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Proven Podcast
The 6-Figure Yogi
00:57:01
In this episode, Charles dives deep into the world of wellness entrepreneurship with Shana Meyerson, a business maverick who transformed her corporate expertise into a global yoga empire. Shana unveils her blueprint for turning passion into profit,...
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- [00:00]
Charles Schwartz
Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz Show. In this episode, we're unrolling our yoga mats and diving deep into the world of wellness entrepreneurship with Shana Myerson, the visionary who transformed a personal passion into a global yoga empire. With a journey that spans from Hollywood boardrooms to yoga studios worldwide, Shana has cracked the code on turning downward dogs into upward profits. From pioneering children's yoga to scaling her business across continents, Shana's story is a masterclass in niche market domination and adaptability. In this conversation, Shana peels back the layers of her extraordinary career pivot. She reveals how she leveraged her corporate background to revolutionize the yoga industry, turning a saturated market into a goldmine of opportunity. You'll discover why your unique life experiences are your greatest business asset and how embracing failure can lead to unprecedented success. Shana unveils her Yoga of Money philosophy, demonstrating how conscious capitalism can align profit with purpose. She shares her strategies for weathering industry upheavals, from economic downturns to global pandemics, all while maintaining a thriving business and a commitment to charitable giving. So if you're ready to transform your passion into a profitable enterprise, grab your journal and prepare to revolutionize your approach to entrepreneurship in the wellness space. Shana's insights are practical, inspiring, and packed with actionable strategies that could redefine your business trajectory. Whether you're a yoga instructor looking to scale, an entrepreneur seeking to pivot, or a business owner wanting to infuse more purpose into your profit model, this episode is your roadmap to success. The show starts now. Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz.
- [01:36]
Unknown Host
Show, where we don't just discuss success.
- [01:39]
Charles Schwartz
We show you how to create it. On every episode, we uncover the strategies and tactics that turn everyday entrepreneurs into unstoppable powerhouses in their businesses and their lives. Whether your goal is to transform your life or hit that elusive seven, eight, or nine figure mark, we've got the blueprint to get you there. The show starts now.
- [01:58]
Unknown Host
All right, welcome back. Today we're with someone who does things that I never even thought was possible. But we'll get into it. How are you? Welcome to the show.
- [02:05]
Shana Myerson
Hey. So awesome to be here.
- [02:08]
Unknown Host
So before we get into the fact that you're this six figure yoga instructor and you do phenomenal things and your health's amazing, let's give some people some preamble. Tell us your story. How'd you get here? Tell us more about you.
- [02:20]
Shana Myerson
So I'm Shauna Myerson, and I actually have two different businesses. I have Yoga Athletica, which is super athletic, hardcore yoga. And then I have mini yogis, which is the opposite, which is yoga for kids. And actually, though yoga athletic is my primary business now, mini yogis is the one that's going to be more interesting to you because that's what may be my, my fortune. I have always been an intense athlete, obsessed about athletics. And many times I thought, oh, I should be a personal trainer back in my previous life as like a corporate person in the real world. And I never did because just plain old physical fitness just didn't seem like enough for me. I needed more. When I discovered yoga, it was the mental and the physical and then that extra spiritual piece that sort of spoke to me on a level that said, this is everything that I have been looking for in life and I really need to share this. And I wound up leaving the corporate world. I was also getting my MBA at UCLA at the time. I left my MBA program, which was insane, and decided to be a yoga instructor. I didn't know if I'd ever earn another dollar, but it's turns out I have.
- [03:44]
Unknown Host
So your, your previous life before you did this, you were in corporate America. You did some pretty amazing stuff because some people like, oh, well, she's always just done this. That's just. No, this is just one side of you. Tell me a little bit more about what you did before you opened up all of that.
- [03:57]
Shana Myerson
Yeah, so. So I actually, I'm also, I educated, which is not like a great point of honor these days, but I really would I only say this to say I was really on a different path, like really on a different path. And I'm sort of like a zig and a zagger. My goal in life is to just make sure I do what I love. And I think that honestly that is the formula for not just success in business and financially, but also just in life. If you have to dread 5, 7 of your life, you're doing something wrong. I don't care how many more millions or billions of dollars you're earning than I am. This is life. This is, this is not like submission to, to business. So I totally forgot my train of thought.
- [04:54]
Unknown Host
So, yeah, it's okay. You started up and you were. You go to Ivy League schools?
- [04:56]
Shana Myerson
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [04:57]
Unknown Host
Then you were in corporate America. Tell me about corporate America. What were you doing?
- [05:01]
Shana Myerson
Right. So oddly enough, I. So I went to school for law. That was like what I did. And then instead of doing normal person would do from there, which is go to law school, I decided to go to Hollywood. I mean, I'M from Southern California. I don't mean like go to Hollywood, I'm here. But to work in the film industry, to become a writer. And so I worked in at one of the big three talent agencies and I was there working with a man who now has the biggest deal in Hollywood history. Movie deal. So he taught me the ins and outs, not just of Hollywood, but really of business. And then I was, I was in the film industry for about seven years. It's sort of funny because when I went to leave, I tried for a year, a year to get a job with Nike and it didn't happen. I interviewed like a million jobs and then, and then I wound up getting like the job I wanted for Nike, oddly enough, with Microsoft instead. It's only odd because I was like an Apple person always. Like I, I, well, no, I mean, I don't think you mind, but Microsoft, Mike. But they hired me to be basically their traveling roadshow. I don't know what else to call it. I was like a spokesperson. I talked at big events. I was sort of somewhere between like a marketing program. Like literally not a marketing person, but a marketing program is how I was labeled in sales. I didn't actually sell. I was more like the information person. So I worked there for a while and of course I went into dot com from there because that's what you did around the turn of the century. And that brought me to yoga, which was a complete. Like, like, like hit me out of nowhere, to be honest. If you had told me the day, the day before I discovered yoga that I would ever in a million years be a yoga instructor, I would have laughed in your face 22 years later. I'm not laughing anymore. Here I am.
