Yoga’s been with me since I was five. My mum was one of the first yoga teachers in Australia, she taught packed classes in our rumpus room. In 1980 at fifteen, I started apprenticing with her at Sutherland Hospital, working with kids who had Down Syndrome and kids with asthma. I was teaching my own classes by eighteen. Surfing entered my life around the same time and became my other spiritual path. I grew up in Cronulla, a gritty surf town south of Sydney, and both yoga and surfing shaped my way of being. But it wasn’t all smooth. I had a big energy early on. Yoga amplified that, but my environment couldn’t hold it. I learned to shrink, to read rooms, to shape shift. I chased validation through performance, trained like a machine, partied even harder. I hit burnout by 23.

India changed everything. Over 30 years, I kept returning. I met powerful, peaceful teachers doing real work in the world. I started asking better questions, what did they know that I didn’t? What were they practicing that I wasn’t? That’s when I began to understand: everything is energy. Reality is an inner construct. And yoga is the technology to shift it.

From Teaching to Leading

My journey as a teacher began at 18, running my own classes. A few years later, I opened my first studio in Cronulla. It was 40 square meters, cost me $800, and came with no business plan, just mats, a stereo, and a drive to teach. It worked. I opened another studio in Campbelltown, invested $6,000, and filled the first beginner’s course with 90 people. That’s when I realized—if you offer real value, people show up.

While running the studios, I scaled through teacher trainings. I was already working under Heart of Yoga by 1996, training others to teach. Eventually, I co-founded Australia’s first government accredited, 1,000-hour advanced diploma of yoga. Full-time, in-depth, and held to a higher standard. That moment took me and yoga education to another level. It created ripple effects across the country.

Crossing Into Elite Performance

Soon after, a new door opened. My work with energy and mindset began to catch the attention of elite athletes. I started coaching Olympic swimmers, then pro surfers working with the Rip Curl team, and eventually CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. I called myself a mind body coach back then, blending yoga, consciousness, and high performance work.

This chapter was expansive. I was traveling, speaking, running retreats, leading trainings, building YogaCoach as a platform. I even did advocacy work in disability. At the time, the studios did the marketing and filled the programs. I just had to show up and teach. But that wouldn't last forever.

Rebuilding in a New Era

The yoga landscape started shifting. Trainings became saturated, commercialized, diluted. At the same time, the digital world exploded. Marketing, branding, positioning, suddenly those weren’t optional anymore. They became the core of staying visible.

That’s when I rebranded as a Frequency Coach. My current platform, High Level FREQ, goes beyond postures and techniques. It’s about training teachers to work at the level of frequency and resonance, consciousness, energy, emotion, thought. It’s still yoga. Just at a higher octave.

I’m no longer relying on past reputation or institutional partnerships. I had to learn how to translate depth into content that lands fast. How to share the unseen. How to make frequency feel tangible. That meant rewiring how I teach, market, and show up online, without losing what made it real in the first place.

Lessons I've Learned

I used to think expertise was enough. That if I just stayed deep, the work would speak for itself. But in a digital world, depth doesn’t stop the scroll. I had to learn to play a different game.

Content isn’t about performing, it’s about resonance. Now I show up unfiltered. I share the real stuff. I’ve learned to create what I call "candy drops" short, impactful pieces of value that lead people into the deeper teachings.

It took 18 months of stripping it all back and rebuilding. Learning to speak in a new frequency. Owning the parts of me I used to hide.

The biggest lesson? If the game changes, so must you.

My Message to Founders

Be 100% you. No filter. Say the thing. Share the edge. Let people feel the frequency of who you really are.

Don’t chase trends. Don’t water yourself down.

Polish is out. Presence is in.

The more real you are, the more you’ll attract people who are actually ready for your work.

So shape your voice like the yogis shaped light. Let it hit people in the heart. Because when you speak from that place, nothing needs to be sold.

Business Takeaways from Yoga Founders Magazine

Start Small, Go Deep

Mark launched his first studio with $800 and some mats. Depth, not dollars, drove results.

Branding is the New Depth

Being good isn't enough anymore. You need to be recognizable, memorable, and emotionally resonant.

Own the Shift

He rebranded from mind-body coach to Frequency Coach. Reinvention isn’t a failure, it’s mastery in motion.

Real > Perfect

People connect with truth, not polish. His shift to “candy drops” proved that bite sized truth opens the door to depth.

Adapt or Get Left Behind

The market changes. Algorithms change. Attention spans shrink. The yogis of today are the ones who evolve.