It’s hard for me to answer who I am outside of yoga, because yoga has been woven into my life for as long as I can remember.

Outside of the business, I’m a mom to a toddler boy, which is by far my greatest joy, a wife, and a mom to two golden retrievers. My husband is Italian, so Italy is a big part of our lives, and we live in an old farmhouse surrounded by nature and animals — horses have always held a particularly special place in my heart.

In fact, horses are part of how yoga first came into my life.

How Yoga First Came Into My Life

My mom brought me to Bikram yoga when I was a preteen because I was competing in equestrian sports, and she thought it would help with my balance, strength, and injury recovery.

I was the youngest person in the room, I spent most of that first class lying down, and somehow I loved it.

From there, yoga became a constant in my life. As a teenager, I found my way back to my mat during some of the hardest seasons, and I stayed connected to the practice into early adulthood.

By 20, I knew I wanted to make it my life.

From Student to Studio Owner

I went from student to teacher, and at 22, fresh out of teacher training and with very little business experience, I opened my first studio.

There were plenty of people who assumed I would fail before I even started or questioned whether I had enough experience to do it. In many ways, the odds were stacked against me, and I had to learn to believe in myself before I had much evidence that I should.

Since opening that first studio in 2017, there has been an enormous amount of trial and error.

I was growing up while simultaneously growing a business — figuring things out without a roadmap, being underestimated, navigating mistakes, and eventually surviving the COVID shutdowns and everything that came with them.

Growing Into a Franchise Founder

But through every season, yoga continued to evolve with me.

I went from student to teacher, retreat host, teacher trainer, studio owner, multi-studio owner, and now franchise founder, with our first franchise location opening next month.

What started as something my mom brought me to as a kid ultimately became the thread running through nearly every chapter of my life and, in so many ways, it became my whole world.

Business Takeaways

  • Starting With Nothing I started my yoga business with a copy of Business for Dummies, a business loan I somehow managed to secure after Googling how to write a business plan, and no teachers or students. When I opened my first studio in August 2017, it was truly just me. I worked the front desk every day for the first three years, taught hundreds and hundreds of classes, and poured everything I had into building the community. I still remember our first double-digit class that Thanksgiving... 22 people signed up for a free class, and I remember thinking, I made it!!!
  • Hard Work Could Only Take Me So Far As the business grew, so did I. Eventually, I realized that hard work could only take me so far, so I invested in business education and started learning about KPIs, retention, strategy, and the systems required to build something sustainable. I continued showing up authentically on social media, which, along with word of mouth, remains one of our strongest drivers of new business today.
  • Build Systems That Can Grow With You As we grew from one studio to multiple locations and ultimately into franchising, I became obsessive about documenting what worked, creating strong SOPs and operating manuals, and hiring professionals in the areas where I needed expertise. I’ve never believed in cutting corners simply to save money when investing in something could make the business stronger.
  • Treating People Well Matters Through all of it, I’ve learned that you are never finished growing or learning, and that treating people well will always matter more to me than maximizing profit. People may forget the details, but they rarely forget how you made them feel. I’ve also learned not to underestimate people, some of the best teachers I’ve ever worked with were once brand-new teachers who simply needed someone to give them an opportunity. And maybe most importantly, I’ve learned how limitless our potential can be when we truly believe in ourselves.
  • The Mission Is Bigger Now My mission now is much bigger than operating yoga studios: I want to expand Sweatfluence into more communities, introduce more people to our one-of-a-kind approach to heated yoga, and help other entrepreneurs achieve their own dreams through franchising. I want to give our franchise owners the guidance and support I wish I had when I was 22 and figuring everything out alone.
  • Message to Other Yoga Founders My message to other yoga founders is simple: if it were easy, everyone would do it. You probably won’t get rich quick, but you will have the opportunity to transform people’s lives, and there is tremendous value in that. When it gets hard, don’t quit, rest. Take a deep breath, come back to why you started, and keep going. The belief you have in yourself can carry you an incredibly long way, especially during the seasons when other people don’t see what you see yet.