Pvolve - Movement Is Medicine

Ramon Vela (00:00)
Welcome back everyone. I have a great show today. I have with me Rachel Katzman, who is the founder of P-Volve. Welcome to the show.

Rachel Katzman (00:20)
Thanks to your mom, so excited to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:22)
Well, I appreciate you making time and I can't wait to dive into the business and I appreciate your time because I know you're building a business. It's busy, obviously hectic. And I appreciate you making a few minutes of your time for our audience to get to know who you are and what the business is and why it's so important and why people should be involved. So ⁓ my first question is always a gratitude question. And I asked that for a couple of reasons. One is I just, I'm a big believer in gratitude.

I have a meditation practice. I've been a meditator and a mindfulness practitioner for a long time. And gratitude is just one of those things that's just available to everyone. It's free. And if you're feeling anxious or stressed out, it's a great way to relieve that stress. But I also ask it because I really want the people who are listening to know that there's people behind these brands that we feature who really care about the business, care about their customers, their consumers. And I want them to kind of

humanize the brand a little bit. So ⁓ one great way of doing that is by getting to know who you are. And one way of doing that is getting to know what you're grateful for. So if you don't mind sharing, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential?

Rachel Katzman (01:36)
God, it's so hard to pick one. I think something that has always stayed with me, you know, my business partner, Julie, helped me get this company off the ground almost eight years ago. And I know how lucky I am because I feel like more times than not, you get it wrong, first getting it right with the partner. And she's kind of been by my side through everything and...

You know, January of 2021, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and probably, you know, for a good six, seven months of that year, it was really difficult to work, right? I couldn't work like I used to work. would be on calls. I'd fall asleep during calls. I, you know, would be MIA for a couple of days, just really, and I would almost punish myself, you know, like I need to be on that call. I need to keep up, but my body physically couldn't. And really just, you know,

And me and her have always had such trust, but I think through that time and her really being like, you know, you need to take this time for yourself right now. Like I'm always going to be here. Call me a million times a day. I got it. You need to like focus on you and heal for you to come back stronger. And I think that really, that time brought us so much closer and really built our trust. And it was really difficult. So really to be able to lean on her and, know, forever.

forever grateful.

Ramon Vela (02:59)
Wow. You you just touched upon something I think is really important and that's, you know, having a co-founder is a tremendous, can be a tremendous support system, especially if you guys have an understanding about helping each other when the other one is feeling not 100%. And I remember I had one founder kind of describe it this way where,

Rachel Katzman (03:20)
Uh-huh.

Ramon Vela (03:26)
You know, there's some days where they're not a hundred percent, maybe they're running 50%, maybe they're running 60%. And having a founder who can say, you know what, I'll pick up the other 40%, I'll pick up the other 50%, don't worry, know, we'll make it work. It's just really, you know, it feels like a small thing and you don't, I don't think people really talk about it in...

business school or incubators or anything like that. But it's so important to have someone like that in your life. And you're incredibly fortunate to have a founder who can pick up the slack whenever you need to.

Rachel Katzman (03:57)
Yeah.

I it goes for a team, especially at a startup. Even though as you grow and your team grows and you start hiring, there's always times where someone's out or life events happen or something. And to be able to say, don't worry, I got you, I got it. Go on your honeymoon, have a great time, it's all gonna be okay here. think having that team and that trust.

is really, really important, especially when you are, you know, go, go, go and things are moving. Like this isn't a corporate company where we are planned out 12 months in advance and things, you know, every day is different. And so to be able to have, think throughout the whole team, that trust and communication is so critical.

Ramon Vela (04:39)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no, I 100 % agree. And I love that aspect about taking this support system that you have with your co-founder and kind of expanding it to the rest of the group. I love that. And that's a great lesson, actually. Okay, so, and just before we move on, are you better now?

Rachel Katzman (04:56)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. was a long journey, but I think looking back, there were so many amazing lessons I learned. I I always say like I started a wellness company and I was never so unwell. You know, at the beginning of getting this off the ground and I think I was somebody who would work, work, work and crash and work, work, work, crash, really not take care of myself. And this kind of forced me to

Ramon Vela (05:19)
Hmm.

Rachel Katzman (05:31)
slow down, like my body was like, if you don't listen to us, we're gonna make you listen to us. And just kind of, know, what my new boundaries are, what's important to me health-wise and just restructure a lot of things, but for the better.

Ramon Vela (05:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think that's an amazing lesson and it's unfortunate yet we have to go through these things sometimes in order to kind of learn those lessons but I think they're valuable. How has this experience impacted how you deal with your clients and how you see the business now?

Rachel Katzman (06:07)
Well, I think, you know, I really started P-VOLVE, you know, because I never set out to start a fitness company. You know, I was in my early 20s. I was going around to all the boutique studios in New York City and really found myself.

not physically seeing the results that I wanted, but more importantly, in a lot of back pain and my scoliosis flaring up from all these crazy high intensity workouts I was doing. And then, you know, I find functional fitness and it really unlocked this world for me that I can not only look amazing and have the physical results, know, toned arms and the definition in my stomach and all the things I wanted, but more importantly, my back pain went away.

I had energy, I felt like I could move freely throughout my day. It really unlocked a whole new world for me. And so that kind of started this thinking of movement is really medicine. It can be healing. It is so much more than just looking good. And I think once I got however many years later to that next chapter of my life where I physically couldn't get out of bed.

you know, being so sick with Lyme, but I mentally needed to move my body. How could P-Volk change and still, you know, be that solution for me? And then really connecting with other members who have autoimmune diseases and different things and needed something and really, you know, starting to broaden our offerings so that this style of movement is so amazing for truly anybody. You know, you can scale it up or scale it down. ⁓

and really wanted to create content no matter what stage of life that you were in.

Ramon Vela (07:48)
Mm-hmm. And has having that disease like reinforced your mission and what you guys are about? Or did it add anything? Did it add a new layer to it?

Rachel Katzman (08:02)
Yeah, I think so. mean, I think there's so many different chapters that I've personally gone through where this

Method has gotten me through it. Our other team members and our as we've grown our member base and hearing like how this truly changes people's lives. Yeah, for sure. I think it, you know, continues to double down on why we invest in clinical studies, why we have doctors on our board to work with our trainers and why this isn't just a fad and the next cycling thing with hotter trainers and better music. You know, really stands for so much more.

Ramon Vela (08:39)
Well, tell me a little bit about the beginning and how you developed the P-Volve. What you guys do. I don't know if you call it a approach or model or method or style, but how did it evolve? like, at what point did you get off the fence and say, you know what? I can't find it anywhere. So I'm just going to have to like create something. Like how did that process go?

Rachel Katzman (09:04)
Yeah, I mean, I think that was, you know, like I was saying, I wasn't seeing results. felt like I was spending all this time, money and energy bouncing around everywhere, working out of, I thought I was doing something to make me look and feel better and I was looking and feeling worse. And then, you know, I find this world of functional fitness and very quickly I started seeing the results. My back pain went away. I had energy. My posture was getting better. Like I just felt so in tuned and strong within my body.

and it was like, no matter who I spoke to, no matter how old they were, what fitness level, it was always, I stopped going to that gym because I don't see results, or I got injured at that gym, or I'm injured, I can't work out, period. And I was over here like, come try this, come try this, you know?

So really starting to understand what was it about functional fitness that was giving me all these incredible results and starting to understand that from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, your body is constantly moving, you know, all planes of motion. You're reaching, you're bending, you're rotating, you're carrying your groceries, you're carrying your baby, your animal, you're constantly taking up space. And that if we were to train our bodies like that in a workout class,

you could start to unlock all these amazing benefits. You we don't live our lives on a stationary bike. We don't live our lives on a reformer Pilates, which are all great. But I really found, you know, this combination of these functional moves with this resistance equipment was kind of unlocking this whole new world of results. And I wanted to, you know, share it and get it out there. And then...

Ramon Vela (10:41)
Mm.

Rachel Katzman (10:47)
I was young, I was like 22 at the time and I was looking obviously for a business partner who had more experience than I did. I just had like this big wild vision. And we launched really small, know, was like down dirty simple, awful website, the branding was awful, the colors were awful, the logo was awful, but the product worked. And I always kind of emphasize on that of like, you gotta just start and you gotta start somewhere.

And as long as someone can either go to your website and click buy or you can, you know, hand it out or whatever it is, like all the fancy stuff can come later because you are going to iterate and keep iterating on it. And, you know, you just have to get it out to test and get feedback. And that's kind of what we did. And then 2018, you know, is really, I think, when we started building out the team and like, OK, we have something here and how do we keep kind of pouring gasoline on the fire?

Ramon Vela (11:45)
And just for the audience, well, actually for me too, how do you define functional fitness and how is it different than like other types of styles?

Rachel Katzman (11:54)
Yeah, I mean, would say a p-volve, you're really going to work on like your full body strength, but also your stability and your mobility. So it's really like replicating moves that you're doing and day to day lives. would say it's a lot of like internal rotations, external rotations, you know, maybe like a lot of

kind of stretching with the sculpting, but then we also have like our weight training class, but you're still getting that extra stability and mobility component, which I think is often overlooked in a lot of other stuff. I think in a lot of other workouts, you're really only working like front to back or side to side, first in P-VOLVE, you're really working in all planes of motion and all the balance work. Like I was saying, know, coupled with our resistance equipment,

that is going to help reach those tiny muscles and kind of turn everything on and get all the definition. You really kind of unlock this incredible world of results.

Ramon Vela (12:51)
Well, almost, correct me if I'm wrong, but it almost sounds like the biggest difference is that in so many other exercise modalities or however you want to call it, it's like you're pinpointing particular muscle groups, either like your legs or your arms or your chest or whatever. It's like you're pinpointing certain groups to enhance those and make them stronger and whatnot. could be your glutes or whatever.

But it sounds like what you're saying is that you're achieving those similar results, but you're working the whole body. You're working every muscle because I've heard of people who are like really good and really, you know, nicely toned or buff or whatever you want to call that. And they still get hurt because maybe, you know, they're not used to doing certain movements or whatever. And then, you know, I've heard of someone say, tell me that, you know, that they threw their back out, just like bending down and picking something up.

And even though they were like really fit, you know.

Rachel Katzman (13:45)
Yeah, lot of

people, they go to pick up a heavy box, but their glutes are not active. So it's going to go straight into your back when really that should be coming from your glutes. like, you know, if I have really toned arms, but I'm completely like this because my posture is awful and I have no mobility in my shoulders, you know, it's working on your posture. It's, it's really kind of

unlocking your body so that it can move, it can have that range of motion. You can get your hips open, you can kind of unlock all that tightness within your body, which then can lead to injury. you know, I remember so many times when I was living in New York City and it's icy and it's snowy and I'm walking on cobblestone and I'd go to fall.

but I would catch myself because I had that strength and because in P-VOL, we're training you in all these maybe awkward at first, but these weak positions and making sure that your body is prepped in time for when you leave that class. Not just what's happening during that class, it's then gonna enhance what's happening after.

Ramon Vela (14:52)
I think I understand now the whole term functional because what you're doing is that you're creating an exercise that is helping people function. Whereas it's not just about the aesthetics or having strong arms or whatever.

Rachel Katzman (15:02)
Mm-hmm.

Like,

you know, that.

my God, I can hike longer now because now like my glutes are turned on and all those little muscles in my glutes and it's not going into not putting so much pressure on my knees. So now I can hike longer. my God, my golf swing's gotten better because I now have so much more mobility through my core and my rotation and I more power with my swing and like all these things that, you you maybe don't think that your fitness routine can and or should be doing for you.

it can and should be doing for you.

Ramon Vela (15:41)
Yeah, I love that. I wonder too, well, I wonder also in terms of the trends. Like I feel like what you're talking about is very on trend right now when people are talking about longevity, where they're talking about being able to stay fit as they get older. Like I'm in my 50s.

Rachel Katzman (16:03)
Very happy

friend right now because back when we were talking about this, I promised your moment was not nobody wanted to talk about it. So I'm very happy that it's finally like the thing.

Ramon Vela (16:16)
Yeah. I mean, I read articles all the time now about, especially like, you know, people in my age group is mid fifties that like it's incredibly important to the movement, right? You know, the movement is so important. obviously strength training is very important, but the movement component of it is really, really important, especially as you get older. And it's not something you start usually when you're just older, it's something you start as you you're, you're, you're younger.

Rachel Katzman (16:27)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (16:44)
And on your twenties and thirties and it's, and I, I just keep seeing these, these trends. And so, yeah, I guess you were ahead of your time there because, I think nowadays people are more, I think more open to it and kind of look, searching for this and you've given them a place or in a space where they can, they can find this. That's more of a

Rachel Katzman (17:02)
Yeah,

I think it can be very overwhelming, especially now that like, there's so much information out there. I listen and breathe and, you know, absorb so much, they can be overwhelming. You need to strength train, you need to resistance train, you need to weight train, need that. And it's like, where do I even start? You know, how many days of this? And what does that look like? And so I think really being able to provide people with

a platform and we have like structured plans and here's your 30 day plan where you don't even have to think you're going to show up and you're going to hit all those different sections and kind of take the guesswork out of it for them is also really important.

Ramon Vela (17:43)
And walk me through like, what was the pandemic like? So you started being on your team during 2018. Obviously the pandemic probably halted some of those plans, right? How was that like going through that? So like, what's your COVID story? Everyone has like a little bit of a COVID story.

Rachel Katzman (18:02)
Well, you know, we when we launched, were we had our digital platform and we also had a studio. So we, you know, had in person, but we were online. And then right before COVID, we started gearing up to open another studio in Chicago.

their studio in Los Angeles and then starting to get ready to franchise. So kind of this omnichannel like hybrid of in-person and at home was always there pre-COVID. But then COVID happened and obviously like, you know, there was no more in-person classes and then we kind of transitioned. Well, how do we keep our in-person community engaged? But we already had our digital platform. So then we started just kind of doing more live classes.

and maybe more digital community events. Probably the biggest thing was how do we film our digital content of like shipping trainers, lighting cameras and that whole fun world. And how do we continue to kind of march down the path of in-person when nobody really knew what that was gonna look like after COVID.

Ramon Vela (18:57)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel Katzman (19:11)
⁓ I think now looking at it, I'm very thankful that we had both options because I think in the fitness space, you either were an in-person brand or you were an at-home brand. And then I think after COVID, brands tried to do both and we kind of already were set up for that, you know, and had the infrastructure for both of that.

And from a company standpoint, the biggest difference is now we're fully remote. Before I remember being, we're gonna go back to the office next month and no more office.

Ramon Vela (19:45)
Wow. So you don't have any, you still have a location, right? A studio.

Rachel Katzman (19:50)
Well, we now have, ⁓ by the end of the year, we'll have 40 studios open. By next year, we should have like almost 70 open. You ⁓ know, our studios that we corporately owned are New York, Chicago, and LA, and then all the rest are all franchise studios.

Ramon Vela (20:05)
Wow. I'd love to unpack that a little bit, but I did want to say that it was like really fortunate that you had this big digital platform. And I'm wondering, was that a con, like what was the thinking behind that? Because, you know, there's a lot of fitness studios who were only in person, right? Like, you know, that's, and that was like the traditional way of doing it. Like you have a studio, people come there, et cetera. I'm wondering what was the impetus?

to say like, okay, we're starting and we're gonna have a digital platform as well as a in-person platform.

Rachel Katzman (20:38)
Well, the digital is really, you know, what always excited me because I think when I would like put videos and stuff online early on, it was always people like writing in from all over the world of like, I suffer with that too. How can I try this? Can I zoom into a class? Do you offer anything online? And it was, you know, you can only reach a certain audience.

given where your physical location is. So it was always like, can we share this incredible method with more and more people? You know, kind of have to go the digital route.

Ramon Vela (21:10)
Yeah, mean, and that was pretty fortunate of you guys. That's great that you guys did that. I I knew some brands that I covered in New York. There was one who she had a cooking classes and she wasn't prepared digitally to do that once everything closed down. Fortunately, she had like a product. So she kind of...

pivoted from being ⁓ a cooking class to selling a product. And so she was able to pivot that way, but you guys didn't really have to pivot. You guys just really, think just like, sounds like you just enhanced the digital aspect of it and try to figure out how to expand that and get it to more of your instructors and to more people. So that's, I think that's great. And did you guys see like a bump? Obviously fitness became really big, right?

Rachel Katzman (22:00)
Everybody was home, you know, like it was, there was always, and I think there still is, you know, there's two types of people. There's like, only work out in person because I, I like the community. I need the accountability. I need the motivation from others. And then there's other people who are like, I only work out at home. But I think all the in-person people were forced to.

only workout at home and then could realize, wow, I can get an amazing workout when I am at home. And I think sometimes it's nice. Like I love going in person, but sometimes my day is so crazy that I want to run downstairs in my, you know, sweatpants and a sports bra and 20, 30 minutes and be right on the phone and be right popped into a Zoom, you know, and it.

I think having that flexibility and the optionality of choosing how you want to move your body is so also important.

Ramon Vela (22:53)
And logistically, do you need, because when I was on your website, I saw you guys have a place for equipment and other things. Do you need specific equipment to do this or can anyone do this from their home or like what's the optimal setup for someone if they're doing it digitally?

Rachel Katzman (23:09)
So, the setup, it's not going to fully be the same without our equipment. It's not. It's really the two, the moves and the equipment that go together. Could you do this without? Yes. If you have ankle weights and some heavy hand weights or light hand weights at home, could you sign up for a trial and just test it and see for sure?

But if you're really looking to kind of transform and take it up, you I would definitely recommend some of our equipment, you know our

P3 or PBan or PBall, those are all patented, designed by us specifically for this, you know, and you're not gonna get those pieces anywhere else. Obviously, if you go in studio to test or try this, all the equipment's there, you just have to show up. But I think the magic and like the secret sauce is really with the equipment.

Ramon Vela (24:02)
And in terms of the you mentioned earlier about ⁓ clinical studies or studies, how does that work? Like, did you guys take a group of people or a person and run them through the program? And what were some of the results that you've seen from that?

Rachel Katzman (24:18)
Yeah, so we've been in two. We've been in one at the University of Minnesota that was specifically on lower back pain. And then we did one at the University of Exeter all around healthy aging, around women 40 plus, and really showing the increase in strength and shoulder mobility and hip strength and energy and just like quality of life. then

in our lower back pain study, showing that you can improve your lower back pain when you're doing this specific P-Vol program. So those two groups tested against another group who is not doing P-Vol, monitored, all those things. have a lot of amazing information on our website that we can give to you and you can link out that kind of explains and gives all the more details.

Ramon Vela (25:07)
Well, I, you know, one of the things that I've interviewed so many brands, especially the health and wellness space, and I personally, because I've just interviewed so many of them, many of their products sound great. and, ⁓ and I'm sure they all are. I've tried a few, but what, what I'm really impressed by is when someone does like a clinical study, because it's almost as if you're saying,

Rachel Katzman (25:27)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (25:30)
You know what we believe in what we're doing and we believe there are real results. So let's put that to the test. That's the way I would look at a clinical study. It's like you're putting your approach to a test and then seeing, it actually do what we say we're going to do? And for me, that brings from a consumer standpoint, that's a lot of trust that you've built because it's not like you're just saying, I mean, of course they respect you, but it's like a whole different dimension when

An outside group studies this and says, hey, these are the results.

Rachel Katzman (26:03)
And I think that's why we felt so passionate and inclined to do so. I know the dramatic results this method's had on me, our members and team members, but we really wanted to be able to prove it out and talk about it and show it. One thing we're so proud of is that specifically with our healthy aging study, it was only done on women. And most clinical studies in fitness are not done on women.

for a man, they say we'll work for a woman, but that's really not the case because we go through so many different things. We have our cycles, we go through menopause, our hormones are different every month. So it's really important for us to kind of want to focus specifically on women and really kind of double down on women's health and women's fitness.

Ramon Vela (26:51)
Wow, I love that. And again, kind of just as you're speaking, I'm just thinking about all the different posts I see on socials. Going back to the whole idea of the trends, it's like there are a lot of articles I'm seeing for women and for men about movement and about how we as a society, like I see these posts all the time where they say, you your ancestors,

you know, we're less obese or we're less this or that or healthier because they just move because they just had to move. Right. Like everyday life was about movement and about working outside or doing things. And as a society, we've gotten more stationary. Like, I mean, I sit in my chair for two or three hours doing interviews and so forth. And, and then when I'm not here, I may might be sitting at the desk or my couch reading or whatever. So.

Rachel Katzman (27:43)
It's funny, like, because when I go to New York City, the amount of steps that I get versus like if I'm in LA, you know, it's just in its different cities and different environments, or if you're not, if you live somewhere where it's freezing cold, you're not going to be outside walking, you know, in the morning or whatever it is. But I think it's not only, you know, that we're more stationary. I think that when we're younger, our bodies can take so much more. You know, when you're in your early twenties and you're doing all, you know, these kind of more

impactful things your body can recover faster and then you might be feeling that as you get older and I think that people are starting to understand you know the way you treat your body in your early 20s is going to affect you know how you age and you know the quality of that as you get older and that you know I always say your body's your vehicle to life like the second this shuts down or stops

being that's not good and there's so many things like that you that are in your control. can't control what you can't control, but what you can control is how you take care of your body, what you put into your body and how you move your body and how you treat your body. And there are so many incredible options out there. No matter where you're starting from, know, like, and I say to people,

Ramon Vela (28:54)
Yeah.

Rachel Katzman (28:58)
It doesn't have to be p-volve. I hope that it is. know, if I think you'll love it, it doesn't have to be p-volve. It just has to be something that you actually like. know, working out shouldn't be a chore. You should get it. Your body should crave that movement. You should get excited. You should want to do it. And when you find what that is for you, that's kind of where the magic happens.

Ramon Vela (29:20)
Yeah, mean, yeah, there's so many other podcasts that I've seen that are like neuroscience or science or whatnot. And it's all about movement now. Like people are always talking about how important movement is. But I also feel like the science between mind and body is just really just so advanced now, or we're discovering new things all the time. You you mentioned earlier about your disease and about how

You know, our bodies, you they're trying to tell us things sometimes like our emotions and whatnot. There are like signals. They're telling us like you, you have to improve. You have to get better. You have to move more. You have to exercise. We don't always listen. And sometimes that manifests itself. It's like our body holds. Well, we already know this. I hold a lot of stress, right? Like we're also stopped, but it does so much more, but it does hold that and it will manifest in ways that

Rachel Katzman (30:01)
Now.

Ramon Vela (30:14)
sometimes we don't like. And I kind of feel like this is addressing that too. I mean, I kind of see this as a way for you to help others kind of release, release the tensions in the body, but also relieves other things that the body's holding.

Rachel Katzman (30:28)
Well, and I think too, know, like when I look at my mom, my mom's in her sixties and her generation and her group of friends didn't grow up like me. I probably, I didn't get into working out to my early twenties. Now I look at like my cousins who are, you know, teenagers and they're going to the Pilates class and it's a thing to go meet your girlfriends for class and get a juice and whatever it is, but it wasn't like that for like my mom and her friends.

Ramon Vela (30:55)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel Katzman (30:56)
so much harder to get into it later on in life and then not having so many options. They're not gonna go to a cycling class. They're not gonna go to a high intensity class and get hurt and flare up a sensitivity in their body. And it's also not fair that they don't have options too. so I think that's really important to me, because I think...

especially as you go through life and you're 50s, 60s plus, like that's when you should be thriving. Like you should be on fire. You should look amazing. You should feel amazing. You should feel strong. You should be, you know, you might have some more time back and like, you should be going this way, you know, really being able to make sure that our programming.

Ramon Vela (31:37)
Hmm.

Rachel Katzman (31:42)
are really giving people, specifically women, all the tools that they need to succeed as they go through those chapters and really set them up for success, for like, you know, the ultimate kind of longevity hack.

Ramon Vela (31:57)
Yeah, no, I agree. And it sounds like this is would be great for men too. So I'm assuming you have some men also in your class.

Rachel Katzman (32:05)
It's not just for women. I would say, you we are very inclusive. We might be women forward, but it is it's amazing for men. Like my dad is obsessed with P-Volve because for him, again, 66, like he loves golfing, but every time he'd go work out with his trainer, he'd get injured. And he's well, it's more important for me to go golf.

But now when he's doing P-Volve, his golf's better, my swing's better, my glutes are so strong, my stepdad loves P-Volve, because his pickleball's better, his tennis is better. I think for men specifically, their hips are so tight that they really need P-Volve. But we're trying to stay kind of focused right now, but I think that's definitely an area of opportunity for us in the future.

Ramon Vela (32:50)
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think, you know, the same message is given to men too, but I think like, there's, ⁓ I don't know, maybe it was societal thing where, you should be working on working, doing weightlifting or doing this or that. And, ⁓ and yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people, like, I personally don't really love weightlifting. if I have an exercise that, that, ⁓ gets me moving and so forth, I prefer that. ⁓

Rachel Katzman (33:15)
Totally.

