The Yoga Career Shift I Was Afraid to Make

In this personal episode of Yoga Insider, I'm sharing about the shift I made towards building a fully independent yoga career outside of the traditional studio model.

This conversation is reflective - studios & community centers were foundational in my development as a yoga teacher, and I wouldn't be where I am today without the opportunities that were passed along to me by other teachers and business owners.

Over time, my priorities began to shift, and as I stepped more deeply into offering education, mentorship, and pre-registered programming, I realized I needed a different model in order to sustainably continue this work long-term.

In this episode, I reflect on:

- The financial reality of teaching yoga full-time, and the ceiling that many teachers hit working within traditional studio models.

- Why I started having more honest conversations with other yoga teachers about sustainability in the yoga industry.

- The emotional transition from studio teacher to independent educator and how becoming independent helped me let go of the need for external validation.

This episode is about evolution and how your personal business model can change with you as you grow.

Instagram: @alexandria.waycott

YouTube: @yogainsiderpodcast

Website: www.alexandriawaycottyoga.com

Send me an email! alexandriawaycottyoga@gmail.com

Music & Production by Kyler Pierce

Photography featured in cover art by Colton Muma

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome back to Yoga Insider Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Wacott. If you're new here, I've been a yoga teacher for the past 14 years and I've built a fully independent yoga business that doesn't rely on studio classes. I offer pre-registered yoga series in my community as well as continuing education for yoga teachers who want to refine their skills. Over the years, I've learned a lot about what it takes to build a sustainable career in the yoga industry. And part of my purpose is to have real conversations with yoga teachers around the world about what it's actually like to work in the modern yoga industry. That is what Yoga Insider Podcast is for. I'm so glad that you're here. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and let's dive into today's episode together. All right, it is good to be back in the studio as always. I hope that you're having a good week wherever you are tuning in from. And I thought that I would give you a little like weekly recap to start out today. Um, because one of the perks of being an independent yoga teacher is that every week is different. And um it it can be, I would say it's a perk. Like it's fun that that every week is different. Um, and this was one of those weeks where there's like lots of different things going on. Um, now the anchor in every week for me is my pre-registered yoga classes that I run out of the local museum. Um, those classes are obviously a highlight of my week. I love that they're like at the same time, on the same nights of the week, at the same place. It's like just such a good feeling to kind of come back to that consistency, even if the rest of the week is always changing and always looking different for me throughout the month. Um, and this month I actually have like a lot of students who've been away on vacation. Um, but at the same time, I have quite a few new students who are like coming in to try out the classes. So I feel like the numbers are balancing out, and like even though there's quite a few people away, there's also like new students coming in. Um, and I love that. So that was a great part of my week. Um, this week I also kind of completed one of the tasks that I'd had on like the back burner for like over a month for sure, and I was like, I need to get that done. And that was designing um little postcards with like QR codes on them to put out into the community to promote my pre-registered yoga classes. Um, so I designed those, I ordered them, they should be coming in the mail in the next couple of days. And I feel like one of my more recent podcast episodes, I believe it's titled Rethinking Social Media as a Yoga Teacher. Um after I made that episode, I found myself kind of feeling like re-inspired to include more physical marketing materials as part of like the marketing for the work that I do. Um, and like I do, you know, make posters for things from time to time. A lot of the times it's more for like if I'm gonna be running a 200-hour training. Um, but yeah, I uh I like having like something physical in my hand that I can hold. And the museum that I teach at has like a little gift shop where they have all these like brochures and things for like things happening in the community. And I'm like, okay, I need to have my own little cards in here for the classes that actually happen at the museum. So I got those all made and ordered, and they're coming really soon. Um, I also locked in some dates for some local yoga retreats happening this summer, this July. Um, so it felt really good to get like all the deposits sorted out and all the details done. Um, I set up some like email campaigns that will go to my email newsletter about those retreats. Um yeah, so just like you know, some admin tasks and things like that, but all fun. This week I also had my quarterly fit session at Lululemon. So I am currently a yoga ambassador for uh my local Lululemon store. And when you are a Lululemon ambassador, um, one of the perks of the role is that every quarter you are invited into the store to basically learn about like all of the new product and like try it on and try on all the clothes, and then they send you home with like a really big haul of gear to test out and like wear, you know, while you're teaching, while you're working out, and like actually kind of see how the product feels. So I am quite pleased with my selection and all of the uh comfy comfy fits that I got to take