Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Degray. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I have come to realize that I am not a risk averse person.
I love change. I thrive when I have to adapt. I like to go against the grain but I am the most successful when I follow my gut and intuition.
The first big risk I took was deciding not to finish my PhD program in Political Science. From the first day on campus at The New School for Social Research in New York City, I knew I had made a wrong turn. Upon completing the Masters portion of program, I walked into my PhD advisor’s office and informed him that I would not be returning. I moved back to Burlington, Vermont, accepted a job at The Federal Public Defender Office, and began to plot my next course.
My Dad encouraged me to instead enroll in Law School (do the sensible thing and become a lawyer after spending $120k on a Graduate Degree). I went through the motions of studying for the LSAT, taking the test, applying to law schools only to listen to my heart… I wanted to start an indoor cycling studio.
Let’s rewind a bit – why a cycling studio? Indoor cycling was a passion of mine from the very first class I took in Maastricht, Netherlands on a study abroad program in 2005. I became obsessed; it was nothing short of life changing for me. I would attend classes daily, sometimes twice a day, in Dutch (and I didn’t know the language), and I was inspired by founder of the athletic club, a woman named Constance.
After only a week, I began researching how one becomes a gym owner and a fitness professional. What degrees would I need? I was a Senior in college with a double major in Political Science and International Relations with a minor in media studies. Unfortunately, my research revealed that I should have majored in Exercise Science or something adjacent, maybe a minor in business, and I just didn’t have it in me to repeat my bachelor’s degree. I resigned to the idea that this was an impossible dream, and at 22 years old, I had sealed my fate with my choice to major in the social sciences. My heart passions were music and athletics, but oh well, those would just be hobbies for the rest of my life. I spent the next several years applying to graduate school and then finally enrolling in 2008.
While living in New York City I pursued my love of indoor cycling by finding mentors and taking classes when I could. I would even go to the gym late at night and find an empty cycling bike and craft my own routines while listening to my music on my iPod. I had spent the last several years privately in the throes of an eating disorder, which would reach its peak while living in New York City. During this time in my life, exercise was often a means to an end, a punishment and excessive.
I sought professional help for my ED and made several changes. I wanted to get well, and I to turn things around.
Fast forward to 2011 where I self-studied to obtain my Personal Training Certificate, took on the occasional friend-as-client (basically for free) and completed a course to become a Certified Spinning Instructor. Weeks after that I began teaching at a local gym. I was laying the groundwork for my next big risk: quit my reasonably well paying job with full benefits and start my own business.
Part I of this next risk was the act of telling my Dad my plans. It took gumption and guts for me to tell my Dad what I really wanted to do. I always wanted to please him, and for over a decade made choices that I thought would land me the favor of my parents and teachers. My Dad was skeptical and wasn’t shy about telling me this was a bad idea. I dug my heels in and moved on. I found more support when I told my boss I would be quitting to become an entrepreneur – he was sad to lose me as an employee, but supportive and excited.
I won’t get into the minutia of it all, but by November 2012, I opened Burlington, Vermont’s ONLY dedicated indoor cycling studio on a shoe string budget. No bank would give me a loan, and it was through a series of divine connections and my own grit and determination that I was able to borrow a small amount of capital from family and start my dream.
REV Indoor Cycling grew quickly and the next risk I took was ending a 13 year relationship with my high school sweetheart, a month shy of my 30th birthday. I was on a new path and it was terrifying. Business owner, single, struggling, yet I had never felt more alive.
The next few years of business ownership would hand me more obstacles and challenges and require more risk taking. I entered into a disastrous business relationship and almost lost everything. Never sell half your business to a stranger… you’ll probably have to buy it back at a higher price.
I was evicted by my commercial landlord in January 2017, with 21 days to vacate (not legal by the way) and had to take an even bigger risk… close, or go BIG. Take out a large loan and build a large studio in a new location. This was terrifying. I was at another crossroads – would it be my demise, or my rebirth? I went all in and pursued a new location, hired an exceptionally good contractor and within 6 months opened a brand new studio in June 2017.
I could not have dreamed of the success I achieved in this new location and the business kept growing and growing, now 5 years in. I was thrilled and happy, living my dream, but was also walking on egg shells. The massive success of REV was not favored by everyone, and I had continuous complaints from adjacent businesses and my landlord that we were just too busy, we were doing too well, and that was bothering folks.
7 and a half years into the business I was at a cross roads with what to do about issues with neighbors and our landlord, and then the Universe threw a curve ball to the entire planet: Covid-19. Overnight we went from serving 300 patrons daily to zero. I was lost, depressed, scared, and went straight into fight for flight for what felt like an entire year.
I sold all my assets (I had 60 stationary bikes); developed a robust online/at-home exercise subscription program which had me creating and filming up to 4 workouts a day and then editing and posting. I taught live-stream fitness and cycling, moved operations outdoors and started my own podcast. I was non-stop. I was in survival mode.
