The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners
Welcome to The Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their roles as CEOs. If you're ready to take your business seriously, show up with passion, and scale your studio to new heights without burning out, you're in the right place.
I’m your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning, certified business coach with 12+ years in the yoga industry I’ve seen firsthand what it takes to turn your passion into a powerful, scalable business.
Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice to help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your clients. It's time to embrace your CEO mindset and make more money without working more.
The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners
From Teacher to CEO: Creating a Million-Dollar Yoga Business with Angelica Govaert
Welcome to Episode 31 of the Studio CEO Podcast: Business Coaching for Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners.
In this episode, I talk with guest Angelica Govaert, founder of Nevada’s largest yoga studio and a savvy entrepreneur with nearly 40 years in the industry. Angelica shares her inspiring journey from childhood hardship to building a thriving yoga empire, and reveals the key business principles and marketing strategies that transformed her passion for yoga into a profitable, sustainable career.
We talk about:
- How Angelica used sales skills and strategic marketing to grow her business
- The power of building a strong, consistent personal brand (including the story behind her signature glasses)
- Smart social media strategies: focusing your online presence on your niche and leveraging platforms for business growth, not distraction
- The importance of comprehensive teacher training programs that go beyond just teaching poses to include philosophy, anatomy, and business skills
- Why investing in quality education and community creates lasting confidence and success in teaching yoga
- How to shift your mindset around sales and marketing to build a thriving yoga business with integrity
- The realities of building an online yoga business—hard work, patience, and dedication required for real results
- Practical advice for yoga teachers and studio owners looking to diversify income and create sustainable growth
Angelica also shares insights on navigating industry myths, including a no-nonsense look at what Yoga Alliance registration really means.
If you’re ready to create a profitable, sustainable business with a solid foundation and authentic marketing, this episode offers inspiration from a true yoga business master.
Connect with Angelica:
Check out her podcast: Yogalebrity
Follow her on Instagram: @yogalebrity
Learn more about her YTT: Angelicagovaert.com
Work with Jackie Murphy
Sign up for our free Workshop on June 18th
Say Hi on Instagram @studioceoofficial
Learn about The Studio CEO Program
Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. All right, my friends, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1:I have a guest for you today, Angelica Govert. Is that how you say her last name, Govert? I meant to ask you before we started. Angelica Govert, she is a passionate and knowledgeable yoga instructor with almost 40 years of experience. She is the former owner of Nevada's largest yoga studio and now she has taught teacher trainings all over the world and her Las Vegas yoga teacher training was ranked best yoga teacher training in Vegas for the state of Nevada. 10 years in a row, Angelica teaches online yoga, teacher training in person. Yoga alliance approved teacher training in Las Vegas. So, Angelica, welcome to the studio. Ceo podcast.
Speaker 2:It's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 1:We met on Instagram the best place to meet. Wait, let's just talk about that, Because one of the things that I teach when it comes to using Instagram is like you actually have to be social on it and meet people and talk to people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a few years ago. So I've been doing online for about three years. Three years ago, I started online and I had. I actually thought, um, social media was super toxic and I had in 2020, I had deleted everything and was like I don't want to be a part of this. Like March 2020, I was like it's about to get crazy. I don't want to be involved in this at all. I knew that Facebook was going to go into the like. It was just going to be awful, it was going to be a wasteland and I was like I don't want to have anything to do with any of that.
Speaker 2:So I, um, you know, I deactivated my Facebook. I um got rid of my Instagram. I, you know, like turned off Twitter, like all of it. I just turned it off, got rid of everything, deactivated it all and, for like a while, didn't do anything on social media whatsoever. So I, when I started working online, I restarted like all new accounts and started like completely fresh, and what I realized into the online thing was that social media companies they don't care about your business, care about your business. They care about bringing people together socially, so they want to put you in front of people that they think are like you. Yes, so the way to game the system is to only use your social media for business. Don't look at pictures of golden retrievers that are I have a golden retriever. Did you say you have a golden retriever? Yeah, I have a golden retriever. Did you say you have a golden retriever? Yeah, I have a golden retriever. The best dogs oh my gosh, the best. So that's why we're amazing.
Speaker 1:Are you Sagittarius? A Scorpio, no, I know.
Speaker 2:Well, my, my assistant, francesca, is a Scorpio, so it's okay, but anyhow close. But so what I realized, though, was that, like, I needed to only follow other accounts that were in my niche. I needed to only like and comment on people who were my ideal customer and not use it for anything else. So I have this totally different relationship with social media now, because I'm not use it for anything else. So I have this totally different relationship with social media now because I'm not using it for myself. I'm being social with the people that I know are going to be my future clients.
Speaker 2:Like I went to a yoga class last night. I went to an aerial class. I didn't tell anybody that I have 30,000 people following me on Instagram, you know, and at the end of class, they're like. They're like oh, make sure you follow me on Instagram, and you know. I was like what's your Instagram? And I like look on there, and you know they have their 400 followers, and I'm like super proud of them, because actually a lot, it's really hard to get there. It is like targeted people that are like really in your niche, and it's not just like your mom and your aunt and your high school, but like really targeted people in your niche. It's pretty hard to get past a thousand, honestly. But so I know that when they like actually saw who I was, they were probably like, oh, like I've gone into yoga studios and and like there's a studio here in Vegas.
Speaker 2:I went in and she was like, oh, welcome back. I was like we don't know each other. And she was like, no, I, we do know each other. And I'm like no, no, we don't. And then I like take my glasses off. You know, because that's the always the dead giveaway is the glasses. Your glasses are great. We all call these the OG. I have like six different pairs that I wear.
Speaker 2:I love it. Everyone knows these glasses, so. But that's actually something that's really interesting to talk about, too is because when I started, I was wearing contacts and I um, in my late forties I had to get bifocals. These are actually progressives, which is like three different levels of vision. You know, instead of having the line like a bifocal, um, they just have three levels of vision. They're called progressives. You'll one day, jackie you'll get there, but, uh, anyhow.
Speaker 2:So I uh. So I get these new glasses and I get new contacts and the contacts give me keratitis and I almost lose my eyesight and so my eyes like glass over from the contacts. So luckily, it's a long story, but luckily my eyes healed and there was a chance that they weren't going to and I just decided, from that point on, I was never going to wear contacts again. So I started wearing glasses and, because I'm a kind of an eclectic person, I got really big glasses. Like, first of all, I was like I want to be able to see. Cause, if you've always worn contacts, you have your peripheral vision, and when you wear glasses you don't. So I was like I want the biggest glasses possible. And then, well, I mean, I'm old, why not make them like funky? You know, like who cares? When I was in my twenties I would have never done this, but now that I'm 50, I don't care what people think. So I got like really big glasses.
Speaker 2:Well, all of a sudden, my Instagram takes off. I mean, like thousands of people, and I think what happened is I was different. Yeah, something about me that was now different. So, instead of just being like a regular person that looks like everyone else, teaching yoga online. Suddenly it was like there's something distinctive about her. So every time I would come up in someone's feed they would be like, oh, that's the woman with the big glasses, with the glasses.
Speaker 2:And so and I've talked to other people, cause I'm friends with other creators who have, you know, like a million followers or half a million followers, you know like really big accounts, and they all said do something that differentiates you but is consistent. So, like pink Sparrow social I'm sure you follow her she always wears the pink suit, so every time you see her in her video she's wearing that pink suit. So it differentiates her. So you know if it's the same outfit or if it's the same location or or there's something about you that's consistent. You know, I was always really careful to not do same location because I didn't want to be tied down to one spot for all my filming Um and um. I try to switch it up just so that, like, the consistence is me which is just another thing I learned from pink Sparrow social right Was it like she's the consistent.
Speaker 2:she's the constant because she always wears that same outfit, no matter where she's at We'll.
Speaker 1:we'll be like oh, it's that bright pink suit you know so immediately yeah I was just listening recently to like biopsychology and specifically like what do you wear to get people's attention, and it was talking about having 7 to 11 points of interest at your head level. So it could be glasses, earrings, necklaces, like something where it draws the attention up and it's it elevates you so that when people see you, they automatically see you as an authority and that's so. It could be a hair piece. It could be a hair clip you can't see mine right now, but like I saw yours and was cute and I love it, Thank you it's the one I always wear.
Speaker 1:I immediately noticed that, like as soon as we got on this. That hair is cute and I love it, thank you. But like that is, it's a, it's a small thing. It's not going to make or break the sales that you have in your business, but, like you're saying, like the consistency and standing out is so important. And then also being social. So we met because I commented, your reel popped up for me. I was probably scrolling and your reel popped up and I was like, yes, this conversation, like I'm going to sit here and listen to this and look now this relationship is formed. So everyone listening, like this is a side of social media. That is, you hear a lot about posting. Make sure you post, make sure you write a carousel post, do a reel, like yes, and there's this other side of it too. That's so, so important. So I know we just dove into that conversation, which is it's a good sign.
Speaker 1:This is going to be a good podcast. But let's go back to the basics, to the beginning. Tell us, like, how you found yoga, how you became the owner of the largest yoga studio in Nevada. Give us a little history largest yoga studio in Nevada.
Speaker 2:Give us a little history. So when I was 11 years old, I just started practicing yoga and I got this book. Is your? Do you do video on your podcast? Okay, good, okay, so I got this book, cause my podcast also is video, right, but I got this book and it was called Yoga, mind and Body.
Speaker 1:It's a Shiva Nanda Yoga book.
Speaker 2:It's like really old, right, old timey, but I started reading about yoga when I was like 11 years old and it talked about vegetarianism and Ahimsa and it talked about, you know, like the vegetarian diet. It talked about pranayama and meditation and, you know, honestly, I grew up in, I grew up primarily on a farm. I grew up in a very abusive home uh, really, really poor, like waiting in line for milk and cheese and the welfare line, like my mom went from different husband to different husband. We lived in a lot of battered women, shelters, and so, for me, the practice of yoga really helped me and it wasn't the yoga asana, it was the yoga philosophy that allowed me to like find peace and happiness and chill and relax and an otherwise chaotic and, kate, you know a situation and unsafe, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it really like the practice of yoga, spirituality, yoga philosophy helped me make it through my childhood. Helped me make it through my childhood.
Speaker 2:Well then, when I my, you know, my first job was in retail and I immediately excelled, like I was the the open to the highest credit cards in the Midwest region for the limited, for like six months in a row, I quickly moved up from being just a salesperson on the floor to being service desk manager. And then I went to college and I was still working in retail. But when I got out of college I was like I want to, you know, work in. I worked at a better women's shelter because I wanted to work. I got two degrees in English literature degree and a degree in women's studies and I wanted to help women get out of the situation that my mom was in.
Speaker 2:Right so, but ultimately, anybody that's done trauma work knows that it's very draining. And if you experienced that, if you lived that when you were younger, it's it's so emotional and it's difficult to separate your emotions from what's happening. And so I did that for a few years and I just got really burned out. Plus they pay you like I mean like $8 an hour, you know, like it was just awful at heart. I'm a salesperson, but I was.
Speaker 2:I can't sell because that's not changing people's lives but I was so burned out from working in social work that I decided to go back into retail, where I immediately excelled and moved up again. I worked for L'Occitane, which is like a French company shower gel, bubble bath. I'll probably call it L'Occitane or L'Occitane, or it's L-O-C-C-I-T-A-N-E. I've never said it out loud because I know exactly what you're talking about, but never try to say it so anyhow. Um, I can understand. The french are very weird about it they're like you know, don't speak my language incorrectly so but they love it if you try.
Speaker 2:They love it.
Speaker 2:Love it If you try, you know so I've spent a lot of time in France. I lived in Paris for a while with with L'Occitane, so yeah, it was really cool. So I got to, I ran 22 stores for them across six States. I worked for them for, I think, six years and I just got tons of experience managing people and understanding how businesses work and how to drive marketing and advertising and selling techniques and different styles of selling, different ways of selling. And you know, at the Limited it's the top, bottom layering piece, accessory, it looks the time is the five non-negotiables. You know greet every customer, ask every customer, inquiring questions, close every customer, add on every customer. You know like every, every place has its own system. So I'm watching all this and I'm all this is coming into me and it's all integrating to me and I I really want to open my own business. I really want to open my own business but I don't know, like, what kind of business to open. You know I'm like thinking I'm looking every time I go into a business. I'm like, should I open that, you know? And I'm thinking I want to open a clothing store, right, but it's just so expensive, it's just as a really high overhead.
Speaker 2:And I'm in Arizona, my company moved me around like five or six times. I lived with in in Columbus, ohio. I lived in California, I lived in Arizona, I lived in Las Vegas, I lived in Miami, I lived in Boston. I moved around with L'Occitane, right. I lived in Paris, right. So I, so I'm like you know what can I do? That's going to be a low barrier to entry, but I'm going to be able to use my selling techniques and also I'm going to be able to help people, because that was the number one thing for me, like in my late twenties. A lot of people are having this like crisis, like what is my purpose on this planet? Why am I here? What am I meant to do, you know? And so I just wanted something that had purpose, that changed other people's lives and made their lives better. So I'm in Arizona at this time. I'm a district manager of Arizona and Southern California and I'm in Arizona.
Speaker 2:I start going to this yoga studio called at one yoga, which is the home of the owner of that then founded a company that you might know called spiritual gangster. So, um, so Ian was one of the co-owners, yeah, so I'm going to this yoga studio in Arizona and I'm in Shavas and I'm looking up at the skylight and I'm like I have this epiphany. Like gosh, I could open a yoga studio Like. This was the first yoga studio that I went to, that when you went in the door they had an intro packet for first time people. They had clear selling techniques. They were like you can buy this package, this package, this package and this package.
Speaker 2:You know they had a retail area. They had systems in place. Everyone knew what their job was and how to do it and how to be effective. They were very customer service oriented and I was like I could do this. I love yoga. I've been practicing yoga since I was 11. I know how to run a business. I love running business. So I get to do all the things and I get to sell happiness and contentment and joy so now I can use all my selling techniques to make other people's lives better.
Speaker 2:So in that moment I decided to open a yoga studio. But I was afraid, right we're always afraid.
Speaker 2:We're like, oh, I can't take that step. What if I fail? Right, so unknown, right. So 2008 comes along and you're the open a business. Well, I get, I lose my job, oh yeah, like everybody else, and I lose everything. I mean everything. I ended up living in my car. I had a condo on the water in Miami. I was making $170,000 a year working for Luxy Tom. I'm in 2008. Girl, wow, I lose my job. I lose my condo on the water in Miami. I lose everything except for my car, me and my dog, my retired Greyhound. We're living in my car and I decide you know what? I'm going to go back to Las Vegas, because I love Las Vegas. That's where I want to live.
Speaker 2:At that time, the cost of living was really low there. I was living on my money that I'd saved for my retirement. So I moved back to Vegas me, my friend. We rent an apartment. It's like $650 a month for the two of us for a two-bedroom. Never touched that today. So, and I just decide but I can't lose anything else. So I'm gonna open a yoga studio. So I'm, everywhere I go, I'm telling people I want to open a yoga studio, I want to open a yoga studio. I, I'm looking at different places. Everything's just stupid expensive, like $5,000 a month. We can't, you know, couldn't do that. So I didn't have that kind of capital whatsoever. In fact, I had nothing, I had just declared bankruptcy so so I am looking, I'm looking, I'm looking, I buy this like Groupon for waxing, like eyebrow waxing, and who who waxing.
Speaker 2:So I go, I get my who wax, I get my eyebrows wax. I'm telling this lady I'm like I want to open a yoga studio. I want to open a yoga studio. She's like oh my gosh, the in this. It was like in this house that had been converted and all these different businesses were in there. She's like in the back is a yoga studio that we're not using and they're just using it for storage. Maybe the owner would rent it to you. It was like a converted garage. It was like a two car garage had been converted into like a Pilates mat yoga studio. And I was like but they're not using it, right? So I called the owner. She said she's going to rent it to me for $400 a month. Wow, oh my gosh, but I don't have $400. Right?
Speaker 2:So I had been teaching yoga to professional poker players and so, because I'm right, so I'm professional poker. So I said to them I was like you know, how do I, how do I, how do you play poker? These are people that were like million dollar poker players, you know, like people you see on TV and um, so I never played at the stakes that they did. But while in these years after my, in these years after I get laid off, in those years I am playing low limit poker just to pay my rent, right, because we know that driving around all over town you're not making any money. 24 Hour Fitness is paying me $25 a class. You know I'm teaching like classes a week. I got one private. Everybody's always like I'm going to get privates. Nobody does privates for very long, you know. Like not for yoga, pilates, but not for yoga, so anyhow.
Speaker 2:So I'm just, you know, barely scraping by and playing this low limit one, two poker games, you know, at the wind and the MGM, whatever, you know wherever I feel like going and making just a couple hundred dollars here and there to be able to pay my bills, right. So I'm I'm like, okay, how am I going to get together this money to open this yoga studio? Right, I really want to do it. So I'm, I go to the wind to play my like regular poker game and I'm up about $600. And I'm like, okay, I gotta go because I'm up a lot of money, that's a lot of money to me now. That's like, you know, a whole month's worth of bills and I don't want to get that money taken away.
Speaker 2:And if you know anything about poker. Like any money that's on the table, you can lose it all. So I'm like, all right, I'm, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna cash out and go. Well, just as I decide to cash out and go, I get a hand. I play the hand. This always happens. It's always like this I'm playing no limit and it comes out on the flop.
Speaker 2:I have a straight and I'm like, huh, okay, well, I look at the flop. I'm like all these different hand combinations, you know cause I'm really good at math and I'm thinking like, okay, this could beat me, this could beat me, this could nothing could beat me, this could be nothing could beat me. Like, I have the nuts. They call it the nuts when you have the best hand. So statistically, there's nothing at this point that could beat me. Now there are things that could come out that would could beat me, Like the board's not paired and, um, you know, if the board pairs, then a full house, or you know, could beat me Right. Or there there's all these different things that like could come out and beat me. But haven't, right, there's a flush draw, right. So so I I bet right, cause I'm like I'm just going to take this pot down really quickly. I have the nuts, Nobody's going to.
Speaker 2:The guy next to me calls and I'm like, oh shit, so the guy next to me calls the next to me and then they go, then the guy next to him goes all in and then the next guy goes all in on top of him. Now it comes back to me and I'm like, oh my gosh, there's two cards to come. I have $600 in front of me, but I have the nuts. I cannot fold this hand because if I fold it, what kind of poker player am I? You know like I have the winning hand right now, so I'm like, all right, I go all in and it comes through. None of the other hands make it. I end up winning a $5,000 pot. That night I used that money to open my first yoga studio Wow, what a story.
Speaker 2:And then from then on, the yoga studio just supported itself because I never had any loans yeah, I didn't have to pay anybody back, and your rent was my rent was low. It progressively got higher and higher over the years and then I moved to a much larger location and now it's a 6,000 square foot yoga studio on Main Street, like a block away from the Las Vegas Strip. I grew it and grew it and grew it, but I grew it with cash. So every time I would make more money at the studio, I would reinvest that money into the studio to grow it bigger and bigger. I never took out loans. I never borrowed money from other people. I would. I would live lower than my means so that I could build that business. Yeah, and I did that over the years and then finally I sold it for multiple six figures, which nobody ever does that for multiple six figures, which nobody ever does.
