The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 595: Anne Mahlum [Founder of solidcore] - How To Bet on Yourself, Build Confidence, Smash Your Goals, Scale a Business, and Earn $100m

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Read our book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3XxHi7p Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com  This episode is supported by Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing company dedicated to empowering people. Please CLICK HERE for premier staffing and talent. "I looked at these guys (homeless) and demanded nothing but pure excellence from them. And it was almost as if they were waiting for someone to do that." Set high expectations for people. Believe in them. Care for them. Support them. Love them. And watch what happens. This is leadership. Nobody runs by themselves. What a great life motto. We all need people. Anne believes in the importance of community and doing hard things together. Her mindset was fostered, in sometimes complicated ways, by her childhood home life, she says. At age 16, her parents divorced after her father gambled away their family savings. To cope, Mahlum started running and became hyper-focused on the idea of controlling her own life. When others are playing defense, go on offense. When others are scared, get aggressive (easier said than done). Anne did it. "Running is the vehicle we're using to create community and positive reinforcement." "If you want to make change, you have to help others see that they can do it. You can't force it on them." How to build a great non-profit: Identity - Each group had team names Need team leaders, people to map out logistics, and volunteer coordinators Need to make day 1 incredible. Launch BIG. Target the right people - In Anne's case, it was executives who were runners... Decision makers who appreciated running. Goals - Work backwards. Set a date and then do whatever it takes to hit that launch date. solidcore -- Anne thought big from the beginning. She was opening her second location almost the same time her first location went live. She always wanted to scale it and thought about it from Day 1. Important to hire great coaches. They needed a great personality and had to make every member feel welcome. Learn everyone's name. Say their name. Anne learned from How to Win Friends and Influence People Risk-Taker - Step into uncertainty. That's how you build confidence. "I always bet on myself." Action builds confidence. Push past the uncertainty. Create evidence for yourself. Make the things that were previously uncomfortable for you more comfortable now by taking action. When others are playing defense, go on offense. That creates your edge… Anne's plan was always to sell Solidcore... Her strength is in bringing concepts to life and building communities, rather than sustaining them over time. The same month she exited the company, she opened her next venture, a New York-based fitness studio chain called Ambition.

This is stupid. You shouldn't do it. I can't believe you're going to walk away from, you know, a corporate, safe, secure, six-figure job, you know, to help the homeless. That's really the first time in my life that I had to take a big bet on myself and trust my intuition. This actually isn't a running club. Running is the vehicle that we are using to create community and to create positive change. Nobody runs by themselves. This desire for a sense of belonging to be seen, to be appreciated.

to be appreciated, to be loved, to be valued. And that's exactly what we were doing through this community. Your dad comes home from work early. What happened next? Geez, no small talk, huh? I've had a pretty normal kind of home life and whatever, and like that day, everything changed. Show people what's possible.

Like, that's how people show up and accomplish extraordinary things. Jim Collins told me on episode number 216 that, the single greatest determining factor in my long-term success or failure would be my who, who I chose to surround myself with. And that conversation has had a huge impact on how I've designed my business. And one of the most important elements that I provide is my learning leader circle. And I open up applications one time per year. and that time is now at learning leader circle.com is where you can apply.

Now, this is the most inefficient element of my business because I personally read every application and I personally choose who will go on to the next round and then who will ultimately be one of the 12 people to be in my next learning leader circle. And I only do it one time per year and that time is now. If you are intentional about surrounding yourself with others who will, push you, challenge you, make you think differently. If you're willing to self-reflect and do some work, this could be for you. And you can apply at learningleaders circle.com.

We meet once per month on Zoom and then we meet one time per year in person for our leadership retreat for members of my Learning Leader Circle. So if you'd like to apply, go to learningleaders circle.com. Welcome to the Learning Leaders Show. Presented by Insight Global. I am your host, Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Text Hawk to 666866 become part of Mindful Monday.

You, along with tens of thousands of other learning leaders from all over the world, will receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right. You'll also receive the tales about how our book, The Score That Matters. We'll help you become a more effective leader. Text talk to 66866. Now on to tonight's featured leaders. So good. It's Ann Malam, a founder and CEO whose entrepreneurial ventures have resulted in a personal network of over $100 million. She founded the nonprofit back on my feet and grew it to become a national organization. She then founded and led Solid Corps from one location to 130 and sold it last year. 90 million dollars. During our conversation we discussed why nobody runs alone and the importance of building community.

Then the impact her parents' divorce at age 16 had on her and how she responded. Then we talked about how to defeat imposter syndrome and build confidence, how to think big, set ambitious goals, and work backwards towards them. talk about all of that and so much more ladies and gentlemen please enjoy my conversation with Anne Malum and it's awesome to have you here on the Learning Leader Show welcome thank you very much for having me so I want to go back to a pivotal moment in your life okay you're 16 years old and you got a difficult dose of reality that made you question everything I believe this was a Friday

in July before your sophomore year in high school your dad comes home from work early. What happened next? Geez, no small talk, huh? No. Yeah, so I grew up in North Dakota and that day is very vivid for me, but that's the day that we all found out that my dad was a gambling addict. And, yeah, very difficult to accept that, understand even what that meant. But I knew my mom was angry.

And, you know, she had seen my dad go through some addictive babble. earlier in her life and his life and of course my life. So I never saw my dad drink or do drugs. So that all happened before I was five. And thankfully, my dad's been clean and sober for about 37 years now and never seemed to have that struggle again. But my dad's addictive behaviors didn't go away. And gambling is where he put that energy into, you know, in our teenage years. So yeah, that was like it, Ryan. Like my, I thought I've had a pretty normal kind of home life and whatever. And like that day, everything changed. My mom asked my dad to leave and he never moved back in.

