S 5 EP 7: The Entrepreneurship Series: Transforming Passion Into A Business feat. Emily Fleming

[00:00:00] Emily Fleming, School & School

[00:00:30] things that I lead with, especially for administrators who are a little more on the fence. Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to School After Hours podcast where we talk about all things related to out-of-school time programming and education. I am your host, Jaylee, and today we have a special guest who seamlessly blends education with holistic practices to transform

[00:00:56] classrooms and lives. Joining us today is Emily Fleming, a certified yoga teacher and former special education teacher who has ventured into the world of entrepreneurship. Emily shares her mission of empowering schools to support the well-being of students and staff through yoga and mindfulness. In this episode, we will be discussing her transformative journey from

[00:01:22] classroom teacher to starting her own business, yoga and classrooms and schools consulting, and explore the hurdles and triumphs she has experienced throughout her time. But that's not all. This episode is also special because Emily is going to be a presenter for a project that I'm collaborating with another colleague. Yes, School After Hours Consulting is partnering with KSC Leadership to host a workshop series that's going to help program providers and

[00:01:51] program managers plan a successful summer program. We have amazing facilitators coming together the week of April 14th to April 18th, Monday to that Friday, during the lunch hour to do wonderful workshops with you that are going to help plan logistics that's going to talk about inclusive spaces, that's going to talk about engaging activities, but also is going to talk about behavior management, which is a big thing

[00:02:20] going on in education right now. Early registration is open now and the early birth special is $99. All 10 workshops you're going to get for $99. You couldn't beat that if you tried. The information is going to be in the show notes, so make sure that you register before the special expires, which is going to be February 28th. Then the price goes up for general registration, which is going to be $129. I hope to see you there. With that being said, let's go ahead and jump into the show.

[00:02:55] We are so excited to have Emily on the show. Emily, say hi to the people. Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me, Jay. You are so welcome, and I'm so excited to get into this conversation. Let's go ahead and get into it. For the people that don't know you, go ahead and give them a little bit of information about yourself. Sure. So as Jay said, my name is Emily Fleming. I have my master's in teaching. I am also a

[00:03:20] certified yoga teacher at the 500-hour level and a registered children's yoga teacher. And I was a classroom teacher for 11 years. I taught special education for three years and then taught yoga and mindfulness as a daily enrichment class for eight years, so similar to art or PE or music. And most recently, I started my business, Yoga in Classrooms and Schools Consulting,

[00:03:47] where I am on a mission to empower schools to support the well-being of their students and staff through yoga practices. So that's the short version. All right. So I am a very, very little, very, real small, familiar with the practice of mindfulness because I had a coworker that did mindfulness with one of our after-school affiliates. And the results of it was just amazing and wonderful as far as when it came to how they communicated with each other,

[00:04:17] learning how to regulate their emotions, especially when you are a middle schooler. Going through that phase, like it's real, real important. So I was able to see a snippet of the, you know, effects they had on the students. And I just wish that we could have expanded it a little bit more. But I'm happy to have you on the show to kind of talk about all the wonderful and juicy things, but also your journey, you know, in this process from going from a teacher to a program provider teaching yoga and mindfulness. So with that being said, let me go ahead and ask you this

[00:04:47] question. Why did you want to teach yoga and mindfulness in your classroom? What was the idea or the white bulb that popped in your head was like, this is what I'm going to do? That's a great question. So I remember as a first year teacher, I was 22. I was teaching in Chicago and I was a special education teacher. And I did a lot of yoga that year with my students, not just in order for me to get through the day, but also for my students to get through the day.

[00:05:16] Um, they had a lot of other things going on in their lives that really prevented them from giving all of their attention to academics and rightfully so, right? They're fifth graders. They've got a lot that they're holding and carrying. And so I found that in order for us to really have productive lessons and for them to get out of it, what they needed to get out of it. And for

[00:05:44] myself as a teacher to show up with them in a way where I was patient, um, and where I was calm, I ended up doing a lot of short yoga and mindfulness breaks with them. And what I really saw that first year was like, it was something that helped all of us, right? It helps me as a first year teacher who was stressed out, overwhelmed, had no idea what I was doing three quarters of the time.

[00:06:09] It helped me to be present and not let the little things in class get the best of me. And it also helped my students, right? Temporarily set aside whatever it was that they might be holding onto or carrying from their day, um, and allowed them to really like drop in for the 30 minutes or 45

[00:06:32] minutes or however long our, our sessions were together. So I saw that the impact that it had on myself as a teacher and them as students. And I really felt like, you know what, this is something that is missing in our education system, especially having access to it for free. Right. And it existed as like an opt-in as an afterschool program that parents would have to pay for,

[00:06:58] but why can't all kids have access to these tools to help them navigate like this world that we live in and all of the ups and downs that come from and that come with being human. So that was really like where it clicked for me of there's a need here. This is something that I'm passionate about. I, special education, I have so much respect for special education teachers. It was really hard to be a

[00:07:25] special education teacher, um, and really draining in a lot of ways. And so I knew also if I was going to stay in education, I needed to teach something that I really was passionate about as well. I had this light bulb moment and thought I'm going to try and find a principal somewhere who will hire me to teach yoga and mindfulness as a daily class. And I'm pretty sure everyone in my life thought that I

[00:07:52] was crazy. And it's like, okay, you go do that. This doesn't exist. Um, but with some perseverance and some real clarity on what I wanted, the position that I was creating to look like, I ended up getting connected with the principal I worked with or who I worked for in Baltimore. And he thankfully took a chance on me and said, sure. Like, you know how to manage a classroom.

[00:08:19] Let's give it a try. So that's, yeah. So in that process of you mentally saying, okay, this is what I'm going to do. Um, I'm going to go about it this way. This is it. This is my passion. I want to share it with the students. We'll also find somebody that's going to actually pay me for this. Um, what did you start to see as far as the changes in your students? And did you use that as

[00:08:44] leverage when it was time to sit there and negotiate to get people to actually consider this as something that they were going to use in their classrooms, but also like in at school programming, like you mentioned. That's a great question. The changes that I noticed in my students, and a lot of them were able to articulate this and I've heard it from many students over the years. Um, they're more

[00:09:08] able to calm themselves down or to get energy, to get confidence before tests or presentations or things they might be nervous about, you know, feeling like they have more control of their emotions. Um, one of the opening questions I used to ask students on the first day with as sixth graders with me was like, how many of you have ever had a time where you felt like your emotions were in control? Right. And I

[00:09:35] would raise my hand too, because I think we've all on some level felt that. And so for students, I think they understand that. And they also understand like, no, I want to be in control of my emotions. So definitely those are benefits that I saw. I got lucky in that I had a principal who seem to understand, right. The benefits of yoga and mindfulness and more holistic practices.

[00:10:05] But as now as a business owner, right, when I am approaching schools, it is absolutely something that I leave with is testimonials from my students, right? Don't hear it from me. Read these quotes from my students where they're talking about how yoga and mindfulness impacted them. Um, read this quote from, um, a parent whose child was an athlete and he noticed that it was super helpful for him,

[00:10:31] not as an athlete, um, but also in the classroom. So those are definitely the things that I lead with, especially for administrators who are a little more on the fence or like, well, I believe in this, but I'm not sure it's a priority. I really try to lean in, lean into that. Um, and I have noticed too,

[00:10:54] like it not just helps individual students, but as a classroom or as a group of students as a whole, implementing those practices, even two minutes of mindful breathing can really help shift the energy in the room. And so one of the things that I also share is like, if you want to have more positive classroom environments, if you want to have, uh, calmer classrooms, this is a great way to begin to

[00:11:25] hopefully facilitate that. Right. Right. Very true. Using it as the tool that you need. And this will be the answer. You do this, then these are the results that you'll get on the back. Great. But before we go deeper into this conversation, let's go ahead and take a break and y'all will be right back. So take a moment, grab your chips, grab your tea, uh, coffee, whichever you would like. Go ahead and take a break for a minute, uh, marinate all the things that were said and we'll be right back. Don't go too far.

