Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher

51. The Truth About Leading Yoga Retreats with Amy Boerner

• Sage Rountree • Episode 51

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Leading a yoga retreat isn’t just a vacation with yoga—it’s a business, a service, and a deep commitment to your students. In this episode of Yoga Teacher Confidential, I talk with retreat leader Amy Boerner about what really goes into hosting successful retreats. From requiring deposits that “hurt to lose” to learning the hard way why you should never cook for your participants, Amy shares both the challenges and rewards of creating transformative retreat experiences.

We cover how to set clear expectations, manage daily schedules, and beta-test your first offering, plus the importance of financial planning. Amy also highlights Jungle Bay in Dominica as her dream retreat venue and shares exciting news about our upcoming 200-hour teacher training partnership.

If you’ve ever dreamed of hosting a retreat—or want to avoid costly mistakes—this conversation is full of wisdom you won’t find in glossy Instagram ads.

Additional Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Get in the Zone at Comfort Zone Yoga, my virtual studio focused on teacher development. I have a ton of Sage advice in there for you—let's chat there!

For more insights, subscribe to Yoga Teacher Confidential, check out my YouTube channel, and follow me on socials:

And come explore my mentorship program, my Yoga Class Prep Station membership, continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs, and my many books for yoga teachers. It's all at ...

Can I tell you something? That dream yoga retreat, you're planning to lead the one where you're sipping coconut water on a tropical beach while your students find enlightenment. Yeah. That's not how it actually goes down. Here's what nobody tells you. You might end up feeling like you're hosting a five day dinner party where you can never leave the kitchen. Or worse, you could find yourself on a bus full of motions, sick yogis, winding through mountain roads, wondering how this became your responsibility. But here's the thing. Leading yoga retreats can absolutely transform your teaching business and create life-changing experiences for your students. You just need to know the secrets that separate the retreat leaders who thrive from those who burn out after their first attempt. This is Yoga Teacher Confidential, and I'm Sage Rountree. Today I'm bringing you my colleague Amy Boerner, who's built a thriving retreat business from scratch. She's going to share exactly what she wishes she'd known before leading her first retreat, including why she now requires thousand-dollar deposits and why she'll never cook for her students again. We are talking real numbers, real mistakes, and real solutions. So whether you're dreaming of leading retreats or you've already got one on the books, this is the episode for you. Amy's about to save you from some very expensive lessons. Amy, I'm so excited to have you here. You are my fun collaborator and I know that this is going to be one of our longer podcast episodes on Yoga Teacher Confidential because you and I can yap when we get together. Oh, definitely. So start by telling us what possessed you to start a yoga retreat business. Wow. Well I think, think that it combined. Everything I love to do. I love to travel. I absolutely love yoga, obviously. But I also like to plan and I like to organize and I like to make people happy. And so this seemed like a great thing to do. Sidebar my husband and I opened a yoga studio in January of 2020 and obviously closed down in March of, well, you know, you had to close down your studio too, but for a brand new business it was pretty devastating. Yeah. nice thing about doing yoga retreats is that there really is no capital investment. And so this was another way for me to go, you know, go back into a yoga business, which is what my dream has always been. But not to have as much risk and actually get to travel and do some really fun things. Perfect. I love it. So what goes into making a yoga retreat a success? Oh gosh. You know, so many things I've learned along the way. Because I would say that, you know, each yoga retreat I do gets a little better. So I think one thing that makes Yoga retreats a success is just keep doing them because you'll get better every time. But the first thing I would say is to find. A location that is suitable for a yoga retreat. And I've had the most luck, believe it or not, I've had the most luck with going internationally because I find that people who want to get away for a yoga retreat, at least the the audience that I'm after, they, they wanna go someplace. Exotic new, they want it to be a vacation and a yoga retreat. Now that doesn't mean that you, you know, you can't do a local one and have it really be successful, but for me personally, I've been heading for the international retreats and so I actually have. upon