team of one

behind the scenes of my self employed yoga-ish life

I did a stupid thing at the tail end of last week and carelessly hopped out of our (quite high) back door step without paying a whole lot of attention, and landed at a gruesome angle. If you follow me on Instagram, no doubt you’ve seen me whinging about my chunky, colourful ankle.

It hurt like a motherbitch, although I’m grateful (if a little surprised, based on the sheer volume of scream it elicited from me) that it’s only muscle damage, and nothing is broken.

I’ve been seriously bummed out about it for a few different reasons.

Right now, I live my working life on a reasonably tight schedule. I’m the kind of person who absolutely thrives on variety which is why I'm juggling so many pies at any given time, but I can’t go completely AWOL on my schedule, purely because my working windows aren’t always huge.

This is both a blessing and a curse.

Every time I post anything online about being fully self employed, but NOT being a ‘full time teacher’ (in the sense that I don’t literally teach full time) I always - always -get asked what else I do.

So I thought I’d dive into that a bit here.

Partly for you. But also, partly as a bit of therapy for me, to act as a reminder (whilst I’m holed up and pissed off at not being able to do everything I want to do) of my own limitations, the realities of what can actually be achieved in a limited time window, and a little old celebration of all the things I AM achieving, and have done so far this year.

Ready? I hope you can keep up.

Firstly, let me outline the mechanics of my life and my working world in big handfuls.

I live at home with a husband who is in full time employment, and a 3 year old.

Where once upon a time a freelance working week used to stretch ahead of me like ___, now I’m bound by living on parenting time. In reality, this looks like 3 ‘official’ working days a week (while the small is in nursery) and the odd extra day off when I have alternative forms of childcare, or can steal hours on an evening or weekend.

Work-wise, I have 4 main business pies:

1. my studio (which I used to manage in full on a traditional membership model, but since Covid is now hired out to other teachers on an independent basis)

2. my own teaching (regular group + private classes)

3. photography (low key, started when the small was REALLY small as a creative hobby-turned-small-earner)

4. this work, which I’m yet to really be able to pin a name to, but something in the teacher-support space.

1 // the studio

My studio is actually pretty low touch for me on a weekly basis - I have someone who manages the admin and bookings, and I check in on things for maybe a couple of hours a week?

I consciously chose to switch up the business model following Covid for a bunch of different reasons I can get into on another day. Income-wise, it’s a non-starter. If anything, the energy crisis a couple of years ago left the space costing me money to stay open for a while. But I keep it going because I love teaching my own classes there (and would only have to pay to hire somewhere else). Plus I fucking love it.

2 // my teaching

I have 5 regular slots earmarked each week. 2 are my group classes which are technically ‘out of hours’ on the work front - this was intentional because it meant my husband could be on childcare and I could return to teaching a few months post-partum.

I’d say an hours class takes about 2 hours of my time in general, with travel, set up and the padding out before and after class. I have a solid community and don’t spend tons of time marketing anything. I recently dropped a third class because it was tacked onto the end of a long working day for me and my energy was getting zapped.

I get a reasonably consistent income from these classes and sometimes throw in an extra Sunday workshop or similar which is always a nice bonus!

I also teach a set of private clients, 3 times a week. These are daytime (so come out of my ‘working day’ hour allowance. They’re only 50 minute classes, but theres an hours round trip for each session plus some chatting/buffer time before and after, which again makes it around 2 hours a time.

The income here again is pretty solid, but as with any teaching - when you don’t work, you don’t get paid. So when private clients are travelling (most summer holidays) that cash supply dries up.

I don’t actively promote additional private clients - I’m actually kind of fussy who I teach now ha. If it’s a regular who I already know, I’ll often fit them in and really do enjoy that, but it tends not to be the best use of my day by the time you’ve incorporated travel etc in.

3 // photography

This was a career wildcard. I’d always had a DSLR and when the kiddo was tiny, I dusted it off and started playing doing shoots with friends (while he slept on a blanket on the floor) and taught myself to edit during his naps.

It evolved into a small business, purely because I had to start charging once it was eating into my working days. I’d gladly shoot and work for free though if I had the finances to support it…it’s a love of mine, especially street photography!

I’m often asked if I’m trying to make it ‘my job’ now (there’s a real natural aversion in people to wearing many working hats 😂). I’ve actually had to cut back this year and limit how many shoots I’m booking, purely because I don’t have much time.

Right now I’m averaging a shoot or two a month, only booking incoming enquiries and definitely not actively marketing. For however long a shoot takes me (1, 2 or 3 hours) I probably have 3-5 times that number of hours in editing and post-production work. My hourly rate on this DEFINITELY isn’t the best (hence me capping them) but the love is strong.

4 // all of whatever this is

SOMEBODY please tell me what to call this work?!

I don’t love the idea of coaching or mentoring…I don’t feel like that label fits it adequately. But whatever it is…it’s this space I’ve been pouring my soul into for the last year on a regular (daily?!) basis in a teacher community realm.

This is where the majority of the remainder of my time goes now, and where I’m WILDLY over ambitious about what I can do, and what I’ll achieve across any given week.

This is the section you might be interested in if you’re looking to take your business into something that goes beyond trading your time in teaching. It’s that ‘bigger business’ stuff that requires more than just a skill. You have to start thinking about your work as an ecosystem and get a handle on all the paid and invisible labour that goes with it.

Maybe that’s a good place to start.

