Why Women Are Raving About BUTI Yoga: Transform Your Body and Mind!

Hello there.

This is Joe Polish and I am here with a couple of my friends and awesome ladies. This is Crystal Palermo and this is Busy Gold.

Hi.

And what's kind of funny is we're sitting here on yoga mats in the floor of my office, and upstairs you guys are doing a Buddhi yoga, spelled B U T I certification. I want you to explain what is Buddha yoga, What are you guys doing and why do you do it?

I think I'm gonna pass it over to Crystal because I do this all the time for my job because I'm the founder. So I actually love hearing other people's experience with booty and what it means to them. I think it's actually even more profound, typically than mine. So holler at me, Crystal.

Okay, so what is booty? And then like, what it means to you and what the experiences are. Kind of different answers. So when people say, what is booty yoga? I usually describe it as yoga foundation with tribal dance and plyometrics to badass music. But on a deeper level and what it does for you, I mean, busy is the wonderful creator. She's super smart. She's a genius, straight up.

I like how smart.

She's Mensa. Like, she's a genius, no joke. And so she has this. She uses the core foundation of yoga and her Chinese medicine background and all kinds of Eastern medicine background to really get in, tap into how the mind and the body works together through the physicality part, through lifestyle, eating habits. I mean, all of it is so all encompassing. Working through your chakras, I mean, it's a complete lifestyle. It's not just a fit, but you also get a six pack and a nice booty. Along the way.

I've actually found one of the best ways to describe it is, you know, with most fitness methodologies, you're going there to get results. It's like, well, how soon will I have a six pack? Or how soon will my cellulite go away? And I've actually found that with Booty we still attract those types of customers, but they typically come there and they get so distracted by all this other inner transformation that they arrive months later with the six pack and they're like, holy shit, I forgot I was even looking for a six pack. It totally slipped my mind because now I have best friends, I've got confidence. And it became less about the journey to the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and they actually enjoyed their own grass, which I think that's what booty's all about, is learning to enjoy the journey itself and not constantly needing to be something else or strive to be something else, and to just be in a really powerful, secure way.

How would you guys describe what yoga is for?

Just.

I'm someone who just doesn't even know. They really don't do yoga. They're watching this, and they just don't even really know.

You're asking us at the perfect time, actually, because we're here teaching a yoga teacher training. So Crystal's actually in the yoga teacher training. So she did get 100 on her test today. So want to holler at me what the answer to that question is?

Okay, so for what yoga is, it is the science of the mind and body, and it means to unite or to yoke. So that's, I mean, the solid definition behind yoga. And we did just complete 200 hours of yoga teacher training, so officially register yoga teachers. And that's really the definition of it?

Absolutely. I mean, it's comprised of a bunch of different aspects of your life. I mean, the practice of yoga, people tend to think traditionally of just what we call hatha yoga, which is the practice of moving your body to unite the mind and body. But the practice of yoga extends far beyond that into study meditation, the more scientific side, like Ayurveda, and taking care of your body, not just physicality, but internally, with cleansing techniques and purifying and eating the right foods, practicing proper lifestyle habits. So people think of yoga as more of just a movement practice, but it really goes far beyond that. And it's actually the science of uniting the mind and the body. So obviously, we're humans, we move in our lives. We have to be strong to do certain functions in our lives and to stay healthy. So to do those things and always bring that mindful connection to why you're doing it, I think is where yoga succeeds, where a lot of other fitness methodologies fail. You could be mindlessly doing squats forever, and then you throw out your back, and then you don't work out for six months. Here's the deal. I was on track to be an Olympian skier, and I found yoga by accident, completely. And I had always been such a competitive person. That was all about how many squats I could do, how much weight I could lift, how fast I could sprint, how many boys I could compete with. That's this girl's background. So it's not that I have anything against lifting weights. Like, I did that for the majority of my life in terms of my fitness path. I've just found that for women, there's another way that gives you results beyond your wildest dreams and does it in a way that benefits all the areas of your life. Lifting weights without doing another practice that opens the hips or brings energetic cleansing to the body or brings that mindfulness back to who you are as a human. It leads you down a path that will inevitably lead to injury or self punishment. Just really not behaviors that are in line with being a woman. It's different. Being a woman is different than being a man. And I always kind of joke around like, we're a very inclusive community. We have in our booty tribe, we have a lot of married lesbians. We have a lot of. We actually have quite a few gay men that identify more as women. So I actually joke around a lot and I'm like, so you can do booty if you have a vagina or energetically feel like you have a vagina. So that's kind of my rule.

So is it mostly for women then?

It's a female practice. We do have men in classes on occasion, but I will say it always changes the vibe of the class. So it was funny. We actually taught a class at Lorna Jane and there was one guy in the class that actually runs entrepreneurial events for Dell in Austin. And when I was in the class, I haven't had this experience, but I actually caught myself having these moments of like, there's a weird energy that wasn't feminine. And there was a disconnect in our little energetic circle. And I kept noticing myself look over and kind of having this something's not right, something's not right. Don't get me wrong. He was like in it to win it. He gave his all. He loved it and actually said that he wants to do it all the time because he thinks that it's the best way to move his body. He said that he came up with five business ideas as soon as he left the class. So it's primarily for women. We like to keep that closed circle energy that feels safe because a lot of energetic shifts happen and emotions come up and people get angry, people get sad, people fall in love with themselves, which, that's my favorite look to see in the mirror. I don't know if you've ever watched a woman fall in love with herself in the mirror without ego being involved, but it's like the most powerful thing. She got tears, I got tears. It just got all teary. And I don't cry.

All right, me neither.

You said booty tribe. And I've gone through a couple of private sessions with Crystal. We even once. She actually took a few of my friends through it, and it's, like, intense. It was a very hard workout in.

Sanskrit is intense, and it's real intense.

What is the difference between Buddha yoga and other forms of.

Is there anything similar yoga people don't know. This was originally intended for men. Women weren't allowed to practice yoga. Yoga wasn't created for women. Women weren't allowed to be yoga gurus. That really happened over time as the practice evolved. And I really teach my students to understand that yoga is a living and breathing organism, and it's something that must grow and change and adapt with human needs. And I think a lot of forms of yoga haven't done that. They've, like, stuck to this very traditional, static, masculine practice that doesn't fit where our world is going. And I think we can all acknowledge that we're on track to really see women kind of take over positions and in businesses, in the household that they haven't taken on before. I know for me, I work full time. I'm the CEO of my business, and I'm meeting more and more women where that's the case. They're stepping into that role that was traditionally more masculine. And they need to have a movement practice and a lifestyle practice that reinforces that shift, because it's happening. I mean, I don't think anybody can deny it at this point. They call it the age of the Divine Feminine. And it's. It's absolutely upon us in such a palpable way that it's why this practice came to me in this moment. I'm the first to admit that I didn't sit down one day and say, I want to create a business. I want to do this and I want to do this. I channeled this stuff from beyond. And I am so grateful every day of my life that I was open to listening and believed enough in myself to listen to that message and write that shit down. Because I think a lot of people don't do that. They hear these things and they're like, well, that's just crazy talk. But when you're confident and secure in the inner workings of your brain, when an idea comes to you and you know this, you write that shit down and you're like, yes, if I got that idea and it feels good in here and it feels good up here, I'm gonna make that shit happen.

And.

And that's exactly what I did with Booty. And the practice itself helped me get to that secure place where now I'm able to do that with other businesses. We've created a supplement line. We're now opening our first facility in Scottsdale, which, you know, which is the first ever women's social club, which I'm sure you're going to ask us questions about that later. But getting to that place where you have the practice and the lifestyle that builds the confidence necessary to listen to those thoughts when they come into your head and see them through to being million dollar businesses. That's what the world is all about.

Well, you know, in my role, I have a marketing company, as you know, and I have consulted with some of the top fitness, exercise, supplement, nutrition, fitness people on the planet. Many of them are my clients. And so I've seen a lot of things over the years and my sense out of booty is it's going to be huge. So it's really cool to even just.

This little interview already pretty big. We're kind of already a big D.

We're already a big D. Well, at.

Least if you at least have that vision in your mind, that's kind of how you sort of make that happen. No, but I'm. So you talk about it as a booty tribe. So here behind the cameras, there's, you know, many wonderful ladies that are booty instructors.

So many.

That was a respectable thing. Wonderful ladies. I don't know, how would you refer to the booty tribe? What do you call it?

Oh, this is perfect. My microphone's in the way. But can you read that? Bodhisattvas. And what does it say underneath?

Our badass tribal warrior goddess.

There you go.

There you go.

Awesome. So what happens to someone once they start doing it? Give me some stories of like some of your clients that started out. Even your own story. Like when you started doing this, it was transformative because I know, you know, I can joke around and stuff. But you're really into. You want to transform people that are out there. I mean, everyone here that's sitting here, they know this will transform into someone's mindset, their life, their relationships. There's all kinds of assets. This is a catalyst.

And you said ass by accident, but it also transforms your ass.

It also does transform your ass. I will be happy to share what it's done for me, sort of my story behind that. So I grew up as a dancer and a competitive dancer and cheerleader. So that was kind of my background. And then I went into corporate America and into working in higher education, university, got a master's degree, was working my way up through the corporate ladder and just sort of taught fitness classes on the side just to keep in line with the dancer and fitness side of me. And plus, if fitness was my job, I was going to show up and do it every day because that's my ethic. And I got this opportunity to open a fitness studio as just sort of an on the side thing, as my own space to teach my classes and stumbled upon booty. Someone suggested it to me after I was displaying some of my assets and my dance moves.

Please show your asset.

Oh, my gosh.

I just. I just showed my asset. Your asset's way better. You guys have to see this.

Here we go. All right. How do I need to do this? Like this.

You got to get all up in the camera.

I love the fact that there's a.

Mic and there's a mic like that. I mean, we joke around what your mind can. What. What do I say? I say what your mind can.

If my mind. If my mind can imagine it, my ass can do it. Yeah, pretty much. It's all a mental. It's really connecting the mind and body. Anyway, so someone was like, oh, my gosh, you should check out Buddha yoga. And I'm, you know, what's that? And I look it up and. And I've always kind of taken yoga on the side, but never had the time to dedicate to do 200 hours to actually become a yoga teacher, which is why I taught my dance fitness. And in reaching out, I'm keeping it real.

Okay. Yeah.

So I contacted them because I just had opened my studio and I was like, do you guys. The only trainings they had going on were in places like Minnesota and Atlanta and all over the place. I was like, do you ever come out to the west coast and happen to be on the coast?

They've been everywhere other than Arizona. They're like every other place except here.

Yeah. And so happened to be talking to busy, and so she's like, actually, we're looking to come out to Scottsdale. Do you want to host? So I hosted and that training and just watching the videos building up to that, and I was trying to train my body and do busy's videos online. Trying to be prepared. Because when you watch, booty's not something to watch. It's something to do. You watch. And you're like, nope, no way. Can't do that. That looks so hard. And you get into a class and you go through the movement and you. That's part of the transformation is like, I am a badass. Like, I can't believe I just did that. Stuff I've been watching the last couple days. Busy's been teaching some of the most intense classes I've ever seen you teach. And I look around the room at 20 girls who are totally hanging. That's why she's been so aggressive with us, because she's like, oh, you think you can still go, let's go a little harder, like, what are you gonna do now? And nobody falls out. So that's been really impressive. But anyway, what it really helped me.

Do, it's because I believe in you all so much.

Well, and it helped awaken when Busy was talking about waking up, the confidence. And this is divine feminine, what that meant for me, especially working in corporate America. And I trained leadership. I trained diversity and women in leadership. And women have always been taught, historically, that in order to find a place at the table, that they need to act like a man. You know, they have to be able to hang with the boys. And I grew up with six brothers. That's certainly my upbringing was to be able to hang with the boys, which is why I have this sense of, you know, the slightly inappropriate side of me. And I realized that that doesn't have to look like a man to have a seat at the table. In fact, it's finding the divine feminine, even if that means as a mother or as a wife or as a sister or really great girlfriend. I mean, I never understood the value of girlfriends until I found booty. And I have found probably the most.

The most powerful.

And I'll never, ever forget it again. And I will share it with as many women as I can bring into that circle, because there is nothing like talking to your girlfriends through a relationship challenge or a parenting challenge. You go, you know, becoming a single mom or doing any of these challenging things that women go through. And we think we have to do it by ourselves because we're taught to be tough and to not show weakness. And we're so competitive. I grew up dancing competitively. It was all about one upping and making the team and making the cut. And that's just not the environment that booty creates. And you don't even have to say. You don't have to set it up that way. It just vibes that way. That's the vibration. That's why that masculine energy sort of. It just throws it off. It's just a little different.

And the practice itself kind of weeds that out. The people that aren't ready to arrive at that place of not cutting other women down and being competitive, they come to the class and they're like, oh my God, that was totally terrible. I'm never going back ever.

I've actually never had that happen.

Oh my God. It happened to me with a. I mean, I guess we're just gonna go here. Here we go. New York. I was going to teach this masterclass that was for the press and a well known blogger in New York that I won't name the blog. But she came to take my class and right off the bat I asked her a couple questions and was so nice to her, really welcoming. I'm definitely somebody that goes out of my way to be welcoming and make sure everyone in my class has made eye contact with me and knows who I am. And right off the bat I was like, so what do you typically do for your workouts? And she was like, oh, I'm a marathon runner. And I was like, so you mean you like to beat yourself up in your head while you run for 26 miles with nobody else around? So this is not gonna go well for me. So I asked her a few more questions and tried to just give her as many tips as I could. And then of course she went to the back of the class and the class was, I mean, like the most packed sardine can. Like already sweaty before we even started. And she ended up writing me this terrible review, like the worst review of all time. And her perception of the class was so scary by where she was as a human being that a lot of it, like the facts were actually not correct. Like her brain had actually made her perceive the class as being a way that it absolutely wasn't even down to concrete, tangible details. So I've seen that happen. And actually it was the outcry from our customer base was so huge in response to this terrible write up that the New York Times did a write up on this piece calling out the blog and saying, you should probably stop doing that piece. It's probably not Yogi minded considering 500 people commented on this in one day and said, this is a life changing practice. How dare you. We know, busy. She said, I was teaching in a string bikini. I wasn't. Who would do that? I would totally do that. But I wasn't. I wasn't in this that time. I was wearing Lululemon. It was like the one time where I was like, of course this, this time when I went on my way to wear clothes. Now I'm wearing a bikini. That's not cool, man.

I put pants on.

Well, you both are mothers. How has this made you a better mother?

Yes, it's Made me a better mother because I now understand the value of surrounding yourself with powerful women and teaching the confidence and the drive to be secure without. And I don't mean this in like a feminist, like, you don't need a man because I have a husband. I'm married to him. He's amazing. I'm all about the partnership, but partnerships are truly wonderful. When you're so secure and independent on your own that you're choosing to arrive and be with that person, you don't need that person. There's no codependency. And the fact that I'm able to now be around women that understand that and live their lives that way helps me continue to reinforce that with my daughter, my son, same thing. I will absolutely treat him the same way. To be raised with the same morals, the same ideologies, how to, you know, attract the type of woman that, you know, attract like a woman like his mama. That's nice and secure. Maybe we'll just, you know, when he gets older, we'll just bring him right into the booty satva tribe. He can pick a girlfriend. You can do pre arranged booty marriages. Just kidding. We're not gonna do that. But it's made me more secure in every aspect of motherhood. And for me, running a business, it's made me really secure in the fact that I don't have to feel guilty for realizing my entrepreneurial dream, which I think a lot of women struggle with. They have this great idea, but they're like, oh, but I have to stay at home with the kids. I can't go do this. You know, it's not right. The kids need me here. My husband's working. That manifests in so many terrible ways. And I see clients with this all the time where they have terrible sex lives with their husbands. And as soon as I talk to them about it, we find out that they had this whole career path in their head when they met their husband. Then they got pregnant, and that career path just kind of like sat right in their second chakra. And they never were able to fully realize it. They didn't, like, give birth to this idea. They gave birth to a kid instead, and then were like, we're just gonna leave you in here stagnant. And that manifests as, like, a terrible sex life. A lot of times, infertility, if they try to have another kid, it just really causes energetic problems there. So I love helping women get past the mommy guilt. And the struggle is real because I travel a lot and I have to constantly be Even reinforcing that to myself that it's okay to do this and it's really just socialization leading up to this that's made us think that it's not so that's one of my favorite things.

That's very cool. You have a five year old daughter, Liv. She's wonderful. Thank you. I mean I've watched you and I've seen how you've kind of evolved through this whole process with booty yoga, but from an outsider's perspective.

So. Yeah.

So I mean having a daughter as. I mean I'm a girl who grew up with all boys, so that was so super foreign to me. I mean I don't even have a lot of female cousins. Like it was really, really new for me. And what I notice now that booty does for me, and this is more from the lifestyle side is I am really mindful and really aware around the words that I use when I talk about myself, the way I look at my body, the way I talk about my body, the way I talk to my daughter about her body because now she's starting to ask questions or what foods really fuel you and make you feel good, make you feel happy and what might make you feel down and dry. So I'm a better parent from whole just my level of awareness and my ability to remain calm and know that I can do things like deep breathing or I can go booty if I need to take a break and get some stress out or that it's. But to really be watchful. It's amazing how young body shaming can start with, with women. And you know, I can't say that I experienced a ton of body shame, but a lot of conservative, you know, my mom was very conservative about that. It was like really? No. And growing up around all boys, it wasn't something very free and.

And that manifests the same way as an adult though, the body shaming itself.

Right. So I'm to now be more mindful so that my daughter has a jump start on that. So it's not something that she realizes when she's 30, but something she always knows to be true about herself and the way she views other women and that it's not a comparison and that we're all going to look different from one day to the next and knowing that you're making the right choices that make you feel good, that give you the energy to play or that help you learn better, that make you sleep really well, that those are the things that that's her choice. And when she decides to eat something that's not great. And she talks to me about how she's feeling. I help remind her what those choices are like. So I definitely feel like my awareness and accountability on that side from a life and then obviously the confidence and all of that.

How quickly into. Because I don't even know the answer. How quickly into your experience with booty yoga did you go grain free, dairy free and start doing the meal plans?

So I started teaching in February. And when was it? I think you did a 30 day slim down. Yep, in July. So there was a few months and I'm Italian last year. Yeah, so I'm Italian and I grew up eating pasta and bread with like, like all the time. And I wasn't necessarily out of shape in doing booty because I've been a fitness instructor, you know, so it wasn't something that was like, I really want to lose weight. But I was so curious reading these forums and reading how women were, I mean, busy overcame her. She had lupus and was able to overcome that and just through the foods that she's eating and that physical activity. And I'm reading the forum, the forum and the booty tribe that is involved in this, the transformations they were experiencing from anxiety, depression, addictions, eating disorder, thyroid. I mean, so many things that were related directly to taking those foods out. I did it out of pure curiosity, like, what would happen if I just tried to not like, are these. Cause sometimes, honestly I would read it and be like, oh, I'm sure, I'm so sure. Like in three days you felt like this or you accidentally ate a grain and your whole body like exploded. You know, it was like, that's a little dramatic.

Everybody thinks that way.

I really thought it was BS and then I went into the 30 day slim down and I had a day like I accidentally ate a green bean or something small, stupid and minor. And it was physically painful when I took that stuff out. When you try to put it back in your body, it didn't feel good. And then it would take three or four days. And it wasn't necessarily that. I always feel like the effects of it in those three or four days. It's once you get back to a clean state and you're like, I just felt like a superhero. I feel like a machine, a well oiled machine.

That's what everybody's supposed to feel all the time. And we get so gunked up with toxins and inflammation that we forget what we're supposed to feel like. Or possibly we've never known what you're supposed to feel like. Cause you've been eating that way since you were a little kid.

Since, I mean, generation, actually.

My kids have never had grains or dairy, which I'm like super pumped on. And I know that you're trying.

I'm working on it. And when I told my family what I was doing with my lifestyle, they were like, well, what are you gonna eat? Like, there's nothing else. And I actually love everything I eat. I love food more now than. I love food more now than ever before.

So is Booty about teaching how to e. I mean, like, what are all the things that encompasses?

It's a lot.

Movement, nutrition, lifestyle. Lifestyle. Well, the lifestyle encompasses all of it. So I mean, movement, how you eat, how you educate yourself, how you treat the people around you and how you treat yourself.

Okay, so you mentioned confidence. And I think every human being will function. I mean, I think the two most important things to protect in life, you know, speaking from being an entrepreneur, are your confidence and your gratitude. Because you don't do anything well in life without confidence unless you're lucky. I mean, you don't have to. You know, sometimes confidence can be overrated. And you can be really scared and still be, you know, competent doing something, but it feels good when you're confident. And then. But if, you know, if you have all of the access to relationships and money and whatever, but you don't have gratitude, then you can still be a miserable bastard.

So absolutely.

I know that you instill those things deeply with your community, with your beauty tribe and everything. So for someone watching this that they would even feel self conscious walking into, they're out of shape or they don't feel good about how they look, they're shy. What would you say to them to get them into this? Because I know this can be transformative. So I want you to speak to the person that's out there going, well, yeah, that sounds good. And you guys seem to have a really cool little.

You guys and all of your six pack abs. Here's the thing. Most yoga classes and you know, obviously I've taught all different styles of fitness and yoga leading up to this. And there's this whole mentality of that's my. That's where I put my mat. Which is what happens at pretty much every class where the whole class is so competitive, where if, like, if you're new and you put your mat down, someone all of a sudden is like eyeballing you and being like, mm, that's where I put my mat. You're gonna have to go to the back. That whole mentality is not allowed in a booty class. That is instilled in all of our instructors during training. It is just absolutely not tolerated. We have a zero tolerance policy. We also have a zero tolerance policy for women talking poorly of the people around them, cutting people down. So we really do everything that we can to cultivate this environment where if you're walking into booty class, every instructor is going to look you in the eyes, they're going to give you a hug, and you're going to immediately know that there is no judgment. And I think it's very rare that that type of space is genuinely created. I think people try a lot, and a lot of times the facilitator doesn't really live that life herself. But that's one thing that I'll say for bodhisattvas, and it's something that we work really hard on, cultivating our instructors to really step into that leadership role. And I think it's because of my gratitude. I am so grateful for every woman that comes to me to get trained. Bikram really is all about. This is me. I'm your guru. All in his place of ego, right? His solar plexus chakra, where your confidence comes from, needs some serious mother effing balance. Okay, so for me and Crystal and I were just talking about this today. When an instructor comes to me every time I leave a training, my heart would be overflowing if every single instructor left there teaching better than me. That is my goal. I always want everyone to be even better than me. That would make my heart completely overflow. So I go out of my way to instill that instructors, from the moment that they step foot in any of my certifications and then they pass that on and they build their own tribes and they are then becoming their own guru, and these tribes are getting built under them. I don't need anything to come back to me other than for these women to keep passing that on to other women. That's what everything is all about for me. And because that's instilled in them in training, they know how important it is to cultivate that environment. So I can say with 100% certainty, wherever you are in the world, you will never step foot in a booty class and feel like you are ostracized, that you are not enough, that you are overweight. It will never happen because I am just such a stickler for that. It's so important because you need to love where you are right now, whether you have £40 to lose. You have stretch marks, you've got a birthmark. You have to look yourself in the mirror and love yourself right now. Otherwise you won't go anywhere. It'll never happen. The grass will always be greener and you'll be so on the mission to always be something else that you'll never be.

Yeah. And that judgment free and criticism free zone, what I see is it has less to do with them actually judging each other and more to do with, you're not going to treat yourself like that. We are far, far more hard on ourselves than we would ever be to other people, especially in particular women. And we have these flaws. And I mean, I've had a baby, I gained 65 pounds in my pregnancy despite working out and thinking that I was eating really well, and then lost it all pretty rapidly. So, you know, I have. My stomach's not like this perfect, little smooth, tight, whatever. And it took a lot of courage and getting over myself to take my shirt off and teach in a sports bra in class, which is so that they can see the spiral movement. They can see what's happening and how I'm using my muscles. And I can't tell you how many women have told me how inspiring that was to see that. And they felt more. And I would see more and more in every class, women feeling more comfortable with their bodies, even if it doesn't look exactly what I think perfect should look like, that they love you even more for it and that I would love myself even more for it. And now, you know, and women really.

Start to embrace that in class. I mean, you'll see 15 minutes, 20 minutes in. There's always that one moment where the whole energy shifts and you have women that are like, eff it, I'm taking off my shirt, like, whatever. I thought that I was gonna wear these Lululemon compression pants, but I'm gonna go change into my underwear. I've literally had a woman in the middle of class, like a 60 year old African American woman in a class like packed in Culver City, go woo. And take off her pants and just like do it in a thong for the rest of the time. And people around her were like, I don't know what's happening. And I was like, let's go with it, come on. Like, focus back on the mirror. This is happening right now. And there's no judgment. It's like, I want people to have that moment where they're like, oh my God, no one's judging me. I get to just be and like, shake. I tell people all the time in class, like, I do photo shoots a lot. I'm in magazines and when I stand up and I flex, like, sure, six pack abs as soon as I bend over. I've had two kids and I'm really cool on camera about showing people that, like, I don't try to pretend that I always look perfect. I can make myself look perfect for a photo shoot, but that is not the case. When I bend over and there's just skin that exists that I don't need to get rid of to feel like a whole person. That's not the way it is. And I think a lot of trainers today go out of their way to. If they have a baby, they go into hiding for six months and they magically emerge with these six pack abs. People all the time go on our online streaming content and they're like, I mean, girls that clearly are not ready to join the tribe yet. I'll say that nicely. And will write terrible things about me or my body on the forum. And it's because I literally gave birth to my second child. And a week later I started filming workouts and just showed, like, the whole transition back. Didn't hide it, didn't wear a shirt. I was like, all right, guys, this is happening, so just meet me on the mat. It's a little bit jiggly today. We're working on it. And then magically one day I had six pack abs again. But they got to see the whole process.

No, that's great though.

That converted a lot of customers for me that were like, yes, thank you for actually showing us that that's possible. Because a lot of people don't get to see that transition well, and a.

Lot of people don't hear about it, which is why it's great that we have all this recorded so that everyone out there. So who's this for and who's this not for?

It is for every woman that is ready to show up and connect with other women and become an empowered badass tribal warrior goddess. Any woman.

That's what I'm trying to say.

Or, yeah, any woman. That's it. The person that it's not for is the person that is going there and unwilling to do the work required to become an empowered badass. And that's not just physical. Like, you can't just show up and, like, do the physical part and then go home and be a shitty person. That's not allowed. And we do everything we can to instill that in everybody. So if you're Willing to show up and do the work, you might not look perfect doing it for months on end, but if you're willing to show up and you're doing the work and you're going home and you're living that life with your family, with yourself in the mirror, with your kids, at your job, with your co workers, you're welcome in our tribe anytime.

So have you seen a lot of examples of women that have come in that were, I guess, for lack of a better word, hating life? They weren't enjoying their life every damn day? No, but I mean, that have really transformed from, from being really depressed, really just hating life to just like, wow, this was the vehicle that got me to a whole other mindset, a whole nother level.

Absolutely. And typically we see those women become instructors because they see it transform their lives in such a powerful way that they come to me and they're like, I just realized that my dream is to not work in corporate anymore and just do this because it's so powerful as a healing tool that this is all I want to do with my life. So I've seen at this point now thousands of stories. Then I get to have customers share stuff with me online. I think some of the most powerful ones are women. I've known plenty of clients that have been multiple times attempted suicide because of unstable upbringing, problems with addiction, or problems with just absolutely no grounded self confidence, constantly needing that extra validation. And their practice with booty is the first time that they realize that the only validation that really matters, that will keep you going forever and make you feel stable comes from within. There's nothing around you that can make you feel like you're enough. It has to come from the inside.

So in your world, you know, you do it on the mat, you do it in the form of Buddha yoga. But I think it's, I mean, this is so much more than just exercise.

And we do it in a community, which I think is really important because I'll use an example. I have one client that had lost a daughter, and it was obviously a very traumatizing experience for her and for her husband. And the way that she coped with all the pain and anguish was to run, right? Which for all intents and purposes, like, oh, great, you're being healthy, you're going out and running every day. And she came to me and just couldn't get results. She was like, I'm just, you know, I run all the time. I eat so healthy, my body won't change. And I asked her, what do you think about when you run. And she was like, I don't know. I just, you know, I'm, like, focused on, like, hearing my feet on the pavement, whatever. Like the same bullshit story she had told everybody else when they asked her. And I said, you don't think there's any chance that you use your time running to beat yourself up for everything that could have possibly happened to lead up to your daughter's death? And she sat there and she was like, oh, my God, that's exactly why I run. It was basically like she was abusing herself, even though she thought that that was her healthy behavior to pull her out. Sometimes when you do something that's completely alone, even though you're going there with the best intentions and you're moving your body, you're actually using that time to reinforce the bad behavior. Where booty succeeds, where other programs fail is you're not just showing up on your mat. You are connected to every single person's energy in the room. And if the instructor or if another student that's been there for a long time sees that you're not connecting with everybody, they will grab you. They'll look at you and they'll be like, hey, girl, come on, look in the mirror. We're all here for each other. So everyone takes on that leadership role themselves, because that's what we reinforce. So there's one thing. It's one thing to go to the gym and do a practice that helps pull you out of a negative behavior as long as you have somebody watching you to make sure that you're not bringing that negative behavior into this new, healthy lifestyle. And that's where booty is just.

And from an energetic standpoint, I mean, it's not. It's nothing. I mean, I've worked out and I've even done lots, and dancing is definitely a zone state for me, like, where I don't think about anything else. And that certainly serves that purpose. But the science behind the movement and the intention and the chakras and the breath work and even the mute, like, down to the music and the vibe, I mean, even if you do it by yourself, I'm so excited for class today, but even doing it at home when I am traveling or if I'm at home and I'm just. I need to, like, shake it off, and I don't have access to a class right now, and I can pull up and I know there's some of my favorites of Busy's tone videos that I can go online and pull that up and get that physical that energetic and breath practice in. And I also just got my workout in for the day. But for me, the workout aspect of it is totally like second and maybe third day. Maybe like third and third. It's a bystander to. To what the practice does for you.

I think somebody described it really well. Booty is my morning coffee and my therapist. It's like, that's what gets me up in the morning and my drug. For a lot of women, thousands of women, in fact, booty is their everything, and it's my everything. And I created it organically because it was something that found me. And then I just look at myself as the caretaker of the practice, but it's my everything. My whole life starts to fall apart if I don't have this practice. I'm a jerk if I can't. Booty not nice.

Okay, so we've got all these awesome women that are behind the cameras that actually teach, they instruct. How do people find a booty class? How do they find that?

Bootyoga.com, b u t I y o g a dot com. That's probably the best place. We have a class finder where you can look for a class in your area. You can also sign up for an instructor training. We do offer instructor trainings all over, but we are opening our facility in Scottsdale, which will be our headquarters. So we'll be doing consistent trainings there every week.

So you said, what are you gonna call that place?

It's called B tribe.

Okay, and what is it? It's more than just a center where someone goes and does a yoga board.

It's a women's social club, which I think really speaks to what's been created kind of in this, like, the Internet version of booty. We have this amazing community and network of empowered badasses that do the practice. But the practice makes way and is the catalyst for this amazing life and to find a way to house all of the different inner workings of that life together so that women can enjoy this life together and have their, like, girl tribe time. That was really what I was trying to go for when I built this facility. And for me, you know, men have had, like, men's clubs forever. They've got, like, cigar clubs and golf clubs and different types of men's groups that. That really those relationships for a lot of people, I mean, if you even look at just our top politicians, a lot of them were all part of the same, like, men's secret societies, and that's how they got to where they are today. And there aren't quite as many of those that are productive for women. And I really wanted to create a facility that helps you become that what I view as a complete woman, where it's not just, yeah, I look hot, look at me, I've got six pack abs, I'm super hot. But I'm hot also on the inside. I caretake other people, I educate myself. I'm constantly striving to transform my life and better all aspects of my life. So I wanted to create a facility where the movement is that catalyst, but the social club is where for me, like all the heart of the facility is we're going to have, if you're a club member, you get access to our whole social events calendar, which includes, you know, movie screenings, visiting public speakers, some of the most amazing empowering speakers all over the world, private book signings. So it's really, it's a chance for us to curate some of the best knowledge that exists in the world, which, you know, you're probably going to be helping with that. Some of the best knowledge that there is, and give it to these women in a way that is packaged for them to really absorb it the fastest. Because we know how these women live their lives, how they want to live their lives, so we can curate that content for them to make sure that, you know, their lives are complete and that every day they're becoming a better person. And what does booty mean? We didn't even tell anybody that. That one's pretty cruch.

It is an Indian Maharathi word for the cure to something hidden or kept secret.

And it was used in reference to ayurvedic herbs. So here's the deal. I used to be a publicist and I did marketing and branding. So when I first came up with the name, it actually booty beauty came to me in my sleep and I woke up and was like, oh my God, I gotta write this down. I don't know what it means, but this is what it's called. And prior to that, I'd been calling it not your mama's yoga, because it's so not your mama's yoga.

Except it is totally your mama's yoga.

Yeah, well, now it's lots of moms.

Yoga, lots of mama's yoga, but we're.

A new type of mom. So for me, I knew that it had to be booty. And I. And I also knew from that PR and marketing perspective that it was a word that people would latch onto in a good or bad way. Either way, it would be like Booty? Are you talking about a butt? Are you talking, like, what are you talking about? It's a word that is memorable. And I. It's so bizarre. I looked on Google, I woke up in the middle of the night, looked on Google to figure out, you know, different definitions for the word booty, spelled duti. And on the very first page, like, number three, it had this whole passage about ayurvedic herbs and how they were considered jati booty. And I was like, oh, my God, what is like. And I kept reading, kept reading, and booty was all about. And it even had a picture of an herb, like a bulbous root herb that was hidden beneath all these different layers and that the royalty would try to hide, like, keep the locations of these herbs secret from the. The regular folk, if you will, and charge a premium for these herbs. And that was really something that resonated with me because I think where everyone tries to sell this, like, you need this external thing to make you a better person. And I'm just naturally an industry disruptor by nature. And I'm here to tell you that what is going to cure you is on the inside. Nobody can sell it to you. It's not in a book, it's not in a program. It's in you. And you just have to break through enough of the stuck energy and build the confidence to realize that it's there. So that word really resonated with me. And then I went back to show somebody else, like, three days later, and it was like page 25 on Google, and I was like, what? You were just randomly there when I needed you to be there, and now you're page 25? Because I wouldn't have had the patience to go to page 25. So then booty might not have ever existed.

Wow.

So these shirts. Can you get these at. Explain this shirt. What's the deal? Are you trying to be funny here?

I mean, I think it's more than that for us. We're not basic. I think for me, I'm so sick of seeing all these spiritual leaders that present themselves in a way that I feel like anybody in their right mind, which apparently is not the case because some of them are on the New York Times best seller list. Anyone that's truly grounded and secure can look at them and be like, wow, you're so not authentic. Listening to you is literally making me want to vomit, which I feel like is the majority of what's going on right now. And for me, I've never, even when I taught yoga classes, I wouldn't read from, like, the yoga sutras. I wouldn't read them scriptures at the end of class. I wanted them to be in their own body and let their own thoughts, you know, take over and inspire them. When we say, I'm into spiritual shit, I don't need to tell you how fucking cool I am. I'm just fucking cool. I don't need to sit here and be like, your chakra is looking really close today. Can we work on that chakra? I need you to bring some energy and attention. Can you shine your heart light, please?

That's not at all how busy actually gives advice. She's like, get your shit together. This is your stuff.

Here's the real shit. Right now you're kind of being an asshole. Can you get in child's pose, please? I might spank you if you keep this up.

That is what. Yes, that's what yoga training.

This is claiming that, understanding that anybody can have a spiritual practice. And just because our butts shake in the middle of class doesn't mean it's stripper yoga and it doesn't mean that we're overly sexual. It doesn't mean any of that. In fact, that shit is so tribal, please go look it up. The next person that tells me that we're twerking or it's not tribal, like, go on YouTube, stop being an idiot. That's all I'm asking you to do. Just go look at any type of tribal dance. So to me, this is just owning that moment of, I can be whatever I want to be, but I don't need to talk to you about it. I don't need to pretend to be something I'm not. I'm just into spiritual shit. Leave me alone.

So five to ten years from now, where do you see this, this thing? Because as you said earlier, we're kind of a big deal. Other countries, like, right now, where is this? Because there's a lot of people that would be really intrigued by this, but they can't find a booty class, so they can find it online. And where do you think this is going to go?

So you can take online classes from anywhere. And I know that we talked about how you can kind of beat yourself up when you're on your mat by yourself, but doing our online classes, I mean, I'm right there with you, and I talk to you as if I'm seriously right here. I joke around with you.

I.

And you won't feel like you're alone. So if you happen to be actually.

Do one if you're on an editor.

And actually, a lot of our instructors do allow guys in their classes. It's just kind of a. It's up to them at their discretion. So if you're in a place that doesn't have a physical class, you can do our online classes. We do ship our DVDs internationally. We have four different DVD sets, all varying skill levels, and we have kind of a nice breakdown of, you know, how to assess your skill level. We do also offer those certification programs, and we do have some coming up in Europe. We have classes pretty consistently across Europe. We have classes in the Philippines, in Latin America, all over Canada. And we're rapidly growing. So for us, it's, you know, if you have a studio or you want to get certified, email us on the website, hit our contact form. Just like where Crystal found us and we set up a training for her. I mean, she set up a training, and now Arizona is our number one consumer demographic. So you might be that person. Just email us. We love to expand our tribe. So, please, if you're interested, we will find a way to get a certification to you no matter what country you're in. I get asked to go all over, and Crystal's gonna be going all over for me so that I can stay at home and be a mom.

So if you both were to get in a physical fight with each other, who do you think would win?

We wouldn't get in the never fight with each other.

We. We'd end up cuddling. That's what would happen.

I just wanted to test and see.

I would, I would. I feel like I'd end up being the little spoon. Can I. Am I the little spoon?

You are technically the smallest.

I'm the little spoon. We would.

Although you were the bigger spoon.

We might like, fun, like, tribal fight, like, dance fight. We'll get in like a Will Ferrell, like, dance battle.

But, like, physically, like, you know, we can, you know, we can hang pretty well with each other, which is why we feed off of each other so well.

We do. She's. We're like Wonder twins.

Awesome.

So any famous last words?

Famous last words are I just want every woman to know that they're enough. And if you show up and you join our tribe, I guarantee your life is going to change. There's no way it won't. The only way that it won't is if you don't allow it to change. So there's your. That if you fail, that shit's on. You show up, I'm there for you. Doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, I'm there for you. Crystal's there for you. And you've got thousands of women there for you. So I hope that you step out of your comfort zone. And if you find yourself judging the practice, that's a clear sign that you need it more than anybody. So if you find yourself judging or it feels really uncomfortable to you, please sign up immediately. Like, the more you hate me, the more you need to get your ass on the mat. That's how I feel. Those are my famous last words. If you hate me, please come right now.

That's awesome.

I think they'd love you. And I guess mine would be that we do not have to. We're not intended to go through life alone. We're not intended to struggle by ourselves. We're not intended to compete to one up, to step on each other, to be the one standing alone at the top. So there's always things in life on every level and we're meant to do this together. We're really meant to do this as a tribe and to connect. You can look back as far as you want into history and you would find that.

And we're one of the few cultures that's truly lost that every step along the way.

Which is why booty's magic. I mean, it's.

Booty is completely magic. And to bring it back to your confidence and gratitude to be in that tribal environment that is to interact with women on a big scale like that on a day to day basis and show up with sincerity every day, you have to have confidence and absolute gratitude every day.

And abs on fleek.

Those were your last words. I knew you had to end up with something like that.

So what I will say, well, first off is great chat with you both. You're doing awesome stuff and I know booty's gonna be massive. And for people that have never experienced this before, check out Bootyoga.com and the center in Scottsdale is going to be opening up very soon, July 1st and it'll be in Arizona if you have an opportunity and that's it. So thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Joe.