home with me this week. Um and as part of that as well, um, in collaboration with Lululemon, I am planning some big like free event style yoga classes coming up this summer. So if you are local to the Fraser Valley area here in British Columbia, I will share about those summertime event classes on social media and in my newsletter as soon as the information is available. So keep your eyes open for those. Um, this past week I also got to attend a chair yoga workshop. So one of my colleagues, um, Erin is just about finished her yoga therapy training and she put together such a lovely chair yoga workshop where I feel like it was really like tailored towards anybody who sits. And I just went for myself for my own exploration. Like I taught chair yoga for years. I know that it feels really good. Um, and I also went just to see if there was any inspiration, maybe to share with my own students. You know, like there's there's just always something to learn. And um, we did some myofascial release with like a little therapy ball. We did some work with resistance bands. Um, and just like one of my biggest takeaways from the workshop was that we don't need to work to 100% of our capacity in a yoga practice or a mobility practice or a workout for it to be effective. So in this cherry yoga workshop, all of the work that we did was like quite subtle, but the difference could be felt right away. And I loved how, like, even just when I was driving home afterwards, I felt like my posture was a little bit better. I felt like my breathing was different, and I don't know, it was just like a really good reminder that things don't need to be intense to make a difference and be effective for our students. So it was just such a lovely workshop. It was fun to just go to something like that. Um, I also had a birthday this week. There was lots happening. Um, I turned another year older. Uh my this is funny. This is not related to yoga. Um, but I asked my mom, like I try to give her like a specific list of like a couple of things that I want for like birthdays and holidays. Um, and I I had watched like the Heated Rivalry TV series, um, and I really liked it. And then I decided that I should read the book. And so for my birthday, I got the Heated Rivalry book. Um, and I'm trying to save it because I have like a long haul flight coming up in like two weeks from now. And I was like, that's gonna be the perfect plane reading because I know that I'm just gonna like devour the book really quickly. Um, but I'm resisting the urge to like go read it right now. Um, and it's kind of fun because like I guess I I feel like the Heated Rivalry book and like series is probably classified as like like romance genre. I please correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but that is not a genre that I've like ever been inclined to read. And this is coming from someone who was a lit major in university. Um, never been into like romance books. It was never something I would be inclined to like buy or pick up off the shelf. Um, but once I saw the TV series, I was like, I need to read Heated Rivelry, but I feel like I'm just gonna go through it so fast that I'm gonna need to read the other books in the series too. So I'm almost thinking, like, should I buy one of the other books as well so that I can read like both of them on the plane? I don't know. If you're listening to this and you are a heated rivalry fan, let me know. Um, yeah, but it was it was a good birthday, and then this year I taught yoga on my birthday, and I can confirm that that is such a nice way to end the day. And just like, yeah, it was lovely. It felt so good, so very fun. Um I went to a gig for uh one of the bands that my husband plays in, and uh they just recently ordered merch for their band. So they ordered a run of like uh CDs and vinyls and stickers, and like I think they have t-shirts coming. Um, and like just at the moment, they only have the CDs and the stickers, and so because they had merch, I was like, okay, you guys need to be like selling merch at all of your shows. Um, so my job at the gig was to sell the merch. And uh not very many people bought merch, but it was just like the first gig of the summery season. So I feel like it's gonna get better as things go along. Um, and it was like it was funny because I had set up at this table and I was like, you know, with the merch there in case people wanted to buy it, but I was set up next to this booth that was for like the uh revolutionary communist party, like they had a booth with um like flyers and information, and and the irony was not lost on me that I was like trying to do capitalism next to the communism booth. So that also happened. Um again, not yoga related, but just another part of my week um being married to a musician. Um, and then I also like I went to a hot yoga class. I actually went to two hot yoga classes. And um one of my personal conundrums lately is that I've just been struggling to find like a yoga class that I want to attend that fits my schedule that isn't super, super far away. And like obviously I can practice yoga at home. I do practice yoga at home. It's nice to roll out my mat and maybe do a video. And you know, there's certain online platforms that I enjoy. But as you all know, listening to this, nothing is the same as like going to a class and like being in a studio and being there with a real teacher. Um, and where I live, like where my house is, I just feel like there's nothing close by. Like there isn't a class or a studio in my neighborhood or in my area. And regardless of the direction that I choose to drive, because there's like studios and places to practice in like a radius all around my area, I'm still probably having to drive like at least 35 minutes to go to a class. And so I've been thinking about this a lot and I'm like, where do I want to go practice? Like, I'm just I don't know, I'm just saying this all out loud, but like