Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jodi Melton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jodi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I have been much happier as a business owner than I ever did having a regular job. Prior to joining the fitness industry, I was a graphic designer. That job kept me sitting for most of the day and I decided to stay active by taking aerobics classes. I remember being in class one day and someone came up to me and suggested I become an aerobics teacher so I made the jump and got certified in 1980. Since the 80’s, I have always been in the fitness industry. During my time in this industry, I was learning every new avenue of exercise I could find, whether that was aerobics, FitBall classes, kickboxing, or Pilates. In the 1990’s, I came across Pilates as a way to help me fix a shoulder injury and since then I was hooked. More to the point, I’ve been teaching for someone else’s business since 1980 and I finally made the jump to becoming a business owner in 2020. Making that decision was by far my best decision. As a business owner, I have a lot more work to do than I used to and I have more responsibilities than I ever had, but I am overjoyed to own my own business and to see it continue to be a success. In under four years of business, we’ve gone through three expansions (soon-to-be four) and have continued to grow at a rate that I couldn’t have ever dreamed of. In my (almost) four years of being a business owner, I have never once wished to go back to a regular job. Owning my own business has given me so much, but my favorite part is that I can now share my wealth of knowledge with the next generation of Pilates instructors. While I was instructing at other gyms, I wasn’t able to step back from teaching clients in order to focus on an instructing the next generation because I wouldn’t get paid doing that. But since I own my own business, I’m able to step back from instructing clients and focus on instructing this next generation coming through The PhysicalMind Institute. It’s been very fulfilling to be able to become a Teacher Trainer for The PhysicalMind Institute and share my knowledge with newer instructors without feeling like I’m losing out on income. In a nutshell, the part that makes me happiest, about owning my own business, is that I get to choose where I place my energy and I wouldn’t trade that for a regular job in any lifetime.

Jodi, 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 the Pilates industry in the 90’s because I had injured myself during a yoga class and needed an avenue of exercise to heal that. Since learning about Pilates and becoming certified to teach it, I have been amazed by all of the benefits it has and all of the success stories I have been able to facilitate for my clients. I’ve had clients who came out of osteoporosis, clients who have healed from their back pain, clients who have achieved new heights in their sport of choice; all of these outcomes happened because they did Pilates. Most clients come to us because of specific goals or issues they have and we’re lucky enough to have multiple avenues within Pilates to help them achieve these goals or solve these issues. We offer many different services at our studio. We host group classes multiple days a day, and offer private session, duets, semi-private groups of 3 or 4, and private groups for larger parties of up to 10. We also offer professional training for the certification course through The PhysicalMind Institute, which was the first national Pilates certification ever available. I am most proud of the atmosphere we have created and the staff we have chosen and nurtured as well. Many of our clients say our atmosphere is infectious and uplifting. It is an honor to hear clients consider our studio in such a high regard. Many of our staff has been trained through the PhysicalMind Institute and have gone through their certification at our studio as well. With our staff, it’s really important to me that we always stay evolving and learning. I am constantly looking for highly educated Pilates instructors to bring their workshops to our studio to teach our instructors and I am constantly looking for workshops I can send them to as well. Ensuring the continuous learning of our staff is what keeps us ahead of the game in terms of quality, and our careful selection in who we hire helps up continue to curate the positive, caring environment that is so important to myself and our clients. If there is one thing I hope for new and current clients to recognize about our studio, it is the fact that we care deeply about them – not just on the level of care we need to teach them Pilates properly, but in a more personal way that allows us to understand what is truly best for them to achieve the mind-body connection that we want and create a camaraderie with everyone throughout the studio. We truly care for the people that walk through our doors on a level that I think is hard to achieve in most Pilates studios. Every single instructor in our studio knows the names of every client, whether they come to see them or not, and I think that is huge to making everyone feel welcome in our studio. We also like to keep our class sizes small (6-8 people) so we can make sure everyone is doing the exercises with proper form. We’re often asked to make our class sizes bigger, but we would rather add more classes to our schedule than possibly sacrifice the form of those taking our classes. The quality of instruction we offer is always going to be the aspect we invest the most in.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our quality of instruction is by far what has helped us build our reputation the best. In our area, we’ve succeeded greatly with good word of mouth marketing. We’re lucky enough to have a location that allowed many clients to find us when we originally opened just from driving or walking by, but we kept our clients and gained more because we have top quality instruction and top-of-the-line equipment at our studio. With quality being so high in both of those aspects, our clients spoke highly of us to their friends and co-workers and sent them our way. Since being open, we’ve hosted multiple workshops within our studio for our instructors to get better and have invested heavily in their continued education through workshops and multiple online Pilates subscriptions for them to access whenever they wish to continue their education. We’ve also heavily invested in our equipment. We continue to keep our eye on what is new in our industry and purchase any props or equipment we feel could benefit our clients.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team becomes really easy when you prioritize doing what is best for your employees and showing them appreciation. In our industry, continuing education is very important to being a great instructor. Knowing this, we pay for around 15 different Pilates subscriptions that our instructors can access at anytime to learn from other instructors or gain inspiration for their teachings. We also pay for all the workshops we bring in or send them to. Another thing I like to do is randomly buy them lunch or dinner or buy them clothes that I know they’ll enjoy. I also like to shoutout my instructors whenever I notice them doing something I think is awesome around the studio. With all of these things, I’m able to show my instructor’s my appreciation and make them feel important, which is what they are. Of course, there will always be hiccups whenever you manage a group of people. I want to maintain a high quality of instruction while also offering a large amount of freedom for my instructors to explore movement, but sometimes that freedom can be taken a little too far. For example, when teaching a class of people an exercise that is extremely difficult for balance, I expect certain things to be paid attention to or pointed out. I also expect my instructors to recognize when someone is beyond their limits. So whenever I notice things like that being missed, I pull the instructor aside after class and point out what to look for and how to move forward in the future. Luckily those are only issues I have while managing. Hiring is a great way to get ahead of managing your team as well. It’s easy to hire too quickly when you’re really needing help, but I’ve found it is worth it to wait until we have someone come through with the right personality to fit my managing style and the team we already have at the studio. The last thing I want to do is bring in an instructor that could potentially disrupt the balance we have within our studio so hiring is of the utmost importance to maintaining our high morale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thefirmbodypilates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firmbodypilates/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FirmBodyPilates/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/firm-body-pilates-scottsdale