How to Make Money as a Meditation Teacher

So many people ask me about how to make money as a meditation teacher, and I am always glad to help them! It may surprise people, however, that I don’t answer them right away with details about financials. There are so many more benefits of becoming a meditation teacher. I usually begin by describing two big picture results of becoming a meditation teacher or coach.

• Receive abundance. You receive back a special blessing in helping others. You open up your life to abundance that you never imagined.
• Have freedom and flexibility by sharing calm. You get to set your own schedule while helping others grow and make choices in life more freely, not moved by reactive emotions, but by managed choices that help them thrive.

How do I know about making money in meditation coaching? I have been through all the stages of building a meditation coaching business. In the past, I have spent/invested a lot of money into my work. In the following post, I will share with you how to become successful and thrive as a coach.

When I began meditation coaching, I was executive coaching at the time. I was frustrated at times because I saw there was a need to go deeper with clients. So, I was attracted to the prospect of meditation coaching jobs because it allowed me to go deeper and help people more.

Meditation coaching became an energetic alignment with who I am and how I want to live — with the flexibility I mentioned and the abundance I have experienced as a result.

What Is A Meditation Coach?

There are several specific characteristics of a meditation coach I want to share. These are the three most important things.

1. Teach Meditation and Help People Develop a Daily Practice

Meditation coaching helps people to create a daily practice of meditation. The goal is to make meditation part of their daily lives.

2. Facilitate Coaching by Listening and Asking Powerful Questions

You get to know each person you work with on a deeper level and help to address their particular needs and challenges. There is no substitute to listening to others to learn about them. But questions often are the key to drawing out information that helps to reveal blocks and hidden desires. 

3. Help Your Clients Realize Their Goals

You empower your clients to set goals that are realistic and measurable and then hold them accountable for what they say they will do.

For more information about taking your meditation coaching online, we covered this topic thoroughly in our article: Take your work online & expand your business. Check it out!

Ways to Coach

I will get into more specifics, but I wanted to introduce these ways to coach at a general level first so that you will see the remarkable flexibility it offers.

Work One-on-One

Many people think of this as the only way to coach. It may be the primary approach for many people, but there are other coaching options.

Facilitate Groups

Group sessions are great because it maximizes the number of participants and opens your work to corporations, businesses, families, and so on. Participants also build relationships and community with others that aids them on their personal journeys.

Teach in-Person and Virtually

Coaching is not just for in-person. As the time during COVID has proven, meditation coaching thrives virtually as well.

I love the flexibility of meditation coaching. I can work with people one on one or in groups. I see it as a way to steward or partner with others to create what they want in life. I empower them and help them achieve it. It has been so very flexible to work with people in person or virtually that I can live anywhere in the world. So, it is highly adaptable to your schedule. I coach people around the globe via Zoom, and it works well in a virtual setting. Working virtually allows you to touch more people than just your native country.

What Is the Financial Potential of Working as a Coach?

The financial picture is the bottom line for many people about their decision to become a meditation coach. Meditation is one of the fastest-growing health industries. People are increasingly experiencing the value of meditation and how it impacts their overall health and well-being. Studies have shown these benefits many times over.

Consider the following:

• Meditation is over a $1B market and growing at a rate of 11% per year.
• The meditation market is expected to be $2 billion by 2022.

To complement that, the coaching market is a $15B market in 2019 and expected to be $20B by 2022. According to Price Waterhouse Cooper, coaching is currently the second-fastest-growing industry.

Meditation Is the Future of Coaching

I believe meditation is a large part of this growth in the coaching business, allowing people to go deeper than merely coaching alone can do. Meditation helps people raise self-awareness: emotional awareness, emotional intelligence, and body awareness to ground yourself and help you be centered. Think of it as a life-long gift you are giving to others.

You give people invaluable skills and a practice they can connect to every day. The practical health results are the benefits proven by studies and the personal stories of those who begin meditation.

Release Stress

Stress release is a large part of the health benefits that people begin to feel. Meditation helps people not just deal with their stress but to experience the causes and address it. This approach helps people in how they feel, think, and experience life.

Raise Self-Awareness

Much of meditation is about helping people become more aware of themselves and their bodies. Some of the first meditation practices I lead ask people to breathe and think about what they feel in their bodies. This helps them identify stress and consciously release it.

Develop EQ

Meditation boosts your emotional intelligence by helping you develop emotional awareness. Through practice, you learn how to develop compassion. Emotional intelligence changes your ability to relate to yourself and others.

Be Calm and Centered

Life always has its uncertainties. Meditation helps people stay grounded and centered. It is a learned skill, and people who practice this daily learn how to return to this state more quickly, even in the midst of what others experience as chaos.

The great news is that people aren’t aware of meditation as a vocation yet. It is a great time to jump in and get ahead of the curve in becoming a meditation coach. You will love getting to create your schedule and help others in a time when people need peace more than ever. You will help others realize that another human can take them further in healing and growing than they ever could on their own.

How Much Can I Make As A Meditation Coach?

As previously mentioned data shows, this industry is growing. Yes, you can make a good living as a meditation teacher. ZipRecruiter gives the meditation teacher income a wide range, from $16K as a beginner to $186.5K per year as a top range.

Other close comps include teaching yoga. Sometimes people think yoga is a comparable skill, but there are so many more yoga instructors that the range for instructors ranges from $30–$200 per class. Plus, yoga is almost always led in person, which involves setting up time, commuting, and space rentals that eat into the profit margin as it relies on your physical time and presence per class.

Coaching has a wide range of profitability, falling $50-$500 per hour according to what you specialize in. Corporate and executive coaching is the highest end of this spectrum.

What Are Different Income Streams of Meditation Coaching?

The different meditation coaching streams will help you see how many opportunities there are for you as you teach individuals and groups. Your meditation teacher salary will be primarily based on the number of different streams below that you can assemble.

The Mode

• 1-on-1: One-on-one sessions can be in person or virtually and range from $75–$200 per hour on average.
• Group Coaching Sessions: You can coach a group of people via Zoom and therefore charge an overall higher rate.

Your Strategy

1. Launch Your Meditation Challenges and Workshops

Challenges can be set up at standard time frames that help people focus on starting a habit, but that also fits into standard time frames for challenges: 3-day, 7-day, 21-day meditation challenges online with daily check-in for a set period.

Consider the free and open workshops for people to try for 1, 3, or 5 days—low cost / low-risk way to introduce people to meditation and your coaching. Build email lists from these events and market to them later. This approach has a practical component to see if they like working with you before you charge more for longer sessions. It is truly a powerful learning experience for you to do this too. Work with a wide variety of people in different situations to learn your strengths, what you enjoy, and what you might shy away from.

2. Private Meditation Lessons (virtual or in-person)

$1/per minute and create packages. Create packages for a 4- or 6-week series and give a package deal in a learning experience with you.

3. Classes, Sessions, and Workshops in the Corporate World

The business / corporate world is the most prominent consumer of meditation. Scientific based evidence demonstrates that meditation makes their employees healthier and then more productive. This saves on employee absenteeism and health care costs that hurt corporations. Organizations pay anywhere from $10K to $30K for workshops. Our Certified LIBERATE Meditation Coach training shows you how to enter the business workshop.

4. Retreats and Training

Retreats virtually, privately, hosting training in person or online.

Additional Considerations

Create Digital Meditation Products

Digital audio, video products, and ebooks are passive income streams that can help you increase your marketing list but also provide many entry points for clients to get to know who you are. More details on these approaches later.

Individualize

Create personalized meditations for your clients to practice. You can even record your coaching session as you lead the client through meditation and then send it to the client afterward to practice. This helps you build a collection of meditations.

How Does Meditation Coaching Work As a Business?

I created this chart below to help people understand what they can potentially make as a meditation coach. This table is a snapshot overview of a few scenarios and stages of your business. This information will help you as you make a business plan to think through some common scenarios.

Start by considering the number of clients you develop. Notice that it is not necessarily the number of clients that matters as much as quality. In the same way, times per month with a client can make a difference in your salary. Lastly, the amount you charge per session will impact your bottom line. Again, those who charge larger amounts often have to develop those relationships and your reputation as a coach over time.

I mentioned how you could build passive income on your site through selling books, online courses, and meditations. However, people have gotten more aggressive at pushing their content out for others and, with a few marketing and promotion techniques, there is revenue to be made in these places on the Web and through their corresponding mobile apps.

Distribute Your Content Through

YouTube

Create your channel. Build followers who will keep coming back. Ask them to like and share your videos. Use your videos to drive others to your web site where other resources are available. Post new releases on your social media channels to pull in new followers. I filled an entire training through one youtube video.

Insight Timer

Post your guided meditations here. People searching for meditation and coaching will find you here as well, and you can build a following. Those personalized meditations are great options to post here.

Udemy

Many people can turn their ebooks and instructional videos into courses. Udemy is a great source and a popular place for those interested in seeking courses and training. This is a great opportunity to make the passive income of an ebook more active.

Social Media

Use social media to get your message out to a wide array of followers. You can send out links to your latest videos, teaching opportunities, and courses on social media that others can reach you in just one click. People have used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, among others, to spread your message.

How Can You Train to Become a Meditation Coach or Teacher?

Let me introduce you to Sura Flow’s Meditation Coach Training: LIBERATE. LIBERATE is a 12-week Certified Online Course. It is also followed by a 12-week hands-on portion where you work with clients and host your meditation circles.

A slogan we use for this training is “Learn how to bring meditation to the real world.” We take seriously the idea of helping our trainees succeed. That’s why we include a Business Toolkit, as well, that offers a comprehensive toolkit for launching a business.

You can learn more about LIBERATE here: https://suraflow.org/liberate-meditation-coach-training-course/.

There are many benefits to becoming a meditation coach or teacher. Here are five of them!

The Benefits of Being a Meditation Coach:

1. Become a Pioneer in an Emerging Field. Now is a great time to start this new profession. As mentioned earlier, this is a great time to enter this profession that is on the rise.
2. Make additional income. You make as much money as you have time available. Since you make your own schedule, you can teach in addition to other responsibilities.
3. Work remotely or in person. Both approaches are equally viable options for meditation coaching. The choice is yours.
4. Create your schedule and content. You are in charge of your schedule and can create your vision for your work and pursue specific clients and address their needs.
5. Help people in a deep and meaningful way. You will make a lasting impact on the lives of those you work with. You will be changed and blessed as well as a result.

Create freedom, flexibility, and abundance by tapping into your creative energy. You have more freedom, flexibility, and abundance as you are in charge of your schedule and work, create your content and grow personally through your coaching. But you equally help your clients live with more freedom, flexibility, and abundance as you help them make choices freely that help them live their best lives.

You can’t do this alone. I always advise people to do the following:

• Find your tribe.
• Discover your support system.

The reality is that we are more effective in community. Build a support system and have a tribe and community of people to get in touch with and support. This is a time of co-realization – waking each other up — in society and in our personal relationships. We are engaged in this collaborative co-engaging process by making a more significant impact. This transformation is not just on a personal level but a societal one as well.

Want to review this content? Watch the YouTube video on How to Make Money as a Meditation Teacher.

How to Start as a Meditation Teacher

Step 1: Develop Your Meditation Practice.

It’s important to make meditation a part of your everyday life. The knowledge and insight you receive from your practice will anchor you as a teacher or coach so that you can help people tap into the best versions of themselves.

• What one or two techniques are you going to focus on to develop fully?
• How much time are you willing to commit each day?

Step 2: Begin sharing meditation!

Start with what you know. Teach from your practice. Find people who are willing to practice with you. Offer to teach meditation at your workplace, or at a center, or wherever you are. It’s all about the intention and willingness to share meditation.

• It’s all about practice.
• Start with writing your meditations, then practice recording them.

Step 3: Refine Your Offering.

Think about what kind of meditations you would like to offer; the practices, styles, or techniques you want to develop.

• Know your audience. Who are the people you would like to offer meditation services to? You will want the circle to be open to everyone and for them to feel accepted. So it will help if you can let people know how they’re going to benefit from this experience and if it is for them.
• Part of your message should also include benefits—what people will receive through the circle experience. How are they going to be changed? Communicate some of your purpose and who it is for, even in your title. Be sure to include whether it is a beginner level or for all levels.
• Considering who you are offering services will help you decide when to provide it with: once a week? Twice a week? Once a month? A busy professional and a parent with young kids might meet at different times of the day. That will also help you decide how long to meet (30 minutes? 1 hour?) and how long your circle will last (6 weeks? 12 weeks?).
• Develop meditation material so that people are familiar with your work.

For more information, we addressed how to start as a meditation teacher more thoroughly in this article: https://suraflow.org/how-to-become-a-meditation-teacher-coach/

FAQs

How Much do Meditation Coaches/Instructors Make?

When I am asked about meditation teacher income, I am quick to point to this field’s tremendous growth potential. The meditation market is expected to be $2 billion by 2022. The coaching market is expected to be $20B by 2022. According to Price Waterhouse Cooper, it is the second-fastest-growing industry. ZipRecruiter gives meditation teacher income a wide range, from $16K as a beginner to $186.5K per year as a top range.

Can You Make a Living Out of it?

Yes, you can make an excellent meditation teacher salary. Still, you are working on your practice, developing various income streams, and building your relationships and practice over time. So, it is not a matter of landing a meditation teacher job but launching your brand and identity as a mediation coach.

Check out our free resources available at suraflow.org. Contact our team if you have any questions at connect@suraflow.org.