Five Top Tips to Thrive in Your Yoga Business

I recently celebrated my 17th year as a yoga teacher.

That’s a long. damn. time!

Funny thing is, I never actually intended to be a yoga instructor.

I found yoga in college as a way to help manage my thyroid disease (read all about that here). It was something that helped me cope with the stress of my symptoms, and I fell in love with it.

After college, I trained to become a yoga teacher, but only so I could teach one day a week at my local studio and take classes for free. The rest of my days were spent going on interviews and looking for a “real job.”

A year and a half later, I had to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with myself and declared yoga teaching my real job! ?

It wasn’t what I wanted. My goal was to find a full-time job, but this was just after 9/11, and there were no jobs to be had. And, I had to admit, I did love teaching yoga.

But, making it a career is hard. Even back then – in Denver, in the early 2000s – it was really tough to make a living.

I was generally working paycheck to paycheck, and driving all over the Denver metro area eating at least two meals a day in my car. Luckily, I was young, I didn’t know any better, but most of all…

I had a deep passion for yoga.

Maybe this sounds like you?

Luckily, over the years, I’ve received awesome advice on how to succeed and thrive as a yoga teacher; how to grow my business, be successful, and set myself apart from the crowd.

I’ve taught at national conferences, premier retreat centers, and lead teacher trainings all over the globe (click here to find out where I’ll be next). I’ve been hired to write teacher training programs for some of the biggest companies in the country, and have had more than 2 million people listen to my podcast (it’s OLD, I haven’t done a new one in years!). People have paid to have me come teach workshops around the world, and I’ve led retreats in some of the most exotic and dreamy destinations imaginable (my retreat to India is coming up if you wanna join!). Now, people call me the Yoga Doctor, and I have three published books under my belt.

#bragtimeover

But, this didn’t happen overnight. It took major grit, a lot of hard work, and that continued passion I mentioned earlier.

It also took some hardcore business acumen that they don’t usually teach you in yoga teacher training (unless you’re in mine!). Most everyone gets into this business because they love it, they are fired up by it, it is their spiritual practice. Few get into it simply as a business venture and way to make money.

At some point, though, the rubber has to meet the road.

What we do is valuable and precious, and we pour our heart and soul into it. While we do that, we need to be well supported enough to pay our bills and thrive in the real world.

No amount of meditation is going to pay your rent. You can’t chant your way to abundance (as much as I would like that to be true!).

But, there are certainly things you can do to thrive in your career as a yoga teacher. Watch this video where I share my top five tips on how to do this!

Here are the links and resources mentioned in the video:

If you’re interested in applying for my upcoming coaching program, click here.

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