)-2.png)
salty bake club
This isn’t your average lifestyle podcast—it’s the kind that sneaks in like a midnight craving and lingers like the scent of warm cookies.
We dive headfirst into the deliciously messy parts of being human, unwrapping the sticky shadows with sharp honesty and a wink of mischief.
Think deep talk, humor, and just the right amount of indulgence. Who said your dark side can’t be sweet and creamy?
Wanna share you personal struggles, or ideas with me? Text me and mix your own story into our raw and unfinished podcast batter! Can't wait to hear from you on Instagram.
Follow along on IG: @saltybakeclub
salty bake club
Cake, Clarity & Chaos: Conversations Between Co-Founders
When a former Red Bull executive and a lifelong yoga practitioner join forces, the result is nothing short of magical. This intimate conversation between Katharina and Sarah reveals the extraordinary journey behind Trees and Stories, their yoga teacher training school that has transformed over 100 lives in just six years.
The chemistry between these two teachers is immediately apparent as Sara welcomes Katharina with a specially crafted dark chocolate apricot pistachio cake—a sweet symbol of Katharina's depth and rich personality. As they reminisce about their first meeting and subsequent partnership, we witness how seemingly random connections can become life-changing collaborations.
What truly sets their approach apart is their commitment to authenticity. Unlike the standardized, PowerPoint-driven teacher trainings that dominate the industry, Katharina and Sarah take their students outdoors to connect with nature and ancient wisdom. "We are not ordinary people," Katharina explains. "If you're looking for the ordinary, we might not be your choice—and that's absolutely okay."
Katharina's journey from corporate powerhouse to yoga studio owner offers a compelling narrative about following your heart despite the risks. Her experience managing major brands like Red Bull and Coca-Cola gave her the organizational framework to handle the unglamorous aspects of running a yoga business—from bookkeeping to buying toilet paper—while maintaining her teaching passion.
The conversation takes a profound turn when they discuss how yoga helped Katharina recognize her body's stress signals before reaching burnout. This lived experience now informs her somatic yoga teaching: "I truly believe that I can teach somatic yoga because I've been through that."
Perhaps most striking is the synchronicity of their partnership—evidenced by the remarkable discovery that Sara's new home is the very farmhouse where Katharina spent her childhood with her horse. These meaningful coincidences only strengthen their belief that their connection transcends ordinary business partnerships.
Ready to experience their unique approach to yoga teacher training? Discover why their students describe feeling part of something special—a true sangha where differences are celebrated within a unified spirit.
Check out what we built together:
Katharina welcome to. Salty Bake Club. Thank you for having me. I'm so freaking glad that we are here sitting down together, side by side, because so many of our conversations are online and I really am extremely grateful that we're getting to do this and just having a little bit of a chat for us, yeah, and also for our community to get to know us and our dynamic a little better. So really thank you for sitting down with me here so my salty bake club idea tradition, what I want to do exactly it's amazing is that I'm.
Speaker 1:I always want to portray or embody the person who talks to me in a pastry.
Speaker 2:It looks delicious, thank you.
Speaker 1:How did I think of that?
Speaker 1:My first idea was to start off with a very classic apricot cake, like we had the one from your mom, Because I was like like, okay, you are so elegant, you're so classy, but then I felt I was like it's too basic, white girl, like that's not. You like, you have richness, you have depth, you have so many, so many flavors, so many layers. So I was like, okay, let's make that, let's make that into something special. So you're having a dark chocolate apricot cake with some pistachio notes it smells fantastic.
Speaker 2:Shall we try it? Oh yes, all right. All right, can everybody see it, because it's so beautiful I absolutely shooted the cake, yes thank you so much, so you, you invented the recipe.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh wow well, I have some standard recipes that I just, you know, like change a little bit, and it's it somehow looks also kind of mysterious, fits to my scorpio. Oh, it does, it, does I was thinking about your scorpio placement from australia. Wait, what? What other? What other? Um star signs do you have?
Speaker 2:I have scorpio, that's my main sign. And then I have um pestles the fish, oh yes, so that's my sensitive side, but both in the water.
Speaker 1:Is that the moon? Or is that the rising?
