Yoga Biz - The New Landscape of Hustle with Rachel Scott

Welcome to Yoga Biz Camp with me Michael Jay.

I'm a yoga business coach with 25+ years of experience as a creative and yoga business owner and some of you may know me from the Yoga Alliance Business of Yoga Webinars

Every day, I help yogis turn their passion into a sustainable yoga business. For 13years, I ran and then sold a profitable yoga studio. I believe in sharing this experience to help others like me pursue their dream and actually succeed.

In this episode, Rachel Scott joins me for a fun, informal chat about Yoga Business post Covid and the new landscape of hustle and opportunities for yoga teachers and yoga studios. 

About Rachel

A teacher trainer, author, and education expert, Rachel is committed to helping teachers and studios manifest their vision, passion, and potential. With a Masters of science in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies, she helps studios and teachers to create high-quality in person and online training and courses. Like many of us, she has worn many hats during her yoga career - teacher, teacher manager, studio director, curriculum developer, departmental director, entrepreneur - and brings all these to the table as a thought partner and ally for her clients.

Rachel can be found at https://www.rachelyoga.com
and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rachelscottyoga/
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Michael Jay - Yoga Biz Champ 

Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ, stands as the go-to Yoga Business Consultant, embarked on a mission to elevate yoga studios from mere survival to genuine thriving.

With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, marketing expert, and yoga studio business coach, he possesses the insider knowledge necessary to elevate your yoga venture to new heights.

His passion for yoga, combined with a sharp business acumen and a sincere desire to see studio owners excel, encapsulates his professional ethos. Michael is not one to offer one-size-fits-all advice; instead, he's dedicated to providing tailored guidance, tangible outcomes, and supporting your studio to emerge as the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community. 

• Certified Yoga Biz Consultant • 
• FitTech Partner •
• Yoga Studio Launch & Growth Specialist

FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
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FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

Transcript

Michael Jay  
Welcome to yoga base camp with myself, Michael Jay. I'm a yoga business coach with 25 plus years of experience as a creative, a total tech geek and a yoga business owner. Today, I have the amazing Rachel Scott joining me and Rachel and I have a fun yet casual conversation about the future of yoga teachers and the hustle that's required to make it in this industry today. Enjoyed. Welcome to another episode of yoga Basecamp and today I've got a very special guest and I even though I don't haven't seen her in person, I kind of consider her a friend, Rachel Scott, Rachel is your yoga education expert. And welcome, Rachel.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Thank you so much. It's always so fun to hang out with you and just chat with you about all sorts of things. Yeah,

Michael Jay  
I'm just gonna read your bio Rachel, your teacher trainer, author, an education expert, Rachel is committed to helping teachers and studios manifest their vision, passion and potential with a Master's of Science in instructional systems and learning techniques technologies. She helps yoga studio she helps studios and teachers to create high quality in person and online training and courses. Like many of us, she has worn many hats during her yoga career Teacher, teacher, manager, studio director, curriculum developer, departmental director, entrepreneur, and brings all of these to the table as a thought partner and ally for her clients. You are one busy person, it's always weird. Read back to you, isn't it so it was a strange feeling. So weird. But I didn't get it. I want to just so today we're going to be talking about the muscle that yoga teachers are having and the changes in careers and opportunities since COVID here, but I just went through your website this morning, Rachel, and I've got a list here. Speaking of hustle, your 200 hour yoga teacher training 20 anatomy lessons, a 200 page Asana guide, Asana practices, meditation, pranayama videos, eight humanity trainings, eight professional trainings, free giveaways, a very active YouTube channel 20 podcast interviews, five television appearances, 14 speaking appearances, and 20, web round ups and interviews. We're talking about hustle. I am always amazed. I'm just always amazed when I look at what you do, how much you do, it's really pretty amazing. And every time I get together with Rachel, we let's just go back, we met via the yoga Alliance forums, because her and I are very active in supporting yoga teachers and Studios on there and in other places. And so we we connected because we've got a lot of similarities. And every time we chat, I think we book a 30 minute, we end up talking for an hour. And I feel like I could talk to you for another two hours. So normally, I'm standing up doing these podcasts. Today, I'm sitting back with my cup of tea, and I just want to chill and chat with you about what's going on in our industry. So again, another welcome. Thank you for being Thank you. So happy to see you. I have a ton of respect for what you're doing. Because you you just where do you find the time for all of that?

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Oh, well, I think it helps that I'm older, that I'm old. No, seriously, like, I remember. It's just because I've been around a while too. So I've been I was thinking about it. I wrote a bio out recently for a business of yoga thing for a bunch of teacher trainees that I was doing. And it was such a cool exercise to write out like how long it actually took for things to start happening. Because sometimes as young teachers and you know, this is sort of skipped around a little bit. So sometimes we feel like I'm going to get out of my yoga teacher training. And then I need to be in a conference, or I need to be you know, on a podcast, or I need to be writing for YOGA INTERNATIONAL. And I was looking at kind of the timeline of those things. I didn't do those until I'd been teaching for at least 10 years. So it's you know, it's so I've been teaching since 2003. Yeah. Time. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So with that there's been so I've just had, I've had time to do things. And now because as I started coming up in yoga, we started entering into a little bit of the digital age in terms of being able to create things of value that can that can can remain like videos and stuff like that as opposed to feeling like I have to teach classes. So It's really it's, I'm, I'm grateful for that, because it means that there's an archive of work that then people can, you know, use. So it's like you created and and yeah, it's still it's still is there. So that's in fact, one of the opportunities in terms of talking about hustle and teachers, where I think that things have. I think that I think that COVID, although it's a dark horse, it's also been good news for people in our industry, like our yoga teachers and our yoga studios who are trying to create a little bit more resilience in this market, especially for yoga teachers, who can now have increased opportunity to get to work. And yeah, they maybe didn't have before.

Michael Jay  
Well, and a big part of what you one of your big parts of your business is your curriculum for teacher trainings for studios. And I know, one of my clients in South Delta here near Vancouver. I looked, and she's using one of your training. So I think you've done really, really well with that. We're talking a lot about teachers today. And, you know, when they come at, I've owned a studio, and I've hired people right out of yoga teacher training. And what I did find was they're not quite ready out of teacher training. Yeah. Right. It takes it takes time to find your voice. Even simple things about projecting to the back of the room and the tone of your voice and, and building that confidence up. And I think you're right, a lot of people want to go straight to, you know, the big picture stuff. But you've really, I think you've you've got to become a good teacher first.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Absolutely. And you know, what's funny is that I've had I recently had a newer teacher asked me, she said, What's my niece? Do you think this is my niece? This is amazing. And I was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm like, I think that, you know, there's so much pressure to differentiate that we kind of put the steps in the wrong order. I so agree with you, I mean, 200 hours, basically, after after 200 hours, you can you can you basically have the skills to go and practice. Yeah, no, I like I taught for free, you know, for my first brand. Yeah, my friends, family, free donation classes, very small studios by donation, you know, until I became skillful enough, and to, you know, to kind of step it up, and then work in studios, but it takes it just takes practice. And so, when I tell these, you know, and what I told this girl, I said, Don't worry about finding your niche. your niche is a co creation that you discover, you don't just decide my Nisha is going to be you know, this is going to be this kind of teacher. It's like, I think it's a, it's give yourself like five years of teaching, and seeing then how you like to teach, because you might surprise yourself. You go in thinking, Oh, I'm an alignment teacher. And then all of a sudden, you're like, you know, what, Jazz's me up is the subtle body so much. I love that I love these meditations. I love bringing in kind of like the subtle energy. And so you discover who you are as a teacher, rather than determining it. Yeah, it's like, it's more artsy than that.

Michael Jay  
Yeah. And, and I think the last year, so we're talking about sort of hustle and post COVID. And I think, you know, there was a lot happened in one year in our industry. And I think for people like you and I, yeah, it was an people similar to us, it was perfect timing, because you and I are really geeky. We like the tech side of stuff. Right. And so, you know, when it happened in the studio's close, you know, I know, I was able to just pivot to I already had the good camera. You know, I got lighting and microphone and boom, I was able to set up, but there was a lot of, you know, we were I know, we were supporting a lot of people last year on the actual technical side of setting up, but I think it, I think it's thrust us into an area that we needed to go anyway. Right. But it would have gotten there. But I think that last year, just thrust us into having to get all set up. So have you been working with people, you know, kind of creating digital presence in the last year?

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Um, some, like, I've done a little bit of coaching in that area. But my last year has been a lot about, you know, what I mean, we've and chatted about this, when I started I, when I told you, I was like, Okay, I'm going back online to teach now. Yeah, cuz it had been a while. And then yeah, but my teaching has been mostly for my sequencing mentorship. So I run a mentorship program for new teachers. And what I've discovered is that I don't even advertise my classes really publicly. It's really just those classes are really just for those students to come and work and see the sequencing and action and things like that. So yeah, and so most of the work that we're most of the counseling, I guess, that I did in terms of helping people get set up was through the yoga Alliance for him in terms of offering suggestions or in terms of writing blogs about it that were hopefully helpful. People and of course, with my own teacher trainees to kind of coach them into that world as well. Yeah, but it's I mean that you've done a lot of work in that space to help you kind of make that transition of like, Okay, how do we do this? And also, what platforms do we use? Yeah, like, where do I go? Right? Yeah. And you're quite happy with the platform that you use? Which one is it again,

Michael Jay  
I was gonna save that for later. But let's, let's go. Let's go into that. Because, I mean, there is the tech side of all that stuff. And, you know, before you know, you know, I'm a, I'm a mind body certified. person, 13 year user of Mind, Body, Mind, Body champion, all of this stuff, but I don't recommend mind body for yoga teachers yet. I mean, they may have some stuff coming down the line. But right now, I think for a solo yoga teacher, it's very, very difficult to make money on that platform because of the overhead of that. And so you know, you can't really have much of a profit mentality when your overhead is quite high. So yeah, I was using, I'm not running my own classes at the moment I, I was running my own classes in January in February did really well with it. But the coaching has kind of taken off. And so I've been focusing a lot more on that. But I was using punch, pass. And it's a very nice, simple system, affordable price, as built in VOD. And they were I think, one of the first ones that kind of offered something at a pretty decent price. And, but since then, I mean, I've had so many software meetings in the last few months, that's kind of crazy, you know, wellness living, ribbon sutra, FET bookie interval, I mean, the list is going on and be growing like they have just come out of the woodwork, right, which is great, you know, it kind of make things a little bit more accessible for the yoga teacher to be able to have a space. So you were using ribbon.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
I was using ribbon I in fact, I still am. But I've also talked with offering tree, which is the other one that I kind of know about, and they're gonna offer to you is more of an all in one. So for yoga teachers out there who are listening who are kind of like, you know, you got a website with that, right? I think, yeah, so if you don't have a website already, and you and you kind of want an all in one, basically, it's like a business card, or it's hanging out your shingle. So it doesn't have to be super elaborate, right. So sometimes websites can feel sort of overwhelming. So offering tree kind of does double duty of I'll be your website. And I'll also, you know, integrate with zoom and allow you to, you know, have videos and really rudimentary courses. Basically, it's like hosting videos with some text, if you wanted to go that way. So that's like, yeah, and again, great price point. These are really good solutions for for Yogi's, out there who now are kind of ready to hang their shingle out and yeah, and teach some people.

Michael Jay  
Well, and I think, right now, I'm recommending that my clients find something that has the video on demand portion of it, because video on demand used to be an expensive add on for things, but some of these are really offering them in, you know, internally now. And I think the one, you know, I would go for one, probably a recommend one that has different ways of monetizing the VOD. within the software, you know, some of them, you can just have an all access pass to it. But some of them I believe, interval, which is a newer one, I believe there's, you can really sell an individual video, or you can sell a package or a subscription. So I think those things are probably very important moving down the road. And yeah.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
And just to step back for a minute, like big picture, I just, I'm, I'm really, I mean, it's terrible for yoga studios, like one of my, my studio in that I worked at in Vancouver, while Yoga has just closing up soon, she's closing to more locations. Yeah, like they it's just, it's been so hard on studios. And on the upside of things is so good for teachers who are able to now kind of take out the middleman in terms of their own presence and in terms of what they're offering. So I mean, I as it does, I think that studios will always I mean, what, what what is the future of the yoga studio? Well,

