Taking a BOLD Leap of Faith

When Rachel Vickhouse first heard about Mindbody, she had just opened MVP Dance Fit in Kettering, Ohio. At the time, she couldn’t afford the software and resorted to paper to manage her business. When that became too difficult, Rachel made the leap to try Mindbody.

After she started using Mindbody, Rachel saw an instant change in her business. “It was literally like the sun rose and the birds flew in and wind was in my hair and money kept streaming down from signing up for Mindbody,” Rachel explained.

After using Mindbody for a year, Rachel and her team decided to attend the BOLD conference in 2016, approaching it with energy, enthusiasm—and bright, matching outfits.

Even though fun was a large part of their BOLD experience, the MVP Dance Fit Team buckled down to learn more about running a business—an area Rachel knew she had room to grow.

“I didn’t really have any business background, and I’m sure lots of fitness small business owners are like that,” Rachel said. “We want to be good at business but we just don’t know how—so it was really, really enlightening to be there.”

BOLD opened Rachel’s eyes to the importance of improving MVP’s social media marketing. The conference also opened their eyes to a product they didn’t know they should be marketing: their brand.

After being approached by several BOLD attendees about their Swerk (Sweat. Work. Twerk.) shirts, the team registered for their trademark in their conference hotel room. Since registering the trademark, MVP has licensed over 50 instructors in Swerk and established Swerk classes in multiple states and over 20 cities.

Despite the success of their Swerk brand, Rachel remains humble—emphasizing that it’s important to not get caught up in the buzz and keep your business’s services consistent with your values.

“Keep going back to the bottom line foundation,” Rachel said. “If you can do that over time, you’re going to be successful because you’re putting in blood, sweat and tears towards that one direction instead of losing sight of the foundational thing that you’re trying to give your clients.”

Rachel’s clients appreciate these values too—they created a GoFundMe account that raised $20,000 to fund a 5,000 square foot expansion. This generosity of the MVP Dance Fit community, along with Rachel’s strong sense of values and the business advice learned at BOLD made this expansion over the space next door possible.

Since then, MVP Dance Fit has opened a second location in Xenia, Ohio, and won 2016’s Best Gym of Dayton.