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You got into yoga because you want to help your students. And while you’re probably doing that in a weekly class, you might think you’re not experienced enough to lead yoga workshops.
Think again! If’ve you’ve overcome a problem using yoga, you’re already well positioned to teach a yoga workshop, even if you’re fresh out of yoga teacher training.
where to start with yoga workshop planning
know yourself
The process of planning a workshop is a little more in depth than that of planning a class. It should start with some really top-level study of yourself (what we’d call svadhyaya): knowing your history, seeing how your practice fits in, and recognizing the suffering your students undergo. Once you see this, you will be on your way to planning sold-out workshops that help your students change their lives.
write a description
Next, take this research and turn it into a description of your workshop you can use to manage students’ expectations about what will happen in the workshop.
Then write a title, something that points to the problem you’re solving and/or the outcome you’re moving toward.
plan the lesson
Next up, you’ll want to map out the entire yoga workshop lesson plan, minute by minute, with room to expand and contract. If your topic lends itself to slides, or some kind of takeaway lagniappe—even a card with a quote on it—work on that as well.
place the workshop
Does your workshop belong in a studio? If so, determine which is the best fit and identify how they prefer to receive workshop pitches. Once you get a yes, move on to a contract and design a promotion plan.
Or maybe this workshop belongs somewhere else: a garden store, a local bike shop. When you look outside the studio, you are meeting students where they are in ways that can help them immensely.
improve the workshop
Be sure to collect student feedback and use it to improve the workshop for next time. Some successful workshops benefit from expanding into series. Others do better as a shorter, more condensed offering.
learn how to create a killer yoga workshop
Way back in the day, I wrote my master’s thesis on metanarrative cinema—movies that featured a version of the very story the bigger movie told. You’ll know how far back in the day this was when you hear that The Muppet Movie and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure were two of the movies I explored. I love a meta-take on a story!
So I made you range of meta-products on workshops.
One is a free five-lesson email course that walks you through the steps above in greater detail. Get it by putting your name and best email address in the box here:
Another is the Workshop Workbook, a template that you can work right into to go through an even more in-depth version of this yoga workshop planning process. You’ll get everything you need to create fantastic workshops that make a huge difference for your students while also advancing your career as a yoga teacher.