Ramon Vela (33:15)
Yeah, I like yoga too, but I feel like yoga, like there's something missing in the yoga aspect. cause I like the stretching and like all of that, but I feel like there's, it's not enough. Like I like it, but it's not, I feel like it's not enough.

Rachel Katzman (33:27)
I think you'll love P-Bolf. Everything you're your alley, we gotta get you set up.

Ramon Vela (33:32)
⁓ Well, that's a good segue because I wanted to find out about your franchise side of it. So how did that get started? I'm fascinated by the franchise because that's like a whole other model than I'm used to. I covered a brand called the Now Massage once. This is like, think last year sometime and they have franchises. They're like a massage place and they have locations all around. And so I'm kind of curious, how did that get started?

And how has that been? What have been the challenges with that and building that business?

Rachel Katzman (34:04)
I think there's pros and cons. There's pros and cons to doing it yourself. There's pros and cons to going the franchising route. I think for us, it felt very right. know, obviously there's a scalability factor. There's so many other things, because we are such a mission-driven, passionate company, to be able to find other owners.

who believe in P-VOLVE as much as I do and this team does and practice it themselves and want to bring it to their communities. You know, we've had like one of our first franchise owners was a streamer for five, six years and she was like, oh my God, they're franchising. I want to my job and open this in my town, you know? And it's these bad-ass powerful women who want to bring this to their communities and kind of share the magic. And that just felt so right for us.

You know, and if you kind of go all corporate, you're only as good as that studio man. You know, there's, but then there's pros to that and there's cons to the other side. And it just kind of, think what feels internally right for you. ⁓ And it's been, it's so rewarding, you know, you see these people quit their jobs to open up the studio and it's crazy.

Ramon Vela (35:11)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ Well walk me through that a little bit in case someone's listening to this and says wow I really like what she's saying and I've never thought about owning a franchise What does that look like? Obviously, I'm sure there's like support and there's you

Rachel Katzman (35:34)
my god, totally. Yeah. I mean, I would say the best thing to do is go to our website, go under, you know, franchising, schedule a call. But yeah, it's very hands on. We're very supportive. And there's so many opening outs. Wild.

Ramon Vela (35:49)
Yeah,

mean, the numbers that you mentioned, that's pretty big. ⁓

Rachel Katzman (35:53)
We have

like 10 opening between like end of November and January. It's crazy. Like all at once. Like, maybe we should spread them out next time, but it's a good thing to open right before New Year's.

Ramon Vela (36:08)
Yeah. Well, everyone wants to get in because, mean, January is like the big, yeah. and that makes a lot of sense, you know, ⁓ and I know people are excited and they want to, they want to get started right away. so I love that aspect of it. And I'm assuming that with someone opening up a location, then you are also expanding that digital platform for them as well. Right. So that everyone is involved.

Rachel Katzman (36:10)
January.

Yeah.

That is what's nice about our model is that we kind of already have a member base, you know, within where they're going to go. So let's say someone's opening up in Austin. We'll do like a radius, people who live there and we'll kind of blast out our member base. Did you know we have a studio that's opening? blah. And then if you are an unlimited member at the studio, you get access to our digital platform so that we're really trying to build out this, you know, hybrid model.

Ramon Vela (37:00)
Yeah, I mean, so what have been, from a business standpoint, what have been like the biggest challenges for you? Aside from obviously, you know, having, unfortunately having the Lyme disease, what other challenges have there been?

Rachel Katzman (37:11)
my God.

I think just getting adoption early on, people thought we were crazy that we were talking about, we were saying about the importance of longevity, that you don't need to break a sweat, or you don't need to break your body down, and be dripping sweat to get results, that you can get results from maybe something a little bit gentler on the body, or that.

talking about pelvic floor strengthening, talking about menopause and how exercise can be such a part of that. People thought we were crazy, you know, and just getting people to really change their mind around fitness and that it can do so much more than just make you look good. Educate, you know, educate people because it's, you know, this isn't Pilates, this isn't...

Ramon Vela (37:54)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel Katzman (38:01)
cycling, this isn't boxing, it's something completely different. And so to be able to explain that in three seconds, this can be difficult. So I think just, you know, always staying true to our core and keep moving along.

Ramon Vela (38:14)
Yeah. And how have you solved for some of those education component? Like I saw then on the website that you have some celebrities, right? So I'm sure that helped. What has been like the big driver?

Rachel Katzman (38:27)
She was a secret streamer. We knew nothing about it and got a phone call that she's a big fan of the brand and wants to come on board. like that, yes, her voice and her platform and her awareness and her stamp of approval, like total, you know, credibility moment. That's like beyond a dream come true because I don't think you would even dream that something like that would happen.

To find out that you know somebody like Jennifer Aniston uses your product and loves it I mean a different channels podcast trying to just you know have interesting ways to engage our audience more educational content I think people I think at the end of the day if your product works and You actually deliver on the results that you say people are gonna get you know that will start to speak for itself, too

Ramon Vela (39:16)
And before we go on, let me just mention if you want to take a look at what we've been talking about, you can go to P-volve that is P, the letter P and then the letter V is in Victor O-L-V-E P-volve like Evolve but P-volve.com is the website. Yeah, mean, Jennifer Aniston I think is an ideal.

celebrity to endorse your product because she seems to me to be very mindful about the products that she, she endorses. and I think what I've noticed at least is that she's really adopted this whole, healthy lifestyle, longevity, healthy aging type of approach. cause she looks great. mean, she's, think almost like my age. ⁓

And she looks fantastic for her age. And I think it's just that her lifestyle, but I think she seems also so kind of down to earth. Like I've never met her, but I'm just saying from, know, seeing her on interviews and so forth.

Rachel Katzman (40:10)
Yes.

She is, and I think most importantly, it's not just how she looks, but she's never felt so good, you know, her body. And her body's never been able to kind of perform so good and just have her really feel pain-free, injury-free, sensitivity-free, and just be able to move freely, you know? What better feeling is that?

Ramon Vela (40:18)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So what lessons, so if there's someone, a 22 year old or whatever age you were back when you started, if someone's excited about health and wellness, maybe not in exactly what you're doing, but someone back then who really felt like they wanted to start something or felt very passionate about something, what lessons or what advice would you give them?

Rachel Katzman (40:56)
to start, that's the hardest part. It doesn't have to be perfect. You know, if you wait for it to be perfect, it'll never happen. And I fall into that sometimes now. like, no, no, don't put it out. It's not right. But like...

You just gotta test it and try. And I think sometimes too, people think that it has to be this total mass addressable market and it really doesn't. Like if you are solving a problem, even for a very small niche audience, like that's amazing. Go ahead. I think there's room for everybody. But you just have to be able to deliver on the results that you're promising.

Ramon Vela (41:30)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that and I appreciate that. So, P-Volve is the website. So again, if someone's listening to this and eventually looking at this, because we will post the video eventually, and we'll make sure that when we talk about it, we'll put images on the video of the website. But let's say someone's listening to this and they're thinking, wow, this sounds really interesting. I wanna know more about it.

Where do you want them to start? Obviously go to the website, but where on the website and how do you, what do you suggest them start, a newbie?

Rachel Katzman (42:07)
say go to the website first things first you want to work out at home or in person if you want to work out in person you can find where their closest studio is if you want to work out at home or you're not by a studio then you can you know pick one of our three bundles either our starter or essential or total kind of the three different price points or you can just sign up for a trial

and poke around, like the magic's really with the equipment. And give it a go. always say it takes like three to five classes for it to kind of click, because it might be a little awkward at first and the foot positions and the movements, but just like give it five classes and it'll all make sense.

Ramon Vela (42:48)
Well, and I'm on the website right now, which is it's, I love how results oriented it is. Obviously Jennifer's like the first thing you see on the website and see a video of her. and the messaging I find when I look at these things, I look at them, I look at, try to look at these both as a consumer, but also as a, you know, as an interviewer and, ⁓ and also as a, as a, as someone who's looked at a lot of brands, I love how.

Rachel Katzman (43:10)
I know.

Ramon Vela (43:16)
It's very straightforward. Um, there's no fluff in it, but it's, it, says the messaging says exactly what you've, you've been saying. And it's, and it, and it's, kind of re reinforces the message. Uh, you know, like I see right now, I see the, um, a section where it talks about strength and mobility and stability and Jennifer, there's a quote from her saying after years of fads and burnout,

P-evolve is the only workout that consistently delivers the results I need, which is quite a testimonial. And then of course you have different sections for at home, for at studio, you have a section about learning the method and the clinical results, the testimonials, and then you have information there about your franchise. And the equipment, you obviously have a place to shop for the equipment and whatnot. So there's a lot of really great info.

And, you know, Woody, so in terms of starting out in a studio, where are kind of like your studios currently? mean, I know someone can go look, but I mean, are they all over the country?

Rachel Katzman (44:24)
They're all over. I'm not even going to be able to list them all off. mean, there's a bunch in California, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Monica, West Hollywood. There's two in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Nashville, Chicago, suburbs of Chicago, New Jersey. I can't remember all of them.

They're all over, so that would I think be the best places to go and type in your zip code and see what pops up.

Ramon Vela (44:56)
Well, you know, and I, the reason why I asked that is that, you know, someone we have, I think it's concentrated mostly in the coast, but we do have them all listeners all over the country and in Canada and other places too. But, I love it that someone can, can have a location near near them, but also.

Rachel Katzman (45:13)
And more coming,

not by you now, it might be soon.

Ramon Vela (45:17)
Yeah. Well, I mean, and the good news is that even if there's not one by you, there's also the digital platform. So yeah, so I'm looking at all the locations, Carl's, at least in California, Carlsbad, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, San Diego, Del Mar, La Jolla, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Walnut Creek. So yeah, I mean, you've got, you've got a nice healthy amount of locations there. So this is fantastic. I love.

