Her Story
About Shelby
I've always been connected to my body - I was a gymnast as a kid. I started teaching yoga about 5 or 6 years ago and launched Backyard Yoga in my backyard, which grew incredibly quickly because people were looking for exactly what I was offering: accessibility. The financial barrier is a big reason why people don't come into yoga, so I offer classes on a donation basis to help support local nonprofits in our area. We're in the business of yoga, but we're really in the practice of yoga - less about just doing flows together and moving our bodies, and more about being engaged with community, taking care of ourselves, and taking care of each other. I've grown to serve about 4,000 people plus in our community. Before this, I was an engineer with a master's in engineering management that I earned in 2018 while working full-time. I worked in automotive and then in the medical field, but corporate life was tough - it's a very male-dominated industry, and as someone with ADHD, I found it really hard to function in a rigid corporate structure. I became a mom around 3 years ago, and this pivot has aligned so well with who I want to be as a person and the legacy I want to leave. Now I run everything - I teach classes, contract about 25 other instructors, coordinate schedules, interact with clients all day, design apps, and handle all operations from janitorial services to setting out drinks and teas. About 6 months after starting, we moved into a 2,200 square foot space at Jericho Kalamazoo, an old refinery built in the late 1800s that's been converted into shared studio spaces for entrepreneurs and artists. My main expertise is community building. We're using money to help get one of our community members a car, we have a pantry outside our studio for community members to take a spaghetti dinner home if they need it. Yoga is technically what's on the tax papers, but there's so much more to what we do.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shelby
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my community. I'm so deeply connected to this work, and it has saved my life. I grew up in this space with these people, and they're helping me raise my kid now. I feel so grateful for the people who said yes with me and the people who showed up. Going to a yoga studio is a very scary first-time thing to do, because I've done it myself many times, so I'm just grateful for the folks who took a chance and said, yes, we want to do this with you. My community has been everything.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I was struggling and felt I needed to stay in a job, and I was going through a really hard time personally. I was talking to my mentor, someone I looked up to so much at work who really did the job that I imagined I would be doing. He told me that it's a privilege to be able to do a job that makes you happy - it's a privilege that not everyone gets. I said what makes me happy is being near my people, near enough that I can drive by and have dinner with them if I want to, or just stop by and hang out with their kids. And he just said, go home. What are you doing here? I never forgot that, because I come back to that all the time.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be yourself. Trust your intuition. Be brave. And be good to yourself - in thought and action. Be good to yourself in thought and action.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My field is flooded right now. There are so many places in town that you could go to practice yoga with community. Every time a new one pops up, the chances of someone coming to you are lower. That's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity for us to really distinguish ourselves from what's out there. I think we have such a unique way of approaching this practice, with autonomy and care and choice and humanness in mind. It allows us to really double down on our mission and our values, to stay true to who we are, but also to differentiate ourselves from what's available already.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Equity is a big one for me. I think there are so many barriers of entry into enjoyment nowadays, and I feel like no matter where you're born or what your situation is, you should be able to access care and love. Community goes hand-in-hand with that. I think we should be kind to ourselves, and be kind to each other, and be mean to the systems. We don't always feel love towards ourselves, and that shows up in the ways that we treat other people. So I think my biggest value is remembering that I am good, and that you are good.
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