- [07:24]
Unknown Host
It's interesting because I have a Microsoft background as well. We never talked about this beforehand. I'm actually an mct and, and before that I was an mcse. So for those listeners who don't know what that is, it's a Microsoft certified system engineer and Microsoft certified trainer. I was a super dork. So there's probably events that we've probably crossed paths before because I used to speak at events about this all the time, especially as an mct. So we probably crossed paths and we just didn't know it. So look, cool things. You find out. I then went and I sold my IT company and doing what I'm doing now. And if you had told me very similar story, if you said, hey, you're going to be doing this, you're going to be scaling businesses and you're Going to be helping people. If you would have told me that day, I would be like, absolutely not. I am a. I'm an IT guy. I'm a dork. That's what I do. If you would have said the same thing before I did a podcast that. You're going to become a podcast. I'm like, nope, that. Nope, I'm not doing it. So I get that.
- [08:10]
Shana Myerson
Right.
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Unknown Host
You've done something magical, though. Most people I know that are in the. The. The yogi space, the very. The wellness, the spirituality space, there's. Most of them don't have your background. Most of them don't have your, Your. Your knowledge, your, you know, your training, your Ivy League schooling, which I agree it's not the best thing in the world right now, but just. We'll try to avoid that topic. But most of them don't have that. You took that information and that knowledge and that experience being in that industry and. And create a really successful practice that you've been doing for 22 years. So for people who are like, oh, well, this, you know, these strategies will only work in one specific industry. No, strategies are strategies.
- [08:52]
Shana Myerson
Strategies.
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Unknown Host
If you're going to try and scale something, you're just going to scale it. So you've gone out, you've Transferred into this 22 years ago, you decide, I'm going to be a yogi, and I'm going to be a yoga instructor, which I don't think is the same thing, but you're going to do that when you walk into it, explain what your business is and how it works.
- [09:09]
Shana Myerson
Okay? So to be honest, when I started, okay, so this was. Let's put this in context, okay, and why, like, yoga spoke to me on such a visceral level that I was willing to give up everything for it. I discovered yoga about three weeks before 9 11. I'm like, the 9 11. Not just like, General 9 11. And I got into it, like, really, really fast. And when 911 hit, I felt like it was yoga that helped me to maintain my sanity. It's almost like God was like, if I give this to you a few weeks in advance, you'll have some time to at least absorb it a little bit, because something really bad is about to come and this is going to help you. And I think that, like, that was like, those first three weeks, I was just so enthralled, like, what is this? You know, magical sorcery? Like, what's going on here? But then I was like, wow, okay. This actually serves a very practical purpose in my Life more than just like, do I have a nice body? Do I not have a nice body? Which. Or do. Or even just, am I healthy? Which is. You know, I was obsessive about the gym before them. So when that happened, I. I really started looking at it as a formula for living right now. I was older. Now, I don't even know if you were alive on 9 11, but I was.
- [10:46]
Unknown Host
I. I was. Yeah, I was working at hospice at the time. I remember exactly where I was when it happened.
- [10:51]
Shana Myerson
Okay. Okay, so I'm. Because I'm 52 now, so I was pretty old. I was. Yeah. Okay. You're. You're. Baby. Baby. So I was almost 30, and if I could rewind one more time, I didn't want to go to Cornell. I. I really, really didn't. Um, I wanted to go to Stanford. Like, I really, really did. Um, and I didn't get into Stanford, and I know I'm going way back now, but what happened was I was the golden child, okay? Like, I could do no wrong. I won every award. I was the captain of every team. I was, you know, the. I had a, you know, 4 million average in school. I had the highest SATs. I mean, the things. And so I had never failed in any significant way until I was 18 years old or 17 years old. And when I did not get into Stanford, I. I thought my life was over. I mean, I literally was like, this is where it ends. And it's sort of funny because I was a very competitive tennis player. I think we talked about this. Did we? About. No. Okay. So, like, I was a very competitive tennis player, and that weekend, I was the number one draw in the tournament that I was playing. I played tournaments every weekend. I lost the first game. Okay, not the first set. Not the first, you know, whatever. Second set, the first game. And I walked off the court, and I never went back. And I was. Number. See, that's where I was in my life. And I carried that burden with me because I was young. I was. I went to college when I was 17, until I was 30.
- [12:52]
Charles Schwartz
Oh, okay.
- [12:53]
Shana Myerson
For 13 years, I thought I was worth nothing, you know, and it didn't matter. Yes, I went to an Ivy League school, but it wasn't where I wanted to go. It wasn't where I felt like I deserved to. You know, the things. But you know what happens when you're that judgmental of yourself? You become that judgmental of everybody else.
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Unknown Host
Absolutely.
- [13:16]
Shana Myerson
And so when I found yoga, and it was the first time in my life, and I don't blame my parents for this. It's not their fault. I was the golden child. Just a very typical middle child. When I got into yoga, it was the first time anybody had ever told me it was okay to fall. Ever. And I was 30 and. Yeah, and that was.
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Unknown Host
That's a late start on that one.
