how to become (almost) everyone’s favorite yoga teacher
This one mindset shift will change everything in your yoga career: remember, you are not the hero. Your students are. You’re the guide.
Once you adopt this perspective, you’ll:
- Center your students’ agency
- Feel confident in the yoga classroom
- Easily plan and teach useful yoga sequences that help your students progress
- Be brimming with ideas for private lessons, workshops, and retreats
And your career will flourish as a result. Here’s how:
develop workshops that help your students grow
In the Workshop Workshop, I’ll mentor you as you develop life-changing workshops that help your yoga students immensely.
double your income teaching yoga to athletes
Teaching yoga to athletes is easier than you think. You just need to embrace this mindset shift: yoga for athletes is not athletic yoga.
take a full 300/500-hour yoga teacher training
I direct the Carolina Yoga Company 500-hour yoga teacher training, which will be re-enrolling students by the end of 2024.
Let me know here that you’re interested—and please let me know just what you’re looking for from a 300- or 500-hour advanced studies yoga teacher training! Please share your name and best address in this form.
as featured in
by the numbers
11
online trainings for movement teachers
11
books to help you perform at your best
13
years offering classes & trainings online
14
years owning a yoga studio
21
years teaching yoga
28
years training educators
100+
videos in my virtual studio
from controlling students to centering them
I began my teaching career in the college classroom, en route to my PhD in English literature. Every semester, I wrote a syllabus and judged my success as a teacher on my students’ performance: did they understand my assignments? Did they discern and achieve the criteria I’d set for them?
Those standards carried with me as I moved into teaching yoga. For at least the first half of my two-plus-decades teaching yoga, I came into class thinking I needed to stick to the agenda and direct a performance. If I did my job “right,” all the students would be in lockstep, following my careful cueing to the letter. That was what I figured was success.
Then my own yoga practice kicked in and showed me this wrong-seeing approach was causing suffering for my students, and for my career as a yoga teacher.
Now when I look out in the studio and see everyone doing something different, I celebrate. That’s how I know my message has really landed: every student in the room is paying attention to what they need from their practice. By centering students’ agency and reminding them of their own main character energy, we help students progress toward connection, union, yoga.
And that’s how you become (almost) everyone’s favorite yoga teacher: by remembering it’s not about you. It’s always about the practitioner.
“Yoga with Sage has eased my stiff body from thousands of hours of air travel and helped me relax after the intensity of close games.”
Hall of Fame Coach Roy Williams
my student for 10+ years
latest from the blog
- Building Confidence as a Yoga Teacher: Moving Beyond Imposter Syndrome with Karen FabianYou probably love your favorite yoga teachers because they hold the space well and take the seat of the teacher with confidence. This confidence sets a tone that allows students to relax, center, and connect. But for many yoga teachers—both new and experienced—stepping into that confident role isn’t easy, especially when imposter syndrome creeps in.
- Affirmation: I Recognize I Don’t Even Know What I Don’t KnowYoga teacher affirmation: I recognize I don’t even know what I don’t know. I know the parts of my practice that come easy are the hardest to teach. And I know my struggles are my superpowers as a teacher.
need some sage advice?
Tell me who you are and I’ll send you a personalized treat to help you feel confident and relaxed. Choose any that apply to you!