The One Mistake You Can’t Afford To Make

by Valerie "Head Passionista" on January 11, 2012

Welcome to the new year, 2012!  It’s nice to have a fresh start, a clean slate, and to get excited for all the possibilities that a new year can hold.  So let’s capitalize on this feeling, since this wonderful euphoria can be so fleeting.

This year I’ll be talking a lot about how yoga teachers and studio owners (and other holistic entrepreneurs – this works for you too) can really earn what they’re worth while changing the world.  A part of my step by step system to building your business is my program – How To Charge What You Are Worth…And Get It.   I’m super excited about this program because it brings together so many facets that not only help you in business but in every area of your life.  It’s all about recognizing your own value, gaining the confidence to overcome fear and get out there in the world with your gift, and then effectively communicating what you offer to others.

With this post I want to talk about getting out there in the world.  To grow any business, you have to have an audience to speak to.  To be really successful, you need more than an audience, you need loyal followers and cheerleaders.   One of the most important jobs you have in your teaching career is to turn brand spankin’ new students into loyal followers and cheerleaders.

But one of the biggest mistakes I see teachers and studio owners make is not paying attention to (or sometimes completely ignoring, yikes!) the brand new student in class.  DON’T do this!  Your brand new student is your clean-slate (new year and all) chance to make a big and lasting impression on someone and turn them into a fan for life.  Not only is this very rewarding from a teaching perspective, but financially could be worth thousands of dollars to you over time.  So how do we keep these awesome newbies coming back?

1. Make sure they feel comfortable in the first class.  Newbies need to know where the bathroom is, where to put their mat, where to put their things.  Beginners also need to know that its ok to have a sip of water, or rest if they are pushing too hard.  Try to see each class you teach from a beginner’s mind and know that these new students are thanking you inside.

2.  Take an idea from the online marketing crowd and offer a free gift in exchange for your new student’s email address.  So few teachers do this, but the one’s I work with who do think it’s the best idea since sticky yoga mats.  You need to be collecting email addresses to keep in touch with your students.  Did you hear that?  YOU MUST collect email addresses.  In exchange, offer them something truly valuable.  This gift can include an ‘invite a friend free’ pass, a short audio meditation, a discount coupon to the retail of your studio ($10 off said mat!),  a 10 minute video of a relaxing yoga sequence, etc etc.  Get creative and watch your return numbers (and referrals) rise.

3.  Stay in touch regularly through your newsletter or blog.  By regularly I mean at least twice a month.  By stay in touch I don’t mean just sending your upcoming schedule changes and workshops.  Continue to offer value in the form of information that your audience finds relevant.  Blog about how you use your yoga off the mat.  Tell a funny yoga story.  Let them see your personality shine through.  Be interesting!

This group that you grow is your most important asset.  Treat it as such.  If you want to change the world and make great money doing it, focus on building a relationship with your audience by taking care of them and interacting with them with respect and compassion…and fun!

 

Xoxo,

Valerie

 

P.S. Remember that the awesome and amazing Vibrant Yoga Entrepreneur Speaker Series kicks off this Thursday, January 12th!  And this series is completely free for you to join in.  Every week my friend Rebecca Snowball of Yoga Soul will be interviewing some top names in the yoga industry on how they authentically grow their businesses.  Do not miss this incredible opportunity to listen to the entire teleseries at no cost!

Click here to go to the Vibrant Yoga Entrepreneur Speaker Series website and register. 

 

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2011: Rebirth

by Valerie "Head Passionista" on December 16, 2011

Wow!  The year flies by, doesn’t it?  I’m in the midst of doing my planning for 2012, and I’m really excited for what the year holds.  As I look back on 2011, I realize that the pretty obvious theme for me this year was BIRTH.  Most notable was the birth of the Bean: Noah Dean on Easter Sunday (no more perfect day than that one for birth!)  But 2011 also was the year of rebirth for my business.  And interestingly these two are pretty intertwined.

Motherhood this year changed me in profound ways, and reorganized my priorities very quickly.  What was so interesting for me though was my strong desire to get back to my work helping people grow their dream businesses.  I was pretty unsure, to be honest, that I’d want to go back to work.  Toward the end of my pregnancy and those first few months, I thought that the only thing I’d want to do is snuggle my little bundle of joy for the next few years.  Some of my friends went that route, and they convinced me that it was THE way to go.  But as time passed, I realized that the Universe had a lot of diverse paths for me, and that it was OK for me to follow ALL of those paths that brought me joy.

