Kerstin Kaufmann, BA

Key data

Job description: Yoga instructor, meditation instructor
Company: beyondmorrow e.U.
I work in: Feldbach, Styria
I’ve worked here since: January 2019

Contact

Social URLs:

• www.beyondmorrow.com
• Facebook @beyondmorrow

What I do:

• Prepare and run yoga sessions
• Plan and implement various workshops and events
• Marketing, advertising, organisation and administrative work

Why I love my job:

• I coordinate and carry out a wide range of activities in my role as an individual entrepreneur.
• Seeing the joy in my customers’ eyes after a session or workshop.
• The time I take to focus on my own body and mind is almost like work in itself.
• The lovely people I have met in my field since I went self-employed.

What I don’t like so much about my job:

Sometimes I find it difficult to work alone and not to have a team around me. When it gets particularly hard, I always try to organise a workshop with other instructors, coaches, musicians or businesses. I often work in the evening but (mostly) I do not see that as a problem. It is unlikely that you will be able to earn a lot of money being self-employed, especially in your first year. However I didn’t become self-employed to make a fast buck.

Important skills in my job:

• Sensitivity
• Willingness to learn
• Flexibility (you can train physically and mentally)
• Organisation skills

My biggest accomplishment so far:

To be honest, there have been a few highlights during the first year of my self-employment. One highlight was my very first workshop during which I noticed just how much I enjoy interactive teaching, away from the ‘normal’ sessions. A workshop with a very talented musician friend has also stayed in my heart: the energy in the room was simply unspeakably strong and electrifying. A few of the participants and myself had tears of joy in our eyes and were overcome at the end. A sunrise walk with yoga on the mountain summit and a picnic was a particularly beautiful moment. Such moments allow me to forget many of my worries and troubles.

How I found my current job:

I completed my yoga instructor training in 2016 after an internship at Six Senses in Thailand. In 2017, I decided to become a self-employed yoga instructor while travelling. I was in Nepal on a 10 day Vipassana silent meditation course and that’s when the idea came to me. Afterwards, I spent three months travelling through New Zealand with my boyfriend and he was very enthusiastic about the idea. Together we came up with various plans as to how we could become self-employed. Today we are both self-employed. 😊

What I learned for this job during my studies:

Independent thinking, project planning and a basis in financial and accounting issues were taught as part of the course. Today I need these skills in my profession just as much as my knowledge of the human anatomy. Therefore I am very pleased that we learned aspects of various different fields. Issues such as healthy nutrition, sustainability in business and communication and marketing had an impact on me and have proved to be a useful part of entrepreneurship.

Job prospects in my field:

Going self-employed is something which anyone can do these days, in principle. However it is important to be aware that you have to work almost entirely by yourself. Nothing comes from nothing. Freedom always means taking a degree of risk but that usually pays off.

I am:…

• flexible and adaptable
• motivated and positive
• assertive and creative in implementing plans

About my job:

Whether you are successful in life of course depends on your own definition of success. Because I consider a fulfilled, healthy and independent life to be successful and my career goal, my job helps me to live my life in precisely this manner. I have planned to include sustainable tourism more in my activities in the future and to develop more in this direction. I have a lot of goals and plans. One of them is to employ people in the future so that I can then work as a team again.

I became self-employed so that I would know that I was pursuing my own goals and values each day and not those of a large corporation or an ‘external’ company. Of course I would not rule out being an employee again one day, if it was the right post. But at the moment, my focus in life is on building up and developing my own company.

I would like to tell students that the most important thing in life and work, for me a least, is to always retain your own personal initiative, creativity and motivation and to regularly step outside of your comfort zone. This will bring energy to your life and will undoubtedly lead to success. Trust in yourself, we all have opportunities!