Meet Marni Task: Yoga Instructor & Indu Aromatherapy Creator

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

Hi Marni, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I never really thought of starting “a business” per se. Starting with going to college, I’ve always followed my heart. I went to NYU for acting and learned yoga while there. I loved acting and then also fell in love with yoga and because I loved both things I wanted to share them and create a career from what I loved. I believed if you do what you love the money will follow. After I started teaching yoga, I began experimenting with essential oils. Inspired by my beloved teachers Sharon Gannon and David Life, creators of the Jivamukti Yoga School, who would massage my neck and shoulders at the end of class with a lotion that completely relaxed me, I created an essential oil blend that my students fell in love with. I had no intention of creating a business out of my lotion concoction. But after the 100th person asked me where they could buy the lotion, I thought maybe I should make a bigger batch. It gave me so much happiness to bring happiness and relaxation to my students. And so my hand made mantra mixed Indu Aromatherapy Lotion was born. So it was all an organic evolution that evolved out of my love for theater and yoga.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well right now I’m at a crossroads in my life. I’ve been teaching yoga for 25 years and leading teacher trainings since 2006. A few years ago I was invited to teach yoga for an organization called XCHANGE. http://www.xchangeapproach.com/ When I arrived to teach yoga at this “business conference”, everything from the way the room was set up, to the way the conference was facilitated, to the way the group interacted with each other felt like a yoga retreat with highly conscious, compassionate, life affirming people. This a direct quote from the incredible 
Deborah Rozman,
CEO of the HeartMath Institute Inc. “The XCHANGE APPROACH facilitates generative, life-affirming questions that help uplift and connect people, awakening the wisdom and collective intelligence of the group.” So after “just teaching yoga” for a few years with XCHANGE, I’ve started learning the XCHANGE approach for facilitating and leading groups of people to create the greatest level of connection, communication and wisdom. To me, XCHANGE is like yoga philosophy meets the world of business consultant. I’d heard about Conscious Capitalism for years but never really studied it. Now that I’m learning more about this movement, it excites me to bring yoga and XCHANGE into my yoga trainings as well as “infiltrate” the business world with the blessings of yoga on all levels. Regarding my mantra mixed Indu Aromatherapy company, with Covid 19, you can imagine that business has slowed down because many yoga studios have closed or have much less foot traffic. We’re brainstorming ways to work with the yoga studios and boutiques and are beginning to offer an online coupon code so that if students order Indu through their home studio, the studio would make a percentage of that sale. We see it as a win, win! Indu gets to be enjoyed by the client, the studio earns something without having to buy the product up front and Indu continues to thrive. My intention for making Indu, from day one, has always been to bring happiness, peace and relaxation to everyone who experiences it. Because of our new creative online partnerships, my wish is that those who’ve always loved Indu will continue to buy it and now maybe even more people will get to experience Indu that never would have prior to Covid.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If a friend was visiting Cleveland, the Home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’d do some probing to see what their favorite thing to do is! Prior to Covid, The Greater Cleveland Area, was a wealth of culture, amazing people, awesome restaurants, world class theater, museums and natural parks, Lake Erie and more. Cleveland boasts everything New York or San Francisco does, but has less sunshine, a few less restaurants, and a smaller population. (which is a plus!) AND we also have great yoga here! And while Covid has been hard on the small studios, we Clevelanders are the salt of the earth. We’re willing to put in the work to thrive and stay alive! It must be those long, cold, gray winters that make us tough! While there are yoga studios that have closed, many have reinvented themselves like The Yoga Room Cleveland, Cleveland Yoga, Inner Bliss Yoga, Hope Yoga, Yoga Flow and sooooo many more….all over town! Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This is such a sweet question for me! It really begins with gratitude for my parents. Many young people heading to college are not always encouraged to follow their creative endeavors, but mine did. Because I studied acting, I learned yoga and met Sharon Gannon at Crunch gym right near NYU. I’m forever grateful to Sharon and David and the Jivamukti Yoga School for inspiring my life and opening my eyes to the benefits of yoga, a vegan lifestyle and the positive effects it has for one’s health, the planet and, of course, the animals.

Website: MarniTask.com
Instagram: Marni.Task
Facebook: Marni Task Yoga
Youtube: Someday Soon Marni Task Yoga will be up!
Other: These are the links and handles for Indu Aromatherapy InduLotion.com IG:InduLotion FB: Indu Lotion

Image Credits
Candace Koslen Robert Stofa