Overcoming Failure and Finding Purpose with Shana Meyerson

Brad Minus: And welcome back to another episode of Life-Changing Challengers. Of course, I'm your host, Brad minus, and I am super lucky to have Shana Meyerson. She is the founder of Yoga Athletica, where she teaches online yoga, in person yoga, and she's amazing. But her story of how she got there is nothing short of amazing.

How are you doing today, Shana? 

Shana Meyerson: I'm doing awesome. Thanks so much for having me, Brad. It's great to be here. 

Brad Minus: Oh, I, we appreciate it so much. And of course the first question as I ask everybody, Shauna, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up, what was the compliment of your family and what was it like to be Shauna as a kid?

Shana Meyerson: Sure. So I could just preface this by saying I was like such the proverbial middle child. So if anybody's a middle child, they're going to be like that. So I was one of four. In fact, I had [00:01:00] an older sister who got the privilege of the oldest. I had a younger sister who was way younger. She got the privilege of being a baby.

And then my brother and I, in the middle, he was the only boy. And then there was just. Shauna in the middle. I mean, it sounds like a sitcom, but you know, I have to say that because of being, just Shauna, I guess you would call it, I was the overest overachiever that like ever hit first grade, right?

Like I can remember even as a child, like my specific strategies that I would. Create to make sure that I was always ahead of the curve. I mean, I was just born that way. And I think that what was super defining about my childhood and why it led it really to where I am today is I like, there's no other real word for it.

I was the golden child, right? Cause as a middle child, you have to be, [00:02:00] or you just get lost in the shuffle. Right. I never got anything less than an A F like ever. I was AP everything. I was the captain of every team. I was the president of every club. I was, I was selected by the U S Congress to represent my district at the national model Congress.

Like, like if there was an owner, I got it. And it sounds great. And you, but the problem is that when you live that kind of childhood and you're always being showered with praise, you become a praise junkie. Right. And everything is about, it's not a hubris. It wasn't that at all, but it was just, I was so used to.

Oh, Shauna has this under control. Shauna will nail that. Shauna will win that. Shauna, whatever, which is great. Oh, wonderful. Right. Until the day you wake up to the thin letter that says you didn't get into Stanford [00:03:00] and when you went 17 years without any thin letters, it was pure devastation.

Brad Minus: Wow. 

Shana Meyerson: Like, like, I thought my life was over literally. I'm like, this is where it ends. I, this is what I've been working for 17 years. And I never really experienced rejection for all those years in any serious way. And my life changed that day and I can look back and laugh about it now, but.

I was a competitive tennis player and that weekend I was the number one seed at the USA tournament that I was in junior circuit number one seed. Okay. I'm in my first match. I lost the first game. Now, if you know anything about tennis, right? There's a minimum of six, minimum six games in the set and you play a minimum of two sets, right?

And I lost one game and I walked off and I never played tennis [00:04:00] again for like 25 years. That like, when I say that my life just fell over, I, again, I guess I could laugh about it now. And it was such a stupid on every level. decision, emotional moment that I couldn't turn back from. But why is this important?

Because from 17 years old till I discovered yoga when I was 30, I thought my life was worth nothing. I went from Shauna can do anything to Shauna couldn't do the one thing in life that she, the one thing. That was the most important. She couldn't do it. And so it made for a really difficult, like college, post college experience because I very much like just held onto that rejection and allowed it to define me.

Brad Minus: Okay. So I think like, let me step back just a minute. [00:05:00] So when you say that you lost that game, you lost that that, that game after learning that you didn't make it to college. Okay. So the reason why you walked up, okay. So I thought it was like almost two separate things. Like, okay. No, it was everything.

Right. You went, you didn't get into Stanford. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, cause I was going to say, I was gonna say, I don't care how good you are. You're going to at least lose one game of set. Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: Losing games wasn't weird for me. 

Brad Minus: Okay. Yeah, no, 

Shana Meyerson: it was like, and done, like, I'm not, I'm done with tennis, like right now.

Brad Minus: Okay. Wow. 

Shana Meyerson: And I mean, keep in mind again, like that was every, I was in all AP classes, but I was still practicing tennis a minimum of three hours every day after school during summer. I had matches from sun up until the lights went off. I was just match, match. Like this was my life. 

Brad Minus: You were committed.

Shana Meyerson: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So when you say, you took AP classes [00:06:00] and that, and that you've you excelled in school there are some people that can go to school, they can sit in class, they can just, they can do their homework and they can get all those A's and they can get AP's and stuff. Did you find that you had a, you actually had to work at it or did you find that some of the things were, okay, I could, you I could ride through this and get an A without a problem.

But yet but obviously tennis, you were like, no, three hours a day. You didn't make sure of it, but in school, did you find that maybe school came easier or just as hard in school as you did with tennis? 

Shana Meyerson: I worked I, the AP curriculum at my school was insane. I mean, it was so insane that I did wind up going to, not to Stanford, but, to an Ivy league school.

