139: What It Takes For a Locally Owned Yoga Studio to Survive with Deb Flashenberg
I have been an active participant in the yoga industry since the early 2000s, and I have never really understood how brick and mortar yoga studios, especially locally owned ones without corporate backing, made it work.
I’ve been curious about it, and I have seen a few studios run incredibly well and last a long time, but we all know those are the outliers. These spaces are so important for us as teachers and students, and for the wider community as well, but they so often struggle to survive the impact of late stage capitalism.
And that was true even BEFORE the pandemic, when so many of our favorite local businesses closed down. There are not that many yoga studios that have been around for a long time, but we are VERY lucky today to hear from one of my old friends, Deb Flashenberg who has had a thriving locally owned yoga studio in New York City since 2002. AMAZING.
(and if you want to listen to my previous episodes with Deb please check out 31: How To Work With Pregnant Yoga Students and 104: Postnatal Considerations in Asana with Deb Flashenberg)
In this episode you’ll hear:
what the vibes were like back in 2002
what changed in the landscape between 2002 and 2019
how and why Deb and the Prenatal Yoga Center survived COVID
what the “comeback” post-COVID been like
what thoughts and advice Deb has for people thinking about opening up a brick and mortar space now
Learn More From Deb:
Recent Podcast Episodes
In this solo episode, I’m zooming out from the quick, in-the-moment burnout strategies I shared in Episode 171 and looking at the bigger picture. I want to talk about why so many yoga teachers are burning out—and what I’ve seen actually work instead.
My core premise is simple: the career model most of us were trained into doesn’t work for most people anymore. If you’re exhausted, underpaid, and questioning how sustainable this path really is, I want you to hear this clearly—it’s not you. It’s the model.
I’ll walk you through the structural issues I see over and over again, help you look honestly at the math of your teaching schedule, and introduce a shift that has made a huge difference for me and for so many teachers I’ve worked with: integrating private clients into your practice.