Kerry Whitaker: I didn't know I had a connective tissue disorder till I was in my mid fifties, but when you think of it, ballet and Pilates mesh in that its strength and its posture ballet's not quite low impact, but at the level we were doing it, it was pretty low impact. But you learn to live within your limitations, and if you can accept that, then you've actually got a very full life. If you can't move, you can't do anything. And Pilates is the key to movement in my book. That's how I look at wanting improvements or benefits

Chris: Pilates business owners, welcome to The Pilates Business Podcast, brought to you by the people who own, operate, and instruct in a successful clinical Pilates studio in Australia.

Our mission is to help you to discover Pilates business assets to build your clinical Pilates business success. And now, here's your host, David Gunther.

David Gunther: Welcome to the Pilates Business Podcast where I'm interviewing long-term PilatesCan client Kerry Whitaker. Kerry, welcome to The Pilates Business Podcast.

Kerry: I'm delighted to be here.

David: Well,

It is great to have you here and I'm gonna start with a really hard question.

Mm-hmm. And that is to tell us about yourself.

Kerry: I'm 72. I have a connective tissue disorder or disease, whatever you'd like to call it. I have a passion for line dancing that I can't do at the moment. I like walking and swimming and I've lived in Canberra 41 years. Which was a very great shock to a girl from Queensland and far north Queensland.

So I always thought I'd go back, but after 20 years I said to my husband, one day, we are never going back, are we? He said, no, we are here. So I'm still here.

David: And you must like Canberra, then Are there aspects of Canberra that you do like?

Kerry: I do like daylight saving, which makes me very different from my Queensland cousins who actually hate daylight saving, but I love it.

I'm not overly impressed with winter, but I tolerate it because the summer months are just lovely.

David: And do you head back up to Queensland Sometimes for a holiday? For particularly during winter, perhaps?

Kerry: I sometimes go either May or August and I catch up with girlfriends I went to boarding school with, and we have lunch and reminisce about good times.

David: Excellent. Which boarding school was it up there?

Kerry: It was a boarding school in Rockhampton, 'cause I lived in Gladstone and it was the correct name. Our Lady of Good Council, but being boarders, it was the Old Lady's Gossip Club. So yeah.

David: And back in those days I guess you, probably didn't do line dancing or did you do another form of dancing?

Kerry: Yes and no. I was born with club feet. and when I was about 18 months. My mom and dad took me to Brisbane and I had a manipulation and I had to wear special built up shoes or bare feet, but for 18 months I was in plaster. So you can imagine my poor mom had a child in plaster the treatment in those days was ballet, so not tap, but ballet, bare feet, built up shoes. And I did that till I was 14.

David: Very

Kerry: good. No thongs.

David: No thongs. Bare feet.

Kerry: Yep. Lucky I lived in a warm climate, I would say. Yes, that's for sure.

David: And did that have a good effect, the bare feet, do you think?

Was that a good thing to have done?

Kerry: Really everybody wore bare feet outside. None of this sandals or whatever everybody played in bare feet.

David: So you fitted in quite well. Yeah. In that respect. Yeah. And the ballet, has that put you in good stead also for other dancing later on?

Kerry: I think so. I think so. And also I didn't know I had a connective tissue disorder till I was in my mid fifties, but when you think of it, ballet and Pilates mesh in that its strength and its posture ballet's not quite low impact, but at the level we were doing it, it was pretty low impact. I think the whole package put me in and then, because youth is bulletproof and ignorant and you don't know, you've got this condition, you do all sorts of things. that you really shouldn't do.

David: So you enjoyed your youth?

Kerry: Oh, absolutely.

David: And, And you enjoyed Queensland, how long ago was it that you came to Canberra?

Kerry: 41 years ago.

David: 41 years ago. Yeah.

Kerry: And that was on a deal with my husband.

David: A deal?

Kerry: A deal.

David: Tell us what the deal was.

