Co-owner, Lindsey Canaley discovered yoga 15 years ago via a VHS workout tape as a teenager in her native Los Angeles. After a personal practice for many years, she got the courage to step foot in a real yoga studio in DC in 2011 and fell in love all over again. She believes in playful practice and tries not to take herself too seriously. At classes with Lindsey, you can expect high energy, creative flows with a little restorative yoga thrown in for a well-rounded sweat session on the mat. For her personal practice, she loves vinyasa, power, yin, and restorative yoga equally. Lindsey is a RYT-200 and completed her studies at Tranquil Space and her prenatal training at Mind the Mat. When not in the studio, she's probably snuggling her one-year-old daughter or one of her three kitties.
- CEO Story: Kath and Lindsey came to the studio as teachers, the time came when both were presented with the idea of owning the company, and both grabbed the opportunity instantly.
- Business Service: Yoga classes from beginner to advanced. Stretching, teacher training, and energetic therapy.
- Secret Sauce: Small classes, welcoming and intimate. Limit the classes.
- CEO Hack: Time blocking
- CEO Nugget: Hire slowly and fire quickly / Partnerships are never easy / Create your own tribe
- CEO Defined: You own both successes and failures / CEO – visionary, looking forward or doing more of the mission
Website: http://www.refreshyogacenter.com
Facebook: RefreshYogaCenter
Instagram: refreshyogacenter
Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/11/07/iam102-owners-of-yoga-studio-offer-an-escape-from-the-frantic-dc-lifestyle/
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Transcription
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00:01 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:26 – Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresham Harkless from the I Am CEO podcast and I have 2 very special guests on the show today. I have Kat and Lindsay from Refresh Yoga Center located in the heart of Alexandria. It's great to have you both on the show.
00:39 – Kathryn Taron
Thanks.
00:40 – Gresham Harkless
No problem. No problem. What I want to do is just kind of kick off the show to kind of hear a little bit more about Refresh Yoga Studio and all the awesome things that you're doing. So I wanted to hear about your CEO story is what I call it and kind of like, what led you guys to start your business?
[restrict paid=”true”]
00:52 – Kathryn Taron
Sure. So this is Kat. I was at Refresh first as a teacher. So we aren't founders, but when the opportunity presented itself to become owners, we both jumped at it.
01:03 – Lindsey Canaley
Yeah, yeah, this is Lindsay. Pretty similar story. I was teaching and had an opportunity to come in as an or to the business. We both came to the studio as teachers because we love the practice and love sharing it with others. Ownership is being able to cultivate a community under shared values that are important to you. So that's what really happened for us.
01:24 – Gresham Harkless
Okay, that makes sense. And I always wondered that I was just going to ask if you always find that people that start out as yoga teachers, end up wanting to be an owners just because they enjoy yoga so much.
01:33 – Kathryn Taron
It's very common. It's not always something I would recommend for every teacher. Because we also run teacher training and some people come out with that dream. So it's a hard balance between being a business owner and being a yoga teacher. And sometimes people think those are in conflict.
01:48 – Lindsey Canaley
So it can be a struggle for some, and it's also really rewarding.
01:50 – Kathryn Taron
So for us, we try to balance that.
01:55 – Lindsey Canaley
And not all of the qualities that make you a good yoga teacher necessarily make you a good entrepreneur. And so we certainly see that happening occasionally, especially in communities that are underserved, they don't have a lot of yoga available, that will naturally happen is that somebody who's very passionate about the practice, it with the heart of service, But if you don't have some, you know, that business background or the thick skin and the willingness to learn how to do it.
02:25 – Kathryn Taron
The ability to say no sometimes, we all just want to serve and give and help. But you have to also look after yourself.
02:33 – Lindsey Canaley
Yes, yeah, fill your cup first. So sometimes we do see yoga teachers that will kind of go down that journey and crash and burn for lots of reasons and not all of them are necessarily their faults. It's definitely not an easy business.
