Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode Five: Sarah Levey, Founder Y7 Studio

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Episode Five: Sarah Levey, Founder Y7 Studio · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hurdle. My name is Emily Abadi. I'm
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the creator and host of this here podcast that checks
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in with badass humans who got through a tough time
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in their life a hurdle of sorts by leaning into wellness.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, I sit down with Sarah Levy, the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: totally down to earth woman behind Why seven Studio. If
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you're unfamiliar, Why seven is a hip hop yoga studio
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that started as a pop up in Williamsburg and now
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: has nine locations as of today when their Tribeca studio
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: opens here in New York City. Before I get into
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: it quick, thanks to the sponsor of today's episode, Ultra Shoes.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I've been talking to you guys about just how rad
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the sneakers are that Ultra makes for a few weeks now,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and I actually did some running in a shoe of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: theirs just this morning at the gym. It was so
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: lightweight that literally at times I felt like I was
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hardly wearing a thing. Again, that's Ultra Shoes, and that
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: sneaker I'm talking about is the Escalante. Trust me, they
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: are so worth checking out. One quick call out. If
• 1:02
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• 1:04
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• 1:06
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• 1:11
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  Speaker 1: charts and all the things. So please please, Okay, I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: think that's enough for now. Let's do this. On today's
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: episode of Hurdle, I'm sitting here with Sarah Levy, co
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: founder of Y seven Studio. Sarah, I'm happy to have
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you here.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Why don't you start off by telling us a little
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: bit about yourself?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Sure, Like Emily said, my name is Sarah. I am
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the co founder of Why seven Studio. I am also
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: an author and a health coach as well.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: How does it feel to be an author? This is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a new thing for.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: You, very new thing for me. I'm still getting used
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: to saying it. It's cool, It's been really fun.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: What's the title of your book for people that want
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to go grab it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: It's called We Flow Hard, A Guide to Crafting your
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Yoga Practice.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I love it. So, next up, why don't we talk
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit about your yoga practice about Why seven
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: studio give people a gist of what they can expect
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: when they go into Why seven.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So Why seven is a little bit of a
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: different yoga experience. You walk into the studio and everything
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: is super super minimal. We keep everything to neutral colors
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: and a palette. The studio room itself is dark, there
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: are no mirrors, and it is candlelight. And we use
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: infrared heating technology as well.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: What it means is basically, it's a radiant heat that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: is going to heat you from inside out. So instead
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: of being hot forced air coming out of event like
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of traditional hot studios, these are going to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: be It's going to heat up the molecules within the room.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: So the room is hot. The beats are hot too.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: The beats are hot, We play a lot of music.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: We kind of got coined a hip hop yoga studio,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: which really started as just kind of a fun way
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: to do music themes. We have hip Hop Wednesdays, which
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: is a surprise every week of a hip hop artist
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: of our choosing, and all of the classes are themed
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to that.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I was just thinking in my head how it would
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: be to do yoga like in a live concert experience.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's got to be something that's on
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: your radar at some point.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Art it's a radar. I think it's a little bit difficult,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: you know, mostly because of the sheer amount of people
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: it would be to instruct, which I can't even fathom.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: But you know, we have done a couple of live
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: DJ classes which has been really fun. But it's a
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: lot of work too. It's a lot of work for
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the DJ, for the instructor, you know, to be timing,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: you know, when it gets louder, when it beat drops,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: things like that, you know, and the instructor speaking as well.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of coordination that goes into it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: You are sitting here. You said you got back about
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a week ago from Los Angeles where you were doing.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: What opening our second location in La in silver aek.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, So it's your eighth location. It is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: our so far. Yes, it's crazy. So I mean, let's
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: let's go back a little bit to kind of the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: beginning thinking about how this started. Because you know, you
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: don't open up eight yoga studios overnight, that's for sure.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So what were you doing? When? When did you open
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: your first studio?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: So we opened our first studio in September of twenty thirteen.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Two months prior to that, we were just a little
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: pop up and so we you know, people wanted to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: come on a regular basis, so we were kind of