Kerry: The deal. He was a field geologist. So we went from Cairns down to Tasmania in a rural and remote place. Really rural and remote. and they were going to move us to even somewhere worse in Tasmania on the West coast.

So we decided we'd take a step off the abyss. We had a 2-year-old, and mum and dad at that stage were here in Canberra. So I said, if you can find a job that you're home every night. I'll go wherever. Ah,

David: BMR was it BMR?

Kerry: Yeah. Yeah.

BMR. He wasn't home every night for the first couple of years, but enough that we could have a better, stable family life and that was very beneficial.

David: It would've been. And so he did go on some field trips?

Kerry: Yeah. Three months at a time. Three

David: months at a time. Up to Northern Territory? uh,

Kerry: Western Australia mainly.

David: Okay.

Kerry: And then I got a job here and my daughter went to school here

David: Got more and more entrenched with the Canberra lifestyle and

Kerry: Yes, but I was still looking to go back to back, back to Queensland.

Yeah.

But the D-Day came decision day, and he said, I was just waiting for you to work it out in your own time.

David: Let's talk about that, personal Pilates journey and why you sought out Pilates. what brought you to Pilates in the first place?

Kerry: It was a little bit of a journey because I'd had two medical interventions.

And I was talking to my sports physician about what I think I'd like to do to build strength and I thought I'd do Tai Chi and he said, no, Pilates is what you need and what your body needs.

 he knew somebody who did it. So I went there for about a year or so, and I wasn't really happy with what I was doing. I was making no progress. And then life is full of serendipitous moments because I was talking to my daughter about it and she said, oh, I found this in the mailbox, and it was one of your flyers that was dropped in.

And at that time you're at Woden. And she said why don't you try that? And I did. And I was just blown away with how, as a potential client you were assessed of what your needs were. Very individual. And that. Yes, we can manage all your conditions, and here I am, almost must be about eight or nine years later, I'm still with you guys and I have never stopped being impressed with the quality of client interaction or service.

So that's how I came to do Pilates.

David: Kerry, it's very nice of you to say that, and we do very much appreciate that and we feel good about the fact that that process has brought in lovely people like yourself and lovely clients and we have a beautiful clientele. Yeah. So it is testament that our processes have.

worked even from the flyer in the letter box back then. Yeah. To was good enough to attract attention of your daughter Yeah. To pass it on to you, to then go through that process of assessment and then for you to be aware having spent a year with another organization by the sounds of things and to contrast what we could possibly do for you in comparison to what you had done.

So you persisted. You persisted to find what was going to work for you, which is Yeah. Yeah.

Kerry: And to make me actually feel that I did have a bit of control over this body that I have learned to live with.

David: Yes. so tell us more about that, about the condition that you've been grappling with and yeah, how that has

Kerry: I

 thought you'd asked me, so I've got a sheet of paper here, but what it says basically Alice Danlos is a connected tissue disorder or disease, whichever word you like.

It's an inherited disorder. And there are. At this stage, 13 known variations of it. It affects the connective tissue all over your body, primarily your skin, your joints and walls of blood vessels, which leads to hypermobility pain, soft and stretchy skin. And of course fatigue. So you'll never run a marathon, ever.

Because, that's just my opinion 'cause I can't run anyway, but there you go. Yeah, so one of the things Claire has taught me, that people that are hypermobile and have joint issues, you need strength, not stretching. ' cause we can stretch. Easily.

David: Too easily.

Too easily, yes. And too far. So it's strength sometimes.

Kerry: And that's always something that you keep in mind about what options you choose to keep strong and fit, particularly as your age and as your age. The body deteriorates and. Very quickly, much more quickly. So you have to keep the regularity of it.

David: And so it sounds like it would be fair to say, you, you tell me if we are wrong here, but fair to say, you were fairly motivated to find some form of exercise that Would help you. And so having not found that initially, because you possibly tried other forms of exercise. Absolutely. Maybe, I think you mentioned Tai Chi.