Right before the pandemic my monthly rent was $16,000/month. Even with some financial assistance and a partial rent reduction by the landlord, the writing was on the wall. I couldn’t stay where I was…. after 8 years, I would “close the doors” to my brick and mortar studio and was effectively homeless.
I toyed with the idea of leaving the industry all together… toyed with the idea of having an online business of some kind… toyed with the idea of “selling” what I could of the brand for whatever it was worth. I was offered a chance to audition and interview for a globally recognized streaming fitness company, but declined.
I dug deep and realized I wasn’t just passionate about music and fitness. I was passionate about people and community. I was not happy in this zoom-apocolyptic world.
It was then I was offered a chance to take over the lease of a yoga studio that was closing its doors. Another risk… didn’t take me long to say yes. I signed the lease (it was only one year after all) and started to draw up plans to restart my business after its near decimation. We reopened at just a fraction of the size of what we were in September 2021. It was like starting over again, and as fate would have it, this yoga studio was on the same street I started my original studio in 2012. What serendipity.
It was at this time in my life where I took a risk on myself, my healing and my faith. I began a course in meditation, dove deeper into spiritual exploration, started attending retreats in far away places and also started my own retreat company with my soul sister Kelly Skinner. During this time of deep revival and internal exploration, I got my next big idea and my next big risk…
Rebrand and rebuild.
After 10 years as REV Indoor Cycling, I would “close” that chapter, seek investors, and build a brand new studio, in a new town, under a completely new name: ALIGN Cycling.
Perhaps I was nuts? Perhaps I just love risk. Perhaps I was on to something. The vision did come to me after a Reiki session… I had it on good information that this was a good idea, and this was who I had become. Years of divine feminine exploration led me to this moment. In June 2023, I opened this new venture in Williston, Vermont.
How has this risk panned out? Well, 12 years in, I’m still doing what I love: building community and sharing a love of moving meditation with music. I see growth opportunities, even in a still volatile industry, because I believe in the cause: bringing people together, moving together, focusing on our emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. I love to empower people. I love to help people uncover, discover and recover their true nature, and their essence of being.
I feel blessed to continue to accept the risks that this life has presented me with.
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?
While some of this was addressed in the last question, I’ll provide some bullet points:
I am currently 40 years young and started my business at the age of 28 (a month shy of 29) after following the wrong but necessary direction of a Masters in Political Science and work experience as a Legal Assistant.
I got into the industry by first stepping into a spin class at the “Maastricht Athletic Club” in September 2005. It would be years until I started my own venture: REV Indoor Cycling in 2012.
My services, gifts and offerings include (or have included): personal training and coaching, group fitness coaching, boot camps, meditation circles and sacred ceremony, vision board workshops, indoor cycling classes, indoor cycling instructor training programs, mentorships, business coaching and public speaking appearances.
I am now pregnant and studying for my pre and post-natal fitness specialization so I can offer specific services for moms to-be and mothers that are newly post-partum.
My approach to fitness and indoor cycling is not like the rest of my industry. I take a holistic approach in that I believe you should have both yin and yang in your practice. Mindfulness, breath awareness, conscious movement AND higher intensity training that pushes your comfort zone. Both things can co-exist. Exercise is not all or nothing. You must listen to your body, adapt and both meet yourself where you are at today, and provide yourself with the opportunity to grow into the person you are becoming. Honor yourself and challenge yourself. Give yourself grace and do not settle.
ALIGN has been an important rebrand because it stands for something that I believe in:
Allow
Listen
Integrate
Generate
Nourish
ALLOW your physical and mental body to arrive and ground. We invite you to LISTEN to your body’s needs and boundaries as we INTEGRATE what our inner wisdom communicates in order to drop-in and engage fully with a total-body sensory experience and sound therapy. GENERATE power and energy through the class and re-generate as needed with recovery to our physical body. NOURISH the physical, mental and energetic body with a heart-centered cool down.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
When I started my business in 2012 I barely had a dime to spend once my equipment was purchased and the paint was dry. Luckily it was before Facebook really changed – so I used social media for free advertising and relied on word of mouth.
I delivered an exceptional service no matter how many people showed up for my class: whether it was 2 people or 20 people. It was my community that did my marketing for me – telling a friend or family member, or bringing them to class. Word spread like wildfire and people loved how they were treated.
Everyone was welcome and this was a place where we never focused on weight loss, never focused on metrics, no mirrors and there was never any talk about one’s body or weight loss.
We’ve stayed true to these principals and it continues to bring in “aligned” customers and life-long clients.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
I will always highlight the ability to adapt and be open-minded.
Running a business is not for the faint of heart. You will be tested and tried. Many things will fail, but you’ve got to pick yourself up and try again, adapt, pivot if you need to. A labor of love is still a labor.
I have found I need to be both strong and confident in my intuition AND be flexible and adaptable as things will constantly change.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aligncycling.com
- Instagram: aligncycling
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aligncycling/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdegray/
- Other: https://revindoor.vhx.tv/
Image Credits
Shem Roose
Kelsey Springer