Speaker 2:that's the rising. The rising is the right. Do you know?
Speaker 1:what your moon is I don't know.
Speaker 2:I should look it up, but everything, can I Google it now?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I always tend to forget. I don't know how you can forget, but I'm not like. I have to admit, I'm not good at remembering numbers. I don't know what it is, You're not. I'm good with numbers, but I don't remember them.
Speaker 1:That but I don't remember them. That's interesting. That's so interesting I wouldn't have thought I don't know, taurus, oh, that works so well. Yeah, tell me about it. I was going to say before, I was going to say it's got to be some Earth sign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, okay.
Speaker 1:Taurus is the like, the deliciousness of life.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, now we talk. Yes, taurus is, is it Steinbock? In German it is Stier, stier. Lini is Stier, my son, katharina's son is a Taurus. In Rising, he's a Rising Taurus. Okay, scorpio, rising Taurus. This is delicious. I'm glad it is bittersweet. Oh yes, I'm glad you like it, I love it.
Speaker 1:We have been thrown together by life. Yeah, over six years ago.
Speaker 2:No, we probably met like seven years ago, I would assume yeah, but when I founded yoga village, yes, you were writing me an email I will never forget, all the way from bali and I was like, hey, you have that studio, can I teach? And I was like, and you were so professional, you were sending me like your whole cv and everything I would never, forget, I will never forget.
Speaker 1:And then we started with the studio and you did your moonies, your moon workshops and yeah, yeah, by that time I was still living in bal, bali, and I was planning to visit in Austria because it was my uncle's birthday, no, his wedding, I believe. I was like, why not just text that cool new studio that opened? And I remember that you came to that first workshop that I did, yeah, and you pulled a card and I don't remember what card it was, but I remember us having a connection moment like a look.
Speaker 2:And we're like something is coming from that. Oh, we shouldn't Damn it.
Speaker 1:we don't know what card it was, I have no idea. Do you have the card set still?
Speaker 2:I think I do Probably. I can recognize.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's check that out once. Oh, my God, oh, I will be curious yeah, and well, in the years, in the year after that, we created trees and stories. Oh, yeah, we did, which is our baby.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no sure baby. What a crazy good idea we had back then.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, oh, wow. So we did that yoga school that now had oh my god, we've been running yoga teacher trainings for almost six years, six years that's.
Speaker 2:That's an incredible number. And you know what? The other day I've been counting how many trainings we did. It's like 200 hours, it's over 14. Oh my god, like, just do the math.
Speaker 1:Just like 200 if, if, yeah, you know two handful of people are in every training. How many lives we've touched? Over 100.
Speaker 1:And I do believe, like I genuinely believe, that every decision you make changes your life like it changes the course of your life, kind of like the butterfly effect, and of course some do it more and some decisions are more minor. But I believe wholeheartedly that with what we do we have such an impact and I've been blessed to see the effects of it in people's lives and in their responses also to the ytt. So that once again makes me even more grateful and happy that we're sitting down together, because we've created such a cool thing and I'm awed over and over again realizing that yeah this is what you say.
Speaker 2:It's like you're changing lives and there is, on the one side of responsibility, you have, yes, the people booking signing up for training. Um, they trust in us, yeah, and we have to fulfill that trust, yeah, and give back to them, yeah, yeah, they spend money and time and um the responsibility we have for them and um, not only like a lot of what for themselves, but they will be teachers, so also what they will be giving to the world. So I think, um, doing a yoga teacher training is a huge responsibility and I'm so glad and humbled that we do it together, having you and also jeff on our team, and it's, it's amazing, the group of people which just has formed, so so naturally, and it has come together like this, yeah, and if it's like this, it's meant to be, and um, so everyone who joins our ytt, I think it's it's meant to be that he or she, um, yeah, signs up for a great change in her or his life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with us Truly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's meant to be all these constellations of people that we are in exactly those people's lives. It's meant to be Absolutely and we just had a talk two days ago where we said we have quite extraordinary personalities. Like we don't attract people who are, you know, satisfied with the dull, modern 9 to 5 life. Like we attract people who crave for more, who have a longing.
Speaker 1:Like cakes like this. Exactly, love cakes like this. Thank you that you didn't do the standard version. So promo if you come to yytd, I might bake. I might bake. It's delicious. So, in your opinion, what makes us stand out as a school?
Speaker 2:I think, is, um, who we are as people. Yeah, um, we are not ordinary people. So, um, if you're not looking for the ordinary, if you're looking for the ordinary, we might not be your choice, and that's okay as well. That's absolutely, absolutely. And when everybody, when someone um reaches out to book a ytt, I'm for those who don't know I'm like the first person you get in contact with um and then later on with sarah on the ytt's, and I always say um, we have so many classes of you online yeah look at them yes, most
Speaker 2:of all, like I like I have not never like, no one told me, oh, I, I didn't like her, but I say have a look. Yeah, yeah, I hope you like her. They love you. Yeah, but if you don't, that's okay. Yes, and what is it about us?
Speaker 2:I think the way you teach and the way we are as a group of teachers, it's, on the one hand side from the personality, in terms of teaching, we are very, I'm proud to say, experienced. Yeah, so we live yoga. It's not something we've just learned because it's a trend, and we've just been teaching for a couple of years. I mean, you spent your life doing yoga, yeah, and jeff and myself as well, yeah. So we, you are, um, we are special because we really live yoga, and not just since yesterday, but since a very long time. And I think it's also the commitment. What you get from a training with us is that a, we have the commitment, because it's not that we just did a couple of trainings and that's it. We have a number of trainings with it on ourselves but also the commitment.
Speaker 2:When you sign up, you are part of this wonderful sangha, our community, and it's this, also this, this giving back to a community. Being part of a community is great, but also it's a giving and a taking. Give and take, as everywhere in life. So, um, as a community, we we help each other. Yeah, we live together. We live this um yoga, um vision together and this makes us very strong and not the ordinary people. Why is it? Because I always say, if someone also signs up is okay. Think of a classic training where you have like a seminar room, a hotel seminar room with you know this Spannenteppich. I should know the word in English, because in the US it's everywhere. What is the word in English? Come on, you know what I mean. So do you know it? I do. I have no idea what the word in English is. So a carpet, the carpet, the classical carpet, and PowerPoint.
Speaker 1:Think of that like very middle standard, standard hotel room carpet or even a seminar room.
Speaker 2:Yes, but you have the beamer and you're looking at the PowerPoint presentation. If you think this is your YTT, that's totally fine, but it's not ours. No, If you think of our YTT and you have to be brave you have to be curious. Yeah, that's a prerequisite. Yes, we go outside.
Speaker 1:We love to go outside.
Speaker 2:We love butterflies and bugs and we love to practice yoga in nature, in the wilderness. We don't mind if there's one little sprinkle from some rain. Normally we don't mind if there is one little sprinkle from some rain. Normally we're blessed with sunshine. But we love to take our trainings outside Also to experience Mother Earth and the connection, the grounding here is my towels so the grounding and the richness, what Mother Earth has to offer, and also believe in this, um, modern, westernized world.
Speaker 2:Although the yoga part, again, here's responsibility. What we teach is what we can we learn from nature, because and for mother earth and all the old wisdom, what is there and what we've just forgot, just to listen to and this is also a lot I teach in my somatic yoga classes is and I know you with all your female cycle, knowledge and wisdom you have, and all the rituals we do so it's a rich training which um takes all this is what we call it element yoga, so all the elements from from mother earth, and combine it with this old wisdom and brings it, brings it into today so to make it translated for today, and I think this makes our trainings, like this cake, so rich and so special, but um, also very profound.
Speaker 2:And I think this is the importance, because I know there's so many yoga teacher trainings out there right now.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, how do you find the right one, how do you find it and how do you know our training is your training? Yes, and I think it's very important to look at the teachers and what they have also in their lineage. So where are they coming from, where have they been learning and studying and practicing and what do they stand for? And there again, we share, thanks to you, I follow your advice. A very similar story with Janet Stone from San Francisco san francisco, the us, both of our teachers, yes, and um yeah, what makes janet stone for you?