And I, even though I went to public school for high school, I was far more prepared for school than anybody. Any of the prep school kids there. I mean, we had a rigorous AP curriculum at my [00:07:00] school. So to answer your question, I was studied till like 1am, like most nights. But I also always had something of a photographic memory to an extent.

Like on an exam, if I needed to come up with an answer, I could literally. Picture it on the page and that, and I could read it in my head where the answer was, 

Brad Minus: but 

Shana Meyerson: it wasn't instant, but I did have that. If I watched, if I read a page enough times that I could literally tell you exactly on the page, what the words were and what they said, 

Brad Minus: I, at my best, there was like certain things.

I think what it was is if I was. Interested in the subject. Like if I was truly interested in the subject, I could label, I could rattle off some things just like what you said. I can, I'm looking at the test. I can go back and I can see it. If I wasn't interested in it though, and I was just learning it to learn it.

I couldn't remember darn anything, not at all, but yet. And the reason why I asked this is that I have a [00:08:00] nephew and my nephew, when he went to school would go to school when he was in, he was mainstreamed and he would go to school and he'd sit in class. And that's what come up. 99 percent 100 percent 98 percent 99 percent never touched a book.

Shana Meyerson: Ah, nailed, failed 

Brad Minus: out of, had a redo eighth grade because he didn't turn his homework in, but nailed all of the tests. Yeah. He just sit there and nail all the tests, but refused to do his homework. 

Shana Meyerson: Not me. I've always been like, I know this is going to sound weird because it's an entrepreneur. Like I've made all my own rule, like really made all my own world rules because I created an industry.

But the flip side of that is I've always been a rule follower and I always do. I've always done everything by the book. And so, no, I studied very hard, but I had very good habits. And in, in [00:09:00] wonderful parents who really put a very high value on education and all four of us were straight A students, but none of us ever once had to be asked to do our homework ever or study or anything, just would 

Brad Minus: you attribute that to?

Shana Meyerson: I attribute, honestly. So I'm Jewish. I come from a home that has really strong Jewish values. And I think that one of the things that has like. Me, the Jewish people exceptional in the world has been our emphasis on education. And so. My parents are, have, are very highly educated all my grandparents, including the grandmothers, which was rare in that generation, at least they both had their college degrees.

They, I think my Bobby might've had a master's in teaching, in fact which was rare, right? And so I think it's just a family value. 

Brad Minus: Okay. So it was more expected and it was just a hundred percent. 

Shana Meyerson: [00:10:00] Yeah. Sorry. What did 

Brad Minus: your parents do? 

Shana Meyerson: Okay. So now you're gonna laugh. My mother is an SAT prep expert and she was doing it.

Well, no, I mean, it's where she was doing in the seventies. Before sat, SAT prep was a thing. Like there was no Princeton Review, there was no Kaplan, right? Like none of this existed. She started teaching SATs in the seventies which is one of the reasons why I rocked my SATs, of course. Which didn't hurt.

Take 

Brad Minus: advantage of your resources. 

Shana Meyerson: Yeah. I got the highest SATs in my class, but I was sitting in a, so talk about overachievement. I used to sit in on her SAT classes like. As often as I could since seventh or eighth grade, I was like sitting with the seniors and I'm just like, I loved it in my free time. I would do the math exams because I loved math.

Brad Minus: Oh my God. No wonder. No wonder you've, I mean, you had 10 [00:11:00] years of practice before you took the 

Shana Meyerson: SAT. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Most people are only a couple of months. You got 10 years. 

Shana Meyerson: Yeah, I definitely scored big on that one 

Brad Minus: and my dad 

Shana Meyerson: was originally a lawyer, but he left that got into real estate 

Brad Minus: That's interesting. My dad wasn't a lawyer, but he was an accountant, but he got into real estate as well.

Shana Meyerson: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So I don't know. It must be something in the Jewish blood. Yeah. Right. Right. Okay. So what did, so, all right, so go ahead. We'll praise you. Tell us what Ivy school you went to. 

Shana Meyerson: Oh, it's embarrassing today. I went to Cornell. 

Brad Minus: Wow. That's not embarrassing. Not at all. Cornell is. Please Cornell is still an Ivy league school.

It is still hard to get into. And in this, so don't be embarrassed. Not at all. There's no reason for it. And you studied. 

Shana Meyerson: I 

Brad Minus: like 

Shana Meyerson: all yoga teachers. I studied industrial and labor relations, 

Brad Minus: right? [00:12:00] Yes. 

Shana Meyerson: I, so I went to the ILR school, which so Cornell is seven colleges and the ILR school is like the pre law school.

And it's only 150 kids per class. It's a very small school. And out of 150 kids in my class, if I'm not mistaken, we got 50 kids into Harvard law, it's a feeder school. And so I, my original intention was to become a lawyer, like my father and my grandfather. I not only did I pivot hard, but I actually graduated a year early because I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing here.

