This article is part of ATN’s DISRUPT 2024 video series, featuring can’t-miss conversations with the biggest executives in fitness and wellness. To watch DISRUPT content, click here
Tracy Anderson might be best known for her early work training celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, but she’s not resting on those laurels.
Speaking during ATN’s DISRUPT 2024 video series, Anderson, founder of the Tracy Anderson Method, explained that she wants her current work in fitness and wellness to speak for itself.
“They’re amazing people, amazing women and they did so much to raise the awareness for my life’s work – and I have immense amounts of gratitude for that,” Anderson said of her affiliation with celebrities. “But my work is much deeper than that.”
Despite her massive social media following, Anderson prefers to avoid celebrity-driven marketing, which has long been popular in fitness.
“Where I sit today is, ‘I won’t participate in those conversations,’” she said. “You’ll never see me posting with a celebrity client or using any … sort of consumeristic commodity to play games with people’s well-being.”
During DISRUPT, Anderson sat down with Athletech News founder and CEO Edward Hertzman to share her unique approach to the business of fitness, including what makes the Tracy Anderson Method distinct from other workout concepts, her thoughts on the podcasting industry and her plans for brick-and-mortar studio expansion.
What Is the Tracy Anderson Method?
While Anderson might’ve risen to fame by training the likes of Paltrow and J Lo, these days she’s also known for the Tracy Anderson Method, a comprehensive fitness routine centered around high-rep, low-weight exercises that also incorporates elements of mat Pilates, dance cardio and other functional movement elements.
Anderson said the method was developed based on the results of a five-year study she conducted over 20 years ago, which measured 150 different women to find their ideal fitness routines.
“My mission was never to start a brand or a business or to be entrepreneurial,” Anderson said of her early days in the fitness industry. “It was to help us in our human experience be closer to our bodies and … understand what we can and can’t control in them.”
Today, the Tracy Anderson Method is practiced at studios in New York, Los Angeles, London and Madrid. It’s also available online through a subscription.
For Anderson, the method is about more than just fitness.
“I’m interested in a much more holistic picture,” she said. “I really believe you cannot separate the physical body from the intellectual, spiritual, emotional – you can’t separate these aspects of yourself.”
“I think people fear what I do in a lot of ways, because they’re like, ‘No, I need to go and just lift a weight,” she added. “And I’m like, ‘It’s fine. Go lift a weight, (but) you’ll never, ever experience what I experience in my body.’”
On the Podcast Experiment
On her business philosophy, Anderson noted that she’s quick to pivot away from things that don’t fit into her core values, no matter how lucrative they could become.
She launched a podcast, “The Longevity Game with Tracy Anderson,” in January, but realized that the podcasting game wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.
“I’ll say yes for a bit for anything, but I’ll be very fast to change anything that doesn’t feel like it’s worth my time,” Anderson said. “I started interviewing people, and … I couldn’t wait to get off. I was like, ‘I’m just letting you spiel your spiel to my audience that I care so deeply about, and I don’t believe in it.’ I didn’t want to be a platform that just needed to find guest after guest.”
Anderson still releases episodes of the podcast periodically, but only with guests whose message she personally endorses.
“If I’m publishing a podcast, it’s like, ‘Oh gosh, pay attention. She likes this person,’” she said.
On Franchise Expansion
Anderson also touched on her expansion plans for Tracy Anderson Method Studios, which recently began franchising to drive more growth.
Anderson explained that she was against expanding the brand through franchising for a long time but finally came around to the idea, urged by demand from her Tracy Anderson Method community members and encouragement from her attorney, who felt strongly that it was the right business move.
The first franchised Tracy Anderson Method Studios are set to open in Miami (two upcoming locations) and Bozeman, Montana.
While Anderson will pursue franchise expansion, don’t expect to see Tracy Anderson Method studios in every town and city in the U.S. – the brand will be highly selective about the markets it chooses to enter and the franchisees with whom it chooses to partner.
“We’re only approving people who really love my life’s work and have found a closer relationship with themselves through it,” Anderson said. “They undeniably know why it’s special, why it’s unique and why it has its place in the market.”
After a call with the franchise group bringing the Miami studios to life, Anderson is excited about the future.
“I’m so excited for the communities that are going to get these incredible people who are taking on the big, huge step of being business owners, and they’re bringing my method forward to their markets,” she said.
To watch Anderson’s interview in full, click here.
