A Journey from Corporate Life to Transformative Yoga Leadership – Interview with Erica Stanzione

Erica Stanzione is an industry leader in guiding the life-changing practices of breathwork, vinyasa yoga, and meditation. She leads by example both on and off the mat, and teaches others about the profound effects of our mindfulness practices that far exceed the external benefits. The intention behind her classes, workshops, retreats, and trainings is to serve as a sacred container where her students feel safe to step further into their power, confidence, emotional intelligence, spiritual connection, and continuous evolution.

Erica Stanzione, Yoga and Meditation Educator

Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.

Hello! I’m Erica Stanzione, and I’m a New York City-based yoga and meditation educator who also loves to share the poetry in my heart. I’m a high-energy, passionate, and deeply spiritual woman who has a real zest for living life fully and celebrating our blessings each and every day! Since 2003, I’ve been a devoted yoga student practicing and studying all over the world, which led me to completing extensive certifications, and truly learning the depth of work that I was meant to share in this lifetime. I lead public classes and a private clientele in Manhattan and New Jersey as well as host wellness retreats both domestically and internationally. After practicing and teaching yoga, travel is my next greatest love, and I am incredibly grateful to have seen so many parts of the globe with yogis and friends whom I adore. I’m also very passionate about fostering community and have created a transformative Yoga Alliance-certified 200-Hour Teacher Training program that has become my proudest professional accomplishment, and includes our growing lineage of ninety-five graduates as of 2025.

I’m also a woman who loves the thrill of the creative process, and the hustle that comes with living and running a business out of NYC. New York provides me with constant inspiration, always keeps me on my A game, and is the perfect backdrop to fuel my energy, ambitions, and creativity. Creating weekly dharma talks, sequences, themes for my events, soulful playlists, etc. and teaching the tools of my daily breathwork, meditation, yoga, and journaling practices is a responsibility that I take very seriously. In addition to teaching our yogic tools, I am eternally grateful to share the spiritual gifts that I was given to support others as they step into their highest, healthiest, and happiest selves! It truly brings me immense joy watching others heal, grow, and shine, and is a responsibility and a privilege that I will never, ever take for granted.

What inspired you to start your yoga journey and eventually build your business?

Pure exhaustion and depletion after fourteen years of working at top law firms in NYC. And if I’m being totally honest, although I am forever grateful for how invaluable it is to have the business skills that corporate America taught me, I had an overwhelming feeling that I couldn’t shake the feeling of being completely unfulfilled and uninspired professionally. What I came to learn years later was also how much corporate America was actually stifling my creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, and how much I was denying my truth and my destiny if I only stayed for the financial comfort and stability. During that time, the Universe showed me where I belonged instead. It was a new path where I learned about true Universal alignment and the significance of identifying, chasing, and nurturing our gifts. I knew very early on in my yoga career that I wanted to share all of the mindfulness tools that have deeply shifted, healed, inspired, and radically changed my life. And then I was elated to learn that this divinely guided path that was chosen for me would be the avenue where I could share my passion, love, energy, and years of yogic study with the level of transformative impact that I desired to pass on to yogis that I loved. Yoga for me personally has always been equivalent to the word freedom, and that was precisely what I wanted my students to experience each time that they are enveloped in that beautiful gift of self-love during all of my offerings.

Can you describe the unique benefits that your students experience from practicing with you?

I think what makes my style of teaching unique is that I honor the ancient teachings of the practice, but then I also curate the experience in order for it to resonate with the modern-day yogi. Music, spirituality, and overall soulfulness are big parts of my style, as I believe that if those components are present and done well, it can really enhance the magnitude of the class. Each week, I also keep all of my beloved students in mind while I prepare my dharma talks, so I can create an experience that is relatable, accessible, and inclusive to everyone in the room.

I also believe that a truly powerful educator should know how to lead a class where they can simultaneously teach to a beginner and a seasoned practitioner of 20-30 years. That means offering modifications when needed and several iterations of poses. Regardless of our gender, age, practice level, or body type, my intention is to always make sure that everyone leaves my classes feeling seen, loved, supported, empowered and successful.

What are some of the most fulfilling aspects of running a yoga business, and what challenges have you faced along the way?

I’m always very honest when it comes to sharing my journey as a creative and entrepreneur, because monetizing your passions in a city like New York has most definitely not been easy. I work a lot and I work very hard. I also had to be very strategic about properly laying the groundwork before leaving a comfortable corporate salary.

That aspect is an extremely crucial component that I make sure to stress, especially to all of the young women that I mentor who also desire to make their dreams their livelihood one day. But despite the early mornings, late nights, and sacrifices in my personal life while I built my communities and clientele, it still never felt like the kind of work that I did in corporate America for fourteen years. Seeing the impact that my offerings have on others, especially all of the years of leading my teacher training, is a truly indescribable feeling.

In terms of industry challenges, there is, surprisingly, one thing that I’ve sadly witnessed a lot of and been on the receiving end of several times. Which is low-vibrational behavior of teachers who are preaching ancient yogic texts at the front of the classroom, but who aren’t ethically living their practice outside of a yoga studio. However, my unwavering faith practice has provided me with a lot of solace and has taught me time and time again that people who don’t have pure intentions will always be exposed. God has protected me every single time and taught me to sit back and do nothing, because the truth always comes out. And authenticity, character, integrity, and a genuine desire to support others always win!

Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.

The achievement that I am most proud of in my career is the transformative 200-Hour Yoga Alliance certified Teacher Training program that I’ve created, built, and continue to nurture each year. As of July 2025, I have ninety-five graduates, and after every single graduation ceremony, I am left in awe of the group and how life-changing our sacred process is together. Witnessing the emotional strength, mental fortitude, spiritual curiosity, physical strength, and fearlessness grow within my students after they invest in my offerings brings me joy and fulfillment beyond measure. The yogis who walk into the program on night one are most certainly not the same glowing and confident teachers who leave on graduation day. It’s a feeling that is insanely special that I’m not sure if I will ever be able to fully articulate. Essentially, it’s an overwhelming feeling of fulfillment, love, and pride, and why I am crazy in love with leading this one-of-a-kind experience!

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

My marriage imploding and our subsequent divorce were THE pivotal moments for me. I would never be the woman that I am today or have the business that I have without that deeply challenging and heart-wrenching chapter of my life. I struggled with the guilt of leaving for quite some time, and all that comes with that traumatic ending. But I am eternally grateful that my yoga practice held me and healed me throughout all of it. Very early on in my career, that period of my life became my greatest muse for my teachings, despite how much my heart was hurting behind the scenes. It taught me how to teach from a place of true honesty, rawness, and vulnerability which set the tone for my entire career. For that, and for all of the very difficult, but immensely valuable lessons that I was forced to learn during that time, I will always be grateful to him and the seven years that we spent together. It was during that time that the Universe catapulted me from a girl into a deeply spiritual woman.

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