Lindsay Junk - YogaSix & Innovation In Yoga

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Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, I'm excited to have you and getting you talking about yourself. We are just having a nice pre-recording about we're both the kind of people who would rather be asking the questions if you're the center of attention. So I guess uh I'm in the power sheet there. Sure. Yeah, Lindsay, um it's it's great to have you. I mean, you have got what about uh 25 years of uh fitness and health industry experience. You're the president of Yoga Six now. Uh you have lived and breathed fitness for so long, and you're gonna give us some really great insights into what yoga six is doing now, um the direction you guys are heading, as well as what type of innovation is happening in you know something as you and I are referring to as like a really an ancient methodology of yoga, and uh you know, where where the innovation lies there. So all that being said, um I'm gonna stop talking and let you start talking about your background, how'd you get to be the president of uh yoga six?

Okay, well, that is a long, kind of a long story. I guess I'll start at the beginning and you can cut me off if I'm being too long-winded and boring. But I've always like as a kid, even if you like rewind into high school, I was always really interested in sports and very competitive. Um, and if you would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always say, I wanted to go to the Olympics. And then the question was what sports? Yeah, exactly. What sport? And I didn't actually have a sport that I was that good at. So that was always a challenge. You know, I did everything, but I wasn't great. So I was like, I don't know, I'll figure it out, I'll get there. Something, I'll be good at something eventually. Um and you know, fast forward to now. Obviously, I didn't make it to the Olympics, but I did got the chance to do, I ran cross-country in college and then took that running and I had a little bit of a swimming background from high school, took that and started doing triathlons. And then because I went to school in Hawaii, Hawaii was the birthplace of the Iron Man. And so I ended up somehow doing my second triathlon was an Iron Man. So that was like my closest thing to the Olympics. But I'd always been very, very um competitive and liked, you know, going in competitions and being against other people. So, but I never really had a uh a profession. It was always just, you know, I'll be a professional athlete somehow or I'll go to the Olympics. So, long story short, I when I graduated from college, I needed to have a year of internship to be able to stay in the United States because I'm Canadian. And so with my visa, I got that one year. And um, I took a job in a hospital working um in the nutrition side of things and went in for my first day and you know, did rounds with seeing patients and seeing a lot of people that were not very healthy and very sick. And I was coming in on the back end prescribing or you know, working with them on their diet. And I was just so bummed out and so sad when I came back or when I came home from my first day, just that this is not what I want to do. Like I feel like I'm getting to these people way too late. I can't help them. They're already, you know, on a gi a diet of jello and rice. Um, I want to talk to these people before they get to that point. And so my roommate at the time said, you know, there's an internship at Gold's Gym. Why don't you go down there and see if you can get in? So I got lucky and I took a job or took the internship at Gold's Gym where I was working with people on their nutrition when they joined the gym. And so I got to them, you know, very early on. And I was so lucky to be able to be a part of their fitness journey. Um, I started with them and helped them with their nutrition and, you know, all that sort of thing. And so that was the beginning of my career in the fitness industry. Um, so I started there and then gold got bought by 24 Hour Fitness, which used to be one of the bigger um fitness chains in the United States. And so I was part of that acquisition and I stayed on as they grew. And so when I started with them, they just had a handful of gyms and you know, they got up to over 300 locations, and I grew kind of right along with them. So I started off at that funny little nutrition technician position, which was a lot of fun, and then worked my way up to personal trainer and then general manager and district manager, and then kind of grew with 24 Hour Fitness and spent 15 years there. Um, when I left, I was overseeing a really large area in Los Angeles and I left because I um I had got pregnant with twins and thought that'll be it. I will stay home with these girls. Um and I lasted at home with them for about seven months and I loved it, loved every minute of it, but really missed the people and just the activity. And so went back to work. Um, but instead of going back to 24 Fitness, I got um asked to go work with a company called Yoga Works. And um that was a really interesting time. Yoga that was one of the very first sort of boutique type fitness um things that were out there. Um and this was gosh, how long ago? So like you know, 10, 11 years ago. Um, and so we're there really wasn't a lot of boutique out there. I think our our biggest competitors might have been Curves, if you can remember, remember Curves. Um and so we were trying to uh you know build the brand. And again, when I started with Yoga Works, we just had a handful of studios, and then I helped grow that brand to over 70 locations. Um, and then took a little break and did some of my own consulting work with my husband, worked with a bunch of different boutique fitness um operations, and then got lucky enough to meet up with Anthony Geisler, um, who is the founder of Exponential Fitness, and he told me that he wanted to do a yoga brand and he wanted to franchise yoga. And I got really excited about that because I had been in my when I was with Yoga Works, kept getting calls all the time from people saying, I'd love to, you know, can we franchise? I want to franchise, I want to open up in Montana, I want to open up in you know, Utah and all sorts of places, and we didn't do that. And so I thought with this opportunity to work with Anthony and Exponential, we finally can get yoga across the country and to bring yoga to more people and to make it really accessible to everyone. And so here I am um at Yoga Six, and we've been it's been three years now. Um, it's been quite a journey, obviously, through a pandemic and all of that. But we now have a hundred studios open and a bunch more coming coming through. So it's been a really exciting time.

