Meet Sam Tackeff, Co-Founder of Ompractice
Life getting you stressed? This week’s spotlight for #WomenCrushWednesdays — Sam Tackeff — can help with that! With Ompractice, her online yoga company, you’ll find your center in no time.
We’ll let Sam take it from here ;)
Describe your business. What is its main goal/function?
Sam: I’m the co-founder of Ompractice! We’re a live, interactive online yoga company. Our main goal? We know the power of yoga to change lives, and we’re looking to share that with as many people as we can. We’re bringing great yoga to people where they are — at home, in the office, or on the road.
We offer yoga (and guided meditation) classes you can take from anywhere. We use live video — this means the teacher can see the students, and the students can see each other. Unlike pre-recorded videos, this is yoga with all the support, personal interaction, and accountability of a studio class, but without the commute (and more affordable!)
We also offer membership programs for companies who want to provide yoga and meditation as a benefit for all their employees (on site or remote).
Why did you decide to become a female founder? What inspired you to start your business?
Sam: In 2012 I did an interview at my last company that I worked for (Runkeeper) — and I remember one of the interview questions was “Where do you see yourself in five years?” — without skipping a beat, I said, running my own company. That’s probably not the right answer for an interview with a tech company, but it was all truth.
After Runkeeper, I started a small consulting company doing marketing and business strategy with startups. I ramped up clients all over the country — the Boston area, Seattle, San Francisco, Oregon. At the same time, I was teaching self care and productivity courses for women. I’ve always looked for opportunities to help people on their journey to wellness — I’m a lifelong learner, and along the way became a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and run coach.
Last year, I was working on the idea of Ompractice with my friend Chris, and quickly it turned into a real company! There are four co-founders, and we’ve had 40 teachers launch on the platform, and hundreds of paying customers from 35 states so far (and a few around the world). So far it’s been all word of mouth, but we’re looking to make this thing world wide and change millions of lives. It’s been super exciting!
Back to that original question though — in some ways, I was born into entrepreneurship. So many of my family members have been lifelong entrepreneurs. I grew up watching my dad grow start and grow businesses. In a way I was lucky — I’ve always had incredible support from my family.
What are the greatest challenges of founding your own business?
Sam: What isn’t a challenge? Running your own business is hard. For the past four years I’ve worked for myself, and my favorite silly joke is that I’m doing well because I haven’t fired myself yet!
As you grow a business there’s so much to think of! I’ve always known that running my own business was going to be a goal — it’s important to me to create a company that makes a difference in the world, aligns with my values, and allows me to employ great people and support them in their dreams. That said, it’s hard every day!
Another challenge? Prioritization is always tricky in a growing business. It’s always hard to know what to do first when you have lots of options and a lot of work to do! You have to set up systems for yourself, nurture those around you, and do the work every day. I do my best to set up systems that make each moment productive and moving a step forward in the right direction. (It helps that I have some amazing people to work with who inspire me to show up every day.)
How do you keep the trains running? Do you have any secrets for productivity?
Sam: One of the reasons I started a yoga company is to do more yoga! I had been running my business consulting business for almost four years, and it was a constant struggle getting started to fit it all in and have the energy to do the work.
They say you are supposed to build for your customers, but the truth is, I’ve always tried to build products that I use and love myself. Both are important!
To that end, I started much of my wellness work to help myself on my own journey — my training certifications were as much for my own benefit as for others. I built my self care and productivity course to help myself with the small details, and this snowballed into building an entire company to help others fit fitness and meditation into their lives.
To juggle things, I’ve been working hard this year on practicing what I preach. I spent much of my career in tech with agile project management, and I still use agile processes in my day to day. I do weekly planning and organization, goal setting work, and I use a Kanban board to do task management. I also do regular retrospectives: looking back at the past few weeks to think about what worked well, what I can improve, and what I should stop doing. (A big part of this is gratitude work — I always joke that a retrospective is a gratitude practice without the woo. But girl, I love me some woo!)
Recently I switched back over to a paper planner for much of my day to day. I’m completely sold on Chalene Johnson’s SmartLife Push Journal. It works for me!
