Whether you’re a new or seasoned yoga instructor, you’ve got to be at the top of your game to attract a loyal following and turn your practice into a thriving business.
That’s a given.
Lucky for us, many successful yoga teachers are sharing their knowledge online using their websites, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, and Facebook groups.
AND you’re in the right place to get the best advice from the very finest yoga instructors!
We’ve gathered the top tips and tools for yoga teachers from across the web to share with you. 🙂
Top Resources for Yoga Teachers: Websites
1. Yoga Teacher Resource Website
Yoga Teacher Resource is a website and podcast created by Mado Hesselink. She is a pro at teaching skills and business strategy to yoga teachers.
Her mission? To help teachers fill the gaps between:
- what they learned in training and
- what it takes to be a successful and effective teacher in the real world.
Her site is chock full of practical yoga teacher tools like:
- Downloadable guide, “100 Yoga Class Themes.”
- A yoga teacher business plan checklist.
- A Facebook group for yoga teachers.
She explains her path this way:
“When I became a yoga teacher in 2005, I searched all over the internet for information to help me plan my classes and become a better teacher,” says Mado. “At the time, there was very little available so I decided to start collecting all the resources from yoga books, yoga classes, yoga training, and most importantly, my personal yoga practice. The Yoga Teacher Resource website and podcast are the result of that passion project.”
She found a need & filled it. And we are the beneficiaries!
2. Yoga Journal Website
Our next resource may sound a little familiar to you already: Yoga Journal is the gold standard of yoga technique, ethics, and practice in America.
The magazine’s website includes a section dedicated to top tools for yoga teachers and you can bet it’s got some not-to-miss tips for furthering your career and inspiring your students.
You should take note that some articles are gated and available to Yoga Journal members only. But there’s still a huge amount of content that’s free (like the tips for yoga teachers we’ve listed below).
Here are a few standout resources for yoga teachers included on Yoga Journal’s site:
- What To Do When You’re Teaching and Nervous
- The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Yoga Online: 10 Digital Platforms You Should Consider Right Now, Plus Pro Audio, Lighting, and Camera Tips
- The Business of Yoga: Follow This Advice for Social Media Success
3. Brett Larkin’s Website
Up next is another great one – Brett Larkin is a yogi, successful entrepreneur, and a sought-after online yoga business consultant.
Passionate yogis and yoga teachers from around the world turn to Brett for guidance on how to live their best life — on and off the mat. Using her proven high-touch method in the online world, Brett helps her students find their authentic voice, create thriving online communities, and accelerate their yoga and wellness business revenue.
She’s a busy woman – she’s also the founder and award-winning yoga-themed YouTube channel called Uplifted™️ Online Yoga Teacher Trainings.
Her website includes several spot-on tools for yoga teachers who want to take their business to the next level.
Here are a few of the guides you can find on Brett’s site:
- 20 Awesome Ways to Make Money as a Yoga Instructor
- What is the Yoga Alliance and Do I Need an RYT Certificate to Teach Yoga?
- 5 Steps to the Perfect Yoga Resume
4. The American Fitness Professionals & Associates Website
The American Fitness Professionals & Associates (AFPA) website is a fabulous resource too.
The AFPA provides over 30 (!!) unique health, fitness & nutrition certifications (wow)! They provide comprehensive programs designed by experts to give fitness instructors the high-caliber expertise necessary to effectively change lives.
And lucky for us, their blog is a great resource for finding the latest tools for yoga teachers who want to up their game.
According to a recent AFPA post, there are three resources every aspiring yoga instructor needs now. And the tools for yoga teachers are available right on their website!
- Downloadable Books Written Just for Yoga Instructors and Aspiring Yoga Instructors
- Online Yoga Forums
- Online Yoga Certifications
Yoga Teacher Resources: YouTube Channels
5. Ashley Hagen’s Ashes Yoga YouTube Channel
Who doesn’t like seeing a friendly face explaining everything in an approachable way?
Ashley Hagen’s YouTube channel offers just that. She highlights a wide variety of professional advice and practical tips for yoga instructors.
The tools she offers yoga teachers are actionable and easy to implement. Her style is welcoming, and she offers subscribers who are interested in starting their own yoga business a free yoga business guide.
Here are some of her videos that offer great resources for yoga teachers:
- Full Zoom Tutorial for Yoga Teachers
- 3 Ways to Create a Yoga Class Sequence + Printable PDF Card
- 4 Ways to Make Money Online as a Yoga Teacher
6. Rachel Scott – For Yoga Teachers YouTube Channel
Rachel Scott’s YouTube channel is chock full of resources for yoga teachers. She offers instructional videos in categories like Resources for Yoga Teacher Educators and Trainers, Yoga Business Tips, Lean Anatomy with Rachel, and Skills for Yoga Teachers.
