Meet Laurie Kinkel | Owner and Yoga Instructor, Tybee Yoga and Healing Arts

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laurie Kinkel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laurie, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Believing in myself, self practice and studying yoga and its 8 limbs. Also, the location of my business is very helpful 🙂 Tybee Island’s beaches are the perfect place to practice yoga!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The keys to success in running a yoga business and being a yoga teacher is self practice and compassion for others! You really have to practice what you preach! Yoga brings countless tools that anyone can learn and I love sharing what works for me so others may benefit from it, too. Geographically I couldn’t ask for a better place to live to teach yoga! Tybee Island beaches are my sanctuary, and a sanctuary for all who visit them.

I got where I am today through perseverance, dedication, and the encouragement of my community and family. The first time I practiced yoga on the beach I knew something was special and I wanted to share it! At the time I was a bartender struggling with the late hours – a single mom raising a 5 year old on my own. It was tough and I was depressed. Thankfully, my friend Kevin Carpenter with whom I had worked at Tubby’s in Thunderbolt years before, came into the bar one night when I was feeling really discouraged and offered me a job at his and A.J. Baker’s restaurant, Sundae Cafe. The shifts were flexible and allowed me time to open the first ever yoga studio on Tybee! After 11 years at the restaurant, my last shift ended on New Year’s Eve 2021! These days, I work exclusively to run and build my business, to continue to study and train, and to enjoy the benefits of my craft, while teaching others to do they same. I am very grateful for all of the support!

If you are thinking about trying a class please join us next time you are on beautiful Tybee Island! Our classes are welcoming and beginner friendly. We offer community classes, private group and one on one sessions, pranayama and meditation workshops, bachelorette yoga, restorative yoga, yin yoga and kids yoga. We practice on the beach, at the park, your home or rental! We are a mobile studio, we come to you.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting we would probably spend most of our time on the beach! We’d go to Sundae Cafe for lunch and dinner, Hucapoos for pizza and live music, Chamacos for tacos and live music and MiVida for fresh juices and breakfast! We’d catch a show at the historic Tybee Post Theatre, paint our own pottery at Glazed and Confused, and paddleboard to Little Tybee with East Coast Paddleboarding!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate my shout out to my Mother and my Daughter! Their love, support, and encouragement helped me to achieve the dream of building a mobile yoga business and providing yoga classes to residents and visitors of Tybee Island!

Professionally, I’d like to give a shout out to Sundae Cafe where I was employed as a server for 11 years while building Tybee Yoga and Healing Arts. Sundae Cafe was extremely supportive in helping me out with shifts that worked for me as a business owner, yoga teacher and single mother. Without the flexibility and help I could’ve never turned Tybee Yoga and Healing Arts into what it is now! I worked my last shift at Sundae Cafe on New Year’s Eve 2021 and I am now focusing my time exclusively on running the business and teaching classes.

Website: www.tybeeyogahealingarts.com

Instagram: @tybeeyoga

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TybeeYogaHealingArts