Musings of a Marketing Maven

If you’re a yoga stu­dent who lives in an area blessed with lots of stu­dios and tal­ented teach­ers, you can be more dis­crim­i­nat­ing when choos­ing where to take classes or which teach­ers to fol­low. Now that I’m no longer a rank begin­ner, I’ve started to pay closer atten­tion to the fac­tors that cause me to pre­fer some teach­ers over oth­ers. And one of those fac­tors is, I con­fess, the sound of her voice.

Why the Voice Mat­ters in Yoga

The sound of a teacher’s voice is an impor­tant aspect of a class: what she says and how she says it. It’s a mat­ter of per­sonal taste, but some voices are — to my ear at least— more pleas­ing than oth­ers. In any given class I spend a lot of time lis­ten­ing with either eyes closed or atten­tion focused else­where (the drishti gaze). When I’m not actively watch­ing the teacher, the sound of her voice helps me focus my prac­tice or iden­tify where a micro-adjustment might be required. What she says and how she says it can make all the dif­fer­ence between yoga-as-gym-activity and yoga as some­thing more mean­ing­ful or uplifting.

Does the teacher’s voice direct your atten­tion to the key focal point(s) for your pose? Does it help you crys­tal­lize your inten­tion or improve your abil­ity to shift into your med­i­ta­tion space?

Yes, of course, the con­tent of what the teacher says and how she deliv­ers her instruc­tions are hugely impor­tant. That’s the start­ing point, the sine qua non. If the teacher’s instruc­tional style or her abil­ity to guide you is out of whack with your needs and capa­bil­i­ties, noth­ing else mat­ters: you need to find a teacher bet­ter suited to what you need to learn, or unlearn. Solve that prob­lem first.

Once you’ve found a set of tal­ented teach­ers whose instruc­tion style and yoga tra­di­tion match your pref­er­ences, then you can start to pay atten­tion to other fac­tors, like class size, the nature of the invo­ca­tions or read­ings, etc. The spir­i­tual con­tent (or lack thereof). The smell of the stu­dio. Its decor. The props on offer.

Ide­ally, I pre­fer classes that are small enough to offer semi-individualized atten­tion on how to improve your pose, align­ment, action, drishti focal point — what­ever. But it’s rare to find a high qual­ity, uncrowded class. In this par­tic­u­lar urban area crowded classes are the norm, unless you’ve found a new teacher, a new stu­dio just devel­op­ing its fol­low­ing, or can take classes at unpop­u­lar hours.

In large or crowded classes, it can be dif­fi­cult to see the teacher when your mat is not up in the front, except for those moments when she stops the class to demon­strate a new or chal­leng­ing pose. In classes like this the voice mat­ters more than ever. It’s the car­rier for good instruction.

Impli­ca­tions for Teachers

If you’re try­ing to attract more stu­dents, think about ways to offer a trial expe­ri­ence of your voice, the qual­ity of your instruc­tion. What about offer­ing some sam­ple pod­casts or an online video clip to show­case how you teach and inter­act with stu­dents? Pick a pose or two, find a will­ing stu­dent or two, and get someone’s help to record/video the instruc­tional moment.

Then look for appro­pri­ate places online where you can pub­lish or offer your sam­ple of how you teach your stu­dents. Face­book, YouTube, your studio’s web­site, iTunes, online yoga com­mu­ni­ties — you now have lots of rel­a­tively inex­pen­sive oppor­tu­ni­ties to show­case what makes you such an inspir­ing teacher. And if this is all tech­ni­cally beyond your skillset, per­haps you can barter some free classes in exchange for tech­ni­cal or pro­fes­sional help with your pod­cast or sam­ple video.

If you con­tribute to a blog, think about ways to offer a brief pod­cast or audio clip in which you share your voice, your val­ues, or what you’re all about as a teacher and yoga practitioner.

Share your voice.

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