Although most yoga centers derive a large chunk of their income from teacher trainings, there’s still an obvious pressure to fill classes, even if some studios may deny this. The problem is that you can’t really make that happen in any obvious way. And unfortunately, it takes time to create enough of a “fan base” (for lack of a better term) to fill a room.

I (anecdotally) concluded that in order to consistently fill a room of 40 students, at least 400 students needed to want to be there. I had to teach over 1,500 people to develop the rapport with the ones who really understood what I was offering and who wanted more of it on a weekly basis.

That, frankly, takes some time to build! As with any popularity contest, it can drive you crazy if you start to take it personally. Students would swear that I'd changed their lives and then suddenly vanish.

In every conversation I’ve had with fellow teachers about “their numbers,” the more we explored this topic, the more crazy it felt. It is and will remain a mystery.