Are you a newly certified yoga teacher struggling with the confidence to put yourself out there and teach? We’ve all been there, myself included. Whether you struggle with body-image like today’s guest, imposter syndrome or money mindset, today’s episode for you. Taylor Lorenz, my friend, colleague, and lead trainer of my Somatic Yoga Life Coaching program, shares her transformative journey from a full-time travel blogger to a confident yoga teacher and somatic coach. Let’s discuss the insecurities many new yoga teachers face.

Listen and learn:
🔹Practical skills like mirror work to build confidence

🔹Why being in the “messy middle” is actually ideal for your sales

🔹How to ditch doubt and finding your confidence by sharing your insecurities

🎁 Ready to start teaching somatic yoga? Download my somatic sequences for FREE => https://www.brettlarkin.com/somatic-sequences/

GUEST EXPERT: Taylor Lorenz | @taylorstracks | https://www.taylorstracks.com/

Taylor is the creator of the yoga & travel site, Taylor’s Tracks, and a highly trained yoga teacher, mentor, and trainer. She is a former full-time travel writer who fell out of love with her dream of traveling the world and in love with teaching yoga when her first YTT sparked her self-acceptance journey.

Taylor has been an entrepreneur since 2015 with expertise in multiple fields including SEO, freelance writing, affiliate marketing, and teaching at top studios from Bali to Canada. Her writing has been sought-out for publications such as Yoga Journal, World Nomads, and The Huffington Post. Today she blends her background in vinyasa, yin, and somatic yoga to help students & teachers uncover their confidence and turn their insecurities into their purpose.

Coach with Taylor! Email info@upliftedyoga.com to find out how.

FREE Practice: SOMATIC MORNING WORKOUT FOR BEGINNERS ☀️ | Yoga to Find Your Confidence 🕶️

Relevant Blog: The Top 5 Biggest Fears of New Yoga Teachers

Relevant to Today’s Episode:
✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training

🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training

🐍 Yoga for Self Mastery

🌀 Somatic Yoga Life Coaching

🎧 Also Listen to:
#299 – Strategies to Slay Imposter Syndrome and Share Your Gifts

#331 – Overcoming Self-Sabotage and Limiting Beliefs with Monika Tschuggnall

#354 – Redefining “Niche” with Carla Cline Thomas

Transcript:

Brett:
Taylor, welcome to the Uplifted Yoga Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here.

Taylor Lorenz:
Hi, it’s good to be here.

Brett:
And we just finished up an amazing call in the embodied yoga life coaching training. So those of you who don’t know, Taylor is also leading the somatic certification, somatic coaching certification that I have with me. And you are so amazing in that training. I feel like you’re just adding and enhancing so many of your own golden nuggets of wisdom as you’ve gone on this journey from someone who was basically a full-time blogger, wasn’t really putting yourself out there as a yoga teacher as much to becoming

highly trained yoga teacher, mentor, and then really kind of owning your own unique story and putting yourself out there in a really bold way. And that wasn’t always the case. So I think we want to talk to people today about like how that all happened.

Taylor Lorenz:
Yes, and thank you for your kind words. It is so, so much fun being in EYLC and just seeing everything that everyone is wanting to take the material and apply it to, just like seeing people go out into the world with it is truly, truly so fun.

Brett:
It is, it’s an amazing program. really like, we give you six life coaching frameworks rooted in yogic wisdom. We give you all the somatic yoga backgrounds. You can actually coach people from a body oriented perspective. But then we really help you integrate it into your own proprietary method and figure out how you want to share this yourself. Maybe blending it with past certifications you’ve already done. So we have like a whole somatic movement piece, a coaching piece, and then a business piece. This is the piece we’re in right now at the end. It is really relevant actually because

You know, that’s something I know you’re really focused on is like, how do you help someone who just graduated from yoga teacher training? They’re like deer in headlights. They have no idea what to do. I’m sure you potentially felt that way. I definitely felt that way. Well, I was in denial about even wanting to teach. So we’ll talk about identity too. But what, what do you say to that person who just graduated? They know deep down they want to teach, but they just feel either afraid or insecure.

Because I know that’s a place that you were at, and maybe talking a little bit about that would be helpful too, like what your insecurities were.

Taylor Lorenz (02:22)
Yeah, I think becoming a yoga teacher takes a lot more self-reflection than people want to admit. Like we think that we can take a 200 hour yoga teacher training like, perfect, I’ve got all the tools, I know exactly what to say and go out. And then you graduate and you’re like, oh shit, I don’t think I actually do. And all of this self-doubt really comes up and all of the advice or a lot of the advice that I see is like, oh, just start teaching. You’ll get more confident as you start teaching. But I think there is actually a ton of layers underneath that we have to deal

with before we actually just start teaching. Like if you’re able to begin and to go out there because there are a lot of people out there who have the confidence already and are just like this is great I’m gonna take it and run with it. Maybe they were a teacher in another life depending on what they did in a previous career like this can be a really easy transition for people but I know for myself a lot came up once I graduated because I did my yoga teacher training thinking that I’m just gonna do it for myself.

I just wanted it for my own personal practice. And when I finished, I was like, ⁓ this really took me on a journey and this journey needs to be shared. I don’t know what clicked, but all of I was like, this is what I’ve gotta do. And I had that real purpose and that real passion behind wanting to teach, but still that was stopping me from putting a camera on a tripod and recording something and putting it online. It completely stopped me in my tracks from.

wanting to even apply to any yoga studios. Because first off, I was like, who’s going to hire me with like very little to no experience whatsoever? And why would anyone want to watch my videos online? Like it just felt like there were these giant walls all around me and I didn’t know what to do. And I had to turn into my own healing journey to actually gain the confidence to go out there. Because we’re given a lot of cookie cutter ways to teach, which I think this is something that you do so well in 200 hour YTT.

You give people some cookie cutter ways that they can start to teach. from the very beginning, because I was just listening to some of the calls that you’re doing with the cohort right now, you say like, this is really personal, like really make it your own. And I know a lot of new yoga teachers don’t really know how to do that or aren’t given that confidence boost from the beginning. So it’s really about exploring instead of being the perfect example for your students, because being the perfect example for your students and for actually

starting to get out there is being in the messy middle and accepting that that’s what it’s be and knowing that you’re going to make mistakes. whether you’re able to just go and start teaching, wonderful, that’s awesome. If you can’t right away, you might actually need some more help. You may need a little bit more hand holding. Maybe that looks like a mentor, maybe that’s taking another training without getting stuck in the loop of, this next training is gonna make me feel perfect or this next training is what’s gonna be 100 % for me and everyone’s path is

completely different to actually start.

Brett (05:14)
Training addiction, I have it. And I think it’s like so important too, though, to know like, why are you doing the trainings that you’re doing? And a lot of the times, I love to do trainings because they inspire me and they keep me motivated. And there’s a lot of good reasons. Maybe there’s an area of expertise I want to tap into, or there’s like a teacher whose magnetism I’m drawn to. And I want to, you know, slurp some of that up. But I do think so many people just get on the training carousel because it’s, they’re stalling. It’s a way to just

kind of not take action doing the scarier thing of just going out and teach. And I love that you said, you know, people say go out and teach, but like, how do you actually do that? Because I say that to people all the time. I’m like, just go out and teach, just go out and teach. And you know, the example I give is often like I used to teach my dad. That felt very safe and not intimidating. I would just teach him meditation. I’d teach friends of mine who had no interest in yoga meditation. One of my friends, she would literally fold laundry while I taught her meditation. But at least I was using my voice and getting those awkward first words out.

But I think you want to double click into like even at a deeper level, like if you’re afraid to teach and you’re not able to just go out and teach, what do you do? And tell us a little bit about like confidence and how that factors in. Where do you get confidence from?

