Max Henderson started Hotpod Yoga in 2013 with his childhood friend Nick, despite neither of them being yoga people at the time. Today, Hotpod Yoga is Europe's largest yoga business in 3 countries with over 500,000 customers.

Most of those customers arrived sceptical about yoga, or were put off by it altogether. So Hotpod stopped leading with yoga and started selling the experience around it: the pod, the heat, the scent, the music, a space that shuts the outside world out.

The yoga happens once you're already in the room.

In this episode, Max and Adam get into how he built a brand that looks nothing like its category, why looking radically different did the heavy lifting on changing perception, how referrals turn sceptical first-timers into regulars, and what he learned from a 4-year rebrand and 18 months of barely trading through COVID.

There's also a sharp section on using partnerships to stay culturally relevant.

If you're trying to win customers who've already decided your category isn't for them, this one's worth your time.