 Hi and welcome to School of Hustle, I'm your host Sarah and this is the show where we chat with everyday entrepreneurs about everything that goes into starting a new venture. Today's guest is known for pushing the limits of physical fitness. Olivia Young is a culinary trained, former hospitality brand director and wellness entrepreneur. And she is also the founder of Box & Flow, a boxing and yoga fusion studio that is the first of its kind. Her classes teach you to dig deeper and search inward to find your fight and flow. Welcome to the show Olivia, it's great to have you here. Thank you so much for coming to my studio. This is by far the most beautiful fitness studio I have ever seen. Total labor of love. And I can tell because you can see how much thought was put into every detail. I mean I walked in here and I said to myself I feel like I'm in a music video. Like it makes me want to work out. You feel the energy the moment you enter this space. Could you tell me a little bit about your story and how we ended up here? So I started Box & Flow in November 2016 with passion and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had never, literally, but even to like the end degree. I had never taught a class before. I had been practicing yoga since I was 15 and started boxing when I was 20. And I found that the duality of energies that both of those modalities gave me really created balance within. So Box & gave me strength and confidence and yoga forced me to slow down and really feel. And I think that those skill sets combined created this ability to be my best self every day. You embody the spirit of fight and flow. You have a really relaxed laid back side but you also have a very driven entrepreneurial side. And how do those things come together and make you decide I'm going to start this type of boxing yoga studio? I knew I needed to create something. I didn't know what it was. I never thought about starting a fitness business or even teaching a class. So I had done my yoga teacher training and I had again embodied this fitness alter ego. So why do the yoga teacher training if you weren't sure you wanted to teach a class? There was something in me that was searching for a depth of meaning. It's like you knew inside but you couldn't put words to it. Totally. Like you're on this path. Like you said, I believe that entrepreneurs are born. And it was almost like you were already on that path and you didn't really see where it was going to go. But clearly we've ended up here in your amazing studio. Yes. And then with that said though, I fought myself to open it and start this concept because it didn't make sense to anybody really but me because it hadn't existed before and I didn't have the background of being a fitness influencer. I didn't have a following. I'd never taught a class. But when you ask what made you do this, I was feeling some sort of way every day and the way that I was feeling was empowered but grounded. And I believe that as humans we live in such extremes. But to really find that inner focus, you have to feel your fire but also understand and embrace your calm. Both sides of a coin. Tell me about the process of starting the business. Now anyone that started business, anyone that is looking to start a business knows there's a lot involved with that. It's not just the idea. Funding is a big part of that. So you taught your first class. Clearly that impacted you to want to start the actual classes you do now. You didn't start in this location. So what was the process of getting that first location and actually getting people to go to it? April 2016, I was ready. I quit my job. I opened a bank account. June 2016, so two months later, I taught my first class. I was scared. And this was your first class, not in your own studio? Ever. And the only class I taught before I opened a space. So like my brother and my friends. I think a lot of your journey is like you were born to, this is the path you were born to do. And it's clear that it worked. So tell me, you opened your first gym. Yes. How did you get the funding for that? You quit your job. So I'm assuming you saved some money from that. So again, I feel like I was born an entrepreneur. I come from an entrepreneurial family. As I was brand director of this hospitality company, I was bored as typical entrepreneurs are. Most entrepreneurs are? Right. And I ran a consultancy as a side hustle. And I was representing other chefs and other food brands. Without knowing it, I was literally growing a nest egg to fund my own business. Nice. I funded my own business, my first space that did not look like this. More of a dungeon. It's a stepping stone. Totally. You started from the bottom. Now we're here. Drake said it. And he was right. And with that, it was such a rite of passage because it was the greatest commitment I ever made, was signing a lease, painting the walls, like hanging bags up and saying I am here. And it was a feeling. You felt the grit in the walls. You felt the love, blood, sweat, tears. All of it was real. And it was something that it's hard to even put into words, but it changed my life and it changed lives. And that was the goal of it. And it was also the space that I ran to at 5 a.m. when the heat didn't work or there was a snowstorm. And I had to figure it out and shovel the stoop before people came. And people loved it for that. And it was also ironic that the time that I opened was the same that major competitors opened with millions and millions of dollars of funding. My business, my studio cost less than $158,000 to open. Wow. That's incredible. Which is like true bootstraps, start-up, rickety bathroom door, all the complaints. And it wasn't about the facade of it, it was about the feeling of it. Yeah. So how did you attract your first customers? I had a friend set out to press for lease. I didn't have a budget for PR. I couldn't understand why people were showing up for me. And I called my mom. I was like, they want to give me this. They're calling. People are coming. And she goes, Olivia, you have been showing up for people for the last seven, 10 years of your life just giving. Now it's your time to receive. And I don't know why that was something that I never thought of and I'll never forget because it was