How a Yoga Teacher Booked 40 January Clients Without Discounting

When we spoke on a Tuesday morning in Oakland, Priya Shah had closed registration for her winter six-week series two weeks early. Forty spots, at $285 each, filled on a Wednesday morning — no discount, no "New Year, New You" promotion, no frozen-rate referral code.

"Every studio in a five-mile radius was sending 20%-off emails," she said, pouring tea into two mismatched cups. "I sent one text to thirty people and I was full before lunch."

The list

The list started in October. Priya kept a running note — literally in the iPhone Notes app — of anyone who'd mentioned wanting to start yoga, restart yoga, or go deeper than drop-in classes. Friends of clients, Instagram DMs, people who'd attended her outdoor sessions over the summer.

"I wasn't selling them. I was remembering them."

In early January, she sent thirty of those people a one-line text: "Winter series registration opens Wednesday at 9. Want me to hold a spot?"

Twenty-eight said yes. The other twelve spots went to her existing weekly clients.

What she won't do

Two firm rules, both learned the hard way:

• No January promotions. Priya tried a half-off intro week in 2023. She filled it, burned out, and lost six of the eight people by February because they came in for the price, not the practice.
• No ClassPass. "It pays you thirty percent of your rate to meet people who won't come back. I'd rather teach four students who actually want to be there."

The economics

Forty students at $285 = $11,400 for a six-week block. She runs three blocks a year with a private client layer on top — totaling roughly $55,000 from group work and another $40K–50K from privates. Rent on the studio she subleases from a chiropractor is $800 a month.

"People keep asking when I'm going to open my own space. I don't want my own space. I want to teach three days a week and take August off."

What the New Year actually is

Priya's not anti-January. She just treats it as a harvest, not a hunt.

"The work of filling January happens in October. Everyone trying to discount their way in on December 29 is working the wrong muscle."

Her advice for providers whose business spikes at the start of the year: stop blasting the public. Start a list six weeks out. Remember the conversations. Send the text.

Photo: Unsplash