the professional yoga teacher: online course

An 8-week online coaching program designed to support yoga teachers in creating a solid professional foundation for their teaching career.

I am of the belief that teaching yoga is a calling, something that most of us who have chosen to do it felt drawn to, knowing it is not a traditional career path. I am also of the belief that you do not need to make teaching a full-time job in order to excel at it, in other words, many brilliant teachers keep their day jobs. However, if you have made the choice to earn 50% or more of your yearly income through your teaching work, there are some things it can be helpful to know. Things that can support you in streamlining your efforts in regards to the business aspect of your teaching work, while also helping you to navigate decisions as to who, and what, and even where you should teach, based on a clear understanding of who you are as a teacher.

I do not claim to have all the answers in this regard, but I have been working as an independent teacher for over fifteen years now and I have learned some things along the way. This course is where I will share with you everyone I have learned and will introduce you to some fabulous people who can help you to move forward with your own teaching aims.

  • How Will This Course Run?

    This is a coaching course that will run for eight weeks. Each week you will get a new lesson which has been pre-recorded (see lesson topics below), and you can watch it at your own leisure. The lessons will be delivered via email and will include audio files, workbooks, resources, and action steps to support you. You will also have access to a private forum (on Facebook), where you can post questions and connect with your peers. We will have weekly Q&A sessions during the program. These will be live but if you can’t make it you can send questions in and watch the recording later. I will be there to answer questions and offer guidance through the entire eight weeks. I no longer offer private mentoring for yoga teachers so this is the best way to work with me in this regard.

  • Why Are You Teaching This? What Are Your Qualifications?

    I am not a business expert, nor am I a marketing guru. I am a yoga teacher.

    This course is where I will very honestly share my experience as someone who has been successfully teaching yoga for 15 years. I have experience working in studios (large and small), running & designing teacher training programs, contracting to various yoga schools, offering retreats and workshops, working with private clients, mentoring yoga teachers, and creating online courses. Most importantly though (in my opinion) is the fact that I have created a teaching career that is deeply satisfying, completely in line with my personal ethics, and which supports my chosen lifestyle. This is what I am most interested in helping you to do.

  • What Will I Learn In This Course?

    Each week will have a different focus related to the business aspects of teaching yoga and many of the lessons will include a guest speaker or expert on that topic, as well as bonus material. Below you can find a short list of the weekly break down.

    • Week 1 Defining Sucess: identifying your ideal students and teaching scenarios, doing an honest financial assessment, clarifying your aim, and creating your personal definition of success
    • Week 2 Setting Our Foundations: business basics, insurance, identifying essential forms & policies every teacher should have, web presence, social media, bookkeeping & business structures etc
    • Week 3 Crafting Our Vision: identifying your creative goals, honoring your unique gifts as a teacher, how to step up to what you are being called to do, naming your demons and working with doubt, making shit happen/manifesting your creative vision
    • Week 4 Teaching Workshops & Retreats: designing amazing workshops, contracts & collaborations, marketing strategies, review and student feedback, pros and cons of local vs international retreats, straight talk about challenges and risks associated with retreats, resources, and tools for getting started
    • Week 5 Self Care For Yoga Teachers: what it means to hold space for others, the value of creating clear boundaries, how to manage your energy wisely, establishing your non- negotiable self care practices and more
    • Week 6 Teacher Training: comparing various teacher training models, getting started as a teacher trainer, questions to ask yourself before starting a teacher training, tools and resources for teacher trainers
    • Week 7 Creating Online Content: comparing various models for teaching online, identifying whether or not online work is right for you, simple resources and tools for getting started
    •  Week 8 Wrap Up & Action Steps: outlining your goals for the next year, creating concrete action steps, identifying additional resources or support you may need, moving forward

    Other topics that we will discuss through various means will be – navigating ethical decisions, student-teacher relationships, competition & collaboration, self-care, personal practice and its value for yoga teachers, acknowledging our limitations, how to create and support community, and more! While I will share a lot of information with you in this course, I want it to also be a space in which we can come together as peers and have frank discussions about the real-life joys, challenges, and responsibilities of being a yoga teacher.

Registration is now open. Grab your spot today!

REGISTER NOW

guest teachers

Andrea Ting-Letts | Brand Your Bliss & Infinite Bliss Yoga

In all that I do – whether teaching yoga or consulting businesses – I believe that my purpose is to help you find your voice.

For professional yoga teachers, “finding your voice” means defining who you are and what makes your offerings distinctive. More importantly, “finding your voice” means understanding WHY you have chosen the teaching path. I am passionate about empowering my fellow yoga teachers to understand your WHY so that you can find your authentic voice, and create a personal “brand” that looks, feels, and sounds undeniably YOU.

I draw from my 20+ years experience as a customer service trainer, sales & marketing specialist, branding & communications consultant, business development manager, yoga & fitness instructor, and serial entrepreneur. I live, work, learn, create, nourish, flourish, connect, and play in Victoria, BC.

Rachel Scott | The Art of Education

Rachel helps passionate yogis create the training of their dreams. A veteran of the yoga world, she understands both the art and business of yoga.

In her fifteen years of experience, she has managed studios, mentored teachers, created training programs, coached faculty to excellence, and personally led over twenty 200-hour teacher trainings. As the Director of Teachers College for YYoga for eight years, she has created a suite of teacher training offerings, including their keystone 200-hour. As a consultant, she harnesses her knowledge of educational design and structure to help inspired yogis share their voice through their educational offerings.

You’re the expert, she’s the nerd, and together you create educational awesomeness. BA Columbia University, MSci Instructional Systems and Learning Technology, E-RYT 500.

Mands Burnette | Mandsburnette.com 

Mands has been helping small business owners how to successfully grow their businesses for a decade. Teaching entrepreneurs how to build and develop their business is her jam! She has a background in business + formal education design. She’s an expert in eCommerce, Social Media Marketing, and Customer Experience. Currently, she is the Digital Marketing Manager at Abeego and helps small businesses grow by offering workshops throughout Victoria, BC.

Mands is packed full of knowledge + ready to give you all the tips, tricks + actionable steps that you could ever want to grow your business. She’s a firm believer that you can have everything that you’ve ever wanted in business (and life), you just need to know the steps to apply to get there. Growing your business doesn’t have to be hard, as long as you are focused on the right things + taking actionable steps.

Cory Sterling | Conscious Counsel & Yoga Law

Cory is a corporate lawyer whose practice has it’s home base in Vancouver BC, but whose outreach is international. His unique approach to serving and educating clients is unprecedented in the legal world. He speaks to us about some of the most important topics every yoga teacher needs to consider such as sole proprietorship vs incorporation, contractor vs employee and the value of waivers and insurance. Cory is masterful at education and loves to support people in understanding the law so that it can work for them and support them in creating a business that is alignment with their values.

Urszula Lipsztajn | Urszula.co 

Urszula Lipsztajn is an international life coach, guide, speaker and author at urszula.co.  With over 10,000 hours of people development, she now runs an impact business specializing in self-actualization. She integrates mindfulness, yoga, and positive psychology as pathways for personal development and whole life fulfillment.  Urszula has worked with hundreds of leaders and entrepreneurs from every sector, and for awesome brands like lululemon, Arc’teryx, Yoga Outreach, and Semperiva Yoga.  In my interview with Urszula we focus on the topic of creativity and fear- and it’s awesome!

Nicole Marcia | Fine Balance Yoga 

Nicole Marcia will be a guest speaker on the topic of holding space and true self care for professional yoga teachers. She has taught therapeutic yoga classes and offered individual sessions to trauma survivors struggling with trauma and addiction since 2004.  She also trains yoga teachers and clinicians in the trauma-sensitive yoga theory and techniques required to support trauma survivors in their healing, long-term stability and recovery. In 2009, Nicole was awarded a master’s degree with a specialization in yoga therapy from Lesley University in Boston, MA. She serves as the director of training at Yoga Outreach, is a faculty member at Ajna Yoga and the Vancouver School of Yoga and a curriculum developer and instructor the Langara College Continuing Studies.

Jacky Challenger | Coastal Bliss Yoga

Jacky is a yoga teacher and studio owner, who also has experience as studio manager and bookkeeper. She is going to share with us her experience and knowledge on all of these topics, with a focus on the importance of setting up a proper bookkeeping system and knowing your financial situation. This is an area where many yoga teachers and even studio owners feel challenged and Jacky will help us to get clear on what our actions steps need to be to move towards greater financial clarity.

Rebecca Marshall | Haven Yoga & Wellness

Rebecca is an inspired yoga teacher, the founder of Haven Yoga & Wellness, and a passionate heart centered businesswoman. She holds an MBA with dual undergrads- BS in both Marketing and Organizational Communication (focused on Interpersonal Relationships within a business based environment) and will be our case study in Lesson 1, sharing her story of the building and running of a business built on a deep understanding of the importance of core values.

Registration is now open. Grab your spot today!

REGISTER NOW

frequently asked questions

This course is not a step by step walkthrough of how to create an online course. However, I will share with you the exact tools I use to create my own courses, along with resources for creating your own. There are many different ways to teach online, and one of the main things we will discuss will be learning how to identify what will work best for you as an individual teacher so that you know how to move forward if teaching online is part of your teaching vision.

Creating a comprehensive yoga teacher training program is a large undertaking indeed, and while this course will not tell you exactly how you should do it, it will cover some of the important questions you need to ask yourself before embarking on such a project. We will discuss various different models for teacher training, and hear from a guest teacher who is an expert in curriculum design so you can feel better informed as to how to structure your efforts as you put your program together.

If you have a true technology aversion and are not interested in getting over it to some degree then this course might not be right for you as it will be delivered online. However, if you want to support yourself working as an independent yoga teacher and you know you need to overcome some of your tech fear, then I am here to help you. I cannot create your website or set up your newsletter programs for you, but I can help you to understand how these things can help you. I will share resources to support you in learning more and will bring in a guest teacher who is an expert in this area so you can hear from them as well.

 I will be available for the entire eight weeks to offer support and guidance to everyone taking the course. You can ask questions via our private Facebook forum, via email, or in the live Q&A sessions. If you have taken a course with me before you know I am very available and will always do my best to answer every question that comes in as soon as I possibly can. After the program ends you will continue to have access to the private forum where you can ask questions of your peers, and I will pop on there periodically as well.

Yes, you will have lifetime access and you can download everything.