02:45 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that makes sense. And like you said, and 1 of the reasons I love interviewing entrepreneurs and business owners that I call healthy CEOs is because you guys have like that triple bottom line where it's about, of course, profits and generating revenue, but it's also about having that helpful attitude that you have with all the people that come in as clients that you work with.
03:02 – Lindsey Canaley
Right. That passion.
03:04 – Gresham Harkless
Exactly. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and ask you for what I call your, the way that you serve the clients that you work with, your products and services, and what you kind of do here at Refresh. Sure.
03:15 – Kathryn Taron
Absolutely. So we're primarily a yoga center as is part of the name and it was what's called a vinyasa studio So most of our classes are flow we go to all levels though from beginner to you know Quote unquote advanced or very challenging physical practice, then there's prenatal Sometimes just stretch classes are really those are some of our most popular classes. And Perry said prenatal, but teacher training. And then we have Reiki, which is an energetic therapy and massage.
03:41 – Gresham Harkless
Okay. Okay. That makes perfect sense. I guess that's the full gamut of everything you can have as far as yoga.
03:46 – Kathryn Taron
Well, there's always, we could have had goats
03:48 -Lindsey Canaley
Or something.
03:50 – Gresham Harkless
I've seen that in beer yoga too.
03:53 – Lindsey Canaley
There are lots of different kinds of yoga. Yeah, there's a lot.
03:55 – Kathryn Taron
I didn't mention restorative. So there's always something else you can combine.
04:00 – Kathryn Taron
We have core-focused practice, but we try to keep it grounded in what our community needs. We always say embrace the journey, that's 1 of our core values. We try to help from prenatal to postnatal, from beginner to teacher, and just kind of serve. It's staying focused, but casting is somewhat of a white net to help everybody.
04:22 – Lindsey Canaley
Well, that's the perfect word to use is community. A healthy thriving studio is a mirror of the community around them. And 1 of the things that we found is that the practice that we provide does target a little bit older populations, athletes, people who have other practices that they do. They're runners, they're athletes, they have other movement practices and they come to us for mobility, for restorative, for cross-training. They end up staying and making it a core part of their movement which is really cool to be a part of but that helps influence how the studio looks, and the people who come. I believe it makes it a little bit more accessible.
05:05 – Kathryn Taron
Yes, we're all-inclusive. So I know a lot of people can walk into the studio and it can feel like an in-group or a clique-ish.
05:14 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, like CrossFit gyms, and stuff like that.
05:15 – Lindsey Canaley
Yeah. You can't forget that. Right.
05:19 – Kathryn Taron
I totally understand it's intimidating. We really, really try to make everybody feel welcome even if it's the first class you've ever taken.
05:27 – Gresham Harkless
You don't have a mat. What could be wrong with the mat?
05:28 – Kathryn Taron
In the Western practice of yoga, We tend to go after the physical part first, and then people notice later the mental benefits, some of the more spiritual benefits. We're not dogmatic, but it sort of comes organically when you learn how to sit still for just, even a minute for some people is a challenge at first. And then you start to reap the rewards in your mental stamina.
05:48 – Gresham Harkless
Isn't that? No, that makes sense. And I know that a lot of people, especially if they're using or trying yoga for the very first time, they're probably a little bit intimidated. They see the stuff on Instagram and they're like, oh, I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to make myself into a pretzel.
06:00 – Lindsey Canaley
So, kind of good to have that sort of thing. I don't know how to do that anymore.
06:03 – Kathryn Taron
It's not, and I don't really see anything practical to that either.
06:06 – Gresham Harkless
I feel like that was a Photoshop or something like that. I know, I know.
06:10 – Kathryn Taron
It's a shame sometimes.
06:11 – Lindsey Canaley
Well, I mean, not to toot our own horn, but if you look at our Instagram, you're not going to find posts like that. It's not about the physical, like I joke sometimes in the classes that I teach, like I know that this pose looks like this in Yoga Journal, but like rather than turning your head this way, maybe think about turning it the other way, like why would you, you know, put undue pressure on your body if you know that this isn't the goal. So that's something that we really try and drive home that it's less about what it looks like and more about how you need to feel.
06:39 – Gresham Harkless
Right, that makes sense. Okay, so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and some people have called it like their superpower or something that distinguishes them. So what do you guys feel like either your secret sauce is or maybe even for the organization and company?
06:51 – Lindsey Canaley
Well, one of the things that I think we certainly bring to this particular community of old town is small classes, very intimate, welcoming, kind of what we were talking about before, yoga tea, coming into a yoga studio for this person can be really intimidating. So we've put a lot of time attention and education into our programs that are really forward-facing. The beginner series is primarily what comes to mind. It's a four-week program that we offer every couple of months, not necessarily every month, but students are encouraged to come in. They come for 4 weeks every Monday night typically and they're with other people who are starting their journey together.
So it's a safe space where they can explore, learn some of the basics, and then kind of go from there. And we found that that has been a really good entry point for a lot of new people who are new to the studio, people who are new to yoga. It's less scary than just wandering into a class where they don't understand what vinyasa means. We kind of tend to breeze by within our own community because we know people who know what that means. But most consumers, if they're coming up, we're on the second floor, for those of you who don't know. We're above an ice cream shop, which we joke is balance. You can actually come up the stairs and like, I don't know what vinyasa means.
I don't know what a stretch and refresh class is, but a beginner is pretty universal and that can feel a lot safer. Absolutely. So I would just, this is Kat again, I would just piggyback on that. Yeah, with, we actually limit our class sizes, so you're not going to come in and feel like a sardine packed in there because it's there's merit to that but we really it's important for the teacher to be able to see every student and we also offer hands-on adjustments in all of our classes with permission of course And that just means that you're gonna get a little bit of contact and like some of that healing touch.
08:37 – Kathryn Taron
I don't know, I don't know if I would say that necessarily, but people really benefit from that, and having just a little slight variance with their posture, it can make it just that energy transfer, I think is really unique. And not all the studios are offering it anymore. It's because it's, you know, it can be a delicate thing to offer. Also, we do have a massage and that is not always available, but it's a compliment to the practice, of course. Bodywork.
09:00 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. awesome. I appreciate it. And what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit and ask you guys for what I call a CEO hack. This could be an app, a book, or even a habit that you guys might have that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
09:11 – Lindsey Canaley
This is my favorite question. Because I think about this All the time. I love podcasts that talk about entrepreneurship, and being a CEO. I would say if I had to pick 1 thing, it would be time blocking. 1 of the things that I found is being an entrepreneur, the to-do list doesn't have an end. If you've reached the end of your to-do list, you need to go back and find something else. You're selling your business. You might be out of business. You can always be growing.
You can always be diversifying. You can always be doing things better. And there's like really there's beauty in that. There's the challenge in that which I think some entrepreneurs that love being entrepreneurs thrive on. But what it creates is this dual system where you have the work and then you have the mental load of the work. And if you don't have strategies in place for keeping those in their zones, it can be overwhelming.
So one of the ways that I do that is by time blocking, by actually taking my calendar and blocking up the day from 9 to 10. I'm looking at our info box and our email account. From 10 to 11, I'm like doing some social media posting or I'm responding to people on social media. It doesn't always look exactly like that, but I find that if I clear all my tabs or close them, nobody closes tabs. I minimize them because I need to lose important things if I do that.
10:24 – Kathryn Taron
Right. I'm searching that menu. I think I really wanted to read that article.
10:29 – Lindsey Canaley
Right, I really want to. So it's minimized. And I just keep what's in front of me. It may not be a full hour. It may just be a 20-minute block. But if I do that and I'm very purposeful, it feels less overwhelming.
10:40 – Gresham Harkless
That makes sense. Yeah, I'm really big into time blocking as well, too. So especially when you're trying to run a business, there are so many different things that you have to do, but to be able to break it down into smaller bites, you can make it a lot easier to be successful.
10:51 – Kathryn Taron
Yeah, exactly. There you go.
10:53 – Gresham Harkless
Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice that you have, or I always say If you jump into a time machine and go back in the past, what would you tell your younger business self?
11:04 – Kathryn Taron
I'll take that one. And I didn't come up with this. At first, I think it doesn't sound very yogic, but everybody I think has heard, hire slowly, fire quickly. I wrestle with this a lot, but I think You know almost instantly when the energy is not right, right? If it's just not compatible, why try to foster some kind of relationship that can be either toxic or just not beneficial to either party? And it's better just to let it go and in the end, you're always relieved rather than stressing anymore. And take the time to find the right people. The way it works here, like people that we hire from within the community usually. So some of our students have become our best teachers and our best employees. So people who share our values make it much easier.
11:47 – Lindsey Canaley
Yeah, and I will say partnerships are never easy. They can hit grooves and they can hit rough spots and working with Kat has been incredible. But the 1 thing in the beginning, I was like, I really resisted this idea because I'm used to like, I want to make split decisions. Like, and you know, go with my gut, and hey, we got a really good person here, let's take a chance. And every time I've pushed back, she's been right. She's a really good reader of energy, is what I've learned. And I'm like, darn it. Okay, you were right about that. Just like, yes. Alright, let's go slow. Which is learning.
12:20 – Kathryn Taron
Right. Just using my mistakes. It's true. Like helping to prevent the future of a break. Yeah. So, but it's been funny.
12:27 – Lindsey Canaley
You know, of course, of course, but it's true. I mean, we were just talking, But this comes up and I'm starting to come around like okay. We'll go a little slower Until we find the right fit for that particular time or that day or in for the studio overall Thankfully we have that luxury and we are both teach We are able to step in as needed when stuff comes up.
12:55 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, when life happens, that makes perfect sense. Also, well, now I wanted to ask you my favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show so I wanted to ask you both what does being a CEO mean to you?
13:08 – Kathryn Taron
CEO it sounds it I think you covered this in other episodes but yeah we don't we don't see ourselves as there are no other CEO sounds
13:15 – Lindsey Canaley
so important. I know.
13:16 – Kathryn Taron
But I mean simply put being a CEO means you own both successes and failures. Bottom line.
13:22 – Lindsey Canaley
I love that. Sometimes when I think about the CEO, I think about all the C-suite, you know, the different roles that go with it. And 1 of the things that I'm finding is, well, in my experience, that typically a good organization is going to have 2 essential head roles. And sometimes it's the same person, but I like to sort of divide it into like a COO, somebody who's very operationally focused and making sure that the cogs are on time. And then the CEO is much more visionary, much more strategy, marketing, outreach, growth. So whenever I think of just CEO in that sense, I think of somebody who's looking forward and looking to take the business to the next level or you know do more of what their mission is which is you know for us bringing yoga to this community
14:08 – Gresham Harkless
Well, I appreciate both of you for taking some time out of your schedule what I wanted to do was pass you the mic So to speak just to see if there is anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then how can we find out about Refresh Yoga?
14:19 – Kathryn Taron
Well, I just recommend everyone go to our website, refreshyogacenter.com, and you'll see all of the amazing workshops that we're hosting, our teacher training program, which is by far something I'm most proud of, I think, or 1 of the things I'm most proud of here. Again, it's an intimate setting, and we really challenge our students to go deeper, looking into themselves, looking at their practice, and they have just blossomed, and they share it with everyone. So I'm really proud of that, and read our blog, you do all that stuff and just come visit us. We're in King Street, it's beautiful down here. We'd love to host you.
14:54 – Lindsey Canaley
I second all of that. 1 of the things I'm always thinking about, again, because this is Lindsay, I love reading. And there's a lot of energy towards taking your business to the next level. And sometimes that's taking it virtual or doing something that's going to impact outside of your local community. So it's been a really interesting challenge to do a business that's so local. How can I do both things? How can I serve my community, but also be of that growth mindset? And 1 of the ways I've done it, I feel like I've kind of scratched that itch personally is by getting really connected with other entrepreneurs through business groups, through and typically through Facebook-driven groups.
Sometimes that's just studio owners. So I would encourage you if you are in one of those categories, not necessarily the owner of a studio, but if you own a business and you're looking for opportunities to collaborate, like definitely reach out. We love talking about how we grow our businesses. Sometimes the things we learn are translatable to other industries, sometimes they're not.
But honestly, it can be, we found it can be a really isolating business. We're lucky in that I have a partner, and we're partners, but we have reached out to other studios, even local studios in the past to do collaborative events. And it's like, we get the sense that like they have no 1 to talk to. So I know how isolating being an entrepreneur can be and you have to create a tribe and if that means that you are on the other side of the country or other side of the world, we're always open to collaborate, share stories, and share ideas.
16:15 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate both of you taking some time out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:19 – Lindsey Canaley
Thank you. Thank you.
16:22 – Intro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:01 - Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:26 - Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresham Harkless from the I Am CEO podcast and I have 2 very special guests on the show today. I have Kat and Lindsay from Refresh Yoga Center located in the heart of Alexandria. It's great to have you both on the show.
00:39 - Kathryn Taron
Thanks.
00:40 - Gresham Harkless
No problem. No problem. What I want to do is just kind of kick off the show to kind of hear a little bit more about Refresh Yoga Studio and all the awesome things that you're doing. So I wanted to hear about your CEO story is what I call it and kind of like, what led you guys to start your business?
00:52 - Kathryn Taron
Sure. So this is Kat. I was at Refresh first as a teacher. So we aren't founders, but when the opportunity presented itself to become owners, we both jumped at it.
01:03 - Lindsey Canaley
Yeah, yeah, this is Lindsay. Pretty similar story. I was teaching and had an opportunity to come in as an or to the business. We both came to the studio as teachers because we love the practice and love sharing it with others. Ownership is being able to cultivate a community under shared values that are important to you. So that's what really happened for us.
01:24 - Gresham Harkless
Okay, that makes sense. And I always wondered that I was just going to ask if you always find that people that start out as yoga teachers, end up wanting to be an owners just because they enjoy yoga so much.
01:33 - Kathryn Taron
It's very common. It's not always something I would recommend for every teacher. Because we also run teacher training and some people come out with that dream. So it's a hard balance between being a business owner and being a yoga teacher. And sometimes people think those are in conflict.
01:48 - Lindsey Canaley
So it can be a struggle for some, and it's also really rewarding.
01:50 - Kathryn Taron
So for us, we try to balance that.
01:55 - Lindsey Canaley
And not all of the qualities that make you a good yoga teacher necessarily make you a good entrepreneur. And so we certainly see that happening occasionally, especially in communities that are underserved, they don't have a lot of yoga available, that will naturally happen is that somebody who's very passionate about the practice, it with the heart of service, But if you don't have some, you know, that business background or the thick skin and the willingness to learn how to do it.
02:25 - Kathryn Taron
The ability to say no sometimes, we all just want to serve and give and help. But you have to also look after yourself.
02:33 - Lindsey Canaley
Yes, yeah, fill your cup first. So sometimes we do see yoga teachers that will kind of go down that journey and crash and burn for lots of reasons and not all of them are necessarily their faults. It's definitely not an easy business.
02:45 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that makes sense. And like you said, and 1 of the reasons I love interviewing entrepreneurs and business owners that I call healthy CEOs is because you guys have like that triple bottom line where it's about, of course, profits and generating revenue, but it's also about having that helpful attitude that you have with all the people that come in as clients that you work with.
03:02 - Lindsey Canaley
Right. That passion.
03:04 - Gresham Harkless
Exactly. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and ask you for what I call your, the way that you serve the clients that you work with, your products and services, and what you kind of do here at Refresh. Sure.
03:15 - Kathryn Taron
Absolutely. So we're primarily a yoga center as is part of the name and it was what's called a vinyasa studio So most of our classes are flow we go to all levels though from beginner to you know Quote unquote advanced or very challenging physical practice, then there's prenatal Sometimes just stretch classes are really those are some of our most popular classes. And Perry said prenatal, but teacher training. And then we have Reiki, which is an energetic therapy and massage.
