6 Tips for After You Graduate from Your 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Program

Transcript

hello hello I am Kate and I am so excited to talk to you today about the things that you need to do or that I recommend that you do immediately upon graduating from a 200 hour yoga teacher training so we recently graduated our very first in-person 200h hour group from our studio headquarters here at yoga renew um the studio headquarters or inperson headquarters opened in January of 2023 so we've been an online company for many years before that and had thousands of online graduates from our program but we ran our first ever in-person training for our yoga renew headquarters and they just graduated and I had the honor of teaching to them uh about the business of yoga right before graduation and this was a big question and it's a question that we get from all of our online graduates too like what are the first few things that I should really do after graduating from a two 200 hour yoga teacher training so I wanted to talk about some of them because mostly it's like recommended things the things that I recommend are logistical things very tactical practical things that you can do to make sure to keep the momentum going from the excitement of your graduation so let's get right to it because I think this is a question a lot of people have so upon graduating from your 200-hour yoga teacher training you are qualified to start teaching yoga classes you can jump in start leading them and there's some things that you should make sure to have set up before you do that to protect yourself and kick off your business really as a yoga teacher so the first thing that I would say that you want to do is to obtain personal liability insurance for being a yoga teacher before you start teaching your classes and listen you hope in the world that nothing bad ever happens that no one ever sues you but you just also never know when it's super important to protect yourself so having that insurance is a layer to make sure sure that you are not ever in a situation where you're being held personally responsible for something that could have happened in your class there are many different yoga liability insurance companies out there it's not insanely expensive and the price usually varies based on how often you're going to teach so if you plan to teach full-time you would need probably higher coverage and a higher price Insurance than if you're teaching one or two classes per week be Yogi is one that we person Al work with and recommend so I would recommend right out the gate before you start leading classes to obtain personal yoga teacher liability insurance to make sure that you're protected pretty straightforward and simple but that's the first thing that you should do the next thing that I do recommend is opening up an LLC if you plan to earn money as a yoga teacher there's a few reasons for this so opening an LLC adds another layer of protection to you personally as a yoga teacher so if students are paying your LLC or you're getting paid from a yoga studio through the LLC then that means if God forbid something were to happen and the LLC was to get sued people could only come after the assets of the LLC not after your personal assets your home your 401k like retirement funds whatever so it's an added layer of protection for you to separate your personal assets from your professional ones and I think that it's just a really good practice to do to in any kind of business to set up that type of Separation to make sure that you're doing yourself the favor of setting up your business responsibly so opening up an LSC there's also tax benefits to doing this so as a yoga teacher you if you own your LLC your own business like you can then write off different trainings and things that you have to do business expenses related to being a yoga teacher would then be something that you could write off against against the income that you're making as a yoga teacher so having that LLC is a really good step if you're planning to seriously earn money teaching yoga um to do that it's usually like I know the state that I live in there's an online form you can pay the fee and register the LLC online so it's not super complicated just some steps and forms to fill out and then you'll have your LLC you can register that then with the IRS to get an email in an employee identification number and then you would use that Ein when filling out any type of paperwork that you would need for being employed or being a contractor for a yoga studio or a gym or anywhere else that you're teaching so you first register your LLC then you register that LLC with the IRS and get your EIN number so that's the next thing that I would recommend so you get insurance you create an LLC you register that with the IRS those are some like straightforward bookkeeping type things that I think are really good to do right out the gate um as a as a new graduate from a teacher training program if you're planning to work as a yoga teacher the next is to decide if you plan to register with yoga Alliance if you have done our yoga renew teacher training program we are a yoga Alliance certified program they are a um an organization that has certain standards for their schools and then teachers can register with them and that's how you get your official registered yoga teacher designation in ryt uh through yoga Alliance you can add that to your bio to your resume and that way when you're applying to different Studios or different jobs you can say that you are a teacher that's registered with yoga Alliance which just gives them like a cross checkpoint to understand what type of a program you have actually studied with you don't have to register with yoga Alliance in order to work as a yoga teacher it's really a personal decision there are many schools of yoga Ashtanga jti aenar Yoga whose teachers do not register with the yoga Alliance so it's it is a personal choice there is a fee associated with it but I think you want to make that choice and if you do think that you plan to register with them it's good to do so soon after completing your 200 hour teacher training program because your yoga school has to approve your graduation approve your certificate and not that I think this would happen for us at yoga renew but I've heard of people who like do their training at a studio and then wait many years and then the studio closes and they're no longer active on yoga Alliance and it gets a little bit messy so it's clearer to get into yoga alliance's system by registering very soon after your graduation when it's like fresh in the mind of that school that you've recently graduated from their program so you make that decision for yourself and if yes you do plan to register with yoga Alliance you can do that right away you can also register those initial hours and then if you decide to not maintain your registration that's fine but at least you get it in that system so we do recommend that if you plan to do it to do it very soon after graduation so those are like three pretty