The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners

Community is a Must Have in 2025

• Jackie Murphy

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What if creating a strong yoga community wasn’t about having it all figured out—but about starting small and letting it evolve? 

Today I speak with my client, Erin Ford, owner of OM Old Orchard, who did just that and has grown a loyal, engaged studio in just one year.

In this episode, Erin shares:

  • her journey to discovering yoga and powerful connections she found between faith, breath, and bodily awareness
  • The power of “agile studio development” (start messy, perfect later)
  • Why connection—not perfection—is the key to community building
  • Understanding that business growth comes from embracing your strengths and allowing your capacity to expand naturally
  • A game-changing mindset shift: Your students don’t just want a space to be loved—they want to love in your space.

Whether you're just starting your wellness business journey or looking to strengthen your existing community, Erin's story offers a refreshing reminder that success comes not from following a rigid formula, but from aligning your business with who you truly are and creating space for others to do the same.

Connect with Erin:

Want to connect with Erin beyond the podcast? Head to whatupbuttercup.com—her digital front porch! There, you’ll find links to her writing, coaching, social media, upcoming events, and everything else she’s creating. Whether you’re curious about The Stillness Practices, restorative yoga, or just want to follow along, it’s all in one place. Come say hi!


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Speaker 1:

One of the things that is now a must-have for every yoga and Pilates business is a strong community. This started to shift in 2020, post-pandemic. However, now it is critical for every business Tune into this episode to hear how Erin has created a loyal and vibrant community in her studio in just one year of being open. Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place.

Speaker 1:

I'm your host, jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. All right listeners, welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. I have another client interview for you today. Today, my client, erin, is here, erin welcome, erin welcome, hello, hello, I'm very happy that we are recording this podcast and I know it's been something that we've talked about and kind of has been in the works for months and I really appreciate you being here today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you so much. I woke up this morning and I was like, yeah, this is a good day to capture everything thus far with the momentum for the future, cause it does feel like it just does feel like a total marker in time. So thanks for having me, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I love that. Can you introduce yourself to everyone, so they know who?

Speaker 2:

you are what you do. Yes, yes. So my name is Erin Erin Ford. I am based out of St Louis, missouri, smack dab in the middle of the country. I own a yoga studio called OM Old Orchard. It is a studio concept under my company, yoga Underground, which is what I started in 2017 after I graduated teacher training, and our mission is to invite people into meaningful experiences on their mat, in their body and within. I consider myself a stillness teacher more than a yoga teacher, in terms of just bringing something new to the world and what we prioritize and what we allow. Yeah, I'm a creative person. I'm a storyteller, I am married, I have five kids, two dogs, a bunch of cats Amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it. There's so many different directions that I could go with just that intro, but I want to start with where you found yoga and what was that experience like, and how did you go from finding yoga to becoming a teacher.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it actually has become one of my favorite stories to tell. It actually started in my early 20s. Although I was nowhere near a yoga studio, I had crippling anxiety and I grew up in the church and I'm very thankful I grew up in a faith life that it was all about like God's love and you being a unique child of God, and that there's this like big, big world out there for you to explore, like with this unique purpose, so not like a stringent religious background. Prayer was so important and so I was praying for peace every day, like to help with this anxiety, and it wasn't happening. And so I called my dad, who's a spiritual guy and a writer and a pastor and for those listeners who have a Lutheran background, he is Terry Dittmer and he said to me well, erin, that's not how it works. You can't pray like you email customer service and like just a response in three business days. You know you always have the peace you need. The spirit is active, the moment that you are aware of the spirit being active. And so that had me starting to explore my emotions, like, well, if that's the case, then maybe your physical body isn't like an eating moving, like pooping machine, like maybe this first gift given to us is a communication device and maybe these hard feelings aren't something you need to pry away, but maybe they are meant to give you a clue to how to orient your life spiritually. And so I started studying what are called the fruits of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness, goodness and started to create this model of how to take how you're feeling and flip it to its positive opposite. And I started doing these workshops. And every time I did a workshop I had to hire a yoga starting to to grow a little bit, um, and in my early sampling of yoga, um, which came around then, I started getting very interested in prana, okay, and I was like, oh, this is really interesting. And I was in a bra. This is a, this is a story, jackie. So everybody just settled in here.

