The Evolve Studio Back Story: Rachel Crocket and Tayler Landry
Transcript
Chas : what point did you guys decide, alright, we’re gonna create evolve studios. And we’re gonna take this thing to the top, walk us through the history of that, and your fitness journey. And you know, how it all came to ben
nRachael : So for me, fitness or health, wellness has always been a big part of my life. My dad was a coach and a PE teacher. And I’m one of four girls, but there were three girls before he had a boy. And I feel like I was just super competitive. And my dad loves his girls. I was the closest thing (to a boy). So we were always like, running miles, like seeing how fast I could go doing something like, sit up competitions, and he made sure that I could do real real push ups. And then, you know, just playing sports growing up. n
nMy focus, as I got older, was on swimming and, and dancing. So I did that all through high school. And then once I got to college, I was like, kind of at a loss. I was like, I mean, I guess I can go to a gym, I don’t know what I’m doing. So I kind of did nothing for my first, I would say a year in college, and then I realize I’m like I am, something is off, I’m missing something. n
nSo I got back into the gym, started kind of just doing my own thing and realized how much better it made me feel. Definitely eating healthy-ish for, you know, for college kids. Um, and then I guess it was once I was graduating, I started. I took my first Pilates class. And I just remember getting on the machine. And like my whole body was trembling. And I was like, What? What is this, like, I’m strong. I work out all the time. At this point. I’m like, what’s going on? And I was really, I was really hooked from there. After college and working, I started teaching Pilates. With Tayler. That’s how we originally met. Yeah. And, you know, I’ll let her tell her story. And then we can, I guess, bring it together. But, um, after teaching for a few years, we just, we started to have, you know, some of our own ideas. n
nTayler : nSo my childhood was actually a little different, I did not, my mom’s gonna kill me, if she listens to this sorry, mom. We did not grow up, healthy, we always moved. And I was always involved in sports. But that was just something I think I internally loved. And I you know, I danced from when I was younger, but we did not grow up around healthy food or, you know, really any sort of healthy lifestyle from childhood. n
nSo when I became a little bit older, you know, I was still dancing through high school, it started to become a challenge with, you know, my body and needing to get a little healthier and get a little more fit. So I did go down all of those roads and counting calories, and how do I lose weight and Googling, you know, how to lose five pounds, and all of those things. And I’ve gone down all the roads that I’ve you know, I’ve seen our clients go down. And a lot of that was around the time I was trying out for college dance teams. And you know, part of that is a certain fitness level. So I had to sort of figure out how to end up, you know, with a body image that would allow me to make those teams that really got me into exercise and got me into learning about food and learning about health and how to do it right, eventually. n
nAnd at that time, I took my first Pilates class as well and said, Oh my God, what is this? Pilates was one of the things that actually helped me, you know, get my body into a shape that needed to be to make a college dance team. So I danced through college. And when I graduated again, I started teaching because I loved it so much. So we both had professional jobs, but we would just teach Pilates in the morning before work and teach Pilates in the afternoon after work. And out of all the types of fitness I had done in my life, which was a lot with being an athlete, I had never seen anything change a body like Pilates. It was mind blowing. And what was mind blowing about it is that you always think, you know, I have to go run the lakes if you’re from Baton Rouge, right? Like that’s what I would do. n
nThat at the end of it, it’s 95 degrees, or you can do this nice slow control Pilates class on the ground, and all of a sudden your body’s changing. It was really, really cool. So Rachel and I ended up at the same studio and you know, we would always talk before and after class and just say this, this studio is so phenomenal but what about cardio and what about strength? training? And what about yoga? n
nYou know, what we found is that clients were bouncing around to all of these different facilities, they would have a one month membership here, and then they would cancel that and go get a one month membership there because there was nothing that was offered under one roof. Right? So that’s when we said, well, we need to fix this, we need to, we need to give this to people one workout regime under one roof that is a balanced, you know, class offering for people to take their opinion. So that’s kind of how Evolve came to be. We both had to make the big decision to quit our professional careers, which was pretty big. n nRachelnYes, it was. I was like, can’t imagine. Yeah, I was hanging on till the bitter end. I was, like, are you ever going to quit your job? And I knew I knew I had to, but it was like, it was scary at first. And if I said this a million times, but I feel like if Taylor wasn’t there pushing me I probably would still be like, doing the job I wasn’t that crazy about and it was definitely like a collaborative effort on, like, getting ourselves out of our own comfort zones. n nAnd just, like, kind of breaking free and, and coming up with this, this method that we feel like would be like, I feel like everybody would be underserved if we didn’t create. n nTaylernAnd we were young. I mean, Rachel, you were 27. Yeah, no, no, I was 27. She was 25. Yes. So we’re like these green, you know, 20 somethings are like, let’s start this fitness studio. So it’s a pretty pretty good thing that was the case. So it’s been cooled a lot. You know, we’ve grown together, we bring closer and then the studio has evolved into so much more than that. You know, what it was on day one. Now we have nutrition consulting and Wellness Consulting, and we have a smoothie bar and all these other really cool things that again, we progressed in life to learn more and wanted to dive in more and then we’re like, well, we have to make our clients dive in more if that’s what we’re doing, you know,nn
nRachael : So for me, fitness or health, wellness has always been a big part of my life. My dad was a coach and a PE teacher. And I’m one of four girls, but there were three girls before he had a boy. And I feel like I was just super competitive. And my dad loves his girls. I was the closest thing (to a boy). So we were always like, running miles, like seeing how fast I could go doing something like, sit up competitions, and he made sure that I could do real real push ups. And then, you know, just playing sports growing up. n
nMy focus, as I got older, was on swimming and, and dancing. So I did that all through high school. And then once I got to college, I was like, kind of at a loss. I was like, I mean, I guess I can go to a gym, I don’t know what I’m doing. So I kind of did nothing for my first, I would say a year in college, and then I realize I’m like I am, something is off, I’m missing something. n
nSo I got back into the gym, started kind of just doing my own thing and realized how much better it made me feel. Definitely eating healthy-ish for, you know, for college kids. Um, and then I guess it was once I was graduating, I started. I took my first Pilates class. And I just remember getting on the machine. And like my whole body was trembling. And I was like, What? What is this, like, I’m strong. I work out all the time. At this point. I’m like, what’s going on? And I was really, I was really hooked from there. After college and working, I started teaching Pilates. With Tayler. That’s how we originally met. Yeah. And, you know, I’ll let her tell her story. And then we can, I guess, bring it together. But, um, after teaching for a few years, we just, we started to have, you know, some of our own ideas. n
nTayler : nSo my childhood was actually a little different, I did not, my mom’s gonna kill me, if she listens to this sorry, mom. We did not grow up, healthy, we always moved. And I was always involved in sports. But that was just something I think I internally loved. And I you know, I danced from when I was younger, but we did not grow up around healthy food or, you know, really any sort of healthy lifestyle from childhood. n
nSo when I became a little bit older, you know, I was still dancing through high school, it started to become a challenge with, you know, my body and needing to get a little healthier and get a little more fit. So I did go down all of those roads and counting calories, and how do I lose weight and Googling, you know, how to lose five pounds, and all of those things. And I’ve gone down all the roads that I’ve you know, I’ve seen our clients go down. And a lot of that was around the time I was trying out for college dance teams. And you know, part of that is a certain fitness level. So I had to sort of figure out how to end up, you know, with a body image that would allow me to make those teams that really got me into exercise and got me into learning about food and learning about health and how to do it right, eventually. n
nAnd at that time, I took my first Pilates class as well and said, Oh my God, what is this? Pilates was one of the things that actually helped me, you know, get my body into a shape that needed to be to make a college dance team. So I danced through college. And when I graduated again, I started teaching because I loved it so much. So we both had professional jobs, but we would just teach Pilates in the morning before work and teach Pilates in the afternoon after work. And out of all the types of fitness I had done in my life, which was a lot with being an athlete, I had never seen anything change a body like Pilates. It was mind blowing. And what was mind blowing about it is that you always think, you know, I have to go run the lakes if you’re from Baton Rouge, right? Like that’s what I would do. n
nThat at the end of it, it’s 95 degrees, or you can do this nice slow control Pilates class on the ground, and all of a sudden your body’s changing. It was really, really cool. So Rachel and I ended up at the same studio and you know, we would always talk before and after class and just say this, this studio is so phenomenal but what about cardio and what about strength? training? And what about yoga? n
nYou know, what we found is that clients were bouncing around to all of these different facilities, they would have a one month membership here, and then they would cancel that and go get a one month membership there because there was nothing that was offered under one roof. Right? So that’s when we said, well, we need to fix this, we need to, we need to give this to people one workout regime under one roof that is a balanced, you know, class offering for people to take their opinion. So that’s kind of how Evolve came to be. We both had to make the big decision to quit our professional careers, which was pretty big. n nRachelnYes, it was. I was like, can’t imagine. Yeah, I was hanging on till the bitter end. I was, like, are you ever going to quit your job? And I knew I knew I had to, but it was like, it was scary at first. And if I said this a million times, but I feel like if Taylor wasn’t there pushing me I probably would still be like, doing the job I wasn’t that crazy about and it was definitely like a collaborative effort on, like, getting ourselves out of our own comfort zones. n nAnd just, like, kind of breaking free and, and coming up with this, this method that we feel like would be like, I feel like everybody would be underserved if we didn’t create. n nTaylernAnd we were young. I mean, Rachel, you were 27. Yeah, no, no, I was 27. She was 25. Yes. So we’re like these green, you know, 20 somethings are like, let’s start this fitness studio. So it’s a pretty pretty good thing that was the case. So it’s been cooled a lot. You know, we’ve grown together, we bring closer and then the studio has evolved into so much more than that. You know, what it was on day one. Now we have nutrition consulting and Wellness Consulting, and we have a smoothie bar and all these other really cool things that again, we progressed in life to learn more and wanted to dive in more and then we’re like, well, we have to make our clients dive in more if that’s what we’re doing, you know,nn