Yoga for everyone

ISABEL BRAVERMAN
Posted 11/9/16

HONESDALE, PA — A screen in Yoga International’s headquarters shows a map with dots all over the world. “That’s all the people who are currently on our site,” said chief …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Yoga for everyone

Posted

HONESDALE, PA — A screen in Yoga International’s headquarters shows a map with dots all over the world. “That’s all the people who are currently on our site,” said chief business officer Travis Head. Britain, India, Australia and the United States are among the many countries whose citizens are visiting the Yoga International website. And its office is right here in Honesdale.


Yoga International’s slogan is “Sharing yoga with the world.” The website offers videos, tutorials, articles and live streams, which are all filmed in the physical studio space at 630 Main St. The yoga studio is a spacious, elegant and peaceful room where yoga classes are held seven days a week and taught by a variety of teachers. Dana Wolfenberg, studio manager, explained that their teachers are experienced; most have five-plus years of teaching and are 500-hours certified. The class schedule offers fundamental techniques like Vinyasa and Ashtanga as well as unique options like Yoga for Dudes and Yoga Therapeutics, which focuses on specific body issues. There are also special workshops, and the schedule changes every few months, but keeps the popular classes. For information on the classes, visit https://yogainternational.com/studio.


While the company isn’t a part of the Himalayan Institute, they do have a working relationship. Yoga International used to be a print magazine for 25 years, published under the institute. Also, the institute used to have a café in the same space, but it closed in 2011. Yoga International wanted to use the space in a similar way, so they opened a café, which sits on the first floor. They use locally roasted coffee from Moka Origins, and all the food is organic and whole nutrition. “The café supports a healthy lifestyle,” Head remarked. “We have pour-over coffee, which is a part of the slow food idea.” There is also a boutique that sells quality, hand-selected products for a sustainable and conscious lifestyle. You can buy a yoga mat that your teacher just used in class, along with jewelry, décor, books, bags and beauty products.


The yoga studio is on the second floor, and the offices are on the third floor. Both physically and idealistically, they all feed into each other to create the global brand of Yoga International. After the print magazine folded, the website launched in 2013. CEO Todd Wolfenberg said, “We didn’t want to be a digital magazine. We wanted a different model than other newspapers and magazines that went digital, closer to the Netflix model.” A lot of the content on the website is free, but there is a subscription that allows users unlimited access to all the videos, articles, and everything the site has to offer. The content includes everything from full-length classes, like “40-Minute Mellow Flow” to shorter guides like “5 Minute Tutorial: Improve Your Chaturanga.” 


When the site launched there were 300 visitors a day. Now, it has grown to 30,000 unique visitors a day from all over the world; and 50% of current users are not from the U.S. It has a huge Facebook following with almost one million people. Jim Jennings, the digital marketing coordinator, said, “We’ve taken our top-notch editorial and video production (all produced in-house) from our magazine days and merged it with cutting-edge tech to create what amounts to an experience like Netflix and Medium rolled into one: downloadable on-demand classes, live streaming classes, e-commerce, thousands of articles and a soon-to-launch iPhone/Android app unlike anything currently out there.”


The whole Yoga International experience gets people on the track of health and wellness, whether they are training to become a yoga teacher in India, or drop by for a class in Honesdale. As Head says, “Employ locally, affect globally.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here