Day 217: I AM GOING TO BE RICH!!!

Kay, so the title was only supposed to lure you in. Suckas!!

Anyhoo, you should know that we're not quite out of the "Leah wants to be an entrepreneur"/"Yoga is my life"/"No, wait, my dog is my life" New Things yet, but on Day 217, I got my first advertiser!!!

(Someday, far far away when I charge way more that $25 for an ad and have little Atlanta Yoga Scenes all over the country) I AM GOING TO BE RICH!

Day 190: A Yoga-ing We Go...

Holy Moly Batman, am I behind or what??

The answer to that question is obviously yes, I am unbelievably behind on this blog, although believe you me, I am doing New Things up to my eyeballs. So many New Things I can't even blog about them all.

This little post is about to turn into a life update, because that's what I do. Okay, so, where to start. Ummm...yes, Thursday is where I left off. Right now, I'm diving DEEP into the Atlanta Yoga Scene thing, and I am on a month-long yoga studio binge. There are about 50 studios that I know of, and I've made it my mission to visit half of them within the next 4-6 weeks. I feel like I've gotta get out and meet the people I'm talking about all the time and to take my own medicine--trying new styles, new teachers, new classes, workshops and more. I've gotten a lot of offers for free classes all around town (this little thing is paying for itself in free classes!) and am having a ball visiting them all.

But with that comes BUSY BUSY BUSY.

I've got a boyfriend, a new puppy, a 9-5 job, Atlanta Yoga Scene stuff (website-ing, classes, calling people, oy my!), calling the insurance people (got in a teeny tiny, un-noticeable fender bender (New Thing number oh-why-are-we-counting is that I damaged the first car I ever bought by myself)) and my sanity to keep juggling, and, I'm afraid, this past week's blogging has taken a back seat.

But the New Things have not!!

On Day 190 (sweet baby Jesus, I've got 175 days left!): I went to Oni Fitness in Vinings for a free Candlelight yoga class.


I didn't necessarily love it and I wouldn't have it on my schedule if I had a yoga studio, but the Oni people were very generous in letting me come to check it out.

Funny story came from that though--I realized that explaining AYS is REALLY hard to do for people who aren't immediately familiar with blogging. I talked to this one woman, and our conversation went like this:

Me: Hi I'm Leah, I run a webiste called Atlanta Yoga Scene that's got all the teachers, classes and events going on in Atlanta, it's pretty cool.

Girl: Oh wow, so you're an editor?

Me: No, I write the content.

Girl: Wow, so you wrote Oni's website?

Me: No, it's my own website, I put it together and it's a blog for what's going on in yoga in Atlanta.

Girl: *quizzical look* What do you write about?

Me: Things happening in Atlanta yoga, you know, events, classes I like, teachers doing cool things, studios opening, that kind of stuff...

Girl: Oh *another quizzical look* why?

Me: Because I thought people might use it and like it and maybe one day, if it ever becomes profitable, I could do it full time.

Girl: Ah, I get it, you teach yoga in Atlanta!!

Me: *face palm* I...tell...people...what's...going...on...in...yoga...in...Atlanta...andthenIwriteaboutit!!

*fume a little*

*recognize I'm fuming*

*deep cleansing, yogic breaths*



I don't think she joined my Facebook group.

It's time to clean up the pitch a little...

Day 149: Mentor Moment

On Day 149, I had the pleasure and honor to interview one of my yoga mentors, Ursula Nix. Ursula is a perpetual source of inspiration for me, a mentor who I've gone to for countless yoga-related and Atlanta Yoga Scene-related ideas, issues and problems. She has always been so gracious with her time, support and, most importantly, honesty.

I interviewed her for a piece in the AYS blog, so to avoid overlap, I'll post a link here when I've finished that.

Many, many thanks!

Day 146: I've Got People!

I'm not quite sure how to lead up to this story, but I'll give it my best...

Let's go back to the entrepreneurship thing, and how it has manifest itself in Atlanta Yoga Scene. Well, I created a little website for the idea and am constantly updating it with yoga events in the area, new studios, blogging topics I like, etc. It got me thinking--I need a master schedule of classes for all yoga studios in the area.

I started working on this one morning (I wake up at around 6:00 am every day to either run, blog, or work on AYS) and it took me almost two hours to get through five of the 50 Atlanta yoga studios. This was wholly unsustainable. I'd be at it for weeks if I did the whole thing by myself.

Enter "The Four-Hour Workweek." This book by Tim Ferriss essentially tells people how to come up with a brilliant product, strategically overprice it, market the bejeezus out of it, outsource all the work to virtual assistants and live a beautiful life raking in cash.

I haven't quite come up with my genius, life-altering product, but on Day 146,  I applied a nugget of that advice and I hired a virtual assistant to assemble the master schedule of yoga studios for AYS.

I'm actually really proud of this whole endeavor for a few of reasons.

1. I hired an American girl who is only a couple of years older than me, so I feel like I'm helping out a friend
2. I'm providing temporary, paid employment to someone! While I can't hire an army (nor would I need one), I can help one person stay busy and make a little cash. That feels good to me.
3. I'm delegating! One less thing to think about!
4. She has no idea what she's getting into, and only asked that I pay her $50 to do this. Since it took me two hours to do five studios, this will likely take her 20 hours to do the whole thing, which is sort of a rip-off. Okay, REALLY a rip-off. But if she's good, I'll hire her to do it again and again and again :)

You could say that I've got people now!

Day 132: I'm Officially Official!!

Kay, so it's time to fess up to my entrepreneurial venture. I started a website/blog called Atlanta Yoga Scene and it is awesome! It's a listing of all the yoga studios and teachers in Atlanta, all the events going on (of which there are tons), a blog, and an upcoming master schedule of classes.

Can you believe this didn't already exist?

I started a Twitter account and created a Facebook page a month ago (that already has 117 "likes"!) and within a month I've gotten a lot of really good response. When I first launched the page on Facebook a week ago, I got a swarm of emails saying "put my yoga studio up," "add my name as a teacher," and my favorite "come to my class!"

Well today, I got my very first FREE YOGA CLASS as a result of starting AYS!! I went to Ember Hot Yoga, which is a stunning new studio up in Woodstock. And I'm in love with it almost exclusively because it's my first free class (although, admittedly, I have a couple more coming up soon).

My little business is legit, and people want to work with me! And give me free stuff!!


I feel awesome.