 All right. Welcome to the podcast on today's show with Megan Root. Thanks for joining from the Sculpt Society for people who don't know. What does your company do? Gosh, that's a, uh, let me try. So many things we bring happiness and empowerment and enjoyment. Yeah. So the Sculpt Society is a blend of really simple dance cardio, but mostly all low impact, full body workouts. And so when I think about your business, I think about so many things specifically like the difficulty of sort of becoming known, the courage it takes to sort of be on camera, film yourself. Probably more so as a woman in today's society. Let's go to the beginning. What, what sort of got you into fitness as a, in general, like what, what became like the obsession? Yeah. Fitness was never in the, like a path for me. It was never something I envisioned for myself, but I was always moving. So I come from a dance background, grew up dancing in classical ballet and in high school, I was a dance team. And then in college, I was at NYU's Tisch Dance Program. So, you know, I was on the track, right? Of how to become a professional dancer. I then eventually danced professionally with the Brooklynettes. And I was trying to afford life in New York City, which was very expensive. Did you get paid well as a Brooklyn or as a dancer on an NBA team? It was one of the highest paid dance teams. Okay. So there's a range. Absolutely. But, but when you actually look at how much I was paid, I mean, I could never afford to, to live off of that when I was made. So no. And so it's more of a hobby. Or I guess it was. No, it was, it was definitely not a hobby. It was paid just like any professional dancer out there who's listening probably knows how much you get paid and it's not a lot of money. So because of that, I was side hustling and multiple jobs. So I was working in fashion as a fit model. I was teaching fitness and never really thought that fitness would become a career for me. But when I started to teach, I really fell in love with connecting with other women in my early 20s. I really struggled with body confidence and a missing part of my journey was finding a way of exercising that felt really joyful. And then also healing a lot of just personal relationships with my, with myself and my body and then my body image. And so for me, finding intuitive eating and then finding a way of working out that felt joyful was very powerful for me for my career because therapy. Yeah. Well, it was a moment of realizing, oh my gosh, I could, I could do this for other women. And I started to connect with other women in these fitness classes and saw just a different way to have a career, which for me at the time was only going to be dance. And then I really saw that as as a path forward. And so I really loved boutique fitness in New York at the time. It was 2017. It was exploding all around us. You know, there was different modalities and I was taking a lot of different classes. And I felt while I loved taking those classes, I felt like the class in the community that I really wanted and really needed at the time wasn't there. And so 2017 came really just the realization that I wanted to create the class in the community that I wanted, which was the Sculpt Society. So blending everything that I really loved in fitness with my own spin on it. When I hear your story, I was just on the phone earlier today with somebody and we talked about this quote came up and it was like, the guru is the other. And this person just had kids. So to your, I know you have two. And it's like when you have a child, it's the ultimate guru because you know nothing. And the only thing they know is from you. And so when I think about business in some way, when you're talking about sort of your journey and all the things you sort of liked about what you were doing in the world. And then the thing that you wanted to create. It's like all those things where you're like the guru is the other. It's so interesting. Yeah, absolutely. And I think when I went into that with that perspective of like, what is it that I want to create that's just not out there? It was really for that busy woman who wanted to move their body in an empowering way without any diet culture triggering language that felt inclusive. That felt fun, really like making, working out fun again. And I think again, at the time in Boutique Fitness in New York City, it was so serious. And so I just wanted to kind of lighten the mood a little bit while still getting an amazing workout. And then growing that community two years later, I launched the Sculpt Society app, which is our digital program. What made you want to do that? So what did you see, I guess, working? And you were like, OK, how do we scale it, right? Because it feels like an infinite jump. Yeah, not really. I think for me, it was like I was working crazy amount of hours. It was just me. And I kept on thinking like, what is Megan doing at 4550? Like, I cannot keep this up. And so how do I scale it? Interesting. And at the time, you know, Peloton was really just starting and you could see the success growing there. And other fitness, digital fitness brands were starting to grow. And so it really made a lot of sense for me to just take that leap of faith and to take it digital. And did you bring on, like, did you bootstrap this? Or did you bring on some funding? Fully bootstrapped. Really? Yeah. So then you met like a group of developers. So again, it was kind of just, you know, I was thinking about doing it through my website and then starting to talk to different developers about that. And then Vimeo actually approached me. They were white labeling apps and websites for fitness instructors. And so Vimeo. The video company. Yes. So they are really cloud based. That's how they put chunk of their businesses through cloud storage. And then right before the pandemic hit, they had started to white label apps and websites for fitness instructors. And so for me, it was a really perfect timing because I didn't want to develop my own app. I, you know, I didn't have the funds for that. It was still expensive, but I had really saved a little bit of cash and took a leap of faith there. And then how did you market this whole thing? So how did you get it out into the world and sort of penetrate this kind of somewhat? So many people have options. You have SoulCycle. You have just going to the gym. You have nothing. When I started this company in 2017, I always say I had like 300 followers on Instagram. But I think as a millennial, I realized how important social media was, how I was consuming and finding out about brands was happening on Instagram. And so I really started to grow that account from 300 followers into, you know, a substantial community that was really important. And I, you know, I think through that growth of that community, I was able to get the word out. How difficult was that, though? Like it goes back to some of the things you were talking about before, where it's you're putting yourself out there again, you're sort of having to confront society. Yeah, I think, you know, listen, it's a little awkward at first, right? Like who wants to talk to a camera? But I always say, like, you know, it just takes practice getting comfortable. And again, I'm someone who is consuming content from other creators. I really enjoyed it. And knowing that if I could grow my community there, I could also grow my business. So you kind of just have to check your ego at the door and just really show up authentically, be who you are and grow your community and just continue to create content that they want to consume because at the end of the day, that's really how I was able to grow the business. And I knew that going into it, just the power of if that community could grow, my business could grow. At what point did you feel like you had a business? Like at what point did you feel kind of, and I know you really never relaxed, I guess, when you're in it, but at what point were you like, okay, I think this is working. And, you know, we're seeing the subscriptions go up. Like at what point was that? Yeah, I think really feeling like I made it. I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever feel that way. I always just feel like there's so much more work to do. I think that, you know, you press play on like, okay, like you're launching the digital subscription. And I think once I was able to kind of hit that initial marker of like what I thought I could organically bring in from an amount of subscribers, you know, those, I'd say first two months, I was like, okay, I think I can do this. And I think this is sustainable. And I will say I launched in November of 2019. And then a couple months later of the pandemic hit. So, you know, a lot more eyeballs, a lot more people looking for subscription. That's incredible that that happened. Yeah. But then also think about it, you know, we're still growing outside of a pandemic, outside of people going back. So there's like high retention there. Yeah, healthy growth, high retention. Wow. And what does it cost for people to join your? It's $19.99 a month for a month. And then if you set it for the year, it's $179, which brings the cost down to $14.99 a month. And then are there things that people have to buy or is it just? No, and that's the beauty of it. Do you have your own line of goods? We do, we do. And they're beautiful equipment pieces. If you want that. But I'm very conscious of making sure that most of my workouts can be done with no equipment. And if you don't have the equipment and you don't want to spend the money, you can use household goods. So even like our Pilates ball, I'll say grab a roll of toilet paper or sliders. If you don't have sliders, grab a, you know, hand towel. Like there are ways that you can really modify. That's awesome. Yeah. So when I think about like SoulCycle as an example, they just went super trainer heavy. Everyone's got a personality. And they sort of built their company, which I think it's harder to do on like personalities of several. Yeah. Did you ever consider doing that? Well, I have trainers in New York City. You know, I think people don't want to support businesses. They want to support people. And so I do think that that model, while maybe not hundreds of trainers, like if you do have, you know, you look at Peloton, especially in the early days of Peloton, they maybe would have had 10 trainers. I think it was smart, right? Like their trainers, the personality, like I know in New York City, especially in those boutique fitness days, you know, people would in New York would drive to see a specific trainer across town. Like that was the norm. And I do think there is something to that. And so while the Sculpt Society is a method, the two trainers I have in New York City, they're their own personalities and people come and they take their classes because they want to take a class from Katie. They want to take a class from Matt or Megan. Like each of us bring our own personality into the Sculpt Society method. When it comes to other things in life, so give me advice here on how to just get fit in general or the people listening. Outside of the Sculpt Society, which I think is probably a fun way of working out, it would seem that's how you present it. Is there other things that you give people on like more of a lifestyle? You know, when it comes to diet, I think it's really tricky. I'm not a nutritionist and I think there are a lot of fitness professionals out there who are giving nutrition advice when they probably shouldn't. And I think coming from someone in my early 20s where I was yo-yo dieting and I was doing everything that I thought I should be doing and taking advice from people I probably shouldn't have been taking advice from. I'm really mindful of the advice I give around food and so my own personal perspective on food is really intuitive eating, simplifying how you approach food, eating whole foods, but like, you know, really listening to your body. When are you hungry? When are you full? And actually not overly complicating it. And it's the same goes for, to me, the way we approach fitness. I want people to show up and sometimes that means it's just five minutes a day. Sure, there are studies that say we should be getting 30 minutes of X, Y, and Z every day but at the end of the day if you're not getting movement and you are sedentary, I want you to start smaller than that and work it up into a habit that you can consistently show up to. So I'm just a real, again, it comes into just like leaning into the things that you can show up to consistently so that you can build a habit around. The one thing I always try to talk when I talk to female founders specifically that have children like yourself now is like, I think there's so many women who run their own companies that it becomes like a tough subject for them whether they're entering the world of having kids or whether they're now, they have kids and they're such a reliance on the mom, you have two. What have you learned during this process? Still running a company, still being very involved. What have you learned and maybe what things, maybe what fears you had at the beginning that either have are true or you've managed in a way that maybe you didn't expect? Yeah, I think when you have kids, I know for me I was really nervous about having children because the Sculpt Society was my baby, it is my baby and I know how much time and commitment it needs. And so going into having kids, I was very nervous about how I was going to balance it all. I think the biggest learning lesson I've really had in business and in just becoming a mom is learning how to ask for help and making sure that my time is being spent on the things that are actually moving the needle in the business. What am I good at? I'm really great at teaching class. I'm really great at making content for social media. I know I'm really great at just the creative direction. So just making sure that I'm getting support in the other areas of the business that I can maybe at a high level give direction to but that I don't need to be in the weeds spending hours a day on. So hiring people that are smarter than me in certain areas of the business so that really they can execute on my vision. Spending my time, like I said, allocating time to what I'm good at. And really again, yeah, I think it's too with my partner, right? Being very clear on what I need, the support I need from him when it comes to the business, when it comes to kids, because we also work together and making sure we feel supported in how we are raising our kids while trying to run a business. Yeah, I kind of love that. What you're saying is in some way, it's like you can rank all the tasks you were doing before. And now in a sense, you just focus on the ones that are how you yield either to you personally or to the business financially. You're solving for time. You have to now. Yeah. I mean, it's all work in progress. No, it's never easy. Not really having to figure it out. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. How did you get into the celebrity fitness world where is it just one-on-one? People like you, you're awesome. They're like, hey, come do it with me. Yeah, a lot of, I think a lot of the celebrities and influencers that I've worked with have been through word of mouth. A lot of them though, I've outreach to on Instagram. Oh, nice. I still do that. What do you say? What's your opener? I mean, I keep it very simple. You know, hi, my name's Megan Roup. I'm a celebrity trainer. I would love to train you sometimes as my guest. And also just following up, you know, sometimes it takes a couple of follow-ups. Not, you know, it gets creepy after a certain amount of time. And you have to respect people who don't want to necessarily do that. But I think, yeah, I think outreach on Instagram on social is really powerful. And also I think for brands like when you are a seeding product or, you know, for me, if I'm doing a private, like the expectation is zero. My expectation is I want them to experience my class. I'm not expecting them to post for me. I'm kind of going in from that lens and building a relationship there first. Yeah, I kind of love that. I would have not guessed that. Oh yeah. I thought people would approach you. Both, listen, both. I would say some of my bigger celebrity clients or bigger influencers have been through word of mouth. But I've had a lot of amazing clients that have come through Instagram. For people who have never even touched this world, what have you learned about them? Who's your favorite celebrity to work with? Who's my favorite? Gosh, I don't know that I have a favorite. That would be hard for me. I did just train Dakota Johnson for her role in Madam Web and she was just such a joy to work with and that was really, really fun. What's next in store for the company? Like, where do you want to take it this year? For us, it's just continued healthy growth, continuing to build our internal marketing team, making sure I have the support I need. I just hired an executive assistant, she's here. You know, those are big things for me. We are a small, scrappy startup that is not VC backed, but we're growing and that's really exciting. And I think just continuing to just, I think also make programs that are community, listening to our community on like the programs that they're looking for. I think we are in such a special place where I have direct communication with my community and I can get feedback very quickly. So I'm constantly talking to them, asking them what they want to see and that's the beauty, I think, of a small business and someone who has a community on social media is I can really pivot and be flexible and create content for them. And I think they feel that. Where are you on social media? Are you everywhere? I imagine you are. I'm not on, we're thinking about YouTube. Okay. It could be a monetization stream there. Yeah. I guess you pick your spots. Yeah. How big is your social media team? You're looking at her right now. You're just good at it. I do have, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. We need to grow that team a little bit more. I do have some help on the side, but I would love to find some more like full time social media. The game is changing so quickly. That's the thing that gets me. It's like sometimes everything will work and then sometimes it only works on YouTube. Yeah. Are you on YouTube as well? Yeah, we are. And so right now our YouTube is just outperforming the other two by a million. And it makes no sense to me. And then it'll all shift. Then it'll go to like Instagram will be the hot thing for a week or two. I'd love to pick your brain on TikTok. I mean on YouTube, how often are you posting there? So we post generally speaking like from this, this is good. From this interview, we'll do three shorts per day for the entire week. I do shorts, yeah. We do both. We basically jump, let's say this interview into like 20 segments. But the shorts are really hitting strong right now on YouTube and I think that's because they're trying to compete with TikTok. What I like about YouTube is that there's an algorithm. And so for you and fitness, it's so nice. Like you'll just be referred into, are you looking at fitness? Here's Megan and her videos. And so there's a way of discovering people that I think is a lot easier. But like that's kind of like TikTok in a way. It is. That discoverability. You're seeing new people all the time versus Instagram. I can hardly keep up with my friends that I actually follow, right? I think for me though, really my core demo and my core community is on Instagram. I'm trying to build an actual community on TikTok too. That's just been a different, it's just a different beast a little bit there. Who's your average consumer? Like what can you tell me about their demo? Yeah, they're 25 to 35. They are a busy woman. Some have kids, some don't. Big cities, they care about wellness, but they also want a cocktail. Yeah. You know? That's me. I don't know. And how long are the workouts? Can they choose? Like you said earlier, if they only have five minutes they can do like a quick five minute workout. Yes, I have this mantra. I'm all about committing to less so that you can show up more. So I would rather my clients do. Committing to less so you could show up more. That's a good mantra, right? That's a great one. So five to 10 minutes a day, I'd rather, I truly believe that. I would so much rather my clients commit to that five to six days a week, build a habit around it and continue with that. But yes, so I have workouts that are five minutes long. I have workouts that are 50 minutes long. I have great programs for beginners, intermediate, advanced. Really for something and really specifically for women. So programs for different stages of life. So college, if someone's interested in cycle syncing, we have a bridal program, pre and post natal. We're also looking into expanding a fertility program, perimenopausal, like a lot of different phases that I think women are looking for more support in. Have there been any acquisitions in this space? Like what do you think about potential for that? What does that look like? Yeah, listen, it would have to be really special because honestly, I really feel so aligned in what I'm doing and my purpose here. Like I will be teaching the Sculpt Society when I'm like 65. Like you're gonna see me like, you know, up and around. This is your journey, this is your thing, yeah. I think if it was to be acquired, it would have to really, really move the needle and expanding our exposure to people and building that audience in a big, big way. But yeah, I think from an acquisition perspective, I think I look at the sweat app, which is interesting, they just reacquired their app. And then, I mean, there hasn't been a lot of big acquisition or interesting stories in this space, so I'm not sure. I'm just curious, you know, it's not always everybody's plan either. Sometimes they're just so focused on solving the problem and they're seeing success and that's okay. And to your point, if you do this until you're 65, that's kind of amazing. Yeah, and you'll have all this content. And who knows that the social media platforms will be there. Moving YouTube would be interesting, I think that'd be good. Say it again. Moving to YouTube, or at least, it's a good monetization and I think it'll bring in customers. I know, but how much free content do you put out there? That's the thing, I go all of it, but that's me. For you, you would need them to move into the app. What's the biggest spike you've seen? What are the things that you see when you think about your social media strategy that you go, like this is definitely high yield in terms of attracting a new user? Spikes, gosh, I mean, for us, the big spikes were of course COVID. We saw just a massive demand, but it's hard to really correlate spikes on social with new subscribers. We really see that in actual pieces of content that we're using as an ad to acquire. That's interesting when like a piece of content that we're using to acquire a new customer is working, is it the copy, is it the way, that's how I like to analyze it, like what is it that's making someone click on that and convert. But I wouldn't say like, oh, this post is, I'm seeing a big conversion on the app from. We just spoke to Carrie Barber from Make Beauty and she said like Hailey Bieber. Oh, interesting. Like one product and all she did was post a reaction video to it and the product sold out. And obviously that's probably a testament of Hailey's reach. Bananas, I was like, that's crazy. That could happen to me anyway. Maybe not so crazy to everyone else. No, I mean, I think celebrities like at that level definitely does not supers her. Would you ever do a TV show? Would I ever do one? Yeah. Like the biggest loser, like Jillian Michaels or something like, no. Infomercial, would you ever do an infomercial? An infomercial, no, I don't think so. You know what I would love to do? I'd love to go on QVC. And do what? Get people to sell your, yeah. Yeah, that would be so fun to me. You should do that. You should reach out to Lori. Or could you get on Shark Tank and then you got Lori, then you got on QVC. Yeah, but then I have to give a portion of my business to Lori. You would. I don't know that I would. It wouldn't be fun. I don't think I would. Well, what else can you tell people? What else should we know about your? You know, I think for anyone listening who's just trying to build a habit around movement and a sustainable habit around movement, that's what we're all about, the Scope Society. And just really leaning into movement that is, feels joyful, feels like something you actually look forward to showing up to and wanting to transform how we look at working out. If anyone's out there listening wants to check it out, they can. Drop that quote again, what was it? Commit to less so that you can show up more. Megan, thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, share with your friends, your family, or anyone you might think might benefit from the conversation we've had today. And if you haven't already, please take a moment to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. We'd greatly appreciate it. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more people who can benefit from our discussions. The best way to stay connected with us and get the latest updates on future episodes is through our social media channels. You can find us at Startup & Storefront. We'll be back next Tuesday with another great episode. See you then.