And I spent those years being really angry at my mother because she took away my dad. And I had a lot of sympathy for my dad. I just, I also felt like he needed help and support. And I just tried to help and fix him. I was not successful in that effort. I just couldn't understand why he couldn't quit, you know. and if you don't have a lot of experience with addiction, especially as a kid, it is a really hard thing to understand why you feel like your father is choosing to do something

that is seemingly keeping, you know, him apart from his wife and him being at home with us. So, yeah, it was hard. And I think if that didn't happen, I'm not sure the trajectory of my life would have went the way that it did. What do you mean? How so? Well, that caused me a lot of pain. And when you have a lot of pain, it becomes fuel, right? You almost need to heal yourself at some point. And so for 10 years of my life, I frankly thought I'm just going to make my life as perfect as possible so that I don't ever have to deal with this pain. And it's not going to affect me. And I'm just going to go on and be super successful in my career and get married and have 2.2. kit and have a big house that like I'm not going to let this matter. And, you know, nine,

10ish years later, I just felt so lost. The thing I was chasing really is not something I wanted. I just was sort of after the societal perfect life. And I was really depressed is kind of a heavy word because I don't want to over embellish. But I was definitely lost and frustrated. And I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I still felt like I was pretty angry. Like my mom and I continued to have a pretty tumultuous relationship over that decade. I wanted fulfillment. I wanted purpose. I wanted answers. And when the cuts run deep like that and you haven't healed yourself, you know, you become really motivated at some point to try to make it all make sense. And so when I was 26 living in Philly, you know, I was a runner, Ryan. Like, I actually started running during my

dad's addictive, you know, gambling addiction. It really, really helped me. I felt like it gave me some sort of guidance in my life. And I really continued to, I frankly became a prolific runner. Like, I was a marathoner running every day. And when I was in Philly, I ran by a homeless shelter every day. And I never paid attention to any of those guys I saw. And for whatever reason, in May of 2007, literally two years into my desperate. for purpose, these guys wave at me and we start to build a relationship. And it felt like this, you know, Oprah talks about her aha moment. And I had one. And I was like, oh, my God, I'm supposed to start a running club for these guys. That's why I've been running by them for two years. Like, it took me,

it took me, it took me a long time to figure it out. But it just felt so obvious to me. And I felt so drawn to those guys because of who my dad is, you know, I think, I think, you know, there but for the grace of God, go I. I think my dad would have easily ended up in that situation if it wasn't for marrying my mom. And, you know, frankly, I've supported my dad pretty much all my adult life. But I think my dad easily could have ended up there. And that's why I just felt so drawn to help those guys. One of the things you said in your TED talk or one of your TED talks about the homeless guys. And I think this applies and overall to leadership and expectations and pushing people to levels of performance that maybe they don't even realize they're capable of,

as you wrote, you said, I looked at these guys and demanded nothing but pure excellence from them. These are homeless guys. I looked at these guys and demanded nothing but pure excellence from them and it was almost as if they were waiting for someone to do that. Can you take me back to that moment where you demanded excellence from people that probably nobody in the world had ever demanded really much of anything from. And you said, no, I'm going to demand excellence from you and how that lifted their levels of life of performance because you believed in them and almost demanded that of them. Yeah, totally.

And I think it is a really important lesson in leadership when you can let someone know they're capable that you believe in them. You know, I think a lot of times we take a more critical role of people when they don't perform. And usually when people aren't living up to your expectations, it's because they don't think that they can. And no one has ever given them reason to think that they can. You know, so when I had this idea, it took some convincing from the shelter. You know, they were sort of like, this is stupid. You know, these guys aren't going to be interested in running. And I had to talk about my dad and how running had, you know, really given me positive direction in my life. And fortunately, after two weeks of badgering,

I'm very good at badgering. He agreed. And the director, the director, the director, of the homeless shelter agreed that he would ask, you know, that the men living there, if any of them were interested. And fortunately, nine guys said yes. And so I had a date to go up there to meet the nine guys. And I got all of their shoe sizes so I could bring them new running shoes. That was also really important, Ryan, in the setting the right culture in tone. I wasn't going to go in with my new Nikes and be like, oh, but I got these old shoes for you guys because you're quote unquote homeless. This is what you deserve. I knew. that the new running shoes were a part of what my expectations were going to be for them.

And so not only did they get shoes and socks and shirts knew everything, they had to sign a piece of paper that I called the running club dedication contract. And the piece of paper said exactly as you said, but a few more things. It said you had to show up every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm going to track your attendance. And if you have less than 90% attendance over a 30-day period, you get kicked off the team. And I'm also going to track your tardiness. If you're late, one, we leave without you. They had a tight schedule at the shelter. So we had to be back by a certain time. There's no waiting.

If you wake up late, like you miss your run, you get marked absent. You need to respect your teammates and you need to come with a positive attitude. And I asked everybody to sign that. And to your point earlier, I didn't say like, oh my gosh, it must be so tough to live in this homeless shelter. or like, if you guys can just make it once a week, that's like, okay, or do your best or whatever. I took out all of the excuses. And I remember that moment. I remember them nodding their head and sitting up straighter. And like, oh, my God, this woman, this young white woman who has never met us thinks we can have perfect attendance, thinks, you know, that like we are all capable of this excellence that she is expecting of us.

And I think when you do that, they maybe start to ask themselves like, oh, like, yeah, I can do this. And frankly, I want to meet those expectations. So, yeah, the culture was set right away from the beginning. And there was another quick thing that I learned, too, of just a description of people. You know, a lot of times we talk about people and we say homeless men or homeless men or homeless person. I really corrected myself earlier. And it was like, no, that's a person experiencing homelessness. This is not to find them, and the more we call them a homeless person, the more you are reiterating

the unfortunate stereotype that comes with being homeless at that point, that you're lazy, that you failed, that you're dangerous, that whatever, and I didn't want their identity wrapped up than that. Wow. And so it probably had been a while, if ever, that somebody had actually believed in them, and it shows you the power of a leader and the power that a leader, can have in other people. And in this case, I use the word leader because you chose to lead.

