We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Kates recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I opened StrongHER, as Mom+me Strong, March 14, 2020. Two days later Covid shut down all fitness facilities. To say that was a devastating event and year is minimizing it but I am thrilled to say I am still here and thriving thanks to an expensive, scary, but rewarding decision! But it was not and is not easy. Both 2020 and 2021 taught me a lot about who I did not want to be, revealed what I did not know about owning a business and leading people. It was humbled and terrifying. I struggled with depression, severe anxiety, panic attacks, lost a lot of money, all of our savings to be exact, and was barely making ends meet. Regardless of the monumental obstacles I faced, I pushed onward through 2021, determined to make the vision I saw pre-covid come to fruition devouring any book, article, anything I could find to give me SOME direction.
March 2022 (what is it with March!?!) my husband quit working for the military as it was creating significant anxiety for him, telling me “I believe in you and your studio. Let me take care of the kids so you can really give it a shot.” Oh hell no. No. I was JUST feeling good again and now I’m going to have the pressure of financially providing? Nope.
When I sat and thought about it though, it made sense. I built a business, two of them really, from scratch WHILE raising my kids. From birth, they both were with me and if I could get it to this point with all I’ve faced and their layer of distraction, what could I build if I was 100% focused?
Ok, I’m all in. But I knew I didn’t know enough to make this thing greater than it was so I searched for a mentor, joining every gym owner facebook group I could find. I scrolled and searched through posts trying to find anything and everything that would fill in the blanks of everything I didn’t even know was missing. Then I found Two Brain Business.
May 2022 I had a phone call with Graham from Two Brain. He was kind, empathetic, patient, and a genuine person. Not salesy. I fired all of my questions at him, hoping to catch him off guard, maybe to work myself out of the possibility of the very real uphill battle I was facing but every question had a solid answer. Solid.
Finally I asked the most important question, the price. Ten. Thousand. Dollars. I had less than $5k in my bank account. My GOAL was to SAVE $10k, not spend it! But something in my gut said to do it and I did it. Thankfully they had a payment plan available. Phew!
A week later, the last week of May, I met my mentor, Taryn, and within 3 months, I made $15k. $15k in addition to the amount I had already been earning. By August I was paying myself what the studio was earning in January. My first goal was to get 22 members, I hit 40 members by August and maintained that throughout the rest of the year but the absolute BEST PART is that we were a facility that was functioning off of predictability with systems, programs, and procedures in place that created an environment where women would get results. Actual. Real. Results.
By my one year anniversary with Two Brain this past June, I won Gym of the Year out of 800 gyms, have a team of 5 coaches and 80 members, expanding into the space next door to us, doubling our floor space by Dec of this year.
All because I made the scary, vulnerable decision to get help.

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?

I was in a verbally abusive relationship in my early 20’s with a guy who told me I was fat. He restricted what I could eat, celebrated my drastic weight loss to 110lbs at 5’6″ tall. When I left that relationship, I found myself falling deeper into the lies that I needed to be thinner, running 10 miles a day, eating two tiny meals, with my body fat dropping below 10%. At the time I was working in a gym and the trainers told me if I wanted to have kids one day, I’d need to stop. This took me down my first fitness rabbit hole and prompted me to become a certified personal trainer. I wanted to help women find that balance between self love and health. Same goal I have today!
Over the years I found myself competing in fitness competitions and then struggled with infertility (predicted eh?). Finally after two years and a loss, we birthed our first child, Piper. She was everything but I struggled with postpartum depression, had to quit my job, and lost myself which caused me to seek friendships in other mothers while fighting for my body to return to it’s pre-baby condition.
Going to the gym was discouraging. I felt weak, fat, flabby, and unsure of myself. I finally understood that uphill battle women face with weight loss as I then discovered I had Hashimotos, an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. At the same time, I learned about Diastasis Recti and pelvic floor dysfunction. This led me to create my first business, Heal & Seal which heals DR and many symptoms associated with pelvic floor dysfunction, which is still a very active business today.
I also learned very quickly that women have a nasty habit of putting each other down. I began to dream of a place that put my passion for Heal & Seal, fitness, and empowering women together.
StrongHER is a place born out of all the difficulties I faced as a woman, a mother, and many women face every single day. We are inclusive, empowering, and serve women in capacities no other facilities can! We understand the physical trauma birth causes to a woman’s body and fix it. We understand hormones, autoimmune disease, eating disorders, and work with our women to repair these things without calorie counting or exacerbating eating disorders. We have a facility full of women who actively seek out opportunities to support every single women in studio when they are there. It’s absolutely unreal!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I really had to unlearn that asking for help is weakness. Yes, it is incredibly vulnerable to pursue help not just because you are admitting you can’t do something on your own but because it REQUIRES you to face every single part of yourself that has kept you from succeeding before. I used to hate it but now I actively seek those spaces because the growth I’ve experienced physically, mentally, and emotionally is exponentially greater than my financial investment.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

People will always share when they eat a delicious meal or have great customer service at a hotel but they will share MORE when things SUCK! Rage and anger are powerful emotions. What I’ve discovered is even more powerful is value.

Women will only leave my studio if they don’t get results (duh) or they don’t feel valued (aside from moving or losing a job). This is the foundation that every action and reaction is built upon. We have entire SOPs dedicated to ensuring multiple touch points to our members throughout their time here in a variety of ways.

So many business focus on acquisition more than retention but it’s cheaper to keep the people you have rather than gather more. Plus, you’re living up to your word right? To provide them with x y and z. If it isn’t the best x y and z then why even produce?    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.strongherllc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strongher_llc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strongherllc