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You have a TON of ideas! How do you decide what to teach?
It’s overwhelming to teach years of experience in a short workshop. Today, we’re narrowing down our ideas and beginning the process of workshop creation!!
Remember, you do NOT have to create the content of your workshop before you start talking about the workshop.
Once you’ve started marketing your workshop, talking about it and making sure it’s a good idea, THEN it’s time to finally create the content for your workshop.
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED
Set aside a block of time!
It’s important that you set aside some uninterrupted time to fully brainstorm and plan this workshop. You don’t want to be distracted.
I like to set aside at least two to four hours of undistracted & uninterrupted time.
BRAIN DUMP
You should already know the title and topic of your workshop. Brain dump everything you know about that topic.
Grab a piece of paper and a pen, sit down and spend at least 20-30 minutes brainstorming and writing down all of the information you know about this topic.
I find most people, myself included, try to rush this process. You may feel like you’re done after 5 minutes, but continue to sit with this process. Don’t stop, allow your mind to wander and continue to think and brainstorm.
Here’s an example of a workshop that I’m creating for my 300 hour advanced yoga teacher training.
IDENTIFY YOUR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
What is the PRIMARY objective you want to teach your students?
You only have so much time in a workshop and you can’t cram years of knowledge into just a few hours.
Trust me- I used to try and teach my students everything and it only confused them more. 😉
I’ve found that it’s better to have ONE primary objective in a workshop and a few other sub-objectives.
Here’s my suggestions on how many sub-objectives to teach per workshop:
2-4 hour workshop – 1 Primary Objective Only
4-6 hour workshop – 1 Primary Objective Only + 1 Sub-objective
6-8 hour workshop – 1 Primary Objective Only + 2 Sub-objective
>8 hour workshop – 1 Primary Objective Only + 3 Sub-objective
Never more than 4 total objectives.
Your objectives should coincide with your marketing.
If you’re teaching a Breathing for Anxiety workshop, the primary objective should be focused on breathing practices for anxiety! You wouldn’t want to talk a lot about the anatomy of breathing. Your students should walk away knowing breath techniques for anxiety.
Every sub-objective you choose should circle back to your primary objective.
For my example, I’m teaching a 6-hour workshop, so I’m choosing ONE primary objective & two sub-objectives to share with my students.
Primary Objective: UNDERSTAND THE QUALITIES OF AYURVEDA and LIKE INCREASES LIKE PRINCIPLE
Sub-objective #1: STUDENT’S DOSA AND IT’S QUALITIES (talk about the qualities of Ayurveda and how they relate to the dosa)
Sub-objective #2: YOGA PRACTICES FOR YOUR DOSA (talk about the qualities of each yoga practice and how it relates to the dosa)
NARROW DOWN YOUR BRAIN DUMP
Now that you know the primary objective of your workshop, go back through your brain dump, and cross off anything that doesn’t fit with your objectives.
For my Ayurveda for Yoga Teachers workshop, I don’t really need to focus on the 6 tastes or Ayurvedic assessments or diseases. I’d really like to still provide some recipes and talk about ghee though, so I’ll leave them on my list for now and see how much time I have as I put together the content.
Congrats!! You’ve narrowed down your objectives and you know exactly what content you want to teach!!
In our next article, we will take all of this information and create a unique workshop experience that will have your students engaged, talking and excited about working with you!
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Unlock Your Energetic Anatomy: The course for yoga teachers who want to deepen their personal practice, advance their teaching and help their students unlock new layers within themselves.
✳️ Develop a fuller context of what's happening in a yoga class
✳️ Hold space for your students in a deeper way
✳️ Develop more cues and language around asana
✳️ Create a great yoga experience for your students.
UNLOCK YOUR ENERGETIC ANATOMY isn’t so much a training program as it is an experience and opportunity to connect deeply with your personal yoga practice.