The Krama of Repurposing Your Content

Krama is the Sanskrit word meaning ‘step-by-step’. It describes a succession of actions to achieve an outcome. For Yoga teachers, we encounter this term most commonly in relation to sequencing. For example:

1. Tadasana

2. Urdhva Hastasana

3. Uttanasana

4. Ardha Uttanasana

5. Chaturanga Dandasana

6. Urdhva Mukha Svanasana.

And so on.

In this article I’m proposing we adopt this systematic approach to the development of our content — the posts, episodes, comments, captions, blogs and articles we share with our communities online.

A few years ago I launched a training program called ‘Writing from the Heart’. I have a background in writing and editing, from publishing my own work to copyediting novels and reports for others. I’ve won a couple of competitions, given a few talks, taught a handful of classes. Since moving fully into Yoga business coaching, I’ve become aware of how many Yoga teachers fear the written word. When I created it, my intention for this course was to show Yoga teachers it is possible to be authentic, confident and clear in writing… without being an expert. My hope was that by doing the course the participants would overcome their fears about writing.

Some worried they didn’t have anything meaningful to say.

Some worried that everything had already been said by someone else.

Some feared that not doing well in English as a kid meant they’d not have the chops for it now.

One even worried about the additional power consumption housing her content online would cause.

Perhaps, it strikes me, writing copy and sharing it on the internet elicits the same type of fear as public speaking does for so many people. So, how to overcome this angst?

Krama.

In this article I’m drawing on a portion of my Writing from the Heart course to share with you the step-by-steps of repurposing your copy so that when you do get something great written, it can then serve you (and your readers!) again and again and again.

Using your copy more than once is not only going to save you time and give you valuable content to share with your community, using the same or slightly modified material across different platforms is a GREAT way to build brand continuity and know/like/trust.

Here are 9 steps to repurpose your copy:

1. Record your verbal presentations then transcribe them into newsletter content

I have written transcripts for about half of my podcast episodes. I use an ‘actual person’ for this task, but there are also great apps, including free or small fee ones like Otter. If you have a 45 minute podcast (like I do) you’ll end up with anything up to 7000 words! That’s a lot of copy to reuse!

2. Use sections from your newsletters for social media

If you’re one of those teachers who agonises over your newsletters, editing over days, sending yourself numerous test emails and then still grumbling about a typo once you hit ‘send’, it’s time to make all that effort work more efficiently for you! A paragraph of information or motivation from a newsletter — the call to action to sign up for something, the welcome note about what you’ve been up to for the fortnight, the additional tip for a home practice — all make for really great individual social media posts.

3. Use sections of your blogs for newsletter content

Do you have a blog? Well, why not use it as your newsletter, as well? Better yet, use PART of it in your newsletter and then entice readers over to your website to read the remainder, boosting your web traffic at the same time. Nice one!

4. Use sections of your articles for Insta comments

If you write for publications or other people’s blogs, or perhaps publish your own articles on platforms like LinkedIn or Medium, use smaller sections of those articles for your Instagram posts. You could split an article up into 5 parts across a week to keep people coming back to your profile for the next instalment, or send them to the full version using your bio hyperlink. (Note: if you’ve sold your article to a publication, make sure you’re allowed to repurpose in this way.)

5. Save your email campaigns and duplicate them for seasonal events

This is such a simple trick but most teachers skip it. Writing an email that your subscribers like to read and then like to BUY from is a coup! When you write a winner (and you’ll know from the analytics part of the CRM you’re using), make sure it’s well titled and saved into a well-named folder so you can easily find it again. You can use it as a template for future winning campaigns or — even better — use it in full when you offer the same workshop or training the following season or year.

6. Turn your teaching notes into guides and e-books

If you’re the sort of teacher I am and take copious notes to guide you through the delivery of a workshop, why not reuse that work and give it out to your community? You could create small info products for sale or even use it as a freebie to entice people onto your mailing list! Again, Asteya applies here. If you’ve found material online, be sure to reference it appropriately or assimilate it into your own ideas.

7. Use your FB event copy on your flier

Writing a succinct but evocative paragraph for a Facebook event is a skill worthy of honing. But don’t leave it there! Once you’ve distilled it down to the essence, reuse it on the posters and the Eventbrite listing as well. And why not also put it in your newsletter and on your social media, too?

8. Use FB comments from other people as testimonials (with their permission)

Occasionally I’ll post up a throwback pic on Facebook about an event I’ve hosted or a retreat I’ve run. Participants often comment kindly about their experiences and these make for really authentic testimonials that I can then go on to use as FB posts in their own right (with the contributor’s permission, of course)! You can use them as the post comments or even make memes with them, incorporating your brand fonts and colours. (See another one of my articles about how to determine those.)

9. Cut and paste parts of your ‘about’ page to your Insta bio

Are you agonising over getting your Instagram or LinkedIn bio just right? Chances are you’ve already written something wonderful for the ‘About’ section of your website. Head over there and copy and paste. You might want to cut it down slightly — or even convert to bullet points — but chances are you’ll be at least two thirds of the way to having a really well written bio and it’ll be much faster than starting from scratch.

And a final ‘pro tip’ for repurposing: alter your schedule.

Online content moves fast. While I hope that you write an amazing blog that brings people back again and again, wildly driving up your SEO and bringing you new students straight from Google, chances are most of your content will be quickly forgotten, or at least the specifics of it will be. (This happens to us all!)

Before you feel disheartened, consider this reframe: the fact that people don’t remember the specifics of your content means you can repurpose on different platforms at different times and people will think they’re receiving a fresh message from you each time.

For example, publish your blog today. Then schedule 3 FB posts with 3 paragraphs from that blog to appear in three weeks. Put the blog copy into an on-boarding email sequence that will form a sales funnel you’ll use in a month. Drop it in to a file for Instagram comments in 6 months. This way you’ve repurposed your content significantly AND your audience won’t remember that they’ve seen your great ideas, thoughtful tips or motivating stories already.

Krama Ananda!

Want more support from me? Why not check out my weekly podcast, ‘Abundant Yoga Teachers’ here.

Magical Thinking is NOT the Same as Envisioning Your Future (and Taking Action!)

Not that many years ago I was enrolled in a coaching program that was heavily based on magical thinking and ‘manifesting miracles’.

(Britanica defines ‘magical thinking’ as ‘the belief that one’s ideas, thoughts, actions, words, or use of symbols can influence the course of events in the material world. Magical thinking presumes a causal link between one’s inner, personal experience and the external physical world.’)

My coach at the time instructed me to repeat affirmations each morning while feeling and believing that I was calling my chosen reality into manifestation. While this activity was fairly benign, it came with other instructions including ‘act as if’ which encouraged me to spend like I’d already made all the money. (This teaching saw friends of mine end the coaching program in tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt).

My reading list at the time included things like ‘A Course In Miracles’ and authors including Mike Dooley, Joe Dispenza and Napolean Hill. (Embarrassingly, I also recommended these texts to my own clients at the time.)

With more reading and exploration, and repeated experiences of these teachings simply not bearing fruit, I came to understand that ‘thoughts become things’ is not a Universal Principle and that glumping seemingly technical and scientific terms (quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry) together with religious sounding terminology (deserving of miracles, God wants you to be abundant, on my heart) is incredibly attractive but rarely efficacious.

But here’s the thing: in my pendulum realisation that what I’d been fed and was practicing was a pack of bullshit, I’d swung too far in the other direction, abandoning the useful and important influence of envisioning altogether.

While I am adamant simply ‘manifesting your reality’ is dangerous and misleading nonsense, getting your head right before you take action does make a difference. If you’re looking to make changes to your Yoga business in 2022, here’s my two-step process (hint: think THEN act!).

1. The Money Mindset of an Abundant Yoga Business Owner.

This is really where the rubber hits the road as far as moving from the struggling, striving Yoga teacher to the prosperous, influential teacher. (If you have a ‘woo-woo’ aversion bear with me. This is the FIRST part of the two-step.)

I was talking with a client recently, one of the women in my Keep Growing Mastermind, about how she had become accustomed to essentially under-earning. She is a very grateful, warm-hearted, powerful teacher and mentor. She earns much less than she did when she had a full time, corporate job. She has become accustomed to saying no to things, struggling to pay her bills, not saving for her own retirement, or investing in things like income protection insurance. Essentially, she is operating on the absolute minimum. These days, she does not experience life as financial struggle because she has been in it for so long. It’s become normal.

We were talking about what it would be like, and how would her life become more easeful and joyful, if there was more prosperity in her life. I made the point that so many people already in her community look to her as a leader, they look to her to help them through difficult times, they look to her for support in their own physical well-being, they look to her for guidance. So, imagine in looking to her in those ways, they also saw a woman who was financially self-sufficient in a way that was in alignment with her values?

I’m not suggesting she become a financial advisor to her students by any means. But there is something powerful seeing an authority figure model positive behaviour like right livelihood (ie making a living that does no harm to others, Artha with Dharma).

Unfortunately being ‘broke’ and being ‘spiritual’ have become conflated in many parts of Yogaland. While there are so many teachings to the contrary, this belief is widespread and held by many people in my community (including me, until I decided to intentionally work on it).

You know when Facebook sends you those memories from years ago? I was recently served a FB memory from 11 years ago of me graduating my first 200-hour teacher training. I remember having that photo taken. I look kind of awkward and tired but also pretty darn chuffed with myself. I was wearing the best dress I owned at the time. It was my best dress not because I liked it, not because it was particularly flattering, but because it was a brand, a label. And at that time in my life I couldn’t afford any ‘labels’.

When I saw the FB memory, it really took me back to a place where not only was I in considerable financial struggle, I was glorifying it. I was really getting off on how hard my life was and that I could never afford fancy things. I was so broke… I was so ‘spiritual’.

Now, let’s be clear: I understand I’m in a place of considerable privilege to be ABLE to choose to make more money.

Back then I was choosing to under-earn because it was feeding my ego. I was ‘better’ than people who had money. People with money were ‘bad’ and never as ‘spiritual’ as me. Blah.

After reading, researching and having my own coaching on this topic, I know now that there is nothing inherently good or bad about money. It’s how it’s used that makes all the difference. For me, having more money gives me a sense of security and safety that I value greatly. Knowing I’ll be OK should adversity hit is an amazingly fortunate place to be. Being able to financially support causes I believe in and people I love is incredibly motivating.

Getting your money mindset right is critical for achieving your Yoga biz goals in 2022.