03:41 - Gresham Harkless
Okay. Okay. That makes perfect sense. I guess that's the full gamut of everything you can have as far as yoga.
03:46 - Kathryn Taron
Well, there's always, we could have had goats
03:48 -Lindsey Canaley
Or something.
03:50 - Gresham Harkless
I've seen that in beer yoga too.
03:53 - Lindsey Canaley
There are lots of different kinds of yoga. Yeah, there's a lot.
03:55 - Kathryn Taron
I didn't mention restorative. So there's always something else you can combine.
04:00 - Kathryn Taron
We have core-focused practice, but we try to keep it grounded in what our community needs. We always say embrace the journey, that's 1 of our core values. We try to help from prenatal to postnatal, from beginner to teacher, and just kind of serve. It's staying focused, but casting is somewhat of a white net to help everybody.
04:22 - Lindsey Canaley
Well, that's the perfect word to use is community. A healthy thriving studio is a mirror of the community around them. And 1 of the things that we found is that the practice that we provide does target a little bit older populations, athletes, people who have other practices that they do. They're runners, they're athletes, they have other movement practices and they come to us for mobility, for restorative, for cross-training. They end up staying and making it a core part of their movement which is really cool to be a part of but that helps influence how the studio looks, and the people who come. I believe it makes it a little bit more accessible.
05:05 - Kathryn Taron
Yes, we're all-inclusive. So I know a lot of people can walk into the studio and it can feel like an in-group or a clique-ish.
05:14 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, like CrossFit gyms, and stuff like that.
05:15 - Lindsey Canaley
Yeah. You can't forget that. Right.
05:19 - Kathryn Taron
I totally understand it's intimidating. We really, really try to make everybody feel welcome even if it's the first class you've ever taken.
05:27 - Gresham Harkless
You don't have a mat. What could be wrong with the mat?
05:28 - Kathryn Taron
In the Western practice of yoga, We tend to go after the physical part first, and then people notice later the mental benefits, some of the more spiritual benefits. We're not dogmatic, but it sort of comes organically when you learn how to sit still for just, even a minute for some people is a challenge at first. And then you start to reap the rewards in your mental stamina.
05:48 - Gresham Harkless
Isn't that? No, that makes sense. And I know that a lot of people, especially if they're using or trying yoga for the very first time, they're probably a little bit intimidated. They see the stuff on Instagram and they're like, oh, I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to make myself into a pretzel.
06:00 - Lindsey Canaley
So, kind of good to have that sort of thing. I don't know how to do that anymore.
06:03 - Kathryn Taron
It's not, and I don't really see anything practical to that either.
06:06 - Gresham Harkless
I feel like that was a Photoshop or something like that. I know, I know.
06:10 - Kathryn Taron
It's a shame sometimes.
06:11 - Lindsey Canaley
Well, I mean, not to toot our own horn, but if you look at our Instagram, you're not going to find posts like that. It's not about the physical, like I joke sometimes in the classes that I teach, like I know that this pose looks like this in Yoga Journal, but like rather than turning your head this way, maybe think about turning it the other way, like why would you, you know, put undue pressure on your body if you know that this isn't the goal. So that's something that we really try and drive home that it's less about what it looks like and more about how you need to feel.
06:39 - Gresham Harkless
Right, that makes sense. Okay, so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and some people have called it like their superpower or something that distinguishes them. So what do you guys feel like either your secret sauce is or maybe even for the organization and company?
06:51 - Lindsey Canaley
Well, one of the things that I think we certainly bring to this particular community of old town is small classes, very intimate, welcoming, kind of what we were talking about before, yoga tea, coming into a yoga studio for this person can be really intimidating. So we've put a lot of time attention and education into our programs that are really forward-facing. The beginner series is primarily what comes to mind. It's a four-week program that we offer every couple of months, not necessarily every month, but students are encouraged to come in. They come for 4 weeks every Monday night typically and they're with other people who are starting their journey together.
So it's a safe space where they can explore, learn some of the basics, and then kind of go from there. And we found that that has been a really good entry point for a lot of new people who are new to the studio, people who are new to yoga. It's less scary than just wandering into a class where they don't understand what vinyasa means. We kind of tend to breeze by within our own community because we know people who know what that means. But most consumers, if they're coming up, we're on the second floor, for those of you who don't know. We're above an ice cream shop, which we joke is balance. You can actually come up the stairs and like, I don't know what vinyasa means.
I don't know what a stretch and refresh class is, but a beginner is pretty universal and that can feel a lot safer. Absolutely. So I would just, this is Kat again, I would just piggyback on that. Yeah, with, we actually limit our class sizes, so you're not going to come in and feel like a sardine packed in there because it's there's merit to that but we really it's important for the teacher to be able to see every student and we also offer hands-on adjustments in all of our classes with permission of course And that just means that you're gonna get a little bit of contact and like some of that healing touch.
08:37 - Kathryn Taron
I don't know, I don't know if I would say that necessarily, but people really benefit from that, and having just a little slight variance with their posture, it can make it just that energy transfer, I think is really unique. And not all the studios are offering it anymore. It's because it's, you know, it can be a delicate thing to offer. Also, we do have a massage and that is not always available, but it's a compliment to the practice, of course. Bodywork.
09:00 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. awesome. I appreciate it. And what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit and ask you guys for what I call a CEO hack. This could be an app, a book, or even a habit that you guys might have that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
09:11 - Lindsey Canaley
This is my favorite question. Because I think about this All the time. I love podcasts that talk about entrepreneurship, and being a CEO. I would say if I had to pick 1 thing, it would be time blocking. 1 of the things that I found is being an entrepreneur, the to-do list doesn't have an end. If you've reached the end of your to-do list, you need to go back and find something else. You're selling your business. You might be out of business. You can always be growing.
You can always be diversifying. You can always be doing things better. And there's like really there's beauty in that. There's the challenge in that which I think some entrepreneurs that love being entrepreneurs thrive on. But what it creates is this dual system where you have the work and then you have the mental load of the work. And if you don't have strategies in place for keeping those in their zones, it can be overwhelming.
So one of the ways that I do that is by time blocking, by actually taking my calendar and blocking up the day from 9 to 10. I'm looking at our info box and our email account. From 10 to 11, I'm like doing some social media posting or I'm responding to people on social media. It doesn't always look exactly like that, but I find that if I clear all my tabs or close them, nobody closes tabs. I minimize them because I need to lose important things if I do that.
10:24 - Kathryn Taron
Right. I'm searching that menu. I think I really wanted to read that article.
10:29 - Lindsey Canaley
Right, I really want to. So it's minimized. And I just keep what's in front of me. It may not be a full hour. It may just be a 20-minute block. But if I do that and I'm very purposeful, it feels less overwhelming.
10:40 - Gresham Harkless
That makes sense. Yeah, I'm really big into time blocking as well, too. So especially when you're trying to run a business, there are so many different things that you have to do, but to be able to break it down into smaller bites, you can make it a lot easier to be successful.
10:51 - Kathryn Taron
Yeah, exactly. There you go.
10:53 - Gresham Harkless
Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice that you have, or I always say If you jump into a time machine and go back in the past, what would you tell your younger business self?
11:04 - Kathryn Taron
I'll take that one. And I didn't come up with this. At first, I think it doesn't sound very yogic, but everybody I think has heard, hire slowly, fire quickly. I wrestle with this a lot, but I think You know almost instantly when the energy is not right, right? If it's just not compatible, why try to foster some kind of relationship that can be either toxic or just not beneficial to either party? And it's better just to let it go and in the end, you're always relieved rather than stressing anymore. And take the time to find the right people. The way it works here, like people that we hire from within the community usually. So some of our students have become our best teachers and our best employees. So people who share our values make it much easier.
