Use Employee Retention to Drive CX & Profits

0:00 next Tuscan retreat. okay. Oh, I bet it was amazing. Why don't we get started by just everybody popping in to the chat. please say hello. where you're from, your studio name. That'll help give us a little bit of context. I know I know most of you in here so far, but there are some new names to me. So, please introduce yourselves if you wouldn't mind. and that's what we'll use the chat for today is just kind of talk amongst yourselves, introduce yourselves. Otherwise, just from a housekeeping perspective, if you have specific questions that you would like us to address in the webinar today, at the bottom of your screen, you'll see a little Q&A box and that helps me helps me track everything and make sure that we got it answered on the call for you. and then we can clear those. and it's a little bit more organized. So, hey, hey everybody. Thanks for introducing yourselves. hello.

1:07 I know. Oh, yeah. Do you know Jen Roio from Pilates Movement? Those are Pilates people. You guys need to connect at some point. Awesome. okay. So, for those of you who just hopped on, quick last announcement. We are doing this webinar style, so you won't see your faces on the screen. don't be alarmed. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just a little different setup in Zoom. And we will be presenting, having conversation. If this is your first time joining one of our Walla webinar series, yes, there is absolutely some educational content that's going to be presented to you. But we do invite conversation here. So that's why that Q&A function is really helpful. you'll notice that I kind of pop into her, you know, her PowerPoint that she's presenting or conversation and ask questions that I know we've heard from our clients or that I know I've heard in the industry.

2:04 So, we try to make this as conversational as possible. the other thing is that we want to make this actionable for you too. So, if you don't have, you know, a notebook by you or somewhere you can take notes on your computer, maybe snag that now. because we always in these webinars try to give you something that you can check a box today. the last thing in the world we want to do is just pile on loads and loads of work on your plate. But we do want to give you ideas and things that are relatively quick, easy, and impactful actions that you can take. which is part of the reason I had Jess come on today. So Jess is what is your official title at BFS? Everything. Queen of everything. I'm going to ask to officially change it to that. it is chief studio success officer, which is a fancy way of saying that. I oversee everything, our mastermind program, our education, everything that is focused on our amazing studio owners essentially and managers.

3:08 Awesome. And managers. Perfect. And for those of you that aren't familiar with BFS, I'll let Jess talk about it in just a moment, but I was introduced to BFS prior to the pandemic. It was kind of a an relatively, I don't know, 2018 maybe started, yeah, 2018. and it was a concept that was dedicated solely to boutique fitness. So, I think there are a lot of organizations out there that are focused around fitness and wellness in general, but we didn't our little niche didn't have a professional organization that was dedicated to the success of studios. And as you all know, we have unique business models. We have unique use cases. We have very different things that we have to deal with on a daily basis than a big box gym like Planet Fitness does or, you know, a health club or tennis and racket club. So, yeah, I' I'd love to turn it over to you just quickly before we start on the content on what does being a part of BFS look like or mean for a studio.

4:14 So, being part of BFS and thank you Laura. being a part of BFS can mean a few different things. We have different arms of the business. so the core of our business really today is our mastermind program. So we have mastermind meeting members who have a core team that they are placed on with eight to 10 other business owners where they come together once a month for a 90-minute Zoom meeting that is moderated by a BFS facilitator where they share challenges, ideas, growth strategies, emotional support, all of the things. and then throughout the month we have different virtual events for them. Masterminds will come on and speak about to the entire network of like how they're crushing it with their retail program or their retreats, whatever that is. so it's just a network of support of people who get it to source ideas from and all the things. and then also we have we are still we're doing events. So Christine, yes. October the 5th and the 6th, we will be in New York at a conven space in Midtown for our conference. So for our like our conference that we do ourselves, we're also producing content for Idea World in just a few short weeks. but our event here in New York is like our flagship.

