Yoga for Everyone: Transforming Lives in Underserved Communities

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Women In Motion. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories.

Lee Kantor: Today on Women In Motion, we have Kary Sinkule with Yoga’s Arc. Welcome.

Kary Sinkule: Thank you for welcoming me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Yoga’s Arc.

Kary Sinkule: Well, Yoga’s Arc came about because I was a yoga teacher. Well, I am a yoga teacher. It’s been 28 years. At the time, I was about 20 and I had to retire from school, teaching, and counseling to take care of my grandmother with dementia. And when she passed away, I felt like I needed a purpose, and I was so tired of bringing yoga to the elite in studios, I decided to create a mobile yoga company where we can deliver yoga to people, and it has exceeded my expectations. And we’re really serving so many people in places like homeless shelters, corporate offices, prisons, sex trafficking places, and parks. We do – I mean, it’s just endless. We have so many great, great clients.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a little bit about why yoga is so important to you, and why you think it’s so important to be sharing this with others?

Kary Sinkule: Absolutely. Because I know in the world we live in today, sometimes yoga is intimidating or it looks intimidating, but yoga is as simple as breathing and moving our body to really tune into ourselves and to get to know ourselves.

Kary Sinkule: And 30 years ago, I started yoga because of all the trauma I endured as a child. And I give credit to yoga for saving my life. And it’s important to me to bring the benefits of what breath and movement can do to others. And it’s as simple as just moving our our spine in the six directions that we don’t usually move in during a workday. We really just need to move a little bit. It doesn’t have to be anything huge.

Lee Kantor: Now, for folks who’ve never done it or like you said, intimidated because they see people, you know, super flexible, doing flexible things and they can, you know, they’re looking at a computer screen all day and maybe they’re hunched over and they can barely, you know, get in and out of a chair, what is some kind of easy entry point for that person to even enter a yoga studio, or watch a yoga video, or go to one of your classes?

Kary Sinkule: That’s a really good question. So the first thing I would recommend is joining our YouTube channel that we created during COVID. We paid our teachers to create classes. And so we have so many of these accessible classes on our free YouTube channel.

Kary Sinkule: We also provide classes on our Instagram channel. We have some of our teachers in training that are finishing up. We have amazing chair yoga classes and really accessible all levels classes.

Kary Sinkule: We also – if you are local in Arizona, we have a lot of like public, really accessible classes in farmers markets and you can access our calendar, but you can really just go on any channel or any, you know, YouTube and start to watch different yoga classes and maybe look for beginner yoga or yoga for corporate and start to explore watching so it’s not as intimidating as you find things that look accessible.

Lee Kantor: Now, is yoga something that works for every body type? Because a lot of times when you’re seeing someone do yoga or watching an instructor do yoga, they have a certain body type that may not match what, you know, the public’s body type.

Kary Sinkule: Correct. And that is something that I’m passionate about changing. We’ve created teacher trainings here in Arizona, and we also have them on demand. So any of you that are interested, and we’re recruiting people that have physical challenges. We have we’ve we’ve certified teachers that have hip replacements that have overcome cancer surgeries and cancer treatments.

Kary Sinkule: We have a police officer that fell, and she ended up with 37 surgeries and a reconstructed elbow, and we certified her. And she delivers chair yoga to seniors and some police officers that need recovery.

Kary Sinkule: So I recruit people that don’t think they can, but really want to see if they can. Because if you have a willingness to learn, that’s who I want. So, if you look on our website at the teachers, we’re starting to change what the typical teacher looks like. And that’s part of my mission.

Lee Kantor: Now, for a person who says, “Okay, I’m in, I’m going to do this,” how quickly do they start seeing some sort of a health benefit or result? Is it something like if you’re, you know, you go to a strength training facility, you start seeing muscle growth? If you go and do cardio, maybe you lose some weight. Like, what do you see, you know, kind of physically when you start doing yoga?

Kary Sinkule: I’m going to give you the answer I give to my teachers and training when I teach them that drives them nuts. And the answer is it depends. But the reason why I say that is because sometimes we are coaxed or encouraged to go to a studio with a friend, and we’re there the whole time. Our nervous system is dysregulated because we’re not comfortable and we’re probably not going to get much out of it.

Kary Sinkule: But like, for example, the other day I was at a WBEC event in Mesa and they put on a beautiful celebration catering for us. And they had asked me to do like a five-minute guided meditation. And I stood up and I had them soften their eyes and just I started to take them through their body parts and have them connect with each body part. And after it was over, they were like, “Oh, my gosh. Can you keep going? I feel so much better.” Right.

Kary Sinkule: So the nervous system when we just breathe slower, for example, if we during the day, anytime we think of it, when we start breathing in and out for five seconds in and five seconds out versus quick or holding our breath like we do when we concentrate, our nervous system will regulate. So just by breathing slower, we probably will feel a little better.You add some neck circles when you’re sitting at your computer every, you know, 25 minutes, your neck will probably feel better. So it doesn’t need to be this whole big thing.

Kary Sinkule: However, if you jump down the yoga path, right, it’s like suture number one, 1.1, you now begin when you’re introduced to yoga, it is your beginning. And for those that dive in and maybe do it two to three times a week or become more regular, the results, I have heard so many stories that would blow your mind because I’ve been in this industry for 30 years. But the most important thing is the consistency, right?

Kary Sinkule: And when we think of yoga, it doesn’t have to be something really physical. So if someone decides they want to do something consistent three times a week and they decide on Friday the third day, they’re way too tired, well, maybe they don’t do the physical yoga. Maybe they just sit and do a meditation for rejuvenation.

Kary Sinkule: So in yoga, you can make it really rejuvenating if you’re feeling really run down, or if you need that physical outburst, you can go to like a strength class or do more of like a a strength class. It doesn’t have to be a lot of movement, but just standing on, you know, in a pose and holding for ten breaths can be very powerful. So it’s beneficial in so many ways.

Lee Kantor: And then it can be part of and maybe it should be part of kind of a whole wellness program. Right? Like there is a place for strength training, cardio, and yoga. They can all play nicely side by side.

Kary Sinkule: Very much so. And that’s where we came in, where we go into communities, corporate offices, addiction recovery centers, and we create the yoga program. We have over 80 teachers. So we go in and we find out what’s their budget, how – like, what do you need? Are you a group of painters? Is it your shoulders? Do we need to do shoulder rehabilitation? Is it addiction recovery? And then we tailor the program within that wellness center. And whether it’s five classes a week, 15 classes a week, we provide all the teachers and we do virtual as well so we can create those programs.

Lee Kantor: So do you find the need or the demand from businesses that are looking to provide a benefit to their employees? Or like you were saying, you’re serving a lot of underserved communities as well. And there’s a nonprofit element to this in your business.

Kary Sinkule: Correct. That nonprofit came because I am a servant at heart and I don’t like to say no. I was a special needs teacher and counselor for junior high, and so when people started coming to me without money and wanting our services, I was like, we’ve got to do something. So we created the nonprofit.

Kary Sinkule: We have the most successful nonprofit story, is our prison project, and we have two women that have been incarcerated. They are now in our teacher training. One of them is our sales manager, and both of them teach yoga for us. So we are really making a difference in the world. And I know that was a tangent. Back to your question.

Lee Kantor: Well, I think you answered some of the questions, but when you’re working – let’s take them separately. When you’re working with the business, they’re looking at an employee benefit. I would imagine they’re looking for some sort – and they’re looking at it in business terms of return on investment. Is this increasing productivity? So you have to answer those questions when you’re dealing with corporate people, right?

Kary Sinkule: Correct. So we do have a corporate landing page that kind of has a lot of the statistics. There’s a lot of studies and research out there. But anecdotally, what I’ll say is what I love about a 30-minute yoga class that we call like no stretch, no change in corporate wellness, sometimes it’s 25 minutes because you don’t want to take their whole lunch break. They should – you know, we do it in chairs and you’re literally moving their spine, which is good for your physical body. You’re helping them breathe, which is good for clarity and the nervous system. You’re empowering them with affirmations and such so you’re building their confidence. And then you can do strength, stretch.

