Accidental Diversity

My wife and are the proud operators of a group of three boutique fitness studios in the DFW market, and we are figuring out how to weather the current pandemic and come to terms with the long-lasting changes we are about to face. We closed our CycleBar indoor cycling studios in Frisco, Fort Worth, and McKinney in mid-March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and because what we provide is an in-person experience, we are learning to adapt quickly. As I look to the team we assembled to lead our studios, I realize we accidentally assembled an incredibly diverse group of individuals. That diversity is the reason we will be successful when we reopen our doors. 

I say we built the team accidentally, but in reality, we simply didn’t focus on anyone’s demographics when we hired them. We built our management team by creating a work environment where each of them showcases their innate ability to lead and then allowed them to step into the most natural role in the management group. Each of them comes with different strengths, different backgrounds, and different perspectives on the world. Some are better organizers, better marketers, better at cleaning, better at selling, or better at documentation, better at focusing on details, and better at seeing the big picture. The variety and multiple perspectives we collectively bring to our work mean we have someone ready for any crisis and someone that can lead through every change. That’s a huge advantage and why we will be successful.

The thing our team strives hardest for is to build a genuine community of riders in our studios. To take a collection of people and provide enough strength to bond them together and become this community, you need them to find comfort and natural connections with their peers. Every one of our riders and our each of our staff come from different backgrounds, and when they look at our leadership team, they can find and individual that has mirrored life experiences and perspectives. This is a big differentiator we try to nurture, and why we aren’t just a place to do fitness, but a place to focus on your entire wellness. So much more than a 45-minute workout goes into being healthy, and a community that is connected and encourages a healthy lifestyle is more likely to lead to your personal success than going it alone. That’s why we’re fortunate to have built this diverse team so that everyone finds a fit in our community and will help us be successful. 

Not only does our management team make our studio and each other better, but they have also made me better. They’ve shared their struggles and triumphs, and I have shared mine. This sharing has changed how I view the world, and because of that, I’ve grown. The growth is circular across this team, and our bond is tighter, knowing that we are all working towards the same goal. We couldn’t be as successful if we were surrounded by mirror images of ourselves, and we now have a better understanding of what it means to be a different age, gender, race, religion, or even have different tastes in music. These experiences, combined with what we learn from each other, is why we will be successful.