Once you have hosted one training, you will have a group of alumni. YogaWorks is continually looking for ways to support alumni and keep them connected and inspired. If you have additional ideas, please share with us. Below are some ideas we’re very excited to share with you.
1. Alumni Page
What is this: Consider creating an alumni page on your website that tells the success stories of key alum. Include photos.
Value: This shows alumni that they are a valued member of your studio community. It will also add value to interested students when they are considering taking the training.
2. Alumni E-Yearbook
What is this: Consider creating an alumni yearbook highlighting and celebrating all of your alum. On your Alumni website page, you can include each year’s yearbook for alumni and new leads to view. You may also choose to include a link to last year’s yearbook on your Teacher Training page.
Value: By you having created this for them, this shows alumni that they are a valued member of your studio community. Alumni can take this to interested employers as a marketing piece on themselves. It will also add value to interested students when they are considering taking the training.
Example: http://issuu.com/
3. Graduation Video
This is wonderful documentation both for the graduates and for future potential trainees.
The acknowledgement of each student at the end is also so powerful. Watching this, I feel like this is a special club I want to be a part of.
Both examples here were created our Manila partner, Urban Ashram:
Example 1: http://www.youtube.com/
Example 2: http://www.youtube.com/
What is this: This is an opportunity for alumni to re-connect with each each other and with your studio for a very special event. Leads are invited to share in a portion of this event.
Length/Schedule: 2.5 hours officially for alumni, 1 hour officially for leads, with an additional hour open for networking & chatting.
Example schedule for Alumni: 5-7:30pm (with open end time until 8:30)
Example schedule for Interested students/leads: 6:30-7:30pm (with open end time until 8:30)
1. Featured Teacher Class (free, and for alumni only) – 1 hour
2. Q&A with Featured teacher (for alumni only) – 30 min
3. Studio owner opens doors to invite in interested students. Group sits in a circle. Studio owner thanks everyone for being there, briefly shares value the YogaWorks training has brought to the studio, then hands it over to alumni. 3-4 alumni share what they are up to now – include alumni who are teaching and alumni who just wanted to deepen their practice (open to everyone to attend) – 25 min
4. Alumni lead transition to the Q&A – alumni take questions from interested students. – 30 min (open to everyone)
5. Studio owner thanks everyone for being there, lets them know about refreshments & additional time for everyone to chat with each other and that alumni are available to answer questions. Announces that alumni can come up and collect the Teaching Opportunities in the Area contact sheet now. Invites interested students to take a Teacher Training brochure.
Why do this:
Opportunity 1: Alumni are supported by the opportunity to network, re-connect with old classmates, take an exclusive class, have a Q&A with the featured teacher about anything they want and walk away with a sheet of teaching opportunities.
Opportunity 2: The opportunity here is to utilize the excitement that alumni have about the teacher training to inspire new trainees. By giving alumni an opportunity to share their experiences in the midst of potential new trainees, the potential new trainees get to hear how effective the program is while also having an embedded opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the opportunity.
Why keep Featured Class and Q&A exclusive to alumni? This makes it special for the alumni and so makes it a more bonding experience for them. Keeps it at arm’s reach for interested leads – only available to them once they go through the training. Also, alumni will be extra excited to help with the rest of the event, sharing their excitement with interested students when they see how valued they are in this way. (Note: you may want to have the Featured Teacher teach a public class for cost the next day, but keep this event exclusive).
Key opportunities: Alumni are re-invigorated about their own careers and yoga practices. Will likely to want to invite their friends into the program when we ask for their support spreading the word later on. All interested students go home with information about the program + YogaWorks training materials. You have a list of leads to follow up with about upcoming Teacher Training news.
How to do this:
1. Invite a Featured Teacher to come teach a special alumni class.
2. Invite Alumni to attend a special Alumni Networking Event + Master Class (you may do this with real invitations and an email follow up, or just a nice email). The more professional this looks, the more professional the alumni will feel about it.
3. Announce to studio through an e-blast that students interested in the Teacher Training are invited to part of a special Alumni event you are hosting. Personally invite students as well.
4. Contact healthy product companies (ex. smart water, luna bar, any of your favorites…). Let them know you are hosting an event full of yogis and ask them to send you free product. This is their prime audience so will often be happy to do so. You get to stock your event full of free goodies.
