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Rane: Why, hello, my name's Rane.

Jo: And I'm Jo.

Rane: And this is the Flow Artist Podcast.

Jo: Each week we speak to inspiring movers, thinkers and teachers about how they find.

Rane: Their flow and much, much more. Nice.

Jo: By each week, I mean each week that we happen to record an episode.

Rane: Yeah, we're a little bit of a reduced schedule these days, but it's all good. And as you might have noticed, this is a Ron and Joe episode. It's just the two of us today, but don't worry, we've got plenty to talk about. Yeah. Got lots of exciting stuff and actually, I am kind of curious. Anyone listening out there, do you like the Ryan and Joe episodes or do you prefer the interviews a little bit more? I'm actually really interested to hear. Please reach out if you do have a preference or you don't have a preference. I'd really like to know. All right, so shall we get on with the scheduled broadcast?

Jo: Let's take a moment to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we're recording today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Rane: Yes, thank you, Jo. And then next, maybe we can get on to some news you have around, some sound workshops that you're starting with soon.

Jo: Yeah. So this is an ongoing event, which is always a really beautiful experience. I just had one this past Saturday. I collaborate with Kelly Sullivan of Sully Wellness and she brings her amazing gong and sing bowls and chimes and drums and other beautiful percussive instruments. A lot of them are from the Himalayas originally, so she creates these soundscapes and I just help people get comfy in the aerial yoga hammock, whether they're sitting or lying down. I normally do, like a seated meditation for the first 45 minutes or so and then a lying down one for the second half. And I love it. Like, I just get to soak up the vibes 90% of the time. But I'm there if people need me, if they need a little bit of assistance in the hammock. And I kind of talk people in and out of the meditation. So, yeah, it's a really beautiful experience and it's fun to collaborate with Kelly because she's an amazing musician and also meditator and reiki practitioner, so she brings a lot of her energy to the practise. Our next event's coming up on September 6th. It's always a Saturday afternoon, 3 to 4:30, and when recording this, we've just got three spots left in that one, so they might still be available when this comes out. We'll see. But there's also an event coming up on October 11th, and so that will be the following one. You don't have to have any previous yoga, meditation or aerial yoga experience. I feel like that's actually one of the really nice things about sound meditation for me. I feel like it's one of the easier ways into the meditation state of mind, because it's like the sounds are just working on you. You just feel those vibrations. And I personally find a lot easier to just be present and soak that up. And then the hammock does the same thing, like it supports you. It's this nice sensory experience to relax into if you are someone who is easily distracted. If you're the tiniest bit uncomfortable, which is me, it takes away a lot of that. It's easy to move in the hammock if you do need to rearrange yourself. And because everyone's in their own cocoon of their own hammocks, there's not a visual distraction if someone is moving next to you. Normally, people just come into their own space and they just look so blissed out and relaxed and happy at the end of the session. That's also a really rewarding part of facilitating it.

Rane: Nice. Beautiful. And actually yesterday, while you were facilitating it, I was doing some stuff in the kitchen and I could hear the gong and some of the sounds and I was. I think I was feeding off some of the vibes myself. So it was very nice.

Jo: Yes. Nagano loves it too. He quite often shows up on the studio deck and just like settles in and has his bliss face on and soaks up the sounds.

Rane: Nice. Beautiful. And speaking of sound, on a kind of barely related note, I hear someone got you an awesome birthday present.

Jo: Thanks for that. Rad. Yeah. So we've got a plant wave in the studio now. And I think in a previous episode we did with Alicia Leo, we talked about the plant wave. It takes electrical signals from the plant and converts them into music. And there's a lot of different instruments you could choose from. And it basically creates this amazing ambient soundtrack for the class. One of my favourite tracks is the one called Sound Bath, so that uses the singing bowls and also some more bass notes. And it just is this really dreamy, meditative soundscape. But there's this other one which is inspired by Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon ambient album, which uses all the instruments that he uses in that album. There's more upbeat ones, there's super chill ones. It's really fun. Like, you stick the sticky electrodes onto different plants. It goes into the little, I guess it's a transmitter. And then it goes through your phone. That's where you can choose the different instruments that you want it to play. And then it goes to the stereo so it comes out our nice big stereo speakers in the studio. I've been getting to know it in class because unfortunately in the evening it's a less active time for plants. They're not photosynthesizing as much, so sometimes the plants are a bit quieter. So been using my grow light as a bit of a spotlight for the plant that I want to play and getting students involved as well, getting people to help me choose which tracks we want. You don't quite know what's going to happen because you don't know what mood your plants are going to be in. So I've just kind of given a general like sensory. If anyone doesn't like this track, let me know, I can swap to another one. And I might end up like putting music back on at some parts of the class as well. But at the moment like I'm really into the plant wave and everyone in class is really into the plant wave as well. So it's all plant wave.

Rane: Nice. Yeah, yeah. No, and we had a bit of a listen today and yeah, no, I reckon it's awesome.

Jo: It's really cool. It's really fun.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: And it's like Garden of Yoga.

Rane: It's kind of nice on theme.

Jo: Uh huh. Our plants get to hear or get to share their voices.

Rane: Yeah. Beautiful. So the next thing is maybe you could give us a little update on how your book's going.

Jo: Yeah. So I got to the next phase. I put in my manuscript, got Sarah my editor's editing suggestions back, cut a lot of words, which was challenging, but shout out to Jiffy Heyman who gave me some really good writing advice which was just consider each chapter you cut out because it was whole chapters. That's a head start on your next book. So that didn't feel like wasted work or wasted effort. And Sarah was actually really great about helping me decide which things to prioritise and like honing my message, I guess. But she also did give me some extra words to play with, which was much appreciated. It meant I could bring back in a few, few quotes from the contributors that I had to cut out. So I did get to like still share their voices in a more concise, focused way. Got through that phase, put in all of my changes and I was expecting a bit more back and forth. But she was just like, yep, this is good. I'm going to send it on to the copywriter. So the copywriter, copy editor has suggestions and questions about spelling. So some of the questions were like, oh, you've used accents on this Sanskrit road, but not this one. Choose a consistent approach. All the accents, none of the accents. They just had some other questions. Another one was it's a UK publisher and the word pants in the UK kind of means underpants.

Rane: Oh.

Jo: So I was like, don't wear shorts, wear pants. And my response to her question was like, oh, can we use another word? Like maybe trousers? But to me trousers feels like what you'd wear with a suit. So my reply was, could we say yoga pants? Like would that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff like that.

Rane: And she was fine with that.

Jo: Dunno. I haven't got the edits back from the copy editor.

Rane: Yeah, yeah.

Jo: So yeah, that's the next phase of the process. That's where it's at at the moment.

Rane: Yeah. Nice, nice. Oh, it's sounding all very exciting.

Jo: Yeah, yeah, it's great.

Rane: So the next subject we're going to talk about, probably going to talk about this quite extensively, is you just recently hosted a yoga retreat in Bali, so perhaps you could talk a little bit about that, beginning with how did the whole wild adventure begin?

Jo: Yeah. So it had been a bit of a professional dream for a while, but organising a retreat is a lot logistically and it was just something I'd never really got around to. And I also have like quite a strict set of parameters. Like I would always want it to be a Balinese owned retreat centre with a real focus on learning about local culture because otherwise why go to another country? And very sustainable. Really good on the vegan and gluten free options and aerial yoga, because that is one of the main things that I teach and I think people going to a retreat with me probably would want an aerial yoga element. So all of that was just in the part of my brain that was just daydreaming about things that would be nice to do in the future. And then Josh from Floating Leaf emailed us and reached out to us and anyone who runs a small business knows how many unsolicited emails you get and how many of them are very obviously copy and paste. But this one felt a lot more personal. He mentioned the cats, which is by name, right? Yeah, way to our harsh. So started that process and it they like on paper they looked amazing, like all of the things that I wanted, like it was a really beautifully designed, sustainably designed space as well. There was a lot of options for other activities which I like. So we actually ended up doing silversmithing and a Balinese cooking class and a sound meditation session with Puttu Mariam who, who is the retreat owner and a few other kind of chill local activities as well. And yeah, like it was a really beautiful experience. It was a lovely group of people. There was 14 of us. The place was so gorgeous. Like it's surrounded by farmland. Just the way it was laid out. Like a lot of the rooms were round for mind body design reasons. Like it was architecturally designed to be calming for the mind and it had this beautiful pool and garden and then there was an open space with like a big dining table where we all ate together, other big kind of bench area where we did our cooking class and also where all the buffet meals were laid out. And just like the staff was so kind and thoughtful and lovely and really generous about sharing about Balinese culture. Like they taught us so much. One of the highlights for me and a lot of people were we went to a water temple and a water purification ceremony and the day before we had like an offering making class. So we learned to make the little palm leaf baskets and what each of the different flower colours meant. And it was a lot of things about Balinese culture that I'd seen but I hadn't had that opportunity to learn about before. So it was great kind of having a local person share about all of the different aspects because so many things in Balinese life have this ritual and spiritual significance. Like even in the cooking class, like a lot of the ingredients had deeper meaning and like I loved that aspect of it and I think everyone did. It was like very inclusive, very welcoming and just really fun as well. Like I loved it.

Rane: Yeah, great. And yeah, no, it sounded like it went absolutely fantastically and I guess though we might want to rewind the clock just a little bit and because there were a couple of little wrinkles when we, we were still in the planning phase.

Jo: Oh my gosh. I like stressed out so much in the planning phase. It was my first time doing anything of this scale, first time anything overseas and first time doing a five day retreat. I'd previously only done weekend retreats in Victoria and while I felt like I was doing best practise stuff, I still like learned a lot of lessons. So the first thing that we did when Josh reached out to us was we looked online, like we looked at their online reviews and they were all really great, the ones that we saw. And I did like an expressions of interest via email, reached out to our studio community and I think I had like 10 or 12 positive expressions of interest out of that group. I think one person ended up actually booking into the retreat. So while it is a good guide of who is interested, it doesn't translate directly into who will actually come. And one of the people who replied to the expressions of interest flagged in a TripAdvisor review, the one one star review. In the 99.9% five star reviews. Someone said that it was really noisy and they couldn't hear it all during the yoga class. And it is an open air space. It's like one of those traditional like bamboo Balinese structures on the top level of the retreat centre. So I was like, oh no. Like I'd already paid my deposit at this stage. So I emailed the retreat centre and right away they sent me back this really detailed explanation of what had actually happened during that person's retreat. The Bali marathon was on. It was a lot noisier than normal and it seemed like that person as well had a lot of other issues and were actually quite abusive to the retreat staff. And it was an all in all bad situation that seemed to be quite limited to that one person. And it is by a road because you do need to drive there from places like the airport. So it isn't the quietest place in the world like that. It wasn't a problem for me.

Rane: And if you've been to Bali, like everywhere is kind of busy.

Jo: Yeah. Anywhere there's near a road, like there's going to be scooters going by and that was the level of traffic, like local people driving scooters by.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: So like the way even though that was an issue and that person didn't end up booking in, the way that the retreat centre responded to me I thought was really impressive.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: Like they totally acknowledged it. They explained what had happened from their side and like I don't expect life to be perfect but the way that people respond to challenges if you're going to be working with them is like quite telling. And I really appreciated how open they were with all of their communication. Like the whole planning. Their communication was really, really great. Like I think some weeks I sent Degas, who was supporting me, an email every single day and he always replied back with a message like on that day and it was like a really detailed message. You know, sometimes when you send an email to someone with five questions and they send it back and they answer two of them, he would like break it down at each five, one each of the questions would have like a full paragraph answer. And then while I was there as well, they were so supportive and really went out of their way to just do everything they could so that me and the guests had a really great experience.