Taylor Lorenz (06:30)
Yeah, I think you really have to kind of like dig underneath all these layers and really get crystal clear with yourself really start to question like, okay, what is this reason why I don’t want to teach? Is it because I’m afraid of being seen? Is it a specific way in being seen? Like I know I’m not your average size yogi. And a lot of people think like, you’re so brave. You’re so confident for talking about your weight like online and in front of other people. And I’m just like, yeah, you know what, some days I am but I’m just so comfortable with talking about it now.

because I started talking about it, because I…

Brett (07:02)
But you weren’t initially.

But you weren’t initially.

Taylor Lorenz (07:04)
I wasn’t,

but this can even be with friends, just like we can suggest, like, start teaching yoga to your friends. You can start talking about your insecurities with your friends, and these are the messages that you end up teaching about in your yoga classes. And I know a lot of this has to do with theming, and a lot of people think that theming and putting in these little messages is really like advanced teaching, but I don’t think it is, because if you start talking about this from the very beginning, if you start slipping in these little ideas of, hey, this is what I didn’t feel

great about.

or even just in looking at a pose, like, hey, you’re allowed to touch your belly in a twist to move. Like, those are the little things that you learn from your own practice that you can start sliding into your teaching to help you feel more comfortable, to help you gain more confidence. I don’t think this is something that is necessarily built up over time. Of course, time always helps. But when you start to recognize and really dig deep into your insecurities, really recognizing, like, what is actually

stopping you? Is it maybe a fear of you’re not going to be able to make enough money as a yoga teacher? Is it body image like it was with me? Like what is contributing to your self-doubt and when you’re able to find the clarity in that then you’re able to understand a little bit more at least as to why you’re not taking the next step.

Brett (08:27)
I think what you said earlier about like being in that messy middle, it’s like no one wants to go out and be like, I’m going to teach like an average to bad yoga class today as I figure out my voice and what I’m doing, right? None of us want that, but unfortunately that’s what we all have to do for the beginning period. And I think you’re giving us some steps here. So I’m going to try to articulate these for everyone listening. Cause I think this can be really helpful is like if you’re not teaching and you want to be teaching now or like yesterday.

The first step is to really name the insecurity that’s stopping you. Like write it down. I know for you, it was body image related. For me, it was very much financial. just, it seemed like, my parents will disown me if I like become this, you know, starving artist of a yoga teacher. It just, yeah, it felt very threatening. I didn’t think there was any money to be made there. So for you listening, like, what is that for you? What is that actual thing?

And then I’m pretty sure I know step two, but let me give you a chance to see if, know, articulate or see if there’s other things there. What would you say comes next?

Taylor Lorenz (09:36)
Yeah, I’d say step two is really getting on your mat and practicing that on the mat first. So really getting like, okay, what poses make you comfortable? What’s making you uncomfortable? Because I think we can use a lot of what’s happening on the mat to help us realize what we need to do off of the mat as well. So, yes.

Brett (09:41)
Mmm.

somatic approach from our somatic lead trainer. I love it. But, but I like what you’re saying is like,

take that insecurity to the mat in a sacred way, in a sacred exploratory way, just for you. Am I hearing this right?

Taylor Lorenz (10:07)
Yeah, and sit with it. We so often want to be so gone and done with all of the bad emotions. I’m doing bad in air quotes. There’s no bad emotions. They’re all guides to help us understand ourselves better and to experience what it’s like to be a human. This is what I always say in my yoga classes. If you’re uneven on one side compared to the other, welcome to the human experience. We’re here to feel all of this sort of stuff. So instead of trying to avoid it, find the lesson that’s in there because I truly

believe that there’s lessons in everything that we’re here going through. And I also think that’s a part of our karma. If you keep running into the same thing over and over and over, if you keep dealing with the same insecurities, whether it’s financial or body image or something else altogether, that’s what you’re here to learn. Or at least that’s what I choose to believe. And I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon. So really avoiding it, I believe, is going to hurt you in the long run. But if you follow those little nuggets of insecurity, if you really start to

deal with them on the mat, maybe sitting in, know Brett you love to do, or I’ve taken yin yoga classes with you where you do like the seven minute long forward fold in a yin class and maybe start thinking about these things sitting there. Like look at the discomfort and where it’s landing in your body and that is going to give you clues.

Brett (11:26)
Or can you give an example of how you took your body confidence issues and explored those on the map privately first? Is that what you were talking about when you mentioned touching your belly or stuff like that earlier? Can you describe for us what that looked like?

Taylor Lorenz (11:39)
Yeah, I first started teaching a lot of yoga classes.

being able to do many different variations in a pose because I really wanted people to feel comfortable in a pose. And so I gave so many different options for different props. Now I look back, I’m like, I think this is a little bit overkill, but that may be exactly what people need at the time. But for me, before I even started teaching like that, it was practicing in a sports bra and leggings. And I was not always comfortable showing up like that. Now I call that my kind of like yoga uniform. Whenever you see me teaching online or in studio,

Like I typically am just wearing a sports bra and leggings and that was part of me getting more comfortable with showing up in a way that I wanted to. At first it kind of stemmed from, ⁓ I see everyone else wearing this yoga uniform. I want to be able to wear it too. And it was like kind of a goal that I was working towards to not only feel like I was fitting in but also to challenge myself and say like hey look I can look different but still feel comfortable like this. And now being able to show up in this yoga uniform in

front of audiences, in front of public classes. Like that is a message not only to myself every time I put it on, but also to the people around me making an impact in a way beyond just teaching the poses on the mat.

Brett (12:57)
That’s a great example. So it’s like wearing a sports bra and leggings that felt uncomfortable because you’re self-conscious about your body, but just doing that at first on your own in your own personal practice, in your own space to kind of own it and evolve that.

I know for me, you know, I’m working a lot with what I call the feminine form of Kundalini yoga right now. And so even this morning for my practice, I was very like exploring the kind of the edge of like what, what is a spinal flex? Like what is some of these movements? What is allowed? Like how slow can I move? And I’m just kind of playing with, cause I obviously have my own insecurities of speaking up and doing Kundalini yoga in this way, but I’m using my mat as a place to explore some of those insecurities. So

Step one, we’re labeling the insecurities. Step two, we’re exploring them privately on our mat in a sacred space. And then I think step three, you’re talking about going out and teaching, but I think there’s a deeper story that’s very resonant with your personal story, which is like step three is actually making those insecurities the highlight of your marketing content and sharing that vulnerably with your students to create a magnetic following.

And I know that’s something that we worked on together when you were in the mastermind, right? like, was like, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there was like a voice note or an exchange we had where I was like, Taylor, I’m pretty sure all your like insecurity and body issues just need to be like the front and center of your Instagram with like you in a sports bra talking about your weight and everything you’re uncomfortable with, like with a megaphone. And I think when you do that, like your people are going to come and your whole brand is going to pivot and change.

And definitely correct me if I’m wrong, but like I love your account so much now. I feel like I really saw when it shifted and when you started like owning that insecurity and like wearing it and being proud of it. And it was so magnetic. my gosh, I’m getting chills as I talk about this because now like every time I see your posts, I’m just like, like, like, like I just love the way that you’re showing up. And this isn’t something you can fake you guys. That’s why it’s like really digging into like, what is your insecurity? What is the vulnerability? And then this is the hard part.

making it the foundation of your marketing language to pull people towards you, that’s not something that everyone’s capable of doing. I mean, it’s one thing to get the advice to do that. It’s another thing to be like, okay, cool. I’m just going to like wear a sports bra and not have the typical yoga body, whatever that means, and start talking about it very publicly. So how did you do that?

Taylor Lorenz (15:31)
Yeah, and I just want to say as well that like I don’t think that you have to be perfectly healed or like perfectly okay with your insecurities before you start sharing all of this because I still have days where I’m my YouTube videos and like it’s like you’re like looking at yourself from the side like I see my belly and I’m just like I don’t really like how I look and like it’s still okay to have moments like that but in the moments where I do have the confidence there’s always pockets of confidence because there’s a reason why you took yoga teacher training and there is a reason why you believe that

you want to be a yoga teacher. There are pockets in there that you can really tap into, lean into. So in the moments where I’m feeling really good, where I’m feeling confident, I’m like, okay, I’m gonna go bold, I’m gonna go for it. So like, I just uploaded something the other day where in like bold letters, it says, I thought I was too fat to teach yoga. And like, I actually call out the word fat because a lot of people that will be like to them just like, my God, like how dare she use that word. Or I know that like I was very uncomfortable with that word.

