Meet a True North Graduate: Stride & Edge, UK

Name: Stride & Edge Yoga (Harry Gordon & Madeleine Sidi)
Nationality: British
Age: 32 and 26
TNV training: April 2019
Where do you live? The Lake District in the North of England

With so many yoga teacher trainings to chose from, what made you choose TNV's 200 hour teacher training? TNV's training stood out to us because of the importance they put on building a business and branding. There are a lot of yoga teacher trainings out there that will teach you the fundamentals to teaching yoga but then don't show you how to actually teach in the real world.

TNV looked like a friendly and relaxed style of training that also felt retreat-like. Of course, we wanted to learn to be yoga teachers but we also wanted to enjoy ourselves and have fun.

What was the training like for you and what were some skills and qualities you left with? The training was more than we had hoped for. Lisa and Elin were so friendly and welcoming. They are still to this day the best yoga teachers we have ever had. Our own practice improved hugely, we left stronger and more skilled.

The most important element they taught us was the way to set up a business, we left feeling confident to advertise ourselves and run a fully functioning business.
We managed to create a brand that was unique to our area and us as people and that has only developed over time.

What's your journey been like since the ttc? Since the training we have been teaching non-stop for 4 years. We went straight into teaching weekly classes in a rented studio. We now teach 2 weekly classes in The Lake District in beautiful lake-fronted studios. We have built an online platform on YouTube where we have 100s of free online classes. We host yoga retreats in the UK and in Spain and have two coming up this year. We also teach privately for groups and companies. In 2020 we taught 5 online classes a week to LLoyds Banking Group.

What's your best advice for new yoga teachers wanting to get started teaching? Don't wait. Just start. Try and make it fun and get friends and family to join at first, then word will spread and you'll start to build up your core clients.

Do you teach, if so where? What format? What are your offerings?​ We teach 2 weekly in-person classes in The Lake District, our Saturday Morning yoga by the lake is a favourite! We also teach lots of online classes for our YouTube channel, ranging from 10–60 minutes all on demand.

Anything else you'd like to share? Just a massive thank you to TNV, without them we would not be where we are today.

Instagram: @strideandedge

Website: www.strideandedge.co.uk