AMIRA POLACK
Amira is the founder of Struct Club, a platform that provides music-driven structure for fitness instructors. She grew up falling in love with music and athletics, but as an adult, she found it hard to figure out a sustainable exercise stride outside of organized sports, until she came across group-driven, music-driven classes. "Something with that lit up for me." Before Struct Club, she was at Harvard Business School. She is a former swimmer, track athlete, softball player, dancer, and water polo player, recently had her first child, and sat on the board of the Women in Fitness Association before its acquisition.
Outside of work, she’s happiest in the water, snorkeling shipwrecks and seeing wildlife (especially turtles). Just any form of movement really. "We use the word fitness, but to me, it's all about just moving your body. That's something we're born to do, but it can be so hard in adult life."
HOW SHE OPERATES:
How Amira manages her health and energy while building a company:
The 80% nobody's building for
Only 20% of the US population has a gym membership. And it's often the same 20% using fitness apps and online programs.
"All of those brands are targeting the same person, marketing to them the same way. What about the rest of the 80%?"
The next big brand in fitness hasn't been discovered yet. "The biggest brands in the next era of fitness and movement are yet to be found."
Believes the answer is making movement enjoyable and sustainable, not just intense. Music, group activity, competition, being outside. "We're born to move. It can just be so hard in adult life."
Launched into COVID and survived
Incorporated in 2018. Beta tested in 2019. Launched broadly in late November 2019, weeks before the pandemic shut every gym in the country.
The industry she served was completely dependent on in-person indoor group classes.
Had to watch businesses that survived on debt eventually close because they couldn't generate enough revenue when obligations came due.
Start small, earn the big names
Built credibility one instructor at a time before approaching household brands.
"A lot of founders want to go straight for the big brands. Work out the kinks with lesser-known brands first."
Small business owners put you to the test harder than enterprise clients. "They really need your stuff to work. They'll give you the time to collect feedback and build a robust product."
When you show up to a big brand, the preparation from those smaller relationships is obvious. "They can see that entrepreneurs with real skin in the game have co-built with you."
Distributed customers also make the business more resilient. If one goes down, you still have the other 99%.
Stay connected to the people you're building for
Has a Slack channel called #StructLove where the team shares customer stories.
A mom of six left her phone number in a support ticket. Amira called her. "Investors would probably ask why I spend my time doing that. I think it's really important."
Even improvement feedback is a pinch-me moment. "People don't share that stuff unless they care. They have stakes in you improving."
The B2B model compounds impact: each instructor she helps reaches thousands of people in their own communities.
Sleep is the non-negotiable
Goes to bed and wakes up at the same time every day. Currently waking up around 6am after her baby's schedule shifted everything earlier.
"People make fun of me. They say I have a granny schedule. I just gotta get my sleep in."
Her 23andMe report said her genetics predict a natural wake-up time of 8:36am. Having a baby changed that math.
Firmly against hustle culture sleep deprivation. "Glorifying waking up at 5am after going to sleep at 3am, that's not it. The science has proven that out."
Cites Gary Vee: "Don't get it twisted. I sleep 7, 8, 9 hours a night. It's not about how little you sleep, it's about what you do with your time."
Cycle tracking and knowing your body
Tracks her menstrual cycle. "Having the awareness of where you're at is super important."
Pregnancy was a different phase entirely. Had a complex pregnancy and couldn't train the way some people post about on social media.
Pushes back on the bragging culture of postpartum fitness. "If that's not you, and you need two years to get back, that's not only fine, you still deserve to be celebrated. You just created a human being."
Self-care as structure
Morning routine, evening routine, and small rituals throughout the day.
Regular massages. Manicures. Collagen masks on FaceTime calls with friends.
"Those things pay back a lot in terms of communicating to myself that I prioritize myself."
"Entrepreneur life can be wild and unpredictable. Having some cornerstones of routine helps with grounding."
Give yourself grace to grieve the path you planned
COVID didn't just challenge her business. It killed the path she had envisioned.
"When a black swan event creates a fork in your path, you have to give yourself grace to grieve the loss of Path A before you can get excited about Path B."
"Learning to go through all the phases of grief enables you to not just get over it and move on, but to really be stronger and more connected with yourself."
Applies the same thinking to postpartum recovery. Still not back to pre-pregnancy performance. "Patience with myself, especially as a competitive person, is a really huge thing to learn."
“Even when you love work, it's so easy to just keep pouring in. One more hour here, one more hour here. I'm going to skip that meal. It's really late and I haven't eaten anything today. I hear this all the time from founder friends. It's so common to neglect your own health, but those are the things that underpin burnout.”
MY TAKEAWAY:
Yet another athlete to entrepreneur pipeline, although this time, it wasn’t just Amira finding what to do after athletics for herself but helping millions of others do the same.
The basics really do underpin burnout. People think taking the time to cook or workout takes you away from your business, when it’s actually the opposite. You have to take care of your mind and body so you can put more energy into your business. (By all means though, if you can outsource cooking to a chef, that’s a worthwhile investment to me).
Lastly, I think it’s such an amazing thing when you’re in tune with your body. Especially as a woman and knowing what each phase of your cycle brings you. It just becomes intuition on knowing how the things you eat and do will affect you.
WHAT MOVES THE NEEDLE (From Amira):
Don't skip the basics. Sleep, nutrition, movement. Those are the building blocks before anything else.
Beyond that, energizing your creativity and doing things, making time for yourself and your life, or doing things that you love, spending time with people that you love and that fill your cup
Build structure into your life, even small rituals, because the unpredictability of founder life will eat you alive without some cornerstones to hold onto.
STEAL THIS:
Actions you can take right now
Go to bed and wake up at the same time for the next seven days. Amira, Gary Vee, and the science all agree: sleep is the foundation everything else is built on.
If you're recovering from something, whether it's postpartum, an injury, a business setback, or just a rough stretch, stop comparing your timeline to someone else's highlight reel.
WHAT SHE IS BUILDING:
Struct Club - Music-driven structure for fitness instructors
Instructors use it to prepare classes, run sessions, and engage and retain their own client base. The platform is free to download on the App Store with a premium tier for power users. Amira has built it over eight years, from individual instructors to partnerships with household-name fitness brands. She sits on the board of the Women in Fitness Association and sees Struct Club as part of a larger mission: making movement sustainable and enjoyable for the 80% of Americans who aren't showing up to gyms.
CHECK OUT STRUCT CLUB:
Thank you for reading!
