Teach and the Students Will Arrive

I wanted to title this post with that Field of Dreams cliche - teach and the students will come - but that's a bit tantric, and tantra is misleading enough without my help.

One of the discussions we had in training covered the business of yoga because the reality is that for some teachers, yoga is strictly business. They became students with the goal of making a living at something they already did and enjoyed. A mindset like this doesn't detract from the teacher's personal practice and ideals though it might effect what their students get out of yoga in the long term.

Regardless, if a person teaches yoga the topic of compensation will come up.

Catherine, my Yoga Works instructor, cautioned the class against teaching for free. In fact, I believe she said - never teach for free. Good yogi karma and spiritually lovey-dovey atmosphere aside, I agree with her. Giving yourself away teaches others that what you have to offer isn't worth much and/or that you don't value what you've learned and have to share enough to ask for compensation. It also creates lackadaisical students because something that is free doesn't inspire students to put their best effort in.

Oh, but that is not true, you might think. People are grateful for the opportunity to learn something without charge.

Perhaps. Once. Holding a free workshop or allowing students to drop into a class to try it on for size without charge is appreciated and will in some cases lead people to regular attendance and a personal practice or more. But in my experience, people who have to put something in (like a fee) in order to experience something tend to hold it more dear. The act of investing tangibly is an important step in the learning process and this is true no matter the subject at hand.

However, once the profit is introduced to any situation the ideas of competition, ownership and marketing creep in.

This creates dilemma for teachers who believe in the goodwill side of yoga. That premise that for every student there is the right teacher and directing students to teachers, yoga practices and studios that fit their needs will ultimately come back to them in the form of other students.

Unless a person owns her own studio - and even if she does - most yoga teachers teach in many venues. Jill, the owner of the studio where I teach, also teaches at a studio in a nearby suburb. I teach at her studio and at the local community hall. A fellow Yoga Works student runs her yoga business out of her home, at her local fitness center and is actively searching for other outlets as well while she scours her little town in search of somewhere to set up a stand alone studio.

The problems arise when there is the perception of poaching students or the idea that students are loyal to studios/fitness centers rather than teachers.

The reality is that students follow teachers. There is little a studio can do to prevent this regardless of how open or draconian their policies are when it comes to allowing teachers to talk about when and where they teach.

Jill, at The Yoga Room, operates with the notion that anyone she redirects for his/her own good will come back to her karmically and if she were a case study, it would be hard to disprove her theory. Her yoga "business" is literally out-growing its space.

But others are not so sanguine and when rent is at stake, it's hard to fault them.

For the moment, I am still so amazed to be asked to teach and paid on top of it that I don't consider this my issue. Perhaps someday, but for now, I don't expect to make a living and don't really need to at any rate.

A spirited (I won't say "mean" spirited though be warned that conversations certainly go down that road more often than not) at the Elephant on this topic is worth checking out. Labor and management at odds is an eons old tale and yoga is not immune.