Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher
Yoga Teacher Confidential is your backstage pass to the unspoken truths of being a yoga teacher. Sage Rountree, PhD, E-RYT500, dives into the real challenges and rewards of teaching yoga, offering expert advice and secrets to help you build confidence, connect with your students, and teach with authenticity. Sage draws on her two decades of experience teaching yoga, running a studio, and training teachers to share practical insights you can use right away. You'll also hear advice from her books, including Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, The Art of Yoga Sequencing, and The Professional Yoga Teacher's Handbook. Whether you’re navigating imposter syndrome, mastering classroom presence, or refining your skills to teach specialized niches like athletes, this podcast empowers you to lead your classes with clarity, grace, and ease.
Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher
How to Build Confidence on Camera with Jenni Rawlings
Developing confidence on camera is essential for yoga teachers looking to grow their careers. Whether it’s creating short promotional videos or teaching full-length online classes, on-camera teaching can open up new opportunities for impact and income. But it can be intimidating to get started!
In this episode, guest Jenni Rawlings and I explore how yoga teachers can improve their on-camera presence. Jenni shares her journey from creating DVDs to managing her online platform and offers tips for building connection and community in asynchronous settings.
💡 Affirmation: “Your message is what matters.”
📌 Explore Jenni’s classes and continuing education:
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https://sagerountree.com/the-yoga-teacher-confidential-podcast-with-sage-rountree/
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Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Explore my continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs. It's all at sagerountree.com.
Can I tell you something? If you want to earn money as a yoga teacher, you'll need to develop some confidence on camera. Even if you're only doing short promotional videos, this kind of content can help you scale your career. And offering asynchronous content like on-demand videos or courses is how you can earn money, even when you aren't physically present. Now I get it. You might be cringing at the thought, but you can learn to love the camera. It just takes some practice and having the right perspective. In this episode of Yoga Teacher Confidential, I welcome my dear friend Jenni Rawlings to help you with that perspective. I'm Sage Rountree.
And this is Yoga Teacher Confidential:The Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher. Jenni Rawlings is a prolific content creator. She generates myth busting clips for social media, inspiring ideas for yoga sequences, full length follow along classes. An entire strength for yoga program and continuing education courses for yoga teachers. You'll find it all at jennirawlings.com and via the link in the show notes. I am so excited to welcome Jenni as my second ever podcast guest. Fun fact, Jenni lives right up the road from me. So while we're remote to get the best sound, we also get the chance to see each other frequently. Jenni is my favorite cook. She's just a fantastic cook. Welcome friend. Thanks for your time. I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for inviting me on and for your very thoughtful intro. And yes, I feel super lucky that I live just like just a few blocks away from you. And then we get to hang out. Yeah. Like we almost could have done this podcast in person, but it's, it's good that we're doing it. The way that, that we are. And also I'm just so happy you have this podcast, Sage. I'm really proud of you and impressed for everything that you've accomplished in creating this super professional resource that I think, uh, can help so many teachers. Thanks. I'm super grateful to have you here. And you, as I said, are super prolific. You seem to spend your life on camera. Although now that I know you and your spaces really well, I get to see like, Oh, that's from the old studio. And Right. Yes. studio. But I know that you, like I did way back in the day, had a yoga DVD. Was that your first video content creation? Yes. That was my first. Yes. And I would say, um, I mean, I guess I, I definitely participated in creating that content, but it was really, uh, directed and created by, by a friend of mine, Sean real, who, um, runs and owns a company called real body work, which, and we're talking, this was, um, I don't know, I 13, 14 years ago, like just like you, like you and I feel like are both kind of OGs. Like we've been doing some of this stuff for a long time, but anyway, he had a company called still has called real body work, which is instructional massage DVDs. And then at one point he decided he wanted to branch out into yoga and he made some yoga DVDs with some. Some instructors who lived in Santa Barbara and I lived there and was a friend of his. And so he invited me, uh, and I made two yoga DVDs with him. And that was definitely my first exposure and experience. But again, it was large. It was mostly like controlled and directed by Sean, as far as the filming, the editing, all of that. But I created the sequences and was on camera and I did the voiceovers separately, uh, with him. So that's how that all worked. Yeah, I did the same thing with my DVD, and it was great not to worry about sound at the same time. I remember having an assistant literally read the sequence out to us, and I had two models on either side, so we were all moving at the same time. But then I did go back. With a nice microphone and do the voiceover later, which certainly made things easier because trying to do everything at once can be super overwhelming. Can't Yes, Absolutely. I'm actually thankful that from my first experience, it was like that because I was able to just be nice and