Karry Summers - From Exhausted Software Engineer to Successful Pole Dance Studio Owner

Hi everyone this is looking a little bit different than what I expected but would say I’m Karry Summers firm no I’m not I’m Karry Levine from altitude polar and Fitness Summers is my old maiden name and I use it for pole I knew I was gonna get up and start with the wrong name that I own altitude pole and fitness in New Zealand we’re mostly a pole dance studio we also offer some aerial classes like aerial silks aerial yoga aerial hoop kind of all the stuff you see in Cirque du Soleil and anything a little bit alternative Fitness so we offer twerk it out classes zoo fit and contortion so probably a little bit different than some of the people in this room but this is my story I guess that the last 12 months and probably a little bit before that when I joined MPA okay so this is basing my story of how I went from a software engineer to a pole dancer and believe me when I’m sitting on a plane and somebody asked me what I’m doing these days it would be so much easier if I could just tell them as a software engineer because the minute you say you’re a pole dancer you get a different reaction you gotta have to explain things a little bit more so I’ve always loved being firt but I’ve always hated going to a gym I’ve hated conventional exercise my whole life I actually failed my whole last year of school because of PE it was actually a game of golf I don’t think that should
01:20
count but it did but I found pole
01:23
dancing when I was living in the UK and
01:25
I quickly fell into competing I was a
01:27
competitive gymnast growing up so it was
01:30
always kind of in my nature to compete
01:31
at things and it just became something
01:33
so big for me
01:34
something I could do that got me fit
01:36
that got me strong it got me flexible
01:38
and doing things that no one else could
01:40
do which has always been quite important
01:41
to me too and I just thought this is
01:45
amazing I have to share this with
01:46
everyone so when we moved back to New
01:48
Zealand I decided to open my own space
01:51
and buy space I mean I rented a paste by
01:55
the hour and put up four poles it was
01:57
pretty small I never really thought
01:58
about doing this full-time or giving up
02:00
my day job I didn’t hate my day job I
02:03
kind of enjoyed it and it paid well but
02:04
um I just needed to get this out there
02:06
and I had lots of old gymnast friends
02:08
who I knew would be going through
02:09
similar things to me and miss
02:11
that kind of passion of being able to
02:13
move in cool ways so if I could just
02:15
introduce this to a few people then
02:17
that’s all I wanted to do the thought of
02:19
giving up my day job and doing this as
02:21
my full-time job was a dream I never
02:23
thought it was possible but obviously
02:26
there were a lot of challenges quite
02:28
fast in the beginning time was my
02:31
biggest issue I had my full-time job
02:33
still I was competing internationally
02:35
which took a lot of training and the
02:37
studio was growing pretty quickly so I
02:40
was really big on things just happening
02:42
by themselves it was a hobby to me it
02:44
wasn’t a business and as things got
02:46
bigger I just kind of let them do the
02:48
wrong thing I think like Julie said I
02:51
was running the whole thing just kind of
02:53
like a garage space I mean it kind of
02:56
was at that point it wasn’t until we had
02:58
the Christchurch earthquake that I had
02:59
to make the call to move into a bigger
03:01
space
03:01
we lost our hourly rented space and I
03:05
found a place that I could lease for
03:07
myself and I took that punch and did it
03:09
without thinking anything through I
03:14
didn’t know what I didn’t know that was
03:16
my big thing I didn’t know what I was
03:18
doing but I didn’t know what I wasn’t
03:19
doing it had just grown into this big
03:23
thing and I didn’t really ever take the
03:27
time to step back and figure it out and
03:29
look at it as a business I still had
03:31
everything else going on so I came up
03:34
with a really good solution for the
03:35
studio that wasn’t making much money and
03:37
I opened a new studio on the other side
03:39
of the country in Auckland I have no
03:41
idea what I was thinking I think I just
03:44
thought if I could just keep pushing and
03:46
