Like A Champion Podcast | M&A Mastery with Wes Shelton

Paige Held of The Yoga Joint | Manifesting Success from Welfare to Wealth thru Wellness #13

• Wes Shelton • Episode 13

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She went from food stamps to multi-million-dollar deals building The Yoga Joint. 

Wes talks with his friend Paige Held as she shares the raw truth behind building The Yoga Joint. They discuss everything from the process of learning how to choose the right business partner and building a team that maximizes your strengths to the power of believing in yourself and not taking 'no' in business for an answer. Hear how Paige turned passion, vision boards and discipline into a nationally expanding yoga and fitness empire—and why yoga is more than just exercise, it’s a way of life.



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[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Introduction and Current Success

Paige: Looking back, I wouldn't change anything because it's got me where I am. Yeah. And we're growing like crazy. I'm gonna sell this company for like 500, 600, 700, $800 million, like we are on our way. And it's wild. 

[00:00:13] Early Life and Background

Paige: I started on welfare as a single mom.

Wes: This story is one that I was really excited to hear you tell, and it's not because I know you. It's because it is genuinely an amazing story. So thank you for being unlike a champion. 

Paige: Thank you for having me. The first female 

Wes: entrepreneur, and unlike a champion and well deserved, I might add, but this is fun because I've known you a long time.

Paige: I know. I was telling my kids that I was coming on here and I was, they know who you are and your family and the kids. And Taylor was like, how long have you guys known each other? And I was like. I mean, kind of since high school, even though we weren't, like, we, we had mutual friends in high school. We're the same age.

We grew up here. Our, our parents were friends. Yeah. And my dad was like, oh yeah. I mean, we've been friends for, since they were, like in their thirties and forties. Yeah. So I, I didn't even put that together, like how much history our families even have, which is really cool. 

Wes: And I was thinking about it on the wave here.

I'm like, look at us. We're all growing up now, you know? I 

Paige: know I, I'm gonna be 47 next month. And I'm just like, I, I, I've never been in a better place in my life, but I'm also like, wow, this is crazy. Like when people say it goes by fast, it really does. There's moments where I feel like it's like a sloth pace.

Yeah. Especially in my business. I thought for sure by now that I would be. On my yoga, joint yacht flying my yoga joint. Private jet. 

Wes: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:01:45] Business Challenges and COVID Impact

Paige: So, but the, the pitfalls have been there. COVID was a huge devastation for not just my business, but for businesses like mine, for all businesses, but for boutique fitness was, that was a huge, but we were able to continue to just put one foot in front of the other and pivot a little bit and get to where we needed to be and stabilize it took us.

We have, we are just stabilizing within the last year and a half from COVID. People don't believe us because they come in and they see the success on the outside, but they don't realize how much that set us back. And we had amazing, amazing people that continued to keep their memberships going during COD, which was huge.

Wes: Sure. 

Paige: For us. So anyways, I'm happy to be here. 

Wes: Yeah. 

[00:02:31] Expansion and Franchising

Wes: I mean, so I was on your website and I saw May, maybe, maybe this was two, three weeks ago, but you have 11 existing locations. 12. So 12 with another seven or eight to open in the next year and a half or so, 

Paige: we're opening one every six weeks right now. And so by the, the, the proj right now, we will have 30 by the end by like mid 2026, we have the funding and the people ready to go.

[00:03:00] And we just opened up our first franchise a year ago. Yep. So that's been amazing. Our first franchisee. I could not, 'cause I understand, I recognize everybody wants to tell me their horror stories. Yeah, right. Everybody about franchising and. We are going to be doing a mix. So we're gonna continue to open, open our stores our, we call them our corporate stores.

So we're continuing to open our corporate stores as well as franchises. We are moving slowly with the franchises just because of the horror stories. One of my business partners is a franchise guy, so he knows a lot about it. Well actually now we just, I just pulled on a new partner and he also is a big franchise guy.

So we have a lot of people sitting at the table that know a lot about franchises. 'cause I know a lot about boutique fitness. I do not know a lot about franchises. 

Wes: Yeah. So I want to dig into the franchise stuff a little bit later for sure. 'cause that's definitely, you know, one of the key themes we try to touch on with the show and I'm.

The child of, you know, two men that were 

Paige: Yeah, well, 

Wes: one man, but two partners in my family that were, uh, you know, successful car dealers for many years and, and franchise was, you know, something that served them very well, but also had its challenges too. But I want to go and just rewind back, like, how did this, I.

[00:04:17] Journey into Yoga

Wes: All start, like where did it start with you With yoga and then the yoga joint. 

Paige: Okay, so I started doing yoga around 16. Like I said, I'm gonna be 47 next month. So you do the math. Yeah. And at the time I was growing up here in South Florida. My parents were going through a terrible divorce and it just so happened that a person that was, we were dealing with with court stuff said You and your brother should try yoga.

It's really good for stress relief. And I was a runner, I was an athlete at Car Gibbons and I ran track and cheerleading. So I thought, okay, that sounds cool. And it, and it was hot yoga. So I loved that. 'cause I wanted to sweat and I went and I thought it was absolutely insane. Ridiculous. I was like, this is a cult.

This is very strange. I grew up really, really Catholic and I thought this is. This is just wild there. There was literally, back then in the nineties, there was men in Speedos, girls in like string bikinis. I was like, I'm not sure about this. And, and I'm not prude at all. I'm very out there and even for me and my brother kept branch, my middle brother kept going and he was like, you gotta just keep going.

You'll really like it. You really like it. So around. So I didn't, I went a couple times at 16, around 18, I started going religiously, and it was around then that I knew that I would be in some capacity in this field for a lifetime. So I didn't go to college. I, I didn't do well in high school. Mm-hmm. I struggled academically.

I. Loved the social aspect of school and the sports and everything. But I was struggling looking back, I'm for sure had some sort of undiagnosed learning disability, especially having kids and yeah, 

Wes: I think a lot of us did. Exactly. 

Paige: Yeah. [00:06:00] But they just never, and funny enough, living here, I see our teachers still and I'll be like, yeah, thanks for your help.

Like, you know, I could have used you. And I just decided I'm just not gonna go to school and I'm going to start working in a yoga studio. 'cause I wanna open up yoga studios, like fitness boutiques and bring wellness to people's lives because it meant so much to me and it helped my life so much. So fast forward, I.

[00:06:29] Overcoming Business Obstacles

Paige: I was in the business for over a decade and one day I was like, okay, it's time I need to open up my own studio. I was in my like late twenties and I had two kids and I thought, I just need to do something bigger for them. At the time, I had a gentleman who knew I was kicking around the idea and he came to me and he said, listen, I have money.

Let's do this. You could go get a loan, but you have nothing. You have no collateral. No one knows who you are. I mean, like you, I had a small little niche group of people that liked my classes, 

Wes: right? 

Paige: So this was, you know, long time ago and he said, I have money. You have a following. Let's do this. So I said, okay, great.

So I went to the guy that I worked with at the time and said, listen, I have so many ideas. I wanna add other classes. I have this vision, I. Can do it with you and we can go and I will work so hard for you. And I was already working so hard for him. Yeah. For 10 years. I said, let's do this. And he said, no, no, no.

You'll, you'll never, ever, ever be successful at this. It's so hard to do this. You'll never get where you wanna go. And I said, I just don't believe you. I, I'm gonna have a hundred studios. I'm gonna have an exit plan. I'm gonna sell, like I'm gonna do this. And he's like, you're never gonna do it. And I was like, the good thing about me is when you tell me no.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I will find a way. Like I was that child. I've always been that person. I don't like to be told no. If you tell me no, I will find a way. It doesn't matter if it's a hotel room that I want or a car deal that I want. When my friends like need something, they call and they're like, Hey, can you call and get this done?

Yeah. I'm like, absolutely. Like I'll take care of it. I don't care if you tell me no. I just will find a way to get what I want. I like to get what I want. So he said, let's do this. I said, great. I just needed somebody to gimme that opportunity and I. I just said, I'll figure out the details. Right, right. Yeah.

I didn't know much, but I'll figure it out. You just 

Wes: feel like it in your heart. Exactly. That's gonna work. And then 

Paige: exactly, like I just, you just navigate all the business stuff. I didn't understand at all, but I was like, I'll just start reading. I'll just start listening to podcasts. And that's exactly what I did.

And back then it wasn't as. Like now we can listen to any, we, you can go on YouTube and learn anything. You can listen to it. It's all free and out there, it's everything. But back then it wasn't, this was in 20, like 2010 is when I opened up my first location. So I literally would go to the library in Fort Lauderdale, the one on near the north location, 62nd and [00:09:00] federal.

There. I would go there, find business books like Sit. My kids were babies. I would read books on business. I was like anybody that would give me any attention about business. But people like pretty much laughed in my face. I asked all my friends, I'm not, I won't say their names, but you know, all these people, like all of our friends that are in their sixties now, I went to them and that owned businesses here.

Wes: Mm-hmm. 

Paige: Sit down with me, have lunch with me. Let me pick your brain. Because I knew I was also listening to like a ton of Tony Robbins and he was saying like, sit with the five people that you wanna emulate and they will get you where you wanna go. So I had that in my head, like, let me just be around successful people and I'll figure it out.

[00:09:38] Building a Strong Team

Paige: So went into partnership with this gentleman and it didn't work out for no other reason that we just had a very different vision. I wanted to scale. He liked having the one location. We were super successful. From day one. We opened doors and we had 80 people per class and it was amazing. Second location he didn't wanna be a part of, so I took on a different partner.

So that was weird. Yeah. So now I have one location, right? Another location, different partners. Wanted to open up another location. And when I was going to open up the third location, my partner at the time I went with partner B, we opened up a third location. So now we have two, and I still have this one.

It was like awkward because decisions making here weren't decisions making here. That added a level of stress and I decided to see if I could somehow buy him out. He was like, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Again, I like to say I manifest this, it's in the stars, but if you talk to a business person, they, they say, I'm crazy for saying that, but I just kept praying about it and praying about it and praying about it.

And something crazy happened. He ended up, he was stealing from yoga joint and I didn't know until a little voice was like, maybe check some things, like look at things. 'cause I wanted him out and I went to the bank and I started digging. And it was like stupid stuff like taking cash out of the drawer, but you can't do that.

I wasn't doing that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Now we don't even take cash, but back then we did. So it was all these little things and there was a huge discrepancy. So I basically said, you either. I'm either going to the police or you're out. But now I have a partner and we have all three locations.

My partner was amazing. My second partner, he is local here. He's a Uber huge successful entrepreneur. You know him, and he was amazing, and he taught me a lot. He let me sit at the table and he let me sit at the table with the big boys, and I loved it. It was like my favorite thing to do was sit with these men and them talk about business.

I just ate everything up. I sat there, I absorbed it. I wrote it down. I would ask a million questions that. I'm sure were absolutely ridiculous at the time, but I needed to know. I didn't know what KPIs were. I didn't know what ROI was. I didn't, you [00:12:00] know, I, I was trying to teach myself, but I didn't know it.

So I got to sit at the table with some amazing people and then I really started to learn and they were so gracious. And again, like, not to take up too much time, but I can tell you offline 'cause you know, all these really nice, and they're just great men and great family men. And I was really lucky for that.

That partner at the time just said, listen, I, I need to get this off my books. Basically like, this is kind of a passion project for you. I'm like, this is not a passion project. We are going to sell this business for multimillions. Like, you have to do this with me. And he was like. That's never gonna happen.

So now I had like three different people tell me, you're never, that's never gonna happen. You're never gonna happen. And I was like, it's already happening. Like, I already feel it. I understand this. I know people need this in their life. I wanna help people. I know we can make this happen. So then my business partners now, they walked into my studio.

At the time I was had another partner, so this is my third partner. And it was going to hell in a handbag. I mean, this was the worst of the worst of the worst. Like you think of the worst person, you know, this is who I was partners with. 

Wes: And what was the crux of that? Of the, of the, so 

Paige: they had heard that.

The really sweet, wealthier guy was needing to get yoga joint off his books. And how they heard that is probably because they all run in the same circles. They're probably all somewhere we go and having scotch and talking about it. And the wife came to me and said, I, you know, you know who my husband is.

I would love to be partners with you. And immediately I felt it in my belly, like, don't do it. Don't do it. And this little voice was like, are you joking? Like you have to do it. You're gonna lose everything. Like you, you need capital, right? You need to raise money. They're, they're offering to put money on the table.

The, the, it was like the sweetest deal. Well, it wasn't it like maybe things are too good to be true. So long story, long, it was an absolute disaster. I almost lost everything. It was basically. A ploy to get me out because she wanted a hobby because yeah, she didn't need to work and she loved yoga and she loved me until she didn't.

So that was an absolute disaster. But I was like battered and beat down. Yeah. And I was just like, universe, you've gotta help me out. Like whatever your belief system, for me it's like universe and God. And I just kept asking like, I don't understand, like I don't understand. And then this voice was like, what do you understand?

Like business is hard and people, this happens for every, people all day long. Like people open up their, the loves of their lives, their businesses, and they get shut down. Like you're not, you're not special. Like keep doing what you're doing. I always say that I have God in my life and God stands for the gift of discipline.

And the gift of discipline is I get up at 5:00 AM I [00:15:00] read, I work out. I don't drink, not that that's a bad thing, but I'm, I'm just, I'm very disciplined and so I think to myself, I have God on my side. I, I'm gonna get through this, like, I'm gonna do this. And I just kept putting it out there. My business partners walked in one day and was like, Hey, I hear that yoga joints having some problems.

I'd love to be in business with you. And I basically was like mm-hmm. To them like, like, just get outta here. I don't wanna talk about business and I don't need another man in my life to like mansplain Yeah. What they think this business can be, but my numbers. And at that point we were making like 90,000 a month, a hundred thousand a month.

I mean, we're, we've weighed way, have exceeded this, but at that point it was like. It, it was crazy for a small, little boutique fitness place to be making $90,000 a month. And that was with nothing. Like, I hadn't even gotten to put what I really knew I could put into it. 

Wes: Yeah. You 

Paige: know, we were making 500,000 now way ahead of that, but I was like, I just need time.

I don't need to be in fight or flight all the time, which I was trying to build and build and build. So these guys came in. My business partners now who are have, they're just like my favorite people on the planet. We're so lucky. We have such a good thing going. They've been with me now for eight years and we've take, we had three locations, we've taken it to 12 and we have an interesting business model.

[00:16:26] Franchising Strategy and Future Plans

Paige: So before COVID we were going to just franchise. We have a lot of people interested in franchising. We wanted to franchise. My business partner has a franchise background. He's super successful. He knows the business. Then we, obviously, no one was giving loans to anybody that kind of fell through. So we started doing, um, a jv, we call it like our, our own.

It's like bootstraps. We went to our community and we just said, listen, COVID hit us hard. We want to keep expanding and we want you guys to be a part of it. Does, does, does anybody want to invest in yoga joint? So you can. Now we have a program where you can invest. We're always gonna be 51, the corporate side and the 49% is.

People that will invest. We have a chunk of like 10 to 11 people per location and we raise at a hundred thousand dollars each. And then you get certain things back. And yoga joint makes money really quickly no matter where we've opened. It's, it's like That's nice. 

Wes: Yeah's not like a big ramp up period.

Paige: Exactly. So our ramp up period, we, we sell, we have a great presale, so we sell 300 to 500 memberships even before we even open. Oh, wow. And we've proven, we are in Coral Gables, we're in Palm Beach Gardens. No one even knew us there. And it continues to prove success. I mean, we have amazing people on our team.

We have now, now that we, after eight locations, we brought in people from Equinox, we brought in a lot of people from Orangetheory, we [00:18:00] brought in people from, um, lifetime Fitness. So we do have some in, in my industry. We do have some of the, you know, the big boys if you will. And that's been amazing. It's been super helpful for us.

And, and. I get to sit at the table once again with some really amazing, smart people that have taught me so much and I'm just absorbing it all. Mm-hmm. I have the vision, I do as the founder. I still work every day and not just teach, I do teach 'cause I love that. It's like my, my baby. 

Wes: And it helps you, I think, would stay in touch with exactly what your core offering is.

Right, exactly. And the people and 

Paige: Exactly. Yeah. But my side of the business is I do all the training for all the talent. I have a team of people that work with me. It's, I, I feel really blessed because I work with all women, even though my board is all men. So I love that because I get to be with women, which are my favorite.

And then being with these men is, are great because they bring a lot to the table and things that I wouldn't necessarily have known. Sometimes I'm like, I would love to have another woman at the boardroom. 

Wes: Yeah. Right. 

Paige: But it's, it's been, it's been amazing. And so now we are here, we just, um, right after COVID.

About a year and a half after COVID we stabilized and then about a year ago we got a really great loan, um, from a bus. From Amate Bank. Yeah, yeah. In Miami. And we got 15 million, 15 million put in and then we just raised 13 million. So we're just like foot on gas. Yeah. 

Wes: That's incredible. So, um, 

Paige: talk 

Wes: to me a little bit about franchising and why you chose to go that route.

It sounds like it's not exclusively franchising though, like you're gonna have to do. Yeah. So we're 

Paige: gonna try to do both. Well, we are doing both. Mm-hmm. So right now we opened up our first franchise and it's going amazing. However, the gentleman is in franchise, he does Prime IVs, he does some other things.

So you might know him, Justin Rabey. 

Wes: I, I don't think so. 

Paige: Yeah, he's like a big golfer. His kids are lacrosse. Okay, that's what I thought maybe. Um, so he's been amazing and we have cherry picked the franchisees. Right now we are just closing the deal. We just closed the deal for Texas. So we're going into Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

Amazing. And we are about to sign on the dotted line for New York and New Jersey and Connecticut. Um, it's funny, I was supposed to hear from the guy today and I didn't. So he's very busy and he's just sold, he was one of the guys with my other business partner that sold berries. So these guys just have a lot of money on their hands and they wanna get into another concept and they love yoga joint.

This is what is so cool for me as the founder. Is that people love it and they wanna give me money to scale it because they believe in my vision. Right. So much. And that that means everything. Yeah. [00:21:00] Because something that was a passion for me, and I knew if it changed my life, it would help change their life.

And these are people that I never would've thought. Like, it's not like yoga has this stigma, like this hippie dippy, and, and it's, and it's not like that. Like we live in a really fast paced world where we're all going a million miles an hour and we're getting texts and we're getting emails and Right.