silent and just focus on my yoga practice and then separately do the actual narration. So yes, separating out all those tasks because it is. multitasking when you're, I mean, just teaching yoga class in general in person, but then having to know you're on camera and just know that there are all these other elements. It can be a lot. a whole lot. And the whole point of this first season of Yoga Teacher Confidential is to help people feel confident in the classroom. Confidence in front of the camera is a whole nother can of worms, bag of tricks, and. I think that we're, we're circling around a really good point that it's, it can be useful to divide things up. So if you really want to create video content and share it, it might be smart to do what both Jenni and I did back in the DVD era and focus on each piece of it separately. right. I do think that was helpful, at least for me in the beginning. It was a little less, you know, Uh, but these days, you know, doing my own thing, I, I do like my classes. It is all like, I, I talk as I'm doing the practices. And for me now, I think with some more experience under my belt, it feels a lot smoother, but it was helpful to have it separated in the beginning. Yeah. So how, um, when and how did you make the leap then into creating everything by yourself? Right. Right. Well, I definitely, I was inspired by my friend, Sean. I was able to see how much he, uh, was able to create and do like his company was very high level, super professional and established, but he still filmed all of the massage instructional DVDs. Honestly, just at home, which I feel like to us today feels a little more commonplace in the post pandemic era. But back then, you know, we're talking years before then it was kind of really eyeopening. He would have this super wide roll of white paper, like special kind of pattern, a butcher paper, something that would, he would pull Yeah. Yeah, right. And it was super wide in the living room and then you just sat up there and it was a fully white background. He just did that at home. So I think that helped me realize that actually starting to create some things on my own at home were like, that's not such a crazy idea to maybe, you know, within my grasp. So, um, it was, I would say it was, I don't know, a shortish while after I did the two DVDs with him. That's That I realized, uh, maybe I could start. And I know my, I mean, even today, the quality of what I create, I'm happy with it, but I know that it is not super high end, super professional, but I feel like it's fine for my, my purposes. But back then, uh, when I look back, I can even see, like, I feel like I do things a lot better now, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? Absolutely. So when you started, were you, was it already the shoot with your phone era or were you using a digital camera? Great question. The very first thing I did was this online course I created. I think this was back in like 2014 and I did do it on my phone without a wireless mic. So just again, it was just, you know, start small, start look, what, you know, start with what I had and it was fine. Um, but then later on, after that point, I realized I should actually invest in some cameras. So I got just some entry level. I'd had two cameras, so two shots. Kind of figured out how to navigate that. But then as the years went on, the iPhone started progressing in its quality. And as I think we all now know, iPhone cameras are actually quite high quality, and I realized that iPhone cameras were actually better quality than these entry level, like video cameras that I had. So I still have those as like backup backup, but I actually shifted to filming on, on two iPhones and that's what I still do today. And Awesome. And so you're running, you have like a B roll built in then, like you're running them both at the same time. it's yes. I have them both at the same, like two different angles and you're right, right. And it's just, it's nice for editing. For me, I, I enjoy the editing process and if I need to stop or if my dog barks in the background or whatever, I can very easily just like cut to the, it makes for really easy editing and cutting when you have two angles and of course, easy for, if I'm demonstrating a pose that would be better served from a different angle, I can switch to that. So you're so professional. I know that it comes easy. Do you remember what it used to feel like? Did you have to psych yourself up to get in front of the camera? Was there something that changed between that original? If you did, maybe you were just born on stage and born in front of the camera. What do you remember about the process, like the mindset work that you needed to do? Right. That's a great question. I think, so I think Honestly, I think I'm a little weird!. and, um, maybe my experience is a little unique, but maybe there could be some helpful lessons in there for some people. But I definitely think being comfortable on camera. I did build that up over time, uh, but I don't really remember ever being, um, super nervous. I think for me, the, the bigger mindset shift and the bigger adjustment was just teaching yoga in general, in person to live classes. I think before that point, I can remember just not being very comfortable, like public speaking and being in front of people. So that was for me, maybe the biggest shift and potentially could be encouraging for listeners since I know that. Probably all of your listeners, just about our established yoga teachers, they kind of already have, you know, that comfort with, with, um, speaking in front of a group, they have that under their belts. How do you think the teaching changes when you can see your students versus when you're operating on a hypothetical? Okay. Yes. That's a great question as well, because my classes that I teach today, they are, um, I don't do live streaming or I don't tend to, I've done it on and off, but I do prerecorded and I have a course. Class library. So I don't see my students when I