You weren't bestowed some position. You weren't hired for this. You just did it. You decided to lead. And this is like the ultimate form of leadership to say, I believe in you. I'm going to demand more of you. I'm going to support you. I'm going to help you.

What happened next after those first nine guys? What happened after that? Yeah. So we had our first run together on July 3rd of 07. And I had a lot of media. contacts from my prior work that I was doing in Philly. And all of them showed up that day, Ryan. And they all showed up because they had the same reaction that most people had. Like, wait, what? Like, these guys who are living in this homeless shelter are going for a run.

You're not raising money for the homeless shelter through a run. Like, it was very confusing to folks. And I'll tell you what, I milked that to my benefit because when things don't make sense to people, it becomes interesting. Right. So, like, all of of the media had to come and see it for themselves. And they didn't really understand why this, again, white girl from North Dakota was putting herself in the middle of a homeless shelter wanting to take these guys for a run. Like there's just so many questions people had about it. And I was going to use it to my benefit to get attention for what I was doing so I could hopefully get people involved. And they went over there and they talked to Mike and to Darren and to Joe and to James. And these

guys, I mean, again, this is like, I didn't pick this part of it, but these guys were just unbelievable. Their stories, their personalities, the charisma, you just couldn't help but root for them and fall in love with them. They were just so real and affable and honest. And they start to tell their stories a little bit. And every, I mean, you couldn't open a new newspaper or turn on the news for the next few months and not know about this running club that was forming in Philadelphia.

in 2007. And so we ran our first mile that day. And in true form to the culture, there was Joe, who was the oldest of everybody, and he was overweight, you know, and he was having a hard time with the mile that we all agreed to run that day. And all of the guys, after they finished, ran back to get Joe so that Joe didn't run alone, which became a principal of the group that nobody runs by themselves. And they all, like, brought Joe in together. And that was our first day. And so our culture was solidified on the first day. And no one ran alone ever. We say the serenity prayer, which wasn't my doing. One of the guys asked if we could say a prayer before we ran. I'm not a very religious person, but I could tell it was important to the group. And the serenity prayer is also

just an incredible words and saying, right? It's not really about religion. It's about, you know, controlling the things you can and letting go of the things that you can and being smart enough to know the difference. So it was just a really beautiful message. And yeah, and then day two happened. Everybody showed up, day three, day four. And it just took a few weeks, Ryan, to realize that a couple of things were happening that helped me realize from a vision perspective, this could really be something. This actually isn't a running club. Running is the vehicle that we are using to create community and to create positive change in how these individuals, living in the shelter see themselves and see what they are capable of. And the two things were,

one, everybody was showing up every day and they were on time. Why? Because positive reinforcement works. We were giving credit. We were acknowledging. We were saying really proud of you guys, like, no one's missed a run yet. And then at the end of the run, I would track their miles on a poster board with the Sharpie. And so they could see the cumulative total of the miles they are running, you know, every day, and they could see who had the most and blah, blah, blah, and you could just see the beaming smiles on these guys' face every time I would do that. And I had read how to win friends and influence people a couple times by this point in my life and was really just familiar how it related to my own life and Maslow's hierarchy of needs

that right above food and shelter, which was taken care of by the homeless shelter, is this desire for a sense of belonging to be seen, to be appreciated, to be loved, to be valued. And that's exactly what we were doing through this community. We were celebrating them. I mean, I can remember the first time we all took a picture together. And these guys were like, you want to take a picture of me? It was just these small things that they were not used to. They were used to being treated like crap.

They were used to being reminded of their failure. of their missteps, of their addictions, of the fact that they are 40-plus-year-old men living in homeless shelters. And I saw a lot of people take advantage of that situation and reminding them of that to use that against them, to get them to do chores in the shelter, to make them feel bad, to repent their sins. And none of that stuff works. I don't think criticizing people, especially grown men, gets you anywhere.

Wow. And so this one little idea that came to you from running past this homeless shelter a few times and seeing them, deciding to take action, deciding to choose to lead, starts with nine. What did it end up growing to? Oh, my gosh. Well, it's still growing today. Yeah. So, you know, once I decided after that of like, this is the vision. If these nine guys need a program like this, what about everybody else in Philly shelters, you know, in this city?

And then what about all the other homeless shelters in the entire country? And if I can create a microcosm here, I can just repeat this, right? We can have another team at another homeless shelter and then another one. And then we created in their chapter. So the scalability of it when I was thinking about like, this is what I was supposed to do with my life was there. I could see the business model actually behind it and that we could help a lot of people. And frankly, a lot of people were also like, this is stupid. you shouldn't do it. I can't believe you're going to walk away from a corporate, safe, secure,

six-figure job to help the homeless. Like, what are you doing? And that's really the first time in my life that I had to take a big bet on myself and trust my intuition and trust what I saw that other people didn't see, which was frankly not easy for a 26-year-old when, you know, you need validation from some adult in the room. But yeah, listen, I surrounded myself with people who are smarter than me in certain areas, and we were all bought into what this could be, and we started building and growing and raising money and learning and screwing up and fixing those mistakes, and then, you know, making more mistakes. And it was really awesome. And frankly, we saw it working. And so the organization just kept growing. We kept opening up in new cities. We were raising money entirely from corporations

and individuals and events that we would put on. I found the runners in companies, so like executives who would run in companies were my target market for fundraising because they understood what I was doing. And then we got their employees engaged and yeah, grew it to 12 cities in six years. And then I think it's in like 15 or 16 cities today. But yeah, it's still fully functional, operational. I think there's like a $9 million budget annually. And it really works. And it's a good lesson for any individual, corporation, anything, that if you want to make change, you first have to help the people understand they can change. And you can't force it upon somebody.

They have to see it for themselves. And I just think that the positive reinforcement and the belief systems that we can have in our teams and in ourselves and show people what's possible, like that's how people show up and accomplish extraordinary things. Wow. What did you learn? Because we haven't got to some of the other parts of your story that are amazing, but I'm curious about what you learned about building something, right?

