Let’s talk fundamentals this week.

How can we improve our training, both individually and as an industry?

I find it super helpful to ask pros in other fields how they train, and what they are seeing in their movement profession—so that is what I did.

I asked Pilates instructor, studio owner, yoga teacher, former professional dancer, and altogether rad human Hannah Teutscher how she trains.

We got into the thick of things talking about creativity, building a box so you can think outside it, and more.

Take a listen.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

*Teacher training can be a good source of revenue, yes.  But, to all those who think that yoga studios train to keep their doors open–in large part, we don’t.  The hourly wage that most of us make training vs. working on other things or in our businesses is not what folks perceive it to be.  

*Lots of businesses train because they need workers.  This leads me to a primary question I want to answer in this series: what does it take for us to level up our expectations of trainings? and how should trainings work in general? Essentially, as I say in the podcast, we need to build a box.   HOW do we uplevel the industry’s training standards in such that way that only the people who are truly invested in trainings and feel called to serve the industry in that way sign up for shepherding the next generation of yoga teachers into our profession?

*Here it is: pedagogy again.  How do we teach people how to command a room?  Good question, eh?  How do you command a room yourself when you are teaching?  Is that a teachable skill?

*We create an atmosphere in a room when we teach.  As Hannah said “every good story has a beginning, middle, and an end.” and that is how most of us structure our classes.  But for those who are new to teaching we need to build a structure others can follow within how we teach.  What is your structure?  How do you think about teaching a class?

*OHMYGODITISNTJUSTUS!!  I don’t know why, but I found it very comforting that we are not the only movement modality that struggles with professionalization and standards.  There is something more to this thought process, and I would be curious what you think.  Why do movement modalities, in particular, struggle with this?  As I said, dentists aren’t out there questioning their scope of practice–they get that their gig is teeth.  Why do we struggle in this way?

RESOURCES

Working In Yoga Website

Working In Yoga Newsletter

Hannah’s Website

Find Taylor Casey

SPONSOR

Midwest Yoga Conference