5. Make friends with yoga studios and gyms in the area and find out who is looking for teachers. Ask them for their contact info for your YogaWorks grads to contact. Get creative looking for other teaching opportunities in your area, including even volunteer opportunities. Create a complete list for your alumni to take away at their event.
5. Host event! Follow schedule as outlined above.
6. Make sure interested students sign in upon entrance so you can follow up with them about the training after. Send interested students a thank you email for attending along with upcoming training info (ex. Meet the Trainer event coming up).
7. Send Alumni a thank you email for attending, asking for feedback on event and ideas for future events. Remind them to update you with their career updates & personal transformation stories. Let them know what a valuable part of the community they are.
Value: Alumni walk away having gotten an exclusive free class and Q&A with a teacher reinforcing the YogaWorks method, an opportunity to re-connect with their community, stories from fellow classmates re-inspiring them about their own yoga career & practice, and a list of work opportunities!
This also shows interested students that once they take the training, they become a valued member of your studio, with many opportunities ahead for them!
What is this: This is an opportunity for alumni to re-connect with each each other. This will help build community and your studio will be viewed as an educational resource that cares for your community. Pick a theme that helps the Alumni build their confidence or find their path as a teacher. Our theme was “Keys to Success” – included a Group Meditation, Group Activities, Q&A Panel with New Successful Teachers, and a Raffle.
Length/Schedule: 3 hours for Alumni – Group Meditation, Group Activities, Q&A Panel with New Successful Teachers, and a Raffle.
Example schedule for Alumni Event: 7:30p – 10:30p
1. Opening Meditation 8pm – 8:30pm
2. Group Activities 8:30pm – 9:15p – Break out into groups and discuss the obstacles and limiting beliefs that are holding back students from being their greatest self. Identifying goals and setting intentions.
4. Q&A with Current New Teachers 9:15p – 10:15p – As a result of the exercises, the alumni will have questions that they can ask the teachers. These teachers are newer teachers that are closer to the process of the Alumni. They graduated a few years before them and are creating successful yoga careers.
5. Raffle – Contact existing partnerships for donations to the raffle. Raffle off yoga mats, clothing, gift certificates, etc. Announce the sponsors at the event. We also had gift bags for the first 50 people who showed up.
Food/Beverage: We had Whole Foods donate veggie wraps/rolls and Vita Coco Coconut Water donated a few cases of coconut water.
Why do this:
When Alumni feel supported by the studio with an opportunity to network, re-connect with old classmates, and have a Q&A with the featured teachers, they walk away proud of their studio and with a sense of empowerment about teaching that will spread like wildfire to the students they teach. Their enthusiasm will encourage others to take the plunge.
Key opportunities: Ask all the students to pass along their support for the teacher trainings by posting a testimonial on your Facebook page or writing a blog about their experience. They can also pass along pictures of their training to your Facebook page. You can also remind them of the Alumni Referral Programs – $50 AMEX card per each full paying student they refer.
How to create this event:
1. Invite your meditation instructor for the opening meditation and your panel of teachers to speak for one hour with the students (we paid our teachers $75 for the hour to attend and only invited them for the panel not the whole event). Write up a few starter questions that they will each answer as ice breakers, then let open up the floor to the students.
2. Invite Alumni to attend through an e-blast and Facebook announcements. We used “Eventbrite.com” to create “tickets” even though the event was free. It helped us monitor the guest list and automatically creates an RSVP list for the door/studio staff for check in. You can also pick a max amount of RSVPs. The system will shut down any RSVP’s when you hit your max. We only invited Alumni that are fairly new that need this information (last three years).
3. A week before the event, ask everyone to confirm their RSVP so that you can release more tickets to guests that want to come if there is a waiting list.
4. Contact healthy product companies (ex. smart water, luna bar, any of your favorites…). Let them know you are hosting an event full of yogis and ask them to send you free product. This is their prime audience so will often be happy to do so. You get to stock your event full of free goodies for the event, raffle and gift bags.
5. Make sure alumni sign up for your raffle when they arrive and announce that they need to present to win, this way they stay for the duration of the event (and you don’t have to track anyone down later!).
7. Send Alumni a thank you email for attending, asking for feedback on event and ideas for future events. Remind them to update you with their career updates & personal transformation stories. Let them know what a valuable part of the community they are.
Value: Alumni walk away having gotten an exclusive opportunity to re-connect with their community. This also shows interested students that once they take the training, they become a valued member of your studio, with many opportunities ahead for them!