Leaving Corporate to Teach Yoga Full-Time, with John Quirk

0:00 Hey there, Before we get started on this week's episode, I would love to ask for your support by reviewing this podcast. We want to share yoga with as many people as possible and this free resource. This podcast is one of the ways that we can do that. And the best way that you can help support us is by giving us a review.

0:16 So if you go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever podcast platform you use, Scroll down until you find that star review and then give us some love. Thank you so much, and let's get started with this week's episode. Mine is kind of a an interesting story coming from, you know, a pretty traditional middle class Western lifestyle of school, college, getting into the workforce in New York City, working corporate jobs. I was a journalist.

0:48 I've kind of done all things in journalism. So I've been a writer, I've been a photographer. I've done on air stuff. I've been a reporter. I've covered everything from high school to professional sports. I've worked at Al Jazeera and covered wars and viruses. And I mean, I've told a lot of stories and done a lot of interesting jobs.

1:11 And after a while, you know it it became clear to me that the life that I was living was not really bringing me happiness. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you. We talk all things yoga related for teachers in order to supplement and complement and even support after a 200 hour Yoga teacher training.

1:37 Or if you've never done a training before, this podcast is all about just learning more about yoga in an authentic way. Together with Paul Tioto and Byron De Marseille, we put together this podcast to provide you with a free resource to learn more about yoga. Whether you want to share yoga or teach yoga or just practice yoga, this podcast is talking all things yoga related and we're trying to talk from the teacher's perspective and also the student's perspective to

2:00 make sure we get a full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it's evolved in the modern world. Welcome to our podcast, Welcome back to the Going Pro Yoga Podcast. Michael here your host as usual and today we have a special guest joining us.

2:17 We always have special guests, but today you're still special as well. John John Quirk here to share his story, his Joe his his yoga story, Yoga journey if you will. And there's gonna be a multiple episode series talking about going from corporate to yoga to yoga to teaching to retreats and basically sharing everything that you learned along the way, ups and downs and just the reality in the life of a Yogi, right? For those that need inspiration,

2:46 who are looking to see what it's like to decide whether or not they actually want to move into that space. So this is for you. So thanks for tuning in. And John, thank you for being here. It is my pleasure. This is such a beautiful space that you guys have here in Bali and just super grateful.

3:03 Grateful for you, grateful for your friendship and all these years later that we've been able to to. Now, finally, I feel like we've been talking about doing this for a very long time. It's true, I think I've mentioned. This that we're finally sitting to do it and doing it properly in person right in Indonesia where it all started so. Yeah, super cool.

3:20 So John and I met probably like 02019, I think. Yeah, Molly's 19, Molly's Spirit Festival 2019, so like five years ago. It's crazy. We were both working at the festival or working. We were volunteering as security for the backstage.

3:38 So secure, so fancy, right? That's how we met originally. And then we became friends, close friends. And then John went back home. I stayed and then John came back, actually, but then COVID hit and then he left again. And so now, it's been about four years since he's been.

3:56 Yeah, it was super wild. We were here March of 2021 with a group and we were planning to do a week. And after about four or five days they were threatening to shut down borders and cancel flights. And we just kind of were like, all right, we got to get out of here. And if I always tell the story the like if I didn't have dogs at home like I I might have just, you know, rooted down and you might be I might be here.

4:17 Your tenant neighbors house. Yeah, it was closed. But yeah, so it's been such a long time and it's such a special place to for me. And I've just had so many like, awakenings here and so many big shifts in my life. I decided to move to California once when I was here.

4:33 I've decided to just make major changes and shifts in my life. And so one of the cool things is to bring people here to experience it. But also I was saying yesterday like, I feel like I have strong, if not a stronger, like social network and just like more things like to do and like things flow here. It's like the most familiar foreign place I've ever been. Well, that's great.

4:55 Well. Welcome back, John's. John's only been back for like 5 days actually, yeah, but before we get into too much of the in between of everything, let's actually like start from the beginning a little bit, 'cause people are probably like, I don't know who this person is, he's talking and you guys are having a conversation, but like, let's let's give a bit of a a foundation if you will, or a background. So who are you, John?

5:14 Where are you from? Yeah. So mine is kind of a an interesting story coming from, you know, a pretty traditional middle class Western lifestyle of school, college, getting into the workforce in New York City, working corporate jobs. I was a journalist.

5:36 I've kind of done all things in journalism. So I've been a writer, I've been a photographer, I've done on air stuff. I've been a reporter. I've covered everything from high school to professional sports. I've worked at Al Jazeera and covered wars and viruses, and I mean, I've told a lot of stories and done a lot of interesting jobs.