like, holy s***. It's my time to receive. And I think, again, that's one of life's greatest lessons is to not just receive, but to be open to receive. Be it love or support or a compliment. You know, we're so quick to shy away from, oh, you look beautiful. Oh, no, no. It's true. And as women, I think we're taught to kind of push away those compliments. Or those gifts. In the thought process that something is wanted in return. But actually, if you can just see yourself as holy enough to receive and to be worthy, exactly. And I think, again, that comes back to the concept at hand. Face yourself to free yourself. You're facing yourself on a bag and it's like the doubt, the fear, the insecurity, the guilt, the shame, whatever it is. It's going to come up when you put your gloves on and you're like in it. The music's blasting, the lights are low. You're not seeing yourself. You're not judging yourself, your outfit, your body. You're in your process if you allow yourself to be present. It's beautiful. Outside of the distraction. So the world opens up to me and I received. And I was able to open the first studio. People came. They came back. Was it challenging? Yes. Were you the only person that was working at that time? It was me. And then I hired a desk manager who was also one of my instructors. I was very clear that I needed to get and train the staff because I didn't want to be the only teacher. Because then the whole business would ride on me. And I wanted it. I wanted it to be able to grow beyond me. My dream and purpose in this business, in these four walls, is to be able to lead to coach, to speak, to guide outside of a black leotard and a boxing space. And I want this to be able to replicate in every city, in small towns, where people can practice this idea of flow through the fight, face themselves. And I can't be in all of those places. Yeah. Because this is... No, it's true. It's the only way to make it scalable. Yeah. And this is something that is for everybody. Every size, every shape, every color. I wanted to make the price point approachable in a way that was almost a detriment in some ways to my business in this hyper-competitive, expensive market that is boutique fitness in New York City. So how do you keep track of all of that? Finance is one of the main things that makes sure that you can run the business long term. Totally. A lot of people aren't great at finance. If you are, congratulations, I am not. I had to hire someone to run that for me. So what do you do to keep track of it? I mean, I think the way that businesses thrive, especially first as an entrepreneur, you have to really know your strengths, but own your weaknesses. Yeah. Because you're not good at everything, even though you can pull it off because you have grit. If you're an entrepreneur, you can figure things out. You can't figure finance out. I mean, high level finance, you can't... I mean, I can't figure finance out. I mean, so really learning to delegate is, I think, the best skill you can acquire. At first, you want to covet everything because it's yours. And you don't want anyone to ruin it. That's the thing. Giving away the control can be very scary. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience growing? Really recognizing what you can versus what you can't. And I think if you want a semblance of a normal life, as an entrepreneur, you will not have a normal life. And this becomes your life in many ways. And you have to, you know, embrace that. I know what I'm good at. And I know even more what I'm not. And it was finding people and tools to, you know, fill the gaps, fill the holes to make me feel whole. Through talking to you, it's very clear that you have a lot of passion behind every single decision you make. I mean, you just look around your space. Everything's extremely well thought out. You share a lot of stories with your customers. And you have a blog called Live Young, which you share recipes and personal stories and all types of just more personal content than you would with Box and Flow. Why start a blog? That can be a lot of work. And you're already doing all of this. The blog to me is the actual embodiment of everything I teach. It's the mindset behind all of these mantras. The why. Because to me it's well beyond the way that we move. It's the way that we fuel ourselves. It's the way that we speak to ourselves. It's the way that we connect with ourselves and with others. So you opened your first location in 2016. And you would open this location in 2020. Now this location is much larger. It's absolutely stunningly beautiful. I didn't see your last location, just based on the description you gave. I think this was a serious upgrade. Totally. This required a lot more funding, I'm assuming. How do you fund something like that? I took on a financial partner who was somebody I had worked with in the past as my old boss who came to me. He said, I have this space. He had followed my journey. He was always a mentor. And it was like a dream that somebody came to me and was like, let's go. And so here we are. I opened this space three weeks before shutdown. So barely touched. And when COVID hit, I transitioned everything online. Yeah. Tell me about that transition because you've been doing some really great things. As someone who owns a tour company in New York, I've had to switch to live YouTube tours. You've been doing on-demand classes and live classes, I believe. Yes, both. Similar to what everybody else has had to do. Or not have to. Make a choice to create some sort of continued connection with your community through all of this chaos. And it hasn't been easy. But to be honest, it hasn't been that hard to just transition online. Is it ideal? No. Is it the same revenue I would be making with two studios, one studio? No. It's keeping a flame alive that could easily dim and then die. Yeah. And you have to... This is survival mode for all entrepreneurs. And what you're doing is a survival tactic. On your site, it says on-demand. Does that mean they're all prerecorded and you can buy like a pack? So there's like a live membership, which is classes every day with multiple different teachers. And then there's on-demand as a supplement that you could on-demand watch a prerecorded class. So both. Give