Integrity, Influence and Intentionality: How to Build a Winning Franchise Team

Free Agent Podcast with Meg Schmitz – Guest: Joyce Toti, Franchise Owner of Pause Studios and Founder of Collective Women’s Leadership

Meg Schmitz:
Hello everyone, and welcome to or welcome back to my podcast, the Free Agent. My name is Meg Schmitz. The discussion here is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future.

The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self-employment, business ownership, franchising and freedom—from corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey.

My podcast aims a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny and became their own boss.

Today I have Joyce Toti, who is a dye-in-the-wool, entrepreneurial-minded woman who likes to mentor and lead other women to greatness. And she is also a franchise owner more recently.

You’re located, I think in Las Vegas. One of my best friends moved to Las Vegas. I can’t wait to—in the pandemic. So I can’t wait to come out and visit with her. But thank you for spending time with me today and coming on to tell your story.

Joyce:
Absolutely, my pleasure.

Meg:
So my podcast is called the Free Agent because I generally work with people who are in transition. They’re looking to diversify. Maybe they’re forced out of their career, forced out of their job.

And it dawned on me one day that you’re like a free agent. You gotta compete. You want to find your next team. So my audience really is made up of people who are looking for those inspiring stories from people who are real. Wasn’t handed to you, but you created your own journey.

So if you will, go back in time and talk about who you—well, it’s the flight of the bumblebee, Joyce. You know, you started somewhere and then you landed here and you landed here and—and some of it was good and some of it wasn’t.

So paint a little picture of your journey that then led you to grow out of your entrepreneurial roots and into a franchise.

Joyce:
Sure. I grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and I went to the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism where I thought I was going to be the next Katie Couric. And upon graduating with my undergrad degree, all of my friends were going to chase snow in the middle of Iowa for less than minimum wage to say that they were a reporter.

I had the opportunity and was presented with a manager role at Nordstrom in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona for a really great salary and benefits and stayed in Scottsdale. So I chose the brick and mortar retail path for my corporate career, which led me to New York City and Florida and the UK and for really prestigious brands that I was very happy to represent.

And then moved to Vegas. Right. The bumblebee took me to Vegas about 18 years ago. I did leave brick and mortar retail and went into casino gaming sales. Considering it’s in my backyard, I didn’t want to have this vast territory anymore.

Brick and mortar retail was shifting tremendously in terms of what that business looked like. During the pandemic, I was furloughed like the rest of everyone. I was really upset about it. I had never not worked 80 hours a week responsible for huge sales numbers and huge sales teams for the last 20 years up until the pandemic.

After the pandemic ended, I really was able to reshift my thinking, as most people did, and I decided to go back to school, where I just completed my MBA at Pepperdine, which I was very excited about.

Through that time, I stumbled upon and really wanted to continue down the entrepreneurial path and found Pause and noticed at that point that it had not—I was shocked that the territory of Vegas was not already spoken for because most major cities had been and went down that path alongside with founding and coming up with Collective Women’s Leadership.

Meg:
You did those simultaneously?

Joyce:
I did. I’m doing them both simultaneously now.

Meg:
Which I’m a big advocate. People don’t realize they’re multi-dimensional, interesting human beings. None of us really just wears one hat. But you endeavored into both of them more or less at the same time.

Joyce:
I did because I thought Collective Women’s Leadership was just a really fun idea that I had. And I had no idea what it would become—what it would come to—in less than a year.

Meg:
All right, so now I’m really curious because I love empowering women. I’ve done so much work on myself, and you probably have as well. And that’s what those stumbles and falls lead to—our ability to really relate to other women who are stuck there.

But talk a little bit about the Collective Women’s Leadership, and then you’ve also got the Collective Method that has emerged from that.

Joyce:
Yes. Okay. Collective Women’s Leadership was an idea that I had when I went back to grad school as someone older. Most of the people I was in school with were in their mid-20s. And they, the women specifically, would be constantly asking me questions like, how did I get this confidence? How do I know when to speak to the professor? How do I present so well?

