According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of businesses fail in the first two years. Another 45 percent fail in the first five, and 65 percent fail in the first ten years.

We are about six years into this little business of ours.

I’ve learned so many things. In a small business, you have to wear many hats: accountant, website designer, content creator, event planner, public speaker, educator, administrator, customer service, marketer, financial planner… to name just a few. It’s been a challenging, yet rewarding, journey.

This is a surprisingly tough blog to write. How to sum up all the love I have for Bryana, all the experiences that have unfolded within this experiment of ours, the community that’s grown as a result?

I am also really uncomfortable talking about myself, or our business, too much. If you’ve ever noticed how I (Amanda) get kind of squirrely and weird during the opening circle when we’re sharing who we are, this is why. It makes me feel “super cringe”, to borrow from the kids. But maybe I feel that way because I have been raised in the patriarchy. I’ve been given messages to be small and agreeable my whole life.

So here it goes… because after all it’s Women’s History Month and we’re trying to make this world more inclusive and equitable- one woman stepping into her power at a time.

How it started.

When I was in first grade a new girl showed up in our classroom. She had pigtails and a mole under her eye and she liked reading. I remember drawing something on the white board and hoping to impress her so she’d want to be my friend- I guess it worked! We bonded over an intense passion for horse books and art.

In fourth grade, Bryana moved to Mankato. We were penpals for years and visited one another in the summer. After college we ran into one another at a Christmas bar crawl. As it turned out we shared some mutual friends and lived a few blocks apart, in downtown St. Paul of all places. We walked the skyway system in our pjs to have downtime together after work. We’ve been inseparable since.

Photos-Above: on left, Bry & Amanda the day after Amanda’s wedding in the hay barn. In the center, Amanda, Bryana, Kenora and Chef (Bry’s cousins) at Bryana’s cabins, and on the right, Bry and Amanda at Silver and Gold Party (a party Amanda used to host annually).

Lower left: Bry & Amanda playing dress-up at her grandparent’s farm, Bry & Amanda with Kenora on the sailboat at the cabin, Amanda & Bry sometime around 18ish before we lost touch?, and then another good ole’ Silver and Gold Party time in downtown St. Paul.

I blow-torched 25 giant candles for her wedding. My shoe broke the morning of her wedding, so I had to wear mismatching shoes down the aisle. She lost our dog on our wedding day and accidentally locked him in a car (luckily Bosco was found). We both moved full-time to northern Minnesota in our mid-twenties, Bryana to Longville and Amanda to Duluth. We supported each other through separate yoga teacher training journeys.

These and a million other adventures…we’ve been through a lot together. Almost noone cares about the little nothings in my life like Bryana does. She is a sister to me and has always been a huge supporter of mine, whether I was making (very bad) candles or starting an outdoor outfitter or teaching Economics. She asks about my hopes and dreams. She is game for almost anything. We are very lucky to have one another.

In 2016, we both talked about how much we love yoga and a good time adventure. We decided to host a yoga retreat at Deep Portage Learning Center in Hackensack. Bryana’s husband was an Environmental Educator there at the time. We thought maybe some of our friends would come. To our shock, 50 women signed up and later Boreal Bliss Yoga Retreats was officially born.

Over the course of the next several years our business evolved.

How it’s going.

At this point we’ve hosted somewhere around 35ish (?) retreats and hundreds of individuals from all over the United States (and Costa Rica!). We primarily serve Minnesotan women. We cater to the type of individual who is adventurous, willing to get a little dirty, and is comfortable in their own quirkiness.

So many things have gone wrong over the years that I won’t bore you with the list here. Most recently, there have been some behind-the-scenes mistakes that have caused us both to lose sleep. But through it all, Bryana and I have each other to problem-solve, find a grounded place to analyze the situation, comfort one another, and work together toward resolution. We don’t blame one another when mistakes are made. We don’t yell or swear or say hurtful things or gossip. Partnership is hard work, and we diligently keep putting in the work with one another.

We have also been fortunate in the team members that are growing up around us, our little forest of protection. We rely on them more and more with each passing year, as their gifts and talents grow.

We could honestly write a whole additional blog about all of the incredible people we have been lucky enough to work with. We will save that for another time, but…

Special thanks especially to Stacy, who is so near and dear to all of us! And also to Joella, who helped us start this little business and who grew alongside us. We shared so many belly laughs and adventures! Joella is now living happily in NC with the love of her life Madeline and expecting a sweet baby girl!!!

