We recently connected with Lyndsay Bahn and have shared our conversation below.

Lyndsay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Being a business owner ensures that a high level of intelligence, freedom, innovation and creativity can thrive. As my own boss, I hold myself accountable to all actions and responsibilities, successes and failures; and knowing how powerful, productive, experienced and innovative as I am, it would be a waste of my valuable time and energy to put the type of love and passion and creativity I have to offer into someone else’s business.

The last time I considered what it would be like to work for someone else was using the pandemic when we were all told to stay home, and that somehow children still needed to attend school. My second grader was not well suited to sit in front of a screen all day and listen to his public school teachers try to lecture him from a zoom call. If I’d had requirements and rules and pressures put upon me from an employer, as many women did at the time, I would not have been able to homeschool my son with in-person instruction, and my values would have been compromised as a parent.

In addition to this, as a yoga school owner, I made the decision to stay open, in person, and opt for trust and sanity over fear and isolation for my core base of 8 students, in a semi-private class schedule setup. In a state of emergency, the last thing that people need is to be isolated, scared, and robbed of their personal spiritual practices, and I was filled with delight as a business owner at the time to be able to provide such a sacred space of respite within an otherwise traumatic time in our world’s history. I’ll top that off with a virtuous note: to date, no cases of covid have ever been transmitted in my school of yoga.

As a business owner, one is able to live by her own values system, ensuring that there is never a lack of balance within her life, and with the upholding of balance comes innovation, which is the key to success in business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

So I do a lot of things, and the most important part of it all is my dedication to my own mental, physical, psycho-spiritual and emotional health and growth. I have to point to that before I talk about what I do, because without the disciplines and adherence to my own personal growth and development, there is really nothing that I can do with clarity.

And when you’re in the business of healing, health and energy work, there’s no faking it. You gotta be able to Walk the Walk so that when you talk your talk, people will listen, because most people can feel authenticity and truth when they are looking for it.

That said, I started as an entrepreneur back in 2006, with a desire for being my own boss and started doing contract work for a main client in the publishing industry, but then started to branch out to consult for other small business clients for various items: websites, marketing, copy writing, HR, accounting, operations and basically all the aspects of running a business. Then I decided I wanted to venture into my own labor of love business, because I was very deeply involved in my spiritual practices and it felt uncomfortable at the time to try to reconcile spirituality and business. Little did I know then that this was the beginning of success for me — understanding that my values system had to underlie everything that I do in the business world too — and with that, I was able to expand my yoga school as well as my clients’ businesses even during the pandemic.

As a yoga school owner and instructor, I really exemplify and embody the “walk the walk” concept — essentially, students hire me to teach them what I know — which ultimately is just wisdom that stems from my own yoga practices and efforts made there. With every conscious breath I take, I know that energy and its various forms will come in the way that it was intended, and I’ve relied on that for 17 years and counting.

What I think people don’t realize about the yoga practice is that it’s one of the oldest forms of spirituality on Earth. It came about around the same time (or earlier) than Buddhism, and is a family of practices to encompass values, personal observances and restraints, physical exercise, breath work and meditation. And, it moves one toward a deeper relationship with his or her true divine self. When these components of the practice are brought together as a lifestyle that underlies all other aspects of life, a human succeeds in everything.

That said, I teach PhDs, physicians, professional writers, licensed therapists, business owners and all sorts of high minded folks that lead their communities and businesses and tribes, and they become better at what they do as a direct result of their daily practices. So what I teach is the fullness of the practice of yoga, which is relatively rare these days. I guess you could say that it’s my “niche,” but it’s really just a tradition that works for me that I’m in turn handing down to others, as it feels is my duty at this point.

What excitedly also has shown up as a result of this yoga work and adherence to this path is the healing energy that I’m able to then disseminate with more accuracy. Iso my official services offered are energy healing sessions that include yoga therapy, craniosacral therapy and reiki as well as teaching a version of this yoga both publicly and privately. And you can hire me for anything you might need for your non-yoga business too! That’s the awesome part of it all. The wisdom and intelligence from the practice makes you clear and focused for success at any task at hand.

Why wouldn’t everyone want this yoga, right?!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t do social media. And it’s because I feel that it has changed our culture and our human community in a way that is fine, but when overdone, is not helpful. At this point, I feel like it’s overdone and so I instead rely on referrals and more physical interactions in order to market to let folks know I exist. It continues to work for me, so I like to encourage others to do the same.

If you’re really amazing at what you do, you’ll get clientele no matter what.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

For me, it’s been current students spreading the word…and believe it or not, hanging advertising (8.5 x 11′ fliers!) posters around the UNC Chapel Hill campus in areas where grad students spend time.

Grad students are awesome clients for anything because they’re committed to what they’re doing, where they are, and personally invested. So if they buy in, they truly buy in, and brand loyalty ensues, and sometimes even directs where they end up living.

Find them! They’re not easy to market to. You have to find them in their libraries, in their coffee shops, in their workspaces and work groups in order to get to them. If you get them, they’ll be your favorite clients!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yogashalacarrboro.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCebXTmfFugM9CojkCVHWXiw

Image Credits
Lyndsay Bahn