Because then you go on to build an amazing company. But from that early first build, what were some of the key learnings that you like, oh, God, I messed that up or we had to figure it out the hard way that then led to you being very successful the next time too? Well, I'll tell you the things that really worked, and then I'll tell you when we went into the first city of what was problematic. So what worked was when we started to open a second shelter, we were debating of like, oh, do we have everybody meet together in the morning someplace? And I remember thinking, we can't do that because it creates another problem logistically. The way that this works is the volunteers go to the shelter.

All we need the guys to do or the women later, because it was just men in the beginning, is sure. show up, get dressed, and come downstairs. And I also think it's a really amazing message that we're going to them, that all the volunteers that we would find, we would pick a location that was convenient for them of the teams that started growing. And that became your home team. And the team name was the shelter name. So there was also a sense of identity, just like a sports team, that like Sunday breakfast

rescue mission. Then there was, you know, our brother's place and Pine Street. Like these were just the name of the shelters in Philly. So people kind of got really attached to their team and who was on their team. And when we would go to races, who had the most members running and who took first. So that model both logistically and behaviorally, like, made sense. And it was like, okay, what do you need for these things to function? You need a team leader. You need somebody from a volunteer perspective who's willing to show up two of the three days a week and can be there to really be the cheerleader. or the raw, raw person that people like. Personality was really important. You need somebody who's going to map out the runs for the morning because as the team would grow, you'd have a mile run, a two mile run, and maybe a four mile run or something.

And then the volunteers would get to choose how far they're running that day because it was like if we just have a mile run every morning, that's going to get boring for people who are advancing. We need to feel like there's progress. So there was some logistics involved in that. And then we had a volunteer coordinator, right, that we would have somebody. manage all of the volunteers. And those were the three main roles that we needed for every team to exist. And that was, again, repeatable within Philly. And so when it was time to say, let's bring this

to a second city, the one thing that I learned from that was it was hard to figure out what day one was going to look like in a new city. And like, so raising money was like, oh, we're going to start the program around this date and we're raising money for this. And we're raising money for this and people I found had a like harder time giving money because there wasn't like this incredible day one and Marriott was a partner of ours at this time and so this idea happened that what if we had like a corporate breakfast we had our first run that day and we need at least three teams and we need a corporate breakfast that everybody can go to afterward to like celebrate the beginning of back on my feet in that city.

So that made my fundraising efforts so much easier because I got to go in and say, hey, Ryan, you know, this is what I'm doing. We are opening back on my feet on October 12th, you know, and, you know, my ask, I would tell the story and what it is and my ask to you would be, I need you to buy a table. I need you to buy a $10,800 table that's going to support five members in our program. And I need you to bring nine people who you think. are going to be excited about this, and I need three contacts. I need you to introduce me to three people that I can go and make the same request to, and I batted a thousand because the batting

a thousand was I would only go meet with executives who were runners. If you tried to connect me to a marketing coordinator, I wouldn't take the meeting. It was a waste of my time. There was no way that that person had the authority to make the sponsorship or donation. I had to meet with an executive and I needed to make sure they ran or they worked out or something because they really got it. And that became easy. Then it was like, cool, the first meeting in any new city that we go to is Marriott. I need Marriott to give me a day that they'll host a breakfast for us in kind. And that's the date that we have to be ready by. And then my program director would be responsible for getting the shelters signed up on board, find the members. And that's when

I really learned, Ryan, the importance of working backwards. Picking a deadline, picking a date, and you work backwards. And we never missed a deadline. Once that date was announced, that's when we are launching in that city. That's when the work had to be done. I'm sure you've heard the adage of like, however long you give somebody to do a task, that's how long it will take. You tell your kids that they have till next Sunday to clean up the yard, guess when the yard gets cleaned up. You know? Yeah, exactly. So it's like, it was so crucial. And I really took that into Solid Core. And I know we'll talk about that. But that is how I was able to build that business to 100 studios in nine and a half years with COVID in between is because working backwards, deadlines, and we didn't miss a deadline. So, okay, perfect transition to Solid Core, the business that you've built and very quickly and sold. But I'm curious about the beginnings. of things. So what led you to come, like, first of all, for those who who are listening to maybe

that it isn't in their city or they don't know about it, what is solid core and what was the original idea for solid core? Yeah, so solid core is a boutique fitness concept that focuses on athletic Pilates, athletic Pilates. It's a 50-minute class and it's unbelievable. It's the best workout. I think there is on the planet still. But we are, yeah, we're a brick and mortar fitness concept that is in 130. We have 130 locations at this point. But it's all group based.

You can only come in and take a class. So for those who know SoulCycle, you know, SoulCycle did it with a bike. We did it with Pilates. Got you. Okay. And so what was the initial idea by you to say, like, this is a thing I want to start? and then what happened at the very beginning of it, like, the first location. How did you get it going?

I know you were pretty cash flow positive rather quickly. Like, how did that part? How did that work? Yeah, well, I think just to close up the back on my feet chapter, I guess, you know, six years in, I sort of felt like it was time to do something new. I mean, I was opening all these new chapters, you know, Ryan. And like, I was like, okay, cool. Like, I've built the model, right?

