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MGMA 2026 Summit Podcast Playlist
Explore the best of the MGMA 2026 Summit through this curated podcast playlist. Whether you're joining live or catching up on-demand, this audio collection brings you timely insights, expert-led sessions, and real conversations from our premier online event. The Summit isn’t just about content — it’s about connection. Hear how leaders across the industry are navigating challenges, innovating care, and building stronger practices. Plus, discover new ways to engage with peers and collaborate on what matters most in medical practice leadership.
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Colleen Luckett:From ambient documentation to intelligent agents, NoVer brings purposeful automation to the entire ambulatory workflow. To learn more about Greenway Health and NoVer, visit greenwayhealth.com.
Daniel Williams:Well, hey, everyone. This is Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA and host of the MGMA Podcast Network. Today, we're back with another Mindful Medicine podcast. We are with Sochi Hoover, who is a Nike yoga instructor. She's also I like to call her a friend.
Daniel Williams:I hope we're friends, How are you doing today?
Xochilt Hoover:I'm doing great. I'm really just excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, that's great. So everyone, this is April, and April is National Stress Awareness Month. As I was saying, Sochi is a Nike yoga instructor. We're also in teacher training for mindfulness through Brown University together, and we just went through a pretty intensive, ten or so weeks together, in this training, and it's good to catch up with you again, Sochi. What have you been doing the last couple of weeks since the first class ended?
Xochilt Hoover:Well, I led a yoga retreat with a friend of mine, and then as soon as that was over, I've really just been trying to rest and let everything kind of integrate after that intense training because, yeah, it was a lot.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, it was a lot. We were all sort of our brains, our emotions, the whole thing was just it was a lot to go through, but I think we'll be better from that experience, don't you?
Xochilt Hoover:Oh my gosh. Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. So let's get to know a little bit about you then. So tell us about your background in yoga and mindfulness. I was mentioning your affiliation with Nike right now, but I mean, there's practicing yoga and then teaching yoga. They're doing that for Nike.
Daniel Williams:So that's a long place to get to. So talk about that journey.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah, it's been a long journey. It started fifteen years ago when I was 22 and I was just kind of looking for something different than, you know, I was going to the gym and running and working. I love movement. Like I like physically moving my body, but I wasn't in love with those practices. And so I found this like tiny hole in the wall yoga studio that I had walked by hundreds of times, just really curious.
Xochilt Hoover:And it was a hot studio. So, I mean, it was really uncomfortable. I remember really not liking the first class, but there was this moment in Shavasana where I had just such a deep, profound, silent experience. The mind was quiet for once. So maybe that's what hooked me.
Xochilt Hoover:I really don't know. I think I was going in for vain intentions of wanting to like lose weight, you know, but it turned into such a spiritual practice for me. I just felt so much more connected to myself. So I practiced about six years consistently, like five times a week. And I was a karma yogi where I would clean the studio and get a free membership.
Daniel Williams:Oh, wow.
Xochilt Hoover:Because it's expensive. And then my journey into teaching was kind of interesting. Like I had been in a really, really tough relationship with the person who was pretty emotionally abusive. And when I walked away from that relationship, I started my path with therapy and my therapist told me or encouraged me to do something that I've always wanted to do and that maybe I hadn't done because of this relationship. Teaching was one of those things.
Xochilt Hoover:Like I had such a deep respect for all of my teachers at this point, you know, they've really been anchors for me throughout the last six years of all the stuff that had gone on in my life. So I took a chance on myself and I did a two hundred hour teacher training. I loved every moment of it. Think that was the happiest I had ever been was in that training. And yeah, I graduated from that in 2015 and I think I started teaching immediately and really haven't looked back ever since.
Xochilt Hoover:And that was in Seattle. And so I taught in Seattle for maybe a year and then I moved to Portland. And Portland was really where I started to kind of lean into being a full time yoga teacher, whatever that looked like and leaving the rest behind. Was like, this is what I love to do. I love practicing.
Xochilt Hoover:I love being around people who want to talk about yoga. I could talk about yoga all day. And so, yeah, and mindfulness was really not at the forefront, but it was something I always was kind of doing on my own. I remember the first time I ever was introduced really was in my two hundred hour teacher training. Our teacher had us take a little orange and hold it and smell it and peel it slowly.
Xochilt Hoover:So that was my first introduction. I was blown away of just what slowing down what we do, just how it opens up your whole experience.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. I wanted to say something there because you were talking about going through your first practice and getting to Savasana. And so I'll share with you a little bit about my journey. So this would have been 2004, so twenty years ago, my daughter was born and I had a chronically bad back. I'd injured at playing sports.
Daniel Williams:And so I reached into the crib to pick her up and I just couldn't do it. Because you're in a real awkward position like that. You're leaning out and reaching down. So I went to a doctor and the doctor did some treatment and then said, Have you ever tried yoga? And I was so out of it.
Daniel Williams:This was in LA, but I grew up in the South. I thought he said yogurt. I thought he said, Have
Daniel Williams:you tried yogurt? Yeah, I like yogurt. Don't know what this is going to do. Do I put it on my back? What do I do here?
Daniel Williams:So I went to
Daniel Williams:a class and we had been like, I was How old was I? I was 37 and had never done yoga before. And it was a pretty intense LA yoga class. And so we had done fifty eight minutes of pretty intense, just twisting ourselves into all these positions, and I was dying a little bit. And then the teacher said, And now everyone, we're going to get into the most difficult posture, Shavasana, or corpse pose.
Daniel Williams:And I went, Okay, I am going to die. I didn't know you just laid there. It is, to me, in
Daniel Williams:a way, it's the most difficult one because then you still the mind. What do you want to say about, Shavasana or that flow of designing a class where you experience the physical postures, and then you get into a posture where it is connecting, truly connecting that mind to the body.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah. I mean, I think I've read somewhere. I can't remember where I heard this, but I just remember that corpse pose was really introduced to prepare us for our final moment.
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:And moving there with as much grace as possible. And I just thought that that was so beautiful. Was like, wow. I mean, in our culture, we don't really talk about our own death. And there's a whole pose dedicated to it.
Xochilt Hoover:You know, it's kind of wild. I think I think in hot yoga classes, Shavasana is extremely challenging because you're just trying to get past feeling so hot. But it's interesting how by moving the body and getting all of this like energy moving, maybe some of it's out of you with your breath. And then you get to this place of stillness where you're just allowed some quiet space. Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:I mean, it's an it's no wonder it's so hard because it goes against everything in our culture to to be still and to just let things be not to not have an agenda. I mean, that's like a radical thing in in our world. So, I mean, yeah, I I I don't know if I really answered the question. I just think it's it's such a important part of the practice. And it's like why we move to get to that place of stillness.
Daniel Williams:Let's talk about more into your progression then, because again, you were teaching classes, but then somehow you got connected with Nike. How did that That's come really interesting.
Xochilt Hoover:I want to say it's a mixture of hard work and also like right timing, you know, and like maybe a little luck sprinkled in there. Like it's it's all of it. It really actually happened after the pandemic. I'd been teaching at the studio in Downtown Portland. It's pretty popular studio.
Xochilt Hoover:And a lot of the Nike employees because Nike is based in Beaverton, Oregon, were my students, whether I knew that or not. I mean, I knew that a lot of them were invited. It's not like people come in and they're like, I work at Nike, you know? And so after the pandemic happened and everyone's at home, I started my own website because I was really missing teaching and missing community. And so I created a website, figured out how to start teaching classes online, and I kind of just went all in and started buying the stuff that I needed.
Xochilt Hoover:And one of my students who, oh, I guess always used to come to a Saturday morning class of mine, which was probably my most popular and definitely my favorite. Man, I miss that class. It was 08:30 hot class on a Saturday morning and it was just gold. Great community. She reached out to me and she worked in sports marketing at Nike.
Xochilt Hoover:And she was like, you know, our employees are still working full time and everyone's stressed and we need some movement and we need some mindfulness. Can you lead some fifteen minute classes on Zoom? And I was like, Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to. That went on for a couple of months.
