Creating Your Niche

For many teachers, the path from generalist to specialist is as natural as interweaving yoga with life passions. Here’s how to create and market your own niche yoga classes.

By Tevis Gale

Grateful for the learning and success, Toliuszis no longer wants to be identified with only one population. "For new teachers, specialization can be good. It can really help to find a niche. But now I want to serve everyone." Benefits aside, he counsels that niche associations can be hard to shake. When he recently pitched himself to the director of scheduling for a retreat center, he was greeted with, "Oh, you're the Yoga for Golf guy." Only time and new positioning will change that perception.

Your Bottom Line

Let passion determine whether you create a niche, and let study feed your evolution. Just as rushing a pose can result in injury, the heartache of rushing your evolutionary process is avoidable. Resist any urgency to distinguish yourself in what seems like a crowded market. Your teaching is a work of self-expression in progress. In the words of Omega's Traci Childress, "When teachers meld yoga with their vision for social change, the result creates momentum for transformation in the world. The world needs this kind of engaged practice!”

Combining a lifelong passion for yoga with 13 years of experience as a corporate executive, Tevis Gale teaches Corporate Yoga nationwide. She lives and writes in New York City.

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