this is just something that I've been struggling with lately. Um, and I know that it's like just part of the ebb and flow of being a yoga teacher is like finding a place that I want to practice and a place that I want to do yoga. Um and part of it too is like sometimes you don't even want to practice all the time, like in your own community, because you want to be able to go to a place where like you aren't the teacher. I don't know. I just feel like sometimes there's this pressure where like you go to classes and then like you see all your students and like people that you know, and like even though you love them and you want to see them, like sometimes you also just want to be anonymous and like not have anybody pay attention to you. And and that's kind of something that I guess I've been struggling with. Um and so, anyways, I was like, I really want to go to a class. Where am I gonna go? And uh there is a studio that I really like in Washington State, which I know sounds crazy, but I live super close to the US border. Um, so it's like not that far for me to go there, and it's totally like worth the drive. But then I remembered that it is a long weekend here in BC. It's like Victoria Day, and a lot of Canadians cross the border for the long weekend, and I was like, I don't want to wait in a border lineup and then probably miss my yoga class. Um, but I ended up seeing that a friend of mine who teaches yoga had like switched her teaching nights, and anyway, she was gonna be teaching at a studio that I'd never been to before. Um, it's not in my town, but I was like, I'm gonna go out and take her class. And so I actually took two classes and they were heated classes, but it was kind of like reduced heat. So it wasn't as hot as like a, I don't know, typical or traditional hot yoga studio. Um, it was like just like a really, I don't know, like a warm sauna feeling. It wasn't intense heat. Um, and so I took two of her classes and like I've been to her classes before, but I took two of her classes back to back, and it was honestly really lovely, and I had like such a good sleep afterwards. And I used to teach hot yoga like years and years and years ago, and I like I forgot about that feeling of like being in the heat at night and then just like showering and going to bed, and like how good your body feels. Um, so that was like kind of an interesting revelation for me, and I can definitely see myself going to those classes and enjoying those classes, um, not in excess, because again, I feel like if I do too much hot yoga, it depletes me. But because the heat was like so gentle at this specific studio, I was like, oh, this is like totally manageable. It was really nice. Um, so I'll keep you posted on my own, I don't know, finding a place to practice kind of journey. Um, but that was good. It like it gave me hope. And I think that I think that I'll be back. So I'll I'll come back to that soon. Um, yeah, and I did not cross the border to go to yoga class, which is good. Um, so yeah, speaking of studios, uh today's episode is kind of fun because I'm actually diving into one of the things that I always say on the intro of the podcast, which is that I have built a yoga teaching career that doesn't rely on studio classes. And I want to preface this episode by saying that this conversation is nuanced, it's not black and white. Um, this is by no means an anti-studio episode. And most of my friends in the yoga world who are like listening to this podcast, most of you teach in studios or you've managed studios, some of you even own studios. I go to studios to practice and take trainings. Like, this is not against studios whatsoever. Um, this episode is more just to talk about the fact that like there are other ways of running a yoga business and other possibilities available to you as an independent yoga teacher outside of the typical studio model. Um, so that's all I'm kind of getting into today. And this isn't necessarily an episode where I'm talking like strategy or like step-by-step process to, I don't know, go out and build your independent yoga business. I would say that this is more of like a think piece or like a bit of a reflective episode on like just some of the things that made me say, hmm, maybe this isn't gonna be sustainable for me in the long term. And like, this is what I've got to do to um make my work sustainable. So this episode is really about the evolution of like how your personal business model can sometimes change over time as you change over time and as your teaching evolves. So yoga studios and community centers were absolutely the foundation of my development as a yoga teacher. And I would not be who I am today. I would not be where I am today without the opportunities that were passed on to me earlier in my teaching career. There were teachers who had been doing this longer than I had, who were able to kind of see me before I could see myself as a teacher. And those were the people who were like, hey, Alex, you just finished your training, like, come teach at my studio. These were the teachers who were like, Can you take over these classes for me? Can I give you these classes that I'm kind of, you know, wanting to pass off? I'm wanting to decrease my workload or whatever. Um, those opportunities, like those initial opportunities that were given to me by other teachers way back in the day, like those mattered so much and those really influenced my path moving forward. And so I just want to begin by acknowledging that I have been supported by other yoga teachers and by studios and like spaces, like physical spaces in the community throughout my career as a yoga teacher. And those spaces and those people played a really important role in my development. Um, I feel like studios and community centers are the spaces where I put in the reps and like put in the time. Those are the places where I learn to teach yoga on the job because we all know like we