We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Bell Moody, PT, DPT a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dr. Bell thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

I was 20 years old with a new job as a fitness instructor at a local studio called Athenafit. At the time I was studying to go to physical therapy school and working two other part-time jobs outside of instructing. After about a year of teaching I found out Athenafit was closing and I was devastated. I did some research, planning, and brainstorming what it would look like to open up my own studio and within two months The Studio Barre and Wellness was born. The first year was riddled with challenges-I used my own savings to open The Studio (around $1500) so each month was terrifying if we were going to be able to pay our bills and keep operating. I approached two of my most loyal clients at the end of the first year to see if they wanted to take The Studio over/buy it from me and to my surprise they wanted to buy in but for me to stay and us co-own The Studio together. After this became final things progressively got better but we still weren’t getting paid for anything we were doing related to the business until ~ year 4. Now we’re celebrating our 8 year anniversary this July and business is far from easy but we’ve been able to make a living from our dream. In 2022 we bought out our 3rd partner so currently we operate with my business partner Jonette Shurden and myself. In 2022 I graduated physical therapy school and now treat patients within The Studio independently with a cash-pay practice.
Reflecting back I’m thankful we didn’t take out a large loan to get started and worked within our means and staying within our budgets.
My #1 piece of advice to young professionals starting out is to “write everything down”. Every conversation you have with clients, your policies, your procedures, what you expect of employees, your goals, literally everything. This keeps you on track and ensures expectations are communicated.

Dr. Bell, 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?

Bell founded The Studio in 2017 with Jonette joining as co-owner in 2018-throughout the years. The Studio’s vision and mission has transformed. Starting as a small fitness studio only offering barre classes has now become a wellness brand that offers: barre, cardio (bounce and HIIT), restorative, zumba, and strength training as well as physical therapy services, nutrition inspiration, and an online prenatal program that was developed by Bell herself while she was pregnant.
Our vision: To transform people’s relationship with exercise for the better so they Move Well to Live Well.
How are we accomplishing this vision?
-We provide valuable, accommodating, affordable fitness and wellness membership options and class schedules
-We use evidence based physical therapy inspired training methods
-We continuously seek feedback from members to improve experiences
-Sustainability and goodwill are at the core of our values as we find ways to reduce our carbon footprint and improve accessibility to health education and free exercise opportunities
-We have a large staff of instructors who provide consistent yet exciting and new class experiences and work hard to support The Studio’s values

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I believe it to be word of mouth. We put so much effort into creating quality classes that are fun and transform people’s relationship with exercise for the better. We continuously seek feedback from current members to improve. I believe because of this friends bring friends and slowly but surely our clientele has grown and continues to grow. We also try and partner with as many other local businesses for community exercise and other events to increase brand awareness and build lasting relationships within our areas.

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

In 2022 I graduated from physical therapy school and had a job at a different clinic lined up that I was going to start while also co-owning and instructing The Studio. I ended up failing my board exam and couldn’t work for ~3 months until I could take my board exam again and hopefully pass. Without an income any longer, I had to get resourceful to try and increase The Studio’s success while also studying for my 2nd attempt at the exam. Jonette and I worked together on new events, new classes, new merchandise, anything and everything to improve The Studio and it was one of our most successful years yet. I ended up passing my exam the second time and instead of going back to my other job I continued on into entrepreneurship by practicing PT on my own under The Studio umbrella. While not easy and not the most financially stable option on the short term-it’s blossomed since then and I now have a thriving practice where I’m able to see patients once a week, teach classes the rest of the week, and stay at home with my daughter part time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thestudiobarreandwellness.com/
• Instagram: @thestudiobarreandwellness
• Facebook: The Studio Barre and Wellness
• Youtube: UCjILyCqQtP3vMVAQWjNC1NQ
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/4hRHNGc7OGEQmRfr2z6gwW?si=9959ae274a1a4944

Image Credits

Grace Cockrell Photographer