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: forced to open a permanent location.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: In September of say, twenty eleven. What were you doing?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I was working in fashion, not yoga, not yoga.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And when did the pivot happen? When did you decide?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: You know it? It really wasn't a hard pivot, so
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: to say. I didn't actually leave my career in fashion
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: until the spring of twenty fifteen, so two years after
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: we had actually opened the first location. You know, the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: studio really came about as sort of something really personal
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: for me. I wasn't happy with any of the classes
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: and the experiences that were being offered to me in
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: terms of yoga, I, you know, had never really been
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: able to get into it, and I always always felt
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: really left out, sort of not yogash enough to be
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: in a lot of the classes that you know, the
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: instructors would talk about things I had no idea what
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: they were talking about. No one really took the time
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: to explain them to me, and I couldn't really find
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: a place where I felt comfortable to explore my own
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: practice and to grow my own practice.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: So and what were some of those things that they
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: were talking about that just made you feel kind of
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: out of place.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: You know, not necessarily out of place, but just like
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't know enough to be there. You know, there's
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: some beautiful trism Sanskrit and chance, and they would just
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: go into deep dharma and I had no idea what
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I was talking about, what I was supposed to be
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: getting from it. And I think that's one of the
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: real barriers for beginners to get into yoga, because you
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: want to feel connected to something, and it's hard when
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you're not on that level yet and you know, maybe
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: there isn't time for it to be explained to you
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: or things like that, and it's not a bad thing.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I love, you know, going to classes that dive a
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: little bit deeper, where there is a little bit more
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: of a spiritual aspect.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: But as I was starting out, I wasn't ready for
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: that totally. I didn't know that that was even such
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: a huge part of the practice. I was a total novice.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And you know, I think what's really cool about the
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: environment we created at y Sven is that it's sort
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: of a gateway, I think, to the bigger world of yoga.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: You don't know unless you're you know, you feel ready
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and sort of comfortable to try everything. Not everyone is
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: ready to sort of jump out of their comfort zone
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: all the time.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Of course, as with anything, as with say running, for example,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it's like some people are really excellent and love going
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: out and running a mile, and some people love going
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: out and running a marathon, and there's nothing wrong with
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: being one or the other totally. It's just totally about
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: your preference, right, Okay. About two years after founding Y
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: seven in Williamsburg, Yes, you decide I need to take
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a step back from having another full time job, and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: this is going to be bigger than a one studio situation.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So we open the Soho Studio in the very
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: beginning of twenty fifteen and Flat Iron in March twenty fifteen,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: and it just became really apparent, you know, when we
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: were opening Flat Iron that if we really wanted to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: take this to the next level and you know, to
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: provide a quality experience, one of us had to leave
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: our jobs and focus on it full time.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: And just to reiterate, Sarah co founded Y seven Studio
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: with her now husband.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so the we is he is the other
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: half of that seconds. But yeah, he was working in
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: digital advertising and was doing great, making way more money
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: than me, So it made sense for me to leave
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: my job and it was a really smart decision, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: six months later he ended up leaving his too, and
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: we've been fully devoted ever.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Since ever since. So then when do you start to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: add on to your team.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: We made our first corporate hire in the end of
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: So you two were running the ship solo for quite
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: some time.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, it was really myself and Mason everything on the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: back end. One of our founding instructors, Stephanie uh Lispina,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: who has been with us since, you know, the end
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: of twenty thirteen since the very very beginning. She was
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: super instrumental in also building our team of teachers. So
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: it really was just kind of you know, me and
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Mason and Stephanie.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Really, any entrepreneur will tell you as a beginner that
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: it's frightening and kind of going out of your comfort
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: zone one hundred percent all of the time.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean it's terrifying. I live in a
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: constant state of fear, good fear. Fear that drives you
