Gurus & Game Changers

Hot Yoga For Health and Fitness | Ep 022

Stacey Grant

Discover the secret ingredient to a life infused with balance, strength, and serenity as we journey through the transformative power of yoga. Joining us is the inspiring Kristin Sapp, who shares her profound experience transitioning from a nine-week intensive Bikram yoga training to owning her oasis of wellness,  Orange Lotus: Hot Yoga And Fitness . Reflect with us on the mantra "I'm enough," and how the practice of yoga, especially as we age, is far more than bends and stretches—it's about enhancing quality of life and preventing falls, embodying a quiet force that can reshape your mental and physical landscape.

This episode also peels back the curtain on the business side of running a yoga studio and the indispensable role of family support in such an endeavor. From the initial leap into teacher training to navigating the waters of rebranding and facing the trials of a pandemic, this narrative is a mosaic of entrepreneurial spirit and familial bonds. We talk about the essence of creating an identity for your business, the impact of support systems like business coaches, and how strong family values shape and sustain our ambitions. So, roll out your mat and open your heart to a practice that is more than mere exercise—it's a gateway to a life of fulfillment.

About Gurus and Game Changers: 

The Gurus and Game Changers Podcast  focuses on individuals with unique insights and solutions based on their life experiences. 
Listen and you will find:

  1. Life insights
  2. Overcoming obstacles
  3. Unconventional success
  4. Personal growth stories
  5. Unique life journeys
  6. Self-discovery
  7. Inspirational life lessons
  8. Authentic success
  9. Niche expertise
  10. Non-traditional success stories

Inspirational journeys abound when you listen to some of our guests as they describe their personal transformation with unconventional wisdom with real-life stories. Their
empowering narratives and life-changing experiences showcase triumph over adversity, resilience and perseverance.

At Gurus and Game Changers we thrive on authentic storytelling and non-traditional paths to success described with empowering voices. These motivational insights
laden with turning points, lessons learned and a testament to inner growth will lead to your own journey to self-discovery.

These inspirational role models or 'Wild Ducks' as they've been described always come with a positive mindset in describing transformative experiences and evolving perspectives.


#InspirationalStories
#PersonalGrowth
#LifeLessons
#SuccessStories
#MotivationalJourney
#OvercomingAdversity
#EmpoweringNarratives
#SelfDiscovery
#TriumphOverChallenges
#Resilience
#TransformationTuesday
#Empowerment
#Authenticity
#PositiveMindset
#InnerStrength
#GrowthMindset
#InspirationalQuotes
#MotivationMonday
#LifeChangingExperiences
#WisdomWednesday

PLEASE NOTE: **The views expressed by participants, including hosts and guests, are their own and not necessarily endorsed by the podcast. Reference to any specific individual, product, or entity is not an endorsement. The podcast does not provide professional advice, and listeners are urged to consult a physician before making any significant lifestyle or health changes.**


00:00 - Mark (Co-host)
Mark, yes, I'm sorry, I'm watching you meditate. What are you doing? I'm meditating. 

00:08 - Stacey (Co-host)
I'm becoming very zen, like I do when I'm in yoga. 

00:12 - Mark (Co-host)
Okay, you're one with a microphone. 

00:13 - Stacey (Co-host)
You have a mantra. 

00:14 - Mark (Co-host)
What's your mantra? 

00:15 - Stacey (Co-host)
Here, I'm enough, you're enough, I'm here. 

00:19 - Mark (Co-host)
Oh, you're more than enough. 

00:20 - Stacey (Co-host)
I'm enough. That's what I say to myself. I love it, I look at little circles in the ceiling. 

00:24 - Mark (Co-host)
Do you do that? Do you meditate? I don't, I don't want to call it that. 

00:29 - Stacey (Co-host)
Is it more centered on gratitude? Positive time yeah, it's a centered on gratitude. That's good. Yeah, have you done yoga? 

00:35 - Mark (Co-host)
I have not, nor will I. 

00:37 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yes, you will. 

00:38 - Mark (Co-host)
I will not. 

00:39 - Stacey (Co-host)
Do you know why you're going to? 

00:40 - Mark (Co-host)
Because you enjoy it. 

00:41 - Stacey (Co-host)
Because you promised on this podcast. You told Kristen that you would come to one of her classes. Did I say that you absolutely did? I'm going to need to hear the tape it's on there Telling you. 

00:52 - Mark (Co-host)
If I said that I'll probably still try to avoid it. 