Yeah, yeah, fascinating. I mean, it's it's it's so from people I talk to like yourself who you know started off really at the bottom of you know the industry as far as the profession, work yourself all the way up to where you are. There must be so many valuable uh insights from that. I mean, is there any stage of your development, your professional development through the years that you look at like, okay, that was not so valuable time spent, and that was really time spent well.

That's a really good question. No one's ever asked me that. Well, I'll tell you the time spent well. That one, I hated it at the time because it just was so hard and it was very different than what I had been used to doing as an athlete. But the time that I spent learning to sell is the by hands down, the most important time and has been the most impactful for me and it has had the biggest impact on my career. Um and I started that way back at you know, my gold to gyms days, just learning how to sell personal training and supplements. Um, and then, you know, as I grew in the industry, I started selling memberships and then so on. So just learning how to do that and and how to like the process behind it and even the follow-up and and all of that has been invaluable. And the lessons that I learned back, you know, when I was 24 years old working um as a fitness counselor are still the same lessons that I use as a president when I'm working with franchisees. And um it hasn't changed. It's all about people and understanding what the people, people's wants and needs are and what motivates them, and then finding a solution for them that helps them with their goals.

Yeah, well said. It's it's definitely, I mean, there's a noticeable difference in people's businesses when they went through some kind of sales phase in their career. I mean, I I spent my first 10 years before I got into the fitness industry doing various forms of outside sales, and you know, I I don't think my gym would have survived year two if I hadn't had that background. And just the it's you're right, it's it's how it's you're uncovering, you're having a conversation, you're uncovering the wants of that respective client. Um, but you're also in the mindset of like, okay, you know, for every yes, there's gonna take a few no's and it's not personal, and you gotta kind of you know get back on the horse and just keep plotting forward. I think that's a really important thing that maybe some people in the industry never really got to experience that. I guess just rejection, right? We just call it rejection. Yeah. Um it happens. Uh so yeah, I'd be curious to get your thoughts on that. When you look at the industry, how valuable do you see that sales experience being? And how rare?

I well, I think it's the most important thing. Um, really. I mean, if you're especially if you're trying to create your own business. I mean, and and even if you're joining a company and you want to grow inside of the company, you know, I can tell you that um being a part of exponential and being a president with with other brand presidents, all of us have sales experience and sales backgrounds. And it just makes it that much easier to step in the shoes of our franchisees and or to step in just to be a business owner and to understand how to move things forward. And selling doesn't have to be a you know, a lot of people think it's it's a negative, um, but it's not. It's it's we gotta do it every day. I mean, I'm selling my kids every morning on, you know, let's get let's get out the door and ready for school and get do your homework and all of that. So um it's definitely a must-have. And I think um, you know, if if somebody doesn't have sales experience, maybe they've had experience as an athlete um winning and losing, because it that then a little bit of there's a little bit of crossover there, right? Like if if you've lived your whole life and you've never been told no or you've never lost, and then you you maybe the first time that you lose is when you're starting a business, that that's really tough. Um, but as an athlete, you know, you play multiple sports or different games, you you're gonna lose. And then you learn how to how to pick yourself back up and look at where you went wrong and how to do better next time. Um, so that that's also very important and very similar to sales because, like as you said, you know, how many times do you have to hear no before you get to a yes? Um, and if you're if you're gonna you know get sad and and not want to make that next call or have that next conversation when you have one no, it's gonna be very difficult. So you just gotta, you know, develop a really thick skin and be very positive about the future and and know that eventually if you keep moving forward, you're gonna see success.