Rane: Yeah. And we also found other teachers who were hosting or had hosted retreats there online and asked them, reached out them to them directly to, you know, get their thoughts. And they were all very positive as well. So.

Jo: Yeah, totally. And that is something that I would recommend if you're thinking about going to a place or they've reached out to you rather than it being a place you've had personal experience with, to get in touch with other teachers who have run retreats and see what their experiences were like. And I wasn't sure how people would respond to getting like an out of the blue dm, but they were really friendly and helpful. So that felt like a good. Just double check. Because sometimes people write one thing on an online review and something different in a personal communication message.

Rane: So we've talked a little bit about how it went in general. Is there anything else, you know, how it generally played out there you'd like to talk about?

Jo: Well, another challenge that I had personally, this is a very aerial, yoga specific challenge. But the leading up to the retreat, Daga sent me photos of their setup. It looked really similar to my setup, so I was like, all good, I know what to do here. And when I got there, just the hammocks being made out of different fabric was a bit of a learning curve for me. It was a lot stretchier. So it took a couple of classes to get used to their different adjustment system. And the staff retied some hammock knots for me so they were the right height. And that took getting used to as well. Like, I'm so used to just doing everything myself, but I had so much support there. Like, they were like, no, no, no. Just show us how you want it done and then we'll do it.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: And then every class they're like, what do you want us to lay out? Bolsters, blocks, mats? And they'll like set up every class for me.

Rane: Amazing.

Jo: It was amazing.

Rane: Yeah, yeah. So were there any other challenges you found during. During the actual retreat?

Jo: Well, one of these was my fault. When we were originally pitching the retreat and planning the retreat, it was going to be seven days and six nights. And then based on feedback from people, it was a little bit too much logistically and a little bit too much financially to go away for that long. So I cut it down to five days and four nights. And super grateful. Like, Floating Leaf were really understanding about that. And they kind of given me some discounts and some deals, and they, like, carried that over to the shorter package, which is really lovely of them.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: And I paid my deposit at this stage. Like, I feel like some place would just be like, no, that's what you paid your deposit for. Like, you know, that's what you locked in and signed up for. So super appreciate their flexibility. I kind of knew I hadn't allowed a lot of free time, but what I didn't factor in was I said we were starting at 2:00 on day one, and I arrived the day before, which I did. I was scared about missing my plane. And that was perfect. Like, arrived the day before, spent the first night at Floating Leaf, went out for a meal somewhere local with a few other people, had arrived early, and we all just felt really, like, chill and rested, and we did a couple of classes that first night, had a meal, and then the next day, it was like our cooking class in our silversmithing workshop. And we were all, like, really ready for that. But some people did what I might personally have done, which was like, okay, this starts at 2pm I'm gonna get this 6am flight that'll land me in Bali at 11. I'll still have hours to spare before everything begins, but that is if your plane does not get delayed. And just unfortunately, quite a few people who were arriving on that first day, early flights and big delays. So they were kind of tired when they arrived and a bit flustered. Some people, for that reason, didn't go to my opening meditation ceremony because they just needed to, like, have a shower and, you know, decompress. And also, you know, when you're getting an international flight, they recommend that you get to the airport three hours early. The airport's about an hour away from the retreat centre. So that's four hours between when you leave and, you know, when your flight goes. So my closing time checkout time was 11am and some people had flights that left at 1. So they also, like, the last class and the closing meditation. And the people who were in that situation on their feedback form were like, I wanted more aerial yoga, more meditation and more free time. And it was like, all of that was in the schedule. But my lesson learned was to tell people how much time to allow for their flight home and also just get to Bali the day before. Yeah, like, you don't have to stay at the retreat centre.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: But the people who did that were like, there was plenty of space. Like, I didn't do all the activities. I took some more for a two time when I needed to. So. And that was an option for everyone. But I think just having that extra day to like land and rest and settle helped people just feel really relaxed and settled when it began. And of course, everyone who'd been in transit and like stuck on their plane for hours felt a bit tired and a bit stressed when they arrived.

