Meet Courtney Connell | E-RYT 500 Yoga Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Courtney Connell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Courtney, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
My first business was started when I was 19 years old. It was just after the 2008 market crash. I was in college and recognized that, since the job market was crippled, I would need to create an opportunity for myself from the ground up. I was fixated on “success” and launched myself into a 100 hour work week. I had zero work-life balance and pulled from a motivation that could be likened to a survival instinct. This lack of work life balance allowed me to grow a start up with less than ten-thousand dollars of starting capital into a company doing ten million dollars in revenue annually within a few years. I learned discipline and became familiar with the sacrifice that start-ups demand. This of course, came with a price. My personal relationships were nearly destroyed and I forgot how to have non-work-related conversations. I was twenty-two when I sold my shares in that company and still had no idea how to have a normal life. I decided to take a job at a company and break from being an entrepreneur so that I might have more infrastructure for set hours. The next episode of my work-life balance was a little better, I moved to a sixty hour work week as Marketing Director of Cosabella. The family that owned Cosabella really emphasized family, personal relationships and work life balance. I learned so much from them and will be forever grateful. Even though my own employer supported a more relaxed professional disposition, my thirst for excellence kept me working more than what was required. After some successful artificial intelligence implementations at Cosabella and a top-tier press tour I was recruited to work with Archimedia out of London to help open Spyscape in Manhattan. It was at this time in my life that I reframed my view of work life balance. My new employer was even more convinced that work life balance was critical to success and I found myself unable to go one-hundred miles per hour. As my workload decreased, I realized that overworking was another form of laziness. By constantly working, I had the perfect excuse to neglect my health, relationships and hobbies. I was able to be lazy when it came to the pursuit of my own passions because I could act a chameleon taking on the full identity of any company I worked for, or created. This epiphany was the thing that I’d been searching for and it ultimately gave me the freedom to become an entrepreneur again. After leaving Spyscape, I took three months off and did nothing. It was incredibly difficult as I no longer had a professional title to act as the foundation for my entire identity. I forced myself to only do things that I fully enjoyed. I began voraciously reading sci-fi books and doing yoga. My new found understanding of work life balance convinced me that my entrepreneurial path must lead to something that I thrive doing and not simply something that I am good at. Yoga was what I realized allowed me to fully thrive and so I set out to create a yoga-based business. Cour Yoga was the end result of this entire journey. I do yoga retreats and private lessons so that I can focus on human connection and edification. Even though work life balance was my end goal, I’ve abolished it completely. Now I simply focus on life. Every part of my day is life-centric, vitality-centric. Beyond basic administrative tasks, which may take 1-2 days a month, I feel as if I do not work at all. I love everything that I do and what I do loves me back. I don’t know that my current lifestyle could be achieved without the sacrifices maid in my early twenties, so I do not regret my lack of work life balance in those years. As they say, truth cannot be borrowed, and I am incredibly grateful that I now see the truth of what my existence needs to fully thrive, I paid a price to find it.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Cour Yoga is all about human connection, I do not teach large groups, but curate one on one and intimate small group, yoga-based experiences. While there are so many amazing yoga resources, I would like to think that I am one of the few that focuses on providing my clients with a path towards independence, for you to no longer need me is my end goal. I see going to a yoga class as listening to a song on the radio, but learning how to really “do” yoga is to become the musician. The instrument is your body and the ability to master the instrument means you can play the sequence that you need as an individual, whether that be cerebral or physical. Beyond this general philosophy, a deeper underlying foundation for all that I do is that I believe the human brain is the most powerful tool on this planet. My experience in artificial intelligence and studies of human behavior through my advertising background have convinced me that, while groups are predictable, the individual is not, therefore the individual is indomitable. Helping people acknowledge their ability to govern their minds is a gratifying way to counteract some of the marketing automation I lent a hand in creating. People can reshape their brains, reshape their neural pathways and pull themselves out of destructive cyclical thought processes with the techniques that I’ve studied. I would love to see a world where everyone has this knowledge, because once the knowledge is gained, the path out is free and available at all times.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I think day one I would take them to Wynwood, stopping by 1-800-lucky for a causal, amazing fun dinner (assuming they had a long flight andante to just chill). The next morning I would do Zuma brunch with a key Biscayne beach day or rent a boat and relax with good company. If there was live music at the center for subtropical affairs, I would doubtless take them to this low-key but epic hangout spot. On the final day I would take them to Friends for breakfast, right down the street from where I live in Brickell, and then go for a walk around Brickell key, catch the sunset on top of Museum garage, then do an epic, final dinner at Milos in South Beach, who doesn’t like fire dancers? Of course all of this would be with some of the amazing friends I’ve made in Miami since moving here.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to the amazing family that runs Cosabella for giving me a beautiful example of balanced life. Beverly Kennedy A.K.A Bodywork Babe for being my amazing co-facilitator at retreats. To Lindsay Tobias for introducing me to the shout out team and for all the friends and family that patiently witnessed the transformation from work-a-holic to happy and free.

Website: www.couryoga.com

Instagram: @couryoga

Image Credits
Leah Vanhoose