We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Juliana Davila a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Juliana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I am very happy to own my business, LoveYoga. There have been many difficult times, especially in the last few years, but I am grateful to have the support of my community, my students, my teachers, and my family and friends. I love being able to provide a service to the community and having the autonomy to make decisions that benefit the whole. I also really enjoy learning through trial and error, even when it seems like mostly error. The last few years have been difficult. Covid had our studio shut down completely for months; I was only able to provide classes online. When we finally reopened, it was incredibly difficult to naviaged protocols, procedures, and plans. Most people were very supportive, patient, and understanding, but I also had a few that were unforgiving and very vocal about their criticisms of my decisions as a business owner. Thankfully, our students and staff were all very conscientious and aimed to keep our space clean and safe. During that time, I felt stressed and often asked myself if it was worth it to continue; in the end, I realized that our classes and our yoga practice is what keeps us connected to ourselves and each other. It was more important to me to offer something authentic (even if there was only one person in the class) than to allow myself to be pulled in every direction by the opinions and ideas of others. I am incredibly grateful to my teachers who have always been supportive and united in all that we do at LoveYoga.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always dreamed of owning my own yoga studio, but always thought that the dream would only ever be just a dream. My good friend and teacher, Tiffany Maloney, owned LoveYoga for many years. She began the studio and I completed my first yoga teacher training with her as my teacher. After years of working as a teacher in her studio, she decided to take a break from teaching and owning a business and take more time for herself. I immediately saw the opportunity to step in and realize my dream. I knew that this was my chance to make my dream a reality. She graciously sold the business name and brand to me and the transition was smooth, considering I had already been working at LoveYoga for many years. I am also the Spanish teacher at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica School and it was overwhelming to do both; but I knew that the opportunity own the studio was a true gift. I gave myself permission to take a leap of faith and commit to working as hard as I ever have. Over the last few years, I have learned through mostly trial and error and I continue to learn each year. Although it is often scary to own a business, it is also amazing to see all the wonderful ways our community embraces our work.
LoveYoga is an amazing yoga community that embraces all. We offer many classes and styles of movement and yoga and our mission is to be as inclusive and open as we can be. The practice of yoga is so much more than what happens on a yoga mat; it is a practice that manifests itself in all parts of our lives. The way that we think, speak, act are all parts of our practice. We strive to embrace the roots, tradition, philosophy, and culture of yoga. LoveYoga is a safe space for all who enter. It is a place that offers practices to all people and gives opportunity for all to practice. In order to create this, it took hard work and a lot of introspection. I especially wanted to prioritize communities that are underserved or neglected. To me, this meant completing several trainings that specialized in trauma-informed yoga, yoga and 12-step recovery, and yoga for at-risk populations. LoveYoga has partnered with Garth House to provide trauma-informed yoga and has partnered with IEA to provide yoga to the youth at Minnie Rogers Juvenile Justice Center. In the future, I hope to continue expanding and reaching out into the community to give what we can. Part of our mission is to embrace the idea that we are all connected and to release any ideas of separation or otherness.

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

I have always been a people-pleaser. For most of my life, I truly believed that I had the power to make everyone happy and that if I worked hard enough, I could live each day without any negative feedback. Obviously, that is not a sustainable or healthy belief. Owning a business has taught me that lesson over and over again. I have had to learn the hard way that it is not possible to make everyone happy. Someone will always have something to say or criticize. Part of my own yoga practice is to learn detachment. Understanding that I don’t have to attach to someone else’s opinion or thought has been freeing. Ultimately, I have had to turn inward to understand that being authentic and aligning with my Highest Self does not include people-pleasing. I have had to learn that other people’s opinions or ideas of me usually have nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. I learned this early on. During the height of Covid, I chose to put into place protocols and procedures to do my part in keeping everyone safe. One of those protocols was to limit the number of people in a class; students had to sign up to claim a spot to practice. I ended up losing a client that had been with me for many years because she did not agree with my decisions. For months, I tried to appease her- it was then that I realized I couldn’t do it. More than not being able to, I didn’t want to. One of the 8 limbs of yoga, the Yamas, include Ahisma, which is non-violence. It is the principle that we should do no harm to other living things. That includes ourselves. Making decisions based on benefitting the whole, rather than the individual, has shaped my business more than anything else.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Personally, word of mouth has been the most successful way to gain new clients. I have tried almost every method of advertisement and marketing, and still, word of mouth is what gets people in the door. Most often, when a new person signs up with me, I ask how they heard of LoveYoga and the most popular answer is always, “a friend.” It is one of the many reasons why I love to offer free community classes and donation-based classes. It gives people the opportunity to practice even if they aren’t able to pay regularly for classes. Giving people the opportunity to practice and to feel welcome is one of the many goals I have. Allowing people to be who they are without any condition or expectation is great power. Providing a space that welcomes all is something that I work toward every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.loveyogabeaumont.com
• Instagram: @loveyogabeaumont
• Facebook: LoveYoga
• Youtube: LoveYogaBeaumont

Image Credits
Ken Guidry Photography (for the class picture, view from the back).