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9. Enjoying the Ride with Carolyn Williams
34 Plays2 years ago
If she didn’t do it, someone else would.
Carolyn Williams, Founder of Zephyr Cycling Studio, hadn’t known the destination—she just kept taking the next right step.
After graduating with an English Major and Music Minor, Carolyn moved to New York City to work… not in English or Music. She soaked up lessons in professionalism, project management, and marketing that her future self would need. But her soul wanted more.
She found it at her first rhythm-based cycling class. The music, the movement, the people— that magical combination lit her up from inside. “I finally understood what it was to be passionate about something,” she says.
When life presented an opportunity to move home to Montana, she took that next right step. Every time she drove up the canyon to Bozeman, though, something nibbled at her soul. The town didn’t have a cycling studio, and her heart needed one to exist.
So she built a welcoming, warm, pristine space that raises students’ heart rates—while lowering their blood pressures. And, she centered the business around community (and dogs) from day one.
When COVID hit, that community stepped up in ways Carolyn never could’ve imagined. Together, they fought to keep moving—together.
For more inspiration, subscribe to Unbound Turnarounds on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
LINKS:
- Connect with Nicole
- Connect with Mallory
- Connect with Carolyn: https://zephyrcyclingstudio.com/
- Take Zephyr Classes Online From Anywhere: https://tradewind.zephyrcyclingstudio.com/video/
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Unbound Turnarounds'
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Unbound Turnarounds, a podcast all about the challenges women business owners think about constantly, but rarely voice. We're Nicole and Mallory, entrepreneurs, friends, and co-founders of Business Unbound, a community helping women alleviate the headaches, heartaches, and backaches. So work actually works for life. This is your safe space for the ups, downs, and the turnarounds.
00:00:32
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Unbound Turnarounds. And Mallory, I'm really excited for today's interview. Who do we have?
Guest Introduction: Carolyn Williams
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, so today we're super pumped because we have Carolyn Williams here with us. She's a small business owner of a cycling studio in your hometown, Bozeman, Montana. So Carolyn curates pristine, unparalleled wellness experiences and shares her strong connection to and love of music through the creation of one of Montana's most inviting wellness spaces.
00:01:02
Speaker
zephyr cycling studios so she is a montana native she loves music movement words and community created all around the foundation of zephyr studio in twenty twenty carolyn was actually awarded forty under forty by the bozeman daily chronicle and was named bozeman's best community leader
00:01:25
Speaker
which speaks directly to my heart, makes me so happy. That was in 2021 and in 2023 in the Bozeman magazine's reader's choice poll. She hopes that Zephyr helps all who walk through its doors to understand that they are enough and that their experience at the studio empowers them to live authentically, freely, and with compassion for themselves and for others.
Carolyn's Community and Animal Advocacy
00:01:49
Speaker
The one thing that she loves more than Zephyr are her dogs.
00:01:53
Speaker
Andy may, may Andy rest in peace, that first co-founder Charlie and Lua. And she's proud to serve on the board of Bozeman's incredible animal shelter, heart of the valley, as well as on the board of spay Montana, which organizes spay neuter clinics across the state of Montana. Carolyn, Charlie and Lua are package deals. So you can expect to see them regularly at the studio together. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful and excited to be here.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So welcome again. And just to remind you and all our listeners for season one, we're really digging into the whys behind, uh, women and starting their own companies. So we're excited to talk to you specifically because you have a brick and mortar business and not a lot of our guests have had that so far. So we want to talk to you about how that maybe just changes your story a little bit and how that shifts your perspective.
00:02:49
Speaker
All right, so to start us off, tell us about how your work experiences prior to your current business kind of got you started from when you got out of school to launching your cycling studio. Well, I would say that it started before I got out of school only and that my mother required both my brother and me to take piano lessons from age five onward. So music was,
00:03:18
Speaker
always a very big part of our lives. Didn't play soccer, had a brief stint in gymnastics and softball when I was in about third grade. It was just piano, piano, piano. Added the flute on when I got to elementary school and beyond. Also was a flute player, but worse than you, I can guarantee. I loved that too. I loved music and it was just an integral part of my life. I did try to quit taking piano lessons multiple times and my mom
00:03:47
Speaker
staunchly refused every single time. And now I thank her for that because I meet so many people who say, oh,
Early Career in NYC
00:03:53
Speaker
I wish my parents had made me stick with whatever instrument they were learning. But so because of that, I focused on music and not athletics and I did not consider myself an athlete.
00:04:04
Speaker
At all really prior to college where everybody was running and going to the gym and got involved and you know i went to college in maine and it was a really beautiful idyllic setting and running outside was really actually quite delightful.
00:04:19
Speaker
I was an English major in college and a music minor. I think people like to give English majors a hard time, but I actually think that we could rule the world if given the chance. Actually, I think many do. When I graduated from college, it really did give me a really great background in communications, writing, being able to problem-solve.
00:04:42
Speaker
that kind of set me up to have a variety of different professional experiences. I wouldn't have known that at the time. I think graduating from college, everybody is freaking out to say the least about what they're going to do with the rest of their lives. Just slung from the nest and you're like, oh no, I don't know.
00:05:00
Speaker
So I started I began a job in New York City in public relations and learned there had to be a real true professional I had really great mentors and it was a very tightly run ship and that experience taught me a lot about how to show up as a professional and
00:05:18
Speaker
that experience has stayed with me to this very day and I'm grateful for it. It wasn't my calling and so I then just took a turn and worked for a mutual fund company on their proposals team. So I was writing proposals for different financial products, which
00:05:36
Speaker
was about as interesting as watching paint dry, but I'm grateful for that experience as well. Because it supported me living in New York City and I made some really good friends through that job. And again, just honing my skills as a professional. I've never been afraid of hard work, but those first two jobs really
00:05:54
Speaker
ingrained that in me very quickly and very irregularly.
Discovering SoulCycle and Wellness
00:05:58
Speaker
While living in New York City, I went to my first rhythm-based spin class. I had been gifted a 10-class pass to SoulCycle, which is the original rhythm-based spinning chain. I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like it. I'd taken spin classes in college and loved them, but also just didn't know how that would translate.
