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S2E14: Building a Multi-Million Dollar Barre and Yoga Business with Andrea Isabelle Lucas
175 Plays1 year ago
What's it like to know that Hozier (yeah, that Hozier) read your book?
Pretty great. A little surreal and intense.
How do I know that?
Because in this week’s Content People ep, we talked to @Andrea Isabelle Lucas. And I asked her.
Andrea’s the owner and founder of Barre & Soul, a beloved, multi-million dollar Barre & Yoga studio franchise in and around the Boston area.
With Barre & Soul, Andrea’s created a devoted client base, a beautiful brand, and a cool, welcoming studio experience. (I know that because I did my Yoga Teacher Training there back in 2016. 🧘💜)
Andrea’s also an author (her book - the one Hozier read? - is Own It All), and a speaker who’s shared the stage with folks like Michelle Obama and Billie Jean King.
I’m a little exhausted just writing this intro. I won’t even get into the fact that she’s been featured in places like the BBC, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Women’s Health, the Huffington Post, and Boston Magazine.
Just, like, look her up. Andrea’s a powerhouse. (And low-key one of my style icons.)
Our conversation covered:
- The light-bulb moment that totally changed the course of her career.
- How Andrea arrived at Barre & Soul’s iconic brand look.
- Her advice around taking the biggest risk you can stomach. Even if it’s just a baby step.
- The moves (and risks) that helped her business succeed in such a competitive space.
- An impactful mindset shift that empowered Andrea to rethink boutique pricing.
- How it feels to see photos of Hozier reading your book. (Intense.)
- An incredible book rec - The War of Art. (Which, btw, I’m already halfway through.)
And a lot more. This was really one of my favorite convos yet.
Hope you like it.
Check it out - link in comments ⤵️
[LINK OUT]
For Show Notes:
Follow the Content People newsletter:
https://meredithfarley.substack.com/
Follow Meredith on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley/
Find Andrea:
Own It All:
https://www.amazon.com/Own-All-Only-Person-Change/dp/1633538540
Barre & Soul:
https://www.barresoul.com/
Andrea’s site and sign-up for her newsletter:
https://andreaisabellelucas.com/
The War of Art: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+war+of+art&hvadid=616931716525&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9002004&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2173763426570252275&hvtargid=kwd-342894155&hydadcr=24661_13611822&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_6k2tqkpngm_e
Follow Andrea on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/andreaisabellelucas/?hl=en
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Transcript
Introduction and Meredith's Journey
00:00:09
Speaker
Hi and welcome to Content People! I'm your host Meredith Farley. I'm a former chief product officer turned chief operating officer turned CEO and founder. My agency is called Medbury. At Medbury we work with founders, execs, and companies who want to tell their stories and grow. But Content People is not about me or Medbury, it's about the creative leaders and professionals that we interview every week.
00:00:33
Speaker
We'll delve into their journeys, unpack their insights, and ask them for practical advice. If you like it, please rate and subscribe. Let's get started.
Meeting Andrea Isabel Lucas
00:00:44
Speaker
Hi, Andrea. I'm so excited to get to chat with you and looking forward to this. Thank you so much for being here. Hi. Thank you for having me. It's awesome to reconnect.
00:00:53
Speaker
I guess before I jump into all my questions, I should say that I know you because I did yoga teacher training at your studio's bar in Seoul back in 2016 and really admired you from a distance and always thought you were so cool. And it's really so fun to get to talk to you. Um, keep it coming. Anything else? For folks who aren't super familiar with you, could you say a little bit about who you are and what you do? Yes.
Bar and Soul's Evolution
00:01:19
Speaker
Thank you so much for that intro. And my name is Andrea Isabel Lucas. I'm the owner of Bar and Soul. We have four brick and mortar locations in New England. We're in Providence, Rhode Island, Harvard Square in Mass, Melrose Mass, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We also have a virtual studio where we do lots of live streaming classes every day, bar and yoga, with a few other fun things thrown in sometimes, and also on demand.
00:01:47
Speaker
And as you mentioned, um, teacher training. So we do yoga teacher training, both online and in person and bar teacher training online.
00:01:58
Speaker
Thank you. When I first joined in 2016, I think Barn Soul was fairly new-ish. Is that right? What year did you guys start?
Expansion and Pandemic Pause
00:02:07
Speaker
We started in 2013, and then I basically opened one new studio every year. I opened one in 2013, 2015, and 2016. I hit the brakes on expanding for a while, launching some other online offerings and things like that.
00:02:22
Speaker
And really glad I did now knowing what I do about the pandemic. Not having to steer more locations through that period. But now that we're on the other side of it, we're talking about expanding again.
00:02:35
Speaker
Oh, that's exciting. So what inspired you to start Bar and Soul? What was behind it for you? So I had the sort of epiphany, if you will, while I was taking a bar class one day, I was teaching bar part-time, I thought of it as a complete side hustle, had just finished up a degree in women's studies, thought I wanted to go on to do a PhD so that I could really be part of the conversation around
00:03:02
Speaker
equality and I wanted to really have an impact on women and I wanted to write books and just really make a difference for people.
00:03:12
Speaker
And I had a lightning bolt moment, I guess you could say, or a light bulb moment while I was taking class one day and I realized, oh my gosh, if I did this full time, I could accomplish all the same things by creating a studio community where that is baked into the culture because the beautiful thing is you're never finished with working out. You've got to maintain and take care of your physical health for the entire rest of your life for as long as you want to feel good.
00:03:41
Speaker
It gives an opportunity to really have a platform to spread this message and to help empower folks and have a ripple effect in their lives. So I knew that I wanted that probably as early as 2010.
Pivotal Moments and Motivation
00:03:55
Speaker
And I wasn't ready to start right away. I had a fork in the road moment where I had the opportunity to buy a studio of where I had originally trained. The owner was moving away and she wanted to find someone to take it over.
00:04:09
Speaker
At the same time, the management position opened up for a more of a corporate spot where I also taught. And as much as I knew I wanted to have my own studio, I wasn't ready yet. And I think there's a lot to be said for what I call taking the biggest risk that you can stomach for today. It just wasn't time for me to go all in on my own business. I needed a guaranteed paycheck.
00:04:33
Speaker
I didn't have the management experience. So I totally stand by choosing the corporate job for a couple of years so that I could learn what I learned. And then right around 2012, BAR really started to go mainstream. So I had been teaching it at that point for five years and trying to explain to people what it was.
00:04:53
Speaker
And right around that time, a lot of the franchises started really blowing up and popping up everywhere and people started really seeking out. Bar got really hot and trendy. And what I saw was that everybody wanted to add bar their schedules, Jim's studios, but the, for one thing to open a franchise.
00:05:15
Speaker
was very expensive and time consuming. It takes a while to get that off the ground. And also the level of excellence, the training that I had been given and the kind of trainings that I was used to delivering at my corporate job were so top notch. And I saw a lot of people just winging it and slapping together anything involving a ballet bar and thinking that
00:05:38
Speaker
that was bar where I had been trained in this very Lottie Burke based method. She's the one who invented bar in 1959 and her name has always been trademarked so not everybody knows that. Anyway, I was trained in the Lottie Burke
Initial Business Model and Growth
00:05:53
Speaker
style. I saw an opportunity for me to go out on my own and speak a lot of these franchises to the market because I knew it took a little while to get where I'm going and I knew
00:06:04
Speaker
I don't know if I feel all the way ready for this, but I know that I have a really valuable skill set that is having a moment right now. So I'm going to do this is really the time to just take the leap and figure it out.
00:06:18
Speaker
And that was in 2013 when you were like, yeah, it was like a cross between 2012 and 13. I left the corporate management full-time safe job in 2012. And then I started partnering with other studios. That was because I really didn't have any capital to get started. And I didn't understand even how people signed commercial leases. I was like, how much money do people have to
00:06:46
Speaker
Sign on for some lease that's more than your house payment probably. And what happens if your business doesn't work out? What happens if no one comes? Then what do you do? I just totally was scared of all of that. And so what I did was I partnered with studios that already existed but wanted to add bar.
00:07:07
Speaker
and wanted it to be a really good program. I was able to come in and pitch Bar and Soul as a class and as a method. And the first studio I had a partnership with, it was so beautiful, they hired me as a contractor and then I subcontracted all of the bar teachers and we used the Bar and Soul name and branding on all the bar classes and I was able to
00:07:29
Speaker
really not have any overhead costs. And I got to deliver a great bar program out of their studio, start building up a team of teachers. So it was just like such an awesome way to get started. It was really two things that led to me having my own studio. One was a conversation that I had where I was just chatting with a shop owner in town and where I live.
00:07:51
Speaker
And I told her about my business and she said, oh, so you have a studio? And I was like, no, I don't have my own studio because I don't know anything about how to, what is the insurance and how do you pay people and how does that, how do all these leases work and everything?
00:08:08
Speaker
And she said, Oh God, no one knows how to do that. That's what you have a lawyer and an accountant for. They'll just tell you what to do. Don't worry. You'll figure it out. And her words really stayed with me after that. And so when I approached another studio about creating a partnership to bring the bar program there, she combined it in me that she was moving and she was looking for someone to take over the studio.
00:08:30
Speaker
So I was able to see on paper that studio was thriving. It was profitable. So it didn't feel so scary to sign on to Elise and make that commitment at that point. So the timing just worked out when it was time.
Philosophy of Manageable Risks
00:08:45
Speaker
And I was already in the action of just taking the baby steps and taking each step that felt like
00:08:50
Speaker
Okay, here's a risk that feels tolerable for now and just continuing to trust that they would stack up one on top of the other, which eventually led to creating a multi-million dollar company. I feel like you just said so many wise things there. I love the idea of the greatest risk that you can stomach. And I think some people when they have a dream of starting something of their own or they're thinking about it, they almost feel like a guilt or a shame around
00:09:20
Speaker
doing financially responsible things like still having the steady paycheck or a part-time job or taking that management role because you had the feeling that you wanted to learn more. So I really appreciate you sharing. That was an imperative and necessary part of the process for you. And that all sounds so brilliant. Was it intuitive for you at the time or did it feel very strategic to you in the moment too?
00:09:44
Speaker
I think that I was lucky that there was some pressure with the way that Barr was blowing up and everybody was jumping on the bandwagon. And I knew I had an advantage with all of my experience and my expertise and knowledge.
00:09:59
Speaker
It lit a fire under me to get going. I think that in no way did I think the steps that I was taking were baby steps that they felt huge. It felt like this is the biggest thing I can imagine doing right now.
00:10:17
Speaker
And I don't know that I actually thought I was building toward having studios. That dream probably felt a little too big or a little too distant or maybe a Sunday kind of dream. I'm not the kind of person that has the means and the resources to have a multimillion dollar multi-studio business. Never would I have.
00:10:41
Speaker
thought that was me at that time. So really what I thought I was doing was coming up with the alternative that I felt I could fail. And at that time I thought it was partnerships and it just worked out beautifully that doors continued to open once I went down that partnership road. But I would say that I totally agree with what you said about how sometimes it's scary
00:11:03
Speaker
to even name a dream. And I still have things like that, that when I try to speak that vision out loud, it's I can feel like a, I call it like a little clamshell sensation in my throat, or even in my heart, like I can feel things shutting down when I'm in that fear of owning that dream just yet. And I just think it's important to figure out, okay, can I speak into the universe? And what can I imagine doing right?
00:11:34
Speaker
I really liked that.
Branding and Aesthetics
00:11:35
Speaker
It's like working with your fear a little bit and you're being in conversation with it and being like, all right, I hear the resistance there. Let's find a compromise for today. I love that. One thing about foreign souls is I love so many things about it, but the branding is so good. And it always seems to me in line with your own personal branding and aesthetic. I don't know. I'd be curious to know how impactful you felt it was in building up the business. And I'm really curious.
00:12:04
Speaker
how you honed in on the voice and the visual style. Did you work with a team? Was it all you? Great questions. And thank you so much. I'm so glad that it resonates with you. And I guess my first question, my first answer is a question, which is just, can you describe a little bit more about what parts of it speak to you and what stands out to you? Because you know how sometimes when it's your own brand, you're so close to it, you don't even know what it looks like to other people. So I'm curious.
00:12:32
Speaker
All right, that's a great question. So when I think of Barn Soul, I think of the logo, I think of that color teal. I think of how the piano in the Harvard Square Room is the exact color teal of the logo.
00:12:47
Speaker
I don't know if it's an exact part of your branding, but the gray of the yoga mats and the blocks are cohesive. There's like a 70s vibe to everything from the fonts and the merch you guys sell to even photo shoots that you do with instructors. And I'll say there's also for me, like a sensorial element to it in that you have the really nice thick
00:13:15
Speaker
Gaia mats, which feel great. The mat spray, that lavender smells absolutely incredible. The studio is always in beautiful shape. Now I'm like, man, I really turned into some things. But also, you had one of those Douglas fir Christmasy smelling candles that I love the smell of that were there for a bit. So I feel like for me, it's 70s.
00:13:43
Speaker
in style, which feels playful and feminine, very cohesive, but also from a sensorial perspective, I felt like I was going somewhere clean, that smelled lovely, that was very comfortable, and it was like a premium experience.
00:14:00
Speaker
Oh my God. All of it, really. Like, you got me. You. I'm just loving this. I took so many notes in your talk. Here's something interesting. When I was in my corporate job, I had to teach 15 classes a week. So it was three classes a day, five days a week. And just to be blunt about it, I got a bit burnt out on teaching. And, and I also noticed that I don't like to just be in one place. I like to see different students and different people and get around.
00:14:30
Speaker
So when I started Bar and Soul, even in the beginning when I was just doing the partnership model, I knew I wanted multiple locations and I knew I didn't want to be teaching all the classes. I wanted it to be sustainable without me having to work so hard on so many hours of teaching, which was just like really hard of a body. So.
00:14:52
Speaker
I have the privilege of being more of a member at the studios than just a teacher. So when I go there, I'm usually taking class and I just think about what are the things that I enjoy aesthetically. So very much the aesthetic is driven by
00:15:08
Speaker
my love of all things retro for sure. And yeah, I had like classic rock in mind when I did branding. That being said, I will tell you something that I think you would find interesting about how I arrived at the aesthetic. And that was, I didn't have a lot of money when I was starting out and everything was very DIY, like very DIY. My partner's really handy.
00:15:33
Speaker
He happens to be an architect, so he's able to, when I look at a space, tell me how many mats that I can fit and what's going to be the best layout and traffic patterns and things like that. And he's also reasonably handy at hanging ballet bars, putting down flooring, those kind of things.
00:15:49
Speaker
What I didn't have was investors. I didn't have a ton of capital. I really started with a business credit card that I got approved for $20,000. I was so surprised I remember at the time. So what I knew I couldn't compete with was the posh environment that you would get at Equinox or an exhale, which were some of the
00:16:12
Speaker
competitors out there who were also doing bar really well. And so I knew we weren't going to have million dollar build out. So I thought, how do I lean into being not flush and being a little more gritty?
00:16:28
Speaker
and feeling more neighborhoody and let's be the anti-stepford wives right the anti-stereotype of this luxurious uh spa environment and let's feel more like a cool neighborhood coffee shop vibe uh so
00:16:45
Speaker
That drove a lot of it is knowing that it was going to be a lot of DIY. So we really leaned into a lot of industrial kind of fixtures and things like that. We could just build ourselves out of pipes and those kinds of things. I also just thought about.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yeah, branding that, to me, what I love about anything retro is that things that have already had their moment and that are still beautiful don't go out of style in general, right? Marilyn Monroe's style will never not be.
00:17:18
Speaker
gorgeous and a pair of bell bottoms from the 70s are always just going to be so flattering on your body, even no matter a decade later and it was a trend and it's a trend that comes back every once in a while because for good reason. I love the idea of timeless style that you don't have to update every five years. That doesn't just end up quickly looking dated.
00:17:40
Speaker
So that's part of it, that really went into it. And as far as, yeah, aesthetically, I really love the, I love a lot of black and white or shades of gray with pops of color. So I really let, the teal was just my favorite color and I really let that guide how they were doing props. I didn't want the spaces to feel loud. I wanted it to feel like a canvas that had a few like focal pops like in them.
00:18:07
Speaker
the TL piano that you talked about. So that really drove the aesthetic. But again, being a member of my own studios, I know that I want a thicker, more squishy mat. I know that I want it to smell amazing when I walk in. Those are things that I really look for. And so when I do feel resistance, and I just think it's so important in a brick and mortar business to focus on the 360 degree experience, not just
00:18:33
Speaker
the visuals, like in an online brand, it's like very 2D. But in 3D, you have to speak to all the senses. So whenever I feel resistance about going to class myself, I check in and see what, if anything, is causing friction, and how can I make it more inviting, softer, and more appealing. For example, in the wintertime,
00:18:56
Speaker
I noticed I was doing a lot of online classes and I wasn't feeling like going to the studio as much. And it was literally like I didn't want enough to deal with that moment when you first step in and you take your coat off. I didn't want to be cold. I know this is so silly, but I paid attention to that and noticed it. Then I made sure that we put space heaters right by the front door that really cozy, have a candle going, have it smelling good so that you would overcome that little hitch of resistance because there's so many things
00:19:23
Speaker
that can get in the way of us doing what we say we want to do to take care of ourselves.
Luxury in Boutique Businesses
00:19:30
Speaker
So I look for those things. That is so interesting because I think everything you're saying is I'm finding very fascinating. As someone who went to the studios, they never felt
00:19:44
Speaker
I went gritty to me and I'm actually thinking I felt like I was an environment that was anticipating what might feel nice and took care of me a little bit in that way and which is I think what you're speaking to and to me that's that feeling nurtured like that is that's luxury that's a spot I want to go to.
00:20:01
Speaker
I want to also mention something about what you just said, because this is actually something I just wrote about in my newsletter, like about a month ago. And I think it spoke to a lot of people. So I always thought because I didn't have fancy built out, like an eight weeks, for example, that I couldn't charge a higher price point or something in line with what a gym like that would charge. I thought I had to charge less because the environment wasn't
00:20:31
Speaker
ultra luxurious. And I was at a really cool local coffee shop that is a mom and pop. So much love goes into every cup of coffee there. Everything is just, it feels so boutique and awesome.
00:20:47
Speaker
And I'm at this coffee shop with a friend of mine who also is a business advisor of mine. And she was asking why our prices weren't higher for our memberships. And I said, I just feel funny charging as much as a fancier
00:21:03
Speaker
built out studio. And she said, why? And I said, I don't know, it just feels like you, you can't charge as much as you can for luxury. And she said, wait a minute, let me just stop you right there. She was like, people will pay for luxury, but they will also pay for rock and roll.
00:21:20
Speaker
And she was like, your brand is really rock and roll. And that is an experience. That's a luxury experience in and of itself. And then she said, look around this coffee shop. Does this look like a Starbucks build out to you? And I said, no. And she said, cool. I would pay more for a latte here with you. And I was like, oh my God, I totally would pay more for a latte here because it's boutique. So this was a major mindset hurdle that I'm literally over this summer.
00:21:47
Speaker
recently just overcame realizing that there's different ways to define luxury and something, what you spoke to, something boutique where it is lovingly offered with so much care and thoughtfulness and just presence, right? It's not a corporate entity that is being run from afar. This is like
00:22:08
Speaker
being tended to day in and day out by studio managers who love their job, who are, like you said, anticipating the needs of the community, making sure that the experience is addictive, quite honestly. I think that I just had a big breakthrough that it is worth just as much as a really glossy, more corporate-y experience.
00:22:31
Speaker
That's really interesting. I read that newsletter and I really liked it and we'll put your newsletter in the show notes, but anyone listening should definitely subscribe. It's great content. I'm thinking as well too, for listeners who maybe aren't in the gym space, but are, have their own boutique offering, I think.
00:22:50
Speaker
that what you're saying is very applicable and that clients of all kinds really can feel that love, attention and care and it's incredibly valuable for folks and they'll pay for it for sure.
00:23:01
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. I love how Amazon gets the crap I need to my doorstep the very next day. And I'm not going to stop shopping from them, but I really love when I buy something on Etsy and it arrives beautifully wrapped with something thoughtful tucked in to the package that I wasn't expecting or a little note or just some aesthetically pleasing paper or something that feels good to the touch that's in that package. Just.
00:23:27
Speaker
brings joy. I think there's so many ways that smaller boutique businesses can really just create that feeling of luxury. And I wanted to speak to one more thing that you asked me about, which is like, how did I realize the, how did I get the branding to come together? Was there a team and things like that? I have to say that when I tried to
00:23:54
Speaker
go the cheap or the easy way with the branding and try to do it myself.
00:23:59
Speaker
When it came to certain things, it just wasn't, it was just doing it the hard way. It was worth hiring someone to do the graphic design piece up front and create a beautiful brand guy. And who knows, like maybe I needed to go through a few iterations of me trying to do the logo on my own and things like that. For example, my first logo was Lobster Font. It was 2013, that was really popular. And somebody else, another studio close to me,
00:24:27
Speaker
created their logo and it was also lobster font and it just felt like so similar everybody was doing all lowercase at the time so that's how we both had ours that way and and i just realized that i wanted to be able to have a logo that couldn't look just like someone else's so i did hire a graphic designer who i just loved everything on her website i thought it was beautiful and i had her hand illustrate the logo for us including the apron sand because
00:24:54
Speaker
If the ampersand was going to be a big part of the branding, which it is, I just didn't want it to be a font that I could see it somewhere else and have it representing another brand. So I had her hand draw based on typography that I liked and some different fonts that I showed her that I thought were beautiful.
00:25:12
Speaker
But it was really great to do that. She did a really beautiful job about figuring out exactly the colors that were the primary and all the secondary colors and just how to bring it all together with the right fonts, the right colors and the right logo and secondary logo option. And then gave us a really beautiful guide about how to use it and how not to use it, which was big. Like even though yellow was a secondary color, she was very adamant that
00:25:38
Speaker
Don't make the barn soul like in percent yellow because that's just not That'll be off brand that will start to dilute don't take this straight logo and put it on an angle because that's not the logo and things like that so that was really useful and then I wanted to tell you that we're actually a
00:25:56
Speaker
going to be updating the branding. I'm really excited about it and I would say that brands that inspired that last iteration, I was thinking a lot of like classic rock 70s record albums. I'm a big fan of Aviator Nation. I love what they do with the gradient rainbow stripes and when you go into their spaces
00:26:18
Speaker
Talk about love. I believe the owner and her dad physically go in there, paint the murals, staple the record albums to the walls. If you haven't been into one, they're just so fabulous and I have such a brand crush on them and I think
00:26:33
Speaker
Our branding was a little more inspired by that. And now that we are stepping into just a little bit of a brand refresh, I just realized like, I've changed a lot in 10 years since I started the brand and like my aesthetic has evolved a bit. So we are, this is going to be very controversial for anybody who was around in the seventies, but we are moving like away from classic rock and a little more into like studio 54. Well, I know.
00:27:00
Speaker
We're still gonna be rock and roll, but we're gonna be like also disco now, which might not have really worked in the 70s, but I think it'll work out.
00:27:08
Speaker
So just leaning into elevating some elements about the branding, some of the things we've been talking about and PS, I tried going back and forth with a few, a little more DIY or low cost options on refreshing the brand board, refreshing the colors. And it wasn't coming together. It just wasn't working. And then I realized I had the light bulb go off. Corinne, who was the designer who did our logo the first time.
00:27:35
Speaker
Just totally got it. And I wanted to go back and work with her again on the refresh. So I just had a call with her literally yesterday. And I'm so excited to have her refresh us. And so one of the things we talked about is the teal has always been really iconic to the bar and soul brand. And I'm totally sick of the orange. I just don't want to look at it anymore. I think together they're just too loud. I just want to move in a more feminine direction. So we're talking about bringing in some maybe burgundy and pink and secondary colors.
00:28:05
Speaker
like with neon signs and the interior designer that we're working with kept mentioning I'm seeing like red velvet or like burgundy velvet or like this idea of a velvet right when that kind of vibe so at first I didn't get it and then I saw a few images on Pinterest that had a lot of black and white which I like asked the backdrop and then with the pops
00:28:26
Speaker
the reds and the pinks and the velvet and I got really into that. And another thing that she mentioned that she thought could be useful is maybe going with maybe on the ampersand, we start to play with metallics because that feels a little more relaxed. And I think also, as I mentioned to you, we just had a price increase. So I want to add some touches that are going to feel a little more upscale.
00:28:50
Speaker
I was so excited to check this out. This sounds so cool. And what you're saying really resonates with me in that. I think when you're just starting a business, it can almost feel, or I think at first I had almost guilt about trying to work with folks on branding. And I was like, why can't I just do it myself? Like I know this space, but I found it 1000 times harder to work on things for myself than for other people. And like the,
00:29:18
Speaker
Jameson, who's an amazing site designer I'm working with now, I'm like, why didn't I do this six months ago? It's like a relief. And also it feels like you removed a blocker. Like I didn't realize how much having some of that stuff set was blocking me from reaching out about opportunities or feeling like I was a legit business in some ways.
00:29:37
Speaker
Wow, that's, that is really huge. And I know there's validity to the business advice that I'm often heard, which is don't get obsessed with things like having a website, get obsessed with having an offer and selling it and getting money in the door. Yes. And there is that other, that piece of turning pro where I'm thinking of a book by Steven Pressfield, but he talks about how you're serious about your dream. You really have to turn pro at it. And there is something feels like turning pro.
00:30:06
Speaker
when you have a really proper website design and graphic design. And I think it's whatever kinds of friction, right? You might actually be amazing at designing your own website. You might do great
Addressing Business Challenges
00:30:17
Speaker
at writing your own copy or something, but if it is causing friction and sucking your batteries dry as an entrepreneur or as a creative, I think it's important to let other professionals step in
00:30:31
Speaker
I remember chatting with one woman who's a professional copywriter and she wanted to get a book published and she was trying to write her book proposal and she was like, God, I am just struggling with this book proposal. I can't seem to get it done or just it doesn't feel right.
00:30:48
Speaker
And I suggested to her, like, why don't you hire another copywriter who's got a lot of experience with book proposals? Like, sometimes when we're just too attached and we're too close to it, your decision just feels too high stakes for you. So you just need a sounding board to bounce your ideas off of, too. And there's a lot of value to that.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yes. I think that's really wise and it's really resonating with me a lot. What's the name of that book you referenced? We could throw it in the show notes. It sounds interesting. Yes. Steven Pressfield wrote a book called The War of Art, which is my favorite. And it was one of the things that sparked me launching the business and leaving the safety of the full-time job that I had previously. It's beautiful.
00:31:30
Speaker
And it's just all about all the ways that resistance shows up to stop us from pursuing our calling and how when we are so moved by a dream, sometimes we will fear it, right? Like we're so attached to how we have to get it right that we just put all this resistance in the way to stop us from having to really go for it.
00:31:58
Speaker
And so his first book is the War of Art and really speaks to that. And then he has a follow-up book called Turning Crow. And so part of the War of Art was about how you have to decide to go pro at the thing. If you're going to write a book, it's like, great, treat it like you treat your job, put the hours on the calendar and show up every day, things like that. So Turning Crow is a spin-off that went deeper into that idea.
