We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Morgan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Leah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Prior to becoming a business owner, I worked in 2 different industries. I was in radio advertising sales and then pharmaceutical sales. I opened my first yoga studio with a partner while still employed full time. After realizing that would be too much to juggle, I left my corporate job to work on the studio full time. This was a massive risk, as the business was not yet profitable. After realizing my business partner’s values did not align with my own, after our 3 year lease was up, I took another huge risk and ventured out on my own, opening a yoga dedicated studio by myself. After building up an amazing group of dedicated yoga students at our flagship location, we decided to take another risk and open a second studio. Then….the pandemic. With one day’s notice we pivoted to virtual classes and temporarily closed both studios to in-person classes. Sadly, our students fell away in large numbers and we were forced to close our newer location, which carried huge financial risks as well.
Once we resolved that matter, we decided to move to a central location to serve students from both locations. Something many people might not know is that for small businesses, almost ALL landlords require you to personally guarantee your lease, meaning your personal assets are on the line should something happen. We don’t have a corporate office to buffer any losses…it’s just us. We are proud to say we have been serving the Lee’s Summit community for over 11 years with extremely high quality yoga, mediation and stress relief instruction. We have also branched out to corporate work for employees and executives as well.
Leah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Core Balance Yoga Center was born out of a need to provide SAFE yoga instruction in a welcoming, non-judgmental environment. Yoga is everywhere. Video, gyms and fitness centers offer a plethora of ‘yoga’ classes. Less often, you see an emphasis on correct alignment, safety, and helping people navigate injuries while still enjoying a fulfilling yoga practice. We teach people HOW to do yoga correctly and safely, not just follow-the-leader. We are yoga teachers, not yoga instructors. We also strive to create a welcoming environment. Many people think they aren’t flexible enough to have a yoga practice, or they aren’t the ‘right’ body type, or they fear shame, being brand new. We are here to show our students virtually ANYONE can practice yoga and we walk hand in hand with our new students to learn more about their bodies and their minds.
Although many people come to yoga for physical reasons initially, many are astounded by the mental health benefits as well. We introduce elements of meditation, breath work and mindfulness into our offerings so people leave class feeling relaxed and refreshed.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Our best source of new students is word-of-mouth. As someone who used to sell advertising, we tried to convince those customers they needed to do more, and pay for advertising (which in some cases is certainly true), however there is no replacement for word of mouth. Once people discover how they feel when the leave Core Balance Yoga, they are moved to share that with friends, neighbors, and even sometimes strangers in public! Our happy students are our very best source.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
My tactic to maintaining great morale is to trust my teachers. Each one has unique experience and training and if I hire them to teach a class, I trust that they are going to tap into those skills and offer something only THEY can offer. I never tell my teachers ‘what’ or ‘how’ to teach, and offer constructive feedback only when necessary. I also run a yoga teacher training program called Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training and I let my students know…people want to see THEM…not some generic version of a yoga teacher. Our teachers teach from an authentic, real and sometimes raw place.
Because we are not a traditional workplace, we try to have social gatherings a couple times a year to help build community among the teachers. We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders! We encourage our teachers to attend each other’s classes and keep their own yoga practices intact.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.corebalanceyoga.com
- Instagram: corebalanceyogacenter
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corebalanceyoga
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/core-balance-stress-relief-consulting/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/K57DLSKgv8w
- Other: www.kcytt.com www.cbstressrelief.com