Rane: Yeah. So I guess you'll. You'll just communicate that a bit more.

Jo: Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I did contemplate adding an extra day into the retreat, but then when I looked at my days, it's like, actually it's. If you're there for the full time, it is enough time. And I'm just going to take out one other activity as well, which was like a little local shopping trip, which we all thought was going to be a little bit more about, a bit more of a cultural experience and a bit less of a shopping experience.

Rane: Gotcha, Gotcha.

Jo: And like Floating Leaf were actually really awesome about that feedback as well and going to change that activity. But even just not doing that is like, yeah, there's a whole afternoon free. Yeah.

Rane: Cool. And also, I guess you'll save a little bit on cost because the activities were sort of.

Jo: Oh, that was a free one.

Rane: Oh, was it? Okay.

Jo: Yeah, no, quite a lot of the activities provide.

Rane: Oh, wow, that's cool.

Jo: And they're also happy to take us places. So one of the surprise activities that people really loved was a rice paddy walk. So it was like a little local walking track and we saw a lot of local village life doing that as well, including this absolutely beautiful garden and meeting, like outdoor meeting place where all the farmers met, where they have kind of community discussions and things. And it's like a two and a half kilometre walk, but also jogging tracks. So lots of locals do their evening, like sunset jog, including a lot of the staff from Floating Leaf. We saw like four people who work there doing their evening jobs. And we're also there during kite season.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: So lots of people flying kites. Like, apparently August is a good time for kite wins. And there's a whole Bali kite tournament where each village sends their representative best kite flyer to compete. So that was like another little, you know, beautiful thing to enjoy. But yeah, people like loved the rice paddy walk. And I didn't realise how much people wanted to do morning walks, but just spontaneously Floating Leaf were like, yeah, we can like drive you in the morning back to that rice paddy Spot. So I'll make that an option in a future retreat.

Rane: Yeah. Nice. And I guess we've talked about some of the highlights, but have you got any more favourite parts?

Jo: I mean, the water purification ceremony at the Tampak Serum Water Temple was really beautiful. Did I tell you about the silversmithing workshop?

Rane: A little bit. I saw you ring, it was beautiful.

Jo: Thanks. That was such a highlight. So it was a silver making village, so a lot of local people do that together there. And kind of the head guy of the village explained a lot of it to us and how it is a bit of a challenge with these traditional techniques. And they're really traditional techniques. Like, they've grind up local berries to make the glue. Instead of, like boiling their silver in acid, they boil it in, like, limes and water.

Rane: Wow.

Jo: Yeah, yeah. Like, they pull their own wire. Like, they really take the raw materials and just do each step of the process. And like, the local kids in the village will go to school during the day and then in the afternoons and evenings they'll kind of work a little bit to kind of learn those traditional techniques. But, like, that level of labour intensiveness isn't competitive to something that's like made in a factory in China. So doing these classes for tourists, because Bali's economy is like 50, tourism is like another way for the village to, like, make an income from sharing these traditional techniques. And he was saying how, like, a lot of young people just want hospital jobs because that's, you know, like, who wants to be pulling silver wire for hours when you could just like, have a chill job at a retreat or a resort. So, yeah, it's a way of, like, kind of catering to tourists just as an everyday reality, but also keeping those traditional techniques alive. And it was like very much being in this family village. Like, it was in this beautiful garden. It was these, like, lovely open air workshops. And like all the aunties, all the uncles and some of the aunties were helping us make our things and everyone just totally designed the jewellery they wanted to make. And some of us had more help, some of us had less help. Kind of depends on how complicated your project was. And sensibly, none of us handled the fire. Yeah, we just, like, did the bellows pedal and, you know, someone who knew what they were doing was working with the torch end of things. Yep. But, yeah, it was amazing. It was really fun and you kind of got this insight into village life and everyone made something really cool and yeah, it was awesome.

