But they shared an interest in yoga and in working together.
Osborne and Kluczkowski had been friends for nearly a decade and both had successful, separate careers in marketing (Osborne) and advertising (Kluczkowski). The ability to effectively adapt is not surprising, considering it was the original impetus behind the business. “In each session, our clients learn pranayama (breath control to steady the mind), asana (physical postures to increase flexibility and reduce tension/tightness), and dharana (a form of meditation to cultivate single-pointed focus).” “Although we’re providing a new method, we stay deeply rooted in the teachings,” says Kluczkowski. While the women had to completely revolutionize their thinking, they still have a very traditional belief in yoga’s power. We have yet to find an office we cannot hold a class in.” “That drove home our business model of sending yoga teachers into companies and using whatever office space they have available. It’s asking too much of them to leave the office in the middle of the workday even changing clothes twice takes too much time,” says Osborne, the marketing brains of the company.
Participants sit in their office chairs in their suits, ties, and other business attire. First change: the hour-long session was shortened and branded the YMB 30-Minute Method. So they changed the entire approach and overhauled Yoga Means Business. “We created an informal focus group of friends and learned that asking people to put on Spandex, in front of coworkers, and then wobble awkwardly for an hour was just too much.” Cofounders Chiyoko Osborne and Jennifer Kluczkowski “Since the benefits of yoga are so well known, we wanted to understand why the rest of the group wasn’t joining,” says Kluczkowski. A Jivamukti-trained instructor who travels annually to India to deepen her practice, Kluczkowski knew that few places needed soothing yoga and meditation more than stressed-out, frenetic office environments but when she and Osborne would hold hour-long sessions that required everyone to come to the conference room in their workout gear and get onto a mat, turnout was generally low. This presented a big problem to Kluczkowski and her business partner Chiyoko Osborne, old friends who six months ago decided to create Yoga Means Business, a company that brings yoga to the workplace.