Many of you have noticed that our once cozy lounges are looking more bare this week. I am going to be transparent about our process, while sharing some nuggets of wisdom that I have learned on this magnificent journey with all of you – IT WAS ALL A DREAM! 🙂
The original owner of the building passed away a year into our lease and our building is being sold. We do not have exact details and there is still some uncertainty with timing, but with the constant and highly problematic roof leaks with every rain, it just is not worth staying any further hoping these issues will get fixed, especially if we cannot be there long term. We are closing our Santa Monica Studio.
LESSON 1) BE BOLD IN CHOOSING ONLY THAT WHICH ALIGNS WITH WHO YOU ARE
To be super frank, I never sought to open a yoga studio of my own – this was all a grand accident loaded with incredible lessons, challenges, beautiful friendships, burned bridges, immense growth and explosive expansion. In 2016 I was in the right/wrong/perfect place at the right/wrong/perfect time and offered to help a beloved former teacher salvage his struggling studio. Within months it became the first AZ I AM. And I again will be very, very frank here: it was a shit show 🙂 So much of a shit show that I pitched a reality show to a major network while it was all still funny to me… 😛 But then I actually secured a contract with said major network and the shit show became a noose hold. You see, prior to owning a studio, I used to laugh at the yoga diva behavior, guru wannabe projections, spiritual bypassing, Burner Barbies and the like, it was funny when they were distant peers … but now I had to manage them all and they represented my brand. Gah!
Ultimately, this stark contrast to the authentic, scientific, modern and sound driven yoga that I believed in and dedicated my life to, now forged an incredible contrast to what I was experiencing, and this gradually revealed how AZ I AM differed from most yoga communities. A member once said to me, “Alanna, just harness their egos and you will make a lot of money!” … Sure, if I owned a sales agency, or my focus was purely financial, maybe … but I own a YOGA STUDIO! No, that didn’t resonate with me.
Subsequently, COVID hit and that delayed our production schedules, but there came a point where I had to re-open a space for the show. The Santa Monica location became available and I jumped with both feet, as I tend to do, and likely always will do. But, what I wasn’t expecting was 1) post-COVID “conscious” community AKA conspiracy theorists turned egocentric rebels, under the continued guise of yogi. “I have a right to breathe!” one “yogi” screamed at me while exhaling all of his unvaccinated breath onto me … simply because I was following state mandates for all businesses in California. I wasn’t super strict about masks, as I have my own beliefs, but I respected other people’s beliefs and space while maintaining a facility that was clean and trustworthy.
Secondly, I wasn’t prepared for 2) Production delays and manufactured television. I had pitched a show based on reality – a real shit show, but producers re-purpose those ideas and past situations in newly packaged, sex-sells, fake scenarios. I inherited a group of kids who didn’t want to really work once they were cast, and because production moves SO VERY SLOWLY, we were replicating situations that occurred 4 years earlier, and it just didn’t stoke my fire, and I have never been able to put energy into something that I am not passionate about! Plus, I am very protective and committed to AZ I AM Kidz – and having a salacious non-reality, reality show with my business at the centerpiece made me reconsider this endeavor.
But, as I always say, “Synchronicity is Chocolate covered Karma,’ I bit into a situation that made me face great lessons underneath. And I had a fantastic yoga studio to boot! 🙂
As I shared in a recent inteview in Canvas Rebel Magazine, this uncomfortable process taught me what business mentors would share with you when starting a brand: Know your audience. Create your community. And that is exactly what happened with our Santa Monica studio, albeit by accident and as a result of this new allergic reaction to any ego-driven yoga. I wasn’t going to feed the guru mentality, or cater to teachers who act one way while teaching and a lesser way when no one else was looking. I chose authentic teachers – however they wanted to teach, we could create a format to match, but first and foremost, be real.
Within 6 months, I repeatedly heard, “Why is every teacher, class and event here so incredible, like every one?!” It was not by accident. We built an absolutely incredible community of kind, FUN, adventurous, REAL, hip-hopping, honest yogis “getting through this thing called Life,” together.
ADVICE: LIFE IS SHORT. DON’T WASTE YOUR MOMENTS DOING ANYTHING THAT DOESN’T RESONATE WITH WHO YOU ARE.LESSON 2) EVERYTHING IS ENERGY
At my last Deep House Vinyasa class at the studio, I was talking to my class afterwards. Joaquin said, “Alanna, as beautiful as it is, we don’t come here for the space … we come here for you.” Anyone can buy nice chairs and decorate a space, but energy is irreplaceable. As I stripped away our gorgeous studio this week, it revealed the poor condition of the building that was always there, underneath. It was such a powerful reminder that we come together for the yoga, the energy, the work – not the accessories, the distractions, the filters, the spandex or the pretty branding – we don’t have to pay people to promote our brand, tag us or wear our clothing; we simply created a safe space for yoga.
ADVICE: CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO BE COMFORTABLE WITH WHO YOU ARE, WITHOUT MAKEUP, DESIGNER CLOTHING, STATUS, FOLLOWERS … JUST YOU, AS YOU ARE.
| LESSON 3) “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt LA Yogis love to gossip 🙂 Truly the greatest gift I personally received on this journey, is overcoming and dealing with the small minded gossipers. This was the hardest lesson for me, because I tend to care too much about humanity. It pains me to see people hurting others, or spreading false gossip to hurt someone who they believe to be more successful – but this is an every day reality and we can only control how we react to it. I do believe that it is a rite of passage to those on a fiercely independent path of personal greatness, because only when we no longer care what others think are we truly immersed in our own experience. And the only way to not care about what others think is to realize first hand that they know not what they say or do about you. It’s absolutely liberating! Remember, criticism is self-hate turned outward. Haters hate on you because you’re doing what they cannot, will not or are too afraid to attempt. Learn to discern when people speak down about others; what is their motive? Is it true? There is one way to avoid having haters: Sit on the sidelines, do nothing, be average and then no one will judge or hate you. ADVICE: IF YOU DIDN’T WITNESS IT, DON’T SPREAD FALSE GOSSIP. DON’T PRE-JUDGE. MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS. GOSSIP IS TOXIC.  LESSON 4) CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT Every Friday I teach the young students at Sycamore Community School next door to us on 4th St (K-6). Our lesson this week was about Change. We look out at the ocean each day, but the water is always different. The air we breathe is never the same. The only way to stay in the flow of life is to embrace change. We acted out the motions and feelings of a trapped caterpillar bound in its own restrictions, uncomfortable with change… until the transformation occurs and the beautiful wings of the butterfly take that caterpillar to new adventures near and far. I gave away 90% of the furniture, art, appliances, etc. at the studio this week – some I had literally just bought 2 weeks ago. IT FELT AMAZING. I have been receiving emails, texts and messages from people who received free rugs, plants, art, furniture, etc. – and their joy and gratitude is far more valuable than the price tag. One man had just finalized a divorce and he was left without any furniture. He has three kids and they didn’t have anywhere to sit for meals or even a living room. I am so happy knowing that he now has a furnished home for his family. Give more – we get used to holding on to things, of getting caught up with commercialism and “things.” You are not your things. ADVICE: HOW CAN YOU BE OF SERVICE AND GIVE TO OTHERS TODAY?  We simply cannot ever thank you all enough!! Our team of teachers: Matty, Sally, Blake, Noelle, Doug, Christina, Jennifer, Rachael, Sim, Megan, Molly, Morgan, Michael, Cassandra, Jaya, Phoebe … You are all simply the best! Beyond amazing, so fun, so fun, so much FUN! THANK YOU! Thank you to our incredible community for being so supportive, compassionate, understanding and kind. You are the REAL DEAL, and I am forever changed by knowing each of you! ~ Alanna |