I have a special treat for all of you fine yoga teachers. My dear friend Kate Connell has written a guest post to help save you time and energy if teaching private classes is on your radar. Kate is a great resource for instructors who want to carve out a sustainable lifestyle working one-on-one with students and I am thrilled to share this important piece with you all today.
5 Mistakes Private Yoga Teachers Make
(And How to Move Past Them)
by Kate Connell
When I started my teaching career, I knew I wanted to teach private yoga sessions – they were a foundational part of my 200 hour training (which is very rare!), they were the work I felt called to do (versus group-led classes), and I was constantly hearing that the way to have a sustainable yoga business was to have a private yoga client following.
A long story short – I made a navasana-load of mistakes. And, to be honest, I still make those mistakes. These aren’t embarrassing, oh-my-god, can’t believe I’m gonna dish these up mistakes – they’re actually really common ones. The thing is, once I began to chat with my other teaching friends and started to mentor other private yoga teachers, I noticed that a lot of other new teachers were making the same mistakes I did in my freshly minted teaching days.
My goal isn’t to make you mistake-proof. My goal is to demystify some of the most common mistakes make in the private yoga teaching industry so that you can make 1,000 different ones instead!
Mistake #1: Expecting the "Snowball Effect"
I trusted the ‘snowball effect’ and didn’t work my ass off to get clients I still remember very vividly, being told by my teacher after a complain-session about not being able to grow my private yoga offerings, that there would be a snowball effect. So, I spent my time manifesting snow instead of proactively getting clients on my calendar. I loved the idea that I would be able to grow my offerings organically, but it was going to take two things: 1. Time and 2. Work. Instead of waiting for your work to gain traction and cred in your community (and if you’re doing great work, it certainly will) commit to growing your sessions.
Move Past It: Block out the time that you are available to see clients (if you see them at their convenience now – stop that, and make a calendar when you see people on your own schedule) and then use that time to work to get people into the slots until each one is filled.
Mistake #2: Keeping Your Individual Offers a Secret
My first teaching opportunities were group-led classes. Although I was eager to start working 1×1, I figured people in group classes were content with their group experience and didn’t want individual work. I also figured people knew about private yoga and it’s benefits and just weren’t interested. Plus, I felt slimy and creepy and bad about mentioning my private yoga work. Assumptions, assumptions.
Move Past It: Practice informing your students about power of individual sessions and approach it from a place of helping them accelerate in areas of their life that are important to them. Most of all, don’t keep it a secret. Remind people that you do 1×1 work.
Mistake #3: Not Sharing the Power of Private Yoga
It felt so easy to stand behind group classes because they were adored by the yoga-practicing public and were the yoga platform that yogis were used to. Instead of looking at all of the advantages of private yoga, I kind of just agreed that it was too expensive, indulgent, and not accessible. What the what? I knew that wasn’t the case – but I didn’t stand behind the value of the delivery of yoga from teacher to student and I certainly wasn’t clearly communicating it’s worth to the universe or potential clients, so they weren’t intrigued.
Move Past It: Get clear on the benefits of private yoga lessons and get cozy with them. The more you can begin to believe in your power as a teacher, the better you can begin to advocate for the healing modality that is yoga. Remember, you know the value of yoga – you did become a teacher to share it with others after all.
Mistake #4: Letting Money Issues Get in Your Way
As a new college grad, I devalued the value of a 1×1 yoga session because I felt like I didn’t have the money to spend on my own services even if I could be my own student. The truth is (and was) – I was spending that money anyways. And I was weaving layers of my own money issues and self-worth struggles on top of my session prices, weird money requests, and communicating value and energy exchanges.
Move Past It: Figure your own shit out and then ask for help with setting boundaries around your money if you need it. Money stalls so many yoga teachers – get clear about your issues with money, your self-confidence around asking for what you need/desire/deserve, and make it a spiritual practice.
Mistake #5: Not Treating Teaching Like a Business
I didn’t treat it like a damn business and guess what? No one else did either. I hear so many yoga teachers proclaiming that they teach just for fun or to give back or to share their passion, but at the end of the month if you are paying your bills with the money that comes in from these ventures – it’s a business and needs to be respected as such.
Move Past It: Begin to embrace your services as a business venture and let that excite you. Small changes like calling yourself a business owner, doing one thing a day that enlivens your inner CEO, and beginning to set up the foundation for a sustainable biz will take you far.
Photo Credit: Yoga by lyn tally
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Kate is a wealth of information when it comes to building a sustainable lifestyle as a private yoga teacher. I am proud to be an affiliate of her new program which is designed to help other teachers do just what she did and learn the Art of Being a Private Yoga Teacher.
If you have been a part of the Aquin Yoga community for any length of time, you will know that I don't endorse anything I don't believe in wholeheartedly and I only spread the word on things that I think will benefit you as a teacher. If you want to dive in to building a client base outside of the studio, this course could be your launch pad and there is no one else I would suggest working with. Check it out here