Teaching Surprises: Choosing the Best Class Time Slot

was anyone surprised by anything when they started teaching or yeah just anything that came up that you didn't expect? Yeah thanks guys hopefully hopefully everyone can hear me I don't have a really big uh bit of surprise thing but I did get a pleasant surprise um one other day I was away for one week and then the week after when I came back to do the Walmart class we do warm-ups on Monday before the Biduja class and then we do cool down at the end and my surprise was when I entered everyone sort of clapped a little and was really relieved and I think because they had a week of just warming up because they got used to my warm-up and they had a week of warming up with with headcoating and they didn't take to it as well as they did the yoga warm-up so I was it was a nice pleasant surprise to feel like things are working and they liked having yoga as a warm-up rather than just the weird obstacle courses and things that that came to them the week before and other than that the challenge I think has been getting the guys to try yoga and so we have one night where the regulars are coming in and doing the yoga class but then some of the other nights where we tried to introduce yoga it didn't pick up as easily even though there were already people doing the classes from the gym and having good reviews about it and so we didn't really know how to how to work with that I think bring more people in from the other nights where they're not regularly in on the busy night so that was a bit still working on that yeah and that's it did you did you ask did you did you ask anyway it's hard to ask someone who doesn't show up why they don't show up but do you have any theories about why it's hard to get them to show up to a specific last thing you did I think pardon me I think those nights are a little bit more quiet so when we introduced the yoga session because I don't think they're shy but because no one was really joining in or they weren't turning up to the classes anyway it seemed like a small class so I say to be honest I don't actually know why I have no idea I'm just I think you're on to something that the time slot is super important that you know the you can have a super in a yoga studio you can have a super bad teacher and if they get like the perfect time slot they're always going to have full classes and then you can have the best teacher on a bad time slot and they have no one at their class so so that's that's definitely a huge thing to a huge thing to know where to put the class our most successful class was definitely a saturday before open math so like 12 to 1 15 or 12 32 to 2 o'clock I don't remember but you know that that time slot was just perfect because everybody like nobody wants to wake up early on a saturday so if you put the class at 10 on a Saturday you're doomed because no one will show up so yeah that's big yeah timing is everything yeah I think that's probably the sweet spot as well like sev said like before an open mat or something because like most jujitsu people just want to do jujitsu don't they so it's like if they just have a yoga class to go to then they might be like oh I'll have a day off but I guess if there's like a busy jujitsu class after it then maybe they're gonna do both like one is a you know the yoga is a warm-up and then the jujitsu class I guess each location is going to depend on that isn't it as well depending on the busy nights depending on when the coach is training and or like the main coach is training and stuff like that as well it's funny that I really like that you that you stepped away for a couple of weeks and people responded like that because it must be quite nice because obviously when you're consistent you think are they enjoying this but then when you step away and back that's that's very cool must be nice to have that reassurance yeah definitely it was definitely a pleasant surprise yeah better than them coming than you coming back and then we'll be in like oh no yoga yeah that didn't happen yeah oh good okay uh well thanks for sharing that thank you uh so who was next I think tom was next hey uh let us know how things are and uh what's been going on as well hello hello can you hear me cool um yeah it's been good I started teaching um I started with warm-ups first and I had some mixed receptions to that uh some people loved it some people not so much um and then a few months after that I started doing weekly uh like full classes and and those have been received really really well uh most people come back uh and everybody seems to really enjoy it so that's uh that's been so that's uh that's been great I definitely enjoyed teaching the full classes more than the warms as well so it kind of maybe also that's why some people don't enjoy it as much so it kind of works both ways obviously um I think as far as for like the biggest surprise has been uh the people who show up like there was one person who I don't think he's strange jiu-jitsu for like 10 plus years or something um and then you know he's still following the instagram page and all that and my coach announced that we're going to start like yoga classes and then he came back to join the yoga class and then kind of trying to pick up jiu-jitsu again trying to get his body back in shape and all that stuff so that was been that was super rewarding and cool and uh you know just like guys who train in the gym bringing their girlfriend into the class and yeah just like unexpected people who you would never expect who want to join yoga class show up um so yeah it's been it's been super cool and I already recognize a bunch of stuff that everybody else has been saying like like bill just typed in the chat with the notes I kind of had the same where I felt like if I was obsessing over my notes I was uh doing a worst class and if I just kind of went with it and uh didn't check my notes every 10 seconds and just you know kind of trusted that I remembered most of it at least um so yeah it's been uh it's been fun so far it's been good that's cool I like that you're it sounds like you're almost creating a community like within the gym like you said you've got people's wives or husbands or whatever showing up to your class that don't normally train there that's that's pretty cool because you're going to have like well your own I guess students it doesn't matter if they do jiu-jitsu or or whatever or they're coming for the yoga it's nice it might it shows that you're teaching the right kind of class as well because it's kind of approachable for everyone like the jiu-jitsu people can enjoy it and the people that are just coming for yoga can enjoy it so that's really good I have a question I have a question there which time slots were were the most effective for most people to show up like before or after or or how did you manage the the timing there um so I've only had one time slot so far it's always been uh before the wednesday evening class which is definitely one of the busier classes so that that helps