You’ve probably heard a lot of business coaches and consultants explain why having a niche is so important, and today I’m gonna break down the real ways that having a niche can transform your business.
And I’m not even going to talking about niches – I’m going to talk about hyper niches.
And why is a hyper niche better? Let’s take the wellness niche for example. Even though you might have tons of certifications, you love to do Reiki, pilates, yoga – being able to solve all the problems and trying to help all the people is going to make you like a small dot floating in the ocean.
The last thing you want to do when you start your business is float around.
You want direction, you want guidance. And the best way to do that is finding a specific way that you can support your community, your potential clients, your existing clients, in a way that is also tied to a strong foundation within you.
For example, I have a client who when we started working together, she had two different offerings that or services we might say that were pretty awesome. She had a membership at $19 and 99 cents a month, and she also had private clients.
So when we started working together, the first thing she asked me was, “Hey, is my social media content clear as to who I’m helping and what I do?”
The answer was no. And I said, “Look, you know, it’s crazy. I’ve been a yoga teacher for almost 20 years and I understand your content, but who are you talking to? Are they newbies? Are they trying to heal themselves? Are they in a part of life where they wanna advance their practice?”
So we addressed that first and then she’s like, “Well, I also love to teach meditation. And I also love to teach how to use props and I really wanna teach their therapeutics.”
So this is a niche within the yoga niche. The industry is wellness, but niche is yