I teach yoga.
At 10 years old, I found my mom’s paperback book called Yoga. I think she bought it in the grocery store? The first page I opened was “Wind Removing Pose”. I tried it, and I farted! In that moment I was relieved and hooked! Yoga was hilarious to me. My friends were gonna love it! Even at that young age, the science of yoga made logical sense to me.
At 14 years old, I took my yoga practice up a notch in order to improve my balance, strength & flexibility for golf. In return, I hit the golf ball farther, learned how to breathe under pressure, and how to calm my mind.
After now 30+ years of yoga practice, I can easily say the benefits are mostly physical, but my yoga practice has blessed me with a love for life that I didn’t know was possible.
Since June 2012, I have been teaching Bikram HOT YOGA full-time. I did my training with Bikram Choudhury in Los Angeles in Spring of 2012. Another life-changing time in my life.
From 2008-2013, I was a part of the dynamic front desk team at Bikram Yoga Tempe. In late 2013, I took over as Studio Director at Bikram Yoga Rio Salado (now The Foundry) in Mesa, AZ until moving to Durham, NC in early 2016. For the past four years, I have been primarily teaching in a hot yoga studio called Bikram Yoga Durham.
In 2017, I was fortunate to spend time two weeks with Gianna Purcell in St. Augustine, FL fine tuning my teaching ‘eye’ and learning more advanced movement and breathing exercises.
Presently, I teach mostly online in a Zoom room these days.
My wife is a sometime Bikram yoga teacher and a full-time neuropathologist at Duke Hospital. My mother is also a certified yoga instructor. My best friend teaches yoga. I am surrounded by yoginis.
I play golf.
And have played the game for over 40 years. I love & hate everything about golf. Growing up in the golf mecca that is Phoenix, my friends & I played competitive golf everyday – all day. School, home and work all became places to practice full-swing, short game and putting drills. My first coach, Pam Barnett, taught us to use the square grout lines of our tile floors to dial in alignment.
By age thirteen, I learned the importance of having equipment fit to your body and swing type. We grew up, literally, right next door to the PING golf factory, and I learned the importance of technical side of golf equipment and fittings in relation to body size, swing type and body positioning. I took golf very seriously, and tried very hard to improve.
After dozens of tournaments, broken shafts & mental gaskets blown, I found a little book in the Portland Library in 1998 that would again change my life forever: Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, Dr. Bob Rotella. His axioms on laser-beam focus are life-lessons.
After spending a soul searching summer in Portland, Oregon in 1998, I moved back to Arizona to be a part of the first crew to open the first Golfsmith store in Chandler, Arizona. During that fall, I began my club-building training and met my post-college mentor and biggest supporter of my golf game, Vincent Caballero.
I spent the next decade away from golf in the sports retail and VoIP industries. I was the buyer for 15 Hat Club retail stores and helped build the first hatclub.com website. My buying partner, Stephen Stachel, and I began customizing lots of New Era 5950’s hats, and we created a whole new fashion industry within sports headwear.
Needing more, I wanted to try something new and moved to Irvine, CA to work at fledgling VoIP company as the Vice President of Operations. We had an incredible staff and great product. I was 29 years old, played a ton of golf with my best friend, Dave Oldershaw. And I lived in Southern California!
Despite having done some very cool work with amazing people, being away from golf only showed me how much I needed to be in golf.
In 2007, I was hitting golf balls in a 105° at Riverside Golf Course in Mesa, AZ (now Chicago Cubs Spring Training Facility) and I asked the Universe, “How do I get paid to hit golf balls?” I laughed at the silliness of it all.
The very next thought I had would change my life again, “Call Julie (my former Nike Rep from Hat Club days). See who she knows.” I called. She answered. I jokingly asked her, “Do you know anyone that will pay me to hit golf balls on the range?”
She laughed and told me a man named “Chip” literally just asked her for a technical rep referral. Long story short, Chip asked about by golf background and what kind of car I had and two weeks later, I began working for Nike Golf as an Equipment Specialist and Technical Rep testing & fitting ALL their latest equipment. 
My first event as at world-famous TPC Scottsdale. That day, I was told to hit balls and test all the new stuff so I knew what to tell our golfers. I finally had my dream job.
The lessons I learned about life and the golf industry from my colleagues, Mr. Chip Garriss & Mr. Gordie Sullens, during that decade were invaluable. Both gentlemen had over 30+ years as teaching pros under their belt. I learned how to quickly assess golf swings, and fit golfers of all skill levels. When it was a slow event, I hit balls. Lots of them. For nearly a decade. I was fortunate to see all the top public and private golf facilities in Arizona.
However, in 2016, my golf swing IQ went to a whole new level, when I started training with Tathata Golf in their Certified Movement Specialist training program.
I used to play competitively as an amateur to a +1 handicap. Now, I am a stay home dad to an amazing 2.5 year old boy and lucky if I get to play 18 holes every 6 months.
I have caddied in PGA and Canadian PGA tour events.
To this day, I am still grinding every single night.
I am a coach.
Just a regular dude born in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, United States in 1975. I grew up always feeling more like the coach than the player; I felt more as a ‘coach’ in my heart. It showed at home, in school, on sports teams & at work that I loved being in a leadership role and motivating those around me to see themselves as extraordinary as I saw them.
At a very early age, I became fascinated by the human mind and that “voice” in your head. For those of you who have practiced yoga or played golf – you know exactly what voice I’m talking about!
I studied Architecture & Human Communication at Arizona State University in the late 1990’s, and for the past 20+ years, I have never stopped learning about intra-personal communication – or “self-talk”. My education of the mind was further expanded during my work at Landmark Education.
Through my years in business, yoga practice, meditation and competitive golf, I have learned a lot about how to communicate with oneself & others more effectively & efficiently.
Now, I am sharing this knowledge daily with my son, and others so they may too start seeing their world stress-free and with more joy & simplicity.
