We were lucky to catch up with Lindsey Marshall recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lindsey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Our Mission: Bring A Deep Breath To Your Big Day
What started as a playful idea has turned into a very special job that I get to share with people all over the world. It started for me being a bridesmaid in what felt like a million weddings. Wedding day after wedding day we rushed through the morning “getting ready process” and before you knew it you were walking down the aisle and not seeing the bride again for the rest of the night. I wanted to slow the day down and create time and space for everyone to breath, celebrate and be fully present together.
What came of that was less wedding day yoga and more bachelorette celebrations, girlfriend trips, and family reunion yoga sessions. And what better place to do that then from the top of a mountain over looking Park City, Utah.
As I started to build the business and have groups sign up I started to notice this beautiful trend with each group. While not every participant was an advanced yogi, it was less about the asana (physical practice) and more about the time spent with one another. These groups of people wanted to share stories, tell each other how much they love and appreciate each other and most importantly just be present with each other in the busyness of their weekends. We were creating space for moments of connection that brought forth laughter, tears and moment of silence to just breath.
2020 provided us our biggest struggles, as we were trying to adapt with the new “normal” what we found were a lot of our groups had been so heavily impacted by covid. Whether it was rescheduling weddings multiple times. Having lost loved ones who would not get to experience the wedding day. So more than ever providing a space that acknowledged the duality of the situation was so important. Yes this time sucks, but you can also be happy in this moment and celebrate the connection of the people around you.
From there we have brought on other teachers to share different styles, perspectives and experiences. We moved yoga outdoors in the winter in the snow, we call it snowga. We’ve brought in sound bath meditation and other modalities that allow everyone to take a moment in their busy experiences to stop, pause, be present and take a deep breath.
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.
When I was 18 years old I tore two discs in my back. This injury required me dropping out of college, moving home, extensive physical therapy and two discectomy procedures. At 18 I could barely walk, I was in excruciating pain and was just purely miserable. In my healing journey my Aunt introduced me to yoga and in addition to the surgeries, PT and the endless love and caring support from my parents I started to heal.
Flash forward into my mid 20s, I’m back to a normal life. Working in Chicago, I started running and found that my body didn’t respond well to the constant pounding, but I loved the stress relief I got from running. So I went back to yoga. I found that yoga was the perfect balance for my running. I was working in family law at the time which was incredibly stressful and I started going to yoga more often. So much so that it went from being a wanted activity to a must activity. Eventually I found that family law was ruining my perspective on relationships and the law firm lifestyle wasn’t one I wanted to be a part of. I quite my job and headed in India.
I call it my version of Eat, Pray, Love – Starting with the prayer. My friend was living in Deli, she told me if I was coming to Thailand I must include India. So I found an Ashram in Rishikesh India and started my 3 month lone travel experience there. It was a very challenging two week experience. Lots of time for reflection and contemplation. But at the end I left knowing I wanted to explore yoga further. After three months in South East Asia I headed back to Chicago knowing two things. I did not want to work in family law and I wanted to explore yoga further.
Upon returning to Chicago I found a very extensive yoga teacher training program that required a lot of time and work, but I knew this was the dedication I needed. I remember our first lesson, part of it was teaching downward facing dog. I couldn’t find the words to tell someone how to get into down dog. I thought to myself, I’m never going to teach this, but at least I’ll learn more for myself.
This program lasted a year. And in that year I learned, I explored and started to find my voice. Having come to the mat originally with an injury I had a different perspective than most teachers. I know how fragile the body can be, but through various modalities of yoga so much can be accomplished.
The last part of my Chicago journey was finding my voice. I had a few teachers I truly loved that had such a big beautiful presence in class. One day I asked one of theme where she found her confidence and voice. She said she was an actor and that helped her with her confidence. Within that same week I met someone who had just finished the year long program at Second City in Chicago, this is a Improv institution that has produced the masters like Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. Now one thing I forgot to mention, even back in my high school and college days I have a great fear of public speaking. I was a broadcast communications major, planning on being the next Diane Sawyer and even though there was no fear in front of a camera, in front of a crowd was very different. As a yoga teacher I was slowly finding my voice but I was a mess of nerves before every class. So this friend said you have to do The Second City program. And I did. I almost didn’t go to the first class. But I did and then I cried in class. I was so embarrassed with the silliness that our teacher was asking of us. But surprisingly I went back the next week and every week after that for an entire year. I even auditioned and made it into an all female improv group. And even though I was a mess of nerves every class and every performance I started to let go of this need to say everything perfect and overthink everything before I said it. I allowed myself to laugh when I messed up. And the best part was that I was able to take this to my yoga classes and it changed my teaching.
