We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karen Russell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Karen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
I have been an entrepreneur for all. my life. My career started as a professional performer working with several icons such as; Madonna, Bette Midler, Alice Cooper, shooting over 50 commercials, and several funny B films as an actress. When I decided to have a family, I moved into the yoga business and for the next 24 years have owned two yoga studios and managed 6. Raising my two boys Conner and Ian has been the highlight of my life. To this day I believe that during their childhood was and will be the happiest times for me, even though I am strong, and I am excited for my youngest sons future, I am still trying make sense of the loss of my beautiful 21 year old son Conner on September 24th 2022. He was a senior at Pepperdine University and while driving back to campus over Malibu Canyon Road, he had a tragic car accident and died.
At this time, my yoga studio Yoga NoHo Center was finally making a comeback after the struggles of the pandemic and one of my teachers Jason Walters was super supportive. The night that I found out that my beloved son died, Jason was staying at my house and said that he will never forget the sounds of my pain. For me, I am very lucky that I have my faith, family and friends, which all of them surrounded me with complete love. What I found so extraordinary was that Jason, although a good friend went out of his way and ran the studio for the next 5 months. He said, ” I will be here and run the studio until you can stand again.” So for me that was the kindest thing anyone could have done for me. He actually moved into a small office onsite and took care of the yoga studio until I could truly literally stand.
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?
Bio Karen Russell 500RYT, started her movement career at the age of six in Erie, Pennsylvania. By the time she was in her early twenties she performed professionally on stage, in feature films and on television. She has worked with legends such as; Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bette Midler, Kenny Chesney and Alice Cooper. Karen started her passion for yoga in 1997 while studying Iyengar in NYC, but it was a dance injury in 2000 that guided her to a professional yoga career. She enhanced her knowledge of yoga studying a variety of styles with experts in India and around the world, and continues to study to fulfill her passion for knowledge.
Since 2005, Karen has been an active teacher, producer, community outreach representative, ambassador for Lululemon, owner of the Yoga Groove Studio and now the Yoga NoHo Center. She contributed her business, management and creative skills for several successful companies (Corepower Yoga, Yoga Works, Naam Yoga, Tantris Yoga, Mandala Center, and Industry Venice) and is excited to build back the Yoga NoHo Center after experiencing the shutdown from Covid19.
Enjoy Karen’s 200 and 300hr Teacher Training course, Restorative Immersions course, Yoga Groove DVD, Yoga Groove Meditation CD, Yoga Groove Conscious Tone and FitBarre method, The Masters of India (which was shot in south India during her guided retreat), and the yoga “On Demand” video collection. She is super excited to partner with Shashi Kumar, founder of the Nirvana Yoga Shala, Mysore India to inspire her students.
Karen feels completely blessed with the team of teachers who have been so dedicated during the past two years and is excited to continue to offer classes, retreats, workshops, and her up-coming international retreats to Live, Love and Inspire Others
Me:
After the death of my son Conner Michael Budge, I now incorporate my love for holistic health into options for grief healing. I started an organization called “Soul Mamas” with another amazing mom who lost her son, (you can go online soulmamas.us) which will offer Remedies for the grieving heart, as a way to give back and honor my son. With this great grief I have realized even more now that my faith with my physical yoga practice are the key ingredients for moving through this pain with grace and love for not just myself but for everyone that is going through the same situation. This is the magic of holistic healing, faith, and pure unconditional love for the world around us.
What I am most proud of is that no matter what I keep going in grace and not of the world. I know this may sound hooie fooie (not sure that is a word), but when the world around us is coming apart from the core values of what should matter, or pandemics spirals humans in to complete fear, when a death of a child who for me personally has been my deepest heartbreak happens, one can turn to all kinds of worldly remedies. These remedies are usually not holistic. For me, I am just a human and sometimes I would like to take a pill or drink a bottle of wine to take the pain away, but I truly found strength in faith, my yoga practice, and holistic lifestyle. I am proud of the community that we have been able to build and we need community now more than ever. Yoga NoHo Center welcomes all and we have seen wonderful transformation with all of our students. It’s a great feeling when our students tell me that “This is their second home!” As a business owner, what more can I ask for? We do our best because we believe in what we are selling! We care and it shows.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
When I was managing my six yoga studio and I knew that they were not going to make it, which is sad because this group of people happened to be my favorite, but sometimes passionate people don’t always make the best financial choices, I knew I had to look for another opportunity.
