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.

We are so excited to chat with Maureen Benedict, the owner of Red Tail Power Yoga in NY! You can catch the full interview via our YouTube link, 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 with Maureen, owner of Redtail Power Yoga here in New York. Yoga Love magazine is based in New York City so we love supporting our local studios. It’s never easy as a small business owner but it feels extra challenging now.

Maureen, tell me about your studio. You’ve been open for a few years before the pandemic hit, so at least you had a couple of years to get your bearings before the pandemic. What was that transition like for your studio?

Maureen
We opened here February of 2018, and we had pretty much just celebrated our second birthday and then March 2020 hit. We were already live streaming from here because I had a friend and colleague who was the original brainchild of Vivaya Live and had this idea probably two years before the Pandemic hit to have an interactive wellness website, and she asked if I would help launch it. So basically in 2 hours, I had every single class up and live streamed.

Iana
You’re the first studio owner I’ve spoken to who was set up basically before everything happened. I feel like in 2018, people would have been like live streaming yoga? That sounds odd. And I love that you were open to this new idea and embracing this technology to reach your community.

Maureen
Yeah, it was really interesting. She had this idea, and I told her, well, I teach through the body, is that okay? We don’t put a mat down and demonstrate. It’s just the nature of how we teach with our eyes and our words and often our hands. So I taught live classes. I would teach the people on Zoom and the people here. Then I realized my teachers also had to stay healthy and connected to the community, and the community would miss them, too. So they learned to teach live. And so when it was that we weren’t really coming back into this physical space, then it was “from our home to yours.”

I moved the furniture, the dining room out, and that was the yoga studio. My old golden retriever, he would do savasana every time. My cat would do meditation every time. We did that pretty effortlessly. And then in June, I got a permit from the town because I knew these humans needed to get together in the community and right up the road there’s a park. So we taught outdoors four times a week. Even when we were outdoors, we still live streamed the class.

And then in August, we were back in the studio with the restrictions that New York State had, and we thought, what can we do to keep people healthy? What can we do to keep people connected? And so we still live stream every class,  every single class on the schedule has the option to choose in person or view broadcast.

Iana
I love that that’s still being offered. Did you find that a lot of your community moved away during the pandemic? And have they come back or have most people stayed?

Maureen
I think in the beginning, everyone was so connected and together on the screen and really in support and then when it went on a little longer, people tended to drop off. I think in yoga in particular, there’s so much about community and connection and togetherness. We put the zoom classes on gallery view and then they were socializing and introducing their pets. When we came back in, there were still people online socializing. I think people are really ready to be in community, in connection. So, it’s been an interesting challenge.

Iana
When things got challenging, how did you get through those moments? Was there a person, a mantra, a pet, something that helped if you felt overwhelmed in that moment?

Maureen
There were definitely moments, lots of them, lots of emotion. It feels a little like despair, right? A lot of people would say, “oh, it’s so great you could keep your studio open when so many closed.” It was a conscious decision to keep the studio open. I was here to be of service for my community and my teachers, and so whatever it took to keep this place open, which meant balances on credit cards and financial commitment to hold the line.

So what was my mantra? What was my guiding faith? I have “Walk With Grace” tattooed on my arm. I actually got it for my birthday last year, because the Red Tail Hawk is my spirit animal and he always tells me to rise above, to look at the big picture, and that this too, shall pass. And that in the moment, I wanted to believe it. We’re spirits having a human experience. So to allow this human and all of the humans to have whatever experience they’re having right now is what I felt was my calling to just be space for them of love. Space of love for every human to go through whatever their human journey is taking them through right now.

“So what was my mantra? What was my guiding faith? I have ‘Walk With Grace’ tattooed on my arm. I actually got it for my birthday last year, because the Red Tail Hawk is my spirit animal and he always tells me to rise above, to look at the big picture, and that this too, shall pass. And that in the moment, I wanted to believe it.” 

Iana
That’s so beautiful. And that faith, that feeling has to be so strong within you to keep moving forward, and that’s why you’re still here. It broke my heart when I would hear of a studio or a partner that had closed. It felt like a punch in the stomach every time I heard about it. And then the ones that did stay open, it was like this joyful release. 

With everything you went through, and then you turned around and supported our business, which was amazing. Our business only survived, because you paid it forward and supported us. So thank you for doing that and for continuing to be that. It feels like a miracle!

Maureen
It is a miracle, right? Every breath we take is a miracle.

Iana
How has your personal practice changed in the last couple of years?

Maureen
I love getting on my mat with my teachers. We’re a family of teachers. We’re a team. So every teacher here is trained by me personally and then by each other, and they usually rise up through the community. We don’t do teacher training as a regular money maker, but we do two teacher trainings a year. I’ll do teacher training when I have people that come to me and want to give back to the community and they want to share what yoga has done for them. In their classes I show up as just love and support for them in whatever stage they are in their teacher training journey and their teacher journey.

I did an apprentice program with two people recently that also allows my teachers to step into leadership as a mentor. So I’ve gone from studio owner, mentor, and now I’m a professional life coach. I’ve stepped into those shoes this last year as well. It just was the natural evolution of me.

Iana 
What did you do before you owned the studio, what was your previous life?

Maureen
It’s so funny because I like to say that I’m a cat, so I’ve had so many lives. I started as a young person in fashion sales in New York City for one of the biggest manufacturers. I was a sales executive for Liz Claiborne back in the day, and then I raised three sons. I made the conscious choice to stay home and raise my boys. During that time, I had a boutique baking business, and then I worked for a nonprofit, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center up in Hyde Park, New York. It’s the nonprofit arm that does international girls leadership and I was the assistant to the director, and then I was a  yoga teacher who taught from here to Stanford, and was a Lulu ambassador for two terms. I’ve had a lot of lives.

Iana
What would one piece of advice you would give someone that’s maybe looking for a little bit of guidance to get towards their dreams or their goals? One quick piece of advice you could leave them with.

Maureen
One piece of advice for anyone that they can use at any time to move forward: Your path is where your feet are. It’s today, the present moment. If I’m opening my eyes, I’m actually focused on the present. The possibilities are there. If I’m not in fear of the future or regret of the past. Your path is where your feet are right now.

“One piece of advice for anyone that they can use at any time to move forward: Your path is where your feet are. It’s today, the present moment. If I’m opening my eyes, I’m actually focused on the present. The possibilities are there. If I’m not in fear of the future or regret of the past. Your path is where your feet are right now.”

Iana
Thank you for chatting with us this morning. Thank you for supporting us and helping us continue the work that we’re doing as well. I’m so happy to hear all the amazing things you have planned.

Maureen
Thank you for the good you guys do, and I’m honored to be a partner.