Once I found this confidence my teaching became clear, my voice was clear and I knew I had a purpose. I decided to move home, back to Park City Utah to be near family and to start my own business. I wanted to teach yoga full time and I knew I wanted to be my own boss, running my own company.
When I first came home I hustled, reaching out to every studio, hotel, anywhere I could to share my teaching resume. That first year I got jobs teaching at a few spots but I supplemented my income with working at Lululemon and hostessing at a local restaurant. I went from being in a more corporate 9 to 5 position for 10 years into piecing together work and knocking on doors begging to teach. And it was some of the greatest years of my life. The hustle made the experience even more rewarding.
In that year I was driving and had this vision of my best friend doing yoga in her wedding dress. It was a photo shoot idea and in that moment I thought, what about an event based yoga experience. I could call it Eventful Yoga and I could offer it for people getting married. I would say Eventful Yoga – Take a deep breath on your big day. I called her immediately and shared this image I had, she probably thought I was crazy, but having been best friends since we were 13 that thought pattern tracked. I also shared the idea with my mentor at Lululemon. They had this amazing program that was required of all employees called Vision and Goals. I met with my mentor and shared my idea, she not only encouraged me but she set deadlines for me to hit so that I could start building my business.
On June 3rd, 2017 I officially launched Eventful Yoga. While weddings were not our biggest customer we did start to have a lot of bachelorette parties book Mountain Top Yoga, this is where I would take them to a mountain top overlooking Park City to share in a yoga practice with a special view. I started to see that these groups of people loved taking a moment out of their busy weekend of events and activities to be present with one another. I started asking the groups to take moments throughout the practice to tell stories of the bride. I had them write love notes to the bride to remind them that they have this beautiful network of support that is here for them no matter what. Slowly each summer more groups would sign up. I realized that Park City is a prime destination for bachelorette parties and girlfriend weekend getaways. Over the first few years I brought on other teachers to share their different teaching styles and perspectives.
2024 solidified our biggest year yet. Over 144 groups shared various yoga experiences with us, including family reunions, birthday celebrations, people visiting who wanted private yoga experiences. We added Snowga to our menu in 2020 which is exactly what it sounds like Yoga in the snow. We are now Park City’s premiere mobile yoga studio. We bring the studio to you, whether that is in your home, a local park or on top of a mountain. Our moto remains the same we are here to help bring a deep breath to your big day.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
2020 was the year where I had to figure out how to keep the business running when everything was out of our control. Eventful Yoga had been operational for about two and a half years going into 2020. And for the first time in that two years we were starting to get a lot of summer bookings. And then covid hit and everyone canceled. There wasn’t time to panic or sit around and mope I had to figure out how to be a yoga instructor during a pandemic. I moved all my private clients to zoom offering weekly sessions. I encouraged people to grab some friends and book joint online practices. I also offered classes to everybody a different times of the day. This isn’t anything truly groundbreaking or innovative but the key was to immediately pivot into this new world.
The hustle that I had in building my business came back and I had to solely rely on myself and the lists of clients and contacts that I had grown over that 2 and a half years to keep myself afloat. It was exhausting and extremely stressful, and I would never want to do it again. But it showed me that no matter what I have the ability to control at least how I respond and react to everything.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson I had to unlearn was also related to covid. In that time I was planning on launching my first yoga retreat in Sicily Italy for June of 2020. As the pandemic descended upon us my full yoga retreat started to disintegrate. Everyone expect one person canceled. I had money invested and was not in a place to just let it go. There were endless sleepless nights, lots of tears and stress. Eventually I took a very small group of people in October of 2021. This is after rescheduling many times and not knowing what the outcome would have been.
What I have had to unlearn is the stress of this experience. I’m still learning this lesson. Since then I’ve lead 3 other retreats and helped other teachers with their retreats. Every time I would get a email for those other retreats I would have a sinking feeling that they were canceling. It was a weird PTSD experience that would send me into complete panic mode as I opened the email. Some of those emails did result in cancelations but I had to realize I can’t have attachment to a specific outcome. Everyone who is meant to be apart of each of these experiences will be there. And now there are safeguards in place to help protect my financial investment.
Its still incredibly stressful to run retreats, but the experience when you are there is worth the stress. I just know I need to handle it differently.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eventfulyoga.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eventfulyoga/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eventfulyoga/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3sKOkgzXRH3e-TR2fzz3gA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eventful-yoga-park-city
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g57097-d12910647-Reviews-Eventful_Yoga-Park_City_Utah.html