both of my favorite locations based on one, a friend who was there and recommended it to me as a great place for Yoga Retreat. And then the other one just was near a close proximity to a town that I really love. So. I found them that way. But a good yoga retreat venue obviously has to have a great space for yoga. It doesn't have to necessarily be a yoga studio, but it has to be a large room with yoga. It's really awesome if it is a yoga studio because then students don't have to bring their mats and their blocks and all that kind of thing. So both of the locations I've gone internationally have. I have those things, so that's great. other thing you need to do is plan way in advance. And it, you know, people, often don't decide till the last minute, but you need to have your plans in place because these yoga retreat centers, they're wonderful and they fill up quickly. So you wanna have your plan. And so I think those are the top two things. But then the other, the other thing is you need to be really specific with what are the expectations for the retreat. And so have a website and I use my website for advertising my yoga retreats. I also advertise on Instagram and Facebook and such, but my website is where I guide everyone and on my website. Site, I spell everything out. What is included, what is not included. And I think that's really important for students to know. People wanna know, I'm new to yoga. Is this okay for me? Or I'm an advanced yoga. Am I gonna, am I gonna learn anything new? You know, they wanna know those things. And so I'm very, very honest about what the yoga retreat entails, what's included, what's not included. I usually talk about, you know how much the transportation typically is because people wanna know, everyone's worried about the money they're spending. And then I just find that great people end up signing up for yoga retreats. I have not had any stinkers. It's been fantastic. So maybe just don't think that's by accident though. I think that's a consequence of you being really clear on whom you're serving, like who you're calling them in. They're coming because you brought them. It's not just like, oh, this rando happened to stumble upon my website and decide that this was the vibe. Like there, there's an affinity there. And, and when the alignment is already in place, then you're almost guaranteeing a better experience on the ground when you arrive, because you did the pre-work. I, I think you're right. I think you're right. Because if I just said yoga retreat and didn't tell them, has a different idea about what a yoga retreat is. Are we gonna be doing yoga eight hours a day? Some yoga retreats? Yes. Mine? No mine. In fact, I will tell you, we do. We typically three yoga practices a day. And I do, I found this formula that works really well for my students and that is I do something that's kind of spicy and then I do two classes that are appropriate for all levels and the spicy class and one of the all level classes, it's in the morning. The early one is for the, the spicy because I find the people who like spicy don't mind getting up earlier. And so How early is early Oh, it's not even I. early. I mean, heck, it's like vacation early, so it's eight o'clock in the morning, you know, it's eight o'clock in the morning. But for some people when they're on what they perceive as a vacation also, that seems really early. So I usually do my spicy flow, but eight, and then about nine I'll do probably just like a gentle flow and my spicy folks often stay. For that one, just to chill down. And then in the evening I either do restorative and yoga nidra or we'll do a yin class. So something kind of mellow and because we've probably done something really fun and physical during the day, like a hike or gone kayaking or gone snorkeling and that that just works really well., what proportion of the day are you of the three classes you're teaching? Ooh, okay. Well this is something I've learned. I would say 100%. My first retreat, I was like, I felt like I was hosting a five day dinner party, and I wanted to make sure everyone was. all of the time. And so every activity, you know, I was always present at the pool. When they were at the pool. I was always present at every meal and, you know, everything like that. And it was great and, and I enjoyed it. But I will tell you, I was so tired at the end. And so as I continue with my yoga retreats. Realizing I don't have to go snorkeling with them today because they're gonna have a blast. And it doesn't matter if I'm there or not, it has nothing to do with me. And the guides, you know, you know, are fantastic. And and so if I just hang out by the pool or if I go to my room and regroup or take a nap, that's okay. So to answer your question about the percentage, it's gone from a hundred to probably about 75. And are you eating meals with them? Depends on the location. One of my favorite locations is Dominica, and we can talk about that a little bit more late later. But Jungle Bay