Every obstacle we’ve faced, like those bed bugs at one of our very first retreats, have allowed us to grow personally and professionally. We’ve grown our capacity to face adversity, to communicate clearly, to maintain our core values like empathy and generosity.

This reminds me of a thought I’ve had about retreats. At your first retreat, you might spend a lot of time crying. You might realize you have been neglecting yourself, that you don’t recognize yourself anymore, that you’ve lost touch with everything that brings you joy, that you have unprocessed trauma, or that you are living out of alignment with your values.

By the time you come to a second or third retreat, you’ve made some tweaks. You are no longer feeling so out of alignment. You’ve invested more time in your well-being through therapy, yoga, and outdoor exploration. You’re doing things that make you feel alive!

And eventually, you might come to a retreat and realize that you are living your potential. You are letting your freak flag fly. You are lying down through an entire yoga class like a badass. You have an entire toolset to draw from when life’s complexities come your way. You have the capacity to handle life’s difficulties. This is essentially the trajectory Bryana and I have been on.

In the beginning, something like bed bugs sent us into hysterics. We sobbed. We overreacted. We handled the situation poorly. We ruminated. We went into a shame spiral. We were awkward and immature.

The same situation today would hit completely different. Our capacity to handle adversity has grown exponentially.

I don’t want to think about the sorts of challenges the future may hold for us, because I know there are challenges waiting that I can’t imagine. But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that Bryana will be a calming, grounded presence at my side. Her mind will go 10 million miles an hour coming up with solutions and I’ll be in the background doing the math.

At Bryana’s bachelorette party when Amanda didn’t understand that Hawaiin theme meant a cute Hawaiian dress… instead she wore an oversized Hawaiin shirt and a grass skirt, haha!

What’s it like being a female business owner?

I don’t know if it’s because we’re women, or because many people view yoga and wellness as “woo-woo” or “frivolous” but it does, quite frequently, feel like we’re not treated like a serious business. At times we are treated like we aren’t knowledgeable or capable or people who bring value.

Over the past few years Bryana and I have gone through pregnancy, delivery, and the early years of raising children. It’s been incredibly humbling and challenging. Again, we’ve made mistakes. But how could we not? We were sleep deprived, exhausted, nursing babies while raising toddlers, managing laundry and groceries and meals and a business. It’s been harder than I ever could’ve imagined. I’ve often thought about how universal paid family leave would have alleviated a lot of stress in our situation, just as it would for any family. Or how the lack of adequate child care is a nightmare for families everywhere, how every sickness wreaks havoc on the family routines that allow parents to work… but I digress…

Sometimes (often) the visibility of our lives makes me feel vulnerable. And yet at the same time, there’s so much happening “behind-the-scenes” for us that is unknown to you, the reader.

What are you most proud of?

We are very proud of our scholarship program. The little scholarship program has been growing and as more and more individuals have applied for scholarships, we realized it was time to officially set up a non-profit to make our scholarship program sustainable moving forward. More on that to come!

I’m very proud any time we are able to pay others to work for us! It is soul-filling to be able to pay other women well for the work they do, whether that’s teaching yoga, sharing a workshop, catering our meals, or helping us in another capacity.

We are also so proud to see how all of you show up to retreats. We LOVE to see you relax, having fun, challenging yourself, coming to yoga class without makeup and in sweatpants. We are inspired by the women we meet at retreats and it’s all of you that keep this work exciting and rewarding!

What has surprised you most?

Hands down, I’ve been most surprised by the genuine connections and community that has been created. I thought I was done making friends, that my lifetime quota had been filled and I wasn’t permitted to make new relationships. But I’ve discovered something my Grandma always said, that the heart always has more room for love.

She was a schoolteacher and a mother of nine children, so she understood a thing or two about love. I am continually amazed by the connections you all have made with each other at retreats over the years, as well as the relationships I’ve built with you. I know that this is going to continue to take my breath away as we age.

I recently told Bryana that I hope when we have gray hair we’re driving houseboats on Lake Vermillion leading a wild woman adventure.

Best compliment we’ve ever received?

Recently someone told us that we were unpretentious. We were THRILLED. It is one of the best compliments we’ve ever received. When we have planning sessions we often keep this word as a value to stay in line with.

Best advice you’ve ever received?

Never underestimate the power of your own healing.

Women’s History Month?

Being a woman is complex. All of you deserve to be celebrated, deserve time to heal, and time to live to your fullest potential. That is why we do what we do. Thank you for your support, kindness, laughter, honesty, and grit on our adventures together.