00:06:23
Speaker
When I walked into my first class, it was an immediate moment. I'll never forget it. Just realizing like all of a sudden I could take that musical connection and connect it with movement in a way that made me feel good and was really enjoyable. And it wasn't like I was ever waiting for class to be over. I just wanted class to go on and on and on.
00:06:44
Speaker
See, and I was going to say 10 class pass. That's a commitment gift right there. Here's one class to try. I was like, someone really wanted you to do this. Well, yeah. I mean, I did love spinning and I loved music. And so it really was a perfect combination of those two things. And I flew through that 10 class pass.
00:07:08
Speaker
And truly being from Montana, having gone to college in Maine, New York was a hard place for me. And that was kind of the first experience I had in the wellness space where I realized what a refuge, a studio environment could be. And I know we'll talk about the brick and mortar piece of it, but I just don't think that's something you can get virtually. Really, really don't. I know that actually.
00:07:31
Speaker
And I, and so it was just, there would be a crazy day at work or whatever it would be. And I walk into SoulCycle and it would smell good. And they had everything just completely dialed. Like Jonathan Adler branded grapefruit candles and just like the most incredible, like it was just.
00:07:47
Speaker
Christine. And I love it. Everything in this place. Yeah. So I was grateful for that when I lived in New York city and I actually worked at SoulCycle for about six months after I left my mutual phone job. And because I just loved it so much, I thought, why not be here? Why not just fully immerse myself in this community? As an instructor.
00:08:04
Speaker
No, I was an assistant manager. At the time, they only had four locations. Well, maybe five, including a location in the Hamptons. For reference, they now have between 80 and 100
Return to Maine and Teaching Spin
00:08:16
Speaker
across the country. I worked at their first Union Square location in 2012 and lasted for about six months before I finally just realized no professional experience in New York was going to make me happy in New York.
00:08:31
Speaker
Ended up back in Maine and worked in development at the college I went to, so fundraising. And that was a job that was a really pivotal experience for me because it made me realize how important it was to have purpose professionally. I really believed in what I was doing every day. It was very easy for me to ask people for gifts to the college because
00:08:56
Speaker
of the impact that place it had on my life and because of the impact I saw it having on other people's lives and knowing that
00:09:03
Speaker
that impact was possible because of the support alumni have given the college over hundreds of years. It just really was meaningful work to me and it was fun. You hear fundraising and some people are like, oh no, I could never. The word fun is in there. Yeah, that's true. More than any part of the job in particular, it was really just having that purpose and knowing that that was going to be really important to me going forward.
00:09:30
Speaker
And when I lived in Maine, there were no boutique studios. So I started teaching at World Gym because I wanted to have the experience. There were no rhythm-based spin classes. So I just decided, well, if I want to have this experience, I'll just create it for now and see what happens. Ended up really falling in love with teaching to this day. I mean, over a decade later, it's something that I can't wait to do every time I have the opportunity to teach.
00:09:55
Speaker
And it started, I mean, I used to teach my friends hungover spin classes in college, like on Saturday, Friday mornings before we'd get ready to go out and do it all over again. See, you've always been about public service. Yeah, exactly. But this is my first professional experience teaching and a boutique studio did open up shortly after I moved, almost a year after I moved to Maine and I started teaching there and being part of the community there.
00:10:24
Speaker
loved it so much that I then left Bowdoin to go work there full time. And that was a really pivotal experience for me too. So I had a lot of experiences after college.
00:10:39
Speaker
And we'll always be grateful for my English major, but I didn't graduate having any idea what I really wanted to do truly. And so it's, and now I can look back and see how each experience along the way set me up to be where I am right now, but it was not a linear
Path to Business Ownership
00:10:53
Speaker
path. And I guess that's just always something I try to stress, especially to the young people who work at Zephyr. Like I had no idea. I didn't graduate, I didn't graduate from college. I think Sunday I want to own my own business.
00:11:06
Speaker
at all. So yeah. So you know, it sounds like you had obviously a wide variety of experiences. Yeah, I know. It was like, right, like some of which were maybe a good job, not in the right location or vice versa. So, you know, there was a quote on your website that I really liked, which was anything or anyone that doesn't bring you more alive is too small for you.
00:11:32
Speaker
And I just love that. So looking back at that experience, what were some of the things about the different careers that you tried before opening your own studio that just felt maybe too small for you or just not quite the right fit, even if you got a lot of great things out of them?
00:11:52
Speaker
So first of all, that quote is by David White, who's an incredible poet and writer, and I always have to give him credit whenever that quote comes up. Well done, David. I didn't come up with that. And that's a great question. I think that sitting all day was hard for me. What I love about my world now is that I'm Kong.
00:12:14
Speaker
And I also think being able to be creative in a way that excited me was absent from a lot of those early experiences. And I also think I had a vision personally for the kind of classes I wanted to teach. And once I'd had a couple of different studio environment experiences, I had
00:12:37
Speaker
ideas about how I would want to do things differently. And so I think sometimes working for someone else as much as I respected any manager, any business owner I ever worked
Launching Zephyr in Bozeman
00:12:49
Speaker
for. And again, this is all in hindsight, I will say, but there is something in me that was like, I just feel like I want to expand outside of this in a way that's not going to be possible while I'm still helping someone else's vision come to life.
00:13:06
Speaker
Nicole and I think have different phrases for that. I call that a nibbling at the soul. Nicole, you have something else that you call it, but I can't remember what it is. No. My red flags? No. Oh, yeah. You knew. So you already kind of were getting a sense while you were working at the other studio in Maine.
00:13:26
Speaker
But you opened your studio in Montana across the country. So curious to know how, or what was the catalyst to you moving back and also then taking that big leap and that big step into opening your own studio and being the business owner.
00:13:46
Speaker
Yes. To be clear, I love that nibble at the soul. That's so brilliant. I had no idea still that I wanted to start Zephyr when I lived in Maine. Looking back, I can see that some of the things that I can now say like, oh yeah, that was
00:14:05
Speaker
keeping you smaller than you want it to be, that something in there was present. But ultimately, I came back out to Montana during the summer of 2015 to spread my grandmother's ashes with my family in the bare tooth. And it was a smoky August in the bare tooth as they are wont to be. It was so beautiful. And I remember looking around and thinking,
00:14:30
Speaker
Why do I live anywhere other than where this exists, especially when this is where I was born? And I just kind of had that thought and went back to Maine and adopted my first dog. Well, that's why you had to go back.
