IAM096 – Yoga & Meditation Teacher Shares Her Definition of Happiness

As a yoga and meditation teacher, Kseniya Tsoi's passion and purpose is to ignite, or perhaps reignite, your curiosity and explore how simple life can be. An hour on a mat, 15 minutes sitting in stillness, a good meal – her definition of happiness. She wants to share this with you.

And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?
-Rumi

• CEO Hack: Waking up at 5:30 and meditating / Self-discipline
• CEO Nugget: Have ambition and goals but understand you need to put in the work to get there. Master the skills of communication. Keep things simple. Explore meditation.
• CEO Defined: A lot of work and self-growth and exploring yourself

Website: https://www.xenoselements.com/

Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/xenos_yoga_wellness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xenoselements/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Kseniya Tsoi of xenoselements.com. Kseniya, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Kseniya Tsoi 0:37

Oh, thank you. I'm really excited to be on the show as well.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Super happy to have you on the show. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about you so that people can learn all the awesome things that you're doing. And as a yoga and meditation teacher, her passion and purpose are to ignite, or perhaps, reignite your curiosity and explore how simple life can be. An hour on a mat, 15 minutes sitting in stillness, and a good meal is her definition of happiness. She wants to share this with you. She asks, when will you begin that long journey into yourself? So, Kseniya, thanks for coming on. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Kseniya Tsoi 1:13

Yay. I am

Gresham Harkless 1:15

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question that I had was just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

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Kseniya Tsoi 1:22

I have a very interesting story, I guess. And it's very dynamic and complex. So, I emigrated to America in 2011. And I'm Korean, ethnically, but I come from Kurdistan, which is the former Soviet Union Republic. So, yeah, so I moved to Virginia in 2011. And I pretty much had to start from scratch, as I worked at Macy's as a part-time beauty advisor.

And then I got promoted to a County Manager position pretty fast because I kind of like get this business aspect of sales. And it's never about numbers. I mean, numbers come after, but it's all about communication and connection. So, that was like a validation for me that I really know like, what communication is like what working with people is and I was pretty successful.

So, I guess like that's where my CEO slash, like business skills, started like to speak to me. So, I got my major in counseling psychology, and I still was looking for a job in my field. So, like after Macy's, I didn't like the hours because retail hours are tough. You have to work weekends, you have to work holidays. So, I got a job talking to people and customers at Macy's. I got a job at a dental office where I was a business assistant for dental practices. And I kind of like moved up in my career there where I had to work with insurances like and treatment plans and lots of numbers. But again, it was like, I would always see that it's not about numbers and production as well. It's about the final goal to help patients; to do something good to help a person.

So, from there, I got a job at NIH as a clinical Data Analyst. And while moving up in my career I was in a relationship and I kind of wasn't happy in relationships. So, and what got me to I think I had like my lowest point in life where there was like a lot of disagreement in a relationship which actually was the cause of like miscommunication I needed like an outlet so I went and signed up to the closest yoga studio.

And I thought like I'm gonna die the first class it was so challenging but like it was painful like physically painful like my brain was suffering but something made me go back and I guess like when you are faced with choices like physical pain or emotional pain.

I chose physical pain because that's understandable and I offer also notice like every time I would go back to the yoga mat I would like to confront myself like and I was like honest with myself with every pose so there was always a question like okay, this hurts but can I go further? Can I push myself further so that whatever I practiced on the yoga mat kind of carried over to all other aspects of my life then I kind of became more honest with myself and I started to question things in my life like am I happy like in a relationship?

Am I happy going to work, where I had to stare at the computer like for eight hours like 9 to 5, and be limited to a limited amount of income, which wouldn't allow me to like to travel like I love traveling, like just stuff I wanted to do? And something like clicked on me one day I decided, you know what? It's time, to be honest, like yes, it was scary but had to cut the story short, I ended the relationship where I was not happy. And I quit my job in January 2018. And I started my own business as a Yoga instructor and Meditation instructor and I also for some other therapists, and I love it every day is a challenge because it's risky. You don't have consistent income, but it's also gratifying and I do what I love. And I love to see improvement in my students, and my clientele bases, surprisingly, growing pretty fast. So, it's, that's my story of becoming a CEO of Xenos Elements.

