Ryan Beck

Ryan Daniel Beck is the owner & Creative Director of bodyART. Originally from Los Angeles, Ryan had an extensive performing career dancing for Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, MOMIX, Daniel Ezralow, MTV and more. He has produced and directed content for ABC, BC/EFA, Good Morning America, Celebrity Cruises, and Hard Rock Cafe, among others. As a sought-after movement instructor, he has traveled to over 30 countries, was tapped for partnerships with the Joffrey Ballet and as an international guest teacher at Conero Dance Festival in Italy, and is on faculty at the world-famous Broadway Dance Center in NYC. In 2011, Ryan was introduced to bodyART by its creator, Robert Steinbacher, and then brought the concept to many NYC studios. Seeing the market potential for bodyART to be a consumer-facing model, Ryan was granted exclusive rights to open, manage and operate all bodyART-branded studio locations in America.

bodyART Training Studios is a holistic approach to functional movement, myofascial release, internal focus, dynamic breathwork, and fundamental principles of traditional Chinese medicine, taking academic, science-based physical therapy exercises and making them highly engaging and addictive. It is a physical therapy-based movement system, designed to decrease stress, reduce pain, prevent injuries, and improve strength, flexibility and cardiovascular stamina. Pre-COVID, bodyART held public classes at Lululemon Soho, Athleta, Limelight, Broadway Dance Center NY, NeXa, Refinery Rooftop and WOOM Center and corporate events for companies like Google, Louis Vuitton, Citibank, Columbia University Medical Center, and Wellth Collective. Currently they have an ongoing collaboration with The William Vale hotel in Williamsburg, BK.

Where did the idea for bodyART come from?

The bodyART system is a physical therapy-based approach to movement training. Most people encounter physical therapy post-injury, whereas bodyART asks “what if we can prevent the injuries from beginning, rather than waiting to fix the problem once it becomes chronic.”

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

Since the onset of COVID, a typical day is a mix of private online clients, outdoor group training sessions, and social media LIVE streamed classes. We are also actively reaching out to other small businesses and organizing collaborations (One Love Remedy, Skin Laundry, Stretch Relief, TONIC, Sacred Skin, BRIGHTFOX, Be Womenspired, Carbon 38, Lululemon, Croga Active Google, Citibank, Athleta, Wellth Collective, Vaeske, TimeOut NY, Cee Cee’s Closet)

How do you bring ideas to life?

There is a Japanese method called “kaizen” which takes big projects, that require big changes, and reverse engineer the process until you come upon the smallest possible, feasible first step. The feasibility is key because that’s your foundation for all subsequent steps. Kaizen (改善) is the Japanese word for “improvement”.

What’s one trend that excites you?

People becoming more aware of the importance of recovery. This is a trend that helps people lead more balanced lives.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Daily meditation 2x daily is a small time investment that yields productivity gains that are tenfold. It is by far, bar none, the BEST way to gain productivity.
Highly suggest every entrepreneur research Emily Stella Fletcher and ZIVA meditation for high performing individuals.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Rather than advise, I would have just shown myself a great deal of kindness. I would have held space for myself to process deep held anger and resentment towards people who had hurt me. Ayesha Sadiqqi said, “be the person who you needed when you were younger.”

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Each of us has a movie playing in our heads that we call “my life.” And in every instance, each of us is the star of our own personal movie. Everyone else is a supporting role. This is human nature. So, if I say that I am the “star” it’s both true AND relative to my perspective and personal experience. However, nobody else will agree that I’m the “star” because in their movie, they are the star.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Cliches are cliches because eventually, no matter what, you find that they hold truth. So, when I say that you must “keep going and never stop” it’s something that has been said a million times, in more than a million different ways. But perseverance and persistence are forces like gravity and eventually the apple’s gotta fall.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

It’s important to understand the difference between competition and collaboration. We have many wonderful partnerships with other companies and brands in our space because we don’t view other entrepreneurs with suspicion or as adversaries. If an opportunity arises for our brand, we are always looking to see if we can somehow leverage that on behalf of our partners as well.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

First of all, I have completely removed the “F-word” from my vocabulary, I never use it and refuse let my students use it either. When something doesn’t work, you must analyze the system and find the bottleneck. One instance for our team was when we looked at driving traffic to live events, and after a few false starts we realized through experimentation that it was our invite to attendance ratio that needed to be recalibrated. Now, because of the lessons learned, we are able to very strategically market and predict our traffic flow.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

LOL…I probably have ten new business ideas every week, but recently I thought it would be amazing if someone started a virtual consultation service, via FaceTime or ZOOM, to help people organize their apartments and homes during the pandemic. It’s low overhead and scalable if the method is codified and taught to other employees.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I recently upgraded some of my studio filming equipment. Anything that upgrades the quality of your product is always a good investment, in my opinion.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Recently, I spoke on a panel at Pace University’s graduate program, and I offered the analogy of a tool belt (hammer, screwdriver, wrench) with the understanding that each of them is well suited for different tasks. Similarly, our digital tool belt during COVID (ZOOM, YouTube, FaceTime, WhatsApp, IG, Tik Tok, FB, MailChimp, CANVA, EventBrite, PayPal, Quickbooks, DocHub, Adobe, Venmo, GSuite) all have their place and work together well. So rather than single out one of those tools, I’d say it’s more important to know which tool is best suited for which task. This is what yields productivity gains.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Without a doubt, I cannot recommend “Setting The Table” by Danny Meyer enough. It is a masterclass in business principles to elevate a company from good to great.

What is your favorite quote?

“Start where you are, Use what you have, Do what you can” – Arthur Ashe

“What you are thinking about is what you are becoming” – Muhammad Ali

Key Learnings:

• Daily meditation is the best way to gain productivity
• Figure out the very first step towards your goal, and take it
• Understand the difference between competition and collaboration
• Remove the “F-word” from your vocabulary