Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeannine Coulter Lindgren . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Jeannine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
In February of 2015, I took a bus from Vista to Encinitas with a pair of 10 year old spin shoes in a Vons bag. My mom let me borrow an old iPod to make an audition playlist – I did my best with my recollection of music stopping at around 2010. I had 19 days clean from a crippling, five year meth and heroin addiction. I had been a homeless IV drug user for years, in and out of jails and institutions. I showed up at 1465 Encinitas Blvd and auditioned to teach spin and barre. I had once been a renowned spin and barre instructor – I had taught at the Beverly Hills Country Club, Rancho Valencia Resort and several other prestigious fitness centers and studios before my addiction caught up with me and I lost everything.
Miraculously, I got the job. What started as one Saturday morning class grew to sixteen classes a week. Over the ensuing years I stayed clean and sober, met my husband at a twelve step meeting, got married, and at the four year mark, my husband Scuyler and I had the chance to buy the studio – which we did.
Six months later, COVID hit. What could have been the most devastating thing to ever happen to us we managed to turn into one of the biggest stepping stones of our lives. While forced state closures of fitness centers sent us outdoors and online with our classes, we got to work inside. My husband is a brilliant carpenter and in commercial construction by trade. We used the shut downs to renovate the interior of the studio to maximize the available square footage to increase profitability. We upgraded the spin room into an amazing club experience with state of the art sound and disco lighting. We upgraded our now significantly larger strength room with additional equipment to enhance our schedule class offerings.
By the time COVID was coming to an end, we had doubled the valuation of the studio and at exactly the three year mark of owning the studio, we sold it at double the price of purchase and I negotiated the ability to stay on teaching the clientele – who aren’t clients, they’re family.
During the COVID closures, I also had a major personal revelation about my addiction and sobriety. I suddenly felt I could not go one more day without sharing with other addicts how I got clean. What I had been so embarrassed and ashamed of suddenly became my loudest message. I started a recovery podcast, “Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery Podcast,” now at 50,000 downloads, three seasons, sixty episodes and counting. I use my platform to share stories of my darkest days of addiction and interview other addicts in recovery as well. Together we share our experience, strength and hope with those who may be struggling with active addiction and their family members.
I never thought my addiction would be anything other than a humiliating dark corner of my past that no one should ever know about. I felt the impacts of COVID would destroy our family and new dream.
I was wrong.
I have learned that what we fear are our biggest liabilities can become our most powerful assets – not just for ourselves, but in what I believe should be a never ending quest to serve and help others.
I am grateful for those dark days – they gave me a new appreciation for my return to teaching fitness, and the strength to navigate the pandemic when it hit.
When I showed up in Encinitas in February 2015, I had no idea what opening the doors of that little gym would mean. Those two suites in a strip mall off of Encinitas Blvd, and the people I met there, changed not just my life, but as a domino effect also the entire community. Because of the support I had over the years in that community, I was positioned there, at the exact right time, with the skill set, stamina and desire to provide a safe environment for people to maintain their fitness and wellness routines during the largest health crisis of our history.
The studio also provided me the physical space and emotional confidence to launch an addiction recovery podcast while the fentanyl crisis destroys San Diego.
I had no idea that day when I got off the bus what was was to come. I just responded to an ad on Craigslist, worked as hard as I could, with as much professional integrity as a human being could bring to a job and I have been rewarded in more ways than I could have ever imagined.
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 have been in the fitness industry for 16 years. I began with a certification in indoor cycling, and continued adding to my professional resume with certifications in yoga, barre and Pilates. During that time I have also developed several new and original modalities of fitness, Cy-core, Ballet Sculpt, BarreSHRED, CycleBARRE, CycleSHRED and CycleZEN. In 2019 my husband and I bought a floundering fitness studio in Encinitas where I was teaching, rebranded, renovated and upgraded the studio, and sold it three years later for double our purchase price. I still teach at that studio as lead instructor, and I am so proud of the legacy we created and so grateful to continue on as a part of that team. Our studio, Studio Cybrid, is located in Encinitas, CA.
I also created and self produce an addiction recovery podcast, “Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery Podcast.” As a former homeless IV heroin user, approaching eight years clean, it is an indescribable honor to have a platform where I may share with others that there is hope for all addicts – especially as the fentanyl crisis continues destroying our country.
My podcast can be found on Apple, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When COVID hit, the fitness industry was crushed. On a Tuesday we were legally closed by the state of California, by Thursday we had daily classes online and that weekend my husband and I rented a moving truck and personally delivered 34 spin bikes and sets of weights to our members. With zero knowledge or experience in online fitness platforms or methods, I was thrust into new role of online fitness platform producer and instructor, managing a team of five instructors while still obligated financially to the brick and mortar obligations of a commercial lease – with zero abatement from our landlord. It was terrifying and overwhelming every day.
But. It was also magical.
It was magical to watch my team pivot to becoming online instructors consistently creating new classes for our clients at home with little to no equipment. It was magical to celebrate class milestones with our clients over zoom and watch everyone cheer for each other from our living rooms. It was magical when my clients surprised me on my birthday with over forty members with birthday signs on their living room walls when I started our zoom barre class.
We also built an entire outdoor studio and proceeded to have one of our most profitable years on record. I did my best to keep the community aspect strong and that saved us. During the initial three month quarantine we did online social media challenges, and when we were allowed to use our outdoor studio we had mimosa events on weekends and themed classes with prizes for costumes, While the chaos of the pandemic raged around us, at Cybrid we managed to carve out a slice of peace and connection in the midst of chaos.
We are back indoors, but now we have an additional revenue stream with our online platform of over 1,000 classes – which we still add to weekly.
We also took the opportunity while we were outdoors to renovate the interior of the studio and drastically increase the valuation of the business.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
I just recently sold my business and I think the major awareness a business owner needs to have – especially a small business owner – is differentiating between a heart decision and a business decision. My husband and I received an amazing offer on our studio and I was inches from not accepting it because I love it so much. I had to step back and look objectively at the numbers and get honest with myself about my level of burnout and the math of staying in the business and whether or not that was worth it.
I also think the absolute best thing you can do is to build the business as though you will have it for the rest of your life, but manage your stress level as though you’ll sell it in a few months.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.studiocybrid.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jeanninecoulter?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/gUtjAPT3mrb
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chasing-heroine-addiction-recovery-podcast/id1525558435 https://open.spotify.com/show/7EZtThXTaEHUMDeIrDpSU1?si=emdFlqRnR4qLhlX5Zgk93w
Image Credits
Ashley Williams Photography