5:59 And after a while, you know it, it became clear to me that the life that I was living was not really bringing me happiness. And my second to last stop was a pretty well paying job that wasn't too intense. I'd sort of stepped out of the breaking news cycle, which I knew wasn't very good for me.

6:15 It was like a lot on your nervous system, a lot on your brain to just always be on, you know and like checking your phone, doing your emails all day long, refreshing your, you know, feeds and all that stuff. And so I had this job that you know, wasn't too stressful. It paid me pretty well.

6:30 But I just, I didn't have any purpose in it. And so I took a a pay cut and I got hooked up with a with a guy who kind of promised me that this new startup that he was working out was gonna be the answer to all my problems.

6:42 I was gonna get to go back to sports. I was gonna cover the NFL which is like the biggest sports league in the world. Right. With the coolest stars and you know all my friends would be. Like you get to watch football. All day at work.

6:51 And I was like, yeah, like, you know, it's like a fraternity. I mean, I'd wear jeans to work. I would, you know, we had like kegs in our office. Like on paper, everything seemed cool, right? Like it was like I'm back to kind of doing what I originally set out to do out of college, which was, you know, cover sports, high level, you know, professional sports. But you know, after I took that pay cut and then I got into a situation where I really did not

7:14 get along with my boss. Like I just, I felt like the odd kid out. And in a lot of ways in my life, I've kind of felt that in a lot of situations where they, even when I played sports or move through high school, move through college, like, I never really felt like I kind of fit in anywhere. And I think that was a lot of, like, not really knowing who I was.

7:30 It was just kind of following what you're supposed to do, right? Like this is how you move through the world. And it was a lot of other people's ideas of how I should do or a construct of what I'd built in my mind. So when I'd finally got into this job that on paper looked good, but I knew didn't feel good. I was like all the like alarms started going off. Like I was literally waking up and just blurting out four letter words in the morning.

7:52 Like, I was like, I can't believe I have to go to work again. And just the feeling of like Sunday night knowing I was getting up to go to work on Monday was just like, you know, it was like 10 SAT tests rolled into one. The anxiety, the the pressure, the lack of joy. And so, you know, I I stopped caring. I I really, you know, started mailing it in and I knew my boss and I were on a path of destruction that wasn't gonna work.

8:16 And so I ended up marching in on a Thursday, got called into HR, and I was like watching a movie of yourself. I don't know if you've ever had an experience like that where your life is unfolding, but you feel like you're more watching it than actually living. Looks like a mild out of body experience. It was kind of my first out of body transcendental experience, actually was like being marched into HR and kind of knowing, like, I was about to get fired

8:36 from this job. And I was like kind of nervous. But like once the like Gavel dropped, it was like, I remember the HR lady talking to me and my boss was talking to me, but it was kind of like like the Peanuts cartoons where like the adults talk and it's like. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

8:51 You know, like, it's like words are happening but you're not. And all of a sudden it just like, ZAP back. And I was like, so do I like not come to work tomorrow? And they're like, yeah, you don't work here anymore. I was like cool. I was like, awesome.

9:02 Like, I'm, I'm kind of cool with this. And they were like, yeah, I was like, yeah, like, I don't think this is working at all, you know? And I just got up and I walked out and I called my dad and I was like and he kind of knew the writing was on the wall with with what was going on. And he's like, how do you feel?

9:14 And I'm like, I'm good. I'm like I'm. Going to go to yoga? And I'm going to have like a nice dinner at home. And I was like, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow and like, I think everything's going to be OK, you know? So I mean, that is inevitably what did happen is everything was OK.

9:29 But there was obviously a lot of, you know, struggling with what did I do wrong and what's next. And I didn't have a big savings. There was a lot of insecurity around that. And so, you know, that really became the first sort of like retreat I say that I had was I like retreated back from this corporate life.

9:47 But now I had all this free time and I didn't really know what I should do. And I do an exercise still to this day that I I did at the time that I think is really helpful. And I call it just like peeling back the onion. And I just started pulling back on the layers of like the things I was doing versus what I really loved to do. And when I peeled back far enough, I got to playing hockey. Then I got to go into yoga classes, and those are the only two things that were actually

10:13 bringing me like unbridled joy, like joy without chemicals, joy without needing somebody else to help fulfill it, right? Like, I just could be there in those two things and be happy with them. So I jumped into yoga teacher training. I didn't really know which one.

10:28 I just asked my teacher and she pointed me at her teacher. And I never met the guy. I just was like, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna do it. And it was Ashtanga. And it was strict. And I was like, my karma yoga was getting there at 5:00 to clean the studio.

10:40 Like I was like, why does everybody else have these? Easy to have. But he, like, knew that I needed sort of a a kick in the butt. And that was the first, I mean, really transformative period in my life of doing something that was just for me. You know, where my friends and parents, you know, when I told them I'm going this yoga teacher trend, I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, what do you want?

11:00 And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, this is the thing I love. Was this in New York? Yeah. Yeah, Yoga T square, little, little studio called Jeeva Mukti. Yeah, there's they're not in Union Square anymore. They're in Astoria, Queens, which is actually where I'm from originally.

11:13 But. But yeah, John T, this guy, wild guy, man. He was from Brazil. He snuck into the United States. I don't know what to say that he got into the United States after. No, he snuck into the Brazilian Army. That's what it was. He was like 15, got into Brazilian army and that's what got him to the United States.

11:33 But then he built a yoga studio, his own alignment man. I mean he literally built from nothing into this pretty cool, you know, so he was a story and just like a male figure at the time that I could very much like gravity to and kind of bridge the gap from like this hyper aggressive type a like alpha corporate environment to yoga. But then softening it with spirituality and teaching me the layers of, you know, self-discipline and really contentment without the need for

12:01 things outside of yourself. And so and once I, and thankfully he ground me in that it wasn't just like this, hey, learn how to teach a sequence training. It was like, hey, here's how you can really get your life together and get yourself together.

12:13 And I just, I needed that. It was like the again, it was the first time I made a decision, really heart based, really intuition based. I've been so analytical and and making that decision was an absolute game changer. And you know, I started to feel more fit.

12:26 I started to feel more empowered. And then, you know, I left training and I was like, OK. So now what? So that's what everybody thinks. Yeah, finish the training. Now what do I do? Do I quit? Wait, no, I don't have to quit.

12:40 Yeah. But my question, kind of retro respectively, is like, when did you first start practicing yoga? Yeah, so a little over a decade ago again, was really lucky to have worked out at this really dingy gym. It was like a place with bad lighting and broken machines and but they had yoga classes and there was this guy.

12:58 I don't know why he wanted to teach there, 'cause it seemed in a lot of ways just beneath him. He was this incredible Jeevamuti teacher, which is very bhakti and it's very devotional. He would chant, and this is, you know, class of people is mostly in this, like, you know, gym. And.

13:14 But he was like kind of punk rock. He was like playing Led Zeppelin and he was like, you know, damn the man. And he would like, talk crap about politicians. I was like, I like this guy, you know? And so again, it was an entry point. That was right, what I needed when I needed. So this guy, Jeff Sios was my first year old teacher, made me fall in love with the practice and that was for about 3 years before I, you know, went into training and then have been teaching and practicing for the

13:39 last seven years. Well, not so much practicing lately because my body's changing, which is interesting. Getting older? Interesting. And kind of let's rewind back then to yoga teacher training. So when you took the training, did you you took it because you were like, why did you take it? What was the motivation?

13:56 Was it like? I wanted to be a yoga teacher. You did? 100%, Yeah. Like I was, you know, where everybody. I think some people are on the fence or some people maybe flip flop throughout the course. Like my course was very clear.

14:04 Like I'm learning this to gain a skill set because I I really knew I could stand in front of people and be a good teacher. Like I just the day I got fired, I went to that yoga class that I mentioned and I was like laying on my back in Chavas and it was one of those classes. I'm sure everybody's if you've practiced at least a little bit, you've experienced this where you're just, you know, you get in a class where the teacher is just saying all the right things for you on that day, right.

14:28 It was like, you know, I'm in my warrior poses and she's like, you know, if one door closes for you, another door opens and I'm like, Oh my God, this is me, right? This is what I need right now. You know, it's something laying on my back. And the way that she made me feel that day and this girl, this lady, Emma Poole, I just was like, I just want to do this for people.

14:46 I was like, the way she's making me feel right now. Like, I just, I I want to do this. And I really think I could do this. So yeah, it was very clear, like, like when we were almost done with our training, one of the teachers had needed a sub, like an emergency sub that night.

15:03 And we were, you know, practicing during the morning. We were learning during the morning. And so he asked he's like, does anybody feel ready to teach a class? And I just, like, my hand shot up and I was like, I'll do it. And he's like, you think you're ready? And I'm like, yeah, he's like, you could do it. I was like, yeah, you know, wow.

15:17 I put a little playlist together. That's brave and rare. Wild I I. I mean, I teach in so many trainings if we ask that I can't imagine a hand going up. Yeah, I mean we were like 80% of the way and it was mostly it was an Ashtanga Bay.

15:30 So it was like a set sequence. So you had a lot of like foundation of what to do. And but it was wild was the lady that there was a couple, a guy and a girl, the lady who took that very first class of mine, We ran into each other like five years later in New Jersey at like a random small city.

