We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy I Mihal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Opening a small business is always a risk! Doing so in our mid-late 20s with no experience, no money, and in a new city was a huge risk. 25 years and 3 separate locations later, Sally, my business partner from the beginning, and I are still at the helm of Village Yoga in Santa Cruz, CA. In hindsight, our excitement, youth and lack of experience worked in our favor to get us up and running. We borrowed money in order to borrow money, and did a lot of the physical work on the space on our own (painting, pulling weeds, choosing the decor and amenities, etc.) Our passion for providing a positive contribution to the world through hot yoga cleared the path for us.
We have been through so much in the past 25 years, and have had to continue to take risks large and small to stay in business through thick and thin. Our community of amazing teachers and students has allowed us to continue to serve.

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I took my first Bikram yoga class in 1997, and it was truly life changing. I had never felt more alive and was in awe of how the practice shifted my whole being. I wrote a card to my teacher to say thank you and to express that I had found what I want to do with my life – teach this yoga and share it with others! My parents were not so keen on the idea, as I had just spent 5 years and took out a lot of loans to study Economics/French/Japanese at a small liberal arts school. However, I had always known that sitting at a desk all day would not be my cup of tea, and I truly loved both practicing and teaching. I met my business partner, Sally Adams, at our home studio in San Francisco, and after a mere year and a half of teaching, we decided to open our own studio, Village Yoga, in Santa Cruz, CA.
We were young, and had no idea what we were getting into, but we were passionate and determined. We have learned most everything we have needed through day to day experience, and have worn all hats: teacher, maintenance, marketer, HR, bookkeeper, staff manager, customer service – ha! You get the idea:)
Our business model has been simple from the start: welcome everyone with a smile, create community, offer great classes, all while being true to who we are and how we be in the world.
Our logo is a Butterfly with the words LOVE&GRATITUDE written in the middle. It sums up beautifully the growth process that a yoga practice takes you through, coming out of the metamorphosis as a beautiful butterfly. And it also clearly states the vibration or energy behind what we do. We have found that simple is better, and that showing up year after year with a good attitude has gotten us through the 25 years together. Owning a small business is often not easy, sometimes financially straining, but the feedback we receive from our students makes it all more than worth it.
We set out to make a positive contribution to the our community through the practice of hot yoga, and we have accomplished that goal. We are currently at work on our second book to celebrate 25 years in business (the first was our 10 year anniversary). We have worked with an amazing photographer, Poppy deGarmo, on both projects. The photos are not about the perfect yoga pose (many are just portraits), but more about capturing the heart and soul of Village Yoga which is the students and teachers who show up year after year. Seeing the pictures brings a smile to our faces, but reading the testimonials that will be in the book has often brought us to tears. We are truly grateful beyond words for the way that Village Yoga has shaped our lives, and for the amazing community we have because of it, Lots of LOVE&GRATITUDE

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Two stories come to mind, and one can be summed up in one word: Covid, As that story has been told many times over by small business owners, I will share another that illustrates our resilience. Our downtown Santa Cruz location was plagued with plumbing issues from the beginning. To make matters worse, we did not have a local landlord so often did not get timely assistance when having an emergency with the building. There were many times (and insurance dealings, and lawyers) over the years where we had a disruption in our business due to building and plumbing issues.
The worse was when raw sewage from the stories above dripped into and dropped down the walls of our studio. We had to shut down immediately due to the nature of the waste, which is understandable. However, we ended up being closed for many months as the building owner took their time on finding contractors, going through a bidding process, etc. It is a wonder we made it through this closure, which also involved having to have port a potties for bathrooms located in our parking lot. We also had to contend with insurance companies which almost broke us down, and with a hostile team of corporate managers who were determined to have our insurance pay for their negligence. Even writing this story again stresses me out. We survived not just a multiple month closure, during which time students understandably went elsewhere, but also the stress of fighting insurance companies, not having revenue, and not being certain we could rebound from such an event. We had many supporters who had faith in us (Thank you Ruth O’Donnell!) as we could have easily called it quits.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner and co-founder of Village Yoga, Sally Adams, while practicing yoga at our home studio in San Francsico, CA. Sally is a force of nature and the life of the party. She is strong willed and confident. She is the exact opposite of me! We did not know each other exceptionally well when we decided to open a yoga studio in Santa Cruz, but from the start, we had a great respect and admiration for one another.
We say it often, and mean it, laughter, and lots of it, has gotten us through the past 25 years. To be partners for so long is rare in business, but our love, respect, and admiration for one another continues to grow and flourish. And she is still my favorite yoga teacher! As well as one of my favorite humans. We know how to disagree and argue respectfully and understand we will not always see eye to eye.
Our relationship has been one of the biggest blessings of my life – I am grateful beyond words for Sally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.villageyogasantacruz.com
• Instagram: Village Yoga Santa Cruz
• Facebook: Village Yoga Santa Cruz

Image Credits
Photos by Poppy deGarmo