Look. We need to get into it. To ask all the questions, to unearth all the possibilities, to sit with some uncomfortable answers. So I asked Leslie Kaminoff to come on, and we did just that. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *” Fundamentally it is a governance issue” is my favorite quote about the IAYT issue that is on this entire podcast series.  Because they do have a governance issue, and it is important that we talk about it.   To reiterate: a 501c3 organization in the United States exists to serve...

Once upon a time we had organizations that worked for us, the professionals of the yoga industry. Or did we? On this new series we explore the recent work of one of our orgs, the International Association of Yoga Therapists as well as some other organizations in our space. Sorry Yoga Alliance, you are sitting this one out. Take a listen to the intro and then get ready for some serious industry legends and pros to tell you what they think about our recent organizational...

This one is a personal conversation between friends. Shannon and I have a hard conversation together, and talk about how you can have conversations with friends too. This is one of my favorite conversations ever, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. KEY TAKEAWAYS *There are a lot of ways to have a hard conversation.  But don’t take for granted the powerful act of having hard conversations with your friends.  Friends are folks with whom you prioritize your connection over self-serving...

How we train the next generation of yoga teachers is one of the most important conversations I think we can have as an industry. This series on the podcast has covered a lot of ground talking to experts from all over the world about their thoughts on YTTs. And this, our final interview, is with a person whose expertise is in the actual training of teachers. Leslie Pearlman is on the week, and what she has to say is the best. KEY TAKEAWAYS *How many times in this series can I say this? ...

One perspective I wanted to make sure we had during this conversation series around YTTs was the longtime trainer and studio owner. And I could not have gotten a better match than Stephanie Adams. Stephanie started SAYF, or The Sustainable Asana Yoga Foundation—and has been training folks for over a decade. Stephanie has lots of wisdom to share from her years of teaching and training, so take a listen to find out more. KEY TAKEAWAYS *What do we think about Stephanie’s point about...

Have you ever wondered how on Earth we got here? How did we get 200 hours? Who started all this? Amara Miller has the answers. Take a listen. KEY TAKEAWAYS *Knowing where we can go to in the future depends greatly upon understanding our where we came from.  The Yoga Alliance started in 1999 as a solution to a problem, and was not initially set forth to monetize yoga in the way we see today.  So treating them as an evil eye organization right from the start simply isn’t true.  The...

There is so much to dive into in regards to teacher trainings. How long do we train for? Is our system working for us? Are teacher training and deeper learning the same thing? Should I run a “social justice” focused teacher training? Anjali and I get into it all. Take a listen. KEY TAKEAWAYS *Training is a huge responsibility within the industry.  And we often have challenges that we need to address when we decide to run teacher training.  I have said this before on this series,...

Why does it seem like nobody tells us what we got right? Our culture, inside and outside the yoga space, seems to thrive on constant critique and “constructive criticism”. But what are absolutely nailing? I have an idea. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter Find Taylor Casey SPONSOR Midwest Yoga Conference

Let’s talk fundamentals this week. How can we improve our training, both individually and as an industry? I find it super helpful to ask pros in other fields how they train, and what they are seeing in their movement profession—so that is what I did. I asked Pilates instructor, studio owner, yoga teacher, former professional dancer, and altogether rad human Hannah Teutscher how she trains. We got into the thick of things talking about creativity, building a box so you can think outside...

What do we need to actually know about anatomy? Is sequencing really important? Are there hard and fast rules about alignment, or is it all just a style preference? Take a listen to my conversation with Erin Ehlers to find out. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter Erin’s Website SPONSOR Midwest Yoga Conference

Yoga Teacher Trainings. What do we love? What can we do without? What are we missing? I asked two absolute gems of yoga professionals, Theo Wildcroft and Harriet McAtee to answer that question. They’ve collaborated for their new book The Yoga Teacher’s Survival Guide, and this conversation is a deep dive into what we love and need more of as we train yoga pros. You’ll want to listen to every minute. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *Friendships are important, and professional friendships are a...

So many of the tasks we consider to be difficult in business are just building, maintaining, and creating boundaries around our relationships. Our marketing is a relationship with the people who follow us. Our managing is relationship building with our teams & colleagues. And the law helps us create boundaries around our relationships. This week on the podcast Cory Sterling talks about things we should think about, legally speaking, when we talk about both retreats and yoga teacher...

There is something special when we take folks out of their own lives and to a new place. This week on the podcast I got the chance to talk with The Himalayan Institute’s Ransom Hare, who runs their retreat program, and we had the best time chatting. Ransom talks to us about what they do to get alleviate all those travel worries and jitters that folks have when they travel, what our role is in their experience, and so much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS *When traveling, you are creating an...

Have you ever been curious about presenting at a conference? Wanted to know what event planners are looking for, want you to know, and what to steer clear of? Amy Zellmer, conference coordinator and owner of Midwest Yoga + Life Magazine answers all this and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *The best part of event planning is that you get to hang out with other people who have the same job that you do.  This is one of my favorite things about conferences and festivals.   *Themes are useful,...

Admit it, you’ve probably at least thought once or twice about taking your yoga students on a retreat. Where would you go? Costa Rica? Puerto Rico? California? Italy? Maybe somewhere closer for you like a state park or nature sanctuary. This week we chat with travel expert Heather Horrell about what it takes to organize wellness travel, what trends she is seeing, and so much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *Wellness travel is booming right now, and looks to be for the foreseeable future.  If...

8 Guests. Tons of words of wisdom. A mini-lesson on white supremacy. That’s what I call a series. This episode takes clips from each episode and guides you through the small changes, experiences, and big-picture ideas that made this series so special. A huge thanks to all of my guests: Dr. Shyam Ranganathan, Ann Swanson, Colin Hall, Daniel Simpson, Steff Gallante, Pooja Virani, Tristan Katz, and Colice Sanders. Y’all are the coolest people I know. RESOURCES Working In Yoga...

I had a question that was bothering me. From episode one of this series (w/ Dr. Shyam Ranganathan) I have been asking and chatting about how we are holding our own activist and change-maker selves to perfectionist standards. So decided to end this series with an expert here to answer that question. Enter Colice Sanders to the chat. The covers so much about the history of white supremacy, why it matters, and brings up new things for us all to think about. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *Langauge...

Marketing in the yoga space makes me actively cringe sometimes. When I venture outside my very tightly curated algorithm, I find a whole world of matching athleisurewear sets, “quick tips for the best down-dog”, handstand tutorials, and a whole lot of things that don’t make me think of the rich and nurturing practice of yoga that I have come to love. But is that what we need in order to market ourselves in this current yoga space? Tristan Katz slides into the chat with the best marketing...

This is the conversation I didn’t know I needed. Productivity is such a huge part of who we are, and that feels like it goes double for those of us who work for ourselves, which is a lot of us in the yoga space. So Pooja Virani is back, and she and I talk all about what it means to be productive. KEY TAKEAWAYS: -Perfectionism and Productivity are both facets of white supremacy.  As I said in the podcast, we will cover this more extensively in a couple of weeks, but for now just know...

Let’s talk festivals, yoga friends. Festivals, conferences, and workshops are where we learn, connect, and nourish our profession together. We meet new friends, nerd out on our favorite topics, and share our stories with other yoga folks who understand our language, values, and passions. So this week Heather Shereé Sanders talks to us about the Sedona Yoga Festival, what lights her inner fire about networking people together, and why themes capture the best of the moment. Key...

Let’s admit it. Yoga and wellness spaces can sometimes be intimidating at best, and downright unwelcoming at worst. And a lot of our experiences within those spaces reinforce the idea that we need to strive for an ideal, and that ideal is something decided outside ourselves. So this week I chat with my friend Steff Gallante on our participation in wellness as pros for the last 20 years, and what we have seen, heard, and experienced ourselves. KEY TAKEAWAYS: *Guilt and shame can...

I think a lot of people are like me, we enjoy being right more than we like being wrong. But I also think that leads a lot of us down this path of seeking the ever-elusive perfection, and that causes us some challenges that we might not have otherwise had. So Daniel Simpson and I get into why I am maybe wrong sometimes (or a lot of the time), how we can evolve yoga past this idea of only personal liberation, but also focusing on being good citizens in the world, and more. You are gonna...

What does the internet think is the perfect yoga teacher? Well, I found out. It’s a long list, friends. So get a pen, pour yourself some tea, and have a listen. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter SPONSOR Sunlight Streams Blog

It isn’t often you have a guest on a podcast who doesn’t mind a Joker reference in the title. In fact, I didn’t even ask Colin if it was okay that I called the podcast this, because I know he doesn’t take himself so seriously that he would cringe at the reference to a morally dark character from a comic universe. And that’s the theme of today’s podcast. Why are we so darn serious? Is there some reason why we can’t have fun, in our classes, in our language, in our hearts? Colin and I...