Michael Jay  
I think the future is hybrid for sure. And I think it's tough to say right now because right now, it's so different in every percent like across the world. We're all in different places with reopening and I know here right now for the next couple of weeks. We're still the studio I sold, I think can have eight people in there right now where we used to have 30 or something. What I am Thing is, though, that the the yoga studios that have limited capacity have significantly increased their prices. Because the that real estate, you know, the yoga mat, you know, it costs more to have that space now, right? So there's been a big, that's gonna change those things reopen. But I want to i do i mean what I'm seeing in the mind body forums and all of that it is definitely gone to a hybrid model is definitely forced the studios to have to do that model. And then I think it's an it as a teacher, I think it becomes a different dilemma when you're teaching because now a teacher that may have been an interactive teacher walking around the room making adjustments now, are they? Are they walking around the room doing what they did before? Or are they vocally demo demonstrating from the mat, and also haven't managed speaking to a an audience on the internet? So I think that's gonna have its own. It's just gonna change things a lot.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yeah, I would not, I have to say like, I don't know about you. But as a yoga teacher, I, if I had to, if I had to, if I went into a studio, and I had to teach to a camera, in studio, I don't think I would like that. I mean, like, I love touching people. And I know, it's, you know, like, that's my whole, like, if I'm gonna be good class, that's what I love to do. So it would I'd rather if I have to teach on a video camera, I'd rather just teach from home, and then studio to be a place where you can actually connect in person. Yeah. And I,

Michael Jay  
I, I enjoy teaching from home, I still teach, I think I still teach four or five classes for the studio that I sold. And I am not having to sit on the highway and go through tunnel traffic and, or any of that, I mean, literally, it's like I my coffee table comes out the living room, my yoga mat gets put down, the lights gets switched on, boom, let's go. And and the other thing I have found, and I've actually worked with a lot of Studios on this over the last year is working on creating that community online. And it is possible and I think what I was working with studios last year, because the what they were the teachers are having a problem with was their, their students not turning the cameras on. And so the teachers are just eating to dead space, right then like it's not interactive. I'm a really interactive teacher, which means I'm 70% at my computer, and 30% on my mat. And you know, I am still looking, I have to look, I have to see, I want to see I want to be able to call people by name Jane, lift your right knee joint, you know. So I have found there are great ways of teaching online. And one of the things for teachers is you need to put your request out there of what you need from the students. people follow along. So you know, so I just say I'm a better teacher, if I can see you, you're gonna have a better experience if we can see you. And then if I also spend 1015 minutes before class with cameras on welcoming, welcoming, having conversations, they're more likely to leave the camera on when the class starts. The other thing is, I was a demanding teacher. So I'm demanding online tears. You know, I said, You know, I want people to say nasty together at the end of class, I don't want it to be a silence. I always just direct my students. But say at the end of class, if it's easy for you reach over and unmute your camera, unmute your microphone, so we can all say no mistake together. And I would say 80% do.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Hmm, that's really nice. Yeah, I remember we had that conversation. Before I was going back into that space, and I connected with you about how you were doing it. And I love I love the interactive piece of it. And I think that this is what is probably something for newer teachers to get used to. Because when you look out and you see a lot of the yogaglo or whatever the online do yoga with me all the online classes that you see, it's teachers speaking and demonstrating at the same time, which is not, which is which is a pre recorded class. That is not a live zoom class. And so for people to make the distinction, oh, when I teach my live zoom class, it's not about me just demoing the whole thing. Actually, it's like but but sometimes I think they don't have that as a like if they haven't been to your class. And in most of my classes, that's what I do, too. It's like I sit and I watch people and I give them feedback. And it's so much more fun for me as a teacher because

Michael Jay  
I'm because you are a teacher, you're not you're not just showing a flow like YouTube you you're teaching your instruct, right.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yeah. And because most of my students are my mentees as well, I want to give them feedback on Their practices and I and I want people to feel seeing because, as you know, so well, this is a space where people have not been seen, especially if they're just following along. So I think for, I think if we're thinking about, hey, how would we, you know, say teachers out there, how do you distinguish your online classes, you've just given people an amazing window into how to do that really beautifully, which is, don't do the practice, you know, like, teach the practice?

Michael Jay  
Yeah. And it's because we didn't go into this, just to be on a mat and show people what we can do. Right? We should not be at least Yeah, well, and I'm gonna be completely honest here. And this, you know, may not sit with Well, with everybody. But all these years, almost 20 years of teaching, I actually don't care about the poses as much as I used to. I'll be completely Frank, you know, I don't care if your left heel lines up with your right heel, or if it's by your arch or anything like that as much as I did when I first started. I think when you first start, you have to learn those technicalities. All I care about now, I really don't give a shit about the pose. I care that they I care that they that they stay through the practice, and that they leave better leave feeling better than when they came on the class. That's it. Yeah. It's really simple for me now. So it actually takes a lot of pressure off to and I'm not for newer teachers listening to this. I'm not saying don't do the work you I think you do have to start with the foundations. And you do have to learn the technicalities. And all of that stuff. I think you have to go through that. I think a lot of I know more senior teachers like us might agree more that it's more about sort of the energy of it.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yeah, it's about Yeah, it's about for me, it's about it. Definitely. I say this to my students to like the poses, the poses, it's easy to think that Yoga is about the poses, because that's what we see. So clearly, like, that's the most obvious thing about it. But really, it's it's not about the poses at all. It's about how we bring ourselves into presence through using the poses as kind of like the scaffold or the road that we walk. Yeah, it's like the poses are just the way to get there but they are not they are not the purpose of the practice. Yeah,

Michael Jay  
yeah. It's a nice it's a nice feeling after all these years. You know, I remember when I first started you know, I did the work like yourself I taught I you know, I first of all i apprenticed under my apprenticeships don't happen anymore. So I'm really I want to talk to you about the mentorship in a second. Because apprenticeships don't really happen anymore. So when I finished my teacher training with my teacher, I went through a year long process with her. And it was brutal. I am not kidding. You. She was the teachers back then when they were Ashtanga To where? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, no more my fresh Ashtanga teachers and the teachers were tough. But I am so grateful for that year experience. Because, you know, I put the time in there and I learnt on the job, so to speak, you know, learnt teaching, and I got weekly written assessments, I still have them. And they are brutal. Michael, you're repeating this word too much, Michael, this word does it. So there were a lot of it was about vocal skills. And I'm really, you know, I remembered putting left and right mirror teaching. I'm a big, big believer in mirror teaching. And I know a lot of schools do not teach that way. And so it is a retraining of the brain. But it's, I feel that when you mirror teaching, it's not about you, it's about making it easier for them to follow. And so it's a difficult process to retrain your brain when you your entire life, your right hand has been your right hand. And then all of a sudden, your right hand is now your left hand. And so I had an l&r on the front of my map. And then when I mentor teachers at the studio I had on the back very when that where they were teaching from they could see the door behind the students and so on each side of the door the main entry door I had a massive Eleanor are on there. When they were teaching out there they could visually see very quickly, you know, to get that cube because I will say do not ask a yoga teacher directions. It's true that the left or right no turn. Can you tell me I want to go back to that mentorship because that's such I just think that's such an important part that's missing. And I feel that by doing that you're really feeling In a gap to create better teachers?

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Well, you know, when I was working at why yoga, because exactly as you said, from the beginning, you come out from a 200 hour and you're not really ready to teach, you're ready to practice, you're ready to like, put your tools, you're ready for the pose, is that right? Yeah. And some cues, but it's hard to put them all together. It's like, you have a bunch of tools, and then you have to figure out how to use them, you got to go build a house or something, right. So and so we, why yoga we had, I mean, when I had all the students I've worked at, they had mentorship programs. So when I went through my 200 hour into my 500 hour, we always had, like, we had mentorships, and mentor meetings, of course. And that was the bridge, like from the 200 hour into the 500 hour into teaching. And so mentorship to me, which is like, Okay, you've just finished teacher training now what it bridges the gap between the training and the integration of your skills. And so that, yeah, the mentorship that I'm offering, it's so funny, because it's called a sequencing mentorship. But it's actually, like, it's actually just a job, it's much more broad than that, because we do a different basically, we do peak post sequencing. So that's kind of a scaffold of it. Yeah, a different pose every week, but I share with them like my teaching tips I share with them like stages of the peak, I share with them class intentions. And then I teach two classes a week, both to the same peak pose, but in different styles. So I teach a hapa class in a vinyasa class. So they can see that you can have essentially, the same kind of logic for your sequencing, same similar poses, but have very different experiences, depending on the style that you're doing to so and then we have monthly meetings where we connect and I and at first, it was just like, oh, we'll just have monthly meetings and connect and stuff. And now I'm like, No, we have monthly meetings, and we work on skills. So I've sort of realized, like, Oh, this is these skills are necessary, like how do you teach an all levels class? How do you stage a pose, effectively, in a way that's inclusive? And a way that's very specific and pragmatic? So now I use those those meetings to actually workshop skills, but I think it's, um, yeah, it's so I think it's really rewarding. And it's, it's, it's for teachers who are like, finished with their 200 hour, it could be teachers who are newly finished a 500 hour, or teachers who did say, on the shunga training or a set series training, and they want to learn how to create their own creative sequences safely. So you know, we, yeah, so we touch on alignment and anatomy through all of these different pieces, too. So even though it's sequencing that's kind of a doorway to just a kind of a sort of an array of teaching skills that kind of go, there. Are they live trainings are recorded them the weekly sessions, the weekly kind of curriculum is recorded, I did that the first time through, yeah, recorded everything. So that's recorded, and they can just watch me. And then the classes are obviously live and the monthly meetings are live. So it's kind of a balance between the two, because some people can never come and some people never can come to the classes, either. They do everything pre recorded, which is, you know, I like being in the room with people that's like, what's so fun is to be live with people. But I figure Hey, you know, any way you can get the information that supports you? Sure. Yeah.

Michael Jay  
Yeah. Yep. So what's your thoughts on sort of the moving forward, because we're talking about want to talk a little bit about the new landscape and the hustle. So, I mean, you're exactly right. I mostly worked with studios, because that was my world. And then last year, I still am working with studios, but I saw a big uptick in yoga teachers, because they were displaced from the studios closed down. And then they were like, Okay, well, I got to do something to make money here. And so they, they created online things, and then they kind of like, Okay, well, maybe I can create my own business out of this. So yes, big uptake of that. But I'm also a little wary that not everybody can make a success of that, you know, it's it is hard to put yourself out there and compete with it. Like you said, the yoga glows the apple fitness is that you know, the 999 1299 subscriptions of YOGA INTERNATIONAL. So what's your kind of thoughts along that? What's going on?

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yeah, well, I think it's kind of, you know, in a funny way, everything's changed and everything has stayed the same. Yeah. Because I think for for new teachers who are putting themselves out there, I mean, it's, you know, we're not going to be they're not going to be competing with yoga glow or with God or whoever, they're not going to be competing with them. What they have to do instead is build grassroots, just like, just like we used to when we used to build a new class. It's like, Who are your friends? Who are your family? Who are your friends of your friends? Who are you networking? So we think locally, like, I think one of the things that gets so intimidating is that we think I have to compete with, you know, Shiva Ray are shown this, maybe they date me, I don't know, I don't know the who the younguns are. But, you know, I have to compete with all of these big mega stars. And it's like, No, no, no, create a your local yoga class, which happens to be online. So I think that's, it's still a matter of starting modestly. And you're right, not everybody's gonna be able to make a full time career out of that. But that's always been the case with yoga, teacher training with yoga teaching, is that sometimes people are, you know, want to teach two classes a week. Sometimes people want to teach, you know, 25 classes a week. And so it really depends on what your goals are for your career, what your tolerance is, like, I'm a big fan, that your yoga teaching should serve your life, not be your life, because we have this idea that it needs to be everything and no, it's like I can actually have a really rewarding teaching career teaching two or three classes a week to my dedicated group of students. So am I going to have to have another job? Yes, absolutely. Right. So it's also, especially for newer teachers coming out, we always used to tell them, don't quit your day job, kind of like, just let it grow organically, so that you can see how this works for you so that you don't start hating your yoga career or feeling desperate, or you know, or scared. But instead it can be an added on it can always be a plus to your life and like, be something that adds value to you as well as to your students.

Michael Jay  
Yeah. I yeah, I, I completely agree with you. And I completely agree with the starting local. I Oh, my one of my first questions when I'm working with a new teacher, or a teacher that's trying to build a business is Who do you know, like, what do you what do you what do you circles? You know, where? Where are you known? Because really, the only reason for somebody to choose you over a million other people is that they trust you? Yeah, right. They vibe with you. And they like you. And yeah, and I will say i have i've been changing things a little bit with quite a lot. And I've been talking about this a lot in the last and on a couple of episodes ago with my client and net. And that is I'm working more with teachers a little bit more away from just doing virtual offerings or a virtual like have, you know, multiple classes a week virtually, to them doing a registered theories. I know, I know, you work a lot on course creation. And what I'm what I'm finding with that is I what I say this one daily, but people will pay for a solution to a problem. And so when I work with, with teachers, and studios, but more teachers with the courses is, you know, working with them to find their purpose, trying to figure out what their audiences and then trying to figure out what problems their audience has, and then, of course, around the solution to that problem. Right. And so, I'm finding that so two episodes ago, if you listen to a net, she we just rocked it out with her. I've been using her as my sort of Guru in this area, because she's done such a good job of it. But she she managed to create a one month course with her direct audience that solved a problem for them and and almost made $2,000 in one month course, right? So you know, when you can do that, then it becomes a viable business and you're not having to hustle as much. It's a hustle all up front and one theories. And then you can kind of just nurture that series for a little while and take a little break bit of a break from the hustle because the hustle can get exhausting. Yes, yeah, the hustle can get exhaust the hustle is. We talked about this a little bit before. It has peaks and valleys right as well. And also with your confidence.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yes, well, and lots of people think too. And I love the idea of doing the pre record courses. I think that's so brilliant. Because sometimes people can get like building a class. If students haven't invested money in it, and then they don't show up yet. It takes a long time to build a class organically like in a studio, it takes six months. Well, that's gonna be the same thing online, if not worse, right? And so when you do a pre registered course, the students that are like, Nope, I know I want to commit to this and then the fact they've already paid for it helps hold them to committing to showing up. Absolutely right. And so everybody wins. So I think that's so so super smart. And in fact, that's kind of what that's what my mentorship is really because the the folks in my mentorship who are the ones who come to my classes have prepaid have paid for like four months, right? So it's like a four month series. That we're doing with them. And absolutely, I think that is so much. It's such a better solution than just like, the online with the fingers crossed kind of like,

Michael Jay  
yeah, I, when I launched my classes in January, I launched for club for classes for January, February, and I made I think it was almost about $8,000. From for classes. Right. So that's pretty good. That's pretty good for, you know, they were all registered, but I'll tell the thing that helped that was having a system that had video on demand, because that took away a lot of those. I can't commit to this series, because I'm going to be away this week. Yeah. You know, then you just like, Oh, don't worry about that, you know, you can catch up on video on demand. And the other thing it gave those people for that were once a week, it gave them the ability to practice that class. So for example, I did, what did they do? I did a stress, stress relief, a relaxed class, I did a yoga for men class and a beginner class, and the beginning the end the the beginner course, and the yoga for men course with a progressive series. And what was great about that is that they could take week one, and then practice that, what we learned that week by redoing the videos, and they just had access to it. And during those, you know, that registered period, and that but then they couldn't use that during that week until the next week, that really beneficial, and it takes away that I can't join because of

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yes, yes, yes, yeah. I record all my classes, too. Although I did. Um, even though the ribbon that I'm using has video on demand, I just wind up uploading them to YouTube. Because it was just easier to have. Here's your YouTube playlist with the archive of everything.

Michael Jay  
So there you go. I think you have them unlisted. And you just correct. Yeah, yeah. Send out the private link.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Yeah, exactly. So people can check them out afterwards and get no but yes, but I think the video on demand is great, because then it's like a nice tidy, the nice tidy thing now, would you ever are those classes that you record? Do you ever kind of leave those out there for other people to buy or those just for that community?

Michael Jay  
I felt that it was just for that community? Because they were on them? Right, right. Right, right. Because they were on there. They were live classes, they were on them. But what I did do, here's a little tip for folks that want to do a little upsell. I then had so for one, I did one series, which was called reboot, and it was a series about getting through COVID, you know, with a sane mind. And so it was about creating healthy habits. And it was a daily prayer, often hour every single day we met. And then on the weekend we had we had sessions with psychologists, nutritionists, then also Oh, nice. Yeah, it was really fantastic. It was a very, very powerful program. And one of my most successful programs. What was the question on that one,

Rachel Scott Yoga  
though? We were talking. Let's see, we were talking about YouTube. And oh, whether or not you had things that were whether you just had that those videos in house. Yeah. So

Michael Jay  
I had 15 classes recorded that they had all attended. So then I bundled those 15 classes up, and then sold them as a package after because they lost access to the classes. But because they were nice half an hour accessible classes, I did a very good job of a nice little upsell at the end with that content.

Rachel Scott Yoga  
Oh, nice. That's a great idea for listening at home for how to like, you know, kind of make the most of what you're putting out there. And again, it's a win win, like your students great. They get, I guess, lifetime access or whatever access to those classes. You get a nice, you know, bonus for that. And then everyone's happy. Yeah.

Michael Jay  
So what do you think? What do you think the future is moving forward here for yoga teachers? It's, it's a new space. Right?

Rachel Scott Yoga  
It is. And I mean, again, although I think that a lot of the, it is a new space, but I and I think that the opportunity is to be in business for yourself. So this is something we've touched on. For those I mean, and it's hard because not everybody is feels comfortable, you know, wandering around computers and websites and, you know, kind of building your own but I'd say the opportunity is to really is to have your own shingle and your own business and be your own and be an entrepreneur for yourself. So you don't have to necessarily work for a studio, which I think is great because sometimes studios studios are wonderful. I love them for building community, but I don't Love that they can be an option. Now, rather than the only game in town, because it was so hard for newer teachers to even get an opportunity sometimes to practice. And, you know, so many teachers have had experiences with studios where they feel like the studios have all the power. So now, I think it's a really nice change that you can be like, this is my site, this is my studio, my studio is online. And then yes, you can continue to go and teach in person classes and things like that. But to be able to be the master of your domain is really nice, because some people, you know, and again, some people may not want to do all that hustling, they might be like, I just want to teach two classes a week, and I'm happy. But for the people who are like, I want to create a huge library of resources and materials, you can do that now. You know, and you can create, like, a lot of content if you want to put your back behind it and do that. And, you know, for those who are intimidated, because we don't get into yoga necessarily become webmasters or web designers, right? Yeah. But I'd say business people, or business people I know. So I mean, there, I think there's still going to be opportunities. If you're like, that's not for me, I don't like that. You can you can find online studios to teach through. Now. Like there's lots of opportunities through things like YOGA INTERNATIONAL, and these different kind of organizations, which are want to host teachers who can sort of help you out, manage that side of it, if you really don't want to do it. But I would say I would suggest, even if you are a little hesitant about that, that there are ways to, you know, connect with your fellow graduates or people that you know, like, just like you say, who's in your circles, like Who do you know, there's got to be someone who's, you know, familiar with web, there's got to be someone who's familiar with cameras, where you could do exchanges, or trades or something like that to become to take advantage of the opportunity to be self sufficient in this space. So I think it's going to be, you know, a lot a little websites, but rather than people saying, Come see me at this little studio, it'll be come see me online. Yeah. Right. And

Transcribed by https://otter.ai