RSVP for Free to the Thrive Online workshop at http://www.quietmind.yoga/thriveworkshop
If you want consistent income, real impact, and personal freedom through your yoga teaching—without burning out or losing yourself—this episode is for you.
In this episode, I unpack what it really means to be consistent, and why so many yoga teachers feel shame around this word. We explore the energetic frequency behind our actions and how our inner alignment (or misalignment) shapes our results—whether it’s inconsistent income, irregular teaching schedules, or confusion about what to offer.
We’ll break down:
Why you might secretly not want the consistency you’re craving
How to track and align your income with your energy and impact
Why your offers need to be deeply fulfilling and financially sustainable
The entrepreneur mindset shift every yoga teacher needs
The link between your own introspection and your ability to make an impact
You’ll hear real-world strategies and mindset shifts to:
Build sustainable income that honors your energy
Make a meaningful impact through your authentic teaching
Expand your freedom by doing less, but better
Avoid burnout by knowing when to rest and when to teach
Stay true to yourself while growing your reach
This isn’t about hustle or overwhelm. It’s about embodiment, alignment, and building something that lasts.
💡 Journal Prompts:
What does consistency feel like in my body?
What kind of energy do I bring to teaching, posting, or promoting?
Am I doing what I really want—or what I think I “should” do?
Where am I leaking energy in my business or teaching?
✨ Whether you’re teaching weekly classes, running online offerings, or dreaming of your first retreat—this episode will help you clarify your next right step. It’s time to create a business that nourishes you as much as it helps others.
🧘🏽♂️ Want to go deeper into building your aligned business?
Join the FREE live Thrive Workshop here:
http://www.quietmind.yoga/thriveworkshop
5 Key Quotes
- “If you’re not being consistent, part of you doesn’t want to be.”
- “You can’t expect consistent income from inconsistent action.”
- “When you create offers that are both heart-aligned and financially sustainable, freedom follows.”
- “You’re not just a yoga teacher—you’re an entrepreneur. That changes everything.”
- “Burnout happens when you try to give more than you have. Like drinking from a coconut that’s already empty.”
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you want to create consistentincome impact and freedom
teaching yoga without burning out or losing yourself, go to
quiet mind dot yoga slash Thriveworkshop.
I'll be hosting a free live workshop all about this and what
I'm going to talk about in today's episode.
And we're going to break that down, starting with the word
consistent. Everyone wants to be more
(00:23):
consistent. As a yoga teacher, this is
probably the most common thing Ihear from people is I'm on
Instagram, but I'm not consistent.
I want to be practicing more consistently.
And what does this really mean? Well, it means that you're
posting at a certain frequency that you want to be posting at.
It means you're practicing at a certain frequency that you want
(00:44):
to be practicing at. Maybe that's once a day, five
times a week, every other day. Doesn't really matter how often
it is, but it's this sort of unattainable thing for so many
teachers. It's kind of surprising how
often this comes up of I'm not consistent and it's often a sort
of shameful thing. Maybe you've said this yourself,
(01:05):
maybe you've heard other teachers say this of like, I'm
on Instagram, but I'm just not consistent.
I get people following me online, but it's just not
consistent. I teach online sometimes, but
the classes aren't consistent. I teach in person.
It's just not consistent. So how do you create more
consistency? Well, like I said, it's a
(01:25):
frequency that you're operating at and there's a part of you
that actually is wanting the results that you have now.
So if you're saying you're not consistent online, then it's
probably part of you that doesn't want to be consistent
online. Sometimes I talk to people and
they love Instagram. They think it's an amazing
(01:47):
platform. They can't wait to post.
They love the interaction. And of course, those people are
more consistent because they're at the frequency, the energy.
So not just the amount of quantity of time and frequency
of how often they're posting, but the frequency of the energy
of how it feels to be on Instagram and interacting with
(02:07):
people and sharing. And it's a sort of give and take
relationship. Whereas I think a lot of people
approach this sort of level of consistency with like, what am I
getting from it? And the frequency they're
approaching it with is that it'sjust not enough.
There's a sort of shame. It's like a sense of like, I'm
not doing enough. So if you want to create
(02:29):
consistency, the first thing to look at is not actually how
often am I practicing or teaching or how many times
people are coming back to classes or how many times you're
posting on Instagram. It's the frequency, the energy
underneath it. Are you going on Instagram and
annoyed and irritated and like, I have to do this?
(02:50):
And then you're just posting because you feel like you have
to and then you're upset that nobody interacts with it and it
feels like it's fruitless. That's a certain frequency,
right? Or are you having irregular
income, Right? So we're going to talk about
income in a moment, but are you having inconsistent income?
Is there a part of you that actually doesn't want the
(03:11):
pressure of having to be consistent of like, you think
you want more freedom? So if you say I'm going to be at
a class every Sunday at noon, you don't feel free anymore.
So you don't want to be consistent in teaching and you
don't want to be consistent and promoting or marketing or
emailing or whatever The thing is, because there's some party
that doesn't want to do that. And then you get inconsistent
(03:33):
results because you're getting you're, you're putting in
inconsistent actions, behaviors,choices, and then you're getting
inconsistent results. So like a vinyasa yoga practice
when you get into a sort of flowand rhythm.
There's a sort of. Frequency there that's easy to
(03:54):
sustain and keep going and oftenit feels like very euphoric
even, at least my experience. When you get into a nice flow
and a yoga practice, it's like step your right foot forward,
inhale, raise your arms up, exhale, warrior two.
It's like this nice flow, do this, do that, breathe in,
(04:14):
breathe out. And this creates this rhythm,
which is very useful for the mind and the body and the
emotions to get into a sort of rhythm.
And it puts us into what you could say is kind of like a
trance or induces a sort of brain wave frequency.
Usually like the alpha brain waves, which are a little bit
slower, a little more meditativeand like a like right between
(04:37):
that space of like relaxed and alert, which we talked a lot
about in yoga. So a lot of people are
approaching their consistency with either being too relaxed
and then they try to be too firm, like too much suka and
they try to bring in too much Stira and like, OK, I need to
just work really hard and push myself and push, push, push.
And then they get burned out, which we'll talk about later as
(04:59):
well. So like in everything in yoga,
it's this balance of effort and ease and the frequency of those
two. So consistent could mean you're
just posting once a week. And you look at many successful
online yoga teachers, a lot of them are just posting like every
Sunday, just once a week. But it's consistent.
(05:19):
It's every week. And it's not like it has to be,
you know, post 50 videos on YouTube tomorrow and that's
going to just suddenly you're going to have thousands of
people following you. That's not as valuable as just
posting once a week consistentlyover years.
That's going to lead to more of a sustained audience, more
(05:41):
sustainable for you and your effort and energy.
And it's a frequency that you can tune into that's sustainable
of nice amount of spaciousness and ease in your week and some
efforts to move things forward. But it's a nice balance of the
two and it's going to be different for everybody.
But that's the first thing I want to share today is when we
think about consistency, don't just think about like, I'm not
(06:02):
doing enough or I'm just should do more or this sort of shame
and judgement of ourselves. But look at the frequency, the
energy. And is there some party that
really likes the results that you have now and likes being
inconsistent? And what would consistency mean
for you? Is it a certain amount of posts
a week, a certain amount of students a week, certain amount
of income every month? And then work backwards from
(06:24):
there? Like what does that take to do
that? So let's talk about income next.
So again, this episode create consistent income impact and
freedom teaching yoga without burning out or losing yourself.
So how do you create consistent income?
Well, you need consistent actions that produce consistent
income. Now, a lot of things as yoga
(06:44):
teacher are inconsistent and unreliable.
Like you might teach a class every week Sunday at noon in
person or online or whatever, but you don't know how many
people are going to show up, howmany people are going to buy a
membership or not or cancel. You don't know if holidays are
going to come up, birthdays, events, whatever the
circumstance, if you teach in person long enough or teach
(07:06):
online long enough, you'll see that it's just, it's just waves.
And sometimes it's predictable, like the holiday season.
Sometimes it's unpredictable andrandom.
And one week you have nobody come to class and the next week
it's sold out. And then sometimes it's
sustainable and it's like you can consistently reliable that
people are going to show up every week.
But a lot of that who shows up is out of your control.
(07:27):
But how you show up is in your control and what you focus on is
in your control. And that's the most important
skill as you go further along inany business is what you choose
to focus on. And this is maybe the most
common challenge I've experienced myself.
And I've talked to other people,starting small businesses, yoga
(07:47):
teachers. I've been working in this for a
long time and helping people share their gifts with the
world. Through Vedic astrology.
And the people who grow the mostand have the most consistent
income are the ones who focus onthe right things.
So an example of this for me early on is I was just teaching
anywhere as much as I could. I just wanted the experience.
(08:09):
I wanted to share yoga. I wanted to learn as much as I
could by teaching. So I taught for free, I taught
for donation, I taught for low pay.
And then over time people started to offer more pay and it
now became an issue of my time and energy being more and more
scarce. So if you know, if you try to
(08:30):
teach as much as possible, about20 times a week is about as much
as you can really do doesn't seem like that much 20 hours a
week, but anyone has ever done it.