don't actually learn to teach in training. We learn to teach once we finish a training and go out into the world. Um and you know, these spaces are where we learn like those crucial teaching skills like classroom management. It's where you learn to like develop a pace and develop your voice and learn how to cue. You learn how to be adaptable because you are inevitably going to be faced with unexpected situations and things you've never thought of before. Um, you learn how to think on your feet, you learn how to work with different personalities and different bodies, and like there's just like so much richness that comes from teaching in these kinds of spaces. And I feel like community centers in particular and like gym type spaces were also really huge developmental spaces for me. Um, I taught in a lot of community centers and like community gym kind of environments. And I'm really, really grateful for those spaces because they offered such a broad demographic of students. And uh community centers and gyms do tend to have like lower price points compared to like a boutique studio, for example. And I do think that maybe because people are paying, you know, quite a bit less for a class, or maybe they're using a punch pass system, um, those spaces are are more accessible to like a broader range of folks. And so you end up teaching a much wider range of people. And you go into class in those spaces, and you're teaching older adults, you're teaching people who are recovering from injuries, you're teaching beginners who have never been to a yoga class before. Like you have so many different things going on, and it's just truly like the best environment to learn how to teach yoga to real people. Um yeah, I really think that like those spaces are truly what formed and sharpened my skills as a teacher. Now, was the pay amazing? No, it was definitely not amazing. Um like one of the first spaces where I taught yoga was like a community center type gym, and the pay was literally like just over whatever minimum wage was at the time for like an hour. It was it was something crazy. It was like$17 a class or$18, or it was ridiculous. Um, yeah, the pay was not good. Um, but you know, that's that season of my Career served a really important purpose. And that purpose was to develop my skills on all levels. And I think sometimes when we're having conversations about sustainability and like, you know, that you've got to like think outside the box and diversify your streams of income and do all of these different things to make teaching yoga sustainable. I think a lot of newer yoga teachers want to have that sustainability immediately because they might see more experienced yoga teachers running pre-registered classes and workshops and retreats, and they're like, okay, I'm gonna do that right away. And I do think like you should absolutely experiment with those things if you feel called to them. But there's often this kind of like developmental phase where you need to get out into the community and teach. And that is one of the places where teaching in community centers and gyms and studios comes in so handy. And when you're a new teacher, like you might be teaching in really awkward time slots, time slots that aren't super popular or super busy. You might be taking lower pay. You might also just be experimenting with spaces that don't necessarily align with you, but like you don't know always until you try them. And yeah, you're just out there kind of trying to figure out what fits. And so I'm saying this because as a newer teacher, like those spaces were really, really important for me. But one of the biggest factors for me, and I think, you know, one of the biggest factors for a lot of yoga teachers in my shift, which was gradual, from being primarily like a studio teacher into becoming an independent yoga teacher, was like the financial reality and the financial ceiling, if you will, that comes along with studio teaching. I can only speak from my personal experience and from what I have observed over the past like 14 plus years working in the industry. Um, but the reality is that yoga teacher pay rates have not changed a lot. Now I know that people are getting paid more than minimum wage to teach a class. Um, I thankfully I don't hear of anybody getting paid like$17 anymore uh to teach a yoga class. But just generally speaking, like studio rates for yoga teachers haven't gone up a ton. Um, and I know for a fact that there are some yoga teachers out there in my area who are making the same rates, you know, in studios that I was being paid 14 or 15 years ago when I first started teaching. We also all know that in that span of time, so over the last like decade and a bit, inflation has increased, rent has increased, and that goes both for like, you know, personal rent, like in the housing market, but also commercial rent. Um, the price of gas has increased, insurance has increased, the cost of pursuing continuing education has gone up, the cost of living in general has gone up, and this is for everybody. So this isn't like teachers against studios or anything like that. This is like life has gotten expensive for everybody involved in the picture. Um, and so it's not just yoga teachers that are under financial pressure, it's also studio owners. Commercial rent is so expensive, and I know this personally because back earlier in the year, when I was trying to find a new space to move my pre-registered classes to, I was looking at all of my options. And some of those options were to potentially take on a commercial lease. And I know the prices out there, they're crazy. Like, there are so many expenses that come along with running a studio, right? It's not just your rent and paying, you know, the wages to the teachers. Like, there's so many other things to think about. Um, operating costs are really, really high. And then we also have to remember that like a lot of our students are