It’s time for a new #FemaleFridays chat to kick off the weekend! This week on the Female emPOWERED podcast, I got to speak to Andrea Isabelle Lucas, founder and CEO of Barre & Soul®, a boutique chain of fitness studios in New England that’s about to go national.
Andrea is also the founder and owner of Barre Guild Academy, an online training for barre instructors, as well as an author, speaker and host of “Own It All: The Podcast.”
Barre, books, and scaling a multi-location business
Andrea says that even though she fit the profile of an entrepreneur, she never imagined herself actually being one. She first began teaching barre and soul classes out of other studios. As business grew, she hired, trained and paid other barre and soul instructors as subcontractors. That’s how she began to scale her business, and how she planned to continue.
When Andrea reached out to a second studio to set up a similar partnership, she found out that the owner was leaving. Andrea went for it and took over the studio, making it the first she’d owned.
“From then on it was like an addiction I couldn’t control,” joked Andrea. “It was about one [studio] a year... between 2013 and the tail end of 2016, by that point I had five locations.”
Since then, Andrea hasn’t opened up any new physical studio locations; she’s been focusing on her online course, Barre Guild Academy, and book, Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your LIfe Belongs to You.
Andrea and I had a great discussion, covering topics like building a successful business that also feeds your soul, feminism and women’s empowerment, what she hopes to inspire in readers with her book, and so much more. Tune in to hear it all!
In this episode we discuss:
- The origins of Barre & Soul
- How Andrea grew the chain of studios from one location to five, and how her personality and background played a role in her business expansion
- What inspired Andrea to write Own It All
- The premise of Own It All and what message or thoughts Andrea hopes to leave readers with
- Discussing privilege and realizing what we can control
- The importance of taking action toward your goals
- Where you can buy Own It All and find Andrea’s businesses and social media online
Follow Andrea on Instagram and Facebook at @andreaisabellelucas!
Looking for advice and resources to help you market and grow your clinic or client based business? Visit my website or follow me on Instagram!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Andrea Isabelle Lucas
- Barre Guild Academy
- Andrea’s book, Own It All
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Interested in being a guest on a future Female Friday episode? Email me at [email protected]!