McKenna Rowe: Building a Mobile Yoga Business
How a failed yoga studio planted the seed for a new business model, mobile yoga, that better met the needs of busy professionals in LA.
After years of working in the digital industry for clients in entertainment, publishing, and fashion, McKenna Rowe took a sabbatical to obtain a yoga-teaching certification. A desire to help people heal soon followed.
She owned and operated a yoga studio in East Hollywood throughout 2011, creating a vibrant community on and offline, but decided to shift to a mobile model.
Her business is called Chakra5 Yoga and offers mobile yoga. Her team of qualified instructors bring yoga classes on site and by appointment to businesses, schools, and organizations throughout greater Los Angeles.
Tell us a little about your yoga background.
I’ve been doing yoga ever since I caught the “yoga bug” as a little girl, watching Lilias Folan on PBS. I’m now certified in Hatha/Kundalini by Karuna Yoga and have undergone additional teacher training in Restorative Yoga with Judith Lasater.
How did you come up with this concept of providing yoga to businesses at their locations?
I founded Chakra5 in 2009 and began offering mobile yoga classes in 2009. Clients found them to be comfortable, convenient, and affordable to practice yoga with an experienced instructor at home or at work. I even held classes in public spaces like parks, community rec rooms at apartment complexes…you name it.
Then, in 2011, I opened a traditional brick-and-mortar yoga studio in the East Hollywood district of LA and ran it for about a year. It was a great studio, and our students loved it. We held classes, workshops, and events in that space.
However, it was expensive to keep open, and our clients struggled with limited parking and finding the time to attend classes. Eventually, I had to close the studio because it just wasn’t feasible financially.
What did you learn from your experience running the studio?
I was able to transform the experience into positive one. Last night my husband and I actually drove by the location of the former studio. I mentioned that I would not have changed a thing about the experience.
There weren’t any other yoga studios serving people in that neighborhood, and it was fantastic to meet so many interesting and creative people, especially those who volunteered at the studio. I am convinced that we had the best teachers in Los Angeles. The staff was very diverse, for instance, you cannot see quite often people of color that teach, but we did have them.
The entire community was artistic, and a lot of people from the surrounding areas came to the studio to hang out because we gave them a feeling of home. We are still in touch, and we see each other around the town, and many teachers continue to work for me.
Running the studio gave me an opportunity to observe how teachers handle students professionally and safely. Having collaborated with them before, I knew I could trust them enough to go out and teach at offices. I also know how the teachers work, what their personal style is, and how to best match the right teacher to the right client.
How would you describe your business today?
I came up with the idea of shifting to a different business model and started thinking about expanding the mobile yoga service that I had been offering since 2009.
This turned out to be the right direction, and I now work with a team of twelve that provides a broad offering including yoga classes, meditation workshops, healthy cooking classes, and even sound baths. Our operating expenses are pretty low, so, we are able to offer reasonable prices.
Because I’m growing our client base slowly and strategically, we are able to give a great deal of attention to each client. We’re not overwhelmed with thousands of clients, so it doesn’t take us days to get back to you.
I mostly manage the team and the clients, but occasionally I do try to teach. The assigned teacher to a client gets to know their particular group that they see every week and finds something that can work in the middle for everyone.
We are able to create a personal connection with our clients. Our clients become attached to their teachers. For instance, we had a teacher who got pregnant and had to take a break from teaching. Her students would always ask about her and if she could bring the baby to class so they can meet her.
What motivates companies to offer their employees yoga?
Every company wants to with that coveted “Best Company to Work For” award. One of the most fun and easy ways to inspire and motivate employees is to offer yoga classes at the office on a regular basis.
Healthy employees are more productive and more cost-effective. Yoga classes are a low-cost and innovative solution for companies wanting to reduce health care expenses, relieve workplace stress, and promote employee well-being.
What age groups do you serve?
Our target audience is quite broad. It could include anybody from kids to seniors. Both kids and adults are passionate about the classes. Most of our clients are of working age (from twenty to sixty). They call it corporate yoga, or office yoga.
Our teachers are great at breaking the ice, making their classes exciting, and helping people understand that regular practice can lead to significant results.
They can have experienced yoga enthusiasts as well as very new or much older students all in the same group. It’s a challenge to give both individual attention and bring a good experience to everyone.
How do you work with clients?
We talk with clients ahead of time to work out any details and see their space. We provide a secure folder online with everything they need including promotional materials, insurance, and invoices.
After the first class, we follow up with the client to get feedback and arrange ongoing classes.
Classes can be customized to meet specific needs (“yoga for runners,” “yoga for stress,” etc.). Our approach is based mostly on the classical Hatha style of yoga, sometimes borrowing from other styles like Vinyasa, Restorative and Kundalini. We can offer a sixty, forty-five, and thirty-minute classes, or fifteen-minute “mini desk sessions.”
What are some of your Popular Classes?
Here’s a general list:
- Yoga Basics: This is good for clients to get a solid understanding of the underlying fundamentals of yoga. We guide students through some breath and meditation techniques, and a series of beginning seated and standing poses. Particular attention is given to make sure people are in safe and correct alignment.
- Focus & Flow: This class is practiced at a more vigorous pace. We incorporate more movement, strength poses, and core work for those seeking a bit more of a workout.
- Power Down: We guide students through a series of gentle, flowing poses, and stretches coupled with meditation and breathing to help them loosen up and wind down from a stressful day.
