We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katy Marshall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katy below.

Katy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

My business started in a very small and unconventional way, given the circumstances of coming out of Covid restrictions, but I did start my business with 2 other instructors from day one. I was extremely fortunate to have met one of my first employees when I was living out in California working for a corporate and larger-scale Cycling Company. He was someone I got to know over my time there and when I had expressed my desire to move back to the North East to open up my own studio, he wanted to be a part of it and decided to uproot his life to join me on the journey. He moved accross the country a few months later when we were ready to launch our virtual classes. My second instructor was someone I hadn’t met before but it was recommended to me that I should reach out to her as she was living in the area and just left her instructor position at a different local studio. She was someone who was looking for a new place to teach and was able to start with us from day one and we developed a friendship from the start. Everything about my recruiting process in the beginning was organic and straight-up lucky and I can’t attribute my growth to a legit system or hiring process. I was passionate about bringing others on to my team early on because I felt much more confident in lifting up the brand when it wasn’t just about me. Also, having other instructors allowed for my schedule to be more robust than if it was only me teaching. I’m not sure I can say that I would do anything differently because at the time, I had no resources to do so. I didn’t start my business with capital or any financial support so I had to take each challenge one step at a time and I relied heavily on the community I had from growing up in the area and leveraged that. If I was starting today and had the knowledge I have now, I would do everything differently, but I also feel that the way I started my studio is the foundation of the brand and we provide a very welcoming, supportive, and caring community for people to explore and grow through fitness.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Katy Marshall and I grew up in Southern Maine. Growing up, I was an athlete, and team sports were where I seemed to thrive. I found myself the happiest and most confident when on the soccer field and helping my teammates succeed through my leadership on and off the field. Once college was over, I no longer had the community I grew to love and found myself searching for belonging. I decided to move away from Maine for a couple of years until a few circumstances landed me back in Maine living with my parents around the age of 23. I was searching for a community but also a health-minded space that could help me find myself and connect to my health again, so I decided to apply to a local fitness studio in Portsmouth, NH for a front-desk position. Never having done group fitness in the past, the idea of a “boutique” studio was new to me and also to this area, but this place had all of the best amenities, a beautiful facility, and high-level fitness instructors. It took me a little bit of time to have the courage to enter the cycle room for my first class, but once I did, I was completely hooked. The indoor cycling experience was completely different than any “spin” class I’d ever taken and this was all based on the rhythm and driven by the beat of the music. There were levels of choreography mixed in all while being in this loud and dark, candle-lit room. It was something I’d never experienced before but completely spoke to my love for music, my athleticism, and my desire to move with others. I finally found a space where I could feel empowered again and it was everything my soul needed. The more classes I took, the more obsessed I found myself and I was telling anyone and everyone I could about this place. When the opportunity of cycle training came up, I was convinced to try it, even though I never wanted to nor did I think I was capable of instructing… I decided to take a risk and give it a shot. I can’t say my life was ever the same after I switched from being a rider to an instructor and I was completely surprised by how confident I felt on the podium. I remember saying to my parents one day “I know this sounds crazy, but I think I’m meant to do this.” Since I started teaching I’ve never looked back and it has helped me through my darkest of times but also shed light on parts of myself I never knew existed. The studio I was teaching at was a struggle for me simply because the leadership there was poor and the work environment became very unhealthy for me. I found myself living 2 different lives, one inside the cycle room as happy as I could be fulfilling my purpose, and then my life outside of it where I felt very depressed and unhappy. It was hard to reconcile as I wanted to continue making an impact on others in my community and teaching cycle because a pillar of my identity at that time; but I reached a point after a couple of years where I could no longer endorse the values of that studio and I had to leave. I decided to walk away but it was now my mission to find a new home as an instructor, but there were no other options in the area at that time. I decided to move to Nashville, TN to hopefully work at a local studio down there and once I moved, I got a waitressing job as I always had on the side, and was trying to get in with a studio; however, it wasn’t happening fast enough for me… At that time, I decided to look online at the Soulcycle website and saw that they were hosting auditions in 2 short weeks from that moment in Atlanta, GA. When I realized this was a possibility for me, I got all my ducks in a row so I could submit my application to audition as quickly as possible. Luckily for me, they accepted me to the audition. I thought the audition went well but wasn’t sure if I had what it took to be accepted into the training program as it’s a very competitive studio to teach for. After a few weeks pass by, I finally got the call that I was accepted into the Soulcycle training program and I would need to move to NYC for a summer to train. Having the opportunity of joining the Soulcycle training changed the trajectory