Mar 16, 2023
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Veronica Parmar. Veronica manages and teaches at a Pilates studio in the greater Los Angeles area, where her diverse client list includes professional athletes, entertainment personalities, seniors, and those recovering from injuries.
With her deep understanding and passion of the Pilates work, she is able to inspire her clients to gain flexibility, strength and body awareness. Veronica wants to expand her instruction to other aspects including guest teaching, workshops and Pilates retreats.
You can find out more about Veronica or contact her at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-parmar/
transcript:
00:04
Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I'm Brenda McCabe. I own and
operate a consulting firm, NextAct Advisors. I have a simple
mission. I want to assist entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in
building scalable
00:33
well-governed and resilient businesses. The Founder's Sandbox
podcast that you're listening in today is just an additional
channel in which I feature founders, business owners, corporate
directors and professional service providers who like me want to
use the power of the private enterprise, small, medium and large to
create change for a better world.
01:01
Through storytelling with a guest on topics that include
resilience, purpose-driven growth, and sustainable growth, my goal
is to provide a fun environment and a sandbox where we can equip
one startup founder at a time to build a better world through great
corporate governance. Today, my guest is Veronica Parmar, Pilates
instructor and owner of Pilates with Veronica.
01:30
Veronica and I are going to talk about in movement, resilience
through pilates. I've been a practitioner and a student of Veronica
for too many years. Now I love going back. She's really built
resilience in my body. And I was thrilled when Veronica agreed to
join me in the founder sandbox today. So thank you, Veronica.
01:57
Well, Brenda, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate
you considering me for your show. So thank you so much. Right.
Well, I'm going to give a little bit of background on you. Okay.
And your business. So Veronica is owner of Pilates with Veronica.
She has been an instructor at Yoga Works after studying under Jill
Cassidy, a second generation instructor to Joseph Pilates, the
original Joseph Pilates.
02:24
She grew up as a dancer and performed for more than three decades.
Veronica's diverse client list includes professional athletes,
entertainment personalities, seniors, and those recovering from
injuries. Veronica, like many professionals in the fitness world
during the peak of the COVID pandemic, had to pivot professionally.
The story of her newly found professional identity.
02:53
is one of managing oneself. And if you've listened to my podcast
before, or work with me in Next Act Advisors, I often go back to
Peter Drucker's seminal piece on managing oneself. And when I asked
Veronica to join me, it just was a really incredible aha moment for
me, because
03:16
She used the words or words managing oneself several times in a
spontaneous way. So we're gonna hear a bit more of Veronica's
pivoting and creating a new professional identity. And she's done
this through movement, resilient through Pilates. So Veronica,
where did it all begin? You were a dancer for most of your life and
now you're- Yes, so I was a dancer, very serious dancer.
03:46
competition dancer as a younger child and young adult and then was
a dance major in college. When I got to college, I had also come,
let me rephrase it, I had come from a small town as well as, you
know, a small dance studio. So I had some dance technique issues
that I didn't really realize that I had, some alignment issues,
some...
04:13
body issues in terms of structural things and things of that
nature. So I was basically instructed, we were very lucky in the
dance department that I was in, I went to Cal State Long Beach,
that we had a physical therapy department and we also had a, we had
Pilates equipment. So I started, I took the first class and once we
took the first semester, we were able to then use the equipment on
our own.
04:42
And I noticed how drastically it changed my dance technique. Wow.
It changed it incredibly. And I loved it. And it was something that
was very, for me, there was a movement quality to it. I enjoyed
that. I was getting stronger. And as I had mentioned, my dance
technique changed immensely. And from there, I was working after I
finished
05:13
I was in the dance, LA dance scene, working, doing all of that.
There was no way with the two jobs that I had and auditioning that
I wasn't ever going to be able to do any Pilates at that time. But
I always kept it in my mind. I mean, I would take a class here and
there, but really didn't have the means to do that as well. So.
05:37
I just, you know, that was something that I had kind of kept with
me and wanted to sort of engage in that again, at some point, if I,
the opportunity sort of arose. And then through your dance career,
you did sustain injuries and you made a choice to not undergo
surgery. Yeah, I had a herniated disc in my back sciatica three
times.
06:07
and was encouraged or told basically at 26 years old that I should
have low back surgery. And I still wanted to dance and I kind of
rehabbed. I went through PT and I rehabbed myself and got back into
taking class and back into that whole scene, which the more you're
out of it and the more you're not practicing the skills that you
need to audition, the longer it takes for you to get back.
06:36
to where you were prior to injuring yourself. But I, yes, so I
sustained, I have a lot of injuries, unfortunately, and it just
sort of is what it is when you are constantly pushing your body to
limits that are not normal. And you do movement that's not normal,
and it happens. There's a lot of injured ex-dancers out there.
Right, but you chose not to abandon.
07:04
entirely. You did another first pivot in your career, right? You
were with the Mobile Dance Company? Yes. So I was while I was still
auditioning, I worked for a mobile dance company as office manager
for a franchisee. It was a franchised company and basically stayed
working with them for about 10 years.
07:32
I worked for the franchisee and then eventually worked for the
owner. There was some absorbing of different franchises from other
owners. Owners. And so I was doing that. I was still teaching
dance. I was teaching also at a dance studio a couple nights a week
and doing competition choreography with that. And then as working
for the mobile dance company,
08:03
And I enjoyed what I did. I was involved in putting up 350
children's shows and dealing with parents and making sure letters
are out and emails are out and we were receiving all the costumes
and the costume orders correct. And how does this dance look? Do I
need to go and intervene and see what's happening with the teacher?
Right. So it kind of was a lot of different stuff that I did. I
mean, it was all across the board from teaching myself.
08:32
to managing these teachers, managing just the whole thing. So I got
really good at what I was doing and I enjoyed what I was doing, but
I felt like I needed, I wanted to do something else. There was
nothing wrong with what I was doing, but I felt like I think I
could have easily just been doing that forever, unless I bought one
of the franchises myself. And I didn't really particularly at that
point.
09:02
have interest in doing so. So I decided to do my Pilates
certification, as I said, with Jill Cassidy. Right. And I did that
while I worked full-time. It was, you know, looking into different
programs. It was one that I thought was very, I'll use the word
serious.
09:28
there's a lot of bad programs out there. And I think it's hard to
find something that is really well done. And she is an amazing
instructor. She actually did not train under Joseph. She trained
with Romana who trained with Joseph. So my error, she was third
generation, but an amazing person. And I'm so happy that I learned
the way that I did. It was a very classical based program.
Okay.
09:57
So we were basically learning all of the exercises, the order of
the exercises, all the equipment set up. And it was a rigorous
program. It was something that I wanted, but I wanted to do it. And
I liked that rigor because it reminded me of the dance world. We're
used to that, at least in my time of dancing, might be a little
different now. You know, part of it was that
10:26
little bit of scare tactic. And I was used to that. And I kind of
liked it. Right. And it was very regimented, the safety measures
from get go. Right. Because you are teaching on on equipment with
lots of springs and weights. And it is quite, I would say, a
complex system that benefits as you
10:55
professional athletes that have sustained injuries, the elderly, et
cetera. So from there, so you finish your certification, you soon
were off working at Yoga Works and moved into different positions
as you build out the entire Pilates program at one particular Yoga
Works store, our store fitness center.
11:25
And you brought in your program management, even back from the
mobile dance time, you brought in your management skills as well as
teaching. And at the time you were kind of what into your third or
fourth year at Yoga Works, you were considering getting out of
teaching. We opened, I opened, so I was part of the staff that
opened the studio was March of 2016.
11:53
Wow. Ironically, it was March when we have 2020 when everything
went askew. However, yeah, it was March of 2016. And yes, I had had
sort of different roles at the time I started off as Pilates
manager, then there were some shifts in regards to the company. But
I was always teaching as well.
12:21
So I became the assistant manager and that was in December of 2019.
So at that time I had just started as assistant manager. I was
teaching, now I was teaching quite a bit group classes at the
studio as well as all my private clients. Now I'd been there since
2016 so.
12:46
you know, with anybody that does what I do, it takes a long time to
build a serious client base. And you get the people that come in
and try, or maybe stick with it for a little bit, or maybe you
don't really vibe with them, and they kind of filter out on their
own. But at that point in time, I felt like I was at my best place
ever work-wise. I had all the clients, the private clients,
13:16
They were all people that I loved working with. I loved them as
people. I loved working with them. I had so much fun. The classes I
had, I still liked, but I was starting to kind of phase those out a
little bit and wanted to kind of get off of some of those. And then
I was spending the rest of the time dealing with our front desk
staff. So I was selling studio memberships. I was still selling
Pilates packages. I was still
13:43
getting new Pilates clients now for other instructors that I had
hired. And I was really enjoying doing a lot of different things
for me. That's something that's I enjoy. I like to be able to have
sort of different aspects of my job that I do. Right. And the
pandemic sets in March 2020. Sure does. So
14:11
Talk us through the timeline and this is yet another pivot and back
to Pilates with Veronica. Yeah, so I hadn't been in that position
very long and it was going really well and then it started getting
weird that week before everything shut down and I remember that
last week at the studio was the strangest week.
