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, owning and running a studio, mentoring yoga teachers, and directing yoga teacher trainings 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. Yoga Off the Mat is coming out in July 2026. 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.
Episodes
77 episodes
76. Why Every Yoga Teacher Needs a Newsletter (And How to Start One)
Have you ever noticed how even your most loyal yoga students eventually drift away? Life happens—schedules change, people move—and without a way to stay in touch between classes, those connections fade.In this episode of Yoga Teacher Con...
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Episode 76
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12:14
75. Why Teaching Yoga Is Not Like Teaching Other Subjects
A vivid dream about teaching Spinning brought me face to face with something I've known for years but never quite articulated: teaching yoga is fundamentally different from every other kind of teaching I've done.In this episode, I'm draw...
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Episode 75
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15:49
74. When It's NOT Your Choice: Losing a Class You Didn't Choose to Leave
Classes end in a variety of ways. Last episode, we talked about choosing to drop a class on your own terms. But what happens when the decision isn't yours?Maybe the studio cut your class. Maybe an illness or injury forced you to step awa...
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Episode 74
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14:29
73. When to Drop a Class: How to Know It's Time to Walk Away
I recently dropped a class I'd been teaching for nearly 23 years. Monday nights at 6 p.m.—since the literal day when the studio opened in 2004. Walking away from that class was one of the most bittersweet decisions I've ever made.In this...
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Episode 73
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19:19
72. You Get Who You Get: Teaching Yoga to Unpredictable Audiences
I was teaching a free yoga class at an outdoor gear store in Edmonton when a woman walked in with a toddler and an infant. Not a sleeping infant in a carrier: these children were alert, wandering, making noise. And if you've ever taught yoga, y...
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Episode 72
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7:20
71. What Yoga Teacher Sponsorships Really Look Like
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 bac...
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Episode 71
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8:19
70. The Planning-Confidence Cycle: Finding the Middle Path Between Overplanning and Winging It
If you've ever spent three hours planning a sixty-minute yoga class—or shown up with nothing but vibes and hoped for the best—this episode is for you. I'm unpacking what I call the Planning-Confidence Cycle: the exhausting trap that keeps yoga ...
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Episode 70
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19:01
69. Applying the Service Mindset to Social Media (Minimalist Instagram for Yoga Teachers)
Instagram can feel like a second job-especially when you became a yoga teacher to teach, not to perform online.In this episode, I share a simple reframe that takes the pressure down fast: your job on social media is not to entertain the ...
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Episode 69
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18:51
68. Teaching at Gyms and YMCAs: The Best Training Ground for New Yoga Teachers
When I started teaching yoga at the UNC Wellness Center, I had to complete hospital safety training about bloodborne pathogens and biohazard spills. I was teaching yoga in a gym. The odds of encountering a biohazard during downward-facing dog w...
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Episode 68
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25:29
67. How to Approach a Yoga Studio for Your First Teaching Job
Most new yoga teachers approach studios completely wrong. They send generic emails, mention how much they need the work, and haven't taken a single class at the studio they're asking to teach at. Some even copy-paste so carelessly that they men...
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Episode 67
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24:52
66. How We Can Work Together in 2026: Programs for Every Stage of Your Teaching Journey
I've spent twenty years watching yoga teachers struggle with the same pattern. They finish their training, start teaching, and then something happens. They're standing in front of three students wondering what they're doing wrong. They're scram...
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Episode 66
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16:07
65. Teaching Meditation with Confidence—Gabrielle Harris on Authenticity and Finding Your Voice
Most yoga teachers feel secretly terrified about teaching meditation. You know how to cue a vinyasa, but when it comes to that moment where you ask students to sit still and turn inward, the panic sets in. Who am I to guide someone's meditation...
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Episode 65
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37:07
64. From Set Sequences to Lead Teacher: Lana Boone on Finding Confidence Through Framework
When Lana Boone first started teaching formats beyond her familiar Baptiste sequence, she was terrified. Today, she's the lead teacher at Yoga Six in Potomac, Maryland, confidently teaching everything from power to restorative to sound bath—and...
