YouSaid · the spoken record

Peter Sterios

lines on the record: 70
first: 2023-04-24
most recent: 2023-04-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It was awkward in a way, but it was also beautiful because for the first time since the breakup, he exchanged a hug with me, you know, like he walked over to me, we embraced like brothers. And it was like, how are you? And we had a moment of just exchanging as two people, not teacher guru. And now it confirms for me this wisdom that he provided me by saying goodbye. And it was beautiful.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I drew that frog on a napkin and that frog symbol has survived four venture capital groups and I'm seeing it in some little village in Spain. That to me is such a gift to my life.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I want to maybe finish this with a story. About nine years ago, I was in Spain in this little fishing village called Cateques on the eastern coast of Spain. And so I took a train up the coast and then I drove to this little village. And I get terribly lost. And now I'm starting to worry because the rental car to get back to the train station, I can't remember where I parked the car. I'm standing in this maze. There's people and merchants and little shops. And I look down right at the window of the shop. And here's a Manduka sticker. On the inside of the glass, and I'm like oh my God, the door's locked. I look in and it's this tiny little yoga studio. And that feeling of being lost and then having this little logo that I drew on a napkin in a restaurant, you know how many years ago.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say The title of my book is Gravity and Grace. And everyone has a relationship to this word grace, whether it's a spiritual or a religious meaning or just appreciating nature, you know, where we feel this non-physical connection to things or energies, et cetera”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't. I mean, I played a major role in that, you know, corporate transition of the traditions of yoga into a Western environment. And I felt my place was part of a lineage of innovators to make yoga more accessible for people with bad ankles on the floor, you know, bad knees on the floor, whatever, to be able to get down to the floor and practice yoga and then stand up. So to me, that Something that I to this day feel really good about.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Heads up for me that the press release is one thing, the reality is another. And within a couple years of this employment agreement with them, they would pay me to create ideas and develop products, and then they would act without any regard to my recommendations. And they learned some painful lessons without even acknowledging that in a way I was correct. At the end of three years, they stopped communicating with me in the last two years of my employment with them, they paid me and they never called me, which is the way it happens, I guess, sometimes. But the brand has definitely strived to present itself as honoring its roots. And the different generations of owners, I think there's been four generations of different venture capital groups now, they've all in their own unique ways tried to maintain that reputation of Manduka.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of Patagonia was fresh in my mind, and I was saying, listen, guys, yes, it's going to cut costs for shipping and it's going to get a bigger labor pool and bigger access to customers. But I guarantee you in another five or ten years, San Lespo is going to be the place you want to have your headquarters because you'll be able to attract people here. And they didn't listen. And that was kind of the first”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, appearances and what actually is the reality is sometimes quite diverse. And I would say that the first, I mean, their first decision, which I was against was to move the company from San Lucia to Los Angeles. And the reason I was against it was the quality of life issues. And we had this perfect working model of what I was concerned about, which was Patagonia, where Shenard sold it to a venture group and they moved it, I think, somewhere in Southern California. And then he bought it back and moved the company back to Ventura because it was close to a beach break for all his surfer employees. And he had a quality of life for his employees that was more valuable than the bottom line. And so that track record.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It took a year. From that moment in the warehouse to the day we signed on the dotted line. And it was unbelievable timing because a month after we signed the whole economy collapsed. And that was a bit worrisome for me a little bit. But no, we negotiated over a year and they were new at this. And there was a little bit of haggling over price, but I basically told them we were undercapitalized, understaffed, and we still produced two and a half million in gross sales. The potential for this company is 10 to 15x what you're getting it for. And they said, yes, we agree. And in the end, that's how we came to a price.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And so he made the introductions, and part of the introduction, like he didn't want a finder's fee, he just wanted a job. And he was the COO, Chief of Operations for the new company.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I laughed at him and I said, well, that's wonderful, but I think I'm probably going to ask more than you can afford. He said, oh, well, I know people and I can introduce you and I want to be a part of it. And that's how it started. I didn't have to go find anyone to go find someone. I just. Started in a yoga works warehouse.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was at a crossroads and looking at the second half of my life and the second half of my life I wanted to be different than the first half of my life. And the fatigue wasn't so much the issue as the quality of life. And I made the choice for quality of life over some legacy of corporate success. When I made that decision, I had a sales trip down to YogaWorks and I was talking to their buyer and I said, hey, by the way, if you know anyone who wants to buy a yoga mat company, I might want to talk to them. And the buyer, who's this guy, I didn't know that well, said, well, actually, I think I know someone. And I go, who's that? And he said, me.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Once I made the decision to sell, I didn't feel overwhelmed. But leading up to that Yeah, of course. It's like saying goodbye to a child, you know. And even to this day, guy, you know, like Manduka is still part of me. And yesterday I get this email still from Manduka that's celebrating 25 years. And they acknowledge me in the email, which is just, of course, it's part of me.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was one of those moments that life can gift you with if you kind of make it to that realization where you decide what's truly important. And this is where my Know at that point 25, 30 years of yoga practice really overlaid into my personal and professional life as a business owner. And that was a gift from this diagnosis, the diagnosis which initially was cancer. And it turned out after they removed the tumor to be benign and that was after four years of Treating it holistically, naturally.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't see it as anger, but that state of confusion lasted for a year, maybe, maybe two, because simultaneously my wife had already left, but the divorce wasn't final. My dog probably the only real friend at that time in my life that I felt close to my dog died unexpectedly from a brain tumor. So you couldn't have piled in more stress into a life and still running all these other businesses and things.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's call it the inner teacher. Like who knows what's best for our lives? It's not outside ourselves, it's within ourselves. And if Ida listened on a business level, if I'd have listened to the advice that I was getting from these experts, I would have never started Manduka. And likewise if I'd been a follower of Shandor for the last 20 years, I wouldn't be here talking to you, I don't think, to be honest.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So After 20 years of being his student, but also at 10 years as being his North American business manager, the relationship was solid, he was the best man in my first wedding. But, I mean, there were signs that things were changing, and I was not really paying attention to them because I thought our relationship was solid. What I see in hindsight now is he realized in maybe my personality. Something lacking, and this devotion to the Guru, and maybe it was even starting from my Catholic upbringing, there was something Broken in that way of relating to myself. And in a nutshell, I think what he gave me is now what I consider the ultimate gift, because ultimately in yoga and in business, frankly, in a way, we all have that moment where we confront”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just looked at what my intuition led me towards and also what I was listening to studio owners and friends of mine, what was needed, what was lacking. And as a studio owner myself, what was needed and lacking in my own studio.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know bolsters, blocks, straps, eye pillows, all sorts of creative and useful tools. So I went out and I sourced materials that were organic cotton or whatever it was. We even did some air inflatable yoga bolsters to experiment with lighter weight things so students could travel with them. So I just didn't look at the balance sheet, the spreadsheets and say, okay, this is going to cost too much to make. I just said this is a product that studios need or individuals at home need. And they all sold reasonably well. And so that was growing the bottom line for us. Our international business was growing. Everything was growing. But to that point where I could manage it all, I was starting to see something's got to shift.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was a business that was not tiny. Yeah, and because as our orders grew, the business was like, the factory was a little cautious. Like, what if we send all these mats? But with track record and a relationship from that first visit, the second visit was how do we change the terms? And so we changed it. Thank you.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had to pay half at the time of order and half at the shipping date. So basically, I had to pay 100% of that inventory before it even left Germany, or on the day that it left Germany.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a warehouse guy. I had a marketing gal. I had an office manager who dealt with customers and I had kind of an outside sales rep who was basically a guy that just made commission and would travel a lot. And we didn't really have anyone managing the money. Yeah. Where we would get into trouble is when we send a shipment to Yoga Works who had at that time beginning to have seven, eight franchise yoga works around. Yoga on the chain, yeah. And they wouldn't pay us on time. The retail business was perfect, but the wholesale business would catch us. Literally with our pants down sometimes, and then we'd have to hustle. Because in the early days.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was carpet under layman and astroturf. Yeah, exactly. It was a huge factory. And so the production cost from Germany was high. But our costs, our sales price was high, and we managed that and we never sold the big box stores in the early days. We tried to maintain our studio relationships and our individual retail customers. And Big Box was only a thing that came later.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the first week that ad ran, we doubled sales. And then three weeks later, we're still doubling every week our sales. And it got to the point where that first year, I think we were on back order for three months out of twelve just because we couldn't keep up. And there was a two-month lag time between the order and the delivery.