Yeah. And you found that they really didn't work for you as well as you would like them to at least. And then you found us and you, and found that Claire and, and our systems were able to start you on a journey where you could see that you were going to get benefit from it.

Kerry: Yeah, and that's a very important point. Start you from the beginning, not where you think you would be, but actually where the body has placed you in that spectrum of where to start and what to focus on. And that takes adjustment. 'cause you always think you're better than you are when it comes to fitness.

'Cause I walk or I do this. But the reality is that particularly with the Alice Daniels, you really have to listen to your body because it'll just decide that it's not playing with you today. It goes out on strike.

David: How else did that manifest with your movement with your mobility? With the everyday things that you might be trying to do?

Kerry: I'm one of the lucky ones. It hasn't overly impacted me until the last 18 months I've been able to skim through life pretty easily.

I've never had core strength. And as I said, I can't run for love or money. I can't jog I've tried, but the body doesn't like it. And I've always had weak arms. I find opening jars are just not difficult for me now, but forever. I'm not a. Jar opener. I don't have that wrist strength.

David: Is that why you had to bring your husband down from Queensland so he could open jars for you? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. And

Kerry: do the maths for everything. Maths. Do the maths. Yeah. Maths and I don't agree with each other, so no, he doesn't. I

David: jars and maths. That's a good job description. Yeah, I think

Kerry: so.

David: Fair.

Kerry: So always careful of what type of shoes I wore. And you ignore it at your peril in your youth and you pay for it as you grow older. So the impact, as I said, I'm one of the lucky ones that hasn't had None of my joint sublux my daughter and my brother and his two girls, they've got something else that's another.

Connective tissue disease this time, but I'm not even like my daughter that her neck goes out shoulder subdues. I'm a very good masseuse. But you learn to live within your limitations, and if you can accept that, then you've actually got a very full life. It's just that. No, you don't go jogging or you don't go water skiing and you learn to live with that.

So can't really tell you all the adjustments because you do it subconsciously because you want to live your life and you want to be active. So you consciously look for things that are going to be low impact, maximum result, and yet. Benefit from being ready for whatever life throws at you.

David: So, So enter the line dancing there and you found something that you really enjoy.

Oh,

Kerry: my family would say obsessed, but I say passionate. So yes. And again, it ticks line dancing and Pilates tick. All the boxes for brain health. Belonging to a community. Yeah. The quality of the relationship. Learning something new, putting the body into action and having fun.

I think if you looked, there's a pattern of what I look for in my activities and I find that Pilates and nine dancing. Swimming, not so much on the community, but and it's interesting

David: that you mention community first there as the thing that you mentioned first anyway, maybe not always the most important but you mentioning it first.

It is important, isn't it?

Kerry: It is, and latest research says it's not only community. But it's the quality of the relationship. And I've made so many new friends and Pilates classes are always fun. There's always laughter. So I think as well as the community, there's the quality of the interaction with p.

David: Yeah. It's not just surface level stuff, is it? No, it's because, how you are able to be mobile within the rest of your life, outside of Pilates and with other things that you're doing, like your line dancing. They're very important things. So you are hearing about other people's bodies and they're hearing about your body.

Absolutely.

Kerry: And it gives you a reality check that, hey, you are not so bad after all. Yes. Somebody else. Has had a similar struggle or a worse struggle. So instead of feeling poor me, you go out and you think. I'm not so bad after all,

David: that is our clientele. Yeah. Like yourself, Kerry, looking for the positives that they can get out of life and the positives that they can bring to even a Pilates session, to that community and to be able to, because can be a little bit of give and take in that.

Semi-private type environment. Yeah, absolutely as well. And we really appreciate the great clientele that we have that do have that very unselfish approach to the whole way it works. And that in the end, that means everyone benefits much. Oh, absolutely. Much more. You

Kerry: always come away from Pilates feeling great.

But you've also learned so many things, what's going on in Canberra or what's happening. So it's never a dull moment. But and we do exercise as a side bit. Yes.

David: yes. Occasionally do some exercise. Yeah. Claire in particular prides herself on keeping people moving. even when they are talking. Yes. Which is good.

Kerry: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

David: Okay, so because you experienced some Pilates.

Elsewhere and other movements. So you had some initial expectations of what it might be like. And are there any other things you can tell us about the subsequent experiences that, that you had with Pilates? Or perhaps unexpected changes that you experienced? after coming along for a few months.

Kerry: I think a lot of the changes are in a way subliminal where you start with the springs and then all of a sudden oh, you're moving up. Oh, you must be getting stronger. Or you're getting stronger and you think, yeah, I'm feeling good, or you move better. just at the moment. I am rehabbing from Piriformis syndrome.

And a friend of mine that does Pilates as well as line dancing, and we cross over and she said, oh, you're moving so much better. And I thought, oh, it's noticeable. I am feeling a lot better than I did when we first started fixing it up. I think it's in subtle ways that you don't get off a chair and you think, oh my God.

That was the wrong thing to do, or you know how to get up. You know, You've learned what flow of your body like, so I think you're not really conscious for me, of saying, oh yes. Okay, so now I'm going to get up this way. Just with the practice you do and the flow of your body. So without doing it, like without doing Pilates, I couldn't line dance.

I couldn't move because my. Joints were so stiff and I couldn't swim. If you can't move, you can't do anything. And Pilates is the key to movement in my book. That's how I look at wanting improvements or benefits,

David: And look, we obviously totally agree with that.

Yeah. Because we've dedicated our lives and our business lives at least to being able to deliver Yeah. Pilates in the best way possible. And part of that delivery we always like to say to people, particularly when they first come to us, is that what we're trying to help people establish is.

An excellent Pilates exercise habit. And yes, and the reason we say it like that is because we know that if they can achieve that excellent Pilates exercise habit, then they will probably get results. Yeah. They will realize that they're moving better and able to do other things so I'm interested in, your view.

on. What are some of the keys for you to create that excellent Pilates exercise habit and what does that look like for you?

Kerry: I think I'm an obsessive type person. My family will tell me a dog with a bone, don't let it go. Okay. I think also initially is all I wanted to do was to be able to keep moving.

And that's really important. build strength because without strength you can't move. I've had lots of interruptions along the way with health issues and that yes. I think what keeps you going is, you know, you recognize that after a month or two months your body seizes up. You're not as fluid in your movement and. You know that ad from many years ago, which will tell you how old I am when you're on a good thing, stick to it.

Yes. And you don't need to change it, and you don't need to modify it because the exercises are modified for what your body is doing on the day in the moment, as well as where you wish to progress to. So why have I kept it? Because I love coming. I. You build relationships, friendships. Claire is a body whisperer and I can't describe it any other way.

Yes. And you know what your body won't do when you don't do it. And I haven't found anything that. Equals or surpasses it. And yes, I'm obsessive compulsive about line dancing, it's good, but it doesn't do what Pilates does many things, but

David: it sounds to me like your line dancing is a celebration of what Pilates enables you to do.

Kerry: Well said. Yes. I think that's it. Exactly. Yes.

David: Which is fantastic. Yeah. To be able to do that and to enjoy that and to realize the contrast when and if at those times when you haven't been able to do things, that's when you miss things. Yeah. Yeah. And you,

Kerry: And I also really like when we go down the coast to walk on the beach. And walking on sand is a trick if your body's not in concert with itself. Yes. So that's the other thing that gives me great joy is to just walk on the sand on the beach.

David: It's a simple pleasure. Very

Kerry: simple, but very complex if it's not working.

David: And very enjoyable as you say. Yeah. perhaps you could also share with us has it had any impact on your family?

Kerry: They know not to put anything on the days I go to Pilates at the time slot. Yes. what's grandma or mum do? Pilates. Oh, okay. Alright.

So that's one impact it's had,

David: it does sound like that you've got regular days to do your Yes. I Pilates. Yes. Yeah.

