by Kara-Leah Grant
I’ve been having conversations lately with friends who would like to reap the benefits from a regular yoga practice. They see what it’s done for me, so have no doubt yoga can do amazing things for the body.
There’s likely people like this all over the world.
- People with injuries they know would benefit from yoga.
- People who are getting older and would like to maintain their suppleness and strength with yoga.
- People who need the mental release and clarity from regular yoga practice.
They want to go to yoga classes.
But they don’t.
So why not?
Part of the answer lies in their perception of what yoga is – something that you need to be flexible to do.
Part of the answer lies in an experience they’ve already had in a yoga class – of not being flexible enough.
Yet yoga is not about flexibility. I’m gonna say that again because it’s really, really, really important.
Yoga is NOT about flexibility. Flexibility is the natural result of practicing yoga over a period of time. It’s the result – not the prerequisite.
When we teach yoga, we need to make sure that students know this, and they feel really comfortable about being wherever they are within their bodies on the mat. If we don’t, we lose the student, and they lose out on the potential benefits of yoga.
Each of my friends has been to a yoga class before, yet because of the way the yoga was taught, they didn’t go back.
One friend said:
It just felt like the teacher was using the class to show off how flexible she was.
Another friend commented:
I just couldn’t do any of the moves so didn’t bother going back.
A third friend has told me:
The teacher pushed me into a posture and something tweaked – it didn’t feel good for days.
Incidences like this give yoga a bad name. It’s bad press. Each of these people walked away from a yoga class and didn’t go back. They want to do yoga, but they don’t. As a result, they’re losing out, and we as yoga teachers are losing out.
These kind of stories are balanced in part by the people who rave about the way that yoga has changed their life and their body – there’s no doubt about that. But I’d like to see less and less people having a bad experience in a yoga class.
I’d also like students to know that:
If you ever go to a yoga class which isn’t great for one reason or another, try another class. And another. And another, until you find the class and the teacher that resonates with you.
As teachers, we need to be thinking about these wannabe yoga students and how we can attract them back to our classes, because they already want to do yoga.
This is simply good marketing. Keeping a customer happy is always much easier than attracting a new one. And someone who’s already been to class is an existing customer, even though they’re currently not coming to class.
Yep, I’m thinking about yoga in terms of marketing. I’m thinking about promotion and PR, and how we can harness it to grow yoga. And I think it’s about time we did this as yoga teachers. We need to shamelessly promote yoga because people want to do it. They really, really, do.
Great yoga marketing is all about making yoga more accessible, so more people feel comfortable about coming along, they have a great experience when they do, and they find the right teacher and class for them.
So if you’re a yoga teacher or studio, and you’re thinking about promoting some classes, workshops or a new teacher, think about this:
- How can you appeal to all those people out there who have done yoga before but had a bad experience?
- How can you appeal to all those people out there who would love to do yoga but don’t think they’re flexible enough?
- How can you appeal to all those people out there who may have encountered the wrong yoga teacher for them at the time?
These people want yoga.
They need yoga.
All they’re waiting for is the right invitation and the right approach.
It’s up to us as teachers and studios to determine what that is, and offer it. Then we’re serving the needs of our students… which isn’t really marketing after all, is it?
It’s just service.
Which in yoga we call seva.
I would love to hear your answers to the questions you have posed. Always up for some good marketing knowledge!!
It really is about the students ego. There is a common misconception that yoga is easy. When they come to class and get their butts kicked they either A. Say it was the teacher or studio’s fault for teaching hard classes or B. Start looking for a super easy yoga class to prove their point. I teach an Ashtanga class and I talked to a student who didn’t like the fact that they were lost the first day. I was thinking, “Duh, Of course you were lost, it was your first day!!” Whenever I have any new students in Ashtanga, I explain that it takes dedication to learn it but because the student felt uncomfortable being lost, Ashtanga = Bad. Once a person convinces themselves of something, that same person has to unconvince themselves too.
If we are going to educate them, It needs to be that Yoga is not easy.
No one goes to the gym and expects to lift 300 pounds on their first day. No one trains for a marathon and expects to be able to run their best speed on the first day. No one goes to Karate class and expects to have their black belt in one day either.
On the other hand, when people come to yoga, they expect to be able to do everything the first time!!!
I believe that Western Society has created this monster and it is coming back to bite us. We have invented a yoga class for every situation under the sun. We have taught people, “oh, if you don’t like it, try something else.” “I want to make you happy. If you don’t like this, I will invent something that suits your tastes”.
