Hello. I am Michael Perkola. By accident, I have become the organizer of the Houston Yoga Community Meetup. You can learn more about me on my website.
The pandemic of COVID-19 has changed our daily lives and will likely continue to do so for a year or more to come. I encourage you to adjust your expectations and lifestyle for a long-term crisis.
For Students of Yoga
Please express support for your favorite studios and teachers by subscribing to their online content. If you are unable to afford to do so, then offer them emotional support by continuing to communicate with them. We teachers thrive from the social contact with students and it is very hard to no longer be able to serve you. Also, please consider continuing to pay the monthly membership fee for now. This will ensure that the business and the community it organizes may continue to exist.
Now is the time to take what you have learned and apply it to a solo practice of yoga. While teachers educate and inspire us, it is ultimately up the individual to self-initiate a deeper level of understanding and awareness. This is your time to take responsibility and embark upon that path.
For Teachers of Yoga
We’re so fucked.
I have been grieving over the loss of the lifestyle, work, and community I had. The business model which we enjoyed is no longer available to us due to this highly contagious disease. In my best educated guess, this crisis will persist for a year or more. That is certainly long enough to bankrupt our employers and us too. The glimmer of hope is that this is a local, national, and global problem. The authorities will have to find big solutions to keep the economy and us limping along until a vaccine or other solution is found. Harris County and some apartment management companies are already suspending evictions.
I encourage you to calculate how much money you have and how long you can survive on it. Have conversations with your landlord, employer, and support network about what can be done to help you. If you are working as an employee (W-2), then you might be eligible for unemployment benefits. However, the Texas Workforce Commission website is currently overwhelmed and down. I acknowledge that the unemployment benefits (UB) fund may also be overwhelmed. Nonetheless, consider filing a claim because you may be able to receive some amount of income for a maximum of 26 weeks. A claim for UB is valid if you were laid off without a case of your misconduct, you were not being paid for work (employer doesn’t issue or bounces a paycheck), health or safety issues, and reduction in your pay or hours of 20% or more. There are also other conditions. Reach out to me if you want to discuss this in more detail.
If you were working as an Independent Contractor (W-9, MISC-1099), then that was likely an illegal labor arrangement. You can still attempt to file for unemployment benefits and claim other rights. For example, I successfully won a case against Joy Yoga Center (owned by Christopher Mulgrew) over the misclassification of worker status. However, this process may take time to
Going Online
Being able to teach online is dependent on skills and technology you may not possess. Thankfully, there are multiple streaming services to distribute your content. You can consider soliciting payments and donations to a PayPal or Venmo account. For a long-term arrangement, check out Patreon, although understand that you might only convert a single-digit percentage of viewers into paying patrons. Vimeo offers the ability to sell individual videos and subscriptions in its Pro and above tier plans.
In order to shoot a quality video, consider having a location with good lighting and a quiet environment. If you are demonstrating and cueing, then I suggest recording the practice then recording a voice over afterwards. There are several apps and softwares available for editing, including iMovie, Kinemaster, and Adobe Premiere Pro. Other teachers are using group meetings via Skype or Zoom to host classes.
Get a New Job
If you are financially vulnerable, then I suggest that you seek new employment as soon as possible. There are several resources for that, including WorkInTexas. Please consider that our plans for a career in yoga might no longer be viable in the near term, including studio work, workshops, and yoga vacations.
Please let me know how I can help you through this period of crisis.
Michael Perkola