of my career as I had been self-taught up to that point and Soulcycle gave me a solid foundation as to how I can provide an experience that stands out above the rest. Once training was completed, I was asked to move to Northern California to teach for them and I was so excited. I was looking forward to all that was in store for me and finally being an instructor full-time was a dream for me. I was only teaching in California for 6 months before Covid hit and at that time I was furloughed, so I had no job. I was ripped from the hamster wheel and was left feeling disconnected to any sense of community I had built since moving there. It was an interesting time for me but it did bring clarity I needed at that time in my life. I realized that what I was doing in California, as “cool” as it sounded, was not what was meant for me and I truly wanted to be surrounded by those I loved the most. All of those people are back on the East Coast now, and at this same time, my dad was diagnosed with Leukemia and going through treatments in Boston. So while I was out of a job, I was realized that I was working so hard for people that I hardly knew, and the volume of people made it feel more like a transaction rather than having a deep impact. This job is an emotional experience and helps people heal through challenging times, but as an instructor, I have to be super vulnerable and open to make the most impact on my riders. My realization of wanting to move back to the east coast was driven by my desire to now open my own studio (because I could never go back to the place I worked before) and build a community that I’ve always wanted in a fitness space. Having experienced poor leadership and a lack of connection in past studios, my goal and my purpose was to create a space that was non-judgmental and stood for movement for all, accepting anyone who was brave enough to show up for themselves as they are. I wanted to build a brand and a studio that felt like home for everyone and to make a safe space for people to feel okay starting something new. I don’t want anyone who enters our studio to feel as though they have to “fit-in” and that they aren’t good enough to be here because it’s not about that. The community we’ve built at Studio One has grown into something that people rely on every day and has become the starting point for many to begin their fitness journey. It is the best feeling in the world for me and my team when we see someone who never thought they could do this become completely obsessed with their growth and new-found love for movement. We are proud to be a place that takes people of all fitness levels in and welcomes them to a space where they can feel uplifted and empowered and not defeated and shamed when they leave. I have taken as much from my personal experience and my personal needs as a human and have translated that into the community of Studio One where I have an INCREDIBLE team of instructors and staff who stand by the same values. They have helped me spread the positive light that this studio is to the seacoast and we are so excited for all the evolution and impact we have in store.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe that Studio One has a reputation of providing a community, a home, and a supportive and uplifting place for all people. We have grown this reputation by placing emphasis on the client experience from the moment they walk in the door. I have always wanted to make people feel comfortable as quickly as possible because of the intimidation factor that is associated with fitness. I have trained my team to treat all clients with kindness and welcome them in with open arms as soon as they enter the space. In addition to our front desk and management team, our team of instructors have also been trained to provide an experience that is welcoming to all first-time clients. We are intentional with this and make sure that every new person who enters our space has been spoken to and taken care of properly. Our business has grown on the power of word of mouth and I feel that our reputation continues to spread that way. We have been as authentic as possible with our clients and have continued to host community events and free classes to make it more accessible in addition to hosting fundraiser rides that help serve members of our community and make a difference locally. Fitness studios are typically a place of competition and shame and can be scary for most people to walk into; so I have made it crucial that in order to be a member of my team one must be willing to help break down the barriers and be kind to everyone.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There are many chapters within the story of Studio One that represent resilience, and the origin story is a good place to start. When I realized I didn’t have access to funding resources I had to choose how I was going to launch Studio One and what I had to do at the tail end of Covid was take over a room above my parent’s garage that I called “the barn”. It was an old music room that I decided to turn into my first studio space so I could offer in-person classes (4 people) along with live-streamed virtual classes. This was how Studio One started in January of 2021 and at the time of the launch, I had 2 other jobs, one of which was a health coaching job 9-5 Monday- Friday and I would bartend on nights and weekends. We would host classes out of my parent’s house for a total of 10 months while I had two other jobs and it wasn’t until October of that year I found a space to open a full-scale studio. I didn’t make any money during those first 10 months and in fact, I went further into debt… But I continued to keep my 3 jobs when I opened the real studio and I was grateful to be able to walk away from my day job 6 months into our official opening. I had kept my bartending job for the first 3 years of my business in order to make ends meet, but I have since been able to walk away from that as well and am now able to pay myself a liveable wage alongside a team of 17 staff- 4 of which are full-time employees. It has been an incredibly challenging but extremely rewarding journey to this point.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.studioonecycling.com
• Instagram: @studioonecycle @itskatymarsh
• Other: Email: katy@studioonecycling.com

Image Credits

Larry Rose Photography