The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root

The Bold and Brilliant Podcast with guest Stephanie Flanders-Martin

• Tracie Root

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Your host,
Tracie Root

Tracie:

Stephanie, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. We have so much to talk about.

Stephanie:

Thank you, Tracie.

Tracie:

I'm really excited to be here. Yay. Okay. Well, so as we were talking before when we, before we got started, I know a lot about what you do now. We've been kind of, as soon as we got connected, we've been tightly connected, talking about all of the different areas that you work. Significantly different and yet kind of all related types of work. But I don't know a lot about how you got here. So let's go back a little origin story journey and tell me, tell everyone, our listeners here on the podcast, like where did you start? What did you start with, and how did you decide to start doing the things that you're doing now?

Stephanie:

Yeah. Yeah. It's a long meandering story. I'll make it semi short. But I started in the restaurant business after college. I have my degree in home economics, nutrition is my focus. Okay. And really wanted to get into that field, but got out of college and couldn't find anything. I lived in LA at the time and kind of got to this mode of. Holy cow, I've gotta make money like uhoh. Here we go. Right? So started looking for jobs, started in the restaurant business as an assistant manager

Tracie:

Okay.

Stephanie:

Working in the quick casual restaurant business. And then really love, I just fell in love with it. So I grew my career from assistant manager to manager. I worked in research and development for a while, and then I we moved to Portland. Got a great opportunity to start managing multiple restaurants, and so I managed six McDonald's and about$12 million in business. Loved it, loved the people, had fun but wanted to make a new change once I got my Master's in human resources.

Tracie:

Okay. I'm gonna pause you because I wanna know, what was it about the restaurant business that you loved? That took you like leaving college with nutrition. To managing the restaurants instead. And the research part maybe is a little, is interesting too.'cause was it research on for like that restaurant to make them successful or about the industry in general? Tell us just a little bit more about Yeah, what about it that you really enjoyed? Because I wanna see how it's gonna start relating to what I know you do now. So talk a little bit more about the, what was fun about it?

Stephanie:

I'm a people person, so standing at the counter, talking to customers and walking around and talking to customers it just, it brings me joy. I'm such a people person and connecting is a huge part of my personality. I love that. In the research and development, I actually worked in a research and development store where they would throw different. Research projects at me for those for trying out new, so trying new foods, trying new wraps, trying new, you know, different types of things. Okay. And again, that gave me an opportunity to connect with clients out in the lobby. It's what did you think? How did you like it? Oh, I didn't like it. Oh, okay. Great feedback. I'll share that. Or, yeah, we loved it. Share, you know, we want more. So it was really fun. That's cool. And then transitioning up to my multi-unit restaurant management. What I loved about that was, again, continuing to connect.'cause as I'd walk in the stores, I'd talk to people and a bunch of

Tracie:

different stores now,

Stephanie:

right? So now I have six stores, but I really started enjoying the management part of it, growing the people, training the people training my leaders. And just again, an opportunity to stay connected with, you know, in general people. But now. On a different level.

Tracie:

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:

My career made a shift when I finished my master's. And really wanted to swing into the HR part.'cause again, the people part is what really was my passion. Mm-hmm. But there was no opportunities where I was at. So I joined Papa Murphy's International and started overseeing franchise owners. So again, customer service but at a different level. And then really helping them grow their businesses. Continuing to kind of take the skill sets I'd learned, but grow their businesses.

Tracie:

So I love, I wanna interrupt again. I love that, you know, the stores where you were overseeing, you know, them the management is, like you said, the one level, but the franchise owners. They want they're not just managing a store, they're creating a business for themselves.

Stephanie:

Correct.

Tracie:

So supporting them as a business owner as opposed to a store manager is a very different, and like you said, next level kind of relationship. Yeah. This is all making a lot of sense to me now.

Stephanie:

Tying it all together for, yeah. What I loved about working with franchise owners was I got to see it from their eyes because I had been. Heavily immersed in the company side. Now seeing it from a franchise side and trying to meld those two worlds together was a new challenge for me. One of my passions again was training and development and helping people. An opportunity I. Came open to become the director of training for Papa Murphy's. So I moved into that role and as I continued to work with franchise owners and they had a very small group of company stores at the time, but working with the franchise owners I just became more passionate about the business side of it. And then got the opportunity to start managing multiple departments and grew myself from, you know, director to vp very quickly. And I just loved it. I had so much fun. I loved the people. I loved managing departments. I loved the different things that I got to do every day. I. For me, I love change in the sense of that every day's not exactly the same, but I do love some routine, so I'd come in and have my routine, but then get some kind of new challenge or opportunity. Yeah. So I was on that career path and then went through some personal change and challenge and got an opportunity to do a similar type role with a new company in Colorado. So made the switch and the move to Colorado with some startup companies. And I did that with two, two different companies and then moved to a third company and was downsized, right sized, you know, a couple times with small companies. That just becomes the challenge. Yep. And the third time I just said at that time I was opening restaurants internationally, so I was working in the Middle East. Opening restaurants, they're looking at new concepts in India and Italy and loving what I was doing. But the company got sold and I just said, I think I'm at a point in my life where I don't wanna continue to make these shifts and changes. Like relearning. Yeah. With concepts, because the basics are the same, but it's the new. Concept that you have to learn. Okay, now I have to learn sandwiches. Okay, now I have to learn pizza. Okay, now I have to learn, right? So I just decided at that time time to become an entrepreneur. I've learned a lot from these business owners. I've grown a lot personally. So I went back to what I knew best, which is health and wellness, and just the coaching part of health and wellness with my nutritional background. And through that journey, I'll take one quick side step and then come back. Okay. I have practiced yoga since I was 29. It was my escape as my kids were little, to go to some quiet place and have a little stillness for myself for one hour, just a little then, yes, and fast forward back to where I was at with my health and wellness. One thing I kept seeing was this need for people to de-stress. People were so stressed out and that was causing a lot of the health and wellness issues. So I had gone to a workshop and talked to one of the workshop facilitators and said, man, I've done, I've practiced yoga for, you know, 20 some years, and I love the practice. I've always thought it'd be kind of intriguing to be a teacher, but I think I'm past that. And she looked me in the eye and she said, no, you're not. And guess what? People need you. People want to see somebody that looks like them and practice with somebody that's like you. So at age 50, here I go, right? 51, I guess I was 51. I went back and became a certified yoga teacher and that's really where a lot of shift happened within me. I started growing my yoga'cause I of course start as a yoga teacher. I've gotta open a studio, right? That's my brilliant idea. Well,

Tracie:

so yeah. So you were starting to talk about, okay, I'm gonna become an entrepreneur, but then you sidestepped to becoming a new teacher. Had you started something entrepreneurial before you got your yoga teacher training?

Stephanie:

Yeah, so I was a health and wellness coach. So you were coaching? Just started coaching, yeah. Okay. And then Jane, what I did, Jane, like you

Tracie:

had worked in these company based and store-based environments for so long, but here you were working kind of on your own right? And Yeah, I would imagine, and because I've been through that, that the draw to have a place. To do your work. Yeah. After having a place to go to work, there's something there. You know, I still have it even after opening, gathering, closing gathers I'm always looking at places. We talked about this when we were in. Yeah. So it's like, oh, look at that place. I can have a place. You know? Yeah. There's always something about having a place. Yeah. That even for entrepreneurs there's a draw. I think if you've been. That kind of corporate company based employee environment.

Stephanie:

Yeah. And I'll tie this together with something that is really the whole purpose of having a yoga studio was community for me. I love being in community. I love being with people. And it allowed me the opportunity to start taking my health and wellness coaching business and add another component, which was my yoga, you know, teaching yoga, and then add on to that. My first year as a yoga teacher, I'm like, huh, let's do a retreat.

Tracie:

Okay, here we go. Well, because yoga retreats are a thing. Yeah. And after all of your work internationally with the restaurant business, as soon as you said, oh, I was in the Middle East, I was like, well, there's the travel. Yeah. Part and the retreat part of it started then, right? Yeah. When you got a chance to see other parts of the world. Keep going. Sorry. Yeah. Well, so one

Stephanie:

of the things, so where's our first retreat? Thailand, which is where we had done a scouting for a new restaurant and I had stayed at this amazing retreat center. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, Ooh, let's take a group there. So we did, we launched our first, you know, okay, here we go. We're gonna do a retreat first year in business as a yoga studio. Mm-hmm. And we took 12, yo 11 yogis, 11 of us I think, or 11 or 12 of us. We took to Thailand and it was so much fun. We proceeded to host. Wine and yoga retreats in Oregon at a bed and breakfast. Mm-hmm. And we sold that out. We added another week or another weekend, so we sold that out. And so retreats quickly became. The part that I really enjoyed the most, even though I love the teaching, I love all of the things. I slowly did less of the health coaching and really focused on yoga retreats, yoga workshops, yoga. Yoga, everything, yoga. And that's really where the passion for hosting retreats came from. Mm-hmm. Was the excitement of going somewhere and traveling the world, which I had been working internationally. And yet that community, which I craved and thrived on. Fast forward to 2020. We all know what happened. We were planning to take a group to Greece in two months and COVID, so we took, you know, we just paused our retreat the. Cruise line that we were taking him on was amazing to work with and worked our way through COVID, pivoted to online yoga. Just kept our community online and slowly you know, the story, you know, you've lived this story, but slowly we just decided to let our lease go. We had just repped our lease. But we let our lease go because we didn't know what was gonna happen, number one. Number two, our main community that we taught to was middle age and older women. And the thought and fear for us was, I don't know, want to give anybody this disease. I don't know how to keep them safe. Doing yoga in a mask is not fun. And we just decided to stay online, so we pivoted to online, but kept the retreat component. So we went to Greece 2021 and then started relaunching our local retreats. Did, you know, just kept doing two a year. We'd do two of those, we'd do one international. And then just continued to make this pivot to, you know, retreats internationally. We would do one a year and then we would do two or three, sometimes four stateside. So that's really where I decided to become a travel agent and keep my yoga business and make that connection of the two. I was already doing all the planning. I was already doing the organizing, but as a travel agent, I now have the booking systems. I now have the inside scoop to make things much more smooth and easy and connected. That's kinda where that all led to.

Tracie:

Yeah. Well that all makes so much sense. The, and I think that that's a lot of people who get into travel get into travel because they like to travel. You know, these days, especially back in the olden days when you had to have specialized equipment and hard ticketing and all of those things, that was a whole different plan. And when I was in corporate, I remember having to. To deal with the travel office and all the specialization that took and everything. But these days, a lot of people that I talk to, especially in networking, it's like, yeah, I'm a travel agent. I started doing it because I was going here and I decided to help other people go here or whatever. Yeah. So that totally makes sense. And yeah, we've talked about the letting the studio go and it only. For so many of us who had small, boutique kind of businesses. Mm-hmm. You know, I don't know a lot that made it all the way through and kept their existing model just because there was that whole unknown factor. And you know, and maybe it's because we're older and we're just like, this life doesn't have to be this hard. We can do something differently because we've already reinvented things before. Yeah. Right.

Stephanie:

So we'll just do it again. Well, and I would say the side benefits, a couple of things I learned very quickly when we made this pivot. So it was 30 minutes to my studio.

Tracie:

Mm-hmm. I

Stephanie:

always wanted to be there 20 minutes ahead. Sure. So let's just T tack on an hour before a class.

Tracie:

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:

Sometimes I would have two classes in a row, but often it would just be one class just based on the need of the clients.

Tracie:

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:

So I was spending, let's call it. Two hours a day, you're kinda cleaning up afterwards and getting back home. Wait, and nobody ever just left, right? Everybody wants to gab gab and do the blah, blah blah. Like Caterina would say. So it, you know, it became this extra two hours, which I loved when I was there, but I quickly realized I literally have my commute to the basement, or my commute to my new studio is three minutes. Like, walk down, open my laptop. Start. Yeah, that's as simple as it got. So I think what I realized too, with that pivot and why I have stayed virtually is I got back hours in the week. Now, I will also say, and you and I have talked about this personally, every time I drive by an empty space, I go, Ooh, that would be such a great yoga studio. Would be great. It would be fabulous. And I miss teaching in person. But I do get to teach in person at my retreats. So that's where I get to fill that cup in that way. And just continue to nurture my online clients and build, you know, that way

Tracie:

and bring them together in retreats and, you know, I think the whole, Ooh, it's a space. Would that space be great? Also comes from, for me it's from being in corporate facilities. For you, you were opening restaurants, right? Yeah. So you were always looking at a new space to maybe open a restaurant. In the same way that I was moving companies into these pieces too. So we have that other previous draw towards what the It's all about potential. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Imagine what that could be like.'cause we have this visionary situation. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, so we've already kind of touched on your big bold decision that you made to become a yoga teacher. And you know what I love, but, but I see that as. Literally just a step on the path for you because you know, you were already practicing next, and I've considered in the past being a Pilates teacher too, for the same reason I'm going to class three, four times a week. Clearly. I enjoy it. I'm good at it. People like ask me questions. You know, you have all of this kind of potential for in people who used to always assume that I was in teacher training and I wasn't. I knew since I was opening, gathered that I wasn't going to. But the, the, it's, it's a very natural progression because you're already doing the hours, you just now have more pointed kind of education about it. But to take from becoming a yoga teacher to doing a retreat like, well, I guess it's like a party, but it's a, but you're just a party planner. Yeah. And then going, and so it's all been a very natural, like add-on kind of Yeah. Process it seems, which I love.

Stephanie:

Yeah. And, and what it's ended up for me, Tracie, what's, what's kind of unfolded is the bonus of how much I love retreats now, helping people plan retreats. Helping people understand how they can enjoy retreats and help them with just the behind the scenes, right? I'll do the bookings, I'll help with this, I'll help with that. And then you go enjoy your retreat. You get to not worry about that busyness of what you know, all the booking system is and all that kinda stuff. I'll do that for you. Go have fun, be merry. Take your, you know, have a good time. Yeah. So I think that I've been able to meld the two and continue to do what makes my body feel good as I've aged, which is yoga. Mm-hmm. To continue to teach what I love. And melding the two worlds is kind of the two core values that I have or, and, and have always had, but just kind of maybe focused more on them as I've aged is adventure and community.

Tracie:

Yeah. And the health piece too. So like you said, keep your body healthy by doing the things that it responds to, but clearly you started off with health being the first thing. Yeah. It's just, and I, what it sounds like is it ends up being like this underlying current, because the mental health aspect and the adventure, to me, adventure is part of health.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Tracie:

If I'm not adventuring. Or planning an adventure. Yeah. Then I'm depressed. Like it's not, you know, there's there's a joy that comes from that and health can come from having that joy disposition. So having that undercurrent of health is like still there, even though it manifests in community and

Stephanie:

Yeah. Well, and that's, I think that's why I had such a hard time with COVID was feeling like I was in jail when I love traveling, when I love getting out and being in community. It was so hard for me. Yeah. Connecting in other ways became the challenge, right? Like, how can I continue to be online more? How can I, you know, thrive in a community online, which has now been the side benefit of getting to meet so many more people throughout the country, and, you know, the world, I would say. Yep. You, you can thrive in different ways in community. Whether it be through the gather community or, you know, all different kinds of ways to plug in. That's been the side benefit because as I've done all these changes, we then, you know, had some personal changes and moved back to Oregon where I had to start over at, you know, age 58 trying to meet people again. It's, it's a whole different ballgame. So discovering community in different ways has been such an adventure in itself.

Tracie:

Yeah, I love that. And you're right, you can just. You know, we don't, it's not a conscious thing to shift from in-person to online. We did it, but because we had to do it, but it was not anything we ever would've chosen. But you know what I realized several months post start of lockdown was that the whole point of having the in-person space was not to have a room to rent. Which was the business right. But the point was to bring people together was to build community. Right. And like, you know, I always tell people, I'm like, I wanted to have friends. So that's why I built a place where I could bring friends and Yeah, find friends. And so realizing that by shifting that online is just a different way of building community and that, that was always the point.

Stephanie:

Yeah. In community.

Tracie:

And so whether for you with retreats, with teaching yoga with, you know, not only hosting your own retreats, but helping other people build their community and being kind of a part of that, whether you participate in the retreat or are just there to help create that community. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, you have a whole other arm of your business that we can't talk about all of that this time today, which is also building more communities so that people have that capacity. It's so, like you are I always talk about the ripples in the pond factor and how everyone's pebble that goes into the pond is different size. And so your ripples are different sizes and some are big and some are small. But you literally have a hand of pebbles. You're not just a pebble, you're like five pebbles because of all of the different ways that you. Build community and show up in the world. And I think that's a superpower. So That's amazing.

Stephanie:

Yeah. And the common theme through everything right, is people, i it's how I started my career. It's how I built my career. My businesses is people. And that, whether it's one business or the other business, they all interconnect in one common theme. It's community and people. Yeah, it's my need for that. One of the things I did discover, which was really interesting about myself as I, as we went through COVID mostly, is that I really am an ambivert, I unplug mm-hmm. And do great at recharging, you know, like having that personal space. But I do get charged up when I'm with people. Like, I feel so nourished and comforted in mostly smaller communities. I feel like I do better in kind of that 15 to 20, mm-hmm. 25. Mm-hmm. Because I can know everybody, because I can then connect with everybody, and know, you know, not have this unknown of these big groups. But I love, I just, I love it so much. The community and the adventure and the people.

Tracie:

Yep, yep. Well that's, and that's why we've become fast friends ever since we met, because we are like this in all of those categories for sure. You know, Stephanie, you're helping me. We're connected in all these other events and everything that we have going on, and this of course being a podcast, it's the kind of evergreen kind of thing. But given that we're here in the middle, starting the summer of 2025, what's like, what do you see? I know you have specific trips planned for retreats, whether they're yoga retreats or other types of things. I'm really thrilled and excited to be going with you to France at the end of 2026. So, you know, by the time that happens, lots of people will have heard this episode. It'll have been out for over a year. So we can talk about that one, but like, what's your like dream trip that you wanna bring people on that you haven't done yet?

Stephanie:

Well, I have this, it, it, in fact, I think Caterina and I might have been talking about it, but one of my bucket list trips is to take a group from one side of Canada to the other side. Oh yeah, we

Tracie:

keep talking about that.'cause I wanna do that

Stephanie:

on the train. I know. We need to take a group on the train. So I've already started the process. I actually reached out, you know me, I'm always planning. I already started the process of just gathering the information. There's a, it's called a trance. Canadian tour, and I think it's seven or eight days, so one side to the other side, and then I think you fly home. I don't, I I know you don't go back, right? I'm sure. Yeah. It looks amazing. And so I've, I've already started this like kind of noodling what could this look like and who would like to go with and Yeah. You know, it's, it's the challenge with rail. It's not like when you do a land tour where you can, or, or even a river cruise or cruise where you can book it and then. Slowly kind of noodle people. When you do rail, you need to either make payments and book a big block is what I'm discovering. Or have the set non of people that are ready to go and then we all book together. We all book together. So that's where the little nuances of like, oh, okay, we wanna go, who wants to go with me? Like, do we have 15 people or 20 people that wanna go that we could book now? Right. Kind of think for a 2027, because one of the things I really pride myself on is booking. At least 18 months to two years out.

Tracie:

Yeah. So that people can really Plan.

Stephanie:

Plan,

Tracie:

yeah. And

Stephanie:

not feel like, I can't afford that. Sure. You can, you make a deposit and then just make, you know, small payments and by the time you go, that trip is paid off and you get to enjoy the adventure. Yep.

Tracie:

Yeah. Well I can't wait for that to come to fruition. And you're right, the, you know, doing what Katina would call the pre-publication. Yeah. We're gonna do this. This is what I'm looking at and I need people to start. Yeah. You know, anyway, that would be really exciting. And then of course, in our people get a lot of the inside scoop, right in our group text. Someone starts talking about the Orient Express and we're all excited again. So yeah, good venture to

Stephanie:

come. I'm dripping on that one too. And one of my other bucket list realtor. I love the rail. It's really fun to do rail Scotland. There's a rail going across Scotland that I really wanna take a group on too, as

Tracie:

long as they have heaters. I would love to see Scotland from behind a window.

Stephanie:

Yeah, exactly. Or right in July when it's the

Tracie:

warmest Yeah. In that one my friend, we could keep talking about potential adventure for hours, but we're, we're gonna have to just do a new episode sometime in the future where we talk about what already happened and what's on the deck going forward. So I just wanna thank you. Thank you for all of that story. I literally didn't know any of that beginning stuff, and I think what I want. Our listeners to recognize is that no matter where you are, if you go with the things that really light you up, you're gonna end up somewhere amazing and recognizing that that, you know, just hold onto the thing, hold onto those things and let the rest kind of, you know, just evolve because it's only gonna be amazing.

Stephanie:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Tracie:

I love it. Stephanie, thank you so much for being on the podcast and we will talk again super soon. Yeah. Thank

Stephanie:

you so much my friend.