Kary Sinkule: So literally in yoga, you can get your life coaching, your movement, your breathing. So it’s one and all. And then you can have one teacher serve 20 people at a time, per se. That’s why it’s so economically beneficial for mobile yoga company. We go in, we bring one teacher, we provide it for 30 of your people. The cost per person, it’s like $2 per person when it comes down to it. And the more classes people put on the calendar, the more percentage they get. So it’s just been a win, win, win in those aspects for the the ways people feel so much better when they go back to their desks. After lunch, we’re usually feeling really bogged down. Our brains are shutting down, and we need a nap. But just doing 25 minutes in a chair can change everything now.

Lee Kantor: What was it like kind of selling this into your first corporate client? What – had you had experience doing this type of corporate sales, or was this a referral of somebody who knew you and then they gave you a chance? Like, what was the kind of the early sales like for you?

Kary Sinkule: That’s a great question. Because I was a 20-year yoga teacher in the community and a school teacher, I built this huge following and I would be asked to do baby showers, bridal showers, backyard parties myself personally. But I couldn’t do it all with just me. And because I was a network marketer for ten years, I saw the vision of duplication, and if I created more teachers.

Kary Sinkule: And then what happened was we started saying yes to like farmers markets where we’re out there actually doing the yoga instead of just trying to sell it. We went down a path of trying to sell it, marketing online. But yoga is so intimidating that we really – we needed to show up in front of the people. And from there you got two or three people that run companies or work for companies, and it started to trickle effect.

Kary Sinkule: The biggest surprise is, I would say 70% of our clients are addiction recovery centers, where we’re providing 3 to 15 classes a week for their programs, whether they’re in-patient or out. And that’s been really beneficial as well.

Lee Kantor: Was that something that surprised you, or did you have a gut feeling that, hey, this is a good fit for folks going through addiction?

Kary Sinkule: Well, I lost my mom to alcohol and she was an alcoholic my whole life. And when she passed away, that’s when I had to take care of her mom. I really feel like she’s been the angel over my shoulder.

Kary Sinkule: And I did not know that this one woman that was in my yoga classes at one of the local gyms for five years was the top admin for all addiction recovery out here, and when she saw that we went mobile, she insisted that we went into these programs and they just spread like wildfire because one teacher in addiction recovery, you just can’t do it yourself because that teacher is going to get sick or pregnant or a flat tire or move. So we have 70 teachers where we can keep the program going no matter what happens. And that’s been the biggest benefit.

Lee Kantor: Now, as part of your program, every teacher has a different personality. Do you have a kind of a curriculum that you’ve developed that goes company wide, that they adhere to, or is everybody kind of doing their own thing?

Kary Sinkule: That’s a great question. So we have created – we have a YouTube channel of probably a thousand training videos. We have a 200-hour teacher training, a 300-hour teacher training, 500 hours like a master yoga teacher. So we provide all four of those schools in-person on demand.

Kary Sinkule: And then we have trainings that are specific to what are the tips to bringing yoga to addiction recovery? What are the tips for bringing yoga to adolescent behavioral, kids with behavior disorders? What do you do in prisons? How do you bring it to -we have partners where we’re helping in bringing yoga to the teens that are rescued from sex trafficking. Right? So that’s a whole other hat.

Kary Sinkule: So we train the teachers ahead of time. If they don’t have time to go to the class first to see it happen, we have them talk with the teacher. And it’s just very organic. But we have systems to everything to make sure our teachers get all of the materials and the trainings before they even start.

Lee Kantor: So, are your clients typically people – this is kind of a, one of the first yoga experiences they have. Or do you have some things for the, you know, the hardcore? I want to just be the best yoga person in I-can-be classes.

Kary Sinkule: I love that question. We, 99%, are bringing it to underserved people that can’t get to it because of finances, ability, time, whatever it may be. But there are a few that come and they want that really intense training. The great thing is, I have many studios and partners and friends in this community that have that.

Kary Sinkule: So if I have someone that wants that level, I’ll refer them to one of our local studios where they can get that level of experience. We really are bringing trauma-informed yoga and this new word somatic, somatic movements. That’s pretty much what we do. We’re bringing it to people that maybe can’t get out of chairs. They just had knee surgery. They maybe have one leg. They are a veteran and are afraid to close their eyes because of trauma. We’re really looking to bring it to the people that really need the benefits, but don’t know how to access it.

