Ep. 7 - Just Breathe with Lauren Vogel | Gross To Net

Lauren Vogel is an Alabama-based yogi, marketer, and writer who, with her partner and co-founder, is building and running a community yoga app called Zentric. She's building small and following positive energy at every turn.

Tune in for a great conversation and follow Zentric on Instagram for flows and meditations.

Transcript

George 0:22

Hello everybody and welcome to Gross 10 Net, the podcast that looks at life and work and what we get out of all of it. Today's guest I'm so excited about and I'm glad that she said yes. She has spent years managing yoga departments at major fitness chain, uh, building community, one class at a time in Birmingham, Alabama. She's got a background in theater and marketing, and she's taught thousands of students to find strength and stillness on the mat. She worked in an ad agency and then started her own marketing firm in 2023. Now she's taking everything she learned about yoga and marketing. And launching it into one of the most competitive digital wellness markets in history, building an on-demand yoga app from the ground up with her co-founder. We're gonna talk about what it's like to go from instructor to entrepreneur, why she chose to build an app instead of a studio, how she's thinking about competing, um, in so against some of these massive platforms. Um. What are some of the unit economics? What does she not know? What does she know? Um, excited to have her here. Today's guest is none other than Lauren Vogel. Welcome Lauren.

Lauren 1:25

Thank you, George. I'm so happy to be here with you.

George 1:28

It's nice to have you and I appreciate you saying yes to doing this.

Lauren 1:32

Yeah, absolutely.

George 1:34

Um, one, one of the reasons I wanted to, I thought it'd be interesting, interesting to have you on is'cause you, you already have been an entrepreneur, right? You are running your own, uh, marketing shop and you are launch launching an app, uh, a product right now. When actually did you guys launch? I'll plug the app right now. It's called Zen.

Lauren 1:57

Yeah, so we officially launched last January, so January, 2024. Okay. Was when we really came out. Um, and we started with, um, a program, the 30 day Yoga Journey. So that was our, our big thing and spent the last year sort of building classes, our class library. Yeah.

George 2:15

Yeah, I, I'm really interested to talk about like, uh, the early stages of the entrepreneurship journey. I know when we talked about you doing the podcast, you said you were a little nervous because I, you know, I have, I have talked with some folks who have done, you know, who have been in, in the, in the game for a while or had big exits or whatever. Um, but I think that this. Part of the journey is equally as fascinating and maybe more important because it's like the hardest hurdle to get over, in my opinion, is starting something. So can, can you tell me first of all, about maybe let's go back to, uh, I. The, not the very, very beginning, but like when you, you were working in an ad agency bef prior to 2023, right?

Lauren 2:58

Yeah. I was working at, um, a company called Modern Brand. We were just a small boutique ad firm, marketing firm, um, in Birmingham. And I, um, yeah, I got the opportunity to branch out from there and go work with a client separately. Um, and it was really an offer that I, I could not refuse. It was just. A really great opportunity, um, both, you know, financially, but also doing something that I felt had a mission and that's, um, advocating for access to mental healthcare. So, um, I actually, yeah, sort of had to branch out on my own, um, and become an entrepreneur and opened up my own little boutique communications firm with one major client, but then lots of little ones along the way too.

George 3:47

Yeah. So good to start with a client instead of just saying, Hey, I'm gonna do this.

Lauren 3:52

Yeah. So that was, I mean, the way was paved and I just had to, you know, take the step forward and it was, it's been that, that part that the marketing and comms has been. A blessing. It's been, you know, such a, I don't wanna say easy, because nothing's never easy, but it has, it hasn't been like a ship that I have to keep afloat. Um, like, uh, centric is so, I feel like centric is, is like my, you know, I'm building that, um, airplane while I'm trying to take it off or trying to fly it as well. No.

George 4:23

Yeah. Yeah. I get, yeah. And that's hard to do. It's really hard to do. It's so hard. Um, so I mean, why being that it is hard to do, like, why did you wanna do it? Why, why do something hard?

Lauren 4:35

Well, I mean, I like hard things. I mean, challenging myself and, you know, growing is sort of my life's journey. I'm, I love to learn. But, um, it's a calling, I guess. Um, I've been teaching yoga for. Uh, so many years now, um, over a decade. And there's just this, it's like my life's passion. It's my calling. You know, you and I met in the theater world, and so there's

George 4:59

many years ago,

Lauren 5:00

many years ago, um, and, you know, there is a, I don't wanna say performance, but there's a, a public speaking aspect to yoga. Um, and there's, it's also just mission driven. It also just. You know, changed my life for the better. So teaching yoga was just like, I feel like I was born to do it. Um, and I've, you know, been lucky enough to teach thousands of students over the years and I feel like my teaching has always just been something that resonated with people. Um, and I wanted to do it in a bigger way. Um, and I wanted to make it my. My main gig, you know, I wanted to do it full-time and I did do it full-time by jumping studio to studio for several years. Um, but that was exhausting and not sustainable. Um, so then, you know, I had to scale back and so many, so many other things came up in life. Um, but the big reason why I wanted to. To start my own thing was because I, I really feel like I've put on this planet to, to do this work, to, I don't know, get the message out about yoga and health and wellbeing. Um, not just physically, but also mentally and spiritually too. Um, and I didn't wanna open up a studio, I think you wanted to talk about that. I didn't wanna open up a brick mortar. Um, and the reason I didn't wanna open up a brick and mortar is because I've seen. Many people, um, sort of put their hearts and their souls and their, uh, their world and their life and their finances, everything on the line for a studio, and it's difficult to make ends meet there. Um, I think that the business model of a yoga studio is flawed, um, just because it's really difficult to keep the doors open on. How, how the business model works when you're charging 15 to$20 per class and you're really only, um, able to do that for these peak times in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and a studio since sit empty most of the day. And then you have, you have overhead, you have instructors to pay, you have insurance to, to pay for. You have all of these expenses that don't get covered by just people coming into the door. So you have to have multiple streams of revenue. People do it and they do it well, but the people that do it well. Um, I feel like they, they have alternate streams of revenue. In the yoga world, you'd have to have a yoga teacher training, you'd have to have retreats, you'd have to have just lots of things other, like even a boutique. And that becomes a very big job. And I, that wasn't my path. I knew it wasn't my path.

George 7:34

And, uh, ar arguably like with streams of revenue, because I get it. Like I know a bunch of people in the fitness world and it's hard with any kind of class based fitness.'cause you want good instructors and you want a good location and you gotta pay mm-hmm. For those things. And then you're only, you're limited by like, what is your class size? How many people can I teach? I mean 30, what is it, what is the, what do you think an average class size is at a stu? Like, what is the average class size that you're teaching when you go to a different studio?

