Exploring Life & Business with Cierra Winters of The Box Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Box Studio team. They shared their story with us below:

The Box Studio is owned by Cierra Winters, Sierra Wong, and Florian Dotti, and has a rather unique story that started during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Cierra and Florian (married) were working together towards Cierra’s dream of building and owning a cycle studio and were pen-to-paper almost for a lease when the pandemic hit, and restrictions came into place. They dreamed up a new solution that pivoted from traditional indoor studios, bought a fleet of bikes, a truck, and a trailer, and in partnership with the City of Flagstaff, started to host stationary cycling workouts as well as general boot camp-style fitness outdoors using public parks as a stage. The Spin Box was born but somewhat limited in potential due to the unique model. Cierra worked before with Sierra for multiple years at another corporate studio in Flagstaff, and they remained great friends after Cierra left to pursue her dream and they realized after a time that they shared the same expertise and passion for locally driven fitness. They decided to band up and work on establishing a brick-and-mortar together, which ultimately led to the development of The Box Studio. TBS grew in vision and size, and Cierra and Sierra wanted to bring a more all-encompassing approach to classes and strive for a one-stop shop for the local community. The mission of The Box Studio now aims to empower our local community through upbeat, creative, and purposeful movement. We strive to bring people together in guided group workouts and motivate our local family, unlocking our greatest potentials and finding our most powerful and happiest versions of ourselves. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, though, as we originally planned on building out a new location in the retail space of a large apartment development but again had to pivot. We are lucky to now have found space in downtown Flagstaff in a historical building. Sierra and Cierra love building community and coaching a wide range of members. We are currently working on expanding our space to offer two separate rooms where members can focus on strength and movement-based classes as well as cycle. We also work closely with NAU, where Florian lectures in Health Sciences, and offer internship placement for the university’s Fitness Wellness students.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been considerable hurdles to overcome through this journey, and there remain many obstacles, but our team works incredibly well together, fighting through the adversity. It isn’t easy to start any business, especially independently, and Florian and Cierra invested every penny of their savings in starting The Spin Box. Transitioning to The Box Studio also came with its own set of unique challenges, and Sierra, Florian, and Cierra took business loans out and searched for grants to support the growth and realize their overall dream. Some of the initial hurdles obviously aligned with Covid-19 – how to offer community-driven group fitness classes in a safe and respectful way. Let’s just say the winters were difficult and quite cold. We built an incredible family, though, along the way, and our founding members are complete badasses. We couldn’t be where we are now without the support and love from our community. Transitioning from a mobile, outdoor studio (which we believe we were the first to do) was also challenging. We needed to invest more time and funds into programming, equipment, and overall logistics, but through the passion, resilience, and vision of especially Sierra and Cierra, as well as through the support of our members, we continue to build toward the apex of our vision and dream. We encountered other roadblocks when we began designing and for the initial build-out process for a brick and mortar and ended up needing to sever ties with our initial plan for a lease location, but in the end, are so grateful and happy to have found our home in historic downtown Flagstaff. Additionally, as we focus on a local, community-based approach, there are challenges competing with corporate and national brands, but we want to share the most authentic and original vision we can with our community.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
We specialize in overall group fitness but emphasize stationary cycling, using incredible RevMaster Pro bikes from LeMond, as well as strength classes using a wide range of weights, including barbells, Bosu balls, boxes, bands, and more. We intentionally program all our classes, and we offer modifications and customization to every member. Our cycle classes are rhythm-based and music-driven. We are community-driven, and we listen to and engage with all feedback, tailoring the workout specifically and with intention to our members.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
Absolutely. The first lesson we learned surrounds resiliency and adaptability. We had to pivot creatively to continue working toward our dream and Covid proved how necessary it is to stay light-hearted and light-footed and dynamically engage and overcome adversity. We also learned how incredibly powerful and supportive a local community can be, which has led us to where we are now.

Pricing:

• 119.00/Month – Unlimited (with occasional flash sales) *But, memberships will increase when we open our second room.
• 99.00/Month – 8 classes
• Class Packs are Available
• Offer Yoga and Stretch and other sessions included!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theboxstudioflg.com
• Instagram: @theboxstudio_flg
• Facebook: facebook.com/theboxstudioflg