This isn't what I, and I did, yes, have an A minus average cause it's hard to get through college by doing double, like the work for two years. And, but yeah, I was definitely on a different path than I wound up in. And I think that's the beauty of life's journey. Like you [00:13:00] never know what is sitting just around the corner.

You just don't know. 

Brad Minus: No, I hear you. So I started college in 1984 because we were looking it up as it was as I was trying to find schools and get ready and all this stuff. I'm sorry. I didn't start that. I take that back. That was high school. I started in 1988. 1988. I started high. I started college and we were doing all of the research at that time.

The average freshman changed their major 7 times. I don't know if it's still that way, but at that time I still remember it. They're like, cause I changed my major dad. Yeah. Okay. You got six more times. That's 

Shana Meyerson: funny at Cornell, the big joke, because Cornell has oddly enough, like this hotel management school, it's the best hotel school in America, which doesn't seem very like Ivy league y and they always said like all of us said that.

Organic chem was the class that turned pre [00:14:00] med into hotelies.

Brad Minus: That's funny. Oh my God. 

Shana Meyerson: By the way, I was never either one of those, but I know multiple friends who took that path. 

Brad Minus: Jeez. That's, and they're probably making big dollars right now. So, 

Shana Meyerson: not everything's about dollars, 

Brad Minus: yeah. Yeah. Back then. That was the driving force at that point and that we didn't, 

Shana Meyerson: yeah, you and I are just one year apart.

I went to college. Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. But so when we, it was all about, all right, well, what are you going to do out of here to make the money? Even my parents were like that. So, cause I started, I went to school for, I started in a fine arts degree. Oh, wow. They're all sitting there like, like, well, what are you going to do with that?

You need to do something else to, have something to work on. You know what I mean? So, I mean, so like I turned fine arts to my into communications broadcast and public relations which was, which a lot of the [00:15:00] classes. Spilled over into what I wanted to do in the first place was resacting.

I wanted to be, I was a theater. I started as a theater major, so yeah, so I mean, and so it's like, Oh, well you got to do something that's going to make you some money. That's a whole different story. So, you got to, so you get it at Cornell and what was your next step? 

Shana Meyerson: So I decided that in Instead of being a lawyer, I was going to go to Hollywood.

I mean, I'm from here. I'm from California, from Southern California. But I decided I was gonna be a screenwriter instead. So I got a job at ICM, which is talent agency. One of the, that year was the number two talent agency in the world. Now, like there's so many conglomerations and stuff, but it's still like top two or three.

And I worked in the film industry for about seven years doing script development. Which is, yeah, it's like, but what is script development? Script development is basically the concept of like editing someone else's screenplay. [00:16:00] Like what a normal person would think of as editing, right. I mean, not grammatically, but, helping them with their story structure and stuff.

But I, Never quit my job to become a screenwriter myself. It was always something I did on the side, which meant I was never going to succeed. If you want to get into a cut with throat industry, you can't do it as a side hustle. It doesn't work. 

Brad Minus: Especially back then when, we didn't have The electronics that, where you're sitting on your, you can't be sitting on your lunch break, dictating into your phone, scripts and like doing some stuff on your stuff on the side, which you can now, back then it wasn't a typewriter, or a word processor that, that weighs 200 pounds, so there was none of that.

Whereas now you sell, you probably still can't. I believe, I've maintained some of my performing arts, but even then, it's still pretty hard, but wow. So, 

Shana Meyerson: yeah. And then I left there, I got a job. This was [00:17:00] again, like super weird. I've had like the weirdest. Professional background.

I got a job as like a Microsoft product specialist, which was basically their traveling roadshow. I had never used Microsoft products. I was always a Mac person since it was, like a box on my desk. And I got this weird, fabulous job with them. I loved it. And from there, like everybody at the turn of the century, I went into the dot com world and then also simultaneously decided to get my MBA.

So I was working and also going to school here at UCLA for my MBA at 

Brad Minus: the century 

Shana Meyerson: at the turn of the century. 

Brad Minus: Guess guess that you should probably guess the date 

Shana Meyerson: of my 

Brad Minus: graduation from my MBA. December 1999. 

Shana Meyerson: Oh, 1999. Okay. 

Brad Minus: Washington D. C. [00:18:00] 

Shana Meyerson: I got my MBA. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, I was in the military at the time. But yeah.

Yeah. So, but yeah, that's, so you said turn of the century. You got your MBA and I'm like December, 1989. That's started, 

Shana Meyerson: yeah. I actually got, actually started. 

Brad Minus: Oh, okay. And 

Shana Meyerson: I didn't even start in 2000. I started 2001, but I'm just I'm speaking general turn of the century, not like January 1st, 2000.

Brad Minus: Oh, alright. Well I was just, yeah, no, I mean it's still, you're still turn of the century, but 

Shana Meyerson: yeah, 

Brad Minus: when you said that I'm like. No one got their MBA, like at the turn of the century, like I did. 

Shana Meyerson: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: So I was like, I thought you were going to say like 2000. Like you got it. I'm like, Oh, look at that.

