Ian Lopatin

Ian Lopatin is co-founder of the lifestyle brand Spiritual Gangster and of Of Course Sanctuary, a transformational wellness community for entrepreneurs and leaders.

Raised in the Detroit area, he attended Cranbrook Schools, Vanderbilt University, and UCLA School of Law. He found yoga as a first-year law student around 1996, then practiced entertainment law in Los Angeles for less than four months before leaving the profession.

Around 1999–2000 he opened At One Yoga in Greater Phoenix while still commuting to Los Angeles for legal work, playing hip-hop in class. He moved to Arizona full-time in 2000 and built a chain of studios. After about 13 years he sold At One Yoga to Lifetime Fitness.

The Spiritual Gangster name began when a student used it after a hip-hop class; Lopatin and his wife Vanessa printed it on t-shirts in the studio. The merch became a reported $30 million-plus global lifestyle brand. The company has donated more than 13 million meals through Feeding America, with every online sale generating a meal. Sobriety is central to his philosophy of living in a non-suffering state. He has attended multiple Tony Robbins events.

Of Course Sanctuary, which he now lists ahead of Spiritual Gangster in his own bio, runs faculty-led programs and destination events in Scottsdale, Palm Beach, Sedona, and Egypt. He is the author of The Way of a Spiritual Gangster. He and Vanessa have four children: Jedi, Jonah, Sierra, and Malia.