149: What I’m Doing to Keep My Private Teaching Calendar Full
Teaching yoga, and maybe especially teaching private clients is, to be candid, an unstable way to make a living. But I have done it successfully for twenty years, so it can be done!
I’m in a season in my life where I have limited spots available to teach, but financially I need every single one of those spots filled every week. I have about ten standing private clients and then I have at least five spots every week that need to be filled.
So in today’s episode, I am giving you all the details about what I am doing to keep my private teaching calendar full. It is working really well!
In this episode, you’ll hear:
why I recommend having at least one virtual private yoga client
how having a list of people who I see infrequently has helped
how I talk about my work with confidence and seriousness
why I STILL offer free private lessons, and recommend you do too
how I manage my calendar booking software so I don’t miss out on filling a spot
advice I have changed my mind on, and why I invite students to have their friends join their private lesson
Today I’m revisiting one of the ideas I talked about when I first started the podcast nine years ago: the idea that yoga teachers need to find their “ideal student” or a very specific niche in order to build a successful teaching career.
I still believe there is some value in getting specific about who we’re speaking to when we communicate about our work. Specific language can make our marketing more compelling and help potential students understand how our teaching might support them.
But I’ve become increasingly convinced that the idea of finding your perfect student doesn’t translate well to the actual work of teaching yoga.