5:47 So that's October 5th and 6th. Registration opening probably next week soon. Yeah. Yeah. And those of you on the West Coast, we've got a big conference coming up. The idea conference is July 12th, 13th and BFS is going to be there. So, if you'd like to get some in real life time with Jess and team and many other experts, and business owners, please join us. We'll we'll make sure to continue to send the information out about that to everybody. Of course. Totally. yeah. And then we have educational offerings as well. We do four-week courses. and we just put out educational content as much as we possibly can. We consider ourselves aggregators in the industry. So, whatever thing whatever we can pull from the brilliant minds and put out to the universe, that's what we're here to do. Awesome. Cool. Well, on that note, we're going to pull from your brilliant mind today and learn a little bit about customer experience. And I think, you know, I chose this topic when we were talking about ideas and which direction we should go with this kind of customer experience lens. I was really excited that you brought up the idea of our teams and our staff and how retention and actually meaningfully leading your team ultimately means great customer experience. Because there are so many things we talk about, you know, whether it be marketing emails or, you know,

7:17 when is the right touch point for a deal or when do or how do you facilitate a lovely instudio experience, but I think the center of so much of that are the people doing it, the team the team members you have and I don't think we talk about that enough. So with that, I would love to turn it over and kind of let you start the content and frame the conversation today. Fantastic. Okay, let me do that and let me share my screen now. It's there and it looks beautiful. Fantastic. Look at that. All right. And now the true test. Does it move? It moved. Okay. So Laura covered this for us. So I'll skip that. that is the rest well we have a larger team but this is our executive team if you don't know Julian and they are the co-founders and I'll just throw out because I always think it's such a fun story. So as Laura said BFS started in 2018 when Julian and N saw that there was nothing servicing boutiques really specifically in the industry. So they started a conference and I actually went to that first ever conference as an attendee because I was running five locations of a Pilates chain here in New York and was like I'm just figuring this out trial by fire.

8:39 Yeah. So which many of us do, let's be honest, right? Which is why I think because I experienced BFS from that side is why I'm, you know, super passionate about everything that we get to do now on this side. so again, you know, we a lot of the conversations we hear this time of year when we're in our mastermind meetings and everything is how to keep clients engaged, how to keep people in the door, how to keep them from cancelling, how to keep them from freezing. but then also, of course, the conversation of staffing, buyin from your team, all of that comes up a lot as well. So, we think it's really important to actually start with the employee engagement conversation before we even get down to the client engagement because as Mr. Sir Richard Branson says, if you take care of your employees, they take care of the clients, right? And I also I don't know if any of you do like any research or reading into like the Ritz Carlton or Disney, right?

9:48 Ritz Carlton and Disney while very different are two big thought leaders in the space of like customer service and customer experience, but they always talk on actually employee engagement and leadership kind of first and foremost. So it's like right away even from these really you know powerful successful organizations we can see this marriage and this importance of employee engagement being the driver. Then of course like this time of year again it's like particularly hard in the summer to keep your team engaged and also this era that we're in right now. there's a labor pool that is a lot smaller, a lot younger, and all this came from our state of the industry that we did at Ursa and that we're doing at Idea 2 of like just big picture like business stats, right? Like what does the labor pool look like right now? and numerous sources are saying it's younger and it's smaller and they don't want to do low wage work. Mhm.

10:50 It's like then how are we getting people to do our front of house, our receptionists, our instructors, like how are we keeping these teams wanting to work for us and then keeping them engaged and delivering a really high quality product and service. because at the same time there's a huge potential as we all like keep hearing for you know potential clients out there. Wellness is still really growing and almost more importantly experiences are really important which is why you need that team to deliver a really high quality experience because your clients aren't coming just for health and wellness. It's a big priority for people right now, but they're coming for community and experience, right? Yeah. I think there's this challenging place we've landed into where people realize they can get a fitness class now online anywhere or and most big box gyms have kind of upped the game on their class programming or digital class programming within their four walls. So the boutique experience has become even more important to be topnotch, right? that people realize, okay, if I'm going to pay a premium for this service, I expect something pretty great.

12:12 Right. Right. And great customer service, not just like a great product, but great customer service, great experience, all the things. Totally. so really then it drives to the question of like how do you drive employee engagement to in the end increase that overall client experience and therefore client engagement and client retention. So we're going to start a little bit high level then we'll get into some super tactical summer things you can do over the summer and then we'll come back to just kind of a big picture idea to leave with and noodle on. So again, I really love coming to the Ritz Carlton. I love looking outside of our industry. I love looking in our industry and I also love looking outside of our industry from what can we learn from these you know very longstanding sustainable powerful organizations. So, the Ritz Carlton, as I said, are leaders in hospitality and customer service, but you truly cannot seem to find things on them talking about customer service without going through the conversation of employee engagement and leadership. So, these pictures are actually just fun tip from a conference I got to go to where the Ritz Carlton was doing a talk on leadership on their rooftop of their new nomad hotel that had not opened yet. So, these are pictures from the we got to do a private tour and then a talk on leadership and it was stunning. so, they start by really

13:54 saying like defining the culture, right? so how do we define culture? That feels very intangible, very like not super actionable, but there are clear ways that we can do. But first, let's start with what does Ritz Carlton define culture as? So they say it's the sum of the total of learned behaviors of a group that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation. It's a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people. So they again really point out that this is not actually an intangible thing. There is a strategy that you as the leader can set to drive a specific culture in your business and drive a culture of employee engaged and committed employees. So how do we do that? How do you thoughtfully create a culture? it starts by having shared behaviors. So, you know, think through like do you have a set greeting that your team uses with clients even? do you have specific ways and actions that they take to begin their shift, to end and recap their shift? do you have shared norms? Is the experience of working at each location kind of the same for all employees? Does everyone receive the same amount of attention and respect?

15:35 And then even to shared language, you know, so does your team all utilize the same language when they're in the studio. Do they call it I mean I assume you all say studio, but even do you say studio? And then even down to what do you call your clients? Are they customers? Are they clients? Are they yogis? Are they writers? So even getting down to the nitty-gritty of having this shared language and it being on paper is actually something that does end up driving a shared culture. Okay. And then of course you want to have your systems and processes in place not only to keep your team efficient but again it's that shared and consistent culture being created by everyone following these same processes. Yeah, I was going to say that word consistent I think is the key. I've I've been I've worked with many businesses. I've talked to many businesses that say, "Yeah, you know, we did this exercise as a team and it was so much fun. We created these values and this language that we're going to use or we decided we're going to call the front desk staff our, you know, Pilates concierge team or something." And it's everybody's excited about it at first and then the energy kind of waines. And it's it's the consistent leadership around it and the consistent reminder that really is like they said it's ingrained in a group of people and their actions, their language, their behaviors all start to

17:08 mirror that because it's so consistent. Totally. Yeah. No, no, for sure. That's such a good point. I actually used to call my front desk team contrologist adviserss. I love you were essentially membership advisors, right? so there was even just giving that title of like, okay, you're not a receptionist, you're a contrologist advisor. Like I could see their mindset shift, but then to your point, yes, it had to continually be, you know, reinforced and used continually by me. It was in their email signatures. they needed to be introduced that way. All the things need to consistently come back and keep that verbiage, that language going. Yeah. Okay. So then how does the Ritz actually do these things? First, they define everything. So they have an employee promise, they have a credo, they have service values, they have a motto, and they even have I loved this and we've started guiding our studio managers that are in our group coaching program into creating their own steps of service that they're all created their own customer service manual for their studio to share with to keep themselves accountable and to share with their front desk teams.

18:32 Okay, I'll come back more with examples of what the Ritz actually does, but then how do they actually put these things into practice? So, they have a daily lineup. Now, I know that can feel like a big take on for studios when your teams are all on different shifts and schedules. But I think it's just like, okay, how can I take this as an idea and figure out how it works for me, for us, how we can maybe even put just a piece of this into practice, maybe even a weekly lineup. So they do a daily lineup where basically everyone that's coming on shift at that particular shift since they have like you know two set shifts a day let's say they all meet up and have a quick like five minute little huddle before they go off to their place in the Ritz where they now start executing on their work. so again can it just be like a slack channel? Can it be a weekly Slack channel? It's hard for us with how studios are scheduled to bring everyone together in person before a shift starts.

19:39 Yeah. But again, any ways that you can kind of recreate this. then I love this and I'll show you a picture of it, but they have credo cards. So I said that they have a Ritz Carlton Credo. Their employees I have mine here somewhere. the their employees actually have a little credo card that is a little foldable card that has the credo, the employee promise, all of it on it and they have to have their credo cards with them at all times for every shift. So if you can stop any employee in a Ritz Carlton and ask to see their credo card and they should be able to take it out of their pocket and show you. Yeah. that's awesome. I know. Isn't that I mean again you have to think through how this can work for your business. You know probably can't stash it like in your leggings. Yeah. But it's a fun idea. and then they do weekly wow stories. So once a week they share one moment where like just a client shared something that really impacted them and like just really made them feel at home at the Ritz or like really taken care of. So, they always make sure to make sure to share one story from a client per week with their team. then they're just big fans of ongoing recognition to their teams and they bring that to life again specifically through what they call first class Fridays where throughout the week a manager writes notes on these little note cards

21:14 to an employee when they see them doing something that is in support of the RIT's mission. So, I've heard some studios call this like mission moments, but specifically calling out when an employee is doing taking an action, however small it might be that supports the studio's mission. but they don't just say it to them, they write it on this card, they keep them at their desk all week, and then every Friday they go out and deliver to the employees all of their note cards from the week. Oh, that's sweet. so Cat had a really good question as we're going through this. You know, the Ritz obviously is a big organization and it lends itself to a lot of systems and processes. but she mentioned just kind of a challenge with balancing shared culture with authenticity and independence. And obviously we have a lot of I often say like teachers are like artists, you know, like we have to we have to give them their creative space and let them be themselves. But you know, she said, "I kind of fear telling my employees exactly how they need to greet students and it would make them feel like they weren't able to be themselves." So yeah, any ideas there?

22:31 Yeah, you know, it's funny. again, we actually had a very I had fantastic conversations with the studio managers on this exact same thing when we talked about the Ritz as a case study one week. I totally hear that. I think that sometimes actually giving people the guidelines on language, there's still other ways that they can show up as themselves, right? There still is tone. Mhm. There still is approach. There still is inflection. There still is body language. There's still these things that are unique to each of us that goes past just the specific language. you know, we try to use even shared language in BFS, right? How we follow different aspects of the business, how we describe or speak to different members. but the despite that shared language, the way that I bring it to life, if any of you have ever met Julian, very different the opposite.

23:40 Yeah. So, I think and even the greeting like you can play with that as you see fit. Maybe there's a few options of greetings. Maybe there's just like every greeting has a name, uses this one thing, but then you have room for creativity. Yeah. I think even as creatives we can give guidelines to work within. Even those three steps of service that are on the screen right now, all of those are relatively open for interpretation, right? Like a warm and sincere greeting from me might look very like I'm going to wrap somebody in a hug. That's just who I am. But somebody else might be like, "Hey, you know, how's it going, Jess? Great to see you." So we have we have our own flavors of these. So, I think something like this is general enough that each person could take it and be authentic with it, right? And I think we stop ourselves from doing something. Sorry, I'm not sure if you can hear those horns. I do live in Queens, New York. So, I think we stop ourselves from putting on paper those things that feel general because they feel assumed or but I think that's actually the really powerful thing is remembering that they're not actually assumed behaviors across all of our team.

24:59 Yes. And even if they are still putting it on paper brings a different impact to them, right? And a different intentionality to it. I agree and I think it also helps with accountability. I mean, you and I have talked about this, Jess, that we've secret shopped businesses or had businesses leverage us to secret shop their studios and see what the experience is like. I have multiple times walked into a business where the teacher or the front desk staff has been sitting behind the desk with their feet up on the desk on their phone. And it is so easy in today's world for whoever is that person to be sitting there with this in their hand not paying attention. So even just putting on paper the fact that maybe it's no cell when you're behind the front desk cell phones are in your bag like they are zipped up and when someone walks through the door they get a warm and sincere greeting like that is that is as clear as day and also can be authentic.

26:02 Totally. And my biggest pet peeve is when I do not get a goodbye when I leave a space. And it happens more times than you would want to believe that I walk out of a studio and whoever is at the desk does not say goodbye to me. And I always clock it. Yeah. But it's like you for your desk and to their you know they do get like they're probably juggling a ton of other things. But if they know that is a priority from you and for the studio culture that every single person that goes out the door gets a goodbye then that would impact that and shift their attention hopefully in that moment. okay. So, yes, these are the examples of the Ritz Carlton motto, their credo, and their three steps of service. So, this is their little credo card. You can see how little tiny it is, and yeah, fits into their pocket, and it has all these things on it. and I will note, yes, the Ritz Carlton motto is we are ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen. They have acknowledged that they are working to shift this restrictive language. but they are doing it apparently in a slow way because their reason for saying ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen historically has always been because they are hiring.

27:27 I do think the reason behind it is beautiful while the language needs shifting, right? but they have low-wage, you know, minimum wage workers at the front serving the people who go to the Ritz Carlton, which puts can put this certain power dynamic on that experience, right? how their staff and their employees are serving these very powerful oftentimes very wealthy people that are customers of the Rose Carlton. So this motto spun from trying to level that playing field and making their employees know that you are just important to us as the people that you are serving. Which isn't that different from what we deal with, right? Yes. Oh my goodness. I remember having, you know, like 20 year old starving artists working the front desk, you know, checking in Naomi Campbell for a plotty session. They're like, "Yeah, it's true. It's, you know, the we're not talking about, you know, death staff making over 100 grand a year. They're they're serving people. So, making them feel as special, as cared for, and as worthy as the people walking in the door is critical."

28:48 Totally. Totally. okay. I won't make you listen to me read all of these, but these are their service values. so again, it's like I think we all have mission, vision, values, right? But then it's like this takes it to another level of specificity to have service values. Okay. So, that concludes the Ritz Carlton case study. Should we jump to some fun summer engagement things? Yes, absolutely. so again next step of like working on this overall employee engagement is just or employee experience is specifically looking at employee engagement and again specifically this time of year in the summer it can be really challenging but there are really actionable things you can do to start driving towards getting that employee engagement. One thing I don't have on here, but I would love to add and I can share with all of you. we actually created an employee engagement tracker.

29:51 So, I think that's one place to even start even before you get to these super forwardlooking actionable things is quantifying for yourself. What does an engaged employee look like? Does it mean that they come early before their shift to, you know, get settled rather than running into the studio at the last minute? Does it mean that they are very responsive to employ to studio communications? Does it mean that they pick up a shift once a month? So basically the tracker line items everything that it could mean to you to show that someone is engaged and then it has a column for each employee. You weight each of these line items how important they are to you and then you rate how much each of these employees does each things and then it gives you like a total score for how engaged this employee is. so yeah, I think again it's just when you when we have these overarching ideas, how do we quantify them? How do we how do we drill it down to find something quantifiable so it doesn't feel so intangible and subjective?

31:04 And even just having two of those as your as your quantifiers, it would be helpful. You know, like having a class plan, picking up a subbing a class once every month or whatever it might be. Having one or two of those is going to help guide the conversation and make everybody feel like a team more than individuals. I think, you know, when we really boil it down, that is probably one of the biggest challenges in our industry is helping everyone feel like they're a part of something bigger and not just an individual coming and going from a studio. Totally. Totally. And how do you your employees also want to feel like taken care of in the sense of like they know how to be better. I don't think anyone wants to be bad at their job, right? But if you just say, "I don't feel like you're really engaged." I'd be like, "Okay, what does that mean? What do I do? How do I solve that for you?"

32:00 Yeah. So really quantifying again can give you more actionable things for your employees. Okay. And then on the more like immediate actionable side, forward-looking actionable side, ways to keep your team engaged. One, get on the same page. So that can be again just even as we're talking about with how you quantify engagement, but even for the summer, that can look the same as having a quick check-in, which with each employee, and saying like, what does your summer look like? How much are you traveling? Let's logistically get on the same page. And then also, let's get on the same page objectively. So, what is your goal for the summer? Are you looking to chill and relax and have time with friends and family? Are you looking to hustle, hustle, hustle and make a lot of money? Like, that's just something that we never really tune into or don't often tune into with our employees, right? So, get on the same page.

32:58 find easy Oh, I broke it. then find easy wins. So, can you We set up so many challenges for clients over the summer. Can we set up an easy challenge for our team as well? Maybe even it's a subbing challenge. Whoever subs the most shifts in the month of July gets a free dinner. Yeah. Probably doesn't have to be a lot. Just some something that's giving them easy wins to work towards. looking at not just like big picture yearly goals, but really especially this time of year, pulling it down to like monthly, even weekly shortterm goals to keep them continually going in the right direction. Put wellness first, just like we say to our clients, do it with our teams. Bring in a healthy snack. It can be that easy. get your team together to go to another studio for a workout. Just like the Ritz shares, you know, giving recognition and just really making sure that's always top of mind for us. Sharing successes, giving shoutouts, connecting everything to the mission and to future goals, and prioritize realignment. So, kind of going back to the same thing of getting on the same page a little bit, but holding those check-ins, reminding the team of the values, reinforcing that culture like we were talking about at the beginning, and then skill sharpening. So, how can you host a book club, provide them different continuing education? We are doing a mini sales training for all

34:39 members to invite their instructors and front desks teams to next week. So you can check it off of giving them that sales training. Anything to keep their minds going even outside of like their dayto-day task. Oh, that's a really good one. Perfect. The chill. No, the little training that you guys are doing for not just the owners and managers, but for the teams. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be fun. That's next week. and then lastly is just chill. there is statistic that the best teams spend 25% more time discussing nonwork matters with their colleagues. so just really remembering that time that you're not talking about the studio, that you're talking about favorite books, favorite movies, concerts that they're going to, all of that actually does drive a lot of engagement and connection across your team. Yeah. so couple a couple questions that came across. well, first off, comment, Michael. Thank you. I totally agree. having all of this or establishing this if you've never already and now putting it into onboarding manuals or initial conversations when you're hiring is so important. but you know, as Cat mentioned, for those people that have been your employees for 10 years or, you know, for a while, how do you approach this conversation without it feeling forced? you know, like the initial launch of something

36:20 like this. I think when you go into it with excitement, you can create because I mean, what is what would be the harm of going to your team and being like, "Oh my god, I heard this awesome thing about the Ritz. I learned all the stuff that Carlton does. I want to bring it here." So, we are I've created this employee promise for all of you to show you my commitment to you. you know, we've created these steps of service. I'm so excited now. Yes. Then to Michael's point, let's re onboard. Yeah. Let's now But I think there's what? Oh, there was something I heard in a podcast recently that was like as business owners, especially small business owners, we get away from the idea of experimentation. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. So, like why not experiment? Why not be open with our teams of like, "Oh my god, I heard this great idea. Let's try it." Yeah. Yeah. It's give yourself a break.

37:23 You don't have to be perfect with the execution of everything you do. I think being human about it and being a little vulnerable with like I you're right. I heard this amazing thing and I think it really could do something special for our studio. Let's give it a try. Like, you know, and then those one-on-one meetings will be so helpful. And no, your studio is not Animal Farm. It's I mean, this is what so many those of you on here that are like nodding your head with cat saying, "Yes, my teachers would have a hard time, too." don't let her be alone. it's true. It's, you know, when we h, especially when we have people who are used to doing something a certain way, it's showing up. It's easy. You know, they're not thinking about the big picture. And that's your job. That's the best part of your job is to actually get to set the stage and lead people through something. Sometimes that's something you have to lead them through is evolution and change. And that's okay.

38:21 Totally. and you can involve them in that process, right? that was something that we again tked to the managers of go to your team and craft an employee promise together. Ask what they want the promise to them to be. so this can be a collaborative effort to get even more buyin from them. Yeah, I love that. Okay. And then the last one is kind of even a little bit I feel like to your point Laura that you were just saying of a big picture thing to leave with that we keep coming to is rethink your employee value proposition both in terms of how you hire and onboard moving forward. and also how you speak to and engage with and work with your current teams. I love HBR. If any of you don't use HBR, I highly recommend HBR, Harvard Business Review. They have great podcasts. They have incredible blogs. All things management. They have stellar insights. so, you know, this was all about like the struggle of hiring teams right now, of hiring employees. And it was kind of like maybe we've always gotten it wrong as employers. We've always kind of been like, what do you want to the employ to the potential employee, right? For how we get them. And when you ask someone what they want, all of our minds tend to naturally go to our shortterm wants. So salary, benefits, flexibility, these types of things. And none of us usually gross generalization, but none of us usually are that good at looking

40:08 out for our own long-term needs. Mhm. So is that more the role that we as employers can start taking of trying to push that conversation of like what do you want in the long term? Now here's how I can help get you there. So to bring this to life like used to employ a lot of in New York shocker, right? so it was that conversation of what are your long-term wants and needs for the employee. Usually it had nothing to do with working at the studio. It was being an actor or whatever. So then it was the discussion of, okay, so you won't work here forever. That's okay, but I want to help you help equip you with the things that will serve your long-term goals. By working in customer service, you're learning these skills that are important for working with people. by learning sales, you're learning how to go into an audition room and sell yourself. As an actor, you're always selling yourself. So, we're talking sales to clients, yes, but you'll use these things and how you go on your own career trajectory long term. so that was just something from HBR on how we create more sustainable paths within our organizations and attract people in long term, right? I think just quickly to throw in there too, one of the one of the things I always felt was missing is, you know, we make promises to our clients that we have a beautiful community and we spend so much time promising them this

41:53 experience when they come to us, but we don't think about what the promises are to our team. You know, what are we delivering them? And sometimes, yes, I agree, like talking about those long-term needs is going to be really important, but the foundation of so many of our businesses is this really powerful community. So, how do we involve and envelop our staff in that community as well with each other? I mean, especially the younger, less experienced workforce are less connected. They don't they many of them don't have work friends because they work remotely from home or they're they're not they never had the experience of going into an office and being with someone from you know 8 to 5 every day. So this may be their place that they build their adult friendships, you know, and sharing that idea of community amongst your staff can be one of the most powerful retention tools you have just like it is for your clients.

