In the last episode of Studio Shift, we talked about what it really means to walk in your customer’s shoes — not as a slogan, but as a daily way of making decisions. And when you genuinely do that, one thing becomes immediately clear:

Speed matters.

Customers don’t experience your org charts. They don’t see your internal processes, approval chains, or meetings. They just feel the delay. In this episode, Mark explores what speed really means in business — not rushing, not chaos, but the ability to make decisions quickly, learn fast, and move.

The episode opens with a moment from Mark’s corporate life that completely reframed his thinking. While working inside a startup hub, he watched a small team debate the direction of a new app. Mid-conversation, one team member quietly stood up and revealed a working prototype he had built on the spot. In a couple of hours, with real feedback and live iteration, they had a true minimum viable product. Something that would have taken weeks in a large organisation happened in a single session — and it changed how Mark thought about speed forever.

That lesson came into sharp focus during COVID.

Overnight, Sydney Pole went from more than 2,000 people a week coming through the doors to zero. Revenue stopped immediately, but rent, salaries, and bills didn’t. With no committees and no layers of approval, the business had to act fast. Within a day, makeshift TV studios were built using whatever technology was available, and online classes were launched almost immediately.

Was it perfect? Not even close.
But it was live.

And being live meant learning quickly. Sydney Pole assumed customers wanted online pole classes. In reality, most people didn’t even have a pole at home. What they wanted was connection — familiar faces, movement, and a sense of normality during a period of extreme uncertainty. Because the business moved quickly, it was able to listen, pivot, and turn the offering into a community touchpoint rather than a direct translation of the studio experience.

This leads to one of Sydney Pole’s most distinctive ideas: the Goat.

Coined by instructor Suzie Q, the Goat is someone who drives action. Goats don’t overthink or wait for permission. They jump in, try things, and create momentum — sometimes leaving a mess behind. But no one ever accuses a goat of being lazy. During COVID, Sydney Pole needed goats.

Just as importantly, it also needed the anti-goats — the people who come in behind, clean up the mess, refine the process, document what worked, and make change stick. Speed comes from goats. Sustainability comes from anti-goats. Real progress comes from having both.

The episode closes by exploring the link between speed and failure. In small business, failure is uncomfortable but survivable. In large organisations, failure can be career-limiting — which makes people cautious and slows everything down. Mark challenges businesses to think honestly about what they mean when they say they’re “agile.” If mistakes aren’t safe, speed isn’t real.

At Sydney Pole, decisions aren’t always perfect — but they’re made quickly, especially when customers are affected. Speed isn’t recklessness. It’s shortening the distance between decision, feedback, and change.

And that mindset, more than any framework or buzzword, is what keeps businesses alive in a world that’s only moving faster.

Episode one of Studio Shift begins on show night at Sydney Pole.

It’s a Saturday night in the Camperdown studio. The audience is full, the lights are on, and performers are waiting backstage in the green room. And among them is Mark — face covered in black makeup, wearing a costume he probably shouldn’t be, and standing in eight-inch black patent heels.

Tonight, Mark isn’t watching from the sidelines. He isn’t helping backstage or chatting to students. He’s performing his very first pole routine.

What started as a light-hearted bet became something much more important. Mark didn’t step on stage to prove anything — he did it to understand his customers. Not intellectually. Not through surveys, dashboards, or assumptions. But by feeling exactly what they feel.

Backstage, surrounded by nervous performers, Mark experiences the same emotions his customers face every day: self-doubt, fear of being judged, the feeling of not belonging, and the quiet voice asking, “Why am I here?” After three months of training, small wins, frustrations, encouragement, and failure, he realises he has truly walked the entire customer journey — from first step to show night.

This episode reframes what it really means to be customer-led.

Most businesses believe the customer journey starts when someone buys. In reality, it starts much earlier — with a quiet thought: Maybe this could be for me. That thought is almost immediately followed by doubt. From that moment on, every interaction becomes a customer touchpoint: the website, the emails, the pricing, the booking process, walking through the door, the first class, the way someone is greeted, and the room they step into.

Each moment either builds confidence or quietly takes it away.

At Sydney Pole, the 14-day introductory experience isn’t really about learning pole tricks. It’s about helping people feel safe, capable, welcome, and brave enough to keep showing up. Customers arrive with different motivations — fitness, confidence, connection, escape, curiosity — and no two journeys are the same. When businesses design for an “average” customer, they miss what really matters.

On show night, when Mark finally walks on stage, the room erupts in cheers. Not because he’s perfect — but because he’s having a go. Because everyone there understands how hard it is just to step into the arena. He walks off stage feeling proud, confident, and like he belongs.

That moment changes how Mark thinks about business.

Sydney Pole isn’t really in the business of teaching pole dancing, just as Disney isn’t in the business of rides or movies — it’s in the business of creating confidence, belonging, and moments that make people feel like a million dollars. Once you understand the emotional journey of your customer, everything shifts: marketing becomes about reassurance, value becomes about confidence, and retention becomes a natural outcome rather than a target.

This episode sets the foundation for the entire Studio Shift series.

Because before you can improve systems, scale a business, or talk about leadership and strategy, you first have to understand what it actually takes for someone to walk through the door — and why that first step is far braver than most businesses realise.

After 25 years in senior corporate roles at General Electric, Mark Sheppard made an unexpected move — he now runs Sydney Pole, a fast-growing chain of pole dancing studios.

Studio Shift explores what really happens when big-business thinking meets small-business reality.

This podcast isn’t about theory or perfect frameworks. It’s about decisions made in real time, where customers are visible, feedback is immediate, and leadership becomes deeply personal. Through honest stories from the studio floor, Mark shares the lessons he didn’t expect to learn when he stepped out of corporate life.

The series is built around three core shifts.

First, speed and decision-making become inseparable. In small business, waiting for certainty isn’t an option — you listen, make the call, and act, often in the same day.
Second, success starts to mean something different. It becomes less about dashboards and targets, and more about people — confidence built, lives changed, and communities formed.
And third, there’s the power and cost of controlling your own destiny. Freedom brings clarity and momentum, but also self-doubt, responsibility, and the need for resilience.

Studio Shift unpacks these ideas through real moments — what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised Mark most along the way. It’s about where strategy meets community, where leadership stops being abstract, and where business becomes human.

If you’ve ever wondered what small business can teach big organisations, what it really means to step out on your own, or how meaningful businesses are built one decision at a time, this podcast is for you.

Welcome to Studio Shift — all from the inside of a pole dancing studio.