We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hensley Ellefritz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hensley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents required my siblings and I to self-advocate very early on. They rewarded grit over talent, allowed us to fall and forced us to experience every repercussion of our actions.
We self-navigated friendships, sports leagues and bad grades with very little intervention on their part. I started working at 14 and commuted everywhere on my mom’s bike from the 1980s.
We were forced to develop a strong sense of self and I am eternally grateful for it. What was initially belief that my social, academic and professional contributions mattered evolved into the confidence to start a company.
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 background and context?
Much of my twenties was spent building and implementing sales systems across fitness franchises.
Reboot was founded on belief that independent business owners deserve the same scaffolding, guidance and tools that a franchisor might provide a franchisee- bottled to fit their brand’s specific mission, concept and audience.
In mid-2020, one out of every three fitness studios was shuttering their doors. I felt personally responsible for sharing the sales, marketing and operational strategies that I knew worked across multiple wellness verticals, markets and demographics. I launched that November with zero intent of starting a company- I truly just wanted to consult for independent business owners.
With roots in boutique fitness, I wanted us to “prove out” our strategy before venturing into other verticals of the wellness industry. Within 12 months, 90% of our small business clients were recouping their investment *within* the 90 days they worked with us.
Backed with this data, we migrated into the cryotherapy, chiropractic and physical therapy spaces earlier this year. Ironically, our clients in these spaces have witnessed even “more* of a financial uptick than our fitness clients!
Today, Reboot is made up of seven powerful females impacting over 100 unique wellness brands across the US and Canada.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our clients’ results. We have spent $0 on marketing and rely heavily on word of mouth so it was important that our results spoke for themselves.
There are plenty of incredible fitness/ wellness consultants who provide guidance or “recipes” for a successful business.
Reboot’s magic is that our “recipes” are based off what we know works, but custom-built to each of our client’s precise business concepts and financial goals.
Versus sharing a generic cocktail recipe our clients, we’re building each of them a custom cocktail kit of pre-measured, craft-made ingredients for them and step-by-step instructions.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Perhaps learned from my own upbringing, I believe in empowering my team to trust their intuition, lead with passion and prioritize transparency, even if it means owning up to a mistake.
Their distinct contributions to our mission, curriculum and growth strategy have allowed Reboot to expand and evolve without diluting the integrity of our offerings.
Contact Info:
- Website: rebootfc.com
- Instagram: @rebootbfc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hensleyellefritz/