Stephanie Schon, president at The Bar Method, has had quite the road to success. After earning her MBA from the University of Denver, she spent nearly 11 years working in supply chain and project management at a major technology corporation, then shifted gears to consulting with a specialization in project/program management and strategic planning.
Over the years, Stephanie learned at length about the franchising world, and naturally, the industry pulled her in. She landed a role as Director of Strategy and Execution at Buffalo Wild Wings. Stephanie credits franchising as the perfect industry to utilize her consultative and execution-oriented background to help franchisees fulfill their entrepreneurial spirit, supported with the right tools and processes to run a business successfully and seamlessly.
Over time, Stephanie decided to combine her love of fitness with franchising, and in November of 2020 joined The Bar Method.
For two decades, The Bar Method has been building stronger bodies with challenging barre workouts that infuse power into every movement. Each exercise is meticulously designed to transform the body through its high-repetition and low-impact resistance training. With elements of Pilates, yoga, and other strength training workouts, guests can experience unthinkable flexibility, total-body definition, and metabolism-boosting endurance that lasts.
Prior to The Bar Method, Stephanie’s own fitness routine involved more high-intensity interval training and triathlons. After discovering barre, Stephanie fell in love with her ability to hone in on the muscle and mind connection and immediately incorporated more low-impact workouts into her routine.
“The Bar Method is rooted in kinesiology and anatomy,” Stephanie says. “It took years to create, and it’s all based in science. We’re very intentional about how we train our instructors and how they personalize instruction to our clients. Barre is about having precise movements, and we’ve seen persistent results among our members.”
Stephanie’s love for fitness resulted in The Bar Method catching her eye, but it’s the incredible support of Self Esteem Brands that inspired her to join the team. Self Esteem Brands is the world’s largest health and wellness franchisor, and is the parent company to Anytime Fitness, Basecamp Fitness, Waxing the City, Stronger U, and The Bar Method. The mission of Self Esteem Brands is to improve the self-esteem of the world, which really resonated with Stephanie’s own emphasis on mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.
“The more I learned about Self Esteem Brands, the more I knew it was the place where I needed to be,” Stephanie says. “The mission and core values to make health and self-care more accessible is something that is so important to me and a big reason why I love doing what I do. At Self Esteem Brands, we spend time daily discussing how we’re improving the self-esteem of the world and how we’re living our values. It’s at the forefront of how we operate.”
Stephanie is accountable for the overall success and growth of The Bar Method. She works closely with all stakeholders to ensure operational excellence and consistent execution of a differentiated consumer experience to build franchisee and franchisor profitability. She measures progress against goals, such as growing consumer trial through national campaigns, guest conversion, and member engagement, and she reviews brand successes and shortcomings to determine where the brand needs to optimize for the future.
Stephanie also oversees the brand’s innovation. Her talented development team is consistently working to create new and unique classes for members to best serve them and to create a positive experience. Thanks to The Bar Method’s creative development team, Stephanie finds testing classes to be one of the most fun and exciting parts of her day.
Of course, timing is everything – and joining the team in November 2020 presented its challenges. Under Stephanie’s leadership, the brand has been able to successfully stabilize and meet the needs of a rapidly-changing industry. As a result, The Bar Method is reaching new growth milestones and expanding its clientele in cities across the country.
Along with the impact of a global pandemic, navigating the fitness industry as a woman presents its own challenges. However, The Bar Method features an almost entirely female franchise network, which attracted Stephanie to the brand. Stephanie was honored to join a team of such inspirational and exceptional women.
While joining a team of women was an important selling point, Stephanie doesn’t let her gender hold her back. Stephanie seeks challenges, and just like joining the business during a global pandemic, Stephanie excels at finding solutions to work around life’s obstacles and uses each challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. Her ability to adapt has allowed her to overcome many of the challenges business leaders face. She’s always up for a challenge, which has positioned her well in fitness and franchising.
Stephanie looks forward to continuing The Bar Method’s expansion in the years to come. The brand aims to reach new markets so even more people can experience the singular impact of The Bar Method workouts.