Running a Yoga Studio with a Social Purpose with Abi Nolan of Supply Yoga

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 2, Episode 4

Today I am speaking with Abi Nolan, the founder of Supply Yoga. Supply is a social enterprise changing the culture of access to wellbeing services through an innovative cyclical business model - paid subscriptions for their online classes subsidise wellbeing services for marginalised communities in east London.

It's an extremely well thought-through way of doing things that has run successfully since 2015 and is an inspirational example of putting some of the concepts discussed in previous episodes into practice.

I was keen to ask Abi about the specifics of how Supply works, and especially about the behind-the-scenes running-a-business stuff and developing healthy, trusting relationships with their partners.

It's so inspiring to see how they take these really big and important ideas around mutual aid and equitable access and then apply them to a properly costed, viable, effective social enterprise, and the fact they've been going since 2015 is a testament to that.

It's also very inspiring to see the different forms that that delivery has taken over the years as the context has changed - as they grew to having their own space, and then how they adapted to the huge challenges of the pandemic and have continued to expand their reach, all still in accordance with their mission and values

To me it seems as though Abi finds a really effective balance between sort of dreaming big and thinking in terms of what's right and meaningful, but then sort of tempering those ideals with caution and making sure everything is resilient and adaptable to change.

And that's clear in all aspects of the business, from session content to finding partners and funders to relationships with coaches and their wages...

There is a lot to learn here for any fitness business looking to have a positive social impact.

Credits

podcastGuy LochheadSeries 2, Episode 4