FCM219: Brands That Move People: Inside Collective Studios with Ashley Marand Iwanicki

About this episode

Ashley Marand Iwanicki discusses her journey in building The Collective Studios and the importance of purpose and community in fitness branding.

Ashley Marand Iwanicki is the founder and CEO of The Collective Studios , a boutique fitness brand in New Hampshire that's redefining what it means to lead with purpose, build community, and create experiences that actually move people. In this powerful conversation, Ashley shares how a vivid dream sparked the vision for her studio, what it means to build a brand rooted in expansion and belonging, and the bold leadership decisions that helped her scale with soul. As a Fitcarma brand , Ashley partnered with us to clarify her message and elevate the Collective Studios identity into something bigger than a studio—it's now a brand people feel. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of what it really takes to build something that resonates on every level. You'll hear us dive into: The moment she realized fitness had to be more than workouts How Collective Studios blends performance with purpose What it really takes to develop a high-performing, empowered team The systems that drive consistency and connection across locations Why staying in the messy middle is part of the magic And how transformation begins with creating the conditions for people to return to themselves This episode…

People in this episode

Hosts: Barry Kostabi, Shay Kostabi

Guest: Ashley Marand Iwanicki

Topics covered

• fitness branding
• community building
• leadership in fitness
• purpose-driven business
• high-performing teams
• customer experience

Keywords

• Collective Studios
• fitness
• branding
• leadership
• community
• purpose
• high performance
• team development

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Collective Studios, Fitcarma

Places: New Hampshire

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• FCM224: If You Want To Grow... Your Studio Needs This First · April 4, 2026 · 44 min
• FCM223: Are You Talking to Your Members... or a Mirror? · October 24, 2025 · 24 min
• FCM222: Brands That Moves People: Life Time's North Star with Jeff Zwiefel · September 19, 2025 · 33 min
• FCM221: Scaling with Soul: How to Build a Team That Rocks Your Brand Vision · July 11, 2025 · 48 min