Meet Emma Kumley | Movement Educator, Studio Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emma Kumley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emma, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I opened The Movement Studio, a boutique pilates and GYROTONIC® Method fitness studio, in the fall of 2018. It had been my plan for a while, but it took time to actualize because of all of the logistics necessary to open a business, including finding a location, purchasing equipment, etc.

The biggest motivator in my decision to open up the studio was feeling a bit lost and lonely, in what felt at the time, to be the most divisive environment (politically) that I had experienced. Getting through the 2016 election, and beyond, was emotionally and psychologically tough, and my hope was to provide the community with a sanctuary space, meant to allow people to direct their vision inwards, connect with their own bodies, begin to move themselves with peace and love, and my hope was that what they found within themselves could then spill out into their interactions with others once they left the studio.

Movement, especially the kind that we teach at the studio, is one of the best tools to meet your body and develop a love for, and acceptance of, your body and its capabilities. If all you ever think about your body is that it aches, or that you feel frustration with its limitations, it is easy (and understandable) to feel chronically grumpy and full of complaints. If one is unhappy with themselves, how can they possibly connect with others with compassion and empathy?

I very much wanted the studio to become a space greater than the sum of its parts – not simply square footage plus fancy equipment – but someplace that people could really sit in their own humanness for the purpose of nurturing a self-love that could then be plentiful enough to fuel going out into the community with kindness and grace, and hopefully a smile for strangers.

Moving your body in new and complex ways can be challenging, and frustrating, and confusing. But working through those feelings, and watching your body adapt and become stronger and more open is empowering. It teaches people that they can do hard things, that their bodies are more adaptable and resilient than they thought, and that patience and hard work pay off. And being up against physical challenges is incredibly humbling. We can’t always surmount all of them. There’s also a very important lesson in giving ourselves the grace to not succeed in everything. It’s this understanding, that we’re all humans doing our best, sometimes with great success and sometimes to no avail, that I think is the greatest lesson of the studio.

Many of the people who come into the studio regularly tell me that they walk out the door happier than when they walked in, and that others have remarked that they seem to be in remarkably good moods after their sessions! That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Running a small business is never easy. Even when it feels easy, it’s not easy!

I’ve found that the most important components to running a small business are 1) being clear on your mission statement; 2) having good support; and 3) setting impenetrable boundaries between work and not-work.

Why do you want to open a business? What purpose will your business serve? Who will your business be trying to attract? If your business was a person, what would be your business’s best attributes and motivational factors?

These are all questions that you have to ask yourself, and spend a lot of time answering, in order to come up with the mission statement that will drive every single decision that you’ll make as a business owner.

My missions statement: To provide a welcoming, inclusive, community space that fosters individual joy through movement that has a nurturing impact on clients and beyond.

When I needed to decide decor for the interior of the studio, I had to decide whether I wanted it to be bright and energizing or calm and soothing. My mission statement led me to go with calm and soothing. When I needed to figure out what to put on studio t-shirts, I looked to my mission statement. When I meet with new clients and teach my classes, and hire teachers, I always have my mission statement in mind. It makes decision-making easy, because I have a clearly-stated direction.

Support is imperative! There is no way I could have opened my business without the initial and on-going support of my husband, who happens to have his own small business down the street. He helped me find space, he sent handymen over to help me set up, he rushed an assistant over with toilet paper when I ran out. And, being a business owner himself, he gave, and continues to give, invaluable advice when I need it. There is no way I could successfully run my studio entirely on my own.

I learned very quickly that having clear, non-negotiable boundaries to keep my not-work time available for all the other things that have to happen in my life (driving kids around, doctors appointments, grocery shopping, making dinner, helping with homework, my own movement practice, etc.) was of the utmost importance. I picked one day a week to be out of the studio entirely, and I made that my day to schedule all of my family’s appointments. I also made sure to block my schedule so that I was available to pick my kids up from school and drive them to all of their after-school activities.

Owning and running a business was not worth it to me if I needed to be on-call at all hours of every day. It took me a while longer to realize that I shouldn’t be returning phone calls or checking and responding to emails in the evenings or on weekends, but I got there eventually. Having clearly defined “me” and family time means that I can show up at the studio ready to give all of my energy to the person, or people in front of me. The people who come into the studio have to feel seen, and cared for, and appreciated, in order for my mission statement to come to fruition.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Movement Studio is in Oxford, FL, immediately adjacent to The Villages, and near Ocala.

Any visit would include a tour of The Villages – the largest retirement community in the country! We share a parking lot with Gio’s Deli, and I love sending people over there for good Italian food. And, Silver Springs Park in Ocala is a beautiful nature park, where you can take a glass-bottomed boat ride through a pristine spring and see all sorts of local wildlife.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My journey towards studio ownership began when I had my first GYROTONIC® Method lesson with Jackie Leech Stoffel of Spheeris Pilates in Breckenridge, CO. I was already very familiar with pilates, but Jackie introduced me to a new (to me) modality of movement that blended challenging movements with a spiritual and energetic component that really spoke to me at the time. I knew almost immediately that I was going to teach it, because it was just too good to keep it to myself!

Website: www.themovementstudiofl.com

Instagram: @themovementstudiofl

Facebook: The Movement Studio