Hi there!
I’m Kayla
I’m a 1,000 hour RYT yoga teacher, leading retreats, courses, YTTs, an app, and a bustling retreat center in Nicaragua. Otherwise known as an entrepreneur who knows how to monetize her passions.
I’ve chosen to create a life I don’t need to run away from, which means you can usually find me working somewhere under a coconut tree.
This kind of career success – the apps, the YTTs, the courses, and all that – didn't happen overnight.
LET'S REWIND TO 2010, SHALL WE? BECAUSE THAT'S WHEN THIS ALL BEGAN, REALLY.
I had just turned 22, when I spent my “life savings” (aka the little money from college that I didn’t spend on boose) on a solo trip to Ghana for three months. This was the moment that changed everything. The moment that brought me to where I am today.
Of course I didn’t know that those few months of living abroad would open my world up to the possibility of starting my own business in service of others. Let alone multiple businesses, an app, and an online presence to teach hundreds of thousands people.
I started my “career” as a barefoot nomad
Carrying everything I owned in one single backpack
as I ran around the world with a thirst for ever-changing landscapes and cultures.
But even then, as a minimalist hippie chick, I still worked hard.
I didn’t settle.
“And I know those are two qualities that brought me to where I am today.
I came out publicly in 2020
To my audience of nearly 400k people — in the peak of a global Pandemic.
I know, doesn’t sound too ideal, does it?
But the truth is…
“I was too in love to care about the hardships that would ensue.”
What this has to do with career
I know you’re wondering what this has to do with career, but the truth is...
“Being able to live as my authentic self has been the secret sauce I was missing all along.”
MY MISSION IS TO SUPPORT PEOPLE ALONG THEIR OWN JOURNEY TO SELF, THROUGH MY KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, AND OF COURSE, LEARNING FROM MY MISTAKES, TOO.
Graduated from college, and took my first solo trip abroad to Ghana (where my life forever changed).
Worked as a nanny and bartender not knowing exactly what I wanted to be, but knowing that the more cash I stashed, the longer I could travel.
I sold my car to move to Kenya and start my first non-profit, only to leave the country with deadly allergies to specific insects. Feeling like a failure, falling in love, traveling Indonesia for a year by motorbike, running out of money, moving back to the States, and doing my first YTT while horribly depressed.
Taught my first retreat, led my first solar project for my non-profit, left the States “for good,” grew my IG to 15k, and modeled for Alo Yoga for the first time.
Led retreats and projects around the world, signed with Alo Yoga and Alo Moves, hit 100k on IG, took multiple trainings as a student to hit 800 hours RYT.
My first series dropped on Alo Moves & I quickly became a top-performing instructor, grew my IG to 250k, slowed down, looking for home, and battling deep depression. Stopped drinking alcohol.
Found my person, released one of the top-performing series of all time on Alo Moves, grew my IG to 400k, offered my first online course (live), and started my first podcast.
Started the Kaylala App, got back to retreats, offered my online course twice more (live) lost IG followers because I married a woman, grew a stronger community, built a retreat center, and taught my first YTT.
Opened Still Salty Escape, and Glow Yoga Retreats, became a Yoga Alliance Registered School, taught my first 300-hour YTT, started my blog, invested in myself, and made 4x what I did before.
After a brutal several year long fertility journey, I slowed down teaching altogether to try to make space for our family to grow. While my retreats dwindled, Still Salty Escape became busier than ever with teachers hosting their own retreats coming from all around the world.