Stuff We Love

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We often get asked questions like “What should I use to make my website? Or what travel yoga mat do you recommend?” — so we decided to make a list of all our favorite tools, services, and products. 

Who is this list for? Yoga teachers, wellness entrepreneurs, yogis, and travelers. 

If we missed anything or you have further questions, comment below, say hi on social media, or reach out at [email protected] 

Yoga Teacher Basics

  • Yoga Teacher Training Certificate – Before you can start teaching, you need to complete your 200-hour yoga teacher training course. There are many different types of courses to choose from. In this guide, we walk through choosing the right training for YOU.
  • A great yoga playlist – Most people agree that music can make or break a yoga class. It’s not easy to build a good playlist, however, we’ve got you covered (Here’s a vinyasa yoga playlist)
  • Get your taxes in order – As a yoga teacher, you’re most likely considered an “Independent Contractor” in the US. This means filling your taxes is a bit more complicated than normal employees. We published a guide on taxes for yoga teachers and we also recommend a premium product that will likely save you money on your taxes this year.
  • Form an entity – If you’re running a business, it’s a good idea to create an entity (such as an LLC) to shield your personal assets from liability. There are tax benefits to doing this as well. If you want more advice, including how and where to form the entity, reach out to us at [email protected].

Website stuff

  • Website Hosting with Cloudways – All websites need hosting. You can think of hosting as “paying rent” for your website to live on the internet. We use and recommend Cloudways which has a free trial and only takes 5-10 minutes to sign up. Cloudways offers a worry-free experience, with managed security, automated backups, 24/7 real-time monitoring, and more.
  • Content Management System (CMS) – Most yoga teachers don’t know how to code their own website. Instead, we use Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, etc. We have always used WordPress and recommend it for yoga teachers.
  • Online Course Hosting and Delivery – You need a place to host your classes! We use and recommend Podia.com because it’s easy to use and the pricing is reasonable.
  • Email Marketing Tools – The most effective way to convert casual readers/students into paying customers is through email marketing. Most people think social media is all you need for marketing, but that is simply not true. People aren’t in a “buying mood” while on social media, whereas when you connect with people in their inbox, you have a better chance of converting them to customers. Email software makes managing everything really easy. There are two options that we recommend choosing between.
  • Sendfox – the most basic email marketing tool and has a free option. Sendfox is great for Karma businesses — it is simple but you may outgrow it 🙂 
  • ActiveCampaign – this is the tool we recommend for any yoga teacher who wants to earn an income from their yoga/wellness business. It’s very easy to use and they have great features to help automate your email marketing efforts. They offer a free trial and it starts at only $29/month after that.
  • Tailwind – a wonderful tool for scheduling pins to go out on Pinterest. A consistent Pinterest strategy is a great way to increase your traffic over time. Currently, about 15% of our traffic comes from Pinterest. One year ago we were seeing less than 1% traffic from Pinterest. Highly recommend leveraging Tailwind + Pinterest 🙂
  • Canva – easy and fast graphic design. We use this tool every week and often daily. A no-brainer for all online businesses.

Travel tools

  • Travel Insurance – Travel insurance is a great way to protect yourself against health issues or accidents on the road. Not useful for little things like scraps or dentist appointments. However, if something serious happens on the road, it’s great to know your insurance will reimburse all your healthcare costs. We have used World Nomads.
  • Our food map – the number one reason we travel is to explore food! During our travels in Asia we started to make a shared google map that has links to all our favorite restaurants, food stalls, fruit stands, durian sellers, and more. Over 1,000 people have used it since we created it. This thing is pure gold 🙂 
  • Food bloggers – our favorite food bloggers are Mark at Migrationology and Jodi at LegalNomads. Browse the location you’re visiting to get some tips on where the good food is hiding. 

Travel gear and planning tools

  • Packing lists – Packing lists depend on how long you’re traveling, what climate you’ll be in, and many other factors. That being said, we usually travel with carry-on sized bags. Here is a packing list for men and here’s a packing list for women. 
  • Our favorite backpacks – we have tried pretty much every carry-on backpack for traveling. Here’s a list of our top 5. 
  • Banking and Credit Cards – for international travel and long term travel in general, it’s important to get your banking and credit cards sorted out. You need a credit card with free international fees as well as an ATM card with no fees. Here’s a guide to help you get a handle on your travel banking. 
  • Favorite yoga mats for traveling – no surprise that we usually travel with yoga mats. We’ve tested pretty much all the traveling yoga mats the YOGO is the best. If you’re curious about other options, we put together our top 5 here. 
  • Comfy travel clothes – it can be hard to find the right travel clothes. It’s not easy to find clothes that are comfy, practical, and still somewhat stylish.
  • Pre-travel checklist – before we go on adventures, we follow our pre-travel checklist. There are SO many little things to remember such as: call your credit cards, pause your cell phone plan, forward your mail, find someone to water your plants, make an amazon prime order, and more. This guide will help stay organized during a chaotic time.
  • Google flights – this is simply the best way to find flights. If your dates are flexible, google fights help find really good deals. You can also search by location only to find cheap fights that you wouldn’t find otherwise. 

Let’s wrap up

Any tools you recommend we check out? We’re always on the lookout for better tools 🙂

Reach out to [email protected] with any suggestions or questions.