00:14:46
Speaker
Well, actually at the time I adopted a small dog because I thought I'd be flying back and forth between Maine. Oh, yes. And in my mind, I just thought, you know, and it was kind of a transfer. It was a transformational year for me. I'm really into astrology and now I can look back and see that it was like the beginning of my Saturn return, which is.
00:15:03
Speaker
a very pivotal moment in your late twenties when everything begins to change. But I just kept thinking to myself, oh, I would love to be closer to my family. I guess that I have no idea. I didn't know at the time what professional opportunities were available to women in their twenties in Montana. And my parents were living at Big Sky at the time. And I truly just said to myself, I don't know, maybe if a job on the sales and marketing team at Yellowstone Club opened up, like that could be a good fit. I could go back to marketing. I could get back to Montana. I could live with my parents and save money.
00:15:33
Speaker
But you know what, maybe. And then the universe absolutely called my bluff and a job on the sales and marketing team at YC opened up. The universe fired someone else just so that you could go. I mean, it was actually wild how that happened.
00:15:49
Speaker
And YC has a beautiful little spin studio. And so I applied and accepted the offer on the condition that I could teach there. And they said, sure. And so it was very fast. My boss at the time, who's still one of my, I respect her and appreciate her so much. She was almost nine months pregnant when she offered me this job. So she said, you can, you can cut the job is yours, but you have to be here in two weeks. And that was immediately.
00:16:18
Speaker
I mean, it was a rough break because I'm so entrenched in the community in Maine. I loved it. I loved my life. I wasn't even really seriously thinking like, I got to go. It was just this job came up and I realized I had to apply for it and then it happened.
00:16:33
Speaker
It was a whirlwind and I still have grief over that time in life because it was such a hard shift. Really painful. I mean, I left the studio in this community that I adore and I still talk to people from there.
00:16:49
Speaker
And and i had a great therapist i found a great therapist in bozeman almost right away and we got right into the heart of the matter and she said you know it's okay to feel your feelings because i kept saying like well i made this choice and i can't be sad because i'm the one who made the choice to leave man and she said well.
00:17:06
Speaker
You may have made the choice, but you can't avoid feeling how you feel. And the sooner you just allow yourself to grieve the loss of this life that you loved. I was just going to say you're allowed to grieve things that you've left. And that was just such a brilliant lesson and that has absolutely infused how we teach at Zephyr, learning that lesson in that first year back.
00:17:27
Speaker
was working at YC, was super grateful for that experience, but I just missed being in a studio so much. I mean, it was just like, again, like talk about being too small. I'd been in this expansive space and teaching six days a week and just loving the community I had. And all of a sudden I was living with my parents and commuting.
00:17:47
Speaker
45 minutes because they were like up in the moonlight part of Big Sky and I would go down and back around and I would see it. It was just, I don't know. It was really hard.
Promoting Business Unbound Courses
00:17:58
Speaker
And I was going to Bozeman a lot just to get a breath of fresh air to grocery shop and to do, you know.
00:18:05
Speaker
Bozeman things and was going to Pure Bar and was so amazed that this boutique fitness community existed in Bozeman. I mean, I just couldn't believe it. And the more I went, I realized, wow, I really feel like this community could probably support a spin studio.
00:18:21
Speaker
And also, if I don't do it, somebody else is going to be coming. This was in 2016, 17, where there really were very few boutique studios. Pure Bar was really the only one of which I was aware. And their pricing model and their pay-per-class model and everything, I just thought,
00:18:42
Speaker
Okay. And these classes are packed. So I thought, all right, let's do this because you don't want to end up working for someone else in an industry where you feel you have so much to give and vision. So let's figure out how to do this.
00:19:00
Speaker
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00:19:20
Speaker
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00:19:50
Speaker
This is brand new to you. You have the blessing of being in studios previously and seeing how they run, but you've never started one before. You've never gone from the very beginning to the end. You've always come in in the middle of someone else's story.
00:20:10
Speaker
So, you know, like, how did your why, your kind of drive to do this, how did that really give you the confidence to go from just sitting in your car and being like, I mean, I could probably do it, to taking all the thousand steps that then you were like, well, if I'm going to do it, I got to be doing all of this.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yeah, it was really audacious now that I looked at it. I had no experience. I mean, the studio I worked at in Maine, I started teaching there maybe two months after they opened. So I did see it grow. Okay, that's good. Yeah, over the course of that almost three years I was there. And I was doing a lot of marketing work for them and did all of their instructor training and
00:20:55
Speaker
All of that. I had the external side and I knew I had a good product to offer. I knew I knew how to train people to teach. But as far as the business side of it, I don't, I mean, for me, it was truly just an exploratory mission until I signed the lease on the space that we're currently. And it was just something
00:21:22
Speaker
a million, not being afraid to reach out to people and Bozeman and just asking them if I really don't like the question, can I pick your brain? So I would avoid that. But I would come organized and prepared. And again, that professional side of me, thinking about starting the studio and I have these questions that I'd love to ask you for this specific reason, do you have time? Can I treat you to coffee? And so I just started talking to people.
00:21:46
Speaker
and got connected with a commercial realtor through Prospera and started looking at spaces that fall and just still just thinking, oh gosh, this will never happen. It's just the thing I do on the weekends, look at realtors. I even asked a guy to go on a date with me once just to look at commercial spaces. Nice. Perfect.
00:22:16
Speaker
I don't think I was taking it that seriously because I didn't think that I had what it took to do it. Honestly, I think there was a lack of enoughness there. But then again, the universe just kept coming in and providing the next right step. And I will say my landlords at my space in Bozeman were really
00:22:37
Speaker
I think what made the timeline possible for me because the space that Zephyr is in is in a building that at the time there was only one tenant on the north end of the building and the rest was just a blank wide open space and I could have had as much of it as I wanted. My parents were very adamant. They were like, do not sign a lease on any space until you know how much things are going to cost.
