Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Fuller.
Hi Megan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Wayne State alumni, graduated in 2011 with a BFA in theater. Spent the first quarter of my life thinking I was going to be an actress and got into teaching Pilates once I realized I didn’t have it in me to pursue theater as a career. With a theatrical background, I wanted to facilitate a performance like experience for attendees in my class.
The class would be programmed to look like a modern dance on the reformer: big ranges of motion, swift transitions, contorted positions, balance challenges and a lot of plank variations. With booked up classes and the best retention rate, I thought I was killing it as a Pilates instructor. The only problem? I had zero patience for anyone physically limited and unable to perform like everyone else in class.
I avoided eye contact with anyone that needed a modification and resented anyone who couldn’t just hear my cues and execute. When I got real with myself about why this was happening, I realized it was because of a lack in my teaching ability. I could cue exercise, but I couldn’t teach movement.
So I did the scary thing and took on more 1:1 clients so that I could develop tailoring skills. That landed me in a physical therapy clinic where I specialized in post rehab and refined my cueing. This is where I truly learned how to help people make sense of their body in motion.
The biggest thing my journey has taught me so far is that it doesn’t matter how many muscles I can name, or how well versed I am in Pilates, what matters is whether or not I can transmute that information into action for the client.
I used to think there was something ‘wrong’ or ‘boring’ about the basics. I didn’t realize the magic of movement is IN the basics until I saw the difference that focusing on the basics makes.
Fast forward a few years and here we are: Basic B Pilates is in full effect. Now I’m an independent instructor teaching private and semi private sessions out of my home studio. I’ve built a brand that pays homage to my original training while incorporating use of functional exercises to fix what people need help with the most: posture.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road. When I was getting my certification no one told me that in addition to learning exercises, equipment and teaching well, I would also have to market myself to get clients. I thought I would just go to a studio and they would book my classes. It’s not like that and hopeful instructors aren’t really informed about the reality of what becoming a full time instructor looks like.
It was a very tumultuous ‘break’ into the industry. I started by waitressing by day and teaching by night and eventually added on additional studios to my roster. Before I knew it, I was driving between 3 different studios to make ‘enough’ to survive. Between those three studios I’d had some post rehab clients and saw how Pilates made a difference in their rehab, so I sought out a PT clinic in an effort to land a home base.
Six months after I began teaching at the PT clinic, covid shut everything down. The shut down forced the other 3 studios I worked at to close for good and luckily, I was able to begin teaching at the PT clinic a few months after quarantining. With so many people being sedentary for months, they were raring to go once we opened back up and that reopen boosted the business. It was good for several years.
I built out an entire Pilates program there-started with just a mat class and built my way into a full roster of private clients and booked reformer classes. As time went on, I’d outgrown the space and have since started building anew.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a Pilates instructor and movement educator specializing in helping people feel strong, capable and connected to their bodies without forcing themselves into rigid or performance fitness ideals.
Instead of chasing aesthetics, my work focuses on practical strength, posture and core integration that translates into real life: standing, walking, lifting and moving with more ease. I work with people who feel out of place in traditional fitness spaces and want something that actually feels good and sustainable.
I’m most proud of building a community of what I call “Pilates misfits” people who were tired of trying to fit into fitness cultures that didn’t work for their bodies or lives. Creating a space where people feel allowed to move at their own pace, trust their bodies and prioritize capability over perfection has been deeply meaningful to me. Watching clients gain confidence not just in class, but in how they move through their lives is what keeps me grounded in this work.
What sets me apart is my emphasis on autonomy and real world strength. I don’t teach movement as something to ‘get right,’ I teach people how to understand their own bodies and make choices that support them. My background in performance and teaching has shaped a style that’s intuitive, observant and adaptable.
I prioritize empowerment over instruction, so people leave feeling more capable, not dependent on me.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I have a complicated but respectful relationship with risk. I’ve learned that staying in something that looks successful from the outside can be riskier than walking away from it.
I’ve taken what might look like a big risk, stepping away from an established path and building from the ground up. But that risk was rooted in self trust rather than recklessness. I’d reached a point where continuing would have meant sacrificing autonomy, curiosity and alignment and that felt riskier than starting over.
Risk for me has become less about chasing something new and more about choosing honesty, even when it means uncertainty.
Pricing:
- $75/Private Sesh
- $715/10
- $365/5
Contact Info:
- Website: https://meganfullerpilates.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganfullerpilates/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meganfuller5844
- Other: https://substack.com/@basicbpilates?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
