North Bay Woman

Clockwise from left: Jill Dailey in her Fairfax studio; Dailey teaching a class; The Dailey Method live-stream- ing her popular workout class during SIP. – Photos by Stuart Lirette, Melissa McArdle, Peter Brambl/Belmondo Studios Set a n INTENTION M uch of the world was on some form of lockdown by early March 2020 when I went on FaceTime to interview boutique exercise studio entrepre- neur Jill Dailey, founder of The Dailey Method. She was in her home on the San Anselmo/Fairfax border along with her three teenage children, who were home from school as well. The experience for both of us felt at once intimate and weird. I was privy to personal dynam- ics between Dailey and her kids; she to me and my barking out-of-control dogs. Admittedly unpro- fessional for both of us. There were numerous moments of apologizing to each other for interrup- tions. Yet the world had been smacked upside the head by COVID-19 and nothing — whether inter- views, education, entertain- ment or business meetings — would likely ever be the same again. Neither would the world's fitness communi- ty. But while tens of thousands of gyms were closed, hundreds more intimate workout and yoga studios in panic mode and individual trainers at a loss to how to work with the pan- demic-related closings, Jill Dailey was already on it. Scant days after most of the world went into months-long pause, Dailey was already offering, online, all the classes normally available in her studios. "I have completely changed my business in the last two weeks," she said. "From where I was a bricks and mortar destination where people came for both exercise and community, now all I am doing is live stream- ing classes. "Students sign up online, all the teachers are teaching the same classes they taught in the studios," she explained. "It's the same energy." Response has been high, she said. People (as always in her classes, 98% women) have quickly adapted to the new way of working out. "We have been able to continue to keep a strong level of activity going," Dailey said. "Three days before we got put on lockdown, I installed high-level cameras in the Fairfax location so we could feature live streaming of our online classes. We wanted a two-week trial period so that all of my teachers could get used to teaching live classes. It's interesting timing for me in the way this has happened." She laughed. "I am not the IT person in this company and have had to learn so much over the last two weeks. But I'm choosing to see this as the evolution of fitness and I predict the whole industry will go

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