Ep 139 - Barbara Chancey: Cookie cutters are for baking, not branding.

How to double down on long-term success through boutique fitness.

In this episode, Barbara Chancey teaches us how there's more to fitness than repeating what's worked in the past. Discover the secrets of how to create an exciting and captivating fitness atmosphere, designed through the eyes of the instructor.

Since founding Barbara Chancey Design Group, she has innovated with passionate design and operational excellence in more then 200 successful studios across six continents. This is how the fitness industry gets stronger after a pandemic.

For more information on the Escape Your Limits podcast visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast

Video Version – https://youtu.be/8O8qfSQtTJg

Founder of her eponymous design group, Barbara Chancey has been creating extraordinary fitness spaces for over a decade, bringing philosophy, branding and vision to life. With hundreds of clients in highly competitive markets, she's worked all around the world, helping boutiques, start-ups and redesign projects for commercial or residential opportunities.

With her expertise in concept development and the design work itself, but also operational needs such as instructor training, equipment and amenities, there are few people better suited to explaining how we can recover stronger from a pandemic through full-scale understanding of the boutique business.

Based in Dallas, Texas, the Barbara Chancey Design Group creates some of the world's most beautiful and successful boutique fitness studios.

Through concept to completion work on business plans, pitch decks, floor plans, instructor training, operations, and design excellence, CDG specialises in gyms and boutiques, as well as expanding into luxury residential and exploring boutique hotels for fitness opportunities.

For more information visit the Barbara Chancey Design Group website or email info@barbarachanceydesign.com

 

Episode highlights -

• How a revolution in boutique spin studios was started from Barbara doubling down on her own ability and taking advantage of opportunity.
• What aspects of design had to be changed in order to motivate members and give them something they didn't realise they needed, long before the boom of brands such as SoulCycle came onto the scene.
• Why keeping the instructor happy keeps members happy, and what operators need to provide in order to improve classes and keep them selling out.
• How a studio is only as good as its worst instructor's worst playlist. Bring the creativity, bring the variety and you'll get the right attention.
• What themes instructors can run throughout their classes, and how they can make each session relevant and timely for engaging workouts.
• How lighting effects, magic and creativity mean that instructors can't wait to get up and teach, while members and clients can't wait to come back. Every single detail matters.
• What the key differences are between an inspirational studio, a competitive studio, a rebellious studio or any other niche approach to member attraction.
• How a gym, and particularly a boutique studio is taking its place as a community, a religion, and a passion that it needs to live up to every single time for members.
• Where the inspiration for incredible showmanship and lighting comes from, and how working with partners in other industries such as musicians on a world tour can massively impact the excitement.
• What pitfalls of service offerings you can avoid, and how you can protect your facility against as many pandemic risks as possible.
• Why it's important to train instructors for the day that it's not going to work, and how every good instructor can overcome any problem without any blame.
• How to price your business offering if it's a service by how much passion your client has and how easy it is to work with them, rather than entirely on how much money you get through affiliations and back-room deals.
• Why being remembered for your kindness can be so much more valuable for your business over the long term.

 

Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Barbara Chancey…