Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Portillo.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
American born, Canadian raised and from Salvadoran roots, I found myself here in Houston, TX at the age of 21 and nearly 15 years later, I call it home. My education and work experience has varied from high-end fashion retail and working as a stylist at Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue for nearly 20 years, to going to school for music/vocals and recording an album and touring the country. Somewhere along the way, after some major life changes and shifts, I found myself at Black Swan Yoga Houston in August of 2017 and I fell in love with the practice. I very quickly became a regular and joined this beautiful community and within a year, I found myself training to be a yoga teacher with absolutely no idea whatsoever that it would lead me to where I am today.
What started off as something that I enjoyed for the connection, introspection, appreciation and creativity that it brought to my life, soon became a passion and something I craved to live and breathe on a daily basis. I began my first official teaching job back at my home studio of Black Swan back in May of 2019 with just one class and that evolved into more and then, as well all know, the world shifted in 2020. This brought about a time for me to really connect to a community that brought me life, joy and purpose and for me to really reassess where I was in my life and what I wanted to do with it and more importantly, where I could go with it.
In 2021, I made the leap of faith to go into full-time fitness/wellness and also became a yoga teacher and spin instructor at the newest and beautiful facilities of Life Time in Downtown Greenstreet. Today, I am not only a full-time yoga and spin instructor, I am an entrepreneur that mentors new yoga teachers, I am a lead trainer that certifies and trains future yoga teachers and I am a retreat lead and host alongside my best friend Meg Ellis and I’m excited and proud to say… this is just the beginning!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yes and no.
Yes, because everything has worked itself out the way it needs to. I have absolutely been met with disappointment, rejection and bumps (some major crashes) along the way but ultimately, I realized that it all worked itself out exactly the way it needed to. I found myself in moments where I asked the universe “ok but why?!” and then with time and perseverance and consistency, I found out why and it’s because something better and more in line with my journey was there for me.
I’d also say it hasn’t been the smoothest because despite the disappointment, the demanding work of it all, my biggest obstacle has been my own self. Having the faith, the confidence and the perseverance to stay the course regardless of what the outcome was is NOT easy. Keeping strong in your resolve and the knowledge that you are where you need to be is a big part of your success.
Where there is a no, there is a yes.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve always been more on the artistic side of things. When I graduated high school, I’d hoped to enter either into interior or fashion design and while I had an eye for creating and was decent at drawing/painting, I had absolutely zero aptitude for sewing. That led me to work in Fashion retail and then become a stylist. On the side of all that, I also had a musical background singing in the church and playing in my school’s orchestra (I was a master French Horn player if I do say so myself). I made my first really big leap of faith and moved to Houston to study at a music academy and dove into a lot of that for the majority of my 20s. I toured and sang many a large church stage and even recorded an album and had some very wonderful and beautiful experiences that I will forever be grateful for. Of course, the “struggling musician” life is very real, so I also stayed working in fashion to support myself all throughout this. I am very grateful for all the lessons, skills and experiences I have from these two very different jobs/passions because they have served me so well in what I do now.
As a spin instructor and yoga teacher, my musicality and performance background has really helped me to be someone who can speak to a room and make it feel like a genuine conversation and connection with the people that walk into my space. My background in sales and customer service has also allowed me to know the value of connecting with the people you come across and making them feel at home. I don’t really view what I do as “I have to sell this product to them” mostly because (and I’m happy to report) I GENUINELY love what I do and have so much fun doing it and it brings me great joy to invite people to be a part of this experience. When I have people come back because they loved it, it’s extremely rewarding. Creating community is such a powerful thing.
Any big plans?
I am beyond excited to be starting in roles that have been a part of my vision board for the past couple of years and that is to lead my own Yoga teacher training and also yoga/mindfulness retreats and that is starting this year. My plan is to continue to grow in this and really come into my groove and have a calendar that is full of these incredible experiences.
That being said, I can’t ignore my newfound love and passion as a spin instructor. I have only been teaching for 1 year now and am mostly self-taught and I’m thrilled to be going to a very large and intense training in Mexico with some of the world’s leading trainers in the field in December of 2022. I am foreseeing some big dreams and plans to come after.
Stay tuned!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: all.in.jose
Image Credits
First 6 images by Bethany Brewster
