Debi Schenk dreamed of owning her own yoga studio for over 10 years and it was just her luck to open her dream studio, Park Potomac Yoga, during a global pandemic.
Debi opened her very first yoga studio Park Potomac Yoga with one goal in mind: To bring the benefits of yoga to people of every size, shape, fitness level, and age. Besides serving her community,she is passionate about giving herself time to practice yoga because treating your body well is the greatest gift of all.
She must have done something right because within two (yes, TWO) months of opening she won the award for Best New Fitness Studio in Bethesda, MD. Throughout her career, Debi’s also been featured in Bethesda Magazine, Bethesda Beat, Montgomery Magazine, and Potomac Lifestyle Magazine.
As a woman of many facets, Debi has had an extensive career in health, nutrition, fitness, personal training, and teaching yoga which she uses when teaching her students.
Prior to opening her studio, she began her yoga teaching journey in her home, which allowed her to form strong relationships with her students. Debi also added multiple local studios and corporate clients to her list of teaching locations over the last decade.
Yet, she was tired of depending on paychecks from all over the place and running all over town. She wanted to depend on herself, in one single location. So, she took the leap and signed a lease for a charming studio in Potomac, MD, where she hosts intimate classes with her clients who she thinks of as family.
Debi is a true businesswoman. When she was faced with the unprecedented situation of COVID-19, she took it head on by pivoting her in-person classes to predominantly online classes through the help of live-streaming. She listened to the feedback from her community and became hyper aware of everyone’s crazy schedules and added an additional layer of support through replays This special offer allows her members to take any classes they wish whenever it’s convenient for them.
Furthermore, when everything closed down in March and April, Debi had the best two months she had in business yet! Pivoting along with their users, fitDEGREE implemented a new live-streaming feature that synced with Zoom to make it easier to transition to online education.
“Thenew live-streaming feature that fitDEGREE rolled out was really helpful in making the transition to online classes that much easier. I love it.”
Debi didn’t even have to think twice before choosing fitDEGREE out of all the other apps out there. She fell in love with the interface and the ease of use almost immediately, but what really made Debi want to use fitDEGREE was the price and the amount of support from Nick and Dan. (Two of our co-founders!)
From the very beginning, it was important to Debi that she chose an app that had someone she could rely on to help her master the learning curve. She did not want to be held up on the phone for hours trying to have her questions answered or spend a ton of time learning how she can use the software for her specific needs. As an added bonus, Debi adores that neither she nor her members have to be super tech-savvy to use the software.
Plus, the added layer of her community being able to check in and see if their friends are going to be in any of the various online classes has slightly helped member retention, especially during the slow summer months.
Debi is enthusiastic about continuing to host various yoga sessions via Zoom while accommodating a maximum of four students per in person class. While it’s not ideal that all in-studio students are required to wear a mask, sign a waiver, and practice social distancing during the pandemic, Debi is thrilled to have the opportunity to work directly with her students again.
Knowing her community craves togetherness,Debi has also started offering outdoor yoga classes in Park Potomac on the biglawn. Her students are loving being able to connect not only with themselves and their community (Safely! Social distancing rules still apply), but also theoutdoors and mother nature.
With yoga becoming an increasingly popular form of low impact exercise, Debi hopes to grow her community even more so that she can continue to serve students of every size, shape, fitness level, andage.