Look how much we are. We're close. I did performing arts. You worked in screenwriting. We both got our MBAs around the same time. We both went to school. Does it starting at the same time? Except, I went to second tier schools and you went to Ivy league schools. That's true. Okay. 

Shana Meyerson: Ivy league. But yeah.

Yeah. Right. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, it's still up there. So, there's a somewhere around this time is this about [00:19:00] somewhere around this time is when you started just picking up yoga? 

Shana Meyerson: Yeah, and I didn't want to interrupt you per se. I did not complete my MBA. So, so as the person who completes everything, like, I am a completer.

Like, every day I have a massive task list that I keep. I've got one in my Outlook and I have one on my Mac too, like, depending on how important it is. And I mark off every day. Every single task, every single day, there is no sleeping until every task is done. That's the person I am. So, so believe me that not completing my MBA was a thing.

So I discovered yoga while I was at school and I decided to, so I'll fast forward and we can go backwards if we want to, but I was one of the first people in the Western world to teach yoga to children. I had a vision and so I started this. So now I had a job, [00:20:00] I had started a new company and I was getting my MBA all at the same time and ate, something had to give.

It turned out it was two things. I left my career and UCLA because mini Yogi's got very big, very fast. But do you want to hear the funny story? 

Brad Minus: Yes. 

Shana Meyerson: So. I, again, many yogis was very successful very quickly because I created a market. I had no competition. And I was halfway through my MBA program and I was in a class with probably about 30 peers and the professor, apropos of nothing, I mean, like out of nowhere says to the class, and it was so weird, he goes, Ms.

Meyerson is not an entrepreneur. He goes, simply teaching yoga to children does not make one an entrepreneur. And like your face. [00:21:00] So the funny thing was I have one of two entrepreneurs in the class. Like I was one of two people who actually had a business and I stood up and I'm like, excuse me. I'm like, I created a product.

Yeah. I created a market. And I'm making a living at it. I'm like, what is your definition of an entrepreneur? And I walked out and I never went back. That was the end of my MBA. I decided that it wasn't serving me to be there. I wasn't appreciated. I did get this attitude from a lot of professors at UCLA who it was all about finance and they're like yoga for kids.

Like they thought it was ridiculous. Here's what's funny, Brad. One year later, one year later, I was the cover story for entrepreneur magazine. com. 

Brad Minus: Oh, that was a fricking, that was [00:22:00] an F you to those fricking, that was great. That's fantastic. I love that. Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: Now they were all electronic already at that point, but it was their top banner article.

Brad Minus: Yes. 

Shana Meyerson: I sent it to him. 

Brad Minus: I would. Yeah. I would have sent it to all of them. 

Shana Meyerson: Well, I mean, the truth is that like, first of all, the fellow students were very supportive of me, like your face, like when he said that, like, I'm telling you, the air was sucked out of the room. He literally dismissed everybody when I walked out because everybody was like, Like, why would you say that?

Like, that was so inappropriate. We admire what she's doing. She's not on a path that any of us is on, but isn't that what an entrepreneur is? But listen, to his credit, after I very unhumbly sent him the article, he actually invited me in to talk to his [00:23:00] class about entrepreneurship, which was very kind and he apologized.

So it's all good. It's just funny. 

Brad Minus: Oh, no, it's very funny. Did you ever see back to school, Rodney Dangerfield? 

Shana Meyerson: Yes, I did. 

Brad Minus: That's when I'm, what do you remember? Do you know the scene I'm thinking of? 

Shana Meyerson: I don't remember much about it. I remember seeing it like in the last 10 years for a second time and going, wow, this is surprisingly funny.

Brad Minus: Oh, it was, it's hilarious. Yeah. But so right. Dangerfield walks into a business, his business class, and it's his first one. And he's sitting there and the. The teacher is the business school and he's like going everything all theory, like, and Ryan Daniel's field just sitting there. He's got his own way to hear you.

What do you, you can't do it. That it and he's like, Mr. I forgot what they called him Mr. Dangerfield do you have something to say? And I was like, I don't know where you're trying to build this thing. Fantasy land. And he's like, where's the money to grease the teamsters? Where's the, where what are you going to do about the building inspectors?

What are you going to [00:24:00] do? But he goes, We don't do business that way. Well, then you're not going to do business at all. And everybody like looks back to them and everything. Oh my God. It was just, it was like absolutely, probably the funniest, one of the funniest scenes in there. And there's a lot of really funny scenes, but it reminds you remind me of that because, you basically say him saying you're not an entrepreneur and you walk out of there and F you and get on entrepreneurial magazine.

That's fantastic. But that's so, but we need to step back then real quick is so, Is your entry into yoga? Cause you went right to teaching for many, to many kids. And you didn't, we didn't even get, we didn't even get to the point where you like, what got you into yoga to start with, 

Shana Meyerson: right?

So I was always an intense athlete as previously mentioned, even though my tennis career ended quite abruptly. I still continued my athletics very much. And I, one day was walking around my apartment and I [00:25:00] ran into a piece of furniture. Yes, I'm old. It was a CD cabinet. If anybody knows what a CD is and I broke my pinky toe.

