You support me, Thank You!

When we set out to follow our dreams, it can be one of the scariest and most satisfying things to take on. It was 4 years ago that I set out to not be a rat in the race of so many, to be the one who stands out by giving people the opportunity to treat themselves with great care and love by practicing yoga.  I faced some opinions of how taking that step was the wrong idea and because of that resistance I stopped sharing as much, decided to hustle behind the scenes and to care a lot less about what anyone had to say about what I wanted to do with my life. There is no retirement fund, no vacation or sick days and no safety net like a union or whatever other benefits we are forced to believe we need in this life and maybe we do need them in order to feel a certain kind of way about our future, but I feel this desire to unlearn those things that make us feel this sense of inadequacy if we are not following the "norm".

There are a few of us out there, that prefer our happiness over slaving away under someone who couldn't care less about you. I am lucky to know one particular person, that not only cares but believes! Believes in dreams. I just wanted to express my deepest gratitude for my friend @therealrobbyb Robby Bancroft and I want everyone to know what great things he is doing and has done with his life. Robby currently works for the Pacifica Resource Center and has found out that life begins when you break down and break away from what may be expected of you. We met at the hotel, I hired him because there was something about him. I must admit he was nice on the eyes but he had this vibe about him that made me feel as though guests would love him, he would engage them in conversation, he would be charming and make people smile. That was why I hired him, and I kind of forgot why I eventually fired him. Things happen, he was in his early 20s, a bit of a little shit still and so it ended, the work relationship, however somehow we remained in touch over the next 10 years and he never seemed to have bad feelings about being fired. Fast forward a few years and he is opening a restaurant right next to the hotel we worked in, Breakers in Rockaway Beach. Robby and his father, Steve had a dream and made it happen, did the work to make it something that was successful and not something that was a fly by night business venture. The full story of their success will be coming in a later piece here so stay tuned for that.

Now that the restaurant is proving to be a bigger success than they ever imagined but always hoped for, Robby has done some soul searching and has come to a point in his life that he has learned that helping people in need is what brings him to life. His work at the Pacifica Resource Center lights him up in a way I have not seen from someone before. It's inspiring, it's refreshing and it's a beautiful thing to witness someone's heart so full from helping strangers make life better. I more often see people just drained and unhappy when they have to be exposed to some truly heartbreaking situations, but Robby sees the good he is doing for people and it keeps him going.

Our stories intersect in the present because he knew that yoga was something he wanted to try and something his coworkers wanted to incorporate in their week. I wanted to give back to my community by offering a free class at PRC for employees and clients. Robby backed that idea and all of a sudden we began. As much as I would continue to offer yoga for free to them, we decided to add a public community class that we do charge for so that everyone gets to reap the benefits of a regular yoga practice.

This is just a brief summary of the greatness that is support and that you never really know where that is going to come from. I feel blessed to know such a smart guy that has not let his ego take control of the direction of his life. He has taught and most likely will continue to teach me many things to grow my business, to spread the good word of yoga, but mostly to believe in my own dreams and to work smarter not harder to fulfill them all.

THANK YOU MY FRIEND!