Working in Yoga

Have you ever wondered how people who are incredibly dialed into their niche go there?

This week I have an interview with my new friend Deb Flashenburg. Deb is the founder and owner of Prenatal Yoga Center in New York City.

She highlights all her work as a pre and postnatal yoga teacher, and I think you will hear something in her voice that I found really striking. The tone she takes when she talks about the thing that lights her up the most. I want that for all of us, the idea that we can evolve--often by accident, into the profession or specialty that most fills our cup and allows us to show up more fully in the world.

For Deb that is childbirth prep and education, for me, it is teaching the tenants of true self-care, but for you, that may be something else. We all have such interesting journeys in how we came to be as yoga professionals, and I hope it inspires you to listen to someone who is doing the work that feeds her soul as much as it inspired me to talk to her.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

*Most of your favorite yoga pros who have a really specialized niche have gone on a journey to find that thing they are passionate about. Often times it comes by accident or by lucky happenstance that shifts in our brains to become *the* thing we want to share with others.

*Once you learn a new skill or have some new knowledge, bring that info to your current students before you integrate that into new workshops or training. (this is something we will cover more in-depth during our professional development challenge) Use your current students and classes as a Petri dish to experiment and integrate new knowledge.

*there is an aspect of performing to teaching yoga in front of people. if you have performing arts experience that can help you in your ability to capture your students’ attention during classes, and even if you transition into working in the online space. If you've never had performing arts experience, it isn't too late! Take a class, join a troupe, and learn the skills of captivating a crowd. It can be invaluable.

*teaching hybrid can be a challenge in training settings but can be possible to do it skillfully in group class settings. watch for more conversations about this on the podcast as we talk more about what it is to be the next generation of yoga professionals.

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RESOURCES

Working In Yoga

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Yoga Professional Development Free Challenge

Deb Flashenburg

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You’ve done it.

You’ve gotten the certificate, fallen even more in love with yoga than ever. Now how do you be THAT yoga teacher?

You know, the one with the packed rooms, the dedicated followers, the amazing chill attitude?

Well this week I talk with Root To Rise co-founders Lori Holden and Sheri Fisher. The cover the methodology for creating a standing room only, and I think you all are going to find some genuine nuggets in this conversation. So have your pens at the ready.

Be it a new teacher, or someone trying to up-level their yoga teaching game, this is the interview for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

*It IS normal to want to learn more after you take a yoga teacher training program, especially if you don't think you are ready. But what makes and impactful teacher is someone who is able to listen to themselves and develop their inner skills before they go out to the world and share yoga.

*Find a friend whose profession is education for people. Ask them about their favorite teaching methodologies and how to get better at the skill of teaching people a thing.

*It is important for you to know what the laws are for employment wherever you live, and to be committed to yourself as a yoga professional. Knowing the ins and outs of what it is to be a yoga professional is crucial for us as the next generation of yoga pros.

*Understanding and unpacking social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion is important work for us as yoga teachers. Learning from a diverse range of teachers only serves to make you a more informed and impactful teacher.

Thank you again to our sponsor Sunlight Streams, and go snag your tickets to our virtual retreat July 28-30th here.

RESOURCES

Working In Yoga

Website

Professional Development Challenge

Root To Rise

The Book: Standing Room Only

The Website

Sheri's previous podcast episode

This week on the podcast I have my friend Billie Smith joining me, and we talk all about all things in starting an online membership.

Billie and I also chat about some of the toxic things we have experienced while working in the yoga space. It is important we share our stories with each other so we don’t normalize bad behavior and can empower each other to build supportive professions with the people around us.

Our key takeaways are:

-We can bring our whole selves to our yoga teaching, and when you start bringing all of you, you have the opportunity to be a more impactful teacher

-Anti-diet culture is something that we need to embrace more of in our industry. Sure, sex and body transformation can be effective marketing, but are those the messages we want to be sending? If we claim yoga is for EVERY body, then we need to start putting our marketing where our mouths are.

-You should know at the very least, the basics of what it is to be trauma-informed as a yoga teacher. If your YTT didn't provide that for you, a workshop or book can help support that shift. Check out the work of my friend Joanne Spence for more info.

-Creating a group of people who connect with your attitudes and beliefs can be incredibly powerful. We CAN create community online, and building that with others is a great way to connect people from all over the world.

-Find other business owners and make a support group amongst yourselves. Having people to vent to, connect with, and who allow you to be your real self on the hard days is critical for sustaining your business over time.

-Feedback is important, but not more important than your own voice. We often divorce our own voice in order to please others. Culture teaches us to do that, but yoga is a true inquiry into your own self and voice. Yoga teaching and yoga business should be the same.

Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Streams.

Sunlight’s Virtual Retreat (use code WIY2023 at checkout for $30 off your ticket)

WORKING IN YOGA

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BILLIE SMITH

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This podcast episode was a total surprise for me, and this week I am excited to share the conversation with you all.

Sadie’s comments on teaching yoga online, marketing, and more are exactly what we’ve been talking about for the future of our profession in the online arena.

Take a listen.

Here are our key takeaways:

-There is plenty of room for you to build an audience online. There are more students who are looking for a more nurturing experience, which we can build, even online.

-We don't need to leverage our challenges and traumas in order to get likes. It is complicated and icky when we use our own challenges to get pity views---and it isn't the way marketing makes us feel good.

-You don't need to be committed to the same niche forever. Shifting your content as you age and gain more experience makes total sense. Now don't change every 6 months, but also don't feel stuck doing the same thing forever.

-Women don't need to be young in order to be valued, no matter what fitness and wellness IG accounts tell us.

-Feedback is critical. It is sometimes hard to hear, but it is worth getting to know your audience so we connect with them and build nourishing content for them.

-If you are not in the business of serving and helping people, go get a job that pays you better. Yeah, that times 100. When we are serving our purpose a lot of the things that seem difficult seem easier.

-Creativity requires space. We need to build some time in our schedules to be creative, which is one of the best things about working for yourself. Embrace your creativity.

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Resources.

Working In Yoga Website

Rebecca’s Instagram

Working In Yoga FREE Professional Development Challenge

Join the Newsletter

The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast

Sadie Nardini’s Website

We are the next generation of yoga professionals.

So how do we shift into our more professional, more inclusive, more lucrative, more nourishing era?

Let’s talk about it.

Today we are chatting about online vs. in-person teaching and training. There is still a huge stigma surrounding the adequacy of online teaching, but the truth is online is here to stay.

So let’s talk pros and cons, and what we, the next generation of yoga pros, need to embrace and improve.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR, Sunlight Streams. Grab their virtual retreat here. Use code WIY for 20% off your ticket price.

WORKING IN YOGA website.

Welcome to Working In Yoga!

This week on the podcast I am chatting about all things embodiment with Cheri Dostal Ryba.

Cheri and I connected within the yoga therapy world, but found out that we were both excited to chat about the same things. We talk about all things money, business (and not in the gross way, in the stop trading time for dollars way), and nervous system regulation.

Cheri is a delight to chat with, and I can't wait for you all to hear it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

-Being a yoga professional involves us also being commited to our students, but also to ourselves. Self-care is critical if you are in the self-care business space.

-Yoga professionals are BOTH entrepreneurs and teachers. We don't have to choose to sacrifice ourselves in service of yoga, nor do we need to sacrifice yoga at the feet of business.

-Growth requires discomfort. We need to be able to embrace this idea that clearing the clutter of our mind is part of our growth as a teacher and a business owner.

-Charge what you are worth is bad advice. You are pricesless. We need to unpack the idea that our value is linked to how much money we have.

-Time for Dollars is also bad business advice. Your price is a direct product of your experience X the market you are in. If you are online this equation shifts a little, but not much.

-Business coaches can be incredibly helpful. We need to be cautious because you can be over-coached, but having a person who has a different perspective on your business is invaluable.

-After we are done with shiny-object syndrome, then comes the work. Then comes the buckling down, struggling through the discomfort, and finding out what part of our work lights us up enough to slog through the hard stuff.

RESOURCES

Cheri's Info.

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Working In Yoga Info:

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Working In Yoga Summer Business Challenge coming soon

Sunlight Streams Info:

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Sunlight's Yoga Teacher Summer School coming July & August!!

This week we talk about the ever-evolving topic of consent in our yoga rooms.

How do we address consent to touch our students in 2023?

How do we navigate assists, adjustments, and using skillful language?

What do we really understand about the power dynamics and public nature of our classes?

Let's talk about answering this ever-evolving question: What DO students consent to when they purchase a ticket to a yoga class?

Consent is the conversation of the hour this week.

Join us around the water cooler and let's discuss.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

-Our conversations around consent need to change. Our thoughts should include not only touch, but also words, and ideas. Our students do not necessarily consent to hearing your lecture about the environment or GMOs in food when they come to your room to take a yoga asana class.

-COVID gave us some gifts as an industry, including the ability for us to gift the trajectory of their yoga practice back to them. Zoom has allowed for more body autonomy, more skillful verbal cuing, and the ability to use the techniques educators have long employed for distance learning.

-Consent is not a topic that we figure out and forget. As we evolve and up-level as a profession, we will need to continuously revisit this topic as we continue to grow and change as a profession.

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RESOURCES:

WIY Website

Rebecca's Instagram

NYT Article

You might have heard the story of infamous yoga teacher Bikram Choudhury attempting to host yoga training workshops in Canada earlier this year.

You might have even listened to last week's podcast episode, which was a replay of Shannon Crow's Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast live episode that I was involved in.

And you also might be wondering what is happening now.

The truth: not too much. But that doesn't need to necessarily be the case.

The news cycle for all of us is short, our attention is even shorter, and it is really easy to push uncomfortable topics into the background. To me, this is too important to just let it be pushed aside.

Women who sign up for Bikram's trainings all over the world are not safe, this can be said with certainty. So now what?

This episode will give you an update, but also call you to help us do some much needed behind-the-scenes work to keep women safe in our YTT spaces. This will also serve to support and nourish all of us as we go through the uncomfortable growth phase of becoming a more whole and professional industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Organizing is hard work, and while it is great & important to say "hurray" when we win a victory, the true work of social change happens in the quiet moments, the slow times, and behind the scenes. Don't forget to check in with your favorite causes even when they aren't actively campaigning.

2. Weather you agree or not, we are all in the same yoga industry. The language that seeks to create divisiveness is dangerous, no matter what side of the argument that person might be on. Use better language, and go find your favorite person who teaches yoga in a different methodology from you and take them out for tea. Getting to know others in our field is *vital* to our survival.

3. We need to hold our leadership organizations accountable for their position within our industry. Sign our change.org petition to demand the Yoga Alliance state publicly they have no confidence in the safety of participants of Bikram Choudhury's yoga teacher training programs. Make them say it loud enough that it is the first thing that pop's up on a Google search about Bikram yoga teacher training.

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In February of 2023 there was an event that was created in Vancouver, Canada advertising that convicted predator, Bikram Choudhury, was to come to Canada to teach hot yoga workshops. Many yoga professionals, myself very much included, thought this was a bad idea.

We know from countless accounts of survivors that have been documented in books, podcasts, and documentary films, that Bikram is an unsafe individual to teach yoga to young women.

It is irresponsible for us to not raise a fuss about him teaching yoga to young women. Women who are being sent to his training by trusted mentors and teachers. Women are then funneled into his close circle by teacher trainers within the program.

This is a clear funnel of abuse (that ironically looks a whole lot like a marketing funnel) and many of us organized together to stop him from coming to teach in Canada.

This podcast is that story.

On February 8th Shannon Crow from the Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast, Colin Hall from the Yoga History Podcast, and I all got together and recorded this LIVE, with lots of friends and supporters on the call.

What followed was the subsequent cancellation of Bikram from teaching in Canada (win), and the reminder to us all that he is still out there teaching and potentially abusing women in the context of being a yoga teacher and yoga professional (grim reality).

So this week is that replay of the live call, and next week I will be updating everyone about what is happening now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

organizing works. following the money is the fastest way to see a result from your organizing, so if you are looking to take action on a cause that is important to you--look to the money first. It is likely the fastest way to your goal

Public accountability organizations, like the media, are your friends. Don't hesitate to reach out to them as ask for assistance in bringing more light to a subject

We all hold responsibility within the yoga professional arena to make sure that our participants are safe. This is not just a "them" problem. We are all responsible for the health, safety, and overall well-being of those people who would call themselves students of yoga.

Make friends in your activism journey. Find other people who are just as passionate about a cause as you and team up. It makes the job less daunting and more palatable.

RESOURCES

Our support letter to the survivors of Bikram Choudhury's abuse

Survivor's Hotline for support for sexual assault

Shannons' Podcast recording of this.

Meg Devlin's Article

Working In Yoga Podcast Website

Rebecca's IG

Working In Yoga Newletter

Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Website

Shannon's IG

Yoga History Website

Colin's Website

Colin's IG

Hell Bent Book by Benjamin Lorre

ESPN's 30/30 Podcast

Dr. Ramani's Podcast

Bikram Documentary on Netflix

You might have heard that we are facing a recession, right?

It is one of those things that seems to be both highly talked about and also very hushed. ARE we in a recession? What about the recession that happened during COVID? How much longer does the yoga industry need to be facing the reality that sales are slower than we want because people's financial position is unstable?

And where the hell are our leaders?

This is something I want to talk about today on the podcast--what does leadership look like for us.

Leadership is a topic we rarely talk about in the yoga industry space. We talk a lot about teachers, and what it means to be a good teacher, but does a good teacher mean a good leader?

Today that is what Rebecca is talking about on the podcast.

Are you ready?

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Ships need captains. We need that person or organization who is looking out for our best interests, even if they are unpopular with the masses.

No amount of insisting that yoga is a spiritual practice will get around the fact that tens of billions of dollars every year are being funneled through our industry. We absolutely are an industry, the US holding 10,000+ studios and 14.000+ teachers alone. This is enough money channeling through our spaces that we need to discuss who leads us as an industry. Because we absolutely are one.

Counter-culture blood runs deep in the veins of Western yoga spaces, and it shouldn't be surprising that we buck up against the idea of greater regulation and leadership

But keeping our participants safe and well should be our #1 priority, and while it may seem daunting to face the idea that leadership is needed--putting our heads in the sand doesn't make it any easier.

RESOURCES:

Working In Yoga Website

Newsletter

Rebecca on IG

Yoga Alliance's bylaws

Book Rec: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

What does happen when you get scurvy?