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: and is exciting, you know, it's and it's so funny.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I was talking to I was talking to my doctor,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: you know, just my you know, interness, my regular doctor
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: for check up, and he was like, you must be
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: so busy, and I was like, I don't even think
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: about it really, you know, because I haven't you know,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I seen like once a year or whatever, and so
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: things change so much during that course of time. And
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: he's like just you know, looked at me like I
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: was crazy, and I was like, I don't even think
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: about it really, because if you kind of sit and
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: think too much, it really that's when it really starts
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: to sink in. It's like, oh, there's a lot writing
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: on this, Can I do this? You know, and we've
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: always just been sort of move forward.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, I read this quote this morning, and I
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: believe it said you can be productive or you can
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: be busy. And there's a very big difference between just
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: being busy to be busy totally, and being productive to
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: get things done right. What would you say in your
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: first year, first two years really of building this business
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: really became to be one of the hardest things for you.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: I you know, to kind of go back to why
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: we're here, I was really my biggest hurdle. I've never
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I would never use
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: the word creative or anything or even a leader to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: kind of describe myself. I've never I was never somebody
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: growing up who was like I want to be this
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: have this great, big job with all these responsibilities, and
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I I want to be the best. Like I never
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: really had a single goal that I was super super
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: attached to. So gaining the confidence to trust myself and
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: trust my gut and trust what why seven is, you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: was really really challenging for me in the beginning, because
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: you know, it's if you've been to Y seven, you
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: know that it's a little bit of a different yoga experience.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: It's it definitely definitely catches a lot of criticism from
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: you know, more traditional practitioners who say it isn't yoga.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: That yoga's supposed to be this, it's supposed to be peaceful,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: it's supposed to be relaxing, and they have all these
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: words that they use to predetermine what other people's experiences
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: should be. And that's the whole reason why we created
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Y seven is because it's not like any other experience.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: And you know, there were times when people were like,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: you should add this class, and you should do this,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: you should add weights, you should do these things, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: there was a lot of questioning and I really had
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: to trust myself to believe that what we're doing, the
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: experience we created was created for a reason and to
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: stick to that and to kind of block out all
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the noise. And I'm so happy that we did that,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and we kind of like took the criticism. I'm very sensitive.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I take everything very personally.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: So which is as hard as an entrepreneur.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, so if you've ever left a meme comment, I
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: read it and I get really sad. But I'm glad
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: we didn't listen to that and really stayed focused on
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: what we wanted to do because you know, it works.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: You know, when you're really passionate about something and you
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: really believe in it, it shows. And I think if
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: we would would have added in weights or you know,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: other elements that were suggested that, I wouldn't really believe
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: in it, and I don't know if it would have
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: been as successful.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: And it's got to be something that you really want
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to be on board with, like this is your baby.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah to this idea of starting before you're ready for
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: me with a project like this, it's like get you
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: jump in and you get excited and you want to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: talk to all the people and share your vision. And
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: here you are sharing your vision while still trying to
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: figure out exactly what that entails.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: And that's okay. Yeah, things can totally change. I mean
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: we never saw this as you know, we started. I
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: don't think we either Mason, my husband, or myself saw
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: this as being like, Okay, this is what we're going
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: to do with the rest of our lives. I don't
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: think we ever saw that. It just we really really
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: cared about it and ended up becoming something that other
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: people cared about too. And that was really kind of
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: what gave us the confidence and the empowerment to move forward.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about how it has
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: been to build this business with your partner, because I
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: mean it's interesting you hear a lot of really successful
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: people in business talk about growing them with their partners.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I know Bar three with Sadie Lincoln, she did with
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: her husband, Kate Spade, Kate and Andy Spade did it together.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: How is it for you?
