We were lucky to catch up with Brendan Smullen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brendan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

At the Yoga Shala we have a policy of advertising most classes at a sliding scale, a nod to the idea of “gift economy” where those with the means support those without. So far we have been able to provide scholarships to over a dozen practitioners and provide subsidized training to yoga teachers looking to advance their practice and experience.

It may not be evident, but many folks that work in our field and with and support others have largely traded a more substantive paycheck for work that is impactful. When working with secondhand trauma, folks need to find time to support their own health. We proudly support many first and second-generation immigrant families and workers who are directly supporting families who face generational poverty and immigration issues coming to the US.

Generally most folks coming to the US face more than a financial struggle relocating, but also finding ways to connect with others outside of their affinity groups. In Seattle, a disproportionate number of residents (relative to other parts of the US) are challenged by Seasonal Affective Disorder which makes reading and receiving affect from other challenging. We have worked hard to create organic opportunities for folks across the spectrum; age, sex, race, and identity to connect for activities within and outside of yoga classes. Many folks catch up by taking coffee together or hiking as a means to de-stress and connect beyond the pleasantries. This allows our community fabric to respond well to events that would normally challenge the support network of others.

Each teacher training cycle we donate to local organizations and charities that support work ranging from providing after-school support to children of families in need, emergency funding and medical care. These are selected by our instructors and many work alongside these organizations in their day-to-day. As soon as our business was solvent, we began our charitable work.

Brendan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

**From our Website**

**Brendan found yoga while coping with anxiety at an early age. Generally practicing Hatha, he kept a consistent practice and began to develop a curiosity for new postures and transitions.

Brendan started learning the craft of Ashtanga yoga while in Washington DC under the guidance of Maryl Baldridge and later David Robson and Jelena Vesic. Brendan practices Ashtanga as a means of stress management, lifestyle change, introspection and devotion. Brendan is a 500hr RYT and Certified Education Provider through Yoga Alliance and is a learner for life. He has trained with several notable Ashtangis including Kino McGregor, Tim Feldman, David Swenson, Ty Landrum, David Garrigues and Troy Lucero.

**Christiane is an activist, yoga practitioner and nomadic teacher from Mexico City. Her background in dance, alongside her social justice work, drew her to yoga as a vehicle for healing, embodiment and awareness. While exploring various lineages of yoga, she found her passion in Ashtanga and Rocket® Yoga, balancing tradition with creativity.

Christiane is a lead teacher trainer under Yoga Alliance, and a certified Rocket® Yoga Training Facilitator, offering training, continued education and workshops throughout the US and Latin America. While she loves sharing content, she strongly believes in the importance of continuing her journey as a student. She is grateful for her teachers and mentors -including David Kyle, David Swenson, Tim Feldman, among others- from whom she continues to learn.

Christiane’s teaching philosophy is based on creating a safe space for ALL, approaching the practice with curiosity, creativity and openness to explore what is possible on and off the mat.

Have you ever had to pivot?

At the outset working in Seattle, both Christiane and Brendan had to navigate the icky world of doing mission-oriented work within the business-oriented yoga scene in Seattle. Through many trials, including unhooding implicit bias within studios, we learned that the only way to carry our work would be to start our own studio.

The Yoga Shala started as a refuge from the normal fitness yoga and as a means for folks to connect with a deeper level of understanding of the self. Where many studios opted to include whatever elements of yoga practice were in vogue – weights, lighting features, music, conventionally charismatic young, peppy teachers; we decided to purposefully stick to teaching traditions drawn from our teachers and cultivate a space where each practitioner could be a part of the practice community without meeting particular social norms.

This was an enormously challenging jump from a guaranteed paycheck to almost 6 months of not paying ourselves to teach; however, we now have the freedom to deliver high-quality content and to develop the next generation of yoga teachers in their practices to continue our work.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

There are quite a few studios advertising with slick promotions and showcasing fancy practices to entice new students. I think what distinguishes us from most other studios is that you can come to us any given day and find our teachers practicing alongside our students. Many studios thrive on having teachers teach 2, 3 or more classes per day, which we think keeps yoga teachers from engaging in their own practice because they are supporting others constantly. We adhere to the airline guidance of putting your own safety mask on first, before you help others and insist that in order to teach you commit to a daily practice. In practical terms, most teachers who are looking for a multi-class day will not be able to maintain this commitment, and that helps us keep a high standard of care for students of our teachers who are they, themselves doing the practice daily. Nothing convinces others that the work is valuable like seeing their teacher in the room with them. The tough part is not making exceptions, which is why any given day you can find our founders in the room as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theyogashalaseattle.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogashalaseattle?igsh=MTF3emd3NG5ibzIzdQ==
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Danstan Kaunda, Marsella , Claymore MacTarnaghan