Lauren 8:03

Well, I sort of don't have a great perspective on that anymore because I don't teach at boutique Studios. I only teach at, um, one major club right now. Sure. Um, I dunno if we can say it, lifetime Fitness, but, um, I, I teach there in an average class size is anywhere from. 20 to like 50 people. Um, but at a normal studio it could be five. Yeah. I mean, when I was teaching at small boutique studios, sometimes no one would show up. Sometimes one person would show up. Um, but I think the most I ever really got was like 25 or 30, and that was like some sort of amazing day, you know?

George 8:39

Yeah, yeah. And it's hard to pay the bills on just like banking on that happening. Yeah, exactly. That

Lauren 8:46

doesn't work.

George 8:47

You would need to be like, obviously. Um, I don't think there's any problem with saying that you teach classes at Lifetime Fitness. Um, if somebody from their PR department calls me, um, I'll let you know. But, but I mean, you know, like, like Lifetime Fitness has a lot of, within that, under that building. Uh, they have a lot, they have a lot of clubs. First of all, they have a lot of members and they've got a lot of things, like even if nobody shows up for yoga, they've got plenty of other things to cover their overhead. Mm-hmm. And they've got people who are committed to paying, I don't know, hundreds of dollars a month for a membership anyway. So like, if you're gonna open a, a studio, your own studio, you would probably need to do some kind of online coaching or something anyway. So you chose to start. Uh, online coaching, um

Lauren 9:35

mm-hmm.

George 9:35

Which I think is cool. I, I downloaded the app. I, I think that, uh, maybe not right at launch, but I downloaded the app last year. I've gone through a couple of the things. I will say that I don't do yoga regularly enough. I do, uh, I do stretch every day because. I'm getting old and that gets harder. It gets harder just to like live if you don't stretch every day. Um, sure. But I do appreciate the fact that like, you know, like some of these, some of these other, and I, I had to do a little bit of research. I don't know if I've, I, if I am super familiar with all the yoga apps that are out there, but like. There are some big, you know, aloe moves and downdog and there are some big ones and there are some apps out there that have like venture capital money who are, who are going at it hard. I think there are pros and cons to obviously, I think, I think there are pros and cons to taking that money. Um, I I'm just curious what your thought, like, what your thought is about, like, what the kind of gap in the market is that, that a, that a more kind of independent approach in this space. Tackles.

Lauren 10:43

Well, I've thought about that a lot because it's, it's daunting. If you look at the digital. Wellness world, it's, it's everywhere. Um, and there are huge, huge, um, you know, businesses that have very successful platforms like Peloton and aloe moves and, and I mean, you look at something like that and if you're just comparing. Yourself to that, like a little old me that really has no capital and comparing myself to that. I would never do anything if, you know, if I was gonna just look at that and say, wow, I, I, I don't know if I could ever be that, but I think that the advantage is that sometimes people don't want that. That big sort of platform. Um, I think also having, I don't necessarily for us to be successful, I don't think we necessarily need to be some worldwide phenomenon either. Um, I wasn't necessarily thinking about, you know, I'm gonna take over the yoga world. It was more like, there are people who come to my classes who I haven't seen in a long time, who still reach out to me and say that my, you know, classes really. Change their lives, but they can't do it with me anymore because they've moved out of town or they can't afford a membership at Lifetime. So it was more for, for them, you know, it was more for like community based. Um, and it's just sort of a, an added bonus that it could reach a huge worldwide audience if, if that, you know, if it were ever, um. You know, to go that way. Um, does that answer your question?

George 12:22

Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I think that kind of the, in, in general, you don't have to get, you don't have to have a hundred million subscribers to centric, which is fine. Right. Like, you don't need, um, and, and this is kinda one of the things that I try to preach too, is just like there's a. There's that, and, and obviously I'm not the only one saying it, but like if you, if you have. A couple of thousand, like really, really devoted. Um mm-hmm. People like, I think that, like one of the, just speaking for myself, one of the reasons that I, that I don't do yoga as often as I want to do yoga is because. It's like driving to a yoga studio. It's like the closest yoga studio to me that I want to go to is like 30 minutes from my house. And that's probably a lot of people where you're like, okay, well where is the yoga studio located? How much space is there in the class? Do I need to register for it? Uh, I mean, yeah, that, like digital wellness, you're right. Like there's a ton of stuff out there. It is. It can be daunting. I mean, in my industry there's a ton of stuff too. It's, it's just, you're right that it can be, like, it can be paralyzing if you sit there and let it be paralyzing. Um, I, I think that there's probably some, some messages here to like deliver to people that are, you know. There are some things moving from like running your own marketing, uh, firm to starting centric. I wanna maybe like go back to that phase. I have some assumptions, but tell me if they're right or wrong that like you were probably when you were, you know, when you're running your own marketing shop, you probably got to make your schedule maybe a little more than somebody punching a clock at a nine to five. Is that fair? A

Lauren 14:14

hundred percent. Yeah, definitely one of the appeals.

George 14:17

Yeah. And I think that's probably one of the main appeals. Um, that's why I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I think that's, that's probably at the top of the list for a lot of people is like, maybe even before financial freedom is just like, you can more immediately get freedom over your time or have a little more. Absolutely a little more control over your time than you feel like if you, if you got a job and they say, you come here and punch the clock, and I know that like punching the clock is such an outdated thing to say. I've worked, Jo, you know, I'm old enough that I've worked jobs where you had to punch an actual clock.

Lauren 14:52

Same here. Same here. Yeah.

George 14:54

Yeah. Well, and, and so like, but nobody punches a clock anymore. But you still have to like come in. You have to show up. You have to still have to show up. And I mean, there are still time clocks, but we're not actually punching cards anymore, but like. Yeah, you still have to come in and scan your fingerprint or put in your employee ID and be like, oh. And then you have to have a conversation with somebody if you're like, oh, you were five minutes late, two times this week. And you're like, oh, we still made all the, we still made all the coffee. Like all the work still got done. Yeah. But we gotta talk about your attendance and there's some amount of wanting to gain control over that part of your life. Mm-hmm. Um, especially if you've got other things that you like to do. Right. Teach yoga. Or you want to go take a yoga class at 1130. On a Tuesday, probably easier to do if you work for yourself than if you know somebody's gonna give you a hard time about taking more than 30 minutes for lunch.

Lauren 15:46

I mean, that was, that was huge for me. Like, I mean, I, luckily I was in, I was in positions. I've been in positions for the last several years, you know, even before, you know, the ad agency or before entrepreneurship that I, I had flexibility and autonomy. Um, I actually worked for a lot of entrepreneurs who really. Trusted me, um, to just get the job done. And so that was sort of the model that I had already worked under. Um, and, but now I, I could never go back to anything but that, I mean, that autonomy and the ability to work when you wanna work, um, and I, I'm, you know, I'm a yogi. I'm all about energy. I know when my energy is best. I know when I'm gonna do my best work. And it might not always, it's not gonna be at eight 30 in the morning to sit down and, you know. Do do something, you know, maybe it's gonna be later so I can, I can work to my energy levels, I can work to when I, when I want to. And another thing that I, I love and I can never, I can't even wrap my mind around it anymore, is vacation hours. I mean, to imagine that you have to work. To earn your own time off like that. That model is just bananas to me. Now, can you imagine going back to something like that? Like you have to work 40 hours in order to earn half a day of work that you get to take Maybe. It's crazy.