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: It's really hard. I mean it's a really kind of
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: tough thing to do. I personally had never had a
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: working relationship with my husband, so and we're very very
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: different personalities, which in a way is a really good
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: thing because we compliment each other very well, but it's
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: also super frustrating. So it's been a real, I think
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: test on our relationship, and there was definitely rough patches.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: We like to call it on the train to divorce court.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: We sometimes hop on the train. But you know, it's
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: it's all really about communication and understanding that there's always
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: positive intent behind every you know, question we ask each other,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: or anytime we challenge each other, you know, And I
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: think it's we've really learned sort of we have to
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: give ourselves a break a little bit and not be
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: so tough on what we think our relationship should look like.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: And also to recognize when the other person needs, like
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: when Mason needs me to be his wife versus when
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: he needs me to be a colleague.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure, especially at the beginning, that must have
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: been super difficult to make that pivot.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when we were just working out of
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: the apartment, it was a mess, you know, because like
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: you're in your home and like there's no real working
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: hours and things like that. And now that we have
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: an office, it's a clear like Okay, we're at work,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Like this is why we're going to have this meeting.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Like we don't have meetings, you know, on our couch
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: anymore or in our bedroom like that. You know, that
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: was like a real thing where we'd be both like
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: working on from the.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Bed, like both on our laptops in pajamas, like eleven
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: pm at night, like having a real, like end depth
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: conversation about finances, and that's just like not the place
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: to have them, Like you don't want to have a
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: conversation tired and all that stuff.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: You would never have those conversations with an employee or
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: somebody else like that other than your partner, and it
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: becomes this like weird relaxed thing, and you really need
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: to set up boundaries.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I think when you got better at setting up boundaries,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: how did you find was the best way for you
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to release some of that stress and that tension for yourself.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: You know, we do a lot of nothing on the weekends,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: which is great. We eat a lot of food. We also,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: you know, have this great yoga studio. I'm still not
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: what you know, probably people would classify as a YOHI,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: but I'm working on sort of crafting a daily practice
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: for myself because I am better. I know when I
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: have that time to myself, when I do take those
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: moments to be with myself, really is what it is.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: It's an hour of no one else but me, just
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: my practice and the mat and I need to be
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: better about it. I'm working on it.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: One last question for you about building a business with
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: your partner. What kind of advice do you have for
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: someone that wants to do that as well? Que the
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: smirk that Sarah's like.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't really recommend it, to be completely honest, be
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: very careful, be careful, be careful is my warning and
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: it's not to say that it can't be done. It
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: can be done very successfully. I know couples who have amazing,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you know, relationships and businesses, and it's not to say
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: it can't be done. I think you just really really
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: have to want it.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I think also that can apply not just to people
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: that are in a relationship, but then also I mean
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: relationships also being friends. A lot of friends come up
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: with great ideas together and then you don't really think
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: about the secondary aspect that goes with intertwining friendship with
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: some sort of personal business goal.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it becomes one of those things where you don't
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: want to hurt their feelings because it's not just a
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: you know, working relationship, this is your It could be
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: a friend who's the one who's always coming to you
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: with ideas and you have to be the one who's
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: like that is sucks, Like that's really hurtful, and you
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: have to you know, know how to balance and freeze
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: it correctly and be compassionate, empathetic, but also keep the
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: business in mind too. And that's a lot of things
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: to think about.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Holse, do you find that you're integrating like wellness as
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a whole into your routine.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm really working on it. For me. It's
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: my goal for twenty eighteen is to really start to
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: take care of myself and listen to what I need
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and works, what works best for me and my body.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: I'm constantly traveling, super super busy, so it's hard sometimes
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: to remember that, you know, I'm doing all of these
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: things and my body being healthy is what enables me
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: to do that.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Taking a break quickly to give the sponsor of today's
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: episode Ultra a little bit more love, I had the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: chance to sit down with one of the brand's co founders,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Golden Harper, just a week ago in Park City, Utah,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and the craziest tidbit I got from our conversation, aside
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: from the fact that this is a true story, Harper
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: actually currently holds the Guinness World Wrecker for fastest marathon
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: at age twelve, The craziest thing I got from him
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: is that he made the first pair of Ultras using
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: a toaster. Seriously, he wanted to see what it would
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: be like to create a sneaker with zero drop, which
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: essentially means that there is no difference in height from
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the forefoot to the heel, and through this crazy science project,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in his kitchen. Harper was able to jumpstart a rapidly
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: successful shoe line that helps people run injury free and
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: is also winning awards like crazy just last summer. The Escalante,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: which I was raving about at the beginning of today's
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: episode one Runners World's Editor's Choice Award again, it's Ultra shoes.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Give them a look see at Ultra running dot com.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: That's a l t R a running dot com. Let's
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: get back to it. So I'm back here sitting with
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Sarah Levy of Y seven. Sarah, what is something that
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you look for when you are hiring someone to be
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: a part of your team.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I always want to know if they've taken class. To me,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: it's really important if you're working for me in studio
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: as front desk or cleaning, or as a teacher, that
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: you understand the client and you understand the experience that
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: we're trying to provide, because if you don't understand that,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: how are you going to be able to provide it.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: We're a big culture of feedback and we always can
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: do better, and so it's super important to me that
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: everyone's really open to receiving feedback to working with a team.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: How was it kind of that first time when you
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: realize that you needed to take a step back and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: let someone else do the work. Because you have studio
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: managers now that oversee each of your individual locations.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been really great. My studio management team is
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: my raw.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Relic as a leader. What is something that you hope
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: to instill in the people that work for you?
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Well, we all work differently, and it's really you know,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: managing personalities, and I want them just because I do
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: something a certain way doesn't mean they have to. I
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: don't need them to all be like many versions of me.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I don't need that, and I don't that probably wouldn't
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: be the best thing. And I want to empower them
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: to sort of make decisions that need to be made
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: and without always seeking approval, you know.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: On that note, do you feel like you have a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: certain piece of advice that you've been given over the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: years that you kind of keep coming back to.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I feel like a broken records. I say this literally
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: anytime anyone asked me, but it really is for me
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: so true. One of my instructors, who's actually part of
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: our continuing education team as well, her name's Kristen she
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I was going through kind of like a rough patch.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I was like super overwhelmed, really frustrated, just like not
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: dealing with things very well in a healthy way. I
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: was like just angry, a little bit like pissy, you know,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I'm annoyed with everyone. And she said to me that,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: you know, when I was like complaining, I was like
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: it used to you know, I just wanted to be
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: like this and I wanted everything to be this way.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: And she said to me, well, it's like this now,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: so that's it. It's never going to be like it was,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: and it's going to be different in five minutes, and
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: you have to understand that and go with that. And
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I really come back to that every time something is
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: not going my way or the way I planned it
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: or the way I had it mapped out in my head.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: It's really coming back to the idea of like, well,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: this is how it is right now, and all you
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: can do is move forward with what you have. I
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: think my biggest sort of inspiration, and I don't know
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: if you can call it inspiration really, but sort of
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: drive that I get comes from our community. I love them,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I love being in the studio, I love like I
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: love seeing our clients getting ready to go into class.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: They love looking around everyone like sweaty and just like
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: all in it kind of together. And you know, what
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: we've done with the dark room is make it a
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: really individual practice, you know, with the lights being low,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: and you know, we want everyone to move, you know,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: to the best of their ability, without worrying about what
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: they look like or what anyone else looks like. And
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: you know, but there's still that group energy that you
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: get from the class, and it's so powerful and that's
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: what really kind of motivates me anytime I'm taking on something.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Now, someone wants to start their own company, their own business.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: What do you wish someone told you when you were
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: starting your business.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: You are never going to be ready. It's just you're
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: never gonna I don't I'm still never ready for opening
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: like another location. Like when we signed leases, I'm like, okay,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: here we go, because if you wait, you miss out.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I think you just have to go, just go, just go.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: That's all you need. How much does a class of
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: why set on costs?
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: These days? It is twenty five dollars for.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: A drop it I love that. Can we talk about
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: that for a second, Like the growing cost of taking
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: classes and I mean, I know, obviously if you're not
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: if you're not in New York City. In the New
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: York City area, classes range up to almost fifty dollars
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: for a single session, and which is crazy, I'm sure
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: for people that are living in god knows Cokeville, Tennessee,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and you pay fifty dollars a month or ten dollars
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a month to go to a big jobs to go
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to a big box gym. I grew up going to
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: a plan of Fitness with ten dollars a month.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of costs involved, especially when it comes
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: to upkeep with machinery. You know, if it's a class
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: with bikes or reformers or things like that, the upkeep
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: of those is very, very expensive, and if you think about,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: you know the number of people in New York using
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: those machines and how heavy the usage is. In order
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: to keep the experience at a premium, you have to
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: build in those costs or else you know, people are
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: going to be doing things with broken springs, or you
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: know their resistance isn't going to be working. And you know,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: it's always a tough decision when it comes to pricing,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: because you do want to stay affordable but you know,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: you also want to be able to maintain the level
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: of the product that year you're selling.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: What do you think has been one of the biggest
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: lessons you've learned over the past five years.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: One person may not see something the way that you do,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't mean it's wrong. You just have to
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: find a way to sort of bridge that gap. And
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: I think that's kind of the hardest thing for me
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: and the biggest kind of lesson that I learned. Like
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I my mom is Japanese. I grew up with an
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Asian mother. I never missed a day of school. I
