Lindsey Corak of Stack Trax: The Power of Flexibility; How I Was Able To Pivot To A New Exciting Opportunity Because Of The Pandemic

An Interview With Karina Michel Feld

You have to make a lot of crippling decisions. Okay, I guess I subconsciously knew this, but it’s a lot of decisions! They are even decisions you don’t even know the answer to. After a while, you realize that decisions just lead to more pivots, and that’s the way it goes being a business owner. I have learned more to go with the flow by making decisions and accepting that no matter what happens, you can always try, try, again! See! That quote is always applicable!!

The COVID19 pandemic has disrupted all of our lives. But sometimes disruptions can be times of opportunity. Many people’s livelihoods have been hurt by the pandemic. But some saw this as an opportune time to take their lives in a new direction.

As a part of this series called “How I Was Able To Pivot To A New Exciting Opportunity Because Of The Pandemic”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lindsey Corak.

Lindsey is the Co-Founder of an up and coming company called Stack Trax, a new line of fitness equipment for at home training. Lindsey and her business partner/fiancé, Anthony, are certified personal trainers with over 30 years of collective experience in the health and fitness industry. Over the last year with the pandemic, they were able to pivot to this new and exciting venture. Stack Trax will be launching early fall 2021.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

Thank you so much for having me! I was born and raised in Massachusetts and had the most loving and supportive parents. They both had very successful careers and made sure my sister and I had nothing but the best experiences growing up. I did not have to deal with many hardships and had a very happy upbringing. However, I was an overweight kid and dealt with many years of horrible bullying. I always reflect back on my upbringing to understand why I am where I am today and it always comes down to these few factors. Despite my parents literally making sure I lived the best life, they always taught me the principle of hard work and never giving up. They made sure I knew the value of a dollar and I always had gratitude. These principles paired with the struggles I had with bullying, gave me the thick skin to take on any challenge in life. I am now a lifestyle and fitness coach running a business with my partner/fiancé, helping others find their potential to live a healthy and happy life.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

This is such a great question and my life lesson quote has stuck with me since the first time I heard it in Ms. O’Malley’s 2nd grade class. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” We used to repeat that mantra every morning in her class and it had forever been implanted in my brain. We all fall down in life and no one goes through unscathed. However, with the right mindset, you can always stride to make improvements in any aspect of your life. You are not going to succeed at everything you do. The beauty of this however is that you can succeed at anything you put your mind to. You just have to try, try again!

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Oh my gosh, there are so many. Each one of them has made me grow in different aspects of my life. I love learning about why we do what we do, the psychology behind our actions. These types of books have helped me so much in a career of coaching where sub conscious behaviors drive our habits. I have to say the Power Of Habits by Charles Duhiig has been one of the best books I have read to not only understand my clients better, but to understand how I can take my personal success to the next level. There is a formula for success. You just have to follow the instructions and be open minded to change. I think that’s what gets in the way of so many people’s success. The inability to introduce a new concept that is foreign to them and they are resistant to changing their mindset. There is a reason why all successful people say and practice the same habits. Having the ability to pivot as an entrepreneur is key to having a sustainable and successful business.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before the Pandemic began?

Gosh, it seems so long ago now! A few months prior to the pandemic, I was a Senior Group Training Manager at one of the largest corporate fitness companies. I was one of the top performers in the company and made a great salary for doing something that I loved. Unfortunately, I decided to leave due to poor management. I decided to start a new venture at a new training facility to build up their personal training program with my business partner, (and now fiancé) Anthony. It was a great opportunity with two business owners who were so great to work with. It was about a month into building up our business that the pandemic hit. In addition, I was slapped with a non-compete settlement from my prior employer that left Anthony and I in major debt and unemployed. This was the beginning of the climb.

What did you do to pivot as a result of the Pandemic?

Luckily, we had established a great community from years of coaching and we had a base of loyal clients. At the time, we didn’t know how long the pandemic was going to last, so our plan was to make do with what we had to crawl ourselves out of debt and keep our clients on their fitness routine. So, we made a trip to home depot to get the tools we needed and built a fitness studio out of our small home. Within days, we were back to coaching our clients through zoom classes. It had become the new way of training. We were building great traction and keeping the community together, which is exactly what our goal was. We had to work with understanding most clients maybe had a pair of dumbbells and their body to work with. But, the pandemic was supposed to be gone in a few months, right? We started realizing quickly that this virus was not going away and we had to figure out a solution to keep our clients motivated with variety in their training that was able to be done in a small space and little equipment. Afterall, most clients were crammed into their 10X10 office space working out. So, we did what every other entrepreneur would do… we went back to home depot! I remember that day so clearly. We roamed Home Depot for hours, brainstorming different ways we can make shift fitness equipment. All we knew is that we needed something that was cost effective, space saving and provided versatility to our clients.

Can you tell us about the specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path?

There were a lot of “Aha moments” that day in Home Depot. We really were able to narrow down what we wanted to create by trying to solve the problem of needing a space saving, cost effective and versatile piece. Then we thought, “what if we could make a piece that you could lock into the wall, workout and then take off to store away?” Of course we did our research to make sure there was nothing out there that had this concept that was brewing so fast in our minds. Just like that, we built our first prototype. It was ugly, but we were definitely on to something..

