Chat EYT Episode #7: What the Bear gets right about Building a great Pilates Studio

Inspired by the latest season of The Bear, Jessica explores the powerful parallels between exceptional restaurants and exceptional Pilates studios—from apprenticeship and mentorship to leadership, team culture, and creating unforgettable client experiences. She shares why investing in your teachers ultimately creates better outcomes for your clients, how transparency builds stronger teams, and why hospitality is about making people feel truly seen.

Jessica also reflects on a recent leadership retreat at Apple's headquarters, where one message stood above the rest: in an increasingly technology-driven world, human connection is more valuable than ever. It's a philosophy Pilates studios are uniquely positioned to embrace.

She wraps up the episode with a teaching spotlight on Neck Pull, explaining why this challenging intermediate mat exercise is a true test of spinal articulation, core strength, and proper movement mechanics.

Whether you're a studio owner, teacher, or Pilates enthusiast, this episode offers fresh perspective on building stronger businesses, stronger teams, and deeper human connections.

Transcript

0:05

hello. It is Jessica Spillane back in your AirPods for another episode of Chat EYT, the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate the consistency of you all showing up, and I love that you're getting value on the stuff that Is going through my brain, today's episode is gonna be a little bit different than some of the others 'cause it is inspired by The Bear the TV show on FX. I watch it on Hulu, and every single season that I've watched, I'm always just so moved and connected to it with how much I relate to it in terms of how our business works. I'm a big TV person. I also am a big book person. I like reading but really... the way I settle my brain down at night is by watching TV. And you can tell what kind of emotional needs I have based on whatever TV show I am re-watching. I have a handful that I go back to on a regular basis. For example, when I need to tap into American idealism, I re-watch The West Wing. Old show. Some of you may not have ever even heard of it, depending upon your age, but it's been around for a long time. It really uplifts me and makes me feel good about America, about being an American, and about the way things could be. When I need some female strength, when I feel like I need to tap into that well within me of leadership or strength, I watch Madam Secretary with Téa Leoni, and I wanna be her when I grow up, even though I'm her age. So I just feel like that gives me a confidence booster. When I really need to just laugh at the absurdity of life and human beings, I will go to 30 Rock, or I'll go to Schitt's Creek, or I'll go to Modern Family. Those are definitely laugh out loud to my bones, almost wet my pants laughing. And when there's a lot of chaos in my life and I just want simplicity, I will re-watch Downton Abbey 'cause everything is beautiful, everything is slow, everything is just so simple in so many ways. Downton Abbey is my go-to for quiet and peace. And then I have The Bear, and the The Bear really reaches into a side of me that is the business side of me, the community side of me, the leadership, or teamwork or camaraderie and- Since a new season has just dropped I'm back to The Bear, and I've always found so much alignment to what we do in the culinary world. It's funny because even when I describe, when people say a Club Pilates is opening up around the corner. Are you nervous?" One of my teachers actually was the one who came up with this. She goes you can get pasta at the Olive Garden, and you can get pasta at Rao's. Which one do you want?" And I laughed my ass off. I said, "That is exactly it," right? We both serve pasta, but which pasta would you prefer? Would you prefer franchise pasta that you can find anywhere with unlimited breadsticks? And trust me, unlimited breadsticks are awesome, and there's a place for unlimited breadsticks. Or do you wanna have the experience of Rao's and have, the pasta that's made from scratch or recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation? See where I'm going? See where the alignment is with Pilates? We speak a lot of the same language, and we are up against a lot of the same forces. As a teacher, you can be a Michelin star chef, or you can be a short order cook. Both are fabulous and can give you great meals, but there's skills and there's dedication and there's education and there's time and there's wisdom that goes into the Michelin star versus the short order cooking. Michelin star experiences are experiences, right? And a diner, which I'm in New Jersey, and we love a good diner they are different kinds of experiences. They're much more transient. They're not necessarily a consistent go-to. They're like a class pass, right? You go in, you experience it, you leave. It doesn't necessarily linger with you forever, and you're not moved necessarily to go write a Google review for it, whereas the Michelin experience you are. You get ready for it. You plan for it, and you take it all in through all of your senses. To me, it's a really strong metaphor for what we do. And I'll start out by talking about The Bear. I think it was season two. And season two was really so much about the apprenticeship. That's not what they called it. They didn't refer to it as an apprenticeship, but Carmy invested in all of his kitchen staff for them to grow as professionals and grow as people. And each episode, he focused on one of those kitchen staff members and the investment that was made in their skills developing. And with that skill development came a much stiffer back, a much straighter spine a pride in their work, and a self-confidence that expanded. And at the end of each episode, you saw a real arc of each one of these characters and how they grew And that is something that I had the luxury of