Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher

71. What Yoga Teacher Sponsorships Really Look Like

• Sage Rountree • Episode 71

Share episode

I once sat next to the drummer from Loverboy on a plane, and we realized our lives were almost identical-city to city, same performance, different crowd, trying to find a salad somewhere. Except he was an actual rock star, and I was coming back from teaching yoga at an REI store in Minneapolis.

In this episode, I'm sharing what sponsorships and brand ambassador deals actually look like from the inside. I'll walk you through my journey from cold-pitching Athleta in 2008 to a multi-year, five-figure deal with prAna that sent me touring REI and MEC stores across North America.

You'll hear about the wonderful moments—meeting colleagues' parents, visiting cities I never would have seen otherwise, even writing most of my book Racing Wisely during airport downtime. But I'm also honest about the reality: most of the time wasn't spent teaching. It was logistics, travel, and trying to find fiber.

If sponsorships aren't on your horizon yet, I've got something practical for you. I'm breaking down the discount programs that major yoga apparel brands offer teachers right now, including 50% off at prAna, 25% off at Lululemon, and 25% off at Athleta. These aren't sponsorships; they're perks of being in this profession.

Listen now!

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 mentorship program, my Yoga Class Prep Station membership, continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs, and my many books for yoga teachers. It's all at ...

Can I tell you something? I once sat on a plane next to the drummer from Loverboy, you know,"Working for the Weekend." Lovely guy. He had a leather jacket, a Zildjian cymbal carry-on, and a daughter who was a ballet dancer whom he was clearly super proud of. We got to talking about what we did for work. It turned out our lives were almost identical. The logistics of getting from city to city, trying to find a salad and a place to exercise, performing the same set to a different crowd every night. Going to sleep in a hotel, waking up the next day and doing it all over again. He was coming back from a Canadian music festival. I was coming back from teaching yoga at an REI store in Minneapolis. That's when I realized being a touring yoga teacher is a lot like being a rockstar, except it's really not. Today I want to pull back the curtain on what sponsorships and brand ambassador deals actually look like. The good, the unglamorous, and what it all might mean for you. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. My sponsorship story started with a cold pitch. It was around 2008, and Athleta had just been acquired by the Gap. I reached out to them, pitched myself, and became one of their very first class of sponsored athletes. My contract with them ran a year. They brought me out to San Francisco to teach a workshop. I wrote blog posts and training plans for them. They outfitted me. It was a lot of fun. Then the next year, prAna reached out to me. I didn't pitch them. They had their eye on me because I had established a niche in teaching yoga to athletes. They wanted to have a conversation, and that conversation turned into a multi-year deal. At its peak, it was a five figure sponsorship. Plus I could have my pick of anything in the prAna catalog. As their ambassador, they sent me everywhere I taught at the REI conference, multiple years. I taught yoga classes for store managers and upper management, including Sally Jewel at that point, the CEO of REI, who later became Secretary of the Interior. I went to the Outdoor Retailer event, a huge event in Salt Lake City where prAna had set up a lounge with clothes for people to try on and take a yoga break from the trade show. I even got to visit prAna headquarters in San Diego where every day around one 30 in the afternoon, they would sound a huge gong and everyone would take 10 minutes for silent meditation. But the biggest thing I did for prAna was tour the country and Tour Canada. Representing them at REI and MEC stores. MEC is the major outfitter in Canada. They're equivalent to REI. For context, REI was prAnas biggest purchaser, so they were very interested in maintaining that relationship, and I was there to help. As you might know, REI stores have community rooms. It's a cooperative community focused business. So the tour went something like this. I'd arrive in a city with a big REI. I'd get myself situated. I'd teach a one hour program at the store. Then I'd try to find dinner, go to sleep, get up the next day, and move on to the next city. One year, they wanted to hit so many stores in a short period that I got to send some of my assistants around too. There