Pedro Luna - Go All In On Yourself

I just know this from just personal conversations that I've had with yoga students is they really lean in. Maybe you can relate to Ryan, that you lean into the yoga to be the savior, to be there for you. Like, oh, man, if I need to get my shit together, well, at least I got a yoga class. But what happens when you go to that yoga class and you wake up from Savasana or you can't close your eyes in Savasana because there's too much going on upstairs in your mind? You have to realize that it's not the yoga that's actually doing the work, like the physical asana, right? Like it's something deep within you that's actually the space of contentment that you're looking for.

Welcome to the Yoga Den. Are you a stressed out cog in the corporate wheel? Do you find yourself asking, what am I doing and why am I doing it? Then the Yoga Den is the place for you. I'm your host, Ryan Spence, AKA the big law dropout, writer, yoga teacher, and your guide on the path to well being through yoga. Yoga helped me find my purpose, change my mindset and my life. And in this podcast, I'll share how to live a life of intention. No reaction. Each week, I'll be talking to a variety of guests, covering pearls of wisdom to help you figure out where you're heading to, where you really want to go. I won't find your purpose for you, but I'll help you plan the route. So sit back and grab a drink. I've been expecting you. Hello. Welcome to episode eight of the Yoga Den podcast. Before I talk about today's guest, I want to give a little bit of background. When I first had the idea to create the Yoga Den podcast, that was partly born out of the fact that I didn't believe there were yoga podcasts out there that I could relate to. And in fact, I just didn't believe there were many yoga podcasts at all. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as I started to do the research, I saw lots and lots of podcasts and some great ones, many of them still on my playlist today. But one podcast that stood out for me was the Yogi Show, a show hosted by today's guest, Pedro Luna, along with his co host, Yogi Brian. The show had on some of the biggest names in the yoga world, but it didn't take itself too seriously. And Pedro and Brian didn't take themselves too seriously either. There was lots of locking around, a lot of humor, and it was just great to hear the interaction between Pedro and Brian and the guest of the week. So it was really good to get Pedro on the show this week. And we talked about a whole range of things. We talked about the Yogi show, about gratitude, about consistency, about Bikram yoga as a drug and it not serving him and him having to change course to do something else. And we also talk about his story from debt collecting yoga teacher to Lululemon ambassador, which involved a big wholesale move of packing up a Prius and moving from Illinois down to South Florida. I think you're really going to get a lot out of this conversation. I think I say that every week, but it's true. Pedro, he's funny, he's generous, he's inspiring, and he has a lot of great things to say about going for what you want and not holding back on your dreams. So for now, as always, go grab yourself a drink, have a seat and let's do this. Mr. Pedro Luna, thank you for joining me virtually. How you doing?

I'm doing great, brother. Thank you so much for having me on this beautiful evening. In the fall, I don't know what the fall is like in Singapore, but it's really beautiful in sunny South Florida in the fall.

Singapore is the same all year right around tropical climate. Sun's always shining except when it rains. But yeah, we don't get the seasons here. Some people don't like that. I'm good. I like the sunshine.

So yeah, we same here down in Florida. Like we don't get. There's no seasons here. Well, I mean, I guess there is a winter, but that's just when it's like 80 degrees, like Fahrenheit, 70 degrees Fahrenheit, like really nice outside. Other than that it's just like 100 degrees and you want to die.

But you know, rather that than the freezing cold. So yeah, I'm from the uk so you know, the weather there is. You can have all seasons in the day.

So just like Chicago, that's where I'm from. Yeah.

So yeah, you, you said you're down in, in Florida. You're my, my second remote guest on the show. And what I tend to ask my remote guests is what can you see out your window?

Oh, right now my, I can see actually the Everglades. So out my back window is the Everglades, which is the swamp, literally the swamp of Florida that between I'm in South Florida. So from here, um, to the other side is just giant fields of swamp. So I'm basically at the end of the earth before you get to the other side of the state pretty much.

Wow, that sounds images there. You know, some nice adventure type places.

Yeah, just think of crocodiles, man. Just out this Gator. Gatorville, you know Gatorville.

Yeah, I like that, I like that. Cool. Well, there's so much I want to talk to you about on here. I mean obviously yoga is a key thing. Memes which we'll come to as well. And I could geek out on yoga and memes for the whole, for the whole interview, but the direction of the show isn't quite that. But what is the direction is that the show is about change, about purpose, about intention. So we're going to kick off there. As we talked about, you now live in South Florida, Sunshine State and you're part of a thriving yoga community down there, which we'll talk about a bit more later. But you're originally from Illinois, so why don't you kick off by telling us about the Illinois pre yoga Pedro.

Sure, sure, absolutely. So I started in. So I lived in Illinois for 29 years. I grew up, born and raised. I live within a two and a half mile radius of like everything I ever knew. And I actually started practicing yoga back in the Chicagoland area in 2011. So you know, I found it because I was stressed out at work. You know, I had a job that I didn't really like so much and I just didn't really know my purpose. You know, I didn't really know what I wanted to do every day forever. And which I, I mean, I think I know now, but who knows? That could change too, you know what I'm saying? But back then I really didn't know I was doing a job at a collection agency and so I was the debt collector. Wonderful. And so yeah, so I would call people and ask them to pay their bills over the phone and it was like a soul sucking job. It was one of those things where I just like drained at the end of the day. Constantly on the hamster wheel of the hustle to make like commission and like get people to pay you. Oh, it's like a sales job. You're selling someone on why they should, why they should pay their bill instead of like doing something else that they're, they haven't been paid for years. So. So, you know, in the midst of all that, I was stressed out. I was a manager at this place and I was like, I just need to do something for my, I wasn't working out, I wasn't eating right, I wasn't doing anything. You know what I mean, I was just like not doing anything that was like any of serving myself. So I found, so at the time I, my partner at the time, she was a yoga instructor. And I said, well, maybe I could try that thing. I don't know, like it was Bikram yoga, it was hot. And I was like, I don't know, like, I'll try it out. Like, maybe it'll be good for my mind, you know, to just to calm down. I was having panic attacks and anxiety, all that kind of stuff, you know. So. Yeah, so I mean, you kind of, I mean this is a lot of, I think yoga teacher stories is like they, you know, they were stressed out, they had, you know, something, a traumatic incident. Nothing. Thankfully, nothing was traumatic for me. But, you know, so I found yoga and I was like, okay, I wanna, I like this thing and it feels good, but I don't know about, like, how would I, like, what am I gonna do with, like if I, if I want to be a yoga teacher, like, I want to do it just to serve people, you know? So I'm gonna still be a debt collector. So I'm gonna be a yoga teaching debt collector.

I've never come across one of those people.

No, me neither. I'm the only, I think I'm the only one that ever existed, you know, until I stopped collecting debt. So I stopped. Yeah, so. So, you know, all in all, after 29 years of like living in Chicago, freezing cold, went through a breakup, a divorce, and I was like, you know what, this just isn't for me, living in this area. Like, there wasn't really anything serving me here. So I needed a shift and I needed a transformation. I'd been teaching yoga for about two years or so at a studio. A great community that I really enjoyed a lot. And you know, everything I ever knew was in, in that two mile radius. And then I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do it. Like, I'm just gonna. My teacher training roommate live down here in South Florida. And so he said, yo, why don't. You're in a transition, you're in a shift, why don't you just move down here? You can live in my, you can live here and then just kind of figure it out, you know? And that's what I did. I said, all right, I'm out. Like, I'm just gonna do it. And I packed up my Prius and put my bike in there and everything. Anything that fit in the Prius could come. Anything that didn't fit in the Prius House, all my. I sold everything I had. I sold a whole house, three, you know, fully furnished, whole thing, sold everything and just said, you know what, I'm gonna go and whatever I can fit in this car and if it doesn't fit in the car, it's not meant to go. And that was it, you know. Wow, it was wild. That was a lot of information.

Yeah, I mean that's a, that's a whole big move. And take a step back. So your first yoga class. So you went to yoga? Obviously, as you say, a lot of us go there for stress, anxieties of trauma. So it's the stress, the job. What, what did you think about your first class? What was it like? I mean, particularly Bikram, which is just insane.

I, I enjoyed it. Like I, I just, I mean I just, I enjoyed the like the sweat of it, you know, and I know it's just kind of cool to see these people coming together, you know, there was like a community there. When I went to that class, it was a good sized class, you know, 20, 30 people, something like that. And to see the camaraderie and people interacting and that kind of thing, I was like, wow, like this is something I'd like to be a part of. Like I don't really have something like this in my life so much so maybe I can do this, you know, maybe I could be a part of something like this. And so that's what kind of drew me to it was community. I was connecting with myself, I was connecting with others. I was kind of changing the way I was thinking about how things should be or could be because, you know, I noticed that these yoga people I was connecting with were a little bit more open minded and not so rigid in ways. And so, so yeah, I noticed that a lot. Like the experience of the first class was I felt good and then I just noticed that there was something more than myself within the space I was hanging out in.

Wow. So it seems as though you kind of got into the depth of it from day one.

From the jump.

Yeah, I mean for a lot of people, myself included, it's the physical that attracts you and you get class and it's like, I can't do anything, this is awful. But yeah, I mean you really kind of got that, the depth of feeling, looking inside yourself and the, and the community vibe. So did you, at what point did you think, I want to teach pretty?

