Shivani Gupta

Hello everyone and welcome to the AskShivani podcast. I'm so excited about having Virginia today. Let me tell you a little bit about her. And let me just be upfront and tell you that Virginia runs an amazing yoga studio, which I have been attending for the last few months on absolutely loving it. But she has quite an exciting background. She's got an MBA from Yale in the US. She used to be an investment banker in New York, and who ran marathons for fun, just that idea of the fact that she was running marathons, we'll have to find more about and then enter yoga, which merely started off just to stretch her hamstrings. That was almost 20 years ago, and her yoga practice has opened and open and the fact that she now has her own studio as well.

She has got a lot of accolades around yoga; she has got the Yoga Alliance at highest designation. She is an International Yoga Educator, she has worked with some of the greats and extraordinary teachers, including Annie Carpenter, Noah Maze and Jill Miller. The list goes on and one of the things that she speaks about a lot now in her classes, as well as a life is how to practice alignment, how to have alignment, she is also a tune out yoga certified teacher, as I said the list of all the different things she's done, and she's been a chef as well, like, you know, the list is literally about four pages long. So, we will dive into that in a moment. And more importantly, she is residing in Brisbane now and she's a proud mama to three little boys, which she calls her biggest achievement today. Welcome, Virginia.

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

Thank you, thank you so much for having me.

Shivani Gupta

This is such a big CV. Like, I noticed that when I was looking you up Virginia like your CV is I think she said to me once, but it's like you've lived three or four lives in one already. And so, when we look at like all the different things that you've done all the things that you've done around in your life, tell us a bit about the major terms that you've had, whether it's business, or whether it's personal, like what are the big moments ups and downs have been to get you to where you have today. Tell us a bit about that.

Virginia Corpus-McDermott

Yes, so, I grew up in Kentucky - in rural Kentucky, which in and of itself is a completely different experience. My parents immigrated from the Philippines in 1970. Armed with an education, they are doctors, so they came to the US to train in medicine, which is quiet a common story for immigrants from the Philippines at that time, because they were trained in English. And there was a dearth of doctors at that time in the US. So grew up in rural Kentucky as a little brown girl. With you know, obviously you and I talked about this, I think the first time that we met and it's socially interesting, and also just kind of being from a country town. And education was first and foremost my parents main, not concerned but dream for us as immigrants to have that education because my parents would always say it's something that no one can ever take away from you. So, I was just a studious kid, you know, one public school kid. And there was something always something more for me it was kind of I don't know, it was just I needed something more to stimulate me started getting into a little trouble. I guess when I was maybe you know, 12-13 and my parents suggested that I look at boarding schools in New England. And so, I think that was really my turning point to that different life - was let's just get out of the smelt. Let's have you get out of this small town and just see what's there. So, then that just started exploded. That's just part of who I you know, my identity now.

So boarding school in Exeter, New Hampshire and that was incredible, because what we did was sit around tables of 12 students as a little, you know, 14–15-year-old and discuss everybody's opinion mattered. And that's where the critical thinking skills really came into play. And what I realized is that, you know, every child regardless of how old you are - that can have an opinion, and it matters. And people will listen, hopefully, people will listen. And as a student, and as a human, you have to listen to other people also. So then, from there, went to Georgetown, I had studied abroad a few times three times in high school, Mexico and in Spain, and that really fueled my desire to, to learn about different cultures. But what I really loved was people that you learn about people and humans, it's not just the language, it's the foray into their food into their culture into their lives. So, I ended up going to Georgetown and studying language and linguistics, so obviously focused on Spanish but had a concentration in international business. And that I loved the finance and the economics. And those were sort of my two main streams in university, and really funny because my parents, I don't know if I mentioned this, but my parents are physicians, my brother and my sister also physicians. And so, they're like - Well, why don't you just take that biology class?

And I'm like, okay, okay. And there was always like that, why don't you just see, just test it out. And you know, as coming from a family of doctors, I literally had anatomy books around me. I grew up around anatomy books all the time. And I was in my parents’ office all the time. And you know, looking at Oregon sitting on the table. It's just so funny. Autopsies there, they were pathologist, and so I was like - Okay, fine, I'll take that biology class. And I remember freshman year of uni, and just, I think I got like a C minus or something just like that. Like, I will never make it into medical school, okay - I got just got a C minus in biology, it's just not going to happen.

So, to me, that was sort of off the cards, I was that third child, the youngest child and just didn't want to go that route had I loved it? I probably would have done better? if I wanted it, I probably could have. But it was just one of those it wasn't right, going into that medical direction. So, after Georgetown, languages, and linguistics and concentration in business, I got a job in New York for Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays at the time. That was fun, that was great. Because, you know, that was the first foray into having clients, as a junior banker, you'd have to go and you know, kind of flip off your clients. And, you know, see what business deal was next. And that was in the year 1999, after I graduated from uni. And interestingly, if you remember, anybody who's who follows, you know, corporate America would probably know Enron. They were our team's main client. So, you know, there's books written about that whole fiasco, a movie made about that particular client. And oh, you know, I met them as a little 22-year-old junior investment banker for Barclays. And, you know, to look back at him like, that was actually quite a storybook kind of experience for a little 22-year-olds.

And after Barclays, I went and got an MBA, because well, I mean, that's what people in investment banking do, right? They go and just, that's what my parents expected to do. That's what I expected to do. You just get that kind of higher education, to allow yourself to go further in that field, very kind of that traditional, you know, that doctor mentality, you study biology, and then you study more, study more, get that degree and then you're off to that job. So is a very traditional path. And so got my MBA at Yale, fortunate enough to be accepted into that incredible, incredible school. And what I loved so much about that school is that there were people from not finance, not just finance there, they're just a smattering of us who had worked at banks. That was not what I expected is people who were engineers who came from nonprofits, who came from government all over. And that's what drew me so much from the school because, you know, it was people who were not like me at all, you did not have my background at all. And you learn from that group activity, you know, it's the people around you who you learn from in business school, as you would know. So then, of course, a graduate with this MBA, what to do that traditional kind of path, let's just go back and work in investment banking again, you know, so, that was 2003 at the time and went to something a little different worked on a trading floor, still with the investment banking arm of what at the time was Bank of America, before it had merged with other banks. And so that was fun, too, because it was, there was more of my personality, more sort of social creating relationships and selling structured bonds to my hedge fund clients and insurance company clients. So really grainy kind of product, they were CDOs and ABS collateralized debt obligations and asset backed securities. So, the finance people would know that's kind of what probably spurred on the GFC, those types of engineered products and I was selling those.

Again, here's my second you know, my second sort of career in finance being part of history that's this Wall Street history - first Enron and now this like - oh my god, this, these products that pretty much blew up the world financial aid, since like, once my clients started to show up on the cover of walls, the Wall Street Journal's - oh, god, okay. Maybe, this isn't the right place to be. So, you know, that was interesting post MBA and working as an associate and then getting promoted to vice president, all before the age of 28. Something like that. So fun, really fun, lucrative, but also, I knew was not sustainable. If you know, I wanted to have a family or, you know, when would I ever see my family? If I had kids? Where would we live in a one-bedroom apartment in New York, like it just was not? Would I ever have pictured for the rest of my life.

Meanwhile, I had met my now husband at Yale. He was my classmate. So, we were both in banking at the time. And he's Australian, which is how I'm here. Grew up in Queensland and he also came from a family of doctors. So, we kind of understood that, okay, we're kind of different from our families. And you know, we are not your traditional, let's just go into these fields type of people. We both have that creative, kind of a rebellious streak about us. So, I think that's kind of what drew us together.

So, let's see, where was I. So, before I left Wall Street, I had gone through this around 2007, something happening, just a shift. I don't even know how it came about or where it came from. But I started a more serious yoga practice, I would bring my mat onto the trading floor. And like, as soon as I you know, hung up with my last client, I run to a yoga class or something, or go to a yoga class during lunch. And it's just like, you know, like, no one will call because once I leave work, I'm going to be at yoga. And then I started to train, I started to run and train for marathons. I really love that long distance running and kind of that endorphin hit. And I mean, I guess in a way, retrospectively, it was a way to sort of burn off some of the tension from work. Because there's a lot of tension at work in that field of finance. So, in doing those two things physically and kind of cleaning up my diet a little bit because I realized that how I ate affected the yoga affected my running my performance. And so, all of that just in a timespan of a year.

And simultaneously another big thing happened on a personal level. My mom got diagnosed with breast cancer without family history. You know, it was so unexpected, and it rocked us, our family and it's just how is that happened? And my sister who I'm close with. She's an obviously as I've mentioned before, she's a physician, but her pathway is integrative medicine. And her mentor is Dr. Andrew Weil, who is a pioneer in the US. In integrative medicine, so what integrative medicine is, it's okay, let's get to the root cause of disease or of sickness. And that was, you know, and my sister and I would talk and it's like, where is this coming from? Where is mom's sickness coming from? What is it in her life? And, you know, it started to make more sense. As you know, I, in retrospect, we started thinking about in her life, what was going on in our lives what was going on? And that was it. That was the 2006-2007 the year that I got married and ran my first marathon and it's literally like this explosion in my life. The year I turned 30. Like everything just happened that year. So, then I started on the weekend - was taking a course is Integrative Nutrition. The IIN, you may have heard of it, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. So literally on the weekends, while I was working my Wall Street job, I would study Integrative Nutrition, Integrative Nutrition isn't just about food, it's about what else is happening in your, in your life, your spirituality, your love, your work, your everything else, because food is not the only thing.

And so, I mean it was this year of learning who I was, who I wanted to be, what I didn't want, and what I needed to do to stay healthy and alive, you know. So, the good news is that they caught my mom's cancer very early. And you know, she's still with us, obviously, today. Very lucky, but it could have been another story. So yeah, the GFC happened, clients on the cover of Wall Street Journal, my industry blew up. And that was the greatest gift that could have ever happened to me because it was someone else telling me that this was not right. Because if the GFC hadn't happened, I don't know, maybe I would still be living in a one-bedroom apartment with not who my husband is now and totally miserable, and stressed and sick. So yeah, that's amazing.

Shivani Gupta

That's an amazing history. And it does now feel like that you've lived three or four lives already yet, only in your 40s. You've probably already answered my next question about challenges because I can see how when things come, how you go deep, and you study, and you learn, and you do different things. What about where you are today, Virginia? What are some of your future aspirations? Whether it be things personally, family wise, business wise, what are some of the things that you think about that you might want to do? Well, some people think a year out, some people think 10 years out, it doesn't really matter what timeframes you look at. So, what are some of your future aspirations?

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

So gosh, that's a really good question. I honestly, go day by day now, but I had when I moved to Australia, and that, I guess it was 2008. After that kind of like realization. I had started a business called Kitchen Vitality. And I had had my I had gone to culinary school and in that amount of time, which was the culinary school that was all about cooking for your health. And how food is medicine. And that was a huge part of my journey to where I am today because your food can heal. You know, the food that you choose to cook for you and your family is part of your life and your health. And you know, there's no mistaking that.

So, through my own kind of health issues, I started to focus on gut health. And what I realized is that, you know, doctors, nutritionists, or dieticians, will talk about gut health but never really knew how to put that into practice. And that's where I came in having started Kitchen Vitality would have people in my kitchen and just have them hold knives and chop and put the vegetables in jars and the salt and ferment their foods. So, use their hands in their senses to create, you know, food for themselves, not just staring at them reading a piece of paper saying, okay, improve your gut health here. It's not that, it's practically teaching them how to do it. So, as we know now, there's through science and all the research, there's a gut brain highlighted gut brain connection. And through my years of yoga study, a down regulation of the nervous system and breathing, you know, that's how, and good movement good quality, high quality, functional movement, it's the same this sort of food thing, your food, gut health, and the way you move, the more you breathe, and the way you down regulate your nervous system. So, they're one in the same gut, brain highway, you cannot have one without the other, you cannot have optimal health. Without with just one, you need everything. So, my future aspiration is to really bring those two businesses together.

So, my current business is Movement Vitality, that's the yoga studio and everything that is, you know, everything good movement, everything good breath, everything, you know, being strong and healthy, but also okay, how is it that we can come into ourselves, as you know, as not just a human but our interception. How do we feel inside? Can we feel it? Do we feel it? Do we want to feel it all of that? Because that is, you know, that's our gut, your gut feel? What did your gut feel? So that's, you know, I didn't realize that this is the time that I started kitchen vitality, my cooking business, that, you know, there's something so much more than just food. I didn't know that. But I we're all you know, we're onto something here just all these years, just thinking one thing is different from another, but they're really the same thing. So, I'd love to combine those two, somehow. And, you know, I'm a teacher first and foremost. So, it's that, you know, help people to understand, that's my very long-winded answer for what I dream.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, amazing. And I love the fact that the commonality is the vitality piece, right? Whether it's kitchen vitality, whether it's yoga by like, you know, movement, vitality, it's there's this whole sense of that vitality, and that integrative medicine that you spoke about, too. And tell me like, obviously, being a teacher, for yoga and your practice, tell me a bit about what some of the things you do for your wellness. And, you know, maybe also some of the things that you might do for your mental wellness, but also your physical wellness. So, tell us about some of the rituals you have some people have rituals daily, some do them every month, you know, so what are some people that are retreats once a year? So, what are some of the things that you do for your own wellness?

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

Yeah, so I am a bit I've always been really physical. I'm an avid cross fitter. And when I tell people that they're like, wait, you own a yoga studio? how do you know cross fit, it's this you know, hardcore, blah, blah, blah. But I've been so lucky to have really good coaches and I've been doing cross fit for seven years. And the coaches are the coaches I've had a really good movement experts and so I've learned a lot from them in my own body, but also how to teach a lot of this in the in my yoga classes. So, I love to move - moving is my thing. It's just it fuels me. I do cross fit 3-4 days a week and I've noticed that as I age, I have to recover, I have to really focus on recovery - so recovery would be rolling on the yoga tune pose as you know, or you know stretching breathing and taking those days off when I really need it, so they didn't have a good night's sleep. I'll look at my little whoop device that tells me am I recovered? Am I not recovered? but I can kind of feel it in my body. I'm not recovered. I'm not going to train. So, you know, part of that body awareness is just is really reading whether or not you're ready to go hard the next day or not. And just the foods that I choose to eat. I'm not always the healthiest, but you know, I'll eat what makes me feel good and what fuel was me. I invested in a sauna last year. And that is like my island of no one's allowed to bother me, this is my alone time. And I love the heat, especially here in the in the winter. So, I'll kind of sit in the sauna for about 20 to 30 minutes every other day, and just kind of meditate and breathe sweat. And that's, one of my I guess, rituals.

Shivani Gupta

Amazing, so you really leave that philosophy and just all the movement and vitality that you speak about. And you know, that's and hence your brand. Yeah, I think it's also great, because sometimes I do come across teachers, you know, yoga teachers or other like, they're like, this is my path, and I don't do anything else. I think what's really fantastic about what you shared there, Virginia was that it might seem the opposite of yoga but having that also creates this balance of what you need and, and how to move through and, you know, release stress etc. as well. That's amazing and one question around leadership philosophy. So, and it might just be philosophies doesn't necessarily have to be leadership and other philosophies that you live by that are important to you in terms of who you are and how you live and what you do.

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

Yeah, I thought a lot about this question. And, as a business owner, and as a human, you're only as good as the people around you. I don't know I just, I've never, I don't see myself as a leader. I see myself as like this coordinator, who brings together these incredible people. Their skill set and finding these people with like, very high-quality skill sets and letting them do what they do best. That's what I do. That's the business. The instructors that I have the 11 of them. Oh my god, I always say teach what you want to teach. And then also just having a partner who supports you. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this build a business or any of this without, without Dave, my husband, who's just been on the sidelines cheering me on and just so incredibly supportive.

Shivani Gupta

That's amazing. And Virginia, if people want to follow you in terms of the work you do, in terms of the things you put out into the world, where are the best places for people to come and find you?

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

Our website is https://movementvitality.com/. That's the website to the studio among the socials also, so Movement Vitality on Instagram, on Facebook. I'm not on Twitter. I don't know how to use Twitter. I'm not on any like the cool ones. And that's my that's my thing. That's where I am.

Shivani Gupta

That's amazing, Virginia. Thank you for being on here today.

Virginia Corpus-McDermott 

Thanks, Shivani. I'm so honored that you asked me. Thank you.