Veronica Parmar- In Movement: Resilience through Pilates

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:

www.pilateswithveronica.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-parmar/

 [email protected]

 

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.