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

Jessie, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

It has been an honor to be a part of the yoga industry for over a decade. Any time you spend a good amount of time and energy in an industry, you begin to see the common goods and naturally, a current of what you might do differently also emerges. First let me give you some context. Yoga is a profound path that has been around for thousands of years, with its roots in India. Truly in my eyes it is the story of humanity, how we loose our connection to that shared humanity and ways to return to wholeness and unity in ourselves, in our relationships with one another, the world and the vast cosmos that encompasses it all.

For thousands of years this path and our yoga ancestors have shared techniques and practices as accessible tools for all of us to reconnect to our innate wholeness again so that we may find ease in our system and lessen suffering in our lives. These practices have included breathing techniques, chanting, meditation, hand mudras, philosophical wisdom and ethical guidelines to help us live a life aligned in peace and upholding the precious impermanence of humanity.

But you might look at yoga and say, “I thought is was just stretching?” THIS is where I look to make a SHIFT in my industry. This is the fundamental problem that is the long effect of colonization on the yoga industry. Now we could fill up an entire magazine talking about how we got to this point where yoga’s mission and vision has been lost, covered over, forsaken and ignored. It is unfortunate that there is even a need to discuss doing it differently in an industry, meant to promote healing, but here we are and it’s good we are having the conversation. Let me stay on track with the question you asked, what do I do differently than the yoga industry standard.

I get asked this question alot, what do we do differently. We SHIFT the way it is being done. It is the name of my studio, it’s mission and ultimate vision for the industry at large. The industry standard is fitness focused yoga classes filled with smiling, skinny white faces, glamorizing flexibility in $90 yoga pants. This industry standard dangles the carrot of well-being to others as an exclusive club they don’t belong in. I do my best to provide a different option.

I uphold and speak up daily about the precious roots of the practice. I lovingly teach these ancestral components of ethics, philosophy and the beautiful story of our shared humanity daily. I shine a light on what is being cast aside, ignored and undervalued in our industry.

At SHIFT YOGA, our classes are whole being focused, teaching movement that allows for exploration and choice, offering breathing techniques, meditation, chanting and exploring the complete body of work that is a part of yoga, to help us balance not only our body, but our mind and soul. All in the hopes that we ease our suffering in the mind and body and reconnect to the boundless well-being that is our birth right and feel union with our selves, one another and the cosmos. This is yoga’s intention. This is its lineage.

Most people have the thought that yoga is just postures and that is actually a modern introduction as poses came around in the early 20th century. Once yoga came over from India to the West and we saw the shapes and forms made by the body in the early demonstrations, we were hooked. We gobbled up the physical rigor, cast aside the rich meditative and spiritual roots in pursuit of lean muscles and six pack abs.

At SHIFT YOGA, we wanted to focus on reducing the narrative that you have to be flexible, skinny or white to belong. We make conscious choices in the language we use, the imaging we put out to show a different option and have classes that do incorporate the stretching you know yoga to be, but uphold the legacy and share the truth about what yoga is for in the hopes of inspiring our community to see yoga’s true intention for our lives.

We don’t shy away from talking about our mental health, or the importance of emotional resilience and we have the courage to talk about our spiritual health – do we feel connected in our lives? We go beyond what the physical, body focus of every other yoga studio in our region and we uplift the true essence of what yoga can bring when we call forward its roots and reconnect to the story of our humanity.

It’s juicy here and it is totally different than any other yoga experience you may have had before. It is a needed SHIFT back to the heart and it is a honor to share it with our community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Ok, sure. Let me start by saying hello one and all. My name is Jessie Kates and it is a gift to connect with you through the words on this page. Thanks for following along and taking interest in the story. I have been in the yoga industry for almost 15 years. It all started as a means to adapt to the overwhelming stress of having a baby and navigating the new version of myself that was emerging at the time.

For years I stretched on the mat alongside other strangers, who I never got to know because there was always an air of competition and separation in the yoga rooms I first experienced. For years I shoved my body into intense shapes because the teacher told me to, never asking me how it felt and if it as what I needed. Flash forward a few years and I was angrier, more disconnected than ever before and although my body was amazing I could do all the poses with ease, something was supremely missing.

Long story short, I had spent 5 or so years, consuming all the flashy $90 yoga pants I was being told would make me happy and balancing on my hands in impressive yoga poses that I was told would make me happy because no one had stopped to show me the truth of WHY we do yoga and what was a t the heart of the practice.

I had a pivotal “a-ha” moment where I realized I wasn’t shown the truth, in fact the truth was hidden from me so I would keep chasing the next pattern of $90 yoga pants and show up again next week to learn the next version of the pose I was chasing. I realized that the industry had fucked up my idea of what well-being should like and it was that day i decided I was going to make a SHIFT.

The rest is history as they say. I found different teachers, stopped supporting the brands selling me $90 pants and dug deeper into the roots of yoga. I drastically SHIFTED my practice. I topped spending time of my mat in extreme poses and started spending it in stillness. I explored meditation, breathwork, chanting. I invited ethics and philosophy into my life and as cheesy as it may sound – everything SHIFTED.

As my career evolved, I could no longer stay silent, watching the yoga industry ruin yoga for another person in my community so I decided I would take a risk and open a place that did it all different and SHIFT YOGA was born.

SHIFT is a yoga studio unlike any you have experienced before. We slow down, chill out, lean in to foster connection with the person on the mat next to us. We out community and connection first and yoga second. And when we yoga – it isn’t all flashy poses done super fast while we check out apple watch to see how many calories we are burning,

We teach yoga, meditation, have innovative self myofascial release classes. We offer teacher trainings to learn how to honor the roots of yoga and serve our community with classes that are inclusive for all bodies and sensitive of the trauma we all hold in our nervous system. We offer yoga through a therapeutic lens for deep healing on a cellular level.

Within the walls of the studio life, we also offer personal 1 on 1 support through yoga therapy. I am a skilled certified yoga therapist which allows me to provide individualized support with therapeutic yoga practices to help someone heal from a wide variety of conditions. I can help folks with everything from pain in the body from an injury to those suffering with anxiety and depression find healing.

I would say I am most proud of weathering the storm of covid as a small business and since we all know how tough that was on every level I am sure I don’t need to explain much more.

I love being of service and nothing bring me more joy than being the guardian of a business whose mission is to be of service to the well-being of others.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I love this question because I think it is pivotal to growing your brand as a business. It is easy to get caught up in the need for growth, to focus on the spreadsheets and the dollars and cents of it all. For me I always choose to put connecting with my customer above the transaction.

As a consumer, I can tell when people just care about my purchase and I have been to countless yoga studios where it is so obvious. Not a single person knows my name or could even care if I was honestly there. I had this experience more times that I can count and alway said to myself – “if I had my own place, this would be the biggest thing I would do different.”

People know and love me because I focus my business on knowing and loving them. It might not seem like it would matter, but let me tell you, it has been my biggest growth driver.

If you take interest in your customer and stop seeing then as a customer and see them as a part of your community, your family and go out of your way to show them you care and tell them you appreciate them daily – your word of mouth will be bigger and your reviews more raving then any of your competitors.

Love your people first, the rest sells itself.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My existing community. They are treated so exceptionally that they go out of their way to tell everyone about it. Cultivating a family atmosphere makes folks want to bring others to join. Your existing customer is your greatest asset for growth.

Treat them like gold and they will help you grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shiftyogastudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shiftyogastudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shiftyogastudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessie-kates-2778011a0/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/shift-yoga-studio-fulton?osq=shift+yoga+studio