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Meet Jude Luth and Frankie Leyva of Totem Yoga in Central Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jude Luth and Frankie Leyva.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jude and Frankie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2013, I completed my 200 yoga teacher training at Spirit of Yoga in Tempe. At the time, I hadn’t actually planned on teaching yoga. Yoga was a healing journey that I had initially planned to do for myself, to create some balance in my life. Spending 7 months studying yoga was definitely transformative, but after my training was complete, I was certain that I wouldn’t become an instructor. When it came to speaking in front of others, it gave me a lot of anxiety, so I decided that instructing yoga was not for me. Debilitating anxiety was something that I had been struggling with for years, and yoga provided me a positive outlet to cope with that.

Six months later, I was broke. Out of financial necessity, I decided to focus on teaching private lessons. I figured that one on one instruction wouldn’t create the anxiety I felt in front of a group of people. So, I rented a small office space, and I started out with one client.

It took a while, but that one client grew to a few. After three months of teaching private yoga lessons, I had some requests to teach group classes, and I decided to go for it. I rented a larger space in May 2014 and started with one weekly class. That one class quickly turned into four classes, and despite my anxiety, I kept it all going.

Fast forward to 2017, and I met my partner Frankie. The partnership started as a personal one. Within our first year, Frankie’s health took a turn for the worst. Rheumatoid arthritis started to take a heavy toll on his body. He was using a cane to stand and walk around. So, he abruptly left his career to focus on his health. Despite the physical pain, he slowly started a yin yoga practice, once a week. After four months of consistent yoga, he enrolled in a yoga teacher training program, so that we could run the business as team.

Together, that’s what we do now. We focus on providing a healing experience at the studio. We layer different healing modalities like aromatherapy, sound healing, thai yoga, and reiki into our classes. We’re ever-evolving and drawn to collaborative events with other small businesses.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
You know Death Road in Bolivia?? (laughing)

Every day is a new adventure. The studio has had to compete in a very oversaturated market. It’s wonderful when you hear positive feedback. Of course. But, it was a real challenge to acknowledge that we couldn’t offer as many weekly classes as other studios, to survive. We’ve had to rethink the way we offer classes, and how.

One of the hardest challenges to overcome is that there really are a lot of haters out there. It’s really tough to hear hateful things on social media when you have good intentions and work hard every day. We’ve been told we couldn’t do it. That people didn’t approve of what we were doing. That we would never succeed. That we have culturally appropriated with the name of our studio, Totem Yoga. The list goes on.

And to you that feel this way, we say, Happy 5th Birthday to Totem Yoga.

We aren’t going to stop evolving, hustling, and paving that bumpy road ahead.

Totem Yoga – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Yoga es por la gente/ it’s for everyone!

The vision for the studio has always been to create community. The vibe at our studio is unpretentious, non-judgmental, and inclusive. To create a space where everyone feels supported, welcomed, and safe. It doesn’t matter what you wear, what you look like, or where you grew up. So many people are intimidated or off-put by the thought of yoga. We challenge and break down those stigmas and misconceptions.

We specialize in creating sensory experiences, not just your typical yoga class. Each class, or event we provide, there is always a unique vibe. Some classes we use candlelight, combined with sound healing (tibetan bowls, gongs, and drums) and aromatherapy blends that we’ve created in-house. Other classes will get out of your head with LOUD Hip Hop and R&B playlists, with LED lighting that shifts to the beats per minute.

As we have evolved, Totem Yoga has become more of an event space now. Since yoga is very competitive, we’ve shifted our focus from regularly weekly classes (we still have a few) to unique events and workshops.

One thing that sets us apart from other studios is that we reach out and connect with other studios, sound healers, and wellness spaces we find that have complementary visions of wellness and community culture. We collaborate with Hood Yoga, Medicated Mavens, Abundant Space, and Tangled Roots Botanicals, as well as individual healers and event facilitators at Totem Yoga. There isn’t a sense of ownership or competition with these businesses. We all provide different experiences, and instead of competing, we build each other up and support one another. Combining our unique gifts, we create events that you don’t find anywhere else.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It hasn’t been a moment per se. It’s been every time that someone has told us they felt safe, welcomed, and ‘at home’ at our studio.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Zhara Negrete

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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