Shine Cycle + Yoga + Barre: Welcoming Your Moment

Monetizing yoga is as easy as putting your ankle behind your head then eating lunch in that pose (in Sanskrit, an asana). For a flexible pair of entrepreneurial yogis from Lodi, Alyssa Vaccarezza, 33, and Taylor Mancebo, 26, building a business is not unlike building muscle; you have to move. “When I moved Shine to Lincoln Center in 2019, it was wildfire,” said Alyssa, who founded Shine in 2017. “Classes had waitlists, and I was just keeping up with demand.”

Supplying a demand in business sounds as automatic as breathing. But the Shine story is a marathon that was hardly a sure-thing success. “In the beginning, I went everywhere—the Stockton DA’s office, Delta baseball, the Stockton HEAT—hustling my yoga,” Alyssa remembered. “Sometimes I would be in my first studio space, wishing for people, envisioning what Shine is now.”

The Business of Yoga
Now Shine is a diamond in the post-pandemic dust. Previously in two locations, downtown Stockton, then Quail Lakes, a small humble yoga space reemerged in Lincoln Center to sizable sold-out classes with a formula that was new to the Central Valley: a combo of yoga and cycling. 

“I had this vision but I didn’t have equity, and every bank turned me down,” Alyssa asserted. She was told repeatedly by loan officers that a BA from ASU and a certified 500+ hours of training just weren’t enough. “No one wants to invest in young women, and I heard more than once, ‘Not possible, how can you compete with In Shape?’”

“Not possible” is not a phrase used in yoga. Yoga only looks impossible, like balancing your entire body on your elbows (crow or bakasana). The banks unwilling to do the heavy lifting presented Alyssa with a first challenge to muscle through, rivaled only by the zero-public pandemic lockdowns. 

“That first class at Shine was just me and Alyssa,” said Taylor Mancebo, who started as a student, became front desk manager, then a fan-favorite instructor. “When Alyssa said she wanted me to take Shine, my first thought was, who is going to believe I can do this?” 

Sharing the Gift
Yoga teaches belief. Namaste, literally translated, is to bow (nama) to you (ste). Yogis see strengths—the divine, the light—in other yogis. For Alyssa to build a business, then sell at a profit is the stuff of Silicon Valley. But she was more interested in doing for Taylor what the banks wouldn’t do for her. “People have opinions about women under 40, but women under 30? It’s unfair and exhausting,” she said. “They look at us and think, they’re not going to make it.”

The thought I’m not going to make it, coincidentally, is what new yogis think when attempting a first-since-childhood backbend (wheel or chakrasana). But you breathe and you try. And if you fall, you learn and you try again. “Alyssa didn’t listen to the naysayers, and neither will I,” asserted Taylor, who holds a BA from the University of San Diego. “At first, I was all nerves. Why me? Why are you selling? My heart would fall to my butt.” Correction: Her heart would fall to her “sits bones” or root chakra. 

Alyssa explained that creating a professional environment her way was “…everything. I loved it, even the toughest moments.” As a new mom of baby boys, she explains the decision to sell in a headline: “It’s time to focus on my family.” She added that, “Tay’s version of Shine is going to be better than ever.” 

Establishing Her Dream
Taylor plans to follow in the barefooted steps of Alyssa’s professional yogic style. “My dad always told me to be my own boss,” she noted. “The way I am approaching being a boss is the way we teach at Shine. It’s not a competition. It’s an experience of presence. This is my dream. And this is my moment.” 

At the top of class, Taylor holds out her arms and says, “Welcome to the present moment!” She reminds Shiners that they have arrived on their mat or their bike to move, to breathe and to sweat, and above all to feel good. Namaste.

Written by: Jodi Bryson