You know, there's a sort of energetic to teaching yoga that
20 is kind of the limit. And I was at that limit and then
needed to look at my schedule oflike, OK, well, I'm doing this
class for free, this one for donation.
This one's paying 50 bucks an hour.
(08:51):
This one's paying 100 bucks an hour.
There's only so much time I can give.
As much as I want to help everybody and teach everything
and don't want to give up classes, I do need to choose
what to focus on. And I need this to be
sustainable for me in the long run so I don't burn out.
I don't get resentful about it because now it's like a skill
that I have and I feel a sense of master, you could say, or
(09:13):
development at least of this skill at that point, years into
my teaching and need to choose like what do I focus on?
Like I could, I could just keep teaching for free the rest of my
life and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
I could just focus on the highest paying classes and bring
in more of those and prioritize that.
There's nothing wrong with that either.
It's just a choice. So I made the choice based on
(09:36):
like what felt most fulfilling in my heart and soul and also
what made most sense financiallyand logistically.
So that meant I needed to let goof some classes that were not as
fulfilling in my heart and soul and lower paying and then
prioritize the ones that were more fulfilling and higher
paying. And if you just keep doing this
(09:57):
over the long run, eventually everything you're doing is
fulfilling for your heart and soul and sustainable financially
and consistent financially. And how you find those
opportunities and those just specifics of that, it's another
conversation. But this is an issue I see a lot
with teachers is like you just want to help, you want to serve,
(10:19):
you want it the experience and you want to be loyal to the
places that hire you early on and you start for a low pay and
you want to be loyal to that. And there's value in that.
And you may want to do that and that's fine.
But if you're looking at creating more consistent income
and you're struggling each monthto pay your bills and you're
stressed out and you're anxious and worried about money and you
can't really have the quality oflife that you really want and
(10:40):
feels a line for you, then you need to look at this stuff and
decide what is actually most fulfilling and most financially
sustainable and prioritize thosethings.
And then beyond that, it's what are the actions that lead to
those things. So for me, early on, a lot of my
opportunities for teaching came from the network of teachers I
(11:01):
connected with, like going to trainings, going to other
classes, offering the sub for people.
Just. Just being involved in the
community of teachers in Austin,TX, where I learned.
And then when people needed a sub, when people needed to drop
a class and give it to someone else, I was there, right?
And there's a sort of step ladder you could imagine with
this or steps going up. And then eventually I needed to
(11:24):
let go of some of those classes too.
And I let them go to the other teachers that I knew and trusted
who would come to my classes, who would ask for me to offer
them support. And there's always somebody
there at that stage ready to offer that thing.
So it's not that you have to feel guilty for letting go of a
class that's no longer aligned in your heart or no longer
(11:46):
sustainable financially. There is somebody who is right
at that level who wants to do that thing.
So you could think of it as levels.
I don't literally think of it like that all the time, but that
could be a helpful way to think about it is like when you're
starting to feel like burned out, tired, resentful, like I
don't want to really teach this class anymore.
There is at least one other person around in the world in
(12:07):
the community that wants exactlythat spot and would love to take
over that class or to start subbing that class for you so
you have more space in your schedule.
And I've been that person on both sides of this many times.
Maybe you have as well. So it's important to remember
that as you look to create more sustainable lifestyle and
(12:29):
income, you can seek out the opportunities that better
support that and you can give opportunities to other people
who are where you once were. Like a year ago, you didn't have
any private clients and now you have 5 and you got to let one of
them go because it just doesn't make sense in your schedule
anymore. And there's somebody who's like
hungry for that opportunity and just wants to take on a new
(12:52):
private client or wants to startworking with private clients or
whatever The thing is. So that's big part of the
income. And another part of the
consistent income is just tracking it.
And in the first few years of myteaching, again, I was just
teaching all over, whenever, wherever.
I just wanted the experience. I was very happy for that, but I
wasn't really tracking anything.And I always felt like I was
(13:13):
lacking income. And when I started tracking it,
I was like, oh, actually I'm making pretty decent income
here, but it just feels like it's $15 here, $40 there, $100
here. It doesn't seem like very much,
but when you add it up and you're doing 20 classes a week,
sometimes workshop, sometimes events, retreats, you start to
see like, OK, there's a lot of cash flow moving here.
(13:35):
And then am I using that intentionally?
So there's something ioffer called Wealth Rising.
It's all about this, that something I developed on my, I
needed this and I tried all these different apps and
budgeting softwares and things like this.
And some of them are helpful, but none of them actually
address this specific issue of aregular income that we have as
(13:57):
yoga teachers and in service providing businesses.
And the things that you can't control, like how many students
show up or who signs up for yourworkshop, you can't control
that. But you can control the
variables that likely lead to that.
And you can control the variables of how you spend your
income and invest your income and manage it and income and
(14:18):
expenses. And when you do that more
mindfully and intentionally, youstart to see what you're really
working with. It's very much like when you
first start doing yoga. I remember the first time I did
Warrior two in a class and I didn't really know all the
nuances. I had no idea of like what
muscles are really working here,what's stretching, what's
stabilizing, where to focus my eyes.
(14:40):
There's a lot of variables goingon in anyone pose, just like
there's a lot of variables goingon in your income and expenses
each month. And when you're unconscious of
it, you just kind of struggle through it.
And when you're unconscious of what's happening in Warrior 2,
like the first time I did it, I was just shaking and struggling
through it and looking around, kind of surprised how it looked
(15:00):
so easy for everybody else who'dbeen practicing for years.
So when you practice for years of managing your income with the
same level of mindfulness and intention that you have for
Warrior 2 or any yoga pose, it takes away a lot of the charge.
It takes away a lot of the challenge around it.
It's just OK, this income needs to go here for rent, for
(15:21):
expenses for this, for that this, this income is coming in
from this client and that clientOK, this one is not really
aligned anymore. This one's going to be quitting
in a month. So I need to look at options for
finding a replacement for that income or some new opportunity.
And as a yoga teacher, a lot of times yoga teachers act like
employees where it's like, I just want to clock in and clock
(15:44):
out and make a paycheck. And some yoga studios do offer
that possibility. But really, most yoga teachers
should approach their work like a entrepreneur, which is
somebody who's seeking opportunities, creating
opportunities, and going on their own path.
A lot of yoga teachers are hiredas independent contractors,
(16:05):
which is essentially like being an entrepreneur, give or take a
bit of risk and diversity of projects.
But it's important to think thisway of like you are creating
your income. You're not just punching into a
clock and relying on an income to come in from a job that's
you're going to stay at for the rest of your life unless, you
(16:26):
know, some yoga studios do offerthat, but it's very rare.
What's more empowering and lost for a lot of creativity and a
lot of possibility and a lot of potential freedom, which we'll
talk about, is to think like an entrepreneur.
And this means looking around inthe world of yoga and seeing
opportunities where other peoplesee limits, challenges, blocks.
(16:49):
And this is a deeper conversation.
We'll get into a bit more at theworkshop.
But if your income is lacking, these are some of the things you
can consider tracking your finances very intentionally.
And I do provide a resource for that in the workshop.
So join me live in the workshop Quiet mind at Yoga slash 5
workshop. I'll talk about this.
And to just look at where your income is coming from and start
(17:14):
to let go of the things that areno longer hard aligned and focus
on the things that are sustainably bringing an income.
And how can you increase those? Like for me, part of increasing
that was just being an active student myself and an active
member of my yoga community online.
This might mean actively engaging with accounts who are
(17:36):
very active online, like in social media.
This could mean just sharing more regularly online, being
consistent in your posting schedule just the same way you'd
be consistent and showing up to teacher class in person and then
thinking like an entrepreneur. So finding things that people
are not thinking of yet missing pieces.
Like what is something you see that everyone's complaining?
(17:59):
Like I wish there was this or you felt I wish there was this.
You can create that thing. Like one example for me when I
was taking my first yoga teachertraining, it was all in person
and if you missed anything, thatwas it.
There was no recording allowed. There was no reviewing it, so
you had to be like laser focusedwhile you're there, take copious
notes. At least that's how I felt.
(18:21):
So it was a drive for me to create some sort of online
teacher training. And I did that in 2019 when it
was very rare still and in 2020 happened and everyone made an
online teacher training. So I had about 8 months there
where I had something unique andspecial, but then everyone was
doing it. So that's part of the thing of
an entrepreneur too, is like whatever you find and discover,
(18:43):
it's needs to keep evolving. And if you just try to keep
doing the same thing forever andget the same results, that's the
definition of insanity. So you need to keep evolving as
a teacher, as an entrepreneur, as somebody who's running a
small business of offering yoga services.
So I'll talk more about this at the workshop, but that's a big
part of the consistent income isconsistently challenging
(19:05):
yourself to learn and grow and not just do all the same things
all the time. But yes, be consistent at the
things that matter, but also be consistent at learning and
growing and seeking new opportunities.
And all of this, the reason we do all of this is the impact.
So again, today's episode, create consistent income impact
and freedom, teaching yoga without burning out or losing
(19:27):
yourself. We'll talk about impact.
That means the impact you have on others.
And I'm super grateful. I get these messages almost
every day from people I work with.
Messages of gratitude, like that's just what I needed.
Thank you. Or that was really helpful
through this thing. All of that is because it's
stuff that I wish I had. And if you approach it from that
(19:47):
perspective of like, what do youwish you had or what's been
really impactful for you or what's helped you the most?
And how can you share that with someone else?
And if you focus on the impact actually even more than the
income, the income will follow. So I personally tend to prefer
to focus on the impact above anyof these other things we're
talking about today. And like, how would this help
(20:10):
me? How could this help others?
When I talk to students, what are the things they're asking
for that they need? How can I provide that?
Some teachers actually get annoyed with student questions
like, oh, this is such a basic question.
It's annoying. They're always asking me these
things. That's I do not recommend that
mindset because we're in the business of helping people in
(20:33):
service providing. So if somebody's telling you,
you know, I'm struggling with down dog and like, am I doing it
right? Maybe you've heard that question
a lot. Maybe you think it's so basic,
like how could they ask? But they have a need and they
have something you can help with.
And if you focus on that, you'regoing to make a positive impact.
(20:53):
And you can expand that to any area of somebody bringing you a
question and issue a challenge. You yourself having questions,
issues and challenges, How can you address those?
How can you help solve those problems for yourself and
others? And if you focus on that, the
other things will come naturally.
And if you're really serving others and really serving
(21:14):
yourself, you're not going to burn yourself out.
You're going to do things ethically.
You're you're going to create sustainable income because
people are going to see like, this is worth way more than
they're asking. This is obviously valuable.
Where do I sign up? Yes, yes, yes.
Because the impact is there, that takes time, that takes
experience, that takes trial anderror, that takes asking a lot
(21:35):
of questions of your clients andstudents and like, what do they
really need? And this is probably the biggest
issue I see. The biggest mistake people make
with online business and things like this around business is
they start with what do I want to make?
What do I think would be cool? I have this idea for this thing
I want to try, well, how is thatgoing to help people?
(21:57):
Like, are people asking for that?
Is there a need for it? Like you like, a really basic
example would be like, I really like making Myspace profiles.
Like I was really good at that in the 2000s.
I would love to offer to make your Myspace profile.
Nobody wants that anymore in 2025.
That's not valuable. It's not useful.
(22:19):
Nobody's on Myspace. No matter how much you love it,
no matter how much you want to do it, nobody's going to care.
Nobody's going to buy it versus something like low back pain.
80% of people have low back pain.
It's very common and very tricky, and there's so many
things out there for it. You might think, well, there's
too many people already doing that.
(22:40):
Why should I make something? There's too many options, too
much competition. There's so much competition
because there's so much need anddemand for it.
So if you were to offer your perspective, if you've had back
pain and you've overcome it and you share that perspective,
you're speaking with authority, you're speaking from what works
for you. And it's probably going to be
valuable to you first. So it's probably also going to
(23:03):
be valuable to others. And there's lots of people
searching for it online every day.
Again, 80% of people have it so or experience it at some point
in their life. So there's a need and there's
people looking for it and they're going to find something
online and you might be that thing.
So focus on what do people need?What have I needed?
(23:25):
How can I offer that? Not just like what would be
cool, what do I like to do? What do I want to do?
That's probably not going to lead to consistent income,
probably not going to lead to freedom.
It's probably going to lead to burning out.
So approach the impact piece of like, just help people.
And if you're ever in doubt, just ask if you have at least
(23:48):
one person you worked with, justask them like, how could I help
you more? And they'll have something like,
oh, I would really love if you made a class on how to open up
your hamstrings. There you go, right.
And that's not going to necessarily change the world,
but it could dramatically help that one person.
And if you can help one person, it can help two people and five
(24:08):
people and 10 people and so on. But start there.
When I started my podcast, if I saw one person listen, I
consider that a success. And I was happy to keep doing it
if just one person listened because it's like, I like doing
it anyway. It's a lot of it.
I'm speaking to my past self of like what I wish I knew.
And if two people listen, great.If more than one person listens,
(24:31):
that's cool. But if at least one person
listens, I consider that a success.
And that's I think a healthy attitude to have online.
And being online is what leads to what so many people crave in
having a business is freedom. So we're creating consistent
income and impact and freedom teaching yoga.
(24:53):
So freedom means you can. That is what I think it means
and what you might agree. It means you can work when you
want to work. You can teach what you want to
teach, work with who you want towork with when you want to do
it. You can take time off if you
need time off, if you get sick, if you go to a wedding, if you
want to do family stuff, you cantake the time off.
You have the choice. You don't have to work.
(25:14):
You don't have to wait till you have PTO.
You don't have to wait till you get vacation time.
You can choose to just take the time off and do the thing.
You can choose to work all day every day if you want.
For me, there's there's times where I just want to work all
day for like a week straight andthere's times where I don't want
to work at all for like a week straight.
And that the lifestyle and the business I've created allows for
(25:38):
that spaciousness. And there's times where I'm
working through deep emotional stuff and I need space to
process that and I want to focuson that.
And there's times where I'm justsuper excited and energized
about my work. And I just thought it's all I
want to do. And I don't want to even have
social time. I don't want to go to the gym.
I just want to focus on work. And I think there's a natural
ebb and flow to this that is natural to us as humans that we
(26:04):
kind of override by the typical nine to five lifestyle and
thinking we're supposed to work this certain way.
And some people, if you really like it, then do that.
But if you want this freedom to work when you want, where you
want, how you want, with who youwant, then that is going to
require deeper thinking about what you do.
(26:25):
So if you just want to show up and just teach a Hoffa class
every week at the same time, like five times a week, that
doesn't require a whole lot of deep thinking about what you're
doing, who you're helping, why you're doing it, where you're
doing it. It's just an easy thing to do to
get an opportunity. You know, and if you're not
teaching yet and you want to maybe it doesn't sound so easy
(26:46):
yet, but it's it's a simple, consistent task that doesn't
require a whole lot of new thinking, doesn't lead to as big
of an impact as if you were to create some sort of retreat or
unique offering. Like if you were going to do
like a a six week program to eliminate back pain for the rest
(27:07):
of your life. That's a pretty powerful promise
that could possibly be saving somebody thousands of dollars,
possibly saving somebody from surgery, which might change the
mobility for life. That is a big deal versus just a
general all levels drop in hot the flow class every Tuesday at
noon, which is great. There's nothing wrong with that.
(27:29):
It's just a simpler, broader, more commoditized challenge that
you're solving by having the weekly class versus a very
specific deep transformative result that could save somebody
a lot of time, risk, money, energy, lots of amazing benefits
if you like, as this example of a six week transformation that
(27:53):
helps people eliminate low back pain for the rest of their life
potentially. Of course, you got to be careful
with what you promised because you can't guarantee things like
that, but you can make profound transformations like this.
And those things require deeper thought and really digging
deeper within yourself of like, what do you want to bring out
into the world? What transformations have you
(28:15):
experienced? How can you really help somebody
in a deeper way? So this is all coming back to
impact is what leads to your freedom.
And the impact comes from a lot of introspection and inner work
to really bring out your gifts. So if you're not doing that
deeper work, deeper introspection, you're not going
to have as big of an impact and you're not going to have as much
(28:36):
freedom in your lifestyle. But some ways people talk about
this is like, if you do the hardwork upfront, things get easier
in the long run. But if you try to just do the
easy work, things get harder in the long run.
So doing the hard work upfront means like learning, marketing,
learning business learning, messaging, bringing out your
(28:58):
gifts, really doing deep introspection of like, why are
you doing this? What are you uniquely qualified
to offer? What do people really need?
Having deep conversations with people, helping them uncover the
root of their problems, get to the root cause of these issues.
That's deeper introspection investigation in our work.
And that leads to more impact, and that's going to lead to more
(29:19):
freedom. But it's harder upfront.
But then you get to enjoy the results later, like having more
space in your schedule, more freedom in your time.
But there needs to be times where you're going very deep
into this stuff. And bringing that out, an
example of this I think about often is Pema Chodron.
She is the monk who is known forwriting many great.
(29:43):
Books and start where you are and things like this and when
things fall apart. Great book, but she often works
in the cycle of a year in meditation and just in her work
and then a year of sharing, teaching, writing, speaking,
things like this and she alternates like this.
(30:04):
I don't know if she's currently still doing that, but I know she
has in the past and that's an inspiring model and I resonate
with that. Not fully a year on and off like
this, but maybe weeks at a time and take a week of like a
retreat, inner work, and then a week of just focusing on outer
work, sharing your gifts. So that's a lot of freedom, but
(30:25):
it's also a lot of discipline and choice and top US to focus
on doing some challenging things.
So if anyone is promising you just freedom by just like you
just make this PDF and now you're making $1000 a day doing
nothing, that's not really making a big impact.
That's not really bringing out your gifts.
(30:48):
That's not really expressing your heart and soul and what you
do. And to me, that's a big part of
why any of this matters. It's your Dharma, it's your
heart's calling, it's your mission.
You're sharing your gifts with the world.
And that is what leads to more impact, and that leads to
ultimately more freedom. And in that free time, what
you're really doing is just prioritizing the things that
really nourish you and are part of your personal growth.
(31:11):
Path and then that allows you tohave more to share and help
others on their personal growth path.
That's all I think of it at least.
So the freedom doesn't mean likeyou can just sit on a beach for
the rest of your life and do nothing.