as many options to your students as you can during this hard time. So they have the on-demand option now. They also have the live classes. How do you market both of these? Previously, your marketing tactics were all for in person. Has it shifted? Social media. The same with using a third party. They also do heavy marketing. Word of mouth. Teachers that are teaching that also use their own social media. The already built-in community that hopefully can be inspired to still keep moving through all of this. And just like really keeping hope. I think as cheesy as it sounds, the way that this business started, as I said, a complete labor of love. And I think people can feel the authenticity. They can feel the energy and the passion. And they open to it if they're open. I've never felt like I want to work out when I enter a gym. But this gym just looks really fun. Just everything about it. I love how you chose the lighting. If you could talk to me about the design here, because this is unlike any other gym someone walks in. I know that you have a lot of meaning behind everything you do. So let's start as someone that's walking through the door and walk me through your interior design process and how that might impact someone's psychology that is coming here to work out. So, I mean, the front door you walk in, the front desk, there's a greeting, there's a welcome, and you're shuffled straight into this place where in all actuality it's like a personal hell. There's red lights, there's darkness, there's no distraction. Before COVID, the class was built on two people in one bag, which creates 40 people in the room. Because once you're faced someone else on the other side, like the accountability factor you might not always hold for yourself. And there's parts of the class that go into speed and power rounds and someone's holding the bag and you're going as fast as you can and then as hard as you can. But again, there's somebody on the other side like I got you, we got this, we're good, we're here together, it's energy. The purpose of this space though is to really shut off anything outside of yourself. Nobody is watching or comparing you. If they are, it's not about you. So again, it's about really seeing yourself without the sight line. Seeing yourself how you feel and what you feel. And then really letting it go. So the class really takes you up. Warm up, high intensity intervals, shadow boxing, then boxing, gloves on, nine rounds nonstop. We have some of your stuff here. So like light weights, those are the hand wraps. And then after... No, there's actual gloves. Those are under the gloves. Clearly I've never done this before. After the nine rounds of like nonstop to like super intense music so everything's beat driven. So hip hop, rock, like nirvana, DMX. High energy music. Exactly. There's three parts of the class that I said are the intervals where somebody is holding for you and you're switching back and forth. You just get to really loud and you're like in the heat of it. And then it comes down, it goes up, it keeps you engaged. And then the music breaks to instrumental. So think of like something like... So it's very much about the music too. Do you have a soundtrack for these classes? Totally. So Box and Flow when I started, it was inspiration and empowerment through energy, breath, movement, and music. Nothing about boxing or yoga. The only thing that attracts the playlist is it starts with the warm-up, it goes into Shadow Box, then there's an instrumental, think of the game like Halo. Almost so you're... It's like a journey, it's a personal journey. Or like a Star Wars song. And you're setting your intention, you're finding groundness and stillness. You pop up and then you don't stop moving for nine rounds on the bag. Crazy intense music. Then gloves come off, raps come off, and then to like this instrumental. And then you feel your breath. And so the last 15 minutes is a Vinyasa Flow, where you open everything up. So again, it's the juxtaposition of like this, then this, and then you end in stillness, silence, and darkness. What's the hardest part about starting a business? Getting out of your own way. And understanding and acknowledging and even embracing the fact that it's never going to be perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. And being okay with being exactly where you are. Knowing what you know. Embracing what you don't. And just starting. Yeah, just starting. Just starting. This is a theme throughout this show. Just do it. Literally, slow through the fight. Learn as you go. Take on challenge and resistance with ease. Do not get stuck. Everything you need is inside. You have the answers. You have the tools. And those that you don't, they're not yours to figure out, outsource. Google it. YouTube. Hire someone. Totally. But then at the end of the day, I think the biggest thing really for me is always trusting your intuition. You want to hire somebody. You want to fire somebody. You know what is best for you and your business and your well-being. So let's close this interview with a voice for aspiring entrepreneurs. In a life filled with so much noise, be your own quiet. It's never going to be as planned. But for you to be your best self, you have to understand that you're worthy of success. But you have to find a way to limit the distraction and the noise telling you otherwise. Not getting stuck along the way. The amount of times that I wanted to throw my hands up and throw the towel in before I started while I started and probably well after, you know, I start my next thing. But, you know, ultimately, you're your greatest champion and your harshest critic. So it's been wonderful having you on the show, Olivia. Thank you for everyone that joined us and thanks for everyone that tuned in today. If you want to learn more about box and flow, visit boxandflow.com or follow them on Instagram at boxandflow or you can follow Olivia at liveyoung. And that is all for this episode of School of Hustle. Keep up with all of our episodes on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you stream and download podcasts. And if you like what you heard today, please consider leaving a review, share it with your friends and subscribe to our show. We will see you next time. Bye.