So that was. The first class was like November 2010. I remember all these dates because it was like lit man. So November 20th I remember. And then I did. I liked it. I went back a couple times and I enjoyed the community thing, you know, I was just so. I couldn't get out of my own way. Like, I couldn't just make that time, you know. So I went back a few times and then my partner at the time, she committed to like a, a yoga competition. And I was like, they have a. What's a yoga competition? So it's like an international yoga federation. They have these like, competitions that was really driven through the Bikram community. And so she competed in one of them. And I went to the event and, you know, competing on stage and like all, you know, all these people that, you know, some of them I had seen at the studio, them were her friends, they were like doing the competition too. And it was really just like a. And a way to display their art, you know, like their practice and just, just that kind of thing. And it was, it was cool. And I know that was when I really saw like the. A bigger community because it was a lot of different yoga studios coming together at this, like, auditorium and like a stage and everyone's like, you know, at leotards on and makeup and all the French braids, like, think about, you're going like the ballet. It was like that. And I was like, oh, okay. So. So that was the day I sat next to Funny. And this is so interesting, the synchronicities of all this. I sat next to my future yoga studio owner who I met a few times, but, like, she was my teacher. I call her, you know, my friend Christine. And so I sat next to her at the competition and just like, being in her energy, I was like, wow. Like, I think I need to like, go all in on this yoga thing. Like, I think I want to be a teacher. I think this is like, going to be something for me because what these teachers are serving me as, like, inner peace and empathy, kindness, all this stuff for myself, compassion. Like, I would love to be able just to hold space for others to do that. You know, not about the money, because I was going to be a debt collector, Yoga teaching debt collector, but. But I wanted just to serve. And I think that's kind of when I knew that it was August. August 11, 2011. I remember I have a. I have it in. I just know. So, yeah, so I was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm like, I'm gonna do this. Like, I'm just gonna do it, you know.

And yeah, I think you just said that you still thought that you would Be a debt collector, yoga teacher, you know, this would take you obviously where it's taking now.

Totally, man, totally. And you know, and like, you know, now, you know, teaching now almost eight years, it's, it's very different clearly than teaching, you know, your first few classes or your first times do it. First time doing anything, you know, like I, I was really prepared to teach. I was very excited to do it. I had everything I needed. I had all the ducks in a row to line up to do it. Set up for success for sure when I returned home from teacher training from California, because it was like a nine week intensive in California you had to venture off to. And I, you know, it's like, I thought like in the beginning I was like, I know the dialogue, I know, I know what to say and all. I didn't know, you know, so, but I, I mean, I mean, but at the time, in the moment, like, you know, it's like I, you know, it's like you just know what you know and you just teach from what you know. And I wasn't trying to be anybody else, I'm just trying to be myself.

You know, so, yeah, it can be, but it takes us a while to understand that. So what, what was, you said your job was, was soul sucking? What's an average day as a debt collector in Illinois?

Yeah. So you see, you go to the office, right? You walk in the office and now let's paint the picture, right? So you walk in, you trudge through the snow and the sleet and you get to your desk and you, you have, you start calling these people that you've been calling for two weeks. They don't want to talk to you, that you're trying to get them to pay some money, you know, so you, you call them up, have them, have them try to pay you some money. And sometimes it would work out, sometimes it wouldn't. But I was really good at the gig because I was, you know, I was with the, the, you know, not that I'm killing any bees, but kill more bees with honey kind of thing. So, you know, and you could tell my demeanor, like the way that I'm interacting here with you and having this conversation is the same way that I would have a conversation with someone that I was trying to collect money from. Empathy, kindness, all that kind of stuff, because I could just relate to them, like, yo, you haven't, you're going through a hard time, I understand. Let's just take care of the situation with whatever you can. So we work it out. But So I was really good at the gig and. And I've been fortunate enough in my life to be good at almost like I'm like a. I like to think myself kind of like a chameleon I can mold to whatever it is I need to. Like, whatever it is. Like whatever job I was doing or growing up in, challenges that would come, but I was, I never really found the one that was like, oh, like this feels good in my soul. And at the same time it feels good like in, you know, like I can support myself, my family, like that kind of thing, you know, so. But anyway, so yeah, so that was my day, you know, just calling people day, you know, all day long you dial the phone, call them up and then, you know, 8:00am to 5:00pm kind of thing. And I couldn't wait because the class, the class started at 5 I used to go to. And so as I, you know, evolved to like a manager, I'd oversee like 10, 15 people that, you know, were collecting debt and I was in charge of them. And it was just like, ugh, I didn't want to do it. But I would leave at 4:44. I would leave the office because I. The studio was like seven minutes away and they wouldn't lock the door on me. They would know I was coming and so I would, I would know. So I would leave at 4:44. I'd blaze a trail to get there. Last person in. You know, I didn't care. I didn't care what spot was left. I would take any spot in the room. And yeah, it was, it was great, man. It was. Those days towards the end were like, they were. I'm out of here. I had to get it. It was like a drug, man. That Bikram stuff, man, that's just like a drug, you know? Like, I never, I was never into drugs and never had any problem with drugs except for Bikram. That was the only drug I had a problem with, you know, until it stopped serving me. It was like, it was like I. Oh, it was like I overdosed on Bikram yoga because like my body was rejecting it at one point because I was just like, I was going through a shift and you know, I would. I'm like, I'm a vata right in the Ayurvedic system. So like I like, you know, I already have fire and then I'm adding more fire, more heat, heat, heat, heat, heat. And eventually my body was like, yo, that your shit's burnt up. Like there's no more. Like you're already on fire. Like you cannot, you gotta find a different kind of yoga. And I remember my therapist telling me like you need to do like restorative yoga. Like, and I was like what, what is restorative yoga? So like I googled like so I go home, right? And I don't know about it, like Bikram yoga is like cool, like the brainwash, the cult, the Kool Aid. It's 26 postures, you know, you know.

Two really exercises at the time, right? I mean everybody was doing it, it was the thing to do.

Yeah, totally. And I was at like the peak, I was at like the height, a little, a little past the height of the, of the, the cult, you know, But I was like, I was in there in 2010, 2011, like there was still, it was rocking, I mean rocking. So she says go look at restorative yoga. So I go home, I look in Google and I type it in like yo, these, these people are just laying on pillows and like what, what, what is this? But and then I was like, well, well maybe there's something to this. Like, I don't know, like let me be open minded about maybe that there's something else. And I remember like, and so I tried it and I was like, it just wasn't the same effect for me. But as I continued to try to force going to Bikram yoga, like I started to feel worse and worse and worse and I was like, okay, like something's got to change. But this is my, this is my drug, like this is my Xanax, like for an example, you know, like this is my thing that helps me get clear, you know, whatever that might be for somebody. This is my vice is Bikram yoga. But it was on, it was like an unhealthy relationship. And I realized like, and I, and I think a lot of ofand I just know this from just personal conversations that I've had with yoga students is they really lean in. Maybe you can relate to Ryan that you lean into this, to the yoga, to be the savior, to be there for you. Like, oh man, if I need to get my shit together, well at least I got a yoga class. But what happens when you go to that yoga class and you wake up from Savasana or you can't close your eyes in Savasana because there's too much going on upstairs in your mind. You have to realize that it's not the yoga that's actually doing the work, like the physical asana, right? It's something deep within you that's actually the space of contentment that you're looking for. It's not the yoga that's doing it, it's you. You know what I mean? So the yoga helps, of course, but you can't count on that. You have to be safe within yourself to be able to go to that peaceful conscious state. You know, that's, that's content state. So, sorry, we just went down the rabbit hole. I have no fucking clue how we got there, but I think it made sense.

No, and I mean, it's fine because I'm going to jump now to a question I was going to ask you later on because it relates to something. But what you said there is, right, because as much as we evangelize about yoga, I'm always kind of clear to say that it's not a cure all. It's not going to solve all of your problems. It gives you the tools to figure out yourself and to deal with certain situations. And you've got to make that distinction because as you said, if people are going to yoga and you know me thinking, why is it not working? Why is it not working? You just keep forcing and forcing and pushing and pushing and you do more damage to yourself than good. So, yeah, I think what you said there, and that's going to take me to a quote I took from, from one of your blogs where you said we practice yoga to get better at living and being. Because we talk a lot on the show about yoga being more, more than asana, more than the postures and the shapes on the mat. So what does, what does yoga off the mat look like for you?

So being able to find that peaceful conscious state in the turmoil. So, funny enough, you asked that question. So I was reading a passage with my son the other day on immigrants fleeing a country. Don't remember which country it was, but like fleeing a country for a better life. And in the line, in a line in there, it was talking about all these immigrants were fleeing on boats to go into these different countries. And these boats were, they were, you know, bad pork. I mean, this is back in the day, poor conditions, you know, really hard ways of living. You know, people getting sick, people dying and all this stuff. And they did some studies on it. And when these people arrived at their destination, some boats ended like nobody got, nobody died. Like some people got sick. And the conditions were all the same on all the places, the conditions were all terrible. But some places or some of the boats people were okay. And some of the boats, people just got real like it was bad. And so as they figured out, the difference between the boats where people, nobody got really sick or nobody died, was that there was a person that was the calm in the boat. A person that was able to keep everybody else together, right? And so that person was like, let's call the person in charge kind of thing. And so the way that I relate to yoga off the mat is like, can I be the. Can I be that calm in the boat? And that metaphor kind of just came to me recently, but it's been the same motto. It just maybe changed the words a little bit. It's like, how can I be come from a place of calm, contentness in the fire when, you know, I have three children? So when shit's hitting the fan at 5 o', clock, you got to make dinner, there's still homework to be done. The place is a mess. Who knows what's happening? Like, who's going to be the calm in the boat? And like the yoga off the mat is where you're able to be that calm in the boat and say, okay, let me do one thing at a time, let me check in with my breath. I'm good. Okay, one action item, do that. And then just kind of snowball it and build on there like building blocks. But yeah, be the calm in the boat. It's like that. I don't even know what country, I don't even know where this I. And I hate school. But when I was reading that with my son, he's nine years old, I was reading with him and I was like, dude, this is powerful. The calm and the boat is the real. This is the real deal. This is yoga.

Yeah, that is really powerful. And it's really a really great phrase, really great way of putting it. I said something similar. It's about finding stillness amongst the chaos. And you mentioned your kids there. And I mean, you've got three, I've got two kids. And I know those moments where for us it's bedtime, the kids are screaming, they're running up and down the. They don't want to go to bed. And I mean, my wife's going spare. And I noticed particularly post my training and kind of getting deeper and deeper into the practice, it's a lot easier for me to kind of just rise above that, take those breaths, be the calm one, as you say, be the common one in the boat. Not always, obviously, but at least I was to go there.

