Teachers ask us where to advertise. For me that’s rarely the useful question, because the work that actually arrives mostly isn’t advertised at all.
Ask a teacher where hers came from and the honest answer, more often than not, is another teacher.
The cover. The referral. The maternity slot. The retreat somebody needed a second pair of hands for. The private client who wasn’t a fit for her but was for you.
Almost none of that came from an advert. And almost nobody builds it deliberately.
When to use this
- When you want more work and have run out of places to apply
- If you’ve just moved to a new area
- When you’re the only yoga teacher you actually know
- Before spending money on advertising
Why other teachers are the best source
Because they’re asked constantly and they can’t take everything.
Somebody wants a private, or a corporate slot, or a beginner’s course on a Wednesday, and she’s full or it’s not her thing or it’s the wrong side of town. In that moment she is going to say a name. It will be somebody she knows, whose teaching she trusts, and who she can hand over to without it becoming complicated.
For me that’s the whole thing. Every teacher near you is fielding requests she can’t fulfil, and the only question is whether your name is available to her when it happens.
Being referable
Two parts, and both are simple.
Be known for something specific. She’s good is not referable. She’s the one for backs is. She does the pregnancy classes is. The person passing your name needs one clean sentence, and if you haven’t given them one they’ll say something vague and the referral dies there.
Be easy to hand over to. Reply quickly. Be findable in ten seconds. Have somewhere she can point them. If passing someone to you creates work for the person doing it, they’ll stop.
The circle of five
Not networking. Five people.
Pick five teachers within reach whose work you respect and who aren’t in direct competition for the same slot — different specialism, different night, different end of town.
Tell them what you’d take. Specifically. If anyone asks you about pregnancy classes, I’d take those. Most teachers have never been told this by anyone and are quietly relieved to have somewhere to send people.
Ask what they’d take. The arrangement has to run both ways or it isn’t one.
Make the handover easy. A message with a name and a number beats a long explanation.
Then keep it alive with almost nothing. A message every couple of months. How’s the term going. It doesn’t need to be more than that.
The part that isn’t about work
Something worth naming plainly, because it comes up in nearly every conversation we have with members.
Teaching yoga is a lonely profession. You work alone, in rooms full of people who are not your colleagues, and there’s often nobody who understands what a bad class actually feels like.
The five teachers who send you work also happen to be five people who know what the job is. In my experience that turns out to matter more than the work does.
Action steps
- Name your five. Write the actual names down.
- Work out your one clean sentence — what you’d want to be referred for.
- Contact two of them this month and tell them what you’d take.
- Ask each what they’d take, and mean it.
Related resources
- Getting on the cover list
- Where students actually come from
You may decide you’d rather keep your teaching to yourself and not build any of this. That’s a legitimate way to work and plenty of good teachers do. Just know that the work is being handed out anyway, in conversations you’re not part of.