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More than a decade ago, Lottie Murphy fell in love with Pilates while studying ballet. “It was time each day where I was able to be mindful and calm while also keeping my body healthy, strong, and injury free,” she says.
Those peaceful moments set her on a journey to deepen her Pilates practice and train to become a teacher. Today, she runs a global platform built around her passion for Pilates, offering live video classes, pre-recorded free sessions, events and retreats, and merchandise.
“You could say I live and breathe Pilates. It has become so much more to me than a career,” she says.
Read on to learn how Lottie navigates the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to share what she loves and how Squarespace helps her find fun in the process while staying true to herself.
Sharing her passion and finding her first clients
Every new entrepreneur faces the same overwhelming challenge when they first launch: How do you get your first customers? For Lottie, the answer was putting in the work to find and foster community spaces.
“I loved teaching at a local church hall and seeing the same clients each week,” she says. “We would all go to the local farmers’ market together after class and it felt like a family. The key is to stay consistent and true to you. Stick to a time and a place and let them know that’s where you’ll be each week, learn everyone’s name, and get to know your community.”
Rather than try to be everywhere at once, Lottie’s dedicated, thoughtful investment in her first clients helped her form a solid foundation for her business. Even as her platform has grown multiple times over, she uses the same philosophy of authenticity to attract a like-minded audience.
“When it comes to my community online, again staying true to you is key. Not everyone is going to like my style of teaching and presenting but that’s okay,” Lottie says. “You can’t be for everyone but you will find your own little tribe.”
Designing fitness classes to promote calm and confidence
With live classes to run, free videos to film, and in-person events to organize, Lottie has her work cut out for her as an instructor. But she’s found success by designing each class with openness, a sense of play, and a strong idea of how she wants to support her students.
“I love to get on my mat, start moving and see what flows well,” Lottie says. “There are exercises that are key to Pilates that come up a lot but then it’s fun to also create new exercises and add extra challenges with small equipment and variations. I want my students to feel strong, calm, and at peace when practicing and to also feel confident that they are in good hands with my teaching.”
Getting students to feel at peace can be tricky for someone who often teaches virtually like Lottie, but she’s carefully tailored her teaching style to the medium. “I love to use imagery with my cues and include a lot of detail when describing an exercise so the person taking the class feels supported and safe,” she says.
Ultimately, Lottie’s mission and passion for helping others experience the benefits of Pilates are the fuel that drives every class and interaction with her students.
“I have seen the incredibly positive impact Pilates has had on so many people’s lives. And now, having a global platform and my videos reaching many people around the world, I get reminded of how it allows people to take care of themselves without punishing their bodies every day,” Lottie says. “I feel so lucky to be able to share the joy of Pilates and call it a career.”
“Remember there’s a person behind every device who you might be reaching and having a huge impact on.”
Finding tools that add fun to running a business
Lottie makes juggling the many pieces of her business and personal brand look simple. Behind the scenes, she’s found support in Squarespace tools that make her administrative work feel less taxing.
“Squarespace enables me to manage and market my business stress-free,” she says. “It’s important to have an easy-to-use website so I don’t waste time getting stressed when needing to update it. I now find creating new pages on the website or sending out emails, for example, so much fun as there are gorgeous templates and step-by-step guides to create exactly what you want and enjoy the process too.”
Not only do Squarespace tools help Lottie keep the background work of her business running, it makes it easier for her to keep her community in the loop and retain new students. All of that means she has more time to focus on Pilates and exploring new ideas.
“For both online and in-person classes, having a simple and easy-to-navigate website and booking system makes life so much easier for your clients and can really make the difference between people rebooking or not,” she says.
“I particularly love the email feature that Squarespace has. Staying in touch with my community is very important, sending little updates out or telling them about upcoming retreats or workshops,” she adds. “I love that you can easily create a branded pop-up to prompt people to sign up to your email list or tell them about a certain part of your business. This can be easily updated and really tailored. I recently created a Pilates Mat product and this pop-up was amazing to lead visitors to my website to the landing page I created for selling that.”
Rooting in her own pace and purpose
“My career has definitely been a rollercoaster rather than a straight line upwards,” Lottie says. “I have struggled with burn out and overwhelm, especially during the first few years while trying to spin too many plates. When you work for your own business, it’s hard to say no and easy to take on too much.”
These days, Lottie finds peace in taking things one moment at a time. She recommends the same approach to other entrepreneurs so that they can learn to enjoy their own journey.
“I think realistic expectations are important,” she says. “This doesn’t mean not dreaming big, but simply not writing yourself a three page to-do list to complete in one day. There’s no rush. I like to now be present in everything I do from writing my newsletter to planning my classes to replying to emails. Every little cog in the wheel is important and this mindful approach enables me to enjoy every side of running a business.”
Of course, every business owner has their off days. For other fitness professionals who dream of starting their own business or in need of some guiding words, she has one key piece of advice.
“Continue to remind yourself why you are doing what you do. Ultimately as a fitness professional, it should be to help people feel well, energized, mobile and healthy in their minds and bodies. Everything you do should be leading towards that goal.”
“Yes, that might require having a beautiful personalized website or putting yourself out there on social media, but try not to get caught up in the frills and instant gratification of the online world,” Lottie says. “Remember there’s a person behind every device who you might be reaching and having a huge impact on.”
Inspired by Lottie’s journey? Start your next project on Squarespace.