People used to know that yoga was not easy. You had to give up everything to live with the guru and take his instruction. They saw how the yogi’s lived and witnessed the demonstrations of their skills and strengths. They knew that it took years of work to master the ancient discipline.
In Western society we grew afraid of offending our students for fear that they won’t come back and we watered down the yoga. We romanticized the flowery pretty bits of yoga and showed beautiful teachers easily doing flexy bendy poses with a smile. People saw and heard and said “oh..look how easy that looks. She says it feels good to do yoga. I am going to look for the yoga practice that feels good”. It caught on in modern society.
How do you market to people who have left because of ego created nonsense without reinforcing their ego? That is really the question. I guarantee you that 90% of them don’t really have a legitimate reason. That “tweak” they were talking about was most likely their unused muscles screaming at them or caused by them pushing themselves too hard. The “show off” teacher was probably just trying to be helpful by demonstrating poses. The not flexible stuff is definitely crap.
You only have one 1 1/2 hour class to convey this and if the students mind is closed because they think they know what yoga is supposed to be and feel like, then it will be extremely hard to change it. Everyone can do yoga but yoga is not for every one.
Hey Shanna,
You have given me so much to ponder!
Yoga isn’t easy… and once upon a time it wasn’t accessible either.
Now it’s still not easy, do we want to work on making it more accessible – making students feel welcome, meeting them wherever they are and working from there?
I do believe that there is a yoga for everyone. Ultimately our practice is personal, it’s what we need along our journey. As a teacher, I want to help people find that perfect practice for them, that point of accessibility.
Thanks for such a thoughful answer – and I will likely have more to write on this in a future article, and will be able to answer more of your questions then.
Blessings,
KL
Thanks for the very thoughtful article Kara-Leah. I think that your concerns about marketing yoga to the whole population are really important and ones that need to be seriously considered as yoga teachers. As you said, we are serving the community and it is up to us to make sure we are reaching that community, especially those who may have been disheartened by a previous yoga experience. Unlike Shanna, I do believe that yoga is for everyone, though that yoga is going to be very different for each person. For some it may be a simple 10 minute breathing practice, for others a more intense Ashtanga practice and for others just a return to themselves that they don’t get in their day-to-day busy lives. As teachers we need to recognise that and be sure to cater to what each person needs.
I truly believe that if someone felt they were being pushed into a place they didn’t want to go in a yoga class, that is a legitimate enough reason to not go back to that class. The teacher needs to be very familiar with a student before pushing them physically into new territory. We need to be mindful of our own egos and make sure they don’t get in the way of the needs of our students. The students ego will follow – practising yoga ensures that. We need to create nurturing environments that students want to return to without any hesitations. Students should feel good after a yoga class and not in any way threatened by or insecure about that class. Sure some yoga classes are strenuous, but that should be clear before the class begins.
I also disagree that we need to be educating people to the fact that yoga is hard. It doesn’t have to be hard. It should be whatever each person needs it to be. People should be coming to your yoga class because it is benefiting them in whatever way they need at that time. For some it will be hard, but they are ready for that challenge. For others it will be just the relaxation that they need at that moment. If our students egos are preventing them from getting the most out of their practice, it is our responsibility to guide them in a way that changes this experience for them; not get frustrated with personality issues.
As Judith Lasater says: “The practice of yoga is fundamentally an act of kindness toward oneself…[a teacher’s] approach is warm, non-judgmental and responsive to individual differences and needs.” See the following link for a great article by Lasater about core concerns in teaching yoga:
http://www.judithlasater.com/writings/coreconcerns.html
Namaste,
Caroline
Twinkies are accessible to me in the break room right now but that doesn’t mean I need to eat them. It would take extra work and effort for me to drive to the grocery store and get a healthy snack but that Would be the better long term action for my body. “acessible” is a tricky thing. Sometimes what people want is not what they need.
Hey Caroline,
Wonderful to read your comment – you’ve covered off on so many aspects in a beautiful way. I especially like the quote you give at the end from Judith Lasater about teaching. Thanks too for the link!!!
Blessings,
Kara-Leah
Hey Shanna,
I’m with you on that one… what people want and what people need are sometimes two very different things.
So if we can give them what they want so they stick around, then that gives us a chance to give them what they need as well.
And I gotta say, if yoga were as accessible as twinkies… I’d be stoked!
Blessings,
Kara-Leah
Caroline, I didn’t say that yoga is not for everyone but everyone will not do yoga. There is a difference. It is for everyone but does that mean we are supposed to just let the students dictate the entire class? Are we supposed to let them dictate how we run our studios and how we teach? We are the teachers. We have the knowledge, experience and training.
No one has to do what they don’t want to do. That is always the case. However, Sometimes our own dirty mirrors cloud our views of reality. Yoga takes us to where we are not comfortable. That is part of the growth. According to the Yoga Sutras, Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. If that were easy, there would have been no reason for the Yoga Sutras to ever have been written. Yoga itself would not have been invented. The fact that it exist denotes a process.
Yoga is not easy. I will say that again. Life is not easy. We are faced with difficulties all the time. Yoga reflects life. You are going to do some things in yoga you don’t like but they are good for you.
Just because a student doesn’t like svasana, I am not going to take it out to make them happy. Just because a student doesn’t like deep breathing, I am not going to tell them to breathe shallow because it makes them happy. I will educated them on way Svasana is important and why they should breathe deeply. If they choose to drop out of my class because they don’t like my answers, then so be it.
As the teachers and the studio owners, we have to step up as leaders and teachers and help our students go places where they are afraid to go. That is when growth happens.
I am not referring to letting a student use a block or come to their knees to do plank. I am talking about ego manifested reasons for disliking a yoga class. An example was given that a student feels a teacher is showing off. So if a student leaves because the teacher is demonstrating Crow and they feel intimidated. “oh she is showing off” that is the students internal battle with self confidence issues. It is not the teachers job to stop doing crow, it is the students place to use the tools of yoga to stop the self limiting thoughts so that possibly they may be able to do crow themselves one day.
Yes, some people concerns are substantiated. There are teachers out there that are jerks and that don’t listen to the needs of their students at all. And a studio should market the fact that they are sensitive to the needs of students. I agree with that. My point was that we have to be careful of not crossing the line and loosing Yoga’s integrity for the sake of filling classes.
Kara Leah
You have to be careful with giving them what they want so they stick around because you teach people how to treat you and you set expectations. Here is an extreme example but stay with me here….lol. Say you open up a studio and you really want to do slow flow but you are in a Hard Core Hot Yoga area. If you start the classes as hot, hard core classes and try to slowly switch to slow flow, you are going to loose a lot of students because you set the expectations from the beginning that it was a hard core hot studio. If you set the expectations from the beginning that it is a slow flow studio, you will draw the people who are interested in Slow Flow. If may take you longer to build the studio, but in the long run, you will be teaching what you believe in.
I have seen many teachers change to fit their students only to be miserable 2-5 years later because they are still having to teach that way to keep those students.
It is one thing to give a student a block in triangle and then slowly get them to put their hand on their leg and then the floor over time. It is another thing to say well, “I love chanting but my students arn’t happy with it so I am going to cut it out” or “I know that my students need to do more strength poses to have balanced bodies but they don’t come back when I do them so we will stick to just yin”.
At some point we have to use tough love. My daughter wants to eat pizza, ice cream and French fries all day. I explain to her why that is not the best idea even though that is what she wants. I have to put my foot down as a parent and give her what she needs which is broccoli and then I throw in the ice cream every now and then because it is something she enjoys.
It is the same for the students, I will give them what they want absolutely. If they want some yummy juicy poses followed by lovely candle lit svasanas with peppermint scented eye clothes. They can absolutely have that. That is their ice cream. But they are also going to have to eat the Broccoli too which is the Planks, down dogs, warriors and whatever else they may not like because in the end, they need the balance.
I am all about marketing to students that we have something for everyone. I just brought up the question of how do we market to our students real needs and not to their egos? It all probably went awry though….lol…I am definitely not a marketing guru and I don’t have the yoga “business” aspects figured out. I am looking forward to your articles on marketing.
Hey Shanna,
It can be tricky to understand via written communication, and I suspect we’re actually on exactly the same page. Your last paragraph really helped clarify for me where you’re coming from:
“How do we market to our students real needs and not to their egos?”
Awesome question. Not sure I have the answer. Will ponder that for sure.
More on marketing to follow!
Blessings,
KL
Hi Kara Leah,
I was reading this article for some days and I got really upset with the Shanna’s view of students. And first I thought it’s not my business, its not about me, it’s SOME OTHER STUDENTS. Well then because of the other students I’ll will write my opinion about yoga, from MY experience.
What I first felt by reading Shanna’s comments was that if she is radiating the energy like she is writing about students then I would never fell welcome in her class. And this is not about my ego, in this case its about ego of Shanna as a teacher. Isn’t yoga suposed to teach us to not be judgemental to ourselves and towards the others?! Well this can be learnt ONLY IF he wants to teach his students….Maybe I should go a liitle bit more in the past (my past as a yoga student). First time I saw something about yoga was in the ’80 while my aunty was doing yoga… She even give a book from Kareen Zebroff which at that time for me was something what I could never do or lets say I was not ready to do.
Then, at the end of the 2008 while I was in the gym pushing myself to do something MY BODY didn’t like, in the same room was a lady doing some yoga poses. The only thought was “how beautiful she is and what she is doing… and how cool she is”. A few minutes later I realised that she was the yoga teacher and the ladies that were coming to her class were not like ladies from the magazines, in my eyes, they were ladies just like me. I came to the next class very nervous (maybe understandable for many other students coming to the class where you have no idea what is going on, ashamed for beinig there at all, because all the other in the class know more then he, or the teacher didn’t even notice him as a new person at her class). (Maybe because the teacher like Shanna thinks that yoga is not for everyone and yoga should be shown as something what is hard). Lets get back to my 1st class – I was there and I was blown away. I couldn’t explain myself why I was feeling so great, but when I came home I told my husband: “I have found something for the rest of my life!” But now I know what it was it was SHE, MY TEACHER that helped me from the start, beacause she cared about me and any new student that came to her class. She was doing the poses but she was all around us to put us in the right place – our bodies and our minds and to teach us not to be judgemental toward our selfs, our bodys, to let go from the ego, …that ego should not lead us, but our bodies should. And when you are giving this feeling to your students no mater what yoga class you teaching then you are marketing you self. And what people in New Zealnd have to learn is that the customer is the one who pays your service. Whitout them you don’t have studio, caffe or anything else. Sadly my teacher moved to another place and I miss her very much. And I witnessed when my friend was at the class with me (she is one of the newbies and her body is not flexible like some from our class). She was left on her own to figure out how to bring her self in the position. I saw that she wasn’t doing it properly but I couldn’t help her because I thougth the teacher will be the one to show her and help her, but she wasn’t… And she was sore for days and I don’t think she was strugling with her ego… She was sore because there was no one to show her that yoga isn’t hard… And for me the comment is “Some yoga teacher are not suposed to be teacher if they can’t pass it over to their student”. I was at Twee Merigans class and it was hard, but not because of my ego – it was because I wasn’t doing yoga for 2 weeks at that time and I WAS NOT THERE YET (like my teacher used to say). It was my ego that led me to Twee’s class and, of course, the curiosity. And with that I would like to finish my comment. Yoga does make people wondering what is it about and if the teacher doesn’t make it juicy, you have lost a student.
Namaste and with love Zanet
Hi once again,
just little P.S. for Shanna…Please try to find the story how Eric Small and B K S Iyengar met ….If Mr. Iyengar wouldn’t care about what students need Eric Small and many others wouldn’t be where they are now.
And Thanks to Caroline to put this article from Judith Laseter in her mail .I read that and that is what I was talking about having or being a good teacher and once I had that…I miss the magic touch, and humor, the spirit,the talk …..Thank You Kara Leah to be part of my life
Zanet
Zanet
Again, I will reinerate as I did in my last post. I never said that “yoga is not for everyone”. I did not say that!! I said that everyone will not do yoga. Just like everyone will not eat chicken and that everyone will not go jogging.
Again, there is a difference between modifying postures to help your students learn yoga and just changing everything up to fit their ego. Have you ever seen those people who get like one plastic surgery too many? Have you often asked yourself, how come there doctor didn’t stop them? The reason they didn’t is becuase the patient was paying them and that is what they wanted. As a responsible doctor, they should have said, “No, I will not give you that 8th nose job.”
As a responsible teacher, I have to use the tenents of yoga to assist the student. Sometimes what they want is not what they need. As the teacher, I have to be able to lovelingly tell them that.
You talked about Iyengar. Try going into an Iyengar class and telling them you don’t like straps and blocks and that you don’t want to do it in the order that they tell you and see what happens. The are one of the stricter yogas. Yes, Iyengar yoga teachers will use different postures to fit different bodies but they are not going to stray from Iyengar principles because a students is paying them money.
That is what my post was about. It was about straying from the tennents of yoga just because someone is paying you money and because they want it.
I will not take back the statement that yoga is not easy. Sitting and doing meditation while I would rather be sleep or at the movies is not easy. Holding a lunge for 5-10 breahthes while my thigh is quaking is not easy. Why do I do it? Because I love it. My body loves it. My mind needs it. The benefits are tremendous.
Hey Zanet,
Great to hear a student’s perspective, and to hear your story of how you made it to your first yoga class (and I’m so glad you came!).
I guess the view of yoga through the media can make the idea of going to a class quite intimidating for a first-time student – which is why I’m interested in exploring the choice of images we use to promote our classes.
Blessings,
KL