And now for another installment of Good idea/Bad idea? We mentioned the newly founded YAMA (Yoga Artist Management Agency) back when it was just a murmur, a side note on a press release. Well, the babe has been birthed! With a fancy new website and full roster of yogis, yoginis, and yogapreneurs alike, YAMA a full service talent agency with all the trimmings, including help with creative direction (strategies!), dealing with pesky legal baloney, scheduling photo shoots and booking personal appearances all over the globe! Cause yogi you’re a star! How much will it all cost you? It’s not on the website so we imagine that factors into the contract negotiations! Yep, line up and sign up kids.
From YAMAtalent.com:
YAMA Talent provides yoga teachers with world class management and booking services. We help teachers by managing all the nitty gritty business details. From developing a brand identity to organizing tours, booking photo shoots and leveraging social media, we do it all.
Those detestable nitty gritties.
We are experts in the yoga space and a catalyst for spreading the practice of yoga by helping teachers to do what they do best: teach. Like other artists, athletes and scholars, we believe that yoga teachers should have the freedom to focus on their craft, to practice, to study and innovate. We accomplish our goal by easing the burden of the business side of being a yoga teacher and offering comprehensive strategy to organize and execute the careers of our clients. We aim to become the hub of the fast growing yoga community, connecting students, teachers, studios and yoga enthusiasts around the world.
They’re gonna make you a star baby! The future of yoga? When will see YAMA talent on Oprah??
The mat is open.. debate and discuss!
Roster:
Agustin Aguerreberry
Angie Stewart
Annie Carpenter
Ashley Turner
Brock Cahill
David Regelin
Diane Hudock
Duncan Wong
Gillian Clark
Gwen Lawrence
Hala Khouri
Hemalayaa Behl
Janet Stone
KK Ledford
Katchie Ananda
Kia Miller
Krista Cahill
Lauren Haze
Les Leventhal
Mary Aranas
Raghunath
Sadie Nardini
Same Chase
Sarita Moore
Schuyler Grant
Stacy McCarthy
Suzanne Sterling
Vanessa Lee
Wayne Lehrer
Earlier…Selling Out: Yoga Talent Agency Seeks A-list Yoga Teachers Seeking Fame
CougarYoga: Martha Stewart Does “The Yoga Show” 2010 with Trudie Styler
Room Service Yoga and More Hybrid Combos for Big Yoga Business
interesting! and a very interesting roster. it’s the yoga glitterati, in all their glamourous, sexy, lithe glory.
this kind of agency was inevitable, i think, as the role of the yoga teacher changes. what with conferences, television appearances and yoga journal photo shoots on top of teaching ~ who has time to book plane tickets or update facebook?
anyway. i’m sure these teachers are all talented, committed and skilled, and their careers are ascending. that’s great. but for me, personally, and how i pursue my practice and my study, i am more interested in supporting DIY, grassroots initiatives ~ the teachers who are doin’ it themselves in their neighbourhoods. still, i find YAMA completely fascinating and will be following its developments, for sure!
You know what, I am not even going to “hate”. Because if I had that look that people wanted to see, I would do it too.
I like this. Please take a look at my blog. Thank you
Actually, I think the global-yoga-community ship has already sailed. This isn’t really a world of single hubs, anymore. I’ve been discussing this yoga-wise (http://groundingthruthesitbones.blogspot.com/2010/02/thats-what-i-said.html) and Douglas Coupland referred to it, popular culture-wise this weekend in the NYT.
The gist being that we have become a long-tail culture–many different things for many different people–and the days of monolithic cultural movements has passed. I think the same can be said for the yoga megacelebrity culture; so many yogis are being served by so many different styles that the idea of unifying the whole thing with just a few teachers (or talent agencies) at the center seems very Old Media.
But hey, good luck to ’em…cuz, lord knows, it’s a bitch to develop a brand identity on your own.
I am doubtful they won’t do anything for their clients beyond completely eliminating street cred. Maybe I am wrong!
I don’t know if you need street cred anymore to teach yoga. I have seen brand new teachers get hired over senior teachers for reasons that really had nothing to do with their ability to teach. Yoga in the west is evolving whether we like it or not. If a teacher is publicized in the media, the classes will fill up.
Wow. This explains a LOT.
Yes, yes… there’s this trend at certain NYC shalas to staff with junior teachers. They are unwilling to pay the senior teachers!
Or some places have their teacher trainer farms and a constantly shifting roster of fresh faced, early 20 somethings who will work for $20 a class and maybe a little extra if their head count is high enough. But many businesses are like this – they run on “college grads”, who do the bulk of the work for relatively low pay, and management.
Boodiba, True. By the way, I follow you on youtube and you are featured on my blog under Internet Inspirations in case you didn’t know 😉
many of these teachers are amazing and talented and have been teaching at a grass-roots level for several years at the very least. maybe some of the qualified, senior teachers on this roster got tired of being passed up for younger, yoga-farmed teachers with more aggressive marketing strategies, etc…marketing yoga and teachers of yoga has been around for decades, this is not a new concept .
Oh Shanna I didn’t know! 🙂 Thanks for telling me. I was going to film something this Sunday, but since I have afternoon practice on Saturday too, I think not. When I get back to NYC and finally get going on the site for my teacher, we’re going to do some photos just for that. I’ll put up a link!
This is interesting. I can honestly say that if I didn’t have a background in business and marketing, I don’t believe I’d be in the the current position I am in. I am humbled and grateful to have some of the tools needed to grow the company. But not everyone does -and quite honestly, many are just (if not much more) qualified. As any entrpreneur knows (I know that’s an ugly word for us yogis…), as your business grows, you simply don’t have the time to keep up with the details. Without some form of help (agency, singular person, staff – is there a difference?), the teaching would inevitably suffer. For most of us, that’s our passion, so a sacrifice has to be made somewhere.
So, I’m not for or against, but open to and understanding of the need. Not ruling it out, but I am with Courtney – I rather enjoy working with local grassroots people and organizations…for now. No rigidity, no attachments.
Childlight,I do understand the need for staff and help with marketing but are they using some type of criteria to pick the teachers they represent or will they represent anyone? Are they going to represent the size 14 Yogini with the big heart who maybe can’t put their leg behind their heads but teaches an amazing class or is it just the model types that we see all over Yoga Journal and in popular media?
Shanna,
Will be very interesting to see as you are correct – currently, it looks like only ‘picture’ perfect yogis are being represented. But I don’t want to judge just yet. They are new and that is why there is such a buzz – hopefully, their representation will diversify over time. I’m going to have faith that it will.
Would be wonderful to see a response from them to this post, answering some of the questions many have brought up.
Sadly, yoga in America has sailed away from its original roots. Now it’s all about being young and sexy. The last time I read the Sutras of Patanjali, yoga was a spiritual practice and a doorway to a higher consciousness and self-realization. At the Boston Yoga and Chant Fest it is our mission to NOT host any “big” names and count on the hype to sell expensive tickets to thousands of people. We still have amazing teachers who are nationally and internationally popular but they come in all shapes, sizes and ages.