Most of us don’t begin a career as a yoga instructor for the income; we have a genuine love for the practice and hope to share it with others. But for an industry that claims it is filled with love and positive vibes, it can be a very competitive space where it is difficult to make a living.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes I see new yoga teachers making when they are first starting out:

1. Focusing Too Much on Studio Classes

This is one that I definitely fell into when I first became an instructor and was a lot easier to do before my kids were born. I would teach anything, anywhere, at any time. At my busiest, right before I got pregnant with my first, I was teaching about fourteen classes a week. And guess what? Despite working six days a week, constantly driving everywhere, I was barely paying the bills.

Let’s do some quick math on how that happened. We’ll assume that I was making about $40 a class (which is actually more than what I was making). 

14 classes at $40/class is $560

$560 x 52 weeks is $29,120/year

Maybe $29,000 per year doesn’t sound terrible. But the math above assumes that I taught every single class, every single week. It doesn’t account for sick days or appointments, vacation time, professional development, snow days or those days where a weekly class fell on a holiday. It also doesn’t account for injury. I am 100% certain that if I hadn’t had to pause teaching to have my son, my body would have made me stop.

Trust me when I say that teaching this many classes isn’t sustainable, not in the long run. It’s important to have lots of streams of income—some that may involve lots of hands-on work from you and others that might take a lot of initial set-up, but not a lot of day to day management. Rather than running yourself ragged, think about things you can offer besides studio classes. Can you teach private classes? Do you have an idea for a series? What about workshops and retreats? Think outside the box.

2. Being a Jack of all Trades

Kids yoga? Okay! Kundalini? Sure! Corporate mindfulness series? Why not?

A lot of us start out teaching so hungry to get experience that we say yes to opportunities that really aren’t a good fit for us. This can be a bit of a Catch-22—we need to try out a few things before knowing what we don’t like. Unfortunately, when we try to serve everyone, we end up serving no one. We dilute what makes us special and unique.

If you think about your favourite yoga teachers, you can probably list a few things that they are really good at. I’m sure that there is also a whole slew of things that they just don’t do. Find the things that light you up—that you can talk about for hours—and become really good at those. Share what you know and help others to see why you are so passionate about a particular style of yoga or subject matter. Become the go-to person on the subject. Your people will find you.

3. Covering Up Their Personality Online

I see this a lot with very new instructors. We all want to seem professional. We may even have aspirations to grow our business to include others. But that doesn’t mean that you should run your social media accounts like a big faceless organization. People aren’t looking to follow “Yoga Inc,” they want to follow real people with real stories. Stock photography and copy that doesn’t reflect who you are can be alienating in an industry that is all about personalities. People usually don’t attend classes with an instructor because they expertly cue a sun salutation: they attend because they like the instructor’s personality. 

Include details that people care about in your social media bios, such as where you are located and what you like to do outside of yoga. And please please please include your name and a picture of yourself. You don’t need to break the bank on hundreds of professional photos—an iPhone or Android can take great photos. Let people get to know you before they decide to practice with you.

I don't hold all of the answers, but I hope that this has given you a bit to think about. Please let me know if you have any questions. Experienced yoga teachers: what mistakes did you make in the early days? What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

It’s natural that an instructor’s teaching and practice change over the course of their career. And while there’s a lot of negative things that can be said about 2020, the turmoil of the last twelve months has led to what I feel is exponential growth in my teaching and in my yoga practice. I feel so good about the type of teacher that I’m becoming. Here are some of the changes that I’ve noticed this year.

1. Hands-On Adjustments

January 2020  Performed hands-on adjustments (with permission) because that’s how I like(d) to practice. I was pretty heavy with the massage during restorative poses and savasana.

December 2020  Leaving aside the fact that I’m currently not allowed to leave my mat during classes, I’m not sure I will ever go back to giving hands-on adjustments in drop-in classes. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and learning about the power dynamics in yoga classes. Some students may not feel safe to say no to hands-on adjustments or massage. The PTSD and trauma that will be left over from this pandemic makes me feel uncomfortable with the idea of touching students in class, with or without permission. Obviously, when a workshop explicitly says it has hands-on I will do adjustments. (I can’t wait to resume my restorative workshops with Thai massage as soon as I can.)

2. Creating Space For and Actively Welcoming BIPOC and LGBT Students

January 2020  I relied a lot on the idea that “all are welcome” and felt that if a student didn’t walk through the doors of a studio space that it was their choice.

