Citizen Pilates

What really happens behind the scenes of a service-based business, and why it directly shapes your experience in the studio.

Clients feel the effects of leadership long before they ever see the signs of it.

As winter settles into Houston and most people wind down for the year, I tend to do the opposite. This season usually brings out my full throttle mode. I have never worked harder in my life than I have this year. Just yesterday, we were building thirteen brand new reformers for Spring Branch, and somehow that same studio is about to celebrate its first birthday in twenty six days.

For three years, I operated only two locations after closing our original Houston Ave studio in 2021. At the time, I did not realize how comfortable I had gotten. So why shake up my rhythm and open a new location that demanded so much of me this year? Because growth has never lived in the safe zone. Growth shows up when you are uncomfortable. It shows up when you are stretched, challenged, questioned and forced to rethink what you thought you knew. If I am not growing, if Citizen is not growing, we are sliding backward. That has never been an option for me.

This year gave me every reason to celebrate, especially Citizen’s ten year anniversary. It also delivered more friction than any other in my leadership journey. I dealt with more instructor exits, more difficult conversations and more moments of personal reflection than I expected. One moment in particular froze me in my tracks. I was accused of “yelling” at an instructor. Anyone who has spent five minutes with me knows I do not raise my voice. I am direct. I move on. But yelling? Not even close.

It bothered me enough that I brought it up with my psychiatrist. Without missing a beat, she said she has seen a dramatic spike in clients using that word. She explained something that made everything click. Many Gen Z’ers interpret someone simply telling them something they do not want to hear as yelling. I replayed the conversation in question and, in every instance, I was reminding an instructor how to do their job the Citizen way. They perceived accountability as volume. I could not help but laugh. More than laugh, I felt relief. There is clarity in knowing the truth.

Ten years in business is not an excuse to coast. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to release every under performer holding us back. It was not easy and it was not fun, but I followed through. And now, as I close out December, I feel more certain than ever about the strength and direction of this team heading into 2026.

Leadership is not loud. Leadership is not perfect. Leadership is choosing growth when comfort feels tempting. And this year, behind closed doors, I chose growth every single time.

Where Leadership Really Starts (and Why Clients Feel It)

If I rewind to 2015, the roots of my leadership style were planted long before Citizen became what it is today. Back then I was running a young studio while also working full time for a Chief Executive whose passport barely cooled between continents. Every other month he was overseas, and I chose to stay on his time zone. Not because he asked. Because I understood what high level support required. And he appreciated that discipline more than he ever said aloud.

When he was in Asia for manufacturing visits, my workday started at 6 pm. When he flew to London for board meetings, I started at 3 am. And during the nine hours he spent crossing the Atlantic, I ran his world. I handled investor calls, answered time sensitive emails and kept progress moving while he was forty thousand feet above the ocean.

On those London weeks, I signed off around 1 pm Houston time, went straight to the studio to teach six classes, ate dinner, slept a few hours and started again at 3 am. I kept that rhythm for three straight years. It did not break me. It built me. It taught me discipline, accountability and how to perform without theatrics.

After those three years, I made the decision that changed everything. I was going to make Citizen my full time career. No corporate salary. No benefits. No safety net. Just conviction and the belief that I could build something meaningful from scratch. The truth is, my CEO made me a CEO. He taught me what high standards look like. He taught me that clarity is respect. He taught me that authority is earned long before it is granted.

Those years were my training ground. Citizen became the proving ground.

The Irony of Building a Female Dominated Business After Working in a Male Dominated One

The irony never escapes me. I thrived in one of the most male dominated industries out there, where precision mattered, where words carried weight and emojis were considered childish. Then I went on to build a predominantly female business, where emojis sometimes speak louder than actual sentences.

Suddenly punctuation was optional. Clarity had to compete with feelings. And grown women were navigating conflict like a group text. It was a shock, but it also explains why Citizen is run with real structure. Structure is not restrictive. It is the scaffolding that keeps everything standing.

And truthfully, I have always aligned more naturally with men anyway. I have only been in one wedding in my life, and I was not a bridesmaid. I was the Best Man. That alone says a lot.

