I am honored today to introduce you to my friend and student Clare Ryan. She is a super skillful private yoga teacher living in NYC. Clare is an expert in the realm of pre and post natal, and if you are really lucky you might catch one of her rare public {super yummy} restorative yoga workshops. You can find out more about Clare here.
I am so happy to share Clare’s story. When she told me about the transformation her teaching went through after she took a teacher training with me I knew I had to share it with you guys! It is possible to do so much good with your teaching if you let yourself slow down and really see what you are looking at…
Clare says,
Teaching private yoga was barely on my radar when I graduated my initial 200-hr teacher training in 2006. I was working a corporate job and loved simply teaching a couple of fun group yoga classes a week. The studio occasionally asked me to teach a private and I always found some reason to politely decline. The real reason was that I felt intimidated, unprepared and pretty certain that I would be revealed as a yoga teaching fraud in a one-on-one situation.
That all changed when my son was born in 2010. I decided to leave my day job in order to be with him. I quickly realized that teaching privately would be the only way to work a reasonable number of hours and pay my bills.
Luck and timing gave me a few initial clients, so I put on my big girl yoga pants and did my best to teach them. I really felt as if I was making it up as I went along.
Francesca had been an unofficial mentor for me throughout this transition so I jumped at the chance to take her first training, The Science of the Private Lesson™. It was a thought-provoking and heartfelt weekend in which she balanced the subtle, intuitive side of private teaching with some really tangible guidelines. I walked away with much to digest and integrate as well as some immediate action steps to implement with my clients.
I now feel confident in my ability to teach meaningful private sessions instead of feeling astonished every time someone books or pays me. The training helped me realize that not only do I have a solid skill set to teach from but also that just being present and holding space for my clients is transformative in itself. I now feel confident that simplicity is powerful. I no longer feel pressured to create wildly complicated sessions, clearing the way for me to see what my clients really need on any given day. This self-assurance means my clients have a better experience and I have more clients, more referrals and more business than I would ever have imagined. I used to just expect my private prenatal clients to disappear from my roster after they gave birth, now I proactively suggest that we continue to work together. My schedule is now full with beloved mamas who I feel privileged to support through these pivotal years.
Before Francesca’s training I had a fuzzy idea about the importance of self-care and my own personal practice. I now find it to be the most important factor in the quality of my teaching. I know to intentionally build transition time into my schedule so I can get grounded and clear in between clients. Last year I worked with a dear student facing a frightening and intense bout with cancer. With Francesca’s words ringing in my ears, I prepared for our sessions by sitting quietly with myself and working through my emotions so that I could show up for him and be helpful and present, rather than a teary mess.
Francesca believes in elevating what we do through intelligent, artful teaching and by carrying ourselves as professionals. This has had a huge impact on how I manage my time, how I communicate with my clients, how I handle late cancels and what I charge. Her training has given me the confidence to have what I expect to be difficult conversations with my clients. And, of course, those conversations always turn out fine and there is a greater level of respect in our relationship because of them.
In almost ten years of teaching yoga I can honestly say that The Science of the Private Lesson™ has been the best return-on-investment of any training I have taken. It is not just about having a fuller schedule or about making more money. It’s about how I feel when I’m teaching and the experience my clients have when I teach them. It’s about having meaningful, rewarding work that also gives me time and space to be with my family. The ripple effect of Francesca’s teachings touch many lives.
