I stopped by Yoga-urt briefly last night and some grandparents came in with two teenage girls, I’m assuming their grandchildren. They ordered their Yoga-urt, and then went to to the back patio.

The Grandpa came back in and asked me why he drove 12 miles to come here when he is closer to Pinkberry. His family, I’m guessing the teens, insisted they come here. He was asking nicely, what is so special about us.

I told him that we make the soft serve in house from scratch. We start by making almond milk, then add cashews, and use all organic ingredients. He was surprised to hear that there was no dairy. He was half way through his bowl, but had no idea.

I then explained that we have no artificial Flavors or sweeteners and add in probiotics. It’s a very clean product. Plus we use biodegradable cups/bowls, spoons, and napkins.

He then said he understands why he drove 12 miles 🙂

It was a sweet moment with a sweet man. I love these moments so much. The people that come to Yoga-urt, their reactions to it, are priceless. 

We got a Yelp review today that touched my heart as well. The reviewer ended by saying the soft serve is prepared with healthy ingredients and love. He got it! Lots of love went into this and it means so much when people recognize it. 

I think we have a big weekend ahead. Looking forward to a lot more of these moments! 

Where to begin. It’s all a blur but we had a great time. It was our first Fair/Festival and it was amazing to be a part of such an awesome event with other awesome vendors. Thank you to the Fair organizers for all that they did!

Fairs/Festivals were never a part of my vision for Yoga-urt, but when I was approached a few months ago, something about it felt right, and I wanted to do it.

However, we got a major CURVEBALL on Thursday night, 2.5 days before the Fair. Although we were told it was fine a few weeks before, on Thursday night, the Fair organizers called us to say that the health department would not allow us to bring a soft serve machine, and if we did, both Yoga-urt and the Fair would be sited. They challenged it, explaining that I’m non-dairy, but nothing worked.

Yes, that’s right, we found this out 2.5 days before.

I didn’t know what to do. I considered not going but didn’t want to let people down, plus, I really wanted to go. 

I than tried to come up with other ways to make it work. I thought about swirling them at the store and freezing them with dry ice, but despite my best efforts of going to 6 different stores, I couldn’t find the right cups with lids. They have them online, but there was no time to order them.

The other solution is what we did. Run the product through our machines at the store, freeze them, and scoop them like ice cream. I got the proper containers on Friday, tested one on Friday night, which means we had ONE DAY to run about 25 gallons worth of product through our machine, mind you we were also open on Saturday and had a very busy day at the store. Juggling. Juggling.

The machine needs to breathe a lot so that the product comes out the right texture so it was a VERY LONG PROCESS. This was our only choice and my team and I worked our asses off doing it. Thank God all of the machines were working!!!

Everything changed with that phone call on Thursday. All of my planning over the last few months went out the window, and new plans were made.

I was very concerned about introducing our product to so many people as ice cream, when we sell soft serve/frozen yogurt. It concerns me that we weren’t represented properly. The taste is the same, and we definitely taste good that way, but it’s not as fun and unique and not us. I know that so many people were looking forward to soft serve. My team and I were totally bummed to say the least, but the show must go on.

So I had to find dry ice, a place to store all of these frozen containers, plan how I was going to announce the change to the public (I was so nervous about that), get ice cream scoopers, in addition to all of the other stuff we had to do (make 100 waffle cones, make 25 gallons worth of product, etc). It was crazy!!!

Thank God for my team and my family who all stepped in and did whatever they could. The Fair organizers felt horrible too and wanted to help as well.

So we did the scoops with our toppings. It seemed to be received well, but hard to know as there was a long line all day and I was in the tent serving people. Some people said some really nice things about us on social media, and Kat Von D came to our booth which was awesome!

