Practicing Forgiveness to Transform Your Life | Baron Baptiste & Joe Polish

If you want to feel better, practice once a week. Come to class once a week. If you want to make some significant change, practice three times a week. If you want to transform your entire life, be here six days a week.

You have a book that we've had in the gifting suite for everyone. Perfectly the art and soul of yoga practice.

Reed Tracy published that.

Yeah. Hay House, which is great. Yeah. And you tell the story in here about Walking with Louise Hayes, and she told you about Self Talk. Could you maybe speak to that story?

Yeah, I'm going to paraphrase. I don't remember exactly how I wrote it in the book, but there's a cleansing place outside of Palm Springs. You'd know it if I said it. But you go, and you fast. You drink a little green juice, bunch of pills, herbal pills. You fast. You get colonics twice a day. You get, you know, the whole thing. And I just showed up to do a, I don't know, five or seven day fast. And then there's this woman radiating over, you know, sitting over on the couch, these kind of lounge areas, and she was just glowing. This woman was just radiating. And. And so I noticed her, and then I was out. You kind of take these little walks around on the garden paths. And I was walking and I saw her walking, and I looked up and there she was again. And she waved me over, and so we just started walking. She's like, so, yeah, what's your name? And just totally, you know, just small chat like that. And then she was talking about how her whole commitment in life was to be a contribution to people and that it started with her personal growth and spiritual development and that she wanted to create a business around that. And then I said, wait, what's your name? And she's like, I'm Louise Hay. And I go, I know you.

How crazy.

Yeah, yeah. And then I told her more about myself, and we started talking and she started. She just made an offer to me to get in touch with her and her work. I think maybe she even gave me Reid's contact or something out of that. And then I said, well, I already have. I'm under contract with Simon and Schuster and I have a two book deal with them. And they paid me a $2.2 million advance. You think you could meet that? And I said, but I'm totally open. And I said, look, I'm always open to killing two birds with 1st. And she's like, no, no. She goes, don't. You don't want to kill any birds. She goes, let's not kill birds. And she said. I forget what she said. She had an alternative to that. Lesson learned.

Yeah, it's something like. Yeah, it's in the.

Yeah, it's in there, right?

Yeah. Make birds fly without stones.

And then fast forward probably four years, no, maybe three years later, I published a children's book with not Penguin, Harper Row in London, in Europe. And so I was on tour in Europe for my kids book and there was a book convention, the annual Book Convent European book convention. And I'm just walking around, I was giving a talk, you know, for my book release there. But I was walking booth to booth and I saw Hay House, Hay House Europe. And so I walk in and I'm just chatting and then this guy in there, kind of tall, skinny, reddish hair guy, maybe, he starts chatting and then he goes, oh, you're Baron Baptiste. And he said, I would love to do a book with you. And he said, you know, I've been following your work. And he said, he goes, but what I want to do with you is the next version of you. Like you've done yoga and yoga's done like that. You know, the market's saturated, but I want to do something. I want to do the next iteration of you. The grown up version of Barron. Yeah. And so we did. I ended up doing two books with them. Being a Power was the first one, Imperfectly Imperfect, which hit New York Times bestseller top 10 in all domains and then Wall Street Journal top 10 USA today, like all those lists. It did pretty good. It's in like 22 languages.

Has anyone read it yet? I know some of you just got it for the first time. Yeah, it's. It's great. How many of you show hands so Baron could see do yoga? Okay, how many of you do it at least once a week? More than once a week? Five times a week. Anyone? Okay, we got one. Two. You do yoga how often, Neil? Every day. Awesome. And how often do you do it, Jamie?

Good for you. Every day.

Sorry, what'd you say?

I said for the last 1605 days.

For the last 1605.

You're feeling pretty good, right? You changed your life like that.

Go up to the mic for a minute real quick. What caused you to do this and what has it done for you?

My wife's been athletic her life, and I've just watched her be incredible. And I've practiced self neglect. I'm really good at it. I don't like exercise that registers my brain as a death threat. I was at one of Joe's events on early September 2017. And one of the members of the group said he'd been working out every day. And I got back from the event, and I just felt my wife had started yoga. And I actually noticed her whole physique change, just her musculature, her body changed. And I thought. I just felt like a calling, and I thought, I'm going to do yoga every day for the rest of my life. So I started working with Michael Anderson, Jessica Micheletti, and Ann Marie Kramer, all of whom are trained by you.

Yeah. Where are you?

In Sacramento.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Nice. Yeah, yeah.

And I did 100 classes in 90 days and some private coaching, and I developed a practice.

Wait, wait, you did a hundred classes in ninety days?

Yeah.

Okay. And I wanted to develop a practice.

That I could actually take with me wherever I went. I travel a lot, and it's like I only need the space of the size of a bath towel to be able to do yoga. And I also took it on to look at it metaphorically, both from the point of view of the physical benefit, but I started to look at where in my life would I benefit from being more flexible? And where in my life. In my poses. Where in my life could I find more balance?

Yeah, very good.

And I've actually. My relationship with breath has been the biggest thing. I find that I breathe my way through life.

Yeah.

Differently.

Oh, you're speaking. Yeah. My music. You're singing my song. Yeah, I get it. Thank you. Yeah. I'll just say this something you're speaking to, that I'm hearing, just to include bring everybody into it, is we use the body well. In my approach to yoga practice, what I call Baptiste Yoga, we use the body as an access, not necessarily as an end game, of course, to keep the body healthy and, like you say, flexible and functional. Strength and mobility, and that serves you in any area, whatever you're up to in your life, picking up your kids, your groceries, your car keys, if you fall down when you're 80 years old, you'll be able to stand, get yourself back up. Right. Like that. But we use the body as an access beyond that into principles. Like principle is like a living principle in life and living. And you bring it out everywhere as you're doing.

Yes.

I love it.

Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Really good work. In my studios, we have. Many of the studios have a flyer that says, if you want to feel better, practice once a week. Come to class once a week. If you want to make some significant change, practice three times a week. If you want to transform your entire life. Be here six days a week. And you've done that. Good work.

You're one of the most well known yoga teachers, instructors, mentors in the world for people that don't know who you are. How many of you until just now had no idea who Baron Baptiste is? Right. Could you give them some background on who you are, how many people you've reached, what you do, that sort of thing? And then I want to, you know, my goal for today is to leave everyone here with the inspiration to go take on a practice that absolutely can enhance and transform your life in ways you can't even imagine. And I think you're the best person that could possibly direct them in that area.

Yeah, yeah. Well, in a nutshell, I was born into a family of yoga teachers. My parents opened the first yoga center in San Francisco in like 1952, long before I was born. But my parents are real, like seekers. And they were like, they would travel the world, you know, we'd go to Asia, they take me along, my sisters and I along with them. We'd go to India and all over Asia and study with different, you know, in holistic institutes and ashrams with different gurus. And that was, you know, probably my greatest education. And to a great degree, you know, when you were a kid. We started going when I was probably 9 or 10 years old and I was rolling my eyes most of the time. I wanted to be back home playing with my friends. I didn't want to, you know, so we're going to this, okay, here's some dude in an orange robe up there talking, we're meditating, like, oh, mom, can we just, can I go back to the room and play a game? But you know, in hindsight, just moving forward in my life, when I got into my early 20s, I was on my own. I moved to Los Angeles and I was like, wait. And I was grappling with my own. I was lost, confused. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had no purpose. I really was pretty lost. Young guy, without going into my teenage years, hugely rebellious, hugely destructive. I mean, almost everything you spoke to yesterday, I was like, okay, did that, did that, did that. I didn't do. There were certain lines I wouldn't cross, but I was pretty self abusive and just ran the streets. So I was all coming out of all that. I wanted to find myself. So I left San Francisco, where I grew up, moved to la. I knew I wanted to clean my life up and find a bigger purpose. I felt Something was calling me. So I started recognizing like, wait, I have some practices. Things that were real gifts that my parents introduced me to and gave me and that I was around and I was like, I started putting those into practice. But I remember my dad would talk to me in my teenage years saying, well, don't go to college. You're going to become a yoga teacher. And I'd always say, dad, I'm like, the last thing I'm going to do on God's green earth is ever, mark my word, ever become a yoga teacher. Right? Like, I'm not going to be like you all, you all are kind of weird and I am going to be normal. As Dave Sullivan would say, say, yeah. And so long story short, I tried a lot. I worked in a lot of different industries. I worked in radio, I was in acting. I was got into fitness. I was doing private training. And then something started happening. I do these training sessions and I was right in Beverly Hills. So I started getting these celebrities, big name a listers and that world's small there. When you're good at something, the word passes around. And I was studying yoga, I was practicing yoga diligently, but I wouldn't teach it. So I would go with people and train them in more classical traditional fitness. And then at the end I would do about 10 minutes of stretching, but it was really yoga practice. And then I put them into talk them through a visualization and a meditation. And then what started happening is like, well, wait, could we do. I'd show up at their home to train them and like, could we do more of the, like last 10 minutes? And then I would. And it just grew into. It just kept calling me in a lot of different ways. I went and interviewed to be a trainer and aerobic, like a cross training group fitness teacher. And the at the. It was called Voight Fitness and Dance in Hollywood. And it was like the mecca of fitness on the planet. People had come from all over the world. It was like where trends in fitness used to start back in the 90s. And I wanted, it was a dream that was like top of the line, you know, to be on staff, be a trainer at Voight was. So I went in to not do yoga, but to do that. And I auditioned. It was a group audition, people growing up. And I auditioned and they pulled me. The owners, Karen and Hank Voight, pulled me aside after and said, you know, we're not gonna hire you as a fitness trainer, but we. Someone here knew you, knows your background. Like your dad was like a Mr. America but he used like yoga. Like, you have a whole yoga background. And they're like, we haven't been able to make yoga work here in this, you know, fitness people don't. It just. We've tried a lot of different teachers and it just hasn't worked here. We'll take. We want to try you out if you'll come and teach yog. I'm like, oh, man, are you kidding me? And so I said, okay. So they said, make up a flyer here. You're going to teach. I forget Mondays and Saturday mornings, something like that. I made up a flyer and I just coined this term. I just. What do I call it for fitness? But I go, power yoga. And then I put up this flyer and it was a Saturday morning and. And I was like, you know those classes that fitness, they had like nine or 10 different classrooms, like dance studio, kind of. And my room was up. You have to walk three stories up. And it was on this top room. And I remember walking up this long line and I knew there were two rooms up there, and I was like, walking. I go, oh, man, I wonder what class all these people are waiting in line for. And so I get to the top. I'm like, holy shit, this is my class. There's. There's like 75 people there. And I. And I just put in the flyer my, you know, by, you know, you know, celebrity trainer, trainer to yada yada. I listed a bunch of cool names. And then you knew you knew how.

To market to Americans.

Barely. Yeah, yeah, barely. But I was like, it was. This is about fitness. It's about mind, body fitness. You know, strengthen your mental musculature along with your phys, you know, all that. And then I led the class and I thought I sucked. And I was literally stood by the door when people are leaving, almost like, sorry. I felt like apologetic. And people are like, lit up. And then Hank was there, the owner. He goes, man, people love that. And so that launched something right there. It was just the energy of. Was just there for me.

Wow.

Yeah.

So just that. That moment of validation where you knew you were onto something.

Yeah, yeah. And then that went. And I literally had. Well, I got stuck at a certain point. I'll stop talking a second to say this part. I had about. It got to a point where about almost about 3,000 people were coming through my classes every week. And they had to. They ended up in the largest room there. And it was, you know, sold out bases. Whether I taught at two in the afternoon or whenever. It just. And there was nothing like that in la. It was like this. It was flow. It was heat. It was, you know, freeing and for people. And people walked out feeling different, better than they walked in, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you remember, but we started talking, like, what do you do? And you started telling me in marketing, and I'm like, do you know Jay Abraham? Yes. Yeah. And I just was on the phone with Jay the day before I came here. He says, hello.

Thank you. Yeah. And I think his daughter's watching livestream right now. Michelle.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow. But my story where I was in LA, that was, like, in the early 90s, teaching. I was stuck at a certain point. I didn't know how to get out of that. Just teaching classes. And I sensed there was something bigger. And I knew Tony Robbins somehow. I don't remember. I had some connection there. So I was on his list, and I was at home. And so my wife at the time, we had just had a new baby, probably a year old. We're living in an apartment in Bel Air, and I was barely making ends meet. I mean, now, looking back, I made those Voight people rich, but they were paying me 25 cents a person. Wow. 25 cents a head. Yeah. And you're talking a lot of people. And they were charging, I think, you know, $12 a class or something. And they gave me a raise. Everyone like, yeah. Anyhow, that's another story. So. Yeah. And I'm grateful for the opportunity. It gave me my start. But this is what I'll say. I was at home one day, I got a call, a cold call, and it was this guy selling me, trying to sell me a $5,000 weekend. And it was someone from J. Abraham, a sales guy, person from J. Abraham's lot. I'm like, I don't. Dude, I don't have $5,000. I'm a yoga teacher. I've got a wife. Baby, we could. I could barely pay rent. He's like, no, you'll. You will guarantee, you know, you'll get your money back, you know, and if you don't, you know, you won't pay. Something like that. And so he signed me up for 5,000. For $5,000. $500 a month anyhow, for 10 months. And my wife wouldn't talk to me. She was so furious, right? She's like, are you freaking nuts? Like, we can't even pay rent. Like, we can't even. Like, I go, look, the guy. Guaranteed. So anyhow, I go to the J. Braham thing.

It's the same conversation most people have with their spouses coming there.

I put it out. You know, it's like when I hear the 100,000 membership, there's something about you put it out. You're playing a bigger game. It's a bigger force field. Yeah, absolutely. So I was like, no, I'm putting myself out. And my wife didn't understand the talk at the time. She was like, no, I've got a baby. I've got. Like, you know, we need food. So I understood, but I was like, no, I need to do this and I'll figure it out. Just trust me. So I. Anyhow, I did the whole thing with Jay the weekend, and I got one thing. It was like, write a letter. Just write a letter. Like, you know, get. You know, like, I got something to get off my chest. Write it to my community, right? So I was like, okay. And do a workshop. I had never done a workshop. I was just doing classes or retreats. So I found a facility in Ojike, which is about an hour and a half or hour outside of la. And I wrote this whole letter, like, telling people, this retreat is going to change your life. We're going to do yoga, meditation, personal growth, and it's going to change everything for you. It's going to be a transformation. And in those days, it wasn't online. You couldn't register online. So I had the perforated. The flyer, and then it was perforated. And then you send in a check, or you could write your credit card on paper and you had to mail it to my house, right? My wife's like, I have to put money up now to hold the retreat center money. I didn't. I didn't even have money to make copies of Kinko's of the flyer. Hardly. And so it was. Anyhow, I sent the letter out, and I'm like, look, we're gonna charge $250 to come the retreat. All I need is 10 people to pay for the J. Abraham seminar, right? And then. So I did the math. I sent the letter out, and then mail started pouring in, especially as the retreat was getting closer. The retreat facility only fit 40 people. Like 39 people. And 250 people registered.

Oh, wow.

And we received all this money. And the room, literally the yoga room there, only fit, like, 40 people. And I had 200. Yeah, 50 people coming. And I'm like, oh, okay, this is a problem. This is a problem. And I'm like. I looked at my wife, I go, we have to send the money back. She says, we're not sending the money back because this is going to pay off my college debt. So anyhow, that got me started into doing retreats.

Did they all show up and what did you do?

Yeah, I got so creative. I created a schedule for, I found, you know, we found housing outside that property and then I worked my butt off. I taught 12, 15 hours. Like morning, like got everybody out hiking, you know, on a morning hike, that's easy. Get everybody out, you know, at 6, 7am, do a long walk. And then, and then the classes I put in rotation. So there was like a 8am class, you know, 9:30 class. And I built in 15 minute windows for myself to, you know, take a piss, get some water, drink a smoothie. And I, and I rotated people through and made it work. Yeah. You know, and that opened up a whole world for me there. Oh, and the other thing is, I didn't know. I've never taught any personal development. I knew how to teach yoga and I could lead meditation and I, So I'm like, oh wait, I way over promised, like I don't know how to deliver on this promise. Like it's going to change your life.

So. Anyone ever done that before?

I'm like shit now.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video and I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

I just looked, you know, I had a recent really life altering thing that I forgave my father and my mom. But really it was like with my father I had discovered just a year before so much resentment that I had and judgment I had toward my parents, toward my dad. And I went and forgave my father and asked for his forgiveness for judging him for being a jerk of a sin and yada yada. And that changed everything for me. It literally transformed my whole life that one act. So at the program I just created forgiveness workshops because it was the one thing I knew how to do. Yeah, yeah. And then I'll just share this one outcome because it stuck with me. It confirmed that I was on the right path. Like I tapped into my calling which about. So that retreat happened and by the way there were a lot of. I mean this is a side note and I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but A lot of the registrations that came in were just by names I didn't really recognize or anything like that. And then. And then what I found out is when people showed up, there were a lot of. I mean, I was in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, right. So. And a lot of my clients were, like, Hollywood. Most entertainment industry people, I'd say the majority. And what happened, there was a lot of famous people showed up, and I was like. And I didn't. But their assistants filled out the registrations, right? So it was like, okay, that's. Who. Who's your assistant? Like. But anyhow, one man was a big mogul, like, a very successful man in this program. And I was leading this forgiveness workshop. And he, you know, and there's something again, back to the body as the access. Something about the yoga practice. And this man, it was his first, like, his friend or wife. Someone brought him to this. It was like his first kind of introduction to yoga. And then just being still, meditating, getting present to his body, you know, man, a lot opened up. Like, it just a lid came off. And this guy, like, we'd get. And then the forgiveness workshop, you know, we're sharing and people are talking, and I'm sharing my story and this. And it was just so embodied in him. He had, like, just so much grief and, like, regret of how he had lived. And he just shared how, you know, like, look, I have everything I've got. You want, you know, houses in Paris or French Riviera or New York or, you know, Bel Air. Like, he goes, I've got wealth. I've got all the things. And he said, but my kids don't know me. I can look back. All the carnage of business partners and people I've burned and people that I've hurt and harmed. And it was all just right there for him. And I shared my whole forgiveness thing. I was like, look, it's one thing to go. And. Because I did this the first time with my parents, I went and told them I forgive them for ruining my life. Yeah. Like, I woke up to the truth, and I'm screwed up. And I have all this resentment because you ruined my life. And it didn't go well. You know, they didn't. We didn't talk for, like, two years. Yeah. But I kept doing the work. And yeah, literally, a couple years later, I had this epiphany. I'm like, wait, wait, wait. No, this is me. Like, it's my life. Like, I'm an adult. It's like I'm being childish, like, blaming them and so I was living in LA at the time. This is before cell phone. So I jumped on a flight to San Francisco, showed up unannounced at my parents front door, rang the bell, they open. I remember my mom opened the door and my dad was standing there like, oh, no, here we go. Because I said, I need to talk to you. And they're like, oh no, here we go. And like, no, no. I want you to know that I just acknowledge you for everything you've done for me and that everything good in my life is because of you. And I really, I recognize it's all the amazing, like, gifts you have given me and you've been there for me and that, you know, I've been a jerk. I've been resenting you and judging you. And I'm sorry. Like, I'm just, I just said sorry and they start crying. And it was really, at that point I got to know my parents for the first time in my whole life. Up to that point, I was seeing them through the eyes of a teenager. But I got to know my mom. I really got to know her for the next 20, 30, whatever years that was. She lived until 2016, got to know my dad and was able to just accept them. But here's my point. So this mogul guy shared that story, some version of that story. And this man, this mogul guy, you know, he left. We left the program and then about six months later, I get a phone call from his wife. And she said, you know, so and so passed away. He just passed away like a month ago. And she said, and I just want to thank you because he was a changed man out of that retreat, she said, he went and he forgave, like, he just forgave himself, starting with himself. And he said, you know, he went and he just made amends with his, from his family, his kids, to people in his work world. And he just, he died. Just like he died, I forget from cancer or something, but he was like, he died a peaceful man. So it was like. And that was like right there, like those little clues. I've now realized in hindsight, I have lots of clues like that that are like, oh, yeah, I'm in alignment with my calling something bigger than myself. Yeah.

You know, if you give yourself the space to pay attention to it, and sometimes it takes time, sometimes it takes work. I mean, I've said this before, is that being in the middle of a really good yoga class, call it yoga, call it anything that gets you into whatever you can embody, flow, whatever it is for you. Some people it's music. Some people it's intense expression. Others it's getting to a place of peacefulness. I just feel better than almost any million dollar business deal I'm putting together. Whatever there is something about how you feel because so there's the part of my life that's make money, do things, be productive, and there's the other where it's just feeling, you know, connected. And most of my life when I was in addiction, even when I had, you know, become, you know, financially, you know, capable, I still, most of my life was feeling like there's a dark cloud over my head, raining on me and I'm in a hurry to get away from it. But the fucking cloud just followed me everywhere I went. So I was always in a hurry to be somewhere. And then as soon as I got there, I was in a hurry to be somewhere else. And then I started noticing that about so many of my entrepreneurial friends, you know, this drivenness, this drive is incredible because you can do things, but when it's driving you off a cliff, it's not very incredible. It's very painful and it's. And so there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of very successful people that really do, in some cases not even unethical. There's just a lot of people that are driven and they help others, but they don't help themselves and they just have that constant anxiety. And what I like about your book is you actually not only talk about all the yoga and the practices and what it does, but you actually talk about your, you know, the darkness that you encountered and the self doubt and all of the things where, in and how through the process. So you kept coming back to the work and like, you know, Neil, like you had said, you know, so much of transformation can take place there, just right there, you know, it's like this. When I was in a. I don't know if I told this. I was just telling someone this the other day. I can't even. I don't think it was this group. I was at a 12 step meeting years ago and there was a guy that was a heroin addict and he had gotten rid of all of his possessions that had reminded him of where he lived, everything of when he was an addict. But he kept the recliner that he used to shoot heroin in. And he kept the recliner because he said, you know, there's so much pain and darkness when I would sit in that chair and just, you know, I was an addict and I Realized, you know, it's not the chair, it was the person that was sitting in it. And so now I'm a transformed person in the same chair that I used to destroy my life with. You know, I'm now this, you know, I'm recovered in it, and it's, you know, and I thought that's just such a powerful metaphor. And so there's so much you can do. You mean. So that being said, what is yoga? And anyone here that we. By the way, let me just say this because I do want to hear your definition of yoga. You do describe it in the book. You go into quite depth and your teachers and all that stuff. And I know.

Vanas vinyasa.

Vinyasa, which means flow.

Yeah.

Anyway, that you go. There's like seven of them or something. How many different of the. You know. So I never. I never learn any of the terminology. Yeah, I just like shit like downward dog and all that.

You don't need to know at all. It's better than that.

I've never. And it's funny because I've heard it a thousand. I mean, I've done. I have to have done a couple thousand, you know, yoga classes in my life. But it's funny, you know, we all have different reasons to come to it. But how many of you here just listening to this, it's piqued your interest where you're like, I want to do yoga. Yeah. Okay, good. That's enough to make it the rest of you.

I haven't really talked much about yoga.

What's that?

Yeah, we haven't even talked that much about yoga.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, what is it? Why do it?

You know, I think that in contrast to the world we all live in and the world's in trouble, you know, it's like inhumanity at a humanity level. And I think that we live in a life, we live in a world. And as entrepreneurs, we're all about creating. So creation, which is in the world of action. And then to spend time on what I like to call the creature. There's creation and then there's the creature that fulfills, takes the actions, does the thinking, does that. So. And sometimes we ignore the creature, all the different aspects of body, mind, being spiritually as well. And then there's. So there's. Yeah, creation, there's creature. Spending more time on creature, if that's what's needed. Because we get so lost in that world of creating, doing, doing, busy, busy, you know, all of that. The creature suffers. But what I've learned anyhow, and what I teach people is that there's like, well, what's behind the creature? Like what's driving the, you know, what's the creator? There's creator, there's creature, there's creation. Yeah. And so to get clear on your source of strength, the source of your strength could call that cree, what's your creator? Or for me, it's like, I'm co creator. If it just stops it myself, itself, then I'm okay, I'm creator and I create and creature and creation and with others. But as co creator, that includes, I mean for me, God and my calling, I find vision, vision and calling as a part of co creating. And the creature is the instrument and a lot of us. So our calling, like kind of as I was sharing earlier, I just pointed to my calling. But I think that if for entrepreneurs, people in this room, I think to be clear on what is your calling? Because I think for me, I know my calling is my source of strength. In running programs and working with thousands. We had a pre pandemic, we had 100,000 people a week coming through our platforms, our programs, all brick and mortar globally. And there's a lot of people. But to be clear in my calling as a source of strength and then as leader, you have to lead yourself. That includes body and yoga practice as you kind of pointing to, is a very powerful way physically to be embodied. To be embodied and to know what's going on in your body. I know you're pretty trained so you can look around the room. Like I can look around the room and you know, we're all walking autobiographies. You can tell a lot by people by just looking at the creature. You can see what's etched on their face, you know, fear or uncertainty or ease, equanimity, calm. It's like creature, you know, we see it all but to be present to one's own development. But here's what I want to say about calling. Just real quick. I don't want to go on a talk too long, but I'll say this. There's something about a return. So yoga to me, you know, a returning back. I think our calling is something like when I shared about forgiveness, like with my parents, right there was my calling. Like when I forgave my dad and something lifted off of me and I love my mom in that moment, like I was five years old again. Like I literally felt like I was five years. Like I adored my mom and my mom adored me and it allowed for that. But that was a return, like it was a revolution. My second book is based on this principle. It's called 40 days to personal Revolution. But revolution is a return. It's a full circle, right? You go all the way around. You come all the way back to. Like in the Bible, it says we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless if we come back to the ways. A little child, but I think as children, we kind of had this possibility about us, this limited, unlimited sense of possibility, like anything's possible. And we come back to that through a revolution. And what's at the center of that circle is our calling, is our source of strength. Let me just say this. It's a universe. So in yoga, they say, say there's om. There's a vibrational sound at the center, and there's light and there's motion, and then there's order.

So.

And if you have motion without order, there's chaos. But we're in motion. That's. We're in creation, doing. We're in motion. So we need to put in order. And order is discipline. You know, you put in the discipline. So it's like you're speaking to how many yoga classes or doing your cold soaps or your. That's a discipline that brings order to the motion. And you're at the source of that and your calling, your vision. The calling is so yoga practice. And for me, meditation is a key practice. And coming back to that source of strength, that universe, that one truth, one law, one song kind of thing, I don't know if that's a lot, but.

No, no. Well, here's my. How I. How I interpret it. You know, I was sitting there thinking, you know, how many times have I done yoga? Because I said, a thousand, two thousand times. And I'm thinking, have I really done it that much? There was one year where I had two yoga instructors that would come two to three times a week. They would rotate, one would do two weeks. And I did that for a couple years straight at my office. And everyone on my team that wanted to contribute, that was probably around 2000, I don't know, maybe 2007, 2008, and did a boatload of yoga. And I would do yoga outside of those three times a week that they would come to the office and I would go in and I would go out, I would dip and. And I'll tell you, my life just works better when I do it. And if I'm really stressed out or really angst out or really overwhelmed, nothing helps with the overwhelm than just fricking doing it. And the interesting thing is the time that I feel least like doing it is the time I'm most needed.

Right. And you're always left feeling the best, right?

Totally.

After those times.

Yeah. And a lot of you have been going to war, metaphorically, in your businesses and the stuff you have to deal with. And I just want to do whatever I can to share my perspective. Our perspective. How many people have been through. How many people have you trained?

Yeah, I don't know, a lot.

I mean, there's millions of people have gone through Baptiste yoga classes.

Yeah, yeah.

And, yeah.

Pre pandemic, we had. I mean, we're able to measure through. We had 200 brick and mortar studios locations, and we had 100,000 people a week coming through those. But those are the ones that we could measure because it's much kind of bigger than. Was bigger than that.

Yeah. So, I mean, you built this business out of it. But the thing is, it's so interesting. You learn marketing. You did, and you were able to get the messaging out. And it's one thing where if you have good stuff in the world and you're an expert, that's one thing, but the ability to put it out there and do it is another. And I'll tell you, building all of this, I think if you didn't have the practice, you'd probably kind of go nuts along the way. Because there has to be two sides to things when someone's all about physical stuff and health. I know a lot of really broke, amazing athletes, and I know a lot of very unhealthy, very stressed out, rich, wealthy entrepreneurs. And so the beauty of this is this doesn't take a lot of time. It actually takes no time. It actually creates time. And I think one of the biggest resistance for people, you know, like doing an ice bath or going to meditate or all that. Gary Halbert, who I learned marketing from originally, he was crazy. He had this saying, and I believed it like gospel for so many years. And he said, you'll accomplish more through movement than you will through meditation. And then when I got trained in meditation, I realized, you know, sometimes you can accomplish a lot more through meditation than you can through movement. And then it occurred to me that that's what yoga is. Yoga is moving meditation. So why the fuck not do both? You know, it is. It's moving meditation, and you get into your body, and when I cannot figure out how to make decisions if I can just get my ass on the mat. Yeah, it works itself out. It just does.

On that point, a buddy of Mine, his name is Mark Benioff. He built Salesforce and Tony Robbins accidentally.

Sent me and him an email one day. He had the wrong, I think either the wrong Joe or the wrong Mark. And that, that's kind of how I got introduced to him. It was funny.

Yeah, yeah.

Tony sends some weird emails once in a while.

Mark told me a cool story though. He said that when he first started the company like he worked for himself and maybe had like one employee. But he said he would go to yoga class every morning, 7am in San Francisco and then he would drive down to wherever his office is were in Silicon Valley. So he'd do a 90 minute class in the morning, he'd go work and then he would come back and do like a 7:30 class. And he said he literally. And he would do that five or six days a week and he said he literally worked out his entire company every day. All the problems, all the things he was dealing with. He would get on that mat in that sweaty room and he would literally work out and solve his problems and how to grow, you know, and all that. And I was like, I came to learn the partly of why I was so attracted to yoga practice was I, I have ADHD that some of these conversations around that were powerful for me but that I learned kinesthetically, I learned by doing, I just do. I was a terrible like in school I just couldn't sit still and all that. When those kind of stories, like when Mark shared that with me, I'm like, that's exactly how I work so much in my life. And that's where when I say it's important for everyone, I think anyhow to locate your source of strength because that's a place where you can tap in if you're more physically oriented too. But to get in your body and move and breathe and locate your center and things get worked out. Energy moves, things get, you know, the faucet turns on energetically and creatively and it's amazing how much can get just sorted out and you're taking care of your. The creature.

Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah.

So let me say this.

And you don't need to do a lot by the way. I just want to throw that in like if you do 20 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day. Yeah. And then maybe two or three times a week, do you know, an hour or 90 minutes. But if you do that consistently, just try that for a month, see what happens.

Okay. I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book. I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead. You're over here. Do it now. Come on. Thank you. Watch them.