Meet Cybele Chamas of Corpo Yoga Studio in Dadeland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cybele Chamas.

Cybele, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I opened CORPO Yoga in 2010. Prior to opening my own business, I worked in large multinational companies for about eighteen years in the area of finance, marketing, business development and sales. The business experience I acquired during my years of corporate America, helped me create a professional well-thought-out small enterprise. I chose to open a yoga studio because I am very passionate about yoga.

At one point in my career and after having my daughter Julia, I was hoping to dedicate my energy towards something meaningful, something I loved. Yoga was the answer. I believe Yoga is a path to inner peace and ultimately physical health. Our studio is dynamic, elegant and yet peaceful, a place where people of all ages, faith and physical abilities can express who they truly are. We help our community overcome stress, physical and emotional challenges and that is very rewarding to me. After now eight years, we have about 40 classes a week with 15 remarkable and knowledgeable yoga instructors. Our instructors have many years of experience and they teach various modalities of yoga to a variety of student levels. We are a very traditional yoga studio and we respect lineage and the philosophical aspect of yoga. We also offer children yoga to young ones, ages 4 to 8 and older one’s ages 8 to 13. My daughter Julia is the love of my life.

Everything I do is thinking about her future and the world she will learn to live in. I hope that more people will give Yoga a chance. Yoga is about finding peace and balance inside each of us and I believe we all need more of that. About my background, I am originally from Brazil. I have an underground degree in Finance and International Marketing from the University of Miami and a master’s in Business from the Florida International University. I am fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It hasn’t been a smooth road at all. First, I opened my small business in the middle of the 2010 economic meltdown. Since I am not a famous yoga teacher, I opened my studio to no following. We had to attract talented yoga instructors and build our clientele from nothing.

It was literally one client at a time. There was no financial support to women like me out there. All the minority business organizations wanted to see 5 years of income statement and I was just trying to open a business. I had to fund the business myself and use all my years of savings to do that. It was a huge risk and the statistics show that 90% of all small business fail within the first two years of opening. I am glad we are not in that list and I am proud to share that CORPO Yoga is now an established studio with a very loyal and dedicated group of amazing students and teachers. It is also very challenging to attract good and reliable employees. In these times of immediate satisfaction, my experience shows that many people are not willing to give and wait to receive, especially the young generation. I guess I come from a different generation in which we had to work really hard to achieve our goals. We couldn’t take for granted. Another challenging experience for small business owners like us is the build out process. It was very stressful to work through the inspections and all the demands of the various local authorities, organizations and departments. It was literally what one calls a “nightmare”. Lessons learned, I am very grateful for all the experiences I have have so far. All of them have contributed to make me a better human being, a stronger and even more determined one.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Corpo Yoga Studio – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
CORPO Yoga is a family yoga studio. We encourage everyone to practice yoga. We are known to provide high-quality yoga classes with very experienced and knowledgeable yoga instructors. Students who practice in various studios can notice immediately the quality of our sessions. We are also very traditional in a sense that we don’t follow trends. We are in tune with the market demands and changes, but we are true to our essence. We take Yoga seriously. We respect its lineage and traditions. A lot of people are attracted to Yoga for its fitness aspect and we also provide very physically demanding classes. Yet, all of our classes are based on the important aspect of Yoga: the postures, the breath, the inner awareness, and the meditation. Any class you go, you will experience a complete sense of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. I also love that everyone knows someone at our studio. We are really a community Yoga studio. You see the husbands, wives, children, friends, co-workers, neighbors, all practicing together at CORPO. It is really incredible. I absolutely love that about us and I am so glad we have created a space that we can all come together without any judgment or discrimination. I also feel that the children are magical. We have so many kids and tween students and they are so dedicated to their practice. They bring a very special energy to our studio. I have a huge smile on Saturdays when the children start coming with their yoga mats. Thank you, Yogis!

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel Miami is embracing Yoga more and more every day. Having said that, I think we are behind if we compare ourselves with California or New York, but we now have more awareness about Yoga and its benefits. I noticed that the traffic has been challenging lately and that creates a problem to small business owners. It has become very difficult to move around the city and people are getting tired of the traffic.

I wish there were more options for public transportation as more people keep coming to our town. If someone is starting a business, I suggest they take into consideration the location and access to that location. More and more people are looking for convenience. The city is also getting very expensive, like parking is very expensive as well as eating out and practicing sports and exercise. People have limited budgets and when you open a business, you need to know what areas you are targeting and the potential demand for your services and/or products.

Pricing:

• Adult drop-in is $20
• Kids drop-in is $16

Contact Info:

• Address: 9030 SW 72nd Court, Miami FL 33156
• Website: www.corpoyogamiami.com
• Phone: (305) 670-2010
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: corpoyoga
• Facebook: corpoyoga
• Twitter: corpoyoga
• Yelp: corpoyoga

Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.