00:22:58
Speaker
I had to do all of that work and hope that this space would still be available. They were incredible. They worked with me every step of the way, pricing it out, and then gave me a very generous
00:23:14
Speaker
tenant improvement budget. And so I think I saw the space for the first time in early September and then I signed the lease in December of 2016. So it was a few months of just really trying to get the ducks in a row and still working this full-time job at Yellowstone Club. There was a day where I would like, and I didn't want to like,
00:23:32
Speaker
tell YC what I was up to in case it didn't work out. There'd be days where I would like drive down to Bozeman, back to YC, back down to Bozeman, back to YC. And you guys, that drive is real. That is not real. It is through a canyon. There is not a whole lot of cell signal. It's a journey.
00:23:48
Speaker
It's a journey. Beautiful. Very beautiful. To this day, I don't mind that drive. Now having done it in a U-Haul to get bikes to Big Sky, I really don't mind it when it's just my car. My dog, Andy, and I would just go drive up and down. He was with me at every meeting. We had so much car time. How did I know I had it in me? I did not.
00:24:16
Speaker
But I just kept taking the next, not even right step, just a step. I think that's so, it's vulnerable to say and I really appreciate that you said it because you could look at you and these achievements and this beautiful studio and if you guys will put her website in the show notes, if you guys watch the video, it's just like, I want to jump into that studio, the video on your website.
Passion for Teaching and Community
00:24:42
Speaker
So you've done all this, but just saying out loud and admitting, hey, I didn't know what I was doing and I did it anyway. It's so powerful for people who maybe have some kind of desire or dream or are scared. So thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that. But I want to put you on the spot a little more and say, I don't know if we've completely highlighted
00:25:07
Speaker
The why. What do you think it was about opening the studio? Because you could have waited and you said somebody else would have opened it. There probably would have been a boutique studio at some point. And you could have worked there. Exactly. You were still teaching a little bit at the other place, but there had to be something else going on in your soul or something in your body telling you. I had to open it.
00:25:35
Speaker
I knew it was something that my own heart needed to exist. And I think to your point that you just made, I say to people now, if there's something in your life that
00:25:51
Speaker
Again, David White, thank you, brings you alive. Do as much of it as you can and see where it leads you. If that's something that you want to become a career or a business or whatever it is, just start by immersing yourself in it as much and as often as you can. When I started teaching, all of a sudden, I understood what people meant when they said that they were passionate about something.
00:26:15
Speaker
I mean, you could not, I mean, I started teaching and officially teaching in early 2013. I would have taught every day twice a day if someone had let me. I adored it. I mean, the very bodily feeling of loving
00:26:34
Speaker
something so much that's not a human or a dog, I guess. It's an addicting feeling to be missing that from my life. I taught once, maybe twice a week at Camp House at YC during the season.
00:26:53
Speaker
In the off season, I teach classes maybe once every couple of weeks for staff and employees. My heart was just broken over it. I didn't want to work for anybody else in that setting, so that was a motivator, but also it was just wanting to be able
00:27:15
Speaker
to build community through these classes and through this movement and realizing like that was my, like that feeling was my purpose and that purpose needed a space to grow. There we have it. All right. We got to it. Thank you. Yeah. Well, so, you know, is this something that you mentioned your parents a little bit before wanting to be like, um, show me the dollars. So when you went back to your family and you were like, you know,
00:27:44
Speaker
I kind of get this idea. It's going to sound a little bit crazy, but here's what I'm thinking. What kind of reception did you get from friends and family and some of those people whose brains you politely said you were not going to pick a tea, but that's definitely what you were doing. What kind of feedback did you get from people? Were they largely supportive or cautious? I think we get a lot of different reactions when we say we want to start something.
00:28:09
Speaker
Anybody who had taken the class of mine got it. They were like, you gotta do this. You absolutely, this makes so much sense. So that was a surprise to no one. Most of those people were in Maine, so they brought that. My parents were incredibly supportive. I think my entire life, almost to a fault, they have been very hesitant to give me any advice.
00:28:36
Speaker
professionally or like, they just never want to put any pressure on me or my brother to choose a certain path. And I have for the most part been very grateful to them for that. At some points I'm like, you could have just like, did I need to go work? You probably could have said like, maybe that's not the right move. But um, so they were like, well, okay, if this is something you want to do, do it.
00:29:01
Speaker
We're not going to, I mean, we're not going to, you know, break course and tell you not to. I, I think they probably, well, yeah, I don't know. I think they also know how determined I am once I decide I'm going to do something. So there's that piece of it too. So they were just like, it's happening. It's happening now. Yeah. This is happening. We're going to get on board. Yeah. And, um, I think, yeah, no, no one said you shouldn't do this. I guess.
00:29:30
Speaker
Oh, well, actually I did have one friend say, um, before I even, before Zephyr even became a real thought, like, no, he don't want to open a brick and mortar business because you will, or a spin studio because you're always going to be the best instructor. So you'll have to teach all the time. You'll never have any passive income and you're always going to be tied to the studio. And so someone did give me that piece of advice and there have been moments in the business where I'm like, whoa, would I have listened to her?
00:30:00
Speaker
No, but in complete and total transparency, that has not been the case at all. The best people in the world work at Zephyr and teach the best classes in the world, and I get to be one of the people who provides that experience now. That was kind of the only pushback I got. Gotcha. And to add to that, the first thing I did when I decided I was really going to do it was reach out to Pierbar because
00:30:29
Speaker
They had been a sanctuary of sorts for me. And the experience I had had in New York, I just felt like I was going to be viewed as competition by them. And so I just wanted to be very upfront and clear and express my gratitude. That's a courtesy. Yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
And they were, not only were they like, hell yeah, this is needed to happen, but like, let's partner on certain things so that we can elevate your brand. And that was my first experience in like the Bozeman business community of people wanting to collaborate. It was just shocked. And I love that. I love that phrase. Sometimes it doesn't always bear out the way that we hope that it would.
Setting Up and Staffing Zephyr
00:31:11
Speaker
But yes, from the beginning, they were so supportive and
00:31:15
Speaker
Um, to this day, I'm just very grateful for that because it really set the tone for a very collaborative environment that has stayed true to whose effort it is to this day.