Then there was the donut cone. All I will say about this is that we were approached to partner on it early on. My gut told me it was off brand as we promote health and are very careful about the ingredients that we use, but I considered doing it at one point. After sharing with some close family and friends, my doubts became greater and we weren’t involved anymore. However, the donut cone got the most press from the Fair and the public, so I do question if I made the right choice. Ultimately, I believe that I did and that we are strong enough without it, but it definitely added another layer of bummer to my experience.

I’m still exhausted from the big push, but I’m taking today off of my day job, and will rest and recover. Somehow we pulled it off despite all of the curveballs!

Thanks again to all of you who came out to support us or tried us for the first time. We hope that you’ll come to the store for the full experience. 💜❤️💜  

We had a great weekend! Today was our best day yet in sales!!! Woohoo!!!

This is due to a lot of things, but partly because 5 Everyday posted about us on Saturday, which is the second time they’ve done that and we are so appreciative. 

So many lovely people came to the store. It is so cool that we have so many regulars, as well as new people coming all of the time. 

Plus, we sold 23 pints!!!! Yes, 23. I think that is a record for 1 day. Also smoothies, hot chocolate, iced coffee, banana splits. Some of everything. 

For me personally, although it was a very productive day and so much fun to be at the store, it was also long and exhausting. I started my spring forward day meeting a repairman at the shop at 9:30am to fix one of our machines that has been acting up the last 2 weeks. I ended my day at 7:30pm, making the chocolate flavor because we ran out, with lots of juggling in between! 

The time change and Spring will be very good for Yoga-urt.  

Right now, the big push is for the Vegan Street Fair, but it really feels like this is our time. The start of something great. Should be a really interesting month ahead.

I haven’t been this nervous since the month of our opening when I had to get 7 inspections in one week, leading up to all of our opening events.

This Fair is a big deal for us and for me. Our first festival/fair. We don’t plan to do many of these, but this one seemed like a great fit. However, there is a lot in my control and a lot that I have no control of. So much could go wrong and so much could go right!

As for fear, I love the way that Elizabeth Gilbert talks about Fear. She suggests listening to our fears with respect. Hear them out. Then, let them sit in the back seat as you drive the car. They don’t have any control of you or the situation.

This is how I’ve been living my life and the only way I was able to do Yoga-urt. 

I have fear of so many things with this fair, but I know what they are, and now I’m choosing to put them in the back seat. 

With these 9 days left, I want to have fun. Yes, we have a crazy production schedule this week among many other things, but I have a great team and we will all do our best. My sister, niece, and nephew are coming out to help me among other friends. Fun! I need to remember to have FUN!

I’m also really excited. My favorite part is meeting our customers and I’m going to get to meet so many awesome people and introduce them to Yoga-urt. How cool is that!

This is where my yoga practice will really support me, so I really hope that I can fit in a few classes this week. I just need to breathe. Do the work and let the rest go. And have FUN! 

I’m not feeling good. I’m exhausted and I have a small medical condition I’m recently dealing with. All will be okay, but I’ve been told I need to get rest and sleep. Easy to say but not easy to do with two full-time jobs. 

I’ve been going non-stop now for way too long and it’s catching up. But what can I do? I signed up for this. People call in sick at the store and I have to cover. People go on vacation and I have to cover. Problems arise at the store and I have to figure them out. It’s always something.

I’ve been wanting to cry all week as I just feel so overloaded, but it hasn’t happened yet. I just keep plowing through. 

The next two weeks are going to be crazy leading up to the Vegan Street Fair that we are participating in on March 20th. It’s our first fair/festival and I am very nervous. I’m most nervous about the soft serve machine working properly all day, but there is so much prep that we have to do as well. I also hope that we are received well and don’t run out too early!  Ahhhhh! Crazy!!!!

All I can do is take one day at a time. Too overwhelming otherwise. I will take comfort in knowing that people really love Yoga-urt, so at least all of the hard work is paying off.

But I know that I need to take a break after the fair. My head is screaming for it. I’m working this whole weekend, so hoping for a good night’s sleep and happy faces at Yoga-urt.