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
Confident Pricing: Charge What You’re Worth as a Yoga Teacher
Are you undercharging for your yoga classes? Setting confident prices isn’t just about making more money—it’s about ensuring your students value your work. In this episode, I break down why undercharging hurts both you and your students, how to set rates that align with your worth, and practical strategies to help you feel confident when naming your price.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why undercharging can actually make teaching less fulfilling
• How to price private lessons, workshops, and corporate classes
• The 5-step process to determine your ideal rate
• How pricing impacts student commitment and engagement
• Real pricing examples and strategies to adjust your rates with confidence
💡 Bonus: Grab my Know Your Worth Guide and free training:
Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Get in the Zone at Comfort Zone Yoga, my virtual studio focused on teacher development. I have a ton of Sage advice in there for you—let's chat there!
For more insights, subscribe to Yoga Teacher Confidential, check out my YouTube channel, and follow me on socials:
And come explore my continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs. It's all at sagerountree.com.
Can I tell you something you're probably undercharging for your private lessons and workshops. And not only is it hurting your career, it's also hurting your students and their practice. When you value your offerings highly. So to your students. Because when people pay, they pay attention. But if you're like most yoga teachers, you find it hard to set rates that align with your worth and expertise. But when you do you'll feel more appreciated and thus more confident. You'll show up happy to teach your private lessons and workshops. And your students will win as a consequence. I'm Sage Rountree. And this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. Today, let's explore how to set your rates, where to set them, and what's getting in your way of charging what you should. First off, let's recognize what kind of pricing I'm talking about. You may have no say in what you get paid for classes you teach at a yoga studio, a gym, or a community recreation center. As a yoga studio owner, I know intimately the way the numbers shake out. And let me tell you, yoga studio owners are not rolling in the dough. There's a ton of overhead involved from rent to utilities, to insurance, to pricey, pricey software. Things yoga teachers don't generally need to worry about. And the price on all of these goes up reliably, inevitably every year. So you may hit a glass ceiling pretty quickly in your per class rate. All the more reason to get into teaching workshops, which often pay on a percentage. Or which you can rent space for and promote on your own. Remember, I've done a whole episode on teaching workshops and I have a free five lesson email course you can sign up for in the show notes to learn more. And if you teach or want to teach private lessons or corporate classes, especially outside the studio, you likely then will have more, if not complete, say in where you set your rates. So let's talk about why pricing confidently matters. First, you can always go down on your price, but it's hard to raise your rates more than once a year, unless you're getting incredibly busy. And even then it can feel awkward. If you say you charge a hundred dollars per hour and your potential client says, oh, is that all I thought it would be way more. You can't then say, I mean, $200 per hour. But if you quote high, you can always offer a package deal to bring the per-lesson price down or find some way to extend a discount, to make the price in budget for the clients you really want to serve. Just be careful you aren't letting people pleasing instincts under cut you here. I'd like to share a story about a time I wound up getting paid a lot more than I expected. I tell this story in the free workshop, key to my teaching, yoga to athletes program and inside the program, I help students find the right price to keep them feeling excited about showing up. When you're excited to show up, your students can tell they benefit. If you haven't already signed up for this free on demand workshop, which gets into pricing and detail, you can enroll right now at sagerountree.com/athletes and the link is in the show notes. Here's the story. I had a student come take a workshop with me at the Kripalu center for yoga and health. It was a weekend of yoga for athletes. And this student was delayed at work and late getting out of New York city to come upstate. So knowing he was going to miss the Friday evening session, he asked his assistant to reach out to me and see if he could connect with me at breakfast. And pay me for my time to catch up on what he missed. Can you catch the signifiers here, New York assistant, ready to pay another professional for her time? This very sweet man runs a hedge fund. I didn't charge him for the catch-up. I was happy to do it, and it was great to have him in my workshop. He clearly liked the best of everything. For example, he was training for iron man triathlons with Joe Friel, the man who literally wrote the triathletes training Bible. Uh, coach, you only worked with five or so private clients at a time. Now a few months after the workshop, this student emailed me to see whether I ever taught private