Exploring Life & Business with Courtney Williams of Flow With Coco

Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Williams.

Hi Courtney, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been an athlete my entire life. I grew up doing gymnastics, cheerleading and track and field, and as an adult I became a fitness instructor. So movement has always been a huge part of who I am.

When I would have days off from teaching, I would often take yoga classes as a form of active recovery. At the time, I didn’t really know anyone who practiced yoga, I had just heard that it was a great counterbalance to the high-intensity dance fitness classes I was teaching.

But I fell in love with yoga because, for the first time, I was being invited to be gentle and simply *be* rather than perform. I also noticed that I wasn’t seeing many Black women represented in the classes and spaces I was practicing in. That stayed with me. I wanted to not only see more Black women practicing yoga, but to show that we could also be the ones teaching, leading and holding space for other people.

Because I was already a fitness instructor, I wanted to deepen my own practice, so I eventually started considering yoga teacher training. I’ll be honest, I was hesitant. I was strong and athletic, but I was still learning. I wasn’t sure if I was “ready” to teach yoga.

I decided to move forward with my yoga teacher training in the spring of 2019. And while I was in training, I already knew that I wanted to become an independent teacher. I envisioned creating soulful, feminine yoga experiences and, eventually, opening my own studio.

What I didn’t anticipate was how uncomfortable it would feel to become a beginner again. I was already established as a dance fitness instructor, so I thought that confidence would automatically carry over. It didn’t. Yoga was different, and I had to give myself permission to learn.

I spent about seven months in self-study and began subbing at a local studio, which helped me build my confidence and find my voice as a yoga teacher.

Then, at the beginning of 2020, I rented an event space on Georgia Avenue and launched my R&B Yoga class. R&B was already a part of my personal yoga practice, but I hadn’t really seen public yoga classes incorporating the music in that way. I wanted to create an experience that felt authentic to me.

Around that same time, I actually visited the studio space I’m in today. But I wasn’t ready. I had only taught one free class, and committing to a physical studio felt way too big.

Then the pandemic happened.

I moved my classes online so I could continue serving the community I had started building. What I thought would be temporary became a virtual studio for three years. But the goal of eventually having a physical space never went away.

While I was teaching virtually, I started the process of opening a studio. The space I had visited back in 2020 was still available, and eventually I decided to move forward. It took about two years from making that decision to actually opening the doors.

The studio officially opened in September 2024, and this September marks two years of having a physical studio.

When I envisioned the studio, I knew I wanted it to be woman-centered. I wanted to create an intimate, cozy space where women could feel supported, loved and seen through different phases of their lives. What I didn’t anticipate was just how many different ways that vision would show up: from regular yoga classes to birthday celebrations, bachelorette experiences, wellness gatherings and corporate partnerships.

That’s one of the things I love most about what Flow With Coco has become. It’s not just a place where people come to take a yoga class. It’s become a space where people can celebrate, connect, slow down, move their bodies and experience different moments of life together.

For me, Flow With Coco is really the evolution of a lifelong relationship with movement and my decision to create the kind of space that I wanted to see in the world.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I think one of the biggest challenges has been that I’ve had to learn how to build the business while also navigating a lot of change in my own life.

In the beginning, one of my biggest challenges was becoming a beginner again. I was already an established fitness instructor, so I thought becoming a yoga teacher would be an easy transition. It wasn’t. I had to learn a completely different style of teaching, find my voice, and become comfortable not knowing everything.

Then there was the challenge of actually building the physical studio. I had never opened a studio before, so I was learning everything as I went, navigating the process of getting it open, understanding the business and operational side, and figuring out things that I didn’t even know I needed to know. It took years from the first time I envisioned having a studio to actually opening the doors.

And the pandemic completely changed the path. I had just started building my yoga community and launched my R&B Yoga classes when everything shut down. I moved online and ended up operating a virtual studio for three years. When I eventually opened the physical studio, I had to figure out how to reintroduce myself and the business to the DC wellness community in a completely different way.