And how people don't do yoga is, is crazy. But I've also disrupted our in industry a bit because a lot of people told me I would never be able to expand because people wanted me. They were like, your classes are the busiest. People want you. People want you. So what I did was I created my training and all my teachers follow my, everything is from me.

Yeah. So a lot of people don't know this, and now a lot of people are gonna know this, but it's, it's fine. I do all the creative content, I create all the classes, and I create all the music. So even though you're taking Joe's class. And you think that Joe created all that? It is still me creating it. Mm-hmm.

So I am still like kind of holding the strings 

Wes: Program director. Exactly. You know, if you will. Right, 

Paige: exactly. So that's what's really cool is that when people were like, how are you gonna expand? People want you, and that they gave me the idea them. Kind of talking, you know what? And being negative fuels me because like I said, I don't like it when people tell me I can't do something right.

So it got me thinking like, you know what? They're wrong. I can get people to buy in to what I do and what I love and my vision. And it's been really cool to see. And then the teacher gets to have their own personality come out and their own niche. And then all our teachers are so cool, but they're all teaching the same, right?

Which is coming from corporate, which is me and my team. So it's been really cool methodology. Yeah. No, 

Wes: that's super interesting. And one observation I've made just in general about people who have made a vocation out of their hobby. Is that oftentimes it's really hard to monetize that. Yes. Right. And I mean, I've studied a lot of different, my, you know, my family was into racing and um, there's a lot of people out there that love that or love golf or, I mean, there's a lot of people in the golf industry that make no money and they're there all the time.

Paige: Right. 

Wes: So to be able to turn a hobby into are truly viable and thriving enterprise really is something I think. 

Paige: I think so too. And, and I say I think that's why I get up and I'm so excited every day to go to work is because it really is my passion and I. Don't necessarily believe that you have to work your passion.

I remember Mark Cuban, I listened to him and he was saying something, this was years ago, like 10 years ago on his podcast. And he was saying something along the lines of that you don't [00:24:00] have to listen, you don't have to have a passion that you're turning into a business, work really hard and go do your passions 

Wes: right.

Paige: But if you're lucky enough and you do have a passion that you can scale, then great for you. And I was thinking that is such good advice because there is, it's either one or the other. Yeah. You are either working, making money for your passions in life, or me who it is my passion. 

Wes: That's, um, that's one of the reasons I, another reason I love doing this is you learn so much from other people and that what you're saying really reminds me.

Um, I. I read Andre Agassi's book. Yes. And when I was, you know, we're the same age. I'm a little older than you, but you are, I'm a year older than you. Oh. I read his book and Andre Agai was such a big deal when he came out. He was, I think he was 17 or 18 when he was back then it was called the Lipton, the Tennis Tournament Now here.

Yes. And he came out and he had, you know, the Nike shoes with the lava on it and like the pants with the spandex underneath the little Jean Short. I had all that, had all of it, thought it was gonna be an ex agasy. And he had the long hair and um, you know, he was doing the can commercials and everything, but he was such a phenomenon and he flamed out quickly and was kind of out of the spotlight for a few years.

And then he came back and had this really quite wonderful career. Not, you know, Sampers level, but he won multiple major championships and married Steffy, g Graff and mm-hmm. But reading his book was so profound to me because ultimately what happened was like a lot of tennis players, he was so burned out.

He'd been playing since he was, you know, four years old. He just, his dad drove him into the ground. He hated it. Sent him to baller when he was 13 years old, missed, you know, he was homesick and this thing. And he goes out there and he's playing tennis and he was kind of, he was an underachiever in large part because he tried to do too much on the court rather than playing with his brain.

But what ended up happening to him, he lived in Las Vegas and his trainer's son broke his neck in an accident and was severely hurt. And so Agassi had the means 'cause he was successful enough to actually have a lot of money to help pay for his recovery and rehab. And the son actually was able to rehab and live a pretty normal life.

Wow. And he realized that that ignited a passion in him to help kids. So he opened this giant school for underprivileged kids in, in Las Vegas. Went back on the tour, became wildly successful. One Wimbledon. And, um, he was like, he realized for him now you love your hobby and your passion. He didn't, but that's how he That's so cool.

Found it. And it was such a neat story. And he had, he had the biggest crush on Steph Graff for years. And he, you know, he would, would call her and tell, but he was respectful because she had a boyfriend. But then when they broke up and she was just like, I gotta go with this guy. You know, I wanna read it.

It was such an amazing story. It's called Open. 

Paige: Okay. 

Wes: And, um, I love that about him. And I think that there's value too in just, and you're working hard [00:27:00] enough and you're pushing and you're driving, you're learning like there is value and fun and gratification and just being really good at something. 

Paige: Yeah.

Even 

Wes: if it isn't necessarily your hobby. So if people aren't lucky enough to be in yoga or, you know, golf or racing or music or whatever, like if you, I think if, I think if you work hard at something and you become truly good at it and you're adding value to the world around you and people around, you're like, I.

You know, there's gratification in that. It's not getting, oh, I have to go to work again. And 

Paige: yeah, 

Wes: I enjoy what I do. It's extremely stressful, but helping people sell their enterprises that they've built, most of them only get to do it once. Right? So that's your baby in a financial sense. And so it's super gratifying.

Um, but yeah, it doesn't mean that I love every single thing about every single day. You know what I mean? I was gonna 

Paige: say, it's interesting, it's an interesting topic because we talk about this a lot because I think that because on social media, you put up your highlight reels, right? Right. And people see glimpses of my life.

The podcast has really helped because Channing and I share so much about. Our struggles with the business, our struggles with our kids, our struggles in our marriage. So people do see more of a human side of me versus just on your screen and you think, oh wow, she's so lucky. It's so easy for her. Right?

Like there has been, it's, I talk a lot about, in my podcast and I go in detail about the struggles, however, yoga, the actual nucleus of yoga, not the business of yoga, not the business of, I created a class that we do, it's called Fit 45. 

Wes: Yeah. 

Paige: It didn't exist anywhere. I created it. Now every studio in South Florida on, on, on does it.

And that is really because of me. And that makes me feel so good because we needed it so bad. We needed like some sort of yoga ish, but spiritual, but weights and bands. And so I'm very proud of that class. And people love that class. And actually right now. People kind of like fit more than yoga and that is that, I'm struggling with that because I'm such a yogi at heart, but the yoga has saved me over and over and over the days where I'm so stressed because of the business.

Yeah. Of yoga. The actual practice has saved me. And anything that I've ever gone through with my family, with health issues, with marriage, with business, I just go to the studio, ironically, get on my mat and it fixes everything. And that for that alone, I would never take back anything because yoga gives you so much and I, that's why I wanna share it with people.

Yeah. Be especially now with as stressed out as everybody is. Yeah. And it is become a lot, it's. Pe I remember when the kids were little and I'd be at school [00:30:00] and the moms would be like, there's the yoga girl. Like there's the yoga lady. And I'm like, oh my God. Like, I'm not like shoving insets of my ass people.

Like, you know, like I'm just a normal person like you. But it did have like a stigma, like 

Wes: Yeah. 

Paige: You know, and it's, it was, it was 

Wes: not nearly as popular. Yeah. In the nineties when you started. No, as it is now. 

Paige: No. 

Wes: Yeah. I mean, 

Paige: everybody, everybody. We have athletes. We have 75 year olds, we have 12 year olds. I mean, it is, it, it it the gamut, like it used to be mainly women and now it's definitely an equal.

It's crazy. We really have equal men to women now. Oh really? Which is the first time ever, we broke that about 18 months ago. It was always women and then it started to creep up, creep up, creep up, creep up. And that's been lovely. I knew that was coming eventually because men. Just need it so much for the stress relief.

And they don't necessarily have an outlet. They're golfing, they're doing tennis, pickleball, all these things, surfing, but gym, but they're not going to yoga as much. So now that's gotten the fit really helped the men get into yoga, because I'll say, oh really? It's kinda 

Wes: like the gateway drug. Exact It is.

Big time 

Paige: Fit is a gateway drug for people to do yoga. 

Wes: That's so interesting. 

[00:31:21] The Benefits of Yoga

Wes: Like if you, I want to drill into that a little bit more about yoga and disconnecting and stuff. Like if you had to really boil it down to the elements of what it is, can you really pin down like why you feel like it's such a rejuvenating thing for your mental health?

Obviously the physical part is probably easier to explain, right? Like, yeah. First of all, there's no phones. You know, the music is much more sort of therapeutic and mm-hmm. Um, you know, can you boil it down? Do you like, do you have a theory on that? I 

Paige: think so. And this is just my theory, so I mean, it's not my theory, it's it's people who practice yoga.

So when you practice yoga, you're doing a bre, a breath technique called ujai, and ujai breathing stimulates your vagus nerve and it stimulates your prefrontal cortex of your brain. So the prefrontal cortex is essentially like your CEO. Mm-hmm. So you want a really strong CEO running your company. Right.

Yeah, sure. So if your prefrontal cortex, which in yoga we call it the third eye, but it is a medical, scientific fact that we have this space right here in our body called our prefrontal cortex. We know that children do not start to form their prefrontal cortex until they're eight, and they don't finish forming their prefrontal cortex until they're 25.

That's why you can't rent a car, right? That's why you can't get a hotel room. That's why kids make so many bad mistakes, teenagers, especially because hormones and they don't have a proper prefrontal cortex. So this can all be proven through MRIs and PET scans and CAT scans and things like this. So the breathing and then [00:33:00] the spinal movements, it's called subluxation on the spine, helps to take us out of fight or flight.

Into the parasympathetic nervous system. So you're working on your parasympathetic nervous system, and you're working on, literally in the hour that you're in that room, you are expanding your prefrontal cortex and you are expanding your body's capacity to have dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, norepinephrine, melatonin, all these great dose of hormones.

So when people leave, they think, oh, I feel high. It's like you literally are naturally high because you've lowered all the hormones, the cortisol levels, the hormones that make you feel crazy, and you've pumped in a cocktail, a literal cocktail of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, all those things you're working on movement.

So mobility. Creating flexibility. So you're, you feel lighter because, look, we're sitting here, you know what's happening right now. Our organs are compressing, our cervical spine is compressing, our thoracic spine is compressing our lumbar spine is compressing our joints. Damn it, 

Wes: Dan, we should be in the yoga studio right now doing this.

We, 

Paige: we don't realize, and now we're sitting, we're doing this. Yeah. So from an evolutionary anatomy standpoint, we have this interior head carriage. You know, you've seen like older people. Yeah. You're seeing now. 16. Oh yeah. 17, 18 without question. 'cause it's so unnatural. And we have this anterior head carriage, forward head posture.

And in yoga, every day that you're going in there, you're opening up, you're create, this is called flex, um, extension flexion in your spine. So we create extension. So we're open up your heart. Literally your ribcage expands. What's protecting your heart, your ribcage. It opens it. It's not just a foo fu thing that people think that they're gonna sit there and meditate and ohm that.

I love that. Personally, I go, every year I travel, I do these crazy retreats. Yeah. I wanna do all that. But I don't expect mainstream people that are coming into my studios to do that. We don't own, we don't. A lot of my teachers talk in Sanskrit because I learn to teach in Sanskrit. So when I train my teachers to teach, you can talk, but most of it's all in English.

We don't make you chance. You're coming in and you're getting all these scientific medical things happening to your body and you feel amazing when you leave and you're in an infrared heated room, which that's like a whole nother podcast, right? Right. That alone, just Google it guys. Like what infrared in far red does for your body alone, that the infrared's been around for so long and now that's kind of a buzz word.

And we've been in an infrared room. I mean, for your skin, for your collagen, for, for detox, for everything. So that is [00:36:00] my personal belief and a lot of yogi's belief that the reason why you feel so good is because of the breathing and the subluxation of your spine and getting out of fight or flight.

Wes: You know, that ties into, um, a lot of the research I've been doing recently about mental health and, um, especially our children and young adults.

And the statistics are really shocking and saddening. And the overall theme that I'm seeing is that we are more connected, but we're more lonely. 

Paige: Absolutely. Isn't 

Wes: that like, like, it's such a, an amazing paradigm and sad. We're more connected, but we're more lonely. And there's study after study after study that shows kids have less friends, they spend less time together, but they're more connected, not having meaningful conversations like this.

Right. And so, um. I wonder if this kind of is, is part of a lifestyle that could tie into that. You know, 

Paige: I was just reading on X and they were saying how kids now aren't even reading. And I'm such a big reader. So I read, of course, the business books, right. I read the Self-Help, but I read just like, it might as well be like the hallmark of books.

I just want like a no brand, like the Hallmark Channel. Yeah. 

Wes: Yeah. Like 

Paige: my friends make fun of me, Chan makes fun of me. I just, I'll just Z read and Easy. Right. You know, it's like four oh pages, but it's just so easy and it just gets you into that space. And they were saying this article on X was saying, I'd never thought this, this is crazy.

I was like, I'm, I told my kids, go get a book right now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean my kids are 18 and 21, like they're not kids, but it was saying how kids don't read anymore because they're always on their phones and because of that they, they're lacking empathy because when you read, you put yourself into, oh, 

Wes: that's interesting.

Paige: Other people's. Experiences, and you think about what they look like and you use your imagination and you think about how they feel, if they're sad, if they're happy, and it creates feelings inside of you. And they were saying that they've done this like 10 year study that is showing that kids lack empathy because they can't, they don't read anymore and they're just always on their phone.

And I was like, wow. I never even, yeah, 

Wes: I think we're so hardwired. Like my son for instance, he's, he's pretty good at expressing his thoughts and uh, he's Taylor's age, right? Yes. So he's your younger age. They're they're days apart, right? Right. And so he's like, basically everything that he would learn in a book he learns on TikTok or on YouTube, but faster YouTube.

Right. So them, it's like, why read a book that takes so many hours when I can just pop on TikTok and watch a few videos? Or they go on chat? Bt in their mind, yeah. Right. And 

Paige: they, they just say, what is this book about? 

Wes: Whereas, whereas, um, and I'm very cognizant of my own mental health from minute to minute.

Right. And. I find I can just feel it. I'm scrolling through my phone because it's a, it's a habit. 

Paige: Yep. 

Wes: And it's so unsatisfying, but there's always something [00:39:00] there that is of mild interest that catches your attention. And then, you know, there's two more things and then there's something. And like the times where I'm disciplined enough to put it down and go grab a physical book, I can feel immediate effects in my brain.

I'm like, this is so much more comforting. 

Paige: Yes. And 

Wes: fulfilling. 

Paige: Yes. 

Wes: And calming. Why don't I do this? And never ever do that 

Paige: habit, 

Wes: ever. And it's just, it's, there's no good excuse or reason other than science that is working against me, you know? But, um, absolutely. I, I wish that our kids would read more. Um, and I think that, again, I think it's just we're so hardwired that it takes so much time that they, they're just, they wanna move quicker and wanna move quicker.

And we've got. So anyway, we could go on for that, for, for days. 

[00:39:47] Mentorship and Leadership

Wes: I want to keep the discussion going and talking about you and the yoga joint, but one of the themes we like to talk about on, um, on the show is mentoring and leadership. Mm-hmm. Um, was there anybody in your past or present that you would consider to be a mentor to you?

And subsequently, is that something that you're taking on? Yes. In your life now, mentoring others. 'cause I know we're at the age where it's like there's people that are working in the world that are younger than us. 

Paige: I know by 

Wes: kind of a lot. You know, a lot. 

Paige: It's so weird. I was on a panel last year and I was considered the mature entrepreneur and I was like, okay, okay, I guess we're doing this because I feel like I'm, I guess I don't feel like I'm in my twenties, but I definitely don't feel like I'm in my.

Now later forties. So it was funny, I sat and it was, there were, it was all girls. I mean they were young and they're up to big things. And it was so cool. I was like, were we this cool When we were that age? I don't, I just don't remember that. I definitely was not. And I was the mature entrepreneur on the panel and I thought that was just so interesting.

And they were asking me like, how do you juggle? How did you juggle having kids and building a business and stuff geared towards younger women And it was really cool. So what was the question? 

Wes: Mentoring? 

Paige: Yes. So my mentor for a long time was Tim Petrillo. 

Wes: Oh wow. 

Paige: You know Tim? Yeah. Yeah. And Tim was so gracious for so long and obviously we knew Tim and he Chan.

I said, Chan, just ask him. He seems like a really nice guy. I know. He is so busy. Yeah, but just ask like maybe he is. Would like sit and talk to me, maybe coffee. And, and Chan asked him and he said, yes. 

Wes: Why did you choose him? 

Paige: So I always was so impressed by his work ethic because he was always at the restaurants when I would go and I thought, he doesn't need to be here.

And that's kind of kind of how I am. I don't need to be at the studios, but I'm there. I don't need to teach anymore. But I love it. Mm-hmm. And I thought it's so, and then I knew everything that he was doing. I mean, he was expanding like [00:42:00] crazy at the time. And I know he still is, but this was, this is going back now, it like 10 years.

And then we, like quarterly we would meet for years and he was just so gracious. So we would sit, he, he would, he had a system where he would say, okay, meet me at this restaurant. Because then he would do like a. Like a secret boss, but they knew who he was. Right. But we would, they wouldn't tell him we were coming in.

They wouldn't tell him I was there. And we go and we sit and he just wanted to see what it was like. Like he wanted to see how people responded. Some people don't know who he is. It's the same with me. I'll go, I mean, if I walk into one of my locations that's not right here, they don't know who I am. It's hilarious.

I'm like, hi, Paige held, and they're like, oh my God. Hi. I, I, I know who you are. Wear disguise 

Wes: with glasses and mustache. I've said that, I've said that. 

Paige: I'm like, I should like wear disguise. It is really funny. So he would just, I, he, he had recommended like to do like the, the, the groups, like EO and things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. And I just, I don't, I just didn't wanna do that. And maybe that's my own thing. Like maybe my business partner still tries me to get to do these things. Do you do that? 

Wes: I have over the years, and I would say my disposition towards them is probably similar to what you're saying now. Um, if I were to do one, I would want to be a part of a group with people that were just better and more successful than me.

Same whereas like 

Paige: then the whole bringing up together. Yeah. 

Wes: Yeah. Um, and I 

Paige: guess the, my business partner was like, you just get to kind of mo ideas over and that, for, that I kind of liked, but unfortunately you can, you can go on and, and Google your problem and AI your problem now. Yeah. So, but he was so gracious for years and he was my mentor and he taught me so much and one of the biggest things, I mean, he gave me so much, but one of the biggest things that he gave me was he really.

Um, allowed me to stand in my power because as a woman it was hard for me to feel like I had a voice at the table with some of these. Even though I loved being with them, I felt an intimidation factor. And he was the one I mentioned earlier that I would ask a lot of questions. In the beginning I didn't because I didn't wanna seem like I didn't know.

And he was like, listen, they don't care. They wanna talk about themselves. They wanna talk about business. Yeah. They want to teach you, they want you to ask them questions. And he was right. And I asked questions and looking back now, we'll laugh at it. Like some of my board members will be like, you were asking questions and I was thinking, is this okay?

Like, is she gonna run this company? Like she doesn't know what the fuck she's doing. 

Wes: Yeah. Yeah. 

Paige: And. Then they, but it got me to where I was just like, he gave me kind of permission to just be like, no questions off table. Yeah. Like I, like I said, I didn't go to college. I don't have a master's degree from [00:45:00] Wharton School business.

I have a degree from life and I need to know. 

Wes: Yeah. Yeah. 

Paige: So it, he was like, sometimes I don't know. So you ask and you bring people in and you ask what they would do and be curious and ask questions. And that was pivotal for me to be curious because for so long it was like people were, I was like, because I'm the founder in the face, it was like, well, what do you want?

What do you want? And it was like, well, what would you do in my position? 

Wes: Yeah. Right. 

Paige: And then I really started, and that's when I really started to ramp up and grow because I started to ask the right que the right questions. 

Wes: Well, I wrote one word on my sheet here of my outline, which I try not to look at too much, but it's team and you built the team and I think that that shows.

A maturity where the inclination might be at times for some, maybe you, maybe not, is to like, I wanna, I want to covet and hold onto to everything and hang on to control, rather than, Hey, I need to learn to bring in people that are better at things 

Paige: better than me. 

Wes: Because you can't be great at everything.

Paige: No. 

Wes: Right. Like you have your vision and you clearly have your strengths and you know how to sell that vision, but like there's people out there that are gonna be better than you at finance. Absolutely. And marketing. Absolutely. 

[00:46:20] The Importance of Team and Mentorship

Wes: You know, branding and operations and Absolutely. And you know, technology and all those things.

And it's like, but I hear you talking about the people that you sit with and you learn from. And I, I hear, I think team, that's the one I think of. Absolutely. 

Paige: And Tim was really a pivotal point in my life with that. He gave me this sort of. Permission, if you will, to say it's okay. It's okay. You're not gonna be looked at in a negative way.

They're gonna respect you more because you wanna bring these people to the table. Yeah. They're gonna respect you more because you don't know these things. And I was like, really? Okay. And it started to shift like that. 

[00:46:56] Raising Capital and Business Strategies

Paige: And there was a couple things financially that he gave me advice that really worked well.

He does some unique things with his business, how he raises capital. Mm. Yeah. And I took some of those methods and some of that methodology with the JV program that I have. And he, he was amazing. Yeah. I, it's been years now. It's been not years, like two years, because I was like, okay, I'm good. Like we're good.

Yeah. And 

Wes: yeah, I mean, I'm sure you guys could sit down once a year and, you know, catch up and probably, you know, get some 

Paige: topics. 

[00:47:29] New Business Partnerships and Mentorship

Paige: And my business partners, well my one business partner's like me, he's like. Boots on the ground, like day to day to day to day. He is now our CEO, which I'm so proud of him. He's, he's, he's just amazing guy.

He's younger, he's in his late thirties. And, but my, my other business partner who's my age and the business partner that I can't talk about yet because there's gonna be a press release, he's 

Wes: Oh, new stuff. We were gonna break it right here on the air, Dan. 

Paige: Yes. I wish. I'm so excited to talk about it. I'll be breaking it hopefully [00:48:00] on my podcast.

But, um, he, they are my age and a little older and they've been a huge mentor for me and especially my new partner. I have been able to have meetings with him and ask him a million questions. And then what has been so amazing is that he has set me up with the people in the other businesses that he's bought and built and sold and.

They're like, wait a minute, wait, you already do this. You have 12 stores and you already do this, this, and this. Like you're ahead of the game. 

[00:48:33] Confidence and Recognition in the Industry

Paige: And it's giving me so much confidence. I'm kind of like walking in with a little pep in my step. And then one of the gentlemen that runs a huge, huge, huge, everybody knows it, everybody, they're all around the world.

And he called me and he's like, Hey. I run the training of this company and it, it's Orange theory, like I'll just tell you it's not a big deal. And he is like, so and so was telling me that you do this way, can you talk about that? Because that's genius. And I was like, I was like running to my husband. Oh, teaching you something?

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, they wanna know what I'm doing. Like, but he was like, it's because you're a yogi and a fitness person and you create these classes. Like, he's like, I'm a business guy so I'm scaling these trainings, but I don't have that. And I was like, yeah. And I was like, listen, with all due respect, I would never tell you what I do.

I said, because you're you. If you were like. Like this person here that had one location and was starting. And I would tell you what I do because I knew Yeah. In Nebraska somewhere. 

Wes: Yeah. Right. Thank you. Right. I 

Paige: go, with all due respect, you couldn't pay me enough money to tell you what I do. And he was like, are you serious?

He's like, well, I kind of know you do it like this and you have a class of the day. I am like, kind of, but no, I'm not. I'm not. 

Wes: It's kind of cold. You're still cold. 

Paige: So that was funny. He was like, okay, I guess I have to respect that. I'm like, yeah. And he's like, but you know that you, you came to us and were asking questions.

I'm like, yeah, but now that you told me that I was genius. So that was really funny. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:50:03] Overcoming Adversity as a Single Mother

Wes: But, um, you talked about this at the beginning and touched on it. We didn't get real, we didn't really get into it until, you know your story later, but you were a single mother. You were on food stamps for welfare.

Paige: Yep. 

Wes: And how does that affect. Your leadership now and, and how you run this business and you see the world like through those, like that perspective. 

Paige: Watching my little kids, having them and watching them grow up, grow, I should say, as they were little, pushed me into doing what I'm doing today as soon as Michael was born.

So I grew up in a very wealthy family and one day it was gone just like that. Bad decisions, bad business decisions. When I talk about this on my podcast, it like my poor dad, it just rips his heart out because he's such a sweetheart and. [00:51:00] There. There are so many things that got them to where they were.

Their business ended up going bankrupt. And that was, honestly, it's so crazy to say this, but that was the best thing that ever happened to me because growing up with everything I grew up and then had, and then it being taken away when I was, I was like 20, 21. It catapulted me because I think that if I was given everything, I don't know if, yeah, and that's a little bit of a catch 22 because some people are given everything and they make more.

Yeah. And some people have things taken away and it fuels them. So for me, it fuels me to be who I am today. Right. As soon as Michael was born, I was like, this is ridiculous. Like I grew up on Los Solis and now I live in like, basically like section eight housing and food stamps. Like what? Actually happened to me.

Wes: Yeah. What 

Paige: happened to my life. And it all happened very quickly. And I just said, I have to do something. I have to push myself to be better. I have to get uncomfortable. I have to push myself. Right. And then Taylor came along and I was like, okay, we are, we are doing this. Like we are opening a business. I don't care where I get it.

And then, like I said, the partners and everything. So it pushed me to. Want to be better and want to open up multiple locations. Being a single mom, it's funny, those days seem like a different lifetime ago because of my life now. Yeah, 

Wes: sure. 

Paige: But it definitely was, having those kids was, was a catapult to where I am.

Wes: Did you see yourself and envision yourself as an entrepreneur then? Or did you say, I'm gonna open a yoga studio or two? Well, and just, I'm just to like, you know, try to make a living like 

Paige: Yeah, well a little bit of both. So I had the one side, like the angel and the devil. So the angel was like, you're gonna do this, you're gonna open up a ton of locations, you're gonna be uber successful, and then you're just gonna figure it out.

And then the devil was like, no girl. Like you just need to get money in your bank account. Who you think you're like, yeah, yeah, exactly. Big imposter syndrome. Like who do you think you are? 

[00:53:02] Manifestation and Vision Boards

Paige: The yoga side of me, yogis are manifesters. We do vision boards, we do mood boards, we read books on how to. Manifest things like health and cure diseases through your thoughts and meditation, make your reality happen, Joe Dispenza, and make your reality happen.

And Tony Robbins. So I was so influenced by my nucleus of that, that that was, thank God, because I'm a big believer of things and I manifest things like crazy. I always say like, I'm a money magnet. I'm a health magnet. I do these things. I make my kids do them. So thank God I had the yoga. I always go back to that.

The yoga helped me be who I am today. Like that, just one hour every day of moving your spine and rolling around your joints and breathing helped me so much. So I did know I would be where I am today. I had no idea how I would [00:54:00] get there, but that's the thing about manifestation is that you don't have to understand how the universe or your God or whatever you believe in is gonna bring it into your life.

You just have to continue to say it and speak it as it is done. And I've always done that. I mean, I've been on covers of international magazines that I have no business being on because I manifested it. I manifested the boat that we have. I manifested the house that we have. I think it, I put it out there, I put it on a vision board.

I manifested these studios like people giving me money, like. Yeah, I know it seems crazy, but it works. 

Wes: I mean, it's certainly unique, right? The affirmation part is, is maybe not at the core of what you're saying is like you're just telling yourself like, I'm gonna make this happen. I'm gonna make it happen.

And you say it enough and you believe it. So I Exactly Guess if you boil it down to that sort of simplicity, then it, it, uh, it makes, makes a lot of sense because 

Paige: what's the other option? What is the other option? Right? The other option is that you sit and you focus on the negative. You focus on how you feel terrible, how you have no money.

How is that, is that what we want? Yeah. 

Wes: No, it's true. I mean, I think that there's that common thread of risk taking, right? Yeah. Amongst all the successful people. It doesn't mean you're gonna win 'em all, but you have to take the risk. 

Paige: Yes. 

Wes: You have to take the risk, and if somebody put it all on your lap and gave it to you, then you're really.

You really not accomplished anything. 

Paige: Yeah. 

Wes: Anyway, 

Paige: and going back to the single mom thing, I think what gave me the ability, I'm so glad you said risk, because the, what gave me the ability to take the risk is that I saw my family have everything and I saw my family lost everything. And we were the exact same people.

And I thought, you don't need to have all that. But it's great to have all that, but you don't need to have all that. So you, you choose Paige, like you're, you're a happy person overall, but life is gonna be a lot easier with that. I mean, more money, more problems, like bring on the problems I always say.

Right. However, it was, I saw the both and I was like, let's just take a risk because I know what it's like to live in a one bedroom apartment with my brothers and my dad and we figured it out so I can just take risks. 'cause I know I can live with nothing, but I want way more. 

Wes: Yeah. 

Paige: So it was, it was a weird, helpful scenario.

Wes: No, I love that. Um, would love to. Dig into your leadership style. 

[00:56:27] Leadership Style and Organizational Health

Wes: We talked a little bit when we were offline about your leadership style and how that's evolving. How would you describe your style and how have you evolved as a leader? 

Paige: Okay, so we just recently hired an organizational health coach. It has been the most transformational experience that I've had in a long time because right now we're just one foot in front of the other, building the business, building teams, building manuals, building trainings, processes, processes, procedures, everything [00:57:00] online.

It's, we're scaling outside of our nucleus, which is new. And I didn't realize that there was a toxic culture going around because if you would've asked me this question a year ago, I would've said, oh. I'm a great leader and everybody loves working for me, and everybody loves yoga join, and I'm so nice and little did I know that I was the ringleader of a lot of toxic, a lot of toxicity that I didn't even know.

So she has brought to my attention all these things about my leadership style. So have you done the disc style and like we've done like PIs and all that, but, okay. So I'm an I and I'm a high I, which means I, I am very social. I love people. I wanna work in teams. I'm very open. I bring everybody into things.

Not realizing that somebody that's not necessarily that DISC style could interpret what I am doing as negative and. I think I'm doing something positive. I'll give you an example. So we've brought in some big people from big organizations into yoga joint to to for this next expansion. So we brought in one of the top Equinox people.

We brought in one of the top Orange theory people. We brought in one of the top various people. So now we have this team of people that are the top of the top in my industry, fitness and wellness. And they're sitting at the table and they say things that are gonna piss me off because I'm the founder and I'm the creator.

And it is hard to take it personally to release my baby. And some things that I've created worked then might not be working now. And my ego gets involved and I feel it here and then it comes here. And then I just say it not realizing that. How I say things is really important. I'm just so used to being me and people liking me, but now that we're just bigger, it's not like I have to be on my best behavior, but I do, I have to pause, I have to be curious.

I have to think like I do in my friendships, like I do in my marriage. But I wasn't holding these, I wasn't holding myself to those same standards with these people because I was like, who are these people coming into my business? So I would go to my team, which is like six women that I've been with.

They're the training team. I, they've been with me since Yoga, joy Open. We have all grown up together. Our children have grown up together. We're like family. And I would go and just complain and complain and complain about these people. So what that was doing, it was creating such a weird vibe between them and them.

And then it, I, I started to put people in silos because I almost didn't want them working [01:00:00] together because. Unconsciously. I, I was thinking, well, if they like each other, then what is that gonna do to me and am I gonna get pushed out? I didn't even realize this was going on until this lady was like therapy for me.

Yeah, right. 

Wes: Like 

Paige: it, it wasn't just organizational health coach, like she was a thera. She is a therapist. I work with her. Twice a week and the, we have like seven hour meetings with different people in the organization. And I've had to really do some self-reflecting and it has been brutal. I've gone to the people that I've realized now that I was not appropriate.

My behavior wasn't appropriate. It wasn't appropriate to basically talk, you know, what about other people in your organization? Like, am I 15? Like, but I didn't realize that I was doing that. I just thought I was venting. But you can't vent to the people that work for you. And even though yes, they've been with me for so long, it just creates fractures in your infrastructure.

Mm-hmm. And I, Paige held, who was the founder of Yoga Joint, I'm doing this, and then they go and then they tell one of the managers, and then the managers is like, oh, Paige doesn't like. The VP of Ops. Wow. What's going on? And then that creates a divide. And then, yeah, it, it, it has been one of the greatest lessons.

And I, I love to know what's not working because I just want to not spend a lot of time on the past. Just let's move through. I'm a very fast processor, which doesn't work for everybody, especially my husband, because I go like this and I just wanna get it done. Like if we're in an argument, he like wants to talk and I'm like, okay, we're good.

Like, we're good. You're good, you good? I'm good. Let's go. And I don't even take caffeine and I don't take Adderall. Like, imagine, like my brain is just like, yeah. So I would walk in and drop a bomb on my team and be like, our operation woman, she did this and the director and my HR and blah, blah, blah. These, I mean, you can imagine what's coming outta my mouth as a yogi.

Like I'm not in my body. I'm not connected to what I'm saying. I'm pissed off. And they're all just like. Looking at me and, and then I'm over it. And now because of their style, they're stewing on it. Yeah. And then they're like, is Paige really like a yogi? Like is she really who she says she is? She wants to expand, but now she's talking, you know what?

Mad you know, what about 

Wes: Yeah. 

Paige: Like, so it had, it was really interesting. It was eye eye-opening and I was like, oh my God. Like I'm gossiping about these people. I'm, I'm, and, and I like these people, like these people are helping me expand my business. Yeah. So, needless to say, it was very humbling. I went to all of them in, in a public forum.

We were all at the table. There was like 12 of us corporate team, and I just said, I'm so sorry. Like I, I am so sorry that I was a part of this toxic culture. I, if I could. Elevate outta myself and watch myself. I wouldn't even recognize myself. But this is all happening [01:03:00] quickly and I have a lot of people's money.

And I have a lot of pressure and I'm ready. I love pressure, like no pressure, no diamond. I thrive on pressure and I thrive on making quick decisions. And I am not afraid to change. I actually love change and that's one of my core values at Yoga Joint is change. And I thrive on this type of chaos. 'cause I grew up in a huge family.

I had a ton of cousins and there was just always chaos going on in my family. And then having a ton of money and not having money like you just, it's chaos. And I thrive off that. That's why I love yoga so much. 'cause it calms me and grounds me and I need that. But I thought I was a great leader and I will still say I'm very proud of where I've was and.

I, I'm obviously good at stuff 'cause look where we are. Like, I'm a part of this growth, right? But I'm so happy that she put me in my place because now I'm ready. And I realized I used to get so frustrated. Why am I not more successful? That's why I didn't have strong legs. I didn't have strong roots. I didn't have the infrastructure as a leader to grow.

And now it's like the universe is like, okay, like God's like this is what you needed and now you're ready. Like I have the chills. Like now I know, like I'm like foot on gas, like all this is coming and it's there and we're expanding like crazy and I'm gonna sell this business. Like you mark my words right here.

I'm selling this business for 400, 500, 600, 700, $900 million in the next five to 10 years. That is the goal. 

Wes: You took away my exit plan question. Okay. But, um, so that's the, the plan is. Say five to 10 years if you're being just 

Paige: Yeah. 

Wes: You know, thrown a dart at a board right now. Yeah, yeah. And then, then what would you do?

Paige: I have some ideas. Yeah. Yeah. I have some ideas. 

[01:04:56] Future Plans and Mentorship Goals

Paige: Well, I wanna help younger mentors, I wanna mentor people, I wanna help younger entrepreneurs. Yeah. 

Wes: I mean, I think you've got the life experience to be able to do that. 

Paige: Yeah. That now and, and kids that didn't go to college. Yeah. I, um, I feel in my heart, 

Wes: I think that there's definitely a trend turning.

Like we probably don't have time to delve into that too much, but college not being the end all be all. Mm-hmm. And there's, I, you know, for sure, I, I help mentor and coach some younger kids that are like, Hey, I'm gonna go to trade school. And I'm like, 

Paige: I love that. That's great. 

Wes: We need those people. 

Paige: I love that.

