We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Matz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
The structure of our studio is very different than what other places generally do…All of our studio’s weekly yoga classes are donation-based, which I’m really proud of because it’s been a “good-for-all” change for our community- we are accessible to all people, and it’s opened up a model for instructor’s to collect their own earnings, building more rapport with their students and also creating a much higher earning capacity. It’s a norm in the yoga and spiritual entrepreneur world to live a “starving artist” lifestyle, and I believe we came up with a model that breaks that paradigm without being exclusive.
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
There have been so many pivots and evolutions along my journey, but it’s always been about me following my heart and feeling divinely inspired to keep pursuing my purpose. I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Science and Religion, and I’ve been interested in the connection between the body, mind and spirit for as long as I can remember. After college I started graduate work at Princeton Seminary to earn a Master’s in Theology with the intention of being a Religion Professor someday, but after six months of study I realized my heart was guiding me in a different direction. After moving home and completing additional training, I began my career as a Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor. I’ve mixed my love of travel with yogic studies, and have traveled to Bali twice and Costa Rica for trainings over the years. Five years after kicking off my career, I felt the call for an even larger vision and opened a yoga studio, then called Grass Roots Studio, in a historic three-story downtown building in my hometown of Zanesville, Ohio. One philosophy I try to live by is that if I really want something that doesn’t exist in the community, I create it. It’s common to complain about what places don’t have or don’t offer, and I’ve made it a point to focus on the possibility…to be the change. The studio has two gorgeous yoga rooms with nearly floor-to-ceiling windows, original hardwood floors, arched glass doors, infrared heating panels, and one even has a moss wall and stained glass window. We also have a wellness wing with three treatment rooms, which have mostly been used for Massage Therapy services. I didn’t realize that this major reconstruction of the second floor of this building in 2017 would turn into a five-year project of completely renovating all three floors (and basement) inside and out with my husband. We created a private membership and personal training gym on the first floor, yoga and wellness on the second, and an auxiliary gym on the third floor for classes and overflow. The entire building is one business and brand now called 4th and Market, which my husband and I run together. I’m very proud of the little, but mighty, foundation my studio layed for this dream to come into fruition. We’ve brought together a community of people who are devoted to their well-being, and created a place that truly feels like home in our hometown. I’m also extremely proud of the partnership that Dakota and I have formed, we compliment one another really well, and have created an even deeper level of trust and surrender as a couple in learning how to work together. We’ve known each other since kindergarten and have been together for almost 15 years, so it’s pretty amazing to reflect back on what we have been able to overcome and accomplish together…the family and brand we have created feels really special.
I also created a Yoga School which trains others to become Yoga Instructors now too, and is a hybrid model of in-person work at our studio and online modules and experiences. This is our third year of the 200-Hour program! I host international yoga retreats each year, called ROOTED Retreats,…so far in Mexico and Belize, with one upcoming in Bali.
I wrote a book titled, I Am Worthy: Remembrance & Reclamation, which was published in 2021, and is my story of moving through shame and old programming into embodiment and empowerment. This became a gateway for me to dip my toes into the coaching world, and I also now mentor women around business, relationships, self-esteem, body image, and healing through a mixture of embodiment practices and subconscious reprogramming.
Whether in the yoga sphere or healing and coaching world, my work focuses on the body’s wisdom, our innate worthiness, and learning to be at home within ourselves. I believe in deep feeling and the REAL work {inner healing and self-discovery} and also complete ideocracy and shenanigans. I believe in being able to hold and teach both empathy and empowerment. I believe in feeding my body things that keep me feeling light and free, and in being always up for a Taco Bell dinner run. I do my best to honor nuance and complexity, and try to be a master at holding and creating sacred space for others to heal and grow, to be seen, heard and understood. I value connection more than I value being “right”. I practice and teach consciousness, and how to get comfortable with being present with ourselves and others, and I love a day or night full of drinks or substances that alter consciousness. I love being unboxable, and without labels as often as possible. There’s no better feeling in this world to me than when I feel seen, heard, valued and understood. I hope I leave a legacy of doing that for others. I hope my life inspires people to take up space, to trust their bodies, and to love with hearts wide open. I desire to be a visionary for new ways of being in this world.
And I think what sets me apart from others is that I have a deep, lifelong commitment to staying in the work myself. I’m always willing to be the student again, and I guide others from a place of feeling and being there myself. My teaching and leading is from a deeply embodied place. There’s nothing I won’t question or explore.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Hustle.
