We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steve Hart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steve below.

Steve, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think the biggest mistake people make when it comes to success is not clearly defining what success is to them. To me, success is freedom to live a life I enjoy, in a place I want to live, with time for travel, family, and friends, and work that is both purposeful, stimulating, and improves the lives of other people.

Thankfully, I found my city and work that helps people every day, so my task has been to create a level of freedom that I desire. In order to do so, I know that I need to hire staff, give them clear roles, treat them well, and pay them a fair wage. This isn’t always possible right away, especially with new businesses that don’t have the income to pay for it, but starting with this idea in mind will help guide in this direction.

Then, once there is a path laid out and a clear objective, it is all about patience, perseverance, and a commitment to your path. It took about 8 years of ups and downs before I considered myself successful in my work. Now 10 years in, there are still improvements to make, but with a full staff and a business model built around sustainable growth, I can live the life I set out to build for myself.

Steve, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I moved to San Diego from Park City, Utah in 2012 to start what started as a music store, but eventually morphed into a yoga studio called Riffs Yoga Studios (www.riffsyogastudios.com). The transformative moment in this shift was the sudden passing of my mother in 2014, when I found my healing in the practice of yoga and developed a passion to share the practice with others as well. I thankfully had a functional space in my music store that was relatively easily transitioned to focus on yoga, but we always maintained a musical element to our services. You can often find live musicians accompanying classes and sound healing elements throughout our entire program. We really focus on the connection between vibration and yoga and the synergies that occur when combined.

In 2019, we acquired a second yoga studio in Ocean Beach. Though closed for a while due to Covid, it is now back on track and offering all of our same programing that we’ve had for years in Bird Rock. Our memberships are good for both locations and love to see the communities meld as people go back and forth quite often.

The focus of our yoga program is not only to provide a great yoga experience, but to facilitate growth in our students by giving them the space to do so. We accomplish this in our classes each day with the way our highly trained teachers approach class, but also in our workshops and especially our trainings. I am so proud of all of the graduates that have come through our yoga teacher training programs, and see how many are now excelling professionally as teachers and humans.

As a builder, through all of this, I developed another business called HART Eyewear (www.harteyewear.com), focussing on high-quality, sustainably-made, blue light and sunglasses. This project has not only been a fun challenge, but is built on a foundation of giving as we are focused on using our growth to raise money for environmental projects that are desperately needed to combat climate change. All of our products are made with high-quality materials that look good and provide top of the line protection to your eyes.

Lastly, I’ve found a passion as a business consultant for other small businesses. The lessons I’ve learned and the tools I’ve developed over the years have not only helped me find success in my own businesses, but allowed me to help other good people find success in theirs. It makes me so happy to see my clients doing well, as I know they are making the world a better place with their success.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My story in business is a story of resilience. As happy as I am with the success of my companies, it did not come easily and I’ve faced some major hardships along the way. Most notably was the passing of my mother in 2014 and my wife in 2022. Karina, who was my life partner for 7 years, was instrumental in the building of my businesses and my personal growth. Losing her earlier this year was devastating, as I could not picture myself running the business without her presence. She was the queen bee of Riffs, beloved by all, and will be missed forever.

While the grief of losing her was enough for me to sell the whole business and start a new life somewhere else where I didn’t have the constant remind of her loss, there was a moment where I realized that my growth in moving forward with Riffs, and honoring her by maintaining what she helped build, and growing it into something even more beautiful. She touched every single part of the business and would want me to continue on our mission to provide health, happiness, and the elevation of consciousness to all who participated in our programming.

Her transition, as was my mother’s several years ago, has become a fire within me to keep going, to integrate the pain and turn it into growth and evolution, and to continue helping others and our community the best way I can.

While this story is more an illustration of the resilience of spirit instead of business, the daily hardships of being a business owner pales in comparison. The challenges in business are easy from this perspective, and I am so grateful for the growth and strength I developed through this whole process to see it that way.

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

One lesson I have had to unlearn is on the value of “hard” work. I grew up in a culture that told us we had to grind to be successful. We need to sacrifice and over-work and outcompete others in order to get what we want.

I’ve come to find, that is simply not the case. Way more important than hard work is being in alignment, being patient, and being persistent. People often overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 (that’s a quote, but I can’t remember from who). I’ve found, and fully believe, that working in the right way is way more effective than working long hours.

The right way is the way of least resistance, the way of alignment with your purpose. It is getting in your canoe and letting the river carry you to wherever you need to go, instead of paddling upstream. It is allowing the tree to grow at its own rate without pressuring it to grow faster, only to be frustrated when it doesn’t.

As I learned this lesson, the newfound free time was spent filling my own cup. Reading, meditation, traveling, enjoying fruitful relationships with friends and family, so when I do show up to work I am happy, focused, aligned, and effective in my work. I believe this leads to long term, sustainable success.

I had major resistance in learning this lesson, as I was opposite everything I thought to be true about success in business. It is important to note, this ideology is not to be confused with laziness or apathy. You still have to show up, face challenges, and break through resistances, but it doesn’t have to be a struggle. It can and will be a graceful process if you are in alignment and your cup is full. In this state, the challenges of life become growth opportunities, continuing to propel you on your path forwards and upwards.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.riffsyogastudios.com, www.harteyewear.com
• Instagram: @riffsyogastudios @harteyewear
• Facebook: facebook.com/riffsyogastudios facebook.com/harteyewear
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/riffs-yoga-studios-bird-rock-la-jolla https://www.yelp.com/biz/riffs-yoga-studios-ocean-beach-san-diego