Natalie Miller

Before I became a part of the Kalma Life team, I was working for an International Home Fragrance brand in the sales team. I was attempting to climb the corporate ladder, working long hours, driving miles and my stress levels were high.

After the birth of my son and a year of maternity leave, I returned to work 3 days a week. Almost immediately, I realised that having a child had rewired my brain in a way I hadn’t expected.

I was no longer able to engage in the high-stakes stress that is the life and soul of a Sales job.

All of a sudden, Q3 targets and margins on luxury things that smelled nice just felt irrelevant.

I knew I couldn’t drive 6 hour round trips for 35 minute meetings anymore. I had always felt like there had to be more to life, but having children really did hammer that feeling home and I immediately knew I wanted out.

I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, but I was on the lookout for opportunities.

I first discovered Kalma Life as a parent. I attended toddler yoga classes with my son during maternity leave. The class was brand new and we both enjoyed every minute!

Yoga in particular was the draw for me. I already had a busy social life during maternity leave, but yoga was special to me. I had started practising yoga a few years before having my son, to help me cope with the stresses of my corporate job.

As it happened (and so often does) the universe had a plan to help me finally become a yoga teacher.

The franchisee who had started running classes was pregnant with her second child. She hadn’t even openly started recruiting yet, when I saw an opportunity. I approached her and asked her if she was going to recruit someone to run her classes when her baby was born and asked her if that person could be me!

Within 6 weeks, I had quit my job and booked my training with Kalma Life.

I was so excited to be meeting other new parents and helping them through those formative weeks and months, giving them a safe space to bond with their child and have lots of fun!

I taught for roughly 6 years, having a stint on maternity leave with my daughter and then around the time she started school it was time for some changes.

I took a break from teaching Kalma for 2 years, although I still stepped into teach Schools when they needed me and stepped back into a corporate job. It wasn’t ever my plan, but sometimes we have to adapt. I stayed in touch with Vicky and we both agreed, when the time was right, I’d be back!

I am now back and am launching my own franchise! It’s a very different experience this time around, because I am making my own decisions and planning my own business, rather than a supporting role. I loved teaching and being a part of the Franchise previously, but I always knew I wanted to run my own business one day.

As soon as I approached Vicky, she was incredibly supportive, as she always has been! We discussed all the changes within the business and have made lots of plans together on how to grow the Brand and support each other.

I have had to relaunch my own business from scratch, which sometimes can feel disheartening after putting in years of effort into growing a brand and a business, but the hard work I previously put in, had paid off. People remember the Kalma name and the amazing classes. I have had so many supportive and lovely messages from parents who used to come to classes, delighted classes are back and many of them, bringing their newest baby along!

Geographically, my business is the furthest from the other Franchisees and people often assume that would be a barrier, but it isn’t at all! Every single one of the team is really supportive, collaborative and encouraging. Everyone wants to help each other succeed and every single Franchisee and teacher is working towards the same goal; bringing the benefits yoga to as many children as possible.

I am just about to start my first ever term as a Franchisee in my own right and I’m so excited. I have been working hard all Summer to promote my classes and ran a few Family and Taster sessions to get reconnected with my local community.

At my peak in the previous iteration of this business, I was running 17 classes a week and I would love to get there again. I previously worked with other teachers here as well, and have big aspirations to recruit a whole crew of teachers in my area! I have huge plans for the business and I’m going to need back up!

Having now been back and forth between working for big organisations, or working for myself and dictating my own schedule, I cannot fathom ever going back. For 2 years, I was juggling a 30 hour week around 2 children and my husbands shifts. I was exhausted and stressed all the time, even if I carried on and pretended otherwise. I was so close to burnout.

Running Kalma, or even just being a teacher gives you so much freedom. You choose when you work and the work barely feels like work at all! Imagine hanging out with cute babies and toddlers all day and not enjoying it?

I always used to dream of a job, whilst sat at a desk, where I could move my body, laugh, sing, dance, stretch and connect with people and I’m so lucky I found it! And not only is my job better for my physical and mental health, but it gives me freedom. I can be there for my kids and go on school trips. I can go to the gym. I can support my family and friends in ways I never could stuck behind a desk.

It’s not easy by any means, but no matter the task at hand, there’s always something or someone in the Kalma team ready to support you and help you work smarter, not harder. There’s term and class planning, although there is an entire library of amazing sessions to utilise so you are never short of an idea, theme or focus! There’s social media- but again, the team have an enormous amount of shared assets and we all collaborate to support each other.

It’s part of what makes Kalma so special- because you get to run your own business, but you are never left without the support you need to balance your work, your life and your family. You are surrounded by people doing exactly the same. Sharing that with your colleagues is so refreshing!

What can I say? Seeing parents and children come through the door of a class and seeing the difference in them when they leave is priceless. Often parents arrive tired and low on energy. Without fail, by the end of the class, they are lifted, energised and that bit lighter.

The same goes for the children, seeing them leave the class in a much happier state than they were, or perhaps more relaxed, or even asleep is gold.

Engaging with the children and forming bonds with them and their parents, helping them through different stages of development is such a privilege as well. I’ve seen babies roll over for the first time and toddlers walk for the first time. I’ve had some little besties who wouldn’t leave my side for an entire class and still hug me if I see them now 8 years later!

Being a source of comfort, joy and representing a safe space for so many people is fulfilment you can’t really explain!

Factor in seeing your own business grow, your own efforts pay off and taking credit for your own labour, is the best way to feel about what you do for work!

“Life is too short to be trapped doing something you hate” and “Happiness is a Way of Life, Not a Destination”

I will never forget walking back into my sales job after my maternity leave and looking around at all of my colleagues. They were all miserable. I’m not even joking. It was like I’d walked in a cell block and all of them were stuck there.

When I resigned to teach Baby Yoga, the CEO of the company had actually also resigned, although not to teach Baby Yoga. She came up to me and congratulated me on escaping and told me to go for it! A lot of my colleague said things like “I’m so jealous, I wish I could leave.”

And til this day, I’ll stand by what I said- “You can! You are not a prisoner! Leave if you want to!”

So wherever you are in life, if you are unhappy, go and be happy! Life has a way of working out, but you have to choose happiness, it won’t find you unless you do!