Season 1 : Episode 2 : Melanin and Yoga Mats :Toned: By BaggedEm

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Episode Transcript

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Welcome and this is the Black YogaExperience. Hey everybody, and welcome

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to the Black Yoga Experience. Iam your host, Ashley Adams. And
on today's pod we have the amazingladies from Bagdam who are the makers of
the Toned yoga mat. These yogamats are absolutely amazing. They have photos
of black women in the most amazingyoga poses. I'll let the ladies introduce
themselves. Take it away, ladies, all well, I'm Julia. Our

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company is Bags of Toned is ourline of you know, basically yoga mats
or fitness masks that we created theycan be used for so many things.
We just started this ultimately to providethe same motivation that we get from each
other as sisters, and to remindpeople that, you know, just to

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give some representation within the wellness communityfor things that people may seem, you
know, that it may seem unconventional. Yes, So my name is Cornelia
on the other half of tone byBagum. Julia's my sister and pretty much
just every I'm gonna echo everything shesaid, and we created to make others

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feel the support that we get fromone another. It's like having a sister
when you go do your workouts,when you go and do your yoga and
go into your classes, and youhave that confidence even if you don't see
other people there that look like you. Yeah, and it's so important to
have that. I mean, evenit can serve even serves just a small

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way to motivate you, to keepyou coming back. If you have somebody
that you can kind of share experienceswith that you know that understands where you're
coming from. So tell us aboutthe maps and where they come from.
What was this born out of?Uh, my understanding is that your mom

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does is the artist for each ofthe maths. Is that correct? Yes,
our momgin drew the original images andwe got them in digital form for
the math and pretty much just stemsfrom our conversations with one another and something
we just wanted ourselves, like wejust wanted it in our homes on our

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own. But that's pretty much whatit's I mean. And we got the
similar reactions that, like you weretalking about where we were going to our
family, you know, of courseyou start with the people closest to you,
and we're telling them, you know, our idea. They're like,
black people don't do yoga, whatare you talking about? But now to

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see such, you know, suchan outstounding and astounding response from our match,
They're like, wow, we guessyou were right. Like we didn't
even know. So a lot ofpeople, you know, are still in
the dark about a lot of thingswhen it comes to I think wellness,
mental and physical wellness within our community. I think that's a very a very

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valid point because there's not many ofthat. I don't know, there just
doesn't seem to be many conversations surroundingwellness that go on in our community.
For whatever reason, I think it, well, it shouldn't it for whatever
reason. I have a feeling orhypothesis as to why. I think it's

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because we're so busy dealing with theday to day that wellness and anything that
involves taking care of ourselves beyond justmaking it from Monday to Tuesday. Yeah
exactly. I mean, I justthough it's sad to say, I think
that that's the case for many ofus, that we just but I think

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that sometimes it My personal opinion too, is sometimes that we don't think that
the person we're looking at is practicingwellness. Maybe they are not the fittest
person we know, or you know, maybe they don't look like someone that
we think is that their utmost health. So I think that sometimes that gets

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misinterpreted as well, that you haveto look at certain ways to be healthy
or to be mindful your health.And I don't think I mean as a
child, I was overweight, butI always loved track. So when I
would run relay races, people wouldbe like, this is Julia, But
I would run like relay races andpeople would wonder how I beat them.

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I'm like, well, I stilllike to move around, like I can
still breathe, I can still jump, I can still do everything and everybody
else does. Doesn't mean that I'mnot, you know, the healthiest person
you know, just because I haveweight or just because I don't fit into
that criteria of what they might visualize. Yeah, and that's that's one thing

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too that I wanted to do withwith the magazine and with the Black Yoga
Experience podcast and having entrepreneurs like thetwo of you on, It's showed that
we all come in different shapes,sizes, shades. You know, we
were not a monolith, right thatJust that and fitness especially it can be

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represented in different ways. The runningjoke I tell people all the time is
especially our yoga studio wise and practicewise, is that I have had curves.
Whether I'm a size two or sizefifteen, I'm just built down because
I will never look like what we'retold is a prototypical yogi for whatever that's

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worth. Does not mean that I'mnot capable of those postures or whatever else
you know, happens to be goingon in the fitness space, you know,
so it doesn't have to look acertain way like it can be.
You two so much like you allam very bent if you will, on

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having a diverse representation of what's availablefor folks. Yes, and I think
sometimes we forget to, like yousaid, how we're dealing with everyday life.
I think that we also created ourmasks as a reminder to take that
little bit of time concentrate on that, and that we would hope that our

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max would be the inspiration that youneed to say, you know what,
this reminds me, let me dosomething today that gets towards a healthier tomorrow.
I absolutely love that, And andthat's a great reminder for folks,
especially with the chaos that's going onin the world right now, that you

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can do these little things to buildtowards a healthier, healthier you, and
that all those small things matter.Do you, guys have people that come
in or or that you encounter thatare so worried about they can't do all
the things or whatever the posture isthat they cannot do or they'll never be
able to do dot dot dot.Do you how do you encourage those people

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that that you that you encounter thatmay that still may not think that this
is necessarily for them. Actually,I would say I mass do a pretty
good job at giving people the motivation. I've actually heard the isit of kind
of what you're saying. So they'relooking at the girl and she's doing the
polls on the mat mainly I'm matit's full enter the center and she's in

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a really you know, difficult pose, and a lot of girls say like,
I can't I'm using my mat untilI can do the polls that she's
doing. So I've heard like kindof like the opposite, if that makes
sense. Yeah, that's really coolbecause I get people who are are will
come into class or uh. AndI'm very mindful of if I teach online

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and what I teach online because Idon't want something that I've happened to work
years and hours on doing to looklike that that's the benchmark right for practice.
So but I've had people say,you know, I can never do
such and such and you know,so on and so forth. So that
warms my heart to hear you saythat people are feeling like emboldened to get

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out there and at least try,and that your maths are serving as a
inspiration for them to be able touh to do that. So that that's
really cool. Yeah, if we'veheard from beginner yogi's to people that say
I'm gonna pick my practice back upbecause of your mad like it makes me
want to get back out in thestudio and roll it out and be proud.

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Like we've heard so many different things. I absolutely love that. What
got you ladies into yoga in thefirst place, Well, for me,
I would say high school, Ihad a yoga and pilates class and I
went to well, I don't knowif anybody's from Yo, but I went

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to Jamaica High School. So it'snot really like necessarily a great school,
but they did give us that.They gave us yoga and pilates classes,
so we were able to relax andkind of get into that even though it
wasn't something prevalent in our community.So that's how I initially got into it.
I can't say I did it ona regular basis after that, but
you know, I did have thatfamiliarity with it and I was aware of

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from that point. Okay, AndI would say me personally, I'm just
a person that loves like classes,fitness classes. I never was the person
that could walk the treadmill, like, I get bored with that. I'd
rather do a yoga class or hitor zoomba pilates like that's just more what

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I was geared to. So Ijust grew a love for just different workout
regimens in general. So yoga isjust one and it's just something we I
think we picked it mainly because weknow that it's graceful and with the stigma
that is attached to it. Mmhmm. That's uh, that's absolutely uh.

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Kind of my story is a bitof a mixic kount of both.
At what you guys said. So, I am a fitness yunkie and I
love a good workout class. Ilove a good hard class. I just
like group fitness in general, whetherit be zoomba, uh, pilates or
you know, obviously yoga or ifit's uh, what is the other one

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that I do, like a boxingfitness class, any of that kind of
stuff. Yeah, I like stepaerobics. I love stepar Like your girls
they're like, there's that's coming actuallywill be insaid class, let's go figure
this out. You know, LikeI'm not perfect, but what what ends
up ended up happening is in highschool, I ran track and my knees

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just have plenty of miles on them. So some of those classes don't always
like me back, and I understand, right, I still wanted a great
workout, is how I first cameto yoga. I still wanted a great
workout, but I I knew Ineeded something that was a bit lower impact.

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Now, don't get me wrong,you can still get God in a
good power yoga class, right.Yes, it will rise up to meet
you where you are, that's forBut but I knew that long term I
need to kind of needed to kindof mix up what I was doing.
So that's what brought brought me tothe practice from a fitness perspective. Well

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before you know, I had childrenand all that kind of stuff, which
was later on down the road,which that part is what brought me to
teaching. So so kind of amix you know of you guys story being
introduced to it from that high schoolcollege perspective and you know, being introduced
to it through a love of justgroup fitness and in general. And I

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was told that it was challenging andbeing one that is never willing to back
down from something that somebody told meI could not do, I you know,
I was kind of pushed into showingup to class from that perspective too
as well. So now, howlong have you guys been producing the maths
and how many different how many differentversions of them do you have? So

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we yeah, we started, Westarted in November. Yeah, we started
in November. So we did aKickstarter and that's how we started reaching out
to different people, you know,and we got support for our kickstarter,
and that's how we did our firstorder and we fulfilled those for people and

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sent them out, and then that'swhen we started doing our retail side of
it, and we just have threeWe have three different main mats that we
have now three different girls. Thosewould be into the Center in Mizen and
Piece of Cake, and then wedid have our one limited edition Unity Mat,

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which is something that we hope tocontinue to do and that's how we
hope to continue to include other peopleis ultimately by offering limited editions. So
we that our first one was ourUnity met that was an array of different
ethnicities on the mat and those soulsout. So those are going. But

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we have a few other limited editionsthat we intend on releasing and maybe some
more main girls that would stay.We have a lot of ideas. Okay,
that's cool, I mean, wellkeep from coming because we're here for
it. That's that's for darn shoreat bare minimum, you have a customary
meet so I can tell you andwhat we do love, and what we

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do love is that so many peopledo contact us with ideas. And our
mom she's retiring from the New YorkCity Board of Us, so it gives
her, you know, something todo, but we're always like harassed and
like, hey, we had thisidea, we had that idea. So
we love that people do come tous with all their different ideas and things
that they want to see on amat like we've heard men, We've heard

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dread, you know, the locks, girls with lots, girls with the
bull dye, so many different things. So definitely we answer our emails,
we answer our dms, so wedefinitely appreciate when people come to us with
other ideas and new things that wecan try out. I mean, well,
don't be surprised if you get aninflux of folks after we put this

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episode up, because I know,I'm definitely going to shout you out on
our social pages and you know,yell at from the rooftops that they're here.
So thank you because it's too goodnot to share, you know.
Now you mentioned retail space. Doyou have retail retail all over. Is
it just one location? What isthat like for you right now? No,

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what we try to do is createpartnerships with other women that we see
that are young and entrepreneurs and onour same initiative and mission. So we
partner with a few girls that havetheir own life your studios, and we

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have our maths and their studios.And that's about it as far as retail
at this time. Okay, Nowit's the retail space where you guys see
yourselves expanding further or are you kindof more keeping it in the online pain
or a little of both? Hmm. I mean, I think we would

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want to expand at some point tobeing able to be in stores and make
it more accessible so everyone has accessto it. But I guess that's just
as we grow. So right now, we're keeping it online retail, and
we're gonna try and keep up thepartnerships with the studios, maybe get some
more studios in different areas to justencourage people to actually go out and experience

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a class while they get a match. It's kind of, you know,
good for both entity to thrive.So right right, that is a great
incentive for people to come in becausein the various gift shops that I traveled
through, the different studios that I'vebeen in. Many of the products that
are offered in the boutiques aren't forus either, so it's nice to be

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able to see things that are LikeI even had to tell one studio owner
like, hey, your clothing isbeautiful, but can we get sizes that
are a little bit over because someof us aren't built that way. Now
I have agreed with her, andshe's a beautiful soul, so we had

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a good laugh about it. Sheknows me well, mind you, that
was someone I didn't know that well, I wouldn't have said anything, but
she's she's on this mission to kindof expand what the yoga community looks like
as well, like they have acommunity outreaching connection director, like it's a
part of their mission too, Soshe is wanting to kind of come to

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me and say, hey, whatelse can we do? And that was
one of the things that I mentionedto her, like can we get a
few other sizes than extra small inhere? You know? So? Uh,
well, I just our doors areopen as well to you know,
any other studios that you know,I know they're closed probably at this time,
but I mean in foresight, ifanybody ever wants to, you know,

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contact us, and we definitely opento working with as many people that
are on the same a mission andinitiative to provide representation. Well, we'll
definitely do everything we can on ourend to connect you with more people,
as many people as you want tobe connected to. We want to serve
where we can. And I'm justover the moon happy that y'all exists,

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like that you're out here doing,you know, doing this kind of work.
And I know it sounds so maybesimple or strange to hear that a
map can make so much difference,but it's so so dues and for me
from from this particular perspective, aswe traverse areas where we don't see many

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people that look like us to startwith, that in itself can become very
taxing. So if you if youhave an opportunity to take a little piece
of your culture with you wherever,that's cool. It's comforting to be able
to do that. Yep, yep, that's the goal. Yeah, it's
it's just uh, I mean,I can't sing your praises more. I

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was very excited when I heard aboutyou all on the read and that you
were out here and I couldn't waitto have you on the show, couldn't
wait to be able to share whatyou're what you're doing. So where's the
best place for everybody to get intouch with you? How can they find
out what maps are available? Andhow do they put their orders in and
all that good stuff. Well,we are active on social media, so

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we have Instagram and Facebook. We'retoned by bag dum b A G G
E D E M. And alsoyou can go on our website www.
Bagdobe dot com. Okay, wonderful. Yeah, and we definitely recommend everyone
joins our mailing list. Anyone onour mailing list would always get first hand

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information on inventory as well as whenwe're releasing limited editions and things like that.
So you definitely want to join ourmailing list as well on our website.
Wonderful. So what we'll do foryou, guys, keeps listening to
the podcast. We'll put all ofthis in the show notes, so that
way you know where to find yournew favorite yoga Matt, You know how

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to get on the mailing list soyou don't miss out on the important folk
that's coming your way from Bagdom.Because like I said, it's it's too
good to miss out on this.So ladies, I thank you so much
for your time today. I'm gladwe got to talk and kind of get
to know each other in this spaceand know that there's two more people out
here fight in a good fight,and I really really do appreciate it.

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Thank you. We appreciate it.With a big thank you to our guests
for today, and thank you allfor tuning in to the Black Yoga Experience
podcast. We'll talk to you soon.