Spotlight:
Moments off the mat
Off the mat with Lynn & Lieselot from Atelier Puuur
About why yoga/pilates & traveling the world go together like cork & sports equipment. About quitting your job to courageously start your own business. About imposter syndrome, dreaming big and business partners turning into friends. Welcome to our first teacher spotlight!
Fulltime boss-babes, travel and adventure-seekers, multi-passionate yoga/pilates teachers & soulful entrepreneurs.
One of the most exciting things about Pierre Sports is our wonderful community of students & teachers. This newsletter is entirely devoted to shining the spotlight on Lynn & Lieselot, founders of Atelier Puuur in Eppegem, Belgium, and Pierre Sports Ambassadors.
Lynn and Lieselot have built a space to unwind and connect with your inner self and like-minded souls. Together with their team of teachers, their mind is set on creating a home, away from home, both in Belgium and while traveling the world.
Tell me about yourself. Where are you and how do you fill your days?
Lieselot: I am Lieselot, co-founder and yoga teacher of Atelier Puuur. At the moment I am backpacking through South America while working out existing & new projects for our studio and supporting online. I have been traveling to Colombia and Panama and currently find myself in Porto Viejo, Costa Rica. I love taking my time to discover each country and enjoy each moment as it comes.
Lynn: Hi, my name is Lynn. co-founder and Pilates teacher. I am (unfortunately) in Belgium at the moment, working on some very exciting new projects coming up such as our new Getaways and online lessons, and I making sure Atelier Puuur stays up and running. Together with our team of teachers, I am instructing classes in Atelier Puuur and checking that everything is running smoothly.
Did you always want to be a yoga/pilates teacher?
Lynn: Not at all, actually. After I stopped practicing acro gym around my twenties, I noticed myself falling into a black hole. I went from doing 10 hours of sports per week to “What am I going to do now? I tried many things and finally ended up in a Pilates class and simultaneously practicing yoga. Because I resonated with the yoga and Pilates mindset, I decided to do a Pilates teacher training. The reason that I took this leap, is to inspire people to choose for themselves. It is so important to be able to unwind and live in the present.
Lieselot: I had never thought about becoming a Yoga Teacher. When I was 4, I started practicing ballet, and later on added Hip Hop, Modern Dance, Jazz, etc. When I started University, I mostly lost track of dancing and after that, I was pursuing a career in the film industry and got a job as a producer. Because of my demanding and irregular job, I was looking for something that could fit that lifestyle. That is how I got to know yoga. First as a sport, more focussing on the body. Later, I was introduced to the whole world of yoga philosophy. That is when I started attending several yoga teacher trainings.
How did you both connect and decide to start Atelier Puuur together?
Lynn: Actually, we didn’t really have a concrete plan to begin with. I decided to quit my job in the incentive world in May 2020. I still loved what I was doing, which is why I decided to remain freelancing for my former employer, but something in me didn’t feel right at the time. I started running Atelier Puuur on my own and later on in August 2020, Lieselot and I met through Lieselot’s sister. We recognized each other in the way we had both quit our jobs, quite impulsively. We both took a big leap of faith and were trusting that everything will come out right. Our mindset is both set on prioritizing “unwinding” and saw that we wanted to achieve very similar things in our lives. From there on everything went really fast and in February 2021 we escaped Belgium to go on our first scouting trip together to Kenia.
Lieselot: At a certain point I realized in how many ways yoga had helped me and had thought me in my personal life. It had shown me another perspective, and helped me to get to know myself better, what I want to do in life, and what I certainly don’t want. It just felt right to pass this knowledge on to other people. At that point, I was experiencing an overwhelmingly hectic year in my job as a producer. I was working 24/7 and found myself reaching out to my employer and quitting my job. After that, the pandemic hit, and Lynn and I joined forces to start teaching classes online. We didn’t plan to make this our core business but here we are, there is no such thing as coincidence.
Lynn: It’s funny, I often forget that I knew Lieselot’s sister better than her and that we actually don’t really know each other for that long because it feels like we do.
Lieselot: We initially started out as business partners but I never introduce Lynn as my business partner anymore but as a close friend. It feels like I have known her for years. That is a great way of working together.
What are you working on right now, that you would like to share with the world?
Lynn: What we are focussing on right now is building our online platform, where we offer a series of short online yoga and pilates classes of each between 15 and 30 minutes. In addition, a big part of our attention goes to creating our Getaways in which we want to take people on an adventure with us, next to the habitual hour on the mat in our studio in Belgium,
Lieselot: With the online platform, the aim is to offer home classes for people to easily integrate into their busy schedules if they can’t make it to the studio. It is also great for people who want to upscale their personal practice at home, next to the classes in Atelier Puuur.
Lynn: Or for those who are traveling! When you need to miss us for a few weeks, you can now take us with you in your suitcase. We love to join you wherever you go! 😉
Did you experience imposter syndrome when first starting out as a teacher?
Lieselot: I certainly did! During my first year teaching yoga, I never had the courage to call myself a teacher. I had quit my job and “had to” participate in another yoga course before I could say “I teach yoga”. I realized that once I made the conscious decision, and started to trust and embrace the process fully, I enjoyed teaching even more. Where in the beginning I thought I had to always come up with a new class every week, I now have found my own style of teaching and rarely have those imposter thoughts coming up anymore. With our online yoga classes coming up soon, I sometimes catch myself thinking “Who would want to follow online classes with me?”. I now see I am able to shift my mindset into “I am just going to do this and see what follows”. It really is all about finding your own way. That is how you will know what fits you best and it will flow from you. Even if there are only 5 people attending my class, if those 5 people are happy, that is enough for me.
Lynn: As you can see, we both love taking a leap so for me that is something that usually comes afterward. It comes and goes in waves. I am a perfectionist, something that we both took with us from our former jobs. It is in how you deal with the challenges coming at you, you shouldn’t be hiding behind them. At the beginning of my teaching journey, I noticed adapting my classes to the participants. “That person wants a more active class or is attending two classes in a row”, where I was planning to give 2 similar classes. I have learned to let this go. You will attract people for who you are and what you are teaching, and if that is not for them, there are many other yoga studios out there that might suit them better. Once I remind myself of that, I know it will be alright.
Traveling in combination with yoga or pilates, why is that a good match?
Lynn: You are stepping out of your fixed mindset and daily rush. When I return from a holiday, it’s almost like pushing a reset button. “Alright, I need to live more in the “now” again and seek that tranquility”. Traveling allows me to go with the flow a bit more.
Lieselot: It’s about disconnecting from your daily routine. We usually say in our classes “This hour on your mat is only for yourself”, which is great for that hour but afterward people end up back into that rat race. Traveling often puts you in situations where disconnecting is mandatory. I currently am in Costa Rica where I don’t have a local sim card, so I only can go online in places where I find wifi. I consciously will not always go looking for it but will rather enjoy my time offline. I personally think that that mindset is very similar to when you are practicing yoga;
Lynn: That is what is unique about our Getaways, you can really focus 100% on yourself without having to worry about anything ánd you will go home with the feeling that you have lived the culture of the country you are visiting. Everything is arranged for you from A to Z. We take you with us to really experience a place, which we have visited and hand-picked before because we felt a click and want to share it with you. Next to that, everything is already included in your Getaway; daily yoga and pilates classes, 3 meals a day, and all of the hand-picked must-sees to discover the area.
Why do you choose Pierre Sports?
Lynn: Sustainability is very important to us, so we love the fact that Pierre Sports is a Belgian brand producing its products in Europe. We are genuinely a big fan of the cork and the products are high quality. We like that they are antimicrobial, which we highlighted on all occasions during the covid period. Simply put, the accessories are beautiful and fit the subtle color palette of our studio. When we take a promotional picture, we find it important that it is also aesthetically pleasing. Also, we know Pieter (Pierre’s founder) personally by now. We reached out to him through Instagram and he personally came by to show us the mats. We ended up talking for more than an hour. That is where the idea for our Getaway in Portugal started! All that makes us want to share Pierre’s story even more since we genuinely support the story behind the brand.
Lieselot: The products are natural, soft, and attractive to display in your home. You don’t even need to hide them away in your closet after you have used them, which is a great benefit. Pierre Sports is the total package for us. We use the items from our hearts because we genuinely love them!
If you could dream big, what is something you would like to achieve in the future?
Lynn: Lieselot is going to open an Atelier Puuur in every corner of the world! If I can dream big, I would like to be able to make a living from this lifestyle 200% and execute the things I want to do, without having to think about the budget. We are definitely not in it for the big money or chasing that 25.000 euros turnover every month, but it would be nice to be doing this without needing to freelance on the side but deciding to do so because we love to. My dream is to be able to work location-independent so I could go traveling for a few months, next to having our own studio.
Lieselot: I am going to open a yoga studio in Colombia. I already found the perfect spot for it, by the way! My dreams could change every year so at this moment I would say I would partly or completely move to South America and build an Atelier Puuur yoga studio over there. If I could dream big, I would be hosting retreats in both Europe and South America.
Lynn: So for the people reading this, last spots are open for our Getaway to Kenia because if we are always going to South America, it will take a while before we return to Africa! ;- )
Cork has amazing characteristics to apply in sports equipment. Yoga? Surfing? Golf? Pierre is taking up the challenge!
Pierre Sports is...
The ideal addition to Atelier Puuur. We provide the yoga/pilates classes, Pierre Sports provides the equipment!