keep going that eventually it would get
03:48
there and be able to support me a little
03:49
bit more and it would all be worthwhile
03:51
I knew all the other polar studio owners
03:53
in New Zealand and I knew that none of
03:55
them were making good money it was just
03:57
kind of one of those things you did out
03:59
of passion and out of love and there was
04:01
never gonna be a way of making money
04:03
from it and I just got into this mindset
04:05
that’s how it was but you know at least
04:07
I was doing something I loved right when
04:10
I had my first child I decided to give
04:12
up that job and do it full time and by
04:15
full time I mean you know in between
04:18
being a mother I don’t think I realized
04:20
how much time that was going to take
04:21
either
04:22
but I just got used to UM not being able
04:25
to pay myself and just doing it for the
04:27
love and I’d still be putting all these
04:29
hours in but not getting anything back
04:31
and there was only Gerson beast along
04:33
that I was could do that for which is
04:36
when MPA came into the picture so is
04:39
actually one of my Oakland instructors
04:40
tagging me on Facebook and an article
04:42
about another pole dance studio in
04:44
Ireland there made me think like this
04:47
was actually an option there was some
04:49
hope
04:50
I was on holiday at the time but I
04:53
wasn’t really off my laptop much and I
04:55
could feel my in-laws silently judging
04:57
me and I was definitely judging myself I
05:00
scoured that MPE website read all the
05:03
blogs all the stories like some of the
05:05
people in this room I read those stories
05:07
so much detail over and over again and
05:10
everything just rang so true with me and
05:12
it wasn’t until that I was reading that
05:15
stuff that I realized what an awful
05:17
place I’d got myself into
05:18
I had this decent-sized business I had
05:20
no idea what I was doing and I had no
05:22
way out and there was only so long I
05:25
could do that for I’ve just never been
05:28
so hit with the truth as on that holiday
05:30
so I signed up with MPA and I must admit
05:33
I kind of regretted it for the first few
05:36
months and thought I’d made a big
05:37
mistake it was a whole new way of doing
05:40
things and not just for me but for pole
05:42
studios in general it just wasn’t how
05:44
pole studios were run and I knew that
05:46
these guys worked with fitness gyms so I
05:48
kind of thought they were just trying to
05:49
shove this Fitness Gym approach on me
05:51
without actually taking the time to
05:53
understand my business but I knew
05:56
nothing and I was doing nothing right
05:57
and so I had no choice I was still
06:00
running the place as a hobby and it
06:02
would become a decent-sized business we
06:04
had a lot of members we had a lot of
06:05
success we just didn’t have a lot of
06:07
money first the prices went up obviously
06:12
looking back now that was the scariest
06:15
thing I’ve done standing in front of my
06:17
other instructors and telling them our
06:18
new prices was horrible and I had to
06:21
kind of put across this trust to them
06:23
like I knew what I was doing and I
06:25
really didn’t I had no idea and I didn’t
06:27
know if it was going to work and I had
06:29
to prove to these people that were
06:30
trusting me that it was going to work
06:32
the prices felt so expensive but looking
06:35
back now we were just you
06:36
Chief before then we had the sale system
06:41
the good old auto closer I’d like to say
06:43
we’re to redo our sales system but we
06:45
didn’t even have one at that point
06:47
people could just book out online
06:48
themselves they turned up they didn’t
06:50
come back I had no idea I thought it was
06:52
awesome because people could just do it
06:54
themselves but really it meant that I
06:56
had no control over anything but we just
07:00
kept on keeping on we followed through
07:03
all the steps Tom would never let me
07:05
give up at every step of the way he was
07:06
always Christian man challenging me I
07:08
think I questioned and challenged back a
07:10
little bit too but everything just
07:11
started to work and each time we did
07:13
something the proof was there and the
07:15
results started coming in and so we just
07:18
followed the dang instructions so how
07:21
did it go it went pretty well so we just
07:25