00:54 - Stacey (Co-host)
No, you're going to come. I know it's good for you, you're going to love it, but Kristen Sapp is a guru. She's a guru. She's a guru and a game changer, like a big room yoga kind of guru. She's a guru and a game changer and she owns her own studio and she actually had to spend nine weeks away from home training with the beaker. Can you imagine? 

01:12 - Mark (Co-host)
that Can you leave your family for nine weeks. 

01:16 - Stacey (Co-host)
No, I don't think I could. Honestly, I couldn't. I couldn't leave Eric. 

01:20 - Mark (Co-host)
He's a good guy. 

01:21 - Stacey (Co-host)
I find you. 

01:23 - Mark (Co-host)
It's that's a lot to ask, but look, that's what I love about her, because she, to hit her goals, she needed to leave her family for nine weeks. She needed to go away and become certified as a big room yoga what are they called? 

01:37 - Stacey (Co-host)
Enthusiast. 

01:39 - Mark (Co-host)
That's not the right word, but she had to get certified. 

01:41 - Stacey (Co-host)
I know right, she had every yoga teacher out there. Get that certified. 

01:44 - Mark (Co-host)
I know I apologize that certification was the only way to do it. The point is, she does what it takes and that's a great mindset. That's why we wanted to have her on, because she's just like quiet force, she's a quiet person, she really is and you know she's beautiful, she's peaceful, she's friendly. 

02:02 - Stacey (Co-host)
She was a smile on her face Every time you walk into her studio. You got to watch her on YouTube. Guys, this is a live episode, yeah it was live. 

02:09 - Mark (Co-host)
I forgot we were live. 

02:10 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yes, it was a live episode, but it was great. 

02:14 - Mark (Co-host)
She's like one of those people you might meet in the supermarket and it was very nice. But there's this drive to. 

02:19 - Stacey (Co-host)
I'm an entrepreneur, I'm taking care of business, you might meet her in the supermarket. No, I just like you meet a lot of people in the supermarket. That's what I love about this show, though. 

02:25 - Mark (Co-host)
Like these are random people that could be standing next to you and you don't realize how much you could benefit from a conversation with them. 

02:32 - Stacey (Co-host)
That is true about this show, it is. I totally agree with you. And so everyone you really need to hear and see this episode with Kristen Sapp. Hi, I'm Stacy. 

02:45 - Mark (Co-host)
And I am Mark, and this is the Guru's Game Changers Podcast. 

02:52 - Stacey (Co-host)
So today this is a good one. Look, whether you like it or not, we're getting older and I got a pop quiz, mark. 

03:00 - Mark (Co-host)
I am not getting older. Was that the question? Oh, mark. 

03:03 - Stacey (Co-host)
I'll give you the pop quiz. 

03:04 - Mark (Co-host)
Okay, hit me. 

03:04 - Stacey (Co-host)
Okay, you ready. 

03:05 - Mark (Co-host)
Yeah. 

03:07 - Stacey (Co-host)
What is the number one thing that adults over 70 worry about as they age? It's not cardiovascular disease, wow, it's not cancer. What is it? It's a regret. 

03:15 - Mark (Co-host)
A regret answer. I love that. 

03:18 - Stacey (Co-host)
I don't know I don't know, it's falling down, falling down, falling down. So how can you make sure, as you get older, that you're strong and you're flexible and you feel good and you have a good quality of life? Well, today, our guest is going to teach you how to do that and she's going to talk about what she does at her studio to make sure that you're flexible as you get older and that you don't fall down. 

03:39 - Mark (Co-host)
Love it, so please welcome. 

03:41 - Stacey (Co-host)
Kristen Sapp from Orange Lotus Hot Fitness and. Yoga. 

03:45 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Hi Kristen, Thanks for joining us. So we're happy to have you here. 

03:48 - Mark (Co-host)
Thank you for having me Studio audience is happy to see you. 

03:49 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Thank you for your lovely intro, absolutely so. 

03:52 - Stacey (Co-host)
We have known each other for a long time, obviously A very long time. We've done yoga together for a long time, so do you remember that conversation that we had in 2008? I think 15 years ago, I do. You told me what? 

04:05 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
That I was going to have my own studio one day. 

04:08 - Stacey (Co-host)
Wow. And I do what made you want to do that. 

