Two Years and a Whole Lot of Growth

When I started in June 2024, I told people I was an “admin assistant.” It was true — but it was only the smallest part of the story. Really, I was a trainee racing to clock my teaching hours before my exam, the only trained instructor in the studio at the time, and someone who knew exactly one piece of Pilates equipment. On paper, I was underqualified for the future I wanted. In practice, I decided that wasn't going to stop me.

Starting out with more questions than answers

Those early months were humbling. I'd finish a private reformer session feeling proud, then walk past the other equipment and feel that familiar knot in my stomach — I don't know how to teach that yet. Instead of avoiding it, I signed up for my own studio's in-house courses. There's something strange and wonderful about being both the staff and the student, taking notes on equipment I'd be teaching on weeks later. I wanted to be fully equipped, not half-ready. So I taught what I knew, learnt what I didn't, and let the private reformer classes build my confidence one client at a time.

Wearing every hat in the studio

Then the role kept shifting under my feet. Admin assistant became front desk. Front desk became marketing. Marketing became management — all while I was still teaching as an instructor. Some days I honestly didn't know which job I was doing. I'd answer a booking enquiry, plan a campaign, and cue someone through a footwork series, sometimes within the same hour.

I won't pretend it was smooth. There were stretches where I felt stretched too thin, where I doubted whether I was doing any one thing well because I was doing everything at once. What carried me through was the studio's clients. From the very start, they were patient with a newer instructor and generous with their trust. That support gave me room to make mistakes, adjust, and grow — and slowly, that nervous trainee turned into an instructor with her own group of regulars who show up for me.

The high point

My all-time high was running two to three events and brand campaigns a month while juggling group classes and private sessions. Looking back, it was chaos — but it was my chaos, and I'd built the skills to handle it. Two years earlier I couldn't teach a second piece of equipment; now I was orchestrating campaigns and full class schedules at the same time.

What I've learnt

• You don't need to know everything to start — you need to be willing to keep learning. Knowing one machine didn't disqualify me; refusing to grow would have.
• Saying yes to unfamiliar roles is how you find out what you're capable of. Front desk, marketing, management — none of it was “my job description,” and all of it made me better.
• Your clients grow with you. The relationships I built in my most uncertain months became the foundation of my confidence.
• Being stretched isn't the same as breaking. The overwhelm was real, but so was the capacity I built on the other side of it.

Starting small was never a limit. It was just the beginning.

Two years ago I was accumulating hours and hoping I belonged. Today, in June 2026, I teach with confidence, I have clients who feel like mine, and I've proven — mostly to myself — that the way you begin doesn't decide how far you go.