Tactic
Make them sign a contract: set high expectations, not low ones
Launching her homeless running club, Anne made the 9 members sign a contract requiring 3 days/week, on time, positive attitude. Treating them as capable of excellence, rather than lowering the bar, made everyone sit up straighter and show up.
“And then I made them sign a contract and it just said, if you're gonna join the running club, you gotta show up 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you have to be on time. You need to come with a positive attitude and you need to be willing to respect and support your teammates. And everybody like sat up straighter in their chair. They were waiting, at least what it felt like for me, they were waiting for someone to tell them they were capable of excellence”
Steal thisWhen recruiting, set explicit high standards and have people opt in to them; commitment beats coddling.
Tactic
To raise money fast, get a connector to skip you past the gatekeepers
Anne raised ~$1M in her nonprofit's first year by targeting executives who were runners and getting a well-connected board member to introduce her straight to decision-makers, so she never wasted months climbing from marketing coordinator up the chain.
“I will go in and close the deal, but I need you to introduce me to the big players so that they can write the check. And I don't waste weeks or months climbing the meeting with the marketing coordinator and then the marketing director, and they just keep passing me up the chain. Like I'll never be able to raise raise money fast enough.”
Steal thisRecruit one connected champion and ask only for warm intros to decision-makers; you close.
Framework
Only start a 'game you can win' that's authentic to who you are
Anne's recurring filter: pick a game you can win, one authentically representative of who you already are. She was the perfect founder for a homeless running nonprofit (addict father, runner) and for a fitness brand (the 'workout queen'), and rejects Jumpseat for herself because she's not technical.
“And so I knew after Back on My Feet, I had to find another game I can win. I was the perfect person to start Back on My Feet because of my story, my experience in nonprofits, my true authenticity for wanting to help these guys.”
Steal thisBefore starting anything, ask whether it's a game you can win given who you authentically are.
Number
First Solidcore studio did over $100K in month one
Anne's first Solidcore location cleared over $100,000 in revenue in its very first month, validating the napkin math she'd done on the packed LA studio.
$100K
First-month revenue, single studio · USD/month
“Oh, I like, we literally did over 100 grand in the first, first month.”
Take
Don't take the safety-net money: you need to feel chased by a bear
Offered $75K for 30% of Solidcore when she had only $175K to her name, Anne turned it down, reasoning that a cushion would let her quit when things got hard. She wanted the hunger of having no fallback.
“I need to feel like I'm being chased by a bear. I need to figure this out. And that's the way this is gonna be successful.”
Steal thisIf you can self-fund, skip the cushion capital so you can't talk yourself into quitting.
Tactic
The Subway trick: open a second location so people think you're winning
Anne cites the (possibly apocryphal) Subway story of opening a second store just so people assume the brand is thriving, and used the same momentum play, opening 5 Solidcores in year one so customers felt they were 'missing out.'
“But Subway had one location and they were like off the beaten path and they weren't doing that great. So they thought, you know, we need to open a second one because people will think if we have 2 that we're killing it.”
Steal thisManufacture the perception of momentum by expanding visibly before you strictly need to.
Number
Minority deal at ~$60M valuation on ~$19M revenue, 27 studios
In 2017, four years in with 27 studios each doing ~$700K annually (~$19M revenue), Anne did a minority deal at close to a $60M valuation, prioritizing the terms over the headline number.
$60M
Company valuation at minority sale (2017) · USD
“I did a pretty big valuation back then. So the valuation was like close to $60 million.”
Framework
In a deal, don't fight the number, ask what terms they need
Facing pushback on her high valuation, Anne reframed every negotiation around terms instead of price: tell the other side to stop fixating on the number and articulate exactly what they need to do the deal, then solve for that.
“And I just said, listen, it's not so much about the number, it's about the terms. And I know how much money I need to get to 100 studios, and that's $12 million, 'cause I'm gonna continue to use the profits. And I also wanna take secondary off of the table.”
Steal thisAnchor on terms, not price: ask the counterparty what they need and engineer a structure that gives it to them.
Framework
Make the other side articulate what they're actually protecting against
When a landlord said 'we always do security deposits,' Anne refused to accept it as a reason and made them explain what they were protecting against, then solved that underlying need a different way (e.g., longer term, stepped-up rent) to avoid the deposit.
“And it, it really, it really does work because you make them articulate what's important to them. And usually what's important to landlords is, you know, the ledger, the balance sheet of the total, you know, term of the deal.”
Steal thisWhen someone hides behind 'that's our policy,' make them name the real risk, then solve that risk directly.
Tactic
The Chris Voss anchor: hold your number until they're too close to walk
Anne's favorite move from Never Split the Difference: state a firm budget and never move off it while the other side keeps conceding. Once they're only a tiny gap from your number, they're psychologically unable to walk away.
“You get people to come and come, come, and now they're just too close that they're not gonna move away. So the whole point is like not meeting in the middle.”
Steal thisSet your anchor, refuse to budge, and let the counterparty close the gap until walking away feels irrational to them.
Story
How Solidcore survived COVID: restructure leases, never kick the can
Anne realized the real COVID threat was landlords forcing rent on 75 closed studios. She and her in-house lawyer restructured leases, extending terms or stepping up future rent, so they never owed a back-rent lump sum that would have bankrupted them.
“What's gonna kill this company is not that we don't have revenue coming in right now. It's if these landlords sue us and make us pay rent.”
Steal thisIn a cash crunch, renegotiate fixed obligations into future value for the counterparty rather than deferring a lump sum you can't pay.
Take
'It's not for everyone' beat warm-and-fuzzy as a brand campaign
Anne credits Solidcore's brand ethos, anchored by the tagline 'create the strongest version of yourself' and an 'it's not for everyone' campaign, for making the workout aspirational and Nike-like rather than inclusive-bland.
“One of my favorite campaigns we did was it's not for everyone. And we really went in and like, this isn't, this may not be for you, but it's for somebody, you know, it was almost like a Nike commercial.”
Steal thisExclusionary positioning ('this may not be for you') can build a stronger tribe than trying to appeal to everyone.
Tactic
Use the board game Taboo to spot critical thinkers when hiring
Anne found her biggest reason for firing was poor judgment and critical thinking, and noticed that strong critical thinkers crush Taboo because the game forces you to think on your feet and tailor clues to your specific teammate.
“So you have to think creatively and I have to know who's on my team, you know? So like, how would, how would I get Sam to say this, you know, say this word? And like, there are people who crush that game. And from my experience, whenever we've played on a retreat or something, the people who get stuck or flustered or can't think on their feet, whatever, usually don't work there very much longer.”
Steal thisPlay Taboo on a team retreat as a low-stakes read on who can think strategically under pressure.
Idea
Jumpseat: a Ticketmaster/SeatGeek marketplace for airplane seats
Anne pitches Jumpseat, a platform where stranded flyers post a bounty (e.g. $1,000) for any seat home and travelers with no rush sell theirs; it could also swap economy for first class. Airlines take a cut and get happier customers who solve their own problems.
“And so the idea for Jumpseat is very much like Ticketmaster or something else where there's a platform. Where let's just say, Sam, again, your flight got canceled and you're like, damn it, I have to get home. You go on Jumpseat and you offer $1,000 for any seat on any flight going back to— where do you live?”
Steal thisBuild a peer-to-peer seat-swap marketplace with the airline taking a per-swap cut; lead with the name Jumpseat.