Still, there are a few things I learned along the way that I wish someone had told me before I got started. Here are seven of them: With private students, it’s all about selling packages of five or 10 classes. This is great for students because it helps ensure they’ll show up (unlike a gym membership, which they can just ignore), and it’s great for the teacher because it’s a useful chunk of change you can pocket and budget accordingly. I once taught a regular 5:30 am client, followed by 7am and 9am ones. I got up at 5am, and I was home by 11am (for a mid-morning nap). Then I had several free hours until my evening classes. Sometimes, my last class or private session would end at 10pm. I also became much more conscious of the weather, because I was going in and out of the elements all day long. There was something tremendously freeing about this, but it can also be perpetually exhausting. I (anecdotally) concluded that in order to consistently fill a room of 40 students, at least 400 students needed to want to be there. I had to teach over 1,500 people to develop the rapport with the ones who really understood what I was offering and who wanted more of it on a weekly basis. That, frankly, takes some time to build! As with any popularity contest, it can drive you crazy if you start to take it personally. Students would swear that I’d changed their lives and then suddenly vanish. In every conversation I’ve had with fellow teachers about “their numbers,” the more we explored this topic, the more crazy it felt. It is and will remain a mystery. An unbelievably fantastic way of spending a Saturday, if you ask me. And yet, the total time spent between teaching, prep, and travel, was about 9 hours just for my Saturday class. Obviously, I wasn’t pouring myself into my teaching for the money—in fact, I would definitely have paid for the experience of sharing what I loved—but it’s important to realize just how many hours you’re investing. Sometimes studios are quite business-like (think base fees, per-student-bonuses, and commissions on profits generated). Yet despite these business-minded strategies, I’ve rarely heard of centers giving raises based on seniority, or paid vacations, or insurance, or even the possibility of being made a partner—things that are pretty standard in other businesses. As a teacher, many people might hold you to a higher standard of behavior than everyone else. For example, people might think yoga instructors should always act “zen” or “enlightened.” But if “enlightenment” is the standard, then absolutely no one I know measures up. How could they? Yet, in the end, it doesn’t matter all that much. Almost all professions come with some stereotypical preconceptions. Is it really so bad if the ones associated with being a yoga teacher are that you’ll be calm and wise, albeit eating granola? Again, I treasure those crazy times I was racing around New York City, teaching dozens of classes and hundreds of people, standing on my head for a living. It was wonderful and exhausting and inspiring and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Like falling in love, if it’s really right for you, you’ll simply have to do it. His new book is a novel, DOWNWARD DOG (Diversion Book; paperback release June 2014) about a Bad Boy NYC yoga teacher. It has already been optioned for a film by Producer Sarah Finn, casting director of over 50 films including the Best Picture Oscar Winner CRASH, Oliver Stones last three movies, the IRON MAN SERIES, and THE AVENGERS.