financially stretched as well. And there's only so much that you can charge for like a drop-in fee or a monthly membership. And it just creates this like perpetual cycle, if you will, where yeah, we we can only charge so much per class, you can only fit so many people in the space. The operating costs for the studio are what they are, and there's a limit a lot of the times on the potential revenue that the studios can bring in. And then that means that teachers can only be paid so much. And, you know, this is really about like the limitations of the studio business model in itself, and those limitations are impacted by systems and powers that are so much bigger than us as individuals. So I think we have to like remember the big picture here. And eventually, like when you're trying to work in that system as a yoga teacher, um, you will hit a ceiling where like the math just doesn't add up anymore, the math just doesn't make sense. And I think because a lot of studios are so stretched, and again, I'm generalizing, this doesn't mean that every studio is stretched or that every studio can't give their teacher a raise, but in a lot of circumstances, and you know, based on my personal experience, um, studios just can't give their teachers more money. They can't pay them more. And it's not that they don't want to pay them more, it's not that the teacher isn't amazing or skilled or popular or whatever it is. Um they're they're just like financially limited because of the business model itself. And so a lot of the times for teachers, if we're like, okay, I can't get paid anymore, like I'm I've hit the ceiling, I'm capped out. Um then my other option is to increase the volume of classes that I'm teaching. And so what happens for a lot of us, and what definitely happened to me at one point quite a few years ago, was that I started taking on more and more classes. And so to try to make more money, you're adding more classes to your schedule, but they're not necessarily well-paying classes. You're commuting more, so you're spending more on gas, you're teaching on all of your evenings, you're teaching on all of your weekends. Sometimes you're driving across town multiple times a day, or even driving like between cities to try to get enough classes to fill your schedule. And then that's obviously like the fast track to Bruno that we all know about. Um, and at the end of the day, like you're still barely making enough money to get by. And so I definitely reached a point where I couldn't solve like the financial pressure of teaching in studios um by simply adding more low-paying classes to my schedule. There needed to be another way. And, you know, I have taught in lots of different ways. Like there have been times where I have worked a full-time job not related to yoga, and then taught yoga classes in studios, you know, just maybe one or two evenings a week, and then maybe on the weekend. Um, there have been times where I taught more classes in studios, but kept maybe a part-time job on the side as well to kind of make things balance out. And then there were times where I only taught yoga and only taught studio and community center classes, and then had to like fill my schedule with so many to try to make ends meet. Um, and then there's been times where I have, you know, kind of like today, been able to diversify my streams of income within the yoga industry to make it more sustainable so that I have a little bit more of a balanced schedule. So when I'm, you know, reflecting on all of this, again, it's my personal experience, like teaching in studios, it's gonna be different for everybody. Um, but because I was trying to teach yoga as like my full-time thing or as my only thing, um, I was definitely really stretched. And I was like, it's just not gonna work to keep adding more low-paying classes to my schedule. Now, another factor that influenced my kind of eventual like phasing myself out of studio teaching towards more independent work. Um, and I'm gonna generalize a little bit because not every studio operates this way, and I've taught in lots of different places, so I'm not speaking about one place in particular. Um, but there can sometimes be tension around the like contractor versus employee dynamic in yoga studio spaces. So a lot of the time, generally speaking, legally and financially, yoga teachers are usually contractors. Um, a lot of us operate like as sole proprietors, and there are always exceptions to this, right? Like you'll hear about like the odd place that has their studios, you know, on the payroll as employees, which is super cool. Um but what I found is that there can be sometimes like expectations around your involvement and availability that start to resemble more of like an employee relationship, but it doesn't come along with like the protection and the benefits that employees receive. So it's basically like sometimes you're expected to act like you're an employee and be like as loyal as an employee, but you don't get all the good stuff that comes with being an employee. Um, so in my experience, this sometimes looks like doing unpaid work, um, doing a lot of extra cleaning, being responsible for membership sales, selling merchandise, doing customer service. There can be marketing expectations, social media expectations, um, pressure to sub classes, pressure to attend classes, to go to unpaid meetings, to be part of like team type uh I don't know, experiences. And um, you know, over time, especially like when you do become more experienced and you've been in the industry for a while, it just starts to feel, again, for me, like there's a little bit of a disconnect between the level of responsibility expected from teachers and then the reality of like what it actually means to be a contractor in the workplace. Um, so again, I want to be nuanced here. I know that when we are newer yoga teachers, sometimes we have to say yes to things that involve a bit more