We are so excited to chat with Martha Kodsy, the owner of In Bloom Yoga in New Hartford, NY! You can catch the full interview via our YouTube link recorded in the fall of 2022, and here is an excerpt of our fun IG live chat we had about what it is like owning a yoga studio, surviving the pandemic, and great things coming up in 2023!
Iana
We are chatting today with our new sponsor, new partner, In Bloom Yoga. Martha, I know that you took over ownership of the space. How long have you been there, a little over five years?
Martha
I took over in May of 2017 and I moved here in December of 2017. Immediately when I took over ownership, I said I didn’t want a one room studio and I wanted to be able to offer aerial and all different things. And now when we move again, I’m going to add two hot yoga, I’m getting radiant floors installed, and I’m going to do the ceiling panels. So I want to do the two hot yoga with the infrared lighting and the infrared heat. I like to upgrade every time I do something like that.
Iana
I love hearing you’ve been open since before the pandemic, and you survived the pandemic and you’re thriving.
Martha
We are not where we were prior to the pandemic, but we’re getting back to where we were. I would say we’re about three fourths of the way to where we were. It’s a slow but steady climb. We’ve actually seen an uptick since I would say August 2022, September, our numbers have really started climbing again. I think since September, we’ve increased our attendance steadily.
Iana
And has it been people returning back that had maybe left for a while, or is it new people that have moved in?
Martha
We are trying to capitalize on our new yogi. We added a beginner’s class. We added more classes this fall to make sure that we had the availability for people. I think that’s helped because you have to be able to have availability to your clients. People’s lives are crazy, and so you have to have something that fits their schedule, if possible.
Iana
I feel like things are more crazy now than before. The pandemic life still feels unsettled to me. Do you feel the same way?
“My son has autism, so it’s a near and dear subject, and that’s actually how I originally got into yoga, because of him.”
Martha
I agree. There’s kind of no rhyme or reason. The one thing that we also did was we got on board with an autism center. My son has autism, so it’s a near and dear subject, and that’s actually how I originally got into yoga, because of him. He in the beginning really thrived with it, really liked it. We had private lessons but now he’s not as much into it. He kind of went off that path and I still stuck with it for special needs. So we actually did a partnership with a place called the Government Center in Utica, New York. And they did inclusivity with different community places with art, with a gym and also with us as a yoga studio. We were grant funded for this class, different classes to have inclusivity. And so we started one of the classes that really stuck, it’s what we call “spirit in the spectrum.” And right now we’re still running it free because we had so much in the grant. People had special training, they paid for the instructors and we did some fundraising classes. So we were able to keep it running for no charge for the community.
Some of the kids are like, “I want to do swing yoga.” We also offer the community an aerial inclusive class. So on Tuesday nights it’s free for them as well. They come and know that we’re going to have clients that may have some special needs and just to know that’s a part of our community and we will never give that up. We provide support for the people. We have a couple of instructors floating around the room to help the clients if they need help with poses, if they just want to take a child’s pose throughout the class, or if they want to be in savasana the whole time. We provide weighted blankets for them and weighted squishy balls.
Iana
That’s so beautiful, and I love it because in your logo you’re saying yoga for everybody. And it’s really that! I think for a lot of people, the financial aspect can be hindered so when you offer free and then offer all these additional tools that’s such a beautiful thing. Tell me, how has your personal practice changed since you became an owner?
Martha
We were doing a lot of instagram lives for free for the community during the pandemic because we thought that it was important to keep yoga going, to keep having the community in touch. So we did that. As far as my practice, unfortunately, with the day to day life, it’s not as much as it should be. I love yin, so I have a tendency to take a lot of that. Believe it or not, I’m not an aerial person. I don’t like to hang upside down.
I do a lot of meditation, actually. We’re trying to work together with a licensed clinical social worker with one of our yoga instructors and we want to do a meditation class, but with biofeedback because there’s this tool out there called the Muse. So we want to teach people how to really do meditation to really get into that. So we’re working towards the first quarter of the year to really move forward with that class so people could really use it all the time.
Iana
So, before you owned the studio, what did you do?
Martha
I was a hospital administrator, I worked in risk management, which was a tough job. I had administrative responsibilities over different departments. Then impulsively one day I decided I’m done and I was going to be a housewife. I’m going to do things I always wanted to do before, so I wanted to do yoga. I went and met Terra Meenan, and she actually did some private lessons with me. Then of course, I brought my son. It seems like a whole different life, but it also seems like it was yesterday.
Iana
Even though you own a studio and it’s beautiful and it’s healing, you still need that practical business side.
Martha
I tried having managers but nobody cares about your business like you do. I’m focused on the business so we can sustain it for the community because it’s become a staple in the New Hartford community.They ranked us the number one yoga studio in New Hartford, and we were also ranked for the last two years in a row by our local newspaper as the best. I think it’s because we do yoga for everybody, everybody wants something different, and we try to provide that for them.
Iana
I love that you’re sharing this with your community and supporting your community. Because if COVID and the pandemic really shone a light on anything it’s how much we need community.
Martha
And that’s one thing that my clients have always had. I love to hear them before class on a Saturday morning, they talk amongst themselves and have developed relationships outside the community walls of the yoga studio, which is awesome. At the end of April, we’re going to the Sedona Yoga Festival. Everyone loves retreats, but we all want to go to the Sedona Festival. We’re renting a house outside of Sedona and we’re going. So far it’s only been the instructors that are jumping on board and then in January, we’ll open it up to the community.
Iana
Thank you for chatting and thank you for supporting us and our publication. This is the reason we are able to do this for our community. It’s because of partners like you. So we appreciate that so much. And I love the work that you’re doing and everything that you’re sharing with your community.