One of my favorite books is called The How of Happiness.  In it the author, a psychologist, describes 12 “happiness” activities to pursue for sustainable long-term happiness.  Activity #10 is committed pursuit of goals.  Studies have shown that those that have meaningful goals that they are on the path to pursuing have a much higher happiness quota.  One of my goals is and has been to help people turn what they love into a thriving, abundant business.  I have been blessed with gifts of the abilities to communicate and teach and I get a lot of pleasure out of helping people succeed.  So this makes sense then, this idea of pursuing my goals.  I’d bet you also get a lot of pleasure out of reaching the goals that you set for your business.  This kind of stuff is made to make humans happy!

I’ve also read a lot about the ways mothers around the world cope with motherhood, work, and the pursuit of passion.  One group that fascinates me are the French.  (Alas, another France reference.  I’m obsessed.)  Many French women return to work, and the government makes it extremely easy to do so (6-month paid maternity leave, subsidized child care, 4 day work weeks! They pay for it in other ways, but still.)  In Judith Warner’s essay “Towards a Politics of Quality of Life” in the book, Paris Was Ours, she states that her French working mother friends never ever spoke about the “mommy guilt” of returning to work like American women do.  She says “work was seen as an essential component of modern motherhood, a component of good motherhood, in fact, beacuse it was something that helped women feel happy and whole.”

I absolutely agree now that having passions and pursuits outside of your children keep women vibrant…and yes, happy.

Not everyone gets this.  When I told several friends that I was really ready to start my work up again, I could feel them slowly look me up and down as if to say, “You’re choosing to go back?”  But I saw also that these same women devoted their entire waking (and sleeping) hours to their children, to the detriment of their own sanity and their other relationships sometimes.

Of course, the choice is such a personal one to each and every person.  No matter what you do you have to ensure that you keep a few things for yourself, and it doesn’t have to neccessarily be work.  But for me, my “work” is not really much work at all.  It’s frankly a helluva lot of fun.

So, that leads me right back up to 2012 and the awesome things I have in store.  I’ve got big goals this year, because I want to reach a lot more people with the message that you CAN earn a beautiful living as a yoga entrepreneur.  (Yes, I know how, and I can’t wait to teach you!)  In 2012 I’ll be investing more money than ever before in my own business, with mentors that will in turn stretch me to reach for what I want.  I’ll be offering classes, workshops, and a very special opportunity later on for a select few to join me in a Platinum mastery group – just for those fierce feminine warriors of my tribe that are ready to make big things happen in their own businesses.

I’m gonna start off the year as a guest speaker on a brilliant Yoga Business speaker series…details soon to follow on how you can listen to all the awesome speakers (some really big yoga peeps will be in this series) and it’s all free to you!

So as I sign off for what is most likely my last post for this year, I have a request.  I’d love to hear what big things you have in store, or what big decisions you made or conclusions you came to this past year.  Are you ready to join me in a really big 2012?  Yay!  Let’s DO this.

xoxoxo and happy happy holidays to everyone.

With so much love,

Valerie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 Tips For Filling Your Programs

by Valerie "Head Passionista" on November 23, 2011

One of the major components I spend a lot of time with my coaching clients on is creating awesome marketing copy for workshops, classes and programs.   Because I’ll tell you that spending hours and hours creating a program to which not a soul shows up really will make you question your business. (So often it’s not hitting the target with your copy that causes this problemo.)  And who wants to be hiding under their bed during the holidays because of a failed launch? (Well, maybe if you’ve got a stash of Vosges Exotic Truffles down there…but still.)

The key to creating programs that basically market themselves is to focus on RESULTS.  Most Westerners want to spend their money only if the know that at the end of a class or workshop they will have accomplished something.  As spiritual entrepreneurs, however, we often throw very esoteric words around that really don’t describe anything tangible to your clients.

If you find yourself using these words in your marketing material when describing your programs, we need to go back to the drawing board.

Enlightenment, Happiness, Relaxation, Better Health, Abundance, Bliss (my fave!), Life Force, Reduce Stress, Inner Guidance, Inspiration, Energy, Flexibility, Centering…there are a lot more that I could list but I hope you catch my drift.