I’ve also had to navigate different business models as Flow With Coco has grown. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much the business would expand beyond the yoga classes I originally envisioned. Birthday celebrations, bachelorette experiences, corporate partnerships, wellness events and other community experiences have all become part of the studio.
In a lot of ways, the business has become more than I could have imagined when I first started. The core vision has stayed the same creating an intimate, welcoming space where people feel supported, connected and seen but I’ve learned that there can be so many different ways for that vision to come to life.

And then, personally, I’ve gone through major transitions while building the business, including my divorce and eventually being laid off from my full-time career. Those experiences forced me to reevaluate what I wanted my life to look like and made entrepreneurship feel even more real. There were moments when I had to keep showing up for Flow With Coco while I was also figuring out myself.

I think that’s probably the biggest lesson for me: the business hasn’t grown in a straight line because life doesn’t grow in a straight line.

I’ve had to learn how to adapt, start over, change direction, and sometimes just keep going before I could see exactly where I was going.

So no, it hasn’t been smooth. But every version of the journey has taught me something that I needed for the next version of Flow With Coco.

We’ve been impressed with Flow With Coco, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Flow With Coco is a woman-centered yoga and wellness brand rooted in movement, mindfulness, music and community. Our home studio is a pink oasis on the historic U Street corridor in Washington, DC, intentionally designed to feel intimate, cozy and welcoming.

The studio is where our weekly yoga classes take place, including our signature R&B Yoga experiences, as well as private birthday and bachelorette celebrations, creative workshops, community events and pop-ups. We also bring Flow With Coco on the road, traveling throughout the DMV to offer yoga and wellness experiences for private groups, organizations, corporate partners and special events.

Our classes are designed to be accessible, welcoming and supportive. I want people to leave class feeling good, not like they had to perform or prove something. Whether you’re new to yoga or have been practicing for years, the goal is to create a space where you can move at your own pace, connect with yourself and genuinely enjoy the practice.

We’re best known for our R&B Yoga experiences, where movement and mindfulness meet the music I grew up loving. R&B has always been part of my personal practice, so bringing it into the studio became a way to create an experience that feels joyful, familiar and authentic while still honoring the grounding nature of yoga.

What sets Flow With Coco apart is the feeling we’re intentional about creating. I wanted a space that’s whimsical and free where people could feel supported, loved and seen. The studio is small and intimate by design, allowing us to create experiences that feel personal rather than transactional.

Representation is also important to the brand. As a Black woman and yoga teacher, I didn’t always see many Black women reflected in the yoga spaces where I practiced. I wanted Flow With Coco to not only create space for Black women to practice, but to show that we can also be the instructors, the leaders and the people holding space for others.

What I’m most proud of brand-wise is how recognizable Flow With Coco has become. It’s feminine, soulful, playful, warm and community-centered. From the pink studio and R&B playlists to the experiences we create, I want people to recognize Flow With Coco before they even see the name.

Ultimately, I want readers to know that through Flow With Coco with yoga and movement as our foundation, we’re really creating spaces for people to reconnect with themselves, celebrate their lives and connect with one another. At the heart of the brand is a simple belief: movement is community care.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory would probably be living in Japan. I grew up as a military brat, and after spending about two years in Guam, my family moved to Japan, where we lived for about four and a half years.

The air base was less than 10 miles from Tokyo, so Japan really felt like a dream to me as a kid. I remember having the freedom to explore we could go off base, take the train and experience so much of the culture around us. It gave me an appreciation for exploring new places and experiencing things that were different from what I knew.

Japan is also where I feel like my creativity really started to come alive. I fell in love with fashion and became very expressive with my personal style. At the same time, I was always moving I ran track, did gymnastics and eventually became a varsity cheerleader.

When I look back, I think those years really shaped so much of who I am today. I developed a love for movement, creativity, culture, exploration and expressing myself ~things that still show up in my life in so many ways.

Pricing:

• weekly classes range from $22-24

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.flowwithcoco.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowwithcoco__/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@courtneyewilliams