-Next on "Start Up"... We meet up with Hope Zvara, the creator of Mother Trucker Yoga, a company that provides fitness guidance to truck drivers.

All of this and more is next on "Start Up."

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♪♪ ♪♪ -My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country focuses on recovery, small-business owners everywhere are still fighting to keep their dream alive.

So we set out to talk to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves in this ever-changing world.

♪♪ This is "Start Up."

♪♪ More than half of all long-haul truck drivers reported having two or more health concerns or unhealthy behaviors, that include high blood pressure, smoking, limited to no physical activity, high cholesterol, and consistently getting fewer than six hours of sleep.

Over 85% of the drivers are either obese or morbidly obese, which can lead to more illnesses, including heart disease.

Today, I'm going to meet up with Hope Zvara, the creator of Mother Trucker Yoga, a company that's on a mission to transform the health of long-haul truckers across the U.S.

I can't wait to meet up with Hope and learn more about this business.

♪♪ ♪♪ When I think of truck driver yoga, I think that everyone meets at a truck stop, takes off their boots they've been wearing for, you know, 12 hours, and does yoga in a field.

-[ Laughs ] -Is that it?

Because that's what I think a lot of people might be thinking right now.

-Absolutely.

Well, we joke it's no-mat yoga, no yoga pants needed.

Most of the drivers, that's their initial thought, when they see the name of our business, and I'm always like, "Well, you can do yoga."

We have 20-minute yoga videos, if you want to do something, but that's not the premise of what we do.

It's really about teaching drivers what they can do in the driver's seat, a lot of stuff while driving safely, what they can do in the sleeper, which is the back cab of their truck or at home on the floor, and then, things that they can do right outside their rig in five minutes or less.

So, they can do it with their work boots on.

They can do it with their jeans on.

They can do it wherever they are.

And you don't have to be a truck driver.

If you drive for Amazon, if you're a Grubhub driver -- whatever it is, it's -- -Or office worker.

-Absolutely.

This is about confined areas.

This is about taking these components of yoga and movement and bringing them into your life.

♪♪ -Let's go back to the beginning, learn a little bit about you because, obviously, you don't just snap your fingers and you're doing this one day.

There's a lot that brought you to this point, right?

-Absolutely.

Well, I'm a recovering addict and I've been in recovery for a little over 15 years and I found yoga knee-deep in an eating disorder.

I struggled with anxiety and depression and, as a teenager, I kind of felt like I didn't fit in.

I kind of felt like everyone was here and I was always on the outside, and that was part of the anxiety and the depression and looking for ways to cope with that.

I used food.

I used anorexia and bulimia for many years to cope with that stress and then, my senior year in high school, someone at work -- I was a lifeguard, at the time -- looked at me randomly and was like, "You look like someone that would practice yoga," and [ Snaps singers ] something in me just switched and I went home and I was like, "I think I want to practice yoga," and I told my mom and we found a yoga class.

And, next thing we know, I'm half the age of everybody else in the class, but something happened that day, when I left that first yoga class.

I rolled up my mat, walked out the door, and I remember looking back into the room and, for the first time, in as long as I can remember, my mind was clear.

I felt calm and at peace and I don't remember the last time I felt that way.

Now, I don't know if I did anything right in the class.

Pretty sure I held my breath the whole time, but I was hooked.

Every single time I came back, I just kept feeling that same feeling and, slowly, it started to extend into my life and I was like, "Man, what is this?!"

-What is it about being in a yoga class that really sort of did it for you, that made it click?

-I don't remember the last time that I didn't hear those voices in my head, saying, "You're dumb.

You're stupid.

You're ugly.

You're a nobody.

Nobody likes you.

You're worthless."

This was on repeat in my head from the moment that I woke up to the moment that I went to bed.

And something happened in that yoga class, that hour class, it like sand-sifted all of those thoughts out of my head and so, when I left, at least for a small block of time... -You had peace.

-...I had peace and I had never experienced that before.

Like it almost moves me to tears right now, thinking about that, because I can't go back to that life and so many people are still struggling with that internal conflict inside their head, yet, they look good on the outside.

That was me.

I looked fine on the outside.

"Oh, you're so cute.

You're so fit and healthy.

Oh, this."

People were saying that to me all the time, but I was carrying around the secret inside that I was struggling, struggling, just to try to get from the morning I wake up to the night without harming myself, whether it's through food or drugs or alcohol or cutting, or whatever it is.

People don't realize how much stuff we're all carrying around and, having gone through that and then, teaching people in the way that I was, and, now, working with drivers, what you see on the outside is rarely what's going on on the inside.

Eventually, my yoga teacher, she's like, "You look like someone that would teach yoga.

Have you ever thought about becoming a yoga teacher?"

And you can see the trend happening here.

And I went home and I got on the Internet and this was in 2002 and I found a yoga training out in Colorado and, for 30 days, I went out there and I came back and I just knew this was what I was supposed to be doing.

A year later, I opened my own yoga studio and then, eventually, opened a yoga school in the state of Wisconsin.

-How did you go from, you know, sort of yoga saving your life, owning a studio, teaching classes, to this?

-I knew that owning a yoga studio was never my end game.

I just felt it deep in my core.

Even when I opened the studio, I knew that that wasn't my dream.

Some people, it's a dream to open a business, a brick-and-mortar business.

I felt like that was always a stepping stone.

My husband is in local politics and, at the time, I was still owning my yoga studio and he goes, "Hey, you want to come to this business mixer with me tonight?"

And I was like, "Nah, I know everybody that's going to be there.

Like not interested."

And he's like, "No, no, no, you should really come."

I said, "Okay, fine."

So I show up and go in and sure, kind of know everybody, recognize everybody.

And I look over at this guy and never met him before.

I haven't seen him ever in the community.

So I start talking to him and I'm trying to pitch him corporate yoga because that's part of what I did at the time.

And he looks at me and says, "Do you have anything for truck drivers, like in the cab of their truck?"

And I think I'm funny sometimes.

I throw up my hands and I'm like, "Mother Trucker Yoga!"

Really, just thinking this is like a conversation with somebody and he doesn't even flinch, sticks out his hand and says, "That's brilliant.

Do you want to go into business together?"

And I looked at my husband and he's like, "You should totally do it."

And, the next morning... -Wow.

-...he called me up and was like, "Okay, business partner, are we going to do this?"

And, in four months' time, we shot about 30 hours of video content for drivers from the truck and we built a website, designed a logo, and then, launched at the largest truck show in Louisville in 2018.

-What did this guy do for a living?

-He was in trucking.

So, he was in fuel.

He was starting up a brokerage, so he had experience in the trucking industry.

He knew drivers.

He kind of knew the culture of it.

And so we kind of combined forces and we both did some research and we're like, "No one's really serving them," at least, not in the way I knew that we could serve them.

And we thought, "Well, what's the worst that can happen?"

♪♪ -Where are we going right now for this demonstration?

-So, we're going to B&B Heavy Truck and trailer Repair and I'm going to show you guys a little bit of yoga.

-Why do truck drivers, in particular, need to know this, you know, or need to know these techniques, these moves?

-Absolutely.

Well, 86% of our trucking population is obese.

-86?

-Yeah.

Not just overweight.

Obese.

-Oh, my gosh!

-And so it's the largest community within our country that's dealing with obesity.

-It's like epidemic proportions in their community.

-Absolutely, absolutely.

And 34% of them are on at least one major medication for a chronic illness.

-Wow!

-That whole system is so broken, we need a know approach and it's Mother Trucker Yoga, my friend, because we're all about the small, simple changes that lead to the big results, so that you can feel better wherever you are.

Be it in the driver's seat, be it outside your rig, be it when you're at home, it doesn't matter.

These things can be done everywhere.

-You can have it both ways.

-Absolutely -You can still do your job and live and be healthy, right?

-Absolutely.

-So we're here at B&B.

I cannot wait to meet these folks and see Mother Trucker Yoga in action.

-[ Singsong ] It's going to be good!

♪♪ ♪♪ So, for a lot of drivers, it's about using the space that you have and it's about using what you have... which happens to be a truck.

