Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michelina Payetta. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Michelina , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
As dramatic as it may sound, yoga has been a life-saving experience for me. It has been healing and extremely helpful with traumas and life – as yoga is now a lifestyle. It has been an entity to allow me to find balance, acceptance, and honor how many things cannot be controlled. However, I have also recognized that I do have the choice to choose how I respond to what cannot be controlled. My yoga practice serves as a guide to respond to all things – to step back and acknowledge, to maintain awareness, compassion, and love for all – while also maintaining acknowledgment, awareness, compassion, and love for self. This is My Yoga. This is something that will always be with me. Therefore, the name for our cozy home yoga studio – My Yoga – came about. I wanted to offer this space for all to find their yoga – to find, heal, serve whatever they are seeking. As then they too can say this is “My Yoga.” This is something that exists having our physical space to go to and be in – but a practice that always exists within.
This explanation taps into more of the intentional decision of our studio space – as also I thought in being literate, saying something like “I am going to My Yoga,” sounded sweet and simple.
We do have My Yoga Canyon Country as our full business name with the intention to expand with My Yoga…and the next town or city that may follow.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Born in the high desert of Southern California, I ventured off to college to find my way in Orange County & Long Beach for some time. After changing my major multiple times, I found Kinesiology to speak to me as I always felt better when I was able to move my body. Unfortunately, with the background of intensity that I came from – I did become obsessed with exercise, and was using movement to punish my body, as also a distraction from deeper conflicts. A great friend & roommate told me about yoga classes she was attending. I was skeptical as I used to look into the group fitness room at the gym and think that yoga was “A waste of an hour just standing there and stretching.” However, I trusted my friend as she shared the class was intense and heated – and off to a Bikram yoga class I went. It was a humbling challenge. I was then guided into a heated vinyasa practice from a co-worker. Of course, I still was taking the most difficult classes – but I realize now that I would make my way to yoga more often during stressful times for my mind. I began to spend more time at the yoga studio of choice than my faithful gym. Yoga became my go to movement of choice, and I began to soften in a healthy way. I then was inspired by a teacher to take yoga teacher training after many years of college – graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, with a double focus, minor in English, and K-12 teaching credential in Physical Education. My college education took a back burner and yoga teacher training was my sole focus. Day 2 into my initial teacher training – I knew this was my purpose & my calling. I felt it and knew it. Offering the practice came natural to me and I felt I was given a gift to give back and help others as yoga helped me so. As this revelation took place, I too, began to peel away the layers of conditioning and punishment to self and my body. A lot of tears, reflection, creating new patterns, and a lot of healing…this was just the beginning.
Since my first yoga teacher training, I supported my passion to teach yoga with restaurant work – as I have been in the restaurant industry for all of my working life. I did have an opportunity to step into a sub-lease and rebrand a studio in Portland, Oregon: Yogapawse. A cat themed yoga studio: “Passion for yoga, Love Cats, Pawse for Practice.” This was a short opportunity – as I felt it was time to make my way back to Southern California. However, I knew this was just a start of getting my feel into the business of having a yoga studio.
I did dabble into teaching Physical Education – and that gig was able to get me closer to opening My Yoga Canyon Country. The job I had in the public school system was quite depleting – but I knew it was temporary, as I began to trust the call to open a yoga studio in Canyon Country, Ca. Opening would be within the time of covid taking place, but I did feel it was all going to work out. I took the leap – and followed my heart, my purpose.
As the years of yoga have been infused into my life, I have seen the physical practice to be used as healing opposed to punishment. Sure, yoga can be a challenge – or not. That said – our cozy home yoga studio is a space that offers a variety of yoga lineages and entities to best serve our community. Yoga can be whatever you seek for it to be. It can allow for challenge, it can allow for ease, healing…a little bit of both.
Our regular schedule includes vinyasa classes at different energy levels, yoga with light weights, yin yoga, restorative yoga, and sound healing & Reiki infusions. We will soon be offering a yoga nidra and mantra class. We have multiple workshops to offer components of yoga and alternate practices like Breathwork, Sound Healing, Reiki, Music & Mantra, Cacao, Chakra series, Trauma + Yoga Series, Intuitive painting, Rewiring stress, Self-Defense Series, Superhero Yoga with kiddos and family, Goat Yoga, Cat Yoga, Acro Yoga, Retreats, collaborations with non-profit organizations like Tree People and Hike for Heroes, fundraising, and more…
Though yoga is the heart of our studio space, I honor that we all resonate and connect differently. Being able to offer an array of practices also serves the purpose that is meant to be for our sweet studio.
What sets us apart from others is being the first yoga studio to open on this end of our valley/Santa Clarita – and in Canyon Country. It has been so beautiful to open this space to those on our side of town. Many of us (myself included) have done the drive across town for yoga, and it is worth it – but time is also of value. I am very proud of being able to create this space for our local community. That said we have had a lot of students enter that have never experienced yoga before, or it has been some time – as there has never been a studio nearby, the drive across town became too much, covid took place, etc. It has been so wonderful to guide new students on their yoga journey and also offer the alternate lineages of yoga + practices available in our space.
We make sure to honor all that comes into our studio – as you are – offering a path to get better, whatever that may mean for you. Our slogan is “Let Your Lotus Bloom.” Our logo is a lotus with a heart blooming from it. All lotus flowers come from the most muddy and murky swamps and ponds. We all have our stories and may have darker spaces – but like the lotus, you too can bloom…and we offer the space to bloom into love, the highest of vibrations – as our logo has the heart nestled in its bloom.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I knew what opening this studio was going to entail – working everyday – and for awhile + side gigs. We opened August 9th, 2021. I taught classes and worked the backend every day minus Thanksgiving and New Years the first 5 months of being open – almost every single day – showing up. I juggled a side teaching gig at a local gym 2x a week at on top of this. At the 6 month mark – I was at the studio 6 days a week, opposed to 7. I then looked into picking up another side gig in restaurant work, parttime 2-3 days a week, to work through studio debt and maintain afloat. For the next year and 2 months – I ran the business, taught at the studio, taught at the gym, and worked at the restaurant. Within and near the end of this phase, I was able to release one class at the gym, cut back my shifts at the restaurant, and hire more teachers + offer classes to my new hired employees. As of the current day, I am still employed at the restaurant and gym – but I am a sub at the gym and pick up shifts at the restaurant when I am able to.
All this shared – the first two years of having the business was non-stop in the working realm for me – while I also tapped into my practice and showed up for the business, exhausted as some points, but with all the energy and vibrance of my heart to share the love of yoga and alternate entities to help others, our community.
Maintaining this tempo of work and work ethic was most definitely, resilience.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I feel what has helped build our reputation thus far with our market is continuously showing up with all of my heart and from my heart. As we have grown and are still growing – we still get no shows, and some low attended classes and workshops – but both myself and my teachers still show up and with all of our hearts and feel it all works out as it is meant to.
Another piece of building our reputation is consistency and integrity. I maintain the consistency of the to dos of each business day, week, month year and with integrity – taking as much time needed to maintain the love of our studio.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://myyogacanyoncountry.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my_yoga_canyon_country/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myyogacanyoncountry
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/my-yoga-canyon-country-canyon-country?osq=yoga
- Other: Google Maps/Google Business: https://www.google.com/maps/place/My+Yoga+Canyon+Country/@34.4282831,-118.4476838,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x80c289ebe9ca9371:0x5c6973efda6a102f!8m2!3d34.4282787!4d-118.4451035!16s%2Fg%2F11nn32q5g3?entry=ttu