As a former college basketball player, I’m very familiar with hustle and hard work. I’ve prided myself on my mental toughness and willingness to embrace struggle. I spent much of my earlier adult years intentionally seeking out “hard things”, I think partially as a way to test my boundaries, and if I’m being really honest with myself, it was also about proving my value, proving my worth…to myself and the world. This is the biggest lesson in life and business that I’ve unlearned…and continue to unlearn every day. My yoga journey has been a huge part of this unlearning. I still value hard work, mental focus, dedication, consistency, will-power, testing limits, but the difference is that it comes from a place of enoughness. It all comes from a place of devotion to self, and devotion to something even bigger than me. It comes from a place of deep reverence and honor of my body, rather than punishment or proving. I spent much of last year programming into my cells, “I Am Worthy”. I believe that on a visceral level now…even on low days when my brain and ego kick in with dialogue like…”you’ll never be enough”, “you aren’t loved”, “you aren’t worthy”, “you aren’t as ________ as so and so”, there’s still a part of me deep-down inside that knows that I am not my thoughts and that I am worthy. And it’s in this knowing that I can drop the hustle, that I can exit the rat-race. Because if I’m innately enough, I can rest in who I am right now…no matter what’s going on. If I’m already worthy and enough, I don’t have to work myself to death because I know that money does not define me- sure, it’s important- but it’s not who I am, it’s just a part of this experience.
The hustle doesn’t leave space for inner knowing or flow. The daily grind doesn’t hear the intuitive whispers. I’m not saying everyone should stop working hard forever and ever, but I’m saying it can be more intentional, and stem from a place of groundedness rather than scarcity and fear. Most hustle I witness in the business and wellness worlds is coming from insecurity and doubt, from not-enoughness. Hard work and sweat equity from a place of alignment lays the foundation for long-term wellth. I spent my first 8 years of business in hustle and I was drowning. I looked fit and successful, but often on the inside I was burnt out, sexually shut down, disconnected with my body, unhappy in my marriage, and swimming in resentment and victimhood. Dropping the hustle brings in more feminine, yin energy into your business and life and creates space for flow and creativity, and for you to receive. We are taught that owning a small business is hard, that there’s no real “off-time”, that we need to be available to everyone at all hours, that vacations are nearly impossible, that if we rest we’re falling behind. There’s a different way. Sure, business can be hard…tough calls to make, tricky conversations to have, sweat equity to be given…but long-term success does not equal long-term hustle. I’ve allowed myself to change the narrative, and I’ve claimed radical ownership of my energy. I allow myself rest and down-time every week, I prioritize vacations and time off, I have hours and days when I’m unavailable, and I listen to my body and pivot and adapt as needed to take care of myself. I’ve created a foundation of trust and safety in my body, so I know that no matter what happens, I’ve got my back and can go with the flow, and I don’t hesitate to ask for support and delegate tasks to others.
Business doesn’t have to be hard, and moving into an energy of devotion versus hustle is absolutely life-changing, for your body and mind, and your bank account. Work smarter, not harder, right!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I made a major pivot in business when COVID hit. I had been providing around 28-30 massages per week, on top of running the yoga studio, teaching classes and leading the Yoga Teacher Training going into March of 2020. When quarantine hit our building shut down completely for 12 weeks. I couldn’t offer massage during that time of course, but a few days in I started offering live yoga classes on zoom. My husband is a full-time personal trainer, and I helped him quickly transition to online/facetime offerings as well. I’m really proud of the way we made things work for those three months we were shut down. I also wrote my book during that time, which was published in 2021. Having a lot of time on my hands- too much lol- I realized just how burnt out and run down I was feeling again, and decided that I’d let my massage therapy practice completely go even when things opened back up. I knew I would be making way less money, but also that I needed the space to focus on myself and on running the yoga studio. I realized just how much of my identity was wrapped up in being able to provide for myself, and in how much money I was making. It became a major journey into discovering a new identity for myself outside of work and money, and into bringing play and spaciousness into my life again. It led me to making my own body a priority, and into a deeper understanding of my energy and how I do best when I have a better balance of social/work time and alone downtime. If you’re familiar with human design, I’m a projector, which means my energy ebbs and flows a lot, and I’ve learned to deeply value and honor that as my super power even when, especially when, the world is operating at this endless rat-race pace. I am capable of being extremely productive in a small amount of time and also require lots of “off-time” where I’m simply being, flowing or creating. I also am a visionary of different ways of being and moving through the world, and am embodying this myself now in how I do business- I show people what’s possible and inspire revolutionary and more individualized ways of creating wealth and well-being…I call it “wellth”. My work days vary a lot now to honor my need for structure and flow, the only set schedule I have are two yoga classes per week, and I always have at least one day per week of nothing but time for myself. My yoga teacher training is structured very differently- as a hybrid online and in-person model- to provide everyone, myself included, with more spaciousness and various ways of learning, and my yoga studio model operates differently than most other studios out there. This pivot initiated originally by COVID changed every aspect of the way I do business and schedule my weeks. I’m really proud of the masculine/feminine balance energetically I’ve created for myself, and although there were moments that felt tense and scary, I’m very grateful for the past couple of years that shook up the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.4th-and-market.com
- Instagram: theembodied_goddess
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.poorman.3
- Other: What Feels Most True~ Podcast
Image Credits
Danielle Parks