Matt O’Donnell has been a co-owner and yoga teacher at Santosha Yoga retreat since it first opened six years ago. O’Donnell and his partner, Jenny Chaim, started Santosha out of their home in Phippsburg, Maine back in 2020 right before the pandemic started. From starting with yoga classes out of their house, to purchasing and flipping an old estate, O’Donnell and Chaim have been through a long journey of ups and downs with their business.

O’Donnell spoke to the SMCC Beacon about the challenges and triumphs of opening a small business, taking us through the different stages of a growing the retreat center and offering insight into his personal experience and thoughts.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Why did you create Santosha Yoga?

The idea behind it is to create an inclusive space that people come to for rest. You know, to spend some time to quietly reflect inwardly but also to be around other people as well. I remember teaching spin at Bowdoin College and feeling like a dad to the kids. I loved the sense of community there and wanted to create more of that.

How did COVID hurt or help your business?

It ended up – ironically during the pandemic – becoming really successful in part because there were such stringent travel restrictions. People couldn’t do a lot of travel. We had people from all over the country, but those are people who may have travelled internationally before.

You initially used your home as your business. How did that change?

We had a house that could accommodate quite a few people. It got to the point where every inch of the house – except for our bedroom – became guest space. There were guests everywhere. It got to the point where our bedroom was filled with laundry, my desk was there blocking the closet. We ate dinner in bed most of the time. It just wasn’t sustainable, our space wasn’t ours anymore. Not in order to increase capacity, but to have some more private space back, we needed to expand. We ended up finding this property in Kingsfield. Since the 1970s, it has been set up as a country inn, so it has commercial space. 

What impact has your new location had on revenue compared to the original location?

It’s difficult to compare because we were in the middle of COVID, and people’s options were so few. This newer location is just far enough away from the airports that it can be hard to get to. So if you don’t want to spend an extra hundred dollars on a rental car, you’re kinda stuck. Our overhead was also so low at first because we didn’t have any employees and were operating out of the house. Pretty much all the money that came in was profit. Now, we have an enormous property that has a mortgage and a construction loan on it. It is so big that it’s impossible for two people to take care of it, so we hire staff. We now have this huge overhead that we didn’t have before. So in order to get back to even, we have to sell more retreats.

What has been the best part of running this business over the years?

 The positive aspect is that what we’re doing is really meaningful to our guests. We have many guests who leave teary eyed because of the experience that they’ve had. The majority of our guests are solo female travellers, and most of them are in some sort of big life transition. They’ve just become empty nesters, been divorced, or lost a child or spouse. Or maybe they just need a break from the rat race. Many are looking for time and space to themselves, as well as some sort of support and community. They find that through the other guests, through yoga practice, and especially through our yoga philosophy talks. That is the absolute best part. To see how all the hard work that goes into it actually has a positive effect on a guest’s life.

What has been the downside of running this business?

There’s a great deal of dissonance between a yoga and mindfulness retreat center, and the absolute fucking chaos and stress of the business side of running it. The side where we’re not making any money, and I’ve worked sixty hours in the past four days, all on my feet. The downside really is that owning a business like this requires all your time and energy. It has cost us a lot, including years of missed family and friend obligations, and even our relationship. I was incredibly naive gong into it, I didn’t think it would be this hard.

Do you think that running this business was worth it in the end?

Generally speaking I’d have to say no. I am so grateful for what it’s taught me, and I can’t imagine my life now without what I have learned from this journey. But at the same time I can’t answer that it was worth it. Before the stress of this business, I think my life was better.