But you have the awareness, right? It's like having that awareness, having that awareness that, you know, because of our practice on the Mat. We're aware that we're breathing, that we can use that awareness for the greater good. You know, like the six by two foot space that we're practicing yoga on in a yoga mat, that's just a reflection of what's happening on the outside world. Like if you're a, if you're, if you're madness on your mat, you're wiping your sweat, you're, you're driving your water bottle drop, you know, like clanking around, all that, you know, just kind of clumsy on your space. I guarantee, I would, I'm not going to guarantee because that's not the. But I would bet dollars to donuts that off of the yoga mat. Those same kind of things are happening in your daily interactions, in your work, in the way you show up for things. Like the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So the way that you are on your mat, if you're able to find that stillness when the teacher says, hey, just sit still and do nothing, don't, don't, no need to come out of the shape early. See if you can soften around the edge, those kind of things. If you're able to do that on the mat, life off the mat is way easier.

Oh, without a doubt. I recognize it mainly in balancing poses. So the days when I'm focused and I'm calm and I'm relaxed, the balancing poses are almost effortless. And then the day when my mind is on something else or there's lots of other stuff going on, I just can't stand up, you know, literally just, this is rubbish. I may as well just sit down on the mat because this isn't working for me. And so that's right, the reflection is, is there. I mean, we always kind of, kind of ask people to kind of get on the mat and just, just be present. But it's not always easy to kind of leave what was there before. I mean, either before practice or during practice. And you definitely notice the difference on.

The map.

Acceptance is as well. Right, right.

Oh, I didn't mean to cut you off. Say that again.

No days you're just not going to be great. You're not going to be the same as you were yesterday and you'll be different tomorrow.

So, yeah, there's one of those quotes in the. Have you ever read the Four Agreements?

I have not, no.

The book. Okay, so it's a book by this, like, spiritual leader, Don Miguel Ruiz. I believe it's his son that wrote this one. But it talks about the Four Agreements and One of them is just one of the agreements is just always do best. And knowing that your best is going to change from day to day. But just do your best with what you have to work with today. Honor that and know that that's more than good enough for today. Right. It's not about what happened, this is what you said. Not about what happened yesterday or tomorrow or whatever. It's just your best for today. And that really stuck with me when I read that in that the Four Agreements book. I was like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And a lot of the principles in my life and in my teaching is from that, that, that resonates with me heavily. Another thing that really resonates with me is like being with what is without preferences to what could be, should be or isn't in this moment. And that was something that I got from Dylan Werner when I actually interviewed him for our show back in the day. And he, when he said that, I was like, man, like that is some, that is some powerful stuff right there. Just, you know, not being like, oh, if, if only I had blank or if only this were this way. Well, can you just be content with what you have now and as you are now? And if you can do that, man, you're way, you got way easier street, you know, being in the flow as opposed to swimming upstream.

Yeah, without a doubt. And again, it comes back to yoga gives you the tools. You're not always there, but you're striving to be there. And you have the tools and you have the awareness when you're not, when you are kind of wishing your life away to kind of bring yourself back. And these are the things that trying to kind of get, get sort of people to, to sort of understand is that it isn't the physical. The physical is great. But there's all of these other things which can create that foundation like you say you live these principles can create the foundation for your life and just kind of give you a stronger foundation on which to build.

Yeah. And if, you know, for anybody out there that's listening to the show, that's thinking like, you know, that has this attachment to the physical shapes, know that you're not alone and that that's okay. Like that, that's like that, that's okay. You know, I, for a long time I couldn't sit in a, in a easy seat and do like a five minute meditation, but I could go to a 90 minute yoga class, no problem. And be present for what I, I mean, I think I was present for Most of it, you know, but being five minutes in a seated upright position with my. With myself. Yo, I'm out. Like, no, thank you, you know, but. But over time, you know, that I was. I'm able to do somewhat of a meditation practice now, a pretty consistent one now. And knowing that it's. It's okay and that there's different. I learned differently about myself in a yoga meditation. Let's call it that kind of yoga, as opposed to, you know, physical asana practice. Yeah, but I mean, what you can just. Walking meditation. Have you ever read? I don't read, by the way, but for some reason tonight I'm talking about.

Books, but books out.

Now you can make me look. Yeah, I don't read anything, you know, but there's a. Maybe. I've just. I've only. I actually did read the whole four Agreements, but there's this book by Titch. Not Hanh. Do you know who that is?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. You know, so I wait to say that again.

I've read a lot of his quotes, but I haven't read his.

Okay, yeah, great quotes, you know, so he has this one book called like, Pieces Every Step. And it talks about different little mini meditations throughout your. All of your days. And it's talking about, like, how driving can be a meditation, how washing the dishes can. Walking, you know, all this stuff can be a meditation. And I remember one he said about some quote, you know, I'm just kind of paraphrasing here, but as about driving meditation, you know, and as. As the car goes fast, I go fast. And as the car slows down, I slow down. And I think about that when I'm driving on the freeway and I'm late for an appointment. I'm going, you know, 80, 90 miles an hour, whatever it might be, you know, speeding, you know, speeding excessively maybe, you know, getting a little anger at somebody that's in front of me that's moving slow or has their turn signal on and not moving. You know, that kind of thing. How is my heart in that moment? How is my mental space? How is my breathing probably shallow? My heart's a little faster. My mind is a little bit more racy. If I'm able to come from a space of like, I'm slow in the car and I'm just cruising in the right lane. Not that I know what side of the street you guys drive on in Singapore, but in the US we drive on the right side.

We drive on the proper side here.

Okay.

But, you know, what you gonna do?

But you know, here we are, you know, driving calm, you know, at the speed limit in no rush. I guarantee you you're feeling way different than when you're right, you know, then when you're frazzled and in a hurry, guaranteed, you know, so that quote from Tishtahan really stuck with me from that book, you know? Yeah.

Okay. That's two books I've got to check out now. Yeah.

And again, I don't read anything.

That's my ever growing reading list, but yeah.

Hey, Brian. Brian, we have. You have children under the age of five. Like, I don't know how anybody, anybody that says, like, they're reading it in book clubs that have children like us, like, they got to be lying. I got these. Got to be liars.

Yeah. My wife goes to a book club. I'm still convinced that all they do is drink wine and chat, but she tells me same.

My wife said, like, hey, did you read that book for your club? Well, I read half of it. Well, so what'd you guys talk about? You know what, when they start stumbling.

In at 11 or 11 o' clock or midnight? I mean, I had a few drinks, so. Yeah, I'm with you there. So again, you. You mentioned the show. So. So let's go to the show.

Sure.

So the Yogi show was. So what's really interesting. And I'll. I'll talk a little bit about how I found it as well. But when I first started deciding to. To do a podcast, I had this thing, you know, I mean, and you always think that you're the first. It's like, I'm gonna do a podcast. There's no yoga podcasts out there. It'd be really cool to have a. A yoga podcast so everyone can kind of hear about yoga and see that it's kind of not what they think it is and all the rest of it. So then I started to go on Apple podcasts. All the rest of it. Start Googling. There's a shitload of yoga podcasts.

There's a lot.

There were so many. There was so, so many. But what brought me to, to the yoga show is I read an interview with DJ Townsell, who was on episode 42 of your show, and, you know, aka the Raster Yogi, as he calls himself. And I mean, he was one of the first, if not the first black male yoga that I'd encountered. So I was really sort of intrigued about his story. So kind of went down the rabbit hole looking at him, and it brought me to the show where he was on and Then I was like, wow, this show's great. And then I went down the yoga show rabbit hole and basically just binged episodes, you know what I mean? And it was just a really refreshing take. It wasn't too serious. You had some great people on who at the time I didn't know who they were because I wasn't really didn't know about the yoga world. But looking back now, it's like you have some big people on there. I'm gonna ask you about that next. But the vibe of the show was great. What, what made you do the show? What made you and you and Brian Yogi Brian sort of come up with the show and sort of push ahead with this?

Sure, yeah. The show was inspired by memes. You know, I'm sure we'll get to memes at some point, but then show the show is inspired by memes. You know, we just had a fun relationship talking about. About memes back and forth for a long time. We started doing an Instagram Live show. We did it like once a week where we did the Yogi show live. It was a 30 minute thing on Instagram Live. We created a little community that liked it. And then we just realized if we wanted to try to scale anything, we needed to have like an actual show you could download and play on your own time instead of like Mondays at 9pm Eastern kind of thing. And so we created a podcast. Like we went out in California, I went out there for a bachelor party and we for with another friend of mine and then he lived out west. So we just connected there with another friend of ours. And like, you know what, we just manifested the show to do a podcast. We didn't know anything about podcasting. Nothing. I mean zero. And it. And as you know, Ryan, now you're a podcaster. This is hard. So you know, we used to say that. We used to say that the number one rule of like if somebody ever asked me like how do I start a podcast, number one thing is don't. Like don't. It's so hard to make it do it the right way, you know, to do it the way that I sure you that you're doing it. You know, it's not easy. It's not easy. You know what I mean? There's. And there's no money in it on the front. Like there's no money. Like it's just a labor of love, something I like to do. Conversations are fun. All their stuff is really challenging. But so that was fun. You know, we just had. And we had A making memes on the Internet. So I thought the same. Just like you, I'm going to be the first person to make memes about yoga on the Internet. And I was though, like, there was like one other person that had made like a handful of memes and there was a couple, but I was my friend, a different friend of mine, Ross, at the time there was nobody. This was five years ago. Nobody was making memes about yoga like I do. Nobody. So I was like, oh, I. Maybe I actually have something, you know, and it was inspired in like a Bikram class when I was like laying dead on the floor like, oh, this would be a funny meme, you know, and then I was like, oh, like we maybe we could make memes. And it was fun. But in any event, so the memes led us to the show. We had some great guests on our podcast on the Yogi Show. It was super fun. It was just so much work. It was just like, you know, the pandemic hit after doing it for like a year or so. It's just, we're just done. Like, you know, we thought about doing another season, but it's just too much. Like too many things changing and evolving. Like, just too much so. But it was a really fun show.

Man, it's such a shame there's not going to be more. I actually listened to a couple of episodes because I knew that we'd be talking and it just still. Yeah, it still sounds great. Actually. I listened to to DJs one again and I stopped. The one with I can't remember the guy's first name, but Wim Hof's son.

Oh, Enum. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, Enum was. Enum was fun. And yeah, and he told us. He's like. We asked him. Brian actually asked him to be on the show. He's like, everyone always asks for my dad. Nobody ever wants to talk to me. He's like, but if you guys, if you guys want to talk to my dad, just let me know. I'll tell him to come on the show. And we were going to have him on. We just never got back to it.