How are things going with this new initiative?

Almost one year later and we are projected to launch the first line of patent pending fitness products this fall! It has been an emotional, intense, amazing year watching this idea blossom into a business that will be coming to life. Our product line is called Stack Trax. It is the new way to lock in your fitness that allows you to go from a pull up, to push up, to cardio, core and then store. It is cost effective, extremely versatile and takes up zero floor space. Getting a product from idea to launch is a ton of work and has given us an entirely new perspective on how much detail goes into launching a product. We cannot wait to show the world what we have created!

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I literally do not know how to pick one person that I am grateful for because I have been blessed with so many who have led us to where we are now. Of course my gratitude will always start with my parents and I would not have the mental capacity to be where I am without their love and support. I also am so grateful for my business partner and fiancé. We are the best partners and balance each other out so well. Together we worked our butts off to get out of debt, pivot our entire business model from the pandemic and take the risk of launching a new product. One more shout out has to go to our clients. They continue to motivate us to do what we do every day and we cannot express our appreciate for them enough.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

When we started with this new concept, we didn’t know anything about how to manufacture a product. Being novice to product development, we put all our trust in the first person that painted the picture of success. We quickly learned people take advantage of being novice and we made the decision to let this person go. When starting a business, you have to make sure you have the right people in the right place and all share the same vision. You have to continuously question what is right for the business. What is it they say? “Hiring slow, firing fast.” When you start having that gut feeling that something is not right, you have to listen to it. It is with those hard decisions you typically find the right answers.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. It takes a while to launch a product, so be patient. Seriously, TV makes it look like companies can launch a product in a few months. I have learned to have so much patience during this whole process. You have to cross the T’s and dot the “I’s” to a point where its obsessive. Patience is key in making the right decisions, especially in the midst of so much excitement. Most problems can be solved if you take the time to see them and think them through!
2. I wish someone told me to just ask the experts. As entrepreneurs we always want to do everything ourselves. This stubbornness has to go to be successful! It is okay to ask for help, especially when someone else specializes in it. It is okay you need help with marketing or how to use zoom (I know I am not the only one who still doesn’t understand zoom!)..You do not need to know or do it all. Put your feathers down and be resourceful with those around you.
3. Don’t take advice from everyone. Of course it is good to ask for peoples advice, but take it with a grain of salt. I read something once about advice that I always ask myself before taking advice from anyone. It said “ask yourself if you would want to be in the persons shoes that you were getting advice from.” For example, if you are taking financial advice from a successful CFO, chances are they will give pretty good advice. Whereas taking financial advice from someone who can’t keep a job may not be the most accurate. Advice should be another point of view, not the decision maker.
4. You may lose some friends. When you are a startup company, you have to make many sacrifices. I know for Anthony and I, family is very important so that is never high on the list for sacrificing. However, I don’t have the luxury of time to spend hanging out with friends like I used to, and some don’t understand that. You have to be okay with your friends giving you push back. It’s a small sacrifice for a big reward, and they will eventually see that.
5. You have to make a lot of crippling decisions. Okay, I guess I subconsciously knew this, but it’s a lot of decisions! They are even decisions you don’t even know the answer to. After a while, you realize that decisions just lead to more pivots, and that’s the way it goes being a business owner. I have learned more to go with the flow by making decisions and accepting that no matter what happens, you can always try, try, again! See! That quote is always applicable!!

So many of us have become anxious from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. Can you share the strategies that you have used to optimize your mental wellness during this stressful period?

This is a great question and something that we focused a lot on with our clients to maintain mental wellness through the last year. The best advice we can give is stick to a schedule. The more decisions you can cut out of your day, the less anxious you will be. Now sticking to a schedule seems impossible with all of the changes that was going on, but it is important to keep the constants. For example, scheduling your workout times, meals and making a list of things you need to get done. The more consistency you can create in your schedule in the midst of all the craziness, the more in control you will feel. We even would tell our clients to pack their lunch as if they were going to work, even though they were working from home. Consistency is key and we all thrive off of routine.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Anthony and I are so passionate about entrepreneurship. We said that when Stack Trax takes off, we are going to start a scholarship program for young entrepreneurs. I would love to do anything that helps kids with these amazing minds express their ideas for a better future. Now is the time to innovate!

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

I said this in another interview, but Anthony and I love Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins. They are ying and yang just like us. Tony is the motivational speaker who gets people amped up and ready to change their lives (that’s Anthony). I am like Dean. He takes that motivation that Tony builds up and BAM, executes the plan! He teaches the action and how to think like a business owner. Together, just like Dean and Tony, we are the perfect partners to think big and execute big.

How can our readers follow you online?

I would love to connect with the readers and even more so meet anyone that is a business owner! Success breeds success! You can see more about our current business as coaches on our website www.stackedupfitness.com. You can also follow our blog on Instagram @Trendingonthetrax.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!