Speaker 1:so special well, she is lived devotion and what I like I've where she is unmatched is that she is both so fierce in her path, in her dedication to yoga, and also so humble, like the polarity of these two things, like she's this modern, cool woman, but she is so, so humble, like she has a rooted big background of the practice and she's not out there, you know, like showing up, showing off and that's exactly it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exact, and I think today it's so easy to get into this trap oh god, yeah, yeah, because there's so many out there.
Speaker 2:I don't blame them doing that, but I think the where all that? You, in my point of view, when running a yoga teacher training, you have to be very careful, because it gets so random that you are as janet stone, as and there you can see our roots, where we are coming from. Stay humbled. But truth to this old wisdom, exactly, not only teach it, but live it, and not since a couple of years. That's not enough. I'm sorry to say you gotta live it, you gotta integrate it.
Speaker 1:It's tapas it's again and again. Yeah, I agree so much and I love what you said about the like. What really stands out for me as well in our teacher trainings, is the fact that we're having found such a beautiful center between giving those teachings in an unfiltered way, like not covered by sparkles and all the shiny stuff, like really down to the ground, and yet we are living spirituality, but not the woohoo world dancing around in white clothes. Spirituality, the grounded one, the back on this earth, like really connected to this earth, having the ritual of earth spirituality, and I think that's a. That's a that's a thin line that I don't see out there very often.
Speaker 2:So I'm very happy that we're doing that absolutely, and I think, sorry, you want to say, no, I was just gonna continue the next question, but yeah I have so much to keep it. Keep it pouring. I love that. Um, I think our teacher trainings are so rich, so there's so much to say. And I think, when you say connected to earth, I think in this fast, pious world, it's so important, and I would even say it's key, to keep connection to mother earth and stay grounded because otherwise you've gone, and this is where my somatic yoga piece comes in again.
Speaker 2:it's you get into all the things where you don't want to go with stress and be like lightheaded, having, in the worst case, a burnout. So we need that grounding and I think also a teacher training, and there comes in the responsibility is it's work. Oh yeah, it's work, it's dedication, it's discipline, of course it's fun, but it not fun, fun yeah because I do something else.
Speaker 2:yeah, if I want to do this, um, it's, it's serious because it's a serious journey. Also and I think this is a beautiful aspect, aspect I want to add on because I think we haven't touched it yet is, um being brave enough, finding out more about yourself?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so, who you are, what your superpower is, and be there. And there we again with the cake, this cake. She was brave to do a cake like this, because it's not standard Love that Love you To find out more who you are. Because only if you truly understand who you are, where your strengths strengths, but also your weaknesses are and it's brave to talk about your weaknesses and probably if you have had a yin yoga class with tears in your eyes, you know what I'm talking about you need to be in balance with yourself, with your true self only and if you understand this, you can be a beautiful teacher, and a teacher who stands on the place where he or she should be, as a teacher, speaking up for herself, but also guiding people on their way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think this is trees and stars, mic drop, mic drop. Seriously, yeah, but having done that for such a long time, now together, which is so beautiful. What is your favorite and your least favorite part of that work? Work?
Speaker 2:that's a tough question because, um, one of my mantras, or my my postcards stickers on the wall, is love what you do. Yes, because I truly believe only when you love what you do, you're good at it, and I'm grateful, very grateful, that I have the choice to do what I love to do.
Speaker 2:This is also not a given. Yeah, absolutely, this is not a given. So I'm so thankful up there, thank you, that we are able to do what we love. So I love a lot of things. Yes, I love meeting new trainees. Yeah, I think I'm always curious, yeah, who will come to our trainings? And as I'm the first person to get and I'm on the phone with like almost everyone.
Speaker 2:So I know every one of you I truly do and I remember the names. I'm not bad with names, I'm just bad with numbers. So I know those people and I'm so, so curious to learn more about the people and how we can help those people and how can we make them part of our story yeah, and how we can individualize the experience, yes I also always say speak up for what you need, because we teach in like small groups and I think there's such a beauty in small groups so that we connect.
Speaker 2:And I get so many questions and I give it to you and I always say ask, we have the luxury of making our trainings. Sorry, I have to talk again after trainings.
