The Studios of the future
So many studios are focused on building a studio that balances the aesthetic with well-rounded Pilates and or Cardio/HIIT programs. But have you ever thought about creating a comprehensive wellness hub for your clients before? Curious, then read on about Marney Jury’s journey.
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We had a vision when creating Sum of Us Studio that we would be a total wellness studio, where we could cater for all people across their lifespan and across all aspects of wellness. Sum of Us is the lovechild of four dynamic and progressive health professionals, with a passion for wholistic, accessible and honest health and wellness care, fulfilling our dream of providing a beautiful wellness hub to the people of Melbourne, Australia.
We consider ourselves a health clinic, a fitness studio, a community hub, a retreat and a home, all disguised in one gorgeous studio! We wanted to provide a one-stop home away from home where all people felt welcome to come and enjoy the best of services to achieve total wellness. We wanted to provide asafe and beautiful space where we could be sure people where getting the quality of service we expected across the expansion on their journey and life. One place to see people through from injury and pain, to fitness, and vice versa.
The idea for our business was created while I was living in London. Upon my return, I started working with some like-minded physios and a myotherapist who all shared the same vision and dream - to create a beautiful, luxurious, urban oasis run by health professionals who offered much more than just conventional western style medicine and practice.
Essentially we have physiotherapists, myotherapists, a dietician, an acupuncturist, massage specialists, Pilates teachers, Yoga teachers, meditation and sound bath healers, management and administration staff all working together to tune in, find and offer the most effective personalised plan for any person.
Our studio focuses on the myriad of components needed for a person or a population to be as well, healthy, happy and able as possible across the lifespan. Things like a personalised and individualised approach, connection and community, accessibility, consistency, and commitment. So we have worked hard to create a space and service that organically and naturally feeds these components, allowing us to create
health and wellness outcomes on an entirely different level.
Strategies such as incorporating a cafe to encourage connection, having intimate spaces that feel private and safe, using a calming colour palette, natural light and incorporating the outdoors, and hand selecting staff allows us to create the experience we want our clients to feel.
We select staff and service providers based first and foremost on their values, philosophy, and intent. This means the feel and culture is highly consistent, and that every staff member encountered in the studio, has the client’s whole wellbeing, experience and outcomes as the highest priority over anything else.
Our physiotherapists are all Pilates-trained teachers, our myotherapists are all either pilates, yoga, meditation or massage trained. The uniqueness is that our therapists all use a combination of techniques and work interchangeably, we have all learnt from each other and combined our knowledge and skills to create our own unique way. We all use manual techniques (massage, dry needling/acupuncture, mobilisation, etc) as well as exercise-based therapy to sustain manual changes. We work closely with our exercise physiologist, dietician and podiatrist who all also embody our approach of looking at health and the body as a whole, not a part. Our team works interchangeably and with clients to give them the best and most effective and honest service and outcomes.
The feel of community, family and connection is paramount in health and wellness outcomes. This feel is genuine and true at Sum of Us. It comes from the heart of the four of Us and the people we select who naturally embody it and are encouraged and coached to grow it. At Sum of Us you'll find our instructors also work as managers and front of house/administration, our admin team are studying myotherapy or physiotherapy, we are all on the same level and all intertwined, but most importantly understand our clients’ needs in great detail and where they fit and need to be in our studio.
In any given week we might see children and teens, young professionals for pilates, yoga, massage, injuries; mums-to-be for prenatal pilates and pelvic floor assessment, middle-aged men and women with back or neck pain, post-menopausal women, athletes and more! Best of all they stay with us forever – increasing our client retention, our referral pool and satisfaction.
Part of our strategy for retaining clients is to inform and educate them on
the options most suitable to them in their life stage/journey through our marketing efforts, events and promotions. Our staff are also heavily immersed in our offerings and culture so they also understand the why, the what, the who and the how, so that no matter who a client encounters, they can be guided towards what will work best for them.
The typical client might come into our Studio and start working with us through a “Starter Pack” that includes an initial individual session with one of our Physiotherapists who can then act like a concierge service to best inform, direct and guide clients towards an experience and journey most suited to them. Taking into consideration genuine needs and desires, financial ability, time ability, commitment ability, the complete consideration set.
Often our clients might be coming for general fitness pilates or yoga, become injured or develop pain, see one of our physios or therapists to help manage the issue with guidance for adjustments to take in classes, or to do some rehab clinical classes. While other clients might initially attend for an injury or pain, and progress their rehab into to fitness/maintenance.
We have two, eight bed reformer studios, and one mat/yoga room and we see about 700 attendees through the door each week. We have three clinical pilates studios and five treatment rooms, which see around 500 people through each week. The beautiful thing is, our two, double-story Victorian buildings feel private, warm and homely making it a much more personable experience for our clients.
I think our clients describe it best themselves, calling our services “The most professional generous care”...Another said, “I have experienced a wonderful improvement in the pain I was experiencing and a much stronger body.” These are the moments we live for.
I’m grateful for what my business partners, Chris and Brigid Jellis and Melissa Price and I have created. We wanted to join together all the things we loved doing - to deliver personalised and progressive health, to exercise and move, to go to beautiful yoga studios, hotels and retreats, gorgeous cafes, to eat healthily (but not exclusively healthy!!), to hang out together with family and friends, to receive a treatment, class or service that cared for us and so we created our own oasis...and our clients wouldn’t have it any other way.
Marney Jury is a physiotherapist, Pilates teacher, and passionate advocate of holistic wellness. Combining her skills and passions she created Sum of Us Studio, spending her days helping people feel better - treating clients, taking clinical and reformer Pilates classes, teaching, educating, empowering and connecting with her clients and team.