-Equipment.

-This is your equipment!

So you don't have to travel with anything extra.

You don't have to pay for anything extra.

And so, simple as filling up with fuel, you have some downtime, anyways.

-Nice.

So I'm going to show you an awesome little plank variation and then, some core work to go with it.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Felt great.

-And the one thing I love about it is that that's just two minutes.

-Yeah.

-Everybody has two minutes.

My motto is, "If you have time to scroll Facebook, you have time to implement the tiny, little movements and changes into your day, how you breathe."

-It eliminates excuses.

-Absolutely.

And, when you feel good, you make good choices.

-Yeah.

-And, when you make good choices, then, you're likely to eat better food and, when you eat better food, you feel better about yourself.

So it's just the cycle that we want to get in and we want to stay in.

♪♪ -You said that you guys produced 30 videos right off the bat.

Did those live on a website and how do you get people to watch them?

-Absolutely.

For me, it's I want things to be [ Snaps fingers ] quick, fast, and easy.

So, most of our videos are five minutes or less.

-Good.

-And the gap that I saw, being in the fitness and yoga world for so long, was everyone was telling people what to do.

They weren't explaining to them how to do it and why to do it.

And so, what makes me so different than other people, especially with trucking, is I'm explaining to the drivers why they should do it.

Like why should I do this pelvic tilt in the driver's seat, unless someone tells me, "This will help you reduce back pain.

This will help with your sciatica"?

-They need to know what it's going to do for them.

-Absolutely.

And then, how to do it properly.

-Sounds to me like it's tools to change your lifestyle to a more healthy, long-term, sustainable, you know, sort of healthy route, way.

-Absolutely.

-It's not a class.

-It's mental.

It's teaching these drivers how to breathe because stress -- they have such stressful lives and such stressful day-to-day actions that they have to go through with being on the road.

I have such respect for big rigs now.

It's like, "Stop cutting them off.

Back off!"

Because they're constantly trying to anticipate what we're all doing and we kind of forget that they have a much bigger rig than we do.

-Like flies buzzing around the horse's head.

-Absolutely.

Sleep is an issue for them.

So, I wanted to show these drivers that these are very simple things that you can do, with really big results.

So, the videos were in the driver's seat, were things that they can do in the sleeper before they go to bed, when they wake up in the morning, and then, things that they can do discreetly right outside their truck.

Because most drivers, as simple as you think it would be -- "Oh, yeah, get outside your truck, once you're parked for the night, and roll out your yoga mat or get out your weights" -- have you ever drove into a truck stop before?

I don't see anybody doing that.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Practicing yoga in the past, in different periods in my life, there is this level of pretension that's a bit of a turnoff.

-Yes.

-And that's sort of what drew me out of it.

-And that's my experience, too, in yoga.

And I think that's one of the things I did pride myself on, was that I'm about as down-to-earth as you can get and so, when you came to my studio, we had people in cutoff plaid pajama bottoms.

I mean, it was like they came in jeans.

I mean, it was like sweat pants that were 20 years old.

Like there was no judgment.

-No lululemon requirement.

-Because I was attracting people that were like me -- recovering addicts, people that were struggling -- kind of like the outsiders.

And I wasn't interested in all of that fancy stuff.

I always joke that, you know, "What good is standing on your head, if you can't even stand on your own two feet?"

-Nice.

-And so, it was trying to help curb a lot of the people that were coming to me.

Their whole idea on yoga and the mental side was so big for me, but I'm not easily swayed by the fancy poses.

I'm much more I get geeked out with like the functional things, -Nice.

-like now your back doesn't hurt.

So, even, I tried to get away from like the "yoga pose" names and, rather, just guiding people into positions and sharing with them how to feel those things, that really changed the course of, you know, how to live.

I'm not teaching yoga.

I'm teaching people how to move better in their everyday life.

♪♪ -How does your company actually earn revenue?

-The main way we work with drivers is we have a membership site, so drivers subscribe to us; or companies subscribe to us, because we have corporate rates; and then, they get access to all of our video content.