and Dominica is just, it's. It's got my heart. And that, that location I love because breakfast and lunch, you just go whenever you want. And so that's a nice time where I can grab my breakfast and sit by myself. And I find that people don't say, Hey, can I sit with you, Amy? Because I think they re recognize most people recognize, you know, Amy needs some time. But, but I could. I could. And then lunch is order off the menu. And so people just eat whenever they want. So I would say that dinner though, every night we eat together. Topia retreat, which is awesome also. And that's in Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Theirs is a very intimate setting and we do eat all. Three meals together and lunch and dinner are served like by people. They come and they put their plate on. It's a, a pre-arranged menu. It's absolutely fantastic. I feel like was the best Mexican food I've ever had. It was so good. And then I think you have also planned some retreats where you were way more involved with everything from start to finish. Compare and contrast what that experience is like for you as the retreat leader versus going to a place that is equipped to support you more fully. Great question because when I first when I first started thinking about this idea of retreats, it was. In that COVID time when, you know, classes were still being held at studios, but they were masked. And I thought, you know, I have a group of students that had been doing classes in my backyard. Let's just have a retreat, make everyone have a COVID test and it'll be our little cocoon group. so I rented an Airbnb and there are many Airbnb, VRBO, you know, cabin places you can rent that have plenty of room, and they might even have a big, you know. Rec room for yoga. Who knows? You can, you can rent anything. And then my husband, because he's a chef, I thought, oh, he can do the food. And I went way overboard by sending these very complicated menu request thi things to students like, are you a vegetarian? Are you vegan? Are you gluten free? You know, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to make everyone so happy. And I gave the menu to Eric and he was like. Wow. This is gonna be a little complicated because we have like six different menu preferences here and and it is important that people get to eat what they want. But I do also find like, make sure you have one vegan option. Make sure you have one gluten-free option, but don't offer, like, don't try to do everything for everyone or you will, you will go crazy. So yeah, that took a lot more, effort on my part, and that particular retreat was canceled because two of my crew got COVID before we even started. And so I just canceled the whole thing because I just felt like, okay, it's too soon. But yes, I've done it, I've done it another time, and I just did dinner. I, I I, we did dinner for everyone and that worked. That worked okay. We did a lot of prep work ahead of time. But I will to a tell you, it adds a lot of stress. And what if they don't like it? And then you, you know, it's, it's like dinner party on steroids. like entertaining your new in-laws for the first time. just a lot of pressure, so It's, it's a, yeah. Dinner party with your, with your partner's boss. And that's what it feels like the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. I've, I learned pretty early on that a, I'm not really the retreat. Type. I like to be a hostess, but only up to a particular point. I do a lot better when I go to an establishment like Kripalu where they handle everything and I kind of hide out when I'm not interacting with my students. That just as an extroverted introvert, I think manages my own energy the best so that I can serve my students well. The teaching portions of the retreat or training are happening, but another thing I learned from my first. The kind of DIY, like hosting my own yoga and running retreats was I had to bring a cruise director and I would yeah, bring my husband Wes and he would be kind of the, the face of the couple and, and do a lot of the schmoozing and socializing.'cause I just couldn't do, I did not physically have that energy, let alone mentally and emotionally to be doing that. Agreed. Agreed. I, I, I think that it's really important for anyone who hosts a yoga retreat to really check in with who they are, I mean, and what they're comfortable doing. And I would guess, I, I would also recommend that you start small, you start, or maybe not even small, but start with a lot of assistance. Start at a place that does everything for you, and then when you're really comfortable with the idea of a retreat. know, like, oh, I wish I had more time with these people. Then maybe change it. Or, oh, I wish I was cooking for these people, which I doubt many people are ever gonna say. No, it sounds, it sounds nice for a hot minute while you're thinking about it, but no, you really, really don't wanna be making that kind of commitment. And I think you'll be a better yoga teacher. Honestly. You'll be more present if you don't Mm-hmm. think about all those details. And really, ultimately that's what it's all about, is being present for your students. They don't care if you are, know, teaching them how to do a handstand for the first time in their lives. They don't care about that at all. They just want your presence and they want you to notice them and pay attention to their needs. And and so. That's a big, big lesson. I will tell you, and I think I mentioned this to you earlier, but I think it's a funny thing to, to note is that when I did my first yoga retreat internationally, I didn't even make a penny off of it on purpose. It was probably a dumb thing to do, but it took a lot of pressure off of me. I just charged my. And I told everyone, okay guys, you are my group. You're my, I called them my beta group. And I said, and after this retreat you know, you have to te you have to give me honest feedback. You have to allow me to use your pictures all over my website. And there was a third thing, oh, you need to tell all your friends how great it was if you enjoyed it. And I quickly got 20 people signed up.'cause heck, that was a heck of a deal. And and we had a blast, but it took so much pressure off of me for that first retreat. so I don't think you'd have to do that. But I'll tell you what, I learned a lot. And they were really, they took their jobs very seriously and gave me incredible feedback. And I use. Every suggestion that they gave me. So know, you might wanna just let two of your friends go at your cost. You don't have to let Yeah. Yeah. That's a great idea though. I used a beta group when I created Mastering the Art of Yoga sequencing my mentorship membership. And it was, it was so informative for me. And that program is what it is today because of that beta group. And they didn't even really know what they were signing up for. So they were open and, and they helped me build it into something. Beautiful, but it, I needed that kind of feedback. So I can see a good argument for maybe not the whole group, but having at least a few people come at a cut rate with the promise to lay it on you and really tell you what's working and what isn't working, and you need them to be the kind of people who you appreciate and want to hear feedback from, but it's really powerful. having a test group is a great idea and getting, I think after every retreat it's a good idea to send a, a, a questionnaire because one, you, you get great feedback, but also it keeps a connection to your students and they realize that it's not a one and done. Like, you're not giving them this retreat and then you don't care what they thought. You know, it's, it's a nice way of keeping the connection and also. I have to say that my students have like all become friends and you know, I have students that came from Washington State and California who are regular communicators with my friends in North Carolina and Georgia and, you know, Maine. It's, it's wonderful that they built these connections and they plan hopefully to meet again at one of my yoga retreats. Oh, I love it. And getting that Yeah. plus the feedback, the constructive feedback that helps you grow, but also the testimonials that you can use as social proof to pull more people in. Tell me where you're finding your retreat students. How do they get to you? That's a great question. And I, fortunately, I've been teaching yoga a really long time and I have a, a pretty good community in the, the triangle area, which for people who are watching this, it's, you know, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. But I realize that, you know, it's gonna run out. You know, I mean, there are plenty of people there, but I don't know everybody. So I have leaned really heavily on, just spreading the word to everyone I know. All my yogis. My, I'm fortunate, I guess, that I had a really strong online community during COVID post post yoga studio. I, I taught two classes a day for two years from my living room, and I had students not just. In North Carolina, or even in this country, I had some international students. And so all of them, they're on my mailing list. I let them know when I'm doing a retreat and I ask that they kindly share the information. So right now I am doing more of a, you know, friends of friends type situation. I do find that, instagram has brought me a few people. I will say that you have to be cautious because Instagram can als, I'm sure you've seen this in your business. Instagram can bring you bots and. Creepy people you don't necessarily want on a retreat. And so I make sure that every single person who comes on my retreat, I have a video chat with them before they come. I do it just, I mean, if it's someone I know, I might skip that part, but. If it's someone I've never met before, I feel like it's my obligation as the leader of the retreat to assure that the retreat is comfortable and safe. And, you know, I can't control anybody's behavior. It's not my