance of what is Mondays and what is Krista. What's the difference between the two? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

But let's not forget you're only what two months, three months? So how when did you open Mondays?

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Six weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Which is crazy. Yeah, which is a good thing. It'll be six weeks a Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Because I think people would assume by this conversation you've had Mondays open for a couple of years.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Like it's weeks in six weeks. So like of course you're still at the face of the brand. I think eventually you're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Eventually I'll point where I'll get away from it. But I think it's that whole thing because I am the sole proprietor. There's no one else in the bit like I do everything. I am there all the time. People see my face there. So that I think a lot of that what in the beginning and why I was successful was because people already did follow me. That is just from that and a collaborative post. So I just collabed on a ton of posts. Like anything that had to do with me, I was like, okay, I'll put my personal page too, because why not?

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yeah. Do you ever struggle with the difference between your personal brand content and Mondays content?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

I don't try to, no. Like definitely mine, I think more to do with just my life. I don't. But my life is Mondays. Like when I was pre-opening to Mondays, I did a countdown. I did day 20 vlog, day 19 vlog, 19 days till I opened my business. I went all the way down. Missed some days, but I tried. That I only posted my personal page. Like I was not gonna collab on Mondays with that because that was like my crying in the backseat. Like I shared some of it, but that was like the hardship of me being Kristen. And that's not all full business ownership. Like I had to be more light-hearted and happy and smiling on the main page. So there's that too. But there is the whole perception of, and I was posting lots, but I think I was also my whole goal was it wasn't really seen as anything much until I did that first event. That's what changed the game of putting. Put me on the map of people here.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah. I think it's very relatable with what we do. Yeah. And just separating the content for Orly Media, but also separating the content for your personal brand live and club 60. Yeah. What kind of thought goes in goes into your content?

SPEAKER_01 27:44

I think for me now, I don't necessarily want, I don't want to be the face of Club 60. For me, like Club 60 is a different platform and it's a different, like it's Club 60. Like that's what it is. And my personal brand is me. And I've really just as much as I'm the one creating the videos and the content for Club 60, it's still more so about the platform itself rather than me. And then my personal page is you, it's like my life and my work as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Slowly shift started to shift away from like creating more of a lifestyle persona. But now I feel like you're trying to get back to just highlighting kind of those daily moments.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Yeah, I think so. I think I've figured out what does well and what doesn't with my content. And so like I really hone in on what does well, and so that's why a lot of those workout carousels are on my page, is because that's what oh it does so well. Drives people to my page. But yeah, and like for me with Club 60, I want it to look very different than my personal brand. Like it's if you look at the two pages, they're vastly different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

So that's I was also gonna say I was gonna admire that. Like I think you've done so well with that so far. I have so many friends, just due to my old UGC stuff, like North GTA and North Toronto, that they have all started to have their own what would you think like online, like it's their version of what you are doing with Clubs 60. Like it's their version of that. But the thing is they're still going under their personal page. So it is just Pilates by page. It is that per so it was like if you just did that on your main live account, which I think that's it's great. But I think now you're creating a brand. Like you're creating something else. You're right. It's I think it's fun. I think it's you're doing a really great job separating the two, but also still keeping it organic with clubs. It's not too curated. Yeah. Still.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

I love that line. You're creating a brand, not just your personal brand. That's cool. Before we move on to like organic versus paid content, again, I kinda want to get your advice for new businesses and personal brands. And your approach, what would you say to them if they're having a hard time struggling with separating their content?