Kerry: And that's the best way to be.

David: How many days a week are you? Twice. Twice a week. Okay.

Kerry: And it's twice weekly that this body needs to actually be able to function full stop, but then do the things I really enjoy doing.

David: Okay. So twice a week really does help you. Yeah. Did you start with one a week or twice?

Kerry: Well, it's interesting. I started.

David: We always,

probably

Kerry: twice a week I think. Was it?

David: because generally we will recommend just once a week to a new person, and the reason for that is so that They're not overcome for their lifestyle, what other things are doing, and it's just another thing that ends up stressing them out more. Yeah. By having to come two or three times a week. But it is at that stage when they realize, Hey, this is really good. Oh yeah, it works for me. I'll progress to two or even three a week.

Some people do and then they realize the benefits of that as well. So it's a co it's a fairly common sort of a progression.

Kerry: Last year I was only able to do one a week, and then in October I had a drop attack where I broke my wrist.

David: Oh.

Kerry: Fell down. Oh, okay. We still don't know why. So that's why it's called a drop attack.

David: Okay. A drop attack. Yeah. That's the first I've heard that. Oh,

Kerry: Most people fall because they tripped, they slipped or they overbalanced or whatever. I don't think I did any of that.

David: None of those You just dropped?

Kerry: No. Had a drop. Yeah.

David: Okay.

Kerry: And one of my specialists said don't like that. The cardiologist just calls it a drop attack.

David: And that can happen. Something happened to me 20 years ago teaching body pump. And I was working quite hard. when you're teaching that sort of thing, aerobic intensity, yeah.

You want to be, a good example. but unfortunately I overtaxed myself and I started breathing shallowly.

Kerry: Oh, yeah.

David: And so I wasn't getting enough oxygen in. Yeah. And I still tried to work through that and then eventually I ended up fainting.

At one point, so it was just the lack of oxygen to the head and my brain was trying to tell me, lie down David, so you can get the oxygen back to the brain. Yeah. So

Kerry: That really reinforced because for three weeks I really was immobile. People with casts on. Out and about after three weeks because you can move your arm without the pain.

So mine was a wrist. The ulnar and the whatever it is. And then I came back once a week and we started on the lower body and then. When the cast came off, then we had to start back again with strength in the wrist and all the exercises for that, as well as the body so that the left wrist, could catch up with where the rest of the body was.

So that's one of the journeys I've done.

David: And that's very interesting because you already had a foundation of Pilates. Yes. So you've come across this life challenge as everyone does, where you've had a drop attack, you've broken your arm. When you came back to Pilates, you already had a baseline of things that you knew how to do and you didn't have to go through the process and waste time perhaps becoming associated with Pilates for the first time. You already had that there. Yeah.

Kerry: Yeah. And a bit of muscle memory did help to make the transition and the rehab back into.

Where I was before that happened.

David: yes. To get that recovery happening quickly. Yeah. And more effectively without delay. Because what we have found with people that might come after many years of trying to perhaps deal with an injury or a condition, but not really very effectively. And eventually they find Pilates. And they. Find that it is a good answer for them. Yeah, it is. Yeah. But if they had started it 20 years previously, then it would've been better for them. Yeah. have done that.

Kerry: Yeah. And it's always better to have these things happen to you with exactly as you say, with that background of good body movement and strength, because that does do a lot of benefit.

For you when you are recovering.

David: And there, there could well be more challenges like that down the track as there are for many people. Yeah. And that gives you confidence as well. I think. Yeah. That okay. I've had this set back, but yeah. I know how to do this now.

Yeah. And I know where to go and what to do and how to do it and my body will probably react well. And I think

Kerry: that's a really important point. Psychologically, you know, you will get back. It's just you have to do the work.

David: It's no good unless you turn up.

Kerry: That's right.

David: and this is where we often refer when speaking to possibly new people that our, our. Model is you know, people are paying for what they're doing and for coming along. They're not paying for a gym membership where in many circumstances, it seems they're paying insurance not to exercise because they're paying this direct debit for their gym exercise and they're not showing up.

