Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Beckmann.
Hi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The big news is that I recently opened a new yoga studio in the Houston Heights called Ascent Yoga. I also have an office space there for my coaching and advisory business, Ascent Consultants.
I’ve been teaching yoga and doing advisory work since 2018, so it’s very exciting to have it all under one roof.
Yoga and mindfulness are, for me, two powerful contributors to high performance in any domain, and so I wanted to create a space where I, my team, our clients, and the public, could come to start and grow their own practices.
I hope that the studio space will help us build a community around the ideas of high performance and leadership.
In a recent podcast, Michael Gervais outlined three of his “must have’s” for sustained high performance:
- Clarity & awareness
- Building work capacity / applying maximum intentional effort
- Recovering intelligently
I think these three principles that capture the essence of the studio – high performance and leadership – and are foundational whether you want to build a yoga practice or a business.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
What has been easy or smooth? Actually, the studio build out was pretty smooth, and I have a really amazing team of teachers working with me at the studio.
For me, personally though, patience is one of my biggest challenges. To help overcome that, I’ve had to shift my perspective on things.
I try to stay focused on the fact that I wake up every day and I get to work on projects that relate directly to my passions, and I get to do that with incredibly talented and dedicated people.
Again, the three principles outlined above continue to serve me well: Clarity, effort, recover, repeat.
Other than that, you must believe in yourself and in your vision. Second, you must surround yourself with people who will push you to keep going and improving. Third, I strongly recommend everyone create a high-value “personal board of directors”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The yoga studio has a pretty obvious mission – sharing our passion for teaching yoga and mindfulness.
Ascent also offers business advisory and coaching services that are similarly rooted in a passion for helping people.
Coaching is a powerful tool that uses inquiry to help clients grow their businesses, build high-performing team and cultures, overcome challenges, and (perhaps most importantly) continuously adapt and evolve to the leadership challenges that inevitably arise.
At the core of it all are those three principles noted above. Whether yoga, fitness, or business leadership, our mission is to help our clients go from where they are, to where they want to be.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I think you create happiness when you’re able to be your most authentic self and engage in deep, meaningful work. It isn’t something you find.
That creative process begins with a lot of self-reflection and self-awareness to figure out what is really important to you, and then putting your effort into that mission.
Ikigai, a Japanese philosophy and exercise, is one of the best tools I’ve found to help people to uncover that purpose and start the process of building from that foundation.
Not surprisingly, Ikigai is an exercise that is rooted in clarity and awareness.
It has taken time and lots of trial and error, but I find my work incredibly fulfilling, and I love the way it challenges me to continuously grow, learn, and improve.
Contact Info:
- Website: Ascentmethod.com, Ascentyogahtx.com
- Facebook: @themattbeckmann and @ascentyogahtx
- Instagram: @themattbeckmann and @ascentyogahtx
- LinkedIn: @themattbeckmann and @ascentconsultants
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