So at a certain point, you're going to run out the money and
you're going to feel unfulfilledand you're going to want to do
something meaningful again. So I don't think that's really
(31:32):
freedom to just do whatever you want anytime, anywhere and just
be lazy and do nothing. But it's the freedom to enjoy
the fruits of life and to enjoy rest and relaxation and recovery
and vacations and family time and whatever you need to do, but
also to really enjoy the work and the depth and the sharing
(31:52):
your gifts and bringing out yourgifts in the world.
Now, when you do that, this is when you have the sense of
freedom. This is helping you avoid
burnout. And burnout comes from basically
you're trying to sort of bring more out than is there.
It's like I, I. Get a a coconut.
(32:15):
Often here in Mexico I like to drink coconuts.
They grow all over and a certainpoint you're drinking the
coconut and you've run out of the coconut water.
And there's no matter what I do,I'm not going to get more water
out of that coconut. It's done.
But there's a certain thing thathappens for a lot of yoga
teachers where. It's like you feel like you need
(32:37):
to give more and you've already given all you've got, like you
can't give any more at the moment, so you need to rest and
recover. And that's where the metaphor
breaks down. So that's enough of the coconut
metaphor, but there is this element of like, you have a
certain amount of life force, prana, energy, gifts to share.
And especially early on, there'sa lot of it because you're just
(32:59):
ready to go and you've been waiting to share these things
and they're coming out finally. And at a certain point, you need
to rest. And you've given a lot of prana,
a lot of energy, a lot of life force to something that's
teaching classes, workshops, writing, and now you need to
sort of fill back up. And this comes back to like this
(33:21):
thing I shared about Pema Chodron is that part of the
reason I think why she takes a year to just be in her practices
is so she doesn't burn out. So she's not just going speaking
gig, speaking gig all over the world, writing another book,
another book. She takes time to just pause all
that outward energy of sharing her gifts, and then takes time
(33:42):
inward and receiving and in silence and in reflection and
meditation. And now she's recharging her
energy in a way. So the burnout happens when we
just try to be in, give, give, give, share, share, share,
teach, teach, teach, work, work,work.
And a lot of Western society celebrates this and encourages
(34:03):
this. We need to do more.
You need to do faster, better, bigger, and a certain point you
just can't do any more. You have diminishing returns.
And when you start to notice that diminishing returns, that's
the time to switch gears. So very obvious in yoga pose,
like if you're in pigeon pose atthe beginning, it might feel a
little tight. And then you kind of get into a
(34:24):
groove and you stay there and breathe, and you start to feel
it's like softening, releasing, going deeper.
And then there's a certain pointwhere it's like, OK, I'm done
with this pose. If I stay here too long, my leg
is going to fall asleep. I might injure myself, my
ligaments might get looser. It doesn't feel so good anymore.
(34:45):
It's time to move and go into a different pose.
So that sort of embodied somaticexperience of being in a pose
and knowing when it's time to get out of a pose is a good
guideline for everything in lifeand in business as well.
Of like there's a certain point of like being on social media
(35:05):
where you've reached your limit and you need to take a break.
A certain point of teaching classes where you've reached
your limit, you need to take a break at a certain point and
everything to do with business where you reached your limit and
you need to take a break and do something else.
You can think of this like the nervous system as well.
If you're in sympathetic mode, like running around all day
coffee energized. If you just try to keep doing
(35:26):
that all day, you're going to have really diminishing returns
and you're going to get tired, burned out, your your cognitive
abilities diminish it just everything gets worse until you
shift into the parasympathetic mode, rest and digest and relax.
And you've probably experienced this many times.
Like you go to get a massage, you take a nap, you go to sleep,
(35:48):
you wake up and now you are recharged and re energized and
your mind is sharper. So that is again an embodied
experience of avoiding burnout. Now it gets more nuanced and
subtle and harder to see what itmeans to be burned out when
you're not having consistent income.
You're trying to make an impact.You don't feel free.
(36:10):
You're trying to create freedom in your life.
So you're stressing out about all these things and you feel
like you got to run up this hillfaster.
But the, the, the ground keeps like going soft underneath you.
So it's like you're not making any progress.
And then you lose yourself. And this is the last topic of
today is losing yourself is like, OK, well, now I'm
struggling with the business. So what is someone else doing?
(36:31):
Let's just try to copy them. So it's like, now you're being
inauthentic. Maybe I need to do more of this.
Maybe I need to be on Instagram more, even though I don't like
it. So now you're being inauthentic.
You're trying to be someone you're not.
You're trying to do things that aren't aligned.
It's not coming from your heart and soul.
It's coming from this external pressure, this need to make more
income that you'd like. You didn't set yourself up in a
(36:54):
space where you could have reliable income, and now you
suddenly need income. And there's a desperation that
comes with it. And then the impact is lesson
because people feel this desperation and you start to be
pushy, you start to be someone you're not.
It all gets messy. So this path of having a
(37:15):
business, sharing this work of yoga, doing what you love has to
be a centered, aligned place because so much what we do as
teachers is hold space for others.
And they feel that, and they feel the energy you're bringing
to class. So if you're bringing this sort
of survival desperation energy in the class, no matter what
words you're saying, people are going to feel this doesn't feel
(37:37):
so great, which can make you more anxious and more paranoid
and more desperate to make a difference.
So it comes back to not losing yourself.
This means keeping your practices.
This means keeping a sense of detachment from the business.
This means like if you are only making like 100 dollars, $500
(38:01):
under $1000 a month right now, teaching yoga, don't quit your
job and try to make yoga make like $5000 next month.
It's going to put you into this sort of burnout, losing
yourself, not being able, not being consistent.
It's just sort of this pressure and you're going to feel trapped
by it. So it's a slow and steady
(38:22):
movement of the nervous system. The nervous system wants
equilibrium, and in yoga we established equilibrium.
We expand the ability to be in sympathetic through active
poses. We expand the ability to be in
parasympathetic through resting and simple poses and yin poses.
And then overall, we expand the capacity of the nervous system
(38:43):
and the ability to find equilibrium in more extreme
states. In the same way, we can do that
in our work and purpose and business, slowly expanding a
little more in our output, in our work, and then also
expanding a little more in our self-care and our rest, in our
connection to ourselves and do both.
And in that way, we slowly expand our capacity, what we're
(39:07):
capable of in offering our gifts, in our purpose, in our
Dharma. Not just OK, suddenly I'm going
to go from zero to teaching 20 times a week, or suddenly I'm
going to go from all in person to all online and expected to
replace all my income. That's too fast.
That's like saying I never work out and I'm just going to go to
the gym one day this month and do all my exercises for six
(39:30):
hours. That's not going to lead to any
particular result except your body being super fatigued and
probably get sick. So you can't do that in
business. You can't do that with your
body. You can't do that with your
nervous system. What you can do though, is
small, consistent, sustainable actions that move you towards
expansion in your expression, inyour gifts in the world and your
(39:51):
business, and things that move you towards deepening in your
sense of self and your connection to self.
So you don't lose yourself, you don't burn out.
You can establish more consistency in your lifestyle
and the frequency of what you want to share in the world, and
you focus on a consistent, sustainable income and heart
centered. Priorities.
(40:12):
So you're not just doing what you love, but you're also doing
what you love that is sustainable financially and
makes sense practically because you're making a bigger impact.
So the value is undeniable to people.
If you're saving somebody from a$6000 surgery by then paying you
like $600.00, that's a no brainer deal.
(40:33):
Of course people are going to want to pay you.
So now you're having more incomeand you're having more impact
and this allows you more freedom.
And when you have that freedom actually is a whole other
podcast topic of like what you do once you start to get that
freedom is very important because you could end up back in
a place of desperation if you'renot careful.
And you use that free time unwisely, unskillfully.
(40:56):
And now you're in this place of desperation with your income,
and then you're not making the impact you want and you burned
out and lose yourself. But if you do this, well, slow
and steady over time, and you build more freedom for yourself,
you don't burn out, you don't lose yourself.
And your business grows, you grow, you do what you love and
people love what you do. And it's an amazing, amazing
(41:18):
thing that we get to do this. And there's a fine art to it.
And it's, This is why most people don't end up doing it
because it's not the easiest thing.
So hopefully today's episode gave you some perspective on how
to do this more skillfully. And if you want to go deeper
into the exercises, practices and ways to do this, go to quiet
mind dot yoga slash Thrive workshop and join me live on
(41:40):
Zoom. I'll be giving some special free
gifts for joining live and I'll be sharing how you can create
consistent income impact and freedom teaching yoga online
without burning out or losing yourself.
Now I'm going to talk about this.
This workshop is going to be catered to people with any
service they offer, including yoga, including coaches,
healers, therapies, anyone who'sworking online in a spiritual
(42:05):
heart centered kind of work thatwants to do it in a sustainable
way and have these results that we talked about today.
So if you're just teaching yoga or if you're doing something
adjacent to that and the sort ofspiritual heart centered world,
this is for you. If you have 0 clients, 0
experience, you've never taught a class, you never made a dollar
doing anything of this nature, this, this workshop might be
(42:28):
helpful to you, but I'm generally encouraging people who
have already made some level of income doing this, at least
working with one client because that is a huge threshold.
If you've worked with one clientand made a single dollar doing
something you love, you've crossed a major threshold that
most people will never cross. And now it's just about how do I
do that more skillfully, more sustainably, more consistently
(42:51):
and have a bigger impact, Createmore freedom, not burnout, not
lose myself. And that's very, very
achievable. But that first part of like,
what do I do? Who am I helping?
Am I in the right thing? Should I do this?
Should I do that? That is a different question
that I'm not going to be addressing on the workshop.
So if you're in that place, thenyou might not get as much out of
this workshop. But if you do have something you
(43:12):
offer, if you've taught a singleclass, even if it's for a
donation or free, you've taught a class.
Now, how do you go from teachingthat free class to teaching a
consistent online thing that youlove that helps people, makes an
impact? That's what we'll be talking
about Quiet Mind at Yoga Thrive workshop.
And if you enjoyed the podcast, leave a comment on Spotify,
(43:33):
share with a friend, and look forward to sharing more with you
next time on the Yoga Teacher Training Podcast.
If you want to create consistentincome impact and freedom
teaching yoga without burning out or losing yourself, go to
quiet mind dot yoga slash Thriveworkshop.
I'll be hosting a free live workshop all about this and what
I'm going to talk about in today's episode.
And we're going to break that down, starting with the word
consistent. Everyone wants to be more
(00:23):
consistent. As a yoga teacher, this is
probably the most common thing Ihear from people is I'm on
Instagram, but I'm not consistent.
I want to be practicing more consistently.
And what does this really mean? Well, it means that you're
posting at a certain frequency that you want to be posting at.
It means you're practicing at a certain frequency that you want
(00:44):
to be practicing at. Maybe that's once a day, five
times a week, every other day. Doesn't really matter how often
it is, but it's this sort of unattainable thing for so many
teachers. It's kind of surprising how
often this comes up of I'm not consistent and it's often a sort
of shameful thing. Maybe you've said this yourself,
(01:05):
maybe you've heard other teachers say this of like, I'm
on Instagram, but I'm just not consistent.
I get people following me online, but it's just not
consistent. I teach online sometimes, but
the classes aren't consistent. I teach in person.
It's just not consistent. So how do you create more
consistency? Well, like I said, it's a
(01:25):
frequency that you're operating at and there's a part of you
that actually is wanting the results that you have now.
So if you're saying you're not consistent online, then it's
probably part of you that doesn't want to be consistent
online. Sometimes I talk to people and
they love Instagram. They think it's an amazing
(01:47):
platform. They can't wait to post.
They love the interaction. And of course, those people are
more consistent because they're at the frequency, the energy.
So not just the amount of quantity of time and frequency
of how often they're posting, but the frequency of the energy
of how it feels to be on Instagram and interacting with
(02:07):
people and sharing. And it's a sort of give and take
relationship. Whereas I think a lot of people
approach this sort of level of consistency with like, what am I
getting from it? And the frequency they're
approaching it with is that it'sjust not enough.
There's a sort of shame. It's like a sense of like, I'm
not doing enough. So if you want to create
(02:29):
consistency, the first thing to look at is not actually how
often am I practicing or teaching or how many times
people are coming back to classes or how many times you're
posting on Instagram. It's the frequency, the energy
underneath it. Are you going on Instagram and
annoyed and irritated and like, I have to do this?
(02:50):
And then you're just posting because you feel like you have
to and then you're upset that nobody interacts with it and it
feels like it's fruitless. That's a certain frequency,
right? Or are you having irregular
income, Right? So we're going to talk about
income in a moment, but are you having inconsistent income?
Is there a part of you that actually doesn't want the
(03:11):
pressure of having to be consistent of like, you think
you want more freedom? So if you say I'm going to be at
a class every Sunday at noon, you don't feel free anymore.
So you don't want to be consistent in teaching and you
don't want to be consistent and promoting or marketing or
emailing or whatever The thing is, because there's some party
that doesn't want to do that. And then you get inconsistent
(03:33):
results because you're getting you're, you're putting in
inconsistent actions, behaviors,choices, and then you're getting
inconsistent results. So like a vinyasa yoga practice
when you get into a sort of flowand rhythm.
There's a sort of. Frequency there that's easy to
(03:54):
sustain and keep going and oftenit feels like very euphoric
even, at least my experience. When you get into a nice flow
and a yoga practice, it's like step your right foot forward,
inhale, raise your arms up, exhale, warrior two.
It's like this nice flow, do this, do that, breathe in,
(04:14):
breathe out. And this creates this rhythm,
which is very useful for the mind and the body and the
emotions to get into a sort of rhythm.
And it puts us into what you could say is kind of like a
trance or induces a sort of brain wave frequency.
Usually like the alpha brain waves, which are a little bit
slower, a little more meditativeand like a like right between
(04:37):
that space of like relaxed and alert, which we talked a lot
about in yoga. So a lot of people are
approaching their consistency with either being too relaxed
and then they try to be too firm, like too much suka and
they try to bring in too much Stira and like, OK, I need to
just work really hard and push myself and push, push, push.
And then they get burned out, which we'll talk about later as
(04:59):
well. So like in everything in yoga,
it's this balance of effort and ease and the frequency of those
two. So consistent could mean you're
just posting once a week. And you look at many successful
online yoga teachers, a lot of them are just posting like every
Sunday, just once a week. But it's consistent.
(05:19):
It's every week. And it's not like it has to be,
you know, post 50 videos on YouTube tomorrow and that's
going to just suddenly you're going to have thousands of
people following you. That's not as valuable as just
posting once a week consistentlyover years.
That's going to lead to more of a sustained audience, more
(05:41):
sustainable for you and your effort and energy.
And it's a frequency that you can tune into that's sustainable
of nice amount of spaciousness and ease in your week and some
efforts to move things forward. But it's a nice balance of the
two and it's going to be different for everybody.
But that's the first thing I want to share today is when we
think about consistency, don't just think about like, I'm not
(06:02):
doing enough or I'm just should do more or this sort of shame
and judgement of ourselves. But look at the frequency, the
energy. And is there some party that
really likes the results that you have now and likes being
inconsistent? And what would consistency mean
for you? Is it a certain amount of posts
a week, a certain amount of students a week, certain amount
of income every month? And then work backwards from
(06:24):
there? Like what does that take to do
that? So let's talk about income next.
So again, this episode create consistent income impact and
freedom teaching yoga without burning out or losing yourself.
So how do you create consistent income?
Well, you need consistent actions that produce consistent
income. Now, a lot of things as yoga
(06:44):
teacher are inconsistent and unreliable.
Like you might teach a class every week Sunday at noon in
person or online or whatever, but you don't know how many
people are going to show up, howmany people are going to buy a
membership or not or cancel. You don't know if holidays are
going to come up, birthdays, events, whatever the
circumstance, if you teach in person long enough or teach
(07:06):
online long enough, you'll see that it's just, it's just waves.
And sometimes it's predictable, like the holiday season.
Sometimes it's unpredictable andrandom.
And one week you have nobody come to class and the next week
it's sold out. And then sometimes it's
sustainable and it's like you can consistently reliable that
people are going to show up every week.
But a lot of that who shows up is out of your control.
(07:27):
But how you show up is in your control and what you focus on is
in your control. And that's the most important
skill as you go further along inany business is what you choose
to focus on. And this is maybe the most
common challenge I've experienced myself.
And I've talked to other people,starting small businesses, yoga
(07:47):
teachers. I've been working in this for a
long time and helping people share their gifts with the
world. Through Vedic astrology.
And the people who grow the mostand have the most consistent
income are the ones who focus onthe right things.
So an example of this for me early on is I was just teaching
anywhere as much as I could. I just wanted the experience.
(08:09):
I wanted to share yoga. I wanted to learn as much as I
could by teaching. So I taught for free, I taught
for donation, I taught for low pay.
And then over time people started to offer more pay and it
now became an issue of my time and energy being more and more
scarce. So if you know, if you try to
(08:30):
teach as much as possible, about20 times a week is about as much
as you can really do doesn't seem like that much 20 hours a
week, but anyone has ever done it.
You know, there's a sort of energetic to teaching yoga that
20 is kind of the limit. And I was at that limit and then
needed to look at my schedule oflike, OK, well, I'm doing this
class for free, this one for donation.
This one's paying 50 bucks an hour.
(08:51):
This one's paying 100 bucks an hour.
There's only so much time I can give.
As much as I want to help everybody and teach everything
and don't want to give up classes, I do need to choose
what to focus on. And I need this to be
sustainable for me in the long run so I don't burn out.
I don't get resentful about it because now it's like a skill
that I have and I feel a sense of master, you could say, or
(09:13):
development at least of this skill at that point, years into
my teaching and need to choose like what do I focus on?
Like I could, I could just keep teaching for free the rest of my
life and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
I could just focus on the highest paying classes and bring
in more of those and prioritize that.
There's nothing wrong with that either.
It's just a choice. So I made the choice based on
(09:36):
like what felt most fulfilling in my heart and soul and also
what made most sense financiallyand logistically.