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And especially when we made those technical adjustments to the grip and the textures, it increased the price to 75, but the performance just easily paid for that additional money.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Its prelulu lemon, yeah. So the products and especially the clothing products hadn't really in those days been Realized. I didn't know what the extent was, but I didn't believe the business consultant that it was limited. I just figured that whatever the United States is doing, it's going to track internationally at some point. And that's what's happened. The growth started happening in the strangest of places, especially in Taiwan or in Japan. And then I realized that that's where Shandor teaches in Taiwan and Japan. And when he would be traveling with his map there, people in Japan would say, where do you get him? And he'd send them to us. So we started to have within three years, we had an international business going as well.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We weren't we weren't offering the guarantee at the start, but we had a tagline. The tagline was good for a lifetime. Or two. We had this little or two lifetimes as a joke. But we didn't.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was slippy. And we solved with that one trip, we solved all those problems. And we even, I anticipated a problem that I thought would be happening once they started to be used as studio mats by creating a texture on the bottom surface of the mat, which was this dot pattern that you see in shower mats and things like that that helps the mat stay put on a hardwood floor or a stone floor.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's exactly what we did. There were a couple customer issues that we were starting to see we had to address. One of them was the weight that these mats were heavy, which created some problems for smaller people like carrying them. And we just worked with it in a way. We didn't back away from it. We did eventually two years after we launched the black mat, we came out with this alternative mat that wasn't black and it was half the weight. We also had a problem with slipping. And so the early mats weren't designed tactily on the top surface to resist sweat, you know, to resist slipping. And so I went on that trip, one of about six trips to Germany over the years just to meet and maintain relationship.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it worked. The one, as I started to ramp this business up, I actually, a friend of mine was a business consultant and I hired him. I said, listen, I want to hire you. I want to get your expertise. Here's the business model. And I said, an indestructible product, lifetime guarantee, you know, one color heavy. He said, you're insane. Don't do it. There's no built in obsolescence. There's nothing. It's a dead end. Don't do it. And I said, here's your money. Thank you for the advice. And, you know, and then I moved on because I knew that it was filling a void. I mean, for years, first three years, I was the only person in that space.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the early days of orders, all we had was an answer machine at our yoga studio to take orders. And this pattern started showing up that on Monday morning, I'd have 25 orders from Tulsa or 25 orders from Oklahoma City. And I'm like, what is going on in these Midwest towns? And then I realized, I suspected it was Eric, and I checked his schedule on his little bit of web presence that he had in those days. And sure enough, it was where he was teaching weekend workshops. And so he was at the end, we custom built Erica's six foot four. We custom built him a mat that was 100 inches long instead of 72 inches long. And so he was an easy guy for me to develop this relationship with because he was doing it for free. He was an influencer before influencers got paid.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Connections that I had through yoga journal. There was a network of what I call celebrity yoga teachers that I was getting to know at these conferences where we'd sit around and eat and I'd meet some big names in those days were already making $100,000 a year as a yoga teacher. So there was money to be made there. I wanted to associate with those teachers and I would go out of my way at these conferences to kind of rub elbows with. And they became my friends in a way. And so that first shipment came. I gave 75 mats for free to every celebrity yoga teacher I knew.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and then I obviously did some research on the symbolism of frog, and it's quite an auspicious animal, especially in yogic terminology. And to me, that was really a perfect word for this company. Yeah.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With his Hungarian accent, it was so funny to hear. It was just this my Hungarian accent isn't very good, but manvuca. And so every time he would say that, I'd giggle. And it was subconscious. I don't know why I was giggling. Sometimes he even call me on it. He's like, what are you laughing at? Not so funny. And so for me, yes, this is the perfect word.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So because Chandorg introduced me to the mat, I wanted to define a name that kind of gave a little bit of acknowledgement to the roots of the mat. And so when I thought about words that Shandor used, Sanskrit words that might make a great word for a yogamat company, especially a yogamat company that has excellent grip and obviously a frog came to mind and I thought, well, what's the Sanskrit word for frog? And there was a word called Becca. And unfortunately, at that moment, there was a company that was starting to offer product called Becca Yoga Products. And so that name was out. And the other name was Manduka for Frog. And the reason I like Manduka and when I realized that was it because Shandar's Hungarian, and when he says the word Manduka,”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was impossible. You start a business without a business plan, you have this passion that you can solve any problem. And that was my mentality. That's the way I grew up. That's what my dad taught me. That problems are opportunities. That was one of my dad's favorite things to say. And so that's the mentality that I'll deal with that when it happens. There are so many personal things that happen during those times, including divorce, that freed up space in my house where I could use parts of the house for warehouse as well.