NAME: Jordan “Zuzu Smooth” Berger
WHAT DO YOU DO: Yoga, Music, Cocktails
WHERE DO YOU LIVE: Manly Beach / Bondi Beach, Australia
WEBSITE: www.powerliving.com.au
INSTAGRAM: @yoga_suitra
FACEBOOK: @jordanleerocks

TELL US YOUR STORY:

I’ll tell you what…if you told me 10 years ago that I would be living in Australia, Teaching Yoga and focusing on a career in wellness I probably would have told you to get fucked!

I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and went to college for Music Business at the Berklee College of Music in Boston pursuing my ultimate life passion of professional music. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to tour with a few bands playing bass guitar mainly, which help me make the move to Los Angeles in 2009.

In LA, as all musicians do, I worked in Bars. But not just any bars, I got deep into craft cocktail culture and got to work at some primo LA hotspots. Along this path of cocktail bartending I got involved with Liquor Brands and stepped out from behind the bar to take a role as a Brand Ambassador for a Peruvian spirit brand in LA. This job was my dream gig…basically I went around Los Angeles, trained bartenders on the brand, and made sure consumers had a great experience with our signature drinks!

My work reputation made it all the way to Australia where I was recruited to open Palmer & Co. in 2012. The bar life called me back with open arms for a period of time until the epic Italian drinks brand CAMPARI came calling for my services as Brand Ambassador for NSW!

Now, you should know that I’ve always been into fitness, but when I was growing up, my mom was a Yoga Teacher I always just thought that it was the “weird thing that mom does”. Yet for my high school graduation, she got me a private lesson with her teacher and after that I was hooked. Fast forward to arriving in Sydney and finding Power Living, the business I now work for, I thought it would be a cool thing to learn more about yoga so I did my teacher training in 2015.

With all of my performance skills and public speaking skills pretty sharp from my past careers, teaching to a room of 50 people came really easily to me and they asked me to join their teaching staff.  I was still working for Campari at the time and would teach 2 early morning classes, duck into the bathroom to put on my suit, then dash out the door to go sell booze for the rest of the day. Wild Times!

I left the booze world in 2017 to work full time for Power Living as a teacher and the National Programs / Events Sales Manager.

What a wild ride!!!

So what’s next??? Given my habit of changing careers every 4 – 7 years, I think something is brewing…maybe international Meggings Model?!?!

WHAT’S SOMETHING BRAVE OR WILD YOU’VE DONE IN YOUR LIFE?

I moved to Australia…not knowing a single person! The whole decision to move to Australia came about VERY quickly…

I had applied for a role here and hadn’t heard from the business for 6 months, then one random day an email arrived (that totally could have ended up in my junk or just missed in general) that asked if I was keen on a Skype interview.

6 weeks later I was on a flight to Sydney! I quit all my jobs, told my band mates that I’d be back in 3 months (it’s now 7 years later and I’m still here!)

WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?

I’ve got one foot in the bar, one foot on the yoga mat. I feel like I’m constantly showing people how to utilize yoga philosophy in a modern context to improve their life. I love to smash the stereotype that a male yogi is timid, abstinent and introverted. I’m boisterous, cheeky as hell and love a strong Negroni!

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

My style these days is very “Bondi Active”. Since I work in a yoga studio, most days are casual dress in shorts and tank tops…and recently MEGGINGS! Currently I’m a Jeans and T-Shirt addict and probably have only worn my favorite MJ Bale suit twice this year…when I used to suit up every day for work.

I bang Tupac one minute and Whitney Houston the next, so I’m diverse and open anything.

TELL US ABOUT ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS AND WHY YOU VALUE IT?

My parents sent me this digital picture frame over the holidays. What’s amazing about it is that it connects to wifi and my family can add photos to it from anywhere in the world! The hardest thing for me about living abroad is being so far from my family, and this frame of constantly changing photos makes me feel like my family isn’t so far away ☺

FAVOURITE QUOTE OR MOTTO:

“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints” – Billy Joel

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PAIR OF KAPOW MEGGINGS?

Ronny Reagan of course!!!