083: Instagram for Yoga Teachers with Daniel McIntire
As a yoga teacher have you thought about creating an Instagram account? Do you already have an Instagram presence and wonder if you’re on the right path? Have you thought about creating a separate account for your yoga business? Today’s guest, Daniel McIntire, the founder of Influncrrs helps to answer these and many more questions about Instagram.
Daniel McIntire knew yoga was right for him the first time he tried it. It took him over 3 years to consider teaching but when he did his 200 YTT it was another great fit. He began by teaching part-time and expanded into full-time teaching when he quit his corporate job in 2016. He taught several classes a week to sustain a living but found in time that he was getting burnt out.
Daniel has happily found a place for yoga in his life- as a hobby. He has found his current niche as the creator and owner of Influncrrs by following his passion for incorporating his yoga practice into his online presence. As he expanded his skills in this area, he was able to help others market events on Snapchat and Instagram. Daniel came to realize that he felt most passionate about and excelled in guiding clients through expanding their business through Instagram. When working with his clients focuses on a couple of key goals 1) to increase traffic to their Instagram account and 2) encourage public engagement and feedback.
Daniel shares many gems including the importance of quality over quantity when it comes to posting, the value of public engagement in the comments section, and his 3 key components to a good post.
7:05 Daniel’s yoga journey
12:00 How Daniel started sharing his yoga on Instagram and then turning that into a career
16:35 How often Daniel recommends posting- quality over quantity
19:55 How Daniel prepares his Instagram posts- gives himself 30 minutes in a quiet space and reflects on the subject of the post
21:45 Daniel on captions and the opportunity it affords to connect with your words, along with your photo
22:25 The Importance of interacting with your audience by replying to comments- Daniel checks in daily
23:20 Shannon asks Daniel whether she should have a personal account and a separate business account
27:35 Daniel on Instagram Stories and cautions putting out too many stories and how they can be beneficial for showing another side of yourself
30:55 Shannon asks for advice on engaging her followers with her podcast-related posts
34:00 Daniel’s helps his client to draw out what they have to offer and talks about the importance of clients creating their own content
34:55 On Daniel’s realization that engagement is more valuable than followers
35:25 How Daniel helps his clients 1) get traffic to their account 2) get more engagement with their content (such as a free e-book) which helps clients create a list of leads, discover their niche, and develop a long-term strategy
37:25 Daniel’s feeling that there is so much misinformation about social media engagement and that it is simpler than is perceived
39:35 The best way to connect with Daniel and request a free week of consultation
42:30 Linktree- allows you to share more than one link on Instagram
43:30 Shannon’s wrap-up and key takeaways
Links
Daniel's Business on Instagram @nfluncrrs
Daniel's partner Courtney on Instagram @courtrandyoga
Shannon's Instagram Account @shannon_crow_yoga
Influncrrs E-Guide: Win on Instagram
Fuel Yoga Workouts in Portland, OR
The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
Follow The Connected Teacher on YouTube
Book a Consultation Call with Shannon
To Contact our virtual assistant Samantha Scott for website design help and more:
Tech Crazy Va: Website Design, System Efficiencies & Virtual Assistant Services
7-Steps to Link Schedulicity to your Instagram account
Gratitude to our Sponsor Schedulicity
082: Yoga and Fibromyalgia with Pamela Crane
We are so grateful to welcome Pamela Crane, a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapist (IAYT) who is currently working towards her Masters in Yoga Therapy at Maryland University of Integrative Health. She is a Yoga Alliance 200 RYT, a Reiki 1 and 2 practitioner, and a member of the National Dance Education Association (NDEO).
On today’s episode, Shannon asks Pamela to speak to her experience with Fibromyalgia- as a sufferer and as a yoga therapist. As a lifelong dancer, Pamela was devastated when the pain of Fibromyalgia changed her life. In addition to the condition, she dealt with chronic pain, anxiety, and depression for years and credits yoga as a major factor in her path toward healing.
Pamela wants to share the benefits of yoga with others and as a yoga therapist has worked with those suffering from Fibromyalgia, dancers, and most recently those who work in corporate environments by providing workshops on stress reduction.
Pamela and Shannon discuss Pamela’s personal experience with this condition, how to balance the yin and yang of physical activity, how yoga teachers can support their students with Fibromyalgia and much more.
6:50 Pamela’s first yoga class
9:10 Pamela describes how yoga “saved her life”
12:35 How Fibromyalgia wasn’t understood until the later 2000s and suffers previous to this time weren’t validated and made to feel it was psychological
13:05 Pamela’s definition of Fibromyalgia and her experience with the condition
17:10 How Pamela has been able to manage her pain
19:20 Pamela expands on how it feels to suffer from the condition and the sufferer's relationship to pain
20:40 How practicing gratitude and forgiveness has helped Pamela
22:00 Practicing mindfulness and meditation
22:55 How to support a new student who suffers from Fibromyalgia and the importance of keeping in mind that yoga teachers can’t diagnose or treat people, rather support the student to find their own healing
25:35 How meditation, restorative yoga, or yin vs. yang might not be the answer for every sufferer will work- listen to the individual
26:55 How aerobic activity can benefit those with Fibromyalgia, the importance of not pushing too hard and how yoga can facilitate those activities
29:10 Pamela’s personal experience with finding balance with physical activities
33:50 As a yoga teacher when planning classes “less is more” and checking in with students after class (even a day or two later)
35:45 What Pamela likes to include in her yoga classes: constructive rest, sitali and viloma breath, loving-kindness meditation
42:15 Pamela’s work as a yoga therapist for stress management workshops in corporate settings
43:55 On Pamela’s love of helping those who may not believe yoga is right for them and guiding them towards a style that may work
45:30 Pamela’s belief that stress, in her own case, was a major factor in developing Fibromyalgia
47:20 When Pamela will receive her Masters in Yoga Therapy from Maryland University of Integrative Health and her advice on choosing a school if you aspire to become a yoga therapist
50:40 How to reach Pamela and her work with clients online and in-person
53:00 Shannon’s closing thoughts and key takeaways, including her own experience with “less is more”
Links
Pamela’s Website: Crane Yoga Therapy
Jump-start your 2019: 6-Week Group Program for Yoga Entrepreneurs
Metta Meditation by Shannon Crow
The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
Book a Consultation Call with Shannon
Gratitude to our Sponsor Schedulicity
081: Set-Up to Teach Private Yoga [Consultation Call] with Stephanie Brunson
Do you or have you considered teaching private yoga classes as a way to set up or grow a yoga business? If so, this episode is for you!
Shannon shares a consultation call with the kind permission of Stephanie Brunson. Stephanie has been teaching yoga for 10 years and has recently come to the realization that teaching students one-on-one is a viable option for her. She is excited at the prospect of changing focus but is asking where to start with her new endeavor.
Stephanie turned to The Connect Yoga Teacher Facebook group and asked:
Can anyone help me with setting up in home yoga lessons? I have been teaching now for almost 10 years and have recently been asked to teach private sessions. I don’t even know where to begin. Liability, waivers, session goals sheets, session pricing? Packages or partner lessons? Any help or advice is appreciated.
With her experience as a consultant to yoga teachers and teaching private yoga classes Shannon guides Stephanie through some key considerations along with some of the benefits, she has found teaching one-on-one. Shannon also sends Stephanie off with some concrete steps as she moves toward her goals.
10:20 Stephanie’s question to The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook Group
11:10 Stephanie’s struggle to set her prices and to articulate what she is offering
11:50 The mindset around private yoga versus other one-on-one teaching situations (such as piano lessons) and the benefit of teaching private yoga classes
17:40 Your first session with your client- bring a liability and waiver form to help with intake and asking your client to do some movement for assessment (while avoiding diagnosing conditions)
21:40 Thinking about working with a client as part of their team (even if their team hasn’t been established yet) and on keeping clear boundaries with your scope of practice
26:20 Asking your client what their goals are and on meeting them where they are and keeping track of their progress
28:30 Designing package rates
30:35 Shannon walks Stephanie through what to consider when setting her rates
34:05 Considering safety and liability issues when going to your client’s home or holding the session in your home
35:55 Considering prices for a session with 2 or more people (semi-private)
37:00 Marketing and advertising and the benefit of word-of-mouth
39:50 Creating social media posts that address potential clients fears and special needs or perhaps offering specialized services (such as couples yoga or yoga for back pain)
44:15 Stephanie asks about online one-on-one sessions
46:30 Stephanie considers good places to advertise to target her audience
48:40 Scheduling your clients and organizing your schedule and thinking ahead to create seasonal specials
51:15 Stephanie’s realization that there is a market for private yoga
52:00 The joy Shannon has found working with clients one-on-one
52:55 Shannon sets up Stephanie’s first steps for advertising and guidance with growing her private yoga business
56:00 Shannon’s key takeaways:
Do they have any conditions? How does it affect them (symptoms)
Their stress levels- at work and at home
Pain levels on a scale from 1-10
Ask clients to do some movements to assess
Make sure to have a notepad
Pick one actionable item and share with Shannon. It can be something from the list or something else that works for you.
Links
Group Program for Yoga Teachers
The Connected Yoga Teacher Editable Student Waiver Form
The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
Follow The Connected Teacher on YouTube
Book a Consultation Call with Shannon
Yoga for Pelvic Health Teacher Training September 22nd and 23rd, 2018
Gratitude to our Sponsor Schedulicity
080: Yoga and Endometriosis [Part 2] with Dustienne Miller
In part 2 of our 2-part series on endometriosis, Shannon asked yoga teacher and physical therapist Dustienne Miller to share her knowledge and experience working with clients with this chronic illness.
Dustienne feels strongly endometriosis is underdiagnosed and that there is much more to be understood in this area of women’s health. It is now recognized that 1 in 10 women struggle with this chronic illness. Dustienne also wants all women to trust their intuition when determining the severity of their pain and to know that period pain should never be debilitating.
Dustienne began studying to become a physiotherapist in 1994 and began practicing yoga while doing musical theater in New York City as a way to warm up. She continued practicing yoga at home and decided to pursue yoga teacher training at Kripalu. Dustienne came to realize as a yoga teacher and a physiotherapist specializing in pelvic health, that these disciplines complemented each other beautifully. She began to integrate yoga into physical therapy home programs and saw the difference yoga made to her clients suffering from endometriosis.
Dustienne details for us how pranayama and asana can ease the symptoms of endometriosis. She describes the connection between pranayama and the pelvic floor and her way of leading clients through asana in a progressive fashion to minimize overextending themselves.
6:20 Dustienne’s yoga and physical therapy journey
8:50 Dustienne describes endometriosis
10:40 Symptoms of endometriosis
12:20 What Dustienne has heard from her clients suffering from endometriosis
13:20 Are the endo flare-ups in sync with the menstrual cycle?
15:40 Pain management- the importance of teaching strategies in order to allow sufferers to have ownership over managing the flares
How yoga can benefit those with endometriosis:
16:25 Pranayama- a daily practice can help with the prominence of the parasympathetic nervous system to be more dominant which can lessen the pain
17:30 Relationship between pranayama and the pelvic floor and the importance of lengthening the spine to optimize the pranayama-pelvic floor connection
20:55 Asana- a gentle yoga program can mobilize the tissues and the muscles that are attaching to both the pelvis and the thorax
22:15 Yoga poses to approach with caution extensions and cause rebound pain
24:40 Is there a pain level where one should avoid asana and Dustienne’s hope that students will feel that for themselves
27:40 The benefit of child’s pose, goddess pose, banana pose, standing half-moon, supine twist (to help with rotation through the spine) and their variations
32:55 Dustienne’s love for restorative yoga, that it is “real” yoga
33:55 Additional advice from Dustienne and on reconditioning the body to have a different response to pain to help lessen it (softening the belly, table pose letting belly hang)
36:05 Other treatments Dustienne recommends for endometriosis
38:20 How endometriosis can be diagnosed and how treatment options are evolving as research into this illness expands
40:25 Misconceptions around endometriosis, how raising awareness is helping e.g. through social media campaign #1in10
42:10 Importance of listening to intuition- don’t push yourself
42:55 Shannon’s closing thoughts and wrap-up and on “curating your team”
Links
Dustienne’s summary page of resources
Dustienne’s website: Your Pace Yoga
Related TCYT Episodes:
079: Yoga and Endometriosis [Part 1] with Kimberly Castello
007: Breath and Pelvic Health with Trista Zinn
008: Core Breath and Pelvic Health with Kim Vopni
009: Kegels, Mula Bandha, and Pelvic Health with Shelly Prosko
033: A New Perspective on Diastasis Recti with Sinead Dufour
073: The 8 Limbs of Yoga [Part 1] with Shannon Crow
074: The 8 Limbs of Yoga [Part 2] with Jennie Lee
Yoga for Pelvic Health Teacher Training September 22nd and 23rd, 2018
Gratitude to our Sponsor Schedulicity