Jessica Henien
Founder Pilatesmith
Tell me about your time in advertising. How did you get started and why did you leave?
I graduated college with a degree in advertising in 2008. The economy wasn’t doing well and the agency I wanted to work at, Crispin Porter and Bogusky in Miami, wasn’t hiring. But they were doing a summer internship program. I applied, but all of the account management positions were taken, however, they did have one position available in their HR department. It was unpaid, but I took it because I wanted to get my foot in the door and meet people. It ended up being the best decision I ever made. I worked my butt off. I tried to make myself indispensable so when the internship was over they’d miss me. That's the mentality I had. I would do work for my HR team and then if things were ever slow, I’d ask the account management teams if they needed help. I was able to get a little bit of exposure and build some relationships that way, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I left my internship without a job, but two weeks later I got a call about an entry level account position on Burger King. I was so pumped! I moved to Miami where I started my advertising career. I loved it. I loved my role, learning the creative process, and I met some of my best friends. It was also in Miami where I took my first Pilates class. I let my life be consumed by my new job and friends so thankfully this studio was close to the office and had late classes. It quickly became a new passion for me as it reminded me a bit of dance classes from my youth - the technique, the choreography and flow, the group movement environment. As I progressed my practice I got an idea that I should get certified to teach Pilates. But I was so busy so it stayed on the backburner.
Eventually, I was lucky enough to get promoted. It was a role on the Kraft Mac and Cheese team and a move from the Miami office to the Boulder office. This is when I hit my first advertising midlife crisis. I was giving so much to work that I didn't have a lot to give to the people in my life. I was not being a good friend. I was not being a good girlfriend or daughter. I was exhausted all the time. I had this moment where I thought, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't know what I'm going to do, because this is the only thing I know how to do. But I know that I need to make a change.
So when I was thinking about my next step, I knew I wanted to move to LA. I knew I wanted to find a job that would be less consuming. So I ended up taking a job with M&C Saatchi in LA, it’s a smaller office about 30 people and the clients were smaller. It was just much more manageable. I was able to focus on my pilates training and work towards my pilates teacher certification which is a minimum of 450 hours. All my weekends were spent in the pilates studio logging those hours. Once I'd finished my coursework and got certified I began teaching on the weekends and in the evenings after work.
That’s when 72andSunny reached out with this awesome roll on Coors and ESPN. Being a huge sports fan the opportunity to work on ESPN was one that I couldn't pass up. I saw it as a kind of test to see if I could go back to big agency life and keep the boundaries that I had established at M&C Saatchi. I promised myself that I would continue teaching because that was really important to me. But eventually I hit my second advertising midlife crisis, where I realized that it wasn't what I wanted to do. And I started wondering what could I do? My boyfriend at the time, now my husband, asked if you could do anything, what would you do? And I said the only other thing I really know how to do is teach Pilates, and over the years I've jotted down notes about what kind of brand of studio I'd open and classes I'd teach. But I have no idea how to be a business owner and that seemed super risky, so I had never truly entertained any idea of going out on my own. I'm not the risk-taker type. But that conversation launched the beginning of an excel sheet which accidentally became a business model. And once I saw opening a studio was viable paper, I had to go for it. I was going to have to take a massive pay cut but I had to try it. And I knew I could always fall back on advertising.
What are you doing now?
I’m the CEO/Founder of Pilatesmith, an athletic Pilates studio in LA
How did the idea for Pilatesmith come about?
I wanted to create a studio that served the experienced Pilates lover. In LA, so many people do Pilates but there wasn’t a studio offering enough advanced workouts on the schedule or teaching them tough enough. There are a lot of mixed level classes where the level taught is dependent on who shows up that day. And the studio that offer leveled classes only offer a few advanced classes.
Pilates is really popular in LA, and so the population size of advanced “practitioners” is very large here. And we have what I call a very “fit culture” where people want challenging workouts or need a challenge to feel worked out. And I thought if anywhere, this type of studio should be here. Seemed like a need I could help solve.
What was your first step in starting Pilatesmith?
I’m very risk averse when it comes to my career, had no dream growing up to be an entrepreneur, and had no idea how to start a business. So the way I got myself comfortable with taking the jump was planning the shit out of it and seeing how it would work on paper first.
My very first step was creating a model, and I know that can sound daunting or complex but when I started it I didn’t call it that. It was just an Excel sheet. And I’m good with Excel but I’m not a wizard. And you don’t need to be because what I realized was at the end of the day it’s just a bunch of addition and subtraction using costs you’ve identified either through research or a cost you've set. So you have columns for overhead for startup, recurring monthly costs, recurring monthly income, and then I suggest to include a % for contingency based on how sure you are about your numbers. That contingency percent can decrease as you lock known costs in.
I strongly suggest including your salary and all negative costs until you’re profitable in the initial capital number you need.
I planned out my business for the first 24 months using the best assumptions I could. It was profitable and I knew then that I could do it if I just executed the model. And if I went over or came in under somewhere, I’d adjust the model and it kept me on track. I was ruthless about following it and making decisions based on it. It helped me make hard decisions, especially some of the more emotional ones.
And ultimately, I knew I could fall back on my career in advertising/marketing if it didn’t work out. Either freelancing or employed.
What struggles did you have? Did you have ideas that failed?
Thankfully all my struggles were personal. They all came from this transition I went through from being an employee part of a well supported organization to being a solo business owner. It’s hard and it’s all consuming. Your life changes. It’s quite literally like having a child. You would do anything and everything for it and you lose control of your life until you find your new life within it.
Fitness is 24/7 - people want to workout before work, during work, after work and on weekends. So I was either teaching or working the front desk from 6:30-8 weekdays and 8:30-12 on weekends. And while I was used to working a ton of hours, this was a ton of onboarding, problem solving, and figuring things out for the first time. You’re very inefficient. As a solo business owner, it was just me - you don’t have a team with different expertise to bounce ideas off of and you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on research and insights so you’re making a lot of decisions based on your gut. It’s super uncomfortable and nerve racking.
Running Pilatesmith was mentally taxing - which I was used to - but also physically exhausting because I was on my feet and when teaching you’re basically a cheerleader for your clients for 50 mins straight. So I was drained in two areas, which made me feel more depleted. I had a morning about 2 weeks in when I woke up and said to my boyfriend (now husband), “I think I might’ve made a mistake.’
It was super rough but wouldn’t have done it differently. In order to figure it all out you have to figure it out. And I wanted to be the one to do that vs. delegate because 1) simply, I wanted to do it 2) I didn’t know how to articulate what the role was/needs were because I was inexperienced at this and didn’t know what to ask for/what I needed, and 3) I didn’t have money to pay someone to do it. But again I wouldn't have done it differently because now we have solid processes, I’m smarter for it, and the business runs better because I was in the trenches. I like to say, “sometimes you have to go deep so you can come back up.”
The only thing I wished I would have done differently was be prepared for it all. Mindset is everything. But I don’t think there’s any way to prepare for it. Only way to learn is to learn. But now I know and I’ve been better prepared for other initiative launches and I’llbe better prepared for location #2.
Did you have help along the way?
My husband (then boyfriend) was a huge help - he helped me check my model, was someone who I could throw ideas at, proofread social posts and emails, supported me when I was stressed, and our first 6 months he even worked the front desk sometimes. It required a lot of sacrifice and support on send, and I’m super grateful.
I had a bunch of coffee dates and phone calls with friends and friends of friends to discuss various things. Anytime someone suggested I talk to someone I did. Each conversation was helpful in a different way. Sometimes big and sometimes small. The more you talk and share with others, the more you process things yourself too.
A friend designed my logo.
I had a friend at Facebook who had free ad dollars he could gift small businesses and he hooked me up.
My family and friends helped me with the final touches to the studio before opening day.
I also hired people to help me with a few pieces - like setup my LLC, coach me on business entity and employee setup options, build my website, setup Facebook Ads Manager, studio
Did you ever consider giving up?
No. That’s not an option. You can’t even let yourself go there.
Be open to learning and adjusting.
If something isn’t working, don’t double down on it thinking that’ll save it. It could just be the idea itself.
And what really helped me is remembering that things ebb and flow. If you zoom out, you may see you're trending up, not down.
What would you do differently if you did it again?
Honestly can’t think of anything beyond what I’ve shared.
What is the single most important thing that contributed to your success?
I think having my model to plan the business was absolutely crucial. And then really understanding my business even now - staying close to the numbers, knowing my break even, knowing what’s working and what’s not and being willing to make hard decisions that keep the business healthy.
And then also having a brand/UVP to guide my decisions. Whenever I felt a little lost, I’d bring this back into focus and decisions became clearer/easier.
Do you miss your old life?
Yeah I miss having a team/peers, a mentor. I miss being able to take PTO and actually check out 100%. But, to use the child analogy again, it’s the hardest thing and the best thing. I can’t imagine doing anything else now.