We recently connected with Samantha Miles and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

I come from a background of working at boutique Pilates studios that had very specific “guidelines” for what their teachers should teach and worse, what they should wear or look like. I got my certification from an amazingly inclusive space that also offered physical therapy, so there was a mix of different bodies, ages, and ability levels present from day 1. I knew the possibilities and advantages Pilates could give to everyone, so working for companies that pigeon holed the Pilates movement to solely affluent thin white women gave me the inspiration to make my studio and space as inclusive as possible since Pilates is amazing for all bodies.

Samantha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Samantha (go by Sam) and I have worked in the Pilates industry since 2015. I got into Pilates while playing college soccer to help rehab when I had injuries and later in life it became clear to me that I wanted to help people feel good in their own bodies.

My business started in 2020 virtually during Covid. I was laid off immediately when quarantine started and it was a true blessing in disguise. My co founder and I started teaching virtual classes as donation based and then created an on demand presence so people could keep moving with us from home. We built such a strong and tight knit community during that year and ran a Go Fund Me when we finally decided to take our classes IRL. Without that community we would’ve never been able to do what we’ve done.

We not only want people to feel safe to move with us, but also find joy and presence within a community of like minded individuals.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Because we started during covid we had to navigate upticks in numbers a few times. This resulted in people wanting to pause memberships, not come to classes, etc. which would have been catastrophic to a new small business. We kept our virtual platform and on demand platform for the first two years of our studio being open so that we could still host classes and maintain sales/community connections through difficult times and studio closures. Because of this, we were able to make it through those difficult times and really thrive!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

This is something I wanted to focus on when I became a business owner/leader of a team. I never worked well with bosses in other jobs/careers I had previous to Pilates. I didn’t respect the “do it because I say so” mentality. I wanted to make my team feel seen and heard and provide a place of work that teachers wanted to be at, even when they weren’t teaching. My team has an open door communication policy, we do lots of continuing education and free teacher get togethers, and we have open ears. We take feedback and try and implement the wants and needs of our team. Because of that we have very low turnover and overall get great feedback for being a fun and inclusive place to work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goodtimepilates.com
• Instagram: @goodtime.pilates
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodtimepilates5213

Image Credits
Lauren Miles Photo