Wes: And, you know, go into debt 200,000 or go to trade school and probably make pretty good money Right. Outta college and mm-hmm. Perform a service that people really need, you know? Yeah. So 

Paige: I know this is not the, I. You know, I, I get a lot of slack for this, but I'm, I'm, I have been like, brainwashing my kids not to go to college their whole life.

And my daughter is getting ready to go to college and it breaks my heart that she wants to waste her life for the next four years at a university. Breaks my heart to get some bullshit degree that she's never gonna use. 

Wes: Oh. She's, however, 

Paige: however she's going, and she's so excited. [01:06:00] And my 21-year-old, he went for a couple years and that was hard for me, but he dropped out.

So I'm happy about that. And he works for me because that's what I wanted. He does. Okay. Yeah, he's been with me now for a year and I, I love it. And he is thriving and he's climbing up and I'm, I'm, I couldn't be happier for him, but I know it goes against the norm, but I'm just like, if your kid's gonna be a lawyer, a doctor, finance major, but if you're gonna be an entrepreneur or you're gonna be.

Some sort of influencer or YouTube or you, you just don't need, you just don't need to. Or trade plumber. Certainly 

Wes: not the end all, be all electrician. Certainly not. Um, so, um, we talked a lot about partners today and I did want to kind of put a bow on that and say for, you know, for the viewers out there, what are the top things that you think that they should look for in a partner?

Paige: I think one of the biggest things is to trust your gut. And I know that's a tricky subject because a lot of people say, I'm not quite sure, but if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And don't be afraid of that. No, because that no is. Protection. Yeah. A lot of times that rejection that you feel is just redirection in disguise.

And now I know that every single time I felt like a re, like I just, my energy rejected their energy. It was redirection, but I didn't know that 'cause I didn't trust it when I was younger. And if I could go back in time people say, oh, if I would go, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't change anything. I would change so many things.

Yeah. Like beyond. Yeah. Trust your gut. What are their intentions? What are your intentions? Do you want to grow the business together? Do you want to get in and get out? Make sure you have the same values with that because that's important because like we kind of chitchatted offline. If one person is, wants to sit and collect checks, but you need them to not be doing that and you're doing everything, make sure everything is on.

The documents and read the documents and have a lawyer look at it. Don't just think, oh, they're nice. Yeah, no. Right. No, no, no, no. So trust your gut, write everything down and know your lanes and your roles. 

Wes: Yeah, no, that's great. I think that, um, it's such a huge topic. You know, we see so many businesses where partnerships are just not aligned, but things, even if they are aligned right away, they change.

And if you don't have 'em written down Yeah. Then what? It's like marriage that's usually Yeah, they do. It is true. 

Paige: Yeah. 

Wes: You know, marriage isn't, 

Paige: you have the best isn't easy intentions in the beginning. Yeah. 

Wes: Right, right. Um, that's great. 

[01:08:44] Social Media Strategy and Personal Branding

Wes: So, um, switching gears, as we kind of wind down social media, you have a strong presence on social media.

You have for quite some time. Can you talk a little bit about that? Is that something that was always intentional on your part? You know, what is your strategy there? Do you [01:09:00] have help with that? Have you always done it on your own or, you know, just like the evolution. 

Paige: So social media is so important. It is the way everybody communicates.

Everybody communicates on their phone. We do have help with the yoga, join social media. We have somebody that's her full-time job. She does all these, she's constantly doing these cute reels and she's studying the algorithms and she's on it. My own personal social media is just all just been organic.

It's, I just put out my life. I'm very open and people, I think like that authenticity. 

Wes: Yeah. I just 

Paige: talk about anything and everything and I don't have anybody that helps me with mine. I just do it all. It's just organic. Yeah. But with the yoga joint, it's, it's all like very created and curated and all of that, and a lot of time is put into it.

I don't put much time into mine at all. I need to. Yeah. Because I know it's so important and I, I actually, I think it's part of your 

Wes: brand. 

Paige: That. Yeah. Like 

Wes: your personal social, like that's part of the yoga joint brand. 

Paige: Um, this 

Wes: page I don't think 

Paige: so much anymore. It's always, it's interesting how many people will comment on my stuff like, oh, I need to go to yoga joint.

And I always think, God, I figured everybody, it's all just yoga joint. Yeah. But it, it's, it's kind of like all over the board, the people. I think when, in my late thirties, early forties when I was doing a lot of press stuff for yoga joint, I got a lot of followers. But then since then, it's died down because I, I haven't done a lot.

Mm-hmm. And I just share more. Diet, lifestyle, yoga stuff, lifting weights, poses, things like that. Right. I think if you show yourself and be authentic, that's the most important part. Because the yoga joint stuff, they go on yoga joint 'cause they know it's gonna be curated. They know that. But for your personal branding, I think if you can be authentic, that's what people wanna see.

I'd rather see people like when, when I, when I was leaving, my kids were like, wow mom, you look so nice. 'cause I put actual makeup on in my podcast. I got no makeup bun, like sweatpants, sweatshirt. I'm very like relaxed and chill. I think it's important to show that side of you because everything is always so filtered and makeup and 

Wes: Right.

So you're talking about your podcast Watch Me Grow. 

Paige: Yes. And you 

Wes: host with 

Paige: my husband. Your 

Wes: husband? Chan 

Paige: Channing, yes. He's my, you know, well yeah. He's the best human on the planet. He's my co-host and my producer and all that. He is, um. He's gonna be starting his own podcast too, so that's, I'm excited about that.

You guys play off each 

Wes: other. Well, 

Paige: thank you. It's so fun. And that's 

Wes: probably a good reason why you're married, but Yeah, like you, you know, it, you interact well and both like some of like the, what, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, some of the nudging and the poking is kind of fun to listen to.

Exactly. Because I've, I've heard, I heard one of the ones that you did recently. I'm trying to remember [01:12:00] what it was. A lot of dog barking. Oh my god. So you dealing with the dog barking, which we have too, so I mean, I know. Preach in the choir. I 

Paige: know. I'm like, this is so nice. Like, just being here. It's so quiet.

We, he is, um, he just rented a warehouse. I think it's around here somewhere. Yeah. And he's gonna make the podcast his and mine there, so that'll be much better. 

Wes: Yeah. Yeah. You don't realize working from home sounds great until you do it. And I'm like, there's no one situation. Then my dogs can't completely fuck up.

Exactly. It's like we're outside. They're barking. They want you to throw the ball. Exactly. Somebody knocks at the door. I'm on a zoom call with a client and the, you know, and they, they're barking their heads off. Yeah. Or they want to eat or they're in the trash. 

Paige: Oh my 

Wes: God. That's just, you name a situation.

Course everyday life. Or they gotta vomit in the middle of the night. 

Paige: I was just gonna say, or, or the vomit. Yeah. 

Wes: Kelly's like, get him outside. I'm like, Kelly, we're upstairs. There's no way he's making it outside. If anything, he's gonna go on the stairs 

Paige: and drag him off the carpet. Yeah, just, that's where, off the carpet, that's the most 

Wes: realistic best outcome.

That's 

Paige: hilarious. 

Wes: Um, so yeah, watch Me Grow. We'll link to that. Thank you. In, in hours and, um, sharing a lot about your life and, um, running a business like you're talking about today. Yeah. And hearing Chan and his travels in life delivering both of my kids. So he's holds very revered ground in our family.

Paige: Thank you. 

Wes: Um. So you're ready for this? 

Paige: I don't know. I'm not good on the spot, so we'll see. You're ready 

Wes: for this. Well, you've done good so far, but, um, I, I got faith in you. You're gonna be able to do this. Okay. 

Paige: I have faith in myself. Let's manifest and I'm gonna be amazing at this. Yep. 

Wes: There you go. Now you have, now it has to work out.

Yep. It, we've been talking about. I'm on manifesting. 

Paige: It's great. 

Wes: So, um, let's talk about books, book or books that you have found to be transformational in your life. 

Paige: I really love Simon Sinek. I'm not sure if you know who that is. No. So he's a leader, so I'm into this leadership now. This spot? Yeah. Got it.

Yeah, he's a, so he has, I've read all of his books, so I would highly recommend if you are in the pursuit of knowing if you're a good leader, how to be a good leader. Listen to his podcast, get his books. I'm really enjoying him right now. 

Wes: Simon, last name? 

Paige: Sinek. 

Wes: Sinek. Okay. Yeah. 

Paige: Don't ask me to spell it. Oh, I 

Wes: won't 

Paige: Google it.

Wes: Yeah, Google it. It's 

Paige: like S-I-N-E-K or 

Wes: something. Looking back, and we've talked a little bit about this 'cause you just said it, that you would change things. What's the advice that you would give to yourself at 25 and even maybe even like one B question, like somebody who's the next page, who's inner twenties, who's got big ambitions in life, but maybe doesn't have a lot of resources or tools to do that, other than her own, obviously her, her own talents, but even those, you know, not really sure what those are.

Like what, what would that advice look like and what would that be? 

[01:14:56] Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

Paige: My biggest, biggest advice I would give somebody right now is [01:15:00] boundaries. I had no boundaries and if I could go back and be able to say yes when I wanted to say yes and no, when I wanted to say no, I think that I would be further along because I passed up opportunities because I felt maybe it was like beneath me and I should have done it.

And then I would say yes to people that I didn't align with because I thought it would get me somewhere further. So 

Wes: be more discerning, discerning, guess. Right? 