Xochilt Hoover:And then she asked me if I would be willing to record some classes for the Nike Training Club app, which that was like, that was like the moment where I was like, what?
Daniel Williams:I have that app. I use that app. You want me to be on that app? And it
Xochilt Hoover:was a really cool opportunity at that time because I just remember thinking the way I teach is pretty unique. I really value accessibility and moving slow, and I want everyone in my class to be able to take my class. I don't want someone to be in the back just sitting there because I'm leading with my ego. And so I knew that my classes would be something different that's on Nike because at this point it was mostly like very fitness geared, you know, like go hard kind of energy. Here I'm like, you guys want, okay, I'm pretty soft.
Xochilt Hoover:That was the beginning of a long journey that I'm still on. And it's been, I'm just so grateful. I feel really lucky. And my friends are the ones who are always like, Can you stop saying how lucky you are? You're also incredible at what you do and you deserve to be here.
Xochilt Hoover:So I'm trying to speak to that part as well.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. I have to ask because I'm I'm such a a book nerd. Powell's bookstore, Powell's, is in Portland. Yeah. Have you have you been there?
Daniel Williams:Have you spent any time in Powell's?
Xochilt Hoover:Many, many times. I love Powell's.
Daniel Williams:I haven't been in about twenty years. Is it still an entire city block?
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah.
Daniel Williams:Okay. I didn't know if it had shrunk.
Xochilt Hoover:You could get lost in there.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. I mean, I've had family members when I've been in Portland just drop me off there and then go do stuff for a day and then come back and pick me up at the end of the day. And they're just waiting to see how many boxes of books I'm gonna crawl out of there with. Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:It's such a cool space and there's so many books and yeah, you could just spend hours in there. It's really cool. Yeah. It's still there?
Daniel Williams:That is neat. Well, next time I'm in Portland, again, I hadn't been since like, God, it's longer than I thought. I think 'ninety eight or 'ninety nine, I was last in Portland. Yeah. I did interview for a job there, I guess, in the early 2000s.
Daniel Williams:So it was actually in Vancouver, Washington. Aren't they like on this border or the state or something like that?
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah. So only twenty, thirty minutes from Portland.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Okay. Yeah. I guess that was 'five or so. I have another question for you.
Daniel Williams:You and I laughed about this previously. So I have, like most people, I have Netflix, and I was watching all these foreign movies that were nominated for the best picture, best foreign film for this previous Oscars. And so then all the algorithms came out, it was giving me all of these foreign movies to watch. And then all of a sudden, said yoga. And so I went, oh, maybe I'll do a yoga class.
Daniel Williams:And then
Daniel Williams:I did a double take and I looked at it and it was you. It was yoga with Sochi or whatever on Netflix. And I'm thinking like,
Daniel Williams:are they listening to me and know that
Daniel Williams:we know each other? Are they going through my emails? I mean, that was the weirdest thing to talk about this whole Netflix thing.
Xochilt Hoover:It's so funny how many random messages I get from people of just like, you're on my TV. Yeah. I mean, again, this was a Nike Netflix collaboration. They were working together to put out some workout classes, some fitness classes on Netflix. And I just I basically got an email and was like, hey, are you okay if we release some of your classes?
Xochilt Hoover:And I was like, on Netflix? What? Yeah, I'm sure. And so I think that was December 2022. Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:So they were released early last year, I think. But I had no idea what classes they were going to put out. I didn't know that they would have a whole channel dedicated to me like Yoga with Sochi.
Daniel Williams:Oh yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:I was like kind of blown away. There was like a first round of classes that were put out and mine wasn't in there. So I was like, Maybe they didn't end up going with my classes. Okay. No big deal.
Xochilt Hoover:And then the next thing I know, it was kind of a big deal.
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:But I'm not sure if they're doing more. I haven't heard anything So since it's just been kind of a one time, but it's wild, just the reach that Netflix has had.