04:13 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Well, the story is actually pretty simple. You know, my mother invited me to go to a yoga class, and it's that simple. Like, she invited me to go to a yoga class and I was visiting them in Florida and I had little kids at the time, so we had my stepfather and my husband available to watch the kids, and so we went and took this yoga class and, like you know, it was fine. I was going with my mom to yoga class. She was super excited about it. I didn't know what to expect. I knew it was hot yoga and I took the class and literally right after taking the class I wasn't sure if I loved the class. 

04:51 - Stacey (Co-host)
No, why I knew I had done something powerful. 

04:53 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I mean it's hot and it's uncomfortable and the first time you go you don't know what you're doing. I kind of a fish out of water, and as the day went on I felt better than I had ever felt that day, that day. 

05:06
So I felt this sense of like relief and this sense of ease and I felt good in my body and I literally by later that day it was like I mean, whatever it was, I have to do it again. And we went back twice during that week. We were in Florida. We flew home on a Saturday, sunday. I booked my first class at a local studio and just started going regularly and actually during that week in Florida I looked up how to become a teacher. 

05:31 - Stacey (Co-host)
Oh my gosh. 

05:32 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I looked up like studios around. I just it was just an immediate like, if I can feel this good, I have to do this. Like now, I'm gonna do this forever. I knew that right away. 

05:45 - Mark (Co-host)
And then it was just like. 

05:46 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
How can I translate it into other areas of my life? 

05:48 - Stacey (Co-host)
Why not? You've said, too, that like it can save your life. Yeah, it can change your life and it can increase your quality of life. So sure, how people, how and why? 

05:59 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Yeah, I think anytime you take time or make time to connect to yourself, you start to hear yourself, you start to listen to yourself, you start to see yourself Like you really start to see yourself and hear yourself. 

06:15
And then you start to live more in alignment with that, with who you really are. And I think you know, when I went and took that yoga class, I had a job. That was a good job. I was working for my stepdad. It was a convenient job for having kids. I was happily married. I had lots of friends, but I was still like overwhelmed and didn't feel as good as I felt after that yoga class. 

06:39 - Stacey (Co-host)
That's like the best way to put it. 

06:41 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
You know, people find yoga for all different reasons. Some people find it because they've got a major injury or chronic pain or something that they're living with, that they're trying to fix and I really wasn't trying to fix anything and it still had this major impact on my life. So, like when you talk about it can save lives. It definitely can, because it can make you healthier and it can, you know, I have students who have come off medication, who have lowered you know, all these different blood level tests, and so it can literally save your life. But I feel like for me, it saved my life in this other way, because it made my life so much better and richer and I was able to have the capacity to enjoy it rather than be overwhelmed by it. So, yes, I think it can save your life in a lot of different ways. It can definitely change your life. For sure that's like the easiest part it will have an effect on your life. 

07:35 - Stacey (Co-host)
But why Like? What is it about the modality? 

07:37 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
It's a set sequence of pushers and they're done in a heated room and the heat is the best tool we have for transformation. I mean. So you walk into the room and the heat causes your blood vessels to dilate, which is vasodilation, so already circulation's better. You start with breathing, you move through these postures working deeper and deeper into the body, you move oxygenated blood through the body, you move your body through its intended ranges of motion and hopefully over time get back any range of motion that you've lost, and so you're really working in a physical way, the whole body. But that whole time you're having to focus and concentrate and breathe, and so you're connecting to your breath and you're taking all the things that swirl around in your mind and calming that down, because you're really focused on what you're doing and when you're hot, and uncomfortable and somebody's telling you what to do you kind of? 

08:32
can't be doing your Wegmans list in your head at the same time, so it calms everything down and when you take time for that, it really does have a huge life changing effect. 

08:42 - Mark (Co-host)
Is it always the same 26 every time you go? 

08:45 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
It's the same 26 in the same order, because. 

08:48 - Mark (Co-host)
I don't know anything about hot yoga, so it's fascinating. 

08:50 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
So it's pretty cool because originally I thought which most people think like that's gonna get really boring really quick. But it doesn't, because, like Stacy said, you're different every day, you feel different every day and there's a couple of things that happen. One it's a great measure for, like progress, right, because certain things I couldn't do. It's not like, oh, I can't do it, but range of motion is less and over time range of motion becomes 

09:18 - Mark (Co-host)
more. 

09:20 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
And so you realize that your body's actually changing and when you have these same set postures you can really sort of get into this little moving meditation. You're not trying to figure out what's coming next and what you have to do. You start to understand what you have to do and it becomes this nice little escape from life. 

