Episode 54: Healing Yourself, Transforming Everything | Marina Stirdivant | Entrepreneur & Yoga Leader
Marina Stirdivant is a gentle powerhouse who changes the energy of any space she enters. As the founder of Connect Studio Space and United Yoga Studio in Orange, California, she’s created spaces for creativity, mindfulness, and community. A mom of three, wife, yoga instructor, and leader of a women’s mastermind group for over a decade, Marina’s story is about building connection with herself, her marriage, her work, and the women who inspire her. She shares how healing her relationship with herself transformed her marriage, the role of intuition in navigating life changes, and why vulnerability is a strength. From running multiple businesses to training the next generation of yoga teachers, Marina offers insight into living with presence, trusting the process, and creating the relationships you want most.
“Finding intimacy with myself, really loving who I was being and falling in love with me gave me access to connection - with my husband, my studio, our kids, all these new passionate people.”
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Chapters
00:00 Meet Marina Stirdivant
04:15 Building Connect Studio Space and United Yoga Studio
08:20 Leading Yoga Teacher Trainings
12:45 How Self-Connection Saved Her Marriage
17:50 The Role of Intuition in Life and Business
22:15 Women Who’ve Shaped Her Path
26:40 Why Vulnerability Creates Stronger Bonds
31:05 Lessons from a Decade of Women’s Mastermind Groups
35:20 Balancing Motherhood, Marriage, and Entrepreneurship
39:50 Creating Space for Creativity and Community
44:25 Books, Teachers, and Ideas That Inspire Her
48:10 How to Connect with Marina
I was very broken. Our connection was broken. I felt very disconnected for myself. I'm so grateful for my gut, my intuition, and God sending messages that were very clear. That's I think if you can get connected to yourself, you might be able to reconnect in your marriage.
That's Marina Stirdivant and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something, and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.
Marina is a gentle powerhouse. She'll slip into an event sitting silently, listening, calm, present, interested, and smiling without her saying a word. The space changes. It's grounded. It's more curious. You get the feeling something significant is happening. When she does finally speak, the room is all ears.
As she drops some profound and simple aha knowledge, this episode is no exception as she brings her whole life to this episode. Being a mom, a wife, her relationship, how much the women in her life matter, her businesses being an entrepreneur, her struggles, what she's excited about, and so much more Get ready to be inspired and to have a new BFF crush on this powerful lady.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast. Thank you so much. So fun. We're gonna have so much fun. Let's start let's introduce yourself and tell people who you are and what you're up to.
Okay. Thank you so much. This is so exciting. My name's Marina. I own a creative space studio in Orange called Connect Studio Space.
I am a yoga instructor and so I get to teach all of my classes there, but it's a coworking space for all kinds of artists and teachers and creative people, and we get to have meetings and that's where I got to meet you. So it's also exciting. We're pretty new. We just opened in April of 2019 and it has evolved.
So much, I wasn't really actually sure what it was going to evolve into. So it's been pretty magical to see that ride itself out. And outside of that I'm a yoga teacher and I lead a 200 hour teacher training. I am going to be co-leading our seventh round this march. And then we are actually leading our first round of 300 hour teacher training, which is like huge, which is gonna begin at the end of this year in the fall.
Outside of that, I'm a mom of three. I'm a wife. I am deeply involved in a women's mastermind group that is amazing. Very much so connected to everything here at Powerful Ladies and they are very powerful women and we just get to grow and evolve together. We've been doing that for the over, over the last 10 years.
That's a little bit of what I'm up to.
Just a few things.
Yeah, just a little bit.
I would love to start by talking about you, your mastermind group and the women who are in that with you. I had the pleasure of meeting all three of you at once. 'Cause I went to one of your like, open mastermind evenings, but maybe we just start by telling people like what a mastermind is and how that works just for people who aren't familiar with it first.
Okay, cool. So I was in, I was introduced to mastermind groups by my mom. She. Her sister had created a this group called the WOW Mastermind and wow stands for Women of Wisdom, women of Worth, women of the Word of God, women of Wonder, and Women of Witch.
Like all of these other W's, I think list goes onto 15 W's. Got little carried away. And they started it with about five other really amazing women. And it was back in, I think about 2009 that myself and two of my friends at the time who are now still my mastermind group, and we went to a meeting and sat in circle with these women and they were so inspiring.
We had just never, at the time I was 19 and I, we had never witnessed women that were just so empowered and strong and so courageous. Like they would, they were crying in this circle, but at the same time they were laughing and like high fing and what are we gonna do next? And it was just this this circle of amazing women that were so vulnerable and so courageous at the same time.
And they were talking about all of their. Things that they're gonna be accomplishing, like they started in the next 90 days that they're gonna be accomplishing up to like their 10 year plans. And they would do exercises like write dream letters to their future selves or from their future selves.
And they would support each other. Like they were feeding off of each other's ideas. They were connecting each other with other people outside of the circle to collaborate with. It was just so much support in the room and so much love really is what you felt. And encouragement.
And so from that group, they started developing like these little events and they were like yearly or quarterly events that would happen throughout the year. And we just started attending those and that was basically to help other women develop their own mastermind group. And this was just like a totally free thing.
Nobody's charging to do this. It wasn't like a business, it was just knowing the magic that comes out of having a support and accountability group like this one and being able to meet every single week with your group. And so we were started to teach other women how to do that. My group formed when we first formed, we were.
Yeah, like 19, 20, 21 years old, the three of us, we actually had five women at the time, but by the end of the first six months, those other two women had dropped out of the group because it's a huge commitment. And we meet every single week. And before we had, all of our kids, we would meet in person and then we started having babies and we would do 6:00 AM phone calls.
And then we started going through email, trying that out. But we lost connection by not hearing each other's voices. So then we decided, now we do like voice memos over the phone and we're just basically talking on our phone all day long throughout the week, but at our own time because through voice.
So it's connect and every week we go through. Our breakdown goes we share our wins from the previous week, and then we share our gratitude list from the previous week, and then we declare a desired outcome for the following week along with our intentions. And usually we have some sort of like forum or topics that we involve in that.
So if we're like reading a book together or listening to a podcast or, watch the TED Talk. And we just get to talk about that a little bit and how the inspira, like what inspiration came from that. And then the last thing we do is we acknowledge ourself, which is sometimes the most challenging thing, but we have to do it every single week.
And so we just get to process together and like really go through life together and, and because of doing this for the last 10, I think we're almost at 11 years, we have, we know everything about each other, like we know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We all come from very different backgrounds and we are able to really uplift each other in a way that's it's so special.
We call each other our sister wives and we just, we know how to support each other in the best way. We know when one of us is like starting to isolate or, we don't hear from them that week and something's going on, or, they're, because usually we send out our wow on Sunday or Monday.
If it gets to like Wednesday, we're like, okay, what's going on? We might be working through something like, we need to hear from you. And so it's a lot of accountability and it's a huge commitment. But yeah, the rewards are pretty priceless.
I think just getting, any people for 10 years to connect with each other once a week like that alone is a mini miracle. Yes. Let alone definitely. The results that you guys are getting, like what is the most profound thing that's happened to you because of, having a mastermind group and having the support and accountability from these women?
Oh gosh. They've both they've both received their masters and have gone through schooling and received their master's.
Heather is now a doctor of physical therapy. She just started her own practice in Costa Mesa and then Michelle, she is a professor at two different schools a PU and then she just started in Laverne. She actually is helping to create a yoga training curriculum for these schools, and they've developed this whole lab and part of the school, off part of the college, off of it.
It is just insane. She also owns her own yoga studio in San Dimas. And then from there we've developed a teacher training. So our 200 hour teacher training feeds a lot off of like our the energy of our mastermind group. Like the accountability is there, the intimacy is there, the vulnerabilities is there, the commitment is there.
And this is for a yoga teacher training. So it's very transformative and like all areas of their life when a person comes in as a trainee. And we're doing our seventh teacher training this year, so that's really exciting. We've been able to graduate, I think it's almost over 30 teachers into the world.
But there's been a lot of other like accomplishments in our careers, but I think the most impactful is the way that we have been able to learn how to balance. We're all moms, so balancing motherhood with. Like living our dream life businesses at the same time because it's a very big challenge. And while doing that, also being wives and being, having these like healthy marriages that are also very challenging.
So it's a lot of hats that we wear, but together we know how to support each other in that. Again, like we know our strengths and weaknesses, it's not the kind, like they're my best friends for sure. But, sometimes we have best friends and we go and we can go and talk about our husbands and it's yeah, like you're right girlfriend.
You've got this and you have those girls, where you can go to brunch and they're just gonna agree with everything you say. Where it's a little bit different in a mastermind group like this, because we have the commitment to be really honest with each other. We've given ourselves, each of us permission to like, be honest.
And so it's not always okay, you're right. It's ooh. I think that it would be good to step back and take a look at the situation and figure out how to process through something, but like in a very loving way. But we also give each other permission to call ourselves out, and to call each other out.
Yeah.
Which can be really hard sometimes and takes a lot of trust. And there is, there are those moments of like vulnerability I don't wanna be in this group anymore. I don't like your feedback but we have to be okay with that and we just keep going and we get to process through that too.
So it's like immense growth that happens. I feel like every single month we get to something where we're like, wow, I cannot believe we just worked through that and I got to watch you process that. And then we encourage each other and applaud and celebrate these big wins and little wins. So it's pretty awesome.
And masterminding came like from way back in the day, I believe it was with Napoleon Hill and one of his first books and, just talks about how three lights is, will shine brighter than one light. And how we just get to be there to really encourage and support each other's dreams and what it is that we wanna do.
Yeah. And I think, a lot of women that I'm working with or have met through powerful ladies, there's an intimidation factor of being like, how can I be a mom and have the life that I want, or what will happen to the dreams that I have when I am a mom? Because you never know what's gonna happen.
In general and for sure. In the path of motherhood. What are some things that you guys have discovered or what can you tell people who are in that place of, I'm about to be a mom, or, I wanna be a mom and I'm afraid that all the other things I care about or wanna make happen may not as a result?
Oh yeah. That's such a good question and I get that. I get those questions so much because it's a completely new season and we talk about seasons a lot in our mastermind group and we all connect with that term. So it's like finding your own term that works for you, but we call it seasons and discovering our new normals.
And so especially with first time moms, it's like such a big change and there's so much fear and there's so much questioning ah, do I, am I even ready for this? And I don't know one person who's ever been like, okay, totally ready for motherhood. Especially motherhood that motherhood while you're still trying to like, how am I gonna hold onto who I am?
That's like a thing that we are often with moms and working moms. It's I don't know how I'm going to stay connected to myself while I'm giving so much to this. Other human.
And that you care about more than yourself all of a sudden. And we, I, what I do is what I'm, what I share with people is only from my own experience.
And that's giving yourself so much grace and permission to feel whatever it is that you need to feel. Because there's gonna be some days as a mom where you're like feeling on top of the world and you've, kids are napping at the right time and you got 'em fed and they're eating good.
And, you feel like you've accomplished homework and you've just done all the things and that feels really good. And then you still got time to get your self care in and your work time in. And those days are really great. And then there's the other days that will come that are like brutal from the moment you wake up in the morning and you're like, everything is off right now.
What is going on? Because we can't really control the way our kids are gonna be feeling or how their emotions are that morning. And so I'm just like so much grace, give it all to yourself all the time. Give yourself permission to cry, to not be perfect, to not know all the answers, to not know what to do next.
And the biggest thing is to make sure that you have your community there, like your people whether's.
For me it's my mastermind group where I can call. It's somebody outside of my husband because sometimes my husband doesn't understand what's going on, and he does, he can't really relate on that level.
And, but when I, the fact that I have my girls there who completely understand what I'm working through and they can just be there to listen or to hear or like to send over prayers, like give something, it. Though, I think community and having your community is so important because it becomes very easy to isolate yourself and feel like you're the only one that's experiencing this, because it does get so challenging sometimes, whether you're like, nobody else is feeling what I'm feeling right now.