Gresham Harkless 5:42

Yeah, I appreciate you for sharing that with us. I wanted to drill down a little bit and hear a little bit more about your business that you started and hear a little bit more about, like what you're doing to kind of help serve the clients that you're working with.

Kseniya Tsoi 5:51

My main focus is to help people to explore Yoga. But my motto is to keep it simple. So, after I explored yoga, I went to different studios. And I practice like in different classes like so different approaches, but I saw what was missing for me is a focus on basics for people to understand like alignment, like basic alignment.

So, yeah, one of my focuses is to introduce yoga to everybody in the world. And to help them to understand that it's very easy and simple. It takes time and discipline to establish the connection between mind and body. And you don't need to get in complicated pretzel poses. As long as you come to the mat, and try to tune in to the communication of your body and mind, things will just unfold, and it's a great benefit for your body. My second focus is meditation, which is key.

And I think every modern human should meditate, even for a minute because meditation helps to still your mind down. And if your mind is still you feel better, you make better decisions, and you just start to appreciate life from different angles. Those are the main priorities in my business. And my other view is that I always tried to teach my clients that yoga, it's not about physical practice, when you use physicality to break through and tap into your inner self, you got to like breakthrough the physical aspect of it.

So, this is the main model and concept of my business. And I think that's how my classes are different from other instructors. And I love how I see results in people. So, how the manifests and like a toned body comes by default without even noticing it. But it's a state of mind that changes.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Makes perfect sense. And it kind of sounds like you know, what you're helping you know, the clients that do that you're working with, it's also similar to what you went through, as you were talking about with your story where you got into the emotional, you got into kind of like the why and everything and all the things with I guess, within the physical so that you can start to see change and start to implement a lot of those changes that you're probably seeing your clients.

Kseniya Tsoi 8:07

Yes, that's accurate.

Gresham Harkless 8:08

Awesome, awesome, awesome. You might have already touched on it. But I wanted to ask you for what I call, your secret sauce or something that you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart. Do you have an example of that? Or did you already kind of touched on that?

Kseniya Tsoi 8:19

So, the secret sauce would be that, I guess when I go to the class, I do not have expectations like I do have a goal, I do have a theme for my classes, I don't have any expectations. And my secret sauce is to keep it simple. So, meditation, for example, is a huge field. And a lot of like the feedback that I hear from students like Oh, meditation is hard, like I can detach. So, my secret there is to start with one minute, like, focusing on one technique, and then once the brain is familiar, you can progress further. So, I'm a big fan of Lisa Nichols. She's amazing. Like I follow her books. And she teaches also that so micro steps happen, like once you conquer the micro steps. And this is so true. And I stick to it. It's not even a secret. But implementing it is, I guess like there is complexity and simplicity. Right. So, yeah, keep it simple. That's my secret. Like it's easier said than done. But that's what I stick to.

Gresham Harkless 9:26

No, it's huge. And I think especially like you said, a lot of people may not have done yoga before, they may not have meditated before. But like if you're trying to do yoga for the very first time and you see somebody like you said in a pretzel, you're like, oh, there's no way I'm gonna be able to make that happen. But if you do those little small things, those micro things you can start to build up to having a healthier lifestyle, but also being able to do a lot of those yoga poses.

Kseniya Tsoi 9:47

Yep

Gresham Harkless 9:47

Yeah, that makes sense. Awesome, awesome., awesome. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And a CEO hack could be an app, a book, or even a habit that you have. That's just something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Kseniya Tsoi 10:00

I wake up every morning at 5 30. And I meditate. So, usually, I take about 10 to 15 minutes, but sometimes my brain fights it. So, I tried to meditate. And if I can't I just get out of it. But this is a must for me. And I literally feel the difference. So, meditation waking up on time, it's being disciplined. So, I was watching recently Will Smith's short video about how he was explaining, but what is self-love. So, he pretty much like, down to down to self-discipline, and I so agree with him. So, um, yeah, just pushing yourself and encouraging yourself to be disciplined, and have your priorities, and never compromise on them. I guess keeping it simple and disciplined. That those are my hacks and I apply them in every aspect of my business.

Gresham Harkless 10:56

Nice. I love that. And especially I think I know the exact video that you're talking about, with Will Smith, where self-love is doing the discipline things that you want because you have and you love yourself enough that you want to reach a goal. So, making sure that you're doing those things in order to do that is a form of self-love. So, I think that's an incredible example of a CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for a CEO nugget. And this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. But it's something that you might tell your younger business self.

Kseniya Tsoi 11:23

I think what I would tell myself, sometimes we do have ambitions in life, and we do have goals, but it is very important to understand that you need to put in work to get there because like when I was I mean, I made a decision to quit my job. But I thought yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a yoga teacher, I'm gonna have clients and bla bla bla, but I never actually put in some work to explore what is going to take me. And now looking at my workday, now I work more, but I enjoy it.

But there's like a lot that I have to take care of, right? Because when you're like a CEO of your small business. You are like a CEO, you're a marketologist, you're a salesperson, you're a teacher. So, you want to do everything. So, the advice I would tell my younger self is just to do more research and have ambitions but also to have realistic goals. Anything like another aspect that recently I'm facing a lot is the ability to communicate. And that gets back to when I immigrated to this country that goes throughout all of my jobs. Like I think it is important to master your skills of communication.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different kinds of quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Kseniya Tsoi 12:48

Okay, I guess to me, it would be a lot of work and self-growth in the personal arena. Because like, once you become in charge of your own things, like you do confront a lot of things about yourself, like, the same thing about like being disciplined, and being sharp, like being hungry for knowledge, and always like be a driver of your business. You got to help yourself, like hold yourself accountable.

And always, like, learn things about yourself. And it's a pretty fun, sometimes challenging, interesting process. It's kind of like practicing yoga. Like by the middle of the practice, you feel like you're going to die. When you keep driving yourself and you're exploring, like, what else can you do like where you can go further, what you can improve. So I guess that's what gave me this opportunity to enjoy and fully dive into the process of exploring my limits and teaching myself that there are no limits sometimes.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

Kseniya, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was passionate the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then how best people can get a hold of you.

Kseniya Tsoi 14:12

So, the only message I have to people is to keep things simple. And be disciplined. Be honest with yourself and really choose your priorities and never compromise on them. So this is my main message. And I also would like to encourage everyone to explore yoga and meditate. I think it should be a must of every person's life you need to learn how to be able to be with yourself even for a minute without any distractions just like feeling your breathing pattern or feeling your body or just sitting and observing your thoughts like it's a very small action can take very, like it is very significant in a long run.

So, people get hold of me, I'm all over the place in the Washington DC area. So, I teach like different projects. Some are not accessible by a lot of people because it's like military bases or private corporations. But you can always reach out to me on xenos_yoga_wellness Instagram account. Is there any way where you can indicate it in your podcast?

Gresham Harkless 15:37

We're gonna put the links in the show notes.

Kseniya Tsoi 15:38

Yeah, cuz my name is not very easy to pronounce. But yeah, so xenos_yoga_wellness. This is my Instagram account. And you can reach out to me on my website, which is www.xenoselements.com. Yeah, so let's connect. Keep in touch.

Gresham Harkless 15:57

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I really appreciate you for doing all the awesome things that you're doing. And as I mentioned, we'll have all those links in the show notes. So, if you want to click through and definitely follow all the awesome things you're doing, say. Yeah, I appreciate you again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Kseniya Tsoi 16:11

Thank you. You too, come join my class one day.

Outro 16:14

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