Yes. Yeah, I remember I was one time uh one of my pit stops in my career was uh I I was doing mortgages, so I was selling mortgages back before the crisis and uh of oh wait. Yeah, previous, previous, right? Um and I was doing about a hundred cold calls a day, and at some point it just became a game. And I was like, well, and I would even joke, be like, thank you for telling me no, you just got me one more no closer to it. It sounded so cheesy when I was saying it, but I was like, I was just having fun with anything that's another good time. Yeah, um I want to go back to your to your story a little bit. Um when Anthony uh from Exponential approached you about doing a yoga chain, uh why what what was his interest in yoga? Why do you think the market was ready for something like yoga six?

Um well Anthony had his goal was to have to develop a bunch of different fitness verticals, and so yoga was one of the brands or one of the modalities that he was really interested in. Um he had a had an idea that it hadn't ever been, there'd never been any sort of company that had taken yoga across the country. And you've had very, you know, regional players um out there. Like you, you know, there's uh studios in California that were part of one corporation or maybe on the East Coast, but nobody had really done it nationally. Um and there's a huge want and a need for yoga, but it's mostly done through mom and pop um operators. And so Anthony felt like, you know, to be able to franchise it and to present it in a very consistent, um, easy to understand, inviting way um would be really well received. And I agree 100% with him and had learned that during my time at Yoga Works, just with people calling and saying, hey, can I, you know, I want to open it at Yoga Studio in Montana, which actually really did happen. Um it just I knew that there was a big desire for yoga and just nobody really delivering it. Um, and so I joined because I wanted the opportunity to be able to take yoga across the country and eventually, you know, across the world. We actually have, you know, ideas to to to expand into other countries. But right now, the goal is to just be the largest um provider of yoga in the United States and to provide it to people that never had really had the opportunity to try yoga. And so, you know, typically yoga is presented in a very traditional way. Um, and sometimes it can be a little bit scary. And I think about the first yoga class I ever took, and I went in and they, you know, immediately said, you cannot leave. They closed the door, um, they started chanting and you know, telling us to do these different yoga poses in Sanskrit, and I had no idea what was happening, and I had a like I felt really uncomfortable and said I would never go back again. Um, and that that's not the experience, but I felt good. I will say that like I did the class and I'm like, you know what, I actually do feel kind of good, but I don't ever want to go in that room again. That was just too weird for me. Um, and so I wanted to be able to do that, do the practice of yoga without having the other, you know, the traditional elements. And so that's where you know how how we've designed yoga six. So we don't um speak in Sanskrit, we we don't chant, there is no um incense, and and none of that is bad, but it is sometimes a deterrent for the average Joe to go in and take a class. And so if you come in to take a class at yoga six, it's you know, we're gonna explain how to get into the pose in English, and so you don't even have to know the name of the pose. You can just, you know, the teacher will walk you into it essentially. Um and so the goal is really to get, you know, somebody that's just a regular average everyday person to feel comfortable to come in and take some yoga classes without having had experience having done yoga and just feeling like they would belong. I always kind of felt like if I wasn't really fit and super flexible that I would have, I would not fit in into a yoga class, and I don't want our members to feel that way.

Yeah, you you pointed out such a really interesting thing. I mean, I I remember my first yoga class. Um, it was I was taken in it because I had sustained a back injury to blew out two deaths. So I was like, well, I'm not, you know, not gonna be weight training for a while when I was in a you know crossfit and running and a lot of different things that I was into. Um so I was like, well, I guess now is my time to try yoga, you know, might as well give it a shot. And luckily for me, uh one of my friends, um Heather Tiddens, uh, she had done some yoga training on GMC world-class yoga instructor, and you know, very um, you know, she she's like, come come to one of my classes, I'll take care of you. Even having her there and kind of nurture me along the way, I just fell very shadow. I wasn't a flexible dude. Strong guy, not flexible, athletic, but really not, you know, balanced, I guess. Um, in that type of balance. And you know, I also noticed that I was one of very few men in the room. So I can understand that. I'm curious, uh, you know, my past experience, and then I eventually got into it, and it was great. Um but the the the male consumer, I mean, give us some percentages. Like traditionally, what is the what is the ratio of male to female? And then what are you guys kind of shooting for? What do you see?

