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PODCAST

The Mentor Sessions

Francesca Cervero

With amazing guests or solo, I explore the craft of teaching yoga, as its own practice. I"m seeking answers to the questions about why we teach something the way we do, how we could be more expansive and inclusive in our teaching, and how we can continue to grow and evolve in our teaching practice. I"m so glad you are here because I believe the depth that arises in teaching comes from inquiry and relationship. Join me as I offer nourishing support to help you feel more confident in your teaching

health & fitness fitness

All Episodes

39:33

173: Getting Your Yoga Studio Ready For ICE with...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/04/21

Yess Yoga is a yoga studio in Minneapolis one block from where Alex Pretti was murdered by Border Patrol agents in January of this year. In this episode, I'm joined by Minneapolis-based yoga teacher and studio owner Lucia Yess. Our conversation is both heartbreaking and deeply inspiring as we explore what it means to truly live our yoga off the mat, especially in moments of crisis. Lucia shares her experience running Yess Yoga during a recent ICE surge in Minneapolis, where her neighborhood became

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25:37

172: Why So Many Yoga Teachers Burnout (And What...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/04/07

In this solo episode, I'm zooming out from the quick, in-the-moment burnout strategies I shared in Episode 171 and looking at the bigger picture. I want to talk about why so many yoga teachers are burning out—and what I've seen actually work instead. My core premise is simple: the career model most of us were trained into doesn't work for most people anymore. If you're exhausted, underpaid, and questioning how sustainable this path really is, I want you to hear this clearly—it's not you. It's the

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21:22

171: Six Things I Would Do This Week if I Were an...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/03/24

If you are feeling stretched thin by endless group classes, long hours, and low pay you are not alone. In this episode, I share six simple, actionable things you can do this week to start shifting out of overwhelm. These are not big, life-changing plans—just small, powerful adjustments that can immediately help you feel calmer, clearer, and more grounded in your teaching life. Burnout doesn't always mean you need a total career overhaul. Sometimes, a few well-chosen shifts—better boundaries, a

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41:44

170: A Yoga Nidra Deep Dive + Great Advice For Yoga...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/03/10

In this expansive conversation, I got a chance to talk to yoga and Ayurveda teacher, mentor, and author Indu Aurora to explore what yoga truly is — and what it is not. We started by unpacking one of Indu's powerful statements: "The goal of yoga is yoga. Everything else is a side benefit." This conversation invites teachers to look beyond flexibility, strength, and stress relief — and into yoga as a state of realization. Indu draws from classical teachings and the commentary on the Yoga Sutras to

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57:11

169: Yoga's Role In Navigating The World with Sarah...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/02/24

In today's podcast epsiode, I sat down with a yoga therapist, teacher, spiritual caregiver and a good friend of mine, Sarah Capua. We explored what it means to practice—and teach—yoga in a time of political upheaval, climate crisis, and cultural fragmentation. In this conversation, we reflect on power, misperception, collective responsibility, spiritual bypassing, and the role of yoga teachers in supporting students who feel overwhelmed or powerless. As she always does, my friend Sarah brings deep

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46:25

168: The Yoga Teacher's Guide To Fighting Fascism

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/02/03

American yoga teachers have a unique role in fighting fascism. We are deeply practiced in the tools that help us (and our students) feel clear, steady, focused, calm and resilient. And if you read the teachings the way I do, we have a powerful directive to engage in direct social action. Lovingkindness meditation says, "May All Beings Be Safe And Free" and that is not just a nice idea, but a mandate to work for change. As you can plainly see with your eyes, all beings are not safe. But there is so

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53:33

167: We Don't Want AI Yoga with Cyndi Lee

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/01/20

I am so honored to be joined on the podcast by my teacher Cyndi Lee. As a senior yoga teacher, author, and Buddhist chaplain—Cyndi talks to us about what's being gained, lost, and misunderstood as artificial intelligence enters yoga, writing, and teaching spaces. Cyndi reflects on her five decades of practice and teaching. As the founder of Om Yoga Center in New York City, a global hub for yogis from 1998 to 2012, she has witnessed firsthand how yoga has shifted under the pressures of capitalism,

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01:08:24

166: Do We Want AI in Yoga? with Lizzie Lasater

The Mentor Sessions ·

2026/01/06

In this episode of The Mentor Sessions, I'm joined by Lizzie Lasseter for a wide-ranging conversation about teaching yoga in a rapidly evolving world. Lizzie is a designer, educator, and second-generation yoga teacher with over 20 years of experience. As the daughter of Judith Hanson Lasseter, Lizzie grew up immersed in the Iyengar lineage, while also carving out her own path as a teacher, business owner, and working parent of six-year-old twins. Together, we explore lineage, embodiment, and the

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33:13

165: The Intended Benefit + How To Remove Linear...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/12/16

In this episode, we dive into a concept that is absolutely transformative for yoga teachers: the idea that yoga cannot be both healing and performative at the same time. If we're still teaching from a linear, hierarchical, aesthetic-based model of asana, we're unintentionally blocking the very healing we hope to support. This conversation focuses on how teachers can shift toward a non-linear, person-centered approach grounded in the intended benefit of each pose. Francesca offers a co-creative

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53:33

164: Taking Movement Patterns Down To The Studs with...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/12/02

Today's conversation is a deeply layered one. I'm joined by my friend, colleague, mentee, and private student Geneva Jimreivat for a nuanced exploration of how I work with private clients who experience persistent, subclinical pain and hard-to-pinpoint movement challenges. Geneva is truly a multi-hyphenate in the movement world—she's been practicing yoga since childhood, completed her 200-hour training in 2019, taught in my studio, mentored with me, coached CrossFit and private strength clients, and

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37:20

163: The Four Reminders (It's A Pep Talk!)

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/11/18

In this episode of The Mentor Sessions, I share something a little different: a Dharma talk I recently offered in my monthly class for yoga teachers. These monthly gatherings are one of my favorite places to teach—intimate, thoughtful, and deeply rooted in practice—and this particular talk felt important to bring to the podcast. Over the last several months, as the political situation in the United States has become more extreme and more frightening, I've been turning again and again to a Buddhist

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57:44

162: The Purpose of Asana Part Two With Cecily Milne

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/11/04

Before this recent solo episode, The Purpose of Asana Ep 159, was even released my friend Cecily Milne reached out to say she was so excited to listen to it and chat about it! We decided to record our conversation for all of you, so today we have Part Two! In this episode Cecily and I dive into what makes asana unique compared to other movement practices, we discuss the nuances of teaching with specificity, and tackle the evolving role of the yoga teacher in today's landscape. We also unpack how

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33:32

161: How The Legacy Of The Caste System Shows Up In...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/10/21

Is yoga exclusively connected to Hinduism? What is the caste system and why would a western yoga teacher need to understand it? How much of yoga’s complex history do modern yoga practitioners and teachers really understand? In this powerful and thought-provoking conversation, I welcome back Anjali Rao — yoga educator, activist, and author — to unpack the intertwined histories of yoga, caste, patriarchy, and colonization. Drawing from her new book Yoga as Embodied Resistance, Anjali challenges us to

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01:03:33

160: Having A Point of View Makes You A Better...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/10/07

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a yoga studio, or you are curious to hear what experts are saying about the yoga industry and its future-- this episode is for you! In my first “podcast swap” I had an awesome conversation with Michael Jay, a long-time teacher and yoga studio consultant who is also known as @YogaBizChamp. Michael is a Certified Business Consultant who helps yoga studios open with impact and grow with intention. With 13 years of studio ownership under his belt—including surviving two

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30:44

159: What Is The Purpose of Asana? (A Deep Inquiry)

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/09/23

If I were to ask you what the purpose of asana is, what would you say? Would you say it was to feel better in the body? To build strength and flexibility? To prepare the body for meditation practice? To help people connect more deeply to their breath and themselves? These are all beautiful answers!! But if you gave a very specific movement cue or alignment principle when teaching asana, and I asked you what the purpose of that was, what would you say? I think many of us value clarity and

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01:10:02

158: The Yoga of Calling In with Janie Ganga (A...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/09/09

This is a vulnerable episode for me to share, but it was very important to me to record and release this episode because it highlights something I don’t think we see enough: people in positions of power, privilege or leadership openly receiving feedback. Janie Ganga is a yoga teacher I deeply admire and have worked closely with for nearly a decade. In May of this year, they reached out to tell me something I had posted on social media had upset and hurt them. (Here is the reel that started it all.)

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42:12

157: The Business Support Every Yoga Teacher Needs...

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/08/19

Today we are going to talk about what it really takes to grow your business as a yoga teacher, what kind of support you need, the people you might hire to help, and how I suggest you go about doing that. And to help us out with this conversation, I have the Operations Manager of my own business, Jessica Gulley! Jessica Gulley is the founder of Juggling Logistics and a logistics wizard for service-based solopreneurs who are overwhelmed with the details in their business. In this episode, you’ll

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33:11

156: Why and How to Find Virtual Private Yoga Clients

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/08/12

I started teaching one private yoga client virtually in 2019 when she left Washington, DC for California. But other than her I had absolutely NO experience teaching online when everything changed on March 13th, 2020. I was slightly ahead of the curve in understanding that the pandemic would be a life alternating experience and that we wouldn't be teaching yoga in-person for many many months. I made really quick work of getting all my in-person private students on board to pivot to virtual private

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29:19

155: Unexpected Private Client Hot Takes

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/08/05

I’ve been teaching yoga full time for 20 years, and most of that time I taught at least 15 private yoga sessions each week; for a decade that number was closer to 25 per week! I have a lot of experience in teaching private sessions! And when you’ve been doing something that often for that long, you start to develop some specific opinions... or, I certainly did! Today we are diving into some unexpected hot takes about teaching private clients! In this episode, you’ll hear: why seeing a student

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28:43

154: How I Make Posting On Social Easier

The Mentor Sessions ·

2025/07/29

Social media can be a wonderful tool to help us connect with friends, communities or potential students. It can also be a black hole of despair and panic. Some people say it is necessary to participate and post on social media to be a successful business nowadays. I don’t think engaging on social media is a requirement for having a thriving yoga teaching business at all, but if you use it right it can be a cheap way to market your services. It is also really easy to waste countless hours creating

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