Want a career as a Yoga Teacher? Read this first.
After seeing this wee infographic from teacher Andrea Shelton a few weeks back, I knew I had to write some words. Frankly, the sentiment of this saddens me so bloody much, because it is the experience for many Yoga teachers. Surely something has to change, and I believe that change needs to happen in the industry, but it can also be made with our own expectations of this job and with honest communication from us (already teaching) to those hoping to and just starting out.
Before I launch into this, this post isn’t an exposé or a rant on any particular studio or owner; I simply wish to outline the reality, the instability and the struggles that can come with being a YT. And I want to be transparent about the financial side of things - because it is bleeping important for us to know average earning potential and the reality so many are faced with.
I want to be super duper honest with you so you know what may lay ahead for you, because not every single Yoga Teacher is going to be the next Yoga with Adreinne or Cat Meffan… in fact very few will. Like any job, there are some things that are a bit of a shit sandwich that has to be eaten. No job role is perfect, because perfection doesn’t exist, not even in our cosmic, spiritual dream world…sorry.
This is just a “reality check” for you based off my experience as a teacher for the past 3.5 years and the experiences of my fellow teachers and friends, with whom this is an ongoing topic of conversation.
I don’t want to discourage or upset you, I want to encourage you to be creative, to be resourceful and remember that you are SO MUCH MORE than JUST a YT. You have multiple skills that can be drawn on to create a fulfilling, enjoyable career. Maybe teaching public classes alone works for you, but for most of us, it ain’t a viable option for a few reasons I’ll break down for you below.
So make yourself a cuppa, grab your note book and let’s dive the f**k in, shall we?
The year was 2019 and I had everything I could pre-empt I’d need for a 2 month trip to India rolled tightly into my personal snail-shell. Along with a few too many pairs of leggings, I had a hefty dose of expectation about how lush my life would be once I finally completed my 200hr Teacher Training in Goa. I had high expectations for my future life, the highest included me, seamlessly bopping from class to class, green smoothie in hand, perfectly rested and super in flow…Ah, bless, how naïve I was.
For those of you who are teachers already you will understand the sentiment and will likely be having a knowing giggle at my expense. For those of you wanting to become teachers or very new to teaching (which I consider myself to be BTW), I want to reassure you again: I am NOT trying to put you off being a Yoga Teacher because it is a wonderful job and I have never been happier with my work and life...but, it is not as floaty floaty as I first thought it might be. And I want to be real with you so you can be smart about your choices moving forward.
Talk to any Yoga teacher who has been around the shala and they will all say the same thing - it is INCREDIBLY EASY to burn out and actually I’m suspicious that it may be an unavoidable part of the Yoga Teacher ‘heroes journey’.
But why?
Maths, that’s why.
Your average studio class in Brighton pays (in my experience) between £25 - £40 depending on the studio/gym, class length & size, location etc. I’m working on the model here of a studio contracting the teacher as a freelancer and paying them a flat rate, BUT you could also hire space which comes with its own separate set of variables. You could well end up making more, but you may also end up making a loss dependant on numbers and hire price.
To make a national living wage salary (£21.5k ish pre tax, which personally isn’t enough for my desired lifestyle) you’re looking at roughly 14 classes a week at £30 a pop, every week for 52 weeks. That frequency and price may sound alright and you might think “ I can do more than that!” which may be true, but trust me, unless you teach all your classes in one place or on one side of town and are teaching double or triple bills, this is a lot of work and will likely include working unsociable hours like weekends and evenings. Oh and you won’t be taking any holidays. Sorry.
£30 a class might seem really great for an hours work, but there is a whole bunch of graft outside of your teaching hour that flies under the radar; until you begin to do it, that is. You need to factor in travel costs and time. Time spent planning. Time and monies spent researching and training. Time (and money!?) spent on your admin and marketing. Oh and of course everyone’s favourite subject: tax. Once you’ve considered all these elements (plus potentially more), you start to get a better picture of the actual earnings gained versus the energy output required of a public class teacher.
When you average out the workload of one class you’re looking at doing roughly three hours of work (travel there and from + planning + the actual teaching + admin + maybe opening and closing the studio).
Factor all that in and NEWS FLASH:
Your hourly rate is below the National Living Wage of £10.42.
A note on studios - one might just say “hey, why not pay teachers more for their classes?” and whilst I think that some studios could and generally the ones that can, do, for the most part, many studios aim to keep prices as low as is viable so that Yoga can be accessed by as many folks as possible; in my experience as a studio manager working directly with studio owners, this is often of paramount importance. If the Yoga studio puts up its teaching fees, that often means membership & class prices going up to reflect that, resulting in the practice becoming more exclusive.
Gross.
In my experience, Yoga studios aren’t raking in huge swathes of money either and most studio owners are people who love the practice, believe in its power and want to share it with those around them due to their passion for Yoga, not arsehole business slime balls looking to make serious cheddar. Sure, sharks exist, but in my experience most studio owners don’t come with their own ominous soundtrack. Some YTs will have horror stories to share about their experiences with certain studios and their owners, (I have heard London can be pretty dog eat dog) so I count myself very lucky to have only the odd story to add to the mix.
Right, if we couple the maths with our general desire to help people and the massive output of energy and love we pour into our clients when we hold space (which is gorgeous, don’t stop doing that as it is most likely at the core of why you do your work), this is a recipe for (you guessed it babe)
burn out.
I hate to say it, but if you are a human living without the support of savings, a partner or a sugar parent (I’m taking applications), making a viable living from teaching public classes alone is simply unrealistic. So what is the solution?
You will have to diversify your income.
Like I said above, I do not want to put you off teaching, really I don’t. I want to help you see the reality and then I want you to get your creative problem solving cap on and start to pivot in a way that works for you. Or heck if you don’t totally exhaust yourself and working in the above way works for you - got for it, but let’s just expose the reality of the situation shall we rather than simply accepting that this is the only way for us to exist! We simply cannot continue this way! Literally every Yoga teacher I know who teaches regularly is quaking at the seams to find a way of working that is inline with the ethics we are all teaching! Everyone is f***ing tired, myself included!
I don’t have a solution for you - not a clear one size fits all one, anyway, but I would love for us to all get chatting. Talk to your Yoga Teacher friends about what you make money wise. Be honest about your personal goals. Be honest about how much money you want to make and throw the idea in the bin that at YTs we should feel icky about making a living! Talk about the earning potential of retreats and workshops or mentoring. Think about your other skills. Know that it is okay, as a YT to not be full time!
You are STILL a valuable member of our community if you have a corpo job or a hospo gig or anything else that helps you get by. It is okay to want to make an actual grown up living from your work; to want to earn enough to buy a house or go on a holiday or buy Itsu before 9:30pm!!
Begin to take steps in making that a reality. Less gatekeeping. More community, more cross pollination. More questions and answers. Less scarcity mindset guys, more sharing and kindness.
Phew I’m going to get down from my soapbox now. I want to remind you of your options whilst also giving you a little support on how to take care of yourself in this job.
Don’t quit your day job…yet
Relying on your teaching alone puts a LOT of financial pressure on the thing you love. Although I get it, you’re excited and you want to BE a Yoga teacher, don’t give up your day job just yet unless you are financially stable to. I was in a truly unique situation with being furloughed from work during Covid19 lockdowns. I had the time and space to throw myself into teaching online and getting skilled with marketing and socials. This for sure helped and when the world reopened I strolled into an epic job managing Luna Wave and teaching there 5 times a week. But during the first year of teaching I was working in hospitality full time, managing people and making coffees and cocktails. I had a plan and I knew my goal was to shift my income over to a more aligned industry. I’d even written my resignation letter 3 months in advance, with no idea what job would allow me to leave. I had a plan. So start to sketch yours out so you can either phase out the day job partially or completely if that is what you want to do. Equally teaching 5 classes a week on top of a full time job could burn you out, so just be sensible (or at least prepared!) when you are taking on classes on top of your other work. I now work part time as a studio manager and as a practice manager at an architect firm. These part time jobs equal just under 30 hours overall in addition to teaching my classes. Both these roles mean I can cover my essentials'; that pressure is taken off my teaching, meaning I really get to enjoy it! Sure, one day the office work is going to be out the picture, but right now it works well for me and supports the life I want to live. It is also worth saying - as a freelance Yoga Teacher you don’t have a huge amount of job security, holiday pay, a pension, sick leave or maternity leave (outside of statutory) so take your time to make a smart plan so you don’t end up totally screwing yourself over.
Get good with your boundaries
This can be tough in the early days (especially if you’ve never burnt out before) because you are learning your own capacity to hold space. You’re learning how many classes is enough or too many. Frankly, in the beginning my advice is to teach as often as works for you, because you want to flex that teaching muscle and practise teaching so you can get comfy with it. However over time, you’ll figure out what works for you, so get good at listening to your intuition about whether its worth taking on work or not. For example I used to teach both days on the weekend. It was early in my career and was a new job at an ace studio - the return of the work was worth it. After a year of that I realised it was turning me into a grumpy human and my teaching suffered as a result, so now I won’t teach on weekends unless its on my terms. Simples. Practise saying no to things that don’t fulfil you i one was or another. It is unlikely you will suddenly lose all your work as a result, unless the studio owners have no other spot for you or have awful boundaries themselves and have no intention of respecting yours.
Try not to work for these types if possible.
On the flipside, know that sometimes it’s worth taking the work, ask yourself if any (or all) of the following are being met:
exposure/
service/
connections/
money/
experience/
fun!
When you are offered work and you’re not sure if you should take it, check in with the above because these are things that its very important you consider along with any of your own values.
Learn from others
Look at the careers of other teachers you admire and identify the different ways they teach (other than public classes). Chances are a ‘successful’ teaching career is made up of a combination of teaching 1:1s, corporate gigs, events, festivals, retreats, workshops, online teaching, mentoring others, Yoga therapy etc…the list goes on and on. All of these also come with their own unique workload and potential extra trainings and take time to build up, but these can be pretty good earners to add into your working year. They will also come with experience so be ready to build that up, sometimes for less right at the start.
Know how to recharge & practise it in a variety of ways
When you become a yoga teacher our relationship to our own practice changes. I think this is both normal and inevitable, having spoken with my peers. For many of us, our primary way of recharging is through Yoga, so it’s very important to identify ways to recharge and rest. When we teach we get very good at filling the cup that is all about serving others. however that sometimes means we forget to fill our own. I think my life sort of revolutionised when I learnt that I can receive rest in a variety of ways. As someone who has found it hard to enjoy stillness without feeling shame or guilt (I’m getting there guys, I promise) I have not always been sure how resting looked for me. I’ve discovered that I can rest by going into nature and strolling around; by hanging out with people I feel REALLY myself around; by sitting and reading a book or cooking a good meal with a lush glass of wine. Rest can also be boogying or going to a movement class or laughing until my sides split. Each different type of ‘rest’ fills a different sort of cup.
Take a moment to ask yourself or journal around the following prompts -
What and who fills your social cup best? How do you recharge when you’re on your own? Do you need to prioritise nature? Do you enjoy a good old fashioned Netflix binge? What situations instantly make your body feel like its softening? What situations make your body feel full of joy? What situations fill you with stress? Where do you feel most inspired? Write a list and put it where you can see it. Try different things and take note of how you feel before, during and after said activity and schedule that sh*t into your week. Taking care of yourself is taking care of your teaching and creativity and will ultimately help you be a better teacher because you’ll feel both rested and inspired, I promise.
So there you have it - pop any questions below or share your fav ways to recharge :) Brighton teachers - looking for a community and a space to do some Yoga? You can join us at Luna Wave every Tuesday for a free, unguided teacher’s practice and a chit chat and cuppa after. Sign up here
Big love x
