My little good deed for the day

Yesterday, on the last day of my long weekend in Vancouver, I distributed postcards promoting The Diver's workshop. I knew it would be a bit unrealistic to expect Vancouverites to drive 3 hours to Seattle to attend the month-long series, but hey, you never know. Mostly, I wanted to use the opportunity to promote The Diver's shala and encourage Vancouverites who might come down for a bit of cross-border shopping to take in a class or two as well.

On my last visit (see previous post), I went to Ashtanga Yoga Vancouver for mysore and dropped off a few cards. They were great. Emboldened by my success, I went to visit two Lululemon stores. Now, before you go hating on them, I have to say that they are very cool about putting up info on their community boards. I remember the founder, Chip Wilson, who made a zillion dollars when Lulu went public, used to go to ashtanga classes when I was just starting out. I even remember visiting his first "store" which wasn't much except for racks and racks of athletic wear made specifically for yoga. He's a canny business guy, that's for sure.

The other place I stopped by was Half Moon Yoga, which makes a lot of yoga blocks and props for wholesale and under their own label. They sell a lot of yoga shit, even the black rolling ball that I use in my pre-practice. They have a small little store on Granville Island, which is a popular tourist destination. A bit scary to visit on a long weekend, amid the cars and hordes of tourists, but it was worth it. Thanks, guys!

While I was doing all of this, it occured to me that it is much easier for me, the student, to do this kind of promotion, than to expect my teacher to do it. I had to do a little bit of selling, especially to people who didn't know him from Richard Simmons.

I'm not into cult worship, but I think we could all add a few grace notes of respect to our teachers. I'm guilty of not doing this enough, just like anyone else. You pay your money, you attend the class, end of business transaction. But it's something more I think. Kind of like the martial arts students who sweep the floor before practice and pour tea for Si-Fu (Teacher). They acknowledge and honor him, his years of experience and expertise, and realize how fucking lucky they are to be in his presence.

I actually like that my teacher is an expert in yoga, not marketing. He didn't even put his website on the postcard.