We recently connected with Alexis Billings and have shared our conversation below.

Alexis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Kids today are more stressed and anxious than ever before. Would it shock you if I said that adults in this country are too? Our youth’s parents and teachers are feeling increasingly overwhelmed with each passing year. Thankfully, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness are now common words in our vocabulary. While these tools will not solve the underlying problems that are causing this mental health crisis, they do help alleviate suffering for the moment. I have witnessed what this crisis is doing in our schools and in our students. I was determined not to fall victim and to do something about it. That is how ArtsyAsana began. I am an empath and a creative determined to use my heart, skills, and knowledge to meet the needs of the next generation.

I use various modalities to help kids learn calming and mindfulness strategies. Whether it is through art, movement, play, music, or meditation. Art and yoga were huge inspirations for me to structure my classes and allow freedom of expression to come into my classes. Kids must be provided with a space to be who they are and learn about perspective and loving-kindness. When they can find stillness within themselves and with others, it becomes easier for them to identify what is going on mentally and emotionally. This is also great for the parents and teachers to better understand what is happening to the child. Kids have taught me so much and are naturally very present in each moment, so all I’m doing is building on those skills so that when life changes and becomes more challenging, they know what to do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I thought I wanted to be a classroom teacher, but then I went into the classroom and quickly realized that is NOT what I want to do. Mainly because I witnessed how exhausted teachers looked and how they complained constantly. In a female-dominated industry, women were putting themselves last and burning out. I completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training during my final years in college, and it truly changed my perspective. How could I fill up 20 kids’ cups if my cup was empty? Yoga filled my cup and taught me that I needed to listen to my body and connect it with my mind to feel full. I saw that there was a huge need in our schools for mindfulness and self-care, and while I tried to implement it as a classroom teacher, I found my cup being constantly emptied, even with continued mindfulness practice.

Now, ArtsyAsana was born! I am a mobile service business. That means I travel to schools, libraries, yoga studios, parks, and recreation centers to teach kids yoga. I provide space for kids to connect their minds and bodies, which helps develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Kids are naturally very present, and I am working to provide them with tools so this natural gift is kept throughout life.

Currently, I teach weekly at The Collective Yoga Studio on Mondays at 3:30 pm and Shore Acres Recreation Center on Wednesdays at 6 PM. You can also find me at North and West Community Libraries Quarterly with my new Grand and Me class. This class is for grandparents and their grandchildren to take a yoga class together! I also offer meditation tutoring, yoga babysitting and birthday parties!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my main marketing strategies is printing flyers and distributing them to various businesses. My main flyer is where I have my services listed, my contact information, and on the back is a guided meditation. I love the look and layout of this flyer and have distributed hundreds of them at this point. I was doing a big reprint of new and old flyers and I took a look at this one in particular and noticed that I had a typo on my email address! Instead of @gmail, I had put @yahoo…SMH. I felt so ashamed and stupid about this mistake. I wondered how many people have tried to contact me via email and were unable to because of this silly mistake! It was a big moment for me to reflect and slow down. It’s important for me to take more time for my business instead of fitting it into the small openings. From this mistake, I decided it was time for me to make my own email, which promotes me instead of Google. So, I finally made the change to [email protected], which was a good lesson learned from this experience.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Fear is a major player in launching your own business. Fear of not making enough money. Fear of giving up a steady paycheck for something more risky. The list goes on and on, but one lesson I had to learn was to let go of the job that had helped me get this business started. I have been employed as a server at Bella Brava since my first month living in St. Petersburg in 2018. I have gotten my degree from USF and went through my yoga training. I have been through so much, and they have always supported me and given me employment when I needed it. Launching my business in 2023, I always felt I needed to have that additional income. I was afraid to fully trust myself and my business to provide for me in the same way serving did. I have learned that the longer I hold onto this fear, the longer my business is not getting my full attention. My business deserves more of my time and energy. I have finally let go of my server identity and fully embraced my small business identity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artsyasana.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsyasana_with_alexis/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/artsyasana
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artsyasana/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtsyAsana