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March 26, 2024I Just Graduated From My 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. Now What?
In this article, a yoga teacher explains the common problems that new teachers face immediately after graduating with their 200-hour yoga teacher training certification along with how they can address and overcome these common obstacles.
When you first decided to get your yoga teacher certification, you likely wanted to deepen your practice and give back to your community. Probably before your yoga teacher training, you weren’t thinking that much about how what you were creating was a yoga business.
But now, to be successful in this industry, you have to think that way.
This guide can give insight into some of the issues you may be facing as you navigate life post-YTT. In it, we’ll outline common problems that new yoga teachers face and our best tips for dealing with them.
Let’s jump in.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Initial motivations for yoga teacher certification may focus on personal growth and community service, but success in the industry requires a business mindset.
- This guide addresses common post-YTT challenges, offering solutions for new teachers.
- Challenges include limited teaching opportunities, self-promotion struggles, maintaining focus during personal practice, and navigating insurance requirements.
- Solutions involve seeking substitute teaching opportunities, crafting a compelling personal yoga story, practicing mindfulness techniques, obtaining liability insurance, and embracing challenges with resilience.
- Trust yourself in building your yoga business, recognizing that challenges are part of the journey towards growth and success.
Tips to Address Common Problems New Teachers Face After 200-HR Yoga Teacher Training
Problem 1: My YTT Isn't Hiring New Teachers
That’s one of the worst feelings after graduating from a yoga teacher training program.
While you didn’t think that teaching at the studio or gym that hosted your yoga school would be a guarantee, you likely assumed you might have the opportunity to teach there at some point.
After all, most yoga schools attached to a yoga studio or other fitness business tend to prefer teachers coming out of their program.
But, for whatever reason, teaching where you were trained is not in the cards presently.
The good news? It’s not the end of the world.
Here are some ways to get some grounded teaching experience under your belt.
- Ask to be put on the sub list where you were trained. This is one of the BEST options for getting your foot in the door at the place you were trained. Sure, they’re not hiring teachers now, but what about when one of the teachers goes on maternity leave in a few months? If you’ve been on the sub list and consistently show up to teach any time you’re called, that bodes well for being on the shortlist for a regular teaching gig in the future. As yoga businesses tend to be more non-traditional in their employment, many people come and go. Most yoga teachers are independent contractors without many tethers tying them down. This can work in your favor.
- Talk to your lead instructor about a referral. Typically, most lead instructors have sister studios or know other yoga businesses with a similar energy or teaching style to the one you were trained at. Asking your lead instructor for an introduction with those studios helps with the networking hurdle and could be an easy way to fall into an opportunity.
- Find positions online or on job boards – and think outside the box. This might sound like a no-brainer, but there are more yoga teaching opportunities out there than you think. Most studios tend to eschew posting openings online, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a fulfilling yoga teaching position in less traditional domains. Most corporate gyms, community health centers, and colleges offer yoga classes – and those postings are more likely to be posted online. Additionally, larger companies can sometimes offer corporate wellness programs that allow teachers to come in and teach.
- Meet with businesses who might be interested in a yoga program. If you’re looking for an interesting offering that’s a win for you, clients, and their potential customers, you could look into hosting partnered yoga events. Non-yoga fitness studios, parks, restaurants, and even breweries can be open to ticketed or donation-based classes.
This last point leads to our next topic.
Problem 2: I Don't Know How to Pitch Myself & My Business
After determining where you’re aiming in terms of what type of yoga class environment you want, you’ll now have to begin to put yourself out there. This can feel like a daunting task. After all, you just got certified, and you may not feel like you have enough confidence to start selling yourself. So here are a few tips on how to put yourself out there.
Craft Your Yoga Story
First, your yoga journey is unique, and businesses want to hear about it. So, when applying to jobs or pitching yourself, share why you fell in love with yoga, what motivates you to teach, and how your practice has transformed you. This personal touch sets you apart and helps yoga businesses connect with the real you.
Build an Online Presence
Having a solid online presence is key. Create a professional social media profile on your favorite platform that reflects your passion for yoga. Share your journey, thoughts on different poses, and snippets of your practice. Studios and practitioners often check online profiles, so make sure yours is a true reflection of your authentic self.
Attend Classes and Network
Don't shy away from attending classes at different studios. It's not just about learning from others – it's an excellent opportunity to network. Strike up conversations with instructors, introduce yourself, and express your enthusiasm for joining the yoga teaching community. You never know when a casual chat can open doors.
Problem 3: I'm Struggling to be Present During My Personal Yoga Practice
There are two phases to your yoga practice when you choose to undergo yoga teacher training: Before Training and After Training.
