Oftentimes great ideas arise from strange situations.
Late last year I was sitting down with my friend Amanda Sarka – one of the owners of Wildheart – a Barre/Yoga studio just down the street from us.
In a capitalist world of dog-eat-dog competition, people may be surprised to know that studio owners sometimes talk. Mind you, this doesn’t happen with every studio, but the Lounge and Wildheart have always operated from a place of mutual respect and consideration. (It also doesn’t hurt that Amanda and I have a long history of working together). Sometimes our chats are mutual pep talks, or more typically, laments in comparative suffering.
Of all the sectors that got rocked by the pandemic, health and wellness has been the most disrupted. Multiple years of shifting covid restrictions have exacted a punishing toll, and studios everywhere are crashing and burning. And while the Lounge and Wildheart are each on their respective recovery paths, things are still turbulent. And in these tumultuous times, a bit of bad luck can take away your runway. Gulp.
So, in a stroke of outside the box thinking, we decided to… (drum roll please)
Share the Yoga Lounge space!
Yes, that’s right, Wildheart and the Yoga Lounge will operate their studios independently, but share the studio space. While it seems kind of daunting, there’s something about it that feels intuitively right. It’s a different energy. Rather than compete, collaborate. Instead of fragmentation, see what happens when two wellness communities overlap and connect.
I’ll be honest, there’s lots of pieces that need to be sorted out over these next few months, but this path of joint-viability for the two studios is such a relief. With less pressure on my shoulders I can be creative, curious, and excited! It’s a feeling of hope and optimism for the future. And when I feel that way, the Lounge vibrates at a different frequency.
Maybe in your own life there’s something that is a serious sticking point? Are you holding onto sacred cows because that was the old way of doing things? Perhaps there is a solution that feels “out there” but will actually “get you there”?
This is your humble captain speaking. Please buckle up, because we’re taking off!
jeff
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