We were lucky to catch up with Jeidi Pippins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jeidi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I started lifting weights because my fat jeans became my skinny jeans and my 10 year high school reunion was coming up. I felt soft and frumpy and didn’t want to show up that way. Long story short, I hired a personal trainer and I drank the kool aide. I fell in love with the gym and changed the way I ate.
My physique morphed pretty quickly.
Throughout this time I was a high school teacher burning herself out creating and doing all the things. When my second child was born I decided to take a year off.
My husband and I took a trip to KY to visit close friends. While there we visited a super fun studio and my husband said I should open one too.
I said it sounded great but I never thought he was serious.
We got home, and he began looking for rental space. In the meantime, Unbeknown to me during my year of my teaching certification had fallen through the cracks and expired.
I was told I wouldn’t be able to return without taking some classes.
I was horrified and my husband saw it as proof we were meant to open the studio so he moved even faster.
We got the loan to open sweatlocal and literally 24 hours later my husband lost his job.
In a span of a year we’d gone from a two income home to a single income home and now to a zero income home with a new business to pay for.
The first 3 years were brutal. Our standard of living changed very quickly but, honestly, one thing that continued to make it hard was that I was scared to truly stand out and be seen and known in town.
I had to step into a role I didn’t believe I was suited for or could do. I wanted to be “saved”
It took a while for me to “save myself” but I did and honestly, I don’t think I could be friends with the scared woman who opened up sweatlocal almost 13 years ago.
I don’t related to her at all anymore.
Jeidi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well some of that is in the previous questions but I can expand on it and say that my talents as a teacher translate very well as a business owner.
A teacher has objectives and a daily lesson plan to lead her students to succeed in those objectives. You have to know what outcomes you are looking for and work in reverse. You have to break down material in bits and pieces that everyone can in your class/team can understand.
A teacher leads her pack and that requires trust. This is as hard in the classroom with high school teachers as it is with adults who come to you with complicated relationships with their body, food, and fitness.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I “talk to Linda” on social media.
She’s my avatar. My ideal client.
I don’t worry about talking to every woman out there on social.
I have conversations with Linda. What she’s going through. What solutions I have for her.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My studio not only survived but thrived doing Covid. It was the hard lessons I learned starting the studio that I was not going to repeat.
I changed and morphed faster than any gym in town. I was watching how gyms shut down in Europe, what they did to serve their people, and I began slowly implementing those things even before we were made to shut down in March.
My humans were prepped and ready while others were 8 weeks behind.
This also gave me the bandwidth to create 2 online products, one of which remains a huge revenue stream for my business even today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sweathuntsville.com
- Instagram: @sweatlocal
- Facebook: @sweatlocal
- Linkedin: x
- Twitter: x
- Youtube: x
- Yelp: x
- Soundcloud: x
- Other: x