00:32:22
Speaker
I'm gonna buy War of Art today. That sounds fantastic. You're going to love it. And I probably read a quote from it at yoga teacher training graduation, because there's one that I love so much that speaks about procrastination and how no one says, I'm not going to write my symphony. They say, I'm going to write my symphony. I'm just gonna start tomorrow. And it's just such a powerful, each passage, each page is like,
00:32:49
Speaker
a couple paragraphs and you could just a little sit with that one page for God knows how long and just be with that one profound little nugget. So it's a really easy, beautiful read. I'm excited for it. And as you're talking about resistance, I love what you said about how for some folks, the branding part, there might be zero resistance. Maybe they need more help with productizing their offerings or figuring their outreach strategy out.
00:33:19
Speaker
It's reminding me of what you said about when you like energetically tap into the experience around why am I resistant to going to the studio and solve that. I guess it feels similar. It's like, what am I having resistance about in my business right now? And that's where I need to not be afraid to invest in help and support. Totally. Yeah. It just, those places that feel like friction or where you feel like you keep getting stuck or just feel hard and you're like, I don't know why this is hard.
00:33:46
Speaker
I'm just either avoiding doing this thing or yeah, keep putting it off for another day or keep feeling like I don't know where to start. You said it. That's probably a place to invest because right now you're already investing tons of your energy. And so if it's draining your attention, your time and focus and energy, that's already costing you huge.
00:34:10
Speaker
So it's related to branding, but one thing I wanted to ask you about is, as you said, one of Bar and Soul's main locations, it's in the heart of Cambridge, in Harvard Square. There is a huge student body in a young professional network of folks who want yoga and bar, but there's also tons of studios trying to capture the market and you've got other locations in popular neighborhoods. What is it like to operate in such a competitive space and why do you think Bar and Soul has done so well in such a competitive space?
00:34:39
Speaker
Thank you, great question. When I think back to when I opened the Harvard Square Studio, it was the third one I opened. I had two smaller locations in smaller communities, and they were both doing well. And I was ready to open a third, and I looked at a few different options in different communities that felt very safe, where I felt pretty sure that it wasn't a huge risk financially, and I felt pretty sure.
00:35:09
Speaker
There wasn't that much competition going in those areas yet. And I when I asked myself, what would really my dream location be? What do I think is coolest place that I can open a studio right away? It was Harvard Square. And I actually found a space that I
00:35:28
Speaker
all lost signed a lease on that was a little bit outside of the square and again it was a little more safe it was a lower rent and actually just the realtor wasn't getting back to me the agent so i just went out and pouted the pavement literally and went through the square looking for other spaces and there was the one that i ended up finding was not listed as available anywhere there was paper over the nose and i literally peeked through the mail slot i was like oh
00:35:55
Speaker
The space looks like an amazing studio. It has huge windows and all this light coming in. So I found a number for the maintenance department somewhere in the building and called and figured out, found my way to the person in charge and sure enough, the space was available. It was a really big financial risk for me to go for it in Harvard Square.
00:36:19
Speaker
I ultimately decided it was worth the risk. And I really had to be with the fear of, oh my gosh, if this doesn't work out, it is going to really wipe me out financially. And I just thought, what's the worst that could happen? I'll be broke. Like, I have been broke before. I have come back from it. And for me, the risk was totally worth it. And I had to find out, fortunately. And it's funny because we opened in the summertime. So there weren't students around and it was so dead.
00:36:47
Speaker
And I remember having an open house in September where all the classes were free for the day and we had trunk shows and things going on. And we packed the house and that's when I knew, okay, people are going to come and this is going to work. The other thing that later happened was that Sure Bar ended up opening a block away from us. I think our location, which I guess to close the loop. So I have to tell you when I first saw the posts popping up that
00:37:16
Speaker
a big corporate competitor was going to come in so close. I was really nervous about how it would impact the business and have to say like the ground didn't even shake a little bit. We just kept on keeping up. So I think it's just about
00:37:31
Speaker
When you see an opening, when you see, wow, I can't believe no one's doing this. It's important to just get in there and get yourself established and make yourself known and let people know what they can turn on you for. So that when a lot of competition does come in, you're able to have that know and trust factor already and build that relationship with your audience or your market.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's really interesting. I'd imagine if you went with the smaller spot that was a little bit outside the square, Pure Bar could have taken that market share because there might not have been the visibility as much brand loyalty. You wouldn't have felt like such a fixture. And I appreciate what you said too, at the start of that about like you were really afraid and
00:38:18
Speaker
I always appreciate when people who have had a lot of success talk about the intense fear that they felt, because I think sometimes when you're starting something, it can be hard not to conflate that intense fear with wisdom and warning, if that makes sense.
