HUSTLE House

MEET JULIANA BLAZUK, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF HUSTLE HOUSE, A VIRTUAL FITNESS COMPANY BASED IN SCOTTSDALE WITH MEMBERS NATIONWIDE. BLAZUK CREATED HUSTLE HOUSE AS A WAY FOR MEMBERS OF ALL LEVELS TO WORKOUT ON THEIR SCHEDULE AND CURATE THEIR PREFERENCES FOR TYPE OF WORKOUT AND INSTRUCTOR FOR A CONVENIENT, FUN FITNESS EXPERIENCE.

Virtual fitness is no longer a thing of the past, now people can workout in the comfort of their home whenever fits best for their schedule. And most would agree it’s also a more engaging and enjoyable fitness experience that’s affordable with short, effective workouts with qualified, energetic instructors.

Juliana Blazuk founded HUSTLE House, a virtual fitness company, in 2020 to provide high-quality, effective workouts to members nationwide. The 24/7 on-demand platform allows members to curate their classes based on their schedule, interests and favorite instructors. HUSTLE House offers classes including dance cardio, barre, cycle, yoga, strength-based workouts and more. There are also wellness sessions available which include breathwork and stretch classes to help members release tension in their bodies.

Blazuk launched HUSTLE House in November 2020, and originally wanted to open an indoor running studio, but during that process, COVID hit and after going through quarantine as a fitness instructor, realized there was a need for virtual fitness and pivoted to a virtual fitness studio.

Although Blazuk moved to Scottsdale in 2019, she spent the previous 15 years working at Nickelodeon and Snapchat in New York City. “I learned at Snapchat that I really liked the pace and the grit that’s needed at a startup, so that’s kind of when I started thinking about transitioning into a startup myself,” Blazuk said. “I knew that I liked touching many different facets of the business because at a start up there’s not enough people so you’re doing everything-so I knew I liked that side but wasn’t really sure how that applied to me. 

Juliana Blazuk, founder and owner, HUSTLE House

“And then after doing some soul searching towards the end of my tenure at Snapchat, I was trying to figure out, ‘What are the non-negotiables that I do everyday’ as a way to drum up some ideas for my own business and I realized what I did everyday since I can remember was fitness and working out, it’s always been part of my daily routine. And running in particular was always something I enjoyed because it was a physical challenge, so then I started thinking, ‘how can I pivot my career into something that’s more of a passion and running in particular?’”

Blazuk chose to move to Scottsdale since her family had slowly started moving to the Valley years ago and wanted to be closer to her family. Prior to leaving Snapchat, Blazuk got certified as a fitness trainer and health coach and began working on her business plan to build an indoor running studio in Scottsdale.

“I wanted to be closer to family, so I came to Scottsdale in the midst of this reawakening for myself, and realized very quickly that the fitness scene is pretty cool here. It was great to see so many people who were my age and who were hustling in Scottsdale, I loved seeing that, but i also realized is fitness is growing here and coming from New York, we have a niche for everything, there’s running, rowing, crossfit, and a lot of that is here too, but the one thing that was missing, at least when I was coming out to visit my family in 2018 and 2019, was there was no indoor running studios, which seemed so crazy to me because it’s so hot during the summer, so that’s when I was like ‘that’s what I can do,’

“When I moved here, I was 100% dedicated to opening HUSTLE House as an indoor running studio and was about to sign a lease on a space, but my lawyer was delayed in reviewing the lease and I’m so thankful he was, because that was the week the pandemic was officially announced as a global pandemic,” Blazuk said. So she took a step back and held off on signing the lease for the space since it was unclear what the fitness industry would look like in the next year, year and a half. 

“I paused and then completely spiraled because I was like, ‘I just quit my amazing job in New York City and moved here and I have nothing to do, no income, I’m freaking out, what am I going to do with myself?’ Blazuk said.

True to her entrepreneurial spirit, Blazuk pivoted and hosted free yoga sculpt sessions with friends and family to stay connected during the pandemic, but realized quickly that teaching in her driveway or backyard using her phone as a speaker is not a great experience. “I started to think about ‘how can I make something that helps people and also fills a huge gap?’ because at this point, not a lot of studios, at least not locally, had had their virtual part of the business set up well, so I was trying to think how I could pivot the business and solve for a huge gap that was making virtual fitness a really seamless experience.”

“HUSTLE House is trying to give you the space to continue good habits. Be kind to yourself, if you have 10 minutes to workout, we have something for you, so doing what you can and staying in a healthy routine is what we’re about and what I’m about personally, because I for sure struggle with all of that.”

With this new goal in mind to create HUSTLE House and being a new fitness instructor in Scottsdale, Blazuk wanted to get to know the fitness community in the Valley. She conducted research  by polling her Instagram audience asking, What are your favorite fitness studios? What were their favorite types of workouts you would want to do from home? Who are your favorite fitness instructors? She received lots of responses and said many included the same five fitness instructors, so she messaged them on Instagram.

“I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you’re having the same experience as I’m having as a fitness instructor who’s kind of displaced for the moment teaching virtually from home, but I’m looking to solve for that and when polling the community your name keeps coming up, would you want to talk?’

Those conversations are how Blazuk connected with Brittny King, a local fitness coach and Instagram influencer. “Chatting with her as a former fitness instructor was the moment the business really took off because she has a huge reach and was like ‘‘I love this idea, let me rally the troops’ and she complemented where I was not strong, she had the connections, local reach, big audience, so she kind of helped me fill in the gaps a little bit as far as networking here and I feel like meeting her, that created lot of momentum for me with HUSTLE House,” Blazuk said.

HUSTLE House has members nationwide and prides itself on its on-demand platform style, which allows members to take classes when they want to. “I think the biggest value proposition for both customers and instructors is that we offer instructors a space to record a seamless class,” Blazuk said.

“I have a small film studio space in Scottsdale where our 15 instructors go to record their class, which I think is the first issue that we were all having like, ‘we’re all teaching from home’, and we all felt really weird charging for classes because we’re in our homes... so the first thing is we have a space and within the space we have an iMac to film and a sound system with pre-mixed audio so the music and the voice of the instructor is very clear on the stream, so being able to record in a professional space has been a game changer.”

Some of HUSTLE House’s instructors

Blazuk said it’s also convenient for instructors, as they can book the space and record whenever it fits into their schedule as opposed to a rigid schedule and teaching at a physical studio at a certain time every week. Once the instructor has recorded their class, Blazuk gets a notification it’s been uploaded and schedules the class for release on the platform.

Although HUSTLE House is not yet a year old, Blazuk and her team have seen great success with increased membership and it has helped her stay connected to her family and friends in Boston and New York.

“I get so emotional about it, a lot of my friends and family from Boston and even my old Snapchat co-workers have signed up for subscriptions...it’s so nice and kind and a great way to stay connected,” Blazuk said.

“I think customers really like the flexibility, we have a lot of moms on the platform so they have a set time where they can workout, and we’ve been hearing from our customers that when they’re at home, they say they have about 30 minutes, so we’re like ‘we hear you, that makes total sense, you’re on a schedule at home, so let’s create some finishers or a 30-minute spin classes’ whatever it might be to accommodate people who are working from home and might need more of an expedited workout.”

In addition to offering more traditional fitness classes like Flow & Tone, a Vinyasa-based yoga flow class combined with cardio and sculpting, dance cardio and cycling, HUSTLE House also has Breathwork workouts which aim to connect with your body and heart, release stuck energy and emotion, dissolve stress and experience deeper levels of spiritual connection.

“When we built HUSTLE House... I do a lot of mindset and wellness work on my own, so I wanted the platform to more than just a fitness space, I wanted to include breathwork, stretching, just things that are wellness related but I think is still really important too,” Blazuk said.

“Mental health is just as important as physical health, so we wanted to have both on the platform. And when I was getting feedback from the community on the instructors they liked, I realized they all have different specialties but I kind of like that because not everybody has a spin bike at home, so wanted to be able to give people a variety so that they could choose what they like as far as format, instructor, what equipment they have at home that could actually fit in a workout or a wellness class.”

