Episode 98 with Shannon Elliott on running a yoga Studio and Building a business with Integrity

As a yoga instructor and owner, Shannon has nurtured Onyx’s growth alongside her own. Shannon teaches both traditional and Kundalini yoga classes, placing a keen focus on pranayama, movement, subtle body alignment, and meditation.

Her classes are a safe space where students are cared for and strengthened inside. She has the ability to make students feel as if she is speaking directly to them without drawing individual attention to the person.

Shannon invites people to experience themselves and deepen their exploration of what they believe to be possible. Her gift to others is to pass on the Teachings from those who have done the same for her. No matter the audience, the Philosophy is spoken so as to be accessible to everyone in all environments/circumstances.

Her classes are a blend of traditional text study including the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, and Krishna’s many past times and leelas. She incorporates chanting, gong playing, inner exploration, and bhakti love into her classes. Embodying each moment, delving deeper into your own experience, that is the gift of Yoga, one which Shannon lives to share with others.

She is grateful to all her teachers – past, present, and future. She will be forever connected to her Guru, Swami Satchidananda, who has given her the spiritual name of “Malati.”

During today’s conversation, here’s what you’ll learn:

• Learn the True Teachings of Yoga – The Whole Package of Yoga through the 8 Limbs of Yoga
• The practice of yoga is to prepare for meditation
• Why Asana was a very small part of yoga
• Yoga is a lifestyle that is available at anytime
• How to treat yourself and how to treat others
• Teach from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and The Bhagavad Gita
• Yoga is not simply the physical practice – but an aide to go inside and find your true nature and true self
• Yoga strives to create a mind-body connection to become a realized being
• The practice of yoga is about people becoming themselves
• Your job is not to get everyone to like you but to teach the teachings! If you please everyone, you please no one

Topics Covered

• Running a Yoga Studio with Integrity by focusing on a membership-based yoga studio rather than teacher performance and class number
• The hiring process is all about timing and finding people at the right place at the right time and not forcing the process
• Running a business to create a platform for each yoga teacher to be who they are to create a variety of different yoga teachers with different voices that create a community
• How to start out as a new yoga teacher and how can you earn a living full-time by teaching yoga