Every woman possesses a skill that is uniquely her own. In a world where influencers are wild and comparison is a thief, one of the quickest ways to kill a superpower is by copying someone else.
This is a lesson City Gym owner Hailee Bland-Walsh has been cultivating within herself over the last fifteen years. The way she operates her business is unique, not only as a woman in a male-dominated industry, but also from the perspective of wanting the gym to be an inclusive environment for everyone.
“The biggest compliment I can get is when someone walks in the front door and says, ‘It feels different here.’ Even for people, like me, who are former professional athletes and personal trainers, the gym can just be a place where you don't feel totally comfortable. If you’re feeling unsafe in some way, it's going to be a lot harder for you to work on the stuff that you need to work on. Safety is the most basic tenet of what we do,” Bland-Walsh said.
The core values of City Gym have not changed in fifteen years. Back then, Bland-Walsh had a successful career managing some of the largest gyms in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, after a trip back home to visit family in 2011, she was convinced her next move was opening her own gym in Kansas City.
“I still have the notes that I took on the legal pad of paper about what our slogan would be, the color, how it would look, and what the focus would be. It just poured out of me,” Bland-Walsh said. “Within six months, I had packed up everything I owned in San Francisco, drove myself home, and moved into my parents' basement while I looked for a place to open a gym and buy a house. I just took the leap.”
When Bland-Walsh began making radically different decisions than other gyms in the area, she was told her business would not last. One of those pivots from the normal was not requiring membership contracts. She wanted to retain people, not through intimidation, but through excellent customer service.
“You give us thirty days, you can cancel at any time. Fitness is a journey, and with our operating model, we make it easy and fun and happy,” Bland-Walsh said. “People will be gone for years and come back and say it feels like coming home. That's how I know this approach is working after fifteen years.”
The culture of community is also central to the way Bland-Walsh leads. As City Gym has grown, she made it her goal not to be its face, but to promote a sense of ownership throughout the community.
“One of my favorite things is walking in the door with a hat on and people don't know that I'm the owner. For me, that's a success,” she said. “I've created a community that relies on itself rather than on me. One person can only take it so far, but a community can have a real ripple effect.”
From the start, risk has played a major role in Bland-Walsh’s success as a female business owner. She would be the first to encourage anyone that just because failure is a possibility, it should not keep you from taking the first step toward your calling.
“One of the things that I hear over and over again when I meet with women who are thinking about owning their own business is ‘Am I qualified’?” she said. “You've got to be good at what you're going to do, but if you have an overwhelming excitement about doing something, you should do it. That is your cue. You will only learn by doing it.”
After years of following other leadership styles, Bland-Walsh has come to realize that her strengths do not mimic those of other successful leaders. During the 2020 pandemic when gyms were rapidly changing their business models, she stayed true to what made City Gym great, exercising discernment and relying on strong community. Now, City Gyms numbers are even greater than they were pre-pandemic.
“My superpower is my intuition,” Bland-Walsh said. “I've learned that true discernment requires that I slow down. The most important decisions require my thoughtfulness, not just responding quickly for the sake of expediency. The more I lean into what my own talents and skill sets are, the more successful City Gym has become. Don't try to be the influencer down the street. Don't try to be the business owner next door. Be the best version of you.”