We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikki Collier. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikki below.

Hi Nikki, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I have been a yoga teacher for about 17 years now, having had other “jobs” as I taught on the side. After the loss of our little one (our second born), I took a deep dive into the world of trauma informed yoga instruction. As I healed, I found myself drawn to offering this practice to the many walking wounded in our community. After some extra education, and much planning, I decided to open my first yoga studio, Shanti Yoga in Fallon Nevada, and began serving all I could reach there. My husband supported my every whim and remodeled the entire space for my offerings.

Things in my first studio began to go well and pick up, and I couldn’t be happier. I received an email in 2021 from one of my teachers saying she was selling her studio an hour away in Reno, Nevada. This studio, Yoga Loka, was my original yoga home, where I had completed a lot of my education, and where I had worked thru what I assumed was a forever and insurmountable grief. I could not stand the thought of it becoming something else so I asked my husband that we consider buying it. Understand, this was right in the middle of the Covid pandemic shut down. The studio was closed and in financial ruin. Upon meeting with the previous owner, however, my amazing husband knew that if the risk would make me smile that we had to do it. It was the biggest and most extreme move we have ever made and it was a brutal transition for us and the businesses.

Fast forward three years, and the road has smoothed out, the studio has undergone beautiful changes, and we have been able to meet and reach so many incredible souls from a community we were not even a part of before. We have had many many financial struggles, hard decisions, and what the hell moments but here we are…in love with our businesses.

I think that the financial risk, burden, and stress has been a factor in all of this that I might not choose to do again, especially during a pandemic. I cannot, however, look over the eyes of the students we have reached, the ease in their faces as they walk out our door lighter than when they came in. The love and the gratitude.

Serving our community as a healer, a trauma sensitive yoga teacher, and a safe space for the wounded to collect and work thru their hurt is something I would take any risk to keep doing/being. This is how I healed, and it is what I do in my daughter’s honor. These people, these students, are why I am here. They are my story.

Nikki, 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?

In both of our studios (Shanti Yoga in Fallon Nv and Yoga Loka in Reno Nv) I offer trauma sensitive yoga classes for healing of deep wounds. Together with our sound healing practices and guided meditations, we help survivors of trauma to re establish their mind body connection and to care for themselves as they heal. We help them to nourish their bodies with nutrition, movement, love and support to reach deep inside and meet the highest version of themselves, often long hidden behind the version of themselves they created just to survive.

My own personal practice stemmed from the traumas of my own that are dotted throughout my life, and giving to others the peace that yoga has given to me is where I got my start. I have worked in long term care, been an EMT in busy emergency rooms, a sleep tech, CNA, and I hold both a bachelor and a master of science degree.

Aside from the post trauma work I do, I love to offer fun and energetic classes, mini series, boot camps, and workshops. My big love is yoga philosophy so I try to keep something relevant to that in our workshops schedule.

I am deeply empathic, high energy, a mom to three littles and four dogs, and forever playful. I welcome all humans, and I love what I do.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think the biggest help in building my reputation has been my rule of transparency. I am honest to a fault, and I don’t mind answering any question that anyone has. I am authentic and genuine, easy to talk to and I keep it this way so that lines of communication stay open and trust is established easily.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

The story of how I met my business partner is ultra cute (says me). I met him when I was 14 and had just moved across the country to join his high school. We met outside the main entrance of our school and we have been together ever since. My business partner is my best friend, my backbone, my biggest support…my husband.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yogalokareno.com
• Instagram: @yogalolareno and @shanti.yoga.fallon
• Facebook: Nikki Collier
• Linkedin: Nikki Collier

Image Credits

Photo credit to Laura Howard for the picture of myself (seated with hands on chest and belly).