Stride empowers self-employed people to build lives they love. This week, we sat down with Trish, our Carrier Relations Manager, to learn more about her passion for yoga, her love for her co-workers, and her own self-employed journey.

Can you introduce yourself and your position?

I’m Trish, and I lead Carrier Relations here at Stride!

How would you describe your role as a Carrier Relations Manager to a 5 year old?

It’s like Stride is married to multiple insurance companies. My job is to keep everyone happy and fulfilled.

What were you up to before you joined Stride?

I took a few months off to reboot and reset. It allowed me to bide my time and hang out more with my dog, Edwin. I realized I had been too busy prioritizing work over my personal interests, so I started to think through what bucket-list items I wanted to check off!

Do you have any cool hobbies that folks would be surprised to know?

I’ve been practicing yoga regularly for the last 5 years. Like many, my entry into yoga was through one of those massively-discounted hot yoga deals. Boy, I did not know what I was getting myself into!

Looking back, I had no idea how much my passion for it would grow, and now I’m a 200-hour registered yoga teacher. I teach a donation-based, all-levels class at Yoga Punx in the Mission District in San Francisco every Sunday. There, I’m able to support my students through their practice and yoga journey. All are welcome—seriously!

I’m so lucky to have found a passion, to be able to spread it, and to work full-time at a company that supports my freelance side hustle!

What makes you excited to get up and come to work every day?

There are two things! The first is all the people I work with. They teach me new things, they challenge me, they provide me new perspectives, they inspire me to do my best work, and most of all, they encourage me to be myself.

The second is the individuals we serve. There is no other platform out there attempting to build what we are building for independent professionals. As a freelancer myself, I’m excited to be part of Stride’s journey to help people who work for themselves be more productive and successful.

Why do you think the work Stride does is so important?

I love that Stride is working to build the largest and most engaged community of people who work for themselves. When I started my journey to become a yoga teacher I honestly had no idea where to start. My initial reaction was to reach out to my community of fellow yoga teachers who have already been on their journeys for a while. I’m lucky to have them as a network to begin figuring things out, like setting up my business, creating my website, marketing, insuring myself for liability, etc. All these needs dovetail neatly into what Stride is doing to support people who work for themselves.

What's your favorite Stride memory so far?

Probably the time I taught yoga to my manager in our office library. That was pretty cool. :)