In addition to their workouts, HUSTLE House also hosts free live classes which support a nonprofit organization of the instructor’s choice such as Loveland, AZ Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, Equal Justice Initiative and Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

“One way we’re trying to build the community is through live classes, and right now the whole platform is typically on demand, so adding in the live classes gives us the ability to actually see our customers which we love because we don’t see them, unless they’re posting a selfie and tagging us, we don’t actually get to see their faces,” Blazuk said.

“But giving back is a core value of mine personally...I love doing that. So every instructor who hosts a live class gets to pick an organization or charity that they want to process donations towards. The classes are free, but if people want to donate, the instructor gets to choose where they want those donations to go, and we make the donation on behalf of HUSTLE House.”

Being an entrepreneur comes with its share of challenges, and some Blazuk admittedly didn’t realize until she was in the process of launching and continuing to build HUSTLE House.

“There’s a challenge everyday, something goes wrong or something happens that needs to be addressed, but I think the ability to take and apply feedback has been a huge piece of what HUSTLE House is and a close second to that is using your customers as your best resource,” Blazuk said. 

“We launched in November as a semi-live program, so there were specific time periods when the classes would launch and they were pre-recorded and what we learned the customers were confused if it was live or on demand, so we took the feedback from our customers and pivoted the business in January to be completely on demand. You pivot everyday, and being comfortable with change and being comfortable not knowing what you’re doing but knowing that you need to change and figuring it out is something I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is you must be able to do that.”

“I do a lot of mindset and wellness work on my own, so I wanted the platform to be more than just a fitness space, I wanted to include wellness too such as breathwork and stretching sessions. Mental health is just as important as physical health, so we wanted to have both on the platform.”

“I feel like in my past experience, especially in New York I always had a huge team who would help me figure things out so I was a little less resourceful because I was leaning on them and now being an entrepreneur, it’s on me to figure to figure out. As the CEO I make the call and then do it, so that has been something I’ve learned in an entrepreneurial role.”

Although the fitness industry has made great strides to be more inclusive and encourage body positivity and celebrate healthy habits.

“I think doing something good for your body and realizing that movement and mental health are good, daily habits,” Blazuk said. “So HUSTLE House is trying to give you the space to continue good habits. And also just being kind to yourself, if you have 10 minutes to workout, we have something for you, so doing what you can and being kind to yourself and staying in a healthy routine is what we’re about and what I’m about personally, because I for sure struggle with all of that.”

In addition to growing their membership, social media is an integral part of HUSTLE House’s strategy to gain feedback from customers and creating engaging video content for their audience. “We do a ton of polling and ask questions on social media and we’re focused on building our TikTok and Instagram presence for our audience, which is mostly 25-45 year old women, to be really strong on those channels,” Blazuk said.

“One of the things that I like most about the business is a lot of the instructors do fitness as a side hustle, and they’re entrepreneurs themselves,” Blazuk said.

“I’ve been able to tap into two of them in particular, Kayla, who is a social media strategist and Brynn, who is a photographer and videographer, they’ve been helping me create content for social and our website and understanding how to use video,  incorporate Reels and Instagram live to extend our reach that way. She’s helped me and our instructors understand that, we do a team meeting once a month and we’ll do education sessions so last month we did social strategy. We offer a 7-day free trial, so then from the free content, they can sample all of the classes and make sure that they like what they see before they’re committing their money towards it.”

Blazuk said the best part of the business is the online and instructor community in Arizona. “Being new to the state, I was looking for how I could make an impact in the community and honestly you just make friends. So that has been the most rewarding piece for me, the people I’ve gotten to meet and the people we’ve helped.”

She hopes in the future, HUSTLE House’s space has the potential to become a workspace for entrepreneurs. “So building a community of entrepreneurs in Phoenix and Scottsdale that’s between a coffee shop and a WeWork, and giving them a place to go to connect, but we could be headed in that direction.”