Okay, well, actually, as you just talking about, about the guests and as I said, you had some really big names in on there from the yoga world at the time that I didn't know.

But.

But now with Instagram and me sort of being more. More over that, it's like, I know a lot of people. These are. And follow some of them. Did you already have a relationship with all of these people or did you. And so Brian flip a coin to see who would reach out to them. Like, how. How did it come about?

Sure. Yeah, we did. So I had a relationship with a lot of them because of the memes, because no one else was making them. So we had the memes for like three years. Brian had a bunch of memes, like, for a couple years too. He had been doing a lot of stuff with his brand. So we had, we just had like DM con, you know, kind of relationships with a lot of cool yoga people from just like making content and just, just genuine connection. Like there was. We were never, like, we were just having conversations with people and making comments and posting memes and tagging people and stuff. Stuff. And so it did. They just kind of grew from there. And then, yeah, when was ready for a show, we just sent him, just reached out via dm, like, hey, we're doing this show. Like, you want to be on. Like, yeah, I'll be on your show. Like, just send me an email, whatever, you know. And yeah, it worked out. And that's the. What was interesting is like, the power of like, just being able to reach out. And yeah, people are receptive. If you have something valuable, like you do, Ryan, like, you have an awesome show and the people that. Yeah, for sure. And people that you reach out with a genuine thing and you're professional, like, they're going to want to be on your show. It's. It's fun. And I just, we just. I just. I really liked having the. The conversations. It was. Was super fun. Like, getting it all set up was somewhat stressful sometimes, as you know, like, we had to record this an hour later than before because of daylight savings time that didn't exist when we originally booked the time. But like, shit like that happens all the time. All the time. But it was fun to have. Like in the first, first few episodes of our shirt, like the first 10 episodes, we had a lot of, like, a lot of call them Instagram famous, famous, world famous, whatever. Just like people that were genuinely just awesome. And even, even after that, you know, we just had a bunch of people that we got to keep talking to. And it was really, really inspiring, really fun. And just those conversations, like, like, I'm sitting in the same spot. I had conversations with those amazing yoga influencers and people that have really changed the world, the yoga world world heavily in heavily. And just hearing their genuine stories and then being able to ask them fun questions because, you know, no one, nobody ever asked, like the, we started this. The lighten up Round. We'd ask, like, ridiculous questions like, who. Like, who would be a better yoga teacher? Like Venus or Mars? They'd be like. They'd be like, what? And they would just say, you know, like, I remember we had Coot Blackson on the show, and he's like a powerful author, speaker. Like, I mean, global. Global. And Brian asked him. My. My. We're on. Okay, funny story about podcasting. So we're on the show, and my. We recorded with this old program called Zencaster. And my. I was. I was like the hub for the recording. And somehow my mic cut out. Like, I. I dropped, like, with seven minutes left in the call. So, like, I'm texting Brian on the back end, and he's still having the conversation live, and it's still recording. And so. So I. I was like, I don't know if we're gonna get to this. Lighten up, Brown. Like, I don't know. This is gonna be really weird. And Brian asked. I don't remember. The question was something just like, well, like, what would be a better, like, you know, like, spiritual leader? Like a mango or a banana, like something insane. And Coot was die or who has. No, he was like. It was like. I think it was, who has more gratitude? Like an elephant or a rhinoceros, Something absolutely insane. And. And he. He just laughed and answered the question. It was so fun. Like, so those moments from the show, those lit me up the most, you know, just fun moments.

And the. This is why, I mean, listeners, if you haven't heard the show, you've got to go check it out, because it's. It's not. It's just not what you expect from a yoga show. And it is so much fun. And you don't take yourselves too seriously, which, I mean, I think you guys probably took a bit of heat for that. But we're going to come to that when we talk about the memes. But, yeah, it's just. It's just a great show. And you can definitely tell that there's a. There's a rapport between. Between. Between you and you and Brian. How did you guys meet? Because you. You never. Did you ever record in the same room because you live on.

Always virtual. Always virtual. Yeah, everything was always virtual. We just met just via the Internet, just on Instagram, just sharing memes. That was it. Yeah, that was it.

You know, this is what I found. So I only really got into Instagram in April when I kind of decided to. I'd quit my corporate job. I decided to kind of do this yoga thing and build things up. I had no clue what I was doing. Like, no. If I look back at some of the things I was doing, then I'm just like, what were you thinking? But, you know, I didn't know.

Just start.

Yeah, yeah, you just got to start. But what I. What I really enjoyed, and it's becoming more so with the podcast, and it's. What you've just said is those connections. And I was. I was fearful. I remember putting out my first post on this account. It went out on a Friday. It said, eat plants, give thanks, do yoga. Which is what I say at the end of every show. And I agonized over the caption for that text. I don't know how long. I don't know how many times I asked my wife. I don't know. You know, because going from being a lawyer in a corporate law firm to then where you're kind of hiding behind a brand, really do, you know? I mean, you kind of put stuff out there, but you're hiding behind a brand to where you're putting out yourself, like, this is you. You've got nothing to hide behind. It was huge. And I know a lot of people struggle with that. And then the other thing that a lot of people struggle with is just. Just connecting with people and just asking people. I would never have reached out to people about being on the podcast or just sending them a DM or whatever before. And again, it's that sort of shift, which is largely from yoga and that whole sort of shift in mindset and that spirit of openness and also the spirit of abundance and just thinking you can share and people will share back. And so, yeah, that's why I wanted to ask you the question about the guests on the show, because is they. They are all, most of them, really big names. And so to kind of just reach out and say, hey, do you want to be on my podcast? My thought was always going to be, why would anyone be on my podcast? You know, I mean, but. But people are happy to kind of do it and have a chat, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And it's like, it's a. It's in the approach. Like, I always had the mindset of, like, whoever I. Like, I always had the mindset. And it wasn't like an ego thing. It's like, if I ask somebody to be on this show, they're like, oh, hell, yeah, I'll be on your show. You know, So I had to, like, I had to pump, like, it's like, I was. Like, I was like the hype man for myself.

Yeah, yeah.

But. But having those. Having, you know, years worth of content and relationships that were just built out of pure fun and, you know, just kindness and just, like, just to connect definitely were. Was helpful. And that's what I would tell a lot of. A lot of people out there that are, you know, starting a show or, you know, starting the yoga journey to teaching yoga or, you know, building community or anything like that. It's like, yo, this just takes time. Time. It just takes time, you know, I mean, just got to put in the work and just reach out to people. And I always say, like, you know, eight years in and all the people that I've talked to and all the relationships that I've built, if I need something, like, I'm gonna lean in and ask. And I'm not. I'm not scared to ask. And I don't do it very often. I don't. But when I know, like, something really big is on the horizon for me right now, and it's because I had to ask, because I was like, I know if I ask this person, like, the. The pathway to get to the person that need that makes a decision. If I try to go through the email chain and, like, get, like, the ladder, I'm never gonna. I might not ever get there. But if I ask this person over here, they have that person in their phone right now, and I know that they'll. They'll ask them for me. So let me do that. And it. And it's working out pretty good now.

That's good to hear. It's something I'm trying to get. Get better at. I was really bad at asking for stuff. I was always like, yeah, I'll just do it myself. I'll figure it out. Yeah.

Yo.

Yeah.

I've been there for. I'm always. I've been like that for so long, Ryan, where I'm like, I. I don't need anybody else. I'll figure it out myself. I'll just figure it out as, you know, growing in relationships. Like, sometimes it's just like, I'm just gonna ask this person. Like, let me just. Let me just ask this person and. But if not, like, there's no school, like, for yoga entrepreneur, you know, if that's, you know, kind of like where it seems like that's kind of like where you're going now. You know what I mean? Kind of thing. There's no, like, there's no one right way. That's the one thing. Right. Anybody out there that's Becoming a yoga teacher on the path in the shift. Like, a lot of people, obviously, that are listening to this show are in a transitional state of, like, coming out of corporate life or wanting to leave corporate life. But, like, ah, man, like, I got bills, I got health insurance, I got this. I got all, you know, all these things, and it's not always just as easy as. Just like, I'm quitting them out. It just doesn't always work. No, it doesn't always work like that. There's a process that goes through it, and you have to trust that process. But knowing that once I decide to go all in on myself, when there's nothing else, when there's like, there's nothing to hide behind and it's just me, that's when, like, shit starts to change because you don't have any other choice. Like, there's no other way other than I'm paving the way and I'm going forward. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna let myself fail. Just like, you're not. It's not gonna happen. Like, that's not happening, you know? But there's no, there's no, like, manual for, like, entrepreneur or, like, yoga entrepreneur. I mean, there's tons of. There's tons of Facebook ads that'll tell you there's a manual, but there ain't no fucking manual, man. Like, you just gotta figure it out.

Yeah, And I think that that's one of the hardest things for people to do who are coming from a more corporate field, because everything is so structured. I mean, as a lawyer, your training is structured. When you. When you qualify, it's structured. Everything has to be perfect. You. You don't want to miss out a full stop here or, comma, there. So everything is so rigid, and you kind of have to unlearn that if you. You want to step out of it and particularly step into the entrepreneurial world, whether it's in yoga or anything else, because they say there are no rules, you can. What I. What I've loved about my journey so far is that if I have a. If I want to do something, I have a creative idea, I can just execute it, and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. There's nobody to say, well, can I do this? And. And, you know, you know, you're not sort of brainstorming. You just. Just do it. And I made a lot of. A lot of not mistakes, but just things which I wouldn't do now in the past, but I wouldn't have got here without doing that. Without.

Yes.