14:42
It was just getting stranger and stranger with like, now we can't
use props. Now we can't touch anybody. Now we have to make sure
that, you know, all our members that come in see us frantically
cleaning. And I remember my last day at work, that Saturday before
the world shut down on Monday. And I was with my last client in the
afternoon on Saturday and we both were like, this is so weird.
15:10
And I said to him, it's kind of like the last day of school or
something. That's what it feels like. It's just like, there's some
energy to it. That's weird, creepy and not right. And he's like,
yeah, I just like, it seems like we're not going to. And we both
kind of said, I feel like we're not going to be back here for a
while. And that was what happened. And we shut down and like the
rest of the world, which we thought was going
15:39
months and it turned out to be two years. And throughout this time,
there's nothing like hindsight and thank you for your grace and
sharing your personal experience. You managed yourself. You said,
you know what, the only thing I have is I manage myself. So there
was a furlough, right? And you
16:09
set out to create what you called very legitimate business, right?
Walk us through, you know, what you wanted professionally in a
world where you couldn't practice in a studio and how you recreated
that into your current business.
16:37
you know, prior, you know, the few months leading up to that, it
was we were going to close down some studios, you know, kind of
consolidate studios. And then they just decided in that September,
2020 that they were going to lay everybody off. And then they
decided then they filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed all
studios completely. So I had to figure out what to do.
17:07
I didn't know, because I felt like I was sort of, the carrot was
still being dangled, that we were going back to work and not maybe
knowing how it would look. It probably wasn't gonna be like how it
was, but going back to my beautiful Pilati studio that I worked in,
which was, Brenda, I'm sure you could say, was a very lovely space.
It was. So...
17:36
Strangely enough, about a month prior to that happening, a friend
of mine reached out to me and said, hey, the gal that owns my
duplex is looking to convert one of her garages into a little
Pilate studio where can you, do you know where she could get her
reformer? No. So I gave her all the information for this. There's
a...
18:05
a guy called the Pilates guy that sells used equipment. So she
ended up getting a reformer. She had other pieces already and was
really looking for this space to be a place where she could do
Pilates. She had done a certification of her own as well. Okay. I
met with them. Again, this was before the full layoff and you know,
they...
18:34
Adriana is her name and that's the wonderful person that I was
connected with who is the owner of this home and little converted
garage. And they basically said, Hey, you know, you could start
teaching clients in here if you'd like. And I was like, Oh, okay,
well, thank you. I don't you know, I'm still like, thinking it's
like, you know, the ex boyfriend, you're gonna get back to
19:00
I think I have one more chance. And so, you know, once we were
completely laid off, you know, like the studios are being cleared
out, it's done. The breakup is official. I reached back out to
Adriana and I said, you know, I would really like to start to use a
space for my, I'm going to have, I'm starting my own business.
Basically.
19:32
I just did it right away. I knew somebody who was able to do my
website. We started that right away. I reached out to Adriana to
see and Bobette to see if I could actually use that space. And we
came across a rental sort of agreement. And that's what it was. I
had to get this website up. I had to figure out a booking
platform.
20:02
Right. Because I didn't want it to be, you know, I knew people,
other people, teachers, it just kind of fly by night stuff or, you
know, like it's a joke. And I didn't want that to be, I wanted to
still function like I did when I was at Yoga Works. Like I had a
schedule in the computer and I, you know, have packages that I was
selling and things of that nature. So, you know, I had to find
software that
20:31
was agreeable for me with the price point that I could. And pairing
that with the website and making sure everything kind of works
together. And then it was just kind of all hands on deck and trying
to get emails out and reaching out to people and hoping that they
would want to feel comfortable teaching or still being taught
privately. But now, I mean, luckily the space
21:01
was the best space for Corona. It was the three walls space that
was so important at that time. Right. And your own resilience and
agility, I think you'd actually before being, when you were
furloughed, Yoga Works did provide a lot of online classes and you
were an instructor at time. So you had that kind of nailed down,
right? Yeah. And then you rounded out.
