Yoga Teacher Resource Podcast

Yoga Alliance CEO Shannon Roche joins Mado to discuss recently announced changes to their standards for entry level yoga teacher trainings. The conversation goes in-depth on topics of curriculum, anticipated outcomes, and even reactions to criticisms of Yoga Alliance as an organization.    Since this episode is longer than normal, timestamps of the highlights and different topics addressed are inc...

Rose is a new yoga teacher. Unlike many teachers, she didn’t start teaching until age 55 and because of this she feels she needs to get some help honing in on her focus area and niche. In this on-air coaching call, Mado helps Rose get clear about who she feels called to teach yoga to, plus some beautifully simple ways she can improve her classes and get her confidence up as a new yoga teacher.   ...

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most practical and accessible yogic texts. It is about yoga in action and how to apply the teachings of yoga to real life situations. But can these ancient teachings be helpful when dealing with modern issues such as burnout and spiritual bypassing? That is exactly what Kaya Mindlin and Mado Hesselink get into on this week’s episode of the podcast. They thoughtfully...

Jules Mitchell is the author of Yoga Biomechanics, Stretching Redefined and a passionate educator dedicated to bringing a positive understanding of human movement to the yoga world. Discussed in this episode: Why she doesn’t view herself as a controversial figure despite acknowledging that her work pisses people off. Her desire to re-instill the passion in yoga teachers who feel jaded. Her mission...

Self promotion is a challenge for many yoga teachers. It feels counterintuitive and contrary to the tradition of service and spiritual practice we know and love. Even trying to wrap our head around the concept of branding, while also managing the day-to-day aspects of teaching yoga, can be a bit overwhelming. The purpose of today’s episode is to offer clarity and a grounded approach to branding fo...

How do we share the benefits of yoga with working class people in a way that doesn’t turn them off and is inclusive and welcoming? Topics covered in this on-air coaching call: How to become more skillful at communicating the benefits of yoga with anybody you meet. How to overcome the false or incomplete perceptions as portrayed by yoga magazines, advertisements, and social media. How to reach furt...

Insights and surprises about yoga teachers and the yoga industry, glimpses behind the scenes of podcast production, and a vulnerable moment of self-revelation. This episode covers some of many lessons I’ve learned through producing this podcast for the past year including: The inspiration for starting this podcast - and how that initial spark has expanded into the main ways that I currently work w...

Are you curious or confused about non-compete contracts? Many yoga studios are now asking their teachers to sign a document stating that they won't open a competing studio or some even require that you not teach at another studio within a certain distance. In this episode I share my thoughts on non-compete contracts including: The evolution of non-compete contracts in the yoga space. The circumsta...

Many yoga teachers struggle with the concept of owning a business, because we associate businesses with an unbridled (and often unethical) pursuit of profit. On this week's podcast, Joe Pace (former marketing analyst and founder of Icewater yoga) shares how yoga teachers can take lessons from business analytics and yoga to create a career that is both ethical and sustainable.  Joe shares plenty of...

Even the most wonderful medicine can be harmful when applied inappropriately. While a daily home yoga practice can be nourishing and inspiring for many teachers, approaching it from a place of competition and lack is a recipe for injury and depletion.  Inspired by an email I received from a fellow yoga teacher, today's episode explores the following questions: We try to make a yoga practice access...

What happened to your yoga practice when you became a teacher? Many yoga teachers are surprised by the way that the new role of teacher can actually derail their personal practice. That’s what happened to Brittany, a yoga teacher and digital marketer in Minneapolis. She went from feeling like yoga was her special refuge, to only practicing while she teaches. Now she feels lonely and lacks inspirat...

Warm ups are an essential part of your yoga sequence - so how to you know if you are choosing the right poses? By listener request, I share my thoughts on the topic in this episode including: The two main purposes for warming up The kind of movement that is best for fulfilling these intentions How to choose warm up poses based on the more challenging poses you plan to teach later in the sequence....

If you’re trying to break into teaching, this episode will cover a whole bunch of ideas of how to do so. Whether you recently graduated from YTT, are still in YTT, have recently moved to a new location, or are planning to move soon - getting started is often the hardest part.  Why a yoga studio might not be the best place to start teaching - and where to find the perfect first teaching gigs. How t...

Author of Yoga Anatomy and long time teacher Leslie Kaminoff shares his insider's perspective on the history and future of the Yoga Alliance and the forces influencing teaching standards in the yoga industry. Some of the topics we cover: -->What the yoga world was like when the Yoga Alliance got started and the thought processes behind their initial policies. -->How yoga evolved from a fringe acti...

Katie Yandrick is a college professor and yoga teacher who wants to bring yoga and movement to people who don’t realize yoga is for them: body shape/size, economic background, varying abilities, race, and ethnicity – She wants the diversity that exists in her community to also exist in her yoga clients.  Katie reached out to me for help on how to speak to those people to get them to try her classe...

Grace reached out for advice and support on gaining confidence as a yoga teacher. She's been teaching for a year and is afraid that her teacher training was sub-par, but doesn't have the funds to take another at the moment. She feels she should have enough experience by now to feel confident, so she wonders what the heck is going on? The main source for confidence as a yoga teacher The biggest rea...

Learn the often neglected first steps to creating a sustainable and profitable yoga business.  As most yoga teachers do not have business training, we end up really lost when it comes to creating a business around our yoga teaching. It's easy to waste a lot of time and energy on things that ultimately don't matter unless you have your foundations in place. This episode covers the foundational step...

We all experience moments of self doubt and sometimes feel like an impostor - as though we are not really qualified to take the seat of the teacher and lead others in yoga. In this episode you'll hear why I think this is actually a good thing and how you can continue to serve your students no matter how you are personally feeling on a given day.  Please join the yoga teacher resource facebook grou...

When Allison signed up for an on-air coaching call, she thought she wanted help with narrowing her focus and keeping her classes interesting - but the byproduct of that work was to optimize her teaching schedule and hone back in the reasons she loves teaching in the first place. Why excellent teaching is always about coming back to your intention. The deeper reasons that your cues feel stale - and...

Learn what is really happening in your body when you stretch and how to use this information in your classes and personal practice. Trigger point therapist and yoga teacher Cat Matlock takes us on a tour of the human muscular system and the way it interacts with the nervous system. Highlights: The key sensory organ that resides in your muscles and regulates your ability to stretch. The reason you...

Do you (really) understand the relationship between stretching and strengthening? Yoga teacher and physical therapist Ferris Fakhoury sets us straight about the relationship between these two concepts. (Hint - they aren’t opposites). She also drops wisdom about: Changes in our understanding about the human body that are happening in both the PT and yoga worlds. How to determine healthy and unhealt...

Is knowing anatomy really important for being a great yoga teacher?  Many of the yoga teachers I talk to believe that anatomy is their biggest learning opportunity for becoming a better yoga teacher. It's the number one topic I hear people wish was covered more thoroughly in their teacher training. But... I think most yoga teachers misunderstand the purpose and place of studying anatomy. Listen to...

Jill Miller had a hip replacement a little over a year ago. In this episode she shares new insights that she realized in the past few weeks about the factors that contributed to severe degeneration of her hip and the inevitability of a hip replacement.  She also covers: The unique approach her surgeon took (and an overview of the more traditional approaches) The upgrades in hip replacement hardwar...

Is sales a dirty word in yoga? It is certainly not what we signed up to do when we became yoga teachers.  In this episode, my guest Amanda Kingsmith makes the case that sales are a necessary part of being a yoga teacher, that they don't have to feel slimy, and that they can actually be a catalyst for personal growth.  Our conversation also dives into: -->What Amanda learned working on the sales fl...

Learn to create a yoga class plan that is easily searchable and repeatable. In the second episode of this two part series I will build on the information from last week, so make sure to listen to part one first. Some of the topics I cover include: how often to change up your plan the most common ways to structure your plans how to create a system to make it easy to reuse your class plans adapting...