We get asked what to put in the email more often than almost anything else. For me that’s the second question. The first is what the studio is actually trying to solve, because until you know that, no wording is going to rescue it.
You’ve drafted the message four times and sent none of them. Every version reads like begging, so you’ve closed the laptop again.
The problem isn’t your nerve. It’s the angle, and in my experience it is nearly always the angle.
Most approaches are written from the teacher’s side: here’s my training, here’s my journey, here’s what I’m hoping for. Sincere, and it lands as a favour request, because it’s asking the studio to take an interest in you.
Turn it round. A studio manager is solving a problem. A gap in the timetable. A teacher who’s left. A Wednesday morning that’s never worked. If your message speaks to that, it reads as somebody useful getting in touch. Same teacher, completely different reception.
When to use this
- Before contacting a studio, gym, hall or community venue for the first time
- When you’ve been drafting the same message for a fortnight
- After a no, and you’re deciding whether to go back
- When you want work somewhere specific rather than anywhere at all
Do fifteen minutes of homework first
Look at their timetable. Genuinely look at it.
What’s thin? What’s missing? Is there a gap on a weekday morning, or nothing for beginners, or a style they don’t cover? Do they run courses, or only drop-ins?
You’re not building a strategy. You’re looking for one honest, specific thing you can mention that proves you’ve actually been to their website. That single detail is what separates your email from the eleven others they got this month.
The first email
Short. Six sentences is plenty. Anything longer gets skimmed.
It needs four things.
Who you are, in one line. Name, what you teach, and where you teach now. That’s it. No journey.
The specific thing you noticed. I noticed you don’t have a beginners’ class on the timetable at the moment. This is the sentence doing the work.
What you could do about it. One concrete offer, not a menu. A six-week beginners’ course. Cover on their sub list. One class on a morning that’s currently empty.
An easy yes. Something that costs them almost nothing to agree to. Coming in to teach a taster. Being added to the cover list. A ten-minute conversation.
Then sign off and stop. Don’t attach your whole CV. One link to your professional record is enough, and it does that job better than an attachment.
Offer the taster
If you can, teach something before you ask for a slot.
A one-off, a cover, a free taster on a quiet morning. It changes the conversation completely, because nobody hires a teacher from an email. They hire one after they’ve watched a room come out of a class looking better than when they went in.
It’s also the fastest way past the awkward bit. You stop being a message in an inbox and become a person they’ve met.
The follow-up that isn’t a nag
Send it. Most people don’t, and most first emails simply get lost rather than rejected.
One follow-up, ten to fourteen days later, three lines. Reference the original, add one new thing rather than repeating yourself. You’ve had a course confirmed, or a slot has come free in your week — and make the same easy ask.
Then leave it. One follow-up is professional. Three is something else.
When it’s a no
Most nos are not now. Timetables change constantly. Teachers move, have babies, take on other work.
So answer a no by asking one thing: would you keep me on your cover list? Almost everyone says yes, it costs them nothing, and covering is how a large share of teachers get their next regular slot. That’s a separate piece, and it starts here.
Then diarise the studio for six months’ time and move on.
Action steps
- Pick one venue and spend fifteen minutes on their timetable. Find the specific thing.
- Write the six-sentence email using the four parts. Send it this week.
- Put the follow-up in your diary now, for twelve days’ time.
- If it’s a no, ask for the cover list before you close the conversation.
Related resources
- The record that works when you are not in the room
- Getting on the cover list, and what it leads to
You may send it and hear nothing at all. That happens, and it usually isn’t about you — timetables are full right up until they suddenly aren’t. Send it anyway, and do the follow-up you diarised, because that’s the part almost nobody does.
The teachers who get the slots aren’t usually the most impressive ones. They’re the ones who noticed something specific, said what they could do about it, and followed up once.