Growing up, what were your goals in life? Did you ever imagine you’d create something like what you created?
Sam: Please don’t laugh. In middle school, I KNEW I was going to go to Phillips Exeter Academy, then Harvard, then straight to Harvard Business School. I was going to run my own business. My “backup” would be to go directly to law school. In reality, it didn’t quite work out that way!
I loved school, and was super fortunate to go to Exeter, and then to Wellesley! At both of these places, I was surrounded by a passion for giving and serving. Exeter’s motto is “Non Sibi” — not for oneself, and Wellesley’s is Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare — not to be ministered unto but to minister. These mottos are very much lived at these institutions — one of the reasons why I’ve always been passionate about getting clear on your company’s values from the beginning, and finding all sorts of ways to live them every day.
There’s something incredibly special about going to a women’s college and being surrounded by women as the dominant voices in every class conversation. Most of my teachers were women. The board is all women. We had a woman president. And then there are amazing alumnae to look up to (hello, two Secretaries of State!). It was a formative experience — while I didn’t know what kind of business I wanted to run, I knew I wanted to build a business that would give women the energy to devote their lives to their passions.
What’s different this time around? I think in every business pursuit I’ve had — I’ve had sort of minimal expectations of success. I’ve done a lot of work in the past few years to move past these limiting beliefs — and now I’m absolutely bent on growing this thing — I can really see the opportunity to impact millions of lives. That’s special!
What’s next for your business?
Sam: In many ways, growing a business is doing the hard work every day — getting out the word, trying new things, building a great experience for everyone taking classes or teaching on the platform! Still doing a lot of hands on talking to people to learn how to best build this thing!
The first step is working to spread the word. We have about 40 teachers on the platform. We started out testing what kind of classes people wanted to take, and are now rolling out our full schedule, with a range of classes — 25 to 50 minute classes, all different types of yoga (most suitable for beginners), and some workshops along the way. We did a pilot with pre-natal yoga last month that was awesome, and are looking to build that back into the schedule in the fall.
We just launched our monthly membership program, are expanding our corporate membership program (Does your office need yoga and meditation? Email me and I’d be happy to learn more about your needs and put together a custom option!!)
And we have some big dreams too — there are so many amazing companies I’d love to partner with — anything from helping pro sports leagues, to major corporations — we’re looking to bring yoga and meditation to more people — and with our accountability of live two way video, improve real outcomes for health, happiness, and productivity.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women and girls looking to make an impact?
Sam: Here are my top ones (in no specific order):
There’s not one path to success. I majored in Architecture and Environmental Studies, interned in an Art Gallery, a museum, a senate office, in kitchens, on a political campaign. I’ve worked in tech startups in San Francisco and Boston, in kitchens, at one point I managed a cookbook store, and now have a yoga company. I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up, and that’s okay too.
Take care of your health. It’s all too easy to burn out. Invest in your health. Manage your energy. Don’t defer those doctors visits. Meditate.
Embrace lifelong learning. It’s a good day at work if I learn something new. I make it a goal to take courses, and read great books — on both my work and my passions.
Give back. Volunteer your time, money, however you can. Find causes that align with your personal values. Think about how you can help both your community, and the world. Whenever I wake up feeling a little bit lost and struggling with my personal vision and path, I feel thankful to have causes to support. (Volunteering is also a great activity to meet like minded good people from all walks of life.)
What are you reading this year?
Sam: I’m a voracious reader. I read a lot of business and leadership books, biographies, and fiction. For each book I read, I try to pick an action step (or three) and implement it. This has helped me grow immensely — in my career, my life, and visioning my dreams.
Here’s what’s on my list this year!
I’m always looking for good suggestions!
Special thanks to Sam Tackeff for sharing her amazing story!
Want to hear more from Sam? Follow her on Twitter or Instagram @alphaprep, or check out here website here. And for cute puppy goodness? Follow her adorable pup @betramthefrenchie!
Do you need a little yoga in your life? Find Ompractice on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
