Multipassionate, but not Multi-Stressed: How Pulse Fitness Achieved Growth through Main Street Collective

Like most of us in 2020, COVID sent Stephanie Corts home. She had been a fitness instructor at a local gym and when in person classes ended and shifted to online, it sparked an idea for Stephanie to create what is now Pulse Fitness, an On Demand, online fitness service for those looking to get the gym experience at home.

“I realized in being at home and working out at home, it saves so much time,” reflects Stephanie. Each time she went to the gym, it was at least a two hour event to load up  her small children, get to the gym early, teach her class, and head home. She adds, “I also wanted to do it when it worked for me and not around a gym schedule and putting my baby down for a nap around the gym schedule.” And, with that, Stephanie made the decision not to go back to work and put her focus into building Pulse Fitness.

Stephanie is no stranger to entrepreneurship though. Prior to starting Pulse Fitness, she had been working as a consultant for Beautycounter and has continued to do so. She also has since added a new business, Green Compass to her plate. All were doing well, but after having her third child, Stephanie reached a state of business performance paralysis. She shares, “I felt like I can’t get back to where I was performance wise and I don’t know if I want to. And so I was in kind of a transitional spot and also sort of stuck.” 

This multi-passionate woman would sit at her desk every day, yet feel like she wasn’t getting much done because she was frozen by thoughts of, “which businesses should I focus on when I don’t have enough time? What do I even want to focus on?” She then decided she didn’t want to navigate that alone.

Beautycounter was her main source of  income, but she felt the pull toward Pulse more full time. She grappled with whether or not it was a bad idea to step back from something lucrative to pursue something that while it does make money, is more of a passion project. 

Managing three businesses is a lot, so Stephanie wanted some guidance from someone who could offer an objective perspective. 

Having followed Jodie for a few years, Stephanie reached out to her in December, ‘22 for coaching and joined her Main Street Collective, a 6-month immersive 1:1 and group coaching experience in January ‘23. Since then, Stephanie feels free from the paralysis she was feeling just one year ago. She explains, “Jodie helped me really work through what do I want? Where do I see potential? And how do I execute? And also, how do I stop worrying about everyone else's outside expectations of me, so that I can actually go after what I want to do?”

One of the most impactful moments that led to Stephanie’s shift happened during a conversation she had with Jodie while away on vacation. Jodie asked her a very important question…“What is stressing you out?”

That’s when Stephanie realized that she was most stressed about the business she least cared about. Unplugging from Pulse Fitness to be on vacation was easy for her - get the work done, move on and still be absolutely in love with it. But, the others stressed her out, and Jodie helped her get clear on why that might be. 

While Stephanie loved the selling aspect of her roles with Beautycounter and Green Compass, the recruiting and leadership pieces she had on her plate no longer filled her up and took up too much of her time. It was time to take a step back, and Jodie assigned Stephanie the task of having those hard conversations with her colleagues to say, “this is no longer serving me,” and Jodie gave her a week to do it.

Today, since having those hard conversations, Stephanie says, “I just feel free.” She’s still selling brands she is passionate about, but is no longer feeling the stress of the leadership roles she held before and can put more focus into what fills her up most: Pulse Fitness.

Since working with Jodie, Stephanie’s business is more streamlined with new systems in place. Stephanie explains, “we spent a lot of time on the back end, which now allows me to grow, because I can rely on my systems to do some work for me. Now, I can just show up and do the things I really enjoy.” 

Reflecting on her time with Jodie, Stephanie shares, “Jodie is to the point. She asks you the tough and really reflective questions. She helped me gain the clarity that I needed to really focus on my business and therefore grow my business. Even though Pulse has grown, while working with her, I picked up a new hobby.  I feel at peace and not so stressed about business, and I owe a lot of that to her.”