We were lucky to catch up with Shira Yaziv recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shira, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Before Athletic Playground, I was a personal trainer, I was training my clients at their homes or outside using local playgrounds and parks (I called my training business Athletic Playground because I trained clients using playgrounds). Aside from training clients, my schedule was full of my interests. I would commute all over the bay area to attend classes/jams that I was interested in. At the time I was interested in Parkour, Breakdance, Handstands, Acrobatics, Capoeira, Circus, Strength and Conditioning and Climbing.
At some point I got tired of commuting to train my clients, and just wanted a home base for my clients to come to me. Once I started thinking at that directions I was also had the thought of asking my teachers at the time to teach at Athletic Playground and if I can get a couple more students to join, it will cover my commute cost and my class expenses.
I was quite new to the Bay Area and was also desiring to have more community around me, and was interested having Athletic Playground a place where people can hang out and move together. I was so passionate and motivated at the time (age 26), and I just trusted that it will work out.

Shira, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a dancer, teacher, bodyworker, and facilitator. I enjoy encouraging people to be in their bodies while learning new skills, being creative, listening and adapting to the changing present moment. I am also the co-founder and owner of Athletic Playground, a dynamic indoor space, inspiring physical play through a wide variety of movement classes.

My main interest now days is Contact Improvisation which is allows people to explore being in space together and exploring how we can relate to one another and our surroundings, particularly with our physical body but not only.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I think it is important to make sure that the people who work for you are being heard and cared for. Even if you disagree with a certain desire that one of your employees have, it is still important to listen and take in what they are saying and thank them for sharing their opinion/idea. If people feel unheard, they will not be motivated. I ask the teachers at Athletic Playground what are they excited to teach rather than what I want them to teach. If the teachers are happy, the students will be happy. Who wants to learn from an unmotivated teacher?

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

We opened Athletic Playground in 2008, the first couple of years were quite a straggle to cover expenses, not to speak about paying ourselves. In 2010, my business partner at the time David Grace and I came up with an idea to do an unlimited monthly membership for only $50/month, you could only sign up for it during the month of January 2020. It was very cheap for what we offered (over 100 weekly classes). I can’t remember how the exact number, but we in one month gained over 100 members. Before that we might have had 10-20 members. The best thing about gaining 100 members is the community that we have created, we had people coming and always around, some people taking 7 classes a day and taking naps on our couch between classes. Even though we gained many new members, we were still struggling to pay our overhead expenses and ourselves, however we gained the best community ever and that is priceless!

Contact Info:

• Website: athleticplayground.com / shira.yaziv.com
• Instagram: @athleticplayground / @shirayaziv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/athleticplayground1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/athleticplayground
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/athletic-playground-emeryville