Episode Three - Ashlye Fleming
By Katlin Tara
We’re back with another podcast episode recap – this time sitting down with Ashlye Fleming, Nashville’s Bodyrok franchisee. But first, coffee... While Ashlye may not be a big coffee person, her go-to is a matcha latte, with lavender flavor for a special treat.
If you’ve ever thought about business franchising or have that entrepreneurial spirit but don’t exactly want to start from scratch, this episode is for you! When Ashlye lived in California, coffee with a friend one day led to the beginning of her journey with franchising. Bodyrok was a fairly new concept at the time – a high intensity, low impact 40 minute pilates workout on a custom mega reformer. While Ashlye always loved fitness and dreamt of opening a studio of some sort, her younger years held her back in fear as she studied finance and business meanwhile working corporate jobs for stability. Her dreams were put on hold as she sacrificed work fulfillment for what she thought the right path was.
Things soon changed as she moved to northern California, started a family, and her job didn’t allow the flexibility she needed, leading to Ashlye’s leap into franchising. When her job moved headquarters, she knew this was a sign to do this, as she had already applied to small business loans, spoken to the Bodyrok owners, and looked into franchise opportunities. Despite pushback, she found a space and began the buildout process of opening her first Bodyrok franchise location. During this time, her family grew along with her business, as she taught class after class, but suddenly during her best year in 2020, covid hit, making it difficult to run things in California. Her family picked up and moved to Nashville, signing on for 6 more locations, 4 of which are open now!
For first-timers in Bodyrok, she says that if you hear one thing it’s to move slowly and give yourself grace. It’s meant to challenge you and take you to your edge. She reminds us to customize the way you do it, and if it feels like you failed out of it then that’s a success.
Moving somewhere new and starting life over again is hard as it is, but adding businesses on top of that increases the pressure. She says that opening a business is like hosting an event and just hoping people show up, and when they first moved out she just wanted to open fast and move back. But eventually, she found her groove and thrives off of the entrepreneurial ever-changing lifestyle.
To those interested in franchising, her advice is to do your homework, make a list of what you’re looking at, and take into account franchise fees, buy-in, royalties, marketing fees, and what support is given. Having an attorney to review the agreement is also a good idea, as she says it’s best to have someone that can help explain it all. Nowadays while she’s still an instinctive workaholic, family is her main priority as she’s learned to set boundaries where her time is best spent. Like many of us, her younger self was often worried about bills and being independent, with limited choices of what seems like would bring fulfillment. She wishes she could tell her younger self to just take risks, follow your heart, and things will fall into place. Ashlye says that we’re so brainwashed early on to what the right next best thing is, but that while you may fail, lose money, or hit rock bottom, you’ll be more ahead than those working their way up a ladder. “If you have that fire in you and you know that you do,” Ashlye says, “just jump in and go for it. We get one tiny short life, so why not?” We’re all looking for fulfillment in what we do, and hearing Ashlye’s story reminds us that it can be done, as long as we set our minds to it, work hard and go after our God-given dreams.
So how can you get bodyroked? Book a class at the Gulch, Brentwood, Green Hills, or Sylvan Park locations, through the mind-body app!
