The misfit’s method: no business plan
“Word spread really quickly that I was doing something different. For me, what was validating was that people understood.” AMBER JOLIAT DANCE STUDIO OWNER
Fusing yoga, Pilates and dance, studio owner gets people listening to her sound
Amber Joliat didn’t have a business plan when she started Misfit Studio.
Five years and hundreds of converted “misfits” later, she still doesn’t. She’s never needed one.
“I didn’t even know what that was,” Joliat jokes. “I’ve been asked ‘When you opened the studio, how did you know people were going to come to class?’ I didn’t. I still don’t. Every single day I’m like, ‘It’s so great that you’re here!’”
“When there’s something based on love and passion and truth, people identify with that. It resonates,” the 37-year-old studio owner says.
“That said, the classes here are excellent.”
Misfit Studio, as Joliat describes it, is Toronto’s unique movement studio. Sitting atop Queen Street West in a converted church (the same building occupied by Anthropologie — Joliat got there first). Misfit offers a suite of classes that blend Pilates, yoga and dance. Since it first launched as a small experiment in Parkdale, it’s grown into one of Toronto’s foremost studios, occupying a niche entirely its own.
When you walk up the stairs to the studio, you’re greeted by a chalkboard bearing Talking Heads’ lyrics (This must be the place). Then there’s the name.
“The interesting thing about using the word (misfit) is the gravitational pull towards it,” Joliat explains. “People who have a slightly more open mind or who are looking for something alternative to do see that word and are encouraged by it, or curious about it. Right away, it magnetizes like-minded people.”
Misfit Studio was born in 2010, when Joliat — then a yoga and Pilates teacher working at various places across Toronto — felt uninspired by the uniformity of the classes and studios.
She found a 500-square-foot space in Parkdale — “there was enough room for only six yoga mats” — to teach her fusion classes and was taken aback by how quickly business took off.
“It was crazy how fast it happened. It was 15, then 20, then 30 people showing up for class,” Joliat recalls. “Then blogTO voted me in their top 10 yoga studios, in the first six months of me being open. Word spread really quickly that I was doing something different. For me, what was validating was that people understood.”
Joliat needed a larger space to accommodate the growing Misfit community. She found a converted coach house near Queen St. and Euclid Ave. that boasted seven skylights and could fit the reformer machines she had added to the mix.
“That time there was really magic. I don’t think there was any care or stress,” Joliat says. “I took on two young teachers and trained them. The classes were busy. I was doing retreats around the world. It was a dream. And then there was that crazy storm.”
In July 2013, an epic rainstorm hit Toronto and damaged the studio, causing the roof to collapse. “I won- dered if it was a sign,” Joliat says. “I felt like I had to decide whether to keep going. But because there had been such a strong community that had been built, I realized it wasn’t about me anymore.”
Misfit Studio entered its third incarnation. After a nine-month stint on the ground floor of the converted church, the studio relocated to the third floor and its current space, with huge stained glass windows that bathe the rooms in light.
That was July 2014. Since then, Misfit has continued to grow. Joliat and her team of more than 10 instructors offer 45 classes a week. There are plans to livestream classes, create videos and implement a mentoring program for prospective teachers. There’s also whisperings of a second location.
That success has been organic. There’s been no marketing (unless you count the well-followed Misfit Instagram account, featuring vintage photos of pin-ups and celebrities dancing and moving), no elaborate growth strategy and no gimmicky promotions.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Joliat says. “It’s changed my life so much. I run a business now.
“People ask me quite a lot, ‘Did you dream of being a studio owner?’ My dream was to be a painter or a dancer. I never dreamed this. But that’s not the way I think. I’m just grateful for today.”