Rising Stars: Meet Karen Russell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Russell.

Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I could say I started my passion for health and fitness as far back as six years old attending my first dance class in a wonderful small city called Erie Pa. As I reflect back, I have so much respect for my mom as she would make sure I would attend my dance classes, even though it wasn’t in our budget and she didn’t drive. Many times because my father would be working a lot, we would take the bus into Erie from our smaller town Waterford Pa which was about 20 miles from the city to take classes. My parent’s dedication to my passion of dance is truly the foundation of my passions as I transformed through life and I am grateful for their love and support. My desire to become a professional dancer was at the age of 11 when I was taken to a professional dance show at the Warner Theatre in Erie, and I remembered telling my mom that exact day that I will be a “Rocket Dancer” at Radio City Music Hall in New York City! There was a wonderful pat on the head and the response was definitely of course you will in the undertone of, hum well what are the chances of that?

When I was 20, I found myself frustrated with community college and decided to go on the road with a small show called Body n Soul, which was entertaining but of course not what I pictured as part of my big dream. This type of show did give me the experience I needed and the confidence to move to NYC. There I was finally, at 22 years old and OMG, I guess I didn’t realize that you had to be at least 5’8′ to be a rocket. Of course, I was a little disappointed, but it didn’t stop me. I always had this inner feeling that if you keep going through any or all the roadblocks that somehow you will find your path, your flow. For the next three years, I studied really hard obtaining a scholarship at the Broadway Dance Center, took classes at the Actors and Directors Lab and HB Studios, and developed my vocal skills singing at a local piano bar. The pianist who was this amazing soulful African American older man became my voice coach. I just keep pushing forward, by my passion, not by what seemed to be logical at all. I had to work hard to just pay basic rent but was blessed by my friend Jennifer Stahl, god rest her soul (that is another story because she was tragically murdered in what was called the Carnegie Deli Massacre).

After three years in NYC, I was invited to go on a cross-country trip with Sidney J Bartholomew to Los Angeles to deliver a truckload of art. So I decided to go and see what all the hype was about. Heck, it always seemed like the grass was greener in La, but ugh I have to be honest, my vision of La was always the idea that people were so fake, they lacked substance and just didn’t have the strong integrity to truly be a real artist.

So there I was in Malibu at a restaurant called Something Fishy and wow, fell in love. I thought to myself, could I live here? It is so beautiful, yikes do I really want to go back to NYC, ride the stinky subways and live in one room? Well, one week later, I found a house to share with two other guys (I always seemed to get along with males in that situation than females), and the very following week, I was told I should go on a dance audition for a person named Alice Cooper, who was conducting a world tour with all the big hair bands, such as Guns and Roses, Metallica, Megadeath and Motorhead. I went on the audition which was completely out of control, there was about 500 young ladies there for one part. Ugh…. well, dressed in my black leather, holding my wipe and sporting the thigh-high black boots along with the extremely over-teased hair, I booked the job. This world tour for the next three years changed my life completely.

Due to the Alice Cooper world tour, I was able to obtain a wonderful agent for dance and commercial acting, which fortunately kept me busy from 1986-1999. I feel very lucky to have had a career to do what I loved most, which at that time was dancing and then I did end up acting in many low-budget union films as an actress, dancing in many wonderful A-list films which all have stories to tell, and two record deals, one with the old label Polydor Records Germany as a solo pop artist, and a development deal with a girl group called Sweetwater Junction with Curb.

I feel super blessed to have had the privilege to tour with Bette Midler off and on from 1992-1999 as she is an amazing woman. She became a wonderful support system for me when my sister went missing in 1995 and currently when my 21-year-old son was tragically killed on September 24th, 2022 in a car accident on his way back to Pepperdine University. So through many tragic moments, there is this, no matter how hard it is, there is the “Light in the Darkness” and my faith as a Christian that has kept me on the path to continue to be the best I can be. Now more than ever the only way for me to continue to live in the healthiest way I can is to be of service to others and to pray every day that I may be the light… ugh… I have to admit it can be hard especially when you lose a child… So Where Does The Yoga NoHo Center come into all of the back story?

The Yoga NoHo Center, along with my faith, family and friends the place that more now than ever has given me hope to move forward. I started in the yoga business 22 years ago when I decided that I would have a family. On February 8th, 2001, my first son Conner was born and it was at that moment (because I was supposed to go on the road with Kenny Chesney, ugh what was I thinking) I knew that the entertainment business was done for me. I was happy with what I accomplished and truly, at that moment, the gift of god of having a child overwhelmed every part of my being.

The yoga business was a great transition from dance. I loved the mind/body connection and because of my past professional dance career, I could easily understand the physicality of yoga. I started with my own studio right after receiving my 200-hour certificate and from there moved through many variations of the business. Owning my own business was definitely a challenge because I was never a business-minded person at all, but within time, if you put your mind to it, you can learn anything you want and so I did. In 2012 I decided to sell the business due to my divorce and moved into yoga studio management.

Now, this was a very hard transition due to the fact I never worked a corporate job ever. I didn’t realize that you couldn’t have an opinion, or even a simple suggestion would make you the “Not The Right Fit”. Looking back, I learned so much from the concept of “Not Being The Right Fit”, I was able to move on and learn how several operations worked, which many people would have never had the opportunity to experience this type of first-hand knowledge. I was on the manage team for Corepower Yoga, YogaWorks, Naam Yoga La, Tantris Yoga & Retail, Mandala Center and Industry before buying the Yoga NoHo business in 2017.

In 2017, I was speaking to a close friend of mine about how frustrated I was as a manager of the Mandala Center. The Mandala Center was by far the most amazing group of loving teachers, the owners’ hearts were fully engaged, and by far was the most thoughtful group of people I have ever worked with. My frustration was that I knew the business wouldn’t be successful, and because I was just the manager, unfortunately no one listened. They hired overpriced under-qualified people to convince them to spend too much money with visions of grandeur before the doors even opened. The yoga studio business is very fragile unless you have huge corporate financial backing, you should be conservative when considering a one-location, mom-and-pop-type neighborhood yoga studio. Before Mandala Center closed, I did see the writing on the wall and decided to prepare myself for the next adventure, and that is when my friend said, “Why don’t you open up your own studio’?” Well, sure, but I had horrible credit and very little money, hum how would that work out. Oddly enough about two weeks later I ran into an old dance friend of mine who just received her yoga teaching certificate and she said she was interested in the yoga business. I didn’t think much of this at the time, but I did start to look in Craigslist.

And so I saw the ad in Craigslist, For Sale Yoga Studio in the NoHo Arts District, and answered it. The owners knew who I was and probably thought I had money… Ugh, I didn’t but took the meeting anyway. I kept trying to find an investor. This process was very daunting because I had everything from the male investor thinking I would date them to several people I knew I wouldn’t last one week in the same room with them. Just when I was out of potential investors, I remembered what my old friend said and thought well, I might as well call her. Two days later, she said yes, we signed papers about two weeks later and we were business partners. Mandala did close down, but I was already part owner of the Yoga NoHo, which we renamed the Yoga NoHo Center. The business was just breaking even and there was a lot of work to build the studio to the point of a profit that we could both benefit from. By January 2020, my business partner and I both looked at each other and said, “Wow, we are finally doing it”, the business was doing extremely well, all of our hard work was paying off. And then the Pandemic hit…

March 17, 2020, is certainly a day I will remember. As the world was listening to rumors of the Coronavirus, my boys and I were just finishing a nice weekend whale watching off of Balboa Island. My business partner was vacationing in Mexico and started thinking that weekend before the 17th that perhaps something big was about to happen but to be honest, wasn’t sure. I actually just had septic shock on January 20th (very strange) and almost died, so I wasn’t really scared about the Coronavirus until La actually said on March 16th to shut down. I didn’t shut down on the 16th because I wanted to be open so when people came by the studio they felt taken care of and we were a very strong community. The idea of just putting a sticky note on the door seemed very insensitive. We stayed open that one day to answer phone calls, see students and we had one last class before closing our doors completely.

Now I will not go into my personal beliefs of what I believe should or shouldn’t of happened, however; Los Angeles was the hardest city to be in through this very difficult and confusing time. We thought we would be reopen in two weeks. We even bought the 6′ markers for social distancing, the plexiglass desk divider to protect the front desk staff, changed all of our protocols so that when we would reopen in two weeks, we would be ready. Two weeks turned into two months and then two months turned into four months and then on the 8th month, we knew that one of us would have to buy the other one out due to lack of finances and the possibility of never opening again. On November 1st, 2020, I bought my business partner out and decided to push on. I have to be honest, the day we made the transaction at the bank, I thought to myself, this is either a grand idea or the most ignorant business move I have ever made.

What is life without passion and a purpose? It is simply dull, uneventful, and just existing. When we live by “Of The World”, we will never take chances and see our true potential, but when we live by our soul we will find the wonders in the Ebb and Flow of life and truly be alive. Even now, as I grieve the loss of my son, which is by far the worst thing that can ever happen to a parent, I believe that a life living by the soul through faith, being of service is and will always be abundant.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I said a lot in the first paragraph, But what I can say in terms of the yoga business is that I have been teaching for 22 years, and conducted certified teacher training for 20 years, I am proud of my continued thrust to study. I will always be a student as I believe that knowledge has no end. I am proud that I was able to keep my business going (it wasn’t easy) and was able to reopen after the pandemic. I am proud that I was able to cultivate an amazing team of teachers at my yoga studio, as it wouldn’t be open today without them and the fact that my son was just killed in a car accident on September 24th, and I don’t think I could of ever kept the studio going for the first five months after his death. It was the team that I was able to put together who supported me during the hardest times and continue to support me 100%. As a business owner, this is a skill set that you must have. You must be able to make your employees feel they are respected, be fair with them and truly listen. When Conner died, they took over without me asking because I believe I have always been fair and treated everyone with respect and they always knew they were part of a team.

What sets my business apart from others is. We are the only yoga studio in La that has True Far Infrared Hot Yoga and Non-Heated Yoga under one establishment. We are one of the last old-school yoga studios that offer traditional teaching and stay away from corporate structured scripted classes, allowing the teachers to truly teach and not just read from a script. We also pride ourselves in hands-on adjustments to allow our students to really grow in their practice. We also give special deals for students in need and offer interested more therapeutic classes such as Sound Bath, Restorative Classes, and Kundalini Classes. We do offer holistic counseling and soon we will hold our Soul Mamas events at our studio for parents who have lost kids as a way to help the grieving process in a holistic environment.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
To live a life of passion and purpose….. Always…

What is life without passion and a purpose? It is simply dull, uneventful, and just existing. When we live by “Of The World”, we will never take chances and see our true potential, but when we live by our soul, we will find the wonders in the Ebb and Flow of life and truly be alive. Even now, as I grieve the loss of my son, which is by far the worst thing that can ever happen to a parent, I believe that a life living by the soul through faith and being of service is and will always be abundant.

Pricing:

• New Student Special $35 1 Week Unlimited

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yoganoho.com/
• Instagram: /yoga_noho/
• Facebook: /YOGANoHo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYaXbhyWI-4
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/yoga-noho-center-north-hollywood

Image Credits
Yoga NoHo Center