workshops. His idea was to bring me up to his farmhouse, rent a yoga studio out and have me teach some athletes specific yoga for him, his wife, and a couple of friends. Now I was unsure what to charge for this. So I talked to my husband and he, and I agreed that $2,000 for the weekend would make it worth the trip. Now at the time, this would have been early 2010. I was charging a hundred dollars per hour for private lessons. So I told the student that I wasn't quite sure how I bill for the full weekend, but that my private lesson rate was $100. And what did he have in mind? I asked with that $2,000 benchmark at the back of my mind. His reply. Well, if I fly you up, then he'll take some time on the train, but I'll get you a car to transfer you from the airport to Grand Central and I'll meet you there. You're at the farm two nights. It's about 48 hours at a hundred dollars an hour. How about $5,000 for the weekend? Y'all this was his quote. What if I had said $2,000? I would've still had a great experience. Ultimately I taught four hours of yoga in a gorgeous studio and the rest of the time I was entertained, I was fed delicious meals. I got some of the best business advice I ever received, and it still would have been worth it for $2,000. But it was even more worth it for more than double the price, because it taught me to let the client decide what they can pay. You want students who value yoga? You need students who value yoga because they will fund your business, your further training and they will build up your bank account of self-confidence. The more you charge, the more you can give away. Setting sustainable rates allows you to offer free or reduced cost classes to those who need it most. You're not draining yourself to serve instead. You're filling your own cup and then you can share generously. You'll have the flexibility to offer discounts or scholarships when you feel it's appropriate. For example at both my brick and mortar studio, Carrboro Yoga, and my virtual studio, Comfort Zone Yoga. I offer a substantial discount, 25%. Off trainings for BIPOC folks. I do this because I want more diversity in yoga teachers. And I know a more diverse teacher population means we can bring yoga to more people who would benefit from it. Thus, I offer a reparatory discount to black indigenous and non white teachers and a gratitude discount to Indian teachers. Pricing my offerings at a fair market value allows me to extend this discount while still covering my overhead. And as I just told you, overhead is high at yoga studios, even virtual ones. When you price high, you invest in yourself. Higher rates mean you have the revenue to then invest in advanced training and certifications or in professional development. All of which improves the value you deliver to students. It becomes a positive spiral. Charging, what you're worth creates a feedback loop. The more you charge, the more you can give, the more you can grow and the more you can refine your craft. Students see and feel the difference and they'll value the experience of studying with you even more. Now why is pricing such a challenge? Let's address a few of the mental blocks that may be holding you back. The big one, I think is fear of rejection. What if they say no. Well, they might reframe this. If they say no, they're simply not the right fit. And that's okay. You'll attract students who value your work. Not everyone is the best fit for you. That's why I like to say I'm here to help you become almost everyone's favorite yoga teacher, because as you step into your authenticity and find your confidence, there will be folks who don't align with you. And that's okay. You don't align with everyone either. Do you? And just because a student's budget doesn't align with your price. That doesn't mean you can't help them. That's where your content comes into play. Maybe you have a follow along video on YouTube or a guided meditation recording that you share freely. The more you charge clients who can pay. The more time and energy, you'll have to create resources to help those with more modest budgets. Now, maybe you feel guilt about charging more, but consider this the energy exchange of money shows, respect for your time and expertise. Your work holds tremendous value and it's worth compensating fairly. Other businesses regularly increase their rates. Your landlord or your internet service provider or your accounting software company, they don't feel guilty for increasing their rates, nor should you. Finally, you may get hung up, comparing yourself to others. It's tempting to set your rates based on what others charge. But they are rates don't reflect your unique expertise, your unique experience, or what you bring to your classes. Comparison is as usual, the thief of joy. So now what. Let's get practical. Here's how to confidently set or adjust your rates in five steps. Step one, do the math. Calculate your expenses, including your studio, rent, props, insurance training, and prep time. Ensure your rates cover these costs. And then on top of that, that they compensate you fairly for your time. Step to assess your market. Well, you shouldn't compare too much. It's worth understanding what others in your area charge, then price yourself accordingly based on your experience and offerings. Your colleagues will not appreciate it if you undercut them. So don't try to compete based on price that then becomes a race to the bottom. Know your worth and