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Okay, so my advice here, it's hard because yes, their perception is I am 22 years old today. And so a lot of people are just like, I don't know if they agree with me, or but my approach is just make it organic, make it fun. And yes, no, chaotic is not the word, but sorry, like people's lives are chaotic. Everything is real. And if you do all these My favorite thing was I, if you go through any of Monday's Instagram, every single photo is a photo that it is mine. I have not taken one getty image or Pinterest photo or something from Canva. I have not done that. Every single photo is something I have gotten mad to take and I have used myself. And I will go to these accounts and I see them using these getty images or whatever you call that. Stock content. And it drives me crazy.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yeah. I'm one of those people, but sorry. No, that's not too much. No, it's like some people use them, some people don't. And it's like you find what works for your brand, and like Mondays exactly that's very true to who Mondays is, and it's very real. But like sometimes you do have to.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Oh, sometimes you I find the odd stock photo, the old like the odd thing here and there for sure. Even on my personal page. I'm like, if I don't have something matching up my grid, I'll use it there. Oh, yeah. But it was more like if you're promoting like membership packages or like where you're located. Like values can get hard because you want to use your own content.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I think it's comes down to if you're using stock content for your website, that's what it means. Where you have to take a step back and invest into either take photos on your iPhone or have someone take photos. But like you gotta make it authentic and true to who you are and who the brand is.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

And I guess my next biggest struggle of what you're leading into too is since opening a lot more, but even previous to opening, the amount of like marketing companies, management teams that have reached out to me, week one of opening from the day one to like seven days in, I think I had over 35 companies reach out to me.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

And I was like, guys, I'm okay. Like I do have some people who help me on the out on the other side for sure. I have some really great people who give great advice. Yeah. And I have somebody like who does a the little bit of things. Yeah. Now, did I push them off and not listen a lot? I had advice that I was supposed to be paying$250 in ads minimum every single day for three weeks pre-launch. I don't have that spare cash. I didn't have the financials. I was like, I don't have that. I can't do that right now. And it still worked out. And I no, it was grateful too.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Question. If someone doesn't have the cash, but they know they need better content and smarter content, what can they do?

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Ooh. Now I think I had the approach because I had my personal brand first. So I already saw what it looked like for people to run these events, do these things, reach out to brands, and I already had the connections, which I am extremely grateful for. What they should do then is find those connections. Use those connections, find social groups, do things like that and go out and do those social things. If you know you're not opening for like the next month and a half, I don't know what business it is, but whatever business you're opening, if it's a coffee, let's say you want to open a coffee shop, find a local Pilates studio and say, hey, can we do a collab event where I bring my branding and I have meet myself in your studio? And if they already have a following, go on with their following. That's the way to do it. That's what I would do if I was opening something like that. And you don't have the money to be like, Yeah, okay, let's go with ads. Like that's an ad where it's like gorilla marketing, have those coffee cups out. Every single girl on their Pilates studio is gonna post that coffee cup with your branding on it.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

You've gotten into some sticky situations though with doing those collaborations and events. Is there something you have to follow when coming up with it?

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Contracts, people. Contracts are fantastic. And I so I tell this to people now too, that who are getting into UGC. If they have these brands reaching out to them, get them and ask them for a contract. It does not matter if you're not even making money off of it. Ask them for that contract. Because there is that level of they are taking you and your personality. They are taking who you are. This video, some of these videos I filmed was like this one brand. They asked me last summer, it was a pajama brand. They said, Hey, I want this clip of you and your this pajamas we're gonna send you. Uh-cute pajamas, but they're a little risky. Like they're not the most covering pajamas. And there's that level of, okay, I need to sign this here, but I want to make sure I'm you're only gonna post the clips I want you to post. So there's everything you have to do is contracts, contracts, trunc, contracts. It sounds silly. Even if it's one that's not you don't have to go get a lawyer and get these thousand dollar contracts. Like I do have those for my studio because I had to.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

But anyone who comes to UGC at Mondays, I get them to sign a UGC contract.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Because in it's whatever it is. It's okay, you're coming for class, let's do three stories and this. Yeah. We each sign.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Even that's relating to some of the photo shoots we've done.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Um and getting contracts there.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Absolutely. In Canada, there's different rules. So thankfully for photo shoots, we don't have you technically don't have to. In Canada, we don't have a less of a worry. You have to be making a hundred K a year in content to be able to be called a celeb like celebrity status and have an issue there. It can't just always cover your assets.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah. And going back to doing these collaborations with events and these organizations, I think a lot of these businesses are just out for how they can get the win from it. Yeah. And so they try to do anything to basically get the upper hand sometimes. Whereas I think their approach should be how can we approach this collaboratively and make it a win-win for both of us.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

It's exactly that.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Yeah. A lot of businesses still treat content like an afterthought. Why do you think that is, and what are they missing? Kind of touches on what we've already talked about. But I'd love to get your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

There is, and this is what my mother reminds me of. There is generational things there. And some generations they did not have a thing where ads were part of their thing, or content, or media, or UGC. They don't know what those words mean. But they have these younger people controlling their things where it's oh ads are fantastic, meta ads, this, that, which they are, but then they're putting a lot of money into that and it's just not feeling organic to these people. They're using those non-organic content and they're posting it and they're just doing the same thing every single time. And it's not people aren't it's not like I can sit there and watch that YouTube video of that girl. I don't feel relatable to it. So that's I think it's there is generational things there, and owner to owner, everybody has things they do differently. I think it's that you can run your business different ways 100%. But I think the more organically run you can do something, it's how it worked out for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Liv?

SPEAKER_01 36:14

For sure. No, I completely agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Yeah, me too. I want to go into more of the organic versus paid route when it comes to creating content. And like the numbers we've talked about, everything we've talked to about re like in this podcast already. You've clearly had success with all of the organic reach, with your personal brand, with Mondays, all the UGC content, the collaborations, everything. What do you think organic content does better than paid advertising?

SPEAKER_02 36:48

What specific organic content or just in general? I do think it's very interesting, and there is some like sticky situations around it because yes, paid ads do well. There's ROIs, there's this, then there's that. You can calculate it, and there is such great numbers you can see through that. And now it is gonna be harder for me to go into these paid ads because I'm like when I had what the money I made month one was, and I saw that with only 800 and paid ads. Technically that's like a 200% increase of what I should have got. Like it's a the ha the numbers are crazy. But like the one video I posted a few weeks back that Matt and some people came in, not even models, just friends, came and filmed this shoot for us. It was kind of just like a whole layout of walking to Mondays and what that experience looks like.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

I posted that I did a total of$150 an ad for it. I just went over seven days with$150 to saw where it was gonna take it. In the end, the video alone got 44,000 views, but it said to me that only 14,000 of it was from ads.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

So I was looking at the number there and I was like, that's still a that's a lot. That was had nothing to do with the ad. Like it$14,000 out of 44. Yeah. A lot was just organically going. And then I started noticing any one of the really pretty videos that Matt films for me on his really nice cameras, sorry, those videos naturally, no matter what, are 5k plus after posting it. Don't have 2,000 followers yet, but they're 5k plus.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Not even reposts, not stuff like that. They're just naturally getting their gorgeous content, yes. But it's also repurposing that content. So a lot of people ask me, too, is like, how do you repurpose it? I repurpose the content all the time. Even last week for International Women's Day. Yeah. I wanted to post having a sale go on. That video did the same thing. It got 5,000 views because I re-edited some old clips you gave me and compressed them to something people haven't seen before in a new way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Even when we're doing like quarterly content packages and shoots, a lot of the conversation is around how we can repurpose the content for them.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

People just don't know how to repurpose it.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

They don't know how to do that. And that's or they're just putting it on Canva and adding some stuff to it. And I'm like, but that's some like I do that too sometimes, but there's some levels to that you can do with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Like you can get too much. Yeah. And going into the next question, I think when you're trying to decide if it's more organic or more paid, there's a fine line of again, it goes back to the why. Why are you promoting this?

