The Symmes Studio of Elemental OM is having its last classes on Saturday, October 26th.  This is my fourth studio and second shut down.

I’d like to begin this lengthy post with gratitude to our teaching team.  Turnover in fitness is a given and it is extreme.  We are so lucky to have a team that stays about 75% intact year over year.  You come because of them, not me.  I know that.  I create containers.  That’s all I do.

ahhhhh…details….Lebanon closed in 2015 because our landlord died and the lawyer who handled her estate and our lease inherited the building in lieu of payment for managing the estate.  That meant that I did not get the first option to buy as any renter would because it was never up for sale.  I put over $50,000 and 5 months of blood, sweat, and tears into the rehab of that building.  I like to tell myself I got it back through tax breaks (thanks Obama) and operations, but I don’t know. This is how the rich get richer.

So we closed.   Lebanon is an amazing group of humans.  They were sad.  They wished me well. They understood.  They’ve come back to Mason.  Of course keep in mind that was 2015 and the world has changed.  A LOT.

Now Symmes is closing.  Honestly, Symmes has never done terrible, but it has never done well.  It thrives in that I can pay the extremely high strip mall rent, pay our teachers, and when two HVAC systems break down in one year be able to weather a $16,000 outlay for new equipment owned by a landlord (triple net lease).  On our best month I make about $700 for all the work I put in managing the schedule, the students, the maintenance, the accountant, etc. etc.  Otherwise, Symmes has always been slightly subsidized by our teacher training program.  Closing Symmes will save me personally $20,000/year.  That means I have been paying for you to do yoga.

It’s kinda a catch 22 really.  Do what you love for a living.  Well, I love teacher training.  I simply love the people and the intimacy of spending the year together.  I have the energy for about 20 or so humans on that level….you know…where you think about them and wonder about them and watch them and just utterly love them.   I can’t have a teacher training program unless I have yoga classes because who are you going to convince to fall in love with yoga and want to join a teacher training?  So you must have a studio.

AND I don’t want to have yoga teacher trainings to make money.  I don’t want to force that flow on that level.  I hate it.  So a few months ago I’m faced with an increase of rent in Symmes and my mind starts calculating numbers and I start looking at other studios manufacturing yoga teachers in as little as 10 days. I think….how on earth???  Can I do this?  I can’t.  Yoga is slow.  Yoga is intimate.  Yoga teacher training is meant to be powerful and transformative and engaged.  I’m never having a teacher training for money or to support the operations of Elemental OM.  Screw that machine.

Yoga in Cincinnati sucks.  It’s a lot of power yoga based in the physical and not spiritual and this model absolutely works offering barre, cycle, spin and pilates.  You hire a bunch of young teachers and teach them a standardized yoga practice of 4 levels and sell cheap memberships.  It’s only going to get worse.  If you own a cute boutique yoga studio and are renting from a landlord you are screwed.  I’ve met with five other yoga studio owners in the past 4 months who are waiting out their lease.  They will be gone.  The corporate giants run by ex employees of Core Power Yoga (the biggest chain in the US) has found Cincinnati.  We will be welcoming two of them to Symmes in the next two months….hence another reason to exit.  I mean, why not join the cheapest and fanciest chains where you might actually try a spinning class too?  I get it.  You are not a yogi.

I talked to one of these franchises hoping to work out some deal for the 50 members at Symmes who only go to Symmes and not the other 2 locations.  The Arrogance.  I got a 15 minute lecture in which I said 10 words in return about how awesome yoga is and how their model is that there is no competition in yoga and there is room for everyone and bringing franchises into a city is soooooooooo good for small studio owners.  I was like…”WTF???”  Two in competition stabilizes prices.  Three within a 2 mile radius destroys the market.  Everyone with even a modest business background knows that.  AND the kicker was that they have a format...an actual format…for when they move into a city and put the small businesses out of business and he went on to describe this process.  Disgusting.  They couldn’t give me a million dollars to give them the names of the folks that I simply wanted to have a place to practice since I was closing mine.  They truly don’t understand the minds of small yoga studio owners who take responsibility for the displacement of their students.

And the students.  So granted it is the day of the announcement.  Nine out of ten emails today were tersely worded “Cancel my membership immediately.”  There were no soft words.  “Geez, I’m sorry to hear that your passion and the thing you have worked at as well as your team for 5 years has failed.  That must be tough.  I’ve loved your teachers and really had a great time with you guys and you will be missed.  I’m so sorry to have to cancel my membership, but Mason and Montgomery are too far.”  Just be nice.  Can you imagine the stress of closing an entire studio and disappointing so many people? Why can’t you be nice to me?

And the vultures.  “I am available at exactly 2:43 – 2:57 on Wednesday this week and I demand you be present to sell me three used bolsters at $10 for a total of $30.  I will be sending you at least 10 emails to negotiate all of this and you need to call my husband and mother in law to confirm.  If you are not there I will find out where you live and throw a gas bomb.”

And Social Media.  Now trust me I have watched others close studios.  There are tearful posts full of emotion and sadness.  It’s the end of the era.  Life will not go on.  5,000 loving messages and likes.  Me?  I keep it close to my heart.  That is who I am.   You will never know my suffering. What you will know are the facts and how I’m intending to make this easy and painless for YOU.  3 likes.  One from my sister.  One from my mom.  One from my fiancé.

And the others.  so kind.  so sweet.  so many so far away now having moved but always staying in touch.  so many who do know my heart.  thank you.

I honestly don’t fully know where Elemental OM is headed.  Mason and Montgomery will thrive.  I own the buildings.  The new Mt. Lookout studio is going to kill it.  Alex owns the building.  But energetically we are dynamically headed in the opposite of all of all of the “sports” yoga and franchises.    The Vedanta is set to take over the US and Elemental OM will be the Yoga Spiritual leaders.  You will find solace, community, and healing at our studios.  A small seed of a fire is planted in my heart and soon it will roar.  (Angie if you are reading this…cult yoga is a thang.)

I leave for Guatemala in on November 7th for 30 days for a 300 hour yoga teacher training.  I have taken 860 hours of training at this point just for yoga and not to mention Ayurveda and meditation.  I am certified to teach The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Perfect Health, Yoga of Heart, The Postures of Consciousness and Kundalini Yoga.  I have taught at Wanderlust, Telluride Yoga Festival, Ahimsa Yoga festival, Sedona Yoga Festival.  I have blogged for Yoga Journal, Prana, Patagonia, Banyan Botanicals and many more.  I am qualified as are all of your teachers who continue to study and learn because they are so passionate about yoga.  We have learned things we can’t even possibly teach in a 1 hour yoga class.  Yoga is so deep.  So rich.  So profound. 

The rules of Yoga Alliance have changed this year and if I don’t do another 300 hour yoga teacher training making me a 500 RYT I can no longer lead our 200 RYT which I designed and have taught for the past 7 years with great success.  It is the best 200 RYT yoga teacher training  in all of the tristate.  Nothing compares.  So I am off.

When I return I don’t know where we will be.  I intend to have a new strategy for EOM.

What do I expect from you?  I want YOU to want to go deep.  I want YOU to expect more from yoga than sticking your foot somewhere. I want YOU to crave a deeper and more meaningful connection.  I want YOU to be willing to do the work that transforms you and heals you of all suffering.

Thank you for your time in reading this.  Peace, Pamela

*The sole purpose of these articles is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda, yoga, and meditation. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of any disease. If you have any serious acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. Check with your doctor before taking herbs or using essential oils when pregnant or nursing.