And so I couldn't do like the writing, the running, the biking, the things that I was used to every day. So as my foot was getting better and I knew I could stand on it, but I still couldn't wear a shoe and certainly couldn't. Do any sort of impact. I'm like, there was somebody at the gym, which I used to go at four to seven every morning who told, who was telling me for years about this, like yoga class I had to try.

I'm like, right. Yoga. Like I'm going to sit on the floor and hum. That sounds right up my alley. And. When my foot was healing, I'm like, okay, maybe it's time to sit on the floor and hum. Like, maybe I'll just try it, and so I had, you told me a minute before I walked into that yoga class, I would ever be a yoga [00:26:00] teacher.

Much less for the last 22 and a half years. I would have laughed in your face, laughed in your face. But that class, like I fell in love on such a visceral level. And if we can go full circle here, back to like baby Shauna, overachiever, golden child, Shauna, failure, Shauna, judgmental, my life is over.

Shauna walks into yoga, Shauna. And it was the first time in my life. I was. I was almost 30. It was just a few weeks before my 30th birthday. It was the first time that anybody ever told me that it was okay to fall. And I don't blame my parents for that. There was no reason for them to tell me that because I never fell, does that make sense?

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: When I didn't get in Stanford, there was a lot of like, it's okay to fall, but it was a little too late. And that was not only the biggest revelation of my entire life. [00:27:00] But all I could think was, why didn't anyone tell me this when I was three? And that's where many yogis came from. And though.

Yoga athletica at this point and that's a whole nother story is my much bigger business my adult Yoga, I hate adult yoga because it like now it's like are you naked? No, i'm not Dead. It's just not my kid yoga But I still do mini yogis in a big way. It's just yoga athletic has become my predominant.

Focus but that was really Why I decided to leave my career and leave business school and leave my perceived future a hundred percent behind me. I didn't know if I'd ever earned another dollar. And back then yoga instructors were earning an average of 17, 000 a year. I was earning six figures within about two or three [00:28:00] years maximum.

And It paid off. What did I say? But let's go back one more time to remember how I said, I was never willing to quit a job to become a screenwriter while I quit everything to be a yoga teacher, and that's why God provides, when you say, this is who I am, who I need to be. And the message that I need to bring to the world, God's like, okay, here.

Brad Minus: I think, and that, and God provides us with. a route to passion. He doesn't give it to you, but he might give you the guiding steps to the route. I, there's, I think that there's something to say about you hitting your pinky toe, right, and not being able to do anything. That's right. And still knowing that you were going to go to the gym either [00:29:00] way, you're going to do what you could and then providing you with a person just.

bantering you about going to yoga just to get you in that one time, and for them to show you the path and they showed you the path. And yeah, I just think that's the way to think about it rather than, people, it might've gone a different way. You know what I mean?

I've talked to some people that, lost their jobs and it was out of desperation, picked up things like affiliate marketing. Sure. Because of the desperation, but then loved it. 

Shana Meyerson: Right. 

Brad Minus: And then made three, four, five times what they were earning in their job. 

Shana Meyerson: Right. 

Brad Minus: Did they have to go through some hard stuff?

Yeah. And I imagine you did too. 

Shana Meyerson: Sure. Well, you want to hear something else crazy? 

Brad Minus: Sure. 

Shana Meyerson: And what you're saying, like, yes, like everything is good news, bad news. You think something's really bad, but you never know where it's going to take you. And also life is very nonlinear. Everyone thinks like, Oh, like I left this job.

So therefore I have this job. It's not just that I lived in this city and [00:30:00] therefore I have this job. I broke up with this guy. Therefore I have this, like, like your whole life changes with every decision. So to say like, everything is just work is ridiculous, but So when I, so remember when you leave a job, you don't get unemployment insurance or anything.

Like I was like leap, right. And I left the job. I was at that point I was doing writing for an interactive learning company way before interactive learning was a thing. This is turn of the century. I mean, this was crazy. And I left and the next week I get a call from somebody, this was before LinkedIn.

I don't even know how this happened. And they said, we need somebody to write this project for us. Can you write it for us? Now, keep in mind, freelance writing, you get to do on your own time. You can do in the middle of the night. So it's perfect when you're starting a business and I'm pretty articulate.

I'm a very [00:31:00] facile writer. I was, I had been a writer for many years. So when they're like, we'll pay you for whatever, 400 hours. I don't know what the project was anymore, but this was 22 years ago. I can finish it in 50 and finish it really well. Cause you have to revise. If you don't, it's not like you could be like, okay, here, bye.

Right. And like to the day, basically when that ended, I was earning as much. Teaching yoga as I had been at my previous job. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: God was like, it was a calling. It was a calling. 

Brad Minus: Wow. 

Shana Meyerson: I'm like, I'm blessed. 

Brad Minus: Do you want to, do you want to know something? My, we are such parallels. My first job out of the military.

Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Second job, my second job out of the military. Cause I, I worked on a contract. I worked for the department of labor. [00:32:00] What they called the ADL CoLab. 

Shana Meyerson: Okay. 

Brad Minus: Advanced distant learning. 

Shana Meyerson: Oh, right. 

Brad Minus: Which have you ever heard? Have you ever heard of SCORM? S C O R M. And I can't remember the acronym, but it's mod modules objective objects.

Anyway, it's, it is, it was the standard. That's interactive learning. It was the start, the very, I was on the board to make the standards or interactive e learning. 

Shana Meyerson: That's crazy. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Right. That's what I'm saying. I mean, the parallels are ridiculous. You want to hear 

Shana Meyerson: something else crazy? 

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: One of the projects I did, there was this Harvard professor named Gary Hamill, and he's an innovation expert.

Like he talks about radical innovation. And that's his. The area of expertise. And I had [00:33:00] taken his book, not like, like, like for the company I was working for, not like I did it, it wasn't like freelance or anything. And I turned it into an interactive, like learning thing. Do you know that when I went to UCLA for business school, the first Book, they assigned for me was the one that I basically wrote.

Brad Minus: Oh my God. I can't imagine you walking in there and you're like spitting out stuff from the book and barely touching it. I mean, I had memorized 

Shana Meyerson: the book. I had to rewrite the whole entire thing into interactive format. 

Brad Minus: That's, oh my God, that's crazy. I would, it would have been, that would have been the biggest laugh.

It would have been the biggest, like, I can't imagine like a relief, all right, well, I don't have to worry about this class. That's 

Shana Meyerson: right. That's right. I'll ace this book. And I'll tell you something else. As part of that, I had to create a radical innovation for grocery stores, which is so random.

You know what I thought of? [00:34:00] That this would, I mean, computers were pretty nascent back then, 

Brad Minus: but 

Shana Meyerson: I'm like, People can send in probably fax. We were still using faxes back then. Their orders to a store, somebody will gather their stuff and put it in a locker where they can pick it up. 

Brad Minus: That's awesome. 

Shana Meyerson: 20 years later, Amazon locker comes out.

Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Right. And and our grocery stores are doing pickup. 

Shana Meyerson: Sure. 

Brad Minus: They're doing that exact same thing, except they're bringing them out to your car instead of you going to a locker. 

Shana Meyerson: Yeah, but I was like, the locker, the key, the code, the whole thing. Like, 

Brad Minus: that's 

Shana Meyerson: crazy. Yep. 

Brad Minus: That's amazing. Absolutely. I could 

Shana Meyerson: have been a millionaire!

Brad Minus: Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. So so you start this, you start mini kit. So what were the you told us the idea for how you came up with yoga mini [00:35:00] yogis. Yeah. You told us that idea. And then, so where, at what point did you turn or move? Mini Yogi's into yoga, athletica. 

Shana Meyerson: Well, I mean, I was doing them simultaneously.

Oh, 

Brad Minus: they came in together. Okay. 

Shana Meyerson: So, so here, so I have so many stories. I don't know if you want to hear all my stories. Of 

Brad Minus: course. Of course. That's why we're here. We want to know these were the nuggets come from. 

Shana Meyerson: Okay. This is funny, actually. So I decided I was going to start mini Yogi's and I was looking for a niche, right?

Like, who am I going to send this to? And I decided, I mean, this is so funny. So weird. I'm like, what, like, what like circles am I in? Like, who can I mark it to? And I came up with Jewish, like, that was like the best I could come up with. Okay. So I made this flyer and it said, putting the own back in Shalom.

And I did, yes, a fax blast. Okay, because this was like 2000, one, 2002, and I just sent it to [00:36:00] like all the temples that had like preschools. Right? Now, here's what's funny. I'm like, okay, so Chabad, which is the ultra Orthodox. I know, but not everybody knows that like the ones with the hats and the things and the jackets.

Yeah. And Like they're super, super religious, but there's a lot of them around here. And I'm like, well, should I even bother sending it to Chabad of Westwood? Cause it's very close to me. And I'm like, you know what, it's a matter of typing in 10 numbers. Who cares? Just send it. So I sent it. They were the first person to reply.

I'd sent out probably a hundred of them. The rabbi calls me immediately and he says. My wife was just telling me she wants to start yoga. Do you work with adults? Now the answer was I wasn't working with anybody, but I said, yes, of course I do And so I started working with her like literally that week.

Here's what's funny [00:37:00] Okay, this is why if you see a chance you take it Even if it seems like this is ridiculous just say yes to everything so You don't have to live in la to understand what i'm about to tell you In LA there's a family called the nans, okay? They are like the Habad royalty. There's like 12 boys and a girl, and each one got a congregation.

Now let me start rattling off the congregations and if you see a pattern, Beverly Hills, Bel Air. Malibu Santa Monica. Right. Okay. So what's the pattern? Brentwood? It's all 

Brad Minus: very, yeah, all very upper class. 

