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Behind every yoga business is a founder with a vision. Explore their journeys, lessons, and strategies to build, grow, and make an impact.
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Movement helped Juri Ko navigate grief, personal transitions, and the process of reconnecting with herself. After discovering a deeper side of yoga in Hawaiʻi, she completed her teacher training and began building communities around movement
Yoga Business CoachAt just 20, Manu Molina left behind the safety of home and a soul draining job to chase something bigger freedom, creativity, and purpose. Inspired by The Alchemist, he moved to the Spanish Pyrenees, where he discovered yoga for the first time. That one experience became the seed for a life filled with deep transformation and global adventure. Manu’s yoga journey took him through Ireland, Italy, the Canary Islands, Majorca, Ibiza, India, Thailand, and beyond. But more than the destinations, it was the internal journey that mattered most, one that allowed him to align with his values, express his truth, and build a life with meaning. Today, Manu lives in Asia, collaborating with creatorsand mentoring others to create sustainable businesses that actually make a difference...
Yoga Business CoachMovement has always been part of my life. I spent my teenage years immersed in ballet, then went on to study at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Professionally, I worked across marketing, communications, and events in Ireland’s arts and film sectors, environments that were dynamic, creative, and often high-pressure. Yoga entered during my twenties and quietly became my anchor. What began as a way to reconnect with movement soon deepened into something more. My husband David and I discovered a shared passion for the practice, which shaped our connection as much as our path forward. Those early classes felt like a return to something familiar. Ashtanga drew me in, but it was Vinyasa that truly captured my heart through the art of sequencing...
Yoga Business CoachI first found yoga when I was 20, at a time when my life was full speed ahead. I was working 60–80 hour weeks as a full-time hairdresser and part-time bartender, hustling hard to build a life for myself. From my very first class, something clicked—like the practice struck a chord I didn’t even know needed tuning. It softened the rougher parts of me and started quietly mending the relationships in my life that needed healing. Within a year, I was in teacher training, the youngest one in the room, cracked wide open and completely absorbed in the transformation unfolding, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Outside of yoga, I’m a wife, a mom, and a lifelong student of anything that makes me feel more connected to myself and others. I was born in New Jersey and co-owned Balanced Planet Yoga in Marlton, NJ...
Yoga Business CoachBefore yoga became my path, life took me through unexpected turns. I grew up in Switzerland and began my career in banking, earning my diploma as a Bankfachmann. But deep down, I knew that life in an office wasn’t for me. I left banking, moved to Zurich, and pursued professional dance, which opened doors to performances and eventually took me to New York City for advanced training. Later, I transitioned into acting and modeling, moving to Los Angeles. Movement, expression, and personal growth were always at the core of my life — and yoga eventually became the container that held it all together. My first real contact with yoga came in New York at age 23, while dealing with persistent back pain from my dance years. Yoga didn’t just help physically, it gave me an inner calm...
Yoga Business CoachI always believe that Yoga found me. I started practising Yoga almost 20 years ago in my early 20s. At the time, it was still a little weird and woo woo, so I didn’t really tell anyone I was going. I just knew that when I went to class, I felt so at peace within myself. It felt so comforting that I had to keep going. I began my first teacher training with no intention of teaching—I just really wanted to understand what was happening for me. I studied slowly, and then with a gentle budge from my teacher, I taught my first class. From there, I just knew I wanted to share these teachings and help others feel that same sense of peace I found. It felt like I was remembering something ancient. Yoga became more than a practice—it became a returning home to myself...
Yoga Business CoachThy Monzo’s yoga journey started back in 2004 during her university days in Canada. After walking into her first Ashtanga class, something clicked. The breath, the presence, the connection—she had never felt anything like it. Soon, daily practice became part of her life. She discovered Bikram Yoga not long after, and her love for hot yoga took over. By 2007, she completed her first teacher training—not to start teaching yet, but simply out of deep passion for the practice. That passion kept growing until 2010, when she completed another training and began teaching full time. She moved to Australia in 2012 and continued doing what she loved most—teaching yoga...
Yoga Business CoachBefore yoga entered her life, April Fort imagined herself surrounded by books, dreaming of a career as a librarian. That all changed during her senior year of high school, when she stumbled upon a stack of yoga books in the library. What began as curiosity sparked a lifelong path. Years later, when she became a mother, yoga became more than just a personal practice, it became her way of life. With three homeschooled children and a full heart, she chose a career that allowed her to stay close to them. Yoga gave her that freedom. Through practice, April realized that yoga isn’t confined to a mat. Every breath is pranayama. Every movement, an asana. Life itself becomes a flowing meditation, if you’re present enough to notice it...
Yoga Business CoachBorn and raised in Istanbul, Nafiye Erdogan’s path was anything but traditional. With a background in mathematics, she explored careers in sales, education, and eventually banking after moving to Canada. It was during her time as a banker in Toronto that she quietly stepped into a yoga studio — battling depression, loneliness, and language barriers. She didn’t understand every word, yet something about the practice spoke directly to her soul. Often tucked into the back corner of the room, she moved through each session with quiet emotion, frequently leaving in tears. Without fully understanding how, yoga began to gently pull her out of the darkness...
Yoga Business CoachBefore yoga became her anchor, Paula Richardson’s life was a whirlwind of responsibilities, reinvention, and resilience. She’s a woman who met early menopause like a head-on collision, while juggling family life, creative ventures, and a string of “sensible” jobs. A massage therapist by training and a seeker by nature, Paula always felt pulled toward what truly helps us feel better as we age. Like many women, she spent years putting others first—until her own body’s signals became impossible to ignore...
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