know your value. If you're not sure what your colleagues charge, ask them. And let that be assigned to you that if you're going to offer private lessons, your website should make it super clear that you do what you charge and how clients can book them. If you need another reference point, check your market's pricing for massage and for private Pilates lessons, these will give you a touchpoint and I suggest you align with them. Step three. Based on your expenses and your markets set a baseline. Determine your minimum acceptable rate below this. It's not worth your time or your energy to teach. Use this as your anchor point. When, you know your minimum, it's easy to decide whether to say yes or no to opportunities that come your way. Step four, communicate clearly. When raising rates give your students advanced notice frame, the change is a reflection of the increased value and the increased experience you bring. But don't take too many words to explain yourself. Every time we've raised rates at my studio or the spa. I own my partner and I go through some hand ringing around what will the clients say? Guess what. They always take it and stride. Cost of living an expertise increases our normal. And remember you can always grandfather in existing private clients at your old rate, if you know that they are already at the limits of their budget. Step five. Practice saying your price. Confidence is key. Practice stating your rates allowed. So they feel natural and easy to share when asked. I sometimes say, go as high as you can say, with a straight face. Now, some people might think that's silly or that's gross, but the more you charge, the better you'll be as a teacher, to the students who value yoga. Are you eager to hear some numbers? Here are a few practicalities and a few numbers, with the caveat that rates in your area may differ considerably. For context, I'm in a mid-sized market and I'm recording this in January, 2025. First off. If you're doing a single lesson, you should charge high. Real results come from consistent practice over time. Not from a one-off yoga lesson. There are some lessons that are by definition one-off experiences like teaching yoga for a bridal party or a family reunion. For example. Now, those are fun to teach. And you should charge a pretty penny for them too. For students who could be regulars. Quote, a high price for a single lesson and then less for packages. Be sure to put expiration dates on packages and to have a really clearly stated cancellation policy. Encouraging students to buy packages and then pricing them attractively helps your students see the benefits of regular practice quickly. Now here's what I personally might charge$300 for a single lesson, $1,000 for five lessons to be used within three months and 24 hours cancellation notice required. Now for reference, I have over 20 years experience and I have a studio where I can host private lessons easily. Maybe your numbers are more like $150 for one hour single lesson or $500 for five lessons. I suggest you don't go below$100 per hour for a lesson. I might charge similar rates for a corporate class, but that could also go up or down depending on the length of the engagement travel required. And whether I'd have to bring in props. For reference. When I work with teams, I now quote $500 for the first hour and $400 for every hour. After that in the same visit, some teams like football are very big and we have to divide them up for space for sound, for logistical reasons. For workshops, $20 to $40 per hour of workshop time makes sense for students to pay. So a two hour workshop can be $40 to$80 depending on the subject matter. This is for the students. That's not what you take home. If you have 10 students, then you're getting $400 to $800 gross before you take off your costs. Now the shorter, the workshop, the higher, this should be. For longer workshops where there's less effort required to keep the energy up. You might skew more toward the middle or the lower end of that. 20 to $40 per hour per student scale. And on the other hand, If you have professional qualifications that expand your scope of practice and thus expand the value you can offer, you might go higher. It all comes down to you. What will make you feel valued will make you feel confident? And we'll make you feel excited to teach. Start there. Here's an affirmation to help you remember. My students value my work as much as I value myself. My students value my work as much as I value myself. For more insights on confident pricing and building a sustainable teaching career. Visit my website at sagerountree.com. Then sign up for my free training on how to double your income teaching yoga to athletes. Remember, that's at sagerountree.com/athletes and in the show notes. Even if you never work with athletes, you'll hear some numbers in that workshop that should spark a fire under you. And after you watch the training, I'll send you my "Know Your Worth Guide." It's a Google sheet that will help you assess your overhead and land on a price for your private lessons that will make you feel appropriately valued. Once you work that out, please let me know how it lands. For now, please let me say how much I value you. I value your time, I value your attention, and I value your five star ratings and reviews for this show. Thank you for doing the work to be a really great yoga teacher. This is Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.