Yeah, so I've seen actually from when I first started doing in the yoga space, you know, 12, 15 years ago, I guess now, um, there was it was almost all women, right? There'd be like one or two men in the classes that we had. Um, yoga six, we're now skewing about 15 to 20 percent men, which is awesome, and really validates that we're on point with the way that we're presenting our classes and the way that we're marketing. Um, I'd say industry-wide, they're probably like five, five percent now. Um so and the reason that we're seeing more men is just the way that we teach. And you a lot of times if you take a yoga class, the teacher will explain the full expression of the pose to start with, which means like if you're not flexible, you're not gonna get into the pose. And so you'll get halfway and you'll have to stop, and then you'll watch everyone around you like carry on. And it's it's really frustrating, right? So um with the way that we teach it, we start with the easiest part of the pose first, and you feel really um successful if you can just do the beginning part versus the other way where you feel like a loser if you can't finish the pose. And so that's why we tend to see more men and just more uh in even women like me. I was a, you know, like I said, a runner and a triathlete. I'm not flexible at all. And I would always just feel bad about myself. And so I love the fact that when I take a yoga six class, I I feel like a regular, I feel successful, I can do the poses. I don't have to sit and watch people. Um so important. And um, we talk a lot about that in our teacher training as well, just that people have different body types and different injuries and different backgrounds, and we should not be made to feel badly if we can't get into a pose. Um, so because of the way we teach, we tend to just get people from all different walks of life.

Yeah. Yeah, it's it I'm wondering an observation I have, and I'm wondering if it's true from your perspective, is like I feel like a lot of um traditionally a lot of women will do yoga as kind of their primary thing, right? Like, well, I do yoga, it's my that's my workout, that's my release, that's my community, that's that's my thing. Right. I feel like guys mostly do it as like a secondary or even third kind of option, right? It's like a uh a complement to what we do. Yeah, you know, do weight training, I do trail running, I do this, this, that, but and I do yoga once a week just to kind of balance it all out. Is that is that true or am I making that up?

Um, you know, a lot of our members are like that. Like they do yoga two or three two or three times a week, along with, you know, some sort of we do have quite a few people that come from CrossFit or people that are runners. Um, but it's not actually the men. It's it's the members in general. So men and women have there's a good percentage. Um 32% of our members also have a standard big box gym membership. And 40% of our members have access, have memberships to other boutique studios. So we do tend to get people that are also participating in other types of fitness for sure. Because it's, you know, if you're a runner, like I'm training for the New York Marathon right now, and the yoga classes that I do make a big difference on my training. Um, if I miss, if I miss a class, my run the next day is not as good. Um, and so we we do see people like that are augmenting whatever form of fitness they're doing with yoga, which is great for us and great for our franchisees, and um just in general, you know, allows us to have more members.

Yeah, that's great. Uh what what kind of markets are you guys going after? Are you guys going after big urban markets, secondary, like ABC markets? What are you looking at?

Well, you know, in franchising, you don't get to pick it really the franchisees pick. So we're wherever people, you know, our first studio that we opened, um, the first franchisee to get open was in New Mexico, in Albuquerque. So that wouldn't have been where I would have chosen. You know, I probably would have maybe gone somewhere else, but that was the first person to get open. And then we we've seen, you know, we grew really quickly in Texas and in Florida. Um, we still don't have anybody out in um in Montana yet, but you know, California has been a good market for us. So really just wherever we have franchisees that want to open, uh, as long as the market supports it, we open. And we've seen, I will say this, like in some of the smaller markets, a lot of success, you know, places like um Nebraska's done quite well, and Las Vegas, just sort of, I guess, more B-type markets that don't have as much competition and maybe haven't had the chance to have yoga in their in their city or in their town.

Give us some of the stats on on the locations, like what's the footprint, um, what's the startup costs, you know, share what you can.