Rane: Yeah, great.

Jo: So that was a real highlight too.

Rane: Yeah, awesome. And we've already mentioned a few things that you're going to take on for the next one, but were there any more lessons that you think were valuable or people might like to hear about?

Jo: Yeah. So one thing that I did do was I had open studio time, which people could, like if something in class wasn't happening for someone, which can happen in an aerial yoga class. Sometimes you just. Whatever you do in that first session, it's not going to happen in that first session. So I gave people that space to come to me in the open studio time and could work on things one on one. And also I feel like there are some moves inversions, especially where teaching group of 14 people is not my favourite way to share those moves. So for some of the more complicated moves that honestly not everyone's going to want to do anyway, like that's an open studio thing. Some of my participants had circus rigs, like spinning rigs, so we had like a play on those. And I made open studio time at the same time as free time and get a massage time. And I didn't factor in that a lot of people would want to get more than one massage because I included one in the retreat. But some people wanted to get more massages. So I think more, more space to get massages, maybe have the open studio time, like still have it there, but kind of really share to people what it was about. Because I like some sessions, no one came and then people were like, I wanted more aerial yoga. So I was like. But I had all this time, like work on things one on one together.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: So I think maybe more in depth, explain to people what that was all about and maybe don't make that explanation in an email.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: Like do it in person at the.

Rane: Intro or something like that, or.

Jo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And make sure everyone's there at the intro when you're like talking through all of this stuff.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: This is not something I do differently, this is something I do the same. But it might not be something that's appropriate for every retreat. I made a WhatsApp group, so, you know, if you were a more silent retreat or a retreat where you weren't leaving the venue to go other places, you wouldn't necessarily need a WhatsApp group. But I wanted a way that I could just be like, we're leaving in five minutes, bus is going now. And also sometimes even though I spent a lot of time with Dagus ahead of time planning the schedule, things still changed a little bit. And so I wanted to be able to just shoot off a Message to everyone to be like, okay, tomorrow we're doing this at 9, this at 10, and you know, have that easy way to message everyone. And people have also been using it to share photos with each other after the retreat. So for me, having the WhatsApp group was just very helpful with communication.

Rane: Great, great. So I guess.

Jo: Oh, you asked me what I was going to do differently.

Rane: Oh, yeah.

Jo: And I have the thought of what I was going to do differently. So this is a pricing thought. This time around, I did an Early Bird price based on the date every single person got Early Bird price. So that was a little bit of a hit to my budget because I was not anticipating that. So this time around, I'm going to do an extra deal for the people who've done the previous retreat because a few people have already asked me about that. And then I'm going to do a first release race. So first five rooms is like my number of rooms for it to be a go ahead proposition. And that will be my first release rate. So if you get in early, you get one of those first five rooms, you get the deal, and then after that it will be a little bit more. And I think that's going to be a better way for me to like, just track, you know, to still have the deal to incentivize people to book in early, but kind of control how many people are paying what rate versus I mean, it's not a. I'm not complaining about everyone booking at Early Bird because, like, that was actually a massive relief and I was really grateful to fill my retreat. Like being my first time doing this and like being an independent yoga teacher, it is a really intimidating amount of money to pay up for your deposit before anyone has booked in. And.

Rane: And we're doing sort of conversions to US dollars. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jo: So that changes.

Rane: Yeah.

Jo: Like you might do one thing on your website and then the dollar really changes. So that can like be like quite a lot of money per person. Other thing I did wrong was I used PayPal to pay my first deposit and paid almost $300 in PayPal fees that I was not anticipating. I mean, that was me not being switched on and I wouldn't even use PayPal now for ethical reasons. So I use a Wise card to make my transactions and I also use. Took my Wise card with me to pay for stuff in Bali because it's really good for security, really good for fees, and yeah, much better on paying the money to them.