teach that way. And I feel like that's kind of a, that's like a big conversation. Like that could lead me down a rabbit hole. But, um, I do think it's, it's different. Obviously when you're in the room, you're connecting with students in a much different way. There's more of this like interaction and back and forth, and you don't have that when you're teaching on camera, um, separately, but I still feel like there, um, There's part of the issue. And part of, I think the concern on yoga teachers is when you teach without seeing your students, it could be dangerous, you know, like that's not safe. I worry about that. Like that, I think is one of the lines of thinking that goes along with this. And so when it comes to that, I would defer more to. just what we know about things like injury prevention, pain science, um, the loads involved in a yoga practice. And, and I know you've spoken about this lots before Sage, but just like, whether that's really within our scope of our scope of practice and role anyway to like, quote, keep students safe. So it's a big conversation, but I do think that's a big, um, question mark that a lot of yoga teachers might have in their mind about teaching online. And I feel actually perfectly fine in that department because I know that that's, it's not about me being in person with students to keep them safe. Like that's not, that is not what's making or breaking that. So at least I don't worry about that. If Yeah, and that's a, that's a great point because probably some listeners were thinking, yes, how can I, how can I manage safety? And both you and I, I know agree that that's not our job to manage safety. Our job is to make smart recommendations and let our students make even smarter choices about the things that they want to do with their bodies. They're grown adults. We're not making yoga videos for children. Precisely, precisely. So yeah, while we wouldn't go, well, we wouldn't knowingly teach anything that was dangerous. We can certainly teach in a way that offers options and empower students to make their own decisions. And then they have self efficacy within their yoga practice. And it's just not really, it's not our job or. Or our role. And so it's the same for me, it'd be the exact same in person compared to teaching my recorded yoga classes in my library. Like that's the same. Outside of the actual video itself, as you say, when we're teaching live, we get this opportunity for yoga and union and connection and relationship with our students, which for many of us is what makes yoga so special. So how are you able, because I know you are able, how are you able to generate that sense of connection when you're doing this asynchronous video? Yes. Great question. So I know it's different. Um, and I mean, it's just one of the things we all know, if you're going to teach online, you will not have that same sweet energy and aspect of the in person. And I know, cause I, I love the fact since we live so close, I get to go to your class live, which is like so cool. And you really feel. Like I can see how you have that on a regular basis. Um, but I do feel still like very fulfilled and like there still is a community aspect to what I do. And a big part of that is, um, that I have this, uh, community forum on my website. So obviously I know it's not the same as being in the same room live, but there is, um, the community forum and I have quite an engaged community. Uh, people who are members and take classes with me. So it's really lovely to when they, when they choose to interact in there, they might comment about a class or just ask a question. And I participate in common in there. So there's definitely people who are, who are members of my library, who want to be involved a little bit more than just taking the class and turning off the camera, they have that opportunity. So I feel like that being there is helpful. Most of your audience, I think, and I want you to correct me if I'm wrong, but most of your audience, like my audience, are yoga teachers. You're not doing so much gen pop content, right? uh, you mean, I think, yes, yes. I think, um, in my audience, I would say it's more, it is majority yoga teachers. There are people who practice with me and are on the website who are not yoga teachers, but yeah, it's the majority. Um, and it's on my, what I offer on my site, they're kind of, there are different facets of it. There's just the straight up yoga classes. And, um, I, I guess I would say maybe they're not so much, I mean, It depends on who the person is from the gen pop, but I do think teachers and experienced students maybe can appreciate a little more of what I, what I offer. Um, just because of like the, the angle that I take, uh, but then there are like the continuing education courses on my website, which is other video content that I offer. And then that would definitely not be for gen pop. That's like for yoga, geeky yoga teachers who want to dive into the body and all that. right. So when you have a vision of who your students are, I think it's easier to create classes, sequences, even lectures. And as you say, continuing education courses that help them solve the problems that they have. It's like. They need to know more. They, they want some creative ideas for sequencing. Um, a couple of episodes ago, I did an episode on teaching your niche and how, when you can get more specific about your student, you wind up doing better. Like your career can actually grow more. And if you try to do the opposite and be everything to everybody, it's very tough to get it done. So that's all a very convoluted way to say yes or no. Does having this clear sense of your students help you both come up with content ideas and also feel that connection with them? Yes, absolutely. And I'm really glad you brought that up and that that's something that you speak about because I definitely feel like for any yoga teacher, um, just wanting to teach in general, but especially to step into the online realm. Um, I. Very much