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yeah, what specifically? So that one, like I I promote so people, some people promote all their sales, right? They're gonna promote their sales and they promote, okay, here's a membership, here's this, let's promote that. I haven't taken that at all with my strides yet because for me personally, if I'm promoting that, I'm like, oh, why are they overly promoting this? Why are they doing that for a sale? Why are they doing that for their membership packages? And that can get a little too much if I'm seeing that in ads, you do they pop up in your page a lot when they start to go and the same people a lot. And so I took it more as no, I just want the lifestyle stuff and promoting more. So this is more the videos of our actual brand opening and of the stuff like that. That's little ones like that I was overly adding to the$850 total dollars I've done.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

But yeah, going into our last conversation about planning for March content.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

We one of the topics we covered was like the goal is to create some sort of content for ads in the future. And so it's like, what do those look like? Why? What are we saying? What's the point of it? And so on.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Lifestyle, basically. It's more the lifestyle than anything else, right? Because I notice like no matter what, you need to get the people into the doors first. And sorry, showing them a big price in their face, like 20 credits for$350, that's not gonna get them to come in. That's like a big number, big money. Seeing people smile, have fun, walk into a studio, laugh with their friends, do the that's gonna get you to come in and try your first class. Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Testimonies, testimonials, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Every other brand that I see, it's a promotion of what they're like how much cheaper they are than another studio. How much cheaper they are than this. I don't know what that how that works for other if it works for them great. I don't for me, I didn't overlook like the statistics. I did not know what a Pilates studio should make month one. But I did that to myself and it was it bad in the beginning, yeah, because I was just so stressed overly.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

But now that I didn't, I finished month one first, and then I went and looked into the research, I was overjoyed with pride for myself, and I I was that I decided to go and not take people's opinions so hardly. Like people, they would give me all this advice, and I would have to keep saying, No, I think I'm gonna do it my way. I think I'm gonna try my own way. And now after month one finished, I said, Oh, I'm happy I did my own way. Yeah. It worked out beautifully. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

That's good to hear. At what point does it make sense for a brand to start layering paid ads on top of organic content? And how should those two strategies work together?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Now to do with my personal opinion, once again, I feel like it worked well for me not doing anything to do with any paid ad, and I did not touch anything until it was four days before we were opening our doors. Now, I was just blessed with doing events and other things. So that was my version of a paid ad, was doing those type of thing and then having people add us that way. But some other people, if they aren't doing those events and aren't putting themselves out in those ways, how are people gonna see you and notice you? If there is that debate, if it if you are not those people where you're gonna go do fun events or get other people to come reach out, like it was just day-to-day people. Honestly, more than the G more than UGC, it was people just their friends, like their post-picture, their friends would all, oh my gosh, I want to come with you next time. That's that. So that after my first event, I took the email list from that first event. They were the first ones who got the invite for my second event. And then all their friends wanted to come with them that didn't get to come to the first one. So that's it worked well for me that way because then they had to follow me to wait and see the launch.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

It was a snowball effect of people just bringing their friends because it was a place where everyone was going.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

And now since opening, like opening week and opening that time, I had my like hoodies that I designed and my like little tote bags and little merch and stuff in gorilla marketing. People wearing it out in public. I was getting people sending me pictures saying, Oh, I just saw Mondays on the streets. And I'm getting people literally saying, I'm seeing this.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Like it's a guy wearing the sweater.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Most like I like most girls, most guys wouldn't be wearing that sweater around uptown Waterloo.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Yeah, the guy's the best ever. I'll preach that man through the roof. But but it that's the best part about it. We also have the same view of life sucks, but life is great, type of mantra that we go for. So it worked out well for him, just knowing what I told him my vision and my intention with Mondays, and he's run with it, and he's done such a great job and thankful for him. But that's literally people just see that hoodie and they're like, oh, where's that from? He's I got from this great studio that I go to, and blah, blah, blah. It's the little things, right? The tote bags around people. Like, I see them posting and they're like, like January, like people like people who don't do content and they don't try to have a social brand, they will still do like dumps, like photo dumps. I'm being tagged in these photos dumps of like them having their tote bag and their hoodie, and I'm like, I just love seeing it.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

I had this exact conversation with Dallas on episode two. Yeah. Because he started creating merch, he started creating stickers, and I was driving around one day and I saw a DK softball on the sticker of a back of a truck. I'm like, it's cool to see those things out in public.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Even the one conversation we had on the podcast was him talking about one of his athletes being recognized when they're at a camp in the state somewhere. And so it's it's so cool to create something and it to be worn by other people in different areas and have that recognition back to your brand.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah. I was even just recently last week out in Victoria, BC, and I had somebody out in the fitness community there. Who I was a little crazy, halfway across the country.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

