Digital Yoga: How lockdown transformed my work

In this blog I describe how I took my live yoga teaching online, and share with you all the practical bits; my set-up, the marketing, the new commercial model, in the hope that whatever your vocation or business, you may see it’s not so hard to reinvent yourself, to go digital. But first a little background
I’ve been teaching yoga for several years in studios, halls, gymns, one-to-one’s in homes and my own little home studio. In March, with the lockdown this came to an abrupt end and my vocation and livelihood hit a brick wall.

Breathe, Anita, breathe.

Once the shock wore off I felt very angry, but who to blame? Anger was rapidly succeeded by fear, anxiety, desperation and an ever-present, background feeling of a vague sort of nausea.
Welcome to Dystopia people!

Tears flowed.

One thing about yogis is they are flexible, not just physically, but in the way that they adapt to new situations. Suddenly all my yoga buddies were talking about “live streams”, “zoom”, “Facebook Live”, “youtube streams” and so on.
I had zero idea what the hell they were talking about, but luckily for me, my husband Rudy did know. Rudy has worked in digital stuff for the past zillion years, but I’m sorry to admit I really didn’t know what he actually did. Shame.
I do now, because he just helped me to digitally transform my yoga teaching into a live, online experience.
It was weird at first, but after a few days we smashed it, got a routine, and carried on teaching regular classes as if nothing had changed. I miss the physical proximity of my yogis and something is lost, but also there is much gained, which I’ll speak about in another blog. What I want to share now is the practical side of how I went online, and how I make it work, as a business.

Hardware and Software

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Device
I have an old-ish MacBook air – very basic spec, which is fine for streaming. You can also get going with a tablet, any PC/laptop or even a smartphone.

Video and sound
I didn’t think my MacBooks video or sound quality was great so I bought a Logictech SteamCam for around £140 – there are loads of great webcams cheaper than this but lockdown fever not only cleared out all the bog roll and pasta, the cheaper webcams went too. If you want to go mega pro you get a dedicated video camera or DSLR with video, and use a wireless mic – that’s a big investment and def not the MVP, lean and agile thing. Maybe one day …

Tripod
Setting up the right camera angle and height, and keeping it there can be tricky so I use a tripod – takes all the pain out. My one is a Star 62, costs around £60. There are many cheaper but I already had this so, result!

Streaming Service
It has to be Zoom. I tried a few but Zoom is easier to learn and everyone is able to install and use it. Proper plug-n-play. It works across all common devices too. I bought the “Pro” plan so that I can run ‘meetings’ an hour or longer (the free version cuts out after 40 minutes).

Studio and Stage
You’ll need a decent size space so that the camera can be far enough away to capture your ‘stage’ (me, the mat, the yucca plant). Ideally it’ll be free from clutter and either a dedicated space or one that can be quickly tidied; Tip – stash the junk behind the camera ;).
Lighting is very important, it’s worth playing around with this for a while until it is optimal, and you best dress for contrast against the background. The sun plays havoc with the room so I often have to draw the curtains and go electric. I found that positioning the mat at an oblique angle to the camera created more of a sense of depth and draws the viewer into the scene more than the standard, head on angle.

Marketing and Sales

“If we build it, they will come” No they bloody well won’t!
I’ve seen a direct correlation between the amount of effort I put into engaging with my yogis online and the numbers I see in my classes. Zero momentum.
You need to have a strategy for getting, dare I say it, customers; make them aware, get them engaged, registering, paying, doing it, coming back and doing it some more, telling their friends about it.
Social media is the way to go, some channels are more effective than others, so you need to try a few and see what works best for you.

Website.

Rudy built this on WordPress in a couple days, it’s free and needs no coding skills to create and maintain. If like me you are a technical desert, there are loads of people that can design and build a site for you and very cheaply – you may want to try Fivrr or get a friend or relative to do it. You can get along without one but I think it adds some substance, is an easy way to keep listings current and to accept payments. Oh, and a good place to host my blog!

Social media

I’m rubbish at social. I know it is essential tho’, so I am gradually upping my activity to connect with people. I use Facebook and Whatsapp, and am just getting into Instagram and Twitter.

Payment

Rudy added a PayPal button (copy-n-paste code) to my site labelled ‘Donate’; this allows people to pay what they want, if they want, when they want, how they want. Originally I did this for two reasons; had no idea what to charge; wanted health and frontline workers or people unable to afford to pay, to do my classes for free. After a month I felt that this was actually a really nice way to to do it, allowing people to adapt to their changing circumstances and still have yoga, so I have stuck with it. Week-by-week cash flow is all over the place, but so is everything else, so, cool.

Email

I aim to start a newsletter at some point but just haven’t got there yet.

Commuting

It takes me roughly 10 seconds to get to the fridge after class, to pour a large glass of white. Cheers!

I’d love to know your experiences, what works and what don’t, and hope you found my story useful. If you need more detail, just ask.

Anita Tambala
tambalayoga.com

Anita Tambala has been practicing yoga for 20 years and teaching professionally for 8 years in the UK, specialising in vinyasa flow.