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: like never, I was never allowed to stay home sick.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I literally had to be projectile, vomiting and bleeding out
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: my eyeballs to stay home. I was never late. And
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: it's something that like, not everyone's like that. So now
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: it's like instilled in me that, like, if someone's five
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: minutes late, I get so offended. But that's not you know,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: that really doesn't mean anything.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: It's just that's a hard thing to exactly.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And it's not it's not personal. But I think, you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: that's kind of a tough thing when like I, you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I during Hurricane Sandy, I took the ferry to work,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: and it was really important for me to be there
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: even though I was just working in fashion and nothing
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: was getting done anyways, because nothing really could happen. But
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: that's you know, so it's learning people's different like ways
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: that they relate to work and what they deem important
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: and what so it's just like it's really interesting and
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: like I always bring it back to that and not
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: to like say that I'm so great. I show up everywhere,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: but it's just like a different way that I view,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: you know, doing my work is the big part of
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: that is like showing up where you know other people
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: it's like the quality of their work or you know
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: how quickly they get it done. And it's finding that
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: like common ground and where you can really relate.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: What do you see your next year? Really looking like.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: We're opening studios left and right.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: They're coming everywhere.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: They're coming everywhere. They're coming at you, Manhattan, get ready?
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: You say, Manhattan? Do you think there is going to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: be a day where we leave Manhattan in LA.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: We're working on it. It's hard, you know, our teams
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: are We've really solid teams on each coast and when
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: you go into a new market like that. It's really
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of work goes into finding that team. We
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: opened one studio in twenty seventeen and it really wasn't
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: even a brand new market. We just relocated Williamsburg. So
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: that year was really spent building our team and finding
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: the people who are going to be with us when
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: we do take this to the next level. So imagine
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: going into like a new state and having to do
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: that all over again. It's a lot of work and
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: it's something that you know, we have absolutely been working
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: on and I won't talk about it, so I'm very superstitious.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Hopefully soon and hopefully this year is the year. But
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: we do have Tribeca opening at the beginning of February
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: and also meatpacking and Brian Park locations coming up all
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: before May.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: That is insane, That's so wonderful. What do you think
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: will be your biggest hurdle in the year to.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Come getting everyone on board with the ambitious growth goals
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: that we have. You know, people are telling me to
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: slow down. When we did in twenty seventeen, and I
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: tried that, it was great, but I'm ready.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: It was great with so much sarcasm, it was, you.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Know, it was I did a lot in twenty seventeen,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: but I'm really ready to kind of. I feel really
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: strongly about our brand. I feel really strongly about what
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: we bring to yoga. I know that it can be
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: successful at other places besides New York and LA.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: What aside from the studio openings in the next few months,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: what's something else that you're looking forward to.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I tend not to look too far forward.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Why is that? Do you think?
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I'm really trying to enjoy where I am now. It's
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: become really important to me, and you know, you miss stuff.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: I think if you're always planning ahead, and you know,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: some people work really well like that, I don't because
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: then I get disappointed. I get this like story in
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: my head of how things are going to work out,
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: and I get disappointed if they don't work out the
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: way it is. And that's just how That's just a
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: personal thing.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: So being in the now is and so bad.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's not so bad.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Not when you've just opened your eighth studio location.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Oh it's great, and like I want to remember when
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: we're like here at this place.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: You know, I love it, Sarah. I think we're going
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: to wrap it there. Thanks so much for coming in.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for having me.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Please, if you're still listening, take a moment and leave
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a quick review by clicking a link with the description
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to this episode. And while you're at it, maybe send
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: this episode to a friend too. We all face multiple
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: hurdles in life. I want to hear about yours. Reach
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: out to me via email at Emily at Hurdle dot us,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: and of course feel free to stalk us both a
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: little bit too. Sarah, what are your social handles.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: For Why seven? It is just Why seven Studio and
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: my personal is Sarah s A R A h underscore,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: levy L E.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: V E Y amazing, I am Emily A body A
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: B B A T E. And that's all. We got
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: another hurdle conquered. Catch you next time, m HM.