21:31
Yeah, I started figuring out how to teach online, which was a
different, different thing. And then I even, you know, I started
teaching. They wanted us to try to see if our clients would
basically use the rest of their packages through, you know,
sessions online. So I got pretty good at teaching online and
dialing that in. And so yes, I was doing that with them for, for a
while.
21:59
And today you continue to offer some online, right? Yes. I was
teaching for a while, really kind of in the heart of COVID was math
classes online, but I sort of have kind of stepped away from that.
It wasn't really didn't turn into what I was anticipating. So I
just have a few private clients I still teach. And that's basically
it. Duet online, not too much.
22:28
So two and a half years later, almost in half, you're operating
Pilates with Veronica. If you look back, we've gone through two of
your professional pivots, right? Long dance career, injuries,
certifying with Pilates, and with a mobile dance company. At that
moment, prior to the furlough, you were considering to move to
management and less teaching.
22:54
What is it that you do today? And this is for those listeners to
the founder sandbox, right? We're all business owners, founders,
small, medium and large companies. What is it that you do today
that mimics the assistant manager? I mean, you're not only the
instructor, but you manage the whole gamut. So what, take a, you
know, a hindsight look and what would you say that you continue to
embody in the future?
23:23
your business. Pilates with Veronica.
23:28
I continue to kind of embody the way that I would conduct my day.
So I would teach in the morning. Usually I'd have kind of this
afternoon, lull time where I would do my work. So there's my
managing of myself. So I continue to do my work. I do whatever
reports I need to run, booking sessions, emails.
23:58
Um.
24:02
you know, charging credit cards. Yeah, good thing. But important
things like that. You know, client relations basically, because
sometimes, you know, the week might look one certain way. I mean,
this happens often in the industry that I'm in, it's, then it turns
into something else. And we're rebooking this person into this time
slot. Now this person doesn't want to come here. So
24:31
I'm still kind of doing what I did. It's just on a very smaller
scale. And I've been practicing with you for, I think, probably
eight years off and on. I mean, during the pandemic, there was a
lull there and I was unable to go. But one of I have had other
instructors.
24:57
of the Pilates tradition, Miguelangelo in Spain, the original
method. We speak about him often. He and Joseph. In reverence.
That's right. But unlike Miguelangelo, truly your dance background,
you bring it to the individual classes. And I would say that this
is a distinctive way that you have found to
25:27
You know, by through movement, you find resilience. So speak to,
you know, the creative element that you bring into our classes,
because I never know what to expect when I get there. Which is what
I want. I don't want... I learned the method in a very classical
manner, which I think was very important, maybe not for every
instructor, but for me.
25:55
It was the rote, it was the order, it was the things that were very
parallel to dance. So yeah, I know you go to a ballet class, you
go, please, Tandu's taking it. You know how it's gonna go. So you
always know the sort of rote to it. And there is a lot of rote to
Pilates, and especially in regards to being classically trained.
For me, as I really started teaching,
26:23
a lot more. So I had been teaching prior to YogaWorks. I was
teaching at a studio like two nights a week. But when I got to
YogaWorks, I really had to teach a lot. And I had to make it fun
for myself. Because I feel like there, and you know, you hear this
all the time with instructors, there's just burnout quality of
like, you're doing the same thing over and over again. And it's the
same thing. It's the same thing. And there's this burnout element
of it.
26:52
And I didn't want to be like that. And I wanted to make it
interesting for me. And for me, it was, how can I, I know all these
exercises so well. How can I maybe make this into this, but still
it's still the quality that the integrity of Pilates is always
there. But.
27:20
I'm making it fun and I'm making it creative that I enjoy. And
therefore I hope comes across to the client that yeah, like you
said, you're not sure what you're gonna do. You know, you're always
gonna do certain exercises. That's for sure. But maybe sprinkled in
between is something else that is not perhaps what you were
expecting. And for me, that's just.
27:49
kind of grown into that as sort of being my personal style. Because
I want, you know, to me, I find the biggest compliment that
somebody can tell me is, oh my gosh, that went by so fast. Yes.
Because if you are, if it's going by slow, you got a problem. So
for me, it's like when anybody says to me,
28:18
Oh my gosh, that was so great. It went by, I can't believe the
class is over or my session's over or whatever. That's a compliment
to me in the greatest way because that meant they were being
challenged. They were really, you know, in the moment. They weren't
thinking about a grocery list and like, when is this over? So yeah,
I just, I wanna do that because I want it fun for them. I want
it.