straightforward tactical kind of things to do upon graduating from your 200 hour teacher training now I'll get into some more of the like not so tactical kind of more spiritual flowy side of things and the the next three tips that I have are really related to like developing yourself as a teacher and to your personal practice so the first would be to start teaching as soon as you can and that might be by offering free Community classes at a community center if you want to gain some teaching experience it could be getting on a sublist at a studio it could be offering to teach yoga once a week at lunch to your colleagues whatever that looks like but while it's fresh in your mind that you've completed this program and you have the motivation to get going you want to start to get the practice of teaching as soon as possible so find ways to to begin teaching it can start with family and friends just to make you more comfortable with queuing and looking at different people's bodies moving sequencing your classes so I recommend trying to start teaching as soon as possible this doesn't mean that you need to get hired at a studio or at a gym or in a hospital Center like whatever it is you don't necessarily need to be hired somewhere but I do think you should try to make sure to be in the practice of teaching one class per week so you're sequencing a class per week if the goal for you is to teach for the long term because I have seen teachers are like yes I want to teach I want to teach and then they graduate from teacher training one two three six months go by and all of a sudden it's like I don't know now I'm not sure if I want to anymore I like really do want to but I'm really nervous to and that momentum gets lost so getting right into the rhythm of learning to sequence and cue classes I think is really important so I would recommend finding a way to teach a weekly class even if it's to like your two best friends via Zoom right just start getting in the habit of teaching immediately after graduating the other um tip that I have is to start doing some work for yourself on as you're doing that as you're teaching and really refining like the why behind why you teach why do you teach yoga and what type of teacher do you want to be what do you want to start to Niche down on to become an expert in I am of the opinion that you can be a yoga student who appr preach who appreciates many different modalities many forms many aspects of the yoga practice but as a teacher I think honing your expertise in specific areas is really ideal because you don't want to end up being a jack of all trades and a master of none I think when you start to own the thing that you feel most passionate related to the practice and teaching of yoga that can start to be the thing that you share with others that you teach you can still as a student be super interested and passionate about learning about all of it but it doesn't mean that you have to teach all of it if that makes sense so for example I love practicing restorative yoga like nothing better for me than walking into a yoga class with all the Bowers and blankets and have someone lead me through a super healing and nourishing practice early in my teaching career I tested out teaching some restorative classes subbing a few here and there and while I liked it I didn't feel particular L connected to it as a teacher enough to go on and do many many restorative trainings I have done them in the context of like doing my 300 hour which had a Therapeutics and and um restorative weekend so it's something that I've continued to explore but I haven't dived so fully in it that I would consider myself an expert restorative teacher can I speak on restorative yoga yes can I set students up in my vyasa classes in restorative poses absolutely but I don't lead restorative yoga teacher trainings currently because I'm not an expert in restorative yoga I love it as a student but I don't have to teach it right my expertise is in Vinyasa sequencing and yin yoga and The Business of yoga side of things at this point and those are the things that I really focus on teaching it doesn't mean I can't speak to all aspects of yoga but it means that it's not my area of main expertise and I think that it's important in your early teaching to Career to start to develop what you truly want to learn more about and become an expert in and it doesn't mean that that can't evolve and change and you can't gain more expertise over time you absolutely can like there was a time that I was only really focused on Vinyasa yoga sequencing and then I went on felt like pretty solid in that so then I went on to do yin yoga teacher trainings and really got into that and now I would say I mean I I teach both of them for yoga renew so I have the expertise for both of those modalities now but that happened over time and throughout many years of teaching so so I think it's like starting to pick the first thing that you really want to continue learning about and developing your expertise in as a teacher and starting to go down that path and that route and then the last thing I would say is making sure to set time for yourself to practice right A lot of times people dive in to become yoga teachers and they start teaching so much that they lose sight of their practice and kind of like what I was saying with that expertise thing like I think one of the most important things you can do to be a great yoga teacher is to continue to be a yoga student if you stop practicing you lose that passion that you need and you also lose like the laboratory of exploring the practice for yourself so committing to practice whether that's taking a class or knowing that you always have some kind of training I I do recommend actually setting it at least once a week if not twice a week in your schedule that's committed to taking class and learning that from your teachers that can be online that can be in person whatever that looks like for you but just scheduling time in your calendar or on your calendar to make sure to continue being a student of yoga and keep up with your personal practice and I think if you can do those six things soon after graduating from your 200 hour then you're going to set yourself up with this foundation for success to continue to build and grow as a yoga teacher it's such an exciting time if you're watching this and like you're on your way to start graduating or you've just recently graduated I want to congratulate you it is a huge accomplishment and just the most beautiful journey to dedicate that much significant time to learning a new skill especially in adulthood and especially one that can go out and better the lives of so many people in your community so thank you for having the courage to dedicate the time to doing your yoga teacher training thank you for continuing to spread and share this practice and better the world around you I am excited for you I hope these tips help you and if you have questions let me know let any of us know at yoga Renu we're here to support you and we're very grateful for you have a wonderful rest of your day