42:53 For sure. For sure. And again, just like with our with our clients, we talk guidance, right? Like we ourselves as their guide, their fitness and wellness guide. We create milestone programs to keep them working towards long-term goals. But how do we ever translate that or do we ever translate that to our employees? What is the employee version of a milestone program? Great. How are we showing that we are continuing to support their own development and realizing that likely their development is going to go past us at some point or outside of us and maybe that's okay. Yeah. Awesome. That's all I had on my slide last time. Awesome. Well, any questions now that we've we've kind of seen those details? Especially Well, I should say I'm I'm going to start off with a question. those meetings when you say like one of the first quick things you can do for the summer is get everybody on the same page. So, do you schedule a like 15-inute check-in? How do you do that without alarming people and making it feel like, okay, I really need you to show up. This is important. You know, I won't take too much of your time. Yeah.

44:09 What would you do there? I think it's I think it can be a mix for everyone. Like we talk about doing one-on- ons and group meetings, like you know, spacing them out, but I think just being clear like, "Hey, I would love to do a quick check-in. I just want to know like what your summer looks like, what you're hoping to get out of the summer. I would love to reconnect on where you're wanting to go in life." Like people like talking about themselves. Yeah, we're always our own favorite topic, right? So, if you really phrase it of like, I just want to find out what's going on with you. I would love to hear you know, again, what your what your new goals are. Let's go out for coffee. Especially in the summer, you could keep it casual, I think, and just go out for a coffee check-in. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. And guys, you may be the first fitness studio owner, manager to ever do that for them, you know, like I think there are so many businesses in our industry that operate as, you know, ships in the night and you show up, you do your job and you leave.

45:14 Like that in and of itself might be such a huge differentiator. Totally. I mean, I've said before, you know, I never had that in an employer until I came to BFS. And immediately the conversation was, where do you want to go? Okay, let's create opportunities for you that help lead to where you want to go with your career. I love it. And it's powerful when you experience that from an employer. Yeah, Michael, great point. Teacher, when you're doing this with teachers, everyone loves teaching full, you know, vibrant, busy classes, bustling rooms, and when you frame this as a partnership and working, you know, on culture towards a common goal, that's what the result is. period. So awesome. Always getting the why for Yeah. All right. Well, we have reached time. I try to stay on time and respect everyone's day because I know you're all very busy, but Jess, thank you so much for your time sharing this information. It's such a great conversation. how can this group here or anybody watching at home afterwards get a hold of you, learn more about BFS? you can go to our website at boutiquefitnesssolutions.com.

46:32 I apologize for the triple s. or you can also email me, jessica boutiquefitnesssolutions.com. Love it. And we'll be sharing this recording out with everybody that registered and I'll probably put it in our Facebook group as well. and yeah, please check in with BFS if you're interested in their programs, especially that quick and easy sales training for teams this summer. That might be an easy way to do some continued ed and provide value. And Katie Santos is doing a four-week course specifically on hiring, training, and retaining teams starting on July 10th. So if you know your schedule's a little bit more freed up for the summer and you want to dive deep on really building that strong team, she is our HR expert. So she's been fantastic. All right. Thank you everyone. Great to see you guys. for those of you who are Wall of clients on here, that's a good handful of you. our marketing suite launched today. So, if you haven't already signed up, if you haven't already gotten your demo or gotten on the onboarding calendar, please, please, please hop over to our website and schedule a demo. Yes, it is so exciting.

47:51 you all probably saw today there is something new called audiences in your platform. So, I'm going to be doing a quick little video in the Facebook group and just you know, you'll be seeing lots of communication come out from our team about it over the next month. it's it's pretty exciting. We've been busy on it. All right. Great to see you all. Thank you so much. Have a great week and we'll see you next month. Thank you. Thank you.