December 2020  I’ve been doing a lot of learning about how the language that we use, the images that we show, even the music that we play during classes, might make people feel excluded. I’ve started using my pronouns. I’m focusing on including more diversity in my marketing images and encouraging the places where I teach to do the same. Mostly I’m learning about the gaps in my own knowledge from teachers outside of the white, female, straight mold and putting myself into situations where I am in the minority. It’s been heavy work, but work that’s been needed for a very long time.

3. Cueing

January 2020  Gave specific instructions on where the body should be in space. There was a lot of focus on how the body looked in a pose. Sometimes I would adjust bodies, either physically or verbally, to “fit” the pose.

December 2020  Now that I’m not in the same space as many of my students or can’t get close to them, I’ve shifted my cueing away from how a pose should LOOK to how a pose should FEEL. Often I’ll ask where students feel the stretch. I like to encourage students to move intuitively during class. Insisting that I know what will feel best in someone else’s body seems almost ludicrous now. 

4. Music

January 2020  I loved my playlists. They were a mix of traditional “yoga” music, along with pop and indie hits. Sometimes the unexpected oldie. I would plan my playlists to “pick up” when the class would become more active. They would slow down when we would do gentle stretching. They were timed so I never needed to look at a clock when I taught.

December 2020  Pop music feels like a distraction. In March when we shifted to online classes and could no longer play music, the silence was deafening. I hated not being able to walk around students in a class, nodding my head to the music. But now that we’ve been back in-studio, I’m having a lot of trouble with pop music. It feels like one more unwelcome stream in a brain with not enough bandwidth. I’ve been playing my playlists here and there, but I feel like I can focus more on the students when there is soft spa music or classical piano in the background.

The 2020 that I thought I would have was very different from the 2020 that I had (and it’s not over yet). It has been a rough year with so much loss. But, for me, there was actually quite a bit of growth that happened when I let go of what I thought a yoga teacher “should” be and allowed myself to acknowledge all that I have to learn. I’m not sure that I will look back fondly when I think about 2020, but it’s a year that has changed everything.

What has been the biggest change you've noticed in 2020? Tell me below.

I’ve talked about how to find teaching jobs in studios, but once you get the job, should you take it?

Most yoga teachers love what they do...and sometimes this leads them into bad situations.

As yoga instructors we’ve benefited a lot from having yoga in our lives, and we’re hungry to share the practice. Sometimes, though, this causes us to turn a blind eye to red flags or ignore those bad feelings in our bellies.

Over the last few years I’ve had a lot of newer instructors reach out to me to ask if an opportunity seemed like a good one. (Spoiler: usually if you have to ask, you should pass.) 

I’ve taught at a lot of studios and gyms over the last few years—some I wish I hadn’t. Here is a list of things I look for when considering teaching in a new space. Perhaps it will help save you some grief in your own teaching journey.

1. The listed instructors don’t appear on the schedule.

If none (or few) of the teachers who appear on the website are actually teaching at the studio, this might tell you that there’s a lot of turnover. When I look at the studio’s website, I also like to see a mix of instructors from a variety of backgrounds. Are senior teachers on the schedule or did everyone just graduate from teacher training? Evidence that people don’t stick around long at a studio is a HUGE red flag.

2. The website and social media haven’t been updated in a while.

A yoga studio needs a website. Social media is less important, but whatever they do have online should be accurate and kept up to date. As an instructor, I want to know that my students receive a professional experience when they purchase class passes. Will emails be returned? Will the phone be answered? I can’t control how the studio operates...but that doesn’t keep a poor customer service experience from reflecting negatively on me.

3. The owner or manager don’t seem comfortable discussing money.

Before you take on a new position you should feel comfortable asking what compensation will be and when you will get paid. Does the studio expect you to submit a monthly invoice? Will your payment be based on the number of students? If you can’t get a clear answer or (heaven forbid) you don’t get paid when you should, create your exit strategy. 

4. The studio is dirty and run down.

When I teach at a studio, I think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship—it is in our best interests to grow our businesses together. Ideally, the instructor should bring new students to the studio, while the studio exposes the students to different instructors.

A dirty studio can ruin the whole experience for a yoga student. If a studio can’t be bothered to keep the space clean I begin to second guess their investment in the business and community—how much do they care about the quality of their teachers? What are they doing to ensure the safety of their students? Does it seem like they might close without paying their instructors or fulfilling their contracts with students? 

Keeping a studio clean is a fairly straightforward task. If they are letting that slide, what else are they neglecting?

Have I missed anything? What are your “red flags”? What lessons have you learned along the way? Leave me a comment below!

While there are lots of places to teach yoga that aren’t studios, most teachers aspire to, at least at some point in their careers, teach at a yoga studio. I get asked pretty regularly how to get into a studio and appear on the schedule. While there are no tried and true methods for getting in (I was once hired by a studio through Kijiji), here’s the advice that I give to teachers looking to make a yoga studio their hOMe.

1. Get experience.

Besides looking at where you studied and the quality of your teacher training, most studio owners and managers will look to see where you have taught previously because they want to make sure you will have confidence on your mat. Remember, the experience doesn’t necessarily have to have been paid: it could be volunteer work, karma classes and community events. Box gyms are also a great place to get experience teaching. Teach as much as you can and develop sequences that you know work well and that you feel comfortable teaching.

2. Be professional.

Good spelling and grammar can go a long way in an introductory email. Make everything as easy as possible for the individual hiring: have a bio on hand (check out the studio’s other instructors’ bios for ideas) and have a nice photo ready. The photo doesn’t have to be professional, but it should be high resolution and show your face. Opportunities can often come up quickly: be prepared!

3. Get involved!

Attend classes at the studio, participate in challenges and go to events. Even though yoga is an individual practice, yoga studios are all about community. Allow the instructors and students to get to know you—everyone like practicing with a familiar face.

4. Support the studio online.

Like, share, and comment on posts. When you attend a class, check in or include it on your instastory. Most yoga studios expect (or at least appreciate) their instructors to market their classes to their community. Show the person doing the hiring that you are online savvy and will do what you can to get students in your classes.

Teaching at a studio is not the be all and end all: there are (often more lucrative) opportunities outside of the studio space. Regardless of where you teach, make sure it is someplace where your work is appreciated by both the students and the management. If you are in doubt about an opportunity, here is a list of my red flags. 

I’d love to hear from you. Did I leave anything off of my list? What is your best piece of advice for getting onto a studio schedule?

I taught A LOT when I was pregnant. In fact, I taught way more than I teach now. My classes were popular with all kinds of students with only a handful of prenatal mamas sprinkled in here and there. And guess what? Every class that I taught during that time could be considered “prenatal.” Except for the occasional belly pose in my late-second and third trimester, I taught what I was able to do. My students got stronger week by week, and I don’t think that any of them would have thought they were “taking it easy.”

There’s a misconception that pregnant women are fragile. Pregnancy is often treated like an illness. While there are always exceptions to the rules (high-risk pregnancies), pregnant women can do most yoga poses.

I get asked a lot about practicing yoga while pregnant. While I am prenatal certified and have gone through the training to learn which poses are best and safest for pregnant women, I think, as with any asana teaching, going through it in my own body was the best training of all. Here are some basic guidelines that I followed when practicing while pregnant and that I like to keep in mind when prenatal students attend my drop-ins.

1. Make room for baby.

This is rule #1 for a reason...and for most women, making room for baby is pretty intuitive. What this means is that sometimes the legs need to be wider in a forward fold and twists might need to be open. But this might look different for different women. During my first pregnancy, I felt okay being on my belly until well into my second trimester. However, pretty much from the time I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I felt uncomfortable being on my belly. If a student feels comfortable lying on the belly, it is important that she doesn’t lift the legs and put additional pressure on the uterus. (Locust pose would be an example of what to avoid.)

2. Be aware of overstretching.

Pregnancy triggers the release of relaxin, a hormone which loosens ligaments to prepare the body for birth. Having relaxin on board means that yoga students may be able to get deeper into poses than they can when not pregnant, which can lead to injury. Relaxin remain higher than usual as long as women breastfeed, so nursing mothers should also be aware of overstretching when on the mat.

3. Don't overheat.

Unless a student has a very established hot yoga practice (3-4x a week), I wouldn’t recommend a pregnant student attend a hot class. In the first trimester, overheating can cause neural tube defects. Also, as blood volume increases, blood pressure decreases, which can cause feelings of lightheadedness. You can still get sweaty in a non-heated class, so stay out of the hot room during pregnancy!

4. Don't add new poses.

A great guideline for all prenatal exercise is to continue at the same level of exertion that existed pre-pregnancy. Pregnancy isn’t the time to try to finally nail that handstand or train for a first marathon. However, if inversions were a part of the student’s practice before pregnancy, then they can continue with them as long as they still feel good in the body.

Every single pregnancy is different, so speak with your doctor or midwife about your own individual requirements. It is important to remember that, just like in any asana practice, what feels good in one body might not feel good in another. Always listen to the body and enjoy your practice!

So you’ve decided you want to become a yoga teacher, or even just do a yoga teacher training (YTT) to deepen your practice. Congratulations! Signing up for a first YTT is a big step and, if you ask a lot of yoga instructors, it can even be life changing. It’s not unusual to hear about teacher trainees leaving their partners, deciding to have a baby or quitting the corporate job that used to mean so much to them while in the middle of a program.

But with all of the good that can come from teacher trainings, there’s also a dark side that doesn’t get talked about a lot. The fact of the matter is that teacher trainings can be a big income source for studios—in fact, some studios report that their YTT can represent over half of their annual income. For many studios, training teachers is what keeps the lights on. 

There’s also not a lot of governance over teacher training programs. YTT programs need to go through the Yoga Alliance to become accredited, but there are no governing bodies that go into studios to make sure that they are delivering the trainings that they promise. There is no universal testing that yoga instructors go through in order to receive certification. In fact, one of the only things that most YTT programs have in common is that they cost at least $3,000.

I realize that this can all seem rather dark and depressing: I don’t mean it to be. There are some excellent programs run by very talented teacher trainers. If you’re planning on pursuing a teacher training program, take some time and research.

Here’s what, in my opinion, makes a quality teacher training program:

1. Personal Practice

Yoga instructors should get on the mat at every opportunity. And while taking other instructors’ classes is great, there’s also a lot of value in going through your own practice. It’s by moving through the poses yourself and feeling what your body is doing that you can develop the cues that you can then deliver to your students. It’s also a chance for you to figure out which cues DON’T work in your body. If something doesn’t feel good in your body, chances are it won’t feel good in the body of at least one other student you come across. A good YTT will give you a lot of opportunities for a personal practice, experimentation and reflection.  

2. Practice Teaching

How can a teacher ever learn to teach if they are not given an opportunity? Take every chance you can to practice teaching on all body types. A good YTT will give you opportunities to observe and assist more senior instructors. Probably some of the best lessons that I learned during my YTT came from sitting in a class and watching a group of bodies move. It gave me the opportunity to see where people were open and where they were tight. I tried to predict how they would look in a pose. I could see what adjustments the instructor gave  to help them feel comfortable in a pose. I could notice what tweaks students would instinctively make themselves to find their “seat” in a pose.

Most quality YTTs will also have opportunities for their trainees to teach public classes. This will often take the form of a karma class program where teachers can practice teaching and the community can support them in a donation-based class. It’s a great opportunity to support your colleague and get and provide feedback.

3. Many Different Voices

A quality program should be taught by more than one instructor—ideally the instructors should have different backgrounds and methodologies. I’m immediately suspicious of any 200-hour teacher training that is taught by only one instructor. A 200-hour YTT is meant to be a survey course introducing philosophy and mythology, anatomy and biomechanics, sanskrit, theory, business, and pedagogy. I don’t think that, when being completely honest with themselves, any one teacher can say that they are an expert in all of these areas.

During my teacher training, Christine Felstead, the director of my training, told us, “Don’t trust any teacher, including me.” She had a point. A good instructor questions everything. While it’s important to listen to what you are taught, the best learning comes from thinking critically and applying that knowledge. It’s okay to disagree with something that your teacher says. 

Completing my first yoga teacher training changed my life. Becoming a yoga instructor is one of the best things that I’ve ever done, and it’s a journey that I encourage anyone with a deep passion for yoga to undertake. That being said, it’s important to recognize that teacher trainings are big business in the industry. Please, please, please do your due diligence before enrolling for the class and investing in a program. Spend time in the studio where you will be training, chat with graduates of the program, look at a few different programs and read online reviews. More than anything, you should be doing a teacher training for yourself—you’re worth taking the time to make sure you’re receiving quality training!

Have you done a teacher training? Do you agree with what I’ve said? What do you think makes a quality yoga teacher training?

UPDATE: My teacher, Christine, shared my blog post on her Instagram page and had these lovely things to say. If you are looking for quality training, and are in the Toronto area, I highly recommend you seek her out!

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