This interview originally appeared in The Simplifier #69.

Interview: Katie Carter – Yoga Teacher, Community Builder

By Shawn Tuttle

Within months of moving to Nevada City, I had found my yoga teacher at the local yoga studio. Katie Carter’s Friday morning class was dynamic and strong and yet I always left feeling refreshed and deliriously happy. In addition to being a popular teacher, she owned the studio–but those points didn’t explain her impact as a community builder. Her joyful attitude, delightful humor, and positive energy have fostered a large family of yogis (people who practice yoga). While she decided about a year ago to transition out of her role as business owner, since selling the business she has remained a pillar in the community by teaching and mentoring newer teachers. I was thrilled for the opportunity to interview this beloved local role model who embodies the fulfillment phase of a natural professional.

Katie Carter and Quincy

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ST: What was your background before you founded the Wild Mountain Yoga Studio?Katie Carter: I have a degree in Fiber Arts. When I first moved to Nevada County, I was 22 years old. I bought a business in Nevada City, a weaving store. I had a business partner who knew a lot about business and I taught the classes.  There is a lot of arthritis in my family–my brother has a pretty severe frozen spine. I knew I wanted to try to prevent it from happening to me. I don’t know if the yoga prevented it or if I just wasn’t going to get it. 

ST: And when did you open the yoga studio?

Carter: I opened up the studio in September of 1995.

ST: Tell me about your experience of taking something that you love and creating a business out of it. Just because someone likes to bake, doesn’t mean they should open a bakery.

Carter: For me, when I started teaching, I was at the right place at the right time. I think this community was really ready for more organized yoga. There were a few yoga teachers at the gym, but I think yoga was just starting to become popular or well known. I knew this information couldn’t be held back, it was ready to be shared. 

On my own spiritual path, I was ready to not be afraid to “om” in front of my friends. That was big to put out a sign saying “Hey, there’s something more, something deeper you can become a part of. You can connect physically, emotionally, and spiritually on some level.”

When I opened the business, it used all of my past skills. I had done art and I loved making fliers and creating business cards. I hadn’t realized what a good organizer I was. I opened up a studio and within 3 weeks, there were 5 teachers saying they wanted to teach there. That part was easy.

ST: What was your biggest challenge? 

Carter: I think the biggest challenge was managing people, managing the teachers. I don’t have any background in business classes. Learning people skills and relationships and learning how to work with people… I had been on the board of the arts council, and was a mom and volunteered for stuff so I knew about working with people. And then the studio kept growing, it went to 2 rooms and there were 20 teachers so that was much more people management. 

ST: You’ve had a full progression over the past 13 years: from teacher to business owner, to mentor. It’s very admirable to take what you’ve learned along the way and then apply it to help other people.

Carter: I think one of the themes in my life has been to learn to not chase after things, and just let myself slow down enough to let them come to me. That’s very difficult to be in this void place where you’ve created some space in your life. And we think we should fill it up and be busy. But one of my intentions when I sold the business was to not fill it up, and to get into my garden and be present with my friends and cultivate what’s important to me, and not keep myself so busy. That was one of my main intentions every day in my meditation.

ST: Was it a challenge to keep that space open?

Carter: Yes, because I always felt like I should be doing more. In our society, we are given so many opportunities to do this and that, and then there’s so much communication and people saying, “look what I did!” and you can read an article about this person helping over here, and you think, “I should, I should, I should”.

But I was tired of it, even physically, my adrenals were really run down and I knew I needed to rest and see what came to me. And things weren’t so good. My mother passed away right after I sold the business, a month after I sold the business, and my son got sick and some things happened in my life that really helped me to stay slowed down. I had things to deal with. Emotionally, I couldn’t just start getting busy again. I needed to feel the grief.

Another thing I want to share with you is that the practice of yoga is so powerful and brilliant–that’s why it’s been around for so long. Its brilliance is its simplicity. It’s a practice of freedom and liberation. The freedom comes from keeping the mind not so congested; it’s really a practice of the mind. Just doing the physical practice helps clear out the body, gets rid of kinks and tightness–the body’s holding patterns. Then the breath brings in new prana, this new life force, and the mind has the ability to come into the present moment. It’s so simple, but it’s hard!

We keep ourselves so busy that we don’t even have the time to realize “Wow, look at the abundance that surrounds me.” And I think when you have abundance, you want to share, you want to give back. I know that I’m trying to figure out a way that I can be of service to my community. I love this community. Yoga is one of my gifts that I can give and maybe doing teacher training, that would be a way to spread the word. I want to make it joyful–I don’t want it to be a stressful thing or it’s too out there for anybody.

ST: That was one of the things I want to acknowledge you for. I’ve always appreciated how much joy you bring to your classes. It’s a gift and I also want to commend you for staying with what brings you joy and turning that into something that benefits so many people. 

Carter: Well, I’ll tell you something. Sometimes I go to class and I think, “Uhh, I don’t feel good today” or “I don’t really want to hold the space for everybody”. But then I walk in and all these people show up–it just lights me up, my heart begins to glow. It’s not like I get in the car and I’m just glowing, I’m just a regular person and I get in the car and I’m looking in the mirrors, or I’m trying to process what happened with my husband that morning. But I get there… What happens is we’ve created this space for people to meet, to raise our–everybody’s– vibration together. All of us coming together, we know we’re going to leave feeling better. All these people make a point to come together at a certain time, and then it happens. And I help facilitate that. 

We all know what we are skilled at–or we don’t know yet. What makes us beautiful, what are we good at. You know if you stay with something you’re going to get better at it, you’re going to go deeper with it, no matter whether teaching yoga or running a bakery, or a gift shop or a tutoring service whatever it is you choose to do in your life. 

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.