harsh truths of being a wellness/fitness teacher

At first glance, the life of a wellness or fitness instructor (yoga, pilates, personal training…etc) looks dreamy. I mean, a random Tuesday afternoon at 3pm strolling the streets, sitting at a cafe, journaling, people watching, or getting in a workout. The flexibility sounds like a dream for many, I mean you get to do whatever you want (ish), but get yourself in the world of teaching and there are a whole lot of things that the outside world doesn’t see 😌🥹 #SocialDiscussion

Firstly I want to note that I truly am living MY version of a dream 🫶 Being in this industry and blessing others with the healing movement brings is such a wonderful place to be ❤️‍🩹 But when it gets too much and I start to lose myself through it, that’s also a different story. I never want my job to eat up my entire wellbeing and life. I don’t want to come across as complaining and ungrateful, I know I am so lucky to have choice and the abundance to do so much in this industry.

But lets get into the nitty gritty on the harsh truths of this industry and give myself a little tough love pep talk 😅🙈

🪴REPUTATION

People look at you differently, and you get questioned all the time. I think less now, compared to 10 years ago, but the question of Is it even a “real” job??? Are you going to teach forever?? Gets asked around by family and friends. The world has generalised that working simply means sitting in an office from 9-6pm, but there are other definitions and ways to make an income that supports the lifestyle you want to live. Although I feel as a society, we’re becoming more accepting of “out of the norm” jobs, for me, there’s still a lingering sense of guilt that I’m not “working”. I don’t know! Maybe this is a self-reflective thing to work on, and to work on being proud of having a different means of “work”.

🪴INCOME

Income can be pretty unstable from month to month because you earn only when you work, and even if you are ready to work and no students show up, you won’t earn. Depending on the company, if you work self-employed or for contract or freelance, there isn’t paid time off, there isn’t sick leave, there aren’t company benefits and so on. Your income can also get completely cut if there are no sign ups for a class, see below for more on this as it’s happened to me a couple times! I’d say if $$$ is your priority, this isn’t the easiest and most profitable industry to get into. Teaching is not a high paying job and it takes a lot of your energy and time if you’re teaching group classes 24/7. I didn’t understand this as a student, but as a teacher now I do. It takes a while to build up and get off the ground running, and there are so many instructors who are so passionate but struggle to find places to teach, also because of the competition in recent years.

🪴PAYMENT STRUCTURE

Payment varies based on studio, and if you’re starting out, I would get extremely clear with the payment structure, how payment is done and when you can expect it right BEFORE you sign any contracts. Ask about it during the interview because different studios do it differently. Some studios pay a flat rate for every class, some studios determine your rate for that class based on how many students show up, some studios will pay you for showing up to a class even if there aren’t students, some studios will cancel the class last minute if there are no students and therefore you won’t earn. At the end of the month when you’re sending in your invoice, that’s when reality hits. If a studio is not 100% clear on their payment structure, personally I would put it up as a yellow flag because I have experienced the worst. TLDR, Payment is very unpredictable and very uncertain, ask about it early on as studios differ with their structure.

🪴REVIEWS AND OPINION

Not gonna lie, you have to have thick skin in this industry. Some people who attend your class are going to be hurting so much they feel the need to hurt others with extremely harsh, judgemental and critical reviews about you and your class. As instructors, we need to remember that we’re not perfect and we’re just trying our best everyday, you are HUMAN and it is OKAY to make mistakes!! To not take everything personally, it’s something I’ve had to learn over and over again. We are not for everyone, and that is okay. 😌

🪴SCHEDULE

Your schedule is going to be weird! If you’re serving mainly office workers, you’d be working what the world sees as off peak hours. Think times like early mornings 6am-9am, and evenings to late nights 5pm-9pm, Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. These are peak times for fitness studios so crowds can be high. The pro to this is that you get weekday afternoons free, so at a random Wednesday afternoon you could be hiking, shopping, cafe-hopping or taking a nap at home! But when it comes to working, sometimes you have to sacrifice early mornings or super late nights, so know yourself and your working habits before taking on a whole load of clients or classes.

🪴ISOLATION

This industry is very individualistic, which means it does get very lonely. You show up day to day teaching and leading classes, it’s almost like having a one way convo with yourself. It’s good for people who love alone time, but if you’re not someone who loves being alone, then I’d say you have to find an environment where you have colleagues and teamwork. You’ll meet other trainers and teachers too, but take note that they may be teaching when you’re teaching too. In this industry (which I think is kind of similar to other industries??) we have to make an effort to get to know people and go out of our way to schedule times to meet others. It can be quite isolating, but we have to remember we’re never alone.

There are so much more things I could say, maybe we’ll do a part 2! (Comment 🦋 if you’d like more advice on this industry!)

❤️‍🩹CLOSING THOUGHTS

I LOVE this industry and cannot see myself anywhere else, and I am soooo glad I took all the changes and choices I made, I’m SO glad I learnt so much through every experience, but that doesn’t mean it was all breezy easy all the time. I struggled a lot, cried a whole lot (and still do lol) but overall the pros sort of outweigh the cons, at least for me and my story.

If you decide to get into this industry, I commend you, it’s tough out here and it isn’t always easy. If you need any big sis advice, feel free to reach out and I’ll try my best to help you in any way I can 🦋🔥