Myths With Internet Marketing – Truths and Reality That Can Derail You 😬
So, I’ve been thinking about a few things lately. The transparency in the online space can be a little muddled.
The cool thing is that there’s a huge, epic ton of potential and possibilities — you could literally reach thousands of people in a minute. You can do a TikTok, bunch of people watch it, and automatically you have a bunch of eyeballs on you… but this is the thing: If you don’t have a strategy, if you don’t have a way to move those people somewhere, or engage with them somehow and keep them in your ecosystem, then one-time-view can turn into absolutely nothing.
So, first of all, the online business game, you’re playing for the long haul, right? You’re creating the content so that it starts compounding. Another thing is that people will say, “Generate a six-figure launch.”
And it’s like, “Yes, and tell me exactly how many hours you sat in front of your computer, hustling and creating the graphics and how much money you spent on ads that didn’t work, and how many coaches you’ve hired because the last strategy didn’t work?” And this is where I think a lot of that transparency is not being shared. It’s not being talked about.
And I’m just getting frustrated when I see all these ads that promise you overnight success, “Without having to do this, and without having to do that.” You have to do it.
I’m sorry, I’ve been in this space for a long time and I don’t know a single one of my friends who are seven-figure entrepreneurs who don’t run ads. I don’t have a single friend who doesn’t have some sort of an online community. I don’t have a single friend who doesn’t focus time and energy to create content and being on platforms and being visible.
So, here’s the thing, if you’re really invested in winning at your business, whatever that means to you. If you want to hit five-figure months, there’s a bunch of stuff you need to do. And in order for you not to drive yourself crazy, I suggest a few things:
One, have somebody that knows more than you so they can at least tell you, “Hey, this is what worked for me. And it can work for you. But guess what? I can’t make you any promises.”
I can’t make any promises to my clients. I can make their lives easier. I can make the trying and answering the questions move things way faster. Like for example, today, one of my clients was like, “Hey, how do I find trending sounds for reels?” I was like, well, actually Instagram is favoring creators right now. So let’s focus on you sharing some original content. And because at the end of the day you can’t just win people over by lip syncing all the time. And talking over somebody, saying something that has absolutely no meaning. So talk about the stuff that you’re freaking knowledgeable about. Let people know what that sounds like. Like, what is going to get them where they need to go quicker.
Second, one strategy can’t work all the time. You have to be flexible and you have to be on it and you need to learn skill sets. That’s right. You need to learn skill sets. And this might look like doing stuff you don’t like. I do stuff I don’t like all the time for my business. Like, don’t you think I’d rather just be coaching all the time, versus perhaps making the funnel and doing all the tech and sitting in front of the phone. And sometimes that stuff isn’t fun, but guess what? I get to do it. I get to do it because I know it’s going to help my clients.
Third, allow yourself to be messy. Allow yourself to have breakdowns, allow yourself to be like, “Bah, this sucks!” But also allow yourself to celebrate the wins. Even if they’re small, even if they’re small. And today, one of my clients was like, “You know what? The content that I am putting out, even though it’s not perfect, or even though I messed up saying the certain thing, a lady commented on it and she wants to know more about what I do. And she says that she really enjoys my content.” She’s like, “I’m going to take that as a win.” Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.
So, if you’re in this journey, make sure you’re in it for the long haul, stick with it, keep learning things, keep seeing what the trends are and answer this question: “What’s your five year vision?” That’s really important.
And truth is, I don’t know what the heck’s going to happen in five years. I have a desire of what I would like it to look like. But for example, two and a half years ago, and I gave birth to a baby. So ask me about three and a half years ago, if I knew that was going to happen. So my five year vision, three and a half years ago, was actually really different than what it is today. And the business model that I was building that time is really different than what it is today, because life changes.
So have a vision, have a goal. I’m Ugh, like so keen on that because I love to help my clients create life designs so that their business matches it. But be flexible, and understand that not everything happens all the time, the way you want it to happen. And also allow yourself to expand beyond what you think is possible. So when we see marketers saying, “Hit your six-figure month.” Know that it really is possible. And that there’s a lot of work that goes underneath there. There’s a lot of stuff that they’re not sharing right off the bat because it doesn’t “sell”.
Me telling you here that creating funnels and spending money on ads and doing all these things, you might be like, “Oh, I’m so discouraged.” But don’t be, don’t be because you get to do that. You get to create this business that you love. You get to make an impact on somebody else’s life through your own business. And most of all, you get to be empowered in the process and allow yourself to really be vulnerable through all the movements. So I wanted to say that today because it’s important. It’s important that you hear, it’s important that you don’t listen to just promises of this grandeur, without even having tried things, that without even knowing what is possible and without even knowing the ins and outs.
So, leverage the power of information as you have so much in front of you. Don’t go and just hire an agency to do things for you because they don’t know you, they’re managing a thousand different clients. You can learn a lot of this stuff. You can be in the driver’s seat of a lot of the aspects of your business. And it doesn’t mean you’re going to do it forever, but it means you get to do it now and you get to be empowered in that process. So, go rock your business, go start the thing that is hard, go and connect with somebody that can support you. And if that’s me, amazing, and you can find ways that you and I could collaborate from a thousand YouTube videos, okay maybe not a thousand, but a bunch of YouTube videos that I’ve done on how to grow your online business, do my challenges that I run on a monthly basis and to my free content that I’d love to share on all the platforms. So I hope this was helpful for you and I’m rooting for you. Bye.
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Making Your Content WORK FOR YOU! (AKA Get You Clients)
Are you tired of your content not doing what you want it to do? Like, get clients? I get you.
Today, we’re going to go over a very simple strategy that I use all the time to know exactly what to post, why you’re posting it, what the result you want it to be. And then how you can use this content to help you communicate and spread your message all over the interwebs.
I’m Ari, your business and digital marketing coach and today, we are diving a little bit deeper into this magical world of content!
When I say content, let’s just pre pre-frame this. This is basically you as the expert, you as the knowledge bringer, you as the source of the information that you want to divulge. So understanding that, I want you to go into your, as I like to call it, your bag of tricks from Felix, the cat, and start thinking, “Oh my gosh, I know so many things that can help people. This is how I’ve been helping my clients. These are questions people ask me all the time.” Start thinking about things that are relatable, that not only make you feel like the superhero, but that really relates to the problems, needs and goals, visions, and aspirations of your ideal clients.
So based upon that, knowing that really the only thing that matters is them, then that’s where we start creating content. And if you’re stuck, you can just go ahead and go to my link and grab my 90 days. It’s called the Content Pro Marketing Guide, where you get 90 days of different kinds of posts done for you, ideas, all sorts of fun stuff, and planning templates. I digress.
Back to your content. So I want you to really come up with the best and most joyful things for you to talk about. What lights you up? What gives your clients, your potential clients, the best results? If you’re a gut and hormone expert, well, let’s talk about the foods to avoid, the myths, the things that happen as you get older as a woman, the different kinds of combinations of food plus exercise, the things you can do for breakfast, the movements, the type of cardio versus weightlifting versus supplements. There’s so much for you to micro-pull.
And nowadays, content, as we know, it’s got to be a little bit faster because people’s attentions are being pulled in a thousand different directions. I call it the adult ADD factor from social media. (Thank you, Instagram and TikTok.) “What is that?”, “What do I want to promote and sell this month?” So if you understand these things, then all the content you basically work backwards. I like to reverse engineer things. So if you work from here, your goal and you shoot it backwards, then guess what? The content all creates breadcrumbs for when you’re in your sales moment, launch moment, because you don’t always want to be selling. It’s like value, value, value, ask, ask. Value, value, value, give, give, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. Value, value, value, value, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask.
We need to have waves. This is why I like to call business the way I teach is a flow. So these are waves where we are giving, receiving. And you know that, in this name of the game, sometimes the more you give and the more that you show up as this wealth of information, the more you receive. What I also want you to consider is this is going to be a compound effect. Meaning, the content you do, two or three months ago, people are seeing it for the first time then they’re may be seeing the second piece, then the third piece. People have to see you and consume your content, your emails, at least 17 to 20 times. This is how far from our traditional marketing, where it used to be like seven to ten exposures. That’s massively changed.
So what I want you to consider is that it is your time to be a consistent bringer of information, of help, of ways that you can support your clients through whatever transformation they are going through. If you are a financial planner and your clients have a mess in their finances, they’re not doing their bookkeeping, they’re not budgeting. Then what are ways that you could help them so that ideally, cha-ching, your magical product, maybe it’s like budgeting and organization of your money 2022 is the focus. Knowing this will help you feel at peace, feel more confident, feel connected to exactly the steps that you need to do in order to get the results that you want. But we have to start from the backwards.
Now, here’s a separate piece. You’ll see in Content Pro that I have different themes for the month. One of those might be growing leads or connection. Now, these two is where your funnel comes into place, because if you’re just doing content for content versus content for purpose, and you don’t have a way to streamline a viewer into a potential buyer, then we’re just leaving people on this platform. What you want to do is pull people off the platform and you’ll see in the contents of the captions that I’ve written, like, “Go click on my link, click on the URL.” Here is where you’re going to be able to move a viewer into somebody that registers for your freebie, or somebody that registers for your webinar, or somebody that joins your five day challenge, or somebody that joins your Facebook group or WhatsApp group. Wherever you are, either building community or moving people into your marketing ecosystem, you want to be cognizant that there’s certain assets you want to have so that we have a strategic plan of what’s called our customer journey.
I can talk more and more about this, but for that, you should download Content Pro and start taking action (I promise, you’ll learn more that way than by reading!). And it’s going to give you a better picture of this whole digital marketing landscape and you as a content creator, but you as a business owner as well.
So I hope this was useful. Make sure to subscribe, comment, like, and let me know if you have any other questions that I can support you with. Once again, see you. It’s Ari and let’s make it a great day!
First of all, I want to make you money. But overall, when you’re creating a website or a landing page or any sort of marketing material, the steps that we’ll learn today are going to be very useful for anything else that you create in the future, because we’re going to have certain concepts in mind and we can just rinse and repeat. I’m all about being efficient and effective.
#1 Must-Have: Clarity in your customer journey.
If the customer is confused, they’re not going to buy. They’re going to leave. They’re out. Peace.
People have the attention span of an ant, and the reason is your phone, your child, your distractions, all add up in life so we need things to be given to us quickly. I mean, we can order something from Amazon today and it will arrive in our house tomorrow or sometimes the same day. So we’re used to instant gratification. If that doesn’t happen on your website or on your landing page, a sales page for your product or program, then guess what? You’re toast.
It’s all about them. The client doesn’t want to really sit there and learn all about you, like read things that don’t pertain to them. There’s an emotional connection that needs to be made and I’m going to ask you, “What is the first thing that they see and feel?” Feel here is the magic word.
So if you’re speaking to them on that emotional level versus a logical level, then great. But if you’re not, ask yourself, “What can I change? How can I connect with them?” and this applies to you if you already have a website or a landing page or if you need to build one.
So what makes a customer stay? Let’s map their journey. We’re going to look at this from the bottom-up. If you were making it all about them, then we really need to understand who they are.
#2 Must-Have: Appeal to emotion in your copywriting.
Emotion sells, right? Psychology Today, which is a very renowned magazine and who’ve actually knocked on just one study, but several studies about purchasing behavior, “Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have a far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments, which are based on a brand’s attributes.”
A brand’s attributes are the “why” behind its existence. We’re creating a culture that indoctrinates your customer into feeling seen, heard, and loved.
For example, I worked with my client Poppy and Libby, and we were creating a website for their retreat business. When I opened this website, guess what happened? It was like fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. So we had to recreate the entire site, recreate the entire marketing approach so that it was more why centered and made it easy for people to engage with, and ultimately, purchase from.
#3 Must-Have: Highlight your strengths in your Call To Action.
So if we know our potential customer’s problem, which means we know our client inside and out, we know their pain points, we know where they’re hanging out and not just like on social media or Instagram… then ask yourself “what are they willing to share?”, and then use those exact words to try to back out a unique value proposition to you and your skillset.
It’s not enough to just ask for the sale – Is your call to action clear? How are you moving your customer from where they don’t want to be, to where they want to be? Is it easy to take the next step, or are they confused?
So this can relate to lots of different things, but mainly you want to know, “Am I helping my client take the desired action in easily identifiable ways?”
One thing I learned from one of my teachers when I was in college is when you’re designing your page or any sort of marketing material, you need the eye to jump.
Meaning, if I’m not reading, I need whatever my eye is jumping to, to make a complete sentence related to the problem that I have that I need solving.
So if you have these tiny headlines or if you have little words and you don’t have graphic elements or images that can also portray a message, then, again, you’ve potentially lost your client. So are they confused, are they lost, and is your map clear enough? Ask yourself that question.
Don’t be afraid to drive to the sale. Like sometimes we make it hard for people to buy from us, just make it easy. Sign up today. Get your product. Claim your offer. Have clear, concise call to actions. Drive the person to the sale.
Because once you make these shifts, you speak to them and help them overcome problems and objections. You create the flow of customer journey before you start, and you’re clear on the outcome of the action you want them to take, then you’re setting yourself up for success.
Today we’re going to discuss why a sales page is so important, and what the key pieces are to making sure you have the elements that can turn a viewer from interested into a client.
So people ask me all the time, “Ari, why do I need a sales page? Why can’t I just send people to my website?”
Well, let’s talk about the one main reason why you don’t want to just send people to your website – your website has a lot of exit strategies. Meaning menus, buttons, social media, all the things that could take a person from interested, engaged into “see you later”.
A sales page helps you to guide a potential through one goal, one offer, and one solution.
Now once you have a sales page, here are the main elements you need to get it to convert into sales!
Consistent branding, colors, mood and imagery.
Soft queues instead of really harsh and direct “buy this thing now” messaging
Sales copy that speaks to the heart instead of to the logical brain
Testimonials – share client love!
Add a video. Help people connect with you as a person, not a transaction.
And if this is your first time designing a sales page and you’re stuck, this is what I love to do with my clients. Drop a comment below and I’d be happy to answer your questions!
Do you consider yourself a marketer? And if not, why?
Marketing stems from confidence and HeartSpace. And I want to highlight how important marketing is in order to have a successful business.
Traditional marketing is tied to sales. The both co-exist, and still do in holistic marketing. But what holistic marketers different from traditional marketers is the magic that happens when they decide to be one with their audience. Holistic marketing is about focusing on where you can give your audience value and providing an essence of support that speaks their language.
One thing that I’ve been focusing on more is seeing how can I provide my audience, not just value, but not making them feel like they’re not complete already. How do we elevate the audience in a way that your service or your product will be an add on to their already existing, and thriving abundance?
I always get a hot seat moments when I sit down with my coach. And he gave me the best way to create a really engaged community: to inspire them to join a movement, to be part of a mission, to be part of a greater vision. And this is the most effective form of marketing – it just so happens to also be holistic!
So in your own marketing, hunker down on your mission, and solidify with the movement that you want to create with your services or products.
For example, if you sell yoga clothes. Do you think that you can create a movement where people are more aligned and more in line with the why behind your products?
A percentage of profits are donated to a specific cause.
Sourcing your materials from a local community you support.
Practicing eco-friendly and sustainable business operations.
So every piece of your marketing has to have a bigger purpose to it – it really has to nothing to do with the right words.
If you think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Purpose is ranked as the #1 priority. Second to purpose is wants, and finally we have needs. The main idea is that once we work downwards from purpose into desires, then what do you think happens? We now have a purpose-driven business.
So if your business has a movement that people can connect with, your marketing will be so much more effective. It emanates authenticity, and comes from a place of heart. It comes from a place of, of abundance versus from a place of needs and scarcity.
And then you’ll be able to serve a bigger purpose, and have a greater impact on the world. And people want to align to that.
Look at so many companies out there, like, let’s say Nike with Colin Kaepernick. “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” Kaepernick says in the ad campaign. People really rallied to that – especially young people. Gillette also had a whole campaign around the “me too” movement. People really rally for a good cause, or they rally against them. Now this really brings in light. You know, what team are you on?
I recently heard a successful fitness coach say at a conference, “Give your tribe their cause.” Once you give your tribe their cause, they will be so much more in alignment to how you do things, and will support you through your programs and events and practices.
To be independent. This word INDEPENDENT I feel gets used often and thrown around a bit. What does it really mean?
I write from this from England on the day the United States celebrates it’s independence from England which made me think quite a bit.
As humans we love independence. We love freedom. We long for making our own decisions and not be dependent on others for our livelihood.
Not only that, but as creative and holistic entrepreneurs we are drawn to be completely on our own, leading our businesses, creating our schedule and having the life we want because being independent is a top value we hold dearly.
What happens when you loose freedom and independence? How do you feel?
This word and feeling is something hundreds and thousands of people have lost their lives for. Who have given everything to be free.
What does this mean in your life and business? As you know to me as an entrepreneur they go hand in hand.
Freedom To Create
Having freedom to create is a gift that makes us human and those of us with ideas that want to be seen and heard are constantly on the search of how to get those ideas out and express.
This is why many of us turn to be instructors, coaches, creative entrepreneurs. Because of this calling to be independent to express and share.
What happens sometimes is that we are stuck not knowing what to do or how to do it so that our essence of freedom, liberty and independence is stifled under how to make this lifestyle and underlying value work. By the way, this is when most people call me asking for help and advice.
Dependently Independent
So knowing we are on this lifelong search for freedom and being independent, do you feel like you’re dependent on others to achieve your independence.
Let’s name some ways we are independent:
Financially independent – This is a dream come true for many of us yet we are dependent on clients (unless you’re a trust fund baby) to pay us to achieve this.
Relationship independent – If we’re married or single we’re dependent on others affection to fill this area of our lives.
Religious independent – This is a trickier one because many people do not have this freedom. But many are dependent on religion to serve as a backbone for their lives.
As the Huff Post states there are 2 types of independence and one is being free with rules. They used this quote “Any yachtsman knows,” he replied, “that in order to enjoy the freedom of the high seas, one must become a slave to the compass.”
So in order to have freedom and independence we are subject to being connected and tied to other circumstances to achieve the ultimate freedom.
Why This Matters
At the end of it all, your independence should make you feel happy, satisfied, proud and fulfilled. Whether it’s attached to others (like clients, income, spouses, and then some).
If you are not vibing where you are right now, if you feel stifled, over dependent or not connected to your highest self ideals, I invite you to do something.
First take time to make a call with me then check out my last post about the 9 Environments and do the wheel and the exercise.
Lastly, create a vision board of what it means to be independent to you, regardless of your external situations.
I leave you with a quote from Cicero: “What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.”
I’m jumping on here to talk and ask- what’s the deal with business and yoga? In light of recent articles in Elephant Journal (check it out here) regarding Kino, Cody, Alo and all one word named businesses I want to have a dialogue about WHY when it comes to yoga business tends to shift into irregular practices.
15 years. I’ve been in this business first of all as a student, then a teacher and now a mentor and leader. I own a HUGE yoga festival called The Yoga Expo, run an international business consulting company and well delve into all things yoga industry related. In the past weeks, I have seen the beautiful and ugly head of yoga and business rear its head.
“I think you trying to make money off a sacred science is appalling and if you truly understood the teachings the last thing you would be doing is sending out a dumb ass email commercializing a sacred science that was meant to be passed down teacher to students…you need Togo back to school”
I posted this as a copy paste to also highlight his grammar… you all know I am a stickler for spelling. Anyways, that got in my inbox a few days ago. But also this:
“I was on a journey of spirit to unearth those of authentic purpose whose actions spark the divine when I discovered your meaningful Essence. You are doing work you should be very proud of. You are having a profoundly positive effect on people.”
Yoga business is the same as all other businesses by the way, the only difference is who’s behind the business that makes the world of difference.
What’s going on?
Opinions will always create a ripple effect. The opinions in the article referenced above are really interesting because I am a businesswoman. Cody and Alo are businesses. Kino is also a savvy businesswoman. When values and integrity are so deeply ingrained in how you operate your business it’s an interesting play on how kind you are and how much of a stickler for contracts and rules as well. Why do I say this… because I have seen it first hand.
Several times when I operated my business from a place of generosity and kindness, whether it was offering discounts, extra flexible payment plans, I have gotten burnt. People never paid, didn’t show up or decided that it wasn’t in their best interest to continue paying.
