Happy Anniversary Haus!
Back in my heyday of traveling to teach, studio owners would always ask me the same question: do you have any desire to open a studio someday? While my answer may come as a surprise, it made perfect sense to me a the time — it was always a resounding ‘no’.
Maybe it’s the non-committal gemini in me, or simply the deep fear and respect I have for the astronomical amount of work that goes into running a brick and mortar. Or maybe it had something to do with watching the behind-the-scenes drama at my home studio, Yogaworks, because y’all — keeping yoga teachers in line is like herding cats. Or Ashi at chow-time.
All this to say: I have NEVER wanted to own a studio. I’d state this with pride because it directly correlated to my teaching ethos: know thyself. Don’t run with the crowd or fall into expectations. Remember that Robert Frost guy? Yeah, what he said.
Instead I explored a plethora of hats, testing every style but struggling to find the perfect fit. And as I sit here, days before the one-year anniversary of Haus of Phoenix, I thought I’d reminisce over the highlights from the winding road that led us here.
2 June 1982: I was born. C-section baby, originally an identical twin, born at 1:34pm 5lbs 7oz. Tiny but mighty.
May 1992: A shy but curious 6th grader found her spotlight: I was cast in the school play of Cinderella as the Evil Stepmother. I caught the theatre bug and would never be the same.
October 2003: A third year at UVa, I took my first proper yoga class downtown. I hated it. Determined, my friend dragged me to a different class the following week. Ashtanga, led by Jennifer Elliot. Just like stepping on stage for the first time, I felt that bite again — I was in love.
August 2004: I moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. I was accepted into the Yogaworks TT led by someone named Maty Ezraty and Chuck Miller. I was OBLIVIOUS to prestige of these people and place. A few months later, I graduated, and Maty —the love-of-my-yoga-life — put me on the Westwood Yogaworks schedule as a student teacher. And so it began …
Some shitty time in 2007: After several small parts, scoring my SAG card, and having a manager tell me I could be the ‘funny best friend’ at my weight, I auditioned for a yoga DVD only to be told I was by far the best person for the job, but that I wasn’t cast because I had a ‘tire around my waist’. My dream of Hollywood officially died.
2009: I went home to visit my parents in Charleston, SC, where I asked a local studio if I could teach a workshop. This was the first traveling event of countless that would span the next decade of my yoga career.
September 2011: I released my very-own DVD: Aim True Yoga with Gaiam. I created all of the content and had full artistic say in the design. No one commented on my body. Power was coming back.
October 2015: I met the love of life: Kate. Fires were set, my first marriage failed, and my life was flipped upside down. It was time to reassess everything.
March 2016: I published my second book, AIM TRUE, which was a lifestyle book filled with yoga, recipes, and writings on what ‘aim true’ meant to me. This was my first valiant attempt on trying to break through a new door. Yes, I was a yoga teacher, but I was filled with so much more. The book did well, but the door held.
October 2018: Kate and I got married. My philosophy on life had dramatically changed, and priorities were shifted. I no longer sought happiness from my success, but flipped the formula. I could finally explore my passions and what it meant to be me without needing approval or shine.
2020: WHAT IS LIFE. WHAT IS TIME. WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING. (Also the end of my traveling career. Something I had been craving for years.)
June 2021: I resigned from Glo after teaching online for over a decade. It was liberating and terrifying. My safety net was gone.
Summer of 2021: I hired Tess Carver to be my assistant, toying at the idea of ‘starting my own online platform where I’d teach once a week’.
*insert lololololo*
A few weeks later, the concept of Haus of Phoenix was born, its fire illuminating all the facets of my personality and passions I had longed to bring to life. Tess had already evolved into the Haus manager, and I met Stephen Johnston: the most epic graphic designer who took my insides and spun them in glorious color for all to see.
3 August 2021: Haus of Phoenix was born. A spark of an idea that turned into a bonfire of possibility: yoga, movement, meditation, recipes, magick, rituals, community, book club, inclusivity, action, truth, unbelievable beauty.
Our Launch Trailer
And here we are, a year later, surrounded by a community that I never knew could exist. An online community that rivals the intimacy of all my in-person experiences. An international group that communicates with each other daily, that pops into pre-class chats when they can’t make the practice just because they want to say hi. A coven that protects each other, mails out personal art, balm, support, poetry.
So like I said: I never wanted to own a studio, but it turns out I wanted to build a home. I may not have know it at the time, but each experience throughout the years was a brick, paving the diverse and rich road to our Haus.
Happy birthday, fam. I love you all.