Founder of CorePower Yoga -- Trevor Tice -- A Yogi

I’ll never forget the first time I met Trevor Tice, the CEO and founder of CorePower Yoga. I had unknowingly placed my mat squarely in front of him and two of my other yoga teachers for a C2 Class. I realized this horrible turn of events and freaked out a little. “I could run right now and they wouldn’t even notice!” I said quietly in my head. I debated moving but was stuck. Hello. Smile. The door was closing.

I took in some air. Thoughts of my body’s inability to twist like a pretzel, falling out of poses, and sweating all over the place crowded my mind. Come on Maryann, snap out of it. Get yourself together. This sucks! Mommy! Help!

Melissa began class and I got out of my head and eased into the poses. Ah. My little slice of heaven was beginning. We began our Vinyasa and I whacked my water bottle over spilling it everywhere. No! What do I do? I breathed in some self-coaching and told myself to chill. If that was the worst of it, then I could handle anything.

The class was hard and hot. Melissa was at the top of her game and we were all moving in unison, like a troupe of dancers drifting from pose to pose. We rested in Downward Facing Dog and out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Trevor quietly moved from a handstand into lotus with the grace of an angel.

“That’s impressive.” I thought and spied on him hitting insane poses the rest of class. Are you kidding me? Wow.

When class was over, we had plans to have lunch. I wasn’t sure if he was going to come out wearing a robe and a turban so I was really happy when I saw him dressed casually the way I was. Here was this huge figure in the yoga world, and he was a total dude. He could easily be one of my four brothers. Ready?

We hopped over to a restaurant and got settled. I was excited to get to know him. I had done my research and was already pretty impressed. CorePower was at 43 studios growing strong across the country. I read news stories about how he offered programs to people who were out of work and on unemployment, how he was making changes in the communities he had studios in, and about how he was changing lives, just the way his studio was changing mine.

We ate and I poked fun at his insane ability to digest spicy food. When the waiter asked on a level of 1-10 how spicy he wanted his lunch and he said “10” I knew right then and there that this guy was hard-core. He practically eats fire!

But honestly, what impressed me the most, was that throughout the whole time we were together, not once did he look at his phone or take any calls. In today’s IPhone/Blackberry society, where I am sure he had a lot of stuff going on, he simply sat with me and was present in our conversation. What a guy. When my phone rang, I wanted to kick myself. Sometimes I’m so lame.

Tonight, Trevor was talking to our group about the Business of Yoga. He was candid, and told his story with honesty and passion. He told us the truth about opening up and growing a yoga business and encouraged us along the way. Despite knowing that it could take upwards of 350k, he didn’t spin it negatively, even though banks aren’t loaning anywhere near that amount of money. He was positive and upbeat, genuine.

Trevor gave us the facts, the cold hard truth. He was peppered with questions and hammered with ideas and he acknowledged all of them. He was just the right touch of Namaste and reality. He was approachable and kind.

He was, quite simply, a true yogi.