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Today, we are joined by Joanna Pease, who had aspirations of a career in interior design. After graduation, she moved to DC and landed a dream job with an interior design firm. Unfortunately, during the 2008 housing crisis, she found herself without a job and needing to move back home to Portland, Maine.
Joanna found herself transitioning into a sales role. She ended up working for a company that provide height adjustable furniture and traveled around the country for them in a sales capacity. While traveling, she was looking into workout options and took her first indoor spin class. She immediately fell in love with the concept and eventually started teaching classes on the side in a studio in her hometown.
Joanna started making plans to open her own indoor spin studio called Jibe. She kept her full-time job while building out and launching the studio in Portland Maine. When opening she was working 100 hour weeks between this and her full-time job. Eventually she started to burn out, but the studio was off to a great start. She made the leap to go all in on Jibe full-time. She quickly started the construction on her next location in Yarmouth Maine.
Fast forward to today and Joanna just opened her third studio in Charleston, South Carolina. She has built an incredibly strong culture at her studios, which has allowed them to continue to scale. She is most excited about continuing to expand and promoting her employees as she continues to grow Jibe.
Check out the conversation as we dive into the following:
- How the 2008 housing crisis changed her entire career path
- How traveling for her sales job allowed her to do R&D for opening her own indoor cycling studio
- How she worked a full-time job while running her studio for 6 months
- How letting her boss down was the hardest part of quitting
- Why COVID forced her to start delegating responsibilities more
- How she would’ve quit multiple times if she wasn’t all in on this business
Listen to Joanna share her story and get inspired with her amazing advice to people thinking about following a similar path. Check out the full conversation on YouTube or Spotify by clicking the links below.
Know someone who should be on Why I Quit? We’re looking for all types of stories and people to feature at the top of the show. To nominate yourself or someone else, email dave@foundersapproach.com and tell us your name, where you’re from and what you want to talk about.