George 17:06

Yeah. That you have, you have the ability to request it off.

Lauren 17:11

It's so dumb. It's so dumb. I mean, I get, I get that it's necessary, I guess, but it's so far from my life experience now. I could never go back.

George 17:19

Well, I think there's a, there, there is like an ongoing conversation that. There is like the, the 40 hour work week or the nine to five or the like punch in, punch out. That is changing for a lot of industries and in like big ways. Um, and I will say as, as somebody running a business that has, you know, that. Has grown the number of employees, like we manufacture stuff. So there are still, there are still times where like, and I will say in that particular segment, you have to be there when the Mach, like, if we all agree we're gonna start the machine at 5:00 AM or whatever. Then if you're not there at 5:00 AM and we can't start the machine, or we can't start the line, or we can't start doing the thing. Then it is like a Okay, if you're five minutes late, so, so I'm, I realize that I personally am kind of talking out of both sides of my mouth, but there are things like, okay. If my job is marketing or sales or something like that. And, um, I, I mean, I talk in terms of like my particular industry, because that's the thing that I look at all the time. But I know this is the case in a lot of industries where like if you're, you have, you also have a master's in writing, right?

Lauren 18:39

Yes, yes, I have. So

George 18:41

I don't think I mentioned that in the intro, but also a master's in writing, which is pretty cool. So like if you're a writer, if you do copywriting mm-hmm. Then the important part is that you do it and that you hit the deadline and that you accomplish the job, right? Yeah. It's not nec, it's not necessarily like that. You are clickety clacking on your keyboard board at 7:00 AM Like you could be clickety, clacking.'cause I'm the same way. Like I've always been a bit of a night owl. Um, and so like, uh, unfortunately people will get emails from me at like midnight. Uh, sometimes I'll schedule them to send in the morning so I don't look like a crazy person. But sometimes I won't think about that, and I'll just hit send and it'll be like 11:45 PM on a Sunday. People are like, why were you, what were you doing at 1145 a p? Like, I was just like, that's when I felt like doing that work. Right?

Lauren 19:32

Yeah.

George 19:32

I, because I might not be doing anything at 10:00 AM on Monday. Right. Like,

Lauren 19:37

exactly. That's the beauty of it.

George 19:38

Yeah. Um. So I think that that, but I do think there's, there's a lot of careers that are going that way where, I mean, I, I'll ask you too, like, what were you doing? Um, what were you doing professionally when COVID happened and everything kind of shut down and. What were you doing then?

Lauren 19:59

So I was, I was working in marketing, but I was working in marketing for the preschool that my kids went to. Um, that was another opportunity that fell in my lap that I had to take advantage of.'cause I got free childcare out of it. I mean, it was a great place, but I also got free childcare. And I know you don't have kids, George, but it's really damn expensive to keep kids in preschool.

George 20:21

I've heard. Yeah,

Lauren 20:22

it's madness. Okay. Like. Thousands upon thousands, like 2008, 2008, uh, uh, um, a month. Um, probably minimum, um, for two kids to be be in preschool anyway.

George 20:34

And what, and they're, they're, they don't have jobs until when? When do they get jobs? The kids? Yeah. Seven, eight. Gotta be seven or eight years, right?

Lauren 20:44

Maybe. But actually, yeah, so I could hire my kid right now. So I mean that's, you know, um, for tax reasons. Anyway, so yeah, so I was working at their preschool. One of the things was that, you know, I got free childcare, so that was awesome. Um, I was just working part-time being their marketing director, um, for a local, um. Entrepreneur who, um, I learned a lot from him too. I've always been in these positions where I was working for entrepreneurs and I got to sort of see behind the scenes and these, a lot of them were very eccentric. Um, anyway, so that's what I was doing. I can't, I don't

George 21:18

believe that about entrepreneur can't. Unbelievable.

Lauren 21:21

And that was another thing, like I, I kept finding myself in these positions working for these other entrepreneurs, and my husband said to me once, he was like, you know what? If you put as much energy into your own business as you did to these crazy people's businesses, you would be so successful. And that was sort of like a, a seed that got planted in my head and I was like, yeah, I think you're right. So I guess that's kind of what I'm doing now. But, um, during COVID, yeah, I was, I was, um. At home with a seven month old and a 2-year-old. Um, and also working remote, um, for this preschool, doing their marketing and really managing their communications, um, which is quite, was quite a, it was like crisis, crisis comms, um, back in those days. Yeah.

George 22:08

Did your, um, were you working remote before? That happened before COVID shut down or did, did your life change in terms of like where, where you were working and hours and things like that? A lot. So

Lauren 22:22

oddly enough I had just gone remote. Um, so. We had an office and then they moved the office, um, to a place that was like an hour away from my house. And I was like, I'm not going there. I'm not doing that. If you want to keep me, I'm going to have to work from home. Um, and they said yes. So prior to COVID, um, shutting everything down, I had been working from home for about six months already. So it wasn't a big shift. The only big shift was that then I had kids home with me.

George 22:51

Yeah. I heard that was easy too. Speaking of kids stuff, it

Lauren 22:55

was the worst time of my life. I look back, I mean, it was also wonderful because, you know, children are great. Uh, but yeah, yeah,

George 23:01

sure, sure. Children are great.

Lauren 23:03

I look, I look back and I'm like, oh my God.

George 23:05

Yeah, it was, I was drinking

Lauren 23:07

a lot.

George 23:08

I think everybody was drinking a lot and I, I think that, I think that parents who had like school aged children during COVID have like a collective trauma that just hasn't. That hasn't resolved itself for anybody, for the parents, or for the kids?

Lauren 23:22

It never will. Luckily my kids don't remember it. They were too young, but Oh good. I certainly do.

George 23:28

You'll be like, you'll be like trembling with a cup of coffee in your hand at the age of 70 being like, oh. The summer. Summer of 2020.

Lauren 23:37

Oh, the summer of summer of 2020. Yes. It was, um, it was quite an experience, but luckily I have yoga to help me deal with all of my stress and trauma.