09:42 - Mark (Co-host)
That's the word I think. I've always said that I work out a lot. When I work out, I always say it's 100% for sanity and not for vanity. Well, yeah, that's the other part, totally, and that's what you're saying Like, you can't not focus on what you're doing, which means everything else is shut out for that hour, totally, and you get really good information. 

10:00 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
So when you do the same postures over and over and say I'll go in tomorrow and I didn't sleep well or I didn't have enough water, that's gonna show up on my mat in how my practice feels yes. The practice gives you information about every other thing you're doing in your life and how that's affecting you. Okay, I need to drink more water, I need to sleep better, I need to eat good food, I need to, and all those things start to take shape as you continue to practice, because you wanna feel good. Right, right. 

10:28 - Stacey (Co-host)
As a man there I'm always like, oh, I wish I would have eaten better. I wish I would have I didn't do this better, I'm gonna come to class tomorrow. 

10:34 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
When I took this yoga class, like the ease that I found in my mind or the way it calmed any anxiety or overwhelm was huge. I just could manage my day better. I felt better tackling the things that need to be tackled or handling the things that came at me, and so when I miss practicing for a few days in a row, I feel it, I feel it mentally much more than physically, and there was a time where, if I missed it, my kids were like go to yoga. 

11:04
Go to yoga, you're nicer, you're happier and really it's kind of that simple I am nicer and happier when I go to yoga, I feel better. 

11:11 - Mark (Co-host)
Yeah, we get that, believe me. 

11:12 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yeah, I know my child there really cranky and drive home. 

11:15 - Mark (Co-host)
Nice yeah totally. How did you go from being? You did the one class. You loved the class. You fell in love with that yoga, so you wanted to do it more. You looked into becoming a practitioner. But what characteristic did you have that led you to be the owner of a studio? 

11:33 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yes, that's what I was trying to get. 

11:34 - Mark (Co-host)
How do you make that leap? There's a lot of people that are certified to teach yoga, teach Pilates. They don't own their own studio. What is it about you that made that happen? 

11:44 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
So a couple of things I started practicing regularly. 

11:48
I decided I would go to teacher training, which I did, and when I got back I still had my job working for my stepdad. 

11:55
I was in sales and at this point I was working for him in his office part time and so I still had that job and I was teaching yoga and I loved teaching yoga and I didn't so much like working the other job that I had and I just thought, if I'm going to work and be away from my kids during the day, it better be for something that I really love and something that's fulfilling, and not just a paycheck. I mean, we needed the paycheck for sure, so I was working, but if I had an opportunity to do something that I really loved, I was definitely going to move in that direction. It took three years to get there because we had to save money and had to figure it out. So in the meantime I was doing both jobs. I was still working the part time job and teaching early mornings and late at night and weekends and just kind of making it work. But I've always sort of accepted the challenge of whatever comes up Like even being here today. 

12:50 - Stacey (Co-host)
I was like well. 

12:50 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I'm a little nervous to be here, but OK yeah, I'll do it. So I don't know exactly what it is, but it's like how can you not take the chance, like if you think you can. I don't know. There was something in me that just said I think that you can do it, and so, like you have to try, Now you have to try. 

13:06 - Mark (Co-host)
You have to try. So I did, yeah, now you have to try and it's almost not even. It's out of your hands. 

13:11 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yeah, out of your hands and totally and even like the training portion of this, like what you did, the training you did, isn't it Like it was? 

13:17 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
long. 

13:18 - Stacey (Co-host)
Nine weeks Like the trainings are different now. 

13:21 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
But at the time there was only one training and you had to go away for nine weeks. And so my kids I had two kids and they were little, they were third grade and kindergarten at that time Nine weeks. 

13:31
And again, I don't know. I'm also a believer Like when some things, when you're moving in the right direction, things will fall into place. Not that you don't have to work at it or try, but the pieces kind of fall together. And the pieces kind of fell together for that, like it. Kindergarten and third grade, where both the kindergarten was full day, so the kids would be in school all day. My husband was able to get them to school. My mom would come over after school and be there until Trey got home from work and then they'd do it all again. His mom came and helped for a little while. You know. His brother came for a weekend. My sister certainly helped like everybody pitched in. 

14:06 - Mark (Co-host)
This is for nine weeks. 