So that meant I needed to let goof some classes that were not as
fulfilling in my heart and soul and lower paying and then
prioritize the ones that were more fulfilling and higher
paying. And if you just keep doing this
(09:57):
over the long run, eventually everything you're doing is
fulfilling for your heart and soul and sustainable financially
and consistent financially. And how you find those
opportunities and those just specifics of that, it's another
conversation. But this is an issue I see a lot
with teachers is like you just want to help, you want to serve,
(10:19):
you want it the experience and you want to be loyal to the
places that hire you early on and you start for a low pay and
you want to be loyal to that. And there's value in that.
And you may want to do that and that's fine.
But if you're looking at creating more consistent income
and you're struggling each monthto pay your bills and you're
stressed out and you're anxious and worried about money and you
can't really have the quality oflife that you really want and
(10:40):
feels a line for you, then you need to look at this stuff and
decide what is actually most fulfilling and most financially
sustainable and prioritize thosethings.
And then beyond that, it's what are the actions that lead to
those things. So for me, early on, a lot of my
opportunities for teaching came from the network of teachers I
(11:01):
connected with, like going to trainings, going to other
classes, offering the sub for people.
Just. Just being involved in the
community of teachers in Austin,TX, where I learned.
And then when people needed a sub, when people needed to drop
a class and give it to someone else, I was there, right?
And there's a sort of step ladder you could imagine with
this or steps going up. And then eventually I needed to
(11:24):
let go of some of those classes too.
And I let them go to the other teachers that I knew and trusted
who would come to my classes, who would ask for me to offer
them support. And there's always somebody
there at that stage ready to offer that thing.
So it's not that you have to feel guilty for letting go of a
class that's no longer aligned in your heart or no longer
(11:46):
sustainable financially. There is somebody who is right
at that level who wants to do that thing.
So you could think of it as levels.
I don't literally think of it like that all the time, but that
could be a helpful way to think about it is like when you're
starting to feel like burned out, tired, resentful, like I
don't want to really teach this class anymore.
There is at least one other person around in the world in
(12:07):
the community that wants exactlythat spot and would love to take
over that class or to start subbing that class for you so
you have more space in your schedule.
And I've been that person on both sides of this many times.
Maybe you have as well. So it's important to remember
that as you look to create more sustainable lifestyle and
(12:29):
income, you can seek out the opportunities that better
support that and you can give opportunities to other people
who are where you once were. Like a year ago, you didn't have
any private clients and now you have 5 and you got to let one of
them go because it just doesn't make sense in your schedule
anymore. And there's somebody who's like
hungry for that opportunity and just wants to take on a new
(12:52):
private client or wants to startworking with private clients or
whatever The thing is. So that's big part of the
income. And another part of the
consistent income is just tracking it.
And in the first few years of myteaching, again, I was just
teaching all over, whenever, wherever.
I just wanted the experience. I was very happy for that, but I
wasn't really tracking anything.And I always felt like I was
(13:13):
lacking income. And when I started tracking it,
I was like, oh, actually I'm making pretty decent income
here, but it just feels like it's $15 here, $40 there, $100
here. It doesn't seem like very much,
but when you add it up and you're doing 20 classes a week,
sometimes workshop, sometimes events, retreats, you start to
see like, OK, there's a lot of cash flow moving here.
(13:35):
And then am I using that intentionally?
So there's something ioffer called Wealth Rising.
It's all about this, that something I developed on my, I
needed this and I tried all these different apps and
budgeting softwares and things like this.
And some of them are helpful, but none of them actually
address this specific issue of aregular income that we have as
(13:57):
yoga teachers and in service providing businesses.
And the things that you can't control, like how many students
show up or who signs up for yourworkshop, you can't control
that. But you can control the
variables that likely lead to that.
And you can control the variables of how you spend your
income and invest your income and manage it and income and
(14:18):
expenses. And when you do that more
mindfully and intentionally, youstart to see what you're really
working with. It's very much like when you
first start doing yoga. I remember the first time I did
Warrior two in a class and I didn't really know all the
nuances. I had no idea of like what
muscles are really working here,what's stretching, what's
stabilizing, where to focus my eyes.
(14:40):
There's a lot of variables goingon in anyone pose, just like
there's a lot of variables goingon in your income and expenses
each month. And when you're unconscious of
it, you just kind of struggle through it.
And when you're unconscious of what's happening in Warrior 2,
like the first time I did it, I was just shaking and struggling
through it and looking around, kind of surprised how it looked
(15:00):
so easy for everybody else who'dbeen practicing for years.
So when you practice for years of managing your income with the
same level of mindfulness and intention that you have for
Warrior 2 or any yoga pose, it takes away a lot of the charge.
It takes away a lot of the challenge around it.
It's just OK, this income needs to go here for rent, for
(15:21):
expenses for this, for that this, this income is coming in
from this client and that clientOK, this one is not really
aligned anymore. This one's going to be quitting
in a month. So I need to look at options for
finding a replacement for that income or some new opportunity.
And as a yoga teacher, a lot of times yoga teachers act like
employees where it's like, I just want to clock in and clock
(15:44):
out and make a paycheck. And some yoga studios do offer
that possibility. But really, most yoga teachers
should approach their work like a entrepreneur, which is
somebody who's seeking opportunities, creating
opportunities, and going on their own path.
A lot of yoga teachers are hiredas independent contractors,
(16:05):
which is essentially like being an entrepreneur, give or take a
bit of risk and diversity of projects.
But it's important to think thisway of like you are creating
your income. You're not just punching into a
clock and relying on an income to come in from a job that's
you're going to stay at for the rest of your life unless, you
(16:26):
know, some yoga studios do offerthat, but it's very rare.
What's more empowering and lost for a lot of creativity and a
lot of possibility and a lot of potential freedom, which we'll
talk about, is to think like an entrepreneur.
And this means looking around inthe world of yoga and seeing
opportunities where other peoplesee limits, challenges, blocks.
(16:49):
And this is a deeper conversation.
We'll get into a bit more at theworkshop.
But if your income is lacking, these are some of the things you
can consider tracking your finances very intentionally.
And I do provide a resource for that in the workshop.
So join me live in the workshop Quiet mind at Yoga slash 5
workshop. I'll talk about this.
And to just look at where your income is coming from and start
(17:14):
to let go of the things that areno longer hard aligned and focus
on the things that are sustainably bringing an income.
And how can you increase those? Like for me, part of increasing
that was just being an active student myself and an active
member of my yoga community online.
This might mean actively engaging with accounts who are
(17:36):
very active online, like in social media.
This could mean just sharing more regularly online, being
consistent in your posting schedule just the same way you'd
be consistent and showing up to teacher class in person and then
thinking like an entrepreneur. So finding things that people
are not thinking of yet missing pieces.
Like what is something you see that everyone's complaining?
(17:59):
Like I wish there was this or you felt I wish there was this.
You can create that thing. Like one example for me when I
was taking my first yoga teachertraining, it was all in person
and if you missed anything, thatwas it.
There was no recording allowed. There was no reviewing it, so
you had to be like laser focusedwhile you're there, take copious
notes. At least that's how I felt.
(18:21):
So it was a drive for me to create some sort of online
teacher training. And I did that in 2019 when it
was very rare still and in 2020 happened and everyone made an
online teacher training. So I had about 8 months there
where I had something unique andspecial, but then everyone was
doing it. So that's part of the thing of
an entrepreneur too, is like whatever you find and discover,
(18:43):
it's needs to keep evolving. And if you just try to keep
doing the same thing forever andget the same results, that's the
definition of insanity. So you need to keep evolving as
a teacher, as an entrepreneur, as somebody who's running a
small business of offering yoga services.
So I'll talk more about this at the workshop, but that's a big
part of the consistent income isconsistently challenging
(19:05):
yourself to learn and grow and not just do all the same things
all the time. But yes, be consistent at the
things that matter, but also be consistent at learning and
growing and seeking new opportunities.
And all of this, the reason we do all of this is the impact.
So again, today's episode, create consistent income impact
and freedom, teaching yoga without burning out or losing
(19:27):
yourself. We'll talk about impact.
That means the impact you have on others.
And I'm super grateful. I get these messages almost
every day from people I work with.
Messages of gratitude, like that's just what I needed.
Thank you. Or that was really helpful
through this thing. All of that is because it's
stuff that I wish I had. And if you approach it from that
(19:47):
perspective of like, what do youwish you had or what's been
really impactful for you or what's helped you the most?
And how can you share that with someone else?
And if you focus on the impact actually even more than the
income, the income will follow. So I personally tend to prefer
to focus on the impact above anyof these other things we're
talking about today. And like, how would this help
(20:10):
me? How could this help others?
When I talk to students, what are the things they're asking
for that they need? How can I provide that?
Some teachers actually get annoyed with student questions
like, oh, this is such a basic question.
It's annoying. They're always asking me these
things. That's I do not recommend that
mindset because we're in the business of helping people in
(20:33):
service providing. So if somebody's telling you,
you know, I'm struggling with down dog and like, am I doing it
right? Maybe you've heard that question
a lot. Maybe you think it's so basic,
like how could they ask? But they have a need and they
have something you can help with.
And if you focus on that, you'regoing to make a positive impact.
(20:53):
And you can expand that to any area of somebody bringing you a
question and issue a challenge. You yourself having questions,
issues and challenges, How can you address those?