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they came on pallets, 18 boxes per pallet. The neighbor kid that I hired would help me move it into the garage stacked floor to ceiling.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I naively believed that I could put the mats in my garage, just the garage seemed big enough to hold small container worth of mats. And so I just figured I'd cross that bridge when it happened. And sure enough, I overestimated. So I had to basically clear out everything that was in my garage to make room for the masks.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The thing about making money off it was instantaneous because even in the short time in San Les Obispo, every student that saw his Matt wanted one. So all of a sudden the wheels inside my head were spinning. So it was more, where am I going to get the money? And we were remodeling our house $80,000 in debt with credit card debt. And the way I was funding the house remodel was at a time when credit cards had these things called convenience checks where you could get an advance of $10,000 to twenty thousand dollars for zero interest actually if you paid it off in time. And so I just thought, well, shit, I'm already doing all these other credit cards. I'll just get a few more $25,000. It's two more credit cards and I'll just purchase it and then worry about paying the cards off when I need to worry about it.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Had a yoga studio, I had an architecture office, and I was remodeling our house, major remodel, where we were living out of a single bedroom with one bathroom. And the rest of the house was gutted.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, he wanted a distributor in the United States. He wasn't interested in shipping from Germany. And I just felt like this relationship was one of those moments. He's offering me an opportunity to start a business. And so from that moment, I thought. Okay, I've got a decision to make. I'll get back to you.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. Exactly Correct his friends in and around Europe, and So I said, Shander, how do I get one? He says, Here's Klaus's phone number. His name was Klaus. Here's Klaus's phone number. Let's call him. And so we called him right there from my kitchen in San Luis Bispo. And I said, Klaus, how do I get one of these? And he says, no problem. Where do I send them? And I said, here's my address. And he said, how many can I get? And he said, well, it's not how many can you get? It's how many do you need to buy for me to send them to you? And I said, well, how many do I need to buy? And he said, $25,000 worth.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He had the underlayment for Aster Turf. So it was the perfect, you know, accidentally it was the perfect composition for a yoga mat.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thick black, you know, like yoga at that point was still kind of new agey and the colors tend to be pastels. Yeah, purples and pastel blue and pastel green and blah, blah, blah. So here's this math that's double the thickness. Two inches wider, six inches longer, and heavy standard yoga mats about a pound. This mat was seven pounds. So here's what was revolutionary about it. It was a performance, a high performance. They also made material for astroturf.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, his Matt, one year he shows up at my house in San Luis Obispo, and he has this black mat. And I go, what the heck is that? And he said, it's this black mat from Germany. And I said, How do I get one? But what was different about it?”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was his business manager, and I basically organized his calendars in North America, including Canada and Mexico, every year that he would come, and he'd be in the States for two months usually, a month on the road, and then three weeks at my studio teaching intensives.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Your life. Well, it was part of my life. The other part in those days was that I started writing for yoga journal. And so I'm writing a monthly column. And at that time, I had been married for, I think, two years. And then I was also traveling a lot as Shandor's kind of, what would you call it, step-in when he was travel schedule was too busy to go to all the places he got invitations for.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it was 2,500 square feet, and I thought, this is the perfect size for a yoga studio. So the landlord was skeptical because he said, what business are you going to put up there? And I said, yoga. And he says, what's that? You know, so it was that whole kind of fringe thing. Yeah. But he said, listen, you're going to probably be out of business in six months. So I'll just rent it to you for $400 a month. And it was a hit.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two hours ahead of space. At the new center. Yeah. Yeah. So this class kept growing. This one friend of mine said Peter, it's time you get a space, you know, and I just happened to be walking. Downtown San Louis, and I walked by this building and I looked upstairs, this two-story building old brick building, and it had these huge ten-foot-tall windows. So the ceilings up there must have been high. And it turned out it was the first Oddfellows Hall in San Lucipo. that had been empty for twelve years because of a leaky roof.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“10 bucks. Okay. 10 bucks. So, you know, making $400 to teach a yoga class and paying $30 rent, it was like, yeah, let's do this.”
2023-04-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Manduka: Peter Sterios · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT