By opening our hearts and minds to possibilities, we sometimes not only change our lives, but the lives of others. Take Trevor Tice, owner of CorePower Yoga, the second-largest yoga chain in the country; and Danny Poole, “guru for the guys,” who teaches yoga to professional athletes nationwide.
One is the founder and former chief executive of a tech firm; the other is a former college athlete and lauded basketball coach. These highly successful men with two diverse and high-profile backgrounds have a mission to take yoga to the masses.
Thirty-five years ago, a girlfriend of Poole’s “twisted his arm” to attend a yoga class with her. The physical education major had no intention of finding out what yoga was about. “Back then, yoga was for hippies, and I was a jock, so it didn’t interest me.”
But the girlfriend persuaded him. “I walked out of there on a cloud, so it tweaked my interest. I’ve been practicing ever since.”
Since then, Poole’s career path has spanned the gamut from high school basketball coach in Aspen, to model in New York, to restaurateur in Australia, but through it all, his yoga practice remained. These days he specializes in helping athletes like Nuggets player Carmelo Anthony stay at the top of their games.
“What put me on the map was when I started working with Bill Romanowski and Shannon Sharpe,” he said. “Romanowski did yoga when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles – he knew the benefits, then Shannon started.”
Poole credits Romanowski for making it easy for the Denver Broncos to accept yoga as a viable way to enhance athletic performance.
Currently Poole works with Rod Smith, John Elway (to optimize his golf game) and Elway’s arena football team, the Colorado Crush. He also works with entire families – from young children to grandparents. “Yoga makes people feel good, and I like making people feel good,” he says.
Tice, however, didn’t stumble into yoga in quite the same way. As the owner of a 450-person, $60 million-a-year tech firm, it took an ankle shattered in a rock-climbing accident to bring him to yoga.
As he traveled for his job, “I went to studios around the country, and I knew how it impacted my life and how powerful it was,” he said.
After practicing in many “under-par” studios, Tice saw the market was being underserved. He took a chance, sold his company and enticed one of his employees to get certified to teach yoga, follow him to Colorado and open CorePower.
“I saw the opportunity and just thought I could do a much better job,” he said. “Small spaces, dirty spaces, not contemporary, no lockers, no showers.”
And even with all those negatives, the yoga studios still were packed. Tice chose Denver as his new headquarters and opened his first studio at East 13th Avenue and Grant Street downtown.
“We made a lot of mistakes upfront: marketing, design, build-out.” It took more than 18 months until he felt like the studio was hitting critical mass. Two years after opening that first studio, CorePower opened a second in Highlands Ranch.
CorePower now has eight studios in Colorado and one each in Minneapolis, San Diego and Portland, Ore. There are plans for five to 10 more this year.
According to Tice, the tide turned as they began offering “power yoga,” a more athletic, aggressive form geared toward those looking for a serious workout.
“Power yoga is so intuitive to me. It’s flowing, it has music, it’s physical, I just love it. I think it’s evolved to be more appealing to the masses,” he said.
While Tice’s studios focus on those wanting to get an intuitive yet vigorous workout, Poole’s goal is exactly the opposite: “I have 75-year-old clients, 60-year-old clients; they want nothing to do with power. I keep it real simplified and gentle for them,” he said.
Poole prides himself on being able to bring opposites into his students’ lives. “It’s hard for some people to sit still,” he said. “When you’re on the go all the time, you need some down time. At 56 years old, I feel good. My yoga is gentle yoga. Over 33 years, I’ve taken something from everybody’s styles and developed my own.”
Instead of creating studios for his clients, Poole goes to them. “Have mat, will travel,” he said, often flying to interesting locales.
Two distinct men with distinct personalities and very separate paths. But each was willing to open his heart and his mind. They now share the mission of helping each of us create our own path using the unique tool of yoga.
Doni Luckett is chief executive of Divine-Basics.com, which produces lifestyle products to reconnect with moments that matter. Your questions may be addressed in the column by e-mailing enrichyourlife@divine-basics.com.