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Episode 64
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28:35
63. How I Chose My 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training (And Why I'm Building a Better One)
Most 200-hour yoga teacher trainings teach you how to do yoga—but they don't teach you how to teach yoga. If you've been through a training yourself, you know exactly what I mean. You spent weeks learning Sanskrit names, memorizing muscles, and...
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Episode 63
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19:42
62. Your Teaching Year in Review: Reflection and Intention Setting for 2026
Most yoga teachers end the year measuring what they didn't accomplish. The workshops they didn't lead, the certifications they didn't finish, the Instagram following that didn't grow. But here's what I've learned after two decades of teaching: ...
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Episode 62
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18:27
61. Teaching Yoga When Friends and Family Show Up to Class
The most awkward yoga class I ever taught? When my husband raised his hand mid-class like a third grader to ask if he was doing it right. If you're teaching through the holidays, you're probably about to experience your own version of this—frie...
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Episode 61
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19:28
60. Teaching Yoga on Video—What I Learned the Hard Way
I've been creating yoga video content since the DVD era—and I've made just about every mistake you can make along the way. From losing the rights to my own videos to stress-recording live classes while trying to serve paying students, my journe...
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Episode 60
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25:53
59. Evolve Your Voice: The Power of Self-Assessment for Yoga Teachers
Most yoga teachers avoid watching themselves teach. The cringe factor is real. But self-assessment through video recording is the single most effective—and completely free—tool you have for evolving as a teacher.In this episode, we're di...
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Episode 59
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26:14
58. Phase 5: Mastery and Legacy—Teaching the Teachers Who Will Teach the Teachers
After two decades of teaching yoga and training teachers, I've noticed something profound: some of my most meaningful moments happen when I visit the teacher trainees of my former students. These metaphorical grandchildren—students of my studen...
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Episode 58
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13:46
57. The Call to Teach: What Happens Before You Even Know You Want to Be a Yoga Teacher
There's a phase that happens before yoga teacher training even begins—a liminal space where you're no longer just a student, but you're not yet ready to call yourself a teacher. I call it Phase Zero.Maybe you find yourself mentally teach...
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Episode 57
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12:45
56. What Teaching Yin and Restorative Contributes to ALL Your Class Formats
I used to think teaching yin and restorative yoga were niche skills—nice to have if you wanted to teach those specific classes, but not essential to your development as a yoga teacher. I was completely wrong.After 20+ years of teaching a...
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Episode 56
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23:50
55. Phase 4: How to Thrive as a Yoga Teacher—Confidence, Boundaries, and Legacy
In this episode, I explore what it really means to thrive as a yoga teacher. Phase Four of the Yoga Teacher Success Timeline—the Thriving Teacher Zone—is where teaching becomes intuitive, fulfilling, and sustainable.I share the si...
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Episode 55
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16:39
54. Phase 3 of the Yoga Teacher Success Timeline: Moving Beyond Teaching Plateaus and Building Your Yoga Career
Have you ever felt like your teaching has hit a plateau? In this episode of Yoga Teacher Confidential, I dive into Phase Three of the Yoga Teacher Success Timeline: the Professional Development Zone.This is the stage where teach...
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Episode 54
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12:33
53. The Mindset Shift That Transforms Your Teaching
After 52 weekly episodes—a full year of this show!—one truth has emerged: the teachers who struggle most are still practicing yoga while trying to teach it. In this anniversary episode, I explore the irony at the core of our profession: yoga is...
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Episode 53
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13:27
52. Medical Emergencies in Class, Part 3: When the Emergency Is Yours
Emergencies happen in yoga class—and sometimes the emergency is mine. In this third installment of the series, I share practical steps for handling sudden illness, a coughing fit or lost voice, migraines, or a panic spike while I’m teaching. Yo...
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Episode 52
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8:53