Shana Meyerson: That's right. They got all the wealthiest communities in Los Angeles, only like, like you could have downtown la we'll take Brentwood, right. And so what happened was I start working with this woman and she says. My [00:38:00] sister in law in Pacific Palisades, again, another very affluent area, has a summer camp. Are you willing, could you teach yoga to the kids? And wait, it gets better. So I said, yes. And she, and so I did. And she goes, my sister in law in Malibu has a preschool.

Can you teach there? Yes, I'm teaching there and they say, you know what our mommy and me group could really use a yoga teacher Can you teach there? Yes, our women's group needs yoga. Can you teach there? Yes, but here's where it gets interesting Then somebody there says my husband at Hughes Research Labs wants yoga at HRL Will you work there?

Now I'm out of Chabad. Now I'm like in the world, right? And then I'm working with their wives and their, and like literally my entire business and I was booked solid. That's what I'm saying. I was earning six figures very [00:39:00] quickly. I was booked solid, like immediately. It was all because of that one fact that I wasn't going to send to some religious rabbi in Westwood.

Brad Minus: That's amazing. All from a rabbi coming up to you and going, my wife, she's he's looking at doing some yoga. You think you can help her?

Then you go, of course I can. Yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: So it's like, again, like, like. These surprises that come out of nowhere, like you, you just don't know. And so I've been handed by the grace of God, just so many opportunities. It's obscene. And 

Brad Minus: yeah, so the lesson there definitely is even if you think it's not going to pan out, even if the stereotypical idea in your head.

Sure. Is that's probably not going to work. Do it anyway. What's the worst that can happen is your flyer, your email, whatever [00:40:00] gets 86. 

Shana Meyerson: Exactly. 

Brad Minus: That's the worst thing that can happen. Right? Nothing. No one's coming after you. No, no spam. Police is coming after you. You know what I mean?

Make the call, send the facts, send the email, put up the flyer, do whatever. And if it works. And you never know. 

Shana Meyerson: Ever since that day, I'm like, if no matter what the question for me, the answer is always, yes, I'll figure it out later. You want something from me? I'll make it happen. 

Brad Minus: It's a great story.

Did you ever there's a personal development coach. Her name is Laura Langmeier. Have you ever heard of her? Laura Langmeier. So she self made she has a book called the power of yes. 

Shana Meyerson: Okay. Yes. 

Brad Minus: Talks. She talks about that. She was just coming out of college and in her spare time, she was keeping and to make a little extra money while she was in school was teaching was like doing group fitness classes.

Shana Meyerson: [00:41:00] Okay. 

Brad Minus: And she got approached by the head of an oil company that had like, that hadn't, that had a few oil rigs and as asked, Hey, will you build, develop and run? A fitness center on the oil rig. 

Shana Meyerson: Oh my goodness. 

Brad Minus: So she's like, she was instead of sitting there going, well, I've never really done that.

It's out of my depth. She goes, yes yeah, I'll do it. And she's just what you said, I'll figure it out on the way, so she said, that's why she calls it the power of yes. So she did. And of course, just like you, she got one rig. Then two rigs, then all of a sudden headquarters of the of the oil company, which then got heard of by other major corporations where she misses and programs in there.

And it just went crazy. 

Shana Meyerson: Wow. Okay. That's bigger than me. I don't think so. 

Brad Minus: I'm not sure, but it was the idea that, I mean, let's face it oil [00:42:00] money. I mean, you don't get any bigger than oil money, yeah. So, you, the only thing that can even come close to oil money. Is Jewish yoga money, so, Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah. 

Shana Meyerson: Billions and billions that I rake in every year. But you know, it's funny, actually. I do very well for myself. I'm not going to lie. I'm very comfortable. Would I have done better had I stayed in Hollywood by 10 fold? Hey, would I have done better? Had I stayed with Microsoft probably by 20 fold because I would have had the stock options as well.

But would I have been happier? Hollywood, I could a hundred percent say no. Microsoft, I could probably say no because I just love what I do with every ounce of my being and I'm my own boss. So there's no treat. I loved Microsoft. I loved it. It was a really fun job. The people who went to business school with me so many of them were like, you know what?

I'm jealous. I wish that I could just do something that I love instead of something that I [00:43:00] feel earns enough money to pay, whatever. So I'm not the gazillionaire that I wish I were. I'm not going to lie. I wish I had many millions more than I have, among other things, cause I give massive amounts to charity.

And even when business is bad I, Send it out of my savings. I mean, that's who I am. So, I want to give and I want to give and I want to give and you can only give what you got. So there's that. But listen, we have to, I think it's really important to understand that there are.

Our intrinsic values to the work that we do, and there's extrinsic. And I think we get so wrapped up in the financials that just go to bed each night and say, you know what, God, there are people who don't have roofs over my head. I may not have like the most fabulous, most spectacular, most whatever house in the world, but man, I got a house.