Rachel Katzman (45:24)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (45:43)
I love focusing on health and wellness. And I think it's just like something that people need, both mind and body. And it feels like to me, like this is such a really, it's such a great exercise and method to use whether you're in your 20s or your 30s or your 50s. You mentioned something, or on above, you mentioned that something about starting early.

And that's everything I've heard too, is that people tell me, you know, it's great if you haven't worked out to start working out at any age, but you know, the reality is that if you want to have a really great path or a great movement and strength as you age, you should always start early. So I highly recommend this to people, but I did have one question. So.

What is your demographic right now? Are they kind of, obviously many women, but the age group, is it early 20s, 30s or above?

Rachel Katzman (46:38)
Probably 40 plus. Yeah, 40 plus. I mean, depending upon, you know, in studio, depending upon the area might be a little bit different, but overall, I'd say it's mainly our audience.

Ramon Vela (46:40)
Mm-hmm.

and I, I, I love that. mean, again, I'm kind of, I'm going from consumer to business. I love this model because. You know, we talked about trends before and we talked about, you know, how this is, know, like you were ahead of your time a little bit in terms of the longevity and the movement trends, but let's face it too, our society is aging. There's a lot of people who are, you know, 40 plus.

Rachel Katzman (47:03)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (47:18)
And this is like right here. this is like, you have the perfect exercise for people who are aging. again, it's like the trends. It almost feels like, you know, when you look back on it, or if I'm looking at your history and I'm thinking like, wow, it was like, she planned all of this to culminate, you know, to this place, right? But this has just been the way you guys have been operating.

Rachel Katzman (47:36)
See ya.

Yeah, it's a very, very magical method with amazing results for anybody. But I think specifically that group is where we've kind of found our sweet spot for sure.

Ramon Vela (47:52)
Yeah.

Well, like I said, it's like you, you are in the right place at the right time in terms of the trends. But the reality is this is like, you know, that saying about, you know, this is a five year, you know, overnight success or whatever.

Rachel Katzman (48:06)
Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (48:08)
Yeah, I love that. Well, this has been great. I want to be respectful every time because I know you have stuff to run to and a business to build. What last words would you like to give to the audience? mean, whatever you want to leave with the audience, you want to talk about the uniqueness of this method and this exercise or anything else or maybe to your audience, to other women.

Rachel Katzman (48:29)
You know, we kind of touched on it, but you know at the end of the day

You can only control what you can control and how you treat your body and how you move your body is something that can have such amazing, amazing benefits. And so whether it's P-Volve or it's something, you know, it's not a punishment. It shouldn't feel like a punishment. should, working out should feel good. And so, you know, finding, there's so many options out there and just finding what works for you.

Ramon Vela (49:00)
Wow. Well, I appreciate that. And I love what I've heard. I I think from a business standpoint, it's an amazing opportunity. I think you're hitting all the trends right now, which are like movement and body movement, healthy aging, longevity. And it feels like it's just like the right exercise at the right time or the right approach at the right time. And like I said, in reality, you guys have been working on this for a while.

but it feels like this is the exercise for its moment. This is the moment for that exercise. And I'd highly recommend anyone, whether it's a business franchise opportunity to look into this, but I mean, it sounds amazing. ⁓ Yeah. I mean, like I told you, I hate working out and I hate lifting weights and stuff like that. I do mostly bands, the elastic bands.

Rachel Katzman (49:41)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (49:50)
But yeah, mean, this sounds like amazing. Maybe I'll find my way into one of your studios. But ⁓ no, I highly recommend it. And I just love your story and I appreciate you sharing with you about your disease. And I really feel like you are what our tagline is, which is products worth buying, brands we're supporting. So I think you are.

you have a brand that I think is just really worth people's time. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. And it's just been really a pleasure to kind of get to know you and get to know the brand.

Rachel Katzman (50:20)
Thanks for having me.

Ramon Vela (50:22)
Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. And everyone out there, we have just had Rachel Katzman, who is the founder of P-Volve. Now, unfortunately, this is like a movement thing. So we don't, we're not able to show it. Obviously, if you're listening to this, we're not able to show it, but I highly recommend you go to the website, sign up for a newsletter, find out they're opening locations everywhere so they could be opening new ones by you. But you can also, there was also a digital platform that you can take a look and

Obviously, if you're watching this eventually on YouTube, we're gonna show some exercises and actually the way it looks. But regardless, go to the website, check it out for yourself. There's great videos there of people showing the method. And then of course, Jennifer Aniston is there. You can take a look at her testimonial. But go check it out. I always say, be safe, be sane, be healthy. And one way of being healthy is checking this website out. Again, it's pevolve.com.

We're going to have that link as well as their social media links on our podcast description. And again, just thank you, Rachel. I appreciate your time.

Everyone out there, we have just again have Rachel Kessman, founder of HeVolve. And one last thing before we end, we've all been going through a lot of stuff, pandemic, geopolitical wars, politics, all of the above. And so people are stressed out. And so one way of helping with that is just let's be a little kinder to each other. Let's just make this human experience better. And I know we can do that and I hope we do. And then of course, we can also...

be healthier and go check out the website because I think this is a great exercise. Beyond that everyone, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.