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Behind every yoga business is a founder with a vision. Explore their journeys, lessons, and strategies to build, grow, and make an impact.
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Studio Owners - Tokyo, Japan & Honolulu, HI
Movement helped Juri Ko navigate grief, personal transitions, and the process of reconnecting with herself. After discovering a deeper side of yoga in Hawaiʻi, she completed her teacher training and began building communities around movement
Studio OwnerI’m a proud mother to a beautiful three year old girl, a wife deeply loved by a wonderful man, and a daughter to the most supportive parents. I believe in lifelong learning and growing into a better version of oneself. Kindness, joy, and meaningful connections are values I hold close to my heart. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: academic, technical writer, school teacher. But no matter where life took me professionally, yoga was always part of the picture. It began during university as a way to stay fit. But the more I practiced, the more it gave me — mental clarity, emotional healing, and spiritual growth. After nearly a decade of classes, I enrolled in a 200 hour training with INSPYA Yoga School. At the time, I had no plans to teach...
Yoga Business CoachAt just 20, Manu Molina left behind the safety of home and a soul draining job to chase something bigger freedom, creativity, and purpose. Inspired by The Alchemist, he moved to the Spanish Pyrenees, where he discovered yoga for the first time. That one experience became the seed for a life filled with deep transformation and global adventure. Manu’s yoga journey took him through Ireland, Italy, the Canary Islands, Majorca, Ibiza, India, Thailand, and beyond. But more than the destinations, it was the internal journey that mattered most, one that allowed him to align with his values, express his truth, and build a life with meaning. Today, Manu lives in Asia, collaborating with creatorsand mentoring others to create sustainable businesses that actually make a difference...
Retreat HostMagdalene’s story starts at the heart of Thalassa Studios, where she was born and raised after her parents fell in love with Porto Heli and chose it as their forever home in the 90s. With a background in theatre and special education in Athens, her early path was filled with creativity, performance, and a deep desire to connect with others. That same desire eventually found its expression through movement...
Studio OwnerI’m a truth-teller, boundary keeper, and mom to two incredible boys, Jayden and Jace. I also carry the love of our daughter Raleigh, who lives in my heart and beyond. I grew up in Amarillo, Texas, but it was in Northern California that I became a mother and began to grow into myself. We returned to Texas in 2006, and my work at lululemon reconnected me to community and to parts of myself I had tucked away. Yoga first found me at 19, but it became my lifeline after my mom’s two brain aneurysms left me running from my emotions. Years later, a goal to teach took me to Peru for a month-long training and sacred travel to Machu Picchu, an experience that changed my life. It was there I discovered not only my calling as a teacher but also a deeper purpose—to create spaces where others could heal...
Studio OwnerI’ve always been a curious soul, drawn to learning and trying new things while staying grounded in what feels meaningful. Over the years, I’ve worked in the fitness and service industries, as a flight attendant, in physical therapy, and in real estate and development. Each role shaped me into who I am today. Yoga entered my life in 2013 during a time when I was working long hours at a busy orthopedic clinic, competing in triathlons, and generally living out of balance. I was looking for something that could help me turn inward and reconnect with myself. I found that through the Ashtanga Yoga practice, and soon began seeking out every opportunity to learn from teachers both locally and beyond. In 2017, I completed my first teacher training in medically based therapeutic yoga while continuing to deepen my Ashtanga practice through travel, study, and mentorship with certified and authorized teachers. In 2018, I began teaching two Ashtanga classes a week at a local studio in St. Louis while still working in physical therapy...
Teacher TrainingAs a former professional fitness athlete and high school teacher, my life was built around improving my physical health, refining my aesthetics, and mastering new disciplines. I thrived on overperforming and pushing productivity, until I hit a breaking point. Burnout crept in, leaving me in a dark and lonely place. That was when yoga found me. It began with meditation and pranayama, eventually leading me to asanas and the deeper philosophical aspects of the practice. At first, staying focused and carrying the benefits through the day felt almost impossible. But I noticed that on days I skipped practice, anxiety, restlessness, and destructive thoughts would return. So I made a promise to myself to practice daily, no matter what. Ten years of consistent practice and studying ancient yogic scriptures led me to my first teacher training, and from that point on, yoga became my life’s path...
Studio OwnerFrom the time I was five, I knew I wanted to open a studio. In kindergarten, I told my dance teacher I would one day run my own dance space, and I never let go of that vision. I studied dance and business in undergrad, then earned a Master’s in small business entrepreneurship, all with one goal in mind. Yoga first appeared in my life as a required class in my dance degree, then found its way back to me while finishing my master’s. Early in my practice, I sat in a large chain studio, surrounded by perfectly styled practitioners in matching sets, and felt like I didn’t belong. I wasn’t there for aesthetics. I was just trying to quiet my mind and body through post‑college transitions. That moment of feeling out of place sparked a new idea — a welcoming, space where people could show up exactly as they are...
Yoga Business CoachMovement has always been part of my life. I spent my teenage years immersed in ballet, then went on to study at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Professionally, I worked across marketing, communications, and events in Ireland’s arts and film sectors, environments that were dynamic, creative, and often high-pressure. Yoga entered during my twenties and quietly became my anchor. What began as a way to reconnect with movement soon deepened into something more. My husband David and I discovered a shared passion for the practice, which shaped our connection as much as our path forward. Those early classes felt like a return to something familiar. Ashtanga drew me in, but it was Vinyasa that truly captured my heart through the art of sequencing...
Yoga Business CoachI first found yoga when I was 20, at a time when my life was full speed ahead. I was working 60–80 hour weeks as a full-time hairdresser and part-time bartender, hustling hard to build a life for myself. From my very first class, something clicked—like the practice struck a chord I didn’t even know needed tuning. It softened the rougher parts of me and started quietly mending the relationships in my life that needed healing. Within a year, I was in teacher training, the youngest one in the room, cracked wide open and completely absorbed in the transformation unfolding, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Outside of yoga, I’m a wife, a mom, and a lifelong student of anything that makes me feel more connected to myself and others. I was born in New Jersey and co-owned Balanced Planet Yoga in Marlton, NJ...
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