George 23:45

That's right. And there were, I will say, like, to, to kind of like refocus our conversation. Right. There were a lot of. Um, the, the digital wellness space got a huge bump in COVID. Yes. Like, there were, there were a bunch of things where you like, look at, and I, I know that it's like we're, nobody's talking about COVID anymore because we're all pretending like it's the distant past and whatever, but whatever, it's, it's gonna affect us for just the rest of our lives. It, digital wellness was a thing that kind of like. Among other things really came to the forefront and we're like, oh, there's communities online. There's like these digital communities. There's, I can't even remember. There were some like yoga channels that we were following during that time. We were like, Hey, I wanna just kinda like zen for a little bit, you know? This is crazy. I wanna, I'm gonna stretch. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some tree pose. I feel like there was, there was a lady like Kate does yoga or something, I can't remember. Channel. Oh

Lauren 24:46

yeah, Adrian Yoga. You know what I'm about, does yoga. Yoga, yeah.

George 24:49

Maybe Adrian Yoga by Adrian or something. Yeah. There's

Lauren 24:52

so many. I mean, there's so many. That's another thing, like why would I ever start my own yoga, online yoga business when there's so many? Um, but yeah, you brought brought up a good point that made me remember that COVID was actually one of the reasons why I thought that this might actually be a good idea for my life because I had audio classes, I had. Classes on my website, um, that I had just recorded for those people that had said, you know, they still wanna practice with me, but can't. Um, so I had audio classes on my website and people have told me over the years that like, that's what kept them sane. Like I had maybe 10 classes, um, on my site and people just kept doing them over and over and over and over again. A few, um, of my. Yogis who were, who were moms said that, you know, they couldn't go to the studio, but they went in their, in their closets, closed the door and, you know, locked themselves away from their family and just did my yoga classes. And that's the thing that kept them sane. And I was like, wow, that was great. That was part of their journey. Um, so yeah, COVID did great things for the digital world and fitness. Yeah. And it changed it completely. Well, I think we all,

George 25:59

I think we, we were all forced to look there when it was like, oh, there's, like, in my industry, people realized they could order groceries online. Many people for the first time were like, wait, you can order groceries online. And

Lauren 26:11

I was one of those people.

George 26:12

Yeah, yeah. Like, everybody was like, you can order groceries online. And it's, and retail groceries. Were like, yeah, yeah. We've been saying, we've been trying to say,

Lauren 26:22

wow, we got the message. Never gave

George 26:23

them a message. Uh. Yeah. So like what, when you, when you started, um, what, when you were at the ad agency prior to starting your marketing firm, what did your day look like? Like just kind of generally You don't have to. Specifically, here's what I did at 10 45 every day. But

Lauren 26:42

yeah, so, um, luckily I work with some really cool people who were very much, um, aligned with my sort of work methods already, which was, you know, more on deliverables and not on when are you here and when are you not here? Um, and it was a hybrid situation too. So, um, you know, I would come in. You know, whenever I came in, honestly, I always got there before the boss did because he had childcare stuff that he had to get through. Um, so I was usually there around eight and left around two, you know, um, and that was on just kind of a normal day. And then, you know, I was there only maybe a couple, two or three days a week. I could decide when I wanted to come in and when I didn't, when I, when I wanted to work from home. So we had one major, um, like meeting that we would all be together for, but other than that, it was just hybrid. Come and go as you want. Get your shit done,

George 27:37

get your shit done,

Lauren 27:39

get your

George 27:39

shit done. Uh, the, let me ask you this, the, in the, in that kind of like come and go as you want, get your shit done. I found that it's really important to have clarity around what that shit is that needs to get done. Can you talk about that at all? Like, I, I'm assu, I assume, like working for different entrepreneurs. Some people are probably more clear about what needs to get done than, than other people. Like

Lauren 28:06

Yeah. How you work with people and, you know, set expectations. Uh, I, I mean, and too, like with that particular setup, everyone had their own. Mode of working. You know, everyone kind of works in their different ways, and we just all knew how each other worked. Um, and we had, um, we used Asana, one of those, you know, uh, project management software, things to always make sure that we were communicating with each other. Um, and yeah, it, it wasn't, it wasn't too complicated really.

George 28:38

Yeah. Well, why don't we take a little break. I wanna come back and talk about energy, uh, a little more.'cause I think it's mm-hmm. Important. I think in the corporate world it gets talked about. Maybe not enough. Yeah. Um, but let's come back and talk about energy. Thanks Lauren. I'll see you in a minute. Okay? Okay, we're back. Uh, welcome back. We're talking with Lauren Vogel, one of the co-founders and Master Yogis of Centric, the yoga app. Uh, welcome back Lauren. You look hydrated. You look hydrated now.

Lauren 29:41

Yeah. I feel very hydrated. A little, little break. A little headstand and some water. Did you

George 29:47

just do a headstand?

Lauren 29:48

Why not? Yeah.

George 29:49

Yeah. Why not that you, I feel like I saw in one of your recent thing, one of your recent, uh, social media things that you love the headstand the most.

Lauren 29:57

Yes. I'm obsessed. I do a headstand every single day. Every single morning, like my kids come in, they're like, you're so weird. You're so weird. What are you doing? You know,

George 30:05

and you're like. Mommy's doing a headstand.

Lauren 30:08

That's just so normal. Why do you love

George 30:10

a headstand so much?

Lauren 30:12

Um, it's very centering. So when you're upside down standing on your head, you really can't think about anything else. You're just like right there. Um,

George 30:22

yeah,

Lauren 30:23

you have to be present, you know? And like, it makes me feel strong.'cause you know, you have to be strong to hold that up. Um, and I'll hold it up. I'll hold a headstand for. I dunno, two to five minutes. Okay. Just debriefing. It's just very calming to me.

George 30:38

That's pretty good. I like that. Yeah. Uh, well, we were, I said we were gonna talk about energy and I'm interested in it. Uh, I love energy. I think it's maybe underused in maybe corporate realms. Mm. Probably in the, in the yoga world, there's a lot of talk about energy, but it doesn't seem to have much of a place in the office or other kind of like, areas of life. I think it's probably one of the most important things. Uh, I mean, what, tell me what you think about. This is maybe a broad question, but how does energy guide your life in terms of where you give it and where you find it, um, where you get it and where you give it? Because I, I think that that's kind of like you kind of mentioned, and I agree with this, that finding. Where you're rewarded most, like where you get the most energy is kind of one of the reasons to become an entrepreneur or to look around and say, Hey, I'm not getting, I'm not getting what I need. I'm not getting the energy right. I'm putting. You, you mentioned that your husband said, Hey, what if you just put this energy into your own thing? Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that's important te like, tell me, tell me how you feel in general, like your thoughts about where you give your energy and where you get your energy.

Lauren 31:55

Well, that's a big question. Um,

George 31:57

I like to ask the big questions. You

Lauren 31:58

do and I love it. Um. I really have been focusing. So we all have energy, we all have a finite amount of it. I, I think, um, arguably a finite amount. Um, and where we put our energy, where we put our at, where well energy goes, where attention goes. So if I'm putting all of my energy into my work, but, and, and the work that I'm doing doesn't necessarily, um. Make me happy. It doesn't feed my soul, then I'm, it actually takes more energy to do something you're not excited about. Um, and so if I'm putting a lot of energy into work that that's not rewarding for me, um, in whatever way, then I don't have energy for the rest of. My life. I don't have energy for my kids. I don't have energy for my relationships. Um, and work that, doing work that you don't wanna do and putting all of your energy into something that, that, um, doesn't make you happy, can actually drain you. I feel like it takes more energy, um, to do something you don't wanna do and drains you so that you're not able to, um, give to the other piece parts of your life that require your energy. Um, and I really think of that in terms of. Of my kids, you know, I wanna show up for them and be the best mother that I can be. And if I'm constantly being drained in one area of my life, I can't, I can't show up for them the way that, um, that I really want to.

George 33:21

Yeah, that's good. And I agree. Uh,

Lauren 33:24

yeah. But where, where do you get your energy? I feel like, um. Energy, at least for me, it comes from, you know, taking care of myself and also doing the things that I love. Um, and. I feel like when you bring, whatever energy you bring to a situation flows into the work that you're doing. Um, so like I've never really been able to do any sort of work that doesn't have some sort of, um, meaning for me. Like if it's like, um, void of any meeting or void of any connection or void of any. Doing good for the world. I can't do it because it, like, it drains me and I don't wanna, you know, put my energy in those places. Um, does that answer your question? I feel like I'm spinning out there.

George 34:15

No, that's, that's really good. Um, what, what, for you, like daily, I bet I could guess one of them, but what are your kind of daily non-negotiables as far as like things that you need to, to kinda keep it on the rails?

Lauren 34:31

Um,

George 34:33

I'll tell you one of mine, just so my, mine is like working out, like I gotta, like, I have to get in and do some sort of physical thing. Or I start losing, I start losing my mind really fast.

Lauren 34:44

Yeah. Yeah. And so we're alike in that way, for sure. I have to, I have to move my body. Um, but more than that, I have to center myself. Um, so I, I don't get to, I, you know, on a, the. On a wonderful day, I get to do all the things. I get to do yoga and strength training. But, um, I don't always get to do that because my mom and sometimes weekends are insane and I don't get to do anything. But I do have to have a little meditation. I have to have like five minutes of meditation at the very least. Um, so that's another thing, um, that I do on a daily to, to energize me.

George 35:19

Cool. What kind of meditation do you follow is your specific meditation that you follow or practice?

Lauren 35:25

So, um, in my yoga teacher trainings, I, I used to te i on top of all the other things of just teaching, uh, classes, I've also led seven or eight yoga teacher trainings throughout the years. So, uh, 200, 200 hour trainings. Um, but we taught something called Vipassana. Um, and that's, um, just breath, breath, breath work. So it's really simple. You just sit and you focus on your inhales and your exhale specifically right here, um, between your just touching her nose, lip, I was gonna say between your nose and your. Yeah. Um, and where, where your breath touches your nostrils, and it's very simple, but it's called the insight meditation. Um, and it, it, a lot of people would brush that off for not being, you know, powerful because I'm not visualizing, you know, my chakras lighting up or visualizing, breathing in gratitude and breathing out love. It's nothing, none of that. It's just. Sitting and focusing on your breath.

George 36:20

Okay. So wa wa walk us through it. We don't have to do a full five minutes of it, but like we're fo I'm focusing on, uh, for me, my mustache area.

Lauren 36:29

Yes, it's your mustache area. Breathe into

George 36:31

my mustache.

Lauren 36:32

Yes. So, yeah, I'll walk you through something real quick if you want. It's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

George 36:37

yeah. Everybody, everybody. And if you're, unless you're driving, do this unless you're, if you're driving. Just keep driving, uh, and then pull over and then bookmark this and come back. We're gonna walk through. A quick, did you say it was insight meditation?

Lauren 36:53

Yeah. Vipasana or, um, apana. Yeah. And I'll give you a link or something. Um,

George 36:58

okay. Yeah. Awesome.

Lauren 37:00

But, um, yeah, it's just so, so super simple and I always start out with a couple clearing breaths. So you're gonna do this with me, George? Okay. Yes. Let's do it. You're gonna sit back in your chair.

George 37:09

I'm standing up. Can I do it standing up?

Lauren 37:10

Oh yeah, you can do it standing up, just like maybe put your hands on your desk or something so you've got something to ground. Something to ground. You

George 37:15

got it? All

Lauren 37:16

right. Now close your eyes.

George 37:18

Oh, okay. I feel vulnerable. I got my eyes closed.

Lauren 37:20

Yeah, well, you are, but it's okay. You're safe. You're safe with,

George 37:23

okay.

Lauren 37:24

All right. We're gonna take two clearing breaths. All right, so take a deep breath in. Let this be the deepest breath you've taken all day long. Pull it all the way in. Hold it. Keep holding and part your lips and let it go. That was good. We're gonna do it one more time. We're gonna hold it a little longer though. So a deep, full breath in. Let it be your belly, your ribs and your chest. The front of your body, the sides, and the back. So it's a 360 degree breath. And once you feel like your lungs are full, see if you can pull in some more air. Keep holding. And a big sigh. Now, just let it go. Good. Let your lips just come together gently. Try to relax the corners of your eyes, the inside, the outside corners, and without changing the rhythm of your breath at all. Don't change anything. Just start to put all of your energy, all of your focus and attention. On this small space right above your lip and right below your nose, I'm gonna see if you can feel the very subtle touch of your breath. Notice what you can about your breath. Maybe it's swift or slow. Deep or shallow, choppy, or smooth, and your mind will wander because that is what the mind does. The ancient yogic text likened at your mind to a wind that's always restless, never ceasing, but whenever you notice, your mind has wandered off to something, just gently, kindly, compassionately bring it back to just noticing the touch of your breath right in that small space. And slowly open your eyes. So that is what, that's what we do. I like that. That's good. Wow. Yeah. So just I feel, I feel chill, feel I feel

George 39:53

chiller now.

Lauren 39:54

Yeah. Right. So just, and that took like two minutes, so

George 39:57

Yeah. Uh, it felt as if

Lauren 39:59

people go ahead.

George 40:01

It, it felt like it was gone for an hour.

Lauren 40:03

Excellent. Good. That's what we want.

George 40:06

And if, and if you guys did that and you felt chill, you should go download Centric in the app store, right?

Lauren 40:11

Please, yes, please go do that. Give us a try. Let's,

George 40:14

let's go back to, uh, let's go back to entrepreneurial life.'cause I, because I, I think it's maybe safe to say, I'm gonna make some assumptions and throw'em at you. Uh, just, but it's probably safe to say you're following positive energy around in your life. So it sounds like you've had some of these opportunities come up. Tell me about the opportunity to create centric, because you have a co-founder, right?