How can you help solve those problems for yourself and
others? And if you focus on that, the
other things will come naturally.
And if you're really serving others and really serving
(21:14):
yourself, you're not going to burn yourself out.
You're going to do things ethically.
You're you're going to create sustainable income because
people are going to see like, this is worth way more than
they're asking. This is obviously valuable.
Where do I sign up? Yes, yes, yes.
Because the impact is there, that takes time, that takes
experience, that takes trial anderror, that takes asking a lot
(21:35):
of questions of your clients andstudents and like, what do they
really need? And this is probably the biggest
issue I see. The biggest mistake people make
with online business and things like this around business is
they start with what do I want to make?
What do I think would be cool? I have this idea for this thing
I want to try, well, how is thatgoing to help people?
(21:57):
Like, are people asking for that?
Is there a need for it? Like you like, a really basic
example would be like, I really like making Myspace profiles.
Like I was really good at that in the 2000s.
I would love to offer to make your Myspace profile.
Nobody wants that anymore in 2025.
That's not valuable. It's not useful.
(22:19):
Nobody's on Myspace. No matter how much you love it,
no matter how much you want to do it, nobody's going to care.
Nobody's going to buy it versus something like low back pain.
80% of people have low back pain.
It's very common and very tricky, and there's so many
things out there for it. You might think, well, there's
too many people already doing that.
(22:40):
Why should I make something? There's too many options, too
much competition. There's so much competition
because there's so much need anddemand for it.
So if you were to offer your perspective, if you've had back
pain and you've overcome it and you share that perspective,
you're speaking with authority, you're speaking from what works
for you. And it's probably going to be
valuable to you first. So it's probably also going to
(23:03):
be valuable to others. And there's lots of people
searching for it online every day.
Again, 80% of people have it so or experience it at some point
in their life. So there's a need and there's
people looking for it and they're going to find something
online and you might be that thing.
So focus on what do people need?What have I needed?
(23:25):
How can I offer that? Not just like what would be
cool, what do I like to do? What do I want to do?
That's probably not going to lead to consistent income,
probably not going to lead to freedom.
It's probably going to lead to burning out.
So approach the impact piece of like, just help people.
And if you're ever in doubt, just ask if you have at least
(23:48):
one person you worked with, justask them like, how could I help
you more? And they'll have something like,
oh, I would really love if you made a class on how to open up
your hamstrings. There you go, right.
And that's not going to necessarily change the world,
but it could dramatically help that one person.
And if you can help one person, it can help two people and five
(24:08):
people and 10 people and so on. But start there.
When I started my podcast, if I saw one person listen, I
consider that a success. And I was happy to keep doing it
if just one person listened because it's like, I like doing
it anyway. It's a lot of it.
I'm speaking to my past self of like what I wish I knew.
And if two people listen, great.If more than one person listens,
(24:31):
that's cool. But if at least one person
listens, I consider that a success.
And that's I think a healthy attitude to have online.
And being online is what leads to what so many people crave in
having a business is freedom. So we're creating consistent
income and impact and freedom teaching yoga.
(24:53):
So freedom means you can. That is what I think it means
and what you might agree. It means you can work when you
want to work. You can teach what you want to
teach, work with who you want towork with when you want to do
it. You can take time off if you
need time off, if you get sick, if you go to a wedding, if you
want to do family stuff, you cantake the time off.
You have the choice. You don't have to work.
(25:14):
You don't have to wait till you have PTO.
You don't have to wait till you get vacation time.
You can choose to just take the time off and do the thing.
You can choose to work all day every day if you want.
For me, there's there's times where I just want to work all
day for like a week straight andthere's times where I don't want
to work at all for like a week straight.
And that the lifestyle and the business I've created allows for
(25:38):
that spaciousness. And there's times where I'm
working through deep emotional stuff and I need space to
process that and I want to focuson that.
And there's times where I'm justsuper excited and energized
about my work. And I just thought it's all I
want to do. And I don't want to even have
social time. I don't want to go to the gym.
I just want to focus on work. And I think there's a natural
ebb and flow to this that is natural to us as humans that we
(26:04):
kind of override by the typical nine to five lifestyle and
thinking we're supposed to work this certain way.
And some people, if you really like it, then do that.
But if you want this freedom to work when you want, where you
want, how you want, with who youwant, then that is going to
require deeper thinking about what you do.
(26:25):
So if you just want to show up and just teach a Hoffa class
every week at the same time, like five times a week, that
doesn't require a whole lot of deep thinking about what you're
doing, who you're helping, why you're doing it, where you're
doing it. It's just an easy thing to do to
get an opportunity. You know, and if you're not
teaching yet and you want to maybe it doesn't sound so easy
(26:46):
yet, but it's it's a simple, consistent task that doesn't
require a whole lot of new thinking, doesn't lead to as big
of an impact as if you were to create some sort of retreat or
unique offering. Like if you were going to do
like a a six week program to eliminate back pain for the rest
(27:07):
of your life. That's a pretty powerful promise
that could possibly be saving somebody thousands of dollars,
possibly saving somebody from surgery, which might change the
mobility for life. That is a big deal versus just a
general all levels drop in hot the flow class every Tuesday at
noon, which is great. There's nothing wrong with that.
(27:29):
It's just a simpler, broader, more commoditized challenge that
you're solving by having the weekly class versus a very
specific deep transformative result that could save somebody
a lot of time, risk, money, energy, lots of amazing benefits
if you like, as this example of a six week transformation that
(27:53):
helps people eliminate low back pain for the rest of their life
potentially. Of course, you got to be careful
with what you promised because you can't guarantee things like
that, but you can make profound transformations like this.
And those things require deeper thought and really digging
deeper within yourself of like, what do you want to bring out
into the world? What transformations have you
(28:15):
experienced? How can you really help somebody
in a deeper way? So this is all coming back to
impact is what leads to your freedom.
And the impact comes from a lot of introspection and inner work
to really bring out your gifts. So if you're not doing that
deeper work, deeper introspection, you're not going
to have as big of an impact and you're not going to have as much
(28:36):
freedom in your lifestyle. But some ways people talk about
this is like, if you do the hardwork upfront, things get easier
in the long run. But if you try to just do the
easy work, things get harder in the long run.
So doing the hard work upfront means like learning, marketing,
learning business learning, messaging, bringing out your
(28:58):
gifts, really doing deep introspection of like, why are
you doing this? What are you uniquely qualified
to offer? What do people really need?
Having deep conversations with people, helping them uncover the
root of their problems, get to the root cause of these issues.
That's deeper introspection investigation in our work.
And that leads to more impact, and that's going to lead to more
(29:19):
freedom. But it's harder upfront.
But then you get to enjoy the results later, like having more
space in your schedule, more freedom in your time.
But there needs to be times where you're going very deep
into this stuff. And bringing that out, an
example of this I think about often is Pema Chodron.
She is the monk who is known forwriting many great.
(29:43):
Books and start where you are and things like this and when
things fall apart. Great book, but she often works
in the cycle of a year in meditation and just in her work
and then a year of sharing, teaching, writing, speaking,
things like this and she alternates like this.
(30:04):
I don't know if she's currently still doing that, but I know she
has in the past and that's an inspiring model and I resonate
with that. Not fully a year on and off like
this, but maybe weeks at a time and take a week of like a
retreat, inner work, and then a week of just focusing on outer
work, sharing your gifts. So that's a lot of freedom, but
(30:25):
it's also a lot of discipline and choice and top US to focus
on doing some challenging things.
So if anyone is promising you just freedom by just like you
just make this PDF and now you're making $1000 a day doing
nothing, that's not really making a big impact.
That's not really bringing out your gifts.
(30:48):
That's not really expressing your heart and soul and what you
do. And to me, that's a big part of
why any of this matters. It's your Dharma, it's your
heart's calling, it's your mission.
You're sharing your gifts with the world.
And that is what leads to more impact, and that leads to
ultimately more freedom. And in that free time, what
you're really doing is just prioritizing the things that
really nourish you and are part of your personal growth.
(31:11):
Path and then that allows you tohave more to share and help
others on their personal growth path.
That's all I think of it at least.
So the freedom doesn't mean likeyou can just sit on a beach for
the rest of your life and do nothing.
So at a certain point, you're going to run out the money and
you're going to feel unfulfilledand you're going to want to do
something meaningful again. So I don't think that's really
(31:32):
freedom to just do whatever you want anytime, anywhere and just
be lazy and do nothing. But it's the freedom to enjoy
the fruits of life and to enjoy rest and relaxation and recovery
and vacations and family time and whatever you need to do, but
also to really enjoy the work and the depth and the sharing
(31:52):
your gifts and bringing out yourgifts in the world.
Now, when you do that, this is when you have the sense of
freedom. This is helping you avoid
burnout. And burnout comes from basically
you're trying to sort of bring more out than is there.
It's like I, I. Get a a coconut.
(32:15):
Often here in Mexico I like to drink coconuts.
They grow all over and a certainpoint you're drinking the
coconut and you've run out of the coconut water.
And there's no matter what I do,I'm not going to get more water
out of that coconut. It's done.
