We were lucky to catch up with Lesley Logan And Brad Crowell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lesley Logan and Brad Crowell, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
LL here! I started teaching Pilates in 2008. By 2017 I found myself traveling to several countries a year, leading retreats and workshops. While this was very exciting for me, Brad, my husband said that my clients might not be as excited about it… He suggested I should have a way for my clients to take my classes while I was traveling. And, bonus, they could take when they traveled. However, online fitness platforms already existed and I was hearing a lot of people say they had quit theirs. While I understood what Brad was saying, I also felt like we needed to do it differently.
My favorite things about teaching classes in-person was always the community and accountability. People showed up because that was the time class was at. If they missed it, they missed it – and they missed out! The community of the classes helped people show up – even when they might not want to. Go accountability!
But how could we include my favorite things in a way that my clients could take class without me – and not just create another online class platform? How do you keep that post-class hang out, but make it virtual? How do you keep that FOMO of making it to a live class, but do it on-demand? We thought long and hard about this…
When we launched OnlinePilatesClasses.com (we call it “OPC”) we did the exact opposite of all the other platforms out there, making it easier, faster, and more fun to login and just get started with your workout. So no crazy library of classes to spend hours deciding which one to take. We also made the classes disappear. FOMO anyone? Don’t miss class or it’s gone!
Everyone takes the same class each week. This allows them to compare themselves to themselves as they take class more than one time. And, when chating with others in the community, they know exactly the wins others are talking about! No confusion. Bringing the community together. Celebrating wins.
We’ve certainly had push back from people who love to scroll through 1000’s of classes like they would on Youtube or Netflix. But, for so many, the class expiring helps them show up when they might find an excuse to not. We even have a group of members who meet virtually from all over the world to take the OPC class of the week at the same time!!!
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?
Omg, I kind of got into Pilates kicking and screaming. Ok, not literally, but a little on the inside. It was 2005 and I had just graduated college. My friends had all moved back home. I found myself in my college town but without friends. A co-worker invited me to a Pilates class. I literally lol’d and said, “Thats an info-mercial workout. It can’t do what it says it can.” But a little voice inside said “you want a friend.” So I said I’d go. Thinking we’d do the workout, then have brunch, and I’d have a friend!
In my very first class I found myself LOVING it! The first exercise ‘the 100’ had me feeling parts of my body I had never felt before. And I was an athlete growing up!
I changed the schedules at work so I could go to Pilates every single day! I told everyone about it and my obsession didn’t just make the workouts fun… The more I did Pilates the more I felt what it was like to be IN my body. To have the chaos or the distracting “inner voice” disappear. For me to feel what I was actually feeling.
After a couple years I remember hearing that little voice in class say to me “it’s time to move.” To another city? That day I got a call from a co-worker from a different store. We had the same job, and she had put in her 2 week notice. I immediately called our boss and asked for a transfer.
Living in LA trying to recreate my Pilates obsession was trickier than I thought. In 2007, Pilates teachers didn’t exactly have websites. I did eventually find someone to quench my Pilates thirst. And within a few months she convinced me to become a Pilates teacher!
By 2008, I was teaching my own Pilates mat classes (to pay for my love of Pilates) while still working my full time “real job” in retail. By 2009 I was in a comprehensive training program and so busy teaching I had to quit my “real job” to go into teaching full-time.
People thought I was crazy because of the ‘times’ (the housing crisis…) But, looking back, I’d say I was quite ahead of the times. The retail store I ran closed in late 2010.
My first training was good. But it wasn’t great. I was hungry to learn more. I found two sisters who trained with one of Joe Pilates’ clients, Romana K… who ran Joe’s studio after her death. They helped me see what I didn’t see. They encouraged me to be curious and not be a perfectionist, a copycat.
After years with them, my chosen Los Angeles mentor/boss told me to go where she was going to class to learn more. That’s when I found myself at Vintage Pilates. Learning from Sandy Shimoda, Karen Frischmann, and Jay Grimes – and Jay was a student of Joe Pilates!!!
Years studying with Jay made me a ‘2nd generation teacher.’ And, a teacher that allows clients to be in process, to be in practice. My desire is for clients to know their bodies more. To have autonomy! To feel empowered. To work themselves out with confidence.
Most Pilates teachers try to entertain clients with creative choreography or playlists. Jay taught me to help people discover themselves and teach themselves through the Pilates exercises.
Since studying with him, everything I do is in alignment with helping people be curious, be IN their bodies, be in control of their own practice.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
LL here, I never thought of myself as someone who would have a business partner or cofounder. I’m the oldest in my family and put myself through college. So I definitely was used to doing everything myself. However, in 2014 when Brad and I started dating he helped me with my website and Youtube. In 2015 we married and he encouraged me to have a newsletter.
His business acumen from working for years with start-ups helped me take my ideas and break them down into actions.
However, each of these actions led to my business growing and growing. It was becoming harder for me and a part-time assistant to keep up with the workload. Brad had been working behind the scenes on things we needed help with. But, I was starting to fear the growth.
One day in late 2019 a coach I had hired asked me what I wanted with my business. I wanted Brad to work full-time with me! After all, OPC was his idea. But I didn’t want to be the reason he gave up the companies he had started.
The coach helped us have the conversation for Brad to let go of his other projects and come on full-time with me. In 2020, another coach assisted us in redefining our roles. As the name, face, and visionary, I had been in the CEO role by default. But, I honestly don’t love holding meetings. Brad, with his background in start-ups, operations, and SEO was better suited as the CEO and me the Chief Pilates/Visionary officer.
This helped us each own our roles in the business and grow the company.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
In the Pilates industry everyone wants a teaching manual. However, I knew the world didn’t need a new manual (even though people kept requesting one from me.) I mean, I had three different training program manuals in a closet that I hadn’t looked at in years. Aside from that, I had been a teacher trainer for a comprehensive Pilates program and had seen my students struggle with the size of the binder… always so awkward. And, the volume of information made it almost impossible to take what they were learning from the page and apply it to real life humans. It was all very overwhelming.
But I still kept getting requests for a manual.
Honestly, I was frustrated for them. They knew they didn’t know enough. But, what I knew they needed to know wasn’t from one manual. It was from 3 training programs over 10 years, plus 12 years of practice (at that point.)
I knew that the best teachers didn’t learn from a manual. They learned from practice.
I also knew that those requesting still needed something.
One day I was sitting at a party at my neighbors house and a tarot reader started to pull cards for me. It hit me, when I was learning to teach, class plan, create my own workouts, what I wanted – as a visual learner – was flashcards. Just like the ones you would make to study for a test in school.
I told Brad my idea. Pilates exercise flashcards… He loved it!
And it became the most expensive idea I’ve ever had.
However, his experience in operations for skincare, alcohol, and other physical products meant he knew how to take my idea and bring it to fruition.
I’ll never forget when we had the first production company lined up. Then COVID post-poned the print over and over again.
Finally, he found a USA based printer. More expensive per card to print, but the offset in shipping and customs made it make sense.
5 years later we have 5 Pilates flashcard decks out in the marketplace. And the 6th and final deck will be shipping in Q3 of 2025!
To be honest, the idea seemed like a no brainer. But then the overwhelm of design and the bill had me frozen. Our first print I would have needed 115 buyers to make our investment back. I truly wondered if I knew 115 people!
Now, we are multiple reprints in, and I have no fears around hitting print and paying $20k+ bills every time.
Our decks help people do more Pilates!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://onlinepilatesclasses.com
- Instagram: @lesley.logan & @opc.pilates
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@onlinepilatesclasses
Image Credits
Monica Linda, Girl Squad