But they knew somebody locally who on social media had my hoodie and was wearing it and asked where I got that, where I they got it from, and saw like a video somewhere. And I was like, okay, that's insane. I'm so happy you see this, a little creepy for a second. Like, how cool is that? Yeah. Like sometimes it's insane, but yeah, people.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Even some of the conversations we have, it's you never know the people following you. And you might run into them in public and them be like, Oh, I love your content. I follow it so many so often. But you never see them because they're not just in they're not in they're just a silent follower.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

We don't engage.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

But they're constantly keeping up to date with what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

I've noticed that since opening. Yeah. I'll be so real. Like for a little bit, like I'll I do tell people sometimes it is that socially unaware and it in public. And people I'm so happy. I do love the conversations. Afterwards, I'm so happy. But there's some days where you're I you walk on public and people are like, oh yeah, I saw your video yesterday. You posted here. How was that? And I was like, I forget that people actually pay attention to what they're watching when I post and see what I'm doing. Yeah. See what I'm saying? Oh, how was your trip? I'm like, I don't know who you are. I don't know who you but yeah, I thought the conversation I do love it afterwards, but people are always watching you.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Yeah, totally. And one more thing before we start to wrap up this episode, but it goes back to the quantity versus the quality.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

How often are you posting versus like how good of the content? What's your view on that? I feel like you're very more on the let's get out as much as possible.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Yeah, to some level. Like it I do watch what I post like reels versus but for me, it's stories, 100%. I think what they said was on Instagram, I was looking at the stats before I came in. It was like 58% of like our 1 million that we views we hit on a profile was all from like stories. Now, yes, some people they get sick of them, you mute the stories of your unfollow. Now, do I get some unfollows because of that? Yes. Personal brand, this personal page, especially, not Mondays as much. Because that's people trying to book in a classes, see the events. But Mondays, what it worked was I we hit our one month open, and that night only a story post. Nothing else. Just a story post. I post a flash sale for two hours. Like, let's do that. Let's say thank you for being open for a month. The amount of people that saw that story and shared it to friends, I forgot that people see stories so often they actually listen to these things. Like it's almost like TikTok scrolling, but through stories.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Like they actually let sometimes if I'm just scrolling on the Reels tab, I don't actually listen.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

I was shocked how much attention grabbing I caught that there.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Sometimes it's like the incentive or it's the one thing that someone is waiting for before they sign up.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

Oh yeah. My number people, like my number people, I don't know what terms, like people I talk to, like do meta and stuff. They were like working on like how much you should. I was like, okay, if I got six people to grab that sale, it would have made sense to have the sale.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

I had 59 people grab the sale. And I was like, holy crap, in two hours. I was sitting behind my computer, like jaw-dropped. It's like selling an event. It says, Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

Totally, which is a huge thing when it comes to creating content. What would make that was a hook line?

SPEAKER_02 46:49

I used a hook line. Like I screamed at the video at first. It got people's attention really quickly.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

And just what would make this worth it for you to invest in, basically, whenever we're pitching new people? Before we wrap up, I already said that, but I want to talk about the team and just like scaling into the future. As the brand grows and the team grows, how do you keep the content feeling authentic and not so overly produced or like more corporate?

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Fantastic question. We were actually just, I just grabbed lunch with my mom and my manager. We actually were just talking about this. We're gonna go and I am gonna offer up my instructors and my front desk staff, they don't have to join, but I'm gonna do a content night, which is scaring me. But my mom said, sorry, it's there's levels of people booking to classes. That's Liv probably knows this at any studio. Like there is some level of there is politics in the mate, like there's politics to it of people booking to classes with their favorite instructor. There's that. There's wait lists, there's sold out, like there is those things there, and we are struggling with that a little bit here and there, as every studio does in the beginning and early time too. So my mom's like, why don't you just host like a little like collaborative night where you all get some dinner and some pizza at the studio and you try to host like a social media night and try to work on everyone's social media together. Not of a you're doing bad on social media, but here's what Monday's social media is gonna look like for the future. Because at the end of the day, you are building a brand and it is a brand and it's gonna continue on. You want to know I want to see the brand of what it's gonna look like when we scale to location two, location three, and when those go to different cities. Yeah. We want people following the same vibe that's gonna be going on.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Aaron Ross Powell Which actually goes right into my next question. What role does your team play in the content process now? I know it's more centralized around you, but does everyone contribute in some way?

