The Hot Room: Hye Jin Kalgaonkar in the Momlight
Looking back over her professional trajectory, Hye Jin Kalgaonkar could not have imagined she would find herself following in the footsteps of her entrepreneurial parents, but she very well may be honoring them with her hard work and dedication to the future of her family.
You may know Hye Jin as the energetic leader of The Hot Room, however years ago her future was less yoga pants and mats and more business suits and meetings.
When Hye Jin was just an infant, her parents emigrated from Korea in search of greater opportunities and a better life for their family. Throughout her childhood she watched them work tirelessly, running various businesses from grocery marts to sandwich shops; she describes them as working from sunup to sundown. But when it came to the family business, she wasn’t involved. “They actually never asked me or wanted me to do anything in the business,” Hye Jin said. “It was hard, you are working all the hours with no benefits. It is a life that they didn’t want their children to have.”
Instead they encouraged her to focus on her academics, hoping to give her the opportunity to go to college and succeed in the corporate America.
“They wanted me to graduate from college and have a job and wear a suit so I didn’t have to work like [they were],” Hye Jin explained. That motivated her to become valedictorian of her high school and receive a business degree from the University of Washington with a job offer in hand at graduation. Suited up and in the corporate world, Hye Jin continued to climb the ladder, eventually accepting a job with Eli Lilly as a pharmaceutical sales rep. After success in her role she relocated to Indianapolis to do marketing for Lilly. “I thought I’d only be here for a short time and eventually go back to Seattle,” she said. “But, I loved Lilly and fell in love with Indy too.”During her tenure with Lilly, Hye Jin and her husband Ashish traveled frequently for work and it was while they were in New York City that she discovered hot yoga. “My first class was a disaster,” she recalled. “It was the most awful experience. The teacher yelled at me and embarrassed me.” While she disliked the instructor’s style, she loved the way her mind and body felt and soon was going back again and again. “I moved with more ease, my skin was glowing, I felt lighter and energized.”
With that first class her love for hot yoga bloomed and she found herself taking and teaching classes all over the world as she and Ashish traveled for work. When her family returned to life in Indianapolis, Hye Jin was disappointed to find there were no hot yoga studios in the area. “I noticed when I didn’t have {hot yoga} consistently in my life, I wasn’t feeling well,” she said, and found herself wishing someone would open a true hot yoga studio here, never thinking she would be that person.Finally, Hye Jin took the plunge to open her own hot yoga studio, but immediately encountered obstacles. “No one would give us a loan, because they didn’t believe in first time entrepreneurs or this new business model,” she recalled. “Ultimately we put all of our savings in to start the first studio. It was so scary.” Despite the financial and professional risk, Hye Jin and Ashish promised themselves they would give it their all and have no regrets, no matter the outcome.
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The Hot Room yoga studio opened in 2013. Hye Jin was the only person working in the studio on the opening day, not knowing what to expect, she was floored to open the doors and discover 35 people waiting to participate in the first class. From that day, the business has steadily grown with the addition of two new studios, downtown Indianapolis and North Shore Chicago, with Greenwood and another location {it’s a surprise!} set to open in 2020.Yoga classes may not be hard to find in Indy, but The Hot Room offers a unique experience, in a room specially heated to a specific temperature, humidity level, and air flow allowing students to move their bodies in more efficient ways. “When you add the heat element, it intensifies everything. What I mean, is that, because your body is warmed up and allows your body to move with greater ease and flexibility,” Hye Jin explained. While physically students will gain flexibility, get stronger, and detox at The Hot Room, more importantly they will find a space to quiet their mind and be present.
Hye Jin credits much of the success of The Hot Room to that first awful yoga experience she had many years ago.
Instead of making yoga intimidating and pretentious, her philosophy is to embrace all students, especially beginners, making hot yoga accessible to everyone, regardless of age, shape, size, and abilities in an encouraging environment. “You walk into our studio and you will see the most diverse community ever, and that’s what I’m most proud of.” Embracing diversity has been a priority, as Hye Jin continues to encourage individuals of various backgrounds to try hot yoga. She recently announced The Hot Room Leadership Institute Scholarship for People of Color, an annual scholarship to support a person of color to participate in The Hot Room teacher training program. Through this, she hopes to support more people to deepen their practice of hot yoga.
Talking to Hye Jin, you can hear her enthusiasm for her business and see she’s a natural entrepreneur.
Maybe it’s not the dream her parents originally had for her, but she’s found a way to do it on her terms. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I wasn’t raised with hard-working parents. But what I take away from that is that I want to do it differently with my kids.” She makes family time with her daughters, Maya {10} and Annika {7} a priority, and recently, her husband left his job with Eli Lilly to join her full-time at The Hot Room. Hye Jin makes running the studio work for her, by building her own schedule that supports the needs of her family, allowing her to be present both at work and home. In a turn of beautiful symmetry, much like the motivation of her own parents, Hye Jin works to make her own dreams for her family come true, and the hope her daughters will have every opportunity.
MORE DETAILS: Interested students can check out The Hot Room for FREE during the weekly Hot Room 101 class Sundays at 2:45 pm at all 3 of their locations: Uptown Indy {3855 E. 96th Street}, Downtown {304 E. New York Street, Indianapolis} or North Shore Chicago {1926 Waukegan Road, Suite 1, Glenview}. Find The Hot Room online at https://thehotroom.com, Facebook, or Instagram.
