Evan Snow: And we are back here on the choose954 podcast, episode 74, with our dear friend Kelly Talliday, our upcoming AAF Creative Zen speaker this Friday for our four-year anniversary event. If you didn’t know about choose954, we started a social movement—myself, Evan Snow, and my business partner, Mr. Andrew Martineau—to cultivate culture and community here in Broward County, where I’m very proud to be born and raised. Our goal is to keep people in the know about all the great things going on to make this a better place to live, not just a better place to vacation. The point of the podcast is to connect you with amazing people in the community, like Kelly, who do some awesome things that you’re about to find out about. We’ll tell you a little bit more about Creative Zen in a few minutes, but before we get there, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself at a high level?
Kelly Talliday: Yeah, thank you so much, Evan. It’s such an honor to be here and to be featured this upcoming Friday for the four-year anniversary—so excited for that! I am a South Florida local, born and raised. I grew up here my whole life, traveled and lived around the world, and landed myself back in my very hometown that I grew up in. So it’s kind of been a real big full circle for me, and how amazing it’s been to see the South Florida community and wellness and arts and fitness and the restaurant scene and everything just exploding in such a way that I couldn’t have imagined. Just looking at, you know, my hometown of Pompano, just looking at the Pompano Pier and what they’re doing there in Old Pompano, it’s just amazing to see. And we’re so blessed to be back here again, being a part of this community. So thank you for having me on.
Evan Snow: Absolutely, and we’re happy to have you. Shout out to Pompano—I actually grew up down the street, not too far, in Coral Springs, so it’s really cool to see this resurgence of Pompano. I’m glad that we’re able to play a little part in supporting the community. For those who are not familiar with your story, we don’t want to give the whole thing away because you will be sharing the full version of your story at Creative Zen this Friday morning, which is a free monthly breakfast lecture series—a mini TED Talk to connect, engage, and inspire our community. For those not familiar with you, how did you get started on this journey of yours?
Kelly Talliday: Yeah, so like I said, I’ve been practicing for about 15 years. Growing up, I was a competitive swimmer. I swam four to five hours a day, every single day, 365 days a year. As you can imagine, there are only so many times a human can rotate their shoulders before they give up on you, and I developed tendonitis as a 15-year-old. So my coach said, “Let’s get you in the sauna; let’s do stretches.” At the time, Bikram yoga was just starting to really take foot in the West, and there was maybe one Bikram studio—super fringe—in Pompano at the time. He said, “You know what, I’ve heard of this heated yoga. It’s like you’re stretching in a sauna basically. It’s perfect for you—go do it.” I was like, “All right.” And me, being the competitive athlete that I was, I loved it. I loved the mirrors, I loved the sweat, I loved the grit, I loved the competition—which, of course, was mainly just in my own head, competing against other people—but I thrived off of pushing myself.
Especially as a young teen, we’re mainly physical beings, using our bodies to explore the world, and you don’t normally get to tap into these deeper states of consciousness because we are so body-based at that age. And so being able to just burn myself completely out physically in a Bikram yoga class and then lie on the floor and head into savasana, which I had never felt before—I mean, I grew up in Catholic schooling my whole life. I knew what prayer was and the concept of God that Catholic schooling gives to you, but I had never really had what I would believe to be a true conversation with God or what I now call a higher power, or perhaps my higher self. I remember my first savasana ever, after just slamming myself in handstands and crow and all the crazy stuff, I was laying in savasana, and I had a true, deep inner voice come to me. I wouldn’t say it was like that big booming fatherly voice that some people talk about that God has, but I definitely had this sense of this higher power looking over me. I remember thinking, “I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. I’m going to do this practice for the rest of my life. I’m going to own a studio, I’m going to be a teacher.” And I was 15 years old.
That just kind of guided me through. I never thought I would actually be a teacher. I never thought, in my monkey mind and my thinking mind, that would be a possibility for me because I wanted to make my parents proud and get a high-rolling job in marketing or be a lawyer or whatever all the crazy things that were told in high school that are considered “successful.” But there was just this very deep inner knowing that this practice was going to be a part of my life for a very long time. So yeah, it really started mainly as movement—the asana—for a very, very long time because the majority of yoga in the West, still to this day, is primarily asana or movement-based, the physical postures. But over time, after about a decade and traveling through Asia—which we’ll get into later, I’m sure—I found the right teachers at the right time who were able to really help me nurture this relationship that I have with this inner voice, this higher consciousness, whatever you’d like to call it, and dive so much deeper into what the ancient yogis were able to pass down to us so graciously, and we’re so grateful for that. But yeah, that’s kind of how it all started. It was meant to be rehab, and it changed my entire life.
Evan Snow: That’s amazing. Anybody who’s ever done hot yoga, Bikram or otherwise, will know that first savasana after getting your butt kicked, more or less, in a positive way, is one of the most relieving and fulfilling experiences. Which is why you heard me snickering as you were outlining and explaining it from my own yogi experience. So I appreciate you sharing that with me and the viewers and listeners. I don’t normally get to ask this in this context to too many of our guests on the podcast, but I felt it was a really natural thing to ask you. So what has this work done for your life personally and even now professionally?
Kelly Talliday: Well, I think from a personal level, it’s helped me develop that relationship with that inner voice that I heard for the first time when I was 15 even further—not just to be able to listen to it but to be able to trust it. Every event in my life, when you ask me, “You’re going to share your story on Friday; you’re going to share your story with our community,” I was looking back at my story, and every decision, every life change—pretty much anything good that has ever happened to me—has come from, in some way or another, listening to my inner voice and then having the courage to take the risk to follow it. And I don’t think if I didn’t have this practice—if I didn’t have the right teachers, if I didn’t have the right practice, and if I didn’t have the right community around me—I’m not sure I would have had the courage to take those risks. You know, I might not have ever landed myself in Dublin and met my husband on a random pub night. I might not have ever landed myself in Sydney. I might not have ever taken the leaps that I needed to take to be able to follow my life the way that it is. I truly credit my practice as being a stable force in my life. I can always tell when I’m getting a little shaky or unstable emotionally; it’s like, “Okay, when’s the last time I really sat down and connected into that inner voice, connected into my heart?”
The practice, whether it’s purely a physical practice for you or you’re getting a little bit deeper into your meditation practice or your breath work, it truly gives you the means to be able to cultivate spaciousness within your body and your mind. It gives you that space to pause so that you can respond to life rather than reacting to life. When we respond to life from a place of intuitive wisdom and groundedness, things just seem to flow—even when they’re not going exactly the way you plan, you’re able to just accept it as it comes your way. Instead of pushing and pulling your way through life, you’re allowing more spaciousness, you’re allowing more flow, and things just seem a lot easier that way. Even through the darkest times that I’ve been through—most recently, in the past week, losing a very, very, very dear friend—I was just telling you, Evan, thank God for this practice. Thank God for the teachers, the practice, and the community that I’ve surrounded myself with because otherwise this would seem insurmountable. Truly, that’s what it’s given me—just this feeling of peace, knowing that the safety net is there for me even though I can’t see it.
Evan Snow: Amen, and sorry for your loss, of course. And I couldn’t agree more. We’re not doing video for this recording, but if we were, you would see me throwing my hands up in a round of applause for everything that you were saying in regard to the benefits and impact of a yoga practice for anybody’s life, whether it’s purely for the physical or even just for the meditation aspect and the mindfulness aspect. We’re obviously both huge yogis and yoga advocates and thankfully have implemented these practices into our lives and now work to spread the gifts of these practices. You’ve thankfully made amazing strides over the years to this stage of your life, your journey, and your career now. For those who are not familiar with your work, what are you currently working on in terms of your current offerings?
Kelly Talliday: Yeah, so at the moment, I’m working with my beautiful business partner and our mutual friend, Chloe Revell, who—for those who are coming on Friday to the event—will be able to meet her as well. We have created our business called Rising Nature Retreats. Chloe’s individual business is The Gemini Rising, and my individual business is Hello True Nature, so we combined the two together for Rising Nature Retreats. We really focus on creating transformational wellness experiences. These aren’t just “yoga retreats,” where you just walk in, do twice-daily yoga, get your healthy green juice, and walk out. We’re really looking for the students who want to dig deep and explore their inner landscape and be able to find the nuggets of wisdom that are already within themselves by being able to disconnect from their daily life by going on retreat—whether it’s our monthly mini-retreats that we host here in Pompano, actually at my home, which you’ve been to, Evan—we miss you; you’ve got to come back soon!
Evan Snow: I will!
Kelly Talliday: We do those as a way for people to get a little taste of what it’s like to go on retreat with us, and it’s really accessible if you live in South Florida. It’s a three-hour event on a Saturday morning—beautiful practice, meditation, and sound healing. Then we have a guided group discussion based on the theme of the month, and we invite local vendors and local sponsors to come to the event so that you as a guest get to connect even further with the local South Florida community, which is connected to our mission that’s so aligned with what Choose954’s mission is—just to continue to amplify the community that is vastly and rapidly growing at the moment. That’s what we do on a local level. Then the main core of our purpose is our signature retreats, which are usually between four to seven days, and we take those around the world. Our most current one is actually next week in Asheville, but for those listening who are interested, we do have one locally in Florida, in Ormond Beach, about three hours north of here, and that’s in the fall, which is going to be absolutely amazing as well.
That’s mainly the core of what I’m focusing on. I have been a yoga and meditation teacher for five years, and I used to teach in studios quite regularly, but now I really focus on these really impactful events that can have long-lasting impact without needing to get on your mat absolutely every single day—which would be amazing if we could, but as a mom, I understand how limited and precious time is. I love being able to curate events where people can take away little nuggets, little practices, and then implement them in their own lives without having to rely on a teacher every week to get that feel-good feeling. We want people to feel empowered to take what little time they have and implement the practice that suits them best rather than the teacher saying, “This is the only thing that works,” or all the crazy stuff we hear sometimes from gurus and all that.
That’s really the core of what we do—we offer a wide variety of modalities from a wide variety of different lineages, perhaps even different cultures that we’ve been lucky enough to study with. Chloe and I really bring a blend of different styles and backgrounds, even from coaching mentalities as well, as we have different backgrounds in coaching. That’s what we’re working on. Apart from that, I have an online coaching program for moms, and that’s called Thrive Like a Mother. I can definitely give you some more information on that after, but it’s more like a self-paced online coaching—it’s all online, all the modules are there; you go at your own pace, which works really well for moms. It’s just been such an honor to continue to study with some of the top women’s health yoga therapists in the world, to study with my teacher, who’s the longest-serving yoga educator in Australia, and to just be able to travel and continue to make connections with some really impactful people. It reminds you that it’s not so much about the social media followers that you have or the number of clients that you have. It’s not really about the numbers; it’s about the individual impact that you’re making on a one-to-one basis and how that can ripple out into your community. That’s really what I try to focus on here in South Florida.
Evan Snow: Amen, and you do a great job of it. As I have mentioned previously, my first yoga teacher—my guru, Chloe Revell, aka The Gemini Rising—is Kelly’s partner, and she couldn’t speak highly enough of Kelly. I did attend one of their first mini-retreat experiences at her home in Pompano, and it definitely left an imprint on me. Unfortunately, the scheduling hasn’t worked out for me to attend the last couple, but I do plan to join you guys again. It’s made an impact, I know, on multiple people’s lives, including our dear friend Seth Gilson, aka The Mindful Doctor—sponsor, because he was so moved by the work you guys are doing. You really are truly making an impact, and we really do want to commend you and Chloe for the work that you guys are doing.
For those who would be interested in potentially taking advantage—maybe not of this next retreat, just based on it being next week—but of what you do have coming up next, could you maybe run some dates by for the mini-retreats, the Ormond Beach retreat, and even if you don’t have dates, maybe some thoughts as to some offerings of what might be coming up next in the future from you guys?
Kelly Talliday: Yeah, absolutely. If there’s anyone out there who is really leaning into their spontaneous spirit, we do have one spot left for Asheville next Wednesday! So, you know, I’m all about spontaneity and leaning into that intuitive wisdom and taking the courage to take the leap. There is a spot next Wednesday—it’s May 18th to the 22nd in Asheville. Our next monthly mini-retreat is in June—that’s going to be our “Yogis Gone Wild” summer party, which we’re really excited about. That’s on June 18th from 8 to 11 a.m., and all the links, all the brochures, everything is in the link in our bio on Instagram. We’ll have it all connected, and we have all the information. We normally take a break from the monthly mini-retreats in July and August just because it’s just so damn hot, and we don’t want anyone melting in the summer sun, so we will reconvene on September 10th—same time, 8 to 11, same place in Pompano. Our Ormond Beach retreat, which is one of our signature retreats from last year, our Be Here Now retreat, is September 29th to October 2nd. It’s probably one of the most—I’ve hosted five or six retreats now—it’s probably one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever led a retreat on or even been on a retreat to. We have the most amazing chef—she’s our signature chef. There’s in-house massage, there’s kayaking and paddleboarding on the river, there’s an infinity pool and hot tub—it’s next level. We really try to pride ourselves on making it as accessible as possible for people in terms of travel and cost and everything. Again, that’s—if you go to our Instagram, that’s in the link in our bio there as well. Then, yeah, we’re starting to plan for 2023, so if you’re interested in having input on where we go, we’re going to be putting out a poll in June asking our email subscribers, “Where do you want to go in 2023?” and really taking that into stock. So if you want to be a part of this and really be a part of our community and shape our whole next year, then definitely subscribe to our email list as well.
Evan Snow: Amazing. Kelly is not only well-traveled but very well-experienced. I don’t want to give too, too much away because we do encourage you to join us this Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. at Kitten Co. in Oakland Park, right near City Hall, for our four-year anniversary installment event of AAF Creative Zen—a monthly breakfast lecture series mini-TED Talk that served as my initial “aha” moment that led me down this crazy arts, culture, and community-building and now yogi path, thank God. Which is why I continue to pay it back and pay it forward and continue to host these free events with free coffee, a free guided meditation by our dear friend Chloe, and there’s no catch. It’s something that I’ve seen proven to be successful not only in my own life but in over 200 other cities around the world that have a similar platform just to connect, engage, and inspire our local community by bringing in a thought-provoking and inspiring speaker to share their story. We’re very glad to have the stars align this Friday to have Kelly share her story. The doors open at 8:30, the talk starts at 9, and we’re generally out of there by 10. You can find out more if you type in “AAF Creative Zen,” register on Eventbrite, Facebook, all that good stuff. You have to see the images on Instagram and all that. If they want to find you on the social medias, where can they find you on social? I know you have a few.
Kelly Talliday: Yeah, so the best place to find me now is at Rising Nature Retreats, and that is both on Instagram and Facebook. That’s where I’m the most active at the moment. Then my individual coaching business and one-on-one clients is at Hello True Nature, again, both Instagram and Facebook. I also have a website, hellotruenature.com, that will have all the information for both Rising Nature and Hello True Nature. Those are the best two places, and definitely, if you do follow, just shoot me a DM and we can chat, and I’ll follow back. We can continue to build the community together. I’m really excited for Friday—I’ve loved every event that I’ve attended. I’ve met some really awesome people. I just want to put a little shout-out that if there’s anyone listening here who has a local business, has a product or a service, or just wants to get their name out there in the community, we’re always, always, always looking to connect with like-minded local businesses to be featured vendors and sponsors at our mini-retreats too. I just want to put that out there that if anyone’s like, “Hey, I would love to connect with their community,” we want to connect with you too. It’s a total free flow of just seeing what works for the two of us, so definitely reach out if that’s something that you’re interested in.
Evan Snow: Amen. I found some great brands when I attended—Buddha Pants, a CBD company, a bunch of really talented and passionate local small businesses, and I really commend you guys on leveraging the platform to support these local businesses and really create an amazing space in your space and her space—one of the coolest backyards I’ve ever seen in Pompano. Before we wrap up, I do want to encourage you guys obviously to join us Friday. If you’re looking for some other cool stuff to do, we actually have a really cool, first-of-its-kind festival happening this weekend with Mezcal Lauderdale, a first-of-its-kind mezcal festival. Mezcal is the cousin to tequila, coming from the agave plant. It’s a smoky liquor, and it’s definitely a beautiful, acquired taste that’s becoming an emerging category. Our agency, The United Star Lovers and Liquor Lovers, also behind the Female Brew Fest, decided to create this platform to highlight and showcase over 30 mezcal brands from across the country—actually, I guess even across the continent now since we’re bringing in people from Mexico. That’s going to take place at Toro Latin Kitchen in Dania Beach at the Le Méridien Hotel, which is adjacent to the Design Center of the Americas as well as the Fort Lauderdale International Airport right off the 95 in Griffin. It’s going to be super cool, and there’s a grand tasting on Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. where you’ll be able to taste over 30 brands and actually over 90 labels of mezcal. Some of these are multiple hundred-dollar bottles where they’ll be providing unlimited sips, there are food pairings, after-parties, and there’s a brunch the following day, Sunday, at Toro as well. You can find out more at mezcallauderdale.com. If you really want to go and can’t afford the ticket, feel free to drop me a note; I’ll do my best to try to help you out.
We’re still leading free tours of the Downtown Hollywood Art Walk every third Saturday night of the month, 7 to 9 o’clock, with a free tour of the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project at 6 p.m. That’s a great event if you haven’t been before—it’s continually growing, going on its 16th year, prior to support. If you’re a local artist or know a local artist that wants to plug into their community, we have been resuming our in-person Choose954 Artist Potluck Series, actually right around the corner from Kitten Co. We’re going to do it again at Art in Oakland Park Studios—Angela Rousha Studios—on Saturday, June—sorry, Sunday, June the 12th. It’s in the early evening, and all we ask is that you bring a plate for maybe five or six people since not everybody eats everything. You get to meet some fellow contemporaries of yours if you’re an artist—it is specifically for artists—and get to plug into the community. We’ve seen beautiful friendships form, beautiful collaborations happen, and it’s something that I’m glad we’re able to continue doing. For more, you can subscribe to the Choose954 newsletter. It’s bi-weekly, it’s not spammy—just trying to keep you guys in the know with cool stuff going on like this as we work to cultivate culture and community. If you want to reach out, you can find us at Choose954 or @evansnow13 on Instagram. Drop me an email, drop me a line—I would love to hear if you know somebody that you’d like to see featured on the podcast that has a story worth sharing as we’re an open book.
One last question, Kelly, if you’d be so kind—this one, I would really love to hear the insight from an expert. What would you say to somebody—a friend of a friend, a friend’s husband, somebody that doesn’t practice yoga and might or might not be in good health, in good shape—what would be an encouragement to try to get somebody who we know would benefit from the practice of yoga into yoga? Because it doesn’t just happen by you telling somebody, “Hey, go to yoga,” and they say, “Okay.” So what would be something you would potentially recommend or share or tell somebody that might be on the fence or definitely could benefit from the practice?
Kelly Talliday: You know, I wish it was that easy; otherwise, my husband would finally have gone to a yoga class after nine years together! But I’m lucky if he’ll even try to touch his toes at this point.
Evan Snow: That’s progress.
Kelly Talliday: It is. You know, it really changed my entire outlook. I mentioned before how I was very movement-focused, very gesture-focused, and I definitely made a big 180 later on in my life when I went through a near-death experience—which we’ll go through on Friday. But someone—a teacher—once told me, “No one cares how good you are at yoga or meditation. It’s not about getting good at yoga or meditation. It’s about getting good at life.” Your yoga practice is not just a practice—it’s a preparation for life. Whether you’re starting yoga because you have a physical ailment or you just feel like you need to have a little bit more spaciousness in your body, or whether you’re starting meditation because there’s something specific going on in your life, meditation and yoga will have massive benefits—from flexibility to strength to being able to sit up straight, to being able to process your emotions and all that. It’s all a benefit of doing the practice, but truly, it’s a practice of getting good at life. No one’s sitting there thinking, “She can’t do a handstand, she can’t touch her toes, she can’t meditate for 10 minutes.” It’s not about that—it’s not about how much better you get at the practice; it’s about how much better you are at tolerating adversities when they come your way, how much better you are at communicating your needs to your community and your family, how much better are you at riding the waves and writing the plot twists that life throws at you. That’s truly what it is. I think it takes a lot of the pressure off the physical practice that people kind of get roadblocked with—they’re like, “Oh, I can’t do yoga because I can’t touch my toes; I can’t meditate because I can’t sit still for more than five minutes.” It’s like, “Okay, well, let’s just start where you’re at because it’s actually not about getting good at the practice; it’s getting good at what’s happening in your life—getting good at being a human.” That’s different for everyone, right? So yeah, that’s what I’ll leave you with there.
Evan Snow: Amen, and you, me—in closing, what you said was very well put. Touching your toes—me and Seth, we joke about it, but in all reality, when I’m 80 years old, I want to be able to bend over, touch my toes, and be able to wipe my own ass without needing assistance. I think we’re on a good path with my current yoga practice and doing a forward fold every night before I get into bed to loosen up those muscles. I’ll be able to do that when I’m 80 years old. You take these things for granted, but you only have one life and one chance at this body, so you better treat it well. Also, one of the last things that I’m learning ongoing and listening to right now is you learn from yoga to listen to your body and when to slow down and take a break, chill out. I’m forever grateful for the practice—I’ll never be able to say it enough. I’m forever grateful for Chloe for helping me develop this practice and reach this level of mindfulness and my yogi journey and that we’re having this conversation and you’re sharing your story on Friday. It’s a beautiful thing; it’s a beautiful community. I thought I would only ever be an arts and culture and community advocate, and now I’m slowly becoming a yoga advocate, which is why I asked you that question, and I appreciate you answering. Hopefully, this podcast, let alone her Creative Zen story, can help inspire and change one person’s life, and maybe they’ll take a class. Even if you don’t have the funds to take a class, there are plenty of free yoga videos on YouTube. You could be there in your living room; you don’t need a mat. You could do yoga in your bed, you could do yoga in a chair—there are a million different ways. You can find out more about yoga, you can find out more about life this Friday at Creative Zen. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Kelly. We genuinely appreciate your time and insight, and we’ll see you guys on Friday. Cheers!
Kelly Talliday: Friday! Thanks, Evan.
Evan Snow: Thank you.
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