responsibility. However, I just feel like. It's my obligation to kind of screen people, and most people are absolutely fine, but you know, you just get a vibe when you have a video chat with someone and the questions they ask are a little bit off, and then I can, you know, I can say, oh gosh, you know what? That spot just filled up. Or, I don't think this is the retreat for you. Yeah. Well that's a Yeah. the expectations as well as to, yeah, ensure the cohesiveness of the group, but for you to make sure that people understand like what the level of physicality is going to be, what the quality of the food is going to be, what, like, how much interaction they're going to have with you. All of that ensures that everybody has the best experience. Absolutely. And you know, I I teach a free yoga class online every Sunday. And anyone, anyone can come to it, it's, it's free. It will stay free. And the reason I do that is that. If someone is interested in going on one of my yoga retreats, I want them to know who I am, what my vibe is, what my style is. And so if they're asking me questions about it, I'll say, Hey, why don't you come to a couple of my Sunday classes and we can stay afterwards and talk? And so I have gotten people to come. Even people I know. Who aren't really into yoga. They started coming to my yoga classes and they're like, oh, I can do this. This is fun. And so I love it and it keeps me also connected to a larger community that I wouldn't have if I were, you know, just teaching in a couple studios. So, That's a fantastic marketing tool and yeah, a great way for folks to make sure that they align with what you're going to be offering. What Sure. Yeah. you had known at the beginning of your retreat leading experience? that's a really great question too, because I wish I'd known that you need to give, you need to ask, you need to request a deposit that hurts to lose because, you know, I guess I might be cheap because to me, a deposit of $500 would hurt me to lose. I mean, I'll be fine without it, but. You know, it, it, I, I, I wouldn't put$500 down on something if I weren't, but I realized that a lot of people don't mind losing 500 or even $750. So I am getting to the point where my deposits are a lot higher. They're at the thousand dollars level, but my retreats typically are around $2,500. And the reason I do that is because if someone drops out, be, you know. I always require paid in full at least a month before the retreat because that's what most of the places want their money by then. And you can be left, you know, with an obligation. You, you, you contracted for 10 rooms and you've got. You know, not enough people to fill them or something. And so that just assures that I have the money to cover my expenses. Should someone drop out. I, with the first retreat I did, I also said, I'll give you your retreat, your deposit back if I can find someone to fill your spot. But I'm not doing that anymore because it's, I'd still rather have a person in that spot and that gives people the permission to. Feel like, oh, if I, if it, if I decide I don't want this, I probably can get my money back. And I'm not trying to trick anybody. I just don't wanna, it's a business for me. I don't wanna lose money. So. the numbers have got to work out for you. I mean, as much as we wish we could all be giving yoga away for free, the only way we can do that is when yoga is also paying our bills and covering our expenses and not burning us out. Absolutely. And we need to realize our value. And I know you're really good about that because I think as yoga teachers we tend to be people that are compassionate and you wanna give, and you know, we probably do a lot of giving in our lives, but we also need to realize that, you know, we are worth. We have a, we have a dollar amount that we're worth. And so the, the other thing I, I this is a silly thing, but the other thing I would've done, done differently is and sometimes you don't know until, you know, is providing packing lists like really. Specific packing lists, and you don't really know when you go to a location, you can guess, you can ask the people there, but there are certain things, like, for example, when you go to Dominica, there's a, a drive from the airport to Jungle Bay. It's a beautiful drive. It's fascinating. The, the driver tells you all about this interesting stuff as you're driving. But if you're a person who has motion sickness. You are not gonna like it too much 'cause you're in the mountains and it's curvy. And I didn't know this and I had a student who got really motion sick and I know that sounds like a very small thing, but on my second retreat there, I told people, Hey, if you get motion sickness in a car. Make sure you take care of yourself. And I even told them about these little glasses you can buy on Amazon. They're really funny and they keep the horizon always level. They're pretty cool. But anyway, so people bought those, people took their Dramamine whatever they needed, and no one got sick. But on that first trip, one person got sick. You know, when one person gets sick, it prompts other people. This is Yeah. Confidential, like we are Yeah, well, yeah. No, and I wasn't, you know, and, and I wasn't on the bus.'cause that's another thing that I think is important to know. You need to come as a teacher a day early at least to get the lay of the land. And then if you can, if you can do it at all, stay a day late, stay a day late, just so you can relax and enjoy the space. And it will, it will make. Your likelihood of doing it again much higher because you have that day to just kind of process and not travel and not burn yourself out. So going back with the group, everyone's a little bummed. Leaving and having to sit in the airport with your group is just, it, it it's, yeah. Just let them go and then you stay by the pool and you know, open a bottle of champagne. Yeah. I love it. This is Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I Yes. I know champagne is your favorite word. It's so look at the bubbles behind me. So before we move on to talk more Dominica, and because this is secrets like yoga teacher confidential, I wanna Yeah. Amy is going to come to Comfort Zone Yoga and give a whole hour long call about what she's learned leading retreats. So if you have hard questions for Amy, if you wanna hear like percentages and talk numbers, you'll definitely want to come to Amy's call when we have the comfort zone conversations and the topic is yoga retreats I would be happy to answer any questions, but I will come with some slides best practices. I'll talk about finances. I'll talk about liability waivers. Also things like. Extra medical insurance re recommending that to your students. I'll also talk about doing a general yoga retreat as opposed to a specific yoga retreat. And also talk about theming because I always have a theme attached to my yoga retreat. In fact, my upcoming December retreats because they're right in the middle. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm doing cultivating gratitude and cultivating peace, and everything we do will kind of ha come back to that, which we could all use in that crazy holiday season. So, I love it. So this yeah. be a value packed call, especially because it costs free dollars and free cents. So folks can sign up at the link in the show notes, or they can come to Comfort Zone Yoga and Join the Zone, which is our free community focused on teacher development and sign up there. There will also be a recap afterwards, so RSVP as a yes, even if you know, you won't be able to make it live.

It's on Thursday, October 9th at 2:

00 PM but again, a replay will be available. Now I wanna talk about Dominica. Tell us what makes Yes. Bay so special, and then tell the people what you and I are scheming on for 2026. So excited. Well, jungle Bay is this incredible resort in Dominica. It's on the Southwest side, so it's the Caribbean side, Dominica, in case you don't know, it's between Martinique and Guadalupe. And it's just an incredible gorgeous, uh, tropical and volcanic island. So. I think any place in Dominica is probably gorgeous and wonderful. But Jungle Bay is perfect for yoga retreats or just yoga in general because, uh, they have two absolutely gorgeous studios. They're open air, they do have air conditioning if it's, you know, brutally hot, but I've never turned the air on when I've been there because there's a breeze off the Pacific. But gorgeous studios, they have a spa and they have uh, beautiful rooms. I just gorgeous rooms that they're villas and villa suites. Also the food there is incredibly healthy, incredibly fresh, organic, local. A lot of it is actually grown on the property. They really use a lot of local herbs and in fact everyone who comes there is welcome to participate in an herbal medicine class and where you just learn about. All the medicinal plants that are there. And it's like it's a pharmacy and people in Dominica, it's, it's in the blue zone. People often live to be over 100 and it's because of the way they eat. And they walk a lot. They walk a lot because it's hilly. So also, I can't talk about Jungle Bay without saying that the owner, his name is Sam Rafael, he's one of the most interesting men I've ever met in my life. He is like. He embodies yoga, everything. He, he is mindful, he is present. He has this balance between, um. You know, steer and tka, he's, he goes hard, he's very successful developer, but he also knows when to sit back and chill. He, his, it's, he's a rags to riches story and he gives back to the community, and I like to support Jungle Bay because he supports the people of Dominica and it just feels like it's a place to do yoga. Mm-hmm. why I love it. But the exciting part is, is that for the first time ever at Jungle Bay, ever, ever, ever, ever there is going to be a yoga teacher training, and Sage and I are leading it. So I will be doing the segment at Jungle Bay, but Sage is gonna do the first part Virtually in a very