Rane: Nice. And I guess it's worth mentioning that we've Just sort of updated our website, garden of yoga.com au so it has a place where you can register for our or for your next yoga retreat next year.

Jo: So just the expressions of interest at this phase because real talk, I'm saving up for my next deposit. So that is when you get to lock in the date when you pay your deposit. But it is going to be winter 2026 and if you want to be one of those people to get those emails when it is up and running and get one of those first release rooms. Yeah. Log your expression of interest.

Rane: Beautiful. So have you got any other concluding thoughts about the retreat or have we covered everything?

Jo: Yeah. So something different is happening on the next retreat. Mia, who's a collaborator of mine, we've done some painting and meditation workshops together. Travel, art, dance. Her creative dance group sometimes teaches out of Garden of Yoga. We'll be co hosting the next retreat together. She's really. Yeah, she's a beautiful person. Her creative dance style is very much about immersive experience versus technique. And she's also a labyrinth practitioner, so she does like a lot of other different meditation focused activities. She and Edgar, her partner, came along to this retreat that we just did and she loved it. So she'll be coming with me on the next one because the other suggestion that people wanted was more meditation. And so she'll be leading some of the meditation sessions including some nature meditations maybe on the beach or in the rice paddies. So yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Because Ron here has a new 9 to 5 so he's not as available for retreat experiences.

Rane: So I guess moving on from the retreat, recently you got all your rigging in the yoga studio sort of inspected, I guess you could say. Would you like to talk about that experience?

Jo: Yeah. So that was with Tiny from ShowTech Australia and I spoke to Tiny for my book. I have never been told at any aerial yoga trainings or maybe I was told and it didn't register that it's actually a work safe requirement that you have a rigging inspected every year. So once I learned that I was like, I better start on this. And I did my own inspections. So I like looked for things like any fraying in the daisy chains, any wear and tear on the carabiners, obviously the fabric check for little holes so you can fix those up before they become big holes. And because my studio was set up by a structural engineer, I kind of thought I was like coverage. Like it's a massive steel girder, so the beam's fine. But yeah, even in My situation, you do still need to have annual inspections to meet your work cover requirements. So, very relieved that everything was fine. And Heiny really had lovely things to say about the studio. And everything I'd set up was all. I didn't have to make any big changes. Only thing that I need to change is my record keeping. Because synthetic items like the daisy chains and the fabrics are only viable for 10 years. So even if they don't look damaged from the outside, after 10 years, you are meant to replace all of that equipment. So you just gotta track what you bought and when and tag each piece of equipment. So, you know, luckily, each hammock that I bought, each round of hammocks that I bought were different colours. So I'm like, oh, all the orange hammocks were from this day. All those like seafoam colours were from this date. And also I'd use little, like, cut up bits of yoga mash between my daisy chains and my steel beams to protect the daisy chains from like friction and rubbing. And he recommended swapping out the yoga mat for something else that wouldn't break down. Cause the yoga mat does kind of like, like degrade and those tiny fibres can get into the rigging and also it sucks moisture out of the air. And so he was like, swap it out for something else like an old carpet or another type of fabric that doesn't do those two things. So I cut up an old rug that we had and swapped those out. Made my spreadsheet with all of my equipment and I now have a little sign in the studio which just shows the load capacity of each of the beams and references the engineering report. So that anyone who had concerns or was curious can just see there. It's all based on someone who knows what they're doing, making structural computations. So maybe that could be something to look out for if you are going to a new studio just to see if they are displaying that kind of information. Because tiny is like, that's one of the ways you can check if people are all doing their due diligence and keeping up with safety standards. There'll be like a little poster somewhere that shows that. And I really want to do as much visual stuff that I can to help people feel safe. Like, that's why I've got these big steel beams that are visible versus tucked away inside the ceiling. And I, like choose the biggest, chunkiest looking carabiners that I can find as well, because they look really strong and really safe. So I think just everything that you can do to like show people that they are safe and secure and supported versus just telling them to trust. That is like helpful.

