Lockdown is a strange time that many people question, especially small business owners in the entertainment industry. This week we’re focusing on how one local woman who is dealing with the business lockdown measures.
We’re here with Zoe Braithwaite whose livelihood depends on the entertainment industry.
As a yoga teacher, acrobatic professional and performer, her business has lost 80 percent of her income flow. We dive into her journey up until present, what she’s up too and the benefits of yoga.
Zoe came to her vibrant lifestyle simply by having parents who allowed her to explore and express on the monkey bars.
By the time she was out of school she went to India to study yoga. Extensive further travel and hunger for knowledge developed around this place of ‘no mind’ one can achieve.
Zoe thinks the world wide yoga boom is from good marketing but also from an intuitive yearning for internal processes.
“people want to create a different narrative for themselves that isn’t dictated by what the external environment is telling them or their reaction to that, become more connected to who they are, what their story is and find a way to listen to their own inner knowing”
“people want to create a different narrative for themselves that isn’t dictated by what the external environment is telling them or their reaction to that, become more connected to who they are, what their story is and find a way to listen to their own inner knowing”
Zoe talks about Acroyoga
Zoe Braithwaite and performance partner. Images copyright: Kristin Taylor 
Zoe Braithwaite and performance partner.Images copyright: Kristin Taylor
“If you think about it, you’ve got someone on the ground who is holding up someone’s entire weight above them. In order to do this you need a lot of trust and you need a lot of support, so it’s intrinsically built into the practice. Without this we couldn’t balance.
“When we are first born, the most fundamental aspect of a secure, safe relationship is trust.
If you don’t trust you primary caregiver, you’re going to develop all sorts of maladaptive behaviours, anxiety etc, which don’t support healthy, secure relationships. It’s a blueprint for then how you operate in your relationships from then on.”
“In Acro we cultivate and embody these fundamental relationships to sustain and create successful, healthy relationships. The level of connectivity isn’t just physical”
Discipline for Zoe comes from being a creature of habit
“A minimum 7 minutes a day and you will build a regular practice. You can always achieve 7 minutes, but then it becomes 15, half an hour, it becomes like a coffee and you can’t live without it. Discipline is always about habit. For me, health and fitness is my insurance policy.
“I’ve had extreme injuries and I’ve needed to maintain a practice in order to allow my body to keep functioning in its optimum capacity. The hardest thing about owning a small business is that you have to keep believing in yourself.
“If you keep producing the best content, the gigs will come; you have to have that belief”
Zoe’s company Outrageous Entertainment performs at public and corporate events around the world
Zoe runs the most marvellous retreats that go for 3 days or more, where people can come connect and participate in Acroyoga. This has been one of the benefits of the lockdowns as she has been able to have time to plan for retreats but all her other hard work has fallen to the wayside.
“I was just about to buy a house and I couldn’t. I lost all my weekly gigs, everything I built for 20 years disappeared. I’m still teaching online, making costumes, constantly adapting, but it’s tough. From a financial point of view it’s been a significant blow”
Zoe stays positive and keeps hustling, her love for the central coast and her community bigger than ever.
Ellen Rubbo