hybrid format. So it's gonna be flexible for so many different people. And and then after, and that'll start as early as January 1st, correct? Sage is that. curriculum good to go by January 1st. It self-paced. People can come in and move through it on their own timeline, so you'll get, you'll get some of me and some of Amy, you'll get some of the like online working on your own time, the kind of the heady stuff, the pedagogy I'm here to help you with. And then on the ground in Dominica with Amy, like the in your body stuff and the practice teaching, which is a huge opportunity as well. Yeah. Jungle Bay has really embraced this idea. And, and when I, I brought up the idea of, of Sage and I doing this, they were like, yes, we would love that. And so they're willing to give our students opportunities to practice, teach with the actual visitors to Jungle Bay. Not everyone goes there for yoga. They come there for hiking, free diving, whale watching, you know, relaxation. And so we can offer practice teaching to these, to these actual people. And you know, I know that from my yoga teacher training from my 200 hour, I remember it was hard to get in your practice teaching. We had to teach to each other. And then that took all of our time. So you're actually gonna be able to teach to or students are actually gonna be able to teach to, to real people and get feedback in real time. And then the other really cool thing is as you know, Siva is a big part, you know, contribute, giving back charitable work. Jungle Bay is going to help us find a really impactful community project, and we will spend a day probably, you know working in a school or cleaning something up. They had a terrible hurricane a few years back and it, and because it is kind of a poor country outside of the walls of of Jungle Bay and other resorts. There's some work to be done and so we can really make an impactful, an impact. We can make an impact on the, the country. So it's, it's pretty cool. I'm really excited. I'm really excited too. So it's going to be a yoga alliance registered, 200 hour yoga teacher But if folks have already done a 200 and are listening, doesn't hurt to do it twice. You're gonna learn a no. of different stuff when you learn from different teachers and a. Especially if you have been teaching for a little while after your first 200. Always really interesting to come back around the spiral and start again with experienced eyes instead of naive eyes. So I'm really excited about it. We are here to answer anybody's questions. You can hit me up. You can contact Amy via her website, which I'll put in the show notes. And we are really excited to to see y'all on the ground in Dominica. Or Amy is at least Yes. I make it, I want I am so excited. I hope you, I hope you get there. I think we should just go next weekend. So not only is Amy my Yeah. colleague, but she's also my student. She did her 500 hour yoga teacher training with me and Amy has seen inside both teaching Yoga to athletes, which is my signature program and my 300 hour like required module it's actually 150 hours. It's half of my 300 hour YTT mastering the art of yoga sequencing my mentorship membership. Amy, before I let you go, do you want to share any secrets of what goes Yeah. the curtain in either of those programs? Yeah, I, well, I'll tell you what I love about it and, and what I've learned. So I love about, I love the fact that Sage has set it up so that it is very flexible. I join whenever I can and you know, I, I'm, I'm, I'm busy like we all are. And so sometimes sometimes it's always best, I think if you join the live calls because you can have interaction. But, sage has podcast. You know, there's a podcast version. There's you can always, everything is recorded and so that's really fantastic. But what I love is that it's just a group of yoga teachers from all over the country and the world, to be honest. And you get so many different perspectives. And some really good peer to peer feedback. Peer to peer.. And I also love the fact that Sage gives us some, like, she calls 'em recipes and they're just little nuggets of sequences that we can incorporate into what we're doing now. And I, it's just nice. I think sometimes as teachers, I know I'm blabbing. I knew what I was gonna say and then I got all blah, but, sometimes as teachers, and I'm talking, I'm speaking for myself, you kind of get stuck in your own patterns. And this has allowed me to look at things differently and rethink some of these things I've been doing.'cause I've been teaching yoga a really long time and I'm like. It doesn't have to be that way. And I have the freedom to experiment and get some fresh eyes on my experiments and get some feedback. So I really love that. And then the, the teaching yoga for athletes. Skipping over to that part, if you don't mind. I love, I love that because. I thought I knew how to teach yoga to athletes. I've been teaching yoga to athletes my whole yoga career. I have athletes in there. Sometimes I have spillovers from, you know, UNC basketball and football teams. They come sometimes, you know, I am working with someone who's a triathlete. Those are all athletes. I'm like, I know what I'm doing. But the yoga for athletes really has made me look at it in a different way. I, I, I like the I, I can't remember what you call it, sage off the top of my head. But you know, just like the fact that when an athlete is really high in their training, the yoga should be really low. It's, it's the balance and proportion, right? Thank you. The principal. overload them. So we look in that program, we look through the lens of exercise physiology and find What is yoga's place in an athlete's training regimen. Yeah, I love this activity I just completed where you one of the suggested activities, for example, was to look at training schedule for a sport that you're interested in. So I did basketball 'cause I recently had a request to create a proposal for a basketball, an NBA teams yoga retreat. And I was like, yes, so I'm gonna do basketball. So I, i, I compared three different yoga train or not yoga training programs for basketball that I found online and looked at 'em, and they had a lot of similarities, but they also had some differences. And then it makes me wonder, like. Hmm. You know, which one is best. And then learning what I've learned from Sage about training. I have opinions about which ones I think are best, but I'm not a yoga, I'm not a basketball trainer. But, but it's really interesting to think how would I compliment each of these phases with yoga? And that's what I think the purpose of the activity was. And I've certainly learned a lot and realized I've made some mistakes in the past. Hopefully never caused anyone, you know, to lose to lose a race or anything. It's really interesting and I think. Another another thing that I've learned or started, started to think about in the course of the Yoga for athletes is I could really capitalize on this with my retreat business. I could do day retreats for athletes. I could reach out to teams local to, you know, I don't live in the triangle anymore. I could reach out to different teams and say, Hey, I can help and this is why. And I have some solid. Background and you know, it, it, I'm a, i, I I will be a professional. Whereas before I was a yoga teacher who knew a little bit about athletes and now I will be a yoga teacher who knows a lot. So it's really valuable to me. Sage, Oh, yay. I love to hear that. And I love how you looped it around full I back to, and now I can use this skill in my yoga retreat business, which is fantastic. absolutely. Amy, thanks for Okay. I hope that folks will join us for Yoga retreat hosting 1 0 1 which I helps you. on October 9th. And then we also do have scheduled in comfort zone conversations and info call about our 200 hour yoga teacher training. So if folks are interested in the best of both worlds, you get the quality education the pedagogy that I'll be teaching you, and then also this fantastic trip to Dominica to do service, to study with Amy and to eat that delicious. Food, maybe take a Then come to the info call and we will be happy to tell you more about it. So there you have it. The unfiltered truth about building a successful yoga retreat business. From Amy's beta group strategy to her three classes a day formula, these are the insights that only come from actually being in the trenches. Remember, Amy's going to dive even deeper into the numbers and logistics in our free Comfort Zone Yoga Conversation on October 9th, 2025 at 2:00 PM Eastern. We are talking liability waivers, insurance deposits, and all those nitty gritty details that can make or break your retreat. Head to the show notes for the registration link. It's completely free and there will be a replay if you can't make it live. If you're catching this way after the fact, look for a replay on my YouTube channel. And if you are ready to take your teaching to the next level by revisiting the basics, remember, Amy and I are cooking up something special for 2026, our hybrid 200 hour yoga teacher training that combines online learning with an incredible experience at Jungle Bay Eco Resort in Dominica. You'll get the pedagogy and the theory with me online, then head to Paradise with Amy for the hands-on practice teaching. Plus you'll actually teach real resort guests, not just your fellow trainees. Links to everything we talked about are in the show notes, including Amy's website. If you want to check out her upcoming retreats, remember that your teaching journey doesn't have to be a solo adventure. I'm here for you. Amy is here for you. All your colleagues in Comfort Zone Yoga are here for you. Sometimes the best secrets are the ones we share. Until next time, keep teaching, keep learning, and start thinking about where you'd love to lead your first or next yoga retreat. I'm Sage Rountree. This is Yoga Teacher Confidential. See you next time.

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