YEAR IN REVIEW

The first page of a beautiful new journal.

There’s nothing like a brand new journal to light me up – especially on the first day of a brand new decade. One of my most cherished traditions in business is setting a plan for the year that fuels my soul. The first step is to reflect on the year before; what big plans did I aspire to, which plans moved forward, which didn’t go quite as planned, which have yet to be tapped into, and which have blossomed beyond our expectations…

The start of 2019 was consumed with many new beginnings. Each Boutique Fitness studio was assigned its very own manager. This means that three of our awesome coaches were promoted and put in charge of taking the best care of each studio and, most importantly, of each client. Of course where there are position changes, there will be even more position changes to cover all bases.

With new coaching shifts opening across the board, and with the Taunton studio on the horizon, we realized that it’s just not enough to ‘hire’ new coaches. We really needed to make a plan for in depth on-boarding that would provide the studios with truly qualified coaches. That’s when the Coach to Coach Program was developed. C2C is a mentorship program that gives us the opportunity to provide real-time, hands-on experience in what it’s really like to be a Boutique Fitness coach. Since its inception in May, 2019, we have had 19 participants enrolled and have hired 13 of them as BF Coaches (2 of which are RUN Coaches).

Once our plan for coaching coaches was on a roll, Angela and I made the difficult decision to close Track+Channel. I had 2 years and countless experiences with T+C. It introduced us to a whole new aspect of business, but most importantly, it introduced us to so many wonderful new people. In the end it became ever so clear that if we were to continue to give BF the attention it needed to thrive, we simply had to release T+C. By closing Track+Channel we were also able to re-introduce RUN classes to Boutique Fitness. 

Since the very beginning, our coaches have helped countless clients become one with their inner-runner. Some of the most common bucket list items we see include running a 5k, 10k, or half marathon – and these really light us up! The RUN classes give us an opportunity to reframe the run experience. We coach the person, not necessarily the sport. Running is absolutely singular – it’s about YOU and the freedom you gain when you’re confident hitting the pavement or trails. We are so happy to now have seven classes available weekly.

As we were re-launching the RUN program, we opened our 4th studio in Taunton, my home town;) This created another management position for one of our NB coaches and 3 new coaching positions which were filled by participants from our very first C2C cohort in May. Taunton, with all the new people we’ve met, and the ones we have been re-acquainted with, has truly been a wonderful addition to the BF family. 

In November we completed the eighth annual 10 in10 Challenge! Ten weeks of nutrition coaching focusing on 10 of the most powerful concepts, simple tasks, and behaviors to create long lasting changes in how we address nutrition. This year we introduced the challenge through an app, which of course had its fair share of learning curves, but all in all a very exciting approach to help us help our clients better.

New Years Eve we hosted the most epic monster circuit at the New Bedford studio! 8 clients, 6 coaches, and a 10-station monster circuit throughout the entire studio – every 30 minutes from 6am-noon. This was our eighth anniversary of the NYE Workout, and this year we got to introduce our new neighbors to the BFF (Boutique Fitness Family) – Besteas! Allie and Barbara shared a wonderful sampling of coffees and teas for everyone to enjoy after their workout. They will be open to the public very soon – so keep an eye out!

Last but not least, I got to participate in my 4th International Regatta in the Açores and Angela celebrated her 40th in Hawaii!? (Actually she was with me and the team at the Perform Better Summit during her actual birthday – but we still had a blast;)

So there you have it, our year in review. 2019 proved to be a pretty challenging year, but as we all know – if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. I can’t say enough about the people that surround us. We really do have the most incredible, intelligent, fun, and compassionate clients and team of coaches. We can continue to hold the bar high because you also hold the bar high… thank you for that♡

Happy New Year and may 2020 be as awesome as it sounds.

With a full and grateful heart,

Lara