5 Places You Can Start Teaching at Now
In this episode I share 5 places that you can start teaching meditation at now. I hope this sparks some ideas and helps you start bringing your gifts to the world!
GIFT FOR YOU
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Music Credit: Nova by River Roots - https://www.youtube.com/riverroots
Podcast Transcript
Welcome to another episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. I am your host, Lou Redman and I come at this work. I share this podcast as someone who quit a corporate job in 2015 to go full time as a meditation solopreneur and it took me over four years to learn how to make my way and support myself financially. And I've learned some things along the way, both on the art, the creative, and also the process and the business that I want to share with you, that I hope can inspire you, encourage you on your journey to using meditation as a medium to share yourself, share your gifts with the world. And today's episode is going to be practical to to give you at least five places. I'm probably gonna give you more than five places to look for to get your first in person teaching gig. I'm beginning with in person because that's how I started online is easier. There is so much potential to teach online and it is easy to start having people come do your meditations and being able to share yourself through different social platforms, through different meditation apps. I'm going to start by inviting you to do this in person because that's how I started. So number one, the place that you can start to set up and get your first in person meditation gig is meetup.com In 2016, I moved from my beautiful home in San Diego to my town that I grew up in in New Jersey. Now this made sense financially, yes. However, that wasn't the main reason I did it. When I was visiting home a couple months before that, I felt this calling, I felt this energy of I meant to move back here. And when I did, I had many opportunities start to present themselves. One of the first opportunities and one of the bigger pulls in moving back was that I had a two best friends that I grew up with who opened up a music recording studio. And this studio had this beautiful room and was a beautiful space that I had a vision of bringing people to meditate in this space. And so when I moved back to New Jersey, one of the first things I did was got on a website called meetup.com and I started a group called Meditation in New Jersey and I started to host meditation workshops every other week. This is how I started teaching. Well, in a way, it's the second place I started teaching. I told you already that I started by just sharing it with friends. This was that next step where I was actually putting it out into the world. And of course I was inviting people I knew that would come to this group and what happened is that a little community started to form. So people were meeting each other at these meditation meetups and they were becoming friends. And so every week or every other week, this was a place where people were gathering and I got a chance to practice sharing meditation. We got to talk about different topics and it's really how I got my confidence in my practice. Now I'll save you the imposter syndrome and the fear and all the things that I had to work through, public speaking, speaking wise for another episode. But that's where I want to offer you to start. People are still using this as a way to get in person, to find places to do things, to meditate. So meetup.com, go check it out. I'll say a few more things on meetup.com one is I started making it just donation based. So it was a free event, but I accepted donation. So I started making some money and then I started saying that there was a fee and charged for it. And at first I just trusted that people were going to pay the fee. And at some point I was like, okay, how do I actually account when people came in and took their 10 or 15 bucks that I was charging at the time? So you can do whatever feels good for you. You can start by his free event, donations accepted and go from there. Something to think about. When you do a meetup group, you're going to open the doors to everyone. You're going to open the doors to whoever wants to show up. And so there does take a capacity to hold different energy. Some people might be showing for reasons that might be super not in integrity with the group. Maybe they have an agenda and maybe they're just looking for something, but it's not quite what your group is. So just know that you're also opening the door for that and you're also opening the door for no one to show up. So even though people might rsvp, they might not show up and that's okay too. But this is a great place for you to get out there and just start now. All of these things that I'm sharing with you today, they're going to invoke an entrepreneurial spirit. For those of you that really want to get out there and make it happen, I think you're going to, you're going to find some connection with some of these things I'm sharing. One last thing on meetup.com is what I would also do is make flyers and I would go to the different coffee shops in the area that would allow me to Post a flyer and I would share that I was running this event. So both it was being promoted on meetup.com, but I was also promoting it in other places, social media and of course on these flyers. And that's what started this community. So definitely share. Make an image for the thing that you're going to do. And I would encourage you to try and do it and make it a group so that you get the practice, you get the repetition. So really important number two to start teaching in person is if you are in a job, if you already have a job and you want to bring this work to the world, start where you are. Start by reaching out to human resources. Ask if you could do a meditation or a mindfulness workshop or a stress reduction workshop, however you want to frame it and start if you have a job right now, and I know it feels more uncomfortable because these are people that you know, these are co workers, they might know you as a certain identity. I know this is going to bring up some stuff and we can talk about that. That's good that stuff is. It's good that it comes up now. And this can be such a powerful way for you to get practice. You have people that you can help right now. You don't have to wait till you leave. You can start bringing this to your work right now. And this could potentially lead to an opportunity. I had a client who was afraid of leaving her corporate job because she wasn't sure if she could make the same amount of money. However, she ended up getting an opportunity at the current job that she worked at in a mindfulness capacity in a way that brought meditation. And it was this big opportunity. And so I say that because sometimes the opportunity could be right under your nose. So if you want to start teaching meditation, start where you are. You have an opportunity, you have people that can benefit from it at your work. Number three is library and community centers. So libraries are always looking for free programming. This is typically going to be in the free realm or very, very minimal cost realm that you can start sharing some meditation classes. You can do a summer program, fall program. Again, try and pitch this in a way that it's going to be multiple sessions for multiple reasons. One, you're getting the experience. Two, you're getting some commitment from people. You're starting to build some community. Also looking into, depending on the population you want work with. Senior centers are a great place. They always are looking for different programming and really special to, to offer that to that population. Different community centers, YMCAs and then a Gym. I have another client who brought this to their gym and they were super excited about bringing on some sort of mindfulness class to their gym as a program. So look at the places that you already are at with certain people and you can start to bring those things in there. Number four is yoga and meditation studios. Now this might be obvious if you kind of teach meditation, you probably want to find a meditation studio. These are less available meditation studios. They started popping up more and then Covid hit and a lot couldn't sustain going virtual with some of the overhead that they had. So there might be less and there might not be in your area. But if there are, reach out, let them know your interest, let them know your passion. Even if you don't have the quote unquote certification yet. Tell them what's up, see what is available, see what opportunities are there, let them know that you'd like to teach, Let them know maybe you'd like to sub, go in, talk to them, maybe you do an interview, maybe you do a, a practice teach and it's still a great place. Yoga studios of course are another place to start to develop. Ideally you can get a class at a yoga studio that's just meditation. Now the issue with yoga studios is they often don't have the actual physical structures that support meditation, either in meditation cushions or chairs. So they typically if you go to a yoga studio, you bring your yoga mat and that's not always the most comfortable to sit on for 30 to 40 minutes in a half lotus posture, so to speak. So having a place that has the right equipment is great. However, many yoga studios will do meditations more as like a workshop and will more promote it in that way as like a unique one off offering. So one of the obvious places to look but something worth speaking next are coffee shops, tea shops and even salons. So I'll speak to coffee shops first. Coffee shops, often during hours that are not serving coffee, they have a space there. So this could potentially be the place that you bring your meetup group to. I forgot to say on meetup group that could also be outside. Having a structure that you're bringing people to is important. So maybe it's using the meetup.com group and bringing them to this coffee shop, doing a meditation at this coffee shop and promoting the coffee shop as well as your services and what you're doing. I would even look for open mics in your area and asking if you can do a guided meditation. So this is really getting into like I just want to get experience and do New things. You're definitely going to be getting out of your comfort zone with this, but looking for different open mics and saying, hey, can I come on the open mic and do a five minute guided meditation? And I'm sure many people will be like, yeah, that's interesting, that's new. Come on, go ahead and do it. So lots of opportunities, Salons, salons. A lot of times again, when they're not doing hair, they often have a community that shows up there. And some salon owners, they want to do something for their community and so reaching out and saying, hey, I don't know if you ever do meditation, but if you want to have your community come for an event, I'll come, I'll be the meditation teacher, I'll guide them. I've been pitched by salons to do this every week, to do this every, you know, Thursday evening where I'd come and I'd do a meditation because they want to start to create a group and so there's an opportunity there and, and just looking in your, your area, looking at your town, what else can you find? What are other stores, what are other potential opportunities? Again, this is going to encourage you to get into that entrepreneurial spirit. It's going to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and have some fun with it. What's important with any of the in person work that you do is to bring a piece of paper and take down people's emails to invite them to join your email list by simply writing their email on a piece of paper and then you going on the back end and adding them to your email list. Start collecting emails as soon as you can. This is the best way to communicate with people, to keep developing relationships and offering your services, offering meditations and just continuing that connection. Email is the best way. So start building that list sooner than later. Every email counts. Every event is an opportunity for people to stay connected to you and for you to have another channel that is in social media to share what you have going on. So to recap, five places to start teaching in person, set up a meetup.com, do it outside, find a place, do it at your home. You can. So I forgot to say you do have to find a place to do that meetup, but figure it out, see what calls to you. Number two, your work. If you have a job, if you're at a company, if you're at a workplace, you can start doing this at your work. If you're a teacher, a school teacher, you can start doing this with your kids. You can create this with your staff. Start where you are with what you have. Number three, libraries, community centers, local gyms, senior centers. All places that have programming that you can fit into. Start getting practice. Number four yoga studios, meditation studios. Search them in your area. See what they have going on. See if they'd be open for you doing a workshop or teaching as a sub or becoming a regular teacher there. Number five coffee shops, open mics. Again, we're getting a little rogue. We're getting out there. It's about you getting in front of people and getting that practice. All right, I'll keep it there. I'll keep it simple for today. Let me know if you've tried any of these things, how they've went for you, or if you have other ideas that you'd like to write in and share that could be beneficial to those starting out on this journey, please let me know. I would love to hear and share them with this community. And if there are topics that you'd love to hear spoken about on this podcast, either by me or other experts, please shoot me an email on my website, Lou Redmond.com contact me and let me know what topics you'd like to hear, where you're at on your teaching journey, and how I can support you in your path. So thanks so much for being here and I will see you on the next episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. Take care,