I showed that you can open multiple of these in a year. I have a million dollars in the bank. I have a board. I sort of had felt like this is just rinse and repeat now. Like you guys can just keep growing it. And I began to feel like it was time for my next chapter. And I hate to break it to people listening because how I felt when I started back on my feet was like, I found my purpose. I found the thing I'm supposed to do. And I thought I was only going to have to do that once. That here it is. I'm 26. This will be what I do the rest of my life, but just like a lot of things, we grow and we want different things. And for me, I started to feel maybe this isn't my whole book. Maybe this is a chapter and I have a next chapter. And gosh,

I think I'm pretty good at this entrepreneur thing. What could my next thing be? And those voices didn't go away. I tried to tame them in the beginning because I was scared. And I felt a little selfish, honestly, that my life is pretty amazing. It's totally filled with fulfillment. I get to help people. I was making good money by then. And so I just sort of felt like I need to push these feelings down that's telling me to go do something else. But they didn't go away. And then I felt a little bit like a fraud that here I'm telling my members and everybody at back of my feet to push, to grow to challenge themselves, and I need to lead by example and do the same. And so, So because I felt back on my feet was in a really stable place and I was going to turn it over

in a really great spot, I sort of felt that that was permission for me to open myself up to what could be next. So I was in Los Angeles opening back on my feet. And I saw this Pilates studio. I didn't really know it was Pilates. I saw these machines and I saw this pink wallpaper and I thought it was very L.A. looking. And I thought it was. was cute. I'm like, this will be cute. I'll go take this LA workout while I'm in town. And I thought it would be so easy because I considered myself a pretty decent athlete. And it wasn't. It was so challenging. Not only was it confusing in regard to why it was challenging because we really weren't moving that much. We weren't jumping. We weren't pounding. You know, we were moving slowly

on a resistance-based machine. And I was sore in every place that you can imagine the next day. So I was like, this, what was that? This is insane. I need to do it again. So I found Pilates in New York. I took a class there. I started to take class and my body transformed. And literally within like 30, 45 days muscle tone. I felt better. I just looked better. And I was sort of like no one knows you can work out like this. And oh my God, this is my next thing. Look at the business model. I knew how much I was paying. I did the math on, you know, the number. of classes there were, a number of people in classes. I'm like, this is an amazing business model. And I didn't think anybody that I knew of, at least in my little circle, was doing it well. I thought, this is something that I can scale because I can open many of them, which was important for my next thing. I didn't want to just open one. I wanted to build something big. And so I just felt, and this is really important for entrepreneurs or anybody considering starting their business, I felt like my talents and my skill sets perfectly matched up of what the business needed to be

successful. It needed personality. It needed excellent branding. It needed authenticity, right? Like, I take this workout all the time. It needed community. And of course, it needed, like, good back-end business operations, like every, you know, business does. But for those main forward-facing things, those were the things I was really good at. So once it's, you know, it's a lot. So once it's again, I felt like I was the perfect person to start this type of business. Am I the perfect person to start like a tech business? No, I'm not. My skill sets don't lend myself to that. My skill sets are forward facing. Let me build a branded community consumer experience around fitness and health. And I will crush that because that is a big part of my life and who I am and what I know how to do.

So you were thinking big, not like from the very beginning. You were like, let me just get a good store, like a good location and hopefully this first one goes okay. And then maybe we'll get to a second one. I don't know. We'll see. You don't strike me as a person who thinks that way. You're thinking like, let's go. I'm going to get the first one.

And then the second, third and fourth and fifth and six, like let's go. I'm going to make this thing big. Yes. I never ever. And there's nothing wrong with anybody who wants one restaurant. a coffee shop to don't get me wrong in that. But I knew for me, I was never, I wanted to start something that I could scale. I love that portion of it. I have a high risk tolerance. I get bored quickly. And frankly, when I find something that I love, like back on my feet, when I'm like,

oh, I can help a lot of people if I just get the model right, I felt very similar, Ryan, about solid core. Like, I knew that there were going to be a lot of very grateful women, you know, particularly women, people in general, but women, if I could just build this thing, because I know that if I struggle with body image and feeling strong and feeling confident and hadn't found a workout that that lended itself to helping me develop in those areas, I knew that there was a lot of other women in the same boat and category. And I still get messages today, right? Solid Core has changed people's life, confidence, body composition, injuries. You name it. But the best part for me is that women have fallen in love with their strength.

And that's just an awesome feeling. So I feel really great about how I've made my money. I've made my money by making people happier, healthier, and stronger. And that's just a pretty awesome feeling. So there's one thing, Anne, to want to build something big and scale it. It's a whole other thing to actually do it. So if you think back to first one going well, then the second, like, how did you actually execute to bring this big thinking to actually make that big thinking of reality? Same sort of thing with back on my feet, right? Every studio needed to be self-sufficient. And that's what the model, because it's like, here are these four walls, right?

Everything that works inside these four walls can work inside another four walls. And so, yeah, I mean, Ryan, you mentioned it earlier. But, you know, I had my first studio open. And within two to three weeks, I was already negotiating my second lease. where most people are like, I'm just going to see how it goes for a year. And I was like, I got momentum. I was, you know, the studio was really full from the beginning. I did a hell of a job, like constantly pounding the pavement.

I mean, this was 2013. So Facebook was around, but Instagram was still really early. And social media just wasn't as prominent as it is today. I was doing anything and everything because I went all in. It was all my money. I didn't have a plan B. And I liked that feeling. Like that's a really important feeling from an entrepreneur, but I knew I had to make this work and I knew I had something special. I just had to make sure people knew about it. So I, you know, had press contacts. I, you know, got a nice feature in the Washington Post. I went to the D.C. Triathlon to promote it. And I worked backwards from my goal. You know, it's like I need X amount of people coming to X number of classes per day, paying this amount. And this is my rent. So I built a pro forma from the very beginning. And I worked.

backwards from those goals. If I needed 300 members, it's like great. Every day I looked at, you know, not even members, I needed 300 people coming. I don't even remember what it was, but like I knew what my numbers were back then. And every day I'm looking at these things and knowing, okay, I'm ahead of schedule by 20 people or 20 visits. What do I need to be doing? What's working? You know, do I need to run a promotion? Do I need to say, bring a friend? Like, I was so laser focused on the numbers. And so, yeah, when the second studio got open, you know, I could see pretty quickly how imperative my coaches were. And the coaches that were doing really well, it was personality, personality, personality.

So I really was mindful on who I brought on to the schedule and the consistency in what we delivered. I mean, we were also having to educate a lot of people on this new way of working out, which can be frustrating. So I had to balance that with making sure people felt so welcome in the studio. they heard their name. If you go to SolidCorps now, you will hear your name all through class. It is a key part of the branding and the experience. And that makes you feel at home. I also learned that back on my feet and how to win friends and influence people. The most important

word in any language to somebody is their own name. And I wanted to make sure that people felt seen and important over and over and over again when they were at Solid Core. And saying someone's name is a big part in doing that. So yeah. And then it was just like, okay, cool, repeat. repeat at Studio 1 and Studio 2. And then once I got to a three and four, then I needed help so I could elevate. I hired someone to handle all of the scheduling, right? So you have to build a schedule every month. The scheduling, the coaches availability.

So it's like a big puzzle piece. Takes a lot of time to do that. Payroll. Any high level administrative stuff, legally accounting, you know, the books every month. That person handled that. And then I hired someone to solely deal with client and customer relations. you know, people's accounts, handling promotions, sales, anything that the client needed. I needed somebody to handle that side. And then, of course, those teams started to build out. And then what I did as a

leader, and this is my job as a leader, is I have to say, okay, how do I elevate myself? What's the best use of my time and energy that's going to serve the business financially? And it was negotiating the leases. You're negotiating 10-year leases. That's a lot of money. And if you get that wrong, If you don't get enough tenant improvement dollars in the beginning, all things I had to learn. If I didn't have enough rent abatement, so rent debatement is the amount of time you don't have to pay rent. And a lot of these landlords didn't want to give that to me because I was very young in my business and they wanted really heavy security deposits. And so I met in person with all of my landlords making my case, telling the back on my feet story, letting them know, like, I am the most ambitious person you are ever going to meet. I am not going to fail.

Here's what I need. Here's why I need it. And then I would ask the landlord, what's important to them? And I would listen to them. And then I would say, okay, like, how can we make these things work together? Can I sign an 11-year lease? Can I make the rent more expensive in years 7, 8, and 9 so that I can have the first year to grow the business, whatever I needed to do.

But that was the most valuable way for me to spend my time, where the big ticket expensive items that could have crippled the company. And then, of course, with my team, building community and culture. Wow. I just, I feel like if, if you want to get something done, call Ann, right? Like that's just the feeling I get from like, you'll find a way. You'll figure it out. And I think that is, I'm wondering, is that a skill you've developed or have you always had it? Is it a combination of both? Because I just get this sense of, you want to, like figure it out you want to get it done just call anne and she'll find a way well you'll figure it out ryan if it's important enough to you and this is what i also learned that i never actually figured

out until years afterward you know people would ask me a lot when i when i actually walked away so i had this massive job at comcast that i had just gotten hired for right 26 years old this was a while almost 20 years ago now six figures you know benefits stock like you it was the epitome of of like what we are sort of told to go for as, you know, you're growing your career. Like, that was it. And I called them the day before I was supposed to start and was like, I can't take this job. I'm really grateful for the six weeks and the opportunity, but I found what I'm supposed to do with my life, back on my feet.

And I have to make a run at this. Like, I'm going to regret it the rest of my life if I don't try. And I had so much momentum already at that point that if I didn't go all in, the moment was going to pass me by. I just knew it. And what I had realized is that wasn't so scary for me because I had actually been taking risk my entire life just in smaller forms of it. Like I moved away right after high school to go to college. You know, I graduated in three years. No one else around me had done that.

I went out to intern for my U.S. senator in D.C. somewhere before my junior and senior year and lived with three people I'd never met before. Then I went back to D.C. to go to graduate school, moved in with three more people I'd never met before, went to a school. I didn't know anybody, had to get a job, had to figure out how to operate without a car. I mean, there was just over and over. Then I cut my hair short, and it was like, I've actually been taking risks my whole life. And nothing bad has really happened. Like, I've had to figure it out, and it hasn't been as scary. And so the importance for that to me is stepping into uncertainty. And that's how you actually build your confidence.

When you can show and prove to yourself that you can do something that you've never done before, guess what? Then you start to do another thing and another thing. And then when you come across something that other people feel as big, like putting all your money into solid core or walking away from a secure job to start back on my feet, the risk didn't feel that scary. felt I have bet on myself so many other times in my life. This is just another bet on myself. And that is how you build up your risk tolerance. And I don't know how much time we have today,

Ryan, but I've had to do this after selling solid core. I've had to do the same with that with investing. I used to think that $100,000 was expensive. That's not expensive for me anymore because I've worked on flexing that muscle. If I didn't work on that muscle, I would continue to play small and not step into my wealth and say, okay, how do I make a million dollar bet? How am I going to get comfortable writing a check for a million dollars into something? And if I never do it, I'm only going to write $100,000 checks. And my wealth is actually never going to grow at the rate that it should because I'm playing small. And I have to flex the risk muscle.

Does that make sense? It does. You're constantly pushing your edges, as the Navy SEALs would say. I've had a few SEALs on this show. That's what they talk about all the time. That's what they look for in people to become seals. They want to be surrounded by people who are always pushing their edges. So they're expanding their zone of comfort and competency.

So you're getting smarter. You're getting more comfortable with things that were previously uncomfortable to you. You have to be pushing your edges. And so what used to seem hard just seems normal today. And that's because you're the type of person who keeps pushing, regardless of money you've made or how well it's gone. You're going to push. You're going to push.

You're going to push. And that is creating evidence for yourself. And that evidence is making you more confident, I sense. And you seem to really understand who you are, have a very high level of self-awareness, know your strengths, know where you can be effective. And then once you realize, hey, I'm here, you're willing to make that bet again and again. And I think that's what's inspiring for me learning about you and your story and now talking with you and going deeper in it is that this is possible for anybody. to do, but you do have to take action. You do got to push on those edges on a regular basis in order to create that evidence for yourself. And that feels like that's just like the story of

your life. Brian, that's the only difference. I mean, a few, but you know what I mean. If you can't do that, you will never elevate, you will never grow. And as adults, it gets harder. For example, every time I've asked an adult to say, do you want to go snowboarding and they've never done it, that's their response. Oh, I don't know how. It's not even a thought in their head to think about, oh, I'd love to learn. Or, you know, it's just, I haven't, I'm 40, I haven't learned it. There's no whatever. It's never going to happen. And I find that with people in, like, I have family members that I desperately have tried to make sure that they're, and they're like, they're scared of the stock market. And I'm like, you are going to feel scared until you do it. You guys have

50 grand sitting in a savings account. And I don't know why you refuse to take advice from me like you want to look at the amount of like it's crazy and it's just the belief system over and over investing is bad investing is gambling i don't know how i'm uncertain therefore if i don't know how i should stay away from it instead of actually leaning in to educate and say how do people who are really wealthy make their money what are they doing and what do i need to start doing and even on a smaller example my my nephew is here right now he's 18 from north dakota and i have a bentley and And they love riding in the Bentley. And yes, two days ago, I'm like, do you want to drive it?

And he was like, no. And I'm like, Jordan, go drive the car. And it was, I'm like, I trust you. And it was me telling him that, right? And I'm like, you're never going to get comfortable driving it if you don't have a first day driving it. Go drive it. You know how to drive a car.

You're going to be fine. And now, what do you think he wants to do every day? It's like, you have to be willing to push yourself just a little. bit. And Ryan, the difference too is whenever I know you're a public speaker, right, like, I'm sure you maybe get nervous still on stage. I know I do before I go up. And I tell myself, anybody would be nervous going to speak to 10,000 people right now. What am I going to do to just calm the nerves? It's okay to be a little nervous. Nothing is wrong. I am capable of doing this. And if I go show myself, I can do it, the next one gets easier. But I'll tell you what's not going

get easier if I turn around and say, I can't do this speech. The next one's not going to get any better. My husband likes to say action builds confidence, and that's exactly right. A lot of us want to wait until we feel confident to do something. You have to push past the uncertainty that's like sitting there and you have to be like, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to do it anyway. And whether that goes for a new physical skill, wake surfing, snowboarding, driving a car, making an investment, cutting your hair off short, anything. And I always tell people when they feel like they have a low risk tolerance, go out to dinner by yourself. Have you ever done that? No, that's your first task. Just do these little things that what's the worst that's going to happen if you go to dinner by yourself and sit at a

table without a phone. Do you think people are going to throw things at you and think that you're a loser and don't have friends? I don't know what it is, but you need to work through and work through that sort of sense of insecurity. Otherwise, you're never going to be able to take a big risk. So good. So the exit from Solid Core, which then led you into what you're doing today. How did that all shake out? How did you sell? Why did you sell? I'm curious to hear about that part. Well, I always wanted to sell. Like there's articles back to like 2015, you know, of me saying that. And that's, that's always been the plan because I don't think, only thing that I really want in perpetuity in my life right now is my commitment I made to my husband to be married.

Everything else from an experience standpoint, I think should have a beginning and an end. And a lot of times ends end up tragic, right? Think of breakups. Think of someone getting fired or they get to the point where their health is so bad and they have a heart attack and then they make changes. I just really don't operate that way. I want to be in charge of my beginning and my end as best as I can. And so knowing that at some point I wanted to move on from Solid Corps so I could have

whatever my next chapter would be, I needed to make sure I was making the right plans and putting those things in place. Right. So I raised private equity money in 2018. And I did that because I was ready to really grow and build faster. I was at 25 studios by then. And I needed a private equity partner that I knew I wanted to go through the sale process with at some point. They know more about that than I do. And I wanted that partnership where we were both after the same thing, right? At some point I want to cash in make a lot of money and at some point they wanted to do the same. Our interests were aligned. Let's build a really amazing quality company and also make a lot of money. Those two things are not mutually exclusive and I hate when people say things like people over

profits, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like you can make money and treat your people well. It is possible. And so anyway, part of the tangent. Anyway, so then, you know, we kept growing and building and I was ready to sell in 2020 and then COVID came around to talk about a lesson in leadership. I got a massive lesson in leadership during COVID beside the tragedy that happened for a lot of people during that time. That's not, you know, beyond me. From my leadership perspective, I am grateful that I got to figure out how to navigate such uncertain waters. It only built my confidence. I only learned so much about operating in a crisis. And again, just like daily uncertainty with different rules in 17 different

states that like changed all the time. So we got through COVID and then I did something really smart, which is promote my C.O, who's a very talented individual, to CEO. We raised money at that time and I sort of knew the next transaction was going to be the sale, right? And if I didn't have a new CEO in place, there's no way that the buyer was going to let me go and say, okay, Ann, we'll pay, we'll buy you out and you can, you know, you're done. You can leave. I had figured out how it worked at that point. I was going to have the golden handcuffs and they were only going to pay me my equity if I stayed for two more years and operated and performed. And I just wasn't going to do that and work for my company for somebody else.

So I promoted Brian and Brian sent an incredible job leading the business. He is the perfect person to be the second phase CEO of that business. And I moved into the exec chair role. So after we recovered, which we recovered really quickly from COVID, because we started playing offense in 2021 and started growing. We were just ready. And like the numbers were so great. And we were able to get a deal done in April of last year.

And I sold all of my stake to Kohlberg and company. And then my minority private equity partner wanted to stay in. So they became the majority owner. Wow. How much did you sell for? In total, because I took money off the table every time, was close to 90 million and I negotiated a nice little payout, not equity based, but just payout on the next transaction as well. Good for you. That is so awesome. Thank you. It's just an amazing

story of building and understanding and like having a goal working backwards and then just being relentless and your pursuit of it, which I think is a word that seems to accurately describes you. Yeah, and Ryan, too, you know, it became really, honestly became easier. When you have the goal, anything that was in support of the goal was on the table. Anything that was a detraction from the goal was not on table. And I'll give you a quick example of that. In COVID, you know, when every fitness company was like changing and going online and virtual and blah, blah, blah, and investing so much money in that space, you know, we did some virtual classes, which was a low lift. but there were people that were legitimately changing their business models to be virtual.

And I remember looking around at my team and I'm like, no one here has any idea how to run a digital media platform. We are not set up for it. And I think if we're being honest, this is a moment in time. And we are not going to change our business model for a moment in time. I truly believe, just like after 9-11, do you remember 9-11? Oh, my God, no one's ever going to fly again. it's like it's no different than the stock market when there's a bad day in the market and everybody sells it sells out of fear the average person is so fearful of fear and the unknown that they make silly decisions like that instead of just like it's going to pass and we are going to get through it and what do we need to do to get through it for us it was negotiating crazy

with our landlord so we didn't have to pay rent and we had some cash in the bank and it was staying the course and we raised money. We did a raise end of 2020 and close it in February 1st of 2021. And we opened 11 studios in 2021 when most people were still either reopening or shuttering or whatever and we're like, go to offense. And where do you think we open studios? Red states. We were like, at least we know we can run them there because California and, you know, some of the more liberal states, we're still like opening and shutting businesses. And so we said,

we want to open there, but we need to be more patient. Get more open in Atlanta. Get more open in Florida. Get more open where we know we're not going to be shut down, you know, because they've made it pretty clear that they're just not doing that to businesses.

So we got to really leg up on a lot of the competition. And then, of course, we, you know, open another 25 in 2022 and another 25 in 2024. So we've just like completely, surpassed anybody in our space and we just are the number one player in the athletic space now. Well, it's just a good lesson to when people are fearful, you just got aggressive, but you actually did it. It's easy to say that. It's very easy

for us and it sounds cool to say that. You were literally living that out when there was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of doubts, a lot of scared people, and you said, everybody's scared, we're going on offense. Everybody else is playing defense. We're playing offense and look what happened. And And I think that's bold, that's inspiring. And it's also a great story for us to learn from when we think about the next uncertain moment, which could be tomorrow, which could be today. It's going to happen.

We know with certainty, there will be uncertainty. There will be moments when people are scared, when people are going to play defense. And that's a sign, especially when you listen to your story to say, how can I go on offense? What can I do to go on offense when everybody? he's scared because this is a time to really make it. And obviously your story is evident of that. Well, and Ryan, it's not just offense. You know, the other thing I always ask myself, are we, am I playing a game I can win? Can I win that game? And I knew I could win that expansion game because it doesn't take long to get a solid core open. We were going to get

really great real estate deals. And if people were going to come back and feel safe in COVID, you know, you're on your own machine in a solid core. You're already close to six feet apart. from somebody, you know? So it's like if any, if any place people are going to feel comfortable, it's with us. And so we are going to double down and like get money spent, advertising, branding. And it really, it really paid off. So we weren't, you know, that's why I wasn't going to go to the digital media perspective. Like, I can't win that game. And so I'm not even going to play. I love it. And one more question. Let's say you're speaking with somebody earlier in their career, maybe like a recent college grad. And they don't fully know what they want to do, but they do want to

leave a positive dent in the world. What is a general piece of life slash career advice you give to that person? Yeah, same thing we've been talking about. So I'll even break it down further, right? Write down the things that you think you are an eight and a nine at. And that includes like 8.2, nine point, whatever, try to get really granular. You know, then there's these middle of the road things of like, okay, things you're like a five, six and a seven at. You know, those are things I would keep on the table. Anything that you're a one or a two or a three at, I just forget about. I don't even try because if I work really, really hard and I might make myself a four out of five at it, I'm never going to win the game being a four or a five, you know, at something. Just like I knew

I was never going to play college basketball. I played varsity high school, but like there was no way I was good enough to play, you know, college basketball. So like, I'm just, I'm done. I got to figure out where I can win. And that's, that I think is a big part of being successful when you know what you're good at, your talents. And then you match those talents with a passion, a business, a something so that those things can be really amplified and highlighted. But yeah, I just forget about the stuff I'm not really great at. Nobody's great at everything and it's a waste of time if you ask me. Understand where you're good. Your strengths double down and get after it with those, right? Love it. So good. And this is amazing. I really enjoyed the prep process getting ready for this.

And now it's been even better getting a chance to talk to you. So I would love to continue our dialogue as we both progress. I cannot wait to see the impact that you. you continue to have. It's going to be really fun. Thanks, Ryan. I really appreciate that. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you. It is the end of the podcast club. Thank you for being a member of the end of the podcast club.

If you are, send me a note, Ryan at learning leader.com. Let me know what you learned from this great conversation with Anne Malam. A few takeaways from my notes. Quote, I looked at these guys and demanded nothing but pure excellence from them. And it was almost as if they were waiting for someone to do that. Set high expectations for people, believe in people, care for people, support them, love them, and watch what happens. This is the definition of leadership, is believing in people sometimes even more than they believe in themselves and push them towards excellence. I love that element of Anne's story.

Then nobody runs by themselves. What a great life motto. We all need people. We're almost all better when we're part of a team, part of a community, and believes in this importance of community and doing hard things together that also is what builds confidence. In addition to that action builds confidence. Push past the uncertainty. Create evidence for yourself.

Make the things that were previously uncomfortable for. you more comfortable now by taking action when others are playing defense and they're scared. Go on offense. This is what can create your edge. So good. Once again, I want to say thank you so much for continuing this. Spread the message and telling a friend or two, hey, you should listen to this episode of The Learning Leaders Show with Ann Malam.

I think she'll help you become a more effective leader because you continue to do that. And you also go to Spotify and Apple Podcast and you subscribe to the show. write a thoughtful review for the show. Rate it, hopefully five stars. By doing all of that, you are continually giving me the opportunity to do what I love on a daily basis. And for that, I will forever be grateful. Thank you so, so much. Talk to soon.

Can't wait.