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Aaron Powell They're a big part. So I am trying to work on asking certain people, I'm like, hey, if I know I would like a real post and I don't have something, I'm like, hey, this person, can you come film like a reel with me? Because some people aren't that comfortable yet and they're not that much into content. So that's the best way I've done it so far. If I know I grab certain people who I know people are gonna gravitate towards. So introducing people to the internet, like it's I post this one in Tructor Faith. We mean you filmed, she was there that day, and we just filmed her like a little introduction of who she is.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Her classes, I think they went up by an 80% increase of people booking in. Incredible. That's awesome. The next day they were they're filled. Yeah. And I was like, fantastic. Because people got to know her.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

And so there's the different levels of some people just aren't into content, and I will never force them to be. But I am creating a brand and I am creating Mondays, and I that is who I am, and I am the owner and the founder, that where we are revolved around that. Yeah, that is the way the world is going nowadays, is that your instructor, especially being into content makes your life so much easier. Even my front desk staff, though. My front desk staff, she was doing a video of her folding towels and cleaning the studio, 10,000 views. Yes. And I was like, no, we got people DMing. Hey, we saw that. Your studio looks beautiful. I want to come in. So even my front desk, like it's even for my front desk staff is how important that is.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

Totally. That's insane.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Last question. I think this kind of wraps up the entire podcast as a whole. When you think about the next few years with Mondays and your personal brand, how important do you think content will be for your business compared to maybe other forms of marketing?

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Extremely important. So for me personally, I have some people in the industry that I really look up to. There's one girl down in the States in Tennessee, Kenzie. She I think I'm gonna mess up her age. She's around 25. She started around the same age I did. And so she's my biggest inspiration because she's opening up Studio Five in the next two months in four years. That is nuts. And so that is my goal, my intention. But the way she has taken it is personal content with her studios. She is the brand of each one of her studios. That's what it is, as a continued on. She's not going out and making them like franchises and stuff like that yet or anything like that either. But she has gone and she's done this video is where that's where she got she caught me to be her fault, like be her follower, basically, because she was posting these what I screwed up with getting into my studio and opening my studio. The mistakes I made with my small business. Yeah. Like another one, the the tactic of TikTok is a big thing too. Studios forget about that. TikTok is massive. Yeah. My TikTok's almost with 500 followers. TikTok is hard for studios. It's more like daily people's lives that people follow, but it is a big part of that too. So it's even taking the aspect of Strawberry Milk Mob, Georgia. She does a fantastic job. Her series where she goes on forever about the same topic, but they're quick and short and snappy. That's what I want to get into for myself. I had crazy two months of opening.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

My goal is by summer is just posting what it was like to open a business and just quick infographics like people want to read from my perspective.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Yeah. So still doing the things that are working and evolving.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

Yeah, evolving almost my personal brand more at that point is I can think what might take Mondays and Monday's secondary location and third location farther is evolving me as a young business owner in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Yeah. That's amazing. Do you have anything else to add? Liv? I think this was a great conversation. I think a lot of people will be able to pull so much from this. Whether you're a personal brand just getting into creating content for yourself if you're already in the space with a business or you're in the process of opening a business. Even someone who has had a business already, I think a lot of people will pull something from this. Thank you so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 51:59

They can find me on Monday's Instagram, so it's just Monday Studio. We go by anything under the name of Mondays, though, so you can Google anything around Waterloo about that. My personal one, just Kristen Carnegie, made it pretty simple there, but all social media Instagram, TikTok, anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

YouTube even. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Yeah, of course.