Thank you. God. And as long as you can go to sleep each night and you've got food in your stomach and a [00:44:00] pillow under your head you're better than 95 percent of the world right there. So I've got everything I need. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.

Shana Meyerson: That's right. 

Brad Minus: So, you, maybe you, I always was brought up and I always thought, and for a long time I thought it was an excuse was that I'm just, I just don't wanna be comfortable, I don't wanna have to worry about food. I don't have to worry about, I don't have to worry about a roof.

I don't have to worry about a car. Sure. I don't wanna live paycheck to paycheck. And I'm just comfortable. And that's where I am. That's where I where I am now. Now my, the money side of my brain, the MBA side of my brain says, you're, that's an excuse. The other side of my brain says, you know what though?

I'm comfortable, I. I, I'm fairly I'm good at what I do both for money and for happiness. And and that's all right with me, you know what I mean? So, I work a nine to five, [00:45:00] I have a 40 hour job that I do in it. It's not a bad job. I don't mind it. I always thought there's like three when the alarm wakes up in the morning, there are three types of people.

There's a person that wakes up and goes, it's another day. Let's bang the sucker out. I am ready to frickin rock and roll. There's the middle guy that the alarm goes off and it's like, Alright, I gotta go to work. I don't mind going to work, but, I'd rather not go, but I don't mind it. Sure. And then there's the third guy, who just keeps hitting the snooze bar because he wants nothing to do with what's going on.

Does not want to go to work, is everything about going to work is a hassle, is a chore, and is just miserable, right? And number, and number two is okay. Hopefully that's a transition, but you want to be that number one guy that you wouldn't have that number one person. A 

Shana Meyerson: hundred percent. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. And it sounds like you are that number one person.

Shana Meyerson: I'm number one, 

Brad Minus: right? No, exactly. See, [00:46:00] I'm still singing your praises, Shana. 

Shana Meyerson: Thanks. 

Brad Minus: So you're still getting it. You're not 17 anymore, but I'm still singing praises.

Shana Meyerson: So. Thank you. Thank you very much. 

Brad Minus: So, let's cap this off with, give me. If you met someone who is on the verge, right? Maybe they have, maybe they've got a job that they're not so crazy about. They don't mind doing it, but they have a side hustle that if they were able to put all their, if they put all their time into it they could probably do something with it and make it that they're living or the top three pieces of advice that you would give them.

Shana Meyerson: Oh boy. 

Brad Minus: Putting you on the spot. No, 

Shana Meyerson: I mean, honestly, I think that if you're going to leave everything behind, make sure that you're willing to go balls to the walls there. There's no 50 percent when you're leaving your life behind. Right. So that, that would be number one. Number two is you have to trust in yourself.

[00:47:00] And I think that, So many of us are so dependent on other people either recognizing or validating us that we second guess our own power in our own awesome. So number two is don't worry what anybody says you need to follow your vision, but you got to believe in your vision because otherwise it's just a daydream.

And Number three is you just, you need to commit to making yourself better every single day of your life. If you want to do something that's better than what you're doing today, you're going to have to be better. Or win the lottery. Could I give number four is win the lottery. 

Brad Minus: All right. Yeah, no, that's great.

That's fantastic. So, so balls to the wall, a hundred percent commitment, no matter what. Believe in yourself, believe in your vision, no matter what anybody else says. And [00:48:00] and you got to keep learning keep learning, don't rely on what you already know. And you might be the number one person in your field or in your business.

You still got to keep learning. 

Shana Meyerson: It doesn't stop. , there's no space for complacency and excellence. They don't go together. 

Brad Minus: And the only way out of it is number four, and that's to win a lottery . So, . So I'm working 

Shana Meyerson: on that too, believe me. 

Brad Minus: Oh, are we all, especially it's, especially it takes it, what?

It's now it's like seven weeks or something. Seven weeks without a winner, and it's at a billion dollars. It's crazy. So anyway, Shauna, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us here. I think there's a lot of great stuff that you gave a lot of well deserved nuggets for people that, Hey, if you're on that, if you're looking for that new next step, that new life, that new version of yourself, or just to level up one level, there is a lot of information in this episode that Shana gave us.

Shana, where would be the best place for people to talk to you, [00:49:00] give, ask questions see what you're up to, what's the best place? 

Shana Meyerson: Sure. I do live in the technology age, so if you go to yoga athletica.com and you gotta make sure you spell it correctly because though I do own the registered trademarks, so many people have.

Stolen my name and taken variations of it. So it's just one a in the middle but if you go to yoga athletica comm you'll see all my links to all of my programs to all of my social media to my youtube to all the things and so Yeah, it's Your one stop shop if you want to find excellent. 

Brad Minus: And we will put that in the show notes.

So you will all have that and I'll probably pull the YouTube channel and all that, and I'll put that as separate just so if you just want to go there, you can. So again, yes, perfect. Yoga, athletica. And check that out and take to take out check out Shauna. So thank you again. Thank you for [00:50:00] joining us.

We really appreciate it. And for the rest of you, we will see you in the next one.