Yeah.
But in reality, we're all pretty connected and we are all even the ones who aren't, even if you're not a mom or a parent entrepreneur, you, there's still things that you're gonna be working through that are probably pretty similar.
And I feel like the parent entrepreneur segment of entrepreneurship and side hustles, like that's I think the fastest growing area I know of people who are realizing partly like the only way to make my life work is to do it myself. Because most traditional, jobs and corporate settings they really are not supportive of. Making family life work plus you as a human and your dreams.
Yeah. I believe it. Unfortunately that is, yeah, that is true.
I wanted to share something really quick though, that I didn't wanna forget to share in the beginning. Our mastermind group, just our moms put this again, our moms put this group together and their initial mission statement, I just have to share it because I think it's so cool.
And then there's this list of 20 practice and interventions, and I won't read 'em all, but I'll give you guys a few of them because they're pretty intense. But it says the process. So the process is this legacy begins with an inner circle of extraordinary women who commit to mastermind. Their journey together causes a istic effect, which unfolds the greatness in each one, compelling them to a life of lasting contribution as they powerfully procreate themselves.
Beautiful. And
some of the practice and intentions are things like we are a, stands for each other's visions and dreams. We bring out the greatness in each other. We speak words that move, touch and inspire others. We commit to a life of lasting contribution. We play the perfect game always. We value our feminine worth.
We have outrageous fun. Okay. So it's like half of them there's this, like I read them and I get so excited because I'm like, we've, when we first wrote these and when we first started practicing in our first year of masterminding, we're like okay, we'll say these kind of like affirmations in the morning, but not fully believing them yet.
And now at this point, it's like we fully do this. Like we live this out every single day and the good days and the bad days, we are still putting this out there as our intention. So it's like keeping us aligned with our purpose and passion every single day.
What a cool way to have to share that.
Yeah. I don't think people realize how possible it is to create whatever rules you want for how life can work. It's as simple as making a list. And being like, Nope, these are the new rules we said. So
yeah, I love that. I love that. I get so excited about doing that in every aspect of my life.
Like I wanna sit, I sit down with my family, I'm like, okay, these are our family core values. And we write 'em down and we get the kids involved. My kids are 13, five and one and or just turned two. And so we get them involved in writing down our family core values. And I got inspired to do that after I opened up my business and I'm like, okay, what are the core values of my business?
And then finding the relatability of oh, my business kind of has the same core values as my family life. And then I think it's important to also create those for like your own self care and for your own health and for your own personal mindset as to have your core values. And it just gives you this mothership to follow of okay, this is you, it.
It helps you to know when you are feeling off of how you can reconnect back to yourself and to your values and to like your life mission statement.
Totally. And one of the things I think has been so interesting in the past couple of months of some of the new clients I have is they've had a theme of like, why their business wasn't working was because they didn't put their own values into the business values.
Like they really saw it as a separate entity from themselves. And I'm like, your business can never be separate from you, like for better or worse. And if you're showing up at a place that doesn't align with you, or you're making something that doesn't align with you, it's just, it's not, it's never gonna work and it's never gonna thrive because.
We're so complex and if we don't bring all of us to the show, like we're, ultimately we're not giving everything that we could to our clients, our customers, the product. And that's what people want. People want all of you not, here's the perfect version of me, or here's the professional version of me.
That's not gonna get that's not gonna, you might get some customers, but you're not gonna get fans. You're not gonna get people who are like sold on why you're creating this and why it's so important to you. So I love it. Oh my
gosh. I, yeah, I love that so much. Thank you.
Because that's a very good reminder for myself and for my business. And something that I try to remember, like you said, a lot of business owners do this. They get caught up in saying yes to things that aren't really aligned with what they're doing, or, missing out on opportunities because we're being blinded by other factors.
And it's no, but when you're connected to your values, it's so true. You're gonna attract the right kind of customers and the kind of customers that you really enjoy working with, because that's huge. Yeah. Be able to be able to enjoy the people you're working with. It's that's why we want our own business in the first place.
Yeah, totally. No, I love that. Hundred
percent. And when I'm working with people on who they should be reaching out to, I'm like, who do you want to even if you don't know if they could be a customer, like why don't we start with who we want to be customers. I, when I look at who I wanna work with next, I'm like, I'm calling all of my friends and because I want, that's who I wanna help the most, and that's who I wanna spend my time with.
And. Let's just start there. And if it's not them, I love that they can recommend somebody else who is their friend, that they're like, oh, this person actually, needs whatever you've got going on. I, and I
like when we can give ourselves permission for that to change too.
Oh, this is my ideal customer right now. It might change by the end of the year, and that's okay. And it gives, it's like it's, it takes away some of the fear of just like locking in on this is what it is and how it always has to be. It's no it's always evolving. It's just like your pricing is always evolving.
That's okay too. And so it's like we're not stuck with one thing all the time.
No. Yeah. And just like you said before, like as humans, we go through seasons. So is your business going to and it just means that it's evolving and changing. It's actually alive versus not. Yeah. I would love to know what inspired you to Open Connect Studio space?
Okay. So I love talking about this. It's funny 'cause I was in a, we had a full moon circle last night and that question came up somehow. I don't know how we were talking about vulnerability actually, and intimacy. And intimacy for me was finding intimacy with myself, which was basically really like loving who I was being and like falling in love with me.
That goes into a whole other bigger story, but that's how Connect Studio space came about. On a practical level, I needed a space for my daughter to take her private dance lessons at. And it was becoming very difficult to have meet with her inst or her coach and find these studios to run out.
I'm like, why is this so challenging? I was always those awkward times, like two and 3:00 PM to get to Westminster to use a studio. And I'm like, okay, I need a space. I wish there was like a studio space that was just open to use for teachers, and then I've been teaching yoga for since 2011.
And since then I've developed a lot of different kinds of workshops and women's circles and just things that I love and enjoy doing. And that was another thing that I was finding I always needed a space for. We were doing it in like our backyards and friends' yards and friends' living rooms.