Which was very sweet. But I would say it’s because I’m 20 years older and I’ve been in corporate for a really long time. And it dawned on me at that moment that they needed mentors because they all entered the workforce during or after the pandemic from their bedrooms, in their sweatpants, on their computer screens—no interaction with executives, no interaction face to face with women leaders that went before them to advocate for them, those types of things.

So I said, I’m going to come up with Collective Women’s Leadership, which is rooted in true mentorship—women mentoring women through all of the trials and tribulations that we’ve all gone through. Self-advocation, how to get through difficult conversations, how to have more executive presence, all of those things.

I opened my chapter here in Las Vegas. We have over a hundred members today and our Instagram following is pretty large. And through the Instagram following, I receive DMs constantly from other parts of the country and world, like, how can we get involved in your community if we don’t live in Vegas? Because what you’re putting out we love and it’s true. And we’ve all gone through it.

Regardless of your age and regardless of your industry, all women face the same issues. So I just developed the Collective Method, which is an app that you can download on the App Store—Collective Women’s Leadership—and we have all different types of modules we put you through to get you through real life experiences.

Meg:
I’m fascinated. I can’t wait to look this up. This is great too. Which came first, the chicken or the egg—Pause or Collective Women’s Leadership?

Joyce:
If I look back at the calendar, I think they were absolutely the exact same time.

Meg:
Okay. So you came from corporate. When did you realize your entrepreneurial spirit was really ready to go? It was during your MBA program? Was there—did you have like DNA, genetic code that led you that way?

Joyce:
I think in representing all of these other companies and realizing that regardless of what brand I represented and where I represented it—like at the end of the day, a widget’s a widget. Whether you’re selling a 99-cent hammer at Home Depot or a $1 million ring at Tiffany & Co., sales is sales.

And really owning and running your own business—and people don’t realize that most GMs or store managers in these really high-end, or even maybe not so high-end retail stores are absolutely at the heart, entrepreneurs. They are responsible for everything. Inventory, scheduling, hiring, HR, maintenance, all of the things.

And corporate executives who’ve not ever been in retail don’t have the first clue of what GMs can do.

Meg:
Curious if franchise ownership might be the next step for you? Or just interested in owning a small business that offers a proven path and support system? Download Meg’s free ebook that outlines everything you need to know about franchise ownership.

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And now let’s get back to the conversation.

Meg:
This is really interesting to me too. I came from Chicago and so the big trading community—and there are a lot of men in particular trading millions of dollars.

But what they have said to me—because you’d think they’d be way out on the risk-o-meter, like push me off a cliff, I’ll go—but unlike what you’re talking about, they’ve not had that financial responsibility and so they’re afraid of it.

Joyce:
Right.

Meg:
They’re afraid of moving into an ownership role because it’s always been someone else’s money and now it’s their money.

Joyce:
That’s right.

Meg:
Was that in your head at all?

Joyce:
I don’t. Because I come from brick-and-mortar retail and did it for 20 years. Pause is such a great challenge for me because I love the brick-and-mortar retail piece.

It does not scare me in terms of the clients coming in or selling or staffing or being my own boss or manager. But the health and wellness kind of biohacking is what I’m most passionate about in terms of kind of the next phase of all of us who are super active and working out.

I mean, Pause is at the top of the game. There is nothing more luxury than the Pause model. And pairing that with my background in retail and luxury and the client experience piece, Pause is a perfect fit.

Meg:
So tell me more about—tell the audience more about—Pause. I know enough to be dangerous. It’s in my franchise portfolio and I have represented it to a few people, but I don’t know the ins and outs as much as you do.

So go ahead and just talk about what is Pause.

Joyce:
Pause is a health and recovery studio, and it’s founded by Jeff and John. Both come from the Equinox model. So all of us familiar in the fitness space—Equinox is at the top of their industry in terms of the client experience and the luxury experience that the client feels from the second they walk in.

And I love that their vision—they took all of that and they said, listen, we think that the next kind of phase of health and wellness is in recovery. And they were right.

And they built—and they spent years and years in LA building and fine-tuning the Pause corporate locations to then deliver us franchisees this really beautiful model that I’d never seen done before in terms of the level of curation and the level of thoughtfulness that the client will experience when they walk in.

We have eight modalities. So: cryotherapy, infrared, cold plunge, float therapy, IV therapy—all of those types of things. So when a client comes in, of course they’re greeted and it’s a beautiful kind of lounge area that has soft blues and soft neutrals that makes you want to stay there.

What I like is that they are unlike—you want to, you want to spend a lot of time there. We have showers in every room. We have Le Labo shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. So it’s very upscale.

And most of the rooms—where there’s the infrared sauna and the cold plunge—a lot of couples like to stay in there and rent it out for two hours and have their date night there instead of going out to the bar.

A lot of women come in for girls’ nights, and you can rent kind of the space for a few hours and really have that time all together—holistically recovering, chatting, having your tea, all of those types of things.

So it’s a much more beautiful experience than I’ve seen currently on the market. Typically, a lot of these health and wellness recovery studios are very clinical feeling. They’re kind of cold. I don’t want to stay there. It’s like: do your session and get out. There’s nowhere to lounge and feel welcome and at home.

Meg:
It sounds lovely. I’m ready to go. I’m in the middle of Wisconsin where we already had our snow melt and I’m just in from walking my two dogs with muddy paws, and so that all sounds lovely.

But more importantly, I’m 61. I’ve thrashed about in my life. I’ve been a race car driver—not professional. I’ve owned horses and I’ve been tossed many a time.

From a recovery standpoint, are clients referred to you, say by a chiropractor or a doctor?

Joyce:
It’s definitely not—I mean, I don’t know if western medicine doctors would say maybe you would benefit from cryo, maybe you would benefit from getting IV vitamins pushed, or maybe you would benefit from laying in an infrared bed.

I’m not sure if western medicine doctors are saying that. I wish they would more. It would just be really helpful to their clients. But instead of prescribing medication—be that as it may—I think people who are in that health and wellness fitness mindset, who go to the gym constantly and maybe they’re entering their mid-30s, late-40s, 50s, and 60s and realize that these scientific-backed studies of the healing modalities that we offer can definitely help benefit them.

So they can recover faster, so they can get on the horse quicker, so they can drive a race car faster or sooner.

So all of the things that you’ve experienced—I think people are catching on that these things help.

Meg:
It’s so true too. A number of years ago I went to China with a group, and one of the resorts—I’ll say—that we stayed at had a Chinese doctor come in. And yeah, it was really interesting because their philosophy is—her, it was a woman—her role is to keep you healthy.

Joyce:
Sure.

Meg:
And if you get sick, then it’s on her. Where our system is the other way around. You only go in when you don’t feel well.

And so it was very informative to see then also the herbs and other remedies that are effective. And so I carried that back with me. That was 2009 that I went to China. And so when I was having my aches and pains—I was still riding horses back then—and, oh, some of those throws that I had. She was a wicked mare. She was a redhead, so she was all of that.

And long story short, I’m also involved in hospice and the different treatment modalities that come into play as life is truly unwinding and declining. But then my parents are also medical professionals—who’ve been a surgeon and a nurse.

So I have really my antennas up for these different wellness modalities. Because I know as not only the daughter of those two people, but also just a human being. Pharmaceuticals are not the answer.

Joyce:
No, absolutely not.

Meg:
And really, case in point—you talk about cold plunge. After my worst horse riding accident, the only thing that cut the pain was ice.

Joyce:
Wow. Yeah.

Meg:
So I’m a huge advocate of everything that Pause has to offer. I just didn’t know it yet.

Can you see, like—where in Las Vegas are you targeting to open? I can think of a lot of obviously high-end shopping areas, but are you also going into more of the residential areas as well?

Joyce:
So yes, my first location is being opened in Summerlin at the Rampart Commons. We open at the end of the summer. Construction actually starts this week. So we are very excited about that.

And then I purchased two more locations to be opened in Las Vegas—one probably in Las Vegas proper and one in Henderson, Nevada. So as soon as Summerlin is up and running, I’m constantly looking for space.

So you never know when I will find it. There’s nothing really holding me back from that. But I do have three locations coming in to Southern Nevada.

Meg:
Yes, got it. And I’m in the same boat that you are. I’m a franchisee with a different system in Milwaukee, in fact. And it’s a high-end luxury salon suite concept. It’s called Image Studios.

And one of the interesting disconnects, if you will—women of color spend a tremendous amount on their beauty and wellness, but they don’t want a high ticket.

Joyce:
Oh, okay.

Meg:
And so in Milwaukee we’re finding the word “luxury” doesn’t resonate with them. So I think when we get into a model like Pause or Image Studios, be aware of what the local buying habits and vernacular are like.

We’ve had to shift up the wording that we use in our marketing because “luxury” just doesn’t resonate in Milwaukee. There are other ways—modern, clean, advanced technology.

But they don’t want to pay for “luxury.” They’ll show up in a Mercedes they might have paid for in cash and they might have bought used. But, you know, it’s a lot of what is the image versus what are they really going to spend?

So you’re in three great areas of Las Vegas. I’m bullish on what you’re doing there.

So you’ve got Pause and you’ve got the Collective Women’s Leadership. What else do you have going on in your life? I’m always curious about life balance.

Joyce:
Oh yes. I have a spouse and we are empty nesters. So we have four children and our son, who’s the youngest, is away at school and the others are adults with their lives.

Work-life balance is so interesting, right? I think life is on a pendulum. I don’t think there’s ever work-life balance in anything we do—either you’re at 90% at work and 10 at home—but there are seasons, and they’re fast seasons.

So I do think—I don’t know if I’m balanced. But we plan thoughtful travel and so during the week, I go really hard and I am all in, in my businesses and take time out to pause.

Meg:
Good for you. On the spectrum of entrepreneurship, my husband and I talk about this a lot—that some people are really cut out only to be an entrepreneur. The franchise model is just too strict and restrictive.

As you’ve moved now into two new areas of your own life, do the two play together well in your head? Does one scratch the back of the other at all?

Joyce:
You know what I appreciate about Pause that’s keeping me dialed in with Collective Women’s Leadership is it’s constantly bringing back the importance of branding, which I know very well from my past.

However, everything I’m continuing to do and grow with Collective Women’s Leadership—it’s keeping my branded brain on, which is very important in entrepreneurship, which most people miss.

And that’s the number one—if they’re not in franchising because they think it’s too hard or too restrictive—great. If you think you’re going to go out and do it on your own and you don’t know anything about branding, you will fail.

So, period, end of story. It’s not even up for negotiation. And then they look and they’ll say, oh, why did I fail? Well, you fell because you had no brand message, you had no branding, nothing was curated. All of the things.

So that’s where I challenge and push back—is they think that franchising is too restrictive. I hope they know a thing or two about branding.

Meg:
And that is so true. When I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, it takes half a second to look at your profile and say, she’s got it figured out.

And when I was reading through, I wasn’t paying attention to the dates that you had been in major retail. But obviously you’ve been with some big brands. I do agree that that plays heavily into your knowledge base. Just to see Nordstrom, Tag Heuer to some of the others…

Joyce:
You can’t learn it in a book. You cannot learn branding from a textbook. You cannot learn branding from going to school. You have to really learn the nuances of what branding is.

If you look at the brands that I represented, and now you’re looking at Pause—and if you put all of that together—it’s no wonder I came up with Collective Women’s Leadership. And it’s so branded nicely after only one year.

It all fits together very specifically. The first retailer I worked for was Nordstrom. Talk about a brand and identity and a message, right? And then I moved on to The Limited, which was Victoria’s Secret at the time. Talk about a brand and a message and identity.

Tiffany and Company, Tag Heuer, Wynn Resorts—right? And now Pause. And now you pair all of that with Pause. And then that’s how she landed in and figured out Collective Women’s Leadership so quickly.

Meg:
Let’s take a quick break from the conversation. Are you interested in seeing if franchise ownership is in your future? Get the inside scoop on what it’s like to own a franchise business—warts and all.

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And now let’s jump back into the conversation.

Meg:
So how are you growing that business? I know how a franchise grows. How are you growing your own personal brand?

Joyce:
I think—well, I get asked all the time when and if women can open chapters in their cities, which I’m very protective of because Collective Women’s Leadership is something that I’ve curated. So I have to be very careful about that.

So I may take some scripts out of the Pause playbook—I don’t know—but probably. I grow it with the app. I grow it with brand awareness. I grow it with—now, in today’s age, you have to have a social media footprint. And all of the social media footprints that I have, regardless of if it’s my personal or my branded ones, they’re all very cohesive.

And I talk a lot about that with women who are up-and-coming and emergent leaders and trying to figure out how to personally brand themselves. So it starts with you first and foremost having a personal brand, and then that has to play into and be very seamless into the brand that you’re creating.

Meg:
And to me, that gets into—a lot of women are in their head too much, too restricted, too uncertain. There’s so many words that I could use right now, you know?

You know what I mean? I was at a women’s leadership conference last October and there was a panel of men. And one of the men said—this is all women in the audience—and he looked out and he said, I can tell you what’s wrong.

I see a job opportunity, I’m going to put my hat in the ring. I’m 50% sure that I’m qualified for it, but I’m going to go for it. You’re going to wait until you’re almost 100% sure.

And that is what a lot of women do—is, I’m not qualified. What do you think about the word “imposter”? The imposter syndrome?

Joyce:
It’s been hard for me. It’s a big buzzword and a lot of—what did we call it? I don’t know if we had a word. I feel like it’s a new word that the younger generation is going through.

And I don’t know if it’s necessarily imposter syndrome, but more of—they are onto something, so keep going.

I don’t like the word “anxiety” either. I know anxiety is a clinical issue that is diagnosed, but when you’re just using it in your day-to-day talks and say, I have anxiety because I’m going through something—no. You need to get through the fear to get on the other side and you will not be anxious.

So just dive in. Just do it—just as you were talking about. Right? Just put your hat in, you know, put your name in the ring for the next promotion. Show up, shake someone in the eye, and go after what you want.

And if you hesitate and pause, that’s going to give you anxiety. That’s going to give you a feeling that you don’t like.

Meg:
Yeah, it’s the fear that creeps in. I can read it in people. And when all logic ceases to resonate with them, the voices inside their head are louder than any stimulation coming from the outside.

That’s a shutdown moment. And those people are not going to take the leap and move forward. They’re way too embedded in fear and self-esteem questions, I think.

“Am I worthy?” Maybe that’s one of the words instead of imposter. “Oh, I’m not ready. I don’t have enough experience. They’re going to see right through me.”

And my answer to that—I want to hear from you too—we’re all born imposters.

Joyce:
That’s right.

Meg:
None of us knew that bike didn’t know that you’d never ridden one before. It really didn’t care.

Your kid coming home—your baby, your brand-new baby—when you bring it home from the hospital, it has no idea this is the first time you’re doing this.

Joyce:
That’s right.

Meg:
And so we kind of voice that concern upon ourselves because we haven’t done it before. But you popped outta your mom’s womb and you didn’t know how to breathe—and you figured that one out too.

So really, look at that flight of the bumblebee and realize how much you have accomplished.

Joyce:
Yeah, yeah. That’s a really, a really good analogy. And I like it. And I will probably start using it because I do think that all of the things that people are bombarded with every day on social media—these people on social media took chances, weren’t afraid to fail, weren’t afraid to look silly, and no one cares.

Just launch the company that you’re wanting to launch and make sure that it’s truly something that you’re passionate about and you know some things about—because it’s going to get hard.

And you’re the only person that you can count on in an entrepreneurial race.

Meg:
Yeah. Every day, the buck stops with you and your decisions.

Because this idea germinated while you’re in your MBA program—have you aligned with any community programs or college/university programs nearby so that you can continue to teach young women who were just, as you said, coming out of the pandemic?

My degree is in counseling, so I felt all of that stress that those young youngsters were getting dressed in their pajamas every day and not having to go anywhere. Well, now we have to be somewhere.

So can you plug your expertise in on a local level like that?

Joyce:
Local level? I’m trying. Pepperdine has reached out since I’m part of their alum. So I’ll be guest speaking, I believe, at events virtually for their MBA programs.

And then High Point University in North Carolina—I was asked to be on their Women’s Leadership Initiative program. And I go out in March, and I will be helpful to mentor those young girls and hopefully the college route will take flight.

Meg:
And I know that school. So good for you. This is really exciting.

Joyce:
I love it. When Dr. Qubein—there’s no one like Dr. Qubein. And High Point University is where it’s at. And that is a shameless plug. That is one heck of a school.

Meg:
Yes, it is. So for anyone who’s listening—Google it, look it up, because you’ll be amazed at what kind of opportunities lie there and what they’re advocating for their student population.

Are any of your kids entrepreneurial?

Joyce:
My son goes—my son goes to High Point University.

Meg:
He goes—are any of them entrepreneurial?

Joyce:
Yes, he is. Barrett.

Meg:
Obviously he is. How did you learn about it? It’s not well known.

Joyce:
It’s not well known yet. I feel like it should be much more well known. Anything I can do to shout from the rooftops about High Point University, I do.

We found out about it—my son was a competitive lacrosse player in high school, and he was invited to go to some lacrosse camps there. And we went and he begged me to take him to this lacrosse camp.

And I was like, can I go here? What is this place? And I said, until you find me something better, I think we found your school.

And this is during the time a few years ago when state-run universities were on fire, literally. And nothing like that would ever happen at High Point.

And I said, until you find me something better, I think this is where you’re going. And he said, oh, okay.

Meg:
Another colleague found it more or less the same way. And she said, “I want to go. I want to go.”

Joyce:
We all say that. We all say that.

Meg:
I’m an entrepreneur and I’m a frantrepreneur and…

Joyce:
Have you been to the school?

Meg:
Not yet.

Joyce:
Oh, okay. We gotta get you there.

Meg:
Yeah. Because it’s come on my radar now a number of times. My husband and I have judged university-level entrepreneurial competitions.

Joyce:
Right.

Meg:
He graduated from University of Chicago, I graduated from Northwestern. We’ve got a really healthy ecosystem here in Chicago.

But we’ve also judged international entrepreneurial competitions. And that has been really eye-opening, Joyce, because those third-world countries come up with so many creative solutions to things that we just don’t—we don’t see because we don’t have that lack or that need has already been satisfied here.

And so it’s been fascinating to see how these university-level students solve clean water and air and…

Yeah. So Pete and I—my husband and I—are very tied into some programs here that really struggled during the pandemic and unfortunately folded.

And that’s really where High Point entered onto my radar screen, because then we had more of an opening to actually know what was going on out there.

So I think for young people who are very wired up to pursue this path, there—as you said—there really is no other program like it out there.

Meg:
Okay, so you have one of your four who is entrepreneurial. What do the rest of them want to do?

Joyce:
They all work in different sectors—fine jewelry, solar, all of those things.

Meg:
Okay. You look so young. You can’t possibly have kids who are that old.

So when you go to Pause—okay, your locations aren’t open yet—but have you gotten treatments there?

Joyce:
Yes. I’ve had numerous treatments in LA at the corporate studios. Yes.

Meg:
And what are your favorites?

Joyce:
Well, I was introduced to float therapy, which is wild and very relaxing—life changing. Forty-five minutes floating in more salt than the Dead Sea.

