Cat Webb is the Woman behind Good Times Pilates - An online and in person inclusive movement community.
Cat's core belief is that Pilates is for every body no matter your age, level of fitness or experience and is passionately advocating for a conscious community where everyone feels comfortable.
Q1: Hi Cat, welcome to the Woman Of Series! Can you tell us what it is you create?
Thank you for having me! I create a feel-good inclusive movement experience for the Good Times Pilates community members. I facilitate this in the classes that I teach, within my team and within our space either online or in the physical studio.
Q2: What inspired you to start Good Times Pilates?
As a Pilates client and teacher, I personally wanted so much more from the experience and I knew others did too. I wanted to create a space where every body was welcome, where people were empowered through positivity and evidence based movement rather than shame and all those cues that Pilates teachers (in particular) say just coz they think they should.
Somewhere where there were no assumptions or judgement or expectations, where the human experience was the highest priority, where you could explore movement and learn and be autonomous, where all the details mattered and had a human touch, and where you already felt welcome.
Q3: How do you break the mould and create a point of difference with Good Times Pilates?
I think a lot of the time in business and in Pilates there is this expectation that things need to be perfect and put together.
In the fitness industry there is a horrible undertone of shame as a way to motivate people and a belief that to be good enough you have to reach this unattainable aspirational body. Not only is it all so vapid and boring, it’s actually highly damaging.
I think our point of difference is that we do everything in our power to go against all that crap. As the community ‘leader’ and curator, it all comes from me. So, in being vulnerable, thinking critically, fighting the patriarchy, sharing failures I invite my team and the GTP members to do the same.
We don’t pretend or perform, we don’t teach at you, we invite you to have a human experience.
Q4: What single tool or strategy have you found invaluable to your role so far?
Critical thinking, hands down!
I learnt this skill when doing my Diploma of Clinical Pilates at Breathe Education and it’s something I continue to cultivate daily and bring to everything I do.
It means that you’re going to be wrong, a lot! But it’s so liberating when you’re okay with changing your mind and changing your actions.
Q5: How does Good Times Pilates relate to your personality and who you are?
As much as I don’t want Good Times to be all about me — it’s about the team and the community — the business ethos and approach is absolutely interlinked with my personal ethos and approach to life.
We both give a lot of shits about our impact on people and the environment, we both strive to cultivate a joyous experience for everyone who comes into contact with us, and we both seek to collaborate with the people around us to connect deeper.
Q6: What is your big hope and dream for your work?
There are many big hopes, but the biggest hope is to be able to facilitate the Good Times experience for many more people for as long as we can.
Our online platform is one way we’re trying to do that, given that you can join the Good Times community from anywhere in the world now!
We’re looking to expand to be able to fit more people into our physical space and also expand our offering now that everyone loves mat Pilates too.
Q7: What is the last thing you read, listened or watched that inspired you, and how?
I recently finished Caged Lion by John Howard Steel, it’s a book about Joseph Pilates and his legacy. In the book John, an old client of Joe’s talks to his experience in the gym, with Joe and learning Contrology (what Joe called Pilates)
“The focus was on the doing and not the competing, even with yourself. There were no objective goals such as do more exercises or move faster, or use more resistance. Progress was felt, not measured. I wasn’t there to lose weight, to build killer abs, to reshape some part of my body.”
Learning that the experience we’re striving to create for the Good Times community, was one felt by members of Joe’s own gym brings me immense joy and reassurance, it encourages me that I’m on the right track and to keep going.
Q8: What are your top 3 superpowers?
Sympathetic joy, picking the right nail polish colour for the vibe of the moment, making Puttanesca.
Q9: We’re all about women inspiring women. Who inspires you?
I’m inspired by women who help other women feel better in their skin and seek to disrupt toxic beliefs and patriarchal standards, like my Instagram pal Nadia Felsch, a non-diet and intuitive eating nutritionist, Jameela Jamil writer, activist and advocate from I Weigh, my friend and Pilates teaching colleague Anula Maiburg and all the women who come to Good Times who inspire me to keep going.
Q10: What advice would you impart on the next generation of women, and women in business?
Protect your energy. Saying no it’s absolutely fine, it’s more than fine, it’s an act of self care.
Check in on the people around you, your staff and family. Ask them if there is anything you can do to make their lives easier, even when you might already have lots to do. Because they’re the people who are supporting you and your business, if they’re drowning you’re drowning.
