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Kat Robinson - Active Kat Yoga, LLC: Staying Active Has Come Full Circle
Kathy (Kat) Robinson could not have thought of a better name for her business that started in 2002 than Active Kat Yoga, LLC located at 108 South Grand Street.
Robinson said, “I had never pictured myself teaching yoga, I had a business background.” Kat and spouse, Brett have been married 43 years. Brett owns Barco Construction and Design and they have three grown children.
Their son, Anthony Robinson (Jana) lives in Washington and daughters Christy Spradling (Justin) and Candi Whitlow (Jake) live in Doniphan. The Robinsons are the grandparents of four grandchildren, Logan, Layla, Adam and Henry.
Kat is a certified yoga therapist, which is the highest credentialing in the country. She is certified in aerial yoga and board-certified as a naturopathic practitioner. She is an experienced registered teacher, which means she teaches other teachers.
Active Kat Yoga offers group yoga classes, mat classes and aerial classes for both adults and youth. Over the last few years classes for special needs children were added.
Robinson says she started teaching because yoga had made a profound difference in her own life and, “I wanted to share the benefits.”
Robinson feels that no business is easy, especially in the beginning. There are always growth and financial concerns in business. There were many times she felt like giving up; however, she just kept getting up and going to work.
The feeling of wanting to give up passed. She says she has never felt she had to sacrifice anything, “besides a little sleep here and there.”
Balance is an important key to a work and home balance. Robinson said, “I make it a point to be there for the important stuff in business and with my family, and I have made an incredible number of friends along the way.“
Robinson has faced some challenges in having a yoga studio in a small town. She recounts, “It is not easy. I knew early on that I had to do other things besides just yoga.”
With that, she wrote trainings and programs to help bring in more income. This brought the opportunity to teach to a broader audience at conferences and expos.
She has written articles for various yoga, health and wellness magazines, and is a regular contributor to Elephant Journal, an online yoga magazine.
Everything just kind of grew from there. Robinson credits that everything she learned in the business world she brought to her studio, from the business plans and goals, to marketing.
In 2018, 16 years after opening the yoga studio, a subsidiary, The Energy Rejuvenation Center was started. In the wellness center other services include yoga-related healing modalities such as chakra light and sound baths, reiki, infrared sauna, yoga therapy and Thai Yoga Therapy.
Services are offered one-on-one by appointment only. Additionally, general family health coaching is available.
The largest challenge, says Robinson, is to make yoga and the related holistic practices accessible and affordable. During the Covid pandemic she was forced to go online, and that has raised new business challenges. But as a result, she trained teachers worldwide.
With an online studio now with videos, blogs, and recipes, Active Kat Yoga is utilizing several online platforms. The convenience of those services allows participants to catch a class according to their schedule. Online classes can be found at activekatyoga.greenrope.com.
In fact, it was an attempt to continue the studio that the Robinsons made the move to buy two old buildings downtown.
The Station, which opened in June, is kind of a “lyceum” for musical performances, theater, public speaking, murder mysteries. Not surprising since Brett is a drummer, their daughter, Christy, is a gifted musician who also is a teacher at Doniphan R-I school. Both her sons-in-law play guitar. Plans are to have a monthly event at the Station. “We just don’t want to plan the same day as other events like Music In the Park,“ says Robinson.
Since purchasing the additional five of seven buildings on South Grand Street, the Robinsons decided to reside upstairs from her studio and Brett’s office. Robinson said, “Things have come full circle...My studio is back where I began 22 years ago, when I was just renting space.”
The Robinsons passed on a love of old structures to their daughters. Both are restoring historical homes in Doniphan.
Robinson and her family enjoys working in the community. She has served on several boards, including two terms on the Doniphan City Council. She is the founder and chair of the Haunted Downtown Doniphan Halloween Spooktacular. She and her family have been pivotal in bringing the lighted Christmas parade back to Doniphan. In addition she and Brett were selected as 2012 Citizens of the Year.
Robinson said many women have inspired her and there is not one she could pin point. “I come from a long line of strong women, and I see it in my own daughters and granddaughter.” She grew up in the era of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and That Girl, and said that influence shaped her to be independent.
Robinson said with owning a business, one must keep in mind that there will be ups and downs like waves. Her advice is, “learn to surf with it, because business is cyclical.”
Robinson’s life motto is, “Don’t compare yourself to others that own a similar business. Comparison is the thief of joy.”