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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
How Did This Engineer Get Into Teaching Yoga?
So many people ask me how I got into teaching yoga, and started my own company making yoga DVD's. As a Civil Engineer with an MBA in International Management, this path often looks like light years away. Actually, the skills I use today are exactly the same skills I have used throughout my career, whereby I have taken basic project management from construction, to financial services, and now to yoga.
Where is the engineering and the MBA in yoga, you ask? Well, there is one common theme in my corporate experience, and that is project management. After undergrad days, I worked for a large building contractor, Clark Construction. With them, I renovated an Omni Hotel in Washington D.C., and built four buildings and a parking garage for the State of California in Sacramento. I learned to create project schedules, agendas, meeting minutes, and all the day-to-day details needed to deliver a project at the right time, at the right place, for the right people.
After a few years, I decided it was time to take my career to the next level, and go to business school. I got accepted to The Thunderbird School of International Management, and was off to the campus in Geneva for a summer, and then to the main campus in Phoenix for the remaining nine months. I finished on an accelerated schedule, and was then recruited by Citigroup for their management training program back in my "hometown" of New York City.
Again, it was my project management skills that got me the job, and kept me there managing a broad scope of international projects. After Citigroup, Credit Suisse became my long-term consulting client. I also did some work at Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank before being transferred out west to lead their financial services practice for a boutique consulting firm, and where my clients then became Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo.
As for yoga, the story started for me at age 6, attending my Dad's yoga classes on Saturday mornings in the suburbs of Manhattan. He was a corporate type, but liked his stretching, and often I would tag along for a few downward dogs and maybe a Sivasana or two. The yoga always stayed with me, and as I became an adult, I would often practice intensely for a few months, and then put it aside for other sports, such as swimming, diving, tennis, skiing, and even water ballet.
I enjoyed a full career in engineering and business, and when the consulting firm that I was with in 2005 transferred me from Wall Street out to the west coast, I was overjoyed to have so many amazing yoga studios at my doorstep. I started practicing once a day, then twice a day, and before I knew it, I never wanted to leave the yoga studio. I started to think that if wasn't consulting, then what would I be doing? At the same time, the projects in software just weren't as challenging or exciting as I had seen back east, and I wondered if my path was leading me somewhere else. I was never tired or frustrated with consulting, but I just wondered if perhaps I was destined to do something else. It was with these thoughts that I decided to get my certification to teach yoga for kids with Shana Meyerson at Mini Yogis. I taught on her team for about a year, seeing it do well with both the kids and the parents alike. I then decided to get my certification to teach adults with my favorite rockstar, Steve Ross at Maha Yoga. It was no coincidence that I had moved in just half a block from Maha, since it became the only consistent place that I was going besides the LA airport. I currently treasure not having to get into the car after a sweaty practice, and my new commute time of two minutes to work on foot is absolutely amazing.
As mentioned, I soon saw that I wanted to bring my project management skills and business degree to the yoga industry. I saw an opportunity for a product that would enable families to do something productive and fun at the same time. With all the DVD's that kids watch today, why not watch something that helps their body, mind, and spirit? Plus, the parents can get something out of it too. When we do yoga together, we are able to communicate easier and support each other towards goals that we treasure the most.
These days I bring together film crews, directors, and editors instead of engineers, architects, or contractors. It's the same idea, and I still enjoy bringing people together for a common goal. People often ask if I miss anything from the corporate world. As a yogi, I feel that I was placed in the corporate world for a certain amount of time and purpose. Now, I enjoy being able to run my own business, and it is what suits the stage of my life today. I loved those days filled with fellow "enginerds" while muddling through project agendas, and I wouldn't trade those days for anything. Today I love seeing my fellow yogis in the studio, and feel blessed to fill my day with physical exercise and more holistic energy. It is with these thoughts that I thank you for reading my story, and may you too find something that makes you passionate and happy everyday.
Recently, I had an article written about my "past life" on Wall Street, during my tenure in New York as the Thunderbird Alumni President. You might find it interesting! http://www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/publications/eThunder/2008/OctNov/eT1008-story2.html?cs=M0001D0007V0070&cd=ethun_Nov08
Posted by Ingrid on 11/11 at 10:15 AM
(1) Comments •
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