11:47 - Lindsey Canaley
Yeah, and I will say partnerships are never easy. They can hit grooves and they can hit rough spots and working with Kat has been incredible. But the 1 thing in the beginning, I was like, I really resisted this idea because I'm used to like, I want to make split decisions. Like, and you know, go with my gut, and hey, we got a really good person here, let's take a chance. And every time I've pushed back, she's been right. She's a really good reader of energy, is what I've learned. And I'm like, darn it. Okay, you were right about that. Just like, yes. Alright, let's go slow. Which is learning.
12:20 - Kathryn Taron
Right. Just using my mistakes. It's true. Like helping to prevent the future of a break. Yeah. So, but it's been funny.
12:27 - Lindsey Canaley
You know, of course, of course, but it's true. I mean, we were just talking, But this comes up and I'm starting to come around like okay. We'll go a little slower Until we find the right fit for that particular time or that day or in for the studio overall Thankfully we have that luxury and we are both teach We are able to step in as needed when stuff comes up.
12:55 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, when life happens, that makes perfect sense. Also, well, now I wanted to ask you my favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show so I wanted to ask you both what does being a CEO mean to you?
13:08 - Kathryn Taron
CEO it sounds it I think you covered this in other episodes but yeah we don't we don't see ourselves as there are no other CEO sounds
13:15 - Lindsey Canaley
so important. I know.
13:16 - Kathryn Taron
But I mean simply put being a CEO means you own both successes and failures. Bottom line.
13:22 - Lindsey Canaley
I love that. Sometimes when I think about the CEO, I think about all the C-suite, you know, the different roles that go with it. And 1 of the things that I'm finding is, well, in my experience, that typically a good organization is going to have 2 essential head roles. And sometimes it's the same person, but I like to sort of divide it into like a COO, somebody who's very operationally focused and making sure that the cogs are on time. And then the CEO is much more visionary, much more strategy, marketing, outreach, growth. So whenever I think of just CEO in that sense, I think of somebody who's looking forward and looking to take the business to the next level or you know do more of what their mission is which is you know for us bringing yoga to this community
14:08 - Gresham Harkless
Well, I appreciate both of you for taking some time out of your schedule what I wanted to do was pass you the mic So to speak just to see if there is anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then how can we find out about Refresh Yoga?
14:19 - Kathryn Taron
Well, I just recommend everyone go to our website, refreshyogacenter.com, and you'll see all of the amazing workshops that we're hosting, our teacher training program, which is by far something I'm most proud of, I think, or 1 of the things I'm most proud of here. Again, it's an intimate setting, and we really challenge our students to go deeper, looking into themselves, looking at their practice, and they have just blossomed, and they share it with everyone. So I'm really proud of that, and read our blog, you do all that stuff and just come visit us. We're in King Street, it's beautiful down here. We'd love to host you.
14:54 - Lindsey Canaley
I second all of that. 1 of the things I'm always thinking about, again, because this is Lindsay, I love reading. And there's a lot of energy towards taking your business to the next level. And sometimes that's taking it virtual or doing something that's going to impact outside of your local community. So it's been a really interesting challenge to do a business that's so local. How can I do both things? How can I serve my community, but also be of that growth mindset? And 1 of the ways I've done it, I feel like I've kind of scratched that itch personally is by getting really connected with other entrepreneurs through business groups, through and typically through Facebook-driven groups.
Sometimes that's just studio owners. So I would encourage you if you are in one of those categories, not necessarily the owner of a studio, but if you own a business and you're looking for opportunities to collaborate, like definitely reach out. We love talking about how we grow our businesses. Sometimes the things we learn are translatable to other industries, sometimes they're not.
But honestly, it can be, we found it can be a really isolating business. We're lucky in that I have a partner, and we're partners, but we have reached out to other studios, even local studios in the past to do collaborative events. And it's like, we get the sense that like they have no 1 to talk to. So I know how isolating being an entrepreneur can be and you have to create a tribe and if that means that you are on the other side of the country or other side of the world, we're always open to collaborate, share stories, and share ideas.
16:15 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate both of you taking some time out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:19 - Lindsey Canaley
Thank you. Thank you.
16:22 - Intro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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