We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elena Moreno-Keegan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Elena Moreno-Keegan, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Finding my purpose came through a life challenge. It started with the death of my father, a physician, who died from a heart attack when he was only 51 years old. Eight days later, my 28 year-old brother also died from a heart attack. These two premature deaths set me on a quest to understand how to keep myself and others healthy. I remember my father being stiff and frequently having back and joint pain. He understood the importance of self-care, but he was so dedicated to his patients and to his family that he did not make his own health a priority.
The sudden traumatic loss of my father and brother led me straight to my life’s purpose: teaching the importance of self-care. My father used to tell me that I could learn to do anything that I wanted if I practiced just 5 minutes a day. I often wished that my father had taken 5 minutes a day for self-care. This is why I created Spiro. Having taught yoga for over 28 years, I wanted to create something to help people manage stress, move better, and feel better. I wanted to create a useful tool that was accessible, easy to use and effective with just 5 to 10 minutes of practice a day. My hope for the future of Spiro is to encourage others to prioritize their well-being so that they can live long, healthy, and happy lives alongside the company of their family and friends.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I have a Bachelor of Science from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, a degree in Integrative Life Coaching from JFK University in CA, and several certifications in various styles of yoga. Besides enjoying the wonderful things in life like family, friends, music, art, travel, nature, food, and more, I have always loved to learn. When I look back at my childhood, I realize I got this trait from my father. He gave me a Transcendental Meditation (TM) mantra after a TM workshop he took when I was 9, which introduced me to the power of the mind. He taught me about respiration and had me enroll at the local university to audit an anatomy class, which taught me about the importance of the breath to our overall health. My father was certified to do acupuncture and introduced me to the importance of a flowing human energy system. This is where I learned that a health issue was a circulation of energy issue. After his death, I started practicing hatha yoga. Two years later, I went to the Integral Yoga Ashram in Virginia to extensively train to teach yoga, meditation, and basic breathing exercises. This is where I learned that our bodies are self-healing. That is, if we provide our bodies with the right conditions, our bodies can self-heal. I feel very fortunate that for the past 29 years I have been able to support people in breathing better, moving better, and living healthier. After the birth of my first of three daughters, I started a small business providing on-site yoga classes to local companies. I have been doing that for over 27 years. During the pandemic in 2020, I saw a profound need to help people keep healthy while stuck at home. That’s when I got in gear to create the Spiro Stretch tool. Spiro (Latin word for breathing) is a stretching device that makes the benefits of stretching and yoga accessible to all people regardless of age or physical condition. I created the Spiro because of a lifelong passion for living well and helping others live well.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Starting a company requires us to grow and to develop the traits needed to succeed. Some of the qualities I believe are most important to develop are:
CONFIDENCE – you have to have confidence and passion that the world needs what you are offering.
COMMUNICATION –You have to be able to clearly communicate the value of your offering or product to anyone and everyone you meet.
CREATIVITY-Unless you have funding to hire a staff at the beginning, you will have to be creative and willing to learn how to manage all of the roles that are a part of running a startup.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
I have been incredibly fortunate to receive support and guidance from many family members, close friends, and business owners in my industry. First, I want to thank my daughters, Elle, Anna, and Ava Keegan. I call them “The Board of Directors” and pass all decisions by them to get their honest, creative input. Next, I want to thank my mother who is my rock and cheerleader for all my endeavors. Next, I want to thank Toby Bright, a college friend who listened to my idea of creating Spiro and helped me get started with a business plan and provided a lot of moral support. Next, big shout out to Kathy and Chris Keene, my sister-in-law and her husband, who have been successful in business, also acted as advisors as I got started and still to this day provide business know-how support when needed. Robb and Lisa McMahan, owners of the brand GelPro mats, who did not even know me, out of the generosity in their hearts to help budding entrepreneurs, spent a lot of time with me early in the process and guided me on how to manufacture my product. I also want to thank my good friend, Todd Barlow, who used his resources to help me create some structure to my company. Also, my good friend Ana Couture, owner of Trifecta Sports Therapy, loves to use Spiro stretch tool with her clients and has helped me connect with athletic trainers from all over. Traci LaMoyne, owner of StretchLab in Baton Rouge, helped me get my product into StretchLabs nationwide. My best friend, Brenna Barzenick and a DPT, has also helped demonstrate the utility of Spiro as a tool in a physical therapy setting. I appreciate all of these people and will be forever grateful for their support.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.spirostretch.com
- Instagram: @spirostretch
- Facebook: @spirostretch
- Linkedin: Spiro stretch
- Twitter: @spirostretch
- Youtube: @spirostretch
Image Credits
Jeannie Frey-Rhodes