So you've got to.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I say that to myself often. I actually had that conversation with myself earlier today as I was like, I can. I have all these different ways to, like, test something and see if people like it. To teach a different kind of class, try a different marketing approach, try a different whatever, like, whatever it is. And it's not like a loss if it doesn't work. Like, maybe you. Whatever you call it, quantify as a loss, but it's just like, I tested it. It didn't really work as like, I thought it might work. So I'll just go try something else, you know, and that's okay, you know, but you can't be scared to, like, try new things. It's just like trying a new. A new yoga pose. Like, you're like, for me, like, you're not gonna get the handstand just by just, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna do handstand now. Like, it doesn't really work like that. You gotta do all the other stuff to get to the handstand. You know what I mean? You gotta do, like, boat pose and you gotta do like, all sorts of different core strengtheners, you know, and, you know, wrist strengtheners, wrist warmups, like, all that kind of stuff. All that, you know, accumulates into, like, now I'm piking. Now I'm into a handstand, you know, but it doesn't. Not like. It's like, oh, like the person that did a. That does a handstand over there, before they knew how to do a handstand, they weren't doing any handstands, you know, so it's just. Yeah. So just like, trusting the process and just doing one thing at a time and just learning. It's always learning. I always say that all the things on it's. I'm just all learning. I'm just learning.

Yeah. And that's the good correlation between yoga, particularly the physical aspect of yoga and life generally and the tools it can give you. Because if you have the discipline and the resilience and the perseverance and the consistency to. To get to, hands down, if that's what you want to do, or. Or even just to kind of hold a Warrior 2 for longer than you did in the last class, that translates off the map because you. You feel the benefit of that internal achievement, if you want to call it that, you can then sort of carry that on. At least that's how it worked for me.

Heard. Yeah, heard second that.

So we've talked about it a little bit, we mentioned it here and there. Let's come to Memes. Meme lives at Yogi Memes, which is the, the Instagram handle. So easy said, it's probably the only one. I, I was going to say it's, it's one of, if not the best yoga meme account on, on Instagram. And I only kind of heard about it once I started listening to your show. So I don't have the whole sort of full four year history, but what I do see is just, it just cracks me up. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to choose three of my favorites just to kind of read out here, to kind of give the, the listeners a bit of an idea of what you do. But I couldn't choose three favorites because there are just so many. But what I have tried to do instead is I've just chosen some that I think might, might resonate with them at this moment in time. So we'll just go through. I think I've got three here. So first one, which I think everyone is going to be like, hell yeah. Dear 2020. Take damn child's pose already, would you? That was.

That's a really funny one, man. That's so good and it's so accurate. Yo, I made it.

I'm.

Go ahead. What were you gonna say?

I was gonna say it's timeless. I mean, I, I was gonna. You put it in front of me Now, I don't know when you made that, but there's not a day in 2020 where you probably wouldn't look at.

Hell yeah, it's definitely appropriate. Today. I, I made. Okay, so I made Instagram reels. Came out when they first came out. Like, I started playing with how to make Instagram reels with memes, like putting music over it and making it a real. Like, I was just testing all this stuff and that one went like, that one went viral and it has like, it has like 340something crazy for that one. For that meme. Yeah. Like something just like ridiculous. Yeah. So, yeah, funny one though. Good, good call on that one.

So, okay, second one I picked out, Life Hack. You don't need to have all your together to go to a yoga class. You need to go to yoga to get all your together.

Good one. 100. It's so accurate. It's just relatable, you know, that's what, that's what the memes are for. Just to make it relatable, but fun. But like. Oh, man. Man, that's on point. Af.

Yeah, you read it and you're like, yeah, I've got that. I mean, the days when I, when I don't do yoga, like, I'm just.

Off, like, yeah, just heard.

And the, the third one I chose was ever just lay wide awake Sunday night and think to yourself, it. I'm quitting my damn job tomorrow. I'm gonna be a yoga teacher.

Yes, dude. Yes. 100, man. Like, just because that was, that was me. You know what I mean? And I know so many people can relate to that, you know, especially on this show for, you know, like, fuck this, man. Like, I just, like, I don't want to wake up tomorrow and have to go do this thing that doesn't really serve me and I don't want to do. And, and that's not to say that by becoming a yoga teacher all of a sudden, like, your life is fantastic. Like, that's not. No, it's not how that works either. But it gets you shift onto the right path to get to the next, maybe the next thing. You know what I mean? It's like that transitional thing. And there are plenty. I mean the, the number of yoga teachers that are like, make like making it on their own as a yoga instructor and supporting a family by just teach by. By only teaching like yoga classes and privates and stuff. Yo, very small, super tiny. Like, that percentage is small in my opinion. And I could be wrong, but I've been in this game for a long time. And just from the people I've talked to, to, you know, it's a lot of. I, you know, I teach yoga one or two times a week because it makes me feel good. Yeah, I get a little bit of money from it or whatever, but I'm also, you know, I work somewhere else kind of thing. Like, that's more way more common. And then there are the ones that do, you know, that are like on the grind, you know, teaching 10, 20 classes a week, a bunch of privates, all that kind of stuff. Yo, that's hard. Like, that's super hard. But they can, I mean, you can do it. I mean, you can definitely do it. It's just like, where do you want to. Where do you want to put your energy? What do you want to do? You know, what do you want to do? Show up and do it. You can make anything happen, happen.

Yeah, that's the thing. You got to figure out what, what you want your life to look like. Help with. If you don't have a vision of what you want your life to look like, then Quitting your corporate job because it doesn't serve you to teach yoga. Yoga is not going to help you with that because you don't know. You don't know what your. What your life looks like. Don't know what your plan is. Helped me is that I. I kind of knew that running around studios, teaching sort of tons of classes a week wasn't going to work for me because that wasn't the lifestyle that I wanted to. I wanted the lifestyle where I have more time with my kids, where I could live and work from anywhere, and where I could enjoy yoga. I didn't feel like I was like, on this hamster wheel because the corporate. I mean, a corporate. A cog in a corporate world to. To a cog in this yoga world. So you've got to figure out what's. What, what does my life look like and what are the steps I need to take to. To get there.

Yeah, you have that. Absolutely. You have to figure that out. Yeah. If you're gonna. To make the jump to teach, it's like, where does. And even if you're not making jump teaching when you're making a jump from, like, I don't like this job, I'll do something else. Like, okay, so where do you want to. Like, where do you see yourself going? You know what I mean? Like, where. Where is it that you. What is it that you want for your life? And you know, and then just kind of like plot around that. It's like, this is like, these are, like, these are the things I'm striving for. So just like, go get them. And the one thing I've realized that yoga has really helped me with is, like, getting out of my own way and like, that. Oh, like, I can't do that. Like, why not? I always ask myself, like, if, like, oh, man, like, I don't know. Like, you know, I don't. I don't want to set the bar too high because what if I fail? Like, well, that's dumb. Like, just put the bar up there. If you don't get there, then, all right, whatever. Try it again. But if you, like, just like, think about, like, if you don't say that I'm gonna get here. Like, you can't actually get there. You can't, you know, way.

It's like trying to do cray pose, and you say, I'm gonna do cray pose. And then you feel on your face again, you know, and then I. And then you can do cray pose. And you do it well for weeks, for months. And then that one day you're just a bit off and you fall on your face like, are you not going to get up and do it again? So, right, that, that's always there. That sort of.

Yeah, that was me two days ago. I tweaked my wrist. I tweaked my wrist. I'm all right, I'm all right. It's just like. It happens, man. It happens, happens. It just happens. You know, whatever.

Yeah, I just accept it. Move on, move on and much. I mean, I kind of want to read memes for the whole show. But what I want to ask you is, I mean, when, when did you realize that you were a meme maker? I mean, when did you, like, when did you put out your first, your first meme and when did you know that? Yeah, I can just kind of do this people are digging.

This people are digging. So I act so funny enough, in the beginning, when we created the Yogi memes account, my friend and I, August of 2015, I didn't make any of the memes for like the first four months. He was the meme. He made all the memes. My friend did. And I was just, I was, I was the quote unquote marketing department where I would just get people to follow the page. It was way different than on Instagram. People would follow the page way more frequently and I would just engage with people. Like that was my role in like the, in the company, in the page. And it was, was, it was fun. And then he's like, man, I just like, I don't got time for. He's. I don't have time for memes anymore. Like it was fun, like, whatever. And we had like 10,000 followers, you know, and it's like I was like, ah. Like it was way easier to build it back then. And he was like, I'm good. And I was like, all right, well, I guess I'll make, I guess I'll make the memes, I guess because like I'm by myself now. So then I just started making memes and they're. It was fun, you know, just light hearted and fun.

Yeah, I mean they're always great when they come up on the, on the timeline. I remember when we were dming, I can't remember because we were talking about the interview or something else or when we just connected and I responded to something about ego crunches and literally minutes later you'd put out a meme around.

Yeah, I remember that.

Genius. I'm done, I'm done.

Yeah, like 2020 is like those ego crunches at the end, like some shit. Yeah, yeah, I forgot, I forgot about that. Yeah, because I just like, like the, the creativity for me, it's like, you know, if something just clicks and makes and it just happens, like, like, you know, it just like, it just like happens. So if, you know, if someone has, like, if I see a picture, like when I see pictures, I just think of memes. Like, I like, sometimes they're yoga memes, sometimes they're just like other memes. But I just think whenever I see like funny pictures, I was like, I just think of memes and when I see. I follow a bunch of meme accounts and so like, when I see their memes, like with the images, I just translate them in my brain into yoga. And if it's funny and it makes sense, then I'll go ahead and make it. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of them are inspired by other people's memes about other things. But I don't really, I don't really follow fitness meme stuff, so I don't really like, spin it as like, oh, from like crossfit into yoga. Like, I don't do that. So. But I just, I do do it from like images from popular meme accounts because they, they always have good images. So yeah, I, you know, I just like screenshot the image, change the meme, post it and move on with my life.

Oh, man, it's great. Well, yeah, keep, keep doing that. I mean, I say and yeah, listeners, I'll put the, put the link to the account in the show notes. You've got to, got to. Whether you do yoga, I think you'll still, you'll still get something out of it. So obviously yoga, Yoga means to, to sort of join to create union. And you talk a lot, a lot about community, both on your website, your Instagram and you know, you, you definitely walk the walk in terms of that bringing people together. And I saw that you, you run an annual festival in, in South Florida, Yoga Fest. Yeah, tell us about that. Because it's a slightly different. It's not your typical yoga festival. So how did it come about and what, what does it do?

Sure, no doubt. So it's my, my. I'm actually like the, let's call the co facilitator of the event. So my beautiful friend Kelly Brookbank started this festival. Oh man, I think we're on nine years now. So like nine years ago started this festival is 11. 11. Yeah, this is the, this would be the 10th one. If we can pull it off in 2021, you know, as kind of like a fundraiser to raise funds for non profit for, for teens and students that like a student empowerment, like how can we bring yoga to those underprivileged kids and people that might need yoga that don't have access to it kind of thing. And then so it started as that and having like a festival, an all day yoga extravaganza with a lot of like local yoga teachers that donate their time and it's like a. Yeah, it's like a, you know, it's like a giant gathering of a community gathering of yoga, dancing, drumming, live music, all sorts of different styles of classes, vendors, like all this kind of stuff. It's really an amazing experience. And it's a nonprofit so everything that we raise, all the money goes towards this teen empowerment trip. We take a group of teens to Costa Rica for a yoga retreat, for a five day yoga retreat to Pura Vida Spa in the mountains of Alajuela in Costa Rica. Beautiful, beautiful retreat center. Yeah. And so it's been really transformational. We've taken a lot of teens, we've done student leader like yoga trainings for kids, like teens in high school, like juniors and seniors in high school that want to be yoga teachers. Like we offer them scholarships through this program and support them from the funds that we raised from the festival. So it's really, really, really cool. Yeah, it's amazing. So just really grateful to be a part of that. You know, I, when I moved to South Florida, I knew one person, just my friend that I moved in with. They used to make mem. That's the only person I knew when I moved down here going on six years now. And I immediately got connected at this yoga studio with Kelly and we just became friends. I did her 200 hour training and I actually just completed her 500 hour training last month. So I mean I've just, we've worked together for time and time again. I've been teaching for her for five and a half years and it's just been a great connection and that's, you know, led to so many other things. But that festival has really helped me bring a lot of people together over the thing I'm most passionate about, which is yoga. So. And it supports the community and it supports teens. Like I'm in, I'm 100 in.

Wow. It's really, really inspiring thing to do. I mean, I mean particularly now, kids need yoga more than ever. I mean no doubt through these difficult times, but why also, so, excuse me, inspiring. Particularly someone who news, I mean we're going to be leaving Singapore soon and moving to somewhere new as well. That you kind of went where you knew one person, and from that, you just kind of become plugged into or created or being a part of this amazing community. And I've seen your. Your sort of post when you were teaching on the beach. I mean, it's just the people there and then the. The responses that you get, the testimonials on the website or the. The people that sort of post on Instagram. Everyone just feels part of something, which is quite a magical thing to create.

Yeah, it really is. You know, for me, it's like, without the community, like, without the. Without the we, there is no me. And I really believe that, you know, like, I. I need them more than they need me. I think, you know, they can go find somewhere other yoga teacher, but without them coming together, I'm out. Like, it's just not. It's not gonna work, you know, so, you know, and I'm. I'm fortunate enough to be a brand ambassador for Lululemon, and. And, yeah, and, you know, as. As an ambassador for Lululemon, they're like a community is everything. I mean, and the ambassadors are the heartbeat and the pulse of the community, of the brand, the whole thing. So when I'm able to be out in the community, teaching classes, events, whatever it is, you know, I just like to. I like to bring people together. Like, I'm always just able to bring. Bring people together. Like, it just. It's just been that way for as long as I can remember, and whether it's in person or now virtual, because we're in a different era now where there's a lot of things happening virtually. And so I always wanted to create, like, a global. I always. I used to always say, Ryan, that the memes. I would always say I'm going global, like, with my memes. Like, I'm going to be known around the world for my memes. And I mean, I think that that is true. I think that there's some truth to that now. But now it's more going global as far as, like, bringing people together to actually practice yoga over, like, a global scale, like, worldwide. And, you know, I've been teaching online since the beginning of the pandemic in March, what have you. And it's been amazing to see all these people come to my classes from, like, a lot of them are usa, but, like, you know, there's been some from Canada, definitely the uk that have come to class, and it's just been really Cool. To see this connection that you can make via Zoom or the Internet, whatever Internet platform you might be using. You know, we're using squadcast here. This connection, you know, via the Internet, you know, you know, all these, you know, 13 hours apart. And how cool is that? They were able to do something. You're in the future. Like, you already know what happened on Friday, you know, I wish I did.

I wish I did. We're all waiting. As much as you, as much as you are. We're actually recording this on November 6th, so we're still waiting to find out who the US president is going to be.

It's November 5th.

Getting my DeLorean.

The DeLorean. Here we go, man. That's so funny.

Yeah, it's funny because for all of the turmoil of 2020 and this sort of tragedy for. For many people, I do think it's kind of woken up this. It's kind of opened up this portal. And as I say, would we have been having this conversation prior pandemic? I don't know. But I know that a lot of the conversations I've had and that you've had and people that we both connected to probably wouldn't happen because people are just in a different space. I mean, you probably know in the UK they're about to get. Well, they've just gone into lockdown again. They just did.

Yeah.

Yeah. People are stuck at home. And so to be able to connect with people overseas, be able to practice yoga with teachers who they may have heard of but could never get to a studio for, or could never get to a workshop for, it just shows the possibilities. And I think it still helps to kind of maintain that community, even when you're not in the same physical space.

Yeah, you have to be able to do it because, like, there you have to be able to continue to connect. And I think that's what helped for me. It's like when I and I, when I bring people together to practice over Zoom, like, there's an interaction, there's a welcome. It's just like you're at a yoga studio, man. It's the same thing. That's the way I hold my space, though. You know, I think everybody does. Does their own thing differently, and that's cool. Like, however everybody, however you do you like you do you, and people are going to respond to you and come to you because it's you, you know, there. And there's people that have come to my class that left early, like, came one time, left 10 minutes in, and I never seen Them again, barely. It just wasn't for me. Like, it wasn't for them. And that's okay. Like, cool, you know, like, there's somebody, there's some. There's a teacher out there for everybody. And as a yoga teacher, too, like, don't be hard on yourself if, like, you know, you're in a trying time and you're trying to build community and it's a little challenging right now. Like, yo, just, just keep showing up authentically, you know what? And whatever it is that you're doing, just keep showing up authentically. If you build it, they will come. And you just got to believe that and just show up time and time again, you know, but show up for one another. Not just showing up for yourself. You got to show up for these others, you know, because people out there, you know, they're lonely. They're, you know, they're locked down 2.0. Like, who knows what happens in the USA at any point, like anywhere in the world, you know, who knows what's going happen to. To happen? So people just need each other. You need to be able to lean on each other. And I just think that that's really important during these times is to know that even though we're apart and, and maybe can't connect in person as much or at all, like, there's still an opportunity to do so via the. Via the web, you know, via the Internet.

So do it still maintain connection? Have to say you already mentioned it, but you became a Lululemon ambassador. And I remember it happened. I mean, you were so happy about it. I just saw your posts on Instagram and the invading of your picture in the store, which has got to be a proud moment.

Totally.

What did that moment mean to you? And was it something that you were sort of working up towards? Was it something that just happened? What was the process?

Yeah, no, I put it on my. Okay, so I made a vision board, like, I don't know, six and a half years ago. And I. It put that dead center of the vision board. I was like, I want to be a Lululemon brand ambassador. Not because I wanted, like, clothing or a pair, none of that stuff. I just wanted to be able. Or a picture on the wall. Like, at first, like, oh, it'd be cool to have your picture up there. And then as you learn more about the brand and the company and like, the values, it was more of like, I want to be able to connect with as many people as possible. And this is another. This, this is going to give me that accolade is maybe the wrong word, but this is going to give me the opportunity to be able to do that more. You know what I mean? Like, when you were able to say that you're an ambassador for that brand, it carries a lot of weight in the. In the yoga world, you know, so, like, it just was another way of. Another way of connection. So that's why I wanted it. That's why I really wanted to do it. It would foster more connections and help me grow as an individual, help me grow my community and serve more people. That's the end game of all the things that I like to do is like, how can I serve more people? And I knew that that would help. Help me.

Yeah, I mean, it gives you that platform, it elevates your. Your status, which then means that you can then reach more people.

Yeah, that's it. You know what I mean? And a level of confidence too, for sure. You know, a level of. A level of confidence. A hundred %, you know, 100%.

And what does, what does being an investor entail? What does it mean for you? Sort of things that you have to do. Can you just do what you were doing before, but just talk about Lululemon more? Like, how it. How's it?

Pretty, Pretty much. That's funny you asked that question. It's like when you go to, like, an ambassador onboarding, they. They you. That's a question. Like, so what do we, like, what do I do now that I'm an ambassador? Like, just do what you've already been doing, because that's why we asked you to be an ambassador. Like, you're already out in your community. You're already out there putting yourself out there. You're already bringing people together. You're already sweating, you know, you're already, you know, whatever and whatever discipline you're in. Yoga, running, CrossFit, like, whatever. You know what I mean? Like, that's why we have you here, because we think that you're a power, you're a pulse in the community. Like, you're out there and you're on the streets and you can give us feedback on, you know, like, we need to be part of this event. Like, we should, you know, talk about doing something like, you know, whatever this might be and just being innovative, like, really allowing. Say, hey, like, I have this idea. What do you guys, like, think? Like, what do you guys, like, in a partnership idea, like, what do you guys think of doing something like this? Like, oh, let's, let's have a conversation, you know, so like, really innovation and is. Is really cool just to see where it's going. And you know, now they have acquired the mirror. Do you know what the mirror is?

I don't know.

Okay, so it's like an at home workout. So basically it looks like a mirror.

Like a. I have. Yes.

Yeah, the interactive thing. So they just acquired that. They just acquired the mirror. And so like I hope to one day, like it's gonna happen. Just like if it goes. Yo. If it goes on the vision board, that shit's happening, happening. So I don't. And I believe it 100% up here in my mind and like there's no doubts. Like there's just zero doubts. Like if I say, like if I affirm something like I'm striving towards this, just put it on the board, know that it's out there and then just start and then put in the work. Just put in the work. And so I like to, you know, be, be on the mirror and create some programs and who knows what, you know, as part of that collaboration that'll happen. And, and you know, so as soon as I became a brand ambassador, I was like, okay, now I want to be a global ambassador. You know, I mean there's a, there's a handful of those. Like there's, I mean like literally a handful. So. But I'm gonna be one. Ryan, you, you heard it here first. Well, not first because I've told everybody else. But you're. No, I think Singapore.