It’s the only thing that gives you—zero stimulation. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. It’s so dark and fantastic.

I love the infrared bed. I love cryo. I mean, I’m an advocate for all of it.

Meg:
Have you been injured or an athlete where you have needed that kind of therapeutic repair?

Joyce:
I lift heavy weights five days a week and have for the past—well, a long time. For the past 15, 16 years.

So I am just starting to need some things more often in terms of recovery.

Meg:
And is this something you self-discovered about yourself? Oh, just the weightlifting?

Joyce:
Oh, I just do that in the gym five days a week. I’m not like a competitor.

Meg:
Okay, okay.

Joyce:
No, I definitely don’t do that. It’s just to keep fit.

Meg:
A friend of mine here in Wisconsin was a self-proclaimed lifelong couch potato until she met a man who invited her to a gym. And she is now a world champion weightlifter—for her, the age of 65.

She’s competing in over 60 international.

Joyce:
Incredible.

Meg:
I know.

Well, and so I imagine with Pause you get people who’ve done silly things and now they find that they need something therapeutic on the longer end—older end.

Is there any kind of a limit to age? Limit to what your modalities would be able to address?

Joyce:
No, I think if they’re in high school, they have to sign a waiver if they’re 16 or 17 in with their parents. And to my knowledge, I have yet to see, hear, or learn that we have an age limit on how old—if there’s a limit.

Meg:
You’ve got a great clientele in Las Vegas.

Joyce:
Yes, we do. And we’re excited about it.

There’s been a few people that have already called and said, would you think of selling?

And I said, no, I will not think of selling—because I think a lot of people have seen there’s a huge opportunity.

Meg:
Yeah. I think you’re with the right brand in the right market, and your background is just such a lovely fit for that ideal owner profile for Pause.

Joyce:
So I’m very lucky—very lucky they chose me.

I stumbled upon an Instagram ad, to be honest. And it said “learn more,” and I clicked. And then it said “learn more” and enter your location. I clicked. And the rest is history. I was down the path.

Meg:
Good for you. It doesn’t happen that way very often.

But you—yeah, you’re the right person with the right brand in the right market. So I can’t wait to hear how things go. You said you’re opening later on this—

Joyce:
Year—end of the summer. So I believe end of July, early August. Yeah, yeah.

Meg:
And so just like having babies, you never know when that second one or the third one—

Joyce:
That’s right.

Meg:
I’m in the same boat. I’m looking at real estate now and hopefully I won’t find two and three at the same time. Because, probably like mine, you’ve got a fairly hefty build-out that goes into that.

Joyce:
Yes. One of the highest build-outs in the franchise arena, as I’m sure you’d know if you have looked into Pause—how much it costs to build out.

So it’s not just your typical mirrors and weight racks. It’s very different.

Meg:
Yes, it’s a discerning clientele. Not only discerning clientele but also—it’s one of the reasons why I haven’t shown it that much—is the minimum net worth and available cash, credit score, everything that goes into that.

It’s definitely a more discerning group of people.

I’m so glad to learn more about this today. Is there anything about either of your businesses that we haven’t really touched on?

We’ve touched on your personal life too. I always like to tie that in because people are curious—if they’re going to take the leap—how do you balance it all?

You’re in such a unique position having started your independent business at the same time. It’s no wonder you don’t have work-life balance. You’ve got work balance.

Joyce:
I have work balance and I love it.

Meg:
Yeah.

Joyce:
And because—I mean, I’m assuming you’re an empty nester.

Meg:
I am.

Joyce:
And so when there’s nothing really—there’s no kids left at home—you both better figure something out really, really quick.

Meg:
Yeah. Well, I get asked all the time, “When am I going to retire?” That’s a world that doesn’t exist in my brain. I can’t even conceive of—what that—

Joyce:
Yeah.

Meg:
What would that be?

Joyce:
Right. Yeah.

Meg:
That’s the type A charge-ahead girl.

Joyce:
Yeah.

Meg:
Yeah.