uh and so let's see class starts at eight and then I start my yoga class at a quarter to seven and then it ends at around seven thirty a quarter to eight kind of depends on how long it goes but just like leading into the jiu-jitsu class things like that other people uh or gym owners and things like that might look at as well and and and kind of consider because it definitely sounds like that's really picking up so congrats that's it that's really yeah and that's the whenever when you suggest to have a full class then you always pick before the most popular class of the week like yeah if the popular class is at seven you're like yeah where is your class on six that day and see if that works with the scheduling and if it doesn't work then every six months or a year every gym owner updates their schedule so like three months two three months before you you're on them you know if it's january you go in november like hey have you done the schedule for for next year yet can we put in the there just with the timing to you now you know where to snipe like you want there there is your class right and how did when they brought their wife and girlfriend did they come back or they just came a few times or or if it's there uh let's see they did only come a few times um but yeah particularly because i think the boyfriends kind of dragged them along hoping that they would get into jiu-jitsu and then they did try a few jiu-jitsu classes but then didn't stick around in jiu-jitsu either so i'm not sure if it's as much yoga related or um yeah if the boyfriend just kind of wanted them to really join jiu-jitsu and this was like a nice entry stepping stone and they just weren't into it um but yeah they these came back like a good handful of times yeah and i think we can all we can all kind of try and work towards that just getting people interested just just getting people into the gym because also if if someone's you know if someone brings someone else down that they're close to they're going to want to spend more time in the gym they're going to be down more as well so it's just better for the gym or academy just in general because their friend might sign up they might be like oh well what are the classes are there maybe they do kickboxing as well and the gym offers that it's all it's all good for the gym so um and i think when we're approaching our head coaches or the gym owner or thinking about it as a gym owner we need to think about that it's not just um it's not just yoga for bjj it's yoga for you know active people so um it's another way of just getting people in the door that might train somewhere else that want to come here because we've got yoga for bjj we've got something new so uh yeah it's definitely worth thinking about when you're having those conversations or as a gym owner thinking about when you're promoting that's good actually it's sorry it's all right you can go on i just really have really quick and now let me down because like um like downstairs we have a crossFit gym and then we're upstairs with the jujitsu and i never even thought about like approaching the owner of the crossFit gym and be like hey you know every wednesday night i teach yoga class if your students want to come upstairs and join us feel free like i don't know i don't ever really thought of that i've ever really thought of it specifically as like yoga for bjj it's for my you know jujitsu friends um yeah i'll think about that's a good one i will approach this at the same time as uh as laura uh just trying to get people across uh one thing that that can work really really well first i have to say that yoga for bjj i pretend very hard that yoga for bj is yoga specifically for bjj and you guys are ready to hear this don't ever post this on social media it's a huge lie it is not specific to jiu-jitsu at all it is so general that anybody all sedentary people in the world and everybody who is over trained in the world everybody will benefit from it because it's just a blend of poses and movements and transitions that just great for everybody not because i and me and steena are great at designing classes it's just yeah you're like an all-around yoga it's amazing for everybody and that's the we really found the holy grail of of feeling great and so what you can do is you approach specifically a crossfit gym downstairs what you can do is like hey i would love to come uh give a free yoga slash mobility class because everybody in crossfit will they will jump on mobility mobility is the sexy yoga like yoga yoga is for parents in their 60s and i want to do mobility or range of motion or whatever it is like if you rebrand it and you don't call it yoga for bj that's just my brand because i wanted you guys to come but you want other people to come if you want the girlfriend to show up you call this class monday something else and then wednesday you call it something different so you call it like yoga mobility on monday and yoga stretching on wednesday and you can you can switch up every three months and see what works and so don't get attached to to the logo or the don't be fixed on an id but be really flexible metaphorically uh to to see how you can change the approach because this is marketing and this is sales like to get people to come to class it's all sales there's nothing to do with the service or the team you are delivering it's all tricking people into coming and marketers are really sly bastards because they are just playing on your emotions and you have to do the same you have to play on people's emotions and kind of get them hooked to come over the doorstep because that's the biggest part is for them to come to your website or come to your class or you know come into your shop and then you know depends on what you're selling how how how evil you are if it's justifiable to trick someone to come into a class if you know that you're going to do them good so you know you have to you have to open your mind to see like what possibilities are there what what are people really looking for and in a crossfit place they're definitely not looking looking for yoga classes in a crossfit place they are looking for mobility because there's different shit okay any anyone has any comments feedback on on that what i said um chris go ahead i think your hand's been up a while so yeah please speak up well um because of the way that the can you can you hear me clear and everything yeah so because i'm from dimmarc and most sports clubs here are non-profits so i haven't been doing full class yoga for bjj at my bjj club because yeah i cannot make money of it and i spend money on my yoga i also have regular yoga education and stuff so i've been doing what sebastian's saying i've been teaching yoga at a crossfit gym i was doing an all male class which was quite successful and was doing really well and even though i have the other yoga educations most of the flows i do are inspired by by the stuff i did on level one and it was it was quite popular both those classes that i was doing and yeah it's it's a really good advice if it's something that you want to like dive more into i'm official therapist there's just like a fraction of what i do but like it's it's worked quite well for me to branch out other places i do the yoga for bjj for warm-ups when i teach bjj i do the cooldown sometimes but yeah and like what's the name was saying like when i'm not teaching my warm-up they're complaining because they like they call the old man warm-up because it's not running around in a circle and doing push-ups for 20 minutes yeah that's just can you say that last 10 seconds again hey can you say that last 10 seconds again that he was breaking up they call it the old man warm-up because like the regular warm-up at our club it's like running around in circles swinging your arms doing push-ups doing that kind of stuff so they say that the yoga for bjj warm-up well mine has evolved so it's it's inspired from what we did level one because i'm just following with it like when you kind of remember it you just start following so yeah they call it the old man warm-up but they like it okay they call it but the but everybody's joining in the young people do they just call it the old man yeah they complain if i'm not teaching so it's one of the other instructors who's teaching bjj they'll do their own warm-up and they'll be like uh even the instructors are like oh we miss you warm-up i'm like just like just copy mine and do what i do like it's fine you don't have to like it's not like a copyrighted or anything but they're like oh but we're used to doing it like this so we do it like this so yeah yeah you really put the head on the nail there yeah i should never say this of course because it's killing my business to say that you don't need me but but people like people like you that are both confident and like okay so that's the importance of this in level one i'm doing something similar that's exactly why i say it again and again i am not giving you the final destination i am giving you a really goddamn good starting point but you have already you know you're a physical therapist you see okay these things they don't work well for me because i disagree about abc okay but i'm gonna do this and this thank you sebastian for giving me a nice start now i'm uh now i'm confident to to spread my own wings and fly and do my own thing but tell me tell me about the cross-chip gym you say it's quite successful they're all male classes how did you how did you approach them and how did you brand the class and how for us first first of all most people don't read class descriptions so if you have like handstand class level six only show up if you can have them for two minutes people will show up all beginners like what the fuck you never did the old class why are you in this class like so many people going to read the description but for me i feel very confident to teach a class if i have written clearly in the description this is this type of class this is the pre-requirement and this is who should show up to class because then i know i can be very confident to deliver a class that is you know exactly what i described so how did you deal with this in the cross-fit gym and you said it was successful and how much did you charge because you said you didn't want to you had to make money off of it so tell us a little bit more about that please so i did two different classes i did one at a cross-fit gym that was gender like open for all genders and then i did a separate one outside of a cross-fit gym i just rented a space and did a all male class it helps that i'm a big guy i was a little bit bigger back then i was about 120 kilos so they kind of felt comfortable but well if this big guy can do it then i can join in as well and i was using that as marketing as well the the cross-fit class i was doing was i was approached by one of my friends who owns a cross-fit gym and she heard that i've been doing yoga and i got some yoga certifications and i was starting to move in on that game so she offered me a class it was sunday morning at 10 i think 9 or 10 i forgot right after one of her classes that was semi-popular and it was like we were promoting it as being beginner level yoga but that we were expecting them to have some kind of physical like a base level of fitness a base level of physical understanding but yeah so this was like a very mixed class i had people who've been doing yoga for a long time joining in and some of them enjoyed it some of them really didn't like it because it was not traditional yoga i've always told that i teach flow yoga i always call it flow yoga because it's like very vague but like i've always said that it's not like the traditional yoga for yogis this is more for people who like doesn't feel comfortable in the the the the doesn't feel comfortable in the the the traditional yoga classes the people don't feel comfortable sitting in lotus who cannot reach their toes and stuff like that so it's yeah some of them who've been doing a lot of normal yoga classes liked it some of them didn't like it at all and that's okay you cannot target everybody but i didn't like put out anything specific other than it was entry-level yoga or that it was like that it wasn't advanced stretching and stuff like that you other that we didn't really close the demographic does that answer your question yeah i think it answered many questions and i i want to say just a follow-up note there there is a saying in marketing that the person who has everything for everyone has nobody as his customer have you heard that one yeah yeah you cannot say i do everything because just sounds desperate so what you have to do is to be specific like you said okay i this is only for male like um it was very specific and that's why people felt very comfortable coming to you but what happens when you are specific like that you say i do flow yoga i don't do traditional yoga i do abc and d you will have people who show up and are disappointed because you are not giving what they want they didn't come for what you had they came for what they wanted so people will always always always show up to the wrong class and this is just a part of it like you just taught the best class possible like this was a great flow class and i loved it so much and then you had three people in class or super disappointed and just take their math up and leave because they came for traditional shamping yoga you're like great you showed up with the wrong class this is something you have to have to have to understand i'm not talking to you i'm talking to everybody do not be disappointed because people don't like your class it's a sign that you're doing something you're right you know if you know if 80 percent of the class leads you're doing something wrong but if one or two people hate the class it's just you know talk to them and ask them yeah yeah but you will quickly realize okay yeah this this is the this class is for you you like the one across the street that's for you but that's that's that's awesome thank you so much for sharing