Daniel Williams:Are you getting people come to your website now based on having seen you either through the Nike app or through Netflix? Or do you know? I
Xochilt Hoover:don't really know. I do get a lot of messages on Instagram from people who say that they've started practicing yoga because of me because of Netflix from all around the world. Like, yeah, my my classes are in different languages and different countries. Like, didn't even know that that was going to happen either. It's I mean, it's yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:So I get a lot of messages on Instagram, a lot of emails, just people really just so grateful and thankful that they have access now to yoga. So It's
Daniel Williams:let's move this into the mindfulness sphere. I can be really honest with you and tell you this. I think you might've even mentioned this, but there's some yoga instructors, I guess it's maybe the Westernization of it where, like I've been in a class before and it's almost like aerobics and I'm I'm so out of breath trying to keep up with the flow and everything. I currently, I want to get back to a in person class again, but right now I have an Iyengar book and I just open it up to a page and I I do it by myself in my basement. I just follow and I move to the next posture that I want to be in or the next one that Iyengar tells me to be in.
Daniel Williams:But, talk about that. Because to me, when I'm just flat out in a class and the pace is so fast that it's an aerobic exercise, to me, I don't want to judge it. You you and I learned all about not judging things. I'm just being in the present moment. I'm directly experiencing an aerobics class when I'm thinking I'm getting into a yoga class.
Daniel Williams:And I'm trying to see where the disconnect may be with mindfulness and then where your connection was to really connect to want to be in this Brown University program where you become not only a yoga teacher, but you're also training to be a mindfulness teacher as well. So talk about that connection about mindfulness yoga, and maybe in some places, without being critical about it, but just noticing where there can be a disconnect there as well.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah, I mean, in all honesty, it's kind of a big issue that I do have with the yoga industry is that it has been just kind of rooted in grind culture. It's kind of taken on this look of an aesthetic being of most importance, which is why you get classes that are so focused on strength and power and the workout focus. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it definitely isn't honoring what the actual intention of yoga is if you look back to the yogis who brought it to us. So as I learned more as a teacher and I studied more, was just picking up on that and was and and I get a lot of positive feedback about the pace that I teach. And so as more people said that they appreciated that they could breathe in my class, it was like positive feedback for me.
Xochilt Hoover:Great. I'm just gonna keep teaching this way. And you know, when I take classes now, if I'm in a class where the teacher's moving really fast, I just move at my own pace. And I know that it might be a little frustrating for the teacher because I've definitely been in that position where the students not doing what I say, but if you're really coming into a class with no ego, it shouldn't matter. So that's kind of what I'll say about that piece.
Xochilt Hoover:For mindfulness, I mean, if there's anything we've learned, it's it requires us to slow down because in order to be present, in order for us to recognize what's happening moment to moment, we have to slow down. And I think I just kind of naturally was bringing a sense of mindfulness to my classes the way I teach. I want people to feel like everything in their body when they're moving because there's just so much happening, even when you're moving slow. So that's something I'm really passionate about, is just bringing this really controlled and focus to the practice. Gosh, what was the second part of your question?
Daniel Williams:Well,
Daniel Williams:I was just looking at how you have brought mindfulness and are integrating that into your yoga practice, where you looked at not only being a yoga teacher, but now you're in training to also be a mindfulness teacher as well. And so just kind of connecting those two journeys and those two pathways for you.
Xochilt Hoover:I mean, one way, like one very obvious way that I've added in mindfulness is by actually bringing in a seated guided meditation at the end of all my classes. And if you were to read in yoga, the whole point of all the yoga postures is actually to get you to be in easy seated pose or Satkhasana. And that's where the practice begins is in the meditation part. And so I've actually just kind of really leaned into that and I make a point to add mindfulness. I used to be really nervous to do that because sometimes people will leave during Shavasana.
Xochilt Hoover:How am I going get people to stay for an extra seated meditation? But I haven't had any issues there. And I think people actually really appreciate it because they're ready for it. They're ready. The mind has dropped off a lot of the stress that they came into class with.
Xochilt Hoover:Their body is warm. Their minds are perhaps more still. So it's come really naturally. I think as I continue to embody the practice of mindfulness in my own life, it just comes out in the way that I teach. So I try to blend way more mindfulness now in my classes.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. I mentioned it at the top, but April is National Stress Awareness Month. Knowing you and hearing your story again here, and knowing you from Brown, stress management and looking at it from different angles is kind of embodied in your life, your work, everything that you're doing. Talk about that for our listeners, because I may have told you this earlier, but at MGMA, our listeners are at medical groups. They are at all kinds of different, have different job titles, different job functions, but they're in healthcare.
Daniel Williams:And when I talk to them in the studies that we've done and other studies I've read, there's a lot of stress in their lives. Healthcare is very stressful right now. There are staffing shortages. There's other issues that also cause stress. So if you can speak to them ways that maybe they can address stress and address it either through mindfulness or through yoga or through some other type of movement that you were talking about?
Xochilt Hoover:I love this question. I think it's important for every single one of us to look at our life and say, where can I add in more balance? Where do I need more peace in my life? What is really what's missing that's just adding to this stress? And I can give all the tips all day long of slow down, try to not multitask and put your phone away at an earlier time.
Xochilt Hoover:I mean, you could just Google that if you want, you know, like how to reduce reduce your stress. But I think it's like, yeah, I think it's almost like this more spiritual connection to yourself of my life is passing me by and I'm stressed out all the time. What am I? What can I do? You know, I'm in control of my life And this is something I struggle with with a lot of folks in my life, family members, you know.
Xochilt Hoover:It's like really it's it's our own responsibility to look at our lives and take ownership and say, I don't like this anymore. I don't like how I am when I'm around, you know, whatever, whatever the case may be. If I if I'm unhappy, what can I do to shift that just like one small thing? It's a process. Even when I was first teaching yoga, I mean, was teaching 14 classes a week.
Xochilt Hoover:Was grinding. I was talking about stress. I was not eating well. I was barely making any money. You know, I was I was happy doing what I did, but I don't think I was healthy.
Xochilt Hoover:And if we think about stress, it's it's mostly like living in the future. It's all about like the future, fear of the future, fear of everything that hasn't even happened yet. And so I think the question can maybe come back to how can I be more present in my life?
Daniel Williams:Yeah, that is so cool. And you were talking about the future and worrying about it. I was reminded from our class, our teacher Colleen quoted Mark Twain. I don't have the quote in front of me, so I will hopefully get close to it, but Mark Twain said, I've worried about a lot of things in my life. Some of them actually came true or happened.
Daniel Williams:And it's like, that's just so much of it. We get these stories, we get these dramas, and they're going on in our mind all the time.
Xochilt Hoover:And we're believing them.
Daniel Williams:And we're believing them, you know? And some may happen, some may not happen, but we've worried about them and caused ourselves so much pain in so many different ways. I wanted you to speak to it, about, not that specifically, but about connecting to something, you know, something that any of our listeners might be able to connect to. I don't think either one of us is saying, Go meditate or go do yoga, but do something. Would you say to that?
Daniel Williams:What do you say, like if somebody connects to you offline or wants to know what should I do, what should they do? And to me, it's always do something that you love. Don't do what I'm doing per se. I don't want to tell other people to follow my path, but to follow a path. What would you say to that?
Xochilt Hoover:I mean, I would say, I mean, like, if you even think like, like our bodies are so capable of so much, you know, and they're meant to to move. They're meant to, but we don't do the same activities that you know we were doing thousands of years ago. We have the privilege now to choose from all of these different types of movement modalities. Get curious, get really curious, connect back to like being a kid. I think we have gotten so serious about I mean and life is.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah, it's hard. It's it's very hard. So it's easy to get really serious. But if I've learned anything from my my mother's side of the family, they're from Nicaragua, they know struggle like more than most folks here in America. And they're always smiling.
Xochilt Hoover:They're always laughing. They're always finding something to be happy and joyful about. And so when finding, I think a modality, that's like such a key part of, are you having fun when you're doing it? Like I love not many people know this, but I am an avid cycler, like a stationary bike. I love going to those classes and lights are off, the music's loud.
Xochilt Hoover:Sometimes I cry, sometimes I'm laughing. I love it so much. So that's what I stick to. It's not always yoga, but like, I think it's finding the things that like really bring you joy and find a friend to do it with because doing something with people is always better in my opinion. Okay.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah.
Daniel Williams:One of the things that we went over in our class was the idea of direct experience. It's like we can it is really good, and we read some great books and other research on mindfulness. But what we learned about was direct experience, that we need to actually do the thing. So I may be putting you on the spot here, but can we do just some simple seated mindful movement? Is there anything you could walk us through?
Daniel Williams:And I know some of the people will be able to see this if they're seeing it on YouTube and other people will only be hearing this. So maybe you can adjust that thing. There's like one or two very easy postures of mindful movement that you might want to share with us.
Xochilt Hoover:I would love to. Oh, good.
Daniel Williams:I was hoping
Daniel Williams:you'd say that.
Xochilt Hoover:Yeah, I'll keep it really brief and simple, but this is just kind of, I think a really great way to just connect in. So wherever you are, just pause, unless you're driving, Pause and find a seat, find a comfortable seat, maybe plant your feet on the ground. And you're welcome to close your eyes or keep a soft gaze down the nose, whatever feels better for you. And let's just start with our breath. So let's breathe together.
Xochilt Hoover:Take a slow breath in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth. Maybe even let it be like an audible sigh. And we'll do two more rounds like that. But as you're breathing in, I want you to really pay attention to the movement of your breath, really noticing the expansion as your chest rises and your belly expands. And as you exhale, feel the way how everything kind of sinks back down.
Xochilt Hoover:The heart sinks back down, the chest lowers, and the belly contracts. I'm just doing that again, in and out at your own pace, your own rhythm. Maybe noticing what shifts, what changes just by taking some deep breaths. We'll add a little bit of movement. So start to drop your chin down towards your chest.
Daniel Williams:Let your head kind of just be heavy right there. So much so until you feel the back of your neck get a little bit of a stretch. You might feel some sensations on the top of your shoulders. Take one slow breath in through your nose and out through your nose. And then start to let your head bob over to the right until your right ear hovers over your right shoulder and noticing any sensation.
Daniel Williams:Maybe there's a lot of sensation through the left side of your neck, maybe not much at all. And see if you can also become aware of the thoughts. Is there any added commentary like, why am I doing this or any kind of judgment? And if there is, that's totally fine. You're a human being who thinks.
Daniel Williams:So take one breath in here, one breath out, and then take it slow. Bring the head back through center and go over to the left until you start to feel sensation through the right side of your neck. Notice if there's tension, if
Xochilt Hoover:your shoulders are kind of shrugging up,
Daniel Williams:can you soften them down away from your ears?
Xochilt Hoover:And then come on back through center, chin to chest. Lift your head back up to its neutral position. And one more thing, roll your shoulders up towards your ears, kind of shrug them up. Move the shoulder heads back and then down and then forward and do that one more time. Lift the shoulder heads up, back, down, and forward, and then just kinda let them relax And stay here for a moment, maybe keeping eyes closed or gaze soft.
Daniel Williams:And what do you notice? Are there sensations? Are there loud thoughts? What's in your experience right now?
Xochilt Hoover:And a gentle reminder that everything's welcome. Nothing needs to change. When you're ready, you can open your eyes if they've been closed and just come back.
Daniel Williams:Wow. Sochi Hoover, it has been a pleasure having you on the Mindful Medicine podcast. Thank you for that beautiful practice and for just gracing our show with your presence today.
Xochilt Hoover:Wow. Thank you for having me. I just, I really appreciate it. And I, you know, I love sharing about this practice and I, my, my hope is that people kind of gravitate towards it and recognize how powerful just like a moment of like closing your eyes and shrugging your shoulders can just kind of bring in a chill factor, you know?
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Xochilt Hoover:We need more chill in our lives.
Daniel Williams:We really do. Well, it's been so cool having you on the show. And for everybody listening, I am going to put links to Sochi's Instagram, Nike app, and Netflix and her website. So if you want to connect with her and, learn more about her practices that she teaches, you can do so through those different Until then, thank you all for being podcast listeners.