How We Got Here
(Or: The Yoga Studio I Never Meant to Open)
People ask me all the time: "How did you decide to open a yoga studio?"
The honest answer? I didn't.
This wasn't some carefully plotted career move. It was equal parts serendipity, stubbornness (mostly Billy's), and the universe apparently deciding I needed a serious life detour. Let me tell you the whole messy, wonderful story.
Meet the Players
First, there's me - Petra. Yoga teacher, accidental entrepreneur, and the face you see around the studio daily. Then there's Billy - my husband, a former nuclear engineer and Navy officer, and the real reason this studio exists (though he'll happily stay behind the scenes).
The Setup: 2013
Picture this: I'd been teaching yoga for about a year while working remotely for a Boston nonprofit. Billy was serving as a Navy officer, despite dealing with chronic pain from a herniated disk he'd suffered in 2009. The one thing that consistently helped his pain? Yoga. (Turns out all those hours of me practice-teaching on him actually paid off!)
We were happily anticipating more Navy moves and adventures when the Navy handed Billy a plot twist: he was being medically discharged. Just like that, the life we'd planned evaporated. I’m positive many of us have had moments when the rug was pulled out - this was certainly one of those for us.
The "Absolutely Not" Phase
In August 2013, we found ourselves staring at a blank slate (I do not do well with blank slates). Then one morning, Billy hit me with: "Let's open a yoga studio!"
My response? Let's just say it involved firm a firm no and and maybe some profanity to emphasize. I had zero desire to run a business. None.
But Billy? He wouldn't let it go. For a solid week, he crunched numbers, researched demographics, and mapped out scenarios. The man had, as it happened, always wanted to own a business. Eventually, I agreed to humor him with some exploratory road trips.
The Wild Goose Chase
That September, we spent an entire weekend driving through every potentially viable town in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And at every stop? A yoga studio already existed. (Thanks, 2013 yoga boom.)
I had attended my 200hr yoga teacher training at Yoga One, owned by Kelly O’Connell, when she hosted my trainer, Deborah Williamson for a two-week intensive. I decided to email Kelly - "We're thinking of opening a studio," I wrote, "but don't worry - not near you!" I just wanted some advice from someone who'd been there.
The Universe Laughs
The next morning, I woke to an email from Kelly: the night before, she had made the final decision to sell her studio … did we want to buy it?
My immediate answer was NO (are we sensing a trend?). If I was going to own a business, I wanted it to be MY business - my mission, my brand, my voice. I didn’t want what someone else had created. But Billy, ever the pragmatist, saw an opportunity. We wouldn't have to take on her entire operation - we could use it as a foundation.
The Leap
By November 2013, we'd acquired the business assets. On January 1, 2014, Create Power Yoga opened its doors. Two years later, we moved to our current Rumford location on Newport Avenue - the home we've grown into ever since.
The Parts You Don't See
There’s a LOT missing from this story. A 25-year-old figuring out how to run a business and be a boss. The imposter-syndrome of it all. The 24/7/365 work for the first two years. The 18 classes I taught per week. My very first hire. My first teacher training. The mentorship I found in my trainers, who let me call them night and day. The students and teachers who leaned into my vision for the community, for the third space we could build together. The losses and life changes and growing that we have done. I have raised this business. It has also raised me.
What started as Billy's nutty idea became a space far beyond what either of us imagined. He was right about this crazy adventure.
So that's how we got here - not through careful planning, but through unexpected twists, a little resistance (okay, a lot), and ultimately, surrender to the path that was waiting for us all along.
Petra
Owner and lead teacher trainer
Create Power Yoga
Something’s are just meant to be. Thank you.