- [13:45]
Shana Myerson
It was a big eye opener. And so I, after just a few months of practicing, I was like, why didn't anyone tell me this when I was three? Why did I have to wait till I was 30 to find out that I'm not, you know, it's. I don't know if this is family show a piece of, you know, whatever, that I was still worthwhile even though I didn't accomplish this one big goal that I had spent, you know, 17 years trying to accomplish. So my big idea was not as simple as, let's just leave the world to become a yoga instructor. Back then, yoga instructors were earning an average of, I think, $17,000 a year even in 2002. That was crazy. I'm like, what if I teach yoga to kids? And that was that.
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Unknown Host
That would make sense. Now that I understand why you took us on that journey.
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Shana Myerson
Because now tangents.
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Unknown Host
Yeah. I was like, okay, now it makes sense. Because I was going to ask. I was like, why yoga to kids? Right now it makes sense. You've tied it together.
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Shana Myerson
Exactly.
- [14:59]
Unknown Host
So because you learned that in only way to you succumb to can succeed is to fail. And it's one of the hardest things that I was lucky because I was a pitcher, which might be insulting to everybody who's ever been a pitcher before. I was a thrower. I threw balls somewhere in that general direction, and sometimes it would hit the strike zone. Most of the time it would hit the person next to the strike zone, which is how I knew I was getting close. I was horrible, horrible. But I had a really good arm. And every time I would. I would mess up, I'd get re encouraged. The coach was like, great, cool. Let's adjust this. So I was never punished for failing where in school, it was the opposite. It was a very similar experience you had, which was like, you can't fail if you fail. You're bad. You're going to go to detention, we're going to give you bad grades, so on and so forth. So I learned it through sports and you got to learn it through yoga. But it's interesting, you know, you were a top seed in tennis and no one had ever had that lesson with you. And we, I think it's. It's just a narrative that even in business and with entrepreneurs today, we don't talk about it enough. I tell people all the time, you're not going to succeed your way to success. You're going to have to fail. And if you're not failing fast enough, you're not going to succeed faster. It's just. It's that simple. We had a. We were doing it sales. We were getting. Every single one of the sales calls would close. And I was like, this, this isn't going to work. And I walked in and I'm like, I'm mad. They're like, why? I'm like. They're like. I go, because every one of our sales calls is closing. They're like, why are you mad at that? I go, because we're not calling enough people. If we're closing every single one of these, I want us to have a 30 failure ratio. Keep calling people till we hit a 30. And then the business exploded. You got a failure rate of success.
- [16:30]
Shana Myerson
Or your price point isn't high enough.
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Unknown Host
Oh, our price. I was. I was lucky. I was in Boca. So our price point was stupid. We just presented well. We just presented really, really well. We were. We out. We were outdid Everybody by about 20%. We just had. We just built in our messaging that was just bulletproof because we realized that and you're an it, so you knew you it. So you get it. People didn't give a fuck. Give about tech. They didn't care. I would walk in, I'm like, listen, we're in hurricane country. A dragon can physically eat your building, and I can set you up anywhere in the world, and you'll be able to do payroll. You'll be able to operate anywhere in the world. You can walk into Mumbai and walk into a coffee shop, and you'll be able to do your stuff. They're like, whatever that is, I want that. And that was our sales pitch. It was really simple and easy. It was just virtual machines. It was really. We just. It is what it is. Hosted environment. No one was doing it back then, but again, this is early 2000s. So you decide that you want to help out kids, and you decide you want to, you know, teach yoga and you want to teach this practice to children. How do you even begin? What are the practical steps when you're like, okay, I've done this, I'm going to start this. People are making, you know, 17,000 pesos at this point. It might as well been, how do we. How do we get in the environment where this is going to be, you know, financially successful. Because you've become exceptionally financially successful with this.
- [17:41]
Shana Myerson
Yeah. I mean, let me just say that, like, now in 2024, like, yoga for kids is you. Ubiquitous. Like, ubiquitous. I don't. I hardly know a teacher who doesn't teach yoga to kids. But in 2002, it was considered to be absolutely ridiculous at best. I mean, like, so I actually. I mean, I did the staffs, which was, you know, buy a URL, you know, all the normal things, build a website, blah, blah, blah. But you're gonna laugh because I started with, like, again, I'm so old. Fax blast. Fax blast. Because most people didn't even have. You're like, what's a fax blast?
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Unknown Host
See that one? I don't even know what Fact Blast is. And I'm an it door. What is fact?
- [18:29]
Shana Myerson
Okay, so this was because most people didn't have emails in 2002. It seems so recent, but literally, like, a lot of people did not have an email. And the Internet was so nascent, it wasn't even easy to find an email. Right. So a fax blast. The Andy. And by the way, I was way ahead of the tech on this, because I did it.
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Unknown Host
Are you saying facts? Like FAA X Facts. Okay, that. I thought you said facts. Oh, yeah, Fax blast. Yes, that. I know the fact.
- [19:04]
Shana Myerson
Okay.
- [19:04]
Unknown Host
Oh, yeah, I remember these. Okay, so for those of you who aren't old, like we are, there was this thing called fax machines. And you could send a piece of paper to another one and it would print it out on their fax machine. It was called a fax simile. Yes. And these were blasts. Okay, now I'm with you.
- [19:20]
Shana Myerson
Right.
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Unknown Host
Some people are gonna have no idea. It's gonna be.
- [19:22]
Shana Myerson
Yeah, just like an email blast today. Yeah.
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Unknown Host
But it's physical copy, so.
- [19:27]
Shana Myerson
Yeah. So I just contacted, like, every preschool I could think of, like, in Los Angeles. And of course. Of course, the two who replied were, like, one in Malibu, which, if you know LA at all, is like, like, way up north, and one in Hollywood, which was, like, way east. I'm in Brentwood. Like, I. Like, probably the two furthest ones that I contacted in opposite directions were like, the first two to contact me. I'm like, okay, yeah.
- [20:00]
Unknown Host
Those of you who have not been to la, you have to understand, when she's mentioning this, it might as well be. If you're in Miami, it might as well be Delaware at this point because of the traffic. It is just unbelievably far. It's just a hassle to get it. I used to go from the Hills by the. By the stadium into Culver City, and I would have to pack a lunch. I was like, I'm never gonna get there. I'm just. This is horrible. I'm never gonna get there. So anyway, so you got these two people. I replied to you. Yeah, it was brutal. Brutal. Okay, so get these two people to.
- [20:29]
Shana Myerson
Reply to you, right? And so. So here's what. Here's what's pretty insane the way that my business went. Knots. Like knots. I was like, okay, this wasn't really as much a concept back then as it is now, but, like, what is going to be my niche market, right? And I'm thinking, okay, well, what's. What differentiates me and what I came up with is Jew. Like, that was literally all I come up with. I'm Jewish. So I sent a fax blast to the Jewish school that was different. And it said, like, I remember it said, putting the om back in shalom. And I fax blasted it out. But this is so crazy. So one of the rabbi. Oh, oh. So I'm like, do I send it to Chabad, which is like the most religious if you're not Jewish? It's like the people with the hats and the beards and the. The jackets, the, you know, all the things. And I'm like, there's no way that they're going to want yoga. Like, no way. But I'm like, it's seven tasks and ascend, so why not? So I'm like, okay, whatever. Send. A second later, the rabbi calls me and he says, but. But it wasn't even for mini yogis, oddly enough. He says, do you all. He goes, my wife just said she wants to start yoga. Do you also work with adult now my rule. And so I grew up, you know, grew up in la, which means everyone has done a little bit of acting here. The rule in improv is no matter what the question is, you just, hey, yeah. The answer was no, but I said yes. And he says, okay, well, can you come work with my wife? I'm like, of course. So I go work with her. Fine. She. So there's this big family of like 12 brothers and a sister who, like, ran all of the Chabads. And you don't have to be from LA to understand the pattern I'm about to give you. They had Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Brentwood. Right. So what's the pattern? They.
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Unknown Host
You. You hit the gold mine.
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Shana Myerson
That's right. They have they, this family was like the royalty and they had all the wealthiest congregations. And so I started working with her. She goes, can. She says, my, my sister has a preschool in Malibu. Can you work with her? This is where that came from. And I said, sure. So I work with her. She says, my sister in law has a camp in Pacific Palisades. Can you work with them? I said, sure. And then she says, we have a mommy in me. Can you work with them? Sure. Malibu again goes, wait, you do Mommy and Me, can you work with us? Sure. Now here's where it gets crazy. One of the women who comes to Mommy and Me, well, actually they said, can you do our women's group? And I said, sure. Now one of the women who went to the women's group says, my husband works for Hughes Research Labs. Can you do it for them? Now I'm in the real world. I mean, not that, not that chabad isn't the real world because chabad wound around me, around their whole community. But from hrl, I started working with their wives and their husbands and their, you know, whatever. And so my, like my whole business was built by approaching that one rabbi that in a million years I never thought would be the one who would actually respond.
- [24:13]
Unknown Host
Well, it was also built on you niche down. You know, we talk about this all the time, inch wide, mile deep. So if someone's coming in and they want to break down how to find their niche because you've done this new business for a while, what are some of the things that you would advise? So if someone came to say, listen, I don't know how to define a niche, I don't know how to do this. What are the steps that I need to do in order to penetrate. To identify and then penetrate into a niche?
- [24:34]
Shana Myerson
Sure. Well, the first thing is you have to identify the problem. Right. That you can provide the solution for. And then you have to figure out who has that problem. But the problem with that, that problem is that you have to honestly be able to solve it. I think that it's gotten a little sloppy these days where people are like, oh, you know, everyone wants to earn $10,000 selling their course online. I mean, how many people are selling that right now? And yeah, and they don't have the answer. They're just stealing from the other person who stole from the other person who stole from the other person. And so it's like this trickle down, which is not the good kind of trickle down, it's that when we hear information scientifically, they say we don't absorb more than 30% of the information that we receive. So let's say that you're getting it from the third or fourth person who has passed it down. What's left? What's left? And so my recommendation is like, not only did I wish I had this when I was three, to be honest, I don't think there's anyone in the whole world who loves children more than I love children. I honestly believe that I love children with every ounce of my being. And if you don't love children, I don't care how much you think that this is the niche that's going to make you a million dollars, you're going to suck. You're going to suck. And let me tell you, remember I said that I came to Hollywood after school because I wanted to be a writer. You know, what I wound up doing in Hollywood is what's called script development, which is basically what people would think of as editing screenplays, which is rewriting other people's work, which is, I was never willing to leave a job or a stable, secure paycheck to be a writer. So I was never going to make it as a writer because it was a side hustle. But when I said, I am ready to give up everything to pursue this concept of helping children, which is so, like, deep in my heart of something that I wanted to do to change the world, and I didn't know if I'd earn another dollar, I was earning six figures within probably the second year, again, income being 15, $17,000 a year.
- [27:15]
Unknown Host
So you, you, when you broke down your niche, you're like, not only am I going to solve a specific problem, I'm going to identify a specific problem. You leveraged the fact that you were part of that community already, so you had access into that community because you go into it. But more importantly, you did it in a way that aligned with your passions of who you were and what you love on the highest level. People will think, oh, well, she just got lucky. It's not just getting lucky. There's tactical things you did there that most people will just pass over in the story. Because, like, oh, well, she just. She emailed a bunch of rabbis, and then they introduced the community, and then magically, money came out of the toilet. It's like, that's not what happened here. There's a lot of those little things. Because being able to help entrepreneurs all the time, if you haven't nailed yourself down in this way and if you haven't picked it to the point where it's that. That Identified that you're eliminating a problem that you actually can solve. Because to your point, you can go buy a million different courses. There are dime a dozen at this point.
- [28:13]
Charles Schwartz
Yeah, they're not going to work.
- [28:14]
Shana Myerson
Right.
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Unknown Host
And because they're regurgitations and the people. And then even if they're really good, you're not going to get the follow through with it. So now that you're in this and you. You've penetrated in this community, did you look into scaling? Is it just you? What did you decide that you wanted to do once you got into the community?
- [28:32]
Shana Myerson
Right. And so I was, you know, basically, there were two other people doing this on any significant scale that I knew. I wanted Indiana and one in New York at the time. And so I was not only the only game in town, I was only. I was one of the only games on earth. And when I say these two, I mean in the western world. I don't know of a single person who was doing it yet in Europe, for example. So I had. At first I just, I'm like, okay, well, whatever, I'll teach, I'll teach whoever wants me to teach, right? And then what happened was I, I'm one person. And as my, as my puppy would say, my grandma, you can only have your tichus in one place at a time, right? Like, you can't be at two schools at one time. And so I started doing teacher trainings. It wasn't my intention or thought at all. Again, I was expecting, I'm going to be earning $20,000 a year. That was my realistic expectation at that point. So I'm like, okay, well, I'll do these trainings. And then I started hiring the people who I trained as to take over my overflow. And then I started teaching training for all over the world. And because I was one of just a couple people who were doing this and they weren't really traveling. I mean, I remember like, I went to Zurich and I used to cap at 20, but they took 30, but they got 60. So I wound up doubling. I wound up doing like two trainings in one weekend, which meant like 10 hours a day instead of five hours a day or whatever. Um, and that wasn't. I mean, I had 30 in every city. It. I wound up bumping it up to 30 because everyone's like, well, we've got this huge wait list. And I'm like, okay, well, I could handle 30. I don't think it was ideal. I think it was bigger than it should have been. But so, I mean, it was Obscene. I was Traveling, you know, 20, 25 weekends a year before the pandemic started. And, you know, each weekend you're talking up to $15,000 for 10 hours.
- [30:48]
Unknown Host
Not, not a bad gig if you can get it. So when you started training people, did you think about opening up practices? Did you think about what did you decide that you wanted to do? How did you want to monetize it so it was sustainable? Because you could have sat there and worked every single weekend on the planet and burnt yourself out and just absolutely died because people don't get that that's the, that's the other side of this. Just because you've. You've built this wonderful system and you're scaling, that machine will chew you up unless you automate yourself out of it. So when did you make that decision that you're like, okay, I've got to pivot here. I've got to figure out a different way, because if not, I'm going to pull my hair out, right?
- [31:23]
Shana Myerson
And it's so funny you should say that, because there was one day where I woke up in my own bed and I didn't know where I was. And that was a day that I realized, like, I can't. I can't keep this up. I need. I need some grounding. Oddly enough, that was very shortly before the pandemic. So it was like God made the whole pandemic happen for me or something. But there was actually something else that happened. And this has to do again with like defining yourself as a professional and how you wish to be perceived in the world. And so though I was known throughout the world as this kids yoga instructor, I also happen to be one of the most advanced adult instructors, which is literally the opposite end of the spectrum anywhere. You know, my specialty is like handstands and all like the crazy, crazy contortions and stuff. And I. I'm a very, very serious practitioner. I practice at least two hours every day. And I had. I was really just. I was doing the yoga athletica in Los Angeles, but I was doing mini yogis on travel, right? And one time I said to. I would become very good friends with the studio owners because I would go back every year to train their people. And I said, one year, I said, probably about 10 years ago, can I come. Can I do some handstand workshops while I'm there? You know, could I do some yoga athletica? You know, whatever. And what they said to me, with all due respect, because again, I consider. I literally consider them like sisters. I'm so close with them. And they said, everybody knows you as a kids instructor. No one will take you seriously. And that I was like, okay, it's true. And I had to decide at that point. So I'll ask you, if you had a kid and somebody comes and works with your kid, how likely are you to be like, oh, that's probably the right teacher for me too.
- [33:35]
Unknown Host
So unless I saw her, my default would be exactly what the market did. She's just a kid instructor. I'd have to see her.
- [33:42]
Shana Myerson
But let's reverse that. If I'm your instructor and I'm amazing and I say, by the way, I also work with kids, how are you going to feel about me working with your kids?
- [33:53]
Unknown Host
Right. It's a completely different narrative.
- [33:54]
Shana Myerson
You see what I'm saying?
- [33:56]
Unknown Host
Absolutely. You change the marketing.
- [33:58]
Shana Myerson
That's right. So I pivoted to Yoga Athletica very hard. But I, but there's a lesson to be learned in this, because I cut off my nose despite my face, I took an industry that I had created and owned and I laughed at, not laughed at. I still work with kids, but I, I, I moved all of my marketing over to Yoga Athletica because I could see your face when I said that. You're like, okay, no brainer. Right. But what's the difference? The Yoga for Kids market at the time was still very small, and I was a big fish in a small pond and I pivoted to the biggest pond.
- [34:44]
Unknown Host
Yeah. So now, so how are you doing that now? What is your game plan now? Do you pivot back? Do you retake your pond? Or what are your game plans?
- [34:54]
Shana Myerson
Well, I mean, first of all, all the dynamics of the yoga world changed during the pandemic. I probably don't have to get into that for you to understand what happened when everything pivoted from A, it's not safe to be in big groups, B, you don't have to drive anymore or park or, you know, do the things that in LA we hate doing and see. Oh, by the way, it's all free now, Right? Because that, that's what happened during the pandemic. Everything went online for free. And it's like, okay, people, a few people went viral on YouTube and they own the market. And so, so everything, everything changed. Of course. I have, you know, a good social media presence. I, my YouTube is my calling card. You go there, you understand what my skills are. And so it's worked out simply because I do have a skill set that not only very few people have, but very few. 50, almost 53 year olds next month have, which means that a, most of my students honestly are pretty young, you know, 20s and 30s. But I also have women like in the 50 to 80 year old range who are coming to me and saying, I want to do what you do. Which is amazing.
- [36:18]
Unknown Host
Is it? Absolutely. My, my, my great aunt. Because we, not all the terms we can use here are Yiddish, but my great aunt is, she's 93 and I'm like, I wish she had done this 15 years ago, 20 years ago, because her, her abilities would be completely different. Like her, she's complete, she has all of her facilities, but she has to stop driving because she doesn't have the upper body strength anymore to turn the wheel.
- [36:40]
Shana Myerson
Wow.
- [36:40]
Unknown Host
You just don't think about it. So she's just like, you know, I'm around her, she's like, I just don't have the upper body strength to physically turn the car fast enough and everything else is fine. So very blessed. But there's only so much you can do when you lose that muscle. So when you go through this, you know, you've had radical success. You've done pivoting, you've learned how to fail. All of a sudden though, when this happens, your mindset when it comes to money has to change as well. And you've got some serious awareness around this. And I'd love to talk about and share some of this because some people, you know, some people will never make 15,000 in a weekend. They're just not going to do it. They're never going to do it. As someone who's done it routinely and who had did it for a really long time. And then all of a sudden Covid shows up and everything changes. There's a different mindset that comes with this. And we don't talk about this enough as scalers, as we come in this environment, we're scaling businesses. You know, when I started scaling businesses and I was doing it over and over and over and it was great. Very similar situation you had. I woke up and I was like, I don't even recognize myself. I would look in the mirror and I was getting dressed to go and I was like, I don't even know who I am. I was like, I have to stop doing this. So you couldn't recognize your own bed? I couldn't recognize the guy looking back in the mirror. And I was like, this isn't going to work. It's a, it's a byproduct of spending, you know, eight years in a hospice watching people die. You will start Valuing your time very differently. And I think your practice led you into some insights when it comes to money that most people haven't the slightest. So I would love to talk about that if you're open to it.
- [38:04]
Shana Myerson
Yes, I really do love talking about the yoga of money because I think that people don't understand this confluence. For reasons that I can't understand, people think it's okay to pay an actor $20 million or a football player $100 million, but a rabbi or a priest or a yoga instructor or a teacher, it would be obscene for them to earn that kind of money. And I think that that like speaks a lot to the values of society. And I can tell you that as a yoga instructor, that gets projected onto me a lot as well, that people expect everything to be free or to be affordable to them or whatever. And by the way, I always work on sliding scales. If someone can't afford something, I will make sure that they get what they need. But at the same time, if you can afford me, don't shame me by telling me you can't. Right? Because what you're saying is that you don't value what I offer. And so part of the yoga of money honestly is being willing to own your own self worth. Because as one of the broad concepts of yoga honestly is that all humans are equal. I mean, it's not that weird of a concept, but it is. And not just equal, but actually the same. I love this concept. If you, if you think of like a bubble, right, and you, you being a bubble, right, if you were to pop the bubble, we'll call it death, you pop the bubble. What's the difference between what was inside and what's now outside? And what was outside the bubble is nothing, right? And so that's like the yogic concept of a soul is that we have these like compartments, but there's nothing that actually separates us. And so, so how could I say that, you know, the President, United States is worth more than a garbage collector, is more worth more than, you know, the mayor is worth more than a yoga instructor. I can't. But, but the other, the flip side of the yoga money is if you don't have money, you can't give money. And I think that one of my, I, I mean, I, I tithe meaning I give 10% of my income minimum every year to charity these days because my income has gone so low, I literally pay it out of my savings. I, that's how important it is to me. So I think that money, this concept, that money is Evil only applies if you don't use it for good. And that if you're a good person, money is not the evil any more than a gun doesn't kill a person. A person with a gun kills a person. Money is not evil, but evil money or evil people with money don't create good.
- [41:23]
Unknown Host
Yeah. See, for me, money is very similar to alcohol. It's an amplifier. You know, if you're a fun loving, exciting guy and I give you a bunch of alcohol, I mean, I don't drink, but if I give you a bunch of alcohol, you're probably just going to be a more fun, loving, outgoing guy. If you're a putz and I give you a punch of alcohol, you're just going to be a bigger putz. And I have found money is the same thing. It is an ample. As you know, I grew up p. I couldn't afford the last few letters of poor. I grew up very, very broke. And as I started to have some financial freedom, it amplified very specific traits. And as I worked with my clients and they were just getting more and more success, it amplified their traits as well.
- [42:00]
Shana Myerson
Right.
- [42:00]
Unknown Host
So it's one of those things, you know, I love the example you just gave that, you know, like, gun's a gun.
- [42:06]
Shana Myerson
Right.
- [42:06]
Unknown Host
You know, I, I always use the example of a knife. I give a knife to a crazy person, he's going to try and stab me. I give that same knife to a chef, he's like, I'm going to have the best meal I've ever had in my life.
- [42:15]
Shana Myerson
Right.