[00:11:54] Are you a program provider or administrator struggling with planning day-to-day logistics for your afterschool program? Or maybe you have a complete brain freeze when it comes to planning program activities. Eh. Or somewhere along the lines of when it's time to plan your activities, you have no idea where to start. What if I told you, you don't have to figure those things out by yourself? Hi, my name is Janice Lee. I'm a former afterschool program director and the founder of School After

[00:12:21] Hours Consulting, where we help youth program managers create impactful programs that ensure student success. With my 20 years of experience, I can definitely help you figure out all those things. Book a free 20-minute discovery call where we can get to know each other a little bit more, see if we can find simple solutions to your current challenges, and if you need it, we can see how we can work together. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Hello, everyone. Welcome back. We are

[00:12:50] talking about yoga and mindfulness and the wonderful journey of entrepreneurship with Emily Fleming, who has her own mindfulness and yoga practices. She's going into classrooms, teaching the children yoga, mindfulness, but also teaching the staff so that we could all do it together. So we left off in the break at that transition period. After you realize this is what you wanted to do, Emily, like you're going to take this idea of yoga and mindfulness and move it forward. Finding your client, which was a

[00:13:20] principle that, like you said, leaned into the idea of, you know what, this might be useful for my students. When did you know that this could be more than a one building thing? We could kind of stretch this out and to do it into different settings, whether it be in the classroom or even out-of-school time programming or even summer programming. So how did that process come about? That's a lovely question. I think it was really sort of 2021, 2022.

[00:13:49] 2022, I had been working with and coaching teachers from across the country who were more after-school program providers or coming in as enrichment providers during the day to lead yoga and mindfulness. And I really felt like there was a need. And so I said, you know what, I think that this is something that we need in more schools. And there is a market for it, especially right that first, those first two years,

[00:14:19] really after COVID, it was like, we were really seeing the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of our students and our teachers. And so I really felt like, whereas this has always been something, right, that I wanted to do, and my goal was always all kids and not just kids in one school, I felt like education kind of finally caught up to me in that way of like, okay, we are seeing the need.

[00:14:47] Let's do this. I was starting to get more people sort of asked me to do one-off teacher self-care events or things like that. I was like, you know what, I'm ready to be done in the classroom. Let me see how I can put my own spin on yoga and mindfulness and support schools in developing customized curriculum so that these programs become sustainable. So yeah, that was really kind

[00:15:14] of like the light bulb-y, I would say six months to a year of like, this is something that doesn't just have to be an idea in my head, but is actually something I want to try as a business. I will say though, like I didn't know it was going to be a viable business until I got my first client, you know, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to of like, we have great ideas,

[00:15:38] we believe in our businesses, but we don't have businesses if people don't pay for our services. And I heard a lot of no's before I got that one yes. So it's both and. Right, exactly. And shopping for your first client and going through that process of who should I reach out to? Did you have a main idea of like how you wanted to go about that process? Like, okay,

[00:16:04] I'm going to reach out to maybe the people that I know first, or I'll go ahead and look at what schools are doing a particular thing for the year, what they're trying to accomplish with their kids, like getting character development and see what that looks like. And then, you know, reach out to those schools to let them know about this offer. How, what was that process like? Yeah. So I think I naturally started with other folks who I know in the education space,

[00:16:29] specifically the teachers and the educators and the staff members who I knew who understood the benefits and value of mindfulness and yoga. But then I also did some of that research as well, like what are organizations that have a more holistic approach, right? That are in our city, whether they're schools or afterschool programs that really are looking at the whole child and would

[00:16:52] want something like this. I am a big conversation person. I think that I can learn a lot and we can all learn a lot from any conversation that we have. So I was just getting on calls with people. Oh, have you talked to this person? No, I haven't. Connect me with them. And it was actually someone who I knew through the Teach for America were all that connected me with my first client of like,

[00:17:22] I've worked with this organization. I've had a conversation with you that they were able to put the dots together and say, you know what? Like, I know this organization. I know what their values are. Okay. I know you and what you're doing. I think you would be a good fit for each other. And I think that putting the two together and making those meaningful connections is really important because you can know two people in the education space, but they can have nothing in

[00:17:51] common. Right. And so it takes someone who's really thoughtful and intentional of like, I know what you need as an organization. I know someone who can give you this. Let me facilitate that. Right. So in your process, you found your client, which is like, yes, this is stable. We're going to do it. Yeah. Yeah. We got somebody who has a check. Yeah. So when did you start to want to expand your

[00:18:16] services? Cause now you're doing like one-on-one coaching. You're also doing staff training. So how did you go from this one service of I'm going to teach the children to like, okay, this might need a little bit more support. Cause now we need to get the teachers into it, but also the staff members into it as well. So it could feed like the whole ecosystem of this schools or this building or this whatever institution, educational institution, this whole

[00:18:41] ecosystem. Yeah. I mean, I think that's it, right. Is okay. The kids are great, but what's the next step, right? Well, who are our students around when they're at school? Oh, they're teachers. Well, if we're having regulated students, but dysregulated teachers, what, what does that do? I also found right in customer discovery, which is something that they'll teach you. And it's a super valuable process to go through as a, as a business owner, when you're starting your business

[00:19:10] is like talking to your ideal customer and figuring out what is it that they want and need and how can you do that? And so what I was hearing from a lot of educators that I talked to was like, oh, well, we already either have someone coming in and doing this for our students or like, we're already doing it, but our teachers, our teachers really need tools to take care of themselves. Can you come in and do educator self-care? Or we have a big social emotional

[00:19:39] learning program, but we want to engage parents more. Like I just launched a series of parent workshops because I realized like, oh, this is something that I'm hearing from a lot of the educators and school social workers and counselors and principals that I'm talking to is like, we want to engage parents in this way too. And then, you know, one of the asks that I got a lot was after school programs, can you come and can you teach yoga to our students after school?

[00:20:09] And so I have really tried to adapt, right? And move in the direction that I am hearing there's a need for while also trying to stay true to my mission and my vision for the business. It's not super easy to always reconcile those two things, but what is important is providing a product and a service

[00:20:33] that your clients want and need and are asking for. And so if I'm able to pivot and adapt and do that as me, then I'm going to do that. So. Right. Right. And that's a good thing because like you said earlier, when we were in community corner, having parents be aware of the benefits of it, right? One of the only ways or one of the ways that they can have that awareness is them actually practicing

[00:20:58] doing it themselves, right? So we want the kids to self-regulate, but as adults, we don't know how to self-regulate. Like how do we do it? Right. Or I know how to self-regulate by going to an hour long workout class, but that doesn't help you in the moment, right? When it's 10 PM at night and you're trying to help your child with their homework and they're in tears and you're getting really frustrated

[00:21:24] because you can't figure it out. Like you can't go to the gym for an hour then and be like, hold on, let me come back. How can you in that moment, use those tools of your breath of your mindfulness practices to regulate yourself so that you can meet your child in that moment with a little more, okay, you know what? Let's set this down. Let's go to bed. Maybe we'll pick this up in the morning.

[00:21:48] I understand you're frustrated. I am too, but I think we can figure this out. That makes such a difference. And yeah, it's, it's easier said than done as adults. Yes. So once you've added these additional services to your practice, how did it help your business? What did you start to see happening? I started to see more of the market open up, right? I think one of the things I shared with you was like,

[00:22:17] I never thought I was going to be in that out of school time space ever. I was like, nope, I am just working with schools and teachers. And then I started to hear out of school time space, out of school time space, out of school time space. My first paying client was a summer program that also during the year provides out of school time programming. So what I really realized was like,

[00:22:42] if I can pivot, they will hire me. And like, I don't want to make it seem that, that trivial, right? Because it's not, but these are tools and practices that can be adapted in a lot of different ways. And so what I found is if I can provide something of value in a format that

[00:23:07] a client or a school or program can use, that becomes more sustainable. And that's really what I want to be doing is building programs, building capacity and educators and making yoga and mindfulness practices and programs that are sustainable, right? That are not just a one-time thing or

[00:23:35] an afterthought or an add-on, but really allowing them to be embedded into a program or a school and the culture of that program. And I think that's what that adaptability and flexibility has allowed me to do because I am creating something that is unique to that organization or that school.

[00:23:59] And that becomes something that inherently, I think provides a lot of value for them. My first client is having me back again this year and we're doing something a little bit different that is going to help them build on what I created for them last year and then give them the capacity to

[00:24:22] make that programming more sustainable and expand it hopefully from one site to eventually the other sites that they run in the city. And it won't happen overnight, but I'm excited for the possibilities that that provides. So with that being said, I am so excited for all the wonderful things that are happening for you. It seems like it is going to be, or is a great journey. And I'm so excited to see

[00:24:49] where you end up. Before we end the show, we're going to go ahead and jump into our Professionals Lounge. Professionals Lounge is a segment of the show that allows guests to share advice with other practitioners in the OST and youth development field about how they can begin growing their gifts and talents, but also develop themselves as professionals in the field. Here's our Professionals Lounge conversation. All right, everyone, we have made it to the end of our show, our Professionals

[00:25:17] Lounge segment. So Emily, my question for you for Professionals Lounge is what advice would you give teachers who wants to start their own business based on a skill that they have or a passion that they have that they would love to share with students and staff? I would say the biggest thing for me is don't be afraid to take the leap, right? It can be terrifying

[00:25:39] to leave the stability and the comfort of that steady salary, that paycheck, the health benefits, you know, everything else that comes with being an educator. But if you have something that you're really passionate about, and this is an important and, and you have a clear vision of what your

[00:26:05] business looks like or what you want to offer, don't be afraid to take the leap. It is terrifying. I still have days where I wake up and I am like, what am I doing? Why did I leave the stability of the classroom? But then I get in the work, right? And I get to work with clients and see all these really cool things that are happening. So I would say like, just do it. I knew if I didn't just do it,

[00:26:31] like this would still be something that I was trying to do on the side. And five years later, I'd still be in the classroom, even more burned out than I was. So just do it and also have a clear vision for your business and what you are offering because that will make the leap so much easier. I always used to say, right, if I leap, I want to at least know there's going to be like a trampoline

[00:26:57] or something that I can bounce off of. I might jump a few times in the air and not fully land. But like, for me, it was really important to have a foundation of I know what I'm doing. I know what my market is. I know schools or organizations that I want to work with. So having those plans and steps in place was really helpful for me in actually taking the leap and knowing where I was going.

[00:27:27] Nice. Good one. Good one. So Emily, for anyone that wants to get in touch with you and may request your services or, you know, get some tips on how to do their own thing, can they reach out to you? Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on Instagram at yoga in classrooms and schools. It is a mouthful,

[00:27:50] I know. And then on my website, www.yogainclassroomsandschools.com. In both of those places, I have free resources for educators, share tips and tricks. And then my website, you can find more information about the one-on-one teacher mentorship program, professional development options, family workshop options, and offerings, curriculum development, all that jazz.

[00:28:17] Wonderful. Well, everyone, thank you for tuning in. We hope that you enjoyed all the wonderful things that were shared in this episode. Also, like, follow, and subscribe if you want to hear more content like this for our entrepreneurship series. Well, everyone, that brings us to the end of our show. If you like what you heard and you enjoyed our conversation, make sure that you're following us on YouTube, but also hit that like button so we know what you are enjoying. You can also find us

[00:28:46] on other podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts if you want to listen to our audio version as well. To get more behind the scenes stuff, make sure that you're following us on our social media accounts, Instagram and Facebook at School After Hours. Well, that's all I have for today. In the words of Mr. Arthur Ashe, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Until next time, y'all. Bye-bye.