were wonderful moments. I stayed at the Radisson at the Mall of America and did a podcast interview with the runner, Carrie Tolleson. I met my colleague Erin Taylor's parents in Seattle. Erin is also in the Yoga for Athlete Space, and they were so sweet. I got to have dinner with my friend Sarah Bowen Shey from another mother runner in Portland and coffee with my friend Dimity Octopus. I got to have dinner with my friend Sarah Bowen Shea, from another mother runner in Portland. I visited friends in Atlanta. The MEC tour took me to Calgary and Edmonton, places I never would've visited otherwise, and to Vancouver, which has always been one of my favorite cities in the world. But here's the thing. Most of the time on those tours was not spent teaching. It was spent on logistics, getting from point to point, figuring out the lay of the land in a new place, trying to get in some exercise, trying to find fiber. The teaching was just an hour out of every day. One year prAna flew me from North Carolina to Seattle for the REI conference. I spent one night, I taught one class, then I got back on a plane, came home and went straight to Copra Octopus. One year prAna flew me from North Carolina to Seattle for the REI conference. I spent one night, I taught one or two classes, then I got back on a plane, came home and next. Octopus. One year prAna flew me from North Carolina to Seattle for the REI conference. I spent one night, I taught one yoga class, then I got back on a plane, came home and went straight to Kripalu the next day to teach a workshop there Seattle, to North Carolina, to Massachusetts, and less than 48 hours. That's the life. And honestly it was during those tours, especially the MEC tour across Canada that I wrote most of my book Racing Wisely, because what else are you going to do with all that airport and hotel time? So when you see someone with a brand sponsorship and think that looks amazing, be careful what you wish for. The opportunities are real and there is genuine fun in them, but there's also a whole lot of drudgery in the day to day. I still travel to teach. I'll be at the Berkshire Yoga Festival in June, 2026. For over a decade. I taught regularly once or twice a year at Kripalu. I have given workshops at Yoga Tree in San Francisco, at studios in Columbus, Ohio, Shreveport, Louisiana, Atlanta, Washington. DC, New York. But most of my work now is focused online in comfort zone yoga, partly because I'm older and less interested in the travel, but also because I've realized I can provide the highest quality education when I have the time and the space to curate it carefully, to record it, edit it, and package it so people can revisit it in whatever format works for them. Video, private podcast transcripts. A live experience can be magical, but it doesn't give you that same consistent resource you can come back to again and again. Now, if you're thinking sage, that's nice, but I'm not getting sponsored by prAna anytime soon. I hear you, but here's something practical you can do. Right now. Most of the major yoga apparel brands offer significant discounts for yoga teachers. You don't need a sponsorship, you just need to know where to look. Okay. At prAna, if you are a Yoga Alliance member, you can get 50% off full priced items through their prAna Pro program. 50%. That's actually better than what I remembered. I thought it was 40%. You can sign up through the Yoga Alliance Member Perks portal. At Lululemon, their Sweat Collective program offers 25% awful priced items for yoga teachers, fitness instructors, trainers, gym owners, and coaches. You apply online and verify. Note that it no longer applies to sale items soon. That would be a double dip. Athleta's. Well Pro Program gives you 25% off. When I just checked their site before recording it said that they had paused the program, but I imagine it may even be back up by the time you hear this. So don't be shy to ask at the store or look into it online. Now, these aren't sponsorships. They're just perks of being in this profession, and they add up. I'll put direct links to all of these in the show notes. So that is the reality of what yoga sponsorships look like, or at least what they looked like. For me. The lifestyle sounds glamorous, but most of the time you're just trying to find a decent salad before your flight. If this episode resonated with you or you have questions, I'd love to hear about it. Leave a review, share it with a friend who might be curious about this side of the yoga business, or drop me a line at sagerountree.com. I'm also on the socials at @sagerountree. There's no letter D in my last name. Thanks for listening to Yoga Teacher Confidential. I am Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.

Head Shot

Sage Rountree

Host