Why you should take the Business of Meditation
I started as an operations coordinator and instructor for a Bollywood inspired fitness program called Doonya. Now I’m the CEO.
“FUCK! How did this happen?!” flashes across my brain on a weekly (if not more often) basis.
Riddled with a fear of failure and frustration around leading a brand with legacy predating my involvement has made growth, especially during a pandemic, feel next to impossible.
To be clear, Doonya, under my ownership, has never been my full time gig. Outside of my work at Doonya, I’m a marketer and love the work I do. But nothing makes me feel more alive, or more impactful than teaching our program where, through movement, we push away mental and physical blocks and refill our energy tanks with positivity while having the most vibrant, energetic Bollywood dance party. (Wanna join us? Visit doonya.com)
Signing up for the Business of Meditation course was something I knew I needed but didn’t want to admit for a long time. The passion I have wasn’t matching the potential of the program and I was clearly getting in my own way with marketing as I struggled with the confluence of health, art and commerce.
From the six week session, I took many many many incredible nuggets of knowledge that will impact me in my life holistically. But here are the top three things I learned and how I am (planning on) putting them into practice.
SEVA STARTS WITH SELF
In our first session, someone said “I didn’t know I could have money without evil consequences.” This FLOORED me…because I didn’t realize how much this sentiment was a personal blocker for me! To me, my offering of learning dance through this format was a form of seva, or service to the world. Was I exploiting this sacred thing that had brought me so much joy? Was I exploiting my culture? Was it wrong to charge people for something that is meant to help them?
OF COURSE IT’S NOT WRONG! But there was an extreme guilt and sense of inadequacy that halted me from charging what I (or our other instructors were) was worth. Hearing how Jesse created such a massive business, which helped people help themselves, shifted my mentality. AND it helped me think through what additional components I would want to add to classes to increase value. I forgot that what we are doing is giving people the tools to better their lives. I was just so grateful that anyone showed up to a class that I felt more in debt to them for their time than anything else.
PIVOT FOR PROGRESS
Going into Dr. Keith Blechman’s lecture, I didn’t think I was going to get a whole lot out of the session. But this may have been the most impactful session for me.
We all hear startups talk about pivoting, but sometimes we don’t know how to pivot ourselves because we are just trying to sustain.
Hearing how a surgeon was able to find a new market and purpose by investing in people who needed his services helped push me to invest more heavily in virtual classes and creating an on-demand offering. Sometimes we are a product of our location. But could our product be location agnostic? Not sure yet, but the Business of Meditation is helping us learn.
DANCE AWAY WHEN YOU NEED
So many stories and anecdotes during “BOM” led back to people thinking “should I walk away from this business?” In my case, I’d dance away. But the idea of letting go of Doonya (which I had spent my life savings to buy) always felt like I would have been a failure. But would I also be unblocking myself from opportunities that were going to provide a much more stable and fulfilled life by hanging on to an idea or thought?
I’m not at a point of wanting to leave or giving up yet. In fact, I’m WAY more excited than I have been in a long time. But I’m open to the idea of dancing away. And that is a HUGE shift. Until I’m ready to hang up my literal dancing shoes, I’ll continue to offer Doonya classes (at a fair price) to impact as many people as possible.
Written by Rohan Sheth: CEO of Doonya: The Bollywood Workout.