Paige: Yes. 

Wes: That's so interesting. 

Paige: Yes. 

Wes: Um, 

Paige: because, you know, you know, even at 25, you know, I knew then I knew. 

Wes: Yeah, yeah. No, that's great. Um, and that advice to yourself is the same as you would give Yeah.

To, to, yeah. 

Paige: Yeah. Like you don't have to say yes to the total a-hole because they have so much money and you don't have to say no to somebody who doesn't have a lot, but you really align with them and you like their energy. There, there, there's so many stories like that, that I was, oh, sure, I'll do that for you.

And then I'm like, I, I don't even like you. I don't wanna be around you. You, you don't need to sell your soul to the devil to get, you're, you're not gonna get anywhere with that. 

Wes: Like, money is a commodity, right? Like, you don't have to take it. From anyone, take it from the person who really believes in you and whose values align with you.

Right. 

Paige: And as soon as I learned that lesson with my, with that third partner, it, it, it changed my life. It really did because I was like, I will never again take something from somebody that I don't align with just because I think it's gonna get me somewhere. Because it actually pushes you back. 

Wes: Yeah. Yeah.

And you know what the amazing phenomenon is? People will sense that in you and I think they'll want to be a part of it even more because they know that you're gonna be like, no, why should I take money from you? 

Paige: Exactly. 

Wes: You know, why would you be a good partner for me? 

Paige: Yep. 

Wes: And we're raising money, you know, 

Paige: we're raising capital right now, and we sit with people and we say no to people.

And I get scathing emails. Oh geez. And scathing people don't like 

Wes: here. And no 

Paige: scathing. Exactly. And I don't either. And it's interesting because my business partner's like, are you sure? Like it was, they, they have. Liquidity. They have this, they have that. They mark, they check all the boxes and I'm like, it's a hard no because of the things that I've learned.

It's just a no. And then the opportunity, other opportunities come up and then they're like, wow, I'm so glad we said no to that person. I'm like, yeah, I'm telling you. I got it dialed in now this, my heart is dialed in. 

Wes: Yeah. Do you feel like you can read people well? Like you have a good, 

Paige: I used to not be able to, I was a love bomber and then if you liked me, I thought that you were amazing.

Wes: That's interesting. 

Paige: And everybody liked me, so then it, that was very, you know, I was, yeah. I'm popular in the community, so you like me, but just because you like me doesn't mean you're a [01:18:00] good person. 

Wes: Yeah. No, that's super interesting. So you feel like your perception, like you're, 

Paige: has changed, you've gotten 

Wes: stronger over the years?

Way better, more perceptive and better. Like better read the table. Mm-hmm. 

Paige: Unfortunately, I think that does come with age. Yeah, I think it, it just does, I don't think that I could tell my 25-year-old self that because my 25-year-old self was in survival. Yeah. And I just needed everybody to like me. 

Wes: Yeah.

Maybe so. I mean, you would certainly hope that with age comes something Yeah. Wisdom being at least, you know what I mean? Exactly. Give me something out of this. Exactly. My favorite one is if you had a billboard, what would it say? You could say anything you wanted. What would it say? 

Paige: It would say yoga, joint wear shift happens.

Wes: That's it. We're always be closing baby. 

Paige: Yeah. Yeah. What would yours be? 

Wes: My esteemed, um, client and guest, Dr. Rick Harris said, be here now. 

Paige: I love that. 

Wes: And that one hit me hard because that's one that as a dad and as a friend, sometimes I struggle with. My father is phenomenal at that. Oh, wow. And you sit with him and he's, you've seen his blue eyes.

I love him. He's, there is no phone, there's no looking over your shoulder to see. Who is more important is in the room. There's none of, there's none of those things. I love that. And he does that with his friends too. It's not just me, his wife, his, you know, my siblings. But, um, it's funny that you, you asked me that because I think about it a lot, but, um, 

Paige: well, I'm gonna steal yours.

Damn. Be here 

Wes: now with Dr. Rick Harris's, um, a wonderful man, a psychologist who spent his life helping other people, but, um, I don't know. I'm, I'm, I'm pulling it together. My favorite Pink Floyd song of all time is Time and Time is on the Dark Side of the Moon album. And it talk about, I know it 

Paige: very well.

Wes: It, it's a, just a phenomenal accumulation of and of lyrics about how when you're younger time goes by so fast. Yeah. And you waste it so hastily and then when it's over, like you, they were interviewing Chee and Chong on CBS Sunday morning a few weeks ago. And. She basically, you know, the interviewer asked, she said, um, Jane Pauley.

She said, if you had any more of anything, you know, you've got such success in life and if you know what, what would you do? What would you change? She said, I wish I just had more time. 

Paige: Yeah. Wow. 

Wes: And so I'm really obsessed with time now. I feel like it's gone by so quickly with my older son going out to college in a few months.

And, um, those years like, 

Paige: yeah, that 

Wes: they told you not to blink. I felt like I blinked. 

Paige: Same, 

Wes: you know, so I dunno how you fit that on a billboard.

Paige: Yeah. I love that. Be here now. 

Wes: Be here now is, is, um, thank you for sharing that. So sorry. Yeah, of course. Thank you. 

[01:20:46] Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Wes: Um, Dan makes me ask this question, but we're at Rebel Motor Company who graciously lets us use this amazing facility.

You get to have one car and it's designed just for you. That's [01:21:00] a fit for your personality and your life. What is it? 

Paige: A Porsche. 

Wes: A Porsche? Yeah. The 

Paige: the Macon, right? Is that how you say it? Yeah, 

Wes: Macon. Yeah. 

Paige: Yeah, 

Wes: that's the one. What color is it? 

Paige: That's the one I want. I want white. 

Wes: Yeah. 

Paige: I look at it all the time.

It's on my vision board. Well that and the Range Rover. The New Range Rover. 

Wes: Oh yeah, 

Paige: the like autograph collection Range Rover. Those two are on my, I mean, I drive a really nice Audi, so I'm not like hurting here, but I love that Porsche, but I also want it in stick shift as it, I don't even know if it comes stick 

Wes: shift.

Oh, you know, I was, um, 

Paige: because I was thinking that would help me not f fumble with my phone. 

Wes: Oh, that's funny. Yeah, that's 

Paige: what I was thinking. Stick 

Wes: shift. It's funny, I could swear they didn't make any more, and I don't, we were in the racetrack a couple weeks ago for someone. I've been in a car almost 20 years.

And one of the guys that was helping us out at the track is a phenomenal driver and he was like, Hey, let me take you around the track in my Cadillac real quick just to show you the lines and, 'cause I hadn't been there forever. I was like, oh sure. And he had a stick shift. Four-door Cadillac. I'm like, I didn't have any idea.

Yes. He's like, yeah, it's got 720 horsepower. He scared the freaking daylights. Outta me. You're not driving the car and somebody else is going fast. Of course it's scary, but when you do it, it's like, yeah, it's fine. It's no big deal. 

Paige: Yeah. 

Wes: And even my son, I'm mean, but, so they do make stick shifts. Did they make a Aon?

I don't know. 

Paige: Okay. But, um, I'm gonna have to look. 

Wes: I have to look. You do. I told my wife, you can do anything with money. 

Paige: Yeah, 

Wes: I was 

Paige: thinking that too. I was thinking in the next couple years I can probably get them to make me one if they don't have it. Yeah, 

Wes: yeah. 

Paige: That's what I was thinking. They 

Wes: have and like Porsche has a program where you can have a car made and you can go there and pick That's what I, and pick it up.

That's 

Paige: what, that's what I wanna do. 

Wes: And drive it on the Audubon and Yeah. And, um, do that whole thing. That's what I 

Paige: wanna do. And of course, Channing's like, just do it now. What are you waiting for? Yeah, just do it. And I'm like, well, my lease is not done for another year and a half. So 

Wes: I find it's fun to like, maybe treat yourself, but like set a little bar for like, okay, once we, you know, open the X store or we get to this number of gross revenue, then.

Paige: Yes. You know 

Wes: what I mean? Just give yourself a little parrot and just kind of something to like look forward. Well, my business partner just 

Paige: got the new, um, Bentley, so I'm like, okay. I mean, he has other businesses. Yeah. But he was like, you know, yoga joint's doing better, doing good. He's like, I'm like, oh, okay.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this too. But I love that advice. I, my lease is done in a year and a half and then I'm gonna assess, get myself a little treat, 

Wes: hopefully the Macon. Yeah. I look forward to seeing it. Paige, thank you. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much. You were phenomenal and 

Paige: thank you.

It's 

Wes: been fun watching your journey ever after all these years. And you said you found it in 2010 and I was just like, I 

Paige: know time. 

Wes: 15 years, but, um, time. A lot of hard work. Thank you. Blood, sweat, and tears. And 

Paige: Thank you. Thanks for coming. You so much for having me. I really enjoyed it. 

Wes: Fantastic. 

Paige: Thank you.

I've always been a big fan of yours. 

Wes: Well, Paige, uh, thank you for saying that. You're welcome. Appreciate it. 

Paige: Thank you. Thank you guys. 

Wes: Here we go. Clap. Yeah, that's right. We're legit. 

Paige: Yeah, we have to do that [01:24:00] in.

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Wes Shelton

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