Female Founders: Heather Hudson on Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Name: Heather Hudson
Title: COO and Co-Founder
Company: Striking Brands (9Round Fitness/I Love Kickboxing)
No. of units: 330
International units: 130 (out of the 330)
Growth plans: To double down on international growth, to expand the use of new patent-pending technology for workouts that allows studios to be open 24/7, 365 days a year, and to spread the word about our recently acquired franchise, I Love Kickboxing
Public or private? Private
Year company founded: 2008
Year started franchising: 2009
Your years in franchising: 15

Heather “The Hero” Hudson is the COO of Striking Brands, which houses the popular fitness franchises 9Round Kickboxing Fitness and I Love Kickboxing. She is committed to helping franchise partners achieve their financial goals through effective communication, streamlined operations, and scalable business systems. She is dedicated to helping others realize that their fitness and professional goals are achievable.

Growing up with a passion for fitness and wellness, Heather sought effective results from her exercise program after having two children. She discovered kickboxing fitness and fell in love with it, earning black belts in two martial arts styles. This passion led her to co-found 9Round with her husband, creating the world’s largest kickboxing fitness franchise.

Her favorite aspect of working with fitness programs is the ability to assist both beginners and advanced members. Her commitment to helping others extends beyond the studio, and she shares her story during speaking engagements. 

Today, she draws strength from her humble beginnings and present-day life, which she shares with her husband of 17 years and two amazing children. 

Beginnings

What inspired you to start your business? My husband! My husband, Shannon, is a pro fighter in kickboxing and boxing and has a savvy business mind. He passionately wanted to create a workout that was true to his roots and engineer it to be franchised, so we started with that end in mind. I have always loved fitness as I’m extremely active, so when he proposed for this to be our livelihood, I was all in.

What is your background? I did not have the privilege to even consider college and aways knew it was not an option, so I am self-taught. I grew up on welfare, living in Section 8 housing and using food stamps as a child, so I have never been handed anything. My success has all been created by my blood, sweat, and tears. 

When my husband and I threw ourselves into the franchising world, we became students of that world. We became obsessed with studying other franchises, other leaders, and other brands (successful and not), and we did a lot of building the plane as we were flying it. It was crazy, but here we are.

How did that prepare you for starting your business? My background was nothing but being scrappy and resourceful, and I believe all the tough times prepared me to handle what we had to do to make this work.

We weren’t ready for what it meant to be a franchisor in 2009, but there was no other way for us to do it. We were in a recession and on a shoestring budget, but we knew we had a winner. We didn’t have a plan B, but we had grit, so that’s what kept us going. 

What’s the best and worst advice you got when starting out? Oh, boy, I don’t remember being aware enough to ask anyone for advice before we did this. We were such a good team; we knew we could count on ourselves, and we didn’t run the idea past anyone else. Ha, maybe that was a good thing. They might have tried to talk us out of it.

The worst advice I ever got when we first began was that franchise agreements should be customized for each location—kind of a “beggars can’t be choosers” mentality and absolutely wrong. Franchising is all about duplication and consistency: copy, paste, copy, paste. The customer wants all the locations to be the same so that they know what they’re getting from the brand. Likewise, the franchisor needs all of their franchisees to operate the same so that they can focus on support and growth. Changing up the franchise agreement for each owner created a ton of unnecessary work. New franchisors: Don’t do that! 

Was this your first time in franchising? Oh, yes!

Why did you choose to franchise? Franchising was the only way to grow as fast as we did without owning all of the locations. If we had tried to expand by owning them all, we might have 10 or 20—tops. But with other people investing their funds and faith in our brand, we were able to scale quickly. We would not be in 17 countries without going the franchise route. 

Did you have a partner/co-founder when you started? No, just the two of us!

How important was that in building your company? It gave us a chance to learn how we each work in a business sense and find our strengths and weaknesses early on. It also gave us total control over what we were creating. There was no board to answer to, just ourselves and our franchisees. 

How did you fund your company at the beginning? As you grew? Yes, as we grew. We opened our first gym with about $15,000. It was sparse to say the least! When we made a little profit, we bought a channel sign and put it on the building. When we made a little more money, we bought a better front desk. Finally, we used profit to begin the franchising process.

What were the keys to funding your brand? Again, totally self-funded except for a small loan from a friend, which we paid back before we started taking profit home. From there, we took every bit of profit and put it into growing. Eventually, we spent around $10,000 on our franchise documents and started awarding territories. To this day, we have no debt on the company. 

The Business

What has been the best and the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur? Hardest: Since my entrepreneurial experience has only been as a franchisor, the difficult part was not having people to talk to about how to do it right. There aren’t many franchisors who are successful and have time to tell you what to do when you’re starting or how to pivot when you’re starting to mature, etc. So, it has been very lonely at times.

Best: I wouldn’t trade everything I’ve learned about business and myself through this crazy ride for almost anything. I didn’t need a college degree; I earned my master’s degree by living this life. I can take what I’ve learned and apply it to almost anything or any business and do great things. It has been phenomenal for me.

How has your experience in running a franchise business been different from what you expected? The most important thing I’ve learned is that to be a great franchisor, you need to be great at understanding and communicating with people. Collaborating with humans is hard. It’s an art. You need to bend and be flexible even though the goal is all about scaling brand standards exactly as the franchisor says. That’s not real life. In real life, you have to get buy-in. You have to communicate well with empathy and thoroughness so that your franchise partners understand why you’re asking them to pivot and do this new thing. You have to anticipate their fears and proactively soothe them. You hope they will want to follow and not have to be pushed. 

How did you grow the brand at first? What changed as you expanded? Our growth was organic. We had members of 9Round asking us if they could own one too. So, the vibe of 9Round sold itself. There was no social media yet and definitely no Google ads. It was old-fashioned word of mouth and face-to-face selling. It also felt very “mom and pop” in the beginning. Once, we used my kitchen chairs in a business meeting—for crying out loud—when we were selling to potential franchisees because we didn’t have office furniture. I think our down-to-earth nature and the fun energy in our gym made up for what we lacked in polish. As we grew, got an official HQ office, and brought more third-party services in-house, it was more fun, more organized, and definitely a little easier to run than during the early days. But growth brought more challenges. The more locations you have, the more things are happening: some good, some not. So, you’re pulled in more directions than ever. I never knew how much workload I could handle and what pace I could operate at until I became a franchisor. It was a lot more than I ever thought possible.

How did you transition from founding a brand to leading a brand? It wasn’t overnight. For the first few years, my husband and I worked as fitness trainers six days a week and cleaned it on Sunday. Simultaneously, we worked as franchisors (two very different parts of the brain). I remember when we got our first Saturday off. It was so luxurious. One day, I looked up and realized that I was not in the trenches working in the business, but I was working on the business. Slowly, I delegated more and took on new and necessary things. I know about every aspect of the business firsthand even though I no longer have to implement all of those aspects. That’s a good thing because it means I can always know whether or not the business is healthy even when I’m not there.

How would you describe your leadership style? I’m very detail oriented and process driven. I use laughter to mitigate stress, so I’m always joking with our team. I am down-to-earth because I came from such a frugal background, but I’m strong-willed because I know what hard work is: If we want to succeed, it won’t fall in our laps. Anyone can be successful. Anyone. There is nothing special about me except that my work ethic massively improved as I realized what it took to be on top.

What is the key to your company’s success? My husband and I. As founders, we have a steely determination to keep the purity of our brand preserved while learning when to bend. But that wouldn’t be enough if we didn’t have franchise partners who also reflect that in their ownership. They put it all on the line, just like my husband and I did before we even had a website. We don’t take that for granted. We appreciate our franchisees more than ever. Gratitude for them can never be something you forget. 

Female Founder

Was being female an advantage or disadvantage for you in building your company? How? A huge advantage. Being a woman is amazing! Our company has a very balanced office culture of genders because my husband and I have an even percentage of ownership, and that mentality spread into our team, which I love. It also spread into our franchisee ownership group. We have a lot of life partners doing the franchise thing together. It’s great to see. We have as many women as men on our leadership team. Lastly, while we have coed fitness brands, most of our clients are women, and I can tap into their minds because I see myself in them and vice versa. 

Have you found specific advantages or disadvantages to being a woman business owner? I can bring some much-needed levelheadedness and words of wisdom to a “ready, aim, fire” situation because that’s the nature of the female mind. Disadvantages can be there for sure. I’ve been overlooked probably because I was always in high heels with blonde hair and possibly not taken seriously. I was told once that I wasn’t the kickboxer in our business, so my signature wasn’t needed on a collateral document. My husband thought this was ludicrous, of course.

What has been your biggest challenge as a woman entrepreneur? The same as a man’s. It’s just plain hard but rewarding. 

Why do you think there are fewer start-ups with female founders than male ones? I know exactly why. I work with a local nonprofit that supports entrepreneur start-ups and have been surprised by all I have learned during my first few months with them. In the U.S., women have only been allowed to own businesses without a male cosigner since 1988. I didn’t believe this when I heard it, so I looked it up, and it’s true. That was when the Women’s Business Ownership Act (WBOA) was signed by President Ronald Reagan. So, women’s opportunity to solely start businesses has only been an option for fewer than 40 years. This is why you don’t see as many female founders; we have a lot of catching up to do.

Also, most investors are men and tend to invest more in male entrepreneurs and their ideas. We need more females in private equity and investing because they’ll better understand the ideas women bring to the market and likely find it easier to support them. This is a big ship to turn.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace? Having different labels than men for certain behaviors: “bossy” versus “being a leader” or “emotional” versus “passionate.”

Which female leaders do you admire? Why? Mel Robbins is relatable as hell and always manages to nail it with her advice. I love her and got to meet her when she was our keynote speaker at our world convention in 2018! Another woman I admire for being so strong is Oprah Winfrey.

Has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life? How? It’s always good to learn from those who’ve already gone where you’re headed. I’ve had different types of mentors throughout my career and highly recommend them. They’re not always easy to find, so reading and learning from videos and podcasts is like having a mentor. I will always continue learning via those methods. I am also passionate about the importance of personal therapy. Whatever issues you don’t resolve in your own head, you bring to the boardroom, so I believe mental healthcare is critical for everyone, including leaders. 

Looking Ahead

What’s coming up that you’re excited about? I’m finishing up the details of the design for my first book! Of all things, it’s not a business book; it’s a novel. The theme is domestic noir/psychological thriller, and it advocates mental health awareness via literary fiction based on true events. I will release it this year, and I couldn’t be more excited. I never planned on writing anything but a self-help or business book, yet this story chose me to tell it, so here we are. 

What would you like to achieve in the next five years? I want to be a known author for sure, and I wouldn’t mind being on both Oprah and Mel Robbins’ podcasts!