Dance Studio Mogul Misty Lown Explains How to Reinvent any Face-to-Face Business Misty Lown ("the Sara Blakely of the studio industry") has developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create revenue opportunities.
By Mike Koenigs Edited by Dan Bova
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What would you do if one day you couldn't meet with any of your customers or clients to deliver your product or service? That's virtually everyone in the face-to-face and studio industry — including dance, gymnastics, yoga karate, pilates, spin studios, and more — which accounts for over $144 billion in revenue every year.
How do you stabilize and reinvent your business now or when the next pandemic strikes, while becoming competition-and recession-proof in the future? Every service business that is dependent on face-to-face delivery, like the studio industry, retail and hospitality, has been decimated, resulting in over 40 million lost jobs in the United States, and estimates of 200 million worldwide.
The Harvard Business Review reports 44% of the U.S. GDP comes from businesses with fewer than 500 employees, which represents almost half of American jobs. Most were not prepared to pivot their businesses overnight.
If you're in the studio industry, how do you stabilize so that you can not only fix this now but remain competition and recession-proof in the future? This is either a major business opportunity or a complete disruption.
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Misty Lown has been described as "the Sara Blakely of the studio industry." She's a self-made mogul who's developed a unique three-step transformational system that can help any business owner in the studio industry create opportunities, leverage, and not only thrive but grow in the new economy and new business environments.
Like many others, Lown had her world upended overnight. In the span of just a few days, she went from thriving in her physical studio environments to trying to figure out how to build a new virtual business. Through that process, she had an insight: We can continue overtime to get back into our physical businesses and to deliver classes face to face, but we are not going to let go of the new opportunity to serve people on an online platform. If we can get those two together in the right way, we have a brand-new business and a much broader market.
Lown grew up doing what she loved and eventually wanted to teach and start her own studio. She's a dancer by trade, and her graduate degree is in education, so it was natural for her to blend her love of dance and education into a studio environment. As her profile rose, she started teaching on a national circuit and writing for magazines. People would come and wait for hours to visit and experience her classes.
Lown achieved the near-impossible at the time: a "triple win." She and her team were making a good living, making a life outside of the business, and having a great impact on kids. That's when she knew they had something unique -- something she could build a framework around and use her educational background to teach others.
Lown is a mom of five, an entrepreneur, and just celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary. She admits none of it is easy. Like every successful entrepreneur, she's been on a constant entrepreneurial roller coaster throughout her career. Her three-step system simplifies and maximizes life and entrepreneurship.
Misty's three-step system
Rhythm Stabilizer: The initial process of figuring out how to integrate all the pieces of your service-based business. How are you spending your time, creating stability, and into a comfortable rhythm that moves and flows easily?
Community Optimizer: Creating a community around the business. Building a team, getting enthusiasm from the clients, and support from the larger community.
Value Maximizer: Creating value from the actual product and the business to the people that we serve and who serve with us. Adding value to that.
Lown's client Melanie Gibbs now owns three dance studios in Florida after raising her hand at a conference where Lown was teaching and following her three-step process. She's living proof that the system works if you commit to it and follow through.
