Stripping Down Yoga To The Bare Essentials

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Have you ever found yourself going to a yoga class and realizing, "Wow, I forgot to wear any clothes." I've got my phone in one hand, I've got my keys in my other hand, but that's it. It's really embarrassing. It happens to me all the time. But listen, if you're near Washington, D.C., that is no longer a problem because the yoga teacher you'll hear about today, formerly an employee of the Discovery Channel, offers classes just the way nature intended, stripping down yoga to the bare essentials. That's right.

We are talking about naked yoga. I can't believe we have not embarked upon this topic so far in 1,066 episodes. Here we are, episode 167. But obviously, we have arrived, so get comfortable, feel free to remove any unnecessary clothing items, settle in, and the story is coming up in just 30 seconds. That is a shout-out to our sponsor.

Dan Carter moved to Washington, D.C. after college and started working for the Discovery Channel. The job was fine, but he quickly found himself in a bad groove. He'd get little sleep, work long hours, and relax over an adult beverage or two at the bar with his friends. Over the next four years, he found himself less confident, less energetic, and less healthy.

And he wanted to take control of his life and body. For him, the answer was obvious, yoga. He'd been practicing since high school, though he'd certainly been far from consistent since starting the new job. Yoga was meditative, refreshing, and brought him to a healthy sweat. He knew he could reconnect to his balanced self by returning to his practice.

And it worked. Within a few months, Dan started to feel alive again. He woke up early, found friends who'd go on runs together instead of just to the bar, and his beer belly stopped expanding. This was it. This was what he wanted to do at least part-time.

He started teaching yoga classes under the name Danimal Yoga. Like his name. Get it? Dan the animal? Danimal?

He would rent space from a local studio for an hourly fee, and all he had to do was find paying class takers. Dan was quickly making a name for himself in the D.C. yoga community, and before long, he was able to leave his job at the Discovery Channel. His hustle became his full-time gig. But little did he know, he was about to stumble upon another hustle, one that would make him more in tune with his body than ever before.

A friend invited Dan to a men's-only class, and he agreed. He didn't find out until an hour before the class that it would be completely nude. Dan was nervous, but he knew that getting out of his comfort zone was usually a healthy thing to do. The class turned out to be inspiring. There was something special about the non-sexual vulnerability of doing yoga naked.

He felt a newfound appreciation for his body, and didn't feel uncomfortable, since he wasn't the only one. The group, however, was struggling to keep a steady pace, and needed a consistent leader. With years of experience, Dan was the clear choice. So within a month of that first class, he had a new hustle, D.C. Naked Yoga.

He was already familiar with the concept of managing a yoga group. Managing space, providing gear, marketing to keep attendance up, that was his jam, and D.C. Naked Yoga wasn't so good at it. Everything they did was pen, paper, and cash. Attendance was inconsistent, payments frequently late, and the community limited to in-person gatherings.

Dan knew he had to turn it around. He built a website, made an online calendar for classes, and began accepting credit cards. This settled two issues, confusion about class times, and late payments. Next, he had to find a way to keep in touch with the community outside of class. So he started passing around a sign-up sheet for an email newsletter.

That monthly newsletter turned into a bimonthly email, and then he started sending a check-in email each week. At first he was concerned it was too much, but his class members told him otherwise. They loved hearing about local yoga news, viral yoga stories, those are always huge. And of course, more frequent updates for the group. During those first few months, Dan can rely on only a few die-hard fans to show up each week.

Everyone else in the group came and went from month to month, seemingly without a pattern. But once he gave the group a digital presence, he started experiencing more regular attendance. DC Naked Yoga was becoming less of an event to go to, and more of a community to be part of. Dan had connected the group in a new way, but he wanted to give people a tangible incentive to show up more often. He created a new payment option on the site, a class pass.

Instead of paying $20 per class like normal, students could buy one of these class passes, valid for five sessions for $80, a 20% discount. And sure enough, attendance went up again. Since that first year, Dan has hired other instructors as contractors to lead new classes, hand-planned Naked Yoga retreats in the woods. Between Danables and DC Naked Yoga, he's earning just over $4,000 per month. Although his digital skills made a big impact on attendance for both sides of his business early on, it was something else that really made teaching yoga sustainable, and that was building a community.

Dan sees himself as more of an advocate that guides, rather than a leader who manages. This has transformed his students, both naked and clothed, into friends that respect and trust him as their teacher. He still loves all types of yoga, but believes that Naked Yoga in particular has a lot of room to grow. There are a lot of people out there who could benefit from a non-sexual nude space where they would truly embrace themselves in a vulnerable way. They just don't know that one exists.

So he's going to start testing paid ads to expand his reach. He's also looking to expand it to new class types and payment options, because most of his classes are booked weeks in advance. But though the thrill of growing a business has been quite an adventure, it's a small prize compared to the reward of creating a highly unique experience. While I enjoyed working on this episode, it really is interesting because I think maybe from an outsider perspective, you might think of something like Naked Yoga as a novelty. Even if you don't think it's a sexual experience, even if you realize it's just another way of doing yoga, you might think it's a little bit of a gimmick or, as I said, a novelty.

But then working on this episode made me realize, "Oh, I can see how this would become a community." And in fact, this is the key part, you know, DC Naked Yoga was becoming less of an event to go to and more of a community to be part of. So some of those business skills that Dan brought to the group were actually quite helpful in fostering real community, a real sense of belonging, a real sense of affirmation, and so on. So, very cool, definitely check it out if you are in Washington, DC or happen to be visiting. It's been a while since we've talked about yoga on the program, but I did find a couple of episodes way back in the archives. Episode 118, Los Angeles Designer Runs Mobile Yoga Studio, and 196, London Yoga Mat Reseller Changes Lives While Earning 3,000 Pounds a Month.

All right, lots of good stuff out there. I want to acknowledge you for taking time for yourself, working on something that's important to you. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, go to sidehustleschool.com/1067. We're going to link up Danimal Yoga, DC Naked Yoga, anything else I talked about.

And of course, I'll be back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School, namaste. the Onward Project.