Lauren 40:37

I do, yes. So, you know, I, I believe that the universe is on my side. The universe has a plan. Um, and I really think that everything in my life led up to. This sort of like I was in training all my jobs and all the classes I've taught for this. Um, and it really came very, uh, organically, naturally nothing forced. And that's how I, I feel like I know when something's really right is if it, it feels good. It makes you feel lighter energetically. It gives you a little bit of an energetic buzz. Um, it doesn't weigh you down, but it lifts you up. Um, and it comes at the right time. So it was just, uh, um. I think a Friendsgiving in 2023. Um, Laura and I were talking and she, um, was saying that she wanted to, to do an online yoga thing. She didn't really know what it was. And I had wanted to do an online yoga thing, so this is like. I mean, if we're really gonna be honest, this is probably like the fourth, uh, iteration of me doing an online yoga thing. Um, yeah. So I, I wanna do it for a long time.'cause I could, I could see how the world was turning, you know, I knew that in-person studios, um, were not sustainable long term. And the world was moving in a digital way, um, in a digital direction that was never gonna die. It's never gonna change. It's only gonna get more. So, so anyway, so that's the direction I had been moving. And then when, at least in my thoughts. Um, and then when, uh, Laura mentioned that she wanted to do an online yoga thing, I was like. I wanna do an online yoga thing too. Um, and I had actually already done a lot of the research, um, you know, on what, what platforms to use, um, market research and how people are accessing yoga. Anyway, so all of that just kind of fell into place and, um, you know, uh, simple, you know, conversation turned into, um, a business, uh, turned into, we've been doing this for over a year now. Over almost two years.

George 42:40

Yeah, January's, uh, right around the corner. So if you launch in January.

Lauren 42:44

Yeah.

George 42:44

Yeah. Um, well, congratulations. First of all, how did that like,'cause it wasn't just the conversation. You had already put in a lot of hours doing research you'd already put in, you'd already recorded and put some stuff online. Right. There's a big difference between putting some stuff online and making that a business. Um, yeah.

Lauren 43:03

Yeah.

George 43:04

And so like, tell, tell me about your, your previous three-ish iterations. Like, how were you kind of like preparing yourself, not unknowingly preparing yourself for this venture?

Lauren 43:17

So, I mean, it started with just Lauren Vogel Yoga, that was my website. Um, and I had, um. Uh, you know, just the normal stuff that one would have on a website, you know, a blog, some pictures, yoga poses, some how to videos, um, uh, YouTube channel, that sort of thing. Um, and then as, as life does, you know, kids and job, um. Demanded my attention and energy and that fell by the wayside. And then I also had, and it is definitely worth it, maybe its own side conversation of, uh, self-promotion, um, especially in the yoga space. Um, I have a hard time with it. So, um, yoga became. Uh, I don't know a lot of, look how cool and pretty I am. I can do these amazing things. I have an Instagram page. I must be the best yogi ever because I can do a handstand so easily, you know? And also I'm, I'm young and hot and wearing short shorts. Um, and those became the people that everyone looks to as our, our yoga people. Our yoga, our yoga gurus. Um, so I never really wanted to be that. I sort of saw that as like

George 44:23

an, like an influencer kind of,

Lauren 44:24

yeah. Yes. But, um, yeah, so, um, but I, I, I don't think negatively of influencers, um, I actually think that they actually have a, a great deal of influence, um, and can really shape society and culture and that's actually a big responsibility. Um, but I didn't wanna associate myself with sort of this, um, new trend. Um, and I guess this is like maybe a conversation that's really top of mind for yogis about five years ago and that was, you know, just because you're pretty and can do yoga poses, um, and post'em on Instagram does not mean you're a great yoga teacher and should be leading people. Um, so I just didn't wanna join that crowd, you know? So anyway, so I had to get over some hurdles psychologically. Spiritually about that. Um, in order to land on, you know, putting out my own, my own, um, classes and writings and teachings, so. Anyway, once I got over that, it was my own yoga studio. And then I wanted it to not necessarily be me. I didn't want it to be Lauren Vogel Yoga.'cause I wanted to nec maybe like bring in other teachers and have them teach on my website too. So then I started something called Moxie Yoga, and I, you know. Uh, branded it, you know, uh, made the website all the things, and even started my own, um, it's called, it was called NAMA Stream, but it was basically a yoga, a platform for yoga teachers to have all of their content classes, teaching, trainings, workshops, all on a website. Um, and so I did that and I just couldn't get it off the ground because I was, my kids were really, really young and I just couldn't do it by myself. Um, and then. I went to just doing audio classes, um, which is where we were in 2020 when, you know, I mentioned that, you know, my friends, my students were doing, um, yoga at home during COVID. Um, so those are the sort of iterations. And then when I met Laura, it was like. Oh my gosh, I don't have to do it by myself. And that just gave me, I don't know, it is that energetic, uplifting feeling. Whereas, you know, doing something, um, having a yoga business had start, started to become feeling like, uh, I was being dragged down like a heavy weight. Whereas with Laura. It felt uplifting and energetic and, you know, gave me the feel good fuzzies. And, um, she and I are perfectly matched because we are very aligned in what we wanna do with our lives, but then we operate very differently. She's the spreadsheet girl. She's the girl who wants to have everything mapped out and she wants to come to class being prepared. I'm the person that's like. Let's just see how it goes. Let's just see how it feels, you know? And I need more. That's hard. That's

George 47:09

hard for a spreadsheet person to hear.

Lauren 47:11

Exactly. But it's funny because Laura was actually one of my, uh, students in my teacher training. Um, so six years ago she, I trained her to be a yoga teacher. Um, and I remember her with her spreadsheets and. I just, she would come in like with her laptop and her spreadsheets and asking me what we were gonna talk about that day. And I was like, I don't know. I'm gonna see. I'm gonna feel what we're gonna talk about. And it drove her crazy. Um, so we're, we're sort of yin and yang in that way, but we are, we're so on the same path, like we can read each other's minds. Um, but it's also good to have a business partner like that because. I need more of that spreadsheet energy in my life to keep me organized. And she needs more of the let loose more, you know, go with the flow kind of energy in her life. We meet each other in the middle.

George 48:01

You know, one of the things that I hear over and over again is this idea of like having a co-founder. Mm-hmm. I couldn't have done this by myself. Well, I always say that I wouldn't have done this by myself. Just I, I don't think I would've ever as. As like. Weird and kind of like out of the box as I like to be. I think that it would've stayed much smaller if I had done it by myself. And it sounds like that's the case with you where you're kind of like limited, you're kinda like limited by your own capabilities, or you're limited by maybe also just like. Energetically limited by the fact that you have to have all of the energy and all of the belief.'cause you have to have a lot of belief in stuff. That's not true yet. To start a thing. You have to believe it's gonna be true. Yeah. Soon. Uh, or at some point. Um, te tell me about te, tell me a little bit about having a co-founder, because a lot of, most of the people that I've talked to about being. Entrepreneurial have somebody who is, who is either like a big part of that as a mentor or a big part of it as a co-founder or something like that.