Yeah, no, I can believe that. The vision board thing is really cool because it's something that I, I recently think I got to do. So I did a, a visualization a few weeks ago with, with a coach, a coach of mine. And after that I was like, yeah, that's kind of what I need to do to kind of. Because I'm one of those people who carries everything in their head and actually stuff down. Being able to sort of see it every day kind of really helps to sort of reinforce where you're, where you're going. And I mean you're proof that obviously it's worked for you.

Yeah. And it's subconscious too. Like it's just like when I have it, it used to be on my wall here next to me. But I've taken it. This is my yoga wall now where I teach. I teach here in my room. And so I've taken it out. I need to place it somewhere else. So I haven't seen it in like a little bit, but I know that it's still there and I know what's on it because I've seen it so many times in my room, and I would add little things to it, like, I like to. So another vision I have on there is, like, I'm going to. I'm going to teach yoga with above and beyond as, like, some sort of collaboration in an event. So above beyond is a trans group. I don't. If you know who they are. Yeah. So. And they do like this. People are doing it. Like, people. Like, there's a handful of people that are teaching yoga with them as a DJ at their festivals and events, and I'm gonna do that. So I don't know how or when. I don't need to worry about that. Like, I just. I'm gonna do that. So. Yeah, it's gonna happen.

Inspiring. Inspiring stuff. Well, I would. I would say that I wore Lululemon because I knew an ambassador, but actually I just lived in Lululemon throughout lockdown. So.

Yeah. Who has it been? Right.

I swapped my. My business, basically. Yeah. Just for. Yeah, yeah.

You're. You're doing the right thing, man.

When we first. So when we first started talking about this interview, I knew you. You had. You had a few things that they were coming up and. And now it's out there. We now. Well, I'm now sort of wanted to be speaking to Pedro 2.0. So tell me about. Tell me what. What yoga with Pedro 2.0 is and. And what you'll be doing with the. With the new platform.

Yeah, So I started. So when the pandemic hit, I was doing classes by donation, right. So. And I think a lot of. A lot of it started like this for a lot of teachers. Like, the pandemic hit. Everyone's teaching free yoga on Facebook, Instagram, Zoom. Like, everyone's teaching free yoga. And I sat back for, like, a couple days and I was like, why is everybody doing this for free, though? Because, like, how are they going to eat? Because the yoga studio not going to be open next week. And so I just watched, you know, but a lot of my students are reaching out, like, yo, like, how are we going to do this on the Internet? And in 2018, I had a vision. I was going to do yoga yoga with Pedro on the, you know, on, like, YouTube, make videos, funnel it to, like, a membership site. That kind of thing in 2018. Didn't end up. I started it and I was like, it's just, like, a lot of work. And I don't. I don't know. I don't really like teaching in front of the camera. I don't really like it. So then fast forward to the pandemic. You know, like, I saw these teachers doing that, and students were asking me to teach thing, and I was like, ah, all right, like, okay, let me figure it out. Because I didn't know shit about it. I didn't know anything. So I was like, all right, let me just figure it out. So I got like a zoom, you know, And I had done a lot of zoom because the podcasting was all on zoom zoom. So I knew zoom well. And so I said, okay, like, I could. I could do that. Like, we could do this, you know? And I had taken a few online classes, so I was familiar with kind of like how it went. And I taught some online on Instagram live like in 2018 for a couple months for fun. And then it wasn't fun anymore, so I stopped. But I realized, like, there was an opportunity here, so to serve people. And so I didn't buy donation. And I was just like, okay, like, people can donate and. And if. If it feels good for them. And I. And people just kept coming and supporting me as I was supporting them. And I taught every day. I had a schedule. And it helped me grow because it. Usually when I was teaching in person, I taught. I only taught like two classes a week, three like a vinyasa yoga with live music class that we used to do at this historic hotel in town. And we still do it, but back then we had like a hundred people that would come every week to this class, big community class. But we had to. Obviously the pandemic has changed how many people we can have in person. So. But. Cause we're in a different. Ye know, so. But anyway, so I would teach that vinyasa and then I would teach like a vinyen, like a vinyasa and a yin class that was like a combo. And so when the pandemic hit, it offered me an opportunity to grow my teaching. I was like, okay, I can teach a restorative and a yoga nidra class, which I never did in person because I didn't. We didn't do that at the place I was teaching. So I learned how to teach these different styles too. And as I'm doing it, I'm recording the classes and I'm sending them out. I would do like, special events, like for the full moon and all these of kinds, kind of, you know, how to have like, themed events and like, and I would just, you know, keep promoting it on yogi memes or just if you want to come to donation based Classes and people were being open to like, you know, trying new teachers and new things and being, and, and it was just working. I was like, okay. And then July 23rd, I just got back from a trip to North Carolina and I got, I, I stopped and I had taught every day until I left. It was like 150 days in a row. Like I didn't take any days off. My body was dead. So I, I, you know, and I' and I didn't. When I used to teach, I never demoed. When I taught, I always taught. Just walking, assisting, all that kind of thing. But here in my room I would demo along with it. And so I was, I was pretty tired and I was, I had some ailments going on. I'm no spring chicken anymore. And so I go on this trip, North Carolina, go to the mountains with my family. We had great time. I come back and I'm like, okay, I think it's time that I do that platform I wanted to create like two years ago. I think it's really time to make that happen because that'll really allow more a sustainable income. I can have a membership site. I can have pre recorded classes, I can have live classes, special events, all this kind of stuff. And so I had a lot of conversations out there with companies that were having membership sites because everyone, all of a sudden everybody had like all these companies showed up with membership sites. You know, everybody showed up. And so I found the right partner Ribbon experiences, Shameless plug for them. They're amazing guys and they have a really good pro, a really good platform to be able to host live classes with integration with zoom and a library of classes, all this stuff so people can, you know, I don't have to teach every day anymore. Like I like teaching three or. Yeah. Because it's, I just can't. I'm just not gonna, I'm gonna die. So, so three or four days a week, four days a week or so is good special events. And I have you know, library of classes and like high, high quality pre recorded classes as well. I created a couple like programs I guess like a seven day program with like real, not just like a replay of a zoom because like that quality is a little bit different obviously. But you know like a real, real cameras and like real like music in the background and that whole kind of thing mixed in all this stuff. So just to be able to create something new and like that's going to have an opportunity for people to do yoga on demand and also live and from wherever they're at in the world when it, when it works for, for them. And so far it's good. I mean, we had the launch party Sunday, I think it was Sunday, and we had DJ Taz Rashid come and DJ the class live on the event. And it was just like, it was just fun, man. It was just really cool community, you know, free event. And it was, we had a great turnout. It was really great. So things are looking up, man.

Yeah, no, it sounds, it sounds great. I was obviously following the whole progress and I'm hoping to do a class at some point, you know, time differences and all the rest of it. But yeah, but yeah, no, it's good. It's a really good platform. It's really good what you're doing and people to kind of access what they want and when they want it, when they need it is a beautiful thing. So. Yeah, and no one knows this, but it's just a feeling. Do you see yourself changing much if and when things do open back up, or do you still see yourself kind of maintaining and pushing forward with the online membership?

I think that, and, and in the online program too, like, people don't have to. You don't have to do a membership. Like, I still have it where people can drop in by donation, which is super important because some people just like membership is a scary word or subscription. Oh, dear God. I'm not subscribing to anything, you know, but if I have the flex the option, you know, like I'm like to drop in last minute, like, of course they can, you know, and just make a donation into the thing. It's like a minimum donation, like five bucks easy, you know. And, and so what I realized is like, I have a worldwide community now, you know, so like, I have to be able to continue to serve worldwide. And it's, it's a lot more, there's a lot more in it for me to be able to do that. Like I'm able to support my family more than teaching at a yoga studio. Like kind of being on the 10 classes. Like, I've done all that, I've been through all of that and now I think that for me, I, I really enjoy it online. I really enjoy what I'm able to create and the connections that I'm continuing you that I'm able to foster within people. And if I, I don't think if, if I wasn't able to connect with, feel the connection, then I would shut it down. But I can feel the connection and I know that it's genuine amongst many from around the World. So. No, I'm. I'm good. I like the online stuff. I like it. So. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's the way forward.

Yeah.

I don't see. I don't see things changing anytime soon.

No, no.

People are used to it now. I think Even with lockdown 2.0 in the UK, it's difficult because of the time of year. It's winter, it's cold. But people know, excuse me, know what lockdown's about now. They. They're used to that. They can get back into that routine. They can do their online classes, whether it's yoga, whether it's online schooling or whatever. It's not this new scary thing. Like it was back in.

No, yeah, it's. It's not anymore. So. And I'm curious to see what. You know, I'm still teaching here. Like in the US we can still teach in public. So I'm still doing that at one class, just one class a week with that live music class. But I stream it via Zoom also. Like it's part of my thing and it all works out so people can stream it with the music and it sounds amazing. So it's like you're at the class. It's legit and. But. But I'm still teaching on. You know, we do these like full moon gatherings on the beach, you know, and I don't know, I don't think I'll ever teach and never say never, but I don't think that I'll be back teaching at a studio like again. Like, it's just not. I'm good, man. Like, I'm just. I good. I'm just good what I'm doing.

Cool. Okay, we're gonna come to some rapid questions. I know you soon. Okay. Tell me about your morning routine. Do you have one?

Yeah. Okay. Every day, 5:15. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Usually what time I go to sleep, it's 5:15am is the alarm. First thing is morning pages. It's a three page. You've ever heard of morning pages before?

Not this way, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The artist way. So three longhand, freehand pages of, of writing every morning and then meditation immediately after. Like close the book, sit for however long it might be. Sometimes it's with music, sometimes it's with a guided. Sometimes it's just nothing, you know, 10 minutes or so. And then from there it's like. From there it's like straight into work. Because I try to get as much. It's not very much, but I get some work in before my kids wake up and start. Because they wake up early at 6:30, so I get like a half hour, 40 minutes in. I do that kind of thing and then, and then it's off to the children from there. So really my morning routine is like those two, two wins. And if I can get like one little part of some. My work day started. Usually it's like a to do list. Like I always work from a list. Has really helped me gaining clarity because I used to be like you, Ryan. Like creating from my head on the cuff, off the go. Like, oh, this idea. Oh yeah, that one. It's cool. Squirrel, you know, so. But if I could do morning routine, it's like morning pages meditation to do list. If I can get those three wins in before anybody starts talking to me, I'm. I'm set up for success that day.