What happens here is the ripple effect. And the same thing Cody’s co-founder speaks of. For a customer it is very easy to say I no longer wish to pay. What about the people on the other side? The employees of Cody are affected by 1 decision. My family is affected by 1 decision. Yoga business practices are truly the BEST in the world. As long as us, the leaders continue to make an effort to hold highest levels of integrity – on both sides of the coin.
The Yoga business isn’t different than other businesses. If you develop and establish your value, your non-negotiables from the beginning, guess what… you don’t get burned. I take every client that stops paying, that wants to change agreements to what works for them as a lesson. It makes me more organized, it makes my contracts tighter and payment plans also more on point.
The main point behind this post.
I want to shed light on many sides of the coin. Our society is so easy to point a finger. We take the moral high ground on issues that we really don’t even know anything about. When I read Kino’s first article I was totally like “WTF!” how dare these large companies do whatever they want! Shortly after I caught myself and said, wait, my business is growing and I would like to avoid these types of situations. And then today I read the reply and I also attest to several things he mentioned.
How do I prepare my business so from the beginning there are non-negotiable value systems in place of trust, honor, commitment, fun, exceptional quality and passion?
Is yoga business the anti-business?
Learn about foundations of your business. Set yourself up to always see things as a learning experience will help avoid massive issues in the future. It’s how you operate, how you treat others that will always leave a good mark on your side. I wrote this article on analysis paralysis a few months ago that reminded me of how it was like setting up my business – but guess what – nothing is perfect and things will always come up that make you re-work and re-do and re-word. Nothing is perfect and as long as you are open to the flow, your business will improve daily.
Leave me a note as I’m interested to hear your side and how you operate your yoga business.
I don’t have a split personality really, I have (had) a split brand problem. Let me tell you the story…
It was one of those days, on a warm winter day (I’m based in Miami) where I had a massive realization. I had been living a double life, with 2 brands (really 3 but will get into that).
I noticed not a lot was moving forward and I was working my ass of. It was really frustrating and at the end of the day, counterproductive. I had this ideal of who I was and how I could serve. So of course, being the creative yogini that I am, created 2 brands, 2 websites, 2 newsletters, 2 business cards (and the list goes on). If you want to read more about me, check this page.
Now, was this serving me? NO! It was driving me crazy, but since I had a belief that why would any of my business students want to hear me talk about ROI and email marketing and why would any of my business clients and audience hear about my events and classes. Mind you, these are all perceptions, not truths.
So how can this serve you? It goes back to energy and where you are putting it. Are you living a double life in any aspects. Maybe have 2 jobs very disconnected from each other? I have friends that are bartenders at night and yoga teachers by day. Some client who take care of their bodies at the gym and yoga class, yet, have really negative feelings about themselves and their bodies.
Where is there the limiting belief that is stopping you from being successful, productive and happy? Where is the opportunity to expand your reach into what would serve you best? As you know, by serving yourself in the highest way you can serve and be the most amazing person for others.
Split Personality Syndrome IS OVER!
So here is the big question? What are you gonna do about it?
I’m re-launching my brand and I hope you keep loving what I send and the messages I share. But most of all, I want to know what you want to connect and feel whole with. What are your issues, disconnects that prevent you from your greatness.
Manifesting your inner magic is one decision away.
Yoga retreat mania has hit the yoga scene like an avalanche! And let me tell you why I think this is a great thing… but a double-edged sword.
First of all, I love yoga retreats. I have led them for close to a decade and they never cease to impress me with the quality of amazing people who come together. Retreats are a way for you, the teacher, to affect your students in a much bigger way and in usually gorgeous locations. They also provide a bigger income but before setting anything up please take the time to assess where you are in your practice as a teacher and leader. I suggest you do some soul searching as I don’t want you to set up a retreat and it not meet your expectations.
Yoga retreats gone wrong…
Not only is taking people on an adventure a huge responsibility but the planning process, if not done correctly, can leave gaps in your retreat that could possibly make your life challenging.
I not only have heard of disasters when planning the retreat but also during. This leaves a really bad taste in your participant’s minds and can sour your reputation, to say the least.
Let’s go through a laundry list of things you will need before you even get there:
Don’t worry! I know that seems like a LOT but the payoff is so sweet. This is why having a plan and a guide is so important as it will allow you to get to your destination happy. Here is one super important tip you want to always be conscious of- don’t book out an entire center without having some for sure YES clients first. This means you had conversations with people, you did your legwork, you even took deposits. YES you took deposits even before sending deposits to the center. I have done this in my last 2 retreats and worked amazingly. Have the right conversations with possible locations and ask them to hold the dates for you at no charge or maybe a small fee while you get your people.
Apart from this, your mental capacity for planning should be in for the big vision. Let’s say you project a $3500 profit from having 7 people attend the retreat for 5 days. Is this what you would make normally in 5 days doing your classes and possible side gig? If it isn’t, then, create time to plan and get all your ducks in a row. Having this foresight to larger income will put things into perspective nicely.
Is leading a yoga retreat right for me?
Here is where I can’t tell you yes or no, but I can definitely give you more insight into qualities of a leader. If you connect to some of these, then most likely you are on your way. Another thing is having enough material to offer during your retreat (and remember it’s not enough to just teach a couple classes a day… this is mediocre). Lead people to an experience. Help them uncover or re-discover something (your specialty). Have the boldness of stepping into your leadership and guiding from the heart with the full knowledge that you are there to serve on many levels.
Qualities of a leader:
Honest
Vulnerable
Authentic
Flexible
Resourceful
Deep listening
Creative
Supportive
Intelligent
Ability to delegate
Big vision
Caring
Kind
Fun
Speaks the unspoken
End result
Not only will you feel happy you planned correctly and took the right steps, but your retreat will be smooth sailing. I really can’t stress enough people who are leading retreats want to offer the best experience with quality teaching, special attention to details, good communication and extreme awareness to your students needs (the spoken and unspoken). The more retreats there are, the bigger reason why you should be the BEST and most special one. Doing that will help you rise above, cut through the clutter and feel authentic that you are giving the best of you.
I had never thought about this before honestly. I always thought to offer good suggestions was good enough until my mentor offered me the distinction. Good advice is telling people what they should do or need to do, and what you think is best. This usually means projecting your opinions and ways of doing things onto them. This works sometimes, and other times, well not so much.
As a coach, mentor, guide, for soul-centered entrepreneurs, I love this distinction. In yoga, wisdom, knowledge or understanding is buddhi.
“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” Charles Dickens
Advice sometimes falls into the place of not listening enough and thinking you know what is correct for that person. Wisdom, on the other hand, comes from a place of kindness and deep listening to what the person really needs and reflecting back on them. Wisdom appeals to the heart and comes from a quiet mind thus appeals to a more emotional connection.
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a guide. I’m one who can easily tell people what to do and how to do it. Efficiency is my middle name. Improvement and remodeling to make better are what I love to do. This so easily falls into advice and WOW I can tell the difference so much in the results my clients get. Not only that, I feel it too!
advice or wisdom
Wise advice
Wait, wait, wait. Didn’t you just say to step more into wisdom? LOL.
Did you read at my strengths up there? Of course, I had to find a middle ground- wise advice! This is the hybrid and honestly, sits so close to home.
Sometimes that deep listening and being a mirror needs a little bit of a mental shake. This is where wise advice comes from and can hit the target. Wisdom is introspective and really comes from a place of wanting the most good for your friend or client. Advice sometimes comes from a place of ego where you know best. Wise advice blends this and says “Hey, I know something about this and after listening to you I invite you to consider this option instead”.
The minute I began to work that into my life there was a sense of feeling light and abundant! It was magic to see the transformations vs seeing walls of defense when the advice didn’t sit well. In this blog post I wrote I mention being allowed to shine… so stand up and shine with your knowledge in a generous way, a kind way, and a smart way!
Now it’s your turn!
Take a look at where in your life you can shift this in. Is it in your classes? Your coaching practice? Or maybe personal relationships with friends, partners or family.
It’s never too late to shift ourselves and create some better vibes that lift everyone up together!
Namaste!
PS: Remember if you want some wise advice on something you are going through, join my FREE Facebook Group where you can share and be part of a community where we all grow!
What happens when you loose freedom and independence? How do you feel?
The main point behind this post.