15:49 And she's like, I was in your very first class and I was like just wild, you know. And that was, I mean there's so many synchronicities I could tell a whole. We could do a whole podcast on all the synchronicities that have happened since I started on that path.

16:02 But yeah, it was it was pretty clear to me. I was like, I want to teach and I wanna share this with people and I wanna. Try to make a living out of. Right. We'll we'll get into that part, of course. Awesome. Cool. So I mean, shit, I didn't know some of this stuff, so this is really interesting.

16:21 I think what's interesting as well is going from like a high paying job to obviously no job which is 0 not fun, which you know you didn't make that choice necessarily. Maybe like subconsciously you sabotaged possibly, right.

16:37 But you know you had, you had basically got fired or you were no longer working. So there was, there was space, right. And I know that some students are in those situations where they've either quit or they lost their job and they're like, OK, yoga teacher training.

16:51 And then there's other people who are like yoga teacher training and do I like, do I quit? What do I do these types of things? And then obviously there's no right way to do things. But I also think it's just interesting that going from like having money to not having money is always a very challenging thing to do in itself. Yeah, yeah.

17:09 I mean, if you look at it even energetically, right? So when we talk about elevating consciousness or if you're into chakras, like how do we ascend, right. How do we get to our higher levels of self? Well, the base needs, right, need to be content, right, Like you need to have food, water, shelter, you really need to be satisfied in those ways. So, but it's a double edged sword because I mean I had very little savings when I left my my job I I just did not was not a rainy day fund in place.

17:40 So I think in some ways that was tough and maybe made me made some decisions about places that I taught her things that I said yes to. But on the flip side, I mean necessity is an incredible motivator, right. So it's like and I don't want to paint a picture of like it being some dire situation. Like I, you know have parents where if you know, I really got in trouble, I mean I could tap and say hey, like I need a little bit of helper and worst case inner I could have moved home.

18:08 But I mean I was, I was very happy being independent living, you know, out in the world. And so I mean, but those questions do come up as like you know, I started looking at my food budget differently. And I mean, because I was working in corporate, you know, as many people do, you just DoorDash and you eat out and you don't, you know, you don't really think because it's like every two weeks that paycheck comes and there's the four O 1K and there's the health insurance

18:30 and a lot of those decisions are sort of made for you. It's like unconscious living, 100%. It made you more conscious. 100%, I mean, I was saying this about to you about Bali, right? It's like when you leave your house here, it's so different, right?

18:41 It's like you have to think about why you need a set of keys for my scooter. I need to set of keys for my place. I need my rain poncho. I need like you need to pack yourself up like you're going on an adventure every, even if you just go out to the store.

18:52 Whereas like frankly in the West, like you know Amazon or you know, Costco delivery, like I can just push buttons and have things come to me. And that level of consciousness, I think is. Really beautiful. Especially when you're early into a journey of massive transformation where there are some unknowns.

19:09 I mean, anybody who's a yoga teacher knows it. An entrepreneur knows it. Like you're gonna have moments where you're like, Oh my God. I still have them all the time. Like I don't know if things are gonna work and I just get in my brain and I and you know, and then I I remind myself of all these like, times, right? Of like where I did accomplish, the teacher training, the teaching, all this stuff like you go back to the well, you know of those things and remind

19:31 yourself. Like you do. You can do it, you know, but it's it's freaking scary and leaving that security behind. But I also tell people too, it's like, you know there isn't security. Even though you think that once every two weeks paycheck and 401K, it's like that's not guaranteed.

19:48 And I'll tell you another little secret friends like. Corporations are the most part like somebody else's business. If you're working for somebody else's business, they only care about you as much as they can get from you.

20:01 Mostly. I mean, I know there's exceptions to the rules, but, like, when you're not valuable anymore, it's like irreplaceable, 100%. You're a number on a page. So it's like, you know, Jim Carrey tells a story about his dad where his dad could have been a great comedian, You know, he said he was a very, very funny, eclectic guy. But he chose the quote UN quote safe route. He became like an accountant.

20:23 And then he got fired from his accountant job. And Jim Carrey in that moment learned he's like, if you're gonna fail he's like, you might as well fail doing something that you really love because then at least you fail forward and you're learning from doing. And you know I can't tell you how many mistakes I feel like I've made.

20:38 You know whether. Teaching a class and forgetting a second side or. You know, running a retreat and you know who's picking up Lisa from the airport And you're like, Oh no. You know, it's like so, right? But at least you're. Doing it in something that you love and something that's fun and I don't know, you know, it's been. And it's accepting, accepting these things as a human being. And I think it's in a lot of situations. It's not.

