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:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Threads
• Bluesky
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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 ...

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 teachers bouncing between meticulous overpreparation and chronic underpreparing.

Here's the thing: neither extreme gives you what you actually want. Overplanning leaves you too in your head to see your students. Winging it leaves you uncertain whether your class is even balanced. And both feed the anxiety that keeps the cycle spinning.

The ancient yoga teachers understood this tension deeply. In this episode, I'm exploring how sthira and sukha (steadiness and ease) and abhyasa and vairagya (practice and nonattachment) offer us a framework for finding the middle path—where preparation enables responsiveness instead of rigidity.

You'll learn practical steps for breaking the cycle: recognizing your tendency, embracing the power of repetition, developing a framework you trust, and experiencing your sequences before you teach them.

Plus, I'm inviting you to join the February Lesson Plan Challenge inside The Prep Station—four weeks, four complete lesson plans, practiced in your body and ready to teach.

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:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Threads
• Bluesky
• Pinterest

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 ...

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 algorithm. Your job is to help the right students find the next step into yoga with you.

I walk through three struggles I hear from yoga teachers all the time: hating social media and feeling guilty, spending lots of time on Instagram without seeing fuller classes, and feeling confused about what Instagram is even for if you teach locally.

You'll leave with a clear, minimalist way to treat Instagram like a calm little "foyer"-a reassuring business card for the nervous beginner who has already heard your name.

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:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Threads
• Bluesky
• Pinterest

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 ...