As a Yoga practitioner/householder there is no requirement to underearn, struggle, undercharge or experience financial adversity. Moreover, it could be argued that if you have the capacity to generate prosperity in a way that fulfils the teaching of ‘right livelihood’, your giving could become part of your own practice, supporting people and causes that don’t have the ability or privilege you do.

Repeat after me: there is nothing more ‘spiritual’ about being broke.

Remember: Artha WITH Dharma.

2. Making the Transition from Struggle to Ease

Now that we’ve covered mindset, it’s time to discuss the part that is regularly left off any magical thinking approach to business: taking action. Making the transition from struggle to ease — from two people in a class to 18 people in a class — is about learning the essential business basics.

Unfortunately Yoga Teacher Trainings pump out enthusiastic Yoga practitioners believing they have everything they need to run a small business, and this is obviously not the case.

Why do we think that just because we get a certificate that says 200 or 300 hours, we suddenly know how to run a small business? Maybe we can all bumble along and keep rudimentary financial records and customer details. Perhaps we set up a special bank account for ‘Yoga money’. Run an ad in the paper. Create a FB business page.

But what about using paid social media advertising to let people know that you’re there? What about building your website or online studio? Setting up memberships, payment plans, terms and conditions? What about knowing how to have great contracts and agreements with people that you are going to partner with? These things are critical, and yet we do not get them in our teacher training. If you are trying to figure it all out by yourself, give yourself a break. If you do not quite know what to do, it’s probably because no-one has shown you yet.

I remember taking a class at the Bali Spirit Festival with a famous ‘Yogalebrity’ that I admired. She was teaching an amazing class complete with live DJ and was weaving her sequencing magic.

At one point she had us all in Trikonasana. As we were transitioning through to the other side she said, “If tripod headstand is in your practice, take that now,” or something to that effect. Suddenly 10 people of maybe 60 were in headstand! Back then I had never even SEEN a tripod headstand! I remember looking around the room thinking, “WTF? What the hell is going on here?”

It blew my mind that headstand transitions were even a thing!

These days, the occasional tripod headstand transition is part of my practice but at the time, it was mind blowing. No-one had ever actually taught me that before. The same is true for the business basics in your Yoga business. If you did not learn it, of course it can be overwhelming and ‘WTF’ for you. That is okay, you just have to get those skills down.

Now you know it’s possible, you can learn how to do it.

Learning how to run a small business doesn’t have to be an exhaustive process. You don’t need to go to university or buy an expensive training program. Start with the library. YouTube. Join a local business support group. Take small steps at a time and measure your results. Do more of what works and abandon what doesn’t. Don’t take your results personally.

Then the action that you (must) take will be informed and efficient. No more staring vacantly at the computer, doom-scrolling through your ‘competitors’ socials or wasting money on ‘experts’ or ‘consultants’.

Take the best action you know how to take.

In summary, how you think about prosperity and your business is critical but it’s not the only thing you need. You also need to know the action steps to take and then actually take them.

Envisioning your future gets you started. Taking smart action gets you results.

Get some free training to make a start with my 7-part video training here.

Embracing Ferocity in Your Yoga Business

It was right on the hour.

My group was waiting to enter the room but the group that had booked the room the hour before were still in there and they were running over time.

I gently knocked on the door, poked my head in and asked them when they’d be finishing up. I had people waiting. And our booking had started.

My colleague said, ‘Oh, we’re nearly done. We’ll be out soon.’

We waited another five minutes. Now, five minutes into my session, with my participants still waiting outside and hers still inside, I knocked again.

‘I need you to finish now,’ I said, friendly but firm.

Her participants began gathering the things and leaving the room. As she walked past me she said, ‘Gee, Amy, being a Yoga teacher I thought you would be more Zen.’

What she meant was, she thought I should be more relaxed, more chilled, more accommodating of her tardiness. More, dare I say it, flaky.

For better or worse Yoga has become conflated with being gentle all the time.

Apparently, ‘soft is spiritual’.

And unfortunately, this can show up as having poor boundaries, being late, being accommodating of our students’ bad behaviour. Of tolerating employment situations that are less than ideal. Being lazy with our administration. Having thousands of unread emails in our inbox. Being years late with our tax. Not doing our own practice. And on. And on.

***

It doesn’t take much reading through the epics of Yoga to understand that while there are times to be gentle, there are many more times we need to be fierce.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are full of tales of fighting, of war, of beheadings and mutilations, of monkeys hurling whole trees at their adversaries, of blood and gore and violence.

It doesn’t take much reading to see that a Yogi can be gentle and a Yogi can also be fierce.

As Yoga business owners, there is a time to have compassion and softness and sweetness, but there is also a time to ride in on your tiger with all of your weapons and just #getshitdone.

There is a time to declare in a roomful of con men and rapists that you will not wash your hair until you wash it in the blood of your enemy.

There is a time to chant the mantra that sets off your magical arrow like an atomic bomb.

These are also the teachings of Yoga.

These days teaching modern postural Yoga is largely the domain of women. This can mean that being fierce is not only frowned upon from a spiritual perspective, it’s also frowned upon from a gendered perspective. Being fierce as a woman can mean you’re being too intense. It can mean you’re being a bitch. It can mean you’re being a man hater. It can mean you’re being a ball breaker. A nag. High maintenance. You know the list.

One thing we can look to in Yoga is how to be fierce in an empowered, aligned and dharmic way. In the Mahabharata Draupadi drew on her own Tapasya, Isvara Pranidhana

and logic to escape imminent sexual assault. Once safe, she stood in her power and declared that she would seek revenge. She clearly and powerfully told her attacker she was going to take him down.

Powerful, grounded dharmic ferocity: this is also Yoga.

How would your business benefit from being a little more fierce?

Where in your business might you benefit from riding in on a tiger like Durga rather than floating in on a swan, Saraswati style?

***

1. Being fierce with your boundaries

What’s going on in your life and your business that you don’t want to be happening, or what’s not happening that you want to be happening? Where were you self-abandoning? Where are you buying your students’ bullshit? Where are you not being fierce in upholding your boundaries?

I remember once teaching a class immediately after a Pilates class. Every week when I arrived I’d spend the first ten minutes putting away the props the Pilates students had used. I’d grumble about it. I’d be snarky to myself about it. But I’d do it. It was kind of like Karma Yoga… right?

It was no one’s fault except mine, because I’ve never been fierce enough to say, ‘Hey Rachel, it will be awesome next week if you could get your students to put the stuff back that they’ve used, so we can start with a blank canvass.’

No drama. No bitchy attitude. Just clear, fierce, communicated boundaries.

Knowing what you want does not make you pushy. Knowing what you want does not make you aggressive. Knowing what you want does not make you too intense. Or a nag. Or a bitch.

It makes you a person who understands what they’re here for. And isn’t that what Yoga is about?

2. Being fierce with your administration

I remember comparing notes with a Yoga teaching friend about how long we each took to write a student newsletter. Mine was 20 minutes. Hers? Three hours.

I was stunned and had to ask what was taking her so long.

Turns out while she felt like she was working on it for three hours, she was actually ‘writing’ for about as long as I was. The rest of the time she was just faffing about.

A little quick check of the Movement Professionals FB Group. Oh, look, Jason has posted a new video. Actually, perhaps he’s posted it on Insta as well. Yep, and here’s something else he wrote that looks cool. And why don’t I just search for Siva’s page and see if she’s travelling again. Oh hang on: cute fox video!

A lack of ferocity when it comes to customer service and admin in your business can show up as spending hours on your computer for very little reward.

Do you still have two weeks of new student forms that need data entry sitting on your desk? Are you stalling on tweaking a Facebook ad, even though you know you’re spending more money than you should be? Are you letting yourself sit for two hours to schedule 5 Instagram posts?

There is a time to be gentle with yourself in business but procrastination is simply festering.

If you really need to #getshitdone, you need to be fierce.

3. Being fierce with goals and targets

Without goals, we feel directionless. It’s like doing your own personal practice. If you don’t have a destination in mind, what are you going to do? You’re going to do all the stuff that feels nice that you do every time. But its also the stuff that probably won’t heal your thing or correct your something, or teach you what you need to learn to teach your students next week or whatever.

And the same is true in life in business.

So, where are you being flaky instead of fierce with your goals and targets?

If this feels too intense or corporate for you, try a small dose. Set yourself a couple of clear, small goals. Give yourself permission to make progress towards them. Tell someone else so you have some external accountability.

***

Where is a little more Durga needed in your life, in the sense of boundaries, actually, realistically achieving work output and setting and progressing goals and targets?

Where do you, metaphorically speaking of course, need to ride through your life on your tiger, with that focused, fierce clarity, no bullshit, no drama, just a clear knowing of what you’re going for?

It’s not ‘Yogic’ to dim your light because some people think that you’re ‘too much’. You are made to be this much. When you show up in that energy, you give permission for everyone else in your life who has been made wrong for being too intense, a bitch, too fierce to be more themselves. If someone has told you recently or even back in childhood that you were too much, bring it. It is one of the gifts that you’ve been given. This incarnation, you got that bit of good karma, and you get to use it to bring about even better things in the world.

Get your ferocity on. I want to hear about it.

Ready to make 2022 more fierce in your Yoga biz? Sign up for my Live 2022 Yoga Biz Planning Workshop by supporting me for $5 on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/AmyMcDonald

How a Failed Trip to Italy Changed my Business Forever

I clearly remember my first experience in a business mastermind.

At the time I didn’t realise I was in a mastermind, I thought I was just spending time with friends, but the potency of that interaction proved so substantial that it led me to my current situation, having a business I adore working the hours that I love, having clients that thrill me and making an income that supports a really pleasant lifestyle.

I was in Florence having been at a conference — one of those boss babe type conferences. It was fair to say I was the least ‘boss babes’ in attendance. I didn’t have the right clothes. I didn’t wear makeup (or even know how to put it on!) I didn’t know the words to the songs we were supposed to dance to. I was allergic to all of the delicious Italian snacks we were supposed to Instagram over the breaks. And my business was a sham.

I paid $15,000 to be in this group business coaching program. (That didn’t include buying myself the airfares and the accommodation to be at these quarterly boss babe workshops all around the world.) It was the most I’d ever invested in my business at that point and I was terrified: I wasn’t making any money, I wasn’t keeping up with everyone else in the program, I was surely just riding the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ into a life of credit card debt.

I live in Australia, so making the trek to Europe is kind of a big deal, at least time-wise. The conference I was attending went for 3 days. The flights — there and back — four. So to make the travel seem more worthwhile I’d registered to attend a second conference, staring a few days after the first. This way the two weeks off from my corporate job felt a little more responsible.