The ‘unpaid’ work…

I’m reluctant to give it that title because it makes this all feel transactional, and in any business it’s ALL part of the picture - you can’t have the paid work, without the foundations of everything else underneath it. But for the purposes of this, I’m talking about the things I pour my time into where I don’t get a direct cash return.

For me, the main one is writing.

Writing on Instagram - creating reels, posting in stories, chatting in DMs.

Writing to my email list - the weekly-ish messages I’ll send out exclusively to those on that list, which are thoughts and reflections of whatever’s going on in my mind and life, as well as being the place I share about what I’m working on.

Writing on here! (Substack) - the very place my long words found their first and best home. For a while that was a weekly happening, but it’s slowed to more like 2-3 times a month now, with a mix of other resources and things in here too like my audio classes. This is mostly because I get so fucking into what I’m writing, that when the wind takes me, I can easily spend half a day on one post.

I should say I do take some pocket money home from Substack, from my beautiful paid supporters (I bloody love your gorgeous hearts).

Other ‘unpaid’ work goes in the form of business support stuff.

Planning out what the hell is coming next. Making it all make sense. Thinking about the fact that it would be really beneficial for me to have some sort of better welcome note on here, or nurture sequence in my email list, but then realising how I’ve already run out of hours this week on doing all of the other stuff.

Shit. This post was meant to make me feel more reassured about how much I’m achieving, not make me list out all the things I’m NOT doing.

Okay.

So.

Successes.

As of the end of last year, I finally started to play with some paid offerings (eternally grateful for the morale boost from every one of you who ASKED me how you could get more from me).

To date, I’ve completed…

• 3 live rounds of Philosophy Club (on the to do list: finish recording essays and set the whole courses to be available on demand).

• a Sequencing Masterclass, with a 2 hour recorded replay available alongside the accompanying resources. This started out as a ‘little extra’ for teachers inside Anchored, and ballooned into its own mammoth thing.

I’m currently in the middle of…

• Anchored, a 12 week program for new teachers where I throw them 5 private podcast episodes a week, and any supporting resources to help with the topics.
  
  It’s a beta program so I’m literally recording the weeks as I go and fucking up my ankle REALLY screwed with the timings! I should probably be recording now, but my mic has done the dirty on me and I can’t get anything to bloody work.
  
  Right now, that’s my priority in terms of working hours as there’s people ACTUALLY waiting within the program for my work each week. It’s why I’ve been quieter on IG too lately - I’ve been pouring everything into that.
  

• My new guide…how to survive Instagram as a yoga teacher without losing your fucking mind.
  
  This has been HUMBLING for me. I had the idea before Christmas and wrote a LOT (like, 80% of it) across two sittings because it just pooooured out of me. But, then life (Christmas) got in the way and I sort of forgot.
  
  I went back to it a few weeks ago and I KEEP posting saying it’s nearly ready, but fuck me. I keep adding to it. I’ve just had the finished version reviewed by some lovely folk (they’re so lush) but NOW I’m making an accompanying workbook.
  
  This is the inner tension. I’m like ‘you’re so nearly done, why is this taking so fucking long’ but the other part of me is trying to give myself grace, knowing it’s a BIG piece of work, and I don’t have full time to work on it.

• The September teachers retreat - ARGH I sent the email out like a month ago to get interest. It was waaaay more popular than I expected so I secured the venue.
  
  And in an ideal world if ALL I was working on was this, I’d have had the email out with the room info, and all of the logistics secured. As it stands, this has ended up being like 5th on my to do list (see work above) and so it just hasn’t happened yet.

  Again, trying not to beat myself up about it but maaaan I get frustrated some days at feeling like I’m not achieving ‘enough’ (LOL. I know. Stop staring at me like that).

And on the back burner …

I also still have 2 quizzes I’m a good chunk of the way through (Your Slow Yoga Business Spirit Animal) and (Your Ideal Business Model of Teaching) but since getting them 80% of the way there too, there have always been other crocodiles nearer to the canoe that have needed tending to.

Not to mention all the other ideas of things I want to do (another live Philosophy Club anyone..? Oh, and the mastermind for veteran yoga teachers… 😬).

And all of this still keeps it feeling very worky.

In my non-parenting hours, I (try to) prioritise stuff for my own sanity too…it’s when I get to the gym, get some good food in me and generally take a pocket of time just to be by myself for a while.

So here I am, holed up with an ankle that's currently as colourful as my language and a body that feels TIRED, trying not to beat myself up for not doing ‘enough’ - ironically, choosing to process this whole headspace by writing some more.

You know that quote about Beyoncé having the same 24 hours in a day as the rest of us? It's both the most annoying and the most humbling thing to remember. Yes, we all have the same hours, but I'm running a team of one here to her team of hundreds.

It's just me. myself and I, in my limited working windows, trying to juggle everything while occasionally dropping a ball (or, you know, my entire body off a back step. Fuck my life).

I CHOSE this life.

I love this life.

The variety, the freedom, the ability to pivot when something lights me up and just run with it.

But holy shit, there are days when I scroll through Instagram and see people who appear to be accomplishing ten times what I am, and the comparison still rushes at me in a hot flash.

Writing this has actually helped me keep my own perspective. Looking at everything I've created, everything I'm working on, everything I'm planning - all while raising a small human and trying to keep my own shit together - I'm doing okay. And that’s plenty.

So are you.

You’re not Beyoncé. You’re not me.

We’re all doing the best we can with the means and resources we’ve got.

And I promise I’ll get those quizzes out to you eventually….

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