- Tell us a little about your background in yoga. When did you start and how did you progress to where you are now? We are Adriana and Adrian Gheorghiu from Romania. For the past 11 years, we have lived an expat life in multiple countries. Adrian worked hard and climbed the corporate ladder of a Top 500 Forbes global company while I initiated my own start-up business. We made friends with people from different cultures, experienced various ways of living and we loved savouring different cuisines of the world. Our two boys were born during this journey and they made our life more rewarding, challenging and so much fun!
Our personal transformation began when we first experienced the Baptiste Yoga practice in one of the Power Yoga Canada’s studios in Toronto. This practice empowered us to go beyond what we thought our limits are, helped us to have more meaningful relationships, raised our awareness on how to live a healthier life, and have more patience for our kids. We moved home to Romania to open Power Yoga Romania through which we are committed to bring people together, to make everybody feel at home and to empower each other to live our biggest life!
- What do you enjoy most about yoga? We love, practice and teach Baptiste Power Yoga. We love the physicality of it, the sweat and cleanse, the clearing of mind and the fact that it gives that sentiment of belonging, of belonging to a community of amazing people.
- What inspired you to start a yoga studio? This practice gives us the energy to do what we most love in our lives, gives us patience to deal with the messiness of life and overall, we became better human beings by practicing both on and off the mat.
- What do you think makes for a good yoga session? Inspirational teacher, right heating level, students in the class.
- Your studio obviously offers hot yoga. What are some of the benefits to practicing yoga in a hot environment? Heated room has many advantages, nevertheless, to us it boils (and sometimes it literally “boils”) to two aspects: the heat gives you that good cleansing, detoxifying of your body and second it strengthens your mind, stretches your edges and challenges your comfort zone.
- What advice would you give to prospective students who are on the fence about trying yoga or making the switch to hot yoga? Come as you are! Stop thinking about the heat, the sweat and whatever preconception you have about yoga… You will get tune in with your body, with your mind and spirit in a way that is empowering and full of possibilities. And if you get a bit sweaty, so what, you cleanse and make room for some other goodies…
- What are some characteristics you look for in a studio? We are fairly easy going about yoga studios: we look for convenience – distance from home/office and it needs to be hot yoga. Once there in the studio, I look at how big the practice room is, how hot the class is, how friendly are the people in that studio. Even if I have all the conditions and the studio is perfect, in the end people bless the place, people make it (or not) happening.
- How did you go about designing your space? Our focus was on providing a smooth and unforgettable experience to our customers. Everything was centered around the customer experience, even if that meant we had to reduce from the practice area. We wanted to have a smooth flow from the reception to changing area to practice room to showers and to socializing area. It’s not perfect but we are happy with how it flows now.
- What were some of the biggest challenges you faced with your studio? How did you overcome them? Before opening the studio, everything was a challenge! From coordinating architects, contractors, service suppliers to import of equipment. Being involved everyday in the whole process helped keeping everything under a relative control and we were able to take decisions on the spot. My biggest learning from that process is to trust my instincts and to allow people to come with their suggestions and not to be afraid to make mistakes. We changed the colours in the studio 3 times!
- If you had to start over would you make any changes? If I am to start over again (which I hope will be soon for the second studio!) I will spend more time in planning carefully each step, go into planning phase more in details to be able to execute in a more structured approach. Many unplanned events can happen during a studio build-up project. Having an overall vision helps to deliver the end product but it is the detailed planning that keeps you and everyone going! Plus it helps avoiding possible heart attacks along the way…
- What has been the most rewarding part about the experience? The best part of the entire experience was connecting with people! From suppliers in USA (like you guys from Heating Green) to the gardener that planted the grass at our studio entrance. From website designers to strategy planners, to cleaning ladies and plumbers… Through this project, we got to meet people from all walks of life. And to put all the pieces of the puzzle together with the help of all these amazing people, this was the most rewarding aspect of opening our yoga studio.
- What are your goals for the future of the studio? We always liked to dream big! Short term, our goals are to fill in the studio with hundreds of students. By the end of this year, we want to have the entrance crowded with boots and people. Medium to long term our goals are to create a community of yogis all around Romania! We will open another 15 to 20 studios, few more in Bucharest and then move into the major cities of the country. This Baptiste Power Yoga is so amazing that we want to make it accessible to more and more people. So Heating Green guys, stay close, we will need your amazing heaters to heat the atmosphere up!
- Is there anything else you would like to share? There are many experiences that are accumulated during starting a yoga studio. But the way you guys in Heating Green jumped on board and helped us from miles away and across the ocean was outstanding! We have mentioned you as best practice for our business partners here in Romania. In addition to supplying top of the quality equipment, the team at Heating Green delivers reliability, trust and sustainability! Job well done!