00:31:26
Speaker
I love that. Now I mentioned in the intro, we haven't spoken to a lot or really maybe anyone who's had a brick and mortar business yet on the pot. So just for those who are wondering, tell us about the experience of actually setting that up. So I mean, you have equipment, you talked about the building, but you had to brand an actual space, not just a virtual one. What was the experience like getting it up and running?
00:31:53
Speaker
I'm completely overwhelmed by this to set the stage. I'm just like, I don't even understand these people with physical spaces and things. Like, tell me, how do you do it? How did you do it? How did you do it?
00:32:07
Speaker
How do you buy 32 bikes? Like I don't even, I don't even understand. Yeah. Um, well, I would guess the first thing I had to do, like, and we won't go through like every single step, but finding an architect who could create plans that could then be priced out by, yeah, that's crucial.
00:32:25
Speaker
especially if you're entering like a brand new space. It was empty. It was a blank space as Taylor Swift was saying. So having a good architect who can create plans that then you can
00:32:41
Speaker
take to builders to have them price out is crucial. Didn't know anything about that process, figured it out. And then thanks to SoulCycle, thanks to the studio in Maine that I'd worked at, I knew how important a space that felt good really truly was.
00:32:58
Speaker
You know, there's the experience of spinning in a back room at world gym as everybody lifts weights outside and then there's going to rev. And that was like a different, it was clean and it felt good and everybody had a towel and it was just like, yeah, it was different. So I knew that needed to happen. And I, I, oh, Kiitra Nelson from Classic Inc.
00:33:19
Speaker
recommended I work with Urbane Home, which they are an incredible duo of interior designers and would never ever ever be able to afford them now. But at the time they were also just getting started. So they gave me an amazing deal. And so they helped me with the fixtures and furnishes and FSE furniture, fixtures, equipment, that whole side of things.
00:33:46
Speaker
And then as far as the equipment, like the sound system and the bikes and all that, I knew what I wanted because I'd been in studio spaces and I knew I needed to sound good. I knew the specific bikes I wanted. I've since sold all those and bought new ones because I've changed my mind. It's not uncommon for me. So that piece of it, I was like, oh, I know I need this, this, and this.
00:34:06
Speaker
So you make kind of a little shopping list and you're like, here's, I know that the ingredients go into a good studio. Yeah. Cause I had to know how much everything was going to cost. And so, I want to know how you paid for it all. You had to get a loan for all this. Like, can we get into that? You know, you would get a loan. I also used, I had a lot, I have
00:34:28
Speaker
savings and I used a lot of it. Um, yeah, actually used all of it. I remember like six months after we opened, I was like, um, I'm going to have to start paying myself now. Cause there's nothing, there's nothing left. Um, Oh gosh.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah. So it was anything but linear or easy or straightforward. But again, it was just like the next right step. And there were moments where I'd get so frustrated because you're the project manager on this.
00:34:59
Speaker
Huge thing, and you're coordinating so many different pieces. The floor has to be in the studio before the bikes can arrive. Yeah, totally. Just the order of operations was so important, and I'm a Virgo, so I'm a micromanager. Anyone you know who works with me will say yes. But it's like staying on top of people to make sure that their part of the project gets done so that the next part of the project can commence. Otherwise, you're opening a year later.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm grateful that we were building out in 2017 and not 2023 because it's just a totally, totally different landscape. I mean, for what I spent then I couldn't do anything else. So you were managing this giant project and creating this space, but having, you know, people can go online and see the studio.
00:35:50
Speaker
having seen it in my own town, I can tell you it's beautiful and light and bright and there's dogs in it. You probably got that creativity fix from being able to do that part of it. At the same time, you had to do all the unfun stuff. Did that keep you going a little bit to see this thing come to life? Or were you like, this is a catastrophe?
00:36:15
Speaker
I wish I could say that it was that much fun. It wasn't. I mean seriously just tell me because I have no idea. I mean there were parts of it like seeing it come together was really incredible like actually I'm just looking at a picture of me it's on my computer but this is me and my first dog like standing on the podium it's just barely been roughed out and
00:36:36
Speaker
I'll have to get a copy of that. It's really sweet. But I just remember the day the podium went in and being like, Oh my God, I can see that this is going to be, this is going to work. And we have this big moon wallpaper behind the instructor podium. And like the day that moon went in, I was like.
00:36:52
Speaker
It's going to be amazing. And then I think what did keep me going was the people I was meeting who were going to teach and work at the studio because it made me feel less alone. I mean, it's such an isolating experience starting your own business. But then when you meet people who are like, oh my God, yes, I would love to teach her. I'd love to work the front desk. I'd love to be part of it in any way. That part of it was really exciting.
00:37:15
Speaker
So you, how did you start that kind of from the beginning? You were already looking for instructors. Like I think there are some people who would say, well, probably like your friend who warned you, you know, don't pay anyone. You know, it's going to be too expensive. You should just teach every class until you just completely burn out. This is a great idea. Right. But it sounds like from the beginning you were like, that's not going to work. Well, I.
00:37:40
Speaker
No, it wasn't going to work. I had that friend's voice in my mind and I didn't want it to be a studio of just one person being the superstar I had been in that situation. It really is hard because you just see class sizes fluctuate so much and you really want to have a team of people who teach solid classes so that no matter when someone comes to the studio, they're going to have an experience that you can be proud of.
00:38:06
Speaker
And I was just trying to bring it all back. But so my first, one of my first hires, and this is again, the collaborative nature of being a woman business owner, a female business owner in Bozeman. I truly believe it, but Keely Degenhart owned Spruce and Honey. She had started Spruce and Honey at the time and
00:38:27
Speaker
Spruce and Honey was a waxing parlor and I would go see her every month and it would be like business advice and therapy. Like, yeah, right. All else. I'm having this experience. It's a full service. Yes. I mean, to this day, she sold Spruce and Honey and now she has a space in Livingston and I will never see anybody else because I don't, Zephyr would not be where it is without her. She's never taken a class. It's not her thing. But she, she like one day said to me, you know, you really need to meet my other client, Jackie.
