OM meets...
om body
W
ith her blonde punk and roll
Mohican, tattoos and shiny leggings,
Sadie Nardini embodies her
personal mantra. She’s fierce, fit and
fabulous. Perhaps I’d bought into the
persona a little too much, but I was slightly nervous at
the prospect of interviewing her.
It didn’t help that, when I messaged her on WhatsApp
to check we were still on for the interview, I got this
back: “She gave you the wrong number, kill yourself.
Suck it nerd.”
For a minute, I thought she’d sent the message
herself. It’s the kind of thing a punk rocker would do.
Seconds after that, my laptop went crazy and my
recording device died.
Luckily, when we did get to speak, I found Nardini to
be more fabulous than fierce. She is, as she says, a “real
world” Midwestern girl and that truly comes across. We
finished off our conversation by chatting happily about
all the rock and roll bands we loved and how much
they’d inspired us.Fighting back
Nardini’s life has been, in the most positive way possible,
about fighting. She fought for a decade to overcome
a freak accident when she was 13 that broke her neck,
rendered her partially paralysed for two years and
struggling to regain her strength for another 20.
Instead of investing in a wheelchair, as she wastold to, she embraced yoga, a whole food diet and
mindfulness techniques to “create a miracle”.
Today, Nardini is one of the most successful and
visible figures in the world of yoga and a role model
for thousands. She hosts Rock Your Yoga on the Veria
Living Network. Millions watch her YouTube videos.
Her social media audience is astronomical and real- 118,000 on Instagram and 500,000 on Facebook.
Hundreds of thousands of people sign up for her
courses on the hugely popular DailyOm online platform.
Nardini also offers subscription classes and courses
on her own website.
Ahead of the interview, I asked Ava Taylor, yoga
industry expert and founder of US-based YAMA Talent,
what she thought was the secret of Nardini’s success.
“I believe a key factor is that she is a true early adopter,”
Taylor told me. “She’s continuously one of the first
yogis in the industry to jump on and use new trends in
technology, communication; new ways to monetise her
content, new ways to organise and run her business. It
was her early embrace of YouTube that really launched
her career. There are many yogis just now starting
YouTube channels, whereas Sadie has been on YouTube
for well over a decade. If a tool works, she uses it the
best she can and then she moves on. She’s always
looking forward to see what’s next.”
As the proud parent of my own first course on
DailyOM, I wanted to learn from Nardini. I found out that
she has a lot to share.
Rocking the world of yoga by being fierce, fit, fabulous and free.
David Holzer chats to US yogini Sadie Nardini
Sadie Nardini
“I’d like to see more
successful teachers because,
if we’re really practicing yoga,
it’s about service. Sharing
your knowledge with others
for the world’s sake.”