Yeah, sure. So the studios are about 2,000 square feet, um, one practice room, so it's really easy to build. Um, we are heated, uh, we do have our classes heated, so we um do have a heater inside of our studios. Um, the build-out cost all in is going to be around 400,000, depending, you know, give or take, it's between three and four hundred thousand, depending on where you're building in the country. Um, but it's very simple build out, you know, just a it's a room with a heating element. And then what makes us kind of unique and fun and sort of more cutting edge is that the way we present yoga is not traditional. We have like kind of nightclub lights inside of our studios. We have a state of the state of the art sound system that we use. Um, so we program our classes using lights and music so that um it all kind of matches together. So if you're in like, let's say our Sculpt Oflow class, which is kind of an intense, it's an intense class, it actually has weights. And um, during the more difficult, challenging parts of the class, the the lights are going to turn red, the music's gonna get turned up, it's gonna be loud, and and you know, and then as the the arc of the class drops down and you get more closer to the end, when it's a little bit more relaxing, the lights will turn blue and music you know gets lighter. And um the goal for us inside of our studios is that one hour that you're in there taking class, there's nothing better in your day. And that we completely block out all the distractions because we all have a ton of them, and that you're able to just 100% focus on yourself and focus on that one, you know, that your practice for that for that 60 minutes, um, which is why we really control the environment and make it so that when you walk inside that room, there's nothing that's gonna distract you, it's gonna keep you focused on yourself and your mat and your practice.

Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it's very experiential. Yes, yes, that's a great word. Yeah. It's uh one of the hot words in fitness. Um so I mean that that brings us into the innovation topic, which I know probably a lot of the innovation is how you guys present. Um but when you look at like yoga as a whole, you know, I don't know, how long has it been around? Thousands of years?

Yep. Tens?

Yeah, long time. Um where do you see the innovation? Like, where do you see the possibilities to make this uh you know more modern or more inclusive or more attractive to the general population?

Yeah, that's a that's a good question. And we we have that all that comes up a lot for us. Um I mean, I don't want to change the ancient practice of yoga. So you're not gonna see us changing the poses or changing sequencing or really changing like the physicality of what's happening inside of the room. Um, you know, we have one class that does do some HIT training and some weights, and that's really popular right now. And um, I I don't see that going away, but you know, if something else were to come up that was similar, we we could include that in one of our classes. Um, we've also started including TRX in one of our classes, which is amazing. And not only from the like the HIT part of things and the training, like the weight training part, but also just from being able to get into a pose. So if it's for those of us that aren't flexible, using the TRX straps really makes you can get into poses that you you wouldn't be able to get into. So that's been really exciting for us, and we're it's very cutting edge. Um, but the other part that you know we're like you kind of alluded to is just the experience, you know, the fact that we are using lighting um and that it's you know, there's it's a it's a whole experience. Like you could make it like you're in a nightclub and you've got the the heat that we we change the the level of the heat depending on the class, we pump in humidity. Um we're again really focused on the music part of things and making sure that the classes kind of match with the music. Um, so those that's you know the way that we're innovating the physical space. And then what I think is most important is just the community. Um and we're making sure that we're we're creating space for people to come together as a community and be a part of a community, um, sort of like a modern day church. Um, you know, people need the opportunity to be around other people and to feel like they belong and they're a part of something. And so physically we've done that now that you know, kind of COVID is it's more in the rearview mirror. During COVID, when we had to go virtual and and had to not be inside of our studios, we did it, you know, through virtual classes and and Facebook groups and and that sort of thing. But what we found, sorry to keep to keep, I bet you could tell you're gonna talk there, what we found is that people really crave that community part. Um, and I feel like that's gonna be the part that will continue to evolve. And we've seen that in society in general, and just the way that we get together as and as community changes, you know, sometimes it's you know via Zoom, sometimes it's in person. And so we'll continue to evolve that way.

Yeah, I mean it's uh well enough you you kind of got into it, so I was gonna expand, how do you expand on it? But what what have you like when you look at the yoga market in general, the you know, people who consume yoga, how did COVID change things? How did the pandemic shift? I mean, overall fitness, it's you know pretty obvious now as we look back, like Peloton won the pandemic, really. Right? Yeah, that's great. Now everyone wants the Peloton of everything. And I've interviewed numerous people in the area of connected fitness, and everybody's kind of going after these little niches and segments. But what what did you see in the yoga market through the pandemic? How did it how did it change?