Her style is refreshing and lighthearted.
Some highlights include:
- How to Cue Yoga Poses Awesomely
- How to Theme a Yoga Class: Tips for Teachers
- How to Get Hired at a Great Studio
7. Cat Meffan’s My Soul Sanctuary YouTube Channel
Cat Meffan is a British yoga teacher who offers online yoga classes and yoga retreats worldwide in extraordinary locations.
She shares her wealth of industry knowledge on her YouTube channel, Cat Meffan – My Soul Sanctuary, in a raw, real, and refreshing way. There you can find her yoga classes, along with tools and resources for yoga teachers.
You should also check out her Vlogs, Hauls, and Favorites and About Me playlists for fun insights on the industry.
Here are some of Cat’s recent favorite videos from the channel:
Yoga Teacher Resources: Podcasts
8. JBrown Yoga Talks Podcast
Yoga teacher and writer J. Brown is leading the way in the Slow Yoga Revolution, advocating for more intimate, breath-centered, therapeutic yoga practices.
In JBrown Yoga Talks Podcast, J interviews guests from old-school yoga teachers to other yoga revolutionists about philosophy and the business of yoga.
Episodes cover everything from “Are Yoga Centers Coming Back?” to “Cosmos and Consciousness.”
9. From The Heart | Conversations with Yoga Girl Podcast
Rachel Brathen, known as Yoga Girl, is an international yoga teacher and speaker, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur who inspires millions every day.
Weekly episodes of her podcast, From The Heart | Conversations with Yoga Girl, include storytelling and talks from Rachel (sometimes alongside special guests). They also dive into topics such as love, trust, finding balance, overcoming adversity, and, of course, yoga and well-being.
Recent episodes include, “A COVID Story from Anxiety to Ease” and “It Takes a Village: Living with Nature, Building Community, and Starting from Scratch.”
10. The Connected Yoga Teacher | A Community for Yoga Entrepreneurs with Shannon Crow Podcast
This podcast, The Connected Yoga Teacher | A Community for Yoga Entrepreneurs with Shannon Crow, helps yoga teachers to stay connected to information, entrepreneur advice, and a community of supportive yoga teachers and professionals.
Host Shannon Crow and her guests tackle topics like “Switching to a Rental Studio Model,” and “Creating a Niche Online Course,” great tools for yoga teachers who want to hone their yoga business know-how.
11. Redefining Yoga Podcast
International yoga leader and creator of the LYT Method, Lara Heimann, uses her Redefining Yoga podcast to investigate the modern evolution of yoga from her background as a Physical Therapist and neurodevelopmental treatment specialist.
She passionately explores the core values of her groundbreaking yoga method: smarter movement patterns, kindness to ourselves and others, compassion for all beings, finding the best way through inquiry, the courage to change, discipline to grow, and taking a stand for what we believe in.
Yoga Teacher Resources: Books
12. The Business of Yoga: A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketing and Maximizing Profits for Yoga Studios and Instructors (Book)
How many more students would you like in your yoga classes? And how can you use modern marketing concepts and tools to get more students and enjoy more profits from your studio or as an individual instructor?
In their book, The Business of Yoga: A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketing and Maximizing Profits for Yoga Studios and Instructors, authors Casey Conrad and Howard VanEs investigate.
You’ll get the exact information, marketing methods and tools need to become successful doing what you love most – teaching yoga!
Sounds like a tall order, but they’ve got big credentials.
Conrad is one of the world’s leading sales trainers for the health and fitness industry. And her co-author, VanEs, is an experienced and successful yoga instructor (who is also the former owner of an award-winning ad agency).
The book covers tools for yoga teachers such as:
- ways to fill your classes with new students
- how to create dozens of new profit centers within your studio or practice
- key steps to building long term students
- how to stop worrying about the competition
- the secrets for preventing low revenue periods & maximizing income year-round
According to the authors, whether you’re a studio owner who wants to take your yoga business to the next level, a yoga instructor who is finding it challenging to make ends meet, or just getting started with your career in the yoga business you will find this book to be transformational!
13. How to Run a Successful Yoga Business and Not Go Broke: Lessons from a Yoga Teacher, Entrepreneur & Modern Hippie (Book)
In this Kindle tell-all online book, Michelle Fondin opens up to fellow yoga teachers, sharing everything she wishes she would have known then, that she knows now. According to Fondin,
“Famous last words. Seven years invested, saddled with a ton of debt, and loads of personal stress, with sadness, I closed my failing yoga studio at the end of 2015. But I found light at the end of the tunnel. I turned around a disastrous situation from all the lessons learned. Now I pass my knowledge on to you.”
In her book, How to Run a Successful Yoga Business and Not Go Broke: Lessons from a Yoga Teacher, Entrepreneur & Modern Hippie, she promises to help aspiring yoga teachers and yoga studio owners save thousands of dollars, jump ahead of the competition, and thoroughly understand the business of yoga before you begin. “Every bit of business knowledge I acquired over the past decade is in this book. I have spared nothing so you can excel,” she says.
“From the best marketing strategies to building a solid client base and an unbreakable reputation, you will get to appreciate teaching yoga instead of getting caught up in the trial and error of the first years in business.
Sit back, grab a cup of tea, and get cracking! Your business is not going to start all by itself you know. Who knew starting a business could be this much fun?”
14. The Yogi Entrepreneur: A Guide to Earning a Mindful Living Through Yoga (Book)
According to Darren Main, many yoga teachers are great at teaching but often struggle with the business of yoga.
Sound familiar?
“Finding a balance between sharing yoga with the world and running an ethical business can be challenging,” he says.
In The Yogi Entrepreneur: A Guide to Earning a Mindful Living Through Yoga, Main has laid out the definitive manual on starting and growing a yoga business.
Whether you are an established teacher, looking to expand your student base, a new teacher fresh out of yoga teacher training, or you are simply considering signing up for your first yoga certification course—this book is for you.
The Yogi Entrepreneur offers chapters on:
- becoming a yoga teacher
- marketing and branding
- ethics
- leading retreats and workshops
- developing a WordPress website
- managing social media like Twitter and Facebook
- many other important skills for success as a teacher or yoga studio owner.
With scores of resources, low-cost marketing tips, and time-saving tools, this book is a yoga teacher’s toolbox.
The Yogi Entrepreneur has been used in hundreds of teacher training programs around the world and has helped thousands of yoga teachers to find their audience, define their brand, and share their unique approach to yoga more effectively.
Whether your teaching is rooted in more traditional styles of yoga like Iyengar, Kripalu, and Integral, or more contemporary disciplines such as Forrest, Bikram, Baptiste, and Anusara yoga, the simple tools outlined in these pages will help you to reach your true potential as a yoga teacher.
If you are ready to jumpstart your yoga and meditation business this book could be for you!
Resources for Yoga Teachers: Support Groups
15. Yoga Teachers Support Group (on Facebook)
The Yoga Teachers Facebook Group boasts a membership of nearly 40k yoga teachers and is a great source for connecting to other yoga instructors and studio owners.
It’s a closed group for Yoga Teachers and Yoga teacher trainees only. The group was started so that Yoga Teachers could connect on an open forum.
So if that sounds like you, jump on in and use this group to:
- start a discussion
- facilitate a conversation
- ask a question so that other yoga teachers can answer and support you
- advance your relationships with Yoga Teachers from around the world
16. Yoga Teacher Resource Community (on Facebook)
The Yoga Teacher Resource Community Facebook group aims to support yoga instructors in several key areas:
- in the classroom
- in living their yoga
- in their personal yoga practice
- in their yoga business.
Topics on the forum include
- how to make email newsletters
- finding insurance
- navigating social media
- accommodating the new yoga student
The administrators share conversations about business and teaching-related themes with practicable tips to address the challenges that are unique to yoga teachers.
They also offer free mini-trainings on themes such as
- time-management
- cultural appropriation
- healthy boundaries for teachers
And the administrators of this group also have a podcast! Worth diving into everything offered here.
17. Anatomy Gurus Group (on Facebook)
The Anatomy Gurus is another private Facebook group just for yoga teachers. Despite its name, the group isn’t just for those who are already “anatomy geeks” (though you are welcome!,) but it’s also for those who left their yoga teacher training still a bit mystified by biomechanics, alignment, and anatomy.
What a helpful niche!
The group is facilitated by a trained physiotherapist who offers deep dives via Facebook live videos that break-down alignment and anatomy considerations for specific yoga poses.
The facilitator’s specialty is stabilizing hypermobile yoga practitioners to reduce the risk of injury and keep yogis practicing asana longer, but discussion topics relate to all things anatomy.
Group members often post both teaching and personal questions related to specific yoga poses that are answered by other group members and often by the physiotherapist administrator herself.
Time to dig into those resources and start learning! Hope the ideas mentioned here get you on the path of successfully pursuing your dreams 🙂
