"Real change in your body happens from grounded, consistent work. Doing the split and a handstand is entertaining, but that's not what Pilates is about."
In this episode, Nic is joined by Heather Andersen, founder of New York Pilates - one of the most recognisable reformer studio brands in the world, with nine locations across New York City and counting.
Heather built New York Pilates from a basement space in Greenwich Village in 2013, at a time when group reformer classes simply didn't exist. She shares what it actually took to scale to nine studios - from building onboarding systems and maintaining consistency across locations, to the pricing mistakes and people management lessons learned the hard way.
They also get into the state of the industry: why clients are confused about what Pilates even is, what separates genuine contemporary Pilates from the "Pilates adjacent" world, and why the most transformational work looks like nothing on camera.
Timestamps
00:23 How New York Pilates started
01:37 Heather's background in ballet and early Pilates training
07:14 Making the leap from teacher to studio owner
13:14 Building the brand from day one
14:38 Early mistakes and people management
16:03 What a New York Pilates class feels like
18:44 Classical vs. contemporary vs. Pilates adjacent
25:20 Scaling from one studio to nine
29:16 Building systems for consistency
31:34 Teacher onboarding and quality management
37:51 Pricing, ClassPass, and why loyalty beats volume
44:34 Social media and the decision to talk about real Pilates
55:22 Where to find Heather
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