kept working through the lessons I use
07:27
everything from MPE from the margin
07:29
calculators they raise the rates
07:30
template and of course the auto close
07:32
the technique and everything just worked
07:35
out the raise the rates was fine the new
07:37
prices just became the norm the norm and
07:40
we got rid of our old five packs and ten
07:43
packs and we actually had members now I
07:44
could actually tell MPE how many members
07:46
we had each month I knew what a lead was
07:49
finally and I actually knew how to give
07:50
them the numbers of how many leads we
07:52
got him the sales system actually worked
07:55
every time somebody signed up on a
07:57
12-month contract with us without ever
08:00
even having touched a pole I was amazed
08:02
and I think our instructors for her to
08:04
who I don’t think they ever thought
08:06
people would sign on to a contract
08:08
without even trying Pole first it’s just
08:10
too different but they did because we
08:12
had the systems in place they trusted us
08:15
it mostly went well it was me I
08:18
completely held back on things every
08:20
step of the way I would tweak things
08:22
just enough that it wouldn’t wear it
08:24
quite right or I would meet all with
08:25
things just enough so we couldn’t get
08:27
full results I just felt like npe still
08:31
weren’t listening to me and my business
08:33
and how unique it was but what I started
08:36
to realize in looking back now and
08:38
behave really done all the tweaking for
08:39
you and all the trialing and erroring
08:41
for you and they kind of just know what
08:43
they’re doing and it did work I never
08:44
had any reason to doubt them as I saw
08:47
the results come in it’s probably take
08:49
me about 12 months to 100% be doing
08:52
things the way that Tom’s asked proper
08:54
consults no trials actual contracts with
08:57
people and the results have just kind of
09:00
spoken for themselves so where are we
09:04
now
09:04
this is kind of 16 months on from
09:06
joining MPA we started off as a company
09:09
that had two Studios one that was losing
09:11
money consistently and one that was
09:13
probably making just enough to cover
09:14
that one losing consistently both
09:17
Studios are now making a profit most of
09:20
the time each month and a decent profit
09:22
in fact just one of those Studios
09:25
recently made a bigger net profit than
09:27
both the studio’s ever do combined in a
09:29
whole year before the revenue is still
09:32
going up each month and I know exactly
09:34
what I need to do to keep those numbers
09:36
going up I know my targets I know my
09:38
numbers I know my goals and I can do
09:40
this I know I can now I don’t know how I
09:44
think most importantly for me I’m not
09:47
working in the business anymore it was
09:49
really important to me to get myself out
09:51
because in about six months time I’m
09:53
having my second child so I kind of knew
09:55
that I had to be out of the business by
09:57
then if I’d have got pregnant 12 months
10:00
ago it would have probably meant either
10:02
the end of my sanity or the end of my
10:03
business it would have been an awful
10:05
thing but now I’m in a place where I
10:07
have an amazing team running the studio
10:09
for me that I trust and that almost run
10:12
it better than I ever did and I could
10:15
bugger off to Europe for a year and work
10:17
over there and the studios would still
10:19
go and that’s definitely the biggest
10:20
thing I’ve got out of this it’s bigger
10:24
than I ever could have dreamed it could
10:25
be
10:25
so the Christchurch studios just moved
10:28
into a new location a studio that’s
10:30
probably bigger than most studios in the
10:32
world definitely the biggest in New
10:33
Zealand by far in the first eight months
10:36
of MPE we grew to the point of heading
10:38
capacity at that first location with 95
10:41
members when we opened the new studio
10:44
which was about three or four months ago
10:46
we had 50 members pre-signed ready to
10:50
start so I had already covered by
10:51
opening costs in the three months since
10:55
opening that new location we’re just
10:57
about to hurt one hundred and eighty
10:59
members so I remember
11:03
about a year ago we hit 100 members at
11:07
altitude of the studios combined and
11:09
that had been such a massive goal for me
11:11
that I remember writing down and like 10