agree with you that it can be so helpful to niche, to have a niche, identify what that is, and really picture in your mind who your specific student is. Cause just like you said, the yoga world is huge. Like it's kind of innumerable, the amount of yoga teaching and online yoga teaching that's out there. And I think that's wonderful. But if you want to have some sort of identity in that greater space so that you draw the right students to you, then it's really helpful to have some sort of identity or quote, I'm kind of eye rolling as I'm saying, brand a branding around what you do. But so I think for me from maybe shortly after I started teaching yoga, it Begin to be clear to me that I was super excited about the, about anatomy, biomechanics, movement, science, that side of things. And if I could bring that into my teaching and especially online, add that on as this extra layer, that that would help give me a bit of a standout niche and, you know, narrow down who I might appeal to, but also give me more um, I don't know, more presence in, in a smaller pond, which I think that's like a analogy you you've used before. But I do think that's been helpful for me, um, as far as connecting. Yeah, yeah, clear sense of your of your audience of your ideal customer avatar, as they would say in marketing, but that it does, it helps to know whom you are serving and whom you are guiding so that you can elevate them as a hero. Alright, so part of good teaching is opening up like being human. Thank you And being human can sometimes mean being a little bit vulnerable. It does not mean having no boundaries as a yoga teacher or like being best friends with your students. Um, and it doesn't need to. It doesn't need to mean opening yourself up, um, to the trolls that said, when you are teaching in an online space, I imagine you get some comments that are less than savory. Um, does that affect your confidence? And if so, how, and if not, how do you keep it from doing that? Right, right. That's a great question, too. And when I said earlier that I feel like I'm a little weird, and so sometimes some of what I'm sharing may or may not be the right advice for everyone. I feel that for myself, I've kind of always been a thick skinned, a relatively thick skinned person. And I often just kind of have in my mind that image of duck's back. Or what, when it comes to that type of stuff. So I feel lucky. Um, while I'm certainly open, like within the context of my website membership and classes, I'm open to any sort of feedback people would like to offer. That's why we have the forum. Um, honestly, it's rarely the case that anyone is. Come up with like criticism within that con, like, who are my current members? But if they did, I would definitely be open to it and listen to it. And, you know, think about it, integrate it. But I'd say that more of what I think you're kind of, um, talking about here for me would come in more in like the greater outside of my own kind of. The community that I have online and my website outside of that more in social media and, um, Instagram, Facebook, all the places where places where I pepper out all this content, you deaf. I mean, the, the wider that you reach out there, the more you expose yourself to negative comments, criticism, things like that. So I think it helps me to have thicker skin and to just really remember that, um, None of the things that people say are personal. I mean, they don't even know me. They are making a comment based on like a 30 second little video clip. Like how could they, what are they even talking about? So I do try to be open. You know, I, I don't want to be an overly defensive person who is just like red X. I'm not going to look at anything. I mean, people may have valid points and I want to be open to that. But I also, um, I also feel like I can pretty quickly identify when a comment is, especially if it's on content of mine, which is kind of myth busty, you know, I do a lot of science based, um, yoga alignment, yoga, queuing, myth busting, and I definitely, you know, receive my fair share of people who disagree, but I can pretty much tell if. Those commenters have really like, whether they really have a good sense of the actual scientific research on these topics that I'm talking about, or whether they're just parodying something that they learned in yoga teacher training or something they believe, because they just believe it. So I'm able to discern, I think, um, whether someone's coming from an actual scientific. Thought process or more just like attached to their beliefs that haven't really been questioned. So when I see that stuff, I can kind of know when I need to give it more weight and take it more seriously. And also when, oh, this is coming from a different paradigm than I'm really operating within, so I don't need to worry about it. Does that make sense? it makes great sense. I read years ago, something called like the blue hair theory of trolls or the green hair theory of trolls. Does this ring any bells with you? Right? So the argument wants something like this. If I said, Oh, Jenni, you're so dumb and you look so ugly with that blue hair. You would be like, what? My hair isn't blue. Right. not true. You know, and therefore, since I don't believe that I have blue hair, I also then don't believe that I'm ugly and dumb when you say I, um, and, and so that was almost like the inverse of the argument that if something really lands and you feel like particularly struck by a critique, it's because you believe something in it is true. Oh, like you believe think, yeah, like when you're really clear on your knowledge as you are, and when you're really clear on the evidence that supports your argument for why you are clear on your knowledge, then somebody saying, well, I've been told that you should never make a transition from warrior three to half moon is just duck's back because. You know that there's evidence saying that's perfectly fine. Right, exactly. And I've like, I have a pretty, you know, good