This week on the podcast, I’m chatting with the founder of American Power Yoga and Simplified Genetics, Kurt Johnsen. Kurt is based out of Dallas, and he shares the story of creating American Power Yoga over 15 years ago.

Kurt came to yoga from kung fu, and he took what he learned from his background in martial arts to create American Power Yoga. He didn’t have a formal yoga teacher training and he hardly had any experience in the yoga industry, yet he was successfully able to create a studio that grew to be quite big.

On this episode, Kurt shares the process of creating, growing and selling American Power Yoga, what he learned through running American Power Yoga, and the biggest business lessons he’s learned through his career. We also chat about his new company Simplified Genetics, including where the idea came from, what it was like to start the business, and how it’s grown over the last 2 years.

Enjoy!

Business Lessons from this Episode:

• Ignore most people
• Fear is a tool that we can use
• You have to teach
• Have a well and know that the well is deep – always have something that can challenge you
• Stop looking at what everyone else is doing and just focus on what you’re doing
• It’s hard to self promote without ego, but we should strive to do it
• Get uncomfortable to grow
• Lead yourself
• Set aside your own stuff so that you can teach others
• Teaching is a performance
• Find a home and cultivate a community
• Record your yoga so you can see yourself teach
• You have to offer a “product” or “service”
• You never know who will be in your class and who you will connect with
• Pay attention and do your best
• Do rely on your art to feed you!
• Stop looking for the easy way when it’s the challenges that serve
• And much more… Here’s the episode!

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