Lessons Learned and Personal Growth
00:38:34
Speaker
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Yeah, really. So I know we only have a couple minutes left. I feel like you've given a lot of lessons, but
00:38:44
Speaker
I wanted to ask, what lessons do you think you learned in the first couple of years of running the business? What advice would you go back and give to your younger self, if anything? What's coming up is not to take things personally. Business is business. It is really challenging when you are in business for yourself because it is really personal. It's your livelihood. And employees are going to come and go.
00:39:11
Speaker
clients are going to come and go. It's really not about you. That's natural. There is a cycle of churn that is normal. People are on their journey and you're going to be part of it and they might outgrow you or they might have an option that's more suited to them or they might need something different and to expect that and to not focus on it, not let it
00:39:33
Speaker
get into your head. That's been a lesson that has just been ongoing throughout my entire career, honestly. Another thing that came up right away when you asked that is just to have clear agreements and signed contracts whenever and wherever possible. In the early days, when I started to offer teacher trainings,
00:39:52
Speaker
My very first one that I ran, I had six people sign up that hadn't taken deposits from any of them and everybody bailed except for two of them the day that I started the training.
00:40:04
Speaker
And then after, one person did teach for me for a short while and then fizzled out, but the other one stayed on, became my first really go-to teacher and really helped me grow my business. So it was all totally worth it doing that training for just two people because I got a really amazing teacher out of it who really helped me get started.
00:40:24
Speaker
And I really quickly learned the lesson that when you're offering something, make sure you get a deposit, make sure you get a signed agreement. I had a lot of people who would agree to something on a training agreement. For example, at the beginning of my trainings, I would say, this is not a guarantee of employment. I'm going to train you and you'll have an opportunity to audition at the end.
00:40:47
Speaker
I usually end up taking about 60%. This is something I would say at the beginning of every single training. And then for whatever reason, at the end of most trainings, there was at least one person who would completely flip out that they didn't get hired. And it would turn really ugly. So that is something that we've learned to just
00:41:08
Speaker
back that up with more signed acknowledgments and just putting more structures in place to avoid having things be messy later on down the line.
00:41:19
Speaker
I think that's so wise and such good advice on all fronts.
Book Introduction and Online Presence
00:41:24
Speaker
You have done so much with Barn Soul, but you are also an author. Your book, Own It All, was published back in 2019. Also, I remember your Instagram post where Hosier read your book and was photographed with it. Congrats. What was the info for writing it? Can you talk a little bit about it? Because I imagine folks who have listened to you will be really
00:41:43
Speaker
eager to spend more time with you. Okay, thank you. Oh my god, yes, that was a very surreal moment when I ever, and the fact that it was captured by the paparazzi and it went, you know, online and that it found its way back to me. I literally was sitting in a restaurant, had just ordered lunch, and opened up a message from someone on Facebook who sent me the picture. When I tell you that my entire body went numb, I could have shown my mind.
00:42:08
Speaker
I'm obsessed with him. He's my totally favorite artist and so excited that he's during the summer this fall and that I'm going to get to see him. Yes, the book is on it all and it tells the story in greater detail that I've shared with you today on the podcast of
00:42:24
Speaker
actually it starts at really rock bottom when I was leaving an abusive relationship and starting with absolutely nothing and how I used just baby steps one after another to build what I built and what the lessons were that I had to learn along the way and the things that I had to overcome in order to
00:42:45
Speaker
create what I have. That is something that was really important to me to publish. And as I mentioned, when I originally thought that I wanted to go get a PhD or be a professor, part of that was that I wanted to write books and it was a bucket list thing. So that was just something really close to my heart that I did. And I'm so happy to be able to share it. It's also available in audio book format. If you like audio books, I know I do. And it's available on Amazon.
00:43:14
Speaker
all the different formats and I totally love for folks to check out.
00:43:19
Speaker
Totally. We'll put all the links for that in the show notes. And then for folks who are like, I would love to take a class at Andrew's studio, or I just want to follow her online, where would you direct them? Yeah. So you can go to r, B-A-R-R-E, soul.com. And there you'll find links to, are you a teacher training, Meredith shared about, and our teacher trainings, as well as our virtual studio and our in-person studios.
00:43:44
Speaker
And the other place that I am active, I mentioned my newsletter, so that'll be in the show notes. And I'm pretty active on Instagram at Andrea Isabel Lucas. All right. I recommend everyone listening follow you. I love following your content and I feel so delighted to get to have had this combo with you, Andrea. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.
00:44:12
Speaker
All right, folks, I hope that you enjoyed that episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you liked it, please subscribe or review us. And if you want to check out our newsletter, Content People, it is in the show notes. See you next time. Bye.