To keep a Pilates studio thriving, especially when you’re as busy as Leslie Lawson of Renegade Pilates, you’ve got to have the right staff.But when she needed one of her instructors to take over more sessions at their 5-star hotel property partner, she had little time to hire a new instructor to help in her studio. While these were initially challenging circumstances, they ended up transforming Renegade Pilates for the better.
“I advertised on Indeed a while back and hadn’t received any recent responses. Two weeks went by without a reply and I was just about to update the listing,” Lawson shares. She was getting worried. She didn’t have much more time. “But one Saturday morning,” she continues. “I saw Ruslana’s application. Her resume said that she was Ukrainian and had had her own studio in Kyiv, but with the war going on she had to leave.” Without hesitation, Lawson called her in for an interview.
Ruslana grew up in Ukraine with a passion for dancing, but she was always looking for something more. “I wanted to bring happiness into this world with my activity. I wanted to help people,” she says. “My dream was to help [people] be healthy and strong. Experimenting with different fields, I found my passion in Pilates.”
Ruslana followed this passion and opened Naturessa, her Pilates studio in Ukraine. It was going well, but then Russia invaded. “We [didn’t have any] other choice,” Ruslana shares. “To keep our kids safe, parents, and people we love, we had to scatter all over the world. I got my kids to the U.S. because they are citizens and also because my mom was there.”
When Ruslana and her children arrived in the U.S., they had to start from scratch. So, she started to look for a job and finally came across Leslie Lawson’s Renegade Pilates Studio. “I fell in love with it at first sight. Everything here was done with love, care, and soul in the exact same way as I would do it myself…[Leslie] was so professional, kind, welcoming, and understanding. Moreover, she supported Ukraine, which is so important to me. When I was driving home that day [after the interview], I was already dreaming about working at Renegade Pilates.”
It ended up a match made in heaven. “Ruslana turned out to be one of the best instructors I’ve ever hired, and she is such an incredibly nice person,” says Leslie Lawson. She was taken by Ruslana’s warmth when they first met. “She’s soft-spoken but quite diligent with her job,” says Lawson. “She has a background in ballet, and she’s become known to have deceptively difficult classes. Everyone loves her.”
When Lawson first told the community that they had a new teacher, she was blown away by the response. “When I said she’s here from Ukraine because of the war, everybody was like, ‘This is great!’ The whole community came together. It was incredible seeing the generosity and compassion of our team and clients who were able to offer her a variety of resources.”
Ruslana got tocreatinga home. “[But] [e]ven though I started my new life here, I still have a lot of family members, relatives, and friends in Ukraine. We keep in touch constantly, and my heart is broken because of the distance between us and because of them being in such unstable and dangerous circumstances. It’s painful.” Ruslana wants it to be clear, “The war is not over. Ukrainians are dying every single day. Defenders, civil people, kids. Russia is killing us every day. And we really need help from the world. This is not only our problem. This is the problem of the whole world. We just cannot allow such evil to keep on doing horrible things. Of course, we need huge help from other countries. But to speak about individual help, I would say that donations and charity is one of the easiest ways to help. For those who have the opportunity, hosting Ukrainians or hiring them could help immensely.”
Now, Leslie Lawson isn’t new to fundraisers. “We’ve co-hosted a hurricane benefit for the Bahamas called Bahamas Strong that was a great success.” She continues to explain that she always has these little bins out for small donations. And we collect cat and dog food to give to a woman who runs a local cat rescue. “When we first opened our current location, our street was overrun by stray cats and ducks. We raised money and were able to have 43 cats TNR’d (trapped, neutered, and released) with seven being adopted into loving homes,” says Leslie Lawson. “But our next fundraiser, of course, will be for Ukraine.”
To keep a Pilates studio thriving, especially when you’re as busy as Leslie Lawson of Renegade Pilates, you’ve got to have the right staff.But when she needed one of her instructors to take over more sessions at their 5-star hotel property partner, she had little time to hire a new instructor to help in her studio. While these were initially challenging circumstances, they ended up transforming Renegade Pilates for the better.
“I advertised on Indeed a while back and hadn’t received any recent responses. Two weeks went by without a reply and I was just about to update the listing,” Lawson shares. She was getting worried. She didn’t have much more time. “But one Saturday morning,” she continues. “I saw Ruslana’s application. Her resume said that she was Ukrainian and had had her own studio in Kyiv, but with the war going on she had to leave.” Without hesitation, Lawson called her in for an interview.
Ruslana grew up in Ukraine with a passion for dancing, but she was always looking for something more. “I wanted to bring happiness into this world with my activity. I wanted to help people,” she says. “My dream was to help [people] be healthy and strong. Experimenting with different fields, I found my passion in Pilates.”
Ruslana followed this passion and opened Naturessa, her Pilates studio in Ukraine. It was going well, but then Russia invaded. “We [didn’t have any] other choice,” Ruslana shares. “To keep our kids safe, parents, and people we love, we had to scatter all over the world. I got my kids to the U.S. because they are citizens and also because my mom was there.”
When Ruslana and her children arrived in the U.S., they had to start from scratch. So, she started to look for a job and finally came across Leslie Lawson’s Renegade Pilates Studio. “I fell in love with it at first sight. Everything here was done with love, care, and soul in the exact same way as I would do it myself…[Leslie] was so professional, kind, welcoming, and understanding. Moreover, she supported Ukraine, which is so important to me. When I was driving home that day [after the interview], I was already dreaming about working at Renegade Pilates.”
It ended up a match made in heaven. “Ruslana turned out to be one of the best instructors I’ve ever hired, and she is such an incredibly nice person,” says Leslie Lawson. She was taken by Ruslana’s warmth when they first met. “She’s soft-spoken but quite diligent with her job,” says Lawson. “She has a background in ballet, and she’s become known to have deceptively difficult classes. Everyone loves her.”
When Lawson first told the community that they had a new teacher, she was blown away by the response. “When I said she’s here from Ukraine because of the war, everybody was like, ‘This is great!’ The whole community came together. It was incredible seeing the generosity and compassion of our team and clients who were able to offer her a variety of resources.”
Ruslana got tocreatinga home. “[But] [e]ven though I started my new life here, I still have a lot of family members, relatives, and friends in Ukraine. We keep in touch constantly, and my heart is broken because of the distance between us and because of them being in such unstable and dangerous circumstances. It’s painful.” Ruslana wants it to be clear, “The war is not over. Ukrainians are dying every single day. Defenders, civil people, kids. Russia is killing us every day. And we really need help from the world. This is not only our problem. This is the problem of the whole world. We just cannot allow such evil to keep on doing horrible things. Of course, we need huge help from other countries. But to speak about individual help, I would say that donations and charity is one of the easiest ways to help. For those who have the opportunity, hosting Ukrainians or hiring them could help immensely.”
Now, Leslie Lawson isn’t new to fundraisers. “We’ve co-hosted a hurricane benefit for the Bahamas called Bahamas Strong that was a great success.” She continues to explain that she always has these little bins out for small donations. And we collect cat and dog food to give to a woman who runs a local cat rescue. “When we first opened our current location, our street was overrun by stray cats and ducks. We raised money and were able to have 43 cats TNR’d (trapped, neutered, and released) with seven being adopted into loving homes,” says Leslie Lawson. “But our next fundraiser, of course, will be for Ukraine.”
