 The
yoga roots run deep in Meg Galarza’s life. It just took a little
time and digging to rediscover them.
Galarza, 38, grew up in a family that
practiced yoga and meditation. Her parents were vegetarian. She was,
in short, different than the other kids growing up in Midwest. And as
a teen, those were aspects of her life she preferred to keep to
herself.
After two years at a transcendental
meditation university, Galarza married, earned a finance degree from
the University of Iowa and moved away from a life of yoga and
meditation. It wasn’t until Galarza had her second child that she
rediscovered yoga and began taking classes at the Feith Family YMCA.
It was there, after a nudge from her
husband, her yoga career began. "I was spending a lot of time
doing yoga again, so it became, OK, how about teaching," she
says.
It grew from there, says Galarza, a
Grafton resident. Today, Galarza owns and operates YogaOne in
Cedarburg, which offers a variety of yoga classes, Zumba and
instructor training all within two studios. The woman that became a
certified instructor and started teaching at the YMCA in 2001, then
later expanded to a recreation center, now has 17 instructors working
for her.
The business has evolved considerably
since those early days.
"I remember my first class at the
rec center … I had put an ad in the local community newspaper,"
she says. "And 60 people showed up. About 30 of those became
regulars."
Galarza moved her burgeoning business
to a small space in Cedarburg, while maintaining her teaching schedule
at the YMCA. In 2004, an opportunity to move to a larger, new location
on Main Street opened up — and she took it.
"The timing was good, two other
instructors had approached me about teaching and it all worked out
well," she says. "My entire business has evolved that way. I
never sat down and wrote a business plan. It just grew
organically."
That’s not to stay there weren’t a
few bumps along the way. There was the name change fiasco, when a
business in California informed Galarza the name was trademarked. And
the audit from the state that resulted in having to make all of her
independent contractor instructors into employees.
But Galarza has managed to roll with
the changes, and she gives yoga credit for her ability to keep it all
in perspective. "What really helped me was that I started small
and only took on what I could," she says. "And it’s about
maintaining a balance between family and work. I’mwhere I want to be
and I’m passionate about what I do. I’m not that shy kid. I can be
who I want and live the life that I was raised and speak freely about
it."
|