sense of injury prevention literature. My collaborator, Travis Pollen, exercise science professor, he's an expert on that. Like, I just feel like I've looked into this and at the research on it. So when someone just says like, I was taught in yoga teacher training, you shouldn't do warrior three to half moon. And we know that's kind of a longstanding yoga. No, no, but it's. It's quite outdated by what we actually know about pain science and injury mechanisms and so much so, but it's just like there's, there's just a big step. I feel like we're a big paradigm shift that I feel like may need to happen in order to start to see the body and the adaptability and the resilience of resiliency of the human body in order to see that. Um, there's like a big leap that I think has to happen so I can, yes, it's like that blue, just like you said, like, I think I can maybe tell when someone's kind of trying to call, say that I have blue hair when I know that I don't, then it's just like, I don't really need to take that. You know, with too much weight. While we're talking about debunked, um, theories and things that get passed along, we know the 10, 000 hour rule. Um, but I think that whether or not it actually takes effect. 10, 000 hours to achieve proficiency or virtuosity in something, um, that it's certainly true that the more time you spend on camera, the more comfortable you will be on camera. Do you agree? Did you, do you feel like there was a moment where you're like, oh yeah, now it's just time to make the doughnuts and I'm going to get in front of the camera, whether or not I feel like it. Was there some kind of shift in your experience getting in front of the camera? Yeah. Great question. Again, I'm kind of weird. So I, um, in kind of looking back and thinking about this, I don't really sense too much of, um, a conscious mind mindset shift around that, but more just. Putting myself on, I mean, like you said, I tend to be pretty prolific. So I've, I've done a, so like an abundance of just little clips for social media classes from my library, online courses. And through all of that, I know I've gotten, um, definitely just progressively more comfortable and more confident. And I'm sure I will continue to, but I don't, um, I don't really remember myself having too much self doubt around. Uh, this or too many like mental blocks when I started, um, definitely just like normal nerves and not being used to, uh, what it was like to be on camera, but I think that one thing that was helpful for me and maybe helpful for listeners is just, if, um, If one is experiencing some hesitancy around being, wanting to be on camera or worried, anxious about that, if you can make a shift from thinking that, um, you going on camera and teaching your class or making a video, whatever it is, if you shift away from thinking that that is about. You and instead place it on the value where the value really is, which is about your message, what you are trying to say, what you're trying to do to help people. Maybe it's teach a yoga class. It's like, not about you. It's about your message. And I feel like when you embody that or try to embody that. That shift really helps you just, you know, separate from this time on the camera is about me and I'm really worried what people will think or how it will come across. It's like, but it's not about that. It's about what you want to say and, uh, what your message is to help and empower and inform others. Perfect. Yep. You're not, you're not the hero. You're not the star, even though it feels like it when you're doing your hair makeup to get on camera. It feels like, Oh, I'm the diva. No, it's not about you at all. You're the guide and the student and the message are the star. Precisely. And, and, and just like you talk about, it's like, it's kind of no different from us talking about confidence on camera and what you talk about with confidence in teaching yoga. And that like, as a yoga teacher, whether it's in person or on the camera, just like you said, you're not the hero, like your students are the hero. And yeah. Yeah, being clear on that, Perfect. Well, that is a beautiful conclusion because that is the, like the, the subject of the first episode of this podcast is all about how it's not about you. Um, so as you know, we usually hit an affirmation at the end of every episode. Do you have an affirmation for us? the affirmation I'd like to offer as far as this topic and confidence on camera goes is your message is what matters and I'm just, again, reiterating what I just said, but your message is what matters. So place the focus on that and on being you. Clear about your, why, for whatever it is that you're teaching or putting out there, why are you teaching this? Why is it important? And then make it about that, that your message is what matters. Perfect. Thank you, Jenni. I am going to put your contact information in the show notes. Anything you want to share with listeners before we say goodbye? Uh, no, I mean, I'd be, I'd love to connect with anybody. You'll, yeah, like you said, uh, the info is in, is in the, um, what's that called? The description. That's right. The show notes, that's what it is. I used to know when I had my podcast. Um, but yeah, I, uh, teach yoga classes and continuing ed on my website. So if anyone's interested, feel free to, to come connect with me there. Awesome. Thank you so much. I'll see you at our next dinner. Perfect. Thank you, Sage. I hope Jenni's teaching resonates with you. Keep your message and your students centered and you'll see your role more clearly. Jenni is a real yogini. She knows her dharma. She keeps her attention focused on her message and she conveys even her corrective mythbusting material with humility, warmth. Warmth and kindness. Be sure to follow her on social media. She's amazing. Wonderful content. Her socials and website are all linked in the show notes. Thanks for your presence today. This is Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree. See you next time.