Lauren 49:15

Well, I was always of the mindset that sort of like my entire life, I, I I, I have like abandonment issues because of, I. Upbringing. Um, and so I always was of the mindset that I have to do it by myself. Um, that the only way something is gonna get done, if it's gonna get done well, um, then it has to be me. And that can be very empowering, but it can also be debilitating because doing something by yourself can be very difficult. So I, I think that part of my life's journey was learning to work with someone else, learning to partner, learning to share the load. Um, and I didn't necessarily even know that I was learning that life lesson, sort of unpacking childhood trauma, you know, the last year. With Laura, but it was, it has been essentially that, you know, um, it has been leaning on someone, um, to support you and bring you up on those bad days, um, to collaborate you and, you know, get you across the finish line with the project too. Um, and it's been, I couldn't have done it without her in so many, so many ways. Um, but, but mostly just because. It's a shared experience. I'm not doing it all by myself. I have a sounding board. I have someone to, you know, um, talk to about ideas, talk things through. Um, and I don't always have great ideas. You know, sometimes they're, they're shitty ideas. And tell me your three

George 50:46

worst ones.

Lauren 50:47

She's so wonderful. I don't know, but she's so great because like I could have a really shitty idea and she's gonna say, okay. Okay, let's just think about that. And I'll do the same for her. Like, we're so, we're, so, we're all so yogis, so we're like really compassionate and understanding and loving toward one another. Um, so that's helpful.

George 51:08

Um, you can be like, that's great that you're having ideas.

Lauren 51:12

Like, I love that, but also I don't, I love, and here's what

George 51:17

I love, the fact that you felt comfortable telling me that. Um, well let, let's let, I want to talk a little bit, um, about like what it is and I, I think we've already touched on this a little bit, but like, what does it take, um, let's go into different directions, like kind of simultaneously, what does it take for centric yoga? What does it mean for centric as an app, as a company to be successful? And what does it mean for you, for you to be successful? Yeah. And like, are those the same thing?

Lauren 51:54

Hmm. Well, let me start with eccentric. What does it take for eccentric to be successful, I guess, in terms of success? And we have to talk about what, what, how are we measuring success here? Are we measuring success by, by money, we measuring success by changing people's lives, um, for the better. That's a question for you.

George 52:13

Well, yeah, I would say that. I'm measuring it by, it has to have enough success to enough financial success to still be a business. Yeah. Um, and then and beyond that, it's kind of whatever you want it to be. Mm-hmm.'cause it sounds like, it sounds like to you, like being meaning a meaningful, uplifting part of people's lives is important, right?

Lauren 52:34

Yeah. It's essential, like giving

George 52:36

people, giving people access to something they might not have had access to.

Lauren 52:40

Yes. Yeah. So making, making the world a better place. Um, one down dog at a time. That's not, that's not a, that's not, is that, is

George 52:49

that

Lauren 52:49

thing. Oh,

George 52:50

okay. It's pretty good. That's pretty good.

Lauren 52:52

Yeah. Maybe. We'll, and it's also

George 52:53

the title of this episode now, so

Lauren 52:55

Oh, great. Yeah, I mean it works. Um, that, I mean, but that's, that's essentially why we we're doing it because it made our lives better, um, and one done dog at a time. And we also think that, you know, everybody in the world can benefit from this. Who, who couldn't benefit from a little bit of mindfulness or a little bit of, you know, that feeling that you have when, when you just have that meditation. A few moments ago, um. Putting more of that in the world makes the world a better place. So that, that looks like, that makes Zenix successful. Um, but for us, like in a very spreadsheet kind of way, um, we have to break, we have to do more than break even. Um, we have to, um, you know, have a certain amount of subscribers, uh, monthly that we can continue to, you know, be in this office and that we continue to hopefully one day, um, not one day. Not hopefully, but one day soon, um, I'll be able to focus all my energy, um, just on Ri'cause right now I'm in that place, um, where I mentioned this in, in an email to you where I'm sort of in both worlds. I'm in my big girl job that's like, you know, keeping, keeping the roof over my head, but then also, you know, um, pursuing my passion.

George 54:07

Yeah. I think you gotta do that, uh, in entrepreneur land, you, you have to sometimes have your feet. I think that it's the probably one of the least advisable things to just jump into nothing with. No. And you can't really, like you've got, you've got kids, your mom, you can't, you can't just say, okay, well I'm gonna try this. Hope it works out.

Lauren 54:28

Yeah, no, we can't do that. And, and I've heard, you know, lots of, um, entrepreneurs, um. You know, say Don't, don't quit your day job just yet. You know, wait it out. Yeah. Do the work. So that's where I'm at.

George 54:41

Yeah. That's awesome. How many people, like, is it just you and Laura at Zen Trick right now?

Lauren 54:47

Mm-hmm. It's just me and Laura. We do all the things, all the recording, all of the admin, all of the branding, all of the marketing website, social media, um, editing. App management, which it's very complicated to, to do an app.

George 55:03

Do you have a, do you have like a development team? Is there, are you working with somebody outsourced or, so

Lauren 55:08

we have, we work with sort of, it's essentially a template. Um Okay. But no, I had to. Break my brain and do all of the app stuff with, with Apple and Google and I say, break my brain because I really felt like I did it by the end of that day. I was,

George 55:24

I know nothing about developing an app. So these are not hard hitting questions. These are just like, how do you make an app? I don't know.

Lauren 55:31

Well, you find a, you find a developer. Um, we have, there, there's a, a company called Passion, and they specifically focus on people like us, coach people, mainly, mainly fitness people, I think is their, their bread and butter, but online coaches in general and essentially a template. You upload your stuff and um, then you, you launch it. But there, there's de definitely an aspect of you having to do some of the technical work. Sure. Which I'm that person on the centric team. I might not be the spreadsheet person, but I understand tech, um, really well, so. That's me. And we all, we do it all ourselves.

George 56:09

Yeah, that's, I mean, cool. It's like a, you know, it's a, it's a blessing and a curse'cause you're like, you know, it's very clear who has to do it. It's one of the two of you.

Lauren 56:20

But have Laura supporting me, I'm like, just, can you read that sentence to me again? And she'll, you know, she's there in my corner. Yeah.

George 56:28

That's great. And does she still have, um, is she, has she got her day job? As well, or,

Lauren 56:35

um, well, she, she's a full-time yoga teacher. Um, okay. So, um, awesome. And a mom of two. So she has, she doesn't have like a, a big, big girl job like I do. Um, but she has just as much stuff going on. Oh,

George 56:46

sick burn. Sick burn. Laura, if you're listening, you heard, you heard it here. We're just, just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Edit that up. That work. I don't know how to cut it out. I just, I just told you that I was, I don't know how to do that. Um, if I, if I get an editor, uh, then cut that out. You heard it? Cut it out. Um, I'm just curious. It's fine. Uh, Laura's great. And Lauren's great. Laura and Lauren. Yeah. And let, what, let's, let me ask you, what does it, like, what does it look like for you to be successful? Just, and it doesn't, this doesn't have to be money because I think the basic question is like, your kids have to go to school and you got to, you know, put a, keep a roof over your head, and there's some basics there, but like, what is, what, what do you hope that the, that centric does for your life in terms of your time, in terms of your energy, in terms of like where you are, I don't know, 10 years from now?

Lauren 57:45

Well, I would love for, you know, Zen to be something that I do some, some of it every day. You know, I love, I do love the aspect of teaching. So teaching brings me a lot of joy. So I wanna always, um, be filming and teaching. But then I also would love for Zen to have a, an an in-person thing. I know I said that, um, that wasn't the way I was gonna go, but I mean, in 10 years I would love for the app and the digital. Platform to be so successful that we're able to have an in-person studio where it's not so, um, difficult to keep it open, um, with what I feel is the, the like flawed business model that exists today. Um, if you have that extra stream of revenue of, you know, a digital platform, then I think that it would be easier to keep it in studio or an in-person studio open. Um, but then I also would love to do retreats around the world. I would love to do yoga teacher trainings, um, workshops galore and. You mentioned that I have a master's in writing and I would love to write books. That's always been my thing. You know, we go back like 20 years, you probably heard me say, I'm gonna write a book someday. Someday I'm still gonna do it. So that's what Success Zenix success looks like for me. That it lets me do all the things and write.

George 59:00

Yeah. So it's quality of life and kind of quality of how you're spending your time.

Lauren 59:03

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

George 59:05

Uh, I love that. And I want that for you. Is, thanks. Is, uh, is Tric, do you, have, you said you, you guys are the only teachers on there right now, right? Yes.

Lauren 59:16

Yes. Do you

George 59:17

have plans to kind of open that up?'cause I know you're saying with, uh, uh, with one of your past ventures, you wanted to open it up as a platform for other teachers. Are you, are you in the, in the works on, like opening it up for other teachers on centric or is that kind of a down the road thing?

Lauren 59:35

I, I think it is down the road, but not far down the road. Um, we have some plans for 2026. We're gonna be launching some new programming, and I would love to bring on another teacher or two to have maybe a, a short series. I don't know if we're necessarily ready to like, bring somebody on for like regular film taping, but like, you know, um, a, a seven day series or one week series for, you know, beginners. We can have somebody come in and do that. Yeah, absolutely.

George 1:00:03

That's awesome. Well, we're kind of in the home stretch here. Um, I, I want to tell people how to follow you guys and how to, um, how to get centric and how to start taking some of these yoga classes and doing meditations with you today. How do you do that?

Lauren 1:00:22

So super, super easy. You know, go to zen trick life.org or zen yoga.com. Um, both will get you there. That's our website and you've got links to, um, download us the app on Apple or Google Play. Um, you can also just go to YouTube. Um, we have some videos there too. Meditation and Vinyasa practices. Um, and then, um. Was the other. Oh yeah. And then you can follow us on Instagram. That's sort of our main platform right now. Uh, we're centric yoga, Z-E-N-T-R-I-C yoga. And I am Lauren Vogel Yoga on Instagram. Um, and then you can find Laura there too. Laura t Donnelly on Instagram too.

George 1:01:07

Vogel yoga is fun to say. That's just a fun couple of words to VO yoga. Vogel Yoga. Vogel Yoga. Say it five times fast.

Lauren 1:01:15

Vo yoga. Yoga. Yeah.

George 1:01:16

Do you, do you have any, um, and not to put you on the spot, but I've been doing nothing but putting you on the spot for the last 60 minutes. Do you have any, like, uh, being that you guys are still in early stages with this, do you have any advice that you give to people who have a thing that they're passionate about that they wanna spend more time on?

Lauren 1:01:39

I'd say follow the energy. Um, you know, just like I was talking about earlier, if there's something, there's something that, uh, it's called somatic listening. Um, if you ever want an answer to a question, if you ever wanna know which direction to go with your life, sit with it in that sort of meditative style, um, and feel how it feels in your body. So if something makes you feel. Light and energetic and you could do it for hours and not eat or sleep, you know, that's a good direction to go in. Um, if something makes you feel heavy and gives you a pit in your stomach, um, uh, gives you a headache or a knot in your throat, then maybe stay away from that. So listen to your body as well as your heart, um, and. Don't, you know, quit your big girl job, but follow that if you can. And I'd say too, one of the big things that, um, I have to remind myself of, like I mentioned it before, if I look at apps like Peloton or if I look at platforms that are much bigger than us and have, you know, much more capital, um, if I compared myself to that, I would never, I would never do anything. Um, so I, I really would encourage people not to compare and how I like. I always come back to this one thing in my life like. Okay. Yeah. Why would, why does the world need another yoga teacher? Well, if we, if we felt that way, if we really acted that way in, in, in all instances, like, why would anyone ever write another love song? Why would anyone ever write another novel? It's because you haven't written the love song. You haven't written the novel. You are not the yoga teacher out there. You know, everyone has something really unique to offer the world and you know, if they really follow what that energy feels like, um, and follow their heart. I know that sounds so cheesy, but follow the energy. I'd say. It doesn't sound cheesy.

George 1:03:29

I feel motivated. I would like you to be my life coach. Can we nail that down?

Lauren 1:03:34

Okay. Yeah, sure, sure. We'll talk about it after. Maybe that'll be, that'll be my other, um, platform. I'll, I'll start something else. Yeah.

George 1:03:40

Yeah. I need this. I need the synergy in my life. Guys. We've been talking with Lauren Vogel. Lauren Vogel, yoga Centric Yoga. Thank you so much for, for joining me today, Lauren. This was a, this was a treat. It was a treat for me. Thanks

Lauren 1:03:52

for asking me, George, even though I'm just a, I'm just starting out on my little entrepreneurial journey. I appreciate you. Um,

George 1:03:58

yeah. It's thrill, it's thrilling. I think I, I mean it takes all kind, this, this is, I want to interview you again when this is like the biggest yoga app in the world. Yeah. So two years from now. Yeah. Gimme a couple years guys. Make sure you like and subscribe. Gross to net. Uh, the podcast also in substack, gross to net. Uh, I love you all and I'll talk to you next time. Bye-bye.