WE HAVE SOME NEWS…

Hi, it’s Maria!

I've been waiting to write this blog for what feels like forever, and I honestly still can't believe I'm finally getting to say it.

BARE is officially coming to Wesley Chapel.

If you'Be been around the studio for a while, you've probably picked up on little hints over the last few months. Maybe you've heard us mention meetings,

construction, or "another project" in passing.

Keeping this quiet has been incredibly hard because it's something I've been dreaming about for a long time, and now it finally feels real.

When I opened BARE in Odessa, my entire focus was on creating one place that people genuinely loved walking into. I wanted to build something that felt

different from what was already out there. Somewhere that challenged people physically but also made them feel seen.

Somewhere that valued quality over

quantity, relationships over transactions, and community over competition.

I knew I wanted to teach modern Pilates, but more than that, I wanted to create a place where people wanted to spend part of their day.

Over the last (almost) year, I've watched that vision become something so much bigger than I ever imagined.

I've watched complete strangers become friends. I've watched members celebrate pregnancies, engagements, new jobs, birthdays, and personal milestones together. I've watched people who walked into their first class feeling intimidated become some of the most confident people in the room. I've watched

instructors pour their hearts into this community, and I'

ve watched our clients do the exact same thing.

Somewhere along the way, BARE stopped feeling like a business I owned and started feeling like a community we were all building together. That's why opening Wesley Chapel feels so exciting to me.

It doesn't feel like we're simply opening another Pilates studio. It feels like we get the opportunity to build another community from the ground

up.

We get to meet new people, welcome someone into their very first class, watch friendships form, celebrate milestones we can't even imagine yet, and create

another place where people feel like they belong.

That's the part that excites me the most.

People often ask me what my goal is for BARE, and the truth is, it's never been about seeing how many studios we can open. Expansion has never been the

finish line. If it were, I think we'd lose the very thing that makes BARE special.

My vision has always been much simpler than that.

I want to build studios that people trust.

Studios where the programming is thoughtful, the instructors care deeply about what they do, the standards never slip, and every person who walks through the door feels like they matter.

I want someone to be able to walk into any BARE studio, whether it's Odessa,

Wesley Chapel, or one we haven't even dreamed up yet, and immediately know they‘re home.

That means as we grow, our responsibility grows too.

One thing I've learned over the last year is that who you build with matters just as much as what you're building.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have partners in

Wesley Chapel who share the same vision for BARE and are just as committed to protecting what makes this community special as I am. Knowing that we all care deeply about the same things gives me so much confidence in what we're building together.

Every instructor we hire, every class we coach, every design decision we make, and every location we open has to protect what all of you helped create here

first. Growth should never come at the expense of quality, and I can promise you that will always be my biggest priority.

To our Odessa community, thank you.

Thank you for believing in BARE. Thank you for trusting a brand that didn't exist yet, for bringing your friends, for giving feedback, for showing up on the hard days and the good ones. Whether you'

ve taken ten classes or two hundred, you've played a part in building something that has become so much bigger than four walls and X-formers.

Wesley Chapel isn't replacing anything we've built here. It's proof that what we'be built here is worth building again.

I truly believe we're just getting started.

Not because I want BARE to be everywhere, but because I know there are more people looking for exactly what so many of us have found inside these walls.

A place to challenge themselves. A place to belong. A place that makes showing up for themselves feel a little easier.

I cannot wait to welcome Wesley Chapel into the BARE family.

And I can't thank you enough for helping make this possible.

Here's to our next chapter. 🖤

From my core to yours,

Maria Stege

Founder & CEO,BARE Pilates Studio

…and that’s The Naked Truth