14:07 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Two classes a day. So it was a lot, yeah, it was a lot. For me, that experience was really also life changing because it pushed me physically to a limit that I had never been pushed to before, and I think you have to sometimes hit those limits in different areas to know like, okay, I can do pretty much anything. 

14:27 - Mark (Co-host)
Like I can't. Did you meet Pickram? Was he at that, or is it just that he was there? He? 

14:31 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
was yeah, my training was really really big. So, um, we had like 310, I think in my training it was really big. But yes, he was there, yeah. 

14:41 - Mark (Co-host)
What was your first impression? 

14:43 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Of him yeah. 

14:45 - Mark (Co-host)
Um, hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe all those things. All those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helps shape the show, so we would appreciate it. 

15:00 - Stacey (Co-host)
Please, and back to the show. 

15:03 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I loved the yoga, so much. 

15:05
So I just wanted to learn everything I could learn he's. He's very much a showman, um, and puts on a very good show, Um, there were lots of teachers, so I didn't have any, like. I mean, it took classes from him, but a lot of the individual instruction was other teachers as well. My training was awesome. Like I, I, I value the experience of being pushed and and, and I gained so much out of it. I gained a lot of friends. I gained, you know, like when you're in that experience of being fully immersed in something, I think it's just a really cool thing yeah. 

15:41
Yeah, that's one of the reasons that led to the rebrand. So we were a big Ramilga Xston and I think that that gave the impression that we were a franchise and we never were. I've always been independently Female owned business, which I'm super proud of, and so, as people would ask me that question, I realized that was something I wanted to make really clear. Um, and I had been thinking about the rebrand and then the pandemic hit, and then it was like just hold on for dear life, and then, finally, we were able to do the rebrand, so now we are orange lotus. 

16:12 - Stacey (Co-host)
How'd you get through it? How'd you get through the pandemic, like that was so many? 

16:15 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
studios shut down and that was really tough. So in the years of being a studio owner, um, I've always wanted to teach yoga. I've always wanted to share the yoga with as many people as possible, because I want people to feel good, like if, if it's this simple, you know, we can show up and regularly take a class and we can feel this much better, like I have to share that with people. I can't not, um, but also I don't know how to run a business, or I didn't know how to run a business at the time and and so I just in my head, get the space get open, teach yoga. 

16:51
And then it's like, oh my God, I'm running a business. I had to find help for that. Yeah, um, and I think that's a really important thing in anything is just finding the support system that you need. So I started aligning with other um yoga studio owners there's an original yoga association that I'm part of and then I got a business coach and so when the pandemic hit, those two things were in place and because those two things were in place, I had this support system and or we all did, yeah, and so it was a lot of like, okay, it was like a Friday that everything shut down. I think we've March 13th. 

17:27
Friday, that it was going to close on Sunday or whatever. And so literally in that weekend, we're all talking to each other figuring out how do we get classes online, how can students sign up, how can they get the link to zoom, how can they? And so, you know, I don't know if I could have done it by myself, because the pressure was so big and like such a gut punch first of all, and then the pressure of trying to flip a business to an to a new way. 

17:51
I don't know it was so much, but that that support system is really what got me through that. 

17:54 - Stacey (Co-host)
You did it I practiced next to your mother. She's, she's been there, and your sister yes. So how did your family sort of inspire you? And, and Trey, he's always in class. So how did everybody inspire you and support you through this whole business? Cause, as you said, like it really is the support you have Totally, um well, they've supported me in everything. 

18:13 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Yeah, you know what I mean. 

18:14 - Stacey (Co-host)
I mean, they really are like they've always. 

18:16 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
We're a close family, my mom, my sister, trey, they have always supported me and, and when I went to teacher training I think that was a really important lesson for my kids, because it was I mean, nine weeks is a long time and I got a lot of like oh, you're going away. 

18:33
Like you're leaving your kids for nine weeks, which you know as a mother that feels horrible, yeah, but I also knew I was Leaving them with people who really love them and we're gonna care for them, and I think, ultimately, the lesson that it showed is that when they want to do something, we're gonna have their back too right, you know like we're gonna all rally around somebody who has a dream and try to help them get there, and when it's your turn, we'll all rally around you and my mom, my sister they've all done that kind of my whole life. 

19:01 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yeah, so there are no different. 

19:03 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
This was just an extension of that. 

19:04 - Stacey (Co-host)
How were you raised, like to become Kristen's? That we come, chris. That's a really good question. I. 