21:03 I shouldn't say it's not OK. It feels like it's not OK to make mistakes or the environment in which or the society in which we live in is not supportive to making some of these mistakes because of being consequences or judged or these types of things.

21:19 Versus in a situation where you know you're going to just make mistakes because this is just what happens. And then, you know, as long as we can forgive ourselves, that's usually the first thing. But yeah, it's challenging in those situations. But I mean, coming back to the, the sense of security is kind of where we were.

21:36 Yeah, you're never true. That's what we said before the podcast. Like it's a fault. It's really not security. It's a false sense of security, right? You're never 100% secure in anything you do, no matter how much you think you are doing, you know, in a job or you know if you're getting a salary and contracts and stuff like that. It's like, sure, if that makes you feel better, great. But like COVID is just a perfect example as well. Like, you know, COVID happens,

21:59 boom, contracts, salaries, all that stuff out the door right in a lot of situations. And like even now with like AI development. And you know not to take over this podcast too much 'cause this is about you, John. No, no, no. I love this.

22:14 But I saw a video recently about Singapore announcing how they're they're recommending that if you're 40 or 40 ish years old, it might be time to go back to school and and get a different degree or learn more about something else.

22:29 Because some of the skills that you might have learned 20 years ago are going to be no longer usable by a human being. I visited my first fully automated, like kiosk store in Dallas Fort Worth Airport recently. Yeah, no employees. Really.

22:45 You scan your hand, you go in, you pick out your stuff, you hit the credit card, and you're out. Well, it's coming. So there's that. There's that. The existential dread of that. But here's the good news, right? As far as, like, teaching yoga or retreats or in person experiences, right, being with other human beings.

23:07 And I always say this too. Like, you know, humans aren't the biggest, the fastest, the strongest. We don't see the best. We don't smell the best. We're not those creatures. What we're the best at is working together. Yeah, right.

23:19 Community, 100%. And you, you and I had such a beautiful conversation this morning about, you know, I asked you like what your community was like, you know, in Bali. And because it's something for me that I always feel like foundationally will be the get out of jail free card to any financial issues or any health issues like, you know, do you have rock solid people that you can depend on.

23:42 And I would say I cultivated 10X those amount of relationships in my time doing yoga or leading retreats. Like, I mean all of my, like most of my friends are from those two circles right there, you know, And it's I have like contact with like high school friends and stuff like that.

24:01 But like my true friends, friends are people that have done like epic stuff with, you know, or I've helped them or they've helped me. I mean, that's never going to go away. Yeah, you know, we always are going to need that. Community is the number one marker for, I think, health, Wellness and longevity.

24:18 Yeah, Harvard University. Yep. That was like a 50 year study on it. Yeah. So that's I mean great thing about yoga, I mean not in all cases, but in a lot of cases it should form community even just teaching yoga classes or just like minded people enjoying the practice itself, right.

24:36 So it's it's it's built into its into its industry, it's part of it. Yoga is a community. It's it's the yoga means union, it means coming togetherness. So it's like. Yeah, yeah, it's easy to forget too. I mean, because again, when we, we think about money or finances or having to support yourself and being of the world, right, Like, you know, with the rent and the bills and all that stuff.

25:03 But you know, I was saying to you right before we came on, like, it's crazy to think how when I really loved yoga, when I first started teaching it, I would like if they're just one or two people showed up, I'd be stoked.

25:16 You know, and I would teach like at the most random, like studios, backyards, like I just wanted to teach so badly. You know, but at times I've been guilty of straying too far away and forgetting some of that because again, like the pressures of having to monetize it.

25:33 And and I think frankly too, like one of the things I try to tell people who are new teachers and if you're listening to this and your new teacher. Is to advocate for yourself. Like, you really have to ask for what you're worth because yoga is so valuable. Like, it's so valuable to people. That amount of people I've talked to were that. Like, it's literally saved their lives. Like it's saved them physically.

25:53 It's saved them mentally, emotionally. I mean, like we do retreats where people who have, you know, long standing issues with their body or their nervous system, they come back and they're like this changed my life. I'm like, well, that's awesome. But like, why is the Pharmaceutical industry making tons of money and we're getting like $30 to teach a class, whereas if you're teaching classes, you know that that's an hour of prep, an hour of a class, you know, probably an hour to drive there.

26:19 I mean, it's like 3-4 hours of work. You know, studios have you checking people and so it's like you do. And I get from the studio owner standpoint too, like there's a lot of overhead and I get that side of it. But you know, if you're just starting out. Feel free to ask for what you're worth. You know, and the worst thing that can happen is somebody says no, right?

26:39 You know, it's something I still struggle with, like when people ask me about retreats and they're like, can I get a discount? I'm like I wanna help you and kinda know like. Like it's worth it. And and no. And no, you know.

26:51 Yeah, but everyone's always gonna ask for discount all the time, anytime. Even the Bolognese do it. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's beautiful people. There's a there's a universal pain of not enoughness or scarcity that obviously stems from just, you know, the the the history of humans, right, and war and and and security and safety and all that stuff and and money gives that sense of or false sense of safety and security.

27:23 So anytime you can kind of hold on to that or keep as much of it as possible, that's what people will do, right? So I get it. I mean, I used to do it a lot. Now I'm very much more in the abundance set, which actually is a great time to bring in Earl. So if you're watching this video, I have a skull. His name is Earl.

27:41 I got him in Mexico like a few years ago. He's my, he's my token of abundance because whenever I had no money. And again, we'll go back to you. I know this is your podcast. Oh no, I love this. But when I was in Mexico with Christina, we didn't have a lot of money. We actually left Costa Rica working a job and hated that job, so went to Mexico to just like live. And you know, we're, we're scraping. We were just trying to make it.

28:07 We went to this mummy museum and in Guanajuato, Mexico, in the centre of Mexico and whatever, they had a little souvenir thing. And there was just like this skull here. And Christina and I were just talking about money and abundance and scarcity and just like all these, like, you know, real life conversations.

28:24 And then I said, you know what? Let's just do something right now to, like, symbolize this. I said, let's just buy this skull for no fucking reason. But because we want to. But she's like, we don't need that. It's a waste of money. I was like, So what?

28:37 Let's do it anyway. And she was so uncomfortable with it. And I was just, I was like, let's just go. Let's just do it. Let's just do it so that we bought the skull and now we've had it ever since. And now every time I look at it, it reminds me of that moment that it's OK if you just, you know, just let go. Just let go of some money.

28:52 Sometimes it's OK to just do it because you want to do it right. You don't know if to hold on to every single penny dollar, like. And I was raised by parents or baby boomers who were holding on to every dollar. So I got that from them, right.

29:07 So yeah, I understand the scarcity and I understand the need for safety and security. So, you know, transitioning from a job to teaching yoga is a very difficult thing to do for sure, right. And one of the things that's recommended in some cases if you didn't get fired is to try to keep a job or something to keep you afloat.

29:24 Yeah, I would not advocate necessarily going the route. Like I said, the necessity was a really cool thing because it forced me into action, right? And I've always been really good at being motivated at stuff that I love, but I've not always been like a motivated self starter in terms of like thinking about salary or long term planning or stuff like that.

29:43 So when I started looking at my bank account and how little was there, it was like you better go out and find some classes to teach. So for me it was, it was good. But I think for most of us having a landing pad, I think I would say six months minimum where you could cover all your stuff would be awesome. A year would be ideal where you could really do a litmus test of is this for me and am I going to wanna do the hustle on the ground?

30:08 Because, you know, I mean, I was teaching upwards of, you know, 20 classes a week at certain points when I was. And it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable for your body. It's not good for your mental health. You start to really resent it.

30:19 You start like that. I teach this sequence right, Like you, you just start going down these like really kind of weird spirals. And so again, like, that was my path. But I would say if you're trying to bridge it, you know, start with like you said, maybe something part time or try to create an exit strategy where you have that like landing strip for yourself where you're not putting all this pressure. And then you can be more like picky and choosy about where you teach.

30:42 And maybe you want to do privates, maybe you want to do, you know, workshops or start retreats or something like that. And then you'll have more room and spaciousness to do the thing that feels good rather than like OK, I got to teach X amount and we've all done this. If you teach full time, it's like you line up your whole month and you think, well, if I teach this amount of classes and I, you know, use this amount for food, it's like, you know, you really start to parcel it out

31:06 and it's like it's a hard way to be. And I know that feeling too of like, you know, worrying about like where the pennies are going to come from. That same kind of mentality like I had that, you know, kind of growing up to I think most of our generation, if you're 35 to 45, I think you kind of you're in 30 to 45.

31:25 You kind of get where we're coming from. But yeah, it's I wouldn't recommend them. I wouldn't. I wouldn't recommend going that route. And one of the things you said that I, you know, shouldn't be overlooked is like just make sure you actually want to do that too.

31:39 Make sure you actually, you know, if you love yoga, which I assume you do, you're listening to this podcast, but do you love to teach yoga? Do you love to share yoga? And maybe it's not in this, the traditional, not even traditional, but in the sense of teaching asana, the physical exercise class. Maybe it's just like, you know, talking about philosophy or meditation or mindfulness or supporting your family or your friends.

32:00 Like, that's all. That's all yoga, too. And it's so funny like because teaching awesome classes for so long and now in the last couple years, like my body like had a back injury and I really can't practice as much awesomeness.

32:13 So I sprinkle in a little bit when we do retreats. But it's very gentle. It looks very different than the like high tempo vinyasa or like rocket yoga classes that I used to teach. But it's so funny because of the principles, right? Like the ideas.

32:26 The philosophy, like you said, is so still present in what I like to share in groups and how I like to guide people into the bath of of self development or self realization. So I think it's really beautiful to think about when you go into a training that you might not be the person and you are doing more training. So I'm curious to hear what you think. But like, I feel like a lot of people will go in and think they're definitely going to be a teacher and then don't, and then vice versa.

32:53 But a teacher of Asana could be one just one small piece of it, right? Because if you're looking at like an 8 limb path, Asan as one piece of the pie, right? So there's all these other things you could potentially workshop you could do, books you could do.

33:05 There's so many ways to teach yoga, quote. Quote Yeah, you could be public speaker for schools for kids. Just help them understand little simple things that. Yeah, meditation. Mindfulness is becoming like a mainstream thing, which is so beautiful, right?

33:17 So, like, schools are incorporating, corporations are incorporating. So like, you know, I know people that created just companies around teaching corporate Wellness. And yeah, there's some awesome classes, but a lot of it's meditation, mindful gigs as a speaker, you know, in those places teaching yogic philosophies. I mean, a lot of times you have to keep religious aspects out of it, but a lot of people misnomer yoga for being religious. It's very much not like if you

33:40 look at the sutras like it's, I think God is in there like 3 times. You know what I mean? So there's so many ways, again, to be a Yogi and to teach yoga. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking like I don't know if I want to teach, but I would love to hear like do a lot of the your graduates like that are maybe on one side of the fence flip flop or how do you kind of find that to be?

33:57 I mean, I'm a perfect example. I I did the yoga teacher training. I was like, I'm not going to teach it and in the tradition, again, not the traditional sense, but in the Asano sense. I mean, I did it because I wanted to understand the climate of yoga teacher training so that I could support yoga teachers as an anatomy teacher and someone who understands the body and help people build body awareness. But then, you know, being delved into more of it, I realized, oh, like, teaching yoga is super

34:24 rewarding because you see how people benefit from the practice. And it's not me that's doing it. I'm just sharing what I learned, right? The yoga's doing the work. And when you see that, it's kind of like this is actually kind of fun.

34:37 I kind of, I kind of want to do a little bit more of this. So that's kind of what happened for me. But yeah, all the time, like Phil, I got to get Phil on this podcast, actually. I hope you get to meet him all while you're here. Phil is another Canadian friend who did a training in 2022. He was the least likely man to teach yoga. And I love Phil, I hope he's listening to this, but he, he came in like 2 days before the training had started. He met Byron.

35:08 I think they were like went out drinking or something like that and he was like hungover or something. And you know, he should tell his own story, but basically he came in and he was like, I'm just going to do it. He like joined Pink with Crypto and you know, he walked into the training, he was body was super tight, like could barely do anything, didn't understand anything about yoga really.

35:25 He just kind of like he, you know, he just did it because Byron said why don't you come join the training. And you know, he was going through it and he was quiet. He sat in the back, didn't do a whole lot and you know, and whatever, he graduated and we had other other people in the class that were clear standouts and they're obviously, you know, they're still teaching and doing really well.

35:42 Noel, if you're listening, he's in Dubai. Go take your class or no, no. And then like, I don't know, six months to a year ago, all of a sudden Phil was just like this, the number one teacher in Uluatu, he's teaching at several studios down in Uluatu, which is just the South part of Bali.

36:02 You know, his body's opened up, but he's, he's on, he's on the journey. Like he loves the lifestyle of yoga. He's, he's subscribed to it. And, you know, he got his foot wet, feet wet when he first started, but now he's like, he's all into it.

36:16 I haven't seen so much the other way. But I mean, I don't follow everyone. I teach a lot of trainings, and the ones that I do with Paul and Byron, the Elements of Power yoga, I'm more invested because I'm there all day with the students from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM versus just showing up and teaching my anatomy lecture.

36:33 So I am a little bit more connected with some people like Phil for example. So I get to see whether they teach or they don't teach. But there is one other example Who Diana, who she was probably top of the class, whatever that means. But she was clearly ready to teach yoga the the Austin of practice and she decided not so much. Yeah, even though she could do it. She's like she felt more of like a bhakti yoga. So she does kirtans now and she sings and all this stuff. And that's a great thing.

37:01 Like, you know, she could teach Austin as if she wants to because she was really good at it. But she's like, Nah, she's like, I like to sing and like all that type of energy and the bhakti devotion. And so yeah, it's once you get your foot in, it's like who knows what you're going to do. And maybe you don't do it forever. But I think the big take away, at least for this is like, just make sure that you, you, whatever that it is, that you too, that you love it.

37:24 Yeah, I I again, think, you know, I had elements of working those corporate jobs that I really enjoyed and senses of camaraderie with people I worked with and accomplishments. And I covered high school sports for a while, which was fun to see the kids, like, light up, you know, when you'd like, you know, interview them like an ESPN kind of like reporter.

37:44 And I would like sit in locker rooms and watch teams celebrate and there was like so much love and joy, you know, and and some of that. But I think again, when I when I got that that pink slip, I was like, you know, it's like, I don't know that I love this anymore.

37:59 And I think coming in and out of love, right? Like I always say to people, I think we have like different seasons of our life. Like, so for me right now, like not being able to practice awesomeness or not really feeling good about teaching, it is very synchronistic to where my life is because I really enjoy teaching breath work.

38:16 I really enjoy teaching meditation. I love talking about quantum mechanics. I love talking to people about energy. I love and then I love like the practical application of these things into an actual Western lifestyle, right?

38:28 Which is not very And I'm not as relevant to like an 8 limbed path. Like if people came to my retreats and I said OK, we're going to go through the 8 limbs and everybody would switch off, you know? But if I said them, hey, look like I used to work 60 hours a week. And I know what it's like to get like 1000 emails a week. And I know what it's like to like wake up stressed out and feel stressed out at your job and all day and like having no, you know, way to sort of self

38:53 correct. Let me teach you about your nervous system. Let me talk to you about your brain. Let me give you a playbook of scientifically what's happening when you feel these things and then giving you a playbook of like how to course correct that.

39:04 And that right now is my greatest joy, right. But a lot of the development of myself to get to that point came from a different season, came from yoga, right. So it's like, right? And then always want to have an eye on, like, what is the next thing?

39:17 How do I evolve? Like I always say to people, I'm like, after we do a breath work session, I'm like, OK, what went well, OK, on this one, I paid attention to this and I really went deep here. But then I kind of got distracted. I'm like, OK, how do you evolve your experience? So maybe the next day it's like going a little bit deeper, going a little bit faster, holding your breath a little bit longer. It's like teaching people how to be more intuitive about who they are.

39:37 So that's not tethered to me for them to figure that out, Right. So if you're doing that self study for yourself, and yoga's a beautiful tool to do that, obviously you'll never have to. Not never, But you won't as frequently have to ask the question of like, am I going in the right direction, right When something shifts or something changes, a relationship, a job, something like that, you'll be able to flow with it better.

39:59 And then you'll be able to ask the question of your heart and like, OK, what should I do next? And the answers will come much faster, right? You know, but be where you are and then be ready to like. Hey, I'm a yoga teacher.

40:12 I'm like, that's who I am and that's who I was for years and years and years. And now people are like, where do you teach yoga? I'm like, I don't like. I saw like, very occasionally. I'm a little bit like retreats. And this is my life now, right now.

40:23 And it evolved 100. Percent, and that's what we. Are as humans, right? We're evolutionary. That's great. We need to give ourselves permission for that. That's beautiful. I love. It So this is what we're gonna do. We're going to wrap up this episode. Love it and we'll continue this conversation next week. You're here for a couple weeks, so we'll we'll sure am. We'll stretch this out.

40:45 Our. Audience, I think they like shorter episodes and if they're listening like no, I want to hear the rest of the story. Well, the rest of the story is going to probably lead into more of just like the the teaching yoga part. Yeah, like what you did and how the steps you took, which is usually something that people really benefit from, because even though there's no one way to do it, it's always nice to get some.

41:03 There's definitely a way not to do it. There's definitely. There's no one way to do it, but there's a lot. Of ways not to do it right, So I've tried a bunch of them. So that's what we'll do. For next week's episodes, we'll just talk about your experience with teaching yoga and like, what you did, what you learned, what you didn't do, what you shouldn't have done.

41:19 These types of things. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Thanks, buddy. Thank you so much to all of you for her listened and tuned in today. And John, we'll talk to you next week as well. Appreciate you. All right, Take Care now. All right. Before you go, let me just tell you about the Going proyoga.com platform.

41:36 So right now you can go to goingproyoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment, cueing, sequencing, yoga, anatomy. O that if you've done a 200 hour teacher training and you want to continue to learn, ractice and grow, this latform is definitely for you.

41:53 So I definitely suggest checking it outgoingroyogacom right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.