Rachel Piskin has always been focused on health and wellness. She became a ballet star at just eight years old when she was cast as Marie in the New York City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. Rachel joined the New York City Ballet officially at 16 and worked alongside some of the industry’s most distinguished choreographers. After retiring from ballet at age 20, she had to reinvent her workout routine to feel fit again. Rachel got her Pilates certification and decided work with her mother to develop the Reinvention Method and start their fitness company, ChaiseFitness.
What inspired you to start ChaiseFitness? What was your career path?
My entire life until I was 22 I worked toward one career goal, ballet. Dancing in the New York City Ballet, while an extremely difficult career both physically and emotionally, left me with a passion for the body and movement. Putting those two together lead me to fitness and working with my mom Lauren to create and grow ChaiseFitness as a business and fitness routine.
What are your responsibilities as cofounder of ChaiseFitness?
I am co-founder along with my mom, Lauren Piskin, so we really share the overall responsibilities of making ChaiseFitness run along with our managers and master instructors. However, we have created specific roles for ourselves in the daily operations of the business. My mom’s focus is predominately on ChaiseFitness’ private studio as well as working with our director of training, Seiji, on our Reinvention Method Certification. The training of the teachers for our studios as well as our franchise in Madison, NJ is what makes our studios unique.
We strive every day to maintain and improve upon the quality of our programming and instructors staying current, creative, and most importantly, effective. My role lies mostly in operating the studios and working with our studio managers and desk staff. I handle all studio promotions, events, and partnerships between our four NYC studio locations. I also work on developing new programming whether it is a new class type or tweaking existing classes. My mom and I both teach group classes which is sometimes the most rewarding part of the day!
What are the most important characteristics someone needs to have to be successful in your role?
Drive, passion, patience, organization, and creativity.
What are three characteristics you look for when you’re hiring a new team member?
It depends if we are looking for admin staff or instructors as those two jobs require specific skills. However, all ChaiseFitness team members need to be passionate, communicative, and hard working.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
The best business advice I received was from my mom. She taught me to empower those around you to take initiative, be creative, and make decisions. Even if there is a failure, we will all learn from it and then grow from it.
What is your business advice for other young professional women?
I think it is important for young professional women in their quest trying to prove themselves to try not to take on everything themselves. I was guilty of that early on and learned that I was much more successful by not only delegating but learning from my wonderful team. It is cliche to say that one person can’t do it all, but it is true. The most important business advice I have learned from working with my mom is that empowering those around you is the key to your company’s success.
Images courtesy of Rachel Piskin/ChaiseFitness.
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