How To Not Play Guitar 🎸 Report

Hey Hey,

For starters, I just wanted to say a big old thank you to everyone who reached out after last week's newsletter.

Before sending, I was literally thinking "This thing makes no sense but my gut is telling me to hit send so here it goes".

It's been quite the learning curve showing up here every single week. Other than figuring out what to write about every 7 days (I'm coming to realise there is always lots to talk about!), can we also be that consistent? And what does consistency look like as we serve this community?

As someone who has a couple of real-life human babies at home, hanging out in the studio each weeknight like I used to is no longer sustainable.

This has bothered me for quite some time. I felt like an imposter because I couldn't show up on the teacher's mat like I used to.

After a short-lived emo moment about it, because 1) the teachers we do have rock and we are so lucky to have them, and 2) coming to the realization you can't be everywhere at once, no matter how hard you try, I decided to then just figure out other ways to show up for the community instead (hence the 7-day love letters).

I have been borderline obsessing over YouTube videos from fancy business people and they all seem to have a very similar message, be consistent.

It's the same when learning Asana right? At the start of this year, we put together a 4-week beginner yoga course.

We could deliver this course in two ways: To teach a little bit of everything and showcase the vastness that is yoga, or teach the foundations of asana and one key pranayama over and over and over again.

And guess which path we chose?

The "boring" one 

It's like learning an instrument. What would happen if you picked up a guitar, and learned a new song every day, compared to playing the same song over and over again (also, I'm not completely sure if this is a good example as I don't play any instruments, but let's just go with it).

Consistency has also been coming up for me personally with the next Teacher Training too (sorry to keep talking about it, but it's deadset the thing I think about every day atm).

I just had a talk with a friend about how nervous I am.

We have surpassed what was the secret (secret as in won't say it out loud but it's what I feel comfortable with) expectation for the number of people who would be interested and book in.

To the point that I actually want to STOP taking enrolments, because that feels safe.

My mentor Katie Rose (who is also a teacher on this training btw) told me, very specifically, that this would happen. As we get closer to the start date for the training, we will want to change things around. Change our capacity. Change our messaging. Change the modules.

Change is unavoidable in this big thing called life, but what about in the very little of what we can control? 

How do we even know when to change, and when to stick with it?

Because often, changing it up can be the easier/enticing/exciting option compared to just simply staying consistent (anyone else reading 4 books at once?).

A little random backstory:

After the first year of studio ownership life, I got bored, so I opened a bunch more.

Everyone was cheering me on, and I felt like I was really cool and badass, but in hindsight, it was not the right decision for me at the time (plus I actually don't know much about physically building and fitting out studios, so my baby daddy did most of it, pictured below). 

I personally try my best to have no regrets, so let's just say that the experience was a very educational one.

The future now consists of growing the Nin Yoga brand in different ways (epic teachers, teacher trainings, retreats, and events will do just fine thank you very much!)

Any who, thanks again for giving these words your time of day.

Ill be on reception at the St Marys studio Mondays and Fridays for the next little bit, before I swap them over to be present at the Teacher Training, which is every Tuesday and Thursday evening starting at the end of the month.

If you are a past student and have been thinking of swinging back through our doors, we would love to know what it would take to have you back in the space.

If you got this far, we would love to offer you the two-week trial again (usually only for new students, but I'll grant it to you if you reply to this email!).

Feedback is always welcome. Constructive feedback too.

We are here to figure out how we can best serve YOU.

Hope your Tuesday morning has been rocking, and speak again soon,

Annika 

P.S. We have TWO FREE CLASSES week after next. Saturday 9 am Vinyasa and Sunday 8 am meditation. Ill remind you again next week, but if you want to save your spot now, you can do that here