Speaker 1:That, and one of the things that stands out to me is you're you're personally so vibrant, but the way that you said this was so clear. Like I get to sell. That is a very different than most people who may be listening to this podcast or a lot of people that I've worked with. Yoga teachers can can often, or studio owners can often think selling gross, I can't do that, I don't want to do that and like. I think this attitude of gratitude of like I get to do this probably fueled your, your business growth. Like I get to have these sales conversations. So what would you say to the person listening? That's like no, I can't sell, I don't like selling, I don't want to sell, I don't want to be salesy.
Speaker 2:There's this great book called um no thanks. I'm just looking by a man named Harry Friedman. He talks about selling and sales that wear. Well, you only want to sell things that people actually want to have. I think that selling is just good customer service. Tell someone that when they sign up for membership, it's the same as them coming to three or four classes a month. So buy a 10 pack and pay more per class, but if you're going to come to any more than four classes a month, you're going to want to have membership. It's the best deal for you. That is just being a good customer service agent and that's being ethical. That's sales. That is sales.
Speaker 2:People think that sales is selling people something that they don't need or they don't want or they don't like so that you can gain. That is not the case at all. That's like coercion. That's right. Selling is telling people. Here's what your options are. Yeah, this is what I know all these options, because this is my area of influence.
Speaker 2:I work in this yoga studio every day. I'm here every day. I'm in this space. You know like when I worked at the limited, I knew all the nooks and crannies. I knew best like different options. I knew that there wereoks and crannies. I knew best like different options. I knew that there were like little pieces that a regular person walking into the store would never find but would go really great with that outfit. And so, like me, selling people, you know, like an awesome necklace that just goes so well with that suit is just good customer service. And every time she puts that suit on and she puts that necklace on, she's going to be like yes, I'm so glad. And don't you want everybody that comes to your yoga studio to be like, oh, my gosh, I'm part of a community, yes, I'm getting a good deal, I'm so glad. Like my trainer, she was like listen, if you buy the 20 pack, you're going to get each class for only $28. Don't you want that?
Speaker 2:And I'm like, yes, I do Like I do I go to my trainer and it's so fun, it's like a community there. And I taught on my birthday. I was feeling really I was feeling away because I was turning 50, you know, and you know, the 30, the 40, the 50, those are big times and I'm turning 50 and I'm just the day the night before I turned 50 and I'm just, you know, I'm in a bad space and I'm kind of I cried before I got there. You know, I just felt really emotional and I get in there and you know she got me working out and my endorphins moving and stuff and I feel really good and I was like let's take a picture and I teach her how to do an acro yoga.
Speaker 2:I have her do bird on my you know, I like, I based her and it was so fun and I put it on there and I felt like really happy and thank God that she sold that to me. And you know how I found her? Oh yeah, I'm scrolling through TikTok. She's made like six or seven posts in her whole life on TikTok.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I'm scrolling through TikTok, I see a video because it geotags tags you for fitness place in Las Vegas and I I decided to go there because of that. So you never know. Like even a little bit is better than nothing. Now, I don't recommend that. I don't recommend only posting like six times. You know, I recommend a very rigorous posting schedule, but what is your posting schedule? Do you mind sharing One to two times a day on Instagram? I do a podcast every week on the yoga Liberty podcast. I do um a YouTube video every week full, full length. I do short five times a week and I do tick everything that I post on Instagram also goes on TikTok and I do tick.
Speaker 1:Everything that I post on Instagram also goes on TikTok. I haven't gone on TikTok yet. Plus, I run ads. Yes, okay, we could talk about ads. We could talk about so much stuff, but I want to ask you this specific question, because this is the reel that I saw of yours on Instagram where you were talking about what Yoga Alliance actually is and the importance of understanding what it is.
Speaker 1:You have a whole entire episode on your podcast about it. We'll link it in the show notes. I forget the title right now, but this is something that trips up so many people within the yoga industry. They think that Yoga Alliance is this governing body that dictates what you can and can't do, or who you can teach or can't teach, and it is not.
Speaker 2:So take it away. I'm going to bring this full circle for us. I'm going to weave this story back in. Yoga Alliance is a great example of bad salesmanship. So they are selling us something that we don't meet need. That has no meaning. Yeah, they do nothing for us. Yeah, they are not aligned with any government agency. They are self-important. They have done a great job of marketing themselves as important as essential, and so people like me I have four schools registered with Yoga Alliance because I understand the concept of marketing and advertising. I understand that if I want people to sign up for my teacher training and make really good money because when I owned a studio I would make about 50,000 every time I ran a training I needed to have that stupid little sticker on there that said yoga alliance approved Yep, but it's if we all got together and talked about it and we were all like we're not going to register with them anymore. You know, it's not even like they're self-important. They're not even run by yoga people anymore.
Speaker 2:The intention originally in the nineties, when they created it, was because yoga was just all over the place and there wasn't any cohesion, and so there was a group of yogis that got together and it was. It started at a yoga journal conference in Colorado, which was, you know, iyengar would go to these all the time and Patricia Walden, and that's where Yoga Journal started, yoga Journal magazine, and so it was originally an a yangar magazine. And then all these people got together at this yoga journal conference. They're like, okay, well, let's make something called yoga alliance. We're all going to voluntarily decide to follow these rules and these standards. But what happened over the years is that the people who founded it walked away, and it was, you know like. Other people have taken over and now it's completely run by business people. Yep, and it has nothing to do with yoga. They don't check up to make sure those standards are followed. Like my teacher trainings exceed, far exceed, the requirements of Yoga Alliance, as they kind of need to like, because their standards are so low, so low people don't understand.
Speaker 2:So they'll hear something like 200 hour yoga teacher training, right? What you have to understand is that literally means 200 hours. It means 75 hours of teaching techniques and practice, 50 hours of professional essential, 25 hours of anatomy, 50 hours of teaching methodology, like it's specific. It's specific parameters that people are supposed to do. That is actually 200 hours of training. So if you're going to an intensive, that's like a week long or two weeks long can that?
Speaker 2:possibly be 200 hours Like think it through friends and yoga Alliance doesn't follow up on anybody to make sure that happens. In fact, I recently had when I did online. I had my new school approved for the online and, um, when I submitted it, they pushed it back and said you put too much business of yoga in here. You have to take some of that out, business of yoga in here.
Speaker 1:You have to take some of that out. So they want to make so sad, I know right, Because if you don't sell you're not going to be able to keep teaching, right? They want them to be ill equipped Like what. I'm sorry, Keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. So I'm not a fan of yoga lines. I've paid them so much money for nothing, but the thing that really got me, the thing that really made me angry, was during everything in 2020.
Speaker 2:And no matter like what you believe, or what you think or what side you're on, yoga Alliance should not be taking a side. Yoga Alliance should not be taking a side on political issues. They are not a political organization. There are people in their constituency, people who pay for memberships from them, who think all different ways, and some of the things that they were saying were very much against the eight limbs of yoga. They were very much against, like Ahimsa. They were very much against Ishvara Pranahana, like they were very much against what the Yamas and the Niyamas are, and that made me really angry.
Speaker 2:And I've tried to be involved with Yoga Alliance over the years. You know I'll message them and be like listen, I have the biggest yoga teacher training in the Southwest area of the United States. People travel from all over the world to come and train with me. You know, and I would really like to be a part of these elevated standards that you're creating right Brickets nothing, not even a response. You know so. They don't care about what we want. They don't care about our real life experience, they just want the dollars. If you look at the money that they're pulling in, it's ridiculous, and their CEO is a business person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I recently spent time like looking at cause you can see on their website who was on their exec team and or their board, and I was just reading their bios and like I think everyone should research that before you decide to be on their directory, which is what you're paying for is to be on their directory, and if you want to pay for that, fine. I just want you to understand that that's what you're paying for and not be tricked into thinking that you're paying this governing body because you have to. And as someone someone who I mean we hired so many teachers in three studios and I never once said let me check to see if you're on yoga Alliance. I did take people's certifications and make sure they had a certification. I did not ever look, but I have some clients who want to run teacher trainings and they're saying I can't. I can't do it until yoga Alliance tells me that it's approved by yoga Alliance because my students will care.
Speaker 2:And their worries are legitimate though. Yeah, it does make sense because their students will care, because yoga Alliance has done a great job of advertising of marketing.
Speaker 2:People think that they're getting certified through yoga Alliance. You'll hear people say I got certified through the yoga alliance, like one of the top. I research when you're, when you're making content, you always want to research what other people are making and so, whatever your niche is like if it's busy moms and yoga, or if it's prenatal yoga, or if it's, you know, yoga and veganism or whatever it is that your mind is yoga teacher training right. So, whatever it is that you're, you want to research. What are the top videos in your area? What are people making? One of the top videos on TikTok she starts with so you want to become a yoga teacher?
Speaker 2:Well, you got to register with the yoga Alliance because you got to get certified with the yoga Alliance. You're not certified by yoga Alliance. You're certified by individual teachers who have joined an organization called yoga Alliance that has set together some parameters to say this is what the trainings are supposed to be, this is what the trainings are going to be, but they're not certifying you. They're not certifying you. The person running the training is certifying you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's the difference between an RYT and a CYT, like it's just the letters in front of the numbers that you have Certified yoga teacher.
Speaker 2:registered yoga teacher.
Speaker 1:Right and what I think about. I love your marketing and sales brain. Like if you are someone who has no idea of what yoga alliance is and you want to become a yoga teacher, you don't understand 200, 300, 500, a thousand, Like that is something that you're taught as you start to look into the process. So my perspective is like if we just change the way that we are talking about teacher training as an industry, which is a big shift, but it happens gradually to be like here's how you become a yoga teacher. Here's how you advance as a yoga teacher.
Speaker 1:Go into your studies of whatever you want to do, it almost would do better in marketing than have to like translate what these hours mean to people who don't know what that is Like. When you want to become a hairstylist, you go to cosmetology school. I don't know how many hours it is, because they don't market it like that. Why is it necessary? It's the certification at the end of the day. That's what you're after. It's just a very I don't want to say unspoken conversation, because it is spoken, but I just think people are easily miseducated around what it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally agree, and I think you know, like the hours set forth were done on purpose so that the trainings would reach a certain number of hours Right, so that they would. So that there would be some kind of standardization, so there'd be some kind of commitmentization, so there'd be some kind of commitment to excellence. But that's not what happened. And now people all over the world are registered with Yoga Alliance. You know, I started doing online yoga teacher training and I know that a lot of people got their certification through Yoga Renew. So I don't mean any disrespect, but it's it's not that training does not really meet the yoga Alliance requirements. Yeah, and I have a lot of problems with go at your own pace, because less than 5% of people finish go at your own pace courses. So it's a waste of time and money, right. But also, when I started doing online yoga teacher training, I purchased other yoga teacher trainings that were online because I wanted to see what other people were doing, and that was one of the ones that I purchased. And it's very confusing. When you get into their platform, it's hard to understand their final practicum. You email them a sequence and it can be one of the sequences that they've already. You never get actual experience teaching in my trainings sequence, and it can be one of the sequences that they've already. So you just type about. You never get actual experience teaching in my trainings. In my trainings, every single week you have to submit a practicum video of you teaching someone else. Yeah, like in my in-person first weekend, first weekend, we're teaching namaskar a to the rest of the class. Yes, they have to do two final practicums teaching to the public with multiple people, in my in-person, in the same with my online, and one is 30 minutes and one is an hour and 15 minutes, because when people get out of teacher training, if they have not actually taught yoga, the chances that they're going to are very, very low. Yep, and yoga alliance standards are actually pretty low. You only have to have 10 hours of practicum teaching, which most people don't even follow, and I think in the elevated standards they've like taken that out and merged it with something else. So now I hope so, I but they. But now it's like nobody even does it at all, and I've heard of these trainings that don't even have the yoga sutras. Now I'm about to tell you something that's going to blow your mind. I recently found this out and I had always suspected. So if you look back at ancient texts, if you look back at the Vedas, you look back at the Bhagavad Gita, you look back at the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, you look back at the yoga sutras, the mention of asana is only mentioned in the hatha yoga pradipika. It's mentioned 15 different asanas, 15 asanas which are meant to help you to, um, get the body in a state for meditation. Okay, but no other yoga poses are mentioned in any ancient text ever. They're not mentioned at all.
Speaker 2:Into the early 1900s, when a man named Krishnamacharya starts teaching yoga asana, and he's doing it to make money from the people, the Europeans, that are occupying India, right? Well, I recently found out. So this is like the birth of modern asying India, right? Well, I recently found out. So this is like the birth of modern asana practice, right? We recently found out that this actually comes from something called dynamic gymnastics, by a man named Neil Buick, who is Dutch, and he was influenced by Adolf Hitler's Aryan race and created this dynamic gymnastics, which are. And then Krishnamacharya got a hold of that book from the 1880s and used that book to create what we call modern yoga, and that is where the Ashtanga primary series comes from because it was called primary gymnastics and dynamic gymnastics.
Speaker 2:So what we are doing as yoga asana and you can Google this, you can look it up it's in the November 2010 issue of yoga journal. I still have, like all the old yoga journals because I had a subscription for years you can look it up yourself If you don't believe me. What we are doing is not cultural appropriation whatsoever. When we're doing the poses, we're actually doing a European gymnastics. That's what all our poses are that we're doing, except 15 that were in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. What yoga is is the yoga sutras, is the Bhagavad Gita, is the Vedas, and so when we pull these things out of our teacher trainings, when we aren't even teaching the yoga sutras anymore now, that's when we're stepping into the areas of cultural appropriation. So the postures aren't even really yoga.
Speaker 1:Are there trainings out there that pull them out? Oh yes, so I have not done the deep dive into trains. That's my expertise.
Speaker 2:That's my area. I've been doing teacher training.
Speaker 1:So they just pull it out, they just don't teach it.
Speaker 2:They just don't even teach it, it's just poses, it's just asana, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're listening and that's you, we want to help you learn everything else that you need to know. And this is something where my clients will come to me. They, they teach the ASA and I one of the biggest things I tell them is like you have so much more to offer that you haven't touched yet. When you lean into teaching the other side of yoga and they think I need to get a coach certification or I need to like have some other degree, that tells me that I can teach that side of it and I'm like you know you paid your yoga teacher, like you paid to be able to teach not just the asana, but if it's not taught, then there's no way they possibly could, unless it was self-study, that's most of the people who come to my training for my 300 hour not in my 200, my 200 is very comprehensive, but most of the people who come to my 300 hour online um, cause I don't, I rarely teach in person anymore.
Speaker 2:Most people coming to my 300 don't know the yoga sutras and they take a deep dive into that. They don't understand anatomy and they take a deep dive into that in my 300, 300, set up differently than most people's, but dive into that in my 300. 300 set up differently than most people's, but, um, we do like really intensive, deep time. I consider it kind of like a master's in yoga. So you're getting like your 200 and then you get your 300. It's like a deep dive into yoga and you really, because I've made well over a million dollars teaching yoga. That's super rare. Even some of the top level teachers have never done that. The reason why is because I'm so diverse. I know as much as I can. I know how to teach different modalities. I know the history of yoga. I know where it came from, I understand, I teach in Sanskrit. I understand the philosophy of yoga. I the yoga sutras are like burned in my brain. You know, like like some people are with the Bible and I would also say the reason why is you're a great marketer.
Speaker 1:I just looked at your funnel of like how I sign up for your teacher training and I was like, oh, she knows what she's doing.
Speaker 2:No, I do. It's true. I sell people sales that were well, I've never, ever, ever, ever had anyone sign up for my online teacher training 200 or 300 and say, oh, I wish I hadn't done that. Every single person is like I absolutely loved that. Now my training is vastly more expensive than yoga renew, but it's an investment in yourself. It's not I'm not giving you the bottom barrel.
Speaker 2:I'm giving you the top echelon, the premier package, so that I know that 10 years from now, you're going to still be able to teach. Yep, you're going to actually get what we call an ROI return on your investment. So you can pay $380 this weekend only Labor Day special and never, ever teach a class, because that's the majority of people that graduate from those cheap trainings. That's what happens to them. Yeah, less than 5% of people graduate from online trainings of any kind, and you see how many people are coming into those trainings, but you don't see a large number graduating. When you graduate from a training like mine, you're going to have confidence. You're going to have confidence.
Speaker 2:You're going to be able to stand in front of people because you've already done it, yeah, and you become a part of a group of people who are actually interested in moving yoga forward as a conduit through which we find happiness, not just as a selfish, self-centered career, but as something that we're doing in service to the world to make it a better place.
Speaker 1:So good, okay, we could keep chatting for so long about so many things, I'm sure, but the episode is getting long, so let's, why don't you share where people can find you, how they can connect with you and anything else you want to tell them?
Speaker 2:they can connect with you and anything else you want to tell them. Yeah, so I host what's called the Yoga Liberty podcast, which you're going to be a guest on, so I'm super excited to have you tuned and everything that I do is Yoga Liberty.
Speaker 2:So I'm on YouTube, I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, I have a podcast, it's all Yoga Liberty. My website is angelicagovercom and I host a 200 hour and a premium 300 hour course that I'm merging with another course that I call the empowered yoga teacher, and so my 300 hour course. I had been teaching people how to build an online business, but not as in depth as what my empowered yoga teacher course is, and so this year I'm actually merging those two courses the empowered yoga teacher course and the 300 hour to create one amazing course that will teach you not just how to get your 300 hour training, but how to build an online business. And I've had people who have gone through this, who, during their training, were monetized on YouTube, who had have made over $20,000 before they even graduated from their training. So I'm teaching people how to do what I'm doing, and because I'm old, I don't care. I don't care. You know, I don't need to keep this all to myself. I would rather that everyone who works for me be super successful, because when the people who work with me are successful, then they can do more things with me. They can come to my retreats. We can hang out together, they can live their dream, they can have freedom to teach wherever they want.
Speaker 2:One of the things that people always tell me is they want to be like Boho beautiful. They want to live that Boho beautiful life on YouTube, and that's what I teach them how to do, how to create a business that they can have complete freedom and live wherever they want and live the lifestyle that they want. Now I want to say one caveat to that, though, is that the thing that I think people lie to you about all the time that's that's this is salesmanship, and bad marketing is people say it's easy, it's done for you, it's there's. No, you don't have to do any work at all. That is BS. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take a few years to build to where I'm at. Yeah, it's going to take a lot of work, it's not so glad you're saying that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. I don't believe in that, that marketing techniques. That's like just lying to people Like I don't need your money, Like I, I'm happy to take it and pay my bills with it, Cause my landlord does not take avocados. But I don't want people to buy things from me If they're not going to really enjoy them, if they're not going to really use them, if they're not going to really push the needle in their life and find happiness and help other people.
Speaker 2:Because the higher vibration you know everything is vibration, right, Vibration is the highest energy. The highest vibration is to send people out with skills and tools that will actually help them to vibrate higher with other people who then elevate as well. And that's what yoga truly is. Yoga isn't these poses that we're doing, that's gymnastics. Yoga is the highest form of vibration and sharing that with the world and vibrating at a level so high that everyone else vibrates with you. The yoga sutra says that no bad can come to you if you're vibrating at that higher level, because it's just repelled from you.
Speaker 2:And that is where I want to bring everyone that works for, works with me and work for me. You know, I want everyone to have a really good life and a really good experience in my trainings, and that's why we do it all private. We do everything one on one. We do have some group classes that people can go to when they need a little bit of help and we have a community. Of course everybody has that, but but we work with people one-on-one to really help them live their dream. And that's my personal motto live your dream. It's actually engraved on the side of my glasses.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. Beautiful, that's so beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and we will link everything that she just mentioned in the show notes so you can check it out and I will.