Can you tell that the word of this month has been “niche”. If you’re new here — hello! I’ve been chatting about how to niche down as a yoga teacher and how it opens so many doors in your yoga career. I’m passionate about helping yoga teachers identify their niche and today I’m talking about how to own your niche once you’ve decided.
First of all, congrats on deciding on your yoga niche! (If you’ve found yourself here without having a niche yet no worries, I’ve got you covered in my free guide.) But now that you’ve decided and you’re so excited to continue your fruitful yoga teaching career — what’s next?
Time to put the pen to paper (or in this case, teacher into class)! Today, I’m going to help you make a transition plan to putting your newly found niche into action.
The typical niching process
1.Fresh pair of yoga eyes
When you first begin to teach yoga classes, you won’t be niching down quite yet. Like most things, you should test the waters. Say “yes” to teaching a range of classes, see what suits you! At the beginning of your yoga teacher journey, keep the thought of niching down in the back of your mind while you’re teaching your general yoga classes — keep mental note of what is bringing you joy and igniting your yoga fire. What type of classes are you most excited to teach? What type of students are you most excited to serve?
2. Ready to niche down
Woohoo! You’ve identified your niche through a little self-discovery and have acknowledged how beneficial niching down is! Some yoga teachers identify their niche early on in their yoga journey and others can find later down the road. We all take life and yoga at different paces so don’t be discouraged if it’s taking you awhile — it will be worth it once you decide!
3. Scream it from the rooftops!
After you chose your niche — celebrate! It’s an exciting time and if you’re anything like me you love having a clear and defined direction. Bask in all the good and exciting emotions!
4. But now what?
Time to make a plan of action on how to implement your new niche into your yoga classes, studio and students. But how?
How To Transition Into Your New Yoga Niche
Step One
Sit down and examine your current yoga teaching schedule. Identify what classes are related to your new narrowed focus and which ones aren’t but still bring you joy. More importantly, identify what current classes you’d like to move away from teaching. Try not to feel guilty when letting go of a class. Hopefully it will be taken over by someone who finds joy teaching that type of class. Write it all down in a notebook, excel sheet or whatever you use to keep track of your classes — new niche classes, classes I like to teach and classes I’m ready to bid farewell.
Step Two
While I wish the happiness of joy of teaching your niche yoga classes can pay your bills alone, unfortunately that’s not the case all the time. When analyzing what classes to keep or let go of, keep track of how many classes you need to teach per week to meet your income goals.
Step Three
Identify how many classes you want to let go of and how many classes or private yoga students you need to pick up in order to maintain your income goals. Then start to prioritize them in chronological order. Don’t get so excited about narrowing your focus that you drop 50% of your income! Be smart about it.
Step Four
Make a plan. For example, while making your list of classes to to let go you identified 3 classes that you’re wanting to pass onto someone else. Identify your exit-strategy — either tell yourself you’ll replace those 3 classes with niche classes in 3 months, 3 weeks...be realistic with yourself and your studio. Outline who you need to talk to about taking your classes and when they can start, and talk to the studio and your students. Potentially it’s just subs for a while until someone can completely take the class off your hands. Or maybe you will replace that income with workshops or private clients.
Step Five
After time has passed and you’ve let go of the classes you’re no longer interested in teaching — repeat step four with the bucket of classes that aren’t necessarily in your niche but ones you don’t mind teaching. By that time, you will likely want to teach more of your niche so you will be ready to let them go too. Same thing, make a timeline and plan to replace that income.
Step Six
Now you’ve (hopefully) transitioned into teaching your desired yoga focus and have a refined schedule that lights you up, market yourself! Update your Instagram profile, tell your neighbors, — hold onto and be proud of the yoga you teach.
Marketing and accepting your yoga niche identification will empower you to make the necessary steps to transition into your new narrowed focus. Plus, once you’ve narrowed your focus and start teaching the classes you love your students will do the marketing for you!
Still need help identifying your yoga niche so you can feel all the yoga class butterflies? Download my free PDF guide where I walk you through step by step to identifying your yoga niche so you can teach classes that serve students from the heart.