11:13
Xing it and thinking I probably not
11:15
going to make that number but I’m about
11:18
a year ago we did and I remember putting
11:20
this post up on Facebook this took ages
11:22
to find searching on Facebook is a
11:24
nightmare that it kind of just shows
11:26
that that was such a big deal for me
11:28
reaching that 100 members so I remember
11:33
very since then so when we started with
11:35
MPA 16 months ago we probably started on
11:38
about 50 members and that was after we
11:39
switched them over from those 10 packs
11:41
and stuff we ended up with about 50
11:43
members through the two studios combined
11:45
12 months ago we hit that 100 member
11:48
mark so that was already some pretty
11:50
good growth that I was really really
11:52
proud of at the time so six months ago
11:56
we had about 160 which is pretty cool
12:00
today we’re going to combined total of
12:03
about 280 285 members so you can see
12:06
what the last 12 months has done being
12:09
under MPA and just starting to do things
12:10
right we didn’t make any massive changes
12:13
we just made constant changes ok we made
12:16
quite a few massive changes but it was
12:20
nothing rocket science so this is some
12:22
photos of our new studio in Christchurch
12:25
we went from a space of around 100
12:27
square meters of our old location we’re
12:30
now at a space of 425 so we’ve kind of
12:33
like quadrupled in size physically we
12:36
have three studio rooms now so we’ve got
12:39
two pole spaces we went from 12 poles at
12:42
the old studio to 24 poles at this
12:44
studio so there’s 12 in each room we’ve
12:47
also got a dedicated aerials and dance
12:49
room and contortion and twerking and
12:52
whatever the people want to do yeah I
12:54
don’t know we’ve got a dedicated waiting
12:57
area which is probably a first for a
12:59
studio in New Zealand and has massively
13:01
helped our culture people just sleep
13:03
there mostly actually but they hang out
13:06
there it’s the place for them to really
13:08
build that community the whole place is
13:11
branded in our colors and our new logo
13:12
and it’s a space I never dreamed I’d
13:15
ever have like I’ve
13:17
ever seen a studio nicer than that
13:18
across the world and the fact that I are
13:20
in that just blows me away every time I
13:22
walk in so what’s been the end result of
13:26
all this the biggest thing my business
13:29
is no longer a hobby it’s now run as a
13:30
business it doesn’t drain my time and
13:34
money and it gives back to me and my
13:36
lifestyle I finally see myself as an
13:38
entrepreneur almost as a leader I’m
13:40
getting there I’m really proud of
13:43
everything I’ve achieved though and
13:45
everything I’ve become and I trust that
13:47
I can kind of do anything I want now as
13:49
long as I work hard and have that
13:52
support around me I know that anything’s
13:53
possible
13:54
which is a big mindset change from where
13:56
I was a couple of years ago I’m at the
14:00
point now where I get to decide on the
14:01
next step of my business and what that
14:02
means and I’m really excited about the
14:04
different future possibilities and I
14:06
know that having my second kid is not
14:07
going to hold me back from that for me
14:12
personally so we’ve made this new
14:15
philosophy in life at the start of the
14:17
year is reading this book and it was
14:18
talking all about how there’s all these
14:21
society’s rules around you that you know
14:24
you have to go to uni after work after
14:27
school and you have to marry someone of
14:29
the opposite sex and all this stuff that
14:32
is the norm of society and basically
14:34
it’s not true you can make your own
14:37
rules for life so I’ve got me thinking
14:40
and I decided that I didn’t want to work
14:42
40 hours a week just because of this
14:43
magic number 40 that society thinks we
14:45
have to work so I wanted to work 20
14:48
hours a week and I wanted my husband
14:50
about work 20 hours a week too because
14:52
there’s no point in him working all the
14:53
time
14:53
I don’t enjoy the kid as much when I’m
14:55
by myself with him that sounds way worse
14:58
than it should
14:59
[Laughter]
15:00
I enjoy my work but I also enjoy sitting
15:05
in the Sun having a cup of tea going on
15:07
lots of holidays and just hanging out
15:08
and being a bit lazy at home so that’s
15:11
