This isn’t the short, snappy email I’d drafted in my head this morning…is never is, ha! But when you’ve got 10 minutes, I’d love you to have a read with a brew and let me know your thoughts…
It’s time to make a change for us all so we can level the playing field for teachers, students and those that yoga isn’t reaching right now….
I’ve done a lot of different pieces of work in the yoga world in the past 7 years…I’ve been through countless hours of training, opened a studio, taught there, taught at gyms, taught at pole studios, taught privately, led a post-200hr group mentoring programme, taught online, led courses, workshops and retreats, survived Covid, changed the whole business model of my studio and run my own classes independently.
I’ve seen a lot of different things from a lot of different sides as both a teacher, studio owner and student…and so, so much of it feels broken.
Teaching is a really hard world to be operating in now. Everyone is feeling it and whilst there’s no doubt that Covid really did a number on a lot of us, I also think it’s been a bit of a smokescreen, distracting us from a lot of the fundamental issues that are really the problem.
So what are the problems?
I know there are fundamental problems with what is taught or shared right now - how lots of YTTs are delivered, what they’re teaching (or not teaching) and the messages being shares, but that’s not the area I’m here to get stuck into. There are people with much better knowledge on this than me making brilliant waves in this area. They’re un-fucking the foundations of what we know and share so that we can go back and relearn everything with a greater understanding and respect of things like accessibility, privilege and appropriation.
It’s not my lane as I’m very much one of those still relearning. My area of interest is what happens next. How teachers get to take the good stuff they’ve learnt (or relearnt) and actually get to share it with the world without burning out, giving up, going broke or simply feeling constantly disheartened.
I’ve boiled it down to these key issues…
one // there’s a massive misalignment in expectations when teachers go into YTT
You’re not just teaching…you’re running a business. You won’t come out knowing everything about how and what to teach…in fact, your 200hrs will barely scratch the surface. You certainly won’t come out equipped with ‘everything you need to know’.
Sure, not everyone goes into YTT with the intention of teaching but many do, dreaming of this being the start of a brand new career.
I think the realities of teaching life (especially now) is wildly under-communicated by YTTs - not just in terms of the fact that you need to be building up a good understanding of what’s involved in the business side of teaching, but managing expectations of things like the work involved in growing up a sustainable class and how long it might take you to even make enough profit to repay your YTT.
This is resulting in hundreds (more?!) newly qualified teachers feeling at a bit of a loss as to what comes next. How do they operate a simple but effective business, and get discovered by all the potential students they know are out there AND still get to concentrate on developing themselves as a teacher?
Because really…
two // most teachers just want to teach
Many teachers aren’t interested in building business empires. They don’t want to invest countless hours and thousands of pounds into business training, coaching or resourcing. Yes, to do this you need to have a good amount of fundamental business basics down…but that shouldn’t cost the earth or require you to feel like you need to sign up for an MBA.
There’s isn’t enough simple, accessible and actionable business support for independent teachers who just want to run a great, small business that makes a tangible difference to the students they teach in their handful of classes a week.
What is out there (particularly on social media now) is those big, high ticket coaching businesses promising huge results. Except….
three // those shiny business strategies don’t apply to our work
There’s been a huge crossover in the past 2 years between yoga teaching and business coaching. There is absolutely a huge need for effective coaching and mentoring from people who can deliver real value - this support can be invaluable if you need a specific boost to move you or your business forward.
But…that’s not what a lot of yoga business coaching is selling.
They’re selling promises of ‘easy’ massive incomes. ‘Work less, earn more….6 figure salaries…unlimited potential online…’ yadda yadda.
There’s nothing more attractive than results (‘I made $$$ and you can too’). The problem is, these strategies are effective in a B2B (business to business) market…not so much in the B2C (business to consumer) world in which we work as teachers.
What do I mean by that?
In short…people are willing to drop thousands’s+ on the promise of them making back thousands with what they learn ie. getting a return on their investment. So the coaches are making their thousands by selling to other business owners (usually other coaches) who are going on to sell their stuff to other coaches business owners.
We’re not in a position to invest thousands in business programmes when we’re not generating that sort of income back. Even teaching full time, we’re not likely to be hitting 5 figure months. We’re working (and usually WANT to work) with everyday people who are paying us in multiples of ten pounds…not ten thousand pounds…
Even then, there’s still a huge point of tension for many teachers…
four // how do we pay our own bills and still make yoga accessible to everyone?
This is always tricky one to balance.
It can seem like the obvious answer here is to offer our teachings for free, or for peanuts…but peanuts don’t pay the mortgage at the end of each month. Anyone who’s done sporadically free classes too will know that they don’t really land as we hope they will.
Sliding scales and subsidised spots can help sometimes, but there will always be the people who end up coming to free or lower priced classes who could afford to pay more, and often the spaces won’t reach the people you are actually hoping might benefit.
Financial accessibility can be a barrier for students, yes, but I can assure you that it’s not the only hurdle stopping people coming to your class. If someone is stretched for money, chances are they’re also stretched for time..and support..and headspace.
My personal interest in this comes from a history of addiction and mental health issues within my own close family. When you’re in the depths of a dark place, you’re not going to go and seek out regular yoga classes…these practices are powerful and can change lives, but they need to be taken to those who need them. They need specialist knowledge and
Many of us already feel stretched within our businesses too. We want to offer more and do more and reach those who could really benefit from these practices, but it’s hard to do when you don’t have the time, or financial capacity to offer more than you are already doing.
Over the past few years, all of these problems have been rolling around in the back of my mind and I’ve never quite landed on a solution that I think could really make a tangible difference….
I’m running the plan itself past a few friendly forces this week and once they’ve picked holes in it, I’ll start to share more. But for now, the universe seems to have lined up the Swiss cheese slices up in a way that means that for the first time, I have the resources to be able to bring a new company to life that will have the following goals…
I want teachers to have open access to a bank of simple, effective and actionable business support from experts in each area, to help them build and grow a small business from scratch.
I want the day to day ‘business’ side of teaching to be made as easy and effective for teachers as possible so they can concentrate on developing their offerings as a teacher.
I want a way for all teachers to be easily found without relying on typical marketing strategies that aren’t working for us anymore, so that the right students can be matched up with a teacher and practice that is actually a good fit for them (and that they’re then more likely to connect and stick to!).
I want to Robin Hood the shit out of the economics of yoga classes. Allowing those who can afford higher priced practices to pay for them, and use some of the transactional profits of those classes to feed back into supporting and funding teachers who will take practices to the doorstep of communities who might not otherwise seek them out.
If you’re still here, I’d love your thoughts, feedback and insight.
Do these issues resonate?
What did I miss?
What support is missing in your teaching business?
If there was a bank of knowledge you could access right now…what would you want to learn, and how would you love it delivered?
Tell me more…