#OurSAY Collaborators: Phillippa Hardman, Founder & CEO of Educated Body

We’re delighted to be kicking of our new #OurSAY Collaborator series with Phillippa Hardman. Phillippa started her career as a professional dancer and personal trainer before founding Educated Body, a specialist spa and gym consultancy for residential and commercial clients across the UK. SAY and Educated Body have collaborated on many projects because there is a natural synergy in our approach. They have become an extended part of the SAY team because we can always rely on them to give our clients sound, sensible advice.  We sat down with Phillippa to ask her about the journey to founding her business, her time as a Hot Gossip dancer and who her dream mentor would be.

SAY: When did you start your business? 

Phillippa: I started a sole trader Personal Training business in 1992, there were literally a handful of PT’s in London at that time. It was a totally new concept from LA and NYC. I had many senior business people as my clients and could see what a huge difference exercise made to their lives both physically and for their stress levels and wellbeing.

I started the business in 2001 originally as Raw Fitness Ltd and then renamed it Raw Corporate Health Ltd (Trading as Educated Body) as a corporate gym management contract business.

In 2006 the business moved into residential gym and spa consultancy and management. A friend of mine was a property developer in the North of England and he told me to go to the US and look at the gyms in apartment buildings, he said it will be here in a big way. So that’s what I did. At that point I often knew more than our new property clients did as I had done so much research in the US. It was exciting to work with large property developers, house builders and world-renowned architects

SAY: Why did you start your business? 

I had wanted an opportunity to make my 1990 -2001 sole trader personal training business a bigger business, to be able to reach more people. I also wanted something that generated income that could scale beyond simply being the number of hours I had available for appointments. When you are selling your time in one-hour slots, you quickly realise there is a limit.

In 2001 the opportunity came via an existing PT client who owned a large hedge fund, GLG Partners in Mayfair. He was opening a stunning new office and wanted to create a world class gym with wellbeing and fitness services available to their team onsite every day. Instead of my being onsite every day, I started to employ people. We had this contract for many years until the company moved offices and took out the gym due to lack of space. It was an amazing opportunity for which I will always be grateful.

SAY: What did you do before?  

I was a professional dancer from 1982 – 1988. I was initially a ballet dancer and then auditioned for Arlene Philips ‘Hot Gossip’ dance group in 1982. It was an impulsive decision to attend the audition and I ended up getting the job out of the 3,000 people who had auditioned that day. I hung up my point shoes and stated dancing in high heels and underwear! Hot Gossip at that time was a huge success and opened many doors for me in my dance career as well as enabling me to travel the world working and doing many TV commercials and music videos in the 1980’s. I worked with many of the key names still in the dance world today including Bruno, Simon Cowell and of course Arlene Philips amongst many others.

I had my daughter in 1988 and my dance background led me to teaching aerobics and Pilates in 1990 and then into becoming a very successful personal trainer in the early 1990

SAY: What has been your biggest challenge in growing your business? 

In 2001 I had not even used a computer; in fact I’d never even typed a letter! I was going to be a ballet dancer so saw no reason to ever learn these skills at school.

When I started the business, I had to learn everything on my feet, all the business skills required. I made mistakes but I learnt from them quickly. I found out that I was naturally commercially minded, which really helped, and I seemed to be good at managing clients. I started to win business so I had to learn fast. I searched out people who could help me learn in the early years.

SAY: What are you most proud of?  

I am proud of the business as it stands today. We now employ over 70 people and the way the team has rallied during Covid is something I am particularly proud of. We are emerging stronger as a business coming out of the pandemic and that says a lot about Educated Body.

I feel very grateful to have what we have today, and for the people that have helped along the way, both within the business and the clients who gave us opportunities when the business was much smaller.

I feel especially grateful for the fact I have a trusted senior management team, many of whom are young and developing their careers with us. I love having bright young people in the team who bring so much to the table

SAY: What is the one piece of advice you wish you had, before you started the business?  

I wish I had not felt limited in believing we could grow the business, due to lack of a business background early on. No one should feel limited. I also – wish I’d learned to type sooner than I did

SAY: If you could choose anyone to be your mentor, who would it be?  

Michelle Obama is an incredible woman. Forget being married to an ex-President, her credentials speak for themselves. She studied law at Harvard which isn’t easy. I know this well because my daughter graduated in law and then did her International  law masters at Columbia University in New York City. Throughout her time in the White House she served as a role model for women. She did amazing things to raise awareness about poverty, education and even physical activity and nutrition. What I also get from Michelle is a sense of family and balance. Despite the intense media spotlight, and enormous responsibility as First Lady, she succeeded as a great mum. She now mentors and supports young people. I wish I’d met her twenty years ago!