Um, we have way more new people, um, more people that have never done um worked out before. You know, we just did a recent survey and found that 40% of our new members had been working out for less than six months. That means that most of our new members started off working out during the pandemic. Um, and so you know, like Peloton is has been great for us because they have a good yoga program and they introduced have introduced people to yoga that have never would have never tried yoga had it not been for had it not been for you know COVID. So we've had lots of people come through our doors that said, yeah, you know, I started with this online yoga and I really liked it, and I'm I'm I'm I want to be around people. I want to have the opportunity to do this in person. I saw some of your ads, and it just looks like this is a great place for me. It looks like every type of person's here, and so here they are. So, like I used to say this when I was with 24 Hour Fitness, and Curves would come in next to us, and you know, my my team would get really nervous and think we were gonna lose members, and I always say, no, Curves is actually gonna help us because they are gonna bring people in that are too nervous to try it on their own and they're gonna go in, they're gonna start there, and then they'll they'll move up to us. And that's what the on-demand segment of yoga has done, and online and even Peloton has helped drive people in to our studios. So that's been really interesting. You know, we have I've been talking to franchisees that say that we've had people show up for class in jeans, they just have no idea, they've never done fitness, never done yoga before, not no note, don't know what to wear, um, which is great. I mean, we have the opportunity to help them get started on a practice that is going to be life-changing.

That is great. And I that's really exciting to hear. I mean, I've I've interviewed a lot of people, and no one's really um you know said with such uh certainty how many new people have entered the market. I mean, it's actually been seemingly like not a whole lot. And I'm curious, do you think it's because yoga is a kind of I guess more accepting place to start? Like it's not competitive, really. Right, right. Yeah. You know, it's it's kind of you don't have to be uh you don't have to have an athletic background, you don't have to have a lot of hours in the gym. You can just start doing yoga, and there's so many, you know, five-minute. If you on YouTube, you could find like a million five-minute beginning yoga sessions, right? What why do you think people are starting to get in that haven't done anything? Why are they starting with yoga?

Uh a couple reasons. One, I think it's because it like all the reasons that you just said, it's it's pretty accessible and you can kind of practice in advance before you come if you want. Um, two, it it's easy on the body. So if you've been, if you're somebody that hasn't been you know working out and has been spending, you know, maybe the last five years sedentary, you know, you're you're less likely to jump into a CrossFit and more likely to jump into yoga just because you think mass that might be a little bit more my speed. Um three, I do think the mental part of yoga um is has is playing a big has a big impact right now. You know, people are um dealing with the trauma of the last couple years and having to, you know, really having some some challenges. And so yoga helps with that. Um, and so we see a lot of people coming in, not just for the physical side of things, but also for the mental, mental part, um, which I hadn't seen as much in the past. We'd seen a little bit, um, but certainly not the way we're seeing it now. And we're seeing more of a shift where before people would come in and say, I just really want to look good. You know, I want to look good in my yoga pants, I want to look good in my jeans. Now it's like I just want to feel good and I want to be have a clearer mind, I want to be less stressed, I want to be able to sleep at night. Um, and there's been a lot of talk about mental health and how yoga can help with that. And so we're seeing people come in because of that as well.

Yeah, I mean, one of the things you look at too, uh, you know, with yoga is that it is you can you can start doing it at home. Yeah. But as soon as you want to start progressing, you do need someone to kind of help you because you can't, I can't see what my left foot is doing behind my head. You know, like you just can't. And you need someone who's kind of professional structure to guide you along the way. I mean, that that seems to make sense. It's like easy to start, but you know, if you really want to get better at it or just get more fulfillment out of the practice, you really have to have someone there checking, checking out what you're doing.

Yeah, it's nice to have somebody come over and you know, if your knee is over your your toe or it's like not on in alignment, check that. But it's also just nice to have the energy of other people, you know, and just to have if you I there's been so many times when I've left the office and headed over to the studio and just not been in the mood to do anything. And by the time I get in there and change and feel the energy from the people around me, I'm ready, I'm ready to practice. Um, so that that part's been helpful too. Um, and then the other thing I think that is good is just the fact that you can be distraction-free inside of a studio. I mean, I've got three kids, they're older, but they're still, you know, I try to do yoga at home and just not happening halfway through. Somebody needs something, or my dog tries to jump in. Um so it's to me, it, you know, yeah, you're right. It's great to start at home and in in and in situations where you can't go to a studio. It's awesome that yoga is so easy to do anywhere, and we love that. And our members can practice anywhere, but it in the you know, ideally, it's great to be inside of a studio so you have the the energy and all of all the things that come with with the studio.

Yeah, I agree. I I think studios, you know, there was so much questioning uh, you know, about a year ago, this time of like, well, you know, is the in-person experience come back? Are studios dead? I I always said no. I'm like, it's too valuable, people like it too much. It's too um, you know, it's like we said, it's too experiential. Yeah, right. People really look forward to it. They need that third place, they can't just go home and work, and now it's not even a third place. Right, it's like a second place. People need a second place.

And that's what we're we're talking a lot about. My studio, you know, our franchisees talk about that, how people are working from home, and that one hour that they're coming into the studio, sometimes they can't get them to leave. You know, the class is done, and they're standing there talking to the front desk, like, yeah, we got another class. You're like, I gotta get to work. And the the members are just standing there talking because there's no other social interaction. So um that's been really interesting to see as you know, some offices aren't going back to work, um, just being that one place where people are coming to socialize.

Yeah, I would always uh and that's a that's what that's such a good thing. I mean, it's it means that you're offering so much value to people. You know, having um you know, having a CrossFit gym for a very long time, it was so all the time people would be hanging out. I'm like, all right, you guys, you you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here, right? Like this is yeah, it's the it's closing, it's closing time, or I got a class coming in.

Yeah, yeah. You know, listen, I I did I spent I spent a lot of time in CrossFit gyms too, and I that's what I really loved about CrossFit was just the community. And um, I also really like the competition. I'm not gonna lie there. I just love you know, your your name went up on the board, and you had the best, you know, time of the day, or you lifted the most or whatever, your reps would go up there. So that part I did like, which is very different than what we're offering at Yoga Six, but just that the I also liked the community and it made a lot of great friends going there.

Yeah. Well, you know what the uh you guys are obviously honing in very strongly and doing a great job in the uh in studio, you know, yoga experience. But when you look at it like I'm I'm just out of asking out of curiosity, but um, how are the who's who's winning or who's making progress in the other areas? Like who's trying to be the Peloton of yoga and doing it well?

Well, that's a that's a good question. Well, we do have our our Y6 on demand, which is an extension of the in studio experience, and it's you know, of course, all virtual. Um, and so we're really working on that part of our business and wanting to be able to offer the yoga six experience from anywhere, because you know, people aren't always going to be able to make it into the studio. So it's nice that there's an opportunity for them to practice from home. Um, so we are doing that, but you know, Peloton is offers good yoga. Um, I think they do they're doing a good job. Um, there's a lot of other, you know, dip other companies out there, but not nobody's really sticking out. I mean, that I'd probably say just because so many people bought Pelotons over the over the pandemic, they're probably offering the most classes. Um But I do see that our as our platform continues to evolve, you're gonna see more Y6 on demand as well.

Awesome. Yeah, you know, I as I was thinking as you were kind of answering the question, um I haven't used a mirror, but just that fact that mirror's owned by Lululemon, I would imagine they're coming pretty pretty hard at yoga too.

Yeah, I'm sure they are. I probably should do some. I I've never used one either. Um, I've seen ads for them. Um I don't know anyone that has one though. Um, but I know a lot of people that have you know other other things. But yeah, I mean I think there's gonna be a lot of players out there. I think everybody's gonna try to do it. And Apple's got their version of it. You know, there's everyone's doing it. I think what is going to be important is marrying the two though. Um, not just having a virtual experience, but also having an in-person experience. And if you know, putting those two things together so that they seamlessly exist and you can choose, you know, how you want to experience your yoga. I think the most popular uh way will be in person, but having the ability to to take that and just use that and do it from home is also going to be really important. Especially as traveling starts to open up again. And you know, when we see our when we look at cancellations, um people before the pandemic were canceling because they weren't consistent with their practice, we're not seeing that as much anymore because they're able to continue to to practice through our through our Y6, uh the on-demand platform. So they don't feel like they're you know not getting their money's worth because they're still able to work out at home.

When you uh when you look at kind of moving forward, because obviously the name of this podcast is the future of fitness, but looking forward, um is there any technology coming into play that excites you? You know, like there's obviously the wearable market and um you know connected fitness and all these different things that are hit the market really hard over the last 19 months. But is there any tech that you see yoga being able to leverage and kind of bring it to the next level?

Well, we have, you know, we have a partnership with Apple, and we're using you know, the you know, the what we we're partnered there, and if you've really For us, no. Um, I don't. I think that for us to be successful, we have to can stay true to our roots and continue to focus on the the traditional like yoga, the actual practice of yoga. If we start adding too many tech pieces, I think we lose the authenticity of what we're offering. I mean, we do have our app, we have our partnership with Apple. We'll continue to innovate on the on-demand side of things, but I don't see us going much further than that. Um, I get asked that question a lot, and and I just can't. I think if we start adding things to the practice, it's gonna take away from the actual workout, and people aren't gonna want to do it. A lot of people come to us because it doesn't have that stuff.

Right.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. From a high level, can you kind of tell us like what does the partnership with Apple look like? What are you guys uh leaning on each other for?

Well, they're we're just offering the Apple Watch in our studios, and they have a specific yoga six. You know, you go to the yoga section and it like you can get essentially like it's using our yoga six workout, so you can see like the calories and everything that you've burned um in in your yoga class, um, specifically to yoga six.

Cool. Cool. Yeah, I think those partnerships are becoming more and more common. They make a ton of sense. I mean, just the fact that you get that kind of data to your client, but then also Apple gets right there at the ground level introduced to your clients. I mean it's really yeah. These partnerships are great. I I like where they're going.

And it's you know, you look inside of our classrooms and most of our, I look on the wrists of a lot of our members, and they're already wearing the Apple technology, so it made a lot of sense. Um, and we've got challenges where we're focused on, you know, how how many calories you need to burn and things like that in a class, but that's just a tiny part of our brand. Um, I don't, you know, I don't want to focus too much on calorie burn and things like that, because you know, you take a yoga class, you're only gonna burn two, 200, 300 calories max, right? You take a do a CrossFit workout, you're looking at a thousand. And so our focus is more on what happens during during the class and the way that your breathing makes you feel and the clarity of your mind and that sort of thing. Um, and injury prevention um versus overall caloric caloric expenditure.

Uh last question for you, Lindsay, because I want to respect your time. I so I always ask this question just kind of in the spirit of uh collaboration, but what what is, you know, as the president of Yoga Six, you guys are at 100 locations open and growing. Um what what's one of your what are some of your biggest needs um in the business right now?

That's a good question. Right now it's you know, people, um, which I love that it's people and not a technology, but you know, just as because we're opening so many studios so quickly and growing, we need, we need good people that are wanting to be a part of a community and want to help other people get started with yoga, not necessarily yoga teachers, but people that are um passionate about the fitness industry and might want to work at the front desk and and start kind of get started in their fitness career. Like if you rewind to what I talked about when I first started, just somebody that was like me, you know, right right out of high school, right out of college, that wants to be in a healthy environment, wants to be around people, wants to learn business and and selling. You know, we we do focus on that at Yoga Six. So we need more people. Um yeah.

Yeah, that is uh not the only ones. There's a lot of people who need need good people right now. I mean, even just uh, you know, here in the Flathead Valley of Montana, we can't find anybody uh to to fill a lot of the jobs here. And I'm noticing, you know, at Straight Across Board, I've asked uh a couple executives recently interviews the same question I just asked you, and that's always the answer. Is it?

Is it okay?

Yeah, yeah, it's common. It's not just you guys. So uh yeah, let's uh let's get people let's get people working.

Yeah, it's kind of it's starting to come back. We're see it's definitely we're seeing it improved in the last week or so, but it's definitely still still something that we're talking a lot about and excited to to see more people, especially the younger people wanting to get started with their jobs and careers and learn some really valuable skills.

Yeah, awesome. Well, Lindsay, thank you so much for this insightful conversation. I uh, you know, just listening and asking questions like, you know, I really got to get back into this yoga. So uh I'm sitting there like, God, I am sore, I am tight, and uh it would really do me good, especially at 44 years old. So yeah, great insights. Love what you guys are doing, kind of taking a fresh look at uh, you know, like we said, in ancient art, and it's uh it's really exciting stuff. So keep up the great work. Lindsay, if people want to get a hold of you or you want to send them somewhere online, uh, where'd they go?

Oh, just go to yoga6.com. You can find our Instagram and Facebook, or you can, yeah, I think that would be the best way.

Right on. Ladies and gentlemen, Lindsay Junk.

Thank you, Eric. Thanks for having me.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minute. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it. iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it. We want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more or get in touch with me, simply go to the futurofitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.