Meet Kate Doran of Savannah Power Yoga

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Doran.

Kate, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started practicing yoga in 1998 when my co-workers at a software engineering firm repeatedly suggested that I might “need” some yoga. I guess I was a little tightly wound. Fast forward to 2005 and I had signed up for my first 200-hour yoga teacher training program. I was still working in the software industry at the time and really just wanted an excuse to learn more about yoga and practice a lot of yoga during the teacher training weekends.

After graduating from teacher training I taught once a week and then opened a yoga co-op with some friends. The co-op idea was very idealistic, but it did not create what I really wanted: a place to develop a solid 4-6 day a week yoga practice.

In January, 2011 I opened Savannah Power Yoga with the goal of creating a place for the consistent practice of heated vinyasa yoga. We could hold 32 students in our studio and quickly had a waiting list. in 2013 we expanded into a new space within the same shopping center. This year we opened a new brand, Spry Mind+Body, offering gentle and chair-based yoga classes to support healthy aging, in community through movement and stillness.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has been pretty smooth, but we have struggled to keep key team members. Some of our most beloved teachers have left to start their own yoga studio or because of personal reasons. When a business is based on personal relationships, these changes affect both staff morale and the larger community of practitioners. Overall, we have been able to keep things very positive by following our teacher credo and trying to stick to some of yoga’s primary tenets: honesty, non-coveting, and non-violence (including not gossiping or maligning other teachers or studios).

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Savannah Power Yoga – what should we know?
Savannah Power Yoga is the first studio in Georgia to specialize in Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. We are known for our high-quality teaching and our friendliness. We have a beautiful studio in a residential neighborhood and are known for having the spectacularly clean floors and bathrooms – which is a must since most of our yogis spend their time at SPY barefoot.

Our mission is to help folks create a consistent yoga practice, so we offer 30+ classes a week, making it easy to get to a class, whether it is at 6:00 am or 7:15 pm. Because we do one thing and do it well, most of our students are members and we treat each other like family. Everyone is on a first name basis and we participate in community fundraising events together and sometimes just get together for happy hour at a local restaurant.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My first vinyasa yoga teacher, Hellen Frances, set me on this path with her gentle and humble demeanor, even while teaching a very challenging practice. When I moved to Savannah, Kelley Boyd, owner of the Savannah Yoga Center, encouraged me to attend my first teacher training and put me on her roster when I graduated. In the last 8 years, Baron Baptiste has been my primary teacher and taught me to aspire to my highest possibility. His teachings are at the core of who I am today and influence how I run the studio and our employee team.

I also owe a lot of my success to the 12 years I spent working in the corporate software engineering. The president of the company I worked for often showed up at meetings to listen and brainstorm new ideas and understood many of the details of the day-to-day work his team did – which is incredible considering that when I worked there it was the 2nd largest privately-owned software company in the United States.

I believe that my teachers are my greatest asset and try to train and hire people to be better teachers than I am, so that I can run the business AND enjoy the teaching that I get to do.