The Spiritual Perspective 20: Adriene Mishler: The Story Behind the World’s Biggest YouTube Yoga Platform, Yoga With Adriene
Online health platforms were already on the rise before the pandemic of 2020, but we have seen a sharp uptick in the utilization of video classes and communities since quarantines have kicked in. One such community was built by Adriene Mishler, and had humble beginnings as a yoga class hosted on YouTube in the early 2010s. 'Yoga with Adriene' grew steadily after a slow start, and by the time 2020 came around Adriene was the highest searched yoga content on the internet! She has built a huge community which she helps instruct from her living room. To give you an idea of her impact, she has been called 'the Mr. Rogers of yoga'! Having been born into a theatre family, Adriene has a lifelong passion for performance and connection to an audience. We hear from her about her earliest memories of the theatre, how this grew into a career in acting, and how this career led her to pursue teaching yoga. Constantly juggling a number of intense projects has kept Adriene on the go from a young age, and it is only through her consistency and a deep desire that she has made it through challenging times and reaped the rewards of the hard work. We see how her authenticity led to the videos she was publishing eventually catching fire, to the point where she now has 7 million subscribers on YouTube, with over 600 million views on her channel! This is a beautifully meandering conversation about this process of growth, the obstacles that Adriene encountered, and the lessons she learned along the way. Adriene talks about the role of her angels in the journey and what it means to contribute to the future of yoga! Listen in with us today for this amazing conversation!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Adriene's childhood memories of the theatre — set creation, imaginary games, and more!
- Looking back at Adriene's younger years; feelings of gratitude and being blessed.
- Lessons from Adriene's parents — things she carries forward with her to this day.
- The desire to create and perform and Adriene's aspirations at different times.
- Early days working in a company and the experience of real nerves and fear.
- The important relationships and settings for Adriene in her later teen years.
- Spiritualism and religion among Adriene's family and peers.
- The events and feelings that led to signing up at a yoga studio.
- Hunger and poise; Adriene's mental state entering into adulthood.
- Adriene's thoughts going into yoga teacher training — a side hustle amid a busy schedule.
- The day that Adriene found a meaningful mentor for her yoga practice.
- Lessons that Adriene learned spending time teaching yoga to children.
- The parts of teaching adult yoga classes that Adriene enjoyed the most.
- Maintaining acting work in plays and film; Adriene's dedication and hard work!
- The Austin film scene — the beginnings of something special for Adriene.
- Adriene's important relationship with Chris Sharpe and the fruits of this connection.
- Thoughts on the sanctity of yoga and bringing this into an online space.
- The first forays that Adriene and Chris made into filming for her YouTube channel.
- Feelings of growth and watching the numbers go up after a quiet start.
- Finding a voice in teaching and the stages of improvement Adriene experienced.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: