Pop Quiz, Monday with Beth

The Pop Quiz, Monday, is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise, after all, since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today, who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

1. Can you please tell everyone your name?

Beth Borowsky

2. Tell us about your business and what you do?

In 2005 I started Karma Kids Yoga, taking kids yoga classes to preschools. I then created a kids yoga teacher training targeting yoga teachers who were keen to bring yoga to kids. Today I have a team of 10 teachers who visit preschools and childcare centres weekly, sharing the many gifts of yoga, breath, and mindfulness with young kids.

With stress being a major contributor to youth mental health as well as teacher burnout on the rise, I have since rebranded to The Karma Class of which Karma Kids Yoga is a branch. Karma Classrooms, another branch, focuses specifically on training early childhood and primary teachers in bringing yoga, breath, and mindfulness experiences into their classrooms every day for just minutes at a time. I deliver a specially created 5-hour workshop to early childhood and primary teachers, giving them tools to easily weave Yoga, Breath, and Mindfulness into their classrooms every day for just minutes at a time.

3. Why did you want to become an entrepreneur?

I don’t think I did! And I’m not sure I see myself as one! I’m just genuinely passionate about bringing health and wellbeing into our children’s lives and giving them, and our teachers, tools to manage stress and create classrooms that nurture the whole child.

4. What are the challenging aspects of running a business?

Turning on the “off” button. Because it’s my ‘baby’, it can tend to occupy my thoughts, and my time, all of the time and although I have staff who a responsible for certain areas, I still have to keep an overall eye on all aspects. Trusting my instincts and staying buoyant can be challenging too.

5. What do you love most about your job?

I guess I love my message, my intention, and my vision to bring health and wellbeing into every school classroom. I live the benefits of yoga, breath, and mindfulness; it has transformed my life. I’ve also seen how it has transformed the lives of many kids and adults with whom I’ve worked, so I know it works, and I love to share its gifts.

I am also so grateful that I don’t go to an office building for 8 hours every day and that instead, I get to meet and train many different people, often who have never experienced anything to do with yoga at all. I love how, after training for school teachers, the feedback is often something like, “Wow! That’s the best professional development experience I’ve ever had!” To me, that means the kids are going to benefit too!

6. How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?

My team and I meet every few months for lunch get together, and we do have fun sharing stories about kids they’ve been teaching or new ideas they’ve been using. I’ll often workshop a new idea or present a topic that is relevant to delivering the best classes we can. And in our kid’s classes, we have fun all the time, and the teacher training is packed with experiential learning, which is always fun!

7. What would one piece of advice that you give to a new business owner?

Be willing to work hard and trust yourself. Gather mentors and people you can trust to run things by. Make time for yourself!