My very good friend said to me, “why don’t you have your own studio again? Your first studio Yoga Groove was so cool, and you seem happier to have your own business.” My reply was, ” well, that would be great, but I truly don’t think I have enough money and guess what my credit isn’t very good, so how am I going to do this?” She told me that I would find a way. If there is a will there is a way. So I started to look around and see if there were any existing studios for sale, because to build a studio from the beginning will cost about 200k or more. To my surprise, there was an ad in craigslist and it said “Yoga Studio for Sale”, so I reached out and found out that I actually was familiar with the existing owners. We met and then they said well are you ready to buy? And of course, I didn’t really have the funds and I thought, okay I told them I had investors and would get back to them. I knew that this would be a good business to buy but had to now figure out who would be the partner, because guess what, I didn’t have one…yikes
So my brothers are both business owners and entrepreneurs and said, “Well start making a list of people that you think would be a good business partner who has money and just ask them if they know of anyone who would be interested.” I was thinking why ask them if they knew of another person, why not just ask them? They both told me that sometimes it is best to ask the person who you know directly that would be the best partner, indirectly. Hum, the idea that everyone wants to be part of something that they think that other people would love to be part of. So I made a list and started to make calls. The first few people were not the right fit, and meanwhile the owners of the yoga studio were getting impatient, and I kept saying well they weren’t interested because the cost was too high. So then the cost started to come down, and I also knew there wasn’t anyone else truly wanting to buy, even though the owners told me that there were other people interested (that is one of the most important tactic of sales). So, finally I was running out of people to ask, but didn’t give up.
The funny thing was, that the person who became my business partner wasn’t the person that I had on my list. One day I needed a yoga teacher to help me with a teaching opportunity. I ran into Michelle who was an amazing woman that I danced with professionally in the eighties, and was now a yoga instructor who also had a very stable life with her husband and two children. We were having lunch and I thought wow, I should ask Michelle if she knew of anyone who would like to be a partner in a already established yoga studio (except the studio was just breaking even, but I knew with a different structure it would be profitable). So I asked. She said, “well let me think about it.”
The next morning, she said,”What about me?” I was like what about me what? and then she said, ” Why didn’t you ask me? I would like to have a business and since I know you have already managed and own a studios, I would like to be your business partner!” So there you go! Two weeks later on November 1, 2017, we were sitting in the lobby of Yoga Noho (which we changed to Yoga NoHo Center) and looking at each other, going wow… we now own the yoga studio. That was also the day I let my hair go naturally white, because I knew as a single mom (with a very supportive ex-husband), two very active young teenage boys, and now a business, I wouldn’t have time to dye my hair.
Michelle ended up being the best business partner because we respected each others strengths and weaknesses, and we got out of each others way.
Any advice for managing a team?
Treat your team the way you want to be treated. Structure your business with clear intentions, making sure that your team knows what is expected and what they will be compensated in very clear terms. Make sure that you as the owner demonstrates the same behavior while at the business. The rules should be for the whole team, including the owner. Don’t be selfish, if the business seems to be making huge progress, then let the team feel that they are part of the progress, by offering a bonus, or incentives for them to be part of the team. A little goes a long way. Take your time when hiring your team. This will save a lot of headaches in the flow of your business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yoganoho.com/
- Instagram: /yoga_noho/
- Facebook: /YOGANoHo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yogalivingwithkaren2119
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=yoganoho&find_loc=North+Hollywood
- Other: Soul Mamas https://www.soulmamas.us/
