We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dianna Cochrane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I have taken a few risks in my life, and I would say that me and my husband have pushed into a little more of a risk filled life perspective intentionally. The particular risk I’ll talk about is when I opened my first Pilates Studio location. I had started thinking about opening a studio for a few years before I actually did. I think the thing that was slowing me down most was a little analysis paralysis (over thinking) and fear of people watching me fail. While I was in this phase I was pressing into a lot of resources that kept pointing me towards a growth mindset, and the perspective that “failure” is really a way to grow. This perspective helped me tremendously to realize that I would never make ANY movement in life if I was stuck in that fear. So I started asking myself hard questions about who’s opinions I cared about and why and then I started to keep my mouth shut around those who’s opinions did not need to weigh in on my business decisions or life decisions. This was a VERY helpful first step.

Another big factor in this was my husbands career path and example, he is a Naval Aviator and I was privileged enough to watch him start from literally zero and make his way through the Naval Aviation program to flying one of the most competitive platforms (Fighter Jets) strictly through hard work and God’s grace. Watching him develop and change so much amidst a huge amount of career risk, life risk and over all pressure inspired me to see what could happen if I let go of my fears and accepted similar career risks and pressure. Now I must say that my choice was easier as he was happy to support us if I flopped tremendously, though in other ways my risk could impact us personally in a new and fairly large way.

I finally had the courage to face these fears, when my husband deployed and I wanted to attempt to push myself as hard as he was being pushed on deployment (of course not possible, yet still quite an effective inspiration). A few months into his 9 month deployment God opened some doors and I was able to start my first Pilates Studio. I worked harder than I have ever worked in my life (and I do take pride in my hard work), and a crazy shift started to happen in me. I started to fall in love with the work, and the creating of something out of nothing. I started to shift my perspective from life being about pursuing an easy or cushioned life to one of having a focus on creating something good, the journey of hard work being the purpose and the destination dropping out of view, one of self sacrifices bringing meaning. In short I started to develop a growth mindset.

This shift is one I currently thank God for daily, and did every day of deployment while I learned how to start and grow my business without the help of my husband being accessible. Starting a business and pushing into risk changed me utterly in a most valuable way.

The things that I attribute most credit to… a very supportive client community, a few ( only one at the start) very talented instructors who took the plunge with me. The example and inspiration that my husband was and is to me, and also his complete support and willingness to let me fail (not try to control me out of fear) and pick me up if I do. Our mutual life motto “don’t make any decisions out of fear” which is based in the most important thing, our faith in God. This was truly my daily conversation with God, “Im going to give this my honest all, leaving it all out on the field, if you want this to succeed it will happen, if you do not then THAT route, even if it is total failure is the best path for me, and who you would have me become”. Giving the risk over to Him is what carried me thus far.

The studio has now grown to multiple locations, and has become the wonderful community and place to move that we dreamed of! We dreamed of creating a studio and community for our clients but also a place where aspiring instructors could become trained. Operating a training facility while maintaining high quality standards has brought on the next level of risk and challenge which we are excited to face so we can continue creating something good!

Dianna, 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?

I got into Pilates after running Cross Country in College where I struggled with injuries. A friend introduced me to Pilates and I loved how my body felt doing the movements and I was able to “re-hab” my injuries through the Pilates methods! Pilates helped me to learn about proper biomechanics and alignment. I quickly realized that this might help me pursue a career in injury prevention and recovery (an even older dream mine). So while I pursued it I was fortunate enough to study under PT’s, and PTA’s so I was exposed to the more therapeutic aspects of Pilates. I then continued my own education to incorporate strength training and a deeper understanding of biomechanics (how the body moves). This education and experience has allowed me to work with all levels of clients from your everyday desk jockey, to Pro Athletes, military and law enforcement, firefighters etc. I specialize in helping people to understand how to realign their bodies and support their joints and spine so that they can not only keep doing what they do, but move more efficiently while they do it. This helps to promote performance as well as simply pain free movement.

I think what sets Burn Pilates and Strength Training apart is our extreme focus on proper movement (biomechanics), we love helping clients learn those one or two things that will radically reduce their pain and improve their movement function. We do this primarily through private sessions.

As for our group classes at Burn, we incorporate these fundamentals of biomechanics but one of our best qualities is our community cultivation. We love our clients and our team and love taking care of each other! I love seeing individuals grow in confidence because of improving their strength or movement efficiency!

At Burn Pilates we are proud of our warm and welcoming community and our personal care for our clients as well as our focus on high quality instruction to provide a great workout while maintaining a focus on injury prevention and recovery.

We are passionate about helping educate everyone on preventive health specifically in regards to movement. Our goal is to make these services available to all!

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

For funding the business start up I relied heavily on my ability to save and not spend money. This is a large part of my life focus. As Benjamin Franklin said “to be is better than to seam” I have turned to this quote many times and finances was one of those times. I was brought up to avoid debt and only by things you could afford. I brought this perspective into my mindset with the business, so while friends would give me a hard time about the $2,000 car I would drive I was putting money away for equipment for this business. I bought used equipment and then managed made due with less than optimal while we got started.

I did ALL of the work except for the classes that were taught by my first instructor. So that meant I was cleaning the studio at night and working about 10-12 hour days mostly of clients and then of course working the business admin in throughout the day. I worked most weekends for the first year and didn’t not take home a profit from the studio classes until year 2. I believe this lean model is part of what allowed us to expand so quickly ask well.

Even now I try not to fall into the trap of thinking I should “look” like a business owner with the car I drive or the brand I wear, I prefer to focus on creating the studio and fitness community that I dream of rather than what people think when they see me. Of course as with everything in life this comes with its own balance.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Jocko Willink’s book Extreme Ownership as well as his pod cast have both been instrumental to my business and leadership philosophy. This very strong mindset of extreme ownership or what can I do to fix it/ could have done to avoid it, was huge. When I would hit speed bumps I would acknowledge that I was the one who needed to work through it and then combine that with the growth mindset that Jocko also talks a lot about, I would quickly realize not to complain about the challenge but rather see each one as an opportunity! I have all of my leaders read this book and recommend it to everyone even those who do not think they are in a leadership position.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brnpilates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brnpilates/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558800910871

Image Credits

Jessica Wagner, Emy Moore, Dakota Lynn, Kara Tiller