Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anna Ferguson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Anna, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
In my life, I’ve experienced multiple defining moments that fundamentally changed me and shifted the direction of my path. The first two moments occurred nearly simultaneously in my early twenties when I was introduced to vegetarianism and yoga by my college roommate.
Not eating animals and exercising to relax my body and mind, a.k.a. yoga, were both unfamiliar concepts to me. While I was skeptical and had questions, I was also open to a different way. I began to observe some positive changes in my roommate, as she devoted herself to a vegetarian diet. I saw that her skin had a glow and overall, she seemed calmer, especially in situations where the more natural response was stress. During this time of experimentation with a vegetarian diet, I also took my first yoga class, and it was love at first posture—asana. At that point, I was taking yoga classes that focused on the physical practice, though my experience was spiritual—a peace and calm I had not felt before that first yoga class.
Over time, my yoga practice deepened and my choices became less self- and more other-centered, through the practice of ahimsa, non-violence—a core value in yoga philosophy. Having these other-centered reasons as a motivation for choosing what to eat, wear, and purchase became as natural to me as breathing is to life. The yoga (and vegan) lifestyle shifted my life personally and it became central to every part of my life, including my work and service in the world, and how I’d later raise my son (another big defining moment in my life).
It is because of these experiences that I am a yoga teacher, operate a yoga studio, authored the book, World Peace Yoga: Yoga for People Who Breathe, organize the annual Cincy VegFest event, and so much more. I carry with me the core values of love and kindness taught to me at a young age, and I have expanded upon those values to include all beings, which brought me to where I am today.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My defining moment shares the essence of how I came to yoga, which led to the co-creation of World Peace Yoga, a studio at 268 Ludlow Avenue in the heart of Clifton, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ultimately, World Peace Yoga is not anything new or different. It is simply yoga with the added enthusiasm of creating a more peaceful world by connecting with intuition, empathy, and compassion.
As a practice that incorporates physical wellness with spiritual living, World Peace Yoga touches on more than just one aspect of life. It sparks positive transformation in both individual and collective lives.
By creating peace within—connecting with our empathetic and compassionate nature—we begin to create peace outside of ourselves as well. The only change we are truly able to create is within the self. It is not possible to change others; only they are able to do that. World Peace Yoga embodies a practice of creating both inner peace and outer peace, which has a ripple effect on our treatment of others. This, in turn, often has a ripple effect on how those individuals decide to treat others as well. When we emanate peace, joy, and love, our energy is infectious and people may feel inspired to recreate similar energies in their own lives. The World Peace Yoga practice is also about what works from within us. When we experience peace at a cellular level—through our thoughts, words, actions, and consumption—we see it manifest in the world.
World Peace Yoga holds a vision to create a world of empathy and compassion—leading to peace—one lifestyle change at a time. Our goal is to assist others become intuitively aware of their choices, and their corresponding empathy, so that they may cultivate the most exquisite version of themselves.
Through generosity, respect, sustainability, community, innovation, intuition, empathy, and inclusive compassion for all beings, we offer yoga for people who breathe. We believe these offerings and practices lead people to choose a healthy and healing lifestyle. This inspires inner peace and creates world peace.
Interested in letting go of stress and bringing more peace and calm into your life? Sign up for our FREEdom Month of Yoga – 30 days of FREE unlimited classes including mindfulness practices such as meditation, yoga basics, vinyasa flow, and yin-restorative yoga. Offered both in studio + online. We also offer weekly community/free/donation-based classes, such as the weekly Yoga at Burnet Woods.
Link to sign up to FREEdom Month of Yoga: https://app.fitdegree.com/t/dashboard/fitspot/297/store/7?fitspot_id=297
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my business partner, Mark Stroud at a raw foods lecture given at a Wild Oats (now Whole Foods) grocery store in 2003. With his long curly gray ponytail and mustache, Mark had quite a presence. I sat down at the juice bar next to him. He ordered wheatgrass juice with cayenne pepper and ginger. Deciding to order one myself, we soon started to talk about the lecture, and our conversation continued.
Our long collaboration and sharing of philosophies began simply: we spent a lot of time together in our kitchens, creating all kinds of vegan dishes, appetizers, and desserts. I must have recorded at least twenty different flavors of raw hummus with names such as “Prosperity Pesto,” “Lemon-Dill Dream,” “Reality Rosemary,” “Bombay Masala,” “Cilantro-Chili-Lime,” “Mandarin-Ginger,” and even “Pizza” and “Sushi” flavored hummus!
We also “baked” several kinds of raw flatbreads in Mark’s dehydrator, flavored with poppy seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, sesame seeds, basil, rosemary, and more. Mark guided me in the process of working with tofu, including the creation of a tofu lemon cheesecake. I learned more about working with tempeh and seitan, as well as savory marinades and sauces. In addition, through our time together, I became more intuitive in the kitchen as to what ingredients to use when preparing a meal. We—and anyone lucky enough to attend our servings—enjoyed a foodie paradise!
Mark assisted me immeasurably in making even more crucial links between practicing yoga, developing intuition, and cultivating a lifestyle based on empathy and compassion. Indeed, World Peace Yoga was born in his kitchen.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Most businesses in our culture are run with a competitive business model. At World Peace Yoga we have replaced this competitive business model with one of creativity and cooperation. Any business may be run with a creative and cooperative business model. By replacing the competition business model with one of creativity and cooperation we open up to new and wonderful possibilities.
Some books that serve as an inspiration to replacing the competitive business model include:
MetaBusiness: Creating a New Global Culture by Greg Nielsen
Start with WHY by Simon Sinek
Watch TED Talk with Simon Sinek here: https://youtu.be/u4ZoJKF_VuA
A business that drains, exhausts, and steals energy, generally leaving the customer, client and those that work within the business depleted with less freedom, health, love, prosperity, and happiness is on the competitive level. Competitive businesses take. A business that replenishes, energizes, and enhances energy, generally leaving the client and those that work within the business with greater freedom, health, love, prosperity, and happiness is on the cooperative level. Cooperative or collaborative (non-competitive) businesses give.
Our business reflects our ethics and values. Competition is not something that is valued or seen as important in relationship to yoga. We work to create non-competitive environments so that we are able to expand creativity, cooperation, and connectedness.
Competitive businesses are often rooted in fear. They may use catch phrases such as “number one,” “best” and “highest” when describing their business as if all other businesses are second rate and are not good enough. Competitive businesses fear people choosing somewhere else to give their business and use these catch phrases to draw people in, rather than being creative, cooperative, and inclusive in the process.
It certainly isn’t easy to remain steady in creativity and cooperation in a culture where others operate from a place of fear, competition, and exclusiveness, though it is something we strive for at World Peace Yoga.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.worldpeaceyoga.
com - World Peace Yoga Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
worldpeaceyoga/ - World Peace Yoga Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/worldpeaceyogah - Personal Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/ annafergusonpeace/ - Personal Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ annafergusonpeace/ - Youtube: https://youtu.be/
j8qNidh4Zfk - World Peace Yoga Book: www.worldpeaceyogabook.
com - Cincy VegFest: www.cincyvegfest.com