And I'm like, man, this would be really cool to have a space to do this at. And then. A studio fell into my lap with one of my girlfriends who was, had a Pilates and a spin studio, and she was moving all her equipment to one room instead of these two big rooms. And so a room opened up and she needed somebody to rent it out.
So I was reaching out to all these different teachers and I'm like, okay, I'll try to find, help you find somebody. I was reaching out and reaching out, like nothing's clicking. And then at the same time, I kept having this idea in the back of my mind like, Ooh, it'd be really cool to have a studio space that I could just have my events in.
And then the idea started coming, maybe I could share it with other teachers and other creative people who could also use this space. And I was thinking dance teachers and yoga teachers and meditation teachers, sound bath. And then that all just happened. It was, connect. The word connect was my word for last year, for 2019.
And it was connect because in the beginning of the year, my marriage was completely broken. Started in 2018, but I was, my husband and I were going through some really challenging times and we were, we were totally planning to get a divorce. I am, I still look back and when I look back to that time, I'm like, I was positive that we were not gonna be staying together.
Every part of me was running in the other direction. It was, I was very broken, our connection was broken. I felt very disconnected for myself and I knew that. And, i'm so grateful for like my gut, my intuition and God sending messages that were very clear. That's I think if you can get connected to yourself, you might be able to reconnect in your marriage, which was, that came with a lot of work.
That's basically like the most simple way to put it, but there was a lot of chaos all around that. It was like this big mangled up mess. But I took a step back and took some time to heal myself. This was all before the studio was even born. And I took some time to heal myself and found this word connection and I'm like, went into January, 2019 still feeling like crap.
Not knowing where my life was gonna be in the next three months, but also knowing like I, I'm gonna reconnect back to myself and see what happens there. In that process I hired a coach Debra, I Ivanoff, and she's called the being coach. She's very intuitive, like more intuitive coaching. And through a lot of meditation and therapy like sessions, I was able to not only reconnect with myself, but like completely start like embracing and loving every little part of who I was.
And so through that I was able to fully fall for my husband all over again. And it was like this very wild thing that happened because I had never experienced something like that before. We both agree we got married in 2000 and 14. But it really didn't feel like our marriage began until last year till 2019.
And so that's when it like really started and we found this connection between us that was, oh my, it's still so hard to explain because we became so much, we became so connected and we had never had that before. And it was because we both had to get to this place of being so vulnerable and so raw and so real with each other that there was nothing else left.
There was no ego involved. It was just like our pure souls coming together, like avatar movement, yeah. It was just it was, it's really cool. And, we had three kids at the time and so just to be able to go through this as a family has really evolved us. So through that, the studio was an idea there, and in reconnecting with myself, I realized that I was not, I had let go of a lot of my passions and I'm very passionate about connecting with people. I just feed off of the energy of people, especially passionate people. Like I have always loved like going to farmer's markets and I love healthy food and always been very like holistic wellness, but more so I would just love to go and see these passionate people being excited about what they're giving out to the world and doing it in like this very community type of way.
Same thing with pop-up shops. Like I go to pop-up shops and I just get so excited. I always will leave a pop-up shop, like with all these new best friends because I'm so stoked for them that they're living their life. But in this like intimate way, they're not starting this big corporation and it's no, they're just there to.
Put their little thing out into the world, whether it's like they make stickers or bandanas or dog leashes or whatever it is, their service that they're offering. I just love seeing them do it because I'm like, yeah, this is scary. You can easily go get another nine to five job and work for somebody else.
Which by all means, that's awesome too, if that's what you love doing. But you are taking this leap of faith and you're doing what you love. And I get so lit up about it. Me too. My husband always makes fun of me because I talk to people so much. Yes, I know you do too. So I'm like, I know, we just vibe on this.
It's so exciting. And yeah, he teases me 'cause we go to anything and he's you're gonna be here for so long, I should just drop you off because you literally talk to everybody for so long. Like you wanna know their whole life story. And I'm like, I do. I wanna know how they got here and how they're being courageous and what drives them every day.
I just get stoked off of it. And in creating the studio. I didn't know if it was gonna work at all. We didn't have investors. We didn't have actually like a real business plan. The idea popped into my head and a month later I signed the lease papers and we moved into the studio and it was scary as hell and I was I had to be vulnerable constantly.
Every day. I had one of my cousins tell me, 'cause she had a gym at the time or she had a gym before and she was like I cried myself to sleep most nights. It is really hard. And I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna do that. And then I found myself crying myself to sleep so many nights in the first, like four months of opening the studio because it was terrifying.
And I didn't know how I was gonna re make rent every month. But it evolved with these amazing humans that started showing up and teachers and. People that also needed what I needed, which was community and space to do what they were passionate about and support, support in that. And I was just, it's been able to really evolve into this dream business that I wasn't even really sure if it was going to work.
I just had this idea and vision in mind and I just I took a leap of faith and it's been amazing.
I love that you're finally in a place where you get to generate other people's dreams coming true. Also, like you, you get to love on all of your favorite types of people by giving them an opportunity.
You've given me an opportunity. We've hosted a powerful ladies workshop there. You give it for so many others like. Finding space is so hard. It seems like such an easy thing to figure out. And it is so hard. Hard. It's whoa. What? Like, why I'm glad that there are the movement of coworking spaces I actually really appreciate.
'cause it's anything that's giving people who are out there doing their hustle and doing what they love and like giving them access to the things that you need from a workability and structure sense. I'm like, bravo. We need spaces to, give our gifts out to the world and create things, and to your point, connect with other people.
And to have a space where you're just having all this amazing energy coming through. It's really incredible. So thank you for making that for all of us.
Oh. So welcome. It is my pleasure. Yeah, it's funny 'cause people still walk in, there last night and they're like, what is this place?
And I get that question all the time. They're like, it feels really good in here. And what is this place? And so I'm always exposed, they're like the two main things that I hear a lot and I'm like, those are two wonderful things. I love it. And then I also think damn, I really need to get on my marketing.
People don't know what this place is. But I love being able to share what our membership is because the membership is for the teachers. So I rent out the space to teachers. I don't have, I don't hire teachers to come in and teach classes there, which some people think that's what it is. But I'm like, no, it's a rental space for teachers.
So they get to come in and they pay their rental fee and they get about 16 to 20 hours a month that they get to do whatever they want in the studio. And I, that's what the vision was for. It was to have a platform for other teachers to basically have their own studio without having to pay the overhead and deal with everything else that comes with owning the studio, which I get to deal with.
And it's been an honor to, because I get to see these people come in here and really grow and feel empowered because they're doing their own thing where, I've worked at a ton of yoga studios before and they've been amazing, but there's a cap on what you can do.
So this allows people to really, to grow to, to practice what it is that they're loving and to bring in the people that they wanna bring in at their rate.
And so it's pretty exciting.
I think it's important to also talk about, as you mentioned, that. When you start a business, no matter what kind it is, like you just need to expect that there are gonna be ni moments when you are a hot mess and crying and you're like, what did I just do?
Yes.
Yeah. I had many moments like that because in the beginning I was trying everything. I was just trying everything to see what we could do to bring in funds. I'm like, okay, we gotta make rent. So I was trying everything and but it was in those moments that I got to learn oh, I'm out of alignment with what the real vision is.
Yes. And I had to really check myself over and over again. Oh, look at me. I'm trying to do this because my ego is in fear mode. And it's do something, make money somehow. But that was completely out of alignment. And when it wasn't until I really let go, which happened in like the first three, four months, let go of trying to control everything.
That it all came together. In an instant, God was like, okay, let me show you why you need to let go. Okay. And, the right people came and crazy things happened, like the exact amount. I'm like, okay, shoot we're $500 short, on rent. How are we gonna do this?
And then somebody would call and be like, can I rent this space for two days? I'm like, sure, you wanna pay 500 bucks? They're like, cool. I'm like, awesome. And it was just things like that happening all the time and knowing that, wow, law of attraction really works too, because I would put things out there and really focus on okay, this is what this is what I really wanna tune into and start manifesting and declaring that the studio attracts and those exact type of people would come in.
So
yeah, it, I mean it's, it sounds crazy sometimes when. We talk on this podcast about, putting things out into the universe and praying about them, or asking for it, or declaring it, and then like having, the golden nuggets that you need to keep going, show up, whether it's a person or a payment, or an idea, or a connection, or just like hope comes back.
But it does. Yeah. Like anyone who wants to challenge the woo ness of those ideas. I'm like, you like, you haven't experienced it. I don't know what to say to you. Yeah. This weird shit happens when you play the game. And I don't have logical words that are scientifically proven for how this happens.
It just does. And I love that it does. Because I love the fact that. We get to live in a universe that has this, miracles and magic and there's other stuff going on that we haven't seen, touch, felt like, all those things. I'm like, that makes it fun for me, but I just I the fact that we have to declare it and then surrender and then keep playing all at the same time. Someone I recently heard about, you do the thing and then you get courage and inspiration. Like you don't have, you don't wait until you're like, okay, I'm feeling courageous.
Let's go. Like it. It it's really in the actions of doing it that the things start to work out. Everything that we're afraid of will come up and we have to go walk through it and do it anyway. And totally. It's so worth it. Like anyone who's listening that is considering doing their own thing go do it.
Do it.
Do it. Yeah, definitely. And the, I so when you were saying like, there's no logical explanation behind it. I'm like, I don't know. I feel there almost is, I don't, I guess it's not logical, but I have been practicing so much lately in this past year because I've been forced to be very vulnerable and okay what's gonna happen here?
What are we gonna do? I've really thrown myself into this is time to be courageous. If I'm not courageous, then the only thing on the other side of that is okay, the business fails, we close the doors. And that's worst case scenario right now. Honestly, that's not that bad. It's once you accept the worst case scenario, you're like.
I could deal with that. Do I want to? No. So I'm gonna go in the other direction of what it means to be courageous. And when I'm in that mode of okay, there's a few things that I need to be manifesting here, and there's a few things that I need to be praying about and declaring and putting it out there I use all kinds of different tools.
But what I do first and what I was not doing in the first couple months of owning the studio is I was not being grounded and centered in what my purpose was. And I think that's when people are like, oh I wanted this to happen and I manifested it and I put it out there and nothing happened.
It's sometimes we're not going to get the things we always want. We might get, we're gonna get what we need no matter what, but we, it might not look like what you thought you wanted. And then it's like this trust comes with that too. Okay, I see God is our thing. We're always like, I see you, God.
Okay. It came in a little bit short, but it was like a little teaser. It's like you're showing me that you're hearing what's going on, but you're also showing me that there's some kind of lesson behind this and I have to be willing to really notice what's going on. And it's like being in this constant observation mind where.
I do this with every aspect of my life. It's if there's something going on in my family I have to tune in with myself and think, what's my purpose here? Am I going to, am I sending out a text message? Because my ego's kind of wanting to let people know how I feel and I need to put my opinion out there.
Or can I tune in first and send something later that's more loving and compassionate and really from coming from a true place same thing with my business. Am I asking for this solely to pay the rent because that's not the purpose of this vision. There's so much more in that. So I have to like pause and really think about what am I putting out there?
What am I trying to attract? I think that's where the true, like magic happens is when you're very tuned in self-aware practicing mindfulness 100% and then declaring what you want.
Completely. Like one of the first exercises I do with people is the why exercise. And it's not, why are you doing this business?
And it's oh, so I can sell t-shirts and make money. I'm like, no. That's not it. And we go through, I have three layers of what whys can be, whether it's, a holy, like why, which I call it. Just meaning that it's like a why that sounds good on paper for sure.
But it's really like your higher purpose, why? And then we have all the practical why practical and selfish wise. And then you've also have all these hidden why's for like, why we're doing things. And if we're not connected to why, then it's really hard to take any other step after that and make it work.
Yep.
Yeah. And then once you get connected to your why, you can really fit in. Okay. You get to visualize what that all looks like when everything does come into fruition, like your ideal vision of what this is gonna look like. And then you get to notice who would I be being in that moment and why am I not being that person yet?
