We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Starr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

This journey started in a garden. I left a career in corporate and not-for-profit HR to found a community-supported agriculture venture in Covington, KY. We leased a vacant lot, designed a French market garden, and scrambled through a first year delivering home-grown produce to 20+ families in the Cincinnati-northern Kentucky area. Along the way, we held weekly community yoga sessions in the garden…and that was the revelation. The garden reached families scattered across the region, but yoga served folks in our community, from right around the block. Covington is a diverse city in every sense, and sharing yoga on a muggy July night with families who probably didn’t think yoga was ‘for people like them’ — those moments were the so rewarding and humbling. So that fall, I opened a yoga studio on a shoestring budget and from the start built it on that community foundation. We wanted to ‘breathe in community,’ to make space for everybody and every body, and to inspire all our yogis to spread calm and light throughout our neighborhoods.

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

A serious car accident led me to yoga practice almost thirty years ago, and soon I was in instructor training and leading classes at local studios. For a long time yoga was a respite from corporate jobs, but in 2016 I decided to open a studio of my own in Covington, Kentucky. The obvious question was ‘why another yoga studio,’ but from the start we modeled a different experience. We found a small space downtown and set out on our own, just in that a departure from the suburban franchises common in the region. With intentionally small class sizes we put client experience over profits, and we welcome everybody and every body.

I don’t think the community intends it, but the typical image of yoga practice makes many people think that only younger people with a certain body type are ‘right’ for it. Our social media presence sets the tone for a more inclusive practice, and we train our instructors for a rigorous attention to welcoming and encouraging language. It’s never ‘try harder to get this pose’ or ‘if you can’t do it today;’ instead we urge everyone to find their practice today. There are no mirrors in our practice spaces, and we don’t use esoteric language that excludes students who don’t come from ‘typical’ yoga demographics.

We’re proud that our instructors and our clients represent the true diversity of Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, but also that we have fun with yoga! As hard-core as some of our hot yoga sessions are, we’re all about fun playlists, irreverent language, and community.

And from the start, we’ve leveraged our community to give back to our neighborhoods. We breathe in community and manage opportunities for our clients to share the calm they’ve earned on the mat with everyone in the region.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As was the case for every yoga studio, COVID was a challenge. For us, we’d just opened a new studio in February 2020, so we weren’t eligible for any relief funds, and of course we’d just expended a lot of capital to open up. We scrambled to launch online classes, but what was most affirming is that our just-born community believed in what we were trying to do. The majority of our clients kept their memberships active even during the initial closures, and we were so grateful to all of them for the unconditional support. When restrictions were lifted, though, we returned the favor to our clients by keeping our classes smaller for social distancing, requiring proof of vaccination as soon as available — we resisted the urge to make up for lost time.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Like any business owner, I wanted to grow our client base as quickly as possible. For a yoga studio, that meant trying to make every class the best experience possible for every client…or so I thought. It turns out, of course, that no one class can meet everyone where she is on that day. And sometimes, people bring a tough day into their practice and nothing can turn a rough mood around. So somewhere along the line I gained confidence that we have crafted a practice experience that’s welcoming to everybody — at least anyone who values community and sharing space with others — and that this is the best we can do. We provide a consistent practice that follows set guidelines about inclusivity and avoiding toxic positivity…and that’s enough. As our instructors tell clients every day, ‘you are enough.’ And the intentional practice we’ve built is also enough, as-is and full-stop.

Contact Info:

• Website: sageyogahot.com
• Instagram: @sageyogahot

Image Credits
Jessica Cunningham