in beginning, but now I’m saying like, hey, this is something that we can use. Or I started a new series and these things, whenever I talk about body image, whenever I talk about my weight or like physically show myself fully, I get way more engagement than anything else. I’m like, guys, I didn’t teach you anything in this. Like I’m just like showing what I look like, but this is what people love because this is what connects people to your message. And I had used something recently that I got from a fashion influencer who

midsize and she showed herself from all four angles what outfits look like in all four angles and I’m just like, my god I can do this for yoga poses and people loved it when I posted it so I’m making that a series and just really helping people own that we can all look different. That’s my message that sprinkles through absolutely everything that I do. I want to help people be confident and that starts with first accepting where you’re at and then moving forward. It’s not

like, okay, I’m fat, we’re gonna try and ignore this over here and keep moving forward. It’s like, okay, yeah, I have some fat, great, let’s keep going anyways.

Brett (17:41)
It’s so inspiring. And I think let’s talk more about the, the process, because I think when you were starting yoga teacher training or like, let’s flashback many years ago, did you ever imagine that this is what you’d be talking about or what your social media would look like?

Taylor Lorenz (17:56)
No, no, even with

like all the somatic stuff, like when you first introduced it to me, I was like, what am I doing? And now I’m just like, okay, everyone needs this kind of work sort of thing. it’s so hard to see in the beginning where you want to go, but you’ve always got to start walking before you can start running. And I’ve tested a lot of stuff and it can honestly get boring talking about the same stuff over and over, but what works for you, people are going to show you online. And if you feel like you’re talking to no one, sometimes-

you truly are. That’s okay, but it’s also recognizing what feels good in your body as well and deep down there is something that I can feel every single time that I post something about body image that I am sharing how to do a yoga pose in a new way in a class. It just sparks something in me and just tells me like I’m doing something better for the world.

Because ultimately, that’s what I believe most York teachers want to do is help make this world a better place. So if it’s needing me to talk about our body image, then that’s totally OK. That’s what works for me.

Brett (19:02)
Yeah, it’s like, what does it take? It’s like, do we need me to be the brave person, right? Who’s like gonna go out and show myself in a sports bra? Do we need me to be the brave person who’s gonna be like, I’m not gonna wear a turban and you know, I’m actually gonna seduce Kundalini energy instead of like try to control and leverage it with hydraulic pumps up my spine, right? So it’s, sometimes it’s just like, I’m gonna be the one who’s gonna, and some people won’t like it and that’s okay. But I think how do you,

how do you know it’s okay? Like how do we feel that that’s okay? I mean, for me, such a huge part is community, right? Like knowing that I have our trainers, the support staff behind the scenes, the students, the people, like the people who are cheering you on and focusing 100 % on that instead of the naysayers or the detractors. What else have you found? Because I know you’re also working with, well,

Tell us a little bit about who you’re working with because what we’re saying here to recap everyone step one, you’re going to figure out what is blocking you from teaching yoga for real, which is likely some sort of insecurity or vulnerability that you haven’t faced off with yet. Step two, we’re going to ask you to take that to your yoga mat and get intimate with it, get up close and personal with it, see and have an exploratory time with it. And then step three to actually teach, but not just teach, actually own it and make it

a key component of your marketing, really broadcasting it out so you can attract like a magnet your ideal client. I forgot where I started with that.

Where were we going? I did such a good summary I forgot what we were talking about. The confidence, the confidence, the confidence.

Taylor Lorenz (20:42)
Me too. I forgot too.

me to go into.

Brett (21:01)
We were talking about falling, being the person who’s just gonna be willing to do the thing, even if people are gonna laugh at

Taylor Lorenz (21:05)
how

do you know if it’s the right direction to go in?

Brett (21:10)
OK. OK. OK.