Speaker 2:

So I was in a brass quartet at my church and we were like warming up on Easter Sunday, okay, and I'm like new into yoga and I have this like fruits of the spirit, like passion blooming, and I say to the leader of the brass quartet like, oh, we have to wake up our prana. And he said what you know, what is that? And I kind of offered what my very early understanding was and he said, oh, the Hebrew word for that is ruach. And I was like what my mind was blown, like I never had even thought about starting to explore the parallels, and like Hebrew and the old Testament to yoga. So I immediately sent yoga teacher training and that was like the moment where I was like I have got to learn more.

Speaker 2:

And if you are from a church background or if you know, like a lot of people like they, they go to church and they pray but they still deal with like a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of anxiety and my early understanding of yoga had started to shift things for me and this peace that was promised and you know that's, you know nothing that the world can give you. I started to experience that more and, um, you know, I started to really understand when the mind is in the present versus the past and how to bring it, you know, into this full awareness, um, and so I just knew that there was something there, mission wise, because at the end of the day, you know, like you have the life that you have as the person you are, with the body you have, with the skills, with the talent, with the people at the time in the place, like once you have it, once. So you know, for me I was like how, how do I make everything intentional? Like how, how do I do that for myself? And then, once I started feeling the shifts like even recycling and playing in the brass quartet or like everything became intentional and at the time I was like self tanning and I was like, oh, I can't really like line that up to a spiritual fruit. So, like that, that went and I started like carving out my life into this way, went into teacher training, started learning yoga, sutra, absolutely felt everything shifting and I just, I just knew that there was this bigger thing that I I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I knew I was on the right path.

Speaker 2:

But ultimately it came down to taking how you feel in your body and coming present with it and allowing, like this sifting, you know, this rise of the thing, and you know we focus so much on healing, you know so, focused so much on like this is the thing that was hard in our life and this is the thing that is hard in our life. And this is my challenge and this is where I'm stuck, and, and so, very quick, like, very easily, we just are like in process all the time. But what I was learning was that, though that's necessary and valid, at some point you become the person you've becoming. It's really important to allow yourself to draw a line in the sand and say, all right, that was then, this is now. And so, from that practice of noticing emotion in the body, allowing that to rise up, bringing the mind present, you no longer are just securing yourself, but now you're coming into this purpose. Now you're aligning with your true yes and your true no. Now you're able to say, yes, I have this one life. This is what feels honest for me. Let's freaking go.

Speaker 2:

And so I started teaching restorative yoga, like it was going out of style. I just was like this, this is it Like, and this. I was working a full-time job. I worked for enterprise for, I think, 12 or 14 years and I was like teaching like three classes a week and my Friday night restorative class was growing and growing, and growing and growing and um, and at a certain point I realized this is not just a room full of bodies on mats chilling out before the weekend, like, this was a room full of people in community stepping into alignment with their life, and I led my first restorative yoga retreat that year and afterwards one of the participants wrote me a thank you note.

Speaker 2:

A lot of the participants wrote thank you notes and they all like I still have them in my office, but one particular one like moved me to tears and she said thank you for teaching me a stillness I've never known and I like still can't even say that, getting a little edgy because we we don't slow down, and not only you know do we have to slow down for our nervous system. Right, like what are we restoring in restorative yoga? Like our nervous system? But then, with time and with practice, we're actually going through the koshas more inward, to where we're like restoring our connection to peace. We're restoring an element of faith, we're restoring our understanding of who we are. So I knew at that point I had stumbled upon my life's work and that was an interesting moment. I turned 44 this year. You know, you kind of grow up like this is what I want to be and actually stumble upon the thing that you are and you're like oh yeah, okay, I guess I could have seen that coming.

Speaker 1:

Um and yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so I decided, okay, well, this is it. So I started pouring into a business plan, um, and started listening to your podcast, had stumbled upon and your yoga sermons, and, and then one day, on Facebook, I got a notification that a new yoga studio had opened in Webster Groves. And I wanted to throw up because I knew that whatever I wanted to do, I wanted it based in my local community. And so I asked myself you know, what do you do with big feelings? Aaron and I leaned into them and I went and signed up for a class at this new yoga studio and the owner gave me a tour and she showed me this little room and said she was renting it out. And I, in that moment, Jackie, I was like, okay, I'll move in tomorrow. I did not think about how much, I didn't think about the money, I didn't, I didn't, I just knew. I just knew I was.

Speaker 2:

So, in a moment, having that understanding of who I was and what I really felt I was called to do, and seeing all of these pieces from that 19-year-old phone call to my dad lining up to this comment from a retreat participant of like thank you for teaching me stillness, and knowing this was all coming together and about three months later she called me up the owner that I had rented this room from and said you know, Erin, I think I was at the right place at the right time for you to have a yoga studio in Webster Groves. Make me an offer. So I went and talked to my husband, I took the last of my savings from my time in corporate America that I had, you know, allowed me to kind of retire from corporate life and step into a creative life, and I I bought the studio and we're a year old, um, on March 1st, um, as as me, as the owner, operator and the the first six months I really, and I would actually say from like I had like a couple of key philosophies. Number one is that community is wellness. I was like okay, like this just needs to be a place for people to feel how they are, who they are, where they are, without the roles and responsibilities. My other thing was that I am owning a, running a yoga studio, so if I'm stressed out, I'm doing it wrong, Like I know right, but I was just like that it would be so ironic to be like I hate my life, like literally I can do all of the yoga, all of the time and um and anyway.

Speaker 2:

But I really did struggle up until like December, of like why, why am I trying to figure out what to name a class? Right, I was going to be doing this like restorative retreat, stillness, Like you know, like the nitty gritty of running a studio and um, and trying to figure out pricing and trying to figure out all this stuff. And you know, you like, really like the coaching that I had signed up for in the mastermind, um, starting to sink into my brain, like letting it be messy and um. So I was and you know, ultimately I just really went back to to my prayer life and was like why, you know?

Speaker 2:

Like why, why did I take this? Why was I given this detour? Detour, and now that things have settled and the things that I knew I would figure out with experimentation, my time at enterprise really allowed me to be agile and look at, kind of, in the software development world, you know, you look at your minimum viable product like what's the minimum thing that you need to get started. That'll be like the common denominator and then you iterate off of that. So my time at enterprise had really helped me kind of take that approach to studio development and every single teacher that came on board I was like this is agile studio development.

Speaker 2:

We are going to learn as we grow. And so when things settled down and I went to my prayer life and I was like, okay, what is this? Because now I feel ready to offer the stillness practices and get into that initial business plan that I went to work out, I really looked around this place and I was like, oh, like I have friends and community right, like I'm surrounded by people, like this project called OM Old Orchard has fruited like, yeah, a foundation of community in a way where, like community is art, it's fluid, it's a two-way street, um, and now I'm recording a podcast with my business coach who helped me like kind of ground that. So that's the yeah, that's the story.

Speaker 1:

It's so beautiful and I've written so many notes while you were talking to different things to touch on, so we'll kind of like circle back to a couple of different things. But the first thing that I want to say is I I love how you have integrated your 19 year old self, your experience at enterprise 19-year-old self, your experience at enterprise enterprise right yeah, enterprise and your skill as a teacher now your skill as a leader of teachers and community, and you've used all of it. And it really makes me come back to like nothing that has occurred in your life is a coincidence. It was all kind of crafted. You've used it all and crafted it all to get to where you are today.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes I see people in business, especially when they transition from, like, corporate to some sort of wellness career. They're like I want to forget everything that came before and I want to like not touch on the skills and the experience and education that I have and I want to start fresh. And I'm always like but no, there's so much gold in where you've come from if you know how to use it well. So that's something that I see in you, like you've taken all of you and turned it into this beautiful studio.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, that actually gives me tears in my eyes, because number one like that's something I say in my classes all the time is like give every day that came before today credit. Yeah and um, and it's also, you know, I think, when I was thinking about the listener for this particular episode and I was thinking like what, what does the, what do they need to hear? And I really feel strongly that you have to and I mean I say have to like I'm careful about those kind of words, but you do have to know who you are and what you do. Well, and I think so often, especially in the yoga world, we come with this humility of our hardship and I think that's important to be vulnerable there. But we spend so much time in process that sometimes I think we forget that we need to come out of the process and be that person that we've been becoming like the whole time, and in that it's not just about honesty, about shortcomings anymore. It's about complete boldness in your strengths and abilities.

Speaker 1:

I'm like blown away, because this is the conversation that I just had with my business coach a few hours ago like truly down to a T, where I was telling her, you know, between studio and studio, between studio two and studio three, the thing that I found was coaching and with that I decided like listen, I know what I'm doing, I'm damn good at building community. Like I'm just going to let it shine and really own the skills and the strengths that I have and like that was part of the success I've had and I think for so long it was like I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning and I think at every point in my business there's been a time for me to be like wait, you got to step back into owning it, you've got to step back into shining, and like letting that be okay, and we're not always in development.

Speaker 2:

And here you are, yeah, and that's like like scriptural too, right, like there's a relationship that scripture presents between knowledge, understanding and wisdom. And it's like, yeah, you have to have knowledge first, right, you have to learn what you don't know. And then from that place of knowledge, then you gain understanding, like I've I've been here before, I've chosen left and I know to choose right. Or I chose left, I like that, so I'm going to choose left again, right, you have this understanding and then that becomes so fluid that you enter into this place of like ability to discern quickly, in alignment with, like, the value system, right, like the, the thing that lines up with like the seed of who you've always been, you know, and I think that's ultimately like why we're fortunate to be in business in this particular line of work, because it starts in the body every single day, like the, you know, what does the body need? Is it hot, is it cold, is it hungry, is it thirsty, Does it need to walk, does it need to sleep? And you respond to that and you build this self-trust and, with practice, you have these habits because you've been responding to the needs of the body and now you can have that self-trust and self-leadership kind of morph into like. Is this alignment with like, my yes and my no? And you know my thing? I've learned, this past couple of weeks especially.

Speaker 2:

I've been hearing a lot of we've just launched our spring season, um, and we run everything at the studio on seasons just helps my sanity. People are like, oh, you're so creative, you're so creative, you're so creative. And I'm like you know what? I am so creative, yeah, like I really am. And I think that in the past, like I felt like I was too much and like even when I started in the mastermind, I felt like, oh gosh, you know, like I'm allowing myself to be seen, and so now parts of myself are being revealed. For, like I came, I came here for growth, but I'm getting healing right and um, and because ultimately it was like you're not too much, you're creative, you think fast, you go for it and and maybe that's you or maybe you're a little bit more, um, like by the book or whatever, and I think ultimately it comes down to like what is true for you, like what is real for you, you know, and then I think it makes things more, I think it makes things easier.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, I am having this flashback to the memory of being on the retreat and we were like knee deep and meta ads. Everybody and I think everybody was stressed. It's not going to paint a pretty picture of the retreat, but everyone was stressed. We're all trying to figure out meta ads and set up a first ad for some people and get their account going. And I remember you just kind of quietly disappeared for a little bit and you came back and you were like my body needed a reset. Like I went to go take a shower or I don't remember what you did, but like it was such a beautiful example of what you just talked about. I was like I listened to my body first and I'm going to regulate and take care of my body and then come back and do the thing. Yeah, you're just walking.

Speaker 1:

Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it's just saying, like your body's, your ride or die.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think what's interesting, like my question for you is I've seen you do your body's your ride or die, and I've seen you do things that really challenge how comfortable you're feeling in your body. What do you think is the like? It's like thinking about the person listening, like the guideline of like, okay, yes, I'm listening to my body, but my body is feeling't. Think that happens.

Speaker 2:

I think that and I mean I'm really being thoughtful. So what I? Because I don't do things I'm afraid of. Again, going back to that agile development, you know that that minimum viable product is safe and you know, for me it is about, like these bigger decisions that I've made, right, like renting out a bed and breakfast in St Croix like like $13,000 on the line. I did that at Jackie with no fear. I had zero. When we signed that contract, I was like, yeah, cool, awesome. No, that's awesome Because it came from a first idea that I was going to let maybe a handful of people crash in my Airbnb.

Speaker 2:

Right, I was going down there to lead a training wink, smile, there are three spots left. And. And so I was like, oh well, I'm going down there to do this training. I'll invite some people to come. Maybe like a person or two will want to like crash the Airbnb and we can have a good time. And so I like put feelers out there and, like, 13 people signed a wait list. So I'm like, oh well, I need a better solution. Right, I don't want to, I don't want to be, I want to be inclusive here, like. And so I started looking at hotels around the studio that I'm teaching at and partner rates, and stumbled upon a bed and breakfast that had a hundred percent occupancy wide open you know, vacancy wide open for that weekend and so it just seemed serendipitous. Okay, cool, I trust in.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't until I was like in the math that I started to, and I don't even ever think I really felt afraid. I just felt serious, like I didn't want to mess it up, and I think that I really think that one of the things that there's so much I've gained from the mastermind and you know one of them is like to be listening to the things that you say all the time and what you're selling when you're not selling, and so that trust that starts in the body, right, responding to when you need a hot bath and a shower, when working on meta ads evolving to like self-leadership. I know that this is what I'm meant to do with my time and my investments of energy and money. You ultimately like then just work through what it feels like to be in that space I don't know if that makes sense and then just work through what it feels like to be in that space. I don't know if that makes sense, but like it wasn't until I was in the math. You know that.

Speaker 2:

I then got to that next cru. Even then, like, I didn't mark on the room, I knew that I needed to be able to be a hundred percent invitational, like I would with a best friend. Hey, I got this space, you know, blah, blah, blah. I have a room, you know, um, and and ultimately just did what came natural.

Speaker 2:

What I heard, like what I doing, what I heard myself saying how I want the energy that the mastermind, the coaching that you gave me, I don't know, it was a couple months ago about, like approaching the task with the energy that you want.

Speaker 2:

And if you don't have the energy you want for that task next, do it later. You know, and that has put me like into flow, yeah, creating a business, and so, anyway, full circle. I do think that if something feels too big for you, if you feel afraid that you need to zoom out, you know back up and find out what's that first iteration, like what are you actually able to do right now? That that is based on your knowledge, that is based on your experience, that is based on what feels really good and expansive and life-giving and exciting, and you can't wait to call somebody and tell them about it, right, and then you get the. Then you'll get the, the heat of transformation from there, right, and I think you like I, what I learned in that is I, you know, I ended up selling St Croix, selling those rooms pretty easily, and I was like, oh, you know, people don't just spend money on deals, they spend money on what they want.

Speaker 1:

Say it again, because the people need to hear it.

Speaker 2:

People don't just spend money on deals, they spend money on what they want. And I didn't know that. You know you can't. You just don't know what you don't know, but you do know you're going to learn. So it's, I think, about finding like safety in um, just the honesty of your strengths and where you're at in a moment.

Speaker 1:

And your capacity grows. I love how you just described it of like start with what you, your nervous system, can handle right now. And how you just described it of like start with what you, your nervous system, can handle right now. And as you start and take step forward, you'll start to grow, like the what you can hold will get bigger and bigger. And I think, like women especially, we're so programmed to like I'm going to start something or launch something new and I'm going to do it so perfectly and it's so well and it's going to be the best thing ever from the get-go and it. It just doesn't have to be that way. I love the like let it be messy. Start with the what you can do today, start with the minimum, bare minimum, today and then move from there.

Speaker 2:

Um, I love the them just, and then repeating what worked.

Speaker 2:

Well, right, so let it be messy you know, and and I am it is so messy yeah, yeah, it's really messy. Like it's like the eve of our first birth, I, I like did a balance challenge and like my first email was like I don't really know what this is going to be, but we're gonna, we to, we're going to, we're going to talk about balance for 40 days and you know what, like the open rates on those emails were like 99%, 104% people, reopening them twice, three times and and so in. Like I think that is a huge part of where we're like no, we got to stop. You got to think it all through and it has to line up to this and the next launch of that. And what I've learned is just do what comes naturally, when it works, write it down, do it again, repeat and then, like how you said the other day, yeah, and then eventually you'll do it faster.

Speaker 1:

Yep, look, there's a business course for you right there.

Speaker 2:

Like five steps.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Okay, well, one of the things that you I'm like watching the time and there's a couple of things I want to touch on before we go, but one of the things that you mentioned in your story was the bridge between Christianity and yoga, and this is like kind of a hot topic for some people, especially some Christians, who really deeply believe that yoga is not something that they should partake in, and I just want to get your perspective on that, because it sounds like you have a very unique background.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it is tricky. I think, ultimately, um, the way I was sharing this last last night to my class, because it's, you know, officially Lent, and um, so yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, season of restraint Um, you know it feeds ties immediately into the yamas. I think you know Jesus was pretty consistent in the first thing he did when he walked into a room, which was he read the room, people hungry, like you know, and and so to me it's not about you can let anything be as meaningful as you need it or want it to be Right, but at the end of the day, we were given these bodies, you know we are giving, given this breath, and I mean you can walk into Hobby Lobby and see Psalm 23. Right, like the Lord is my comfort, like you know the whole, and what's interesting about it is that I think somewhere in there, it's like the rod and the staff is my comfort, and I think what's interesting is the Hebrew word for comfort in that verse.

Speaker 2:

That's like pretty, like I said, it's in Hobby Lobby, it's all over like doormats, everywhere. The word comfort there is deep, emphatic sigh. Okay, it's like when you're absolutely broken down on the side of the road within your marriage, at the end of the rope, completely tapped out. Right, that's divine comfort, and there's scripture about how the spirit intercedes with moans and groans that we can't understand. That's taking a deep breath in and ah. So for me it's really about like somatic prayer and like somatic spirituality and allowing your body and breath to be partners and expressions of loyalty and communication devices, like with the divine. You get religious. You know you're going to get lost. I'm, you know, that ambulance. I don't know if you heard it, but I was praying for anybody who might, because I, like my office, is right in front. So, all right, guys, we got to. We didn't hear it, I didn't hear it at all, oh okay.

Speaker 1:

Oh, Erin, that brought tears to my eyes and I don't even know why. So like there's something I need to sit with of what you just said, but it's just such a beautiful expression of how, like spirit is intertwined with your breath, and I've never heard anyone talk about it like that. I know that we can talk about this off podcast, but you have a gift we need to. We need to offer this.

Speaker 2:

It's, it's so it's so important. It's so important because, at the like, you aren't put on this planet to like go to the grocery store and wait in line at the DMV, rinse, repeat and be stuck. You're just, you're just not. And you know Yoga Sutra, chapter two, verse one, read ancient text Through heat comes transformation and surrender all to the divine. And you know, that sounds pretty Christian to me. Yeah, yeah, but with the point being that it's not about choosing what you are, it's about choosing the practice that allows you to be exactly who and how you are. Oh my God.

Speaker 1:

That's so beautiful. I don't even mean to say, oh my God, right there. Sorry.

Speaker 2:

No, I mean, I say oh my God.

Speaker 1:

Funny conversation but like I just that was so well said and I think, like you have such an elegant way of communicating that that I think a lot of people listening to the podcast will resonate with for sure there's.

Speaker 1:

There's one more thing I want to touch on before we start to wrap up, and this is also something that you said that that has changed my way of thinking. So you just drop these little nuggets and I'm like my brain is breaking being in conversation with you in a good way. We were talking and you were like I've built this really great community and I do think your studio and your business has probably one of the most loyal is one word for it but also just really alive. Like you have this community that is rich and alive and loyal, and it's evident in your email open rates, it's evident when you sell something. But I can also just feel it from you and from your stories about what goes on day to day. And something you said was you know, people don't just want a space to be loved, they want a space to love in, and that was kind of your approach to community. So I'd love to hear you talk about like one that statement and then also to how you developed that community in your business.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love that this is what we're closing on and I get to give my sister a shout out. So my sister had this great quote that a lot of times we think the most valuable thing we can give somebody is our love. But really that most valuable thing we can give somebody is the opportunity to love us and in doing so we let them use their gifts, we let them use their eyes and their senses to be like, hey, I see this need or I see this opportunity to serve and I have something that can work. You know, and so we believe here at OM, that community is a two-way street. If a student or a guest offers to help with the dishes, like we have a rule of thumb, like you let them like. If somebody offers their help or they see an opportunity to step in.

Speaker 2:

There are a lot of great communities out there and a lot of really great food people can go and nourish their lives with. But what happens when you start to nourish people is they start to grow into their purpose and you know they'll have their own thing to start offering. And I think you know, as a community leader, we have to be sure that we're not approaching space in a way that stifles that, but in a way that really fosters that and gives people a place to grow. Everything about like you know the way that we work with teachers and the way that we work with the space. You know my classes.

Speaker 2:

I usually end with something along the lines of like may your eyes and ears be open to the ways you're supported, seen and encouraged, moment over moment, day over day, year over year of your life. Because it's true, and the more that we can allow people the opportunities to use their eyes and use their ears, like to feel support, the more we're going to give them opportunities to then be support and man. Is that not what we need? The world, collective care and community is an art form and it's not just about great legs anymore. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's so beautiful. I have really loved recording this episode and I know that people are going to get so much from listening. Will you tell people how to connect with you?

Speaker 2:

oh, my goodness, there are so many ways. Um. So, number one uh, my instagram is really great. It is private, but I do accept um requests when I know that where they came from. So, my dear mod, or Ohm, underscore STL, and then there'll be like a link in the show notes to like all of the things, because there are, I have a pretty big digital footprint. Facebook is good, aaron Ford, and that'll get you to where you need to go, depending on what you're interested in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it, and there's three spots to St Croix. That's in a collab with Marisa, which now I'm wondering if she's been on the podcast. I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about it. I wrote the dates down during this conversation. Amazing. Thank you so much, erin, for coming and being your beautiful, wise self and sharing everything, and I know it's just going to ripple out and touch people exactly when they need to hear it so.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate it. Yeah, and Jackie, I just want to thank you for being out in the world with the message that, as your yoga business grows, don't be afraid of making money, because that means that more people are experiencing this practice. That has the possibility to like change, like not just change them, their life and their homes and their families with their pets and their plants and their projects, but like more you know. So, you, you are just doing such good work and I'm so thankful for you. Thank you, I really appreciate that. Thankful for you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I really appreciate that Feels good.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, let's do Pilates and business casual wear.

Speaker 1:

Come to the retreat, you guys. All right, everyone. I will talk to you in the next episode.