by Amanda Kingsmith | Dec 5, 2016 | New Yoga Teacher, Show Notes
Laura Fraser is a yoga teacher for Power Yoga Canada, works in marketing, and is passionate about calligraphy. She also runs a website called Little Black Leggings, where she explores the marketing + business side of yoga.
When I stumbled across her website, I knew I needed to interview her. On this episode, Laura shares her journey as a yoga teacher, and how because she never felt like teaching a ton of classes was right for her, she’s branched out to pursue her other passions alongside yoga – marketing + calligraphy. We also dive deep into the business of yoga, from finding your rate as a private yoga teacher, to getting comfortable asking for money, to developing your authentic brand online and learning to turn your social media into a story of who you are.
Enjoy!
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by Amanda Kingsmith | Dec 4, 2016 | Blog
Do you ever find yourself living your life in reaction to social media or emails requests, like Pavlov’s Dogs, jumping to attention each time you hear a “ding” from a notification?
The digitally connected world we live in, can be incredibly harmful to our mental health and social lives. One of the best ways to ensure a more balanced life, is to automate your digital marketing – meaning create a network of automated process, systems, and apps to automatically take care of marketing tasks such as following up on emails, posting to Facebook, and so on.
This will not only free up physical time, it will give you peace of mind, and a sense of certainty that things are being taken care of – without you having to always be in an alert state of digital reaction. Essentially, it will allow you the time you need to be calm, focused, and responsive rather than reactive.
In this article we’re going to look at automating two of the most time consuming digital marketing tasks; email and social media. (more…)
by Amanda Kingsmith | Nov 28, 2016 | Show Notes, Studio Owners
Jeff Mah + I had a great conversation in season 1 on his journey as a yoga teacher + to becoming a studio owner. It was a fabulous conversation, so if you haven’t listened to it yet, give it a listen here before listening to this episode.
I’m super excited to have Jeff back on the show to continue the conversation of the business of owning a yoga studio. We talk about everything from charging less as a yoga teacher, teaching for free, valuing yourself as a yoga teacher, setting prices for your yoga studio, running a successful small business, and much more.
Jeff has been a yoga studio owner for 5+ years and he is super candid when he shares his advice on the business of owning a yoga studio.
Enjoy! (more…)
by Amanda Kingsmith | Nov 27, 2016 | Blog, Lifestyle
We all know that travel can be super uncomfortable, stressful + chaotic, and I find that I need yoga to keep me sane more than ever while I’m on the road. I wrote a blog post about practicing yoga while traveling a few weeks back, so this week’s post is focused on my yogi essentials while I’m traveling.
1.Essential Oils
Essential oils have become an essential part of my day-to-day life and when I was packing up my bag to go traveling, I knew I needed to bring some with me. I was torn about which ones to bring, which blends I used the most, and what would be most space / weight effective.
I discovered Saje not long before I left, and I knew I had found the answer to my essential oil travel problems. Saje offers a ton of essential oil blends for all types of ailments, and offers them in small packages, so I went with the pocket pharmacy, a blend of peppermint halo for headaches, immune defense, stress release, pain release, and eaters digest. After nearly 2 months on the road, I am confident in saying that this was a great choice. The mixture of these oils can combat nearly all of my travel ailments, and for me the only thing that is missing is a blend to help with sleeping in noisy dorm rooms….
I also use Saje’s natural deodorant and their yoga mat cleaner, and would highly recommend both!
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by Amanda Kingsmith | Nov 21, 2016 | Advanced Yoga Teacher, Niching, Show Notes
Are you interested in leading a yoga retreat, but don’t really know where to start?
WeTravel is a platform for retreat leaders that will help you from start to finish to create a great retreat. On this episode of the podcast, Jen Corley from WeTravel is joining me to talk about how to lead a great retreat.
Jen shares her background as a yoga teacher and how she came to be working at WeTravel helping yoga teachers create great retreats. We discuss choosing a retreat location, pricing, best practices for retreat leaders, marketing, and much more.
Enjoy!
Business Lessons
- It’s valuable to get help with the things that don’t come easily to you
- Think about what your unique opportunity can be – what else are you interested in other than yoga?
- Give your retreat a name!
- Have great images
- Create an itinerary that gives some information (but not too much!)
- Give yourself some down time each day so that you have time to recharge
- You are still the retreat leader, even during the less structured parts of the day (like meal time!)
- People appreciate quiet, unstructured time – many people will be on vacation during your retreat
- When choosing a location for your retreat, you can use a retreat center, or find a villa / hotel
- Have a clear vision of what you want your offering to be
- Visit the location if you can!
- If you can’t get first hand experience with a location, see if you can talk to someone who has been there
- Marketing for a retreat is very similar to the marketing that you would do for any other offering
- get clear on what you are offering
- create a poster / design
- market online + on social media
- Give people about 6 months to a year – the longer the better, especially if a plane ticket needs to be booked
- Give yourself more time to market than you think you need 🙂
- Go in with a game plan for photography – you will probably be busier than you think!
- Give yourself time after the retreat to relax / decompress before getting back to full-time teaching / work
- Make sure that you collect a deposit – how much and how far in advance
- Collect enough so that your downside is protected
- Have firm cancellation policies in place
- Collect payments online – a service like WeTravel can be very helpful for this
- And much more… Here’s the episode!
Connect with WeTravel!
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