BRIELLE - John and Natalia DiFolco, owners of Bask Hot Yoga, both learned about the hard work of being entrepreneurs from their respective parents.

“We’re both very similar in an odd way,” John said. “We grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. My father owned a civil engineering firm out of Freehold and I grew up working with him. I remember my father teaching me how to do engineering work on the computer inside the shop. That did not work for me as a career path, but I grew up seeing him work long hours and still be around our family, which really made an imprint on me with wanting to open my own business later in my life.”

“Both of my parents are physicians and had their own practice for 30 years around the area,” Natalia said. “I grew up working in their office and I remember doing paperwork there for the patients that would come and go. I graduated to working at the front desk and did that all through my teen years. Seeing the foundation of what my efforts could do and realizing what I was capable of, it was very inspiring and opened up the door of what else I was able to do, in terms of being an entrepreneur.”

Both John and Natalia worked for their families for about five years until they were about 18 years old. After going to Brookdale Community College in Middletown at the same time, both John and Natalia earned their associate’s degrees.

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“I studied civil engineering and architecture, but neither of those worked out, so I switched over to marketing and business administration, which I really enjoyed,” John said. “I wound up doing that and I’m glad I got into something that I took well to and I became passionate about. It was a nice transition. Natalia and I both attended Brookdale and she studied photography at the same time that I tackled marketing. We loved what we were doing and pursued our education to the fullest.

“I started working at an investment bank,” John said. “I mainly did marketing for that company. In a nutshell, if a company was coming to us for capital or they needed to get reorganized, I would help them with creating a new presentation and branding. I would work on PowerPoints for them. I would take ideas that people had, package it for an investor and then raise money for it. After seeing companies get created and seeing how capital flows into companies for people that want to raise money and build businesses, it really helped solidify, for me, how corporations work in America. It was a great mini-education for me on how to start businesses.”

“I knew I could never take over my parents’ business because I never went to medical school,” Natalia said. “My parents never pressured me to do anything I did not want to do. In fact, they encouraged me to follow my dreams and what I was passionate about. I got into photography at a young age and started my own photography business. I started shooting events and people. I graduated to working with businesses and generating my own clients. I did that for a while."

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Learning how to run a business

“College came to an end and we just kept working,” John said. “It really set us up for the path that we are on today, because it taught us how to run a company and how to properly structure a company. All of that information that we learned at the investment bank was an invaluable experience and that was the real school for us. We learned what really makes companies work and thrive.

“At the same time that we were working for that bank, we started getting clients outside the investment firm that wanted our services, so we started our own marketing and design firm called Axial Creative in 2015 that we still run to this day," John said. "It got to a critical point where we were getting more side work, so we broke our ties with the investment bank and left that company on good terms."

Natalia said she has dealt with anxiety and stress her whole life and had always been into fitness.

“I was looking for different outlets to continue my fitness progression and give me a way to continuously relieve everyday stress,” Natalia said. “I tried hot yoga and I ended up liking it a lot. I wanted to find calm in my nerves after having to deal with a lot of life’s obstacles and I did that with hot yoga. It was the first time that my brain was able to find a moment of quiet. After the first couple of classes, I couldn’t believe the way I felt and it was something I wanted to keep doing.

“It turned into something that I was passionate about,” Natalia said. “After doing that for a couple of years and loving it, I got John into it as well. He tried it begrudgingly, but he started to like it more and more. Afterwards, he was very impressed and wanted to do it as much as I did. We wanted to wrap our arms around it and be close to it as much as possible. It was infectious for us.”

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'Forever grateful' to their customers

In the fall 2016, the couple opened Bask Hot Yoga and to share their passion with the world.

“We brainstormed and built the ideas for the business,” Natalia said. “Our first studio was in Jackson and we instantly had a lot of clients, so much so that we had to open two more additional locations, one in Brick in the summer in 2017, and the next was slated to open in 2020, but the world had other plans.”

“Needless to say, COVID-19 hit and it was disastrous for our business,” John said. “We were shut down in a day and it was a big challenge to sustain the business. Our customers helped us stay in business by keeping their memberships through that time and we are forever grateful to them for that act of kindness.”

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John and Natalia made it through. They opened the doors to their Brielle studio at the end of the summer of 2020 and have been there ever since.

“We got back into the swing of things and people started coming back through the door little by little,” Natalia said. “We got back to normalcy and we saw people smiling again and not being so on edge. We wouldn’t have made it through without the incredible support from our instructors and customers. Luckily, we are still here.”

At Bask Hot Yoga, they focus mainly a style of yoga that is about fluid movement.

“It is linked with breaths and the studios are heated,” Natalia said. “It starts at 98 degrees and goes up to 102 degrees. It is mindful movement and over the course of an hour, you move through some seated and standing postures. There are a lot of strength aspects to it, but you’re constantly moving your spine in different directions. It is very therapeutic.”

“We are always looking for more locations to help grow the business,” John said. “One thing about our business is that anyone who is a member of Bask can go to any of our three locations. We are always open to the public and we will continue to serve our loyal customers.”

Bask Hot Yoga

Owners: John and Natalia DiFolco

Phone: 732-637-9656

Website: www.baskhotyoga.com

Locations: 712 Riverview Drive, Brielle; 1957 Route 88, Brick; and 702 Brewers Bridge Road, Jackson.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. weekends in Brielle; 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays, 8:30 to 11 a.m. weekends in Brick; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, 8 to 11 a.m. weekends in Jackson

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bask Hot Yoga offers to cool nerves in Brielle, Brick and Jackson NJ