28:46
but mainly also fun for me if I have to do this every day. And this
is what I have. And this was, luckily this is what I had during the
pandemic and now after. I was able to teach and in whatever
capacity that was going to be at the time and as it's continuously
evolved. So I'm happy that I have that. So I wanna make it good and
fun. And I want it to be fun.
29:15
and I want you to be challenged and I want you to be surprised. And
that makes me happy. Well, for my listeners, you heard it here.
Pilates with Veronica. You know, you're all about flexibility,
strength and body awareness, building that for your clients. How
can my listeners contact you? Well, you can first, I have a
website. So it's Pilates with Veronica.
29:44
So that's a great place you can send email inquiries through that.
I also have a Facebook page. It's the same thing Pilates with
Veronica. Okay. As well as an Instagram page. That's thank you.
This information. Right. Simple. Now this information will be
available on the show notes. Before we close the interview, I want
to thank you again, Veronica. Thank you. I like to always
30:14
what I do with the founders I work with and it's building
resilience and every company's different. Also, we talk about the
purpose driven, right? Today, we've talked a bit about managing
yourself and then sustainable growth, how to kind of scale. And I
like to ask my guests and there's no right or wrong answer. It's
just amazing. This is the funnest part of the podcast for me is
what my guests
30:42
perceive what is the meaning of these three words to them. So what
does resilience mean to you? For me, resilience means making it
work, figuring it out, how to adapt to something that is different.
I didn't want to have to adapt to something different, but I had no
option. So how can I make it work?
31:11
have a work life that exists in general, and it may not be how it
used to be, and that's okay. And maybe this is what it's supposed
to be, but I have to try to make it work. I love it. How about
purpose driven business? What's the purpose that's driven you?
31:33
I would say I'm a people person. I like being around people. I
always held great integrity in any job I've had no matter what it
was. And I take great integrity, I have great integrity and take
great pride as well, I should say in my Pilates instructing.
And...
32:01
I felt like just because I am in a space that's not the fancy
studio, you're still getting the quality, you're still getting the
session that you should. And I want to make people feel comfortable
in that space wherever it is and challenge them. And I know
they...
32:31
When clients come to you, they are putting themselves out in a
manner that makes them vulnerable. I mean, it's just, you know,
there's something about what we do working so closely with someone.
They have to really expose themselves. And if they want to kind of
move forward with their practice and it can be kind of scary. So I
always want to make people feel
33:00
comfortable in that situation. Make it fun, keep it light, and make
them feel like they are safe and that they can start to move in
different ways that they're not used to. Cause a lot of times I see
new clients, they're almost like you're asking them to do something
that seems simplistic, but it's rather hard for them. So you can
see almost this, like the vulnerability coming out and the
like,
33:30
almost like tears in your eyes getting upset with themselves. Like,
how did I get to this point that I can't even do this thing that
she's asking me to do? So you have to make people feel comfortable.
And I think that's how I conduct myself and want to have my purpose
be moving forward. Thank you. That's beautiful.
33:59
And what does sustainable growth mean to you?
34:04
Currently, I'm just sustaining my own self. And with what I do as
well, it ebbs and flows. I lose clients that it just happens
sometimes. And I've had many, many that have stuck with me through
thick and thin, but if finances become a little bit more tight,
this is something that unfortunately is the first to go. Not
necessarily because they want to or they need to, but...
34:34
you do. So I'm just at this point, sort of trying to sustain my
business, understanding that I will lose clients, I gain clients
and hopefully we get to a point where I'm, you're gaining and
gaining and gaining. And who knows, maybe at some point I will have
to hire an instructor or have to get a bigger space where they're
so, you know, just continuing to.
35:01
uh, you know, move forward and try to grow in all aspects, grow
myself as a person and, you know, deal with what life kind of puts
forth to you, whatever that may be. And then seeing how my own
business, uh, grows in its own. And it is a very people oriented
business and high quality, high touch. And you do change people's
lives.
35:32
I'm one of those. So there's one more question. Veronica, did you
have fun in the sandbox today? I sure did Brenda. Not as much as I
have. You have when you're teaching me pilates. Even, you know, I
had so much fun. Even as so much fun, I should say, you reminded me
even when you get mad at me, give me the stinker when I ask you to
do something you don't want.
36:02
True. So free-fall. So to my listeners, thank you for tuning in
today. My guest is Vrani Parmar. She's owner and actually
instructor in the Pilates original methodology. We've talked today
about in movement, resilience through Pilates. Thank you for
listening to my podcast. Signing off until next month. Thank
you.
36:31
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Brenda. It's been a
really fun time. I've enjoyed it. Thank you.