of a workload, um, especially because we're gaining experience. And that's not a bad thing. So sometimes, just for the sake of like putting in our reps and getting those hours, we say yes to, you know, a teaching job or a teaching contract that also involves selling memberships and cleaning and and doing a lot of extra tasks that aren't necessarily paid per se. Um, but I feel like eventually when you've been doing something for a really long time, and especially if you're doing it full time, and the pay is not going up and the workload keeps going up, that's where things can start to feel a little bit unsustainable. Um, and that is definitely one of the factors for me in kind of phasing myself out of studio teaching and just trying to find a way that felt more sustainable for me and my life. Now, around the same period of my career when I started like phasing out of studio teaching, I was also stepping into some more leadership in my local community. Um, I was offering different types of peer discussion groups for yoga teachers. I was offering peer mentorship for yoga teachers, I started providing continuing education, I started running um 200-hour yoga teacher trainings. And because of that, because of like the evolution of my work, I found myself in spaces where I was able to have a lot of really honest conversations with other yoga teachers. And we were often talking about things in those spaces like contracts, we were having open discussions about compensation, um, the distinctions between being a contractor versus being an employee, um, and just generally like talking about the realities of sustaining a career in the yoga industry. And my intentions when kind of holding space for these types of conversations was always to encourage professional literacy and to encourage realistic expectations from or for yoga teachers. Um, I was basically saying, like, hey, I've done this for a while. This is kind of what the industry looks like. This is what you can realistically expect, this is what you should know. Um, and it's not like ever to be cynical or anything like that. It's just like this is the reality, especially because a lot of, you know, new teachers and teachers in training don't know how the yoga industry works. And it is such a unique industry that doesn't always operate the same way as like working in corporate, for example. Like there's so many kind of unsaid and unspoken things about working in the yoga industry, even the way that like we get hired sometimes for teaching roles. Um, and I think there was some tension that emerged because these kinds of like realistic business conversations can sometimes feel uncomfortable in like really highly curated wellness environments. Um, and sometimes there's this idea that's perpetuated that like yoga and teaching yoga should exist outside of conversations around money or around labor. Um, but I think the reality is that if we want yoga teaching to be sustainable long term, then we have to be able to talk honestly about those kinds of things. And because I was stepping into more leadership and influencing other teachers with those conversations, those conversations carried a lot of weight because I wasn't sugarcoating the realities of a career in yoga anymore. And I feel like that is something about me that hasn't changed. Um, that's part of the reason that I started this podcast. Why I started Yoga Insider was so that yoga teachers around the world who maybe don't have a community immediately around them, or yoga teachers who don't have a mentor, will have access to resources and conversations that are realistic and that are honest and talk about how the yoga industry actually works. So I think that between like the financial realities of studio teaching and then the fact that pay rates haven't really increased in like over a decade, and then some growing tension that I experienced around contractor expectations and stepping into more leadership in the industry. I eventually phased myself out of studio teaching altogether. And there was definitely an overlap period that actually lasted quite a few years where I was still like teaching independently while also holding on to studio classes. And it was like over this period of a few years, I was building up my independent offerings. And for me, that looked like renting out spaces like on my own in my name and running my own things there, whether that was pre-registered classes or workshops or trainings. Um and as I was doing that, and as I was kind of building those up, I was slowly letting go of like more and more studio classes, where I eventually got down to just like a couple of studio classes per week. And I want to be really honest and tell you that I was definitely holding on to those last couple of studio classes emotionally or in kind of like a an unhealthy attachment way. Um I knew that studio teaching wasn't a sustainable long-term option for me. And that is why I had started building up that whole ecosystem of other offerings. Um, and I was bringing in a lot more revenue from those independent offerings than I was bringing in from just a couple of studio classes. But the thing that was kind of holding me back was that for some reason, studio classes represented legitimacy to me. They represented visibility. And I think that I had kind of unconsciously attached my legitimacy as a teacher to being associated with certain spaces or to just like teaching at a studio in general. It didn't really matter like which one it was. And so I had a lot of fear around leaving. I had a lot of fear around like letting go of those last couple of classes, even though I didn't really like need them anymore. Um, I had a lot of fear that came up around like losing visibility. I thought that if I was not affiliated with like a big brick and mortar studio space, that somehow I would just like vanish into thin air, which is so silly when I look back on it. But I'm saying