Stay connnected with Hybrid Her by signing up for our newsletter!
Shari Vilchez-Blatt had no idea that getting laid off in the summer of 2002 would be such great opportunity. After several years in the advertising industry (mainly working on children's products), Shari decided to not rush to look for work, but "to enjoy my summer and do all things I had always thought of doing if I had all of the time in the world. Read a book a day, catch up on movies, get deeper into my yoga practice, draw, sleep late, etc." Eight years later, she's the founder of the wildly successful Karma Kids Yoga studio in Mahnattan with branches all across New York City. How'd she do that? Learn from the master:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for the studio?
A: After I was laid of in June 2002, I spent a lot more time with my nieces and nephews. I quickly noticed that when I did yoga, they copied and imitated me. I wasn't sure if children should do yoga, so I researched it online and found that, of course they can do yoga! I found a Children's Yoga Teacher Training that was happening in my area that summer and jumped on the chance to learn more.
I tried all that I had learned on my nieces, nephews, and their friends, and they all loved it. I saw how they began to benefit from it--building confidence, sense of calm, flexibility and self-esteem. Plus, they all had so much fun!
By fall, when I had originally planned to seek another ad job, but found myself on another path. This path was leading me towards bringing yoga to children. By November I had found a space in NYC and opened the doors to Karma Kids Yoga in Jan/Feb of 2003. And it's been an amazing and rewarding experience ever since.
Q: How do you handle childcare now that you're a business owner?
A: My 4.5 year old daughter, Layla Moon, has done more yoga than you can imagine (over 300 classes to date) but it's been so special to watch her grow up around it. As an infant, I was able to bring her with me to teach Baby Yoga classes, but once the toddler years kicked in, I could no longer teach a class with her there. Jealousy became a factor, or suddenly needing my undivided attention, etc, so it made more sense for me to take this class with her versus teaching it. Now she's old enough for "kids only" classes, which she takes with other instructors.
Layla has had a babysitter since she was an infant, but only a few hours a day, a few days a week so that I could teach and get other work done. What's nice about having Karma Kids Yoga is that I can almost always bring her with me to the studio, take a class with her, and get some work done at the same time. Now she's in preschool, and I plan my teaching schedule for when she's in school and for when her babysitter is available. We still make sure to spend a lot of time together. And even though that means I'll be doing back-end office work all night after she goes to bed, it's worth it!
Q: How did you market the business?
A: Having an advertising background, I had promoted with local print advertising, as well as internet search engine plans. But the most powerful way to bring in families was to hit the streets and parks with postcards and fliers. It was a great opportunity to talk to moms about the benefits of yoga for kids and even show their child a yoga pose or two that they would immediately try! And there is nothing more powerful than a mom's word of mouth to another mom. We offered a lot of free trial classes, and still do. Because unless you're in this "world of being a mom" you're not looking for what's out there for kids. I find there is a constant need to keep advertising and marketing our program.
Q: What are your plans for growth?
A: Future plans are to just keep on doing what we've been doing! I couldn't be more pleased with how Karma Kids Yoga has grown, and watching so many students grow and change over the years.
We released a children's yoga CD last year, Come Play Yoga!, which recently won the Gold Mom's Choice Award for Preschooler music. We'd like to keep getting into more retailer outlets, and keep the momentum going on this.
We also have a Children's Yoga Teacher Training Program, where we train adults how to teach yoga to children. This is in it's sixth year and I have trained nearly 1,000 adults around the world how to teach yoga to children!
There are talks about a kids yoga DVD...but I can't really promise anything yet...hopefully one day, when we have more hours in each day!
More from HybridMom.com:
Comments
That is such a cool poster of
Wow! Interesting articles.
Exercise has a lot of
Post new comment