Speaker 1:Because I love our trainings.
Speaker 2:I love them so much. I love them so much and I think it's so great, because our groups are small and individual, that we can target, like every YTT is different, because we aim at what our trainees, you, want from us. So, um, this is what I truly love. Um, and building that sangha, even um, many of you, I think, know I'm living in the US right now, not in Austria, so, from a way to see and feel that sangha, and moments like we just had our yoga teacher training festival, our trees and stories festival, five years festival, like that was so brilliant.
Speaker 1:It was beyond brilliant.
Speaker 2:It was outstanding and for me meeting so many people I haven't met yet, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Only been in touch with them over the phone or like um, yeah, video calls, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:But it felt like and the two trainees said the same that we know each, we know each other. And one, trini, said to me oh, I felt your spirit it's always there oh, it is, and I was. That gave me goosebumps. You know what I mean. And these are these moments, with all of our trinis, what I think are the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I also love what one of our students said in the closing circle, that it was so wonderful to see our dynamics to see you and I next to each other because you do the whole, you know the whole first contact right.
Speaker 1:You get to know them so well in that process of deciding if our YTT is their YTT, and that is a very personal process, and then I'm with them over the whole course of the YTT is their YTT, and that is a very personal process, and then I'm with them over the whole course of the YTT. But it's so special that we got to show up for them together. Yeah, next to each other. Yeah, that was beautiful Okay. So what is your least favorite part of it?
Speaker 2:Of course. I mean what I do for the YTT is the. The first contact is. It's one part, yeah, so, um, I do also a lot of training myself, but the least there is a lot and I think it's always when you're self-employed.
Speaker 2:There is so much work what you don't see, but what is there? Yeah, it starts with the bookkeeping, it goes with I just purchased a bunch of toilet paper for the next ytt. Yeah, it just needs to be done. Is purchasing toilet paper what I would call my least or favorite, I don't know, but it's definitely not my favorite job, but it needs to be done. Or I'm checking our um fire, like our equipment, in case we will not have a fire, but in case everything needs to be in place. Yeah, so there's so many.
Speaker 2:I think it's the little little, so many little little admin tasks, especially when you are self-employed and have it like you own a studio yes, a yoga teacher studio, and like the training facility. So it's it's a lot you have to think of. And it's like the unseen things, um, which like add up and that's sometimes a lot and um, yeah, but it is what it is, I'm not complaining, but um, yeah, the small tasks which just need to be done but I will say that these, like there is a multitude of these tiny tasks that no one will ever see you think that they exist.
Speaker 1:Yes, Toilet paper is quite obvious. Toilet paper is quite obvious. Luckily we have that. But also just yesterday you put some fire exit stickers on the wall. There is so much time and energy that goes into these little tasks. Much time and energy that goes into these little tasks, and I will say that I cherish you for that immensely, because I have seen so many people fail in a business because they're simply overwhelmed. It is If you can't manage it.
Speaker 2:It's overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Yes by those little things and you have such a thrive that that always looks easy.
Speaker 2:I know it's not always easy, obviously, but like it's exactly those things like keeping the wheel running, yeah it's a huge task and it's not only and thank you for the stickers, yeah, but also like, especially also um organisatory, admin tasks. But I can tell, like living in the us versus running I also do run a business in the us versus in austria. Yeah, I love running businesses in austria, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:But the paperwork like for, for example, we're renting out our yugaloft, yeah, for little money to our students to make it affordable for them, yeah, but all the paperwork with um taxes and registration and and I think the crucial thing is that so often, when somebody like you or I come with a grand idea and realize it and make it happen, what happens is that, because of those tiny little things that add up to such a huge pile like the passion that you have for the original thing goes away. The fire. Right, it's hard or it's not hard, but it's challenging at times to keep it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, um, what helps me? Of course, of course it's a personality thing. Yeah, I, I, I, I can handle that. But I think also and this goes back to what I've been saying before um, I've learned it. I've studied international business with um marketing, um focus in vienna. I've been working I'm getting over 20 years in the fast-moving consumer good industry of 15 years wait, let me, let me hold that.
Speaker 1:I hold that, hold that thought. I I want to. Just I know I take that for granted because you know it's all on online and on linkedin, but for the people who don't know you, let me just take a moment and introduce that mastermind that is sitting across from me, that to answer your question, because that has helped me to cope with all the others. Yes, yes, yes but what I was gonna say is that you, you studied, you had immense degrees, like amazing degrees and amazing corporate um job background.
Speaker 1:You were head of advertising for red bull, like, just take a moment, take a moment, everybody and take that in and you've worked for a lot of really amazing brands and now you're sitting here by choice because you have decided to create that yoga studio that you opened and then we, we created that yoga school together and it's. It's such a I think it's such an admirable and brave way that you did like that path that you took and that you decided for. And I want each and every alumni trainee maybe person that just is interested in our teacher trainings or that doesn't have to do anything with the teacher trainings at all Know what a brave person you are Like. Would you? Would you quit that job for the risk of following your heart like that? It was a tough one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a tough one, and um, it was not about the money. If it would have been about the money, I should not have done it. So yoga is not about money.
Speaker 2:If you want to make big money, do not not a good idea yeah, but if you want to follow your heart, it was the best decision I did and I made. Yeah, it was, but it was a tough one. I had support from from my husband, who always, um encouraged me to do what I love, and I'm very, very, very thankful for that as well.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful and love you, christian, and sorry for burning the law once um, yes, um, it was a tough decision but I think, um, the absolute, I believe the absolute right one. And what's interesting to see, my last um employer was was red bull and um, I remember that um saying from from my boss back then, like the only person, people who leave Red Bull, they get self-employed because it's their spirit. It's like you have that spirit of living your dream. Yeah, this founder spirit and this drive, this passion, this daring yeah, this daring to go to the edge. Yeah, not always jump down, but you know what it means, and this I've learned there.
Speaker 2:But before that I had other like at the coca-cola company jobs or unilever, who really also helped me to. I was a product manager, yeah, so I was. For example, I'm senior brand manager for Römerquelle in Austria and it was also a very complex job and it helped me to learn really putting pieces together and managing a brand. Oh, yeah, and I love advertising. I love product management and I love advertising. I love product management, but often advertising is mistaken, like being a product manager is mistaken with advertising, because as a product manager, you do advertising but you do so much more. You just you're responsible for a brand, and this is very similar what I'm now with Yoga Villa, steyer and Trees and Stories. So there is not just what you can see on the surface.
Speaker 2:There's the multitude of under the surface and you have to deal with it and I had a. Really I'm very lucky that I had a solid foundation with my studies and with where I I've been working and to learn all that and on on top of this, because what I love to do is teach um is next to what I really love is teaching yoga, but also teaching marketing. So I also teach since over 10 years at the fachhochschule steier, marketing and media management, and this is really also here, helping people and sharing wisdom um.
Speaker 1:What I think is yeah, beautiful, quite meaningful, really beautiful, yeah, okay. So think back to katarina as a child, think back of you running around, really, you know, just a couple years old, or in school, or maybe high school. What's those situations, those personal experiences where you wish you had all that knowledge and strength that yoga gives you know?
Speaker 2:just a tough question. Yeah, yeah, good question. I think as a child um I don't know if it's a female thing, maybe it is you're often sometimes insecure, especially when you think, like high school or even before that, like a teenage girl, like the age like 12 or 13, like for me that was a tough age, same, um, like I was always like very small and tiny and maybe others were like already like a woman and I was on this and I had brackets and glasses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was not, yours was. Yes, I was so insecure, I was so small.
Speaker 2:I was always making myself small, yes, and intimidated. I didn't feel like this. Yeah and um, I wish I have had the wisdom of yoga back then, in believing, I mean again, with the superpowers and also speaking up for yourself. But I must say, I think, also coming back, what we've been discussing before, yoga is a path. A path, and even if it would have been, it hasn't been introduced to me back then.
Speaker 2:But if it would have been, I'm not sure what it would have done with me back then to be, very honest, yeah, but now and it helps me tremendously and I think also age, and it's, yes, you, the older you get, the more gray hair you get, but also the more wisdom you receive, absolutely, yeah, and that's so. I feel a lot like, yes, I've turned 40, like two years ago, um so, but this is so much the path. It's beautiful, I love to be 40 and it's I. I I'm so much more confident in what I do, I can speak up for myself what I even would have not been able to do when I was in my late 20s. Yeah, or even, sorry, 30s. You're very much advanced, but you need life as a teacher. Oh, yeah, when you do yoga and teach yoga.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need that life force, you need that confidence and you need that authenticity that only comes from walking that path, absolutely, that so often only comes from those experiences that we apparently shared, like when you, when we were younger, we didn't feel, we felt or I, I can only speak for myself but I felt small and I felt like I have not nothing to offer to this world. And then there comes a turning point and then you, you like, wrestle through these life changes and you grow and that makes you such a great person teacher, mother, sister, friend, right and you, you, you, you pointed out one, I think, very important thing for me as a teacher is authenticity.
Speaker 2:Authenticity because you, I believe that as a teacher, you should be very authentic in what you teach. Like, for example, I'm always ending with my somatic yoga classes. But it comes comes from when I have been working in the fast-moving consumer good industry and some people, if you know, it's like work hard, party hard, but it's great. I've loved it back then, but it's tough, it's really tough. They're super demanding. The workload is like this, it's crazy, and I had my moments. I wasn't in a burnout but I knew, like, if I continue, even with 25. Yes, and I've learned my lesson.
Speaker 2:Back then, I had one morning where I couldn't stand up. Honestly, I thought there's something wrong with my disc. To be very honest, one of my bunch, I made my disc. Um, it was the morning of a very important event, like a little bit story of coming to where I am today.
Speaker 2:I, honestly, I was lying in my bed and I couldn't get up. I was like talking to my boyfriend back then, like honey, I cannot move. I was frightened, I was scared and, um, at the end we found out it was just stress. It was just um, my muscles in my spine, around my spine, were so tense and created such a pain that I couldn't stand up. Wow, and that was for me like ah, and this was when yoga came in. And I from back then, but even like in the first years I was practicing yoga, but it's the path, and back then, my mid-20s, 30s, I didn't know what it is, what it means to really practice yoga and to really know your body. Later on, for example, I had, when I was in stressful meetings or I had a lot on my plate, I know that like my eyes started to do like this and I know, okay, great, I know this is not good.
Speaker 2:And after that I had had like I don't know if you've ever experienced what like an eye migraine is I didn't like it but, yeah, your whole vision starts to get like like stars and blurry and sparkling, and then it's getting black and you get like the most terrible headache ever. Yeah, what is amazing when you're just about to deliver an important project or doing a presentation in front of your whole team or boss. So what I wanted to say is, thanks to yoga and over the past and it's always like it's a journey Everything is a journey in life I have learned to listen to my body and read the signals, and this comes to authenticity, because this is what I now do when teaching somatic yoga. I don't teach somatic yoga because I've studied it. Yes, I studied it because I really like neuroscience and I got certified as a new mindfulness coach because I love it. But more on, I have been there. But, more on, I have been there. I've been there and I have helped my body not to trap into these situations and this is why I try to say it in a humble way.
Speaker 2:I truly believe that I can teach somatic yoga because I've been through that. Yes, you've had these experiences. Yes, I've had these. I had these experiences and also the same now. Um, I've just finished our prenatal and postnatal course this year, which is about to launch and start, and, um, it brings all my experience in from giving birth to a child, being pregnant and being a mom, and only because of that I can teach that I've been there and I think this authenticity is so, so important. And going back to your question as this teenage girl, even if would have known, question as this teenage girl, even if would have known, I don't know if I would have been able to apply the the wisdom of yoga back then. I wish I could.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course, yeah, yeah. Well, I think authenticity is one thing that comes up over and over and over again in our teacher training, because everybody is aching for living authentically, sharing authentically. Right, there's so many authentic relations trainings out there, so there's a big strive to be an authentic human. But what really makes you authentic and that is only my opinion is the work that you did in the quiet moments, in the hard moments, when nobody was watching. The work that you cannot put into a training, it's when you sit with yourself in discomfort and you didn't push it away. So, yeah, experience, discomfort and you didn't push it away. So, yeah, experience, yeah, and once again, full circle. That brings us to those teacher trainings that we do, which are full of experience and so rich in in life also, your life is so rich.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, been something. Yes, I mean you've been yoga. You've been living yoga since ever, forever. I don't know you other than doing yoga. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been practicing for over half my life, yes, which I'm 32 by now.
Speaker 2:That is a lot of time. And yeah, I mean for the past five and a half years You've been running teacher trainings, but you've been teaching way before. I mean, you're the embodied yoga teacher for me. You are, yeah, you started so early, yeah.
Speaker 1:I really, I really I can't even like, I can't even fathom the words that would be appropriate to really share what beauty and what amazing magic we're pouring out there in doing what we're doing and sharing our experience and just, you know, really unapologetically, being who we are and sharing from that point and I know that there is not a lot of comparison for me out there, where somebody did that so well and I'm not, you know, know, I'm gonna, I'm patting us on the back with what we're doing here because I really believe in it but I, I really want to say, like, just also our dynamic and how we complement each other, how we are so different as people and we have so much appreciation for that, that is quite unmatched in it is anything else it is, and we're thankful for that, and I think what is?
Speaker 2:I truly believe that there is a meaning in almost everything we do yes, and it's nothing is because it is like this, because there's a meaning in it, and I think the beautiful thing about our relationship is, I think it's professional relationship, by the way it is meant to be. It's there's so many like little things, how, because how we rerun trees and stories. I mean it's, it's funny enough. I've been here before, you've been away. Now you are here, I'm away. It was never planned like this, but it works, but it needs a much more, and this is this yeah, we're like in sync together and I think, um, as you said, we are different, but it comes like this, and this is also, I think, the beautiful thing in our sangha yes, we're all different but, we're also all the same and we're together.
Speaker 2:In this wide sangha spirit we live, and I think, like, if people don't, if you don't know what I mean by, we are like this. I think one of the funniest thing is like the other day, like when I was in the us and you were here and we had like this short notice. Oh, we need an insta story q and a whatsoever. Yeah, I can do it from the car. Um, yeah, sure, um, I was picking up lenny and I was just stopping and you were, but we should like wear some matching things. What do you wear? I was like you're funny, I've just left home. I'm wearing a dark red sweater. Um, I can't change. And you said, yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:You don't need to change, and I was like the same thing absolutely, and it was so funny.
Speaker 2:And it's now also, if if I may say like, I've come here like to your new home with that beautiful story.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy and it's meant to be. It's what backup story I have just in February, me and my my partner. We have renovated this house and we've really created a home very recently and we're feeling very at home and I know you finding a home for the last five years.
Speaker 2:I always said you're my beautiful butterfly, because you were all over this globe and like home was like very difficult yes yes, so home means something to you, and you gave me the address and I've just navigated here using Google Maps, not my brain, putting this here for the first time visiting me. Yes, Thank you for bringing everyone up to speed and I was like, oh really.
Speaker 1:Like coming closer.
Speaker 2:I know that I didn't like the address I didn't know, but I know that space. And the funny thing is this house. It's an old farmhouse of a horse farm where I have spent my whole childhood on, so I know every corner of this house, of this table. We had a horse. When I was younger, my dad rescued the horse and it was so beautiful to have that horse and I spent my whole life, from a kid up to like when I graduated from school, here here. So, and now Sarah is here. I mean, isn't that crazy, isn't that fantastic?
Speaker 1:I just I love all these little alignments that we have. Yes, it's just, you can't make that up.
Speaker 2:No, you cannot. So it's definitely meant to be so. It's meant to be that there's trees and stars. Meant to be so. It's meant to be that there's trees and stars. It's meant to be that this connection is is alive and um, that we, yeah, keep that spirit and with all our sangha up.
Speaker 1:I love the work that we're doing in this world and I'm deeply grateful to you for being my my partner in this thank you for doing, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Let me give you a hug.
Speaker 1:That was great, that was very cute. Nice, nice cake time now.