You really gotta step into who are you being every day? If you're gonna be declaring all these amazing things and putting it out there and asking God and the universe to bring it to you who are you being to be able to receive it? Are you still in that place of when it happens then I'll be that, so we get a little caught up there and we need to get back into the being before the doing and the having comes.
100%, yes.
Love it. So cool.
When you think of powerful lady, like what comes to mind for you?
I love women, so there's this long list of I think of all the books that I'm reading right now and right now I'm personally in the middle of the Awakened Woman by Dr. Tara Wright front, and it's so good. I think of Maryanne Williamson and her book Returned to Love that changed my life.
I think of Brene Brown, of course. Just stepping into my courage and vulnerability. Sean Corn is one of my absolute favorite yoga teachers and yeah, she just makes me cry every time I'm on my map about getting to practice with her. And she has a book called The Revolution of the Soul that I think just came out last year and it has just been a game changer in my life.
Like it's really allowed me to step into my yoga practice all over again. And all of these women. Lead in a way that is authentic to who they are. But really it's like they step into their, they step into their lives with no there, there is fear there, I'm sure, but it doesn't feel like it.
And it's like they lean into the fear which to me is like so powerful when we can do that. It's having courage while still there's the fear is still there and still being courageous and moving forward and leaning into it. And then of course the powerful ladies in my life every woman that shows up to our mastermind circles and is a part of these groups because they, they show up when they don't wanna show up and, but they know that they need this community, but sometimes they would rather be isolating themselves.
But they show up anyways and that's really powerful to me. My mastermind group, these. Two amazing women that I would, I know I, without them, I wouldn't be able, I wouldn't be doing half of what I'm doing today. And I wouldn't feel this purposeful and I wouldn't feel this happy.
Honestly. They've really brought out so much joy in my life and connection in my life. And my mom, of course, my mom is like the ultimate powerful woman to me. She has experienced so much in her life, but she has never. She's never given up and she's never, she's just keeps pushing along. She is, I don't know how old she is actually, because she always tells me different ages.
But I really don't know how old she is. That's so funny. But she is still in this place of growing, like still asked me questions about what I'm learning and then she's implementing into her life. She's still willing to be playful and youthful and she is like the most generous person I know, just constantly in this state of contribution to our family, to strangers on the street to all of, all of her friends and friends she's had for so many years.
It's just like her friendship groups and her community that's around her and the people that she gets to shine her light on is just a testimony to the person that she's been so am very grateful and lucky to have. Hey you girl. I love that you're doing this. Oh my God. I just, I'm so inspired by you and the women that you bring on here, and that you just, you have this passion of community as well that we get to connect on.
Yes. And the contribution that you do is amazing.
Thank you. Yeah. I just, I'm so committed to people knowing that everything they want is possible. And it doesn't need to be as hard as people say it is, or we make it ourselves like. We can do so many cool things. Like we can literally do whatever we want and make it happen.
And it's just a matter of knowing you can, and then putting together the game plan to do it. And anything that I can do to help people move in that direction towards their best life, like I am down to do, let's make shit happen. That's my favorite thing. Yeah. But I think for, people who are listening right now that are craving connection and feel isolated and they're not sure where to start, like there are many people, it's like it's intimidating to, have to make new connections and friends as an adult or find a new group, whether it's because your life has changed or you've moved or you're just looking for like different people in your life.
How would you tell them to start on that path of creating new relationships and connections?
Oh I read this book called Belong by one of the Agro well Sisters, I'm thinking I'm chopping up their last name. But in her book Belong she talks about creating your own community, and I just love that she dedicated a whole chapter to this because it's, a lot of the book is on this, but it's so important for us to be able to find our communities and connect with other humans like.
We're so absorbed into our cell phones that it's we think that we're connecting with people through there, but really we're, they're feeling so alone behind the screen. And that's what I love so much about our circles that we have. We have so many circles that we hold at our, at Connect studio throughout the month, and it brings people together.
And every time I hear the same thing, like I'm just seeking community and I didn't really know what to expect today, but I feel a lot better now. I feel a lot better just being in front of people and sharing a little bit of who I am and then having people listen. It's yeah, that's very, a simple thing to do.
But like you said, it is, it does seem challenging, especially as adults. So in this book, the Long Sheet has people writing out their their ideal communities and what it would look like, and whether that looks like you find a book club or you start a book club and because you're interested in that and you like this idea of meeting with people with that intention of talking about something.
Or, whether it's like a faith-based meetup or, something exercising and going and finding a hiking group. There is courage that needs to come with it because obviously all of these things are already out there, but how do you step up and join? I believe that's where the courage comes into play and really giving yourself that permission to admit like, this is scary for me.
I don't usually do this. I hear that from so many people. I don't usually go somewhere by myself and this is really weird. But. Stepping into that and allowing yourself to be afraid and do it anyways. Because that's gonna be giving back to yourself in the long run. I think community is one of the most important things that we can give to ourselves.
And so I would just say, step into it and figure out what it is that, what kind of people you actually really enjoy being around. And go from there and just, and start off low and come to our studio if you need that. And if you're local, I would love it.
And I think it's okay to go and try things and you don't need to keep going.
If it's not your vibe Yeah. Move on to the next one. Yeah, there are people out there for everyone and groups out there for everyone. And I do think that I am so guilty of this, like when I am, working too much and looking at all my other priorities. The first thing that usually goes is social time and time, like outside of the house or whoever I'm working with. And I know that I always have to make it a priority. We're talking about the book, the One Thing at the Last Powerful Ladies Meetup and I have to remember to counterbalance and more often my social connections, my networking, my being in community.
I can't let it go, a month or two months before I'm seeing people I care about and people that let me up. Like I have to prioritize it just like I would any other health or wellness thing. Like it's really taking that on and making it, putting it into your calendar and not thinking like, oh, I should be doing something else.
As we talked about, like the to-do list, like who cares about it at the end of the day? Do you wanna look back on, oh, it's been a year since I've done x or since I've contributed to myself in this way. And I think it's important to make as much of a priority as we can.
Definitely. And like everything else you've been talking about it, like you said, it can change. Like you might show up to something and be like, oh, okay, I'm over this hiking group. I no longer wanna do this right now. And it's just a season's changing in your life. And then you join something else.
I love when I get to surprise myself and I'm like, oh, I actually, I like painting. This is cool. I went to a painting class and it was really neat. Selfishly at the studio, I try to hold all sorts of, if I bring in all these different kinds of teachers and because I want to attend all of their classes.
Yeah. I'm like, cool, I'll be there. I just gotta check in on things and I totally get to participate in so many things that I would've never done before. I got to go to a drum circle recently. I'm like, I had never done that before. And that was the coolest experience ever. And I felt like these, I met these five women, they were complete strangers at the beginning of the night.
And by the end of the night, I was like, I felt literally like this very strong sisterhood with these women. And that's such a great experience and totally surprised myself. So I would say, yeah, try out new things that you might not feel really are your thing, and they might become your thing or you might learn something about yourself.
But it, and it could always be changing too. I love that. I was gonna say something else, but it totally slipped my mind.
I know that Jordan, that
happens.
Jordan recently went to a cooking class. And how was that experience, Jordan?
It was good. It's, I find that I do a lot of stuff on my own, so I am, I like doing stuff on my own and I'm trying to do more stuff outside of work.
But I really liked my cooking class. Yeah. It brought, it it brought up some new stuff and it made me excited to go out and do more stuff to the point where, i'm making a list right now of more activities to do.
Yeah. I love, especially when you're starting a business, like I know a lot of people, the listeners, might be thinking about starting a business or if you have an idea.
There's nothing better than getting out into the world and talking to people about it.
And sometimes these new friendships that you get to develop with like new community, I love that because it gives you, sometimes people get stuck in them, it's hard for my friends to see that I'm getting into something different.
If you have a solid group of friends from high school, sometimes it's hard to bring up something new where you're like, oh, they've always known me as this person. I can't be this person now. And it's no, you get to give yourself permission to be whoever you want to be. And I think that also comes with a lot of courage too.
But I see people experiencing that. Like when they come to the studio and they come by themselves, they're like, I don't know if I told other people, if I told my friends that what I came to tonight, they might think what do you, that's weird. You doing something new and different.
And I think people sometimes get stuck and they're like. This is how I've always been. And they put this label on themselves that's very you're blocking off so many other opportunities that are out there
and just cool things to do and try, right? I love I love doing new things 'cause I just like learning and being like, what's that?
And like I get to experience something new, learn something new, meet some new people, and who knows what I'll take home and keep from that experience. But it's new. It's like using part of your brain that doesn't get used all the time. We get so repetitive in what we really do every day and who we're talking to and what we're thinking about.
So just things to shake it up and stay fresh. It's, even that alone is nice. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. We ask everyone on the podcast where they put themselves on the powerful Lady scale, zero being average everyday human, and 10 being the most powerful lady possible. Where would you put yourself today and where would you rank yourself on average?
That's an interesting question. I really like it a lot. That wasn't on your list, so taking me off guard a little. I'm like, oh, alright. Who do I wanna be right now? I am, I really find pride in being very very ordinary because I like the idea of, I like the idea of staying and being in the in the one category, which.
I don't know. Does that sound so weird? I just, I feel really drawn to that. No as much as also being a powerful lady at the same time. Okay. So maybe I'm like a five, A six is my favorite number, so I'm also drawn there. So I feel like I change a lot and I hope that all women feel this way and they get to change a lot because it, to be able to say, oh, I'm a 10, I'm a powerful woman, and I'm doing, I don't know.
For some reason that just feels like doing all the things. And then there's this pretty much like half of me that wants to sit back and just hang out and connect with people and not really feel like I'm in this hustle and bustle life. I just want to be inspired by the people around me that I see doing what they love.
And then. Being able to encourage those people. And I think like slowing down is one of the biggest strengths that we can have. And really like being grounded and centered, which kind of brings me back to a one because that feels like very ordinary. And, I'm not, out there to be famous or anything crazy.
I just wanna live in the country now I'm dreaming. I just, the slow life is very attractive to me. And I think it's because our mind our mind only knows contrast, is that what they say? The mind knows, only knows contrast. So it's I know what it feels like to be a little bit overwhelmed and so busy, but also, finding so much success in that.
And then. How good it feels to sit back and not be in that at the same time. So I guess this comes back to the season thing of I guess it just depends on what season I'm in at the moment. And so I don't know. That's a really challenging question. I feel like I'm like a five, but I like being at a one and, but I'm inspired to be a 10, and just who knows?
I'll be on a sliding scale. Can I go, can I do that?
You can. Yeah. There's no wrong answer. I like sliding
scale.
There's no wrong answer to this question. And I love that question. I'm fascinated by how people answer it. We should probably partner up with a sociologist or something and give them all the answers.
Yes. 'cause everyone answers it differently. Everyone goes to a different place when. I ask them that question and it's like all questions. It really speaks to who they are and where their focus is. And none of it's wrong. Like one all by itself is whole and complete, so you know, all the way up.
Yeah.
I love that. I love being able to be anywhere on that scale and no matter what, feeling whole and complete.
It's yeah, this is exactly that that, it's one of my favorite things to say is this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now and this is exactly what I'm supposed to be feeling right now.
And everything is okay. Anything I'm feeling is okay.
So
I really love that reminder
now
that
we question. Thank you. You had a lot of things happen in 2019. A lot of changes, a lot of new stuff, a lot of, bringing things back together. What are you creating for 2020 and what are you excited about this year?
Yeah, 2020 feels so epic already. I'm like, whoa, January was so big and I keep, I'm so glad we're in February because I'm like, alright, moving forward. January was huge. A few things for sure, I know for sure we have coming up is our teacher training. So our 200 hour teacher training, my two coach, my, I'm a co-teacher in it.
And then along with my Michelle who owns the studio and Heather, who's the physical therapist the girls in my mastermind group. So we leave that together and we have two, 200 hour teacher trainings this year and one 300 hour teacher training. So it is going to be. An amazing year already with those things happening.
I'm personally in the middle of an intuitive coaching certification and the coach that I told you about that I had as my coach back in 20, in the beginning of 2019, that really helped me just figure out my life. I am taking her training certification now, so I've already done a certification back in 2014 where I became a holistic health coach.
And
so very much into like holistic wellness and specifically geared towards women and women with young children and parent entrepreneurs. I just love helping people find the balance of work and home life and what that looks like and really finding ways to take better care of ourselves. And so I'm working on that this year and really branding myself more as a coach.
And then moving forward with this intuitive coaching, which it feels like transformation coaching. Where it's very spiritually connected, it's very intuitive. It's very empowering. I find for the client that they get to figure out their own answers and they get to really tune into their own divine their own guidance with that.
That lies within all of us, and I help them to tune into that. So that's very exciting and I'm doing a lot of that. And then the studio's growing and evolving and I am always bringing in new teachers, always meeting new people, always having new events. So that's really exciting too. Those are the big ones going on this year.
I know there's tons of teacher trainings in the world. What makes your teacher training different?
I think what makes our teacher training the most different from the others is the three of us the mastermind group that we have and that we've been working with for such a long time. We have this ability to feed off of each other and we bring that out in our teacher training by allowing everyone there to have this wholehearted transformation process through the teacher training.
It is it's intimate. We usually keep it to under 10 people where other teacher trainings can get a little bit bigger than that. And it is besides that like synergistic effect that. Michelle, Heather and I have with the group because they, they really do all feel that they really, it is really like they become part of our mastermind group and like we become this like very committed group of people that is like experiences growth very rapidly because of the curriculum that we've designed around it.
And then outside of that, the differences are we've designed the program to be affordable and accessible for really anybody that wants to teach. We've recognized that a lot of teacher trainings it's like you, they're expensive, you can't afford them, and especially in low income areas. And we have scholarship that we offer to women of color and we offer that through just an application process.
And we offer, what is it called? Installment rates. So like we, we offer payments through the teacher training program. So
it's,
the whole intention of it is so that really anybody who desires to do a teacher training like this and have this kind of transformation in their life, we wanna make it accessible to them.
Awesome. I think that's really important. I think that, the teacher trainings that I find really attractive are when they're including, they are intimate, but they're, they include everything in regards to mind, body, spirit. It's so important for people who are doing teacher training to not just know the yoga practices, but really to understand the body and how the body functions.
And so having a, doctor for physical therapy Yeah. On your teacher group is, as a leader in the course, I think must be also a really unique extra feature for you guys.
Oh my gosh. It is amazing. She is so brilliant at what she does. She's also a certified yoga teacher as well, so she knows how to mold together every just everything.
I still sit in on her classes and I'm still blown away by everything I get to learn when I get to sit in on her anatomy classes. It's amazing.
This has just been such a fun conversation today. I am so excited to get to share with everyone listening who you are and what you're up to. Is there anything that you wanted to share that we didn't get to speak to yet before we wrap up?
This was so much fun. I was nervous. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna talk about? And yeah, there's just, I have a lot of events going on at the studios today, so this was great to be able to just check out for a moment and have a real life conversation with you and I just am, I'm so grateful for you.
There, there is a quote by Sean Corin that I put aside because this is like my, been my life quote for the last few months that I would love to share. And it's really been a practice of recognizing that we each have this, these stories to tell. And the quote by Sean Korn, I don't even know if it's like a real quote, she just mentions this all the time in her classes that she teaches.
And it's always so inspiring to me because it connects me back to myself and it connects me to everyone else around me. And, but she talks about, we all have these different parts of our story that we get to share and, it's important that we navigate through them with like compassion and love, and we understand our different stories and like what we've experienced since our childhood and how that has evolved our our soul and our personalities and who we are today.
But then also ditching the story and giving yourself permission to create a new story off of, everything that we've learned so far. And so her quote goes something like so these are aspects of our journey, but they are not the whole of our story. Never let a single story be the complete narrative.
We're here to learn, to grow, to awaken, and to cultivate the necessary empathy so that we can serve from a place of love, be that love, and this world will no peace. And so that's it.
That's beautiful. I like that one. Oh, she's so good.
You have been such a treat today. Thank you so much. And yeah, I can't wait for us to be connecting and hanging out again soon.
Yay. Thank you so much, Kara. I appreciate you.
I just love sharing space with Marina. She reminds me that it's all working out just the way it's supposed to. I love how she shares it all in this vulnerable, but equally not vulnerable way. She's open and authentic in a way that can only come from being honest about the good and the not good, but all with the intention of if we lay it out in the light, it'll all get worked out.
That's something that I'm committed to. And I'm gonna take this on and I invite you to do the same. Let's bring what's not working, what scares us out into the light with the people we trust so we can step into getting it all worked out and getting on with our Badass Lives. To connect, support and follow Marina, you can follow her studio at Connect Studio Space on Instagram and her at Yoga Rays.
You can also follow her on Facebook, visit her websites, and also email her. All of that information is available in the show notes@thepowerfulladies.com slash podcast. I hope you've enjoyed this new episode of The Powerful Ladies Podcast. If you're a yes to powerful ladies and want to support us, you can subscribe to this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Make sure to give us a five star rating and leave a powerful review on Apple Podcasts. You can also be one of our Patreons for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/powerful. Ladies, we can get access to exclusive content that we're making just for you. Follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube page.
And of course, visit our website, the powerful ladies.com for all the latest news details and updates. I'd like to thank our producer and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. Without her, this wouldn't be possible. You can follow her on Instagram at Jordan K. Duffy. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
Until then, I hope we're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love. This episode of The Powerful Ladies is Made Possible by our Patreon subscribers. Did you know that for as little as $1 a month, you can support this podcast? You can send us love, tell us that you want more.
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Instagram: @connectstudiospace, @yogarays_
Facebook: /connectstudiospace
Website: conectstudiospace.com, unitedyogastudio.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
