In The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook, I suggest building a team to support your career. This team includes mentors, colleagues, and support staff like an accountant. Even sole proprietors don’t wind up working all alone; instead, their work takes place within a context of support.
Reader Sarah Anne wrote to ask:
If you don’t really have a yoga mentor that is reliable, a friend you regularly practice with or any of the options you suggest in your book, how does one build a team? Also, how does one find a mentor they jive with in the current time of the pandemic?
My answer:
Like everything else in 2020–21, you can probably do this online. Sometimes your team will be made up of teachers whose online classes you take—and maybe of whom you can ask questions in the comments section. Jenni Rawlings does a great job of this on her Instagram, and she has a hearty forum on her website. Continuing education programs like Yoga Medicine have similar support for community members.
Are you currently teaching? If so, is there a friend from your yoga teacher training whom you could connect with to do group critique? Now that so many people are teaching online, it’s easy to share videos of your classes for colleagues to offer constructive critique. Ask them to respond to these prompts:
KEEP: What am I doing particularly well?
DROP: What is unclear, unneeded, confusing?
ADD: Where do you see room for growth? What would you have added if you were teaching?
If you have questions related to the book and its advice, drop me a line!