- Yoga & Meditation Tune Up: This fifteen-minute session can be done right at a desk! It begins with some simple yoga and breath exercises to warm up the body, followed by a guided Zen meditation to help quiet the mind, melt away stress and bring mental focus. This is an excellent option for employees that have little spare time or companies that lack a “real” practice space.
- Mat Pilates: Our team includes a certified Pilates instructor if client needs specifically call for this.
- Sound Bath: In a Sound Bath, you’re “bathed” in the vibrations of gongs and crystal bowls. During a typical Sound Bath, participants sit/lie on the floor in a comfortable position and just take in the sounds. Benefits include increased relaxation, better sleep, balanced energy levels, and a decrease in stress and anxiety.
- Kids Yoga: This is where “mini yogis” can develop their flexibility, creativity, focus, and coordination. By starting little ones early, we give them a platform for a happy, healthy, and balanced life.
How do you choose teachers for your team?
We are lucky because there are a lot of yoga teachers in this area. Nowadays you can throw a rock and hit a yoga teacher!
First, they need to have Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher 200-hour (RYT-200) certification. Then I like to see how much experience they have, especially working with a diverse group — particularly newbies.
Many young, new teachers are excited to get people doing headstands, which isn’t really suitable for our average yoga practitioner in the workplace. What it is more profound and complex than “fancy yoga poses” is the opportunity to work with somebody older in age or dealing with traumas and injuries. How do we help those with different body types feel they are able to practice yoga regardless of their physique or experience?
Beyond an instructor’s technical knowledge, I’m interested in their ability to connect with people on a personal level. For example, I’ll ask how they approach having beginners in a class or when they see somebody who could potentially hurt themselves. Then, I like to observe how they connect with the students.
I try to give each of the teachers enough freedom to express their personal style. That’s when I try to match a particular teacher to a client if I can. Some clients want a calm and relaxing atmosphere in the class. Others want something more dynamic; they want music to be a bit louder and might be interested a bit of chanting or Kundalini. Each teacher will bring something unique from their personal yoga practice.
How far do you go to customize your offerings?
I make an emphasis on the fact that working with different people is essential. We spend a lot of time to work with each client to understand exactly what kind of students we are going to have and which type of experience to provide. It’s all about customizing yoga for a particular audience.
For example, we’ve got teachers who have taught in pre-school, so they use some techniques to manage children. We’re especially interested in opportunities to help the disabled, physically challenged, and veterans with PTSD explore yoga.
I stay in touch with clients and regularly ask how everything is going and if we should change anything. Some want more of a fitness class. Others want to learn more about meditation. We continue to customize what we are doing, hire new teachers, and provide students with the experience they want. We also offer wellness events.
Tell us about your custom wellness events.
This is where a client works with us to create a wellness event for their staff.
For example, Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena contacted us to help put on an exclusive wellness event for their staff. The two-hour event included an “Intro to Yoga” class with Keirin, a raw food cooking demo (and snacks) from our healthy chef Garland, and live musical accompaniment throughout from DJ Tessa.
What challenges do you face in operating this business?
The toughest thing for me is to combine a full-time job with running the mobile yoga business properly. I wish I had more time available to dedicate to business development and get the word out to more people.
It can be tough to convince some companies. They are interested in yoga but assume it must be really expensive or dangerous for the employees.
Managing the schedule is challenging. For instance, we have lots classes happening in any given week. I have teachers assigned to clients, and if somebody gets sick, I have to find a substitute and make sure that the client still gets a consistent and positive experience.
What benefits have your clients reported?
There is nothing better as a teacher than to see happy, smiling, and relaxed people in class! It’s great to know about the positive influence we’re having.
Executives and upper management see that their employees have less stress, cope with problems at work better, and become better at problem-solving.
We hear many stories how students’ lives have changed. For example, one student’s back pain disappeared. Another that struggled with stress and depression said that yoga helped her. Many say they are able to cope with challenging work projects and go home feeling relaxed after the classes.
With one client, we started doing yoga combined with a meditation session at the employees’ desks. We were going around to different departments inside the company and carried out fifteen-minute sessions that they got really hooked on. There was a guy who hadn’t attended any regular classes due to feeling shy about his body size. He got inspired by the desk yoga and eventually tried regular classes. Once he began to see results, he bought a yoga DVD and started practicing at home.
What are your plans for the business?
I’d like to continue to grow the company. We are expanding. At some point, I’ll need to make a decision whether I have time to keep working my full-time job and managing the yoga on the side. That’ll be a tough call to make.
Scaling the company isn’t as simple as just hiring 100 yoga teachers. With a small team, I can keep my eye on the process constantly. I’m making sure we grow slowly and organically and still provide an excellent service.
What advice do you have for new yoga teachers?
First, you have to take care of yourself. Ask yourself, “Am I stressed and exhausted?” You can try to hide it, but if you’re burned out, people are going to pick up on it.
Second, it’s essential to maintain and grow your own yoga practice. I take classes from someone else a couple of days per week. It’s always inspiring to see how other teachers work and keep evolving in my own practice.
Third, it’s also important to get experience working with real people in all kinds of environments. Don’t be shy! Put yourself out of there. When I was getting started, I just asked friends if they wanted to have a free session with me so that I could get more experience.
To learn more about McKenna Rowe and Chakra5 Yoga, please visit Chakra5.LA.