But there's a certain thing thathappens for a lot of yoga
teachers where. It's like you feel like you need
(32:37):
to give more and you've already given all you've got, like you
can't give any more at the moment, so you need to rest and
recover. And that's where the metaphor
breaks down. So that's enough of the coconut
metaphor, but there is this element of like, you have a
certain amount of life force, prana, energy, gifts to share.
And especially early on, there'sa lot of it because you're just
(32:59):
ready to go and you've been waiting to share these things
and they're coming out finally. And at a certain point, you need
to rest. And you've given a lot of prana,
a lot of energy, a lot of life force to something that's
teaching classes, workshops, writing, and now you need to
sort of fill back up. And this comes back to like this
(33:21):
thing I shared about Pema Chodron is that part of the
reason I think why she takes a year to just be in her practices
is so she doesn't burn out. So she's not just going speaking
gig, speaking gig all over the world, writing another book,
another book. She takes time to just pause all
that outward energy of sharing her gifts, and then takes time
(33:42):
inward and receiving and in silence and in reflection and
meditation. And now she's recharging her
energy in a way. So the burnout happens when we
just try to be in, give, give, give, share, share, share,
teach, teach, teach, work, work,work.
And a lot of Western society celebrates this and encourages
(34:03):
this. We need to do more.
You need to do faster, better, bigger, and a certain point you
just can't do any more. You have diminishing returns.
And when you start to notice that diminishing returns, that's
the time to switch gears. So very obvious in yoga pose,
like if you're in pigeon pose atthe beginning, it might feel a
little tight. And then you kind of get into a
(34:24):
groove and you stay there and breathe, and you start to feel
it's like softening, releasing, going deeper.
And then there's a certain pointwhere it's like, OK, I'm done
with this pose. If I stay here too long, my leg
is going to fall asleep. I might injure myself, my
ligaments might get looser. It doesn't feel so good anymore.
(34:45):
It's time to move and go into a different pose.
So that sort of embodied somaticexperience of being in a pose
and knowing when it's time to get out of a pose is a good
guideline for everything in lifeand in business as well.
Of like there's a certain point of like being on social media
(35:05):
where you've reached your limit and you need to take a break.
A certain point of teaching classes where you've reached
your limit, you need to take a break at a certain point and
everything to do with business where you reached your limit and
you need to take a break and do something else.
You can think of this like the nervous system as well.
If you're in sympathetic mode, like running around all day
coffee energized. If you just try to keep doing
(35:26):
that all day, you're going to have really diminishing returns
and you're going to get tired, burned out, your your cognitive
abilities diminish it just everything gets worse until you
shift into the parasympathetic mode, rest and digest and relax.
And you've probably experienced this many times.
Like you go to get a massage, you take a nap, you go to sleep,
(35:48):
you wake up and now you are recharged and re energized and
your mind is sharper. So that is again an embodied
experience of avoiding burnout. Now it gets more nuanced and
subtle and harder to see what itmeans to be burned out when
you're not having consistent income.
You're trying to make an impact.You don't feel free.
(36:10):
You're trying to create freedom in your life.
So you're stressing out about all these things and you feel
like you got to run up this hillfaster.
But the, the, the ground keeps like going soft underneath you.
So it's like you're not making any progress.
And then you lose yourself. And this is the last topic of
today is losing yourself is like, OK, well, now I'm
struggling with the business. So what is someone else doing?
(36:31):
Let's just try to copy them. So it's like, now you're being
inauthentic. Maybe I need to do more of this.
Maybe I need to be on Instagram more, even though I don't like
it. So now you're being inauthentic.
You're trying to be someone you're not.
You're trying to do things that aren't aligned.
It's not coming from your heart and soul.
It's coming from this external pressure, this need to make more
income that you'd like. You didn't set yourself up in a
(36:54):
space where you could have reliable income, and now you
suddenly need income. And there's a desperation that
comes with it. And then the impact is lesson
because people feel this desperation and you start to be
pushy, you start to be someone you're not.
It all gets messy. So this path of having a
(37:15):
business, sharing this work of yoga, doing what you love has to
be a centered, aligned place because so much what we do as
teachers is hold space for others.
And they feel that, and they feel the energy you're bringing
to class. So if you're bringing this sort
of survival desperation energy in the class, no matter what
words you're saying, people are going to feel this doesn't feel
(37:37):
so great, which can make you more anxious and more paranoid
and more desperate to make a difference.
So it comes back to not losing yourself.
This means keeping your practices.
This means keeping a sense of detachment from the business.
This means like if you are only making like 100 dollars, $500
(38:01):
under $1000 a month right now, teaching yoga, don't quit your
job and try to make yoga make like $5000 next month.
It's going to put you into this sort of burnout, losing
yourself, not being able, not being consistent.
It's just sort of this pressure and you're going to feel trapped
by it. So it's a slow and steady
(38:22):
movement of the nervous system. The nervous system wants
equilibrium, and in yoga we established equilibrium.
We expand the ability to be in sympathetic through active
poses. We expand the ability to be in
parasympathetic through resting and simple poses and yin poses.
And then overall, we expand the capacity of the nervous system
(38:43):
and the ability to find equilibrium in more extreme
states. In the same way, we can do that
in our work and purpose and business, slowly expanding a
little more in our output, in our work, and then also
expanding a little more in our self-care and our rest, in our
connection to ourselves and do both.
And in that way, we slowly expand our capacity, what we're
(39:07):
capable of in offering our gifts, in our purpose, in our
Dharma. Not just OK, suddenly I'm going
to go from zero to teaching 20 times a week, or suddenly I'm
going to go from all in person to all online and expected to
replace all my income. That's too fast.
That's like saying I never work out and I'm just going to go to
the gym one day this month and do all my exercises for six
(39:30):
hours. That's not going to lead to any
particular result except your body being super fatigued and
probably get sick. So you can't do that in
business. You can't do that with your
body. You can't do that with your
nervous system. What you can do though, is
small, consistent, sustainable actions that move you towards
expansion in your expression, inyour gifts in the world and your
(39:51):
business, and things that move you towards deepening in your
sense of self and your connection to self.
So you don't lose yourself, you don't burn out.
You can establish more consistency in your lifestyle
and the frequency of what you want to share in the world, and
you focus on a consistent, sustainable income and heart
centered. Priorities.
(40:12):
So you're not just doing what you love, but you're also doing
what you love that is sustainable financially and
makes sense practically because you're making a bigger impact.
So the value is undeniable to people.
If you're saving somebody from a$6000 surgery by then paying you
like $600.00, that's a no brainer deal.
(40:33):
Of course people are going to want to pay you.
So now you're having more incomeand you're having more impact
and this allows you more freedom.
And when you have that freedom actually is a whole other
podcast topic of like what you do once you start to get that
freedom is very important because you could end up back in
a place of desperation if you'renot careful.
And you use that free time unwisely, unskillfully.
(40:56):
And now you're in this place of desperation with your income,
and then you're not making the impact you want and you burned
out and lose yourself. But if you do this, well, slow
and steady over time, and you build more freedom for yourself,
you don't burn out, you don't lose yourself.
And your business grows, you grow, you do what you love and
people love what you do. And it's an amazing, amazing
(41:18):
thing that we get to do this. And there's a fine art to it.
And it's, This is why most people don't end up doing it
because it's not the easiest thing.
So hopefully today's episode gave you some perspective on how
to do this more skillfully. And if you want to go deeper
into the exercises, practices and ways to do this, go to quiet
mind dot yoga slash Thrive workshop and join me live on
(41:40):
Zoom. I'll be giving some special free
gifts for joining live and I'll be sharing how you can create
consistent income impact and freedom teaching yoga online
without burning out or losing yourself.
Now I'm going to talk about this.
This workshop is going to be catered to people with any
service they offer, including yoga, including coaches,
healers, therapies, anyone who'sworking online in a spiritual
(42:05):
heart centered kind of work thatwants to do it in a sustainable
way and have these results that we talked about today.
So if you're just teaching yoga or if you're doing something
adjacent to that and the sort ofspiritual heart centered world,
this is for you. If you have 0 clients, 0
experience, you've never taught a class, you never made a dollar
doing anything of this nature, this, this workshop might be
(42:28):
helpful to you, but I'm generally encouraging people who
have already made some level of income doing this, at least
working with one client because that is a huge threshold.
If you've worked with one clientand made a single dollar doing
something you love, you've crossed a major threshold that
most people will never cross. And now it's just about how do I
do that more skillfully, more sustainably, more consistently
(42:51):
and have a bigger impact, Createmore freedom, not burnout, not
lose myself. And that's very, very
achievable. But that first part of like,
what do I do? Who am I helping?
Am I in the right thing? Should I do this?
Should I do that? That is a different question
that I'm not going to be addressing on the workshop.
So if you're in that place, thenyou might not get as much out of
this workshop. But if you do have something you
(43:12):
offer, if you've taught a singleclass, even if it's for a
donation or free, you've taught a class.
Now, how do you go from teachingthat free class to teaching a
consistent online thing that youlove that helps people, makes an
impact? That's what we'll be talking
about Quiet Mind at Yoga Thrive workshop.
And if you enjoyed the podcast, leave a comment on Spotify,
(43:33):
share with a friend, and look forward to sharing more with you
next time on the Yoga Teacher Training Podcast.
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