But I launched, back in November of 2020, a 90-day program called Your Wellness Pitstop and this is really where I got to bring all of my knowledge and my toolbox to the table.

We talk about goal setting, mind-set work, breathing, posture, movements, mini exercises, how to read a food label.

So many of the things broken down into tiny little pieces that I believe you need all of these things in order to better your life and move forward.

-Is it per driver?

Like, how does your pricing work, for people that are interested, that are watching?

-Absolutely.

So we're $7.99 a month for an individual driver.

-$7.99?

-You got it.

-Oh, my gosh!

-So, we want [ Snaps singers ] this to be like a Netflix decision, which, I think we're probably a better Netflix decision, at this point.

[ Laughs ] -Yeah, yeah.

-So, drivers don't have to worry about thinking, "Ooh, do I have to choose learning about how to take care of myself or do I have to choose, you know, a healthier meal at the truck stop?"

And then, if they buy for a year, we're 85 bucks for the whole year, so they save 10 bucks.

-Yeah, save like 8 bucks, yeah.

-Yeah, so it's a really great deal.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Tell us about like your health, prior to working with Hope.

-A little overweight and I'm not where I want to be, yet, but I've got the foundation to get there.

-Excellent.

-And I've got a couple grandkids and I want to be able to keep up with them.

-Did you ever picture yourself participating in a yoga program like earlier in life?

-No, I never would've thought I would ever do one.

[ Laughs ] -Well, there's a lot of truck drivers out there, or people that just, you know, sit in the same position for hours in a day, right?

What would you say to them, that are watching this?

-It's very easy to do.

I mean, it's not a "Go to the gym and spend hours on end."

You can sprinkle it in throughout your day.

The reward is huge.

-Total life-changer.

-Oh, absolutely.

♪♪ -Business partnerships can be tough.

Talk about your entire, you know, business partnership experience.

-Absolutely.

Well, I want to remind you I met this guy for 20 minutes and we became business partners and it was a great relationship.

He is a wonderful person.

In the beginning, we kind of had like, "This is what you're good at.

This is what I'm good at," but I just kind of felt like, as we moved forward, the progress that we were making was more on my end than it was on his end.

And that's no disrespect to him, but it was like it just wasn't -- -You're ready to launch, yeah.

-Absolutely.

And so I called him up on the phone and just was honest with him.

Again, honesty is the best policy and who told him how I felt and told him the direction I felt like I wanted to take the business in was something I could do and, to be quite frank, I was like, "I felt like I was doing all the work."

-Yeah.

How did he react?

-I was not sure how he was going to react and he responded by saying, "Okay."

-How much revenue did you have, at that point, just out of curiosity?

-We were not profitable, yet.

-Okay.

-So we were still in major start-up mode.

We both had put in initially about $20k, and then, through that year, probably another additional $10k each.

So we hired a contract lawyer.

We had someone write it up to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Like, we wanted to make sure that moving forward, this was a completely closed door.

-Buttoned up.

Yeah.

-Absolutely.

And the ironic thing about that was, you know, me making that decision to tell him that I felt like opened up a whole nother doorway for me to really embrace what I was doing and fully step into Mother Trucker Yoga, because I had so many ideas.

I had so much stuff that I wanted to do.

I eventually now have a show on Chrome and Steel Radio, as a podcast radio show, where I talk to drivers about motivational health and wellness.

-Nice.

-We launched a product, which I always was wanting to have my own pain-relief cream.

And then I met someone and said, "Have you ever thought about having your own product?"

And I was like, "Actually, yes, I have -- a pain-relief cream!"

And then she helped me formulate a pain-relief cream.

And now we just signed on with a distributor to go into truck stops nationwide.

So we're super excited about that.

And so, so many things to help drivers and to help people.

And in the flip side, it's continually reminding me that I'm good enough.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Were you familiar with or did you do yoga or anything at all?

-No.

Never, never.

-What would you have said if somebody said, "Oh, you're gonna get really big into yoga?"

-"Not this girl.

Not this country girl.

No, I don't think so."

-[ Laughs ] How big of an impact has this made on your life?

-Oh, 360 with doing the program with Hope, starting to eat correctly, exercising, doing stretching.

I've lost 44 pounds.

-Congrats.

-Yes.

-Off of my blood-pressure medication.

And not only have I lost 44 pounds, but my husband has lost 75.

-What?!

Yes.

He was 413 pounds, and he is now 338.

-Oh, my gosh.

And probably still going.

-Oh, yes, and absolutely loves it.

And meeting Hope was just a godsend.

-Yeah.

Ironic what her name is.

-Yes.

Oh, yes, Hope, yes, because she does.

-The universe gave you Hope.

-Exactly.

-Right.

-And that's what I tell her all the time, is that you are my hope.

♪♪ ♪♪ -People are people.

We all want to have a good quality of life.

We want to be happy.

So at the end of the day, if you can offer something maybe from a non-salesy type approach that may actually benefit them, we're all after the same thing.

-Well, and truck drivers -- This is my home.

I feel like I finally found where I belong.

They are some of the nicest, most genuine people, and many of these men and women.

I mean, I've become their lifeline.

I mean, they say, "Oh, you're my hope, and pun intended."

But I don't take that lightly, and I I always feel like if I can get to a place from where I was to where I am today, I so deeply want it for these drivers, where often I want it for them before they even want it for themselves.

And I think that's one of my greatest qualities I can bring to the table as a business owner is I truly want these men and women to succeed.

-What advice do you have for someone out there that has a unique, very niche idea and wants to execute and move forward, but doesn't necessarily know how?

-Are you willing to do what it takes?

There are so many times I could have just been like, "It's just not working.

I'm not getting the business that I want," or, "It's not not getting the receptivity," like, "Oh, everybody loves you!

Here's my money!"

Like, we all dream that when we start a business, that's how it's gonna be, and that's not always the case.

It hasn't been for me.

It's been a little bit of an uphill climb.

But if you're willing to put in the time and you stay true and consistent, you are gonna see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This has been my best year in business yet.

Financially, we are on the way that we want to go.

I have a book coming out.

We just launched a pain-relief cream.

We have more drivers than ever are turning on to what we're doing and implementing these things into our lives.

It's not always a year turnaround for success, but if you're in it for the long haul, pun intended, you're gonna see the fruits of your labors.

Sometimes you just have to trust here and move forward, and that's sometimes the best ideas and the best businesses.

-Keep on trucking.

-Keep on trucking.

♪♪ -Yoga saved Hope's life, plain and simple.

And Mother Trucker Yoga is truly the ultimate expression of paying it forward.

And you can see it in the truckers' eyes when they talk about it.

They have hope, pun definitely intended.

Not only is she changing people's lives, she's bringing attention to a community of hardworking men and women that desperately need help.

Truck drivers are without a doubt an essential part of our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not.

From that coffee drink to building materials and everything in between, without truck drivers, many of the items that we expect to be stocked on store shelves would quickly disappear.

And as Hope said, companies should see these folks as an asset, not a liability.

But with no systems or protocol in place, their health is often ignored, and drivers are made to feel expendable, which is one of the reasons why I love this company.

Hope took matters into her own hands, and real change is beginning to happen.

And I believe that if her message can get out to every trucker on the road, it can have a substantial impact on the community of men and women out there, putting themselves at risk for our convenience.

For more information, visit our website and search Episodes for Mother Trucker Yoga.

♪♪ Next time on "Start Up"... We head to Charleston, South Carolina, to meet up with Neely Powell, the owner of Charleston Shoe Company, a business that provides women with comfortable and stylish shoes.

♪♪ Be sure to join us next time on "Start Up."

♪♪ Would you like to learn more about the show, or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website, at startup-usa.com, and connect with us on social media.

♪♪ -♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our ♪ Dues ♪♪ ♪♪ -Spectrum Business partners with small businesses across the country to help them achieve their goals.

With high-speed Internet, phone, TV, and mobile services, Spectrum Business provides the tools to keep you connected with your customers.

Spectrum Business.

No nonsense, just business.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Vistaprint, a proud sponsor of "Start Up" and small businesses everywhere.