If you want to leverage sub opportunities into regular employment the first thing we need to do is change how we see subbing. You aren’t just a warm body in front of the class. You are a unique professional and should present yourself that way.

In part 3 of our fit pro success series we take a deep dive into the key sub skills that every instructor needs to master. And bonus those skills will elevate the quality of your instruction everywhere.

Learn how to master the Art of the introduction to set boundaries, manage expectations, build trust and rapport through permission, hold the space through energy, and practice oiling your feathers!

We also go into common mistakes that sub instructors make that undermine their credibility and confidence and a bit about how to avoid them. Hint: Be yourself!

Anyone who has been a sub knows what a gut punch it is when you step in front of an empty classroom. Or worse people actually walk out on you! This is what happens when our students imprint on us as instructors. While flattering to the ego it can make it difficult to get anyone to fill in for you and ultimately does your students a disservice.

In part 2 of our fit pro success series, we talk about the importance of breaking the guru mentality no matter what the format you teach and some ways to do that.

This is part of holding space. This is the ultimate skill as an instructor.

Setting boundaries is key. Those boundaries apply to you as the instructor and to your students and they serve to protect your entire class from things like judgment, unhealthy competition and unrealistic expectations.

Sex, religion, money and politics. Those are the taboo topics, right? I think there are some situations where in wellness coaching you may want to address sex, religion or spirituality and maybe even money. But for me politics has always been a third rail, a hard limit and here’s why.

Tawnia Converse is an experienced yoga teacher and mentor and the creative force behind A Soulful Space LLC virtual healing arts studio. Tawnia retired from the Marine corps after 20 years of service as a Spanish linguist and intel analyst and now she supports women in their spiritual journey back to become whole, radiant and sovereign souls through yoga.

Tawnia has an incredible journey and experience to share with her clients, students and fellow instructors in the wellness space and this promises to be a really interesting exploration as we learn a little bit more about Tawnia and take a look at how we can build a more authentic voice in our personal and professional lives.

So let’s start our work in with Tawnia Converse …

They say that if you're not growing, you may as well be dying. As harsh as that sounds it may be true. Especially when it comes to continuing education in the wellness space. Health, fitness, wellness, nutrition, medicine, mindset; all of those fields are constantly changing. We learn new things every day about the body that we live in and it takes time for that new understanding to filter out into the general population. Fitness and wellness professionals are a big part of how that information gets out. But only if we make an effort to go and collect it, curate it and then translate it to our peeps. And in that process we can influence the health and wellbeing of our people in powerful ways while still staying within our scope of practice. One of the ways we can do that is through continuing education.

in the fitness industry, of course, we want to have a really fantastic depth and breadth of knowledge to present to our students. And in the quest for that, it's often really easy to kind of fall into this trap of just collecting certification after certification without any real plan, or idea about what it is that we really want to get out of those certifications… sometimes what ends up happening is that we keep collecting certification after certification. And we get lots and lots of letters after our name and it can be very confusing to not just our clients but to ourselves about who we are, what it is we do what we want to offer for real and so I wanted to introduce you today to one of my teachers and good friends in the yoga industry. And we're going to discuss curating certifications a little bit more with Cara Uranga of Drishti Yoga teacher training…