Meet Rachel Benson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Benson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I use my creativity in my business to develop classes that promote retention and growth while also remaining dynamic and fun for children of all ages. I keep my creativity alive by constantly being surrounded by my target audience (children) and actually listening to and caring about what they like and are interested in.

I watch their movies and shows, I read the books (or at least articles about the books) I see them reading, I check out new toys, buy their snacks to try, and I ask them new questions every week to find out more about them. They are my greatest source of knowledge and inspiration for the best ways to present the material within our programs to them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
George’s Gym is a completely mobile company for children that has been operating for a little over 15 years in and around Chicago. We bring everything needed to execute our Tumbling and Fitness Programs to wherever our clients are located. Our typical clients are Schools, Daycares, Camps, and all other types of organizations that provide programming for children. We are primarily hired to teach enrichment classes during the day, afterschool classes in the afternoon and special programs at Daycamps during the summer.

We teach at a number of private schools and summer camps on the North Side and in the downtown areas of the city but we also have the privilege of teaching at Daycare locations all over the South Side and the Southern Suburbs. We began teaching in these areas after we were contacted many years ago by our first Daycare client, located in the South Shore neighborhood. She shared that many businesses like ours service areas of the city that are less than a 15 minute drive from the South Side but refuse to travel to their neighborhoods as well. This greatly limits the number of enrichment programs their children have access to in already extremely under-resourced areas.

After working in several neighborhoods on the South and West Sides for a couple of years, we saw first hand how differently the city treats it’s residents. So in 2017, we decided it was time to make these areas a priority for our company and at least in this one way provide the same advantages as the children in all the other communities we serve.

We felt the best way to do so would be to create two different sets of pricing, with one being at a discounted rate for Daycares and Non-Profit Organizations, located in under-resourced area’s or servicing underserved communities and the other being at an adjusted higher rate for all other communities. By remaining fully transparent in our mission with all of our clients, this new approach has worked quite well and we’ve even lowered the discounted pricing twice since then.

​We strongly believe that every child deserves truly equal opportunities and in this small way, we are trying to do our part to bridge the gap. To expand our efforts, in January we will be releasing new time slots and inviting even more schools and daycares to join the George’s Gym family. We love for our clients to know, that when they book a class with George’s Gym they are helping to provide the same class for children that might not otherwise have the opportunity. We also love for our clients to know that they are receiving the same quality programming no matter who they are or where they are located.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Adaptability- Failure doesn’t mean you should quit. It just means you need to change something. George’s Gym has changed and evolved so many times throughout the years, but the earliest example I can give is when some of our programs weren’t becoming as profitable as others, we made the difficult decision to discontinue them. We then focused our efforts on the programs that were doing well instead of trying to convince our clients that our failing programs were something they needed. In doing so, we were able to really fine-tune our successful products, making them even better and marketing them to a wider audience. By being willing to let go, we created space for change which allowed room for growth. Without change, there is no growth.

Belief In Your Product and Being Able To Talk About It- I believe with my whole heart that my product is GREAT and something many people need. Also, knowing my product backward and forward and being able to communicate to others what it is/why they need it, has always been our biggest source of marketing. In all honesty, this was not something I knew how to do initially and it took a lot of practice over a number of years. I’ve found that most people generally tend to be experts in the fields they go into, but that doesn’t mean they know how to explain it to others in the most marketable ways. Practicing your sales pitch until it becomes second nature is something I highly recommend and wish I’d learned to do sooner. Additionally, I feel it’s helpful to approach your pitch from multiple angles, so as to explain what you do to various audiences, who may be seeking your services for different reasons.

Professionalism- Over the years we have grown from working in people’s living rooms, basements, and backyards to working in some of the top private schools, best daycares, and biggest summer camps in all of Chicago. We have clients that we have been working with continuously for as long as 10 years. We have been able to accomplish this by always remaining professional in every situation no matter how unprofessional it may feel. It may seem cliche, but we are always on time, we only cancel in case of a true emergency, we are always in uniform, we learn and respect all of the different rules and policies at every location we work at and we deliver a safe, engaging and fun product EVERY time. I’m not saying there is zero margin for error, but we built policies within our own company that help us to maintain a certain standard, that keeps us from making avoidable mistakes and risking our reputation.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
Currently, our ideal client is a Daycare or School that is looking for enrichment programs during the school day. We tend to attract locations that are looking for more gross motor skill development options/programs that can be supplemented for PE.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Angela Garbot Photography

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Beating Burnout

Often the key to having massive impact is the ability to keep going when others

Where does your generosity come from?

Over the years, we have consistently been blown away by the examples of generosity we’ve

From Burnout to Balance: The Role of Self-Care

Burning out is one of the primary risks you face as you work towards your