what I want from my life and that kind
15:12
of became my way that I set myself and
15:15
thanks to MPA I’m almost there like this
15:18
still a little bit more work to do but
15:20
because of this deadline on me now my
15:22
husband can drop down to part-time work
15:25
and March and we’re both going to be
15:27
able to enjoy our life and our work and
15:30
our kids together and like my company
15:33
supports that it never would have had
15:35
the money to allow my husband to drop
15:36
down to part-time before so that’s
15:38
really exciting for me personally I’m in
15:41
a completely different place than I ever
15:42
thought was possible so what’s the point
15:46
of all this I guess the main point to me
15:49
and that I’d like people to take away
15:50
from this is that it’s okay to not know
15:52
what you’re doing I definitely did it
15:54
but then why should i I didn’t have a
15:56
business degree I came from not even a
15:59
fitness background a gymnastics
16:01
background I guess I know pole dancing
16:04
but I don’t know how to run a business
16:05
you might think you’re doing awesome but
16:09
somehow you’re just not getting the
16:10
results you want to be or you might know
16:11
that you have no idea what you’re doing
16:13
but you don’t know how to find out what
16:15
you’re doing if you’re here then you
16:17
obviously had the passion to succeed you
16:21
just need to combine that with the right
16:22
blueprint and you can kind of have
16:24
whatever success you want so this is
16:29
some of the photos of my journey just to
16:31
finish off with a more visual thing so
16:33
in the top corner is my original studio
16:36
with my very first instructor just being
16:39
done up and moving off on the top right
16:42
corner is the new studio in the new logo
16:44
and then our team down the bottom
16:46
there’s this thing and pop tart thing
16:48
called stunned a bum day so every Sunday
16:51
everyone’s expected to do an Instagram
16:53
tag like a photo with their bum and hash
16:56
tag at Sunday bum day so that was us
16:58
trying to do a kind of tame version of
17:00
that and then we’ve got our student
17:02
showcases so we’ve run these three or
17:04
four times a year and our last one that
17:06
we ran had 150 spectators and 30
17:08
performers so that was huge for us
17:10
and last year we won the
17:14
new zealand studio of the year and the
17:15
new zealand pole industry awards so it’s
17:18
just kind of showing this journey over
17:20
the last seven years of of everything so
17:25
while I’ve got the opportunity I’d like
17:26
to say a massive thank you to MP e to
17:28
Sean Greely for having the vision to
17:30
help so many of us to rec for being the
17:32
best salesperson ever and getting me on
17:34
board and to Tom of course for coaching
17:37
me through some really tough decisions
17:38
believing in me and encouraging me every
17:40
step of the way there’s a quote that we
17:44
had a little bit at the studio that if
17:46
you stumble you just turn it into your
17:47
choreography because nobody’s going to
17:49
know about you and I think it’s the same
17:50
with business right we’re allowed to
17:52
make mistakes like we were told
17:54
yesterday failing should be okay and
17:56
allowed in business because it’s not
17:58
until you fail that you can kind of
18:00
figure out what you’re doing wrong and
18:01
fix it and as long as you just make it
18:04
part of the dance and just continue on
18:06
it all kind of work out so thank you for
18:08
listening to my story
18:10
[Applause]
18:17
thanks so much Kerry for sharing that
18:21
story it’s been an amazing honor to be
18:23
part of your journey for the last 16
18:24
months and it really comes down to you
18:27
once you kind of got on board and follow
18:28
those instructions your execution was
18:31
amazing and I think having such a strong
18:33
vision that you had it allows you to
18:34
kind of get through those hard points
18:36
because you know what you’re kind of
18:37
aiming for so amazing story this is just
18:40
the start when I first visited Kerry was
18:43
actually on holiday in Christchurch
18:44
Poppins he carrying a studio I’ll tell
18:47
you what the one you’ve got now is just
18:48
next-level and I know your customers
18:50
love it and it’s just gonna be huge so
18:52
congratulations and also congratulations
18:55
on your second child