I’m going to say that again, it’s not just you.
Across yoga and wellness, people are finding it harder than ever to sell events or trainings whether online or in person. Barely a week goes by without another studio, centre or hub sadly closing. Its hard times no matter what we do – but it’s not just at local level.
For a while, it looked like in-person was the answer to our digital fatigue.
Then when classes didn’t fill, we switched back to online, only to find those numbers equally low.
Teachers everywhere received requests to “bring things back in person,” yet when they did people didn’t turn up. Whether it was trainings, classes, workshops or professional development a theme has been recurring.
This week, a well know yoga influencer (CP, 112k followers) wrote honestly about this exact struggle. Their post opened the floodgates of public comments and empathy from other big name teachers/influencers who’ve expressed the same thing:
AB (449k), CN (94k), and MJW (23k) all shared that despite these huge platform audiences, they too are struggling to fill once sold out retreats and workshops and its left them unsure about themselves snd what to offer.
It’s oddly reassuring because it shows the problem isn’t your pricing, your marketing, your mentor or your social media strategy. It’s the climate we’re in financially, culturally and emotionally.
As everyday teachers, we often assume our small following is the barrier to success but the truth is, those numbers (112k, 449k, 94k, 23k ) don’t guarantee bums on seats.
They don’t guarantee commitment or community or connection and it’s worth noting they also don’t guarantee quality, value or fame by association.
Maybe this is our reminder to stop equating visibility with viability.
To come back to what we do best: teaching the people who are in the room whether that’s five faces on Zoom or three mats in a hall.
This is a topic that comes up again and again in my newsletter for yoga teachers and movement professionals, The Tune Up, where we have looked at the merits of sustainable community contact such as a newsletter rather than pouring time and effort into social media whose algorithms are fickle and where we can make inaccurate assumptions about all those ideas around success, competence, value, practicality and more.