19:14 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Was raised by two really wonderful people, you know, who were close to their families too. So families always been sort of like a cornerstone of everything. We were close to my dad's family, we're close to my mom's family, we we spent time with cousins and aunts and uncles, and so there was always this big kind of family support system in place. My dad died when I was 16, so my mom really stepped up and Kept all of those family support systems in place for us, extended family support systems on both sides in place for us, and Always, you know, supported my sister and I at the same time, which was a really big job. That's huge. She did. She did a job. 

19:55 - Mark (Co-host)
You have a younger sister. I did, turns out. I know. Yes, I have known for a while. You know the dad be very accomplished, very professional, very driven. I know a lot about her, I respect her, I like her a lot. Clearly you're accomplished, you're driven. Is there ever a rivalry as you went through life? 

20:14 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I think we were far enough apart in years that there wasn't and we had different interests. So maybe if we had been like Playing the same sport or going out. 

20:26 - Mark (Co-host)
There's nothing you never fought. 

20:29 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I mean, I'll say no, she'll put, she might say yes. 

20:32 - Stacey (Co-host)
So you're smiling now, like you're always smiling every time I walk in the studio, like, tell me, there's got to be a day when you're like F this, sorry, I mean like forever. Who's watching these, of course, studio. Like how do you do that, though? How do you walk in and smile when maybe there's a day when you're just I? 

20:47 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Mean I do you have to be there, like, like, literally, and that's the. That's the good and the bad part. Yeah, that is the practice in my life that allows me the bandwidth for everything else I do, without a doubt. So, like every morning Well, almost every morning I take a class. Sometimes it's afternoon, depending on the schedule on the teaching Five or six. 

21:10
Yeah, yeah, and you try to take at least one day totally off. But that that's the foundation for everything. So, like I, I, monday, wednesday 930, I'm in a yoga class, like Tuesday at 430, thursday at 430. I'm in an IHP class Saturday morning. I'm in a yoga class Sunday morning. I'm in an IHP class, and those times on my calendar don't change. Hmm, I don't. Yeah, somebody says can you do something at that time? No, I can't. And I and I hold that practice really, really sacred because it does allow me to keep doing what I'm doing. And you know, self-care in all kinds of ways, yeah, you know, like, like I said, coaches who have my back and help pick me up when I'm having a bad day, or whatever Family I mean. You know you have to have your support systems in place because it is hard. 

22:00 - Stacey (Co-host)
It is hard. 

22:01 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I mean there were times, like before I had a business coach, before I had the connections with other studio owners, where I Didn't know what I was doing right, you know, I mean I really didn't I get. I'm doing it the best that I can. 

22:12 - Stacey (Co-host)
Yeah. 

22:12 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I really didn't know what I was doing, and so that can be really overwhelming, really overwhelming. And so reaching out and getting that support, I think is a big deal, because there's a moment of I Don't. I don't want to admit that I've taken on a job that I can't do yeah, like that sucks. Yes, you know it's a, it's a. 

22:31
Really that's a hard moment to sit with yourself and say, okay, I've started this, I know it can go somewhere and I'm willing to kind of do anything, but I don't know what that anything is like. I don't even know where to start. 

22:43 - Mark (Co-host)
Right. 

22:43 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
So when I think you put those support systems in place or get the help you need, at that moment it makes a huge difference. Everything comes second right. You just have to get it off the ground. But now we're at a really good place. Like I, have a really nice team in place. 

22:57
Have. It's like the best team I've had ever and I've had really good people along the way, but this one is just like amazing. Mm-hmm, great desk help. So we're in a really nice place right now. Yeah, thank you. Our mission is to provide an opportunity for people to experience personal growth and feel amazing through our powerful, high yoga fitness classes and, at the end of the day, our vision is for people to have the confidence and power to live the life they want is. 

23:23
I think a lot of us get stuck in this safe Zone or like doing what you think you should do and so I think the more time you spend on your mat and connecting to yourself, the more you can live the life you really want to live. 

23:35 - Mark (Co-host)
How does it impact your day from a productivity standpoint? 

23:39 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
I'm more productive if I practice for sure yeah yeah, um, I mean, it takes time out of my day, so I think that's where. 

23:46
I think, that's a really big good, a really important thing to talk about, because I think people think if I take this time out of my day, I'm losing these hours and I'm not going to be productive. But I think if we really talk about productivity like how hardcore focused productive can anyone be for any amount of time? I think it's. You know, I'm sure there's research on it and I don't know what it is, but, like for me, I can spend eight hours at my desk or I can spend four hours at my desk and I'll probably get done about the same thing so if I do like a physical practice first, that's got my mind focused and got my body calm, and then I sit there for four hours and crank it all out. 

24:22
It's for me often better than if I had sat there for eight hours, kind of you know, half in and half out. 

24:29 - Mark (Co-host)
I had a healthy fear for what you guys have been describing. 

24:31 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Yeah, it's okay, you'll get to come to a class, you'll love it. 

24:34 - Mark (Co-host)
I'm sure it would break me. I would love it, but it would absolutely break me. 

24:38 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
But it actually won't, Because really you do what you can do on that day and I think that's another thing. Like people get afraid because it's hot and they hear that it's hard, but it's kind of as hard as you want it to be or as not intense as you want it to be. You can really control that. 

24:55 - Stacey (Co-host)
But I can't control me, so that's what you'll learn to control, and I think the people who buckle are the ones who push, push, push, push, push in their first class and they don't like. I think it's hard, it's so hard. Because, we're sort of all type A people to kind of like say, okay, I'm going to step back like on a day when I don't feel that good. 

25:13 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
So when you're having all of those challenges at once and watching yourself, it's actually a really powerful thing, because the more you do that, the more you're going to develop compassion for yourself. Back to your pop quiz at the beginning. Yeah, you know, people falling it's huge, it is huge, it's huge and that can really be the precursor to the ending of somebody's life. So if you can balance and you're strong and you have this range of motion, I mean that's everything. What's the oldest person you have? 77. 77. 

25:45 - Mark (Co-host)
And how about the youngest? They come in at 20? Youngest? 

25:50 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Like late teens early 20s. Yeah, that is a long time and a hot time for the kids to be, in there. Not that I'm not saying that it's bad for them. I'm saying that it's. You know, they're used to their attention being really occupied by phones and video games, and things like that. So to be quiet and still for 90 minutes is a lot that's asking a lot of an adult, it is. 

26:12
We always recommend people practice two to three times a week. I mean, honestly, the answer is however often works for your life. You know like people have different schedules and different responsibilities, and so consistency is more important than frequency. If you can only go once a week, go once a week, but do it regularly, and that's how you build a pattern that's going to be effective and you're going to feel the benefits. But two to three times a week is great. 

26:36 - Mark (Co-host)
I have a healthy fear and a healthy respect for yoga. You're afraid of that alone, hot yoga. So I've seen it and I've tried. At the end of some of the stuff that I do, you try a couple poses and I'm the most inflexible person on the planet, but that doesn't matter. I know I can get to the pose that I can achieve. 

26:52 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
That's why you go to yoga. 

26:53 - Stacey (Co-host)
I have seen the changes in your studio over the last 12 years and it is beautiful, it is clean, it is fun. It's like you know, like you have these cool contests and these things that you do, and what's the next thing? 

27:05 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Well, I'm always trying to like evolve. I think I was a little afraid of that at first, like I found my one thing and I was just going to do my one thing, and it's been really fun the past few years to add other modalities and evolve, and I think that that will continue to happen. I mean, the yoga is the foundation for me. That's like the practice that I would never, ever give up. So that's there. That's not going anywhere, right? But we've added some really awesome, fun new classes and we have a new one starting in January Inferno Sculpt. That's one with the weights. So you know, like I said, our mission is to help people, and so when I bring in a new class, it has to align with my mission and my vision and it has to keep providing the benefits and results of the classes that we currently have, and so I think you'll just continue to see more of that. 

27:53 - Stacey (Co-host)
Hopefully, we keep growing and growing. I just want to say like this has been such a wonderful thing for me in my life. Thank you for opening your studio. We're going to get Mark in there. 

28:02 - Mark (Co-host)
I promise You're going to get Mark in there, oh wait, you promise. 

28:07 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Come take a class you guys will love it, try it, don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. 

28:13 - Mark (Co-host)
Be very afraid. Do not be scared. 

28:16 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
Thank you, I can't wait till you come to class. You're welcome. Thank you, you're welcome. 

28:19 - Mark (Co-host)
Yes, thank you, you're welcome. 

28:20 - Kristin Sapp (Guest)
It's great Thanks for having me. Bye everybody. 

28:23 - Stacey (Co-host)
Thanks so much for joining us. You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the Gurus and Game Changers podcast. While you're here, if you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks. See you next week. 


People on this episode