How Dallas Women Do It — Brittany Grignon of Session Pilates
The Pilates Queen on Her Scrappy Start, Dallas Favorites, and What She Would Change About Her City
BY Susannah Hutcheson // 10.30.20
For Brittany Grignon, community and movement has always been at the center of her universe. The studio owner and new mother opened SESSION Pilates in 2016, and has since followed up her popular first location on Fitzhugh Avenue with two more brick-and-mortar outposts in the city, along with an honorary fourth location on the internet: SESSION@Home. With a huge focus on relationship building, her Pilates empire is really just beginning.
Grignon shares her favorite local spots and what it’s taken to build (and scale!) a go-to spot for fitness-loving Dallasites.
What’s your Dallas-area coffee order?
Brittany Grignon: I always support the ones closest to the SESSION studios, so it’s either an almond milk latte with one pump of vanilla at White Rock Coffee or Drip.
Outdoor Dining with Bering's
What’s the best Dallas meal you’ve ever eaten?
The Dragon Roll from Alice would be on my last supper (and their steamed buns!), and the meatballs from Beverley’s.
What is your ideal hidden Dallas spot?
I live by White Rock Lake, and I’m obsessed with this area. Even though we’re very much in the city, it doesn’t feel like it. We have the nature reserve, we have Norbuck Park, we have the lake. I have a seven-week-old, and walks are our thing right now, so being able to be around nature is really cool.
How did you start and grow SESSION?
It’s been exciting and amazing. We opened the first location in Uptown in 2016, and it’s so funny to think about the original one. I went to some friends, four guys, and told them my dream and pitched them on my business plan. They knew nothing about Pilates, but they gave me the capital. I got $80,000 to open up the first one, and we bootstrapped it. Like, the wood in the first one is from my lawyer’s fence that he was taking down. We opened, and I got lucky in hiring some amazing talent and great people to work with. It grew, we got busy, classes filled up, and we got to a place where we were at max capacity and couldn’t add any more times or fill anymore people in the classes.
When I first opened up SESSION, I didn’t have a strong plan as to how we were going to grow, it was just truly day-by-day situation. Once we got to max capacity, it was exciting, but it was also hurting us because we had a bunch of people who purchased our unlimited package and weren’t able to get the benefit of it. That’s when Lakewood came up. And then, same situation — we were able to get it up, get it going, and it took off fairly quickly.
It gave us the confidence to open up in Park Cities, at Lovers and the Tollway. We opened up that third location about six months after Lakewood. What gave me confidence was the team. I had enough talent who wanted to take on more classes, who wanted a bigger role, and so the team really drove our expansion. “As long as I have the team behind me, I’ll keep going,” has always been my mentality.
How did Covid-19 affect things?
Once again, I owe everything to the team. They were so down and willing to pivot when we needed to, and everyone was all hands on deck to get SESSION@Home, our online platform, off the ground. We had to close March 16th, and by March 18th we had cameras up and we were filming for SESSION@Home. No one blinked. It was phenomenal to have them support the idea and get on board as quickly as they did. That platform kept SESSION afloat during the months we were shut down, and enabled us to open back up and let us bring everyone back on.
That’s been amazing, and this is our fourth year. We launched SESSION@Home to stay connected to our clients and keep the business going, but we were definitely flying a plane over a field and didn’t know what the hell we were doing. So, once we got enough experience underneath us, we used our fourth anniversary as a great time to re-launch SESSION@Home the way we wanted to do it, instead of a mad dash to get it done. That has had great response, and now we’re about to sign our lease for our fourth brick and mortar in Plano. We’re going to the ’burbs! Again, what gets us there is the team. I’ve been so fortunate to find some super talented people that are passionate and want to keep going, so we’re in it and we’ll go after it.
How do you prioritize your own mental and physical health as a new mom and business owner?
It’s actually kind of funny. Being in the [wellness] industry myself, it’s kind of a Catch-22. For me, my mental release is working out. But at the same time it’s also work. The biggest thing I do for myself is put it in my calendar. I will literally schedule my workouts in my calendar set up as meetings, so they’re non-negotiable for me. I’m more functional with a schedule, so I just make it a part of it.
What would you change about Dallas?
Immediately, the first thing that popped up in my head is that I’ve always wished Dallas was more of a pedestrian city. I definitely picked East Dallas to live because, in my mind, it’s the most nature-esque part of Dallas. So I guess if you’re trying to change the landscape, there’s that. But, Dallas has a lot to offer!
I also would love to change the stigma of Dallas being pretentious, because I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It’s really chill, and it’s beautifully located. I don’t think that connotation really applies.
What advice would you give to Dallas women?
Brittany: Something I came to realize through our experience with COVID is that one of the most valuable things you can have are your relationships and community. Take the time to get to know your community, and take the time to put time and value into your relationships. I quickly learned that, because that’s what kept showing up for me. Yes, I was worried about our studios shutting down, but it was the relationships and our clients: everything from our relationship with the local banker that helped us get our PPP to all of our clients sending us so much love and positive feedback and kept us motivated. It was the relationships we created that drove us and kept us strong during all of this time of unknown. So, my advice to any woman is to invest in your relationships and community, and do what you can to stay connected… because it helps.