experiencing as a Pilates teacher coming up in, this world that is built on an apprenticeship, but so many people today don't have access to. And it's either because there aren't enough Michelin star teachers that are around or accessible to be able to give that kind of tutelage, and there's such a volume of teachers that are coming up, and it's very hard to find time, or geographically there's barriers. The Bear Marcus flew to, I think it was Norway or Denmark, and he learned the pastry chef skills from a Michelin star chef in Denmark or Sweden and he spent a month there, and he apprenticed and learned all the techniques and then brought that back to Chicago and to The Bear, and there was such an incredible pride and change in him. But we can't do that. We can't just get on a plane and give up our lives and go for four weeks to another part of the country and do an apprenticeship with some of the people who are left or the people who have 20, 25, 30 years of experience. So the apprenticeship is how we learn, but it's something that is eroding. I've developed something for that, but I'm not gonna dedicate this episode to that. I'm gonna talk about that in another time. We then have the team building, that feeling of being aligned towards a common goal that you feel with this kitchen staff. And I think that's something that's lacking in a lot of studio environments today. And I don't know that it's necessarily anybody's fault. I think there's a couple of reasons why. We have some of the teachers work at a variety of different places, so they're a member of multiple teams, and each one of those teams have different goals and different strengths and different weaknesses and different brands that they're working within the constraints of that brand. And so there's a transience that exists with some teachers, which is expected and understood because sometimes teaching at one studio doesn't necessarily give you full-time work we also then have studio owners, that sometimes don't know how to lead and create that sort of team-building alignment and cohesiveness within the group that makes everybody feel like they are working as one. So I think there's room for improvement as an industry. What can we learn from The Bear? What can we learn from the way that kitchen operates that makes everyone feel like they're on the same team? I was never a sports person. I never really played a team sport, but I was on the newspaper in high school and in college. I was a, a journalism geek, loved flashing my press pass, but there was nothing that made me happier than being in the newsroom I felt like we were all working as a team. I may have been out doing a story, and I had an editor, and they edited my story, and somebody else was doing the photography for my story, and we were laying it out, and we were standing over people's shoulders, and they pushed me to get more information, and there was such a sense of pride that we all had at the end of the week when the issue went out or at the end of the month when the issue went out. How can we, as an industry, create that team feeling? We use the term team, but are we actually working like a team and feeling like the team you have in The Bear? One of the reasons why everybody started to align and work as a team, if you watch the transition from season one to season two, was the investment that Carmy made in each one of their development. They were able to see what kind of people they could be. Perhaps as a studio owner listening to this, what are some ways that you can find the strengths that your teachers have and put them in situations where they can become the team lead in that area, and make them flourish and make them feel that sense of pride and self-worth Another thing that I feel like makes that happen is transparency, and I know this can be uncomfortable, but every single person in that kitchen knew whether they were succeeding or whether they were struggling. And they were aware of the, the finances. Carmy wore it on his face for sure and his sister her face would wear it, and she would be caught crying in the office. But what happened was is they all had a stake in making it successful, and different characters and different episodes were reaching out to different people and thinking outside the box and how can we stretch our protein? Make our profit margins a little bit better? How can we bring in this advisor, and what are some ideas that this guy might have? And it might be opening up the sandwich kitchen for lunch and having it be, a drive-through, and they all brainstormed and came up with ideas that they could test and see if it would work. So if your studio is succeeding, celebrate, and if your studio is struggling, perhaps ask for their input and ask for their help. And maybe don't be so scared that they're just gonna throw up their hands and leave because you are sharing whether you're struggling or not. I could take that advice too. I would definitely say that when I owned my studio and I was going through cash flow issues, I put on a happy face and told everybody everything was okay, and I think they knew everything was not okay. Whatever may have been happening at that particular moment that made certain months really rough, but I felt like it needed to be my and only my problem. And if I had opened up and told them, "I need some ideas, guys. We need to turn this around," rather than having to pivot all alone on my island, they would have felt more a part of the team. Now, looking back, hindsight is 20/20, and I'm much more mature now, and I have a much different perspective now. That's something that if you're earlier in your studio ownership life, that you can learn from my mistake. Now, another area that really aligns with how our clients feel is the way that Richie and the hospitality side, the front of the house, how they invest so much of themselves in making their customers feel seen and giving them an emotional experience. Now, I