Yeah, it just kind of gets you whatever it is. This kind of gets you grounded, doesn't it? As you started reading, I thought you're going to kind of read off this long list. I was going to say, what about your kids? I've got two kids. Like I got up this morning. I get up super early so I can practice and meditate and all the rest of it. The number of mornings when that's the morning they decide to get up even earlier and come out and yeah, I don't get to finish.

So nothing.

Yeah, yeah, it's got to get in it. You can and yeah, yeah. Treat them well. Okay.

What.

Anyone who's listening to this, who is thinking about making the jump to teaching yoga, what's, what's the thing you would want them to know?

Don't do it for the money. Money. First of all, like if you want to do it, if you're doing it, make sure you're doing it from a place of service and that you want to be a, be a being of service because that's what it really is going to come down to. Yes, you can make money. Don't let me say that you can't. Like if you're. But if you're doing it for the money out of the gate, like I'm going to do this because I can make money doing this. Like, yo, wrong mindset. Like I'm doing this because I want to serve people and help people and then allow all that monetary stuff to take care of itself down there the road.

Good advice. If you could go back and speak to Illinois, Pedro, what would you say?

Just keep go, just keep hustling. Just keep going. One thing at a time. You Know what I mean? Like, it's all gonna work out. Even though, like, there was those doubts, of course, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna move and I'm gonna. What if this doesn't work out? Like, I don't know where I'm going. I don't want to do all this. Like, yo, just go and one day, you know, just one day at a time. Time. One day at a time.

One day at a time. Perfect. And from your blog, 5 Ways to Take Jaeger off the mat. You talk about implementing gratitude in your life daily. What are you most grateful for at this moment?

Oh, man, the Internet. Really? Fostering connection via the Internet. Yeah. Really grateful for the Internet to be able to have these opportunities to continue connection when I'm. When I can't go anywhere. You know what I mean? When I can't, you know, when I. When I'm not seeing people in public, like, really grateful for the Internet, like, for real. Because without it, like, I. I don't know what I would do. Like, if there was no Internet, like, how would I. If I was teaching yoga only in person, like, what would I do? You know? I'd be screwed. So.

Yeah.

Yeah. So the. The Internet. Yeah. And that's another one of my things that I forgot on the morning routine. Like, right when I wake up before I get downstairs to writing is like, three things I'm grateful for when I wake up before I get down there. I don't know how that slipped my head, but. Yeah.

Yeah, I do. Similar. But again, as we discussed, my gratitude is in my head to get it all down on paper, but, yeah, mine just.

Yeah, mine just in my head. And, like, eventually when I'm doing the morning pages, sometimes it'll just come out randomly, you know, because it's just freehand writing. But I like to say them just when I wake up, you know, right before I open my eyes or before my feet hit the ground kind of thing is. Yeah.

Okay, cool. All right. Just quick fire. Almost done.

All good.

All good. Particular quote or words of wisdom that you live by?

Oh, trust the process always got me through. From Chicago to Florida. Yeah. Trust the process really got me through. And, yeah, just being content with what is in the moment, you know? Yeah. That really help. That helps me in the moment when shit's kind of like, I don't know if this is gonna work out or I wish it was a little bit different or, like, that's not right. Like, yo, it's gonna work out. Like, it's just gonna work itself out. Man. You know, and I. And I really feel that, and I believe that, like, when I say it to my. I believe it. Like, all right. Like, I'll just be the calm in the boat. Like, it's just gonna work out. Like, it's gonna work out. Yeah.

Cool. Here's the. The opportunity for you to. To show me up again with. With reading. What's the most impactful book you've read in the last 12 months?

12 months?

Yeah.

I haven't read shit in 12 months.

Really?

I haven't read anything. I've read those books for all before the 12 months. I haven't read any. I've. I've read. So I was reading. Oh, shit. What's the name of that book over there? There? Oh, well, it doesn't really. If I can't think of the name, it really helped me. Yeah, I don't. I haven't really. I haven't finished anything in the last 12 months, but I will say that the. The book that helped me the most ever in my life was you are the placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza.

Okay.

Have you heard of Dr. Joe Dispenza?

I've heard of Dr. Joe, but I haven't read any of you.

Okay. Yeah, that's. I. That's the only one I read by him. And I have another one over there Becoming Supernatural, that a yogis friend of mine just got for me as a gift. So I'm looking forward to checking that out, but breaking. But you are the Placebo was a book that I read during my transitional time from Chicago to Florida when I just really, you know, I was like, I was doing these meditations. You know, it comes along with doing, like, these hour long meditations, and it's just like, really. It's like, deep stuff, and it's really convincing yourself that, like, you have the ability to, like, heal yourself yourself, you know, that you can placebo yourself with your thoughts. And I was like, it really. It took me down the rabbit hole, but it really made me think, like, if I can just convince myself that I'm good, then I'm good. You know, like, if you can do that, like, you're good. So, I mean, there was also other things in it, but that book was the most impactful book I've ever read in my life. Was definitely that one. You are the Placebo. Yeah. Cool.

Okay, that's two more books to add to my long list.

Thanks.

All right, so favorite yoga pose and why.

Okay, so favorite yoga pose. The. So a combination of two. So Supta baddha konasana along with a restorative fish. So I like to do restorative fish with the baddha konasana incorporated into it. And I don't. Just feels good on my inner thighs and I just kind of open up, lay on a bolster and just kind of open up, arms wide, just like, ah. Just totally relaxed. Like. I love that one at the end of a class. It's like. That's heavenly, right?

Nice and chilled. And that's the first, that's the first one we've had for that on the show. So it's good. I'm hoping a whole range of poses. It started off with a few Shabbat, so thankfully we branched out a little bit.

Yeah.

Yoga class. Music or no music. I knew that was good music. I like his playlist.

Yeah, he did. Yeah. He's so good. Do you listen to Soul Rising as well? Do you know who that is?

Through that? Yeah. So if you're listening to Task Rashid, then I kind of go on to.

So totally.

I. I don't really practice with music now. I used to, but I sometimes teach. My. My wife comes to my, my class, my Wednesday class and she always wants music and so just to kind of.

So you play the music? So you play the music? Yeah, those. Those guys are the real deal. And like, you know, if you follow them on Spotify, it suggests a couple other people too that are great. But. Yeah, but Taz and Brandon, Soul Rising. Those guys are. I mean they're my friends and they're just, they're awesome. Like they got great stuff.

Florida or Illinois?

Florida definitely. Illinois is too cold. Yeah.

Again, another one I know the answer to, but I've asked it before, so I'll ask it again. Aloe or Lululemon?

Oh, Lululemon. Come on, man. I actually don't own anything from Aloe. I've never even tried anything on. I don't even. I never even tried anything. I've been in the store though, but I didn't try anything on.

Okay. Yeah, you'd have to tell Dylan that's he's the Yellow Ambassador. Audible or Netflix.

Oh, I don't watch either. So I don't listen to books. I don't listen to books and I don't watch show. But about Netflix. Okay, Netflix.

And finally your dream yoga retreat destination.

Oh man. So I had, I had a two week retreat booked to the Amalfi coast of Italy. I had two groups going back to back weeks in June of last year. Two sold out weeks of like 22 people each week that my wife and I were taking as a group. So like it was kind of to be amazing but it got postponed obviously. So if I can get make that pull it if 2021 will allow me to have that retreat experience with that would be great. To the Amalfi coast and Peru is the other one. I want to really go to Machu Picchu. I have a friend that does yoga retreats. He's from Peru and he's a world renowned worldwide global retreat leader. And so we're going to partner up and do that. We were planning to do an extra but it'll probably be 22 and yeah, we're gonna go to Peru and have a couple great time in the Sacred Valley.

Yeah, I saw the Amalfi coast on your website. I actually mentioned it to my yesterday.

Yeah.

And so yeah, looks amazing but I don't know where we'll be but that time and you don't know what the world will be like, dude.

Exactly. Like you never, you just never know what. Yeah, you just don't know in this moment. So. But yeah, I'm just praying and crossing my fingers and you know, eagle crossing everything that, that, that, that retreat's gonna happen. So.

And that brings us to the end. I guess my, my last question is do you have anything coming up soon or in the future that you, you want to talk about? I know we've talked about the, the new site and you, you retreats which hopefully going to happen to you next year but do you have anything else that you want to, want to.

No, that's it man. Just come yogawith pedro.com Very simple. And just come check it out, see if you like the classes, the offerings. You can try it for free for a week and just check it out. You know, that's. Yeah, that's it. You know, and just any, you know, any, any support is great just to come experience the class and whatnot. But yeah, that's what I would say.

Cool. And yeah, we'll put the link to that and to your IG and yogi memes and to the yoga show as well into the, into the show notes so people can go and check out all of that good stuff. So I just want to say thanks so much for coming on the show. It's really, it's really good to, to speak to a fellow podcaster, someone obviously more seasoned than I am, who has such a great show and also a fellow yoga teacher who's doing some great things with the community. It's definitely been fun it's been inspiring for me and hopefully for the guys listening, they can take it all away. So thanks very much.

Thank you. You are a wonderful host and your show is going to do wonders and help a lot of people because you're doing it from a place of authenticity and you're doing it because you have a passion for it and you feel it's a calling. And I'm really excited to follow your journey and see where this takes you because the possibilities are infinite. So. And you are, you are a very, very, very good host. And so thank you for having me.

Thanks, Pedro. Really appreciate it. Thanks again for tuning in to this week's episode of the Yoga Den Pod. If you like the show, help spread the word and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. To find out more about the show and bag yourself some free yoga, head to the website ryanspenceyoga.com to sign up for the newsletter and the free ebook video below in 15. If you want to drop me a line, you want to suggest any guests for the show or you fancy being up here yourself, drop me a line on instagram Ryan Spencer yoga.com and at the yogadan underscore podcast. But for now, all that's left to say, eat plants, give thanks, do yoga, peace.