We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Sasser. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Up until I had my three-year-old son, Kingston, I didn’t put my burner out—aka I was wild as hell. When I got pregnant, it was like going 60 to 0 mph and I had to redirect all that energy to things that didn’t involve alcohol and training. I went from doing the typical Charleston thing of working to go out all the time, to putting that energy into just work. I had started working for a group fitness studio located in Charleston as a trainer, but due to my pregnancy I transitioned into more of a management role to fill the void financially and mentally. On top of working for the fitness studio full time, I also had three other side hustles. My mindset was, “I can do all until I can do nothing”. Then, I had Kingston, and he brought the reality on of managing my time better, or at least trying to. For the first time in my adult life, I didn’t even have the option to quote-on-quote “sweat for money” and I was physically hit with that obstacle. Although Kingston was a surprise—the greatest surprise gift I could’ve every asked for—he was a huge reality check. I would not be where I am if I had not had King. I would have never slowed down or redirected my priorities and would probably still be at Uptown Social in a few hours juggling five jobs…and drinks! It pushed me in the direction to where I am now in the best way possible. I now have a lot of energy to give, and I get to put it into him, and into something that is bigger than myself. He introduced me into this crazy thing called, “thinking long term”. Fast forward to after my nightmare of a pregnancy (that story is for a whole other article) and amid post-partum, I found myself in a low spot. I was angry and I wasn’t myself anymore. This became even more apparent to me when one day I was chatting with a girlfriend of mine, and she told me that my “baseline” was low (hint hint wink wink). Keep in mind this was also at the start of when Covid hit, and I was just getting back in the swing of things. Then, the fitness studio I was working for at the time shut down. For those who don’t know me, I’ve always wanted to do my own thing, I just hadn’t ever had the balls to do it. I put all my energy into other people’s things and I’m not going to ever half ass it. I realized I couldn’t give my all to multiple places and was stretched thin at work and at home, so I quit. Mainly because I didn’t want to teach 40 people in a room and bring those germs home to my child. Since I’ve been class-based within the fitness industry for forever, I started doing online classes with clients who were interested, which turned into online one-on-one training, and then into in-person training. Mind you, we were doing this out of my one car garage in Mt. Pleasant and slowly started growing from there. It was not easy, but it was super organic, and the growing process was natural. We turned into something I didn’t even envision in the first place. When I started the online classes I wasn’t thinking “oh I’m going to make a business out of this”. It was created to fill the time, to work out, and to give people some sanity. Back then almost 90% of my clients were moms (now it’s like 8%) and I knew that feeling of being stuck at home. I wanted to give them a little outlet, a little accountability, and it turned into personal training. I’ve always enjoyed personal training, but it’s never been my thing because I like high energy and loud music. The one-on-one attention started to really poke at my brain that we should have been doing it the whole time and that it does include those things! Then, we casually started collecting people and those clients started seeing massive results. Some clients I had been training for over 10 years hadn’t seen the kind of results they were getting until they started one-on-one training, even just for 8 weeks. I believe in the fact that not everyone has the same grocery list and that not everyone should have the same workout. Long story short, I got kicked out of my garage and decided to turn my one-woman show into something more permanent. That’s when Baseline was born. We have evolved from an elite group of trainers out of a pop-up location at Union Station in downtown Charleston to our newly opened permanent location at The Jasper. And I couldn’t be more thrilled to call it home.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Our mission is to create positive change in our community through genuine energy, good humor, and badass workouts. We make training personal. This is a space where genuine energy, good bass, and badass workouts coexist. Our team is passionate about elevating your lifestyle both in and out of the studio. Our main goal is for every member to feel encouraged, confident, and stronger with every sweat. Our sustainable training approach is designed to evolve with your fitness level, helping you avoid injury, plateau, and burnout. We take pride that personal attention is reflected in every aspect of your experience, from check-in to check-out. No matter your fitness background, we want you to feel confident knowing that every workout has been customized to fit your needs by our elite team of trainers. I have known some of my clients for 10 or more years now, so choosing my team to fit that brand has been of the most important things I still strive to uphold. Even if you’re a member that has been with me since the beginning, or for those just joining, you’ll always feel a part of our Baseline family.

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

To build a company from the ground up, I had to get uncomfortable in situations. I’ve had to learn and challenge myself more in the last few years than I’ve ever had to do. In the past, my mistakes were on someone else’s dime, but it’s a whole different situation when it’s up to you on whether you make it or break it. Behind the scenes—construction, money, business meetings—I am constantly learning and figuring it out as I go. You truly have to put your head down and muscle through it. I don’t necessarily try not to, but I don’t have time to pay attention to everybody else. Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond lucky to have the team I have. Baseline wouldn’t be the same without the consistent energy they bring not only to the studio but to me. However, I get sucked into this world because I’m trying to learn and make minimal mistakes. If I do make those mistakes, I correct them quickly because it’s not just my livelihood on the line, it’s my employees and my family’s as well. I’ve had to learn budgeting, spreadsheets, numbers—and those are not my thing. I mean imagine the sight of me coming into a board room with blueprints to talk about real estate and laying concrete with a room full of men discussing million-dollar deals with cut off jean shorts and my lululemon fanny pack at the hip! Even though it might have taken awhile, and at first, they might have thought “who is this girl” but I was resilient in my journey, and I earned the respect of those by not letting up and allowing myself room for growth. Thankfully I’ve been lucky to build trust and close relationships with people who have mentored me through this entire journey and will continue to do so. Like I’ve said, it’s been a big learning curve but my biggest takeaway from it all is it’s not impossible. This wasn’t my plan; it is so much better than my plan. So, to me resilience is having the confidence to fuck it up, but then still having the confidence to fix it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sasserstudiosbaseline.com
• Instagram: @sasserstudios.baseline
• Other: email: [email protected]