And something else that might come up as you’re going through all this is like, is this the right direction or is this just like a gimmick? Right? Because you don’t, you don’t obviously want to have like this gimmick brand. This is supposed to be very authentic to you. So how do you know? How did you know?

Taylor Lorenz (21:33)
I know this is probably not the answer that people want to hear, but it comes down to your intuition, that gut feeling a lot of the time. It also comes back to like, what keeps like poking at you? What keeps provoking you? What do you keep feeling like you’re smashing your head against the same wall over and over? And I think those are all signs of like, hey, focus here. Like there’s actually a neon light or like sign flashing here. Like this is what you need to lean into. This is your

purpose sort of thing because when you start digging deep and when you start running towards the thing that you’re Feeling and seeing over and over and over I think those are like the universe’s Signs as like this is it for you and you may not agree with it right away. That’s totally okay You can sit with it. You can take as much time with it as you want Like even me becoming a yoga teacher. I was just like no, why would I do that?

I’m a travel blogger, like I used to work full time as a travel blogger living the dream life. Like why would I go and become a yoga teacher? Like what purpose is there to that? I didn’t see it in the beginning, but something was calling at me and I was like, all right, I’m gonna figure out how to get enough money to follow this training. And now look at where it’s brought me. Look at where I ended up. And working with.

and working with incredible people one-on-one to help them become yoga teachers, which I also had insecurities about because I was like, the world doesn’t need more yoga teachers. Why would we need more yoga teachers? But now I understand that the world truly does. Like look at the chaos and the mess that like so many places in the world are in. We need more people to not only support everyone going through what they are right now, but we need more people understanding yoga to help our leaders, to help our countries really do

their best. So even if you have…

Brett (23:27)
I remember what I was going to ask you. I know I remember

now. What, like, so yes, 100 % yes to that. But also we were talking about who are you going to, uh, who are you attracting? Like with this marketing that you have now, because I know you’re working as a somatic coach. Um, you have this incredible Instagram brand. It’s just, I love it so much, but who do you find actually coming to you for? I mean, tell us a little bit about the different things that you offer besides being a trainer with us at Uplifted.

But what are they asking you? Are they new yoga teachers? I know I saw you coach someone else on like a body confidence, body confidence issues.

Taylor Lorenz (24:07)
Yeah, so the type of people that tend to come to me are people who are not necessarily newly graduated from Chun Shui Yoga Teacher Training, but people who have graduated and who have been sitting on their dream for a long time. And they’re just like, okay, nothing’s happened. Nothing’s not working, but they haven’t taken the step to actually start yet. So they’re stuck simmering in this what if and all the scary what ifs of what’s gonna happen when you actually start teaching. But I also have someone that I’m working with right now who came

to me and was like, hey I really like what you’re doing but I’m not yet a teacher, can I work with you? And I was like, yes of course, and realized that there’s actually people who are even too scared to start yoga teacher training because they don’t know, again.

All the what ifs, they’re going to invest all this money into it, is it going to be a waste of time for them, what are they going to get out of it? There is fear and insecurities at every point during all of this as well. And I’ve even felt some of these even after 300 hour certification as well. This is something that we’re going to feel at any time. But I know for me personally, it’s people closer to the beginning of their yoga teacher journey. And also people specifically just for body image stuff. People come up to me and say like, how are you so confident?

Like what do you, like people always think that I know something different than them. And I was like, no, I just got really uncomfortable for a while to feel this confident. Because I used to sit in front of my mirror, or I used to stand in front of my mirror naked, making eye contact with myself and just saying kind things to myself. Like it didn’t happen one day that I just woke up and I’m like, I’m gonna wear sports bra and leggings and teach in front of 50 people. It was a journey to get there that started with me dealing with my own stuff first.

Brett (25:50)
So powerful. the putting, putting in the work. And I love that you mentioned mirror work, which we also do in the somatic training and in body yoga life coaching, although we don’t do it naked, but you know, maybe next cohort we will like maybe we should, ⁓ you know, before we go, I want you to, or I want us to, you know, double click into one of my favorite themes and topics, which is always like combining what you are most,

either ashamed of, which I think is what we’ve kind of been talking about, but also just what’s really unique about you with yoga in a way that seems like it wouldn’t make sense. Like something that you think like this doesn’t go with yoga at all and then fusing and combining it with yoga. I like to do this exercise with folks a lot when we’re working on their branding and marketing in their business. And I thought it might be fun for you to talk, because I know you a little bit about the Camino.

So do you want to share with folks a little bit about how, you know, give an example of how you can fuse something that has nothing to do with yoga with yoga to then really make your messaging more impactful and magnetize those ideal students to you.

Taylor Lorenz (27:04)
Yeah, so the Camino is a 500-kilometer, sorry, miles, 500 miles, 800-kilometer pilgrimage across Spain. And there’s different ways that you can do it. Some routes are shorter, some routes are longer. I did the French Way or the Camino Francis, starting from France and walking across Spain. And you walk to this church that is believed to hold the remains of St. James the Apostle. Now, I am not religious in any sense, but there was something that drew me to this journey.

that draws so many unique individuals. And the entire time I was walking, I was like, this reminds me of a yoga practice. This reminds me of a really hard yoga practice. And all you’re doing is walking every day.

like you’re walking for like four, five, six hours a day. Some people do even more. And so after I finished, I realized that there’s these three different stages that we’re walking through and I could just connect it to yoga. So that’s something that’s really unique to me. And I don’t really see anyone ever talking about this and how these three different stages, the physical part, the mental part where you’re walking through this very flat, very boring area, all you have to do

is listen to the sound of your footsteps or the people chattering around you. It’s very, very boring. And then the end is said to be the spiritual part. And that’s where I had the most issues. There was all these people, because it gets really popular in the end, and I was like, okay, this doesn’t feel spiritual at all. And I realized how much I was judging the experience. And I linked it very much to my yoga practice and how much I was judging my body and my own yoga practice and how I didn’t look a certain way and how I thought I needed to look a certain way.

And so that’s something that I like to connect a lot now as well and think it’s very exciting. And I just light up when I talk about it because I think it’s absolutely incredible and is a trip that everyone should take at some point in their life.

Brett (28:58)
Well, I saw your Instagram post about it the other day and I thought it was so fun how you kind of like blocked out the different stages of the journey. And I was like, this is so Taylor. Like before I even saw your name, I was like, I know who posted this. So it was really fun. So I think, you know, those of you who are listening, think about what weird things that are from your like pre-yoga life or that seem oppositional or like they wouldn’t really go with yoga. And it’s like, if you can figure out how those things intersect or just be brave enough to try and

voice, how those things come together, that I think is going to be a huge pull that helps you be a magnet for your ideal students. Some other examples is we have a doctor’s roundtable at Uplifted. We have so many physicians who’ve been through our programs. We actually get them all together a couple of times a year. And I listened in on the most recent one. And the doctor speaking had just the most beautiful story equating, kind of similar to you, Taylor, like her own.

healing journey and process but to the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral when she was, she’s a war surgeon essentially, so she was like stationed in Paris for a brief period of time between like going to the Ukraine and somewhere else, but I was like this is so unique, like I’m lighting up just like thinking about how she did this. Recently in the last cohort of the InBodyDougal life coaching training, I was like I just want to teach the business material through Taylor Swift songs.

So I really tried to just bring like Taylor Swift music and messaging from the songs, like to actually teach us about business and marketing. Those are two things that maybe would seem silly or like they don’t go together. But I had so much fun and I think it made the whole business portion of the curriculum hopefully feel more lighthearted and approachable for folks. So these are just some sort of, you know, examples of ways that you can pull seemingly divergent things together.

in a way that helps your uniqueness shine through. And that’s what’s going to attract your ideal students towards you. Any final thoughts, Taylor, about any of our steps, locating that insecurity, working with it? And then mean, I think maybe we missed a step too, which is really doing the hard work of looking at yourself naked in the mirror. Or for me, it was like hiring a money mindset coach.

and having to do really, really deep coaching work where I literally like argued with him wasting so many sessions about like how I couldn’t make money as a yoga teacher in retrospect. It’s like hysterical. Meanwhile, I’m like paying him to coach me and I’m just telling him on every call like, nope, you’re wrong. Nope, it can’t happen. Like, absolutely not. Right. But, you know, I did show up to those sessions and eventually he did get through to me. Any, any thoughts on, you know,

Final steps as we close out here.

Taylor Lorenz (31:40)
Yeah, I mean, of course, I always like to link everything back to a yoga practice. So if you think about those moments in a yin yoga pose, where you are okay, you’re comfortable at first, but over time, it gets more intense and more intense and more intense. That’s you leaning out of your comfort zone. And then over time, you are expanding your comfort zone, there is always that space of discomfort in the pose before your comfort zone expand. So you are always going to have to have time

spent in discomfort, whether it’s in your business, whether it’s in your yoga practice, whether it’s dealing with your body image, whether it’s dealing with your finances, that discomfort is what makes your story unique and is what helps you touch your students in a way that they can understand and get a deeper feeling and impact from their practice beyond just the physical stretch.

Brett (32:34)
I think of that Dr. Becky Kennedy video that went viral recently where she’s with the students at Duke and she’s like, frustration is the learning zone or whatever it is that she says. it’s this idea that we think that confidence or getting confidence should feel like confidence, but it doesn’t. It actually feels like embarrassment. And so I think the more willing you are to go like.

I’m going to give a class that probably won’t be perfect because I’m still learning, right? Or I’m willing to show up this way or do this thing or just earn like 20 bucks or whatever and go through the embarrassment and the frustration. It’s like, that is you going through your own personal forging fire. That’s really helping you on your personal development journey to become that next version of you who’s going to help so many other people. And I think community is essential. Doing this on your own is hard.

It’s super hard. It’s super lonely. So if you’re listening to this and you did do your 200, like get in our 300 hour training, be surrounded by peers who can brainstorm with you and be on calls like this with people like me and Taylor. Um, and those of you who are, you know, 300, 500 hour teachers or therapists, we would love to see you in the embodied yoga life coaching program. It only runs once a year. It’s application only. So make sure to apply because then you can hang with me and Taylor twice a week.

And Taylor, I know that you work with people one-on-one, you have your own programs. Tell everyone about how they can connect directly with you because maybe they’re not ready for any of those bigger programs yet, or they want to work specifically with everything that you have to offer.

Taylor Lorenz (34:13)
Yeah, so on social media, my website, YouTube, everything is Taylor’s Tracks. T-A-Y-L-O-R-S-T-R-A-C-K-S. I always have to spell it out because there’s always someone who doesn’t figure it out and that’s okay. But you can do a free call with me. Just sit down and I listen to What’s Stopping You from Teaching Yoga. I’m just really curious. I’d love to hear about…

your journey and what is your roadblock for you. And after that, if that works out, if you’re, if you realize that you’d like to work with me, then I spend four months working very closely with you. And we talk about everything from your insecurities, how you can work that into your teaching, I even help you with sequencing, because I realized that we’re all at different stages, and everyone wants help with different things. So I do a really good job, I think, at least, I’m doing a big overview of helping you with the practical, actually like applying for jobs, starting to teach as well as dealing with

the things that are stopping you from actually taking the first step because if yoga teaching is on your mind I don’t think it’s going to leave you alone so I think it’s worth exploring and seeing what that dream actually has to offer.

Brett (35:21)
Yeah, I would absolutely recommend working with Taylor. I’ve seen her transformation over the past years that I’ve known you. It has been so fun to have a front seat too. And you can experience somatic coaching too if you work with her and see that methodology and feel it in your own body to see if it’s something you might be interested in too. So Taylor, thank you so much. This was so fun. Everyone, take action and think about your insecurities. know that’s a weird thing to leave you with, but really do think about it because

There is magic and creative spark there if you’re willing to look at it. So we’re so glad you’re here. Thank you for being all the way to the very end of the episode with us. And we’ll see you next week. So much love.

Taylor Lorenz (36:01)
Thank you.