- [42:16]
Unknown Host
So it really comes down to the person behind it and the, you know, doing yoga and doing these practices and doing these level of awarenesses. You can kind of. And correct me if I'm wrong because, because of my shoulder, I can't do yoga. It comes out of it hurts. I could do some things of yoga. I can stand and clap. So when you're doing this and you're doing these level practices, it's also a mental practice. And you're under, you're discovering who you are as well in these. And you're going, you're diving deeper into it. So if someone's coming into this and they're like, okay, I love this, this is amazing. How do I launch? How do I scale? If I'm in the yogi world and you're one of the godmothers of this world, I guess would be the nicest way to do it for western world. And you're pivoting, you gave a little insight and we skipped over it. Which was, hey, you originally started in this market, which was these yogis, these baby yogis, right? You're doing this for the young ones. And all of a sudden now because of just life, life keeps life. And on now there's this other market that's founding, it's okay. Holy crap, how are you doing this? I want to do the same thing. And now you found a new niche that you can kind of run into and you can start penetrating to. How does someone do that if they don't have the gifts and the blessings? How do they go into this? How, how can you kind of advise them and then also to be wise with their money so that when the money does reduce, they can continue to give.
- [43:40]
Shana Myerson
Wow, okay. That's a lot of questions I didn't write down, so I might have to ask you to repeat those. Let me just, if I can rewind for one second on the money talk, which is keep in mind that another word for money is currency. And currency is shared vibration. And so if we think of money as energy because it is what it is, it's an exchange of energy, then we can understand a little more specifically, like how money works. Now to go to your first question, which is, what if they don't have the skills and what if they don't? You don't have the knowledge, so you're not going to like this answer. I do believe that A, you need to be blessed to find your calling in this life. I think most people don't. And in fact, when I left the world and I left my MBA program and everything, I thought my parents would be so pissed off. But my father literally, my mom supports everything and my father literally says, you know what? I wish I ever found the thing that I loved. Go for it, you know, and that wasn't what I was expecting, but it, but it's true. So I think that not everything that we love in life is what we're meant to make a living at, unfortunately. And if you don't have a skill for it, I would just ask this. If we're speaking specifically about yoga, do you want to go to a yoga instructor that doesn't have the skill for it? I don't think this is, or the knowledge or the experience or put in the hard work. I mean, I don't. When people think yoga, I know they, they think a lot of like, you know, airy fairy. And there is a lot, you know, not, not very business oriented people. But you gotta keep in mind I had the toughest business training that there is outside of Wall Street. I mean, working in a Hollywood talent agency. A top 10, top 10, top two. At the time I was at ICM, it was number two. Taught me how to be like a crack business person. And I work investment banker hours and I always have. So this isn't like I go in and teach three classes to five year olds and put on a clown outfit, you know, like, this is like super serious business for me. And I think that a lot of people, I know a lot of people go into the yoga world, like, are not ready to put in that kind of work. I also, again, I hit my mat a minimum of two hours a day. If that means waking up at five, I wake up at five. But this has to happen and I need to invest in myself and this is something that runs through my veins. Again, I would have loved to have been a screen, a successful screenwriter. I would have loved it except for that I never put in the work and obviously I didn't actually have the passion that I thought I had. It's funny when your mind doesn't always know the truth about yourself and I think that if you. Well, the traditional question is what would you do if you knew you wouldn't get paid for it? That's your calling. That's your calling. So I don't think, I think the yoga in specific is a pretty, I'll be nice and say saturated, but really oversaturated market right now. And if you're not extraordinary at what you do, it's gonna be sort of hard to, to make a good living at it, to be honest.
- [47:24]
Unknown Host
I agree. If you're not willing to put in the. The good news is there's so many people out there who are trying to do it as you talk about as a saturated market that don't have that discipline, that don't have that mentality, that don't have that I'm going to get up at 5 and just make it happen. So in some ways it's easier and in other ways it's a little bit more challenging because we are a connected world now more than we've ever been. And you could have a kid that was, you know, one of the guys that used to be in my mastermind. Poor kid, he was like 17 years old and he came into the mastermind and he was, he was like, hey, I want to learn. I'm like, I can't let you in here because I can't charge you because you're not an adult. I go, but you can audit it. And he got what he Needed. And then now he's doing seven figures a year and a half later.
- [48:06]
Shana Myerson
Wow. Doing what?
- [48:07]
Unknown Host
And he just disciplined. So he closes. I can't talk about it too much. But he helped close for large hedge funds.
- [48:15]
Shana Myerson
Wow.
- [48:16]
Unknown Host
And he's like, I'm going to learn how to do this. I don't like being poor. And he went. And he went in and he started volunteering at the. One of the largest sales closing agencies in the world. They're based out of Australia. And he goes, I'm gonna come and this is what I'm gonna do. They're like, we're not gonna pay you. He's like, I don't care. And he learned from these guys. And he dug in and he learned, and he was on the phones longer than anyone else, and he just mastered it. And he was, okay, where's the money? Because he didn't. He didn't have an exceptional set of skills.
- [48:43]
Shana Myerson
Right.
- [48:43]
Unknown Host
He had was. He was going to get on the treadmill, and either you were going to get off or he was going to die. And that's what's his discipline. He's like, I'm just going to do this. And he dug in, and because of that, he got rewarded for it. And if you're not God's gift.
- [48:56]
Shana Myerson
Yeah.
- [48:56]
Unknown Host
You have to work a little bit harder. It's just. That's the nature of the beast. You're gonna have to dig in. That's right. And so if you. The thing, though, that I really wanted to talk about, and this was the last one, so I know I asked you a bunch of questions.
- [49:06]
Shana Myerson
Yeah. What were the other 53.