understand that in a restaurant situation, especially when you're going for a Michelin star, this is for most people, a once in a lifetime event. This is not a place where you're coming every Tuesday at 9:00 AM. So I get that you can't make fake snow every single time somebody's coming. I understand that. But if we take that idea and we roll it out and apply it to what we do, how can you make your clients feel seen and have an emotional experience when they are with you at your studio? We have clients who go out for surgeries. Put it in your phone to call them and find out how they're doing, how they're progressing. Bring something over to their home. There is a loneliness in recovery when someone is recovering from a surgery. People think about the pain, they think about the rehab, but a lot of times people are stuck in their houses. Everybody's life goes on, and they are lonely, and they're used to living very active lives, and they're suddenly removed from that life, and that can be hard. So do that. If someone has a baby, bring them a little gift. Knock on their door. They don't have to answer, but show up, give them a little gift. Don't just send an Amazon. Don't just send a text. Do that little thing that makes them have an emotional experience that connects back to you and your studio make people feel important. They're not just numbers, they're not just people who are walking in the door having their session and leaving. Make your studio that third place, and you do that through the emotional experiences that go beyond just delivering a session. I have lots of ideas on how you can make your clients, feel like they are part of you, and they're more than just what their monthly membership cost is, right? And that's what's important. So I really can't stress enough, sit down and think about these ways, and then bring your teachers into the fold. Teachers, what are the emotional experiences that you want your clients to have when they take your class? Owners, what is the emotional experience that you want your teachers to have and therefore your clients to have? And you all have to be on the same page, so if you're a teacher and you like the loud music, the thumping, throwing in some CrossFit moves in the middle of your mat class if that's your style, is that in alignment with the studio, where the studio might be peaceful, quiet, serene, giving that kind of a vibe and giving that kind of experience? It might not be the right fit, and you guys have to come to terms with that, 'cause then you're not becoming a third place. You're just a place that every hour changes brand, and you can't be a place that just changes the brand every single hour based on whatever flavor the teacher brings to it. You all have to work towards a common goal. And then put out the goals. What are the goals for the studio? What are your goals as a teacher? If your goal is to have a wait list, sit down with your studio owner and say, "How can we make this happen? What are some things that we can do?" That's my personal goal as a teacher. Studio owner, maybe your goal is to get written up in the, community news on Facebook or to get a certain number of recommendations, or to have people feel a certain way. State what your goal is, and sit down with your team and come up with your plans and your ideas on how you're going to reach that goal. I'm going to pause here. I'm gonna stick with the same theme, but I'm gonna pivot away from the bear 'cause, that was the theme for this whole episode. And I'm gonna reinforce everything that I've been talking about, but draw in another experience that I had this week. I'm on my local high school district's board of education, and I've been there for nine years, and I have seniority on the team, and I'm the chair of the Curriculum and Technology Committee. Now, that committee, not only is one of the biggest and most important committees, I'm on it because I've been there for a long time, but I'm also on it because curriculum and technology is something that I work with on a daily basis in my professional life. So what my experiences with all of you help me in that committee role, but that committee role also helps me with what I do with all of you. We had an off-site meeting this week in Manhattan at the Apple headquarters, and it was a really wonderful experience, it was a retreat that was for the administration. And we were really trying to recreate our district's vision, with the input of technology, and how technology is now a ever-present force within education, and what role does it play, and how are we going to integrate it, not let it define us, or let it define us. It was a big brainstorming session, so the whole administration was there, as well as a couple of board members. We broke up into teams, and there was team building, and there was brainstorming, and there was ideation, and it was all wonderful and fabulous. But what was interesting that came away was we as a team decided that the original vision statement that was a working draft was about, using technology and we rewrote it to talk about how we are going to lead through human connection and through an emotional experience. We didn't even put the word technology into the vision, at least on that draft. We want technology to be a tool that helps foster human connection, but it isn't the leader of the vision, we're not looking to be, a tech school. We're looking to be a school where humanity is still at our core, service is at our core, emotional consistency is at our core, and technology is simply a means of helping us achieve those goals. It was a really fascinating conversation, and why I bring it up is because human connection is so much about what The Bear is about and it's creating those emotional experiences, the humanity between all of the people within that kitchen, and the humanity that they show to their customers who come in and the way they treat them. We have that same thing, just like the kitchen, we're a low tech industry, right? Our equipment doesn't use technology. We teach. We're humans. We teach and we teach other humans. We don't often teach through a screen. Sometimes we do, but it is still human to human using the screen simply as a device to help us access that other human. And kitchens are kinda low tech also. There's a lot of parallels there. But the idea that we came up with for our high school is what the emotional outcome of all of our engagement with students, that was going to be the primary driver. So we're trying to almost go back, right? So in 2011, so much of our vision statement was about STEM, and being at the forefront of technology and being at the forefront of this ever-evolving and ever-changing world. And here we are at 2026 where technology is raging and we're looking to actually reposition where technology lives within our hierarchy and lead with emotion and humanity and human connection. Where we are, where we sit as Pilates studios and Pilates studio owners is actually where so much of the world wants to go back to. And we are already here. We have already created these spaces, but now we really have to understand how meaningful it is for people and how much people need it and how much people crave it, and we have to find our ways to bring strength in that for our teachers, for our clients, and for the entire ecosystem of your studio and our industry as a whole I really went on a long tangent there, I hope that you were with me for that ride. I enjoyed thinking about it. I enjoyed dissecting it. I was talking to my husband about it last night while we were watching The Bear. We had to keep pressing pause 'cause I was like, and then," right? And he's "Oh my God, are we gonna get through an episode without you talking?" But I did tell all of you, I'm a gold medalist when it comes to talking. So, that's my episode for today. I am going to reference this episode in future episodes just keep that in mind 'cause I already have my list of content on the things that I wanna cover, and this episode will be a reference points, and I will go back to it because I find it really important and meaningful. I hope that you enjoyed it, and I hope that you've started to think of some ways to increase that connection and that cross-pollination at your studio. Put people's phone numbers in your phone. Schedule alarms to reach out to them and find out how they're feeling, how that grandbaby might be doing. Just start there. That's easy low-hanging fruit and something that you can execute today. So with that I did say that I was gonna end every episode with an exercise and talk about what I love about that exercise and why I love it, and today I'm gonna choose another mat exercise, and I'm gonna go to neck pull. Interesting. Intermediate system. But I really like this one because it is taking so many elements of things that we have now accomplished in the beginner system and on both the reformer and on the mat and bringing them to the next iteration. Neck pull is fantastic for elongating that cervical spine and creating that posterior chain length. So important. If they flex their feet strong enough, they will feel that stretch in their brains when they dive the crown of their head down towards the mat. One thing I see and I consistently have to correct when I speak to people or see teachers, is we make sure those elbows remain wide. Because a closed elbow yields a yanking on the neck, and that's certainly not what we wanna do. We wanna keep those elbows wide so that we're lengthening the neck, not yanking on the neck. Then we exhale, we unfold the spine and bring it up to a straight back. Still with that wide elbow. That wide elbow is the open window that allows the obliques to have access. Then we tilt back just like we do on our short box, right? We're tilting, keeping that wide elbow, allowing our gaze to tilt with us. The chin stays up and the neck stays long. And then when we can't hold it any longer, we find our articulation, and we tuck that tail and roll it down. Now, we all know the hardest part is getting back up with those elbows wide. So some people have to modify, and that's fine. So one arm stays behind the head, the other arm goes up to the sky until they've built up enough muscle memory, enough neurological connection, and enough strength to do that with both hands behind the head. The elbows remaining wide being one of the most important parts, not just because it prevents us from yanking the neck, but it allows the full chamber, the full abdominal chamber to engage and help get us up. And when we close the elbow, we yank on that neck, the chin's gonna tuck down, and we're really going to lose access to the full chamber that we need so much help from. When done properly, neck pull is an extremely challenging but extremely valuable exercise. And something that I think lives a little bit later on in the intermediate system, and what I mean by that is you introduce it a little bit later. You don't introduce it as one of those first exercises that get introduced in the intermediate system. We really need our clients to prove to us that they have the strength and ability through their spine stretch forward, through their roll-ups, through their round back, their flat back on the short box, that they have the articulation, flexibility, breath patterning, access to the abdominal cavity, strength in their pelvic floor, even when their legs are widened. So those types of proof points need to be there before we give them a neck pull. So that's it for today, my friends. I am signing off, and I thank you all for tuning in. I think this was a good episode and I hope that you think so too. Bye. Thank you for listening to Chat EYT, the podcast. And a special thanks to Christy Carrubba at Next Chapter Exchange for producing and editing. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, leave us a rating and a review if you like what you heard. We'll see you next time