00:38:57
Speaker
She and her friend Carly are going to LA to get certified and spin because they really want to teach. And in my mind, I thought, who goes to LA to get spin certified if they're not starting on studio? I don't love that, but I don't know if her intentions are pure, but I, so I called Jackie and Jackie still has the voicemail and it was like in this high, like nervous tone and asking her if we could meet and, um,
00:39:22
Speaker
And so I met with her and Carly at the original tree line location, the roasting room off of Wallace. And it was like, love at first sight. I just clicked with them immediately and it was, uh,
00:39:36
Speaker
they still both teach to this day. They do, wow. Yeah, Jackie is pregnant with her second baby, so she's taking some breaks. Oh my goodness. Not many. And so that was, and then it was just sort of like word of mouth. Like I had a friend in Big Sky who was like, oh, you need to meet my sister. She teaches classes on campus. And so it was, it just all kind of came together in this beautiful way. And as I say that, I feel like I've said that a few times over the course of this podcast. I really do like,
00:40:06
Speaker
Zephyr's origin story really does give me faith in the universe because I can look back now and see how it could not have been a mistake for me to meet these people and to have them come into Zephyr's life because they have been such an integral part of whose Zephyr has become as a business.
00:40:27
Speaker
I have to admit, I'm having some massive FOMO that I live too many hours away to come to your studio. Cause it's just so, it just sounds so incredible. The second she watched the video, I was like, Oh, Mel, but it's because you're talking about two of my absolutely favorite things, connection and community. And it's not just that that's what you're creating for.
00:40:52
Speaker
that the geographical area you're in, it's like the entire essence of the company is that and it started that way. And it is what it is because of those things, like those people and those connections in the beginning. So I would talk to you all day about that if I could, but tell us more about the centrality of community at Zephyr now that it's established and small businesses in Montana. I mean, it's everything. It's,
00:41:22
Speaker
Absolutely everything. It's interesting talking about it now, three years after we had to shut our doors during COVID and figure out how we were going to maintain that community when we couldn't all meet in the same place. It's the same. Mallory, I could talk about it.
00:41:46
Speaker
All day long. Um, but I do say sometimes it's ever, you know, there's a reason we don't go into dark rooms and ride bikes to nowhere by ourselves.
00:41:57
Speaker
I mean, some people do. But at the heart of Zephyr are people who come to a place who may not agree with each other on everything or most things even sometimes. And yet they all know that coming together and feeling supported in a room full of people moving their bodies to work through whatever is going on in their lives is going to make them feel better.
00:42:26
Speaker
And I always say, Zephyr, that what we do in that room has a ripple effect. And beginning where you are, particularly given the world in which we live today, I mean, it can feel so overwhelming to know where to start to make a difference. But when you come into a space like Zephyr and you are vulnerable and honest and open with your heart in a space that's going to support that happening,
00:42:56
Speaker
You will have an impact not only on yourself, but on the people you interact with outside of that room.
00:43:04
Speaker
I know that better than anyone because the people who come and take my classes have taught me that. Over every life experience or up and down I've had over the past six and a half years, that community has been there as a nonjudgmental space that has allowed me to work through so many things that has then created the opportunity for me to show up as a better citizen of the world. It doesn't happen without community.
00:43:30
Speaker
On the flip side of that, in Bozeman and in Montana, there are all of these incredible businesses that would not exist if not for the people who support them and the towns that create the space for them to grow. We at Zephyr too try to express our gratitude to the external community as much as we can. Since day one, my background in fundraising and giving back,
00:43:57
Speaker
that's always been part of the ethos at Zephyr. Even when we were making no money, we still would host, we call them Zephyr Gives, rides or events where we pick a nonprofit and figure out a meaningful way to support them. Because that's just being a good neighbor and it's also giving back to a community that has continues to give us so much, whether or not they come into the doors of the studio.
00:44:27
Speaker
Well, and what is coming to my mind right now is earlier we recorded a podcast that you guys will hear next season on resilience. And when I hear you say that you intentionally built this community from the beginning, and then COVID hit,
00:44:44
Speaker
What I find myself thinking is, well, she built the foundation for things that she didn't know was coming, but that would give her that resilience for whatever, whatever the ups and downs, all of it. You could come back to that community and be like, well, we will figure it out. Like we have what we need in this room. Like we will figure it out. So like, tell me how COVID happened. Like I remember driving by and I would see bikes in the parking lot.
00:45:11
Speaker
You were doing classes outside. What was that whole experience like for you, having a physical business where everyone's in a small room together? It was really hard. It was really hard. Again, it took me back to the days of building the business. It was like, okay, you just have to make the right next right decision. March 15th hit. I remember taking a class that morning. It was a Sunday.
00:45:37
Speaker
and thinking like, oh, this is wild. We won't close our doors though. It's not going to be that wild. And then I was at brunch with a friend and we saw on Instagram that Big Sky had closed and I was like, oh, this is real.
Impact of COVID-19 and Renovations
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
And I'll never forget that afternoon, just sitting in my living room thinking like, what is the right thing to do here? Cause no other, I mean, a couple, I think the mountain project had made the choice to close, but I don't think any other studio on Bozeman had yet, at least not that I had seen. Not that early.
00:46:09
Speaker
I just knew I was like, okay, we have to close. We just have to because this is so much bigger than us. We don't know and we're closing. We did and then within days gave ourselves a crash course on how to film and record as I'm sure you guys are familiar. Online classes and I think we released our first online class on St. Patrick's Day maybe.
00:46:34
Speaker
In the past, in 2019, we developed an off the bike workout that, thank God. Okay, I was going to say how? Yeah, because we had this rhythm-based, mat-based workout that anybody could do. We rented out our bikes, every single one of them, and had them on monthly membership. You sent them home with people.
00:46:54
Speaker
We did. It was really scary. Oh, I had no idea. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. That's creative though. Yeah. Well, and initially, cause I'd seen a studio that I followed and admire a lot, which is another spin studio in Maine. They were going to rent their bikes out and I was like, what? That's your biggest physical asset. And you can't guarantee that people are going to take care of them. It turns out spin bikes are so true.
00:47:18
Speaker
But then it was like, well, we don't really have a choice here. They can't just sit here and we're losing thousands of dollars a week. We rented them all out and people were so kind about them.
00:47:29
Speaker
I'll never forget the day people came to pick them up because it was like, you couldn't like touch each other. Anything, right? And your hands are by yourself. We lined them all up down the street. We had like pickup time. So no more than a few people were there at once. And like, you just see people rolling into their cars and like irking a man and strapping him down. And I'd be like, Oh, well, it looks, but everybody was so kind and wonderful. And, um, when we were able to reopen, we moved everything outside really quickly. Um,
00:47:57
Speaker
And my landlords were like, yeah, you can do classes in the parking lot. You just can't make any noise. And I was like, oh. So we got these headphones that people use at silent raves and discos.
00:48:13
Speaker
And then we did, we did outdoor classes like into November. I mean, and then it was like, okay, Noah. And I was like, Oh, the Rialto isn't being used for anything, which is this iconic concert venue in downtown Pozen. And so I reached out to one of my friends who was, um,
00:48:31
Speaker
I forget what her role was there at the time. Now she runs it. But I was like, Kristen, do you think there's ever a chance that we could move to the Rialto for the winter? And she was like, I don't know, but I'll ask my boss and see. And they were so gracious. They were like, yeah, I mean, we can't. I did not know you did that. Oh, we lived in the Rialto. That's so clever. We lived in the Rialto for eight months. And we could have the bike six feet apart. We had them on the meds. Yeah. We had them on the stage. And it was so much fun. Oh my goodness. We had a great time.
00:49:01
Speaker
And then make noise within reason. Yeah. Okay. I mean, yes. And then, cause you know, they're used to having like concerts at night, right? We've got businesses on either side of you, but everyone was really awesome about it. And while that was happening, I renovated.
00:49:17
Speaker
the 2000 south third location because it had just seen so much wear and tear in our first three years and then moving the bikes in and out for months at a time. Like the front desk staff who worked at Zephyr before we moved to the Rialto during COVID, I mean, they would roll the bikes out into the parking lot at five in the morning.
00:49:34
Speaker
rolling back in at 10 a.m., roll them out again at 4 p.m., roll them back out again. So they were just, I mean, again, it's the people and none of it would have been possible without them. So by the time we finally moved back in May of 21, we had
00:49:49
Speaker
done some things. And our community made it possible. I mean, they were with us every step of the way. They were like, you're doing this. No. Okay. You're doing this now. Okay. Right. Okay. We'll be over there I guess. And that's the power of, I mean, I have had experiences in studios where I know what you're talking about, where it's just like magic. It's just the energy and you can't,
00:50:09
Speaker
I do spin on my own when I'm not injured in my basement, going nowhere sometimes, but it misses. And you know, I can get benefits from it, but there is that lack of energy of sharing that space with other people. And so I think because you had built that already, I'm not surprised that you said that this community behind you kept you going and followed you around because they were craving it just as much, if not more than before.
00:50:35
Speaker
And recently I was just reading an article and it was, it was talking about like the increase in women entrepreneurs and women, small business owners. Cause I guess October was national small women's small business month last month. Yes. And, um, it was basically talking about the success of these companies, of these women, small businesses.
00:50:58
Speaker
actually positively impact the economy and they can have a big impact on the success of a community's economy. And that's exactly what you're doing. So I think it's amazing. It's so amazing to see. And I think like even the, this is not the right word, but like the life economy, like you putting that effort into these individuals in your class, like during, especially a very difficult time for everyone,
00:51:25
Speaker
That sends them back home in a better mental state. That lets them show up for work in a better state and deal with kids at home in a better state. Like I said, it's a ripple effect. It's very true. I also say the way you ride your bike is reflective of the way you live your life.
00:51:47
Speaker
get honest about that. And you know, the things that you work through in the studio are absolutely like how you, can you be more responsive rather than reactive when you think about adding resistance to the right. And when you take that space to really determine what's right, what feels right in your body. I mean, that's a practice that you can then take into literally every other part of your life.
00:52:09
Speaker
So many life lessons. But how did your why, that we've identified now, this passion and this community and connection you were craving. So you made it for yourself. I mean, how important was that for you to get through that really hard time? And I would say COVID probably was the hardest challenge you probably had in your business at that point. How did coming back to your why really help you and ground you through that experience?
00:52:34
Speaker
Well, I just loved the business so much. Um, and you know, there's this, I mean, I've never had a human child, so I don't profess to know what that's like. But when you have star babies, literal blood, sweat and tears in your entire heart to something for at that point, almost three, well, three and a half years, if you count like the build out, like it just wasn't an option not to
00:53:00
Speaker
fight to keep it. And on top of that, very immediately we were getting incredible feedback from people that the classes we were teaching and recording and uploading were getting people through their days and making a difference for people during what was an unprecedented time in everybody's life.
00:53:21
Speaker
And that in and of itself was like, for me, I was like, all right, this is the purpose right here. It is making people's lives better during a time when we don't really know what's next. And so I was going to keep fighting to do that.
00:53:35
Speaker
in any way that I could. It strikes me in your story, you just said it a little bit, but you were reinvesting in your business during that time to renovate your existing space when I think a lot of people were not spending a dime. That was very hopeful of you.
00:53:54
Speaker
to be like, you know what? I envision us being back here. I'm going to pivot a bit during this time when I don't have people in the space to improve the space. I think that's very different than what a lot of people would have done. Well, there was that, but there was also
00:54:13
Speaker
Thank you. I appreciate that. And that was part of it. Absolutely. The other part of it was, all right, I'm going to have to have people be okay with being like next to each other again. And like, how can I make this studio feel as clean and as safe as possible while essentially asking people to do something that they hadn't done at that point in over a year.
00:54:37
Speaker
So that was definitely a motivator as well. It was like, this reinvestment is 1000% necessary because it can't be, it can't look like it did before. In some ways it's got to be better. Well, yeah, because I want to go.
00:54:53
Speaker
I want to go back to this one thing you said about these things people are working through. You said you had a great quote and you said the things people worked through. How you ride your bike is how you live your life. Did you write it down? Yeah. But talk to us about how that as a business owner comes to play for other business owners. So you're riding, I know exactly what you mean because I have had this experience personally.
00:55:20
Speaker
feel myself building resilience or closing stress loops or getting into a flow state when I'm riding hard or exercising or moving in a way that I can only focus on that. But I'd like to know how you think that experience for you, either riding or teaching, relates to owning a business. Are there parallels there?
00:55:44
Speaker
How you ride your bike is how you run your business. Yeah, maybe that's the quote. I don't know. Running your bike, business is a part of the life that you're leading, so absolutely. But I think in a lot of ways, either teaching a class or taking a class makes me a better business owner without
00:56:06
Speaker
question. It does. Because if I'm really riled up about something and I teach a class and like the words that come out of my mouth are all about compassion. Like she's going through something. Oh no. Some of the people who have written with me for years can know if something's going on. And that's very funny and true.
00:56:28
Speaker
You know, I hear what's coming out of my mouth and I'm like, all right, so this, you know, you have, like, you need to take your own advice here. Practice this. So there's that side of it. And then there's also just the magic that is effort that I get to receive, which is when I get go take a class and I move through something. There's never a class I've, I mean,
00:56:45
Speaker
Maybe when I, cause I don't drink anymore, but there would be a couple of times where I would show up and take class pretty hungover or teach hungover. And at the end of class, I would not feel better than I did at the beginning. But since I stopped drinking almost two years ago, like there is not a class I take where I don't feel better at the end of it mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Like it's just, I'm just, there's, it's just impossible. So to be able to then have that experience and
00:57:11
Speaker
feel better going into my day, it allows me to have more genuine and patient and honest interactions with the people who help me run the business. Well, I think that's just a piece of your self-care, a bit of an overused term, but it's how do I need to set up my own life and take care of myself so that I can
00:57:35
Speaker
run this business the way I should, show up for other people the way I should. What are some of the other things that you've done? I mean, I know there are, you know, dogs in the studio and that's number one for me. Um, that's number one through 10 for me. Just dogs literally everywhere. But what else do you do to kind of take care of yourself and to take space and to, you know, refill your own? I mean, for me, it's an energy thimble, but for you, it might be more.
00:58:03
Speaker
Yeah. Um, uh, riding a bike. Yeah. Um, yeah. Well, uh, the strengths, training classes, et cetera are really great too. So I take a little bit. No, I mean, dogs are really a very crucial piece of it for me. And, um, sometimes I'm in a great meditative practice where I wake up every day and I meditate and I read something that is not the case right now. And I was lamenting that to a mentor. I was like, I feel like I've really,
00:58:32
Speaker
My morning routine has just got to shit in this stressful moments of life. And then we were talking about my dogs and she was like, well, so you're saying that you go for walks with the dogs and you don't look at your phone and you're just with them the whole time.
00:58:49
Speaker
And it fills her cup. And I'm like, yeah, actually, that is such a, that's like, it is something for me that creates so much meaning. And until she pointed that out to me, it was like, I felt like if I didn't get the dogs out on a day, I had let them down. But really it was like, if I didn't get the dogs out on the day, it was letting them in me down. And so that's just, I mean,
00:59:09
Speaker
I love Bozeman for many reasons, but one of the biggest is the fact that there are so many incredible ways to be outside with your animals within 25 minutes of your front door. That is something I never take for granted. I'd say that's a very, very huge, big piece of it. Other than that, I love to eat good food. I love to spend time with people who feel
00:59:31
Speaker
like home, I would say I'm probably much less extroverted than I used to be. So I don't spend a lot of time like out on the town. Maybe that's also just in 36. But on days that I have, when I get to go for a hike with the dogs with a great friend, there is nothing that re-energizes me like that.
00:59:53
Speaker
And to self-care, like taking care of my body in ways that aren't movement, like the choice not to drink has been a game changer for me. Huge game changer. Sleep, yes. Not always the greatest. And my dog's waking up at 5.15 for breakfast, whether they're at four or something. I'm like, all right.
Importance of Self-care and Music
01:00:13
Speaker
But I used to think that it was like movement, movement, movement had to be how I took care of myself. But now it really is like eating things that I know are going to nourish me.
01:00:23
Speaker
Um, hydrating time to do less. Like if I have a Saturday night, I'm on the couch with the dogs watching. What did we watch last weekend? Oh, Oh, like the supermodels documentary on double TV. That was their choice. Probably. Sure. Yeah. Um,
01:00:42
Speaker
They truly have been, yeah. But moments like that where you're just like, I think sometimes I struggle with needing to be doing something and it's a real practice to do less and know that I will have more energy to give when it is time to work if I take that time.
01:01:01
Speaker
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I've loved this. We have time for our last fun closer, even though I want to talk to you about community and movement connections all day. Nicole has a fun question to wrap us up. I feel like this is like Renee Brown who's going to ask me what my top five favorite songs are. Oh gosh. OK, well, it was close. I was going to ask, if you could only cycle to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hold on by Wilson Phillips.
01:01:35
Speaker
It's my favorite song of all time and you can do anything to that song. Okay. I can see that totally soundtrack done. Oh my gosh. It's when I was little, it's like one of my first
01:01:49
Speaker
I mean, poor memory is such a well used term now, but now that I look back, it really was my mom had a Wilson Phillips cassette tape and I used to listen to hold on and rewind and listen and rewind and listen to my heart. And it's an incredible song to move your body to. And the message is very, very relevant, no matter what part of the spectrum of life you're on at any given time.
01:02:12
Speaker
We might all going to have to link to the lyrics and all go listen to it again to refresh our memories. Carolyn, thank you for letting us be part, all of us all over listening, be a little part of your community and sharing it with us. We really appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thank you both so much for having me. This has really been hard extensive for me to think about, to go back over the past few years and just be able to talk about it. So thank you.
01:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, our pleasure. All right. Well, that wraps us up. So we will see everybody next week on the next episode. Thanks for listening. Hop over to unbound boss.com to join our community and leave us a voice memo. We absolutely love hearing from you. If you'd like the podcast, please subscribe, leave us an Apple review and share your favorite episodes with other women entrepreneurs. Talk to you soon.