I've Lived Every Phase of Studio Life
Opening. Running. Teaching. Competing. Judging. Selling. Walking away. Starting over.
I've been in the yoga studio world since 1999
from the hot room to the owner's office,
from family-run studios to international competitions,
from packed classes to hard decisions nobody sees.
What's your Status?
starting, stuck, growing, burned out, buying, selling,
or wondering what comes next
— let's talk.
Since 1999
My first yoga experience was with Bikram Choudhury
in
Boulder, Colorado.
I was fresh out of University from Cal Poly, working at IBM, beat up from snowboarding, and had no idea what I'd walked into.
It was a weekend seminar — a long, brutally hot class with Bikram teaching, followed by lecture.
I thought I might die in there.
But something stuck.
I bought the book, found a local studio in Boulder at Esak and his mom's studio, and started practicing wherever the consulting schedule would let me.
When I was on the road for IBM, that meant finding hot yoga classes in whatever city I was in — or making it work in hotel rooms, hotel gyms, and even hotel pools.
Pools were perfect. Humid as hell.
That was 1999.
Since then, I've lived nearly every side of the yoga studio business:
teacher, studio owner, operator, competitor, judge, buyer, seller, and the person staring at the lease wondering what move comes next.
I trained with Bikram in Los Angeles in 2002, trained with Paul Grilley in Yin Yoga, and owned and operated Bikram Yoga Nimitz in Honolulu for 10 years.
When the lease ended, I walked away. I also needed a hip replacement after a kitesurfing accident on the North Shore of Hawaiʻi, so the timing was pretty clear.
My family has been deep in the studio business too.
My father and I opened up our family studio in Naperville and Chief (my dad) ran for 20+ years before selling during COVID.
My brother owned two studios in Milwaukee before selling them.
My sister has owned three — closed one, sold one, and opened her third last year.
And now I'm back teaching for her, which is funny, because that's basically how the whole Hawaiʻi chapter started over 20 years ago.
So when I talk about studio life, I'm not speaking from theory.
I've seen packed rooms, empty rooms, teacher drama, front desk chaos, lease pressure, pricing mistakes, retention problems, owner burnout, bad advice, family dynamics, exits, restarts, and the weird loneliness of carrying a studio while everyone around you has an opinion.
That's why I'm talking with people inside the yoga studio world now.
Owners. Teachers. Operators. Buyers. Sellers. People trying to open.
People trying to leave. People trying to evolve without burning the whole thing down.
Not with a prefab consulting package.
Just a useful conversation about where you are, what you're dealing with, and what options might actually make sense.
If I can help, I'll say so.
If I can't, or it's not the right fit, I'll say that too.
And I may know someone better suited for what you need.
Studio life is specific.
The advice should be too.
More Than One Lineage
Bikram is home base.
But bodies change.
Studios change.
Students change.
Owners change.
And if you stay in this long enough, you learn that no single system answers every question.
Over the years, I've studied and pulled from multiple worlds:
▸ Yin Yoga with Paul Grilley
▸ Yin Yoga Founder Pauly Zink
▸ Tony Sanchez 84 Asana
(which is really Bisihnu's)
▸ Power Yoga with Bryan Kest
▸ Power Vinyasa with Baron Baptist
▸ Inferno Hot Pilates — certified
▸ CorePower Sculpt training
▸ Foundation Training
▸ Calisthenics post hip replacement
▸ Primal movements - Ido Portal
▸ Bodybuilding-specific training methods for Rehab
▸ My own Body Tone class format — weights, big-screen instruction, strong sound, and a hot-room conditioning feel
Years of learning from students, teachers, injuries, recoveries, and real rooms
I don't actively teach every method I've trained in.
Some were tools.
Some were experiments.
Some became part of how I think about bodies, studios, schedules, and what students actually show up for.
I still respect lineage.
I also respect adaptation.
There isn't one right way for every studio, every teacher, every body, or every season of life.
There's what works.
What works for the people you teach.
What works for the business you're carrying.
What works for the phase you're actually in.
That's the conversation I care about.