this out loud because maybe you feel these kinds of things too. Um, I also had fear around losing credibility. Like people, I this is so like so silly when I say it out loud, but I for some reason I thought like people wouldn't think I was like a credible or legitimate teacher if I didn't teach in like regular studio spaces. Um, and so I was having all of these thoughts and feelings, even though like logically and in real life and on paper, I had built an independent yoga business already, but I was like just holding on to these last few classes. And I think what I realized when I finally left and went like fully independent was that I didn't need to be waiting around for like recognition or higher pay from certain spaces. And I realized that my legitimacy didn't come from studios, it came from me. And it was something that like could not be taken away from me. My legitimacy comes from my consistency and the way that I show up for my community, it comes from the energy and the thoughtfulness that I bring to spaces and to my classes. It comes from the community around me and the students who show up for class and the other teachers who show up for class. And it was truly like once I took the leap and went fully independent, things started just flowing and moving in a different way. Um once I realized I didn't need a studio anymore to legitimize me as a yoga teacher, it was just so much easier to be myself. Um and it was kind of like I was finally able to, I don't know, like not like hold back or almost like mask anymore. Like I was Able to just kind of step into teaching in a way that felt more authentic. And yeah, I don't know. It's just uh it was really interesting. It's it's weird how like small things like that, like just you know, holding on to like two, you know, two studio classes a week can be like holding you back, or at least in my case, I'm not saying this is gonna be the case for everyone, but in my case, it was like holding me back energetically, I guess, in a lot of different ways. And when I finally released myself from those last two classes and like trusted myself fully to take full responsibility for my yoga business, um, things started shifting and started flowing, and everything in my yoga business got a lot better. Um, it was, yeah, it was just so much easier to be myself. Um, and it also felt like whenever I had an idea and I just wanted to like run a workshop or put on an event, like now I can just do it. Like there's no waiting, there's no asking for permission, there's no, it's just like it's all on me, but I can just make it happen. Um and the way that I work personally, like that works super, super well for me. Um I am like I like human design and um I'm a manifestor type in human design. So basically we just get these like big creative urges or big ideas that kind of come from, I don't know, outside of us. And if you work in that way, you just want to like execute things right away, and it can be really frustrating to like wait around for I don't know, for things to happen when you feel like you just want to get them done. Um, and so working this way works really well for me, but I want to make a point to say that this path is like definitely not for everyone. And there are some yoga teachers who just do not want or care or have the time to take on the responsibility of entrepreneurship. Um, there are some teachers who teach part-time and like don't need yoga to fully financially sustain them. Maybe they have another job. So, like, I am by no means sharing this and saying, like, you need to do what I did. This is just me like being reflective and kind of sharing some of my journey out loud. Um, but I think that there are instances where sometimes we do outgrow the structures and the spaces that used to support us. And I think as we evolve and grow as yoga teachers, our values become more defined and our vision becomes more specific sometimes. So I'm sharing this just to say that there are other ways to teach yoga that don't involve teaching tons of yoga studio classes per week, like if that isn't working for you. And I found that when I started identifying more as an educator than simply a drop-in yoga teacher, that running things like pre-registered classes like I do now, that aligned a lot more deeply with my personal teaching philosophy. But in order to develop a personal teaching philosophy, like you have to teach for a while, right? It's not something that you always have from like the first day of teaching. It's something that like reveals itself over time. And so what I wanted in my heart was like progressive yoga education. I wanted stronger long-term relationships with students, like that student-teacher relationship. I wanted to build deeper community where I was seeing the same students week after week, month after month, rather than having all sorts of different people popping in every week to different classes. Um, I really wanted to build something with my students over time. And I feel like pre-registered classes and kind of moving in that direction was the way for me to make that happen. So that's what led me to go all in on renting spaces and running my own programming. And, you know, it's going really well. Is it a lot of work? Yes. Does it always go really well? No, it doesn't always go really well. Um, but it's more aligned with who I have become as a yoga teacher, um, which is why I do things the way that I do right now. So thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I hope that it offers you something interesting to reflect on. You can always contact me or leave a comment, let me know what you think. Um, if this episode resonated with you, I would love it if you shared it with another yoga teacher or left a rating or review for the podcast. It really helps more yoga teachers around the world find these conversations. So, as always, thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you next week!