How Citizen Changed Me (and Why Clients Benefit From It)

Nothing prepared me for how much I would grow once Citizen became my whole world. Running a service based business forces you to evolve in ways corporate life never touches. I had to teach myself empathy. I had to learn how to listen when an instructor offered a perspective I did not consider. I had to get comfortable changing small things because someone on the team saw a better way.

Ten years later, I am a different person. Citizen softened me where it mattered and sharpened me where it counted. I wake up grateful every day. Grateful that we are changing lives. Grateful that we are building careers for women who want more. Grateful that clients trust us with their bodies, time and progress.

But gratitude is not friendship. And Citizen is not a clubhouse for Pilates girly fantasies. This is a real business with real stakes for real people.

Why Standards Matter: The Leadership Decisions That Protect Your Experience

This part is often misunderstood.

Former employees have said, “You hold benefits over our heads.” The irony in that statement is almost comedic. The benefits they enjoyed existed because of the team’s output. They are funded by the revenue created when everyone does their job. And let us be clear. Every benefit we offer, which no other studio even attempts, comes directly out of my pocket.

So yes. If you are on my clock and refusing to do your job, or if you have mentally checked out but continue taking advantage of free classes, you are not just compromising your role. You are compromising the entire studio ecosystem.

Clients feel that long before they ever see it.

When a studio starts lowering standards to avoid uncomfortable conversations, clients feel it in the room. They feel it in inconsistency. They feel it in the energy. They feel it in the culture. And eventually, they leave for somewhere that protects their experience.

Retention lives or dies by leadership.

What Clients Do Not See When an Employee Leaves

Clients see someone’s last day. They do not see the hundred moments that led to it.

They do not see the emails where an employee refuses to complete a task because they think it is “a waste of their time.” They do not see the conversations where someone announces they no longer want to follow the Citizen way. They do not see the shift from contribution to entitlement.

This year we have had more noticeable departures. Some moved out of Texas. Those I understand. The rest were choices, clear choices. Employees who no longer wanted to be accountable to the standard that protects every client’s experience.

That is not dysfunction. That is clarity.

And here is the part I rarely admit. In moments like these, I sometimes wish I could speak directly to their husbands. Husbands tend to be level headed. When they are the primary provider, they understand what a job actually is. They understand responsibility. They understand boundaries. They understand employment as an exchange, not a vibe.

The Pattern You Eventually Recognize in Leadership

After ten years, you start to recognize a pattern. It is not with people who work hard or juggle multiple responsibilities. It is not with women who contribute financially to their homes. It is with under performers and individuals who experience no real consequences when they check out of their job.

Some employees have the privilege of relying on someone else to pay their bills. There is nothing wrong with that on its own. But when that privilege is paired with poor performance, it creates a dangerous blind spot. If missing a paycheck does not impact their life, they sometimes fail to see how their behavior impacts the lives of others. They do not realize their lack of effort can affect team hours, client satisfaction and even the benefits that everyone else relies on.

That is the pattern. Not working women. Not mothers. Not caregivers.

The pattern is entitlement without accountability. Comfort without contribution. A false sense of security that makes someone believe their actions exist in a vacuum.

And when those individuals realize they cannot control me, their next move is predictable. They try to influence how others see me. It is not truth. It is self preservation. And in boutique fitness, it is common.

But through every season and every version of myself I have outgrown, one thing has stayed steady. I know I am doing good in the world. Citizen is doing good in the world. And no amount of projection, pettiness or revisionist storytelling is going to change that.

Clients feel the impact of strong leadership, even if they never see the decisions behind it.

Leadership Is Not About Being Liked. It Is About Leading.

Margaret Thatcher was right. Leadership is not about being liked. It is about conviction. It is about clarity. It is about protecting the community you have built, even when a few people want to make noise on their way out.

Citizen has thrived because I held the line. Because I refused to compromise. Because I refused to hand away power just to keep the peace.

The last ten years have been challenging, honest, meaningful and transformative. And if the cost of doing good in the world is that I am not universally liked, that is a price I will pay every day.

Because clients may never see every leadership decision. But they feel the impact of all of them.