Rane: Trust me, bro.

Jo: Yeah, you're fine. And also it was something I checked out with Floating Leaf as well that they had had their structure checked with a structural engineer and they had done so.

Rane: Nice.

Jo: That might also be something to check out if you're looking for an aerial yoga retreat venue just to see.

Rane: Great, great. So I guess one more thing we wanted to talk about. We learned recently by a Facebook post that the Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast is going to end relatively soon. And you know, we, we were lucky enough to be on that podcast a while ago and talk to Shannon on.

Jo: Our podcast as well.

Rane: Absolutely. And we've sort of, you know, kept in touch with Shannon a little bit over the years and I think she's a, a wonderful person and has been a wonderful influence on the yoga community and kind of sad to see that it is ending so.

Jo: Absolutely. It's been like such a helpful resource I've had especially for pelvic health stuff. And like, Shannon Crow is such an example of like living your ethics and not just talking about yoga philosophy, but showing practical examples of how you can put it into action. So wishing her all the best on whatever she decides to do next. And if you haven't checked out the Connected Yoga Teacher podcast, it's an amazing library of episodes. She, I guess she feels like a much more professional organisation than what we do. Like there's a whole team working on it and yeah, like it's very inspiring to see someone do something at such a professional level and put so much harsh and passion into it as well. So I'm sure she'll be bringing all of that energy to her next project or maybe having a well deserved rest. There might be a bit of that as well.

Rane: Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, all the best to Shannon and whatever her future endeavours or we're just chilling out maybe.

Jo: Yeah.

Rane: So I guess that is pretty much us covered this episode. So have you got any concluding thoughts, Joe?

Jo: A lot of people ask how the cats are doing. The cat's doing great.

Rane: Oh, amazing.

Jo: I don't think so. I think I've got it all covered. I'll probably remember them tomorrow once the episode's all done and dusted. But thanks for asking me all those questions, Ryan.

Rane: Oh, no problem.

Jo: Thanks for holding the fort while I was off teaching the retreat.

Rane: Oh my gosh. All I did was clean up cat litter and feed cats while. While you're gone. And work, obviously.

Jo: Yeah, a lot of it was Cat work.

Rane: It went very quickly. It went so quickly. While you can. Glad to have you back.

Jo: Yay.

Rane: All right, well, thank you so, so much for listening to us. We appreciate you spending your time with us.

Jo: Well, I have one more shout out, actually.

Rane: Oh, yes.

Jo: Yeah, yeah. So sorry. Like, part of my retreat planning that we're it really smoothly was because of Nicole B. Of Jo of Joslo Yoga's generosity. So Nicole taught a Bali retreat herself before mine, and she really generously shared her preparation handout that she sent to her students. And even though I've been to Bali a couple of times, it was pre Covid and so much stuff had changed. So, like the paying for your visa and arrival, you can do ahead of time online. Filling out your immigration form and your customs form, you can do all of that ahead of time online. So I worked through through her handout and then kind of made one for my students based on that. And like, I think it helped people feel really supported and really cared for before the retreat even began to kind of have this like, clear list of preparations and then just smooth path through the airport. Don't have to line up. You just show them your QR code and you're all good to go. And I wouldn't have known any of that if it hadn't have been for Nicole. And I think it really helped my retreat because off to a great start because it was just smooth sailing through the airport. So I really appreciate her generosity and sharing. And maybe for other teachers who are planning a retreat, it's a good thing to research because probably more and more airports are going to be as automated as Denpasar airport is now. And a good place where you can check is your airline website.

Rane: Beautiful. Well, thanks again everyone for listening. Thank you for spending your precious time with us. Aroha Nui. Big big love.