We were lucky to catch up with Karen Schroll recently and have shared our conversation below.
Karen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
To be successful as a small business owner, I think it is vital to have a sense of community within your business from your team to your customers. I have personally worked hard to let my customers know that I care not only about providing top-notch Jazzercise Fitness classes that are effective & fun & also safe, but that I care about their wellbeing as well. I regularly talk to them before & after classes to see what’s going on & if I can help with issues they may be having. This has been such a huge benefit to my business because the relationships you build & the sense of community, keeps people wanting to come to class! Furthermore, I have worked hard to add quality instructors to my team & I do fun team-building gatherings as well as check in with them regularly to let them know where we are at as a business & what goals I have & keeping them connected to the business side of things as well! We also do gatherings with customers from coffee after class to beach outings! Overall, when we care about the wellbeing of others & show we value & appreciate them, magic happens in your business!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Karen Schroll & I live in Sarasota Fl, but originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago IL. I grew up & hated exercise & loved Chicago pizza & that wasn’t a great combo haha! In 2002, I had gained a lot of weight & went to a weight watchers meeting & weighed in at 212lbs! I lost weight on their program, but knew I needed more & a friend took me to a local Jazzercise class that had opened up by us where I instantly fell in love! The hour flew by with current music & fun routines from cardio dance to strength training & stretching! I was instantly hooked & it helped me on my weight-loss journey with my 3 pregnancies as well & over the years & it helped me tone my muscles to support my metabolism & stay at a healthy weight once I got to my goal! After my 3rd child went to kindergarten, I decided to take the plunge & become a certified Jazzercise Instructor & on June 22 of 2012 I became a certified Jazzercise Instructor & never looked back!
We moved to Sarasota FL in 2019, & in fall of 2020, I finally decided to take the plunge into ownership & took over for another instructor that needed to move on. However, that was also in Covid & so when I became owner, I had 9 customers! I worked hard doing outdoor classes, offering live-streamed classes, as well as in-person; I added classes & recruited instructors to continue to grow my business & my team! In fall of 2022 I opened up a second location in Sarasota as well! I work many long hours behind the scenes on social media, attending virtual corporate meetings & cultivating classes & events, as well as planning instructor gatherings, but hard work has paid off! As of today I have 75 customers on our monthly membership! I try very hard to create a special sense of community, to get to know each of my customers & be there for them when they need me. My family has been a huge support in this all & when I have events they come to support & help & it furthers that sense of community! I feel very fortunate to be here, leading an amazing team of instructors, getting to mentor new instructors & getting to connect with so many people in classes & show how fitness can be FUN & also to share my past so they know we all have our own journey & we all struggle, but we can get through it (cue our class motto-“I CAN & I WILL”)!
What makes Jazzercise special as a fitness program you may ask? Well, first of all, we get choreographed routines directly from corporate that are also approved by an exercise physiologist before being delivered to instructors. Each routine shows instructors modifications & tips to keep our customers safe & feeling confident whether they are doing high impact or low impact or if they have any injuries, as well as to prevent injuries. Many still think of Jazzercise as that 80’s leotard & legwarmers mentality, but come try a class & YOU WILL SEE WE HAVE EVOLVED! Jazzercise Inc looks to science to see what our bodies need & so as studies have continued to show with importance of HIIT training & strength training, we have incorporated many different formats & routines with HIIT in them & we have strength training in almost every class using body weight resistance, hand held weights & mini bands. Of course we still offer our fun cardio dance classes as well & with new choreo dropped monthly all to current top music, we are never bored & our bodies are continuously guessing! Many of my senior customers have reported to me personally that their bone-density scans show a bone age that is actually 5-7years YOUNGER than their actual age, & they contribute that to the great work we do in classes at Jazzercise!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Have I had to pivot? I am not sure a day goes by where I don’t have to pivot haha! Moving here post divorce after 15years of marriage to my 1st husband with 3 teenagers & trying to find a local place that felt like home to teach at was a big challenge & I almost quit teaching! Then after finding “my place” at the Venice Jazzercise location teaching only one day a week, 2020 hit & we got shut down from Covid! I began teaching online & was trying to stay sane like everyone else, & then I took over as owner in fall of 2020 I had to jump in fast & start making decisions on how to grow! I offered classes in-person, online, outside, at the mall-anything to get our name out there & to show we were safe for everyone’s level of comfort! But we got into a groove, until fall of 2022 when we got displaced from our homebase in Venice due to renovations at the gym & I found a new location, but there were sound issues & set up issues there! That October, Ian hit FL & further damaged the gym & we were displaced longer while they did further repairs. I had to renegotiate rent (which went up significantly as I had to extend my contract). The facility we were at then got broken into post hurricane & we had to search for replacement cords for our sound system & repair our Jazzercise cabinet that stored our equipment for class! Finally this September, we were able to move back into the gym at our home base in Venice at Woodmere Park & then the electrical panel for the whole complex where my Sarasota classes are at Mystical’s Dance Co, blew & we were without a place for classes for over a week! So while I was navigating the return to our gym in Venice after a year & dealing with many issues that came up, I was also teaching classes outside of the dance studio in Sarasota & trying to keep all our customers happy & let them know how much we appreciated their patients! Moral of the story: I have learned to pivot, to expect to have to pivot & to just work to find solutions while communicating with my team & my customers to show I truly care & want the best for us all! Through all of the issues, we still have grown & I am so very grateful & honored to lead my small business!
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
In 2021, I found out my mother (that was still in Chicago) had stage 4 uterine cancer. At this time, I was the only instructor teaching in-person classes as we offered many other online only classes that I had other instructors helping to teach. I of course, needed & wanted to be there for my mom & so I knew this would impact my business. Thankfully, by having an amazing team of instructors around me, they stepped in to help & went back to in-person class teaching for me & kept the business going for 6 months as I traveled back & forth every other week for my mom’s chemo treatments. If it were not for those instructors, particularly my one local instructor Dody that taught the majority of the classes, I would have had to give up my business. But it paid off! My mom is now 2 years in remission & lives with us in FL & my business is having it’s best year yet, all thanks to those instructors that helped when I needed to focus on my mom’s health!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jazzercise.com/location/jazzercise-venice-woodmere-park-21851
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jazzercisevenicesarasota/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JazzerciseVeniceSarasota/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jazzercise-venice-woodmere-park-venice?osq=Jazzercise
- Other: our Sarsota location website: https://www.jazzercise.com/location/jazzercise-sarasota-mystical-s-dance-company find us on nextdoor & google at Jazzercise Venice Woodmere Park & Jazzercise Sarasota Mystical’s Dance Company
Image Credits
Tyler Schroll, Janice Culp, Serena Schroll, Dody Robertson, Dana Pankonin, Melinda Thomas, Allison Rivers, Pam Bonsall,