- [49:08]
Unknown Host
What was the other 53 questions that I asked you? I wanted to talk about how, you know, when you get this awareness, the yoga of money, if someone goes into this, how do they find. And they start dismissing their belief of, oh, money's bad or money's good, or how do they start making peace with this? Because financial education right now and financial literacy is so poor in this world. How do we. How does someone start doing this? I mean, obviously they're going to track you down and bother you, but what is. What are two things they could do right now that are like, hey, this is going to start about, is there things they could read? Are there things they could do? What are the things that would help them start building that?
- [49:44]
Shana Myerson
Yeah, I think that there's not a lot of financial literacy in this world. And especially people who aren't used to handling money have a tendency to spend it way more than they should. And so, on a yogic level, it's funny, I've never thought about this, what I'm about to say. But coming back to the concept of if yoga. If yoga, if money is shared energy, which it is, and yoga is about balancing our energies, then if you want to live a balanced life in some form of, you know, homeostasis, then you need to treat your energy, the energy that you carry and the energy that you have in the form of currency, with respect. The other thing is, quite honestly, in yoga, like, this is not a practice of excess. And, you know, I personally am a huge, like, huge saver, and it's really paid off again with. With my charity work. But I think that also that when people get in the habit of giving, they also get in the habit of saving because they start understanding that there is a preciousness to giving that's so much greater. Like, I don't care if I buy a new BMW. It doesn't feel half as good as, you know, sending money, like, a lot of money to a cause that I really deeply believe in, where maybe I know I'm saving a life. Like. Like it doesn't matter. Like, condos are nice, houses are nice, cars are nice, but that can't be what drives us in this world. And so I think that when we answer to a higher purpose, we'll naturally have a certain tendency to not overspend and overindulge. Um, so I would just say that, you know, financial literacy or not, there's something that's called common sense. And yeah, and now common sense is not common. When I think about C ent See us, because a lot of these people are only earning cents. But, you know, you spend within your means. For example, if you're bad with money, I always say, then, then cut up your credit cards, buy things with. With the money that you've got. It's that simple. You know, I had a friend, had a friend. I had to let her go because she racked up $30,000 worth of debt with Target, Target, and she never paid it. And she was mad that after seven years, they were still going after her. This is a yoga instructor. And I'm like, you understand that that's like, it may be legal, but it's grand larceny. Like, you just stole like $30,000 of merchandise from a store. And I don't care if it's been seven years that they haven't caught you. Like, that's not very yogic, my friend. You know, and I think that also on the yoga basis, if People understand. I think people think of companies as things, right? We've got houses, we've got stores, we've got companies, we've got whatever nature. Companies are not things. Companies are people. I don't care if it's Nike, Target, Coca Cola or the mom and pop down the store, like down the street, you know, like during the small business days. And I'm all about supporting small business. I'm a small business. When people are like, oh, don't go to Starbucks, go to Alfred or whatever, I'm like, okay, well what do you think happens to the staff at Starbucks if nobody goes like, do you understand that those happen to be people too, right? So I think that that also like changes things when, when we start understand we. When we start understanding that when we spend above our means, we are stealing from people. And that is a very non yogic concept. In fact, there's literally one of the ten commandments of yoga. They don't call it the ten Commandments, but there are ten commandments is Asteya, which is literally not stealing. So it's a good place to start.
- [54:04]
Unknown Host
So we're we. I could probably steal tons more of your time and I know people want to get access to you. How can people find you? What's the best way to track you down if they want to start learning this stuff from someone who's been there through the ups and the down has done something that I don't know anybody else in your industry that's done it. Most of the people I know in your industry are, you know, live in two store Dorito bags and make the 17,000 a year. So how do people find you? How do they track you down? What's the best way to connect to you?
- [54:33]
Shana Myerson
Well, honestly I have all my social links on my Yoga Athletica website. Yoga Athletica has one A in the middle. Everyone spelled it wrong and like a hundred people have stolen my name even though I own the copyright because I'm a business person. So it's Y O G A T H L E T I C A. All of my social links are in the top banner. My YouTube is pretty popular and I have to say I actually for anyone who's interested, literally just a couple weeks ago I started a new private Facebook group which is called the Asana Alchemist. Turning your yoga flow into income flow. And it's all about strategies for leveling up your actual yoga business. I also welcome fitness and other related industries. So people can ask or, you know, request to join my Asana Alchemist group on Facebook as well.
- [55:32]
Unknown Host
To be able to monetize what you do, I don't think it's something I know how to do, so it's impressive. I will track it down. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming on.
- [55:40]
Shana Myerson
It's been so wonderful. I'm so glad that we had the.
- [55:43]
Charles Schwartz
Chance to connect and that wraps up our enlightening conversation with Shana Meyerson. We hope you found her journey from corporate powerhouse to yoga entrepreneur as inspiring and transformative as we did. A heartfelt thank you to Shauna for sharing her incredible story and practical strategies with us today. Her approach to niche market domination, conscious capitalism and creating a purpose driven business model is truly revolutionary to our listeners. Your commitment to transforming your passions into profitable enterprises and becoming more conscious entrepreneurs motivates us to continue bringing you this high caliber content. If you're eager to implement the strategies we discussed, we've prepared a comprehensive guide for you. This resource distills the key points from our conversation, including Shana's techniques for identifying your unique market position, scaling your expertise through teacher training, and implementing the Yoga of Money philosophy in your business. You can access this companion guide@podcast.im Charles Schwartz.com Remember, as Shana emphasized, the key to success in a saturated market isn't just about working harder, but about leveraging your unique experiences, being willing to pivot, and maintaining a balance between profit and purpose. Thank you for tuning in. And here's to your business finding its perfect pose for success.