Nicholas Peruzzi

PUN-isher's my name, and writing puns is my game. After 18 years of scholastic overachievement and a very awkward emo phase, I left Oneida for Boston College, where I dabbled in many subjects, eventually graduating with an obviously-very-useful BA in English. After graduation, I began my food concept management era, which gradually transitioned from sales, customer service, and team management to community growth marketing – cue my marketing agency era, where I developed, produced, and executed creative strategies for (mostly) health + wellness brands. Working with the likes of Manduka, The Bar Method, Saje Natural Wellness, Kevita, Trombone Shorty Foundation, CAULIPOWER, and more, yoga was everywhere at the agency, and I was able to cultivate a daily practice with my coworkers. The downside was being privy to the commercialization of wellness: glossy influencers, stressful photo shoots, and the other calling cards of the early era of Instagram perfection. I was fortunate enough to build a steady little freelance business that provided more time to focus on my own health + wellness. Yoga continued to stand out as more than just exercise, but something that I was truly passionate about evangelizing, but not in the Instagrammy way I had experienced. The next step was to deepen my understanding of the practice, specifically the philosophy (because book-nerd). I attended a 200-hr training info session hosted by Jessica and signed up that day! The 200-hr was transformative, providing me with what I call a "toolkit" for doing life better and a beautiful kinship with everyone in my training, including the teachers, who I bothered every day until they let me come work at ODD to bring the kind of yoga I love to more people through mostly puns!