May 15, 2017

Meet Nicoline Valkenberg of Samara Yoga in Somerville

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicoline Valkenberg.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I had been teaching Yoga full-time – mostly at larger Yoga centers across the river- for about 5 years or so. I never had the ambition to open a yoga studio, but the opportunity arose to take over the lease of our space from a previous yoga studio in my own neighborhood, and that got me thinking. I had enough of a community of students and wonderful fellow teachers who were interested in working with me. I had also worked administratively at yoga studios before, so I had a good sense of the business-side. Both my parents are business owners as well, so I grew up around the entrepreneurial spirit and had good mentors in them as I got things going. The momentum and circumstances of that moment brought me to this venture!

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been smooth in the sense that we’ve been able to keep our doors open without much financial stress. I’ve had the luxury of being able to stay focused on my own practice and what I offer as a teacher. I’ve prioritized gathering other teachers with experience and integrity whose values and intention with yoga line up with mine. I’ve worked on refining my quality of interaction with the people who I work with and the students who come in. The fact that the studio flows from those intentions and works as a business makes me feel really lucky. Since I had never owned and run a business on my own, there were of course some challenges in my learning curve with how to manage my time and maintain a home life and personal life. That continues to be a challenge. Since it’s a small business and I am pretty hands-on, there’s always some detail that needs tending to- so it’s been a matter of knowing when to turn it “off”. We’ve had both literal and figurative “fires” to put out (the building had an electrical fire at one point) – and it’s always a challenge to have to put down what I’m doing in my personal time to tend to the studio when things don’t go as planned!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a Yoga studio. We offer a variety of styles of led yoga classes- mostly Vinyasa (flow-based yoga), Restorative and Yin Yoga. In addition to the quality of teaching we offer, I’m most proud of the fact that the students and the staff here all feel a sense of ownership. This is a “home” for people, not just a business, and we all participate in making it what it is. I get to know almost everyone by name- even if they don’t attend my classes. In such a commercialized age of yoga, we attempt to offer a more holistic view of Yoga- as a way to heal ourselves and live well…with the full yoga tradition in mind- rather than just offering a workout.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes! Absolutely. The Boston area has a lot of great quality yoga and a community of very experienced teachers, who have a direct line to the “fathers & mothers” of modern yoga.

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