Today I am thrilled to share a guest post written by meditation master and coach Jeff Carreira. The topic of what we teachers get paid is an important one that doesn't get as much airtime as it needs. Consider, enjoy and share your thoughts in the comments below.
Two Reasons Yoga Teachers Undercharge (And Why You Shouldn’t)
If you teach yoga, or meditation, or any other kind of transformative art, you are probably not charging what you’re worth. You are likely working very hard and long hours not just on your mat or cushion, but also behind the scenes running a business – not to mention the years you have put into practicing yoga in order to have the mastery you need to teach. You are also likely to be barely making ends meet, or worse supplementing your income with another job.
There are two reasons for this and they are related.
The first reason that you undercharge for your services is that our society does not yet fully value the spiritually transformative arts. Currently something like yoga is nestled into the fitness industry. This uncomfortable pairing doesn’t recognize yoga’s spiritual core and benefit. Of course some people do recognize the tremendous value for well-being that yoga represents and also its potential to transform our consciousness and ultimately who we are, but society as a whole is still at the beginning stages of catching on.
There are many things that I find much less valuable than a yoga class, a meditation workshop, or a discussion on transformative ideas, that people are willing to spend a great deal more money on. And in our culture where people are willing to spend money shows what they value. The reason you charge less than your worth?
Simple, you fear – and for good reason – that if you charge more, people will simply not attend.
The second reason that you undercharge for your services is because you have bought into the idea that the transformative arts shouldn’t be driven by money, it should be done for the love of people, the love the art and a desire to selflessly serve humanity. In fact you probably feel good and maybe even a little righteous about what you are giving to the world. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a beautiful value, but I also see it having a downside.
Many of us who undercharge for what we do believe that we are somehow operating outside of the corporate economic power structure and see ourselves as a subversive element operating outside of the system. This assumption should probably be re-evaluated because I believe that by undercharging for your services you are unknowingly playing right into the hands of the existing value system – because you are reaffirming that what you do it not valuable. We will never create a cultural value for yoga, meditation or spiritual growth by undercharging for our work in those areas.
Yes I know, we can all find examples of spiritual charlatans who ripped people off and become the examples that create the myth that transformational teachers are not to be trusted. The fact is that vast majority of transformative teachers are doing it because they love people, they love the art and they want to make a positive contribution to humanities future. Most of them are also barely making ends meet and not charging enough to keep the lights on.
The real problem is that by under selling what we are doing, we are actually reinforcing our cultures devaluation of the things we love the most. We live in an economic system that has historically placed the highest value on goods that can be created from the Earth’s resources. This is the value system that generates the consumerist society that many of us recognize needs to shift if we are to save this planet and ourselves along with it.
Look around you at the kinds of things people pay for. Most of our money is used to purchase goods that are built from resources extracted from the earth. We certainly pay good money for other things, like health care and education, but a great deal of the money we spend for these things goes towards physical things as well.
The other huge value in our current economy is the value for knowledge that will help you make more money (which you are most likely to spend on more things.) Have you noticed that marketing workshops cost about ten times what yoga workshops cost? Does that mean that the ability to sell goods is worth ten times the benefits of yoga?
In our society you can tell what people value by what they are willing to pay for it, and so most of us unconsciously assume that what something costs is in some way a reflection of its value. If the price is cheap we assume the product is also. If we charge less for weekly yoga classes than most people spend on coffee, what message are we sending about the value of yoga?
You see, the true value of any transformative art, whether it be yoga, meditation, philosophy, healing, energy work, or host of others, is ultimately found in its power to transform values. If you are a yoga teacher it is probably because you have discovered something about the true value of yoga and you want to support other people to receive that value and recognize it. A shift in people’s values is the aim of your teaching, not just the mastery of postures. If you undercharge for what you do, you are contributing to the devaluation of the thing that you are trying to get people to value. If yoga classes are cheap people will be trained into thinking they aren’t worth much.
I am not advocating overcharging. We certainly don’t want to contribute to the myth of the spiritual charlatan. I simply want to show you how you will do a real service for the world by being honest about what you believe your teaching is worth and charging appropriately for it. You can always offer lower costs for those who need assistance, but don’t lower your fees to match what you think people will pay. If what you offer has real value represent that value in a fair fee scale. By doing this you ask people to stretch their value system a little. If they stretch with you they will take what you do more seriously and value it more. They will communicate that value to others and this is how we can shift the value structure of our society.
Photo: Change by Shawn Carpenter