Pride Month: Teacher Q&A

At CorePower Yoga, we believe it’s an honor to power together with our community in celebrating LGBTQIA+ Pride. We are dedicated to continuing to uplift the unique and diverse voices within our communities everyday. As part of this mission, our CEO Niki Leondakis sat down with Los Angeles-based CorePower Area Manager Gio Cole.

You can flow with Gio in Santa Monica or Culver City in one of his C2, Yoga Sculpt or Hot Power Fusion classes! Expect a great workout, uplifting music and an all-around amazing experience that sparks so much joy.

Niki: Thank you for spending some time with me and sharing your perspectives about Pride! I’d love to jump in and learn a little bit more about you and talk about Pride month. I want to know - what does Pride mean to you personally? Gio Cole: To me, what Pride really means is a celebration of love and acceptance. I think that we've made so much progress as a community and beyond, just as a whole society. I think the direction that we're moving in is really promising because we're realizing that just because you're a part of one community, whether it be straight or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, etc, at the end of the day we're all humans. I think that Pride just really celebrates acceptance and hopefully trying to make the world a better place. And that regardless of who you love, that is a part of you. But I think who you are is more important.

Niki: I love that, so beautifully said. How are you celebrating pride? What are you personally doing?

Gio Cole: Pride for me isn’t necessarily about the month of the year, it's more just sort of an everyday practice of being proud of who I am — reminding myself that I love myself and hopefully trying to make someone's day a little bit better. I think that being a studio manager and also a teacher has given me such a great platform to do exactly that, because I can hopefully make people proud of who they are and which communities they associate with. So it's sort of just an everyday mission of trying to create more acceptance and more compassion within the world and within the workplace as well.

Niki: We’re so grateful for the work you’re doing to make everyone feel accepted and welcome to practice yoga in our studios - just as they are! Can you talk a little bit about your own yoga practice? When did you decide you wanted to be a yoga teacher? What was that turning point?

Gio Cole: When I first started taking class at CorePower I was 16 years old. I instantly was just all in; I took one class and I was like, "this is the place that I want to be". I realized that I was happiest when I was inside of a CorePower studio on my yoga mat, so I thought, "how do I spend even more time here?", "How do I stay beyond the 60 minutes of class?". And I was super fortunate to have some really incredible leaders at that time who shared with me, ‘hey, why don't you do Teacher Training?’ It was something that I never thought about before because I think growing up in today's society becoming a yoga teacher is a little bit further off the spectrum from what's normalized. But the people at CorePower just really inspired me to take the leap. I did Teacher Training while I was in school and it was manageable because it was just the place where I was the happiest, and still am the happiest.

Niki: Wow. That’s such a good basic principle to follow - do what makes you happy. Next question: How do you keep yourself inspired?

Gio Cole: I think that what inspires me the most as a person and as a leader is a really solid work ethic. Also, there's nothing I love more than a comeback story, when people are faced with really difficult situations or circumstances and they're somehow able to overcome all of that and make it through and end up better on the other side. I think it's just so beautiful. And that’s what we've seen the world do through a global pandemic. It really speaks to the fact that we can be faced with the most difficult, uncertain circumstances and still somehow make it through. I think that what I do on a daily basis to stay inspired is just sort of asking myself, what more can I do? I’m always looking at it through the lens of always wanting to get better, always wanting to do better and do more and just contribute to the greater collective.

Niki: What I’m hearing you say is something that I believe, wholeheartedly. The way to get through the most difficult times in life is to connect to our higher purpose.

Gio Cole: Exactly.

Niki: So as you know, we've been working really hard at CorePower to continuously improve our diversity, equity and inclusivity. So as a teacher and manager, how do you foster an inclusive environment for our students?

Gio Cole: I think that it's exactly like what you said, creating a welcoming environment for people. For me, that begins the first time someone walks in the door, whether they are just taking class for the day, or they've been taking class with us for years — make every encounter and every conversation, amazing so that when they walk into the doors of a CorePower studio, they associate it with that feeling of connection and happiness. I think [you can create an inclusive environment] just by making every interaction great, and expressing gratitude for people coming here because it can be scary stepping on your yoga mat for the very first time! If you walk in and you're seen, greeted by someone smiling and saying ‘thank you so much for taking class with us today’, I think it just lays a super solid foundation for the class and also for hopefully seeing that person continue to return to their mat.

Niki: Is there anything else, Gio, that I haven’t asked that you were hoping I would, or something that you were hoping to share that we haven’t touched on?

Gio: I just want to add that CorePower is just such a special place to me. Specific to Pride Month, taking class at CorePower was what gave me the courage to come out as gay. It was something I always knew about myself, but I had never thought about sharing it. Then, every time I stepped on my mat, these incredible teachers were giving incredible themes that were so relevant to my life at the time. It inspired me to be truthful to myself and also truthful to other people. Celebrating that I’m gay doesn’t make me less than or better than, it’s simply a part of who I am. There is a lot more to who I am than just my sexuality. And at the same time, it’s so important to be truthful - to yourself and to the world. I will always have so much gratitude for CorePower for helping me along that process.

Niki: Gio, I’m so honored to learn that from you directly. That is such a beautiful thing. I love that getting on your mat helped you find your way to being your whole self, everywhere, all the time.

Gio: It really gave me so much self-worth. Regardless of what anyone thinks, this is who I am and I deserve to be truthful, I deserve to be happy. CorePower truly is a very special place to me for sure.

Niki: I think of Trevor, the founder of CorePower Yoga. The gratitude I have for him, to have created a company out of this incredible practice that inspired even just one person to be themself and to find the courage to share it with the world.

Gio: As long as we can make one person’s day, that’s a win to me.

Niki: I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Gio, for making my day. This conversation connects me to my higher purpose - to empower people to be their whole and best self in everything they do. I’m truly honored. Thank you.