Before you were trained, you were experiencing yoga in an entirely different way than you do now. Now, you have a deeper understanding of not just yoga but the practice of teaching it, which is its own art in itself. Your yoga practice has now transformed into a teaching practice as well as a yoga business.
And odds are, after experiencing this shift, there may be some difficulty fully switching off “teacher brain” when you’re practicing as a student. Before, you might have just thought about work, friends, or your to-do list when your thoughts ran away from you – but now the yoga class itself can trigger a wandering mind. Here are some of the things you may be distracting you in class when you just want to practice like you used to before your YTT:
- Good cues or physical adjustments the instructor uses with practitioners that you want to incorporate in your teaching.
- The words the teacher uses – especially if your YTT told you to avoid certain words that they are using.
- Wanting to adjust a practitioner for alignment or safety.
- Wanting to teach a practitioner after they’re not “getting” a pose.
- Ruminating over the sequence so you can modify or incorporate it into your next class.
- Wanting to remember a song from the teacher’s playlist so you can add it to your next class playlist.
- Judging yourself for falling out of a pose harshly because “everyone knows you’re a teacher.”
This is just a short list; there are so many new opportunities for distraction in your personal yoga practice after graduating from a YTT! If you’re experiencing any of the above, don’t fret – it’s all entirely normal.
Your fellow practitioners in a class don’t have the knowledge about yoga to distract them from their practice in the way you’re experiencing.
How To Deal With “Yoga Teacher Brain”
The main solution for coping with your case of yoga teacher brain is twofold: witnessing and refocusing and remembering your role in this class.
First, witnessing is, in essence, what we teach practitioners in our yoga classes. If our students experience intrusive or ruminating thoughts, anything that takes them away from the present, we encourage them to note the thought and return to the present. Anything that can help tie them to the present moment is a key part of that refocusing: the breath, entering a posture deeply, focusing on transitions, or a physical mudra can all help.
This same witnessing and refocusing process is what we can apply to ourselves as teachers.
When we get overwhelmed with teacher brain, turning our attention to the present moment and embodying our practice can help us get back into what we’re doing.
Second, outside of calming our thoughts, we should recenter ourselves on what our role is when we are in another individual’s yoga class. In this environment, we are merely another practitioner, even though we’re someone who likely knows more about yoga than others in the class. This is a great exercise in re-establishing a beginner’s mind with yourself, especially if you fall out of poses that you “shouldn’t” be falling out of.
So, to respect the authority of another instructor’s class, we must pull back and refrain from inserting ourselves into their classroom.
Leadership and classroom management, like what you learned in your yoga teacher training, is important to cultivate with your practitioners. That authority can be disrupted if another person inadvertently asserts authority over students in the class.
Even if a practitioner is performing a posture in a way that would hurt them, you shouldn’t interfere in their practice. Not only is it somewhat of a faux pas, but it can also potentially affect your liability if that practitioner is injured.
That leads us to our next topic…
Problem 4: My Studio Says I Need Insurance or COI
For most gyms and studios, teachers need to have yoga teacher liability insurance. This is in addition to insurance the studio or gym owner carries to protect their business and premises.
When you purchase affordable liability insurance for your yoga business, you will be given a COI (a certificate of insurance). This document proves you have the coverage you say you do, along with providing essential information about your coverage, including who the producer is (the insurance company), the coverage on your policy, the policy’s annual claim and aggregate limits, and the contact information someone would need to file a claim.
Yoga liability insurance covers situations such as:
- Bodily injury: someone is injured while under your supervision during a yoga class.
- Errors and omissions: your advice or professional recommendation injures someone.
- Advertising injury: your yoga business damages someone’s reputation or is sued for copyright infringement.
While the process of yoga teacher insurance process sounds difficult, it’s actually quite easy. For the past 10 years, getting yoga teacher insurance for your yoga business has been exceptionally straightforward, as so many great insurance companies have transitioned their quoting and sales process online.
For instance, providers like beYogi offer competitive annual rates, monthly payment options, and discounts for students and part-time teachers – all with no quoting process and a simple, single-page application. That’s not to mention the great member benefits of a beYogi policy, like discounts on continuing education, products like mats and blocks for your studio, and business expenses.
Trust Yourself When Building Your Yoga Business
Remember, you're not alone in facing these common issues. We all have to start somewhere, right?
Navigating the post-YTT world can feel like entering any balancing pose for the first time. It’s obviously challenging BUT totally doable with enough practice.
Teaching yoga is another part of our daily practice of non-attachment. Embrace the process, find joy in the wobbles, and just keep going.