It was those days between the conferences that I discovered I was in fact in a business mastermind and that mastermind was going to change my life.

When I arrived in Florence, I didn’t know anybody and I’d never flown into Florence before so I was unfamiliar with the airport. While I was waiting at the baggage carousel, some other women who also looked a little apprehensive, but also really excited, were waiting for their bags. We struck up a conversation. While they’d come in on different flights, I’d come from Australia, and they’d come in from the States, we were all headed to the same event. And so we shared a taxi to the conference venue, a private villa tucked away behind the city with a view of the Duomo. We dropped out bags and went to lunch. Over pasta and wine we commiserated about our businesses. They also felt like they were doing ‘all the things’ but not seeing the results. I was starting to think maybe it wasn’t just me.

Fast forward to the end of that first conference where I’d been the under-earning one, the unfashionable one and the one crying in the toilets on the break. I had used up all of my holiday leave for the year, but I’d spent thousands of dollars on a training where I just couldn’t fit in, and I’d been shamed on stage by the conference leader who yelled at me ‘You can’t ask that question!’ during a plenary.

As I was preparing to leave on the final day one of the women I’d met at the airport invited me to spend the next day with her and some other women.

They were going to be talking about their businesses. ‘We’re going to be masterminding you should come and join us,’ she said. I didn’t know then what a mastermind was, but I said yes because I had nothing else to do and, to be perfectly honest, these women inspired me and I felt better and just the tiniest bit hopeful when I was around them.

At that time the business I was trying to create was wellness life coaching for women. I had signed a couple of clients but I was really averaging, you know, under $1,000 a month and I was absolutely relying on not only my corporate job, but also teaching yoga classes after my corporate job most nights and on the weekends to pay for this business that I was trying to create. It felt like I was in a downward spiral.

That morning I arrived in their beautiful Airbnb where they were all staying together. It was bright white with gorgeous décor. They had snacks, post-it notes, markers and big pieces of paper and were rearing to ‘get their clarity’. I was hooked.

We spent the day sharing ideas, taking it in turns to ask for specific support then receive feedback. It was honest, probing and really insightful.

When it came to my turn and I was scared because I’d never talked about my business hopes and fears so candidly before. I was worried I would get it wrong. I was embarrassed to disclose how much money I’d spent versus earned in my sham business. I didn’t want to be judged.

Luckily, I checked myself: I’d flown halfway around the world spend all of my money. This might be the one thing that could potentially make a difference. I might end up embarrassed but I really didn’t have anything else to lose. So I went for it.

I shared with them how much I was struggling with my business. How I was no further to quitting my corporate job than I was when I started. How my business was costing — not making — me money. How I was missing my friends because I just didn’t’ have spare time anymore. How I was exhausted. And how I was worried that the real problem was me: I just didn’t’ have what it takes.

There was a pause.

Immediately, I thought I’d messed up. This wasn’t what I was supposed to have said. I wanted to melt into the beautiful white sofa.

Then one of the women said, ‘Amy, you’ve just spent the last four hours giving each of us amazing business advice. Why aren’t you doing business coaching?’

Remember the shaming moment I mentioned? The one that happened back at the conference? That had been my question.

‘Do you think it would make sense for me to be a Yoga business coach?’

I loved Yoga. I was good at project management and strategy. I’d been helping my Yoga teacher colleagues get their businesses off the ground. I could write, teach and manage budgets. What if I mashed it all together and did THAT for a business?

But the conference leader had shut me down. Switching from life coaching to business coaching was a ‘money grab’ and a gimmick. I was selling out. I was looking for a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. How dare I even ask such a question? After such a public and humiliating response, I had abandoned the idea.

But then these women in their beautiful Airbnb in Florence suggested it. They’d essentially given me permission. To do exactly what I wanted to do. Could it be that easy? Did I really know things that could be helpful to people? Could I really blend all my passions and skills together to create not the boss babe version, but a REAL version of my ‘dream business’?

And so it was that an informal business mastermind really led me to this point now where what I do is exactly what I love and I’m good at. It’s not what someone else told me I could or couldn’t do. It’s simply the result of following my passions and encouragement and leaning into the unbiased, warm support of people who wanted the best for me in business. And this is what I think defines a really great business mastermind.

I’ve been in a number of masterminds since that point. Some have been good and others haven’t been the right fit. Along the way I’ve learned what makes for a good, effective and meaningful mastermind.

1. A shared desire for growth

It doesn’t matter if the scale and size of the businesses are the same in a mastermind. What matters is everyone has a shared commitment to growing and learning and developing. Start-ups and veterans have loads to teach each other and as long as the velocity is more or less the same, individuals’ points on the route doesn’t matter.

2. A commitment to give and receive

While I have collected so many insights and incredibly useful feedback from my mastermind groups, along the way I’ve also sought to give the same. Being in a group here you’re always the one offering support is pointless. You want to feel like there is a balance of input and output, and that you’re offering as much as you’re receiving.

So how do you know if a mastermind is for you? Well, here are some questions to consider:

· Do you have an idea of where you want to go in your business?

· Are you looking to take things to the next level?

· Do you enjoy having peer support?

· Are you tired of trying to figure it all out by yourself?

· Are you interested in having accountability that’s going to be understanding, warm and supportive?

· Do you like the idea of having a shared collective momentum?

If these things appeal to you, then I suspect a mastermind might be exactly what you’re looking for.

I’ve been running my Keep Growing Mastermind for a number of years now and I’ve had the pleasure of welcoming people into that group who are at different stages in their businesses. Some are just starting out. Some have been going for years. Some have strong subscriber followings and are in the process of building empires. Some are opening studios, some have closed studios, and all sorts of things in between.

What these people have in common is a shared desire to grow in community, collective support.

The Keep Growing Mastermind is designed to support you to leverage the success you’ve already achieved and create more space, ease and flow. My Sankalpa for this program is to support you to take your business to the NEXT LEVEL with ongoing community and group support AND the accountability, specificity and personalised guidance of 1:1 coaching.

If you’re looking for this type of support for your Yoga business in 2022 I am now opening five places in the Keep Going Mastermind for a January start.

You membership to the group is by application and you can find the application here.

If you would like to know more in particular about my mastermind and what makes it different from other business masterminds, please do get in touch. You can DM me on Instagram here.

Owning the Changes in Your Yoga Biz

Something my new Yoga students always tease me about is my obsession with the placements of their sticky mats.

In my classes the short end of each mat in each row must line up perfectly with its neighbors. No excuses. No exceptions.

When I have taught in rooms that have floorboards and the floorboards run the right direction I will tell people, ‘Line the short end of your mat up with this floorboard.’ In fact, I will make my students line their mats up again and again until everything is perfectly symmetrical. Then I’ll feel settled enough to start the class.

The placement (or ‘mis-placement’) of the mats doesn’t bother my students. They don’t notice. They arrive, plonk their mats down and prepare for class. But it really, really bothers me.

For the first couple of years of my teaching career I didn’t enforce this mat-alignment requirement. I would let people come in to the studio, people put their mats down wherever they wanted to, and I’d start the class.

But these uneven mats unsettled me. I’d be distracted by the messy lines. It was harder to monitor my student’s alignment when they weren’t evenly spaced.

Mostly, I just didn’t like it.

Yet even though it distracted and unsettled me and effected my teaching, I didn’t ask my students to move. In fact, I chastised myself about being picky, neurotic and high-maintenance.

I made myself wrong about it.

***

Four years after originally qualifying as a Yoga Teacher I was studying for my 300-hour YTT in Asia. One day we were having a discussion about class etiquette and what we required of our students. I decided it was the right forum to raise my issue about mat placement.

I explained to my teacher and friends how I never asked my students to line their mats up in any particular way and how it really bothered me. I felt a little silly and there was some sniggering from the group. But then my teacher gave me a face I will never forget.

He did not actually answer me with words, but there were six paragraphs in that one face.

The premise of the six paragraphs was, ‘It’s your class, Amy. Why are you buying what your students are selling?’

He was right. I was totally beholden to what my students wanted rather than being the teacher and holding my own space. I was anticipating them being annoyed or judgmental about my request to line their mats up in a certain way so I’d kept silent about it.

I wasn’t expressing my needs as the teacher.

I wasn’t clearly articulating the expectation I had of my students.

I’d even become resentful of the ‘scruffy’ studio I was teaching in (and had enabled!)

That day I decided I was done with making myself wrong.

Moreover, I realised that having this particular requirement in my class and expressing it clearly to my students was an important part of what it meant to actually be a Yoga teacher.

Getting this lesson was a four-year journey.

***

Telling people clearly what to do is essentially ‘the guts’ of being a Yoga teacher.

Think about it. Your students could stay at home and practice with Jason Crandell on their computer. They could hang with Adriene on YouTube. They could even play their old Rodney Yee DVDs if they wanted to.

They don’t. They are getting on ther bikes or in their cars and coming to you. Why? They are coming to you because they want to be in the room with someone who is going to tell them what to do and when to do it.

‘Step your feet wide, take your arms parallel to the floor, turn your right foot out, turn your left foot in slightly, reach to the right, put your right hand on your shin, take your left arm up, look at your left arm.’

Clear, precise instructions.

Do this.

Then do this.

Here’s the thing: it’s also about, ‘Arrive on time. Put your shoes over there. Turn your phone off. Wipe down your props before you put them away. Pay online in advance’.

And on.

And on.

***

Being a Yoga teacher involves — in a significant way — teaching people about boundaries. Yoga derives from a tradition that celebrates and recognises complimentary forces. Siva and Shakti. Ida and Pingala. Surya and Chandra. On the mat this shows up as inhalation and exhalation. Prone and supine. Left and right. Standing and Inverted. Pronated and supinated. These complimentary forces are at the heart of what we do. And, for the most part, when people have it wrong it’s our job to tell them clearly to do it the other way.

‘You’re ‘other’ left, Brian,’ we may mention to a student.

‘Turn your palm up, Wendy,’ we may suggest.

No angst. Just clear instructions. It’s this complimentary force, not it’s opposite.

Clarifying and reinforcing boundaries. Not that, this. Teaching.

And yet the angst that can come when this same, simple principle is applied to the business-side of being a teacher!

Imagine if it were as simple as instructing Trikonasana?

What if it was as easy as correcting a complimentary force in any pose?

· You’re registered or you’re not.

· You’re on time or you’re late.

· Your pass is active or it’s expired.

· You pay the concession or you pay the full rate.

***

If the word ‘Yoga’ derives from the root ‘Yuj’, to yoke, then surely for us to claim being Yogis we need to clearly commit to something. We need to connect, sign up for and attach to something and stick with it.

Horse to chariot. Ox to cart. Yoga teacher to boundaries.

Whether it is about pricing, whether it is about class etiquette, whether it is about negotiating the energy exchange where you teach: knowing what you require, clearly articulating it and sticking to it is an essential part of being a Yoga teacher.

In the studio AND at the office.

If you are saying yes when you mean to say no, if you are saying no when you want to actually say yes, if you are settling for less money than you know you desire, if you are shortening your classes or teaching longer than you know you are meant for, if you are changing your class plan because someone in class says, ‘I don’t wanna do inversions tonight,’ and you freak out and give them what they want…

Could it be time to remember these core teachings of Yoga?

What if asking for someone to arrive on time was as simple as asking them to bend their right knee?

What if you were so clear on your pricing and committed to it, that a student request for a discount didn’t feel uncomfortable, it just felt like a clear ‘no’?

***

Where are you bailing out? Being flakey?

Do you have your equivalent of ‘Oh okay, you can have your mats wherever you want and I’ll just sit here and feel twitchy for the next 90 minutes because I don’t want to be teacher who gets out the spirit level.’?

What is it that is important for you? What requirements do you actually have?

Is it time to tell that growing family that they need to pay for more than one membership?

Is it time to cancel your Sunday night class and reclaim your weekend, even though everyone loves it?

Is it time to let your students know that you no longer accept cheques?

Whatever it is, it’s time to own the changes you want to make in your Yoga business. Get clear on what they are and then take a stand for them. Yoke yourself to them.

Being a good Yoga teacher is not just about planning amazing flows. It’s about modelling right behaviour. Commitment. Dedication. And clarity.

For more tips on attracting Yoga students to your classes, workshops and events, check out my free 7-part video training here: http://eepurl.com/U_HDr

Or join the conversation on ‘The Abundant Yoga Teacher Podcast’ on Apple, Spotify, Google or here: https://www.amymcdonald.com.au/abundantyogateacherpodcasts

5 Tips for Reengaging Past Yoga Students

I remember teaching an Abundant Yoga Teacher Immersion in Brisbane a few years ago. One of the teachers was sharing with me that she really needed a holiday but was worried if she took a break, no one would come back to her classes. If she stopped teaching for 6 weeks, she feared, she’d ‘lose’ all of her students.

There’s a classic sales maxim: the most likely future client is a past client.

What does this mean for us as Yoga teachers? It means reengaging students that have come to your classes, workshops or events in the past is one of the best ways you can keep your offerings full of people who really value what it is you do.

You know the students I’m talking about: people who maybe came for a term and didn’t sign up for the next term or they bought an intro pass but never signed up as a member. Perhaps they came for years and then suddenly stopped coming. Maybe they came to prenatal classes but now they’re not coming back to mums and bubs. Or they did some private yoga therapy with you but they never transitioned into weekly classes. Or maybe, like my client’s example above, it’s YOU who stopped coming to class, and you’re ready to get back into it.

Too often Yoga teachers presume a student who has stopped coming to class is gone and never coming back. But that’s very often NOT the case. So let’s look at five techniques you can try to reengage past students and have them sign up for your future offerings.

Number one: Check your CRM

This one involves a tiny bit of data management, but don’t let that put you off!

Open up your email management system (Constant Contact, Mailchimp etc) and create a new segment of your newsletter audience that is comprised only of the people who haven’t opened any of your newsletters in the past 3 months.

Straight away we know that these folks need reengagement. They’ve lost interest or been too busy to read your emails. It’s time to entice them back. What would they love? What would be a really exciting offer? Do you have a signature workshop everyone adores? What about a time-sensitive discount? A new intro pass, even though they’re technically not ‘new’?

Come up with something really enticing for these students and send them 3 emails over 6 days about it, making sure the subject line of the email refers specifically to the offer.

Number Two: Get Personal

The next one is a more personal approach. Make a list of all the people you used to love to teach that you haven’t seen for a while. Those students you’ve had a laugh with or that had a level of commitment and love for Yoga that really lit you up. Next, send each of them a personal email. Not a group newsletter but a real, ‘old school’ email.

If you’re worried about this tip being cheesy or creepy, don’t. If these are the people you loved to teach then they probably loved your classes. Think about it: if one of your favorite teachers emailed you personally to say they’d love to see you in class, how would you feel? Hopefully, you’d be chuffed — even if you didn’t want to go back to the studio, right? We want your students to feel the same.

Number three: start with engagement in mind

A critical part of having past students coming back is to make sure they feel included and engaged from the beginning.

Consider: what is your current engagement strategy? Is it warm, attentive and engaging?

Do you make sure to learn people’s names and use their names in class? Are you following up with people week to week with what they’ve been working on? Do you have a 3-part automation welcome email for first-timers?

A culture of inclusion will go a long way in keeping your students coming back. And it’s just nicer, right? ;)

Number 4: give people what they want, not what they need

One of the reasons students stop coming is because we change what it is we’re offering. Maybe you’ve taken a new training and have a bunch of new ideas and concepts you’re rolling out in your classes. Stuff you think the students really need. But here’s the thing: while they may need it, do they actually want it?

I know my students need a lot more strength work. Lots of deep core. Lots of glutes. But if all I taught were drills and Asana to achieve those goals, my classes would be empty.

In general, people buy what they WANT, not what they NEED.⁠

When looking to reengage past students, consider what has been really successful for you in the past. Was it a selfcare afternoon? Was it a ‘happy hips’ workshop or a headstand masterclass? Maybe a sound bath? 8 weeks of ‘Yoga for Golf’?

One of my clients a couple of years ago found herself teaching ‘Yoga for Incontinence’ workshops. It was not something she’d planned to specialise in but an opportunity arose and she went for it. The best part? Her students loved it and every time she did it she was full. (That isn’t a bladder pun.) ⁠

⁠What’s your ‘Greatest Hits’ offering? The thing that filled in a heartbeat, everybody loved, you got great feedback and people brought their friends? When a student stops you in the supermarket and says, “Hey, when are you teaching that thing again?”

Offer that to your former students. And watch it book out.⁠

Number five: Host a Beginner Series

A common thing I hear from people when they find out I’m a Yoga teacher is “I used to do yoga, but I’ve lost all of my tone”, or “I’ve forgotten all the names”, or “I’ve put on a bit of weight”, or “I’ve gotten a bit older”.

Often our past Yoga students might be hesitant to come back to class because they feel they’ve lost ‘it’. A beginner series is a great opportunity to welcome these people back in a way that feels unthreatening and accessible.

Plan out a 6-week program. Run them through the basics, whatever that looks like for you. Maybe you do the four corners of the body, maybe you spend six weeks working them into being able to do a full Surya Namaskar. Perhaps you base it on anatomy: the pelvis week, the shoulder week et cetera.

The best part about this tip? You’re likely to attract some ‘actual’ beginners, too!

For more tips on attracting Yoga students to your classes, workshops and events, check out my free 7-part video training here: http://eepurl.com/U_HDr

Or join the conversation on ‘The Abundant Yoga Teacher Podcast’ on Apple, Spotify, Google or here: https://www.amymcdonald.com.au/abundantyogateacherpodcasts

How My Demonstration Humiliation Changed the Way I Teach Forever

I vividly remember attending a workshop in Melbourne with a famous, influential teacher who had flown in from overseas for the weekend. She was confident. She was charismatic. She was authoritative. I had watched her on the internet, read about her in Yoga Journal. I’d once taken a greyhound bus from Albuquerque to Phoenix to take her workshop. I even had her DVD.

When the class started I was nervous but excited to be in the presence of a fun, engaging thought-leader.

Her sequence was well thought out. The instruction was clear and crisp, while also heartfelt and genuine. She quickly created an atmosphere where it felt okay to experiment with new things and practice going beyond what I might normally try.

After a couple of hours it became apparent she was working us towards Pincha Mayurasana (forearm stand). She told us she would show us how to double leg lift into the Asana at the wall. She explained she had a ‘secret weapon’ to get us into the pose, even if we had never had managed it before. That with her special instructions our toes would float effortlessly off the floor and our legs would lightly lift into the full inversion.

She was famous, a ‘yogalebrity, so she must know what she was doing. I was nervous — slightly sceptical but excited.

Ultimately, I believed her.

At that time in that lineage it was common practice for students — rather than teachers — to do the demos. The theory was that by enabling a student to achieve something they didn’t think they could, they’d feel empowered and uplifted. Also commonplace at that time was group applause when the demonstrator achieved the Asana. Often, the teacher and the demonstrating student would then embrace. Everyone clapped. It was a ‘thing’. (A problematic ‘thing’, in hindsight.)

Perhaps she remembered me from the workshop in Phoenix. Perhaps I just looked like I needed empowering.

Whatever the reason, she chose me to demonstrate.

I’m an introvert. An empath. My ‘signature move’, according to my teacher, is to leave a workshop early without anyone noticing. I’ve got a long torso, tight hips and I’ve never been flexible. I’m the least likely candidate to double leg lift into Pincha.

But she picked me.

And in that moment my mind went in three different directions simultaneously.

Direction 1: Deer in Headlights

Back then, when I walked into a Yoga studio I always felt like the least fit, least bendy, sweatiest, definitely the most red-cheeked. I always had the most unfashionable yoga attire. Never the right type of drink bottle, the right brand of yoga mat, the right snacks.

In those days I’d muster just enough courage to enrol in a workshop then spend much of the time terrified of standing out or being called out.

I was absolutely shitting myself.

Direction 2: Anatomy Geek

I’d been practising Yoga since I was eight, I’d been blessed with exceptional teachers, and I’d been a committed teacher for some time. I knew my body, it’s abilities and limitations. With my proportions, flexibility and strength I knew double leg lifting was simply not possible for my proportions.

But she was senior to me. She must know more than I did.

She must know more — about my body — than I did.

Direction 3: People Pleaser

Even though I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it, a part of me was terrified to let her down. I was so embarrassed that I was going to somehow make her look foolish. That her secret weapon wouldn’t work.

Worse, if I said ‘no’ to her request, the entire gathering would think I was some kind of wowser. That I was scared. That I’d missed some incredible opportunity to not only receive a generous gift from a global expert, I’d walked away from the possibility of transcending a significant self-limiting belief.

With these three voices whirling around in my head, things got worse. Because to demonstrate Pincha Mayurasana double leg lift at the wall, here’s what happens:

1. The entire, large group gather closely to watch.

2. I face the wall, on forearms and knees.

3. The teacher speaks to everyone else, and points to my body.

4. She cues me to lift my knees off the floor and walk my feet in.

5. I’ve got my head down and my ass in the air.

I’m literally pointing my vulva at about 50 people, while they talk about me. And I can’t see what’s going on.

Really.

Then she cues the double leg lift ‘secret weapon’ instruction.

I do exactly what she says.

But nothing happens.

No toes floating.

No legs miraculously lifting into the air.

She repeated the instruction with a warm and reassuring voice. Several times. Still nothing.

No double leg lift to the wall Pincha Mayarasana…

… just Amy’s undercarriage, crickets and a room full of people.

It wouldn’t have been more than four minutes I spent like that, but it felt like a lifetime.

I just wanted to disappear.

Finally — defeated — she let me put my knees down. I think she found someone else and they went and did the demonstration. I’m not sure. Things were hazy. All I clearly remember as the herd moved away was feeling ashamed, stupid and kind of violated.

There was no follow up with her. She didn’t debrief it with me later. In fact, she didn’t speak to me again the entire workshop. I certainly wasn’t chosen for any future demonstrations. No one mentioned a thing.

Demonstrations can be really important. But we need to be so careful about who does them, how we do them and why we do them.

***

I’m currently teaching a ‘Yoga for Men’ class in my small town. A few weeks ago I introduced simple, brief, seated meditation. I demonstrated Sukhasana and Siddhasana as options, both with prop supports. Then I mentioned Padmasana and that I wouldn’t teach it because I was unable to do it myself.

But one of my students has ‘got the hips for it’, as he told me while he was doing it. Apparently he used to sit in full lotus while watching TV when he was a kid. That night in class it was fun to share this story. My other students all had a chuckle, identifying more with my hips than his. And they got to see what Padmasana looks like.

But here’s the difference. My student volunteered. In fact, he just came into the pose without me even asking.

If we are going to use our students as our demonstrators, not only should the students self-identify, they should be fully aware of the requirements of the demonstration. For example, perhaps a student is comfortable demonstrating Pincha Mayurasana in the middle of the room but not OK with having their Mula Bandha Kula-facing for five minutes.

***

I remember taking a class once in Bali. The teacher was dynamic and charismatic. He would demonstrate really complicated arm balances and of the 40 or so people in the class, only me and one other student could actually then do the pose he’d demonstrated.

It became apparent that while the teacher was technically ‘demonstrating’, no one was actually meant to be able to do the pose after he showed us how. His ‘demos’ were more about showing the room how proficient and impressive he was. It was more of a display than a demonstration.

Back to my class of blokes. I do demonstrate some poses for them. And when I do I still catch myself defaulting into how I would do the pose in my own practice, rather than how it is more likely to appear in theirs.

In my practice my Adho Mukha Svanasana has my knees more or less straight, heels down, arms straight. But demonstrating it this way would be alienating for my students, most of whom are new to Yoga, all of whom have super tight lower backs and legs. So the appropriate demonstration is for me to show the pose with my knees bent and my heels off the floor. In time — and with practise — this may need to change. My job as the teacher is to monitor and adjust as required.

It’s not my job to be a show pony, flashing all my ‘fancy moves’.

***

Demonstrations are important. They can be a powerful part of what it means to be a yoga teacher.

For students who are new to yoga, being able to see what the teacher is verbally cuing is an important learning tool, especially for people who are more visual learners than aural.

But demonstrations must be done in a way that is for the students’ benefit, never the teacher’s. With the demonstrator’s full consent. And always in a way that is accessible, encouraging and informative to our students.

The 3 Things My Yoga Teaching Breakdown Taught Me

It was 6.30 in a Monday night and the studio was peaceful, sunny and ready for class.

Why were my palms sweating and my heart racing?

Well, what if no one turned up? What if I was about to have another class that ended up costing me more than I earned? What if I had two brand new beginners and three advanced students?

The truth was I was dreading the start of my class. And here’s why…

I had been in love with Yoga for such a long time. Way back at the beginning I had started yoga classes to help me with stress. It was a ‘get medication or get Yoga’ type diagnosis. And this crazy thing called Yoga had been a selfcare touchstone ever since.

I’d taken my teacher training five years earlier. It had been gruelling, and taken me relentlessly to my edge… and I’d stuck with it nonetheless.

I lived, breathed and with all my heart felt called to share Yoga.

And yet I couldn’t fill a class to save my life!

And the few students who did show up were such a mixed bag. Sure, I’d plan my class ahead of time but then I’d have to radically shift it as I taught, desperately trying to give everyone something that they could manage.

And by the end of it I felt dissatisfied with my efforts, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that they did, too.

This was NOT what I had signed up for.

The truth was that I was rapidly falling out of love with Yoga. And I was terrified.

So (for this text book Pitta dosha woman) I took a risk.

I allowed myself 20 minutes to really let go. To break down. So cry. To feel the shame. The disappointment in myself.

And the real fear that maybe I was going to have to give up my Yoga teaching path and go back to my J.O.B.

And then, as Siva Nataraja reminds us, the wheel turned and I had that Kriya. That minute ‘in the moment’ Moksha from my fear and drama.

And in that moment I decided that enough was enough.

I headed to the bathroom. Splashed some water in my face. Looked at myself firmly in the mirror.

Yes, enough was absolutely enough.

I was done… feeling scared that not enough people would show up to my classes.

I was done… feeling icky about how much and who I charged.

I was done… finding myself calculating the gap between my overheads and my ‘income’ as students were arriving for class.

And I was totally done… trying to be everything to everyone and failing us all.

I was ready to be an abundant Yoga teacher.

And there was no way I was going to risk this deep love for my craft a moment longer.

By admitting that I wasn’t happy and allowing myself to feel my sadness (rather than beating up myself over it) — I was able to see light at the end of the tunnel.

While I didn’t know the specifics of what I needed to do to shift my stagnant energy and attract the abundance I knew I was meant for, I did know that what I was doing wasn’t working.

(Fast forward and I’ve distilled what does work into 7 short videos that you can access free right here.)

Looking back my career crisis taught me 3 key lessons:

1. It was my job to take the role of the teacher.

This meant to have as much conviction about my class pricing, scheduling and leadership as I did about the practice of Yoga itself.

· No more squelching or weirdness about taking class payments.

· No more indulging people that came late or ‘forgot’ to bring their money.

· No more pretending not to notice weirdos who insisted on doing random pushups in between poses (Yes, really!)

2. To heal my money story and drop the ‘wounded healer’ identity

This meant recognising that I was a householder, not a mendicant! Being broke did not make me more spiritual, but it DID keep me in struggle.

· No more under charging born from codependence and people-pleasing.

· No more undervaluing myself or the incredible panacea that is Yoga.

· No more denying myself ongoing support and professional development because I ‘didn’t have the money’

3. To learn the things I didn’t get in my teacher training

This meant understanding that while my teacher trainings had been comprehensive, they hadn’t taught me anything useful in terms of being a Yoga business owner.

· No more pretending I knew how to market myself (when I didn’t).

· No more hiding and being terrified of promoting myself.

· No more trying to figure it out alone!

Today my mission is to help you become more aligned for abundance in your Yoga business so you can really celebrate what you love most about our craft and change the lives of your students, too.

(Access a 7-part short video training program to do exactly that right here.)

I want you to be able to share your gifts widely, with the people who really need what you have to offer.

And I want to support you to:

· Get out of any struggle or misalignment when it comes to promoting and marketing you and Yoga

· Welcome students AND their payments in a way that feels good for everyone

· Feel confident and comfortable charging your worth, never feeling icky about it again!

I’ve made ALL the mistakes you can imagine while fine-tuning these lessons.

Since charging by ‘gold coin’ donation (hint: that’s $2 in Australia) and attracting aforementioned weirdo pushup dude (and others!) I’ve studied with all sorts of industry leaders, from our field and far wider, to become masterful at the business of Yoga.

And I’m ready to shine a little light on it. (Get it, that was a bad Iyengar joke. I’m unapologetically nerdy when it comes to Yoga ;)

I’ve curated seven things you can start doing right now to generate abundance and ease in your Yoga business, whipped them up into short videos and would love you to have them.

If some free Yoga biz training could be of service, please take a look.

ACCESS YOUR FREE VIDEO TRAINING HERE

Along with the free videos themselves, you’ll also find access to my free weekly Yoga Biz podcasts and some extra bonuses and personal support from me.

You’ll also receive a personal invite to my Yoga Teachers only Facebook group, where you can network, ask ‘silly’ questions and feel really supported with other trailblazers who are also working to drop being broke and embrace being brilliant.

Here is the link again to get started.

How Hanuman Got His Name and Why It Matters in Business

There is just something about Hanuman.

There is something about the mischievous energy of him growing up, there is something about his incredible loyalty to Ram, the way that he forgets his own Siddhis, that he can only use his Siddhis (magical powers) in service to people who have some kind of higher purpose.

He shows us true selfless service. True devotion. What it means to really put the people you love before yourself.

He knows the right time to play small and gentle (like meeting Sita to give her Ram’s ring).

He knows when to be strong and mighty (like flying an entire mountain back to the battlefield to supply the healing herbs).

These are the Hanuman stories that are commonly shared in many Yoga communities.

But today, let’s take a look at Hanuman’s name and what these particular two teachings can show us as Yogipreneurs.

Like all the Gods and Goddesses of Yoga, Hanuman has many names. We’re going to focus on two: Hanuman and Anjaneya.

The name Anjaneya is a maternal name: it indicates ‘son of Anjana’. (And this is where the name of the pose ‘Anjaneyasana comes from.) Anjaneya is the name Hanuman was known as during his childhood. If Anjana was his mother, who was his father? Well, that is a little more complicated.

Hanuman was raised by Anjana and her husband, Kesari. But Hanuman’s biological father was Vayu, the wind god.

My short and sharp retelling of the story is this: Anjana was out and about doing her thing. Vayu spied her and was overcome with lust. So he ‘ruffled her skirts’ which caused her to fall pregnant. From a mythological perspective, these sorts of pregnancies were common and not thought of as negative or violent. For me, however, this is non-consensual. You could argue, therefore, that Anjaneya was the child of rape. That he was conceived as a result of trauma. Whether you take this modern, feminist interpretation of the story or a more historical, mythological interpretation, what is true for both is that Hanuman has a non-typical origin story.

Hold this thought. I’m going to loop back.

***

Let’s jump forward in time to Anjaneya as a child. Kesari is raising the little guy as his own son. Anjana is doing her best to care for a child that is cheeky, restless and a little naughty. One day it all gets a little too much for Anjana and she needs a well-deserved mummy time-out. So she says to her son, ‘You stay home and look after yourself. I’m just going to take a selfcare break. I won’t be long.’

‘But what if I get hungry?’ little Anjaneya asks her.

‘Well, you can eat some fruit,’ she said. Healthy snacks: winning. She collected her purse and headed out. So Anjaneya started playing, teasing his friends, making mischief, doing what all little monkey boys do.

After a while he started to feel hungry and remembered his mum’s instructions about the fruit. He headed to the kitchen and looked at the fruit on offer. Nothing in the kitchen was exciting or interesting enough. Anjaneya wanted something really delicious.

He went back outside and found what he’d been searching for. The perfect peach. ‘I’m gonna eat that one, that big giant, shining, super juicy one in the sky,’ he said, pointing to the sun. And, using his magical powers, he leapt towards the heavens to grab it.

Indra, King of the Gods, saw this monkey boy making to steal the sun from the sky and went straight into protector mode. Without thinking, he launched a thunderbolt directly into Anjaneya’s face, knocking him to the ground and breaking his jaw. ‘Hanu’ means ‘jaw’, so this is where the name Hanuman comes from. It can be interpreted to mean ‘the one with the broken jaw’.

***

Now let’s start to weave these strands together.

Not only is Hanuman the child of trauma, he also bears the name of a deformity.

He is literally known by his brokenness.

He is a powerful reminder that even the Gods — even these divine beings — are imperfect, have challenging pasts and do amazing things despite it all.

We know that Hanuman is fundamental is rescuing Sita from from Lanka, from saving her form the demon, Ravana. It was Hanuman who took Ram’s ring, leapt over the ocean, found the Princess and whispered to her, ‘It’s gonna be okay. Your man is on the other side, we’re building a bridge, we’re gonna figure this out.’

A broken monkey from an unconventional home achieved these great feats that moved history forward.

We can identify with Hanuman because we all have our own wounding, our own difficult past, our own brokenness. While the forms differ between us, the fact that ‘we’ve been through stuff’ is something we all have in common.

That’s why these Hanuman teachings are so relatable.

Perhaps, like Hanuman, our wounding does not need to stop us from tapping in to our own super powers. Perhaps we, too, can overcome adversity, access our talents and gifts in the service of others and surprise even ourselves with the feats we can accomplish.

***

Last night I was teaching Eka Pada Rajakapotasana as one of the peak poses in my class, and I was talking about plantar flexion in the front foot because I know what a hip injury looks like as well as what a knee injury looks like after years of misaligned poses (like pigeon) in my own practice.

Because I’m now a bit broken on one side from bad Yoga in my twenties, I have a gift to share: correct and safe alignment teaching for poses like this. In this way, my wounding gets to be my message. I can teach like a fanatic these days about how to do an aligned Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, regardless of the level of external rotation and adduction you have in your hips.

In this way what if, as well as recognising our brokenness as a normal part of being an embodied being, we could put it to work in the service of others?

Today, my encouragement is for you to check in with your wounds, your broken parts.

What are your stories and how do they influence who you are today?

Maybe you’ve also got trauma in your family of origin story.

Maybe you’ve made a mistake that caused you a significant injury or set-back.

Maybe, like Hanuman, you’re one of the most unlikely people to achieve great things…

Whatever your wounds, how can you really bring them in? How can you forgive them, love them, and turn them into what actually fuels your success, fuels your business, and fuels how you are in service to the world and to your communities?

Hanuman did not let his misfortune hold him back. He continued to show up and achieve great things, never in a showy way but in a way of deep service.

Let’s not define ourselves by our mistakes or misfortune. Let’s achieve great things despite them.

Create Your Yoga Brand in Just 60 Minutes

I spoke to a Yoga teacher recently who was so thrilled about her ‘next level’. She shared with me that she had finally made a significant financial investment in her business. She was finally taking herself and her biz seriously. She was going to finally uncover her brand!!

When she showed me the results my heart sank.

This teacher had spent almost $1000 having someone she’d never met compile a one-page document of design elements that she could easily have done herself. Not only was she more than capable of the work herself, her version would have been much more aligned to her own values and aesthetics AND would have been fun to create, too.

I believe it is critical to have a strong brand so people recognise you and relate to you. A strong brand also means people remember you and stick with you. Brand awareness means you won’t get ‘lost in the noise’ and your unique characteristics and offerings will be seen my people more likely to want to work with you.

But while an awesome brand is essential, creating your own simple brand is not difficult and it definitely doesn’t require any background training or specialist skill.

In this article I’m going to step you through my 60-minute brand creation process. You’ll need a journal, the internet and a commitment to ‘done is better than perfect’.

Ready?

Let’s go!

Establish the Feeling Tones for Your Brand

Feeling tones are the emotions, characteristics and qualities of your brand. They are how you feel about what you do and how your customers feel about working with you. They encompass your vision for your business, your ethics and quality standards and your desire for your students.

A great way to begin to list out the feeling tones for your business is to spend some time journaling on these two questions:

1. What are the important qualities for you of your brand?

2. How do you desire your customers to feel engaging with your brand?

Maybe it’s important that your business is accessible, professional and fun.

Maybe you desire your customers to feel empowered, uplifted and valued.

Spend 15 minutes journaling on these questions and create a list of the top six to eight feeling tones that you uncover.

Colour Palette

Colours are really important for brand recognition AND they can be fun to discover. Each colour conveys certain emotions and qualities. Generally,

· Red indicates passion, drama and power.

· Pink is more about vulnerability, love, tenderness and play.

· Orange is optimistic, creative and fun.

· Yellow is all about happiness, enthusiasm and energy.

· Green is calming. It conveys reliability and stability.

· Blue is all about prestige, loyalty and responsibility.

· Purple is a magic and spiritual colour, great for imagination and mystery.

Spend 15 minutes Googling the meanings of colours. Match the six to eight feeling tones to their corresponding colours. Choose three colours. (Yes, just three.)

Next, pull up Pinterest.com and type in the three colours into the search bar followed by the phrase ‘colour palette’. You’ll see hundreds of examples of combinations of these colours. Spend another 10 minutes looking at all of the options and then pick one. Take a screenshot of your choice.

Finally, Google ‘html colour code from image’ and choose a site that allows you to upload the screenshot you’ve taken from Pinterest. Hover your cursor over the three colours you’ve chosen and note down the HTML colour code for each.

(Online and in printing, all colours have their own unique code. These codes all start with # and then a combination of letters and numbers. This is a HTML colour code.)

Fonts

Now let’s choose your typography, the fonts you’re going to use whenever people are seeing your business in the written word (print or online).

I like to group fonts into 4 kinds:

· Serif fonts

· San serif fonts

· Script fonts

· Decorative fonts

To create a strong and consistent brand, I recommend you choose one serif (i.e. Times New Roman) or one sans serif font (i.e. Arial) and one script or one decorative font.

Serif fonts convey a sense of formality. They are classy, timeless and have a certain professional tone. Sans serif fonts are more modern. They are welcoming, adaptable and easily paired with decorative and script fonts.

Script fonts are the fonts that almost appear hand-written. They are cursive, informal and many of them convey more feminine-encoded traits. Decorative fonts are exactly that: decorative. Graffiti fonts, fonts that look like Sanskrit or fonts that look like they have been painted are all examples.

The first selection will be used for the majority of your body copy: website text, newsletters, paragraphs on printed material etc. The second selection will be used for accents: headings, subheadings etc.

Note: Some decorative and script fonts are more legible than others. Be discerning so your potential customers can actually read what you’ve written. Also, try to avoid anything that is going to date fast (think watercolour brushstrokes fonts popular five years ago!)

Use these two fonts (serif/sans serif and script/decorative) consistently in all of your online, print and social media content so people come to know them as ‘yours’.

Language

One of the key pieces of a strong brand that is too often overlooked is language. The words and phrases you use are one of the markers that make you you, and as such are a critical part of a strong brand.

We can infer so much about a Yoga teacher, her classes and her brand from the words she uses. Consider these four examples, all possible ways for a Yoga teacher to sign off on an email:

· Hari Om

· Namaste, Bitches!

· Sat Nam

· Stay awesome!

You’re probably going to personally resonate with one of these over the others. And that’s perfect because it is an indicator that it is the type of brand you want to engage with.

It’s time for a new journal page. Begin to list the phrases and terminology you commonly use. Here are a few journaling prompts to get you started:

1. If a student was imitating you, what would they say?

2. What are the names of your programs?

3. Which salutation do you use in your newsletters?

4. How do you start your Instagram lives?

5. Does your lineage or teaching style have certain phrases or jargon?

6. Where are you on the secular — spirituality spectrum in your teaching and what phrases or words can you find there?

If you feel really stuck, reread some of your old newsletters and play back some of your recorded classes (yes, it can feel a little cringy!) and journal down what you notice.

Now You’ve Got a Style Guide!

Finally, create a one-page document that contains your six to eight feeling tones, your three HTML colour codes, your two fonts and your 10 (max.) key phrases. This is your Style Guide and can be shared with your virtual assistant or business partners, as well as being your reference point for whenever you need to make a new piece of content that you want to be ‘on brand’.

By continuing to use these feeling tones, colours, fonts and signature phrases, you’re well on your way to having strong brand recognition.

One more thing before you go: don’t over think this!

If we want people to recognise our brands so they feel connected to us and are more likely to buy from us and recommend us, we need to settle on the four elements and stick with them.

Too many Yoga teachers I work with continue to fuss and fiddle with the elements after going through this process. Remember, the longer you spend changing things, the longer it will take for people to easily recognise your brand.

Unless you discover a competitor has the same — or very similar — brand elements, stick to your original choices.

And we’re done! You now have your very own brand and Style Guide all within an hour, without spending a cent and — hopefully — after having some fun!

Artha, Satya and Raising Your Rates in Your Yoga Biz

Is there or isn’t there a conflict between being spiritual and making money?

Is there an inherent rub between having a Yoga business and generating prosperity, between being wealthy and being a Yogi?

I’m propose that not only is there zero conflict, pursuing business success aligns fully with the purpose of a spiritual life!

To make my case, I’m going to discuss two important principles, Artha and Satya.

The Spiritual Importance of Generating Wealth

The Puruṣārtha are the four main stages or phases that a spiritual layperson should pursue in life. They are the pursuit of living according to principles, pleasure, material gain and then liberation.

For the purposes of this article, let’s focus our attention on material gain, or Artha.

As with most Sanskrit terms, Artha can be defined in a variety of ways, and each way is open to interpretation depending on one’s worldview and lineage. For me, Artha refers to the part of life associated with wealth and prosperity. Buying property, owning things, assets. Gaining employment, staring a business, saving. Having the capacity to care for oneself and others.

Too often Yoga teachers approach their profession with a belief that generating abundance through their businesses is somehow ‘unyogic’. Many teachers feel that it is somehow less spiritual (whatever that means) to desire financial security and stability.

The Puruṣārtha remind us that this is simply not the case.

In scripture including the Ramayana and the Mahabharata we are reminded of the importance of Artha, of creating and managing wealth and seeking worldly success. You could say that shirking the creation of abundance is, in fact, failing to adhere to one of the four purposes of human life.

The Truth about Your Classes’ Worth

The second principle to discuss today is Satya.

Satya refers to truthfulness. Again, it can be defined in many ways with many nuances. For us today, let’s define it to mean not only the importance of not telling lies, but also being truthful and virtuous with ourselves not only in what we say, but how we think and the actions we take. It implies honesty and transparency. Specifically let’s turn our attention to how this principle applies to the rates we charge in class.

When I first moved to the country and started teaching here my classes were $5 each. Anyone could come and the rate was always the same: a fiver.

It took some years for me to recognise that this rate was actually dishonest.

As a 30-some year practitioner who’s been teaching for almost 10 years and had the very good fortune to study with some of the world’s best teachers, my classes were worth more than five dollars.

Charging so low was wrong action rather than right action. It was a misalignment with the actual value of what I have to offer. I was being dishonest with myself when I was undercharging so radically for my services.

Weaving these Concepts Together

Now let’s bring these two ideas together.

Yoga itself teaches us that to be well-rounded, spiritual householders we have a responsibility to generate wealth and financial security. And we also have a responsibility to think, speak and act in honest and truthful ways.

I work with many Yoga teachers who have a strong aversion to these ideas, especially when we weave them together. And yet here it is: Yoga tells us that it’s good to support ourselves well through a dharmic path such as teaching Yoga. As we pursue that path we should be speaking the truth about our worth, rates and prices.

My chronic undercharging had nothing to do with my identity as a Yogini. My undercharging was actually all about my upbringing and the stories I’d adopted from my parents about wealth, prosperity and what it meant to be ‘good people’.

It wasn’t until I got honest with myself and recognised what was actually true that I could start valuing my classes for what they were worth, and charging accordingly.

How Do You Know What Your Class Is Worth?

I remember being at a Yoga festival in Bulgaria. I was taking a class with the incredible Annie Carpenter. We were exploring some standing poses and Annie was moving around the room offering verbal adjustments.

When she approached my mat she looked at my front leg and gave me a tiny, super-specific micro adjustment as a verbal cue. It was so masterful that when I did as she instructed the entire pose opened up.

I didn’t say anything but she must have seen the look on my face because she said, ‘Yep, I’ve just changed your life”. And she was right!

We can never know how valuable a single class can be to a student. And, I’d argue, it’s not our job to know. It IS our job to prepare, study and teach well. And it is also our job to charge what we know, truthfully, to be what we feel we’re worth.

Stop Benchmarking Against Your Competitors!

When I open these conversations with my clients many of them feel that before they can list the new price that feels right on their websites and share it in their newsletters, they need to check out what other teachers in their towns are charging.

This is wrong.

Having worked with thousands of Yoga teachers on their businesses, I know for sure that too many teachers have yet to appreciate the importance of prosperity and being truthful (i.e. Artha and Satya) in their vocation.

This means that benchmarking against our local ‘competitors’ has us comparing ourselves to those who are still undercharging.

Just as a rising tide raises all boats… a lowering tide… well, you know what I mean!

Rather than seeking external validation for your new, shiny rates, spend time going within. Seek the prices, the energetic resonance that feels right, for the equitable, truthful, honest value of your offerings.

What if people stop coming?

I remember spending a summer in Edinburgh and reading the notice board at a local wholefoods store, hunting for some Yoga classes to attend.

There was a lot on offer, but one class in particular jumped out at me. The description sounded like the type of practice I enjoy. The teacher’s photo looked warm and welcoming. The location, dates and times were perfect.

But she was charging £5 a class.

So I didn’t go.

Why? Because I assumed that such a cheap class must not be very good quality.

Many teachers become preoccupied worrying that students will stop coming when the prices go up. But it works in reverse, too. People will make value judgments based on the price of your class. Too expensive AND too cheap.

I remember when I put the prices up in my Yoga classes to a point where I was — by far — the most expensive teacher in town (remember my point above about those sinking boats!) Some of my students stopped coming, for sure. I think two of them stopped coming. But no one else stopped coming. And new people started coming because the price I was charging aligned with the value I was giving.

When you take the time to consider your new prices, being truthful with yourself and fully embracing your right to generate prosperity, it may mean that your ideal student or audience shifts temporarily. You may need to do some additional marketing to fill some gaps but there are people out there who want what you have and value investing in themselves.

As householder-practitioners we have a responsibility to pursue prosperity and financial security. And also as householder-practitioners we must do this in honest and truthful ways, with others and with ourselves.

How to Use Social Proof Ethically in Your Yoga or Holistic Biz

When I was 18 I moved to Germany to work as an Au Pair for 12 months. It was hard, tough work. At night, after another exhausting day of cycling my charges all over town, hand milling their organic oats and washing their cloth nappies I’d curl up in bed and read the Lonely Planet.

(This, younger readers, was THE go-to travel guide — a must have for any backpacker.)

I based all of my travel decisions for my post-nannying adventure on that book. If it told me which hostel to book in Paris, that’s the one I booked. If it told me which restaurant to enjoy in Rome… yep, you’d find me dining there. From wine tours in Hungary to hiking trips in Ireland, I didn’t go anywhere without checking the Lonely Planet first.

Not so these days.

In fact, can you even imagine taking the word of a 12-month-old guide book? Nothing in real time? The opinion of one travel writer who was probably at the actual location over 2 years prior?

These days we make most of our significant purchasing decisions after ‘doing our homework’.

Whether you read an online comment, a FB review or had a friend refer you, you probably haven’t bought anything of significance without checking out the brand, the specific product or experience and what people had to say about it.

The term ‘social proof’ has a number of meanings and interpretations. For the sake of this article and supporting you with your business, I’m choosing a specific, narrow definition.

For us today, social proof refers to third party reviews and testimonials. It’s the things people who have experienced your services or products have to say about those services or products.

Unlike me in the mid-90s, people simply require it to make a buying decision.

· What do formal review sites recommend?

· What’s listed on Yelp?

· Which Influencer is tagging it?

· Are there any authorising bodies or organisations whose imprimatur you’re looking for?

But most importantly, what do people like you have to say about it?

Social Proof for Yoga Teachers

In Yoga-land — or similar holistic businesses — our social proof comes in these general forms:

· Written or video testimonials students create for us

· Comments on our social media posts

· Review functionality on our platforms (comments on blogs, reviews on Google etc)

· The number of followers, likes, shares etc you have on your platforms

· Word of mouth (the very best form, and the topic for a future article.)

So why is social proof so important?

Consider these two pieces of social proof:

‘This was the worst yoga class that I’ve ever been to, I’ll never go back, the teacher had smelly feet and all of the mats were dirty.’

And:

‘I felt so strong and empowered after this class! I can’t believe some of the poses the teacher instructed us into. I seriously impressed myself. Can’t wait to come back.

If you were choosing between two classes, same time, studio, price and description, which one would you book?

Most people make judgements, assessments, criticisms, positive or otherwise, based on social proof.

How to collect social proof

The first step in collecting social proof is to put away any squeamish feelings you might have about asking your students.

In 2021 it’s a common practice for businesses to ask for reviews, feedback or tags. Your students are not going to be shocked when you ask them… so ask them!

In my experience the biggest barrier students have in providing a testimonial about your services is the fear that they are going to get it wrong.

Many people have a fear of public speaking or a lack of confidence when it comes to writing. If a student has agreed to provide a review for you and is delaying sending it through, this is the most likely reason.

There is a very simple way to support your students here, and I’m going to loop back to it in a moment. We just need to cover what makes for a good testimonial over a crappy one.

The Makings of a Good Testimonial

The number one mistake Yoga teachers make when asking for social proof from clients is not giving enough guidance. This is especially true if the student LOVES your classes.

For example, if you ask, “Would you be able to write me a testimonial about coming to my Yoga class?” chances are you’re going to receive something along the lines of:

“Thank you so much for being an amazing Yoga teacher. Um, I feel really lucky to come to your classes and I think you’re just fabulous, I love you, and your energy. Thank you, thank you (emoji)”

Obviously the sentiment here is wonderful and very, very sweet.

But it’s what I call a ‘love note’ rather than a true marketing testimonial.

It’s the sort of thing that a grateful student will willingly and honestly write, without enough guidance.

And for a prospective student reviewing your website, it doesn’t give that much clarity. It may not actually provide the guidance she is looking for to make her purchasing decision.

In order to solicit an honest and meaningful testimonial that is going to be informative for a new customer (and not all high five emojis and ‘amazing amazing amazing’) you need to provide a framework or a container for your student to work to.

The Perfect Testimonial Framework

So here we are back at helping your student craft something they feel good about AND something that is going to be supportive to your marketing efforts.

Nice, eh?

Ok, so what is the framework?

Rather than ask your student what they think about you and your class, ask them to describe the benefits they gained as a result of experiencing your thing.

For example, if you offer reiki sessions, what was the benefit people experienced having had a session?

“After having a reiki session with Karen, I felt more relaxed, I slept better, and in the morning, I felt far more energized than I have in weeks”.

That’s compelling. And it’s not:

“Oh my God, Karen you’re such a sweetheart, I really feel like you’re a light worker and the world needs more people like you (heart, heart, star, star) Thanks and see you next week!”.

5 Tips for Great, Ethical Testimonials

We all know it’s too easy to con and scam online.

And as wellpreneurs we want to take all steps we can against inadvertently spreading misinformation or giving people a false sense of who we are and what we offer.

Make sure you’re adhering to these 5 tips so your social proof feels good to you AND your students.

1. If someone writes you positive feedback unsolicited, always ask first before you share it

2. Make it clear when you ask for feedback where and how the feedback will be used.

3. Gain consent to use the person’s name, photo and location (approx.) so people know they’re real.

4. If you need to edit for brevity, have the student review it before you share it

5. If you need to edit for content… don’t use it (and consider their comments in your personal contemplation practice!)

5 Tips to Writing More Confidently

Many wellness entrepreneurs feel fearful about writing compelling copy for their businesses.

Maybe they’ll say the wrong thing. Maybe they don’t consider themselves very skilled with the written word. Maybe they sucked at English in high school and the Vasana of those old reports continues to hang around.

After spending years teaching copywriting, editing manuscripts and articles and growing my own business through the written word, I’ve put together these five tips that I hope will help you feel more confident in sharing your (written) message more broadly with the people who really need to read it.

1. Students first

A free service I’ve been offering for over five years now is a newsletter assessment.

Yoga teachers, coaches, counsellors and healers from all over the world email me their newsletters for review and I send them back three or four tips for improvements.

The most common advice I give is to write more about the reader than the writer.

For example, a Yoga teacher starts a newsletter with a paragraph along the lines of:

‘Hi Amy, I’ve had such a beautiful spring. The flowers in my garden have just been gorgeous and I can really feel new ideas emerging. How are you feeling?”

The first two sentences are all about the writer, not about the reader. Like it or not, in 2021 we live in a ‘what’s in it for me’ society. This means that a more compelling version of the above would be:

‘Hi Amy, How have you found this spring? Has it been a time of new ideas and celebration for you? Perhaps you’re feeling it’s time to start a new project.”

These two openings convey the same message but one is reader-centric and is likely to generate more engagement right from the start. An engaged reader is more likely to not only read all of your email, but to also take action (i.e. sign up for something).

2. Clear then clever

Jazzy titles and jazzy little phrases are the clipart of the written word.

Things like ‘Register for my Rest, Rejuvenate and Revilatise Retreat’ or ‘You deserve to live your best life… now!’ are not only over-worked and twee, they make your message indistinguishable from so many other people around the world.

Perhaps we got away with these sorts of phrases back 1993 (hidden under a shoulder pad) but not anymore. Remember, alliteration, puns and cliches dilute your message.

Be clear first and then be clever. Tell people what you want them to understand. Use your own vernacular to make your writing pop, rather than relying on what you’ve seen other people write.

3. Benefits over features ALWAYS

When you’re writing sales copy — email marketing, webpage, social media comments or ads — it is essential that you spend much more time discussing the benefits than the features.

Features are the specific, quantifiable elements that make up your offer: 75 minute class, 5 night retreat, twin share accommodation, 1 hour massage.

Benefits are the qualitative outcomes a buyer could expect having signed up for something from you: feel relaxed, find ease in sore muscles, enjoy deeper sleep, meet fun new people.

Here’s an example of a Yoga class description that is mostly features:

Join my 75 minute Yin Yoga class that finishes with Yoga Nidra on Wednesday night at 7:15 at the Uniting Church Hall on the Main Street of Thattown for $20.

And here’s one that is mostly benefits:

Leave class feeling soothed and relaxed with tight, stressed muscles feeling longer and more flexible.

Most people are motivated to buy from benefit statements, rather than features statements. So make sure you include both, with an emphasis on the former.

Remember: ensure your benefit statements are also realistic and ethical!

4. Love VS Fear

Sure, this compels us to recall Donnie Darko, (Jai Patrick Swayze) but we need to bear it in mind. Let me explain why it’s critical.

Fear-based copy writing sells.

‘If you don’t buy my ‘Find Your Ideal Soulmate’ course now, you could be lonely forever!’

‘Don’t stay stuck living an unlived life: buy my coaching package!’

‘Without Yoga every week you could be causing long term damage to your body!’

The thing is writing and sharing these sorts of messages feels gross. And it should, right? It’s manipulative and mean-spirited. Who wants to freak, shame or harass people into signing up to work with us?

No thanks!

So how do we avoid the copywriting norm of fear-based sales? We tap into positive emotions: love, hope, gratitude, joy, connection, inspiration, peace and respect.

When you’re writing your copy, keep your enthusiasm for what you’re offering front of mind. Seek to convey that while at the same time letting go of any of your own fear around people not signing up.

Think of it as abundant, attachment-free writing!

Writing copy this way that’s warm and welcoming may not get you as many sales in the short term, but you’ll feel better about spreading the word and you’re likely to find people resonate with your message in a committed way over time.

5. Done is better than perfect

Lastly, people need to read your message. Waiting for it to be polished to perfection isn’t serving anyone!

One of my podcast listeners shared with me the other week that it takes her 45 minutes to write ONE Instagram post!

A client of mine told me earlier in the week that writing 4 sales emails would take her all day!

What is going on?

A friend of mine sent out her Yoga newsletter the other day talking about her latest offerings. It was so perky and fun and I felt lighter and brighter from reading it.

I sent her a note to tell her so.

And she immediately wrote me back lamenting all the typos and grammar errors she’d seen after she sent it. She felt sick and wanted to head back to bed.

We forget that our readers — the clients and students we are really looking to serve — aren’t the critics we are so fearful of.

We never want to be sloppy or crap, but it is time to let go of the unachievable expectation of perfection.

Just as we would never expect perfection from a student in a Yoga pose, our readers don’t expect it from us. They want to understand. They don’t want to be distracted by errors. But they’re not your high school English teacher!

One of 3 Classic Mistakes Yoga Teachers Make Planning Yoga Retreats

Too often I hear from Yoga teachers who finish a retreat feeling exhausted and only just breaking even. Group dynamics, over-stepped boundaries, pricing snaffoos, over-giving: these can trip up newbie retreat organisers as well as more seasoned hosts.

I taught my first ever Yoga retreat in 2013. Since then retreats have been a fun part of my own business as well as an important component I work on with my clients.

As the world begins to open back up, I’ve put together a series of 3 common mistakes to avoid as you plan your next Yoga retreat.

In this series I’m sharing three of the common mistakes Yoga teachers make in hosting retreats. Be on the lookout for next two instalments.

Your Yoga Retreat is NOT Your Holiday!

I had a client a few years ago who shared with me that it took her months to recover after hosting a 2-week retreat in Japan.

She took a group of people overseas to a place she adores.

She taught them meditation, movement. They toured important and beautiful places.

My client thought it would be a ‘dream job’. Getting to spend time in her most favorite place in the world all while sharing it with others.

That’s not what happened.

Rather than having a break with friends, she returned home exhausted, emotionally drained, anxious and — perhaps the worst part — reluctant to return to her retreat location ever again.

Oh, and she lost money, too.

Often, yoga teachers choose their retreat destination because it is somewhere they’d like to visit for their own vacation.

If your intention is that retreats are a prosperity-generating part of your business it is critical to separate your holiday dreams from your business deliverables.

As an abundant Yoga teacher, you get to teach retreats AND take vacations.

They are not the same thing.

Teaching a Yoga retreat is not your way to having an all-expenses paid holiday. Have an all-expenses paid holiday because you have an abundant yoga business, generating prosperity from hosting wonderful retreats!

Remeber:

1. There is nothing ‘on holiday’ for you about leading a retreat.

2. If you are serious about your vocation as a Yoga teacher, you require to go on retreat as a participant at least once a year

You get to have your OWN coconuts!

Yes your retreat gets to be absolutely from the heart. Yes, you get to do it and be filled with passion and excitement about the idea. Yes, you get to do it because you know that your students would love to go somewhere gorgeous and spend a week with you.

But no, you do not get to propose that you’re going to teach a retreat because actually what you want to do is go to Hawaii for a week of hammocks and yoga and coconuts.

You get to have both of those things, the degree to which you merge them represents the degree to which you are making chaos in your life, struggle in your mental space and confusion in your nervous system.

When you take a stand for abundance, you get to teach a retreat such that you make a beautiful income, such that you can reinvest it in yourself and go on a holiday right.

Keep Your Business Retreat Separate from your Personal Retreat!

My Thailand Retreat is one of the greatest pleasures I have in business.

A week with a wonderful collection of Yoga teachers from all over the world.

Great conversation, insights, sharing, ah-ha’s. Amazing food. Gorgeous location. Deep sleep. Yoga. Meditation. New friendships. Afternoon bike rides through small villages.

It really is heaven.

AND it’s also work.

Seven days is fulltime work and it’s not just eight hours a day. You’re on. You’re on like 24 hours a day even when you’re asleep. You’re still there. If someone needs you, you still have to be there. You still have a duty of care for people. You’re still holding space. You’re still responsible for the energy container.

My job as the facilitator of my retreat is to run the program and address everyone’s concerns.

Make sure the special meals are kept separate for the person with a peanut allergy.

Check that the equipment is ready each day for class.

Rearrange the transfer for someone who has to leave early.

Organise someone to remove the snake from one of the guest’s suites (yes, that really happened).

So while I’m absolutely in love with teaching the Abundant Yoga Retreats every year, I know that by the end of the week I’ll be looking for rest and rejuvenation myself.

By the end of those seven days, I’m going to be looking forward to some time by myself, some body work, some refreshing time in a pool and probably a glass or two of wine.

That’s what I’m going to be looking forward to.

Good Planning will Ensure Your Retreats Fund Your Holidays

I remember a past client of mine who was shocked at the idea of actually making money on her Retreat.

Because she was so grateful to have a week at a luxurious destination in Spain, she figured she was happy to do it for free.

Mistake!

A well-planned, well-thought through retreat should be abundant for you while also being a fantastic, nourishing experience for your participants.

It is important to plan for both.

After looking at her retreat plans it was obvious there were a few problems.

· She wasn’t charging an additional fee for people wanting a room to themselves, thereby halving the income available to her as a result.

· She was ‘overstuffing’ the days, with too many inclusions that she was paying additionally for, rather than giving her participants the opportunity for free time by the pool, reading, going on hikes etc (all free for her AND delicious for her participants).

· She was paying an additional teacher to offer Yoga Nidra for her participants, believing that having more staff on hand would make the experience appear richer, despite being a talented Nidra facilitator herself.

Some simple tweaks and the retreat went from breaking even to being the income generator for her to take a week-long trip to Ibitha afterwards.

And the best part?

The participants didn’t even notice a difference. They had an incredible time, with their favourite teacher and lots of extra free time and fun activities.

In Summary:

As a Yoga teacher, the retreats you offer are work, not play.

Enjoyable work, for sure. But not a quasi-vacation for yourself.