I’m not saying that you can’t ever use any of these words, but you really have to be careful that you get past the superficial layer of meaning that each of these overused words carries.  Spiritual peeps can easily get carried away on a fluffy cloud (leaving our clients on earth throwing their hands up) when we get too wrapped up in our jargon.

The goal is to nail down specific results our clients can expect when they participate fully in our programs.  Because we know we can deliver spectacularly (you DO know this!) when our clients give their all to our programs.  When you talk to them with the expectation that they will give you total commitment, what will they achieve?

Here are a few tips to get to the nitty gritty…and get your programs filled in no time.

Know your clients wants needs, and desires.  How do you help them reach these goals?  You have to know this inside and out so that you can speak directly to them on how you solve their problems.

Be descriptive. Enlightenment is nice, but would your client relate more to, say,  gaining the clarity to detach from outcomes during their day so that decisions and obstacles become less stressful, which keeps them off the emotional roller coaster for good?  Yes, I want that!

Get specific.  If you’ve been doing what you do for any length of time, by now you will have heard from a few of your clients on how you changed their lives.  Don’t be afraid to use this information in your descriptions!  If you do yoga therapy and one of your clients was able to walk again after working with you, tell people they can have a similar experience – again, as long as they commit.  If you practice acupuncture fertility treatments and you have clients that have gotten pregnant within two months, say that!  (This is also an ideal place to put testimonials – third party credibility can truly take your business to the next level.)

Don’t shy away from shouting from the rooftops the type of success people can have by working with you.  Too many spiritual entrepreneurs I know are afraid to really tell their clients how awesome a job they can do in helping them accomplish what they want.  Whether they don’t want to appear too hyperbolic, (hype is different from ENTHUSIASM about true results – remember that), or are afraid to make “promises” they don’t think they can deliver on, the result in marketing material is the same – boring, blasè descriptions that are about as exciting as water to a fish.

Take a look at your descriptions and see if you can give them a boost.  The more time you spend creating descriptive, enthusiastic, results-oriented marketing material, the less time you’ll have to spend “selling” people on joining your programs, and the greater success you’ll have filling them up quickly!

 

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4 Steps to Banish Bad Beliefs

November 8, 2011

If you listen to The Secret and other attraction theories, you hear them say, “change your beliefs, change your world!” And “As soon as you set your mind to a different vibrational frequency, you will begin to attract wealth!”  Well that’s great.  Have you ever tried to do just that?  You tell yourself over and [...]

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Voluptuous Vegan

November 7, 2011

I wanted to pass along some of my absolute favorite vegan recipes that have been tried and tested in my very particular kitchen (a 6-year old and a committed meat-eater can attest to the yum factor.)   Pecan Mushroom Burgers Every time I make these everyone has seconds.  Good on a bun or by itself, [...]

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Kick the “I’m Sorries” to the Curb

October 26, 2011

I read an interesting article in Psychology Today called The Case of the Disappearing Self.   (I find it so fascinating that when an idea is percolating in my head, I attract all sorts of information about it!)   I had been stewing about how as women, and especially as spirit-centered women, we tend to self-deprecate [...]

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Overcome Fear For Good

October 19, 2011

I had an excellent workshop with an amazing client recently.  This studio owner has it together.  She is a fabulous teacher who cares about her students; she’s not very “woo woo,” yet she holds people to the power that she sees within them.  As we worked on her vision together, one large sticking point surfaced [...]

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6 Ways to Get More Students Right NOW!

October 5, 2011

Okay, so we covered the absolute basics in last week’s post – 6 Traits of Successful Yoga Entrpreneurs.  If you need to review, go do it now.  Those traits are non-negotiable, and you must have them down before anything else I talk about here will grow your yoga business. There are quite a few facets [...]

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6 Traits of Successful Yoga Entrepreneurs

September 28, 2011

One thing I realized over the past few months is how needed good yoga teachers are. Living somewhat outside a metropolitan area,  I gave up a fruitless search for a prenatal class near my home – there was nothing offered.  I really craved the support of other yogi soon-to-be-moms and their unique perspective during this [...]

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors…and Clients

September 20, 2011

I love getting questions from you all, it enables me to interact with you on a personal level and yet address the broader audience.  Most questions tend to have enough commonality that at one point or another each of you may have had an experience to which you can relate.  So please please keep ‘em [...]

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