Kerry: No, and that's right.

David: And they're kidding themselves. Yeah. But with the model that we have with clinical Pilates, with these sort of studios, which many of our listeners own that, may be listening to this episode it is very important that we realize the difference between our business models.

It's a harder business model because

Kerry: I'm sure it is,

David: because we have to be part of that. Process with the clients of helping them Yeah. To realize that this is something they need to do and turn up to and that, just harder. Yeah.

Kerry: And that's one of the things that really impresses me.

With Pilates can is how Claire and her teams of instructors work to support the rehabilitation of each client, regardless of what it is that each client is rehabbing from.

David: And you know what they call that with our instructors. It's a very good culture and I think it's generally out there in, in our sort of niche industry market.

Yeah. They call that problem solving. Someone has a problem. And that's what they love. They love to solve that problem and to help solve that problem. So that's the mental attitude they have. They look at it. as a puzzle to be put together and solved.

because the body has a lot of ability to help itself if it's not badly treated. And if it's encouraged in the right way. And so Claire and her team in our business and around the world with other businesses like us that's their attitude. We, a problem presents and how are we going to help the client?

And it is a partnership, isn't it? It is. It's not just, we are not expecting you to do all the work. And a good client isn't expecting the instructor to do all the work. It's a partnership where there's gotta be energy and information and decisions made along the way.

Kerry: Claire always asks and her team always ask what's going on? What's happening? You've just come back from having knee surgery. What does the orthopedic surgeon say? What does the physio say? What exercises do they want you to do? And I think that's really important too, because as you go through this rehab journey, you don't always get to see your specialist because he's relying on the people you go to know what he's talking about or she's talking about, so that they can build you up when you go back in three or four months, they expect to see improvement and that's what Pilates care does. It gives you that rehab, of individual exercises to make sure that the.

Knee surgery is successful, that the hip surgery has worked, that whatever it is you've done.

David: Thanks for drawing attention to that process and that approach. It is a matter of a holistic approach. Mm. where Claire and the team they do their best to interlink with. Those other allied health and medics when possible.

But also as you mentioned right at the start of this discussion. It's about where is the client at every individual session. So where are they at when they turn up for their very first session? But yes, six months. Six years later. on the day they turn up, where are they at?

Absolutely. Because things do change and if you're not meeting a client where they're at and how they feel on the day and what they've experienced in the last week or whatever it might be, then you're really starting from a False base there. Yeah. So, I applaud the fantastic job that Claire and the team do and that is, as I mentioned earlier, replicated around the world with other people doing that where they're prepared to start again every time with clients and every session and repeat that. it's doing the right thing. Every time.

So I really like having these discussions because it helps me to understand, what the good things are about what we do and how we do it, and how to do things better.

And that's, something, I'm reminded from years of, work in this industry that There's no major fantastic thing that you can do. It's doing the good things consistently and continually every time,

Kerry: as well as having a person by your side, just giving you a little nudge here, or showing you the technique that you haven't quite got.

So that's important too, that you're not left on your own to do your own program. That there is always an instructor there to demonstrate. to help you on the equipment and to make sure you are doing it as it should be, or to the best of your ability that you can do at that point in time.

that's important too.

David: that's right. providing, because that's challenging for an instructor as well to provide the right amount of attention, for three or four people in a semi-private session. in an environment where someone could be presenting with quite a difficult.

Body, At that point in time. And that could happen for all four people In the session. Usually not, And so the instructor has to be able to quickly focus their attention get someone. Doing the right thing and then move on and help someone else.

So that there's a lot of focus, there's a lot of giving there of their attitude. it's a

Kerry: hallmark of what you come to expect and appreciate.

Coming.

David: It's like going to a good restaurant, isn't it? That's right. And getting the right service. Yeah. As well as the right food, as well as the right decor and everything else at all. And you

Kerry: feel confident in recommending it to other people, but then you have to let them make up their own mind.

And they don't take up what. Recommended.

David: yes, you can lead a horse to water.

Kerry: That's absolutely correct.

David: you can lead someone to the Pilates front door,

Kerry: but you can't make them go in and do it. Can't make them.

David: They might even go in, they might not necessarily do it.

Kerry: Yeah.

David: And that's fine.

And we have the attitude, Kerry, that really, we're looking after the people that want. What we do. Yeah. So I'm always in a sales situation with a new client. We're always saying it is up to you. We are not going to convince you that you have to do this. No.

Because you need to bring what you bring Kerry to the party. Your energy, your tenacity your stick to itness as you said, my bad

Kerry: body,

David: your bad body, and your bad body. Yeah. There's a real need there for us to help. Solve problems with you. Yeah. There, and I say with you, because it is it's that partnership between Yeah.

Clients and not only clients and instructors, but clients and other clients, which

Kerry: Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes. That's an important component that, there's no prima donna there in the semi-private classes. An acceptance that everybody has needs and there's only one or two instructors, depending on the number of people in the room.

that's an important component.

David: Yes. that ability to work as a team, even amongst clients, the client. Yeah. With the instructor

Kerry: because when you're needy and you know when you're not needy.

David: Yes.

Kerry: And As you said, that's an important part of the relationship.

Between the clients?

David: I think so. It's certainly important part that instructors recognize straight away. Yeah. Because they're maybe coming to and being part of five sessions in a day, maybe. Yeah. Three to five times per week. Yeah. Or more in some cases. And that for them can be challenging if there's not that cooperative.

Environment. Yeah. So it's great to hear and that's what I would expect that Yeah. A terrific client like yourself would rec, just for the record, Kerry's lifted her eyes to the, to, to the ceiling. Looked at the ceiling there, but it is true that, that's and we. We're just lucky enough having made our luck over the last 25 years to have many clients like Kerry.

So we've gone through quite a bit and , that's been terrific. this one that is important, that maybe we'll discover something else.

And that's how Pilates makes you feel, like, how do you feel to be enabled that, like your emotions, your feeling Yeah.

Kerry: Well,

After a Pilates session, I always feel very light, which is. The place to be. Yes. So I wish I was able to stay as light as I could between sessions, but always the body decides something different.

how does it enable me or how do I feel? I feel very pleased with myself that I've found something that works. What that does is it takes the stress out of worrying, what else do I have to do? What do I have to find that's not working?

So I think, having found it, I think you can relax in that area of I'm doing absolutely the best thing I can do and I don't need to. I don't look for anything else. You know? I I know what works for my. And Pilates works the very best Yeah. For my body in all aspects.

David: Excellent. I Think a good explanation of about why we have so many clients that have been coming for so many years Yeah. Consistently for so many years.

Which, for a lot of businesses out there that would be unusual. People come and go and we do have a little bit of, people. Travel overseas. But they always

Kerry: come back

David: and they come back and they come back to our Pilates. Yeah. And I think that's, consistent around the world with good Pilates studios like Pilates can Yeah.

Here in Canberra, but they're all over the world with dedicated people doing a similar job. And those clients are,

having the same experience of. I've found something that works for me, I'm gonna keep doing this. Yeah. Because I know these other things didn't work. Yeah. And even if I do try something else,

Kerry: I don't feel. Comfortable or I don't feel that's me.

David: Yes. Yeah.

I don't have anything else, Kerry, on my list.

I think it's been a terrific discussion. Oh, good. We hope to see you for many more years. I

Kerry: hope to be around for many more years.

David: Might can, and I'm sure you will be. yeah, thank you for being a, a guest on the podcast.

Kerry: Thank you for asking me. Yeah, pleasure.

Chris: You have been listening to the Pilates business podcast with David Gunther. If you are enjoying the show, let us know by subscribing and leaving a review. For more information or if you have any Pilates business questions, visit www.business.com.au.