Lee Kantor: And that’s a great lesson for entrepreneurs out there who are starting their business. You have to know who your client is and who to say yes to, and also who to say no to and refer them to a different resource.

Kary Sinkule: Yes. Correct. Like, we don’t do the bachelorette parties at the Airbnbs anymore. We refer them to our independent teachers because it’s a lot of work for our company for just one event. We’re now building big, you know. We’re building programs and it’s been great.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community, and what have you gotten out of it?

Kary Sinkule: I love that question. So, I’m a very thorough person and I follow directions. When this idea came from God in 2017, in the middle of the night, literally woke me up on August 5, 2017, and told me to buy yogasarc.com at 2 a.m. and I literally got my credit card and bought all the things and put it away. And my husband’s like, “What did you do?”

Kary Sinkule: And from there I, you know, thought of this idea and I was told to get a business coach. So I signed up, got a business coach, SBDC. And Paula, my coach, said a lot of things. And one of the things is you must become women’s business certified eventually. And this was in 2017, 18 when I was starting it out. And I looked at the application.

Kary Sinkule: And because I’m a Yogi and I understand and I live in the present moment, I’m not one to take on a project and stress my team out and run and get it done and put all these unrealistic due dates on it. I like to look at it and say, you know what, let’s give it a few years, right? Let’s build it organically with a solid foundation. I don’t want to just pull together a group of – what do you, what do you call it when you have to have your team, your foundation, your board of directors. Right? So I took the time. I really took the time, and three years later we were ready and I applied, and the journey was so beautiful because it went right along with building my company. And then when I jumped in, I did the same thing. As soon as IU got the certification, I said, “I’m not going to just sit and wait for the phone to ring. I’m going to see what they have to offer me.” And that’s my biggest recommendation to anybody listening to this.

Kary Sinkule: Set your timer or your asana or whatever your task is once a week for 15 minutes. Go through all your WBENC emails, go through your WBENC West and your WBENC, you know, portals and see what’s out there and sign up for things. So I kept signing up for things and I kept applying for things. I even tried the pitch contest. I was horrible at it. But guess what? I got picked and I tried. It’s something I tried.

Kary Sinkule: My biggest exciting thing that I suggest everyone does is WBENC offers a training. I think it’s called Ignite, but it’s the entrepreneurial operation systems. And I didn’t even know what I was applying for. But I applied for a three-day WBENC conference, was accepted – there were 60 of us in Chandler, Arizona – and literally was trained in the EOS systems on how to scale. And it’s changed everything in my company. So thank you WBENC just for that.

Kary Sinkule: And I’ve only been in it for six months. I’ve been going to all the local events and they’ve asked me to be part of, like, certification process. I got to do the five-minute breathing exercise. And it’s not because I’m jumping in and saying, what’s in it for me. I’m jumping in, going, how can I serve WBENC and what can I do to add to WBENC? And just from doing that, it comes twofold. I have an ambassador, and we had a great time the other night, and I just look forward to the future.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Kary Sinkule: Well, I think what we need to do is spread the message that yoga is not scary. And if anyone listening is interested in a program, I want you to call me, and I will talk to you and help you. Because even if you’re not local, we can get you a virtual yoga program. And if there’s something that you want to do within your community, I can even coach you through that as well.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you or somebody on the team, can you share the website, maybe some of those social links that you mentioned?

Kary Sinkule: Thank you. Everything Yoga’s Arc, Y-O-G-A-S-A-R-C. And you can reach me at info@yogasarc.com. That’s me. Direct goes to me. Or my first name K-A-R-Y, @yogasarc.com. Myself, (480) 861-3788. And everything, yogasarc.com. We have our Instagram, our Facebook. You follow us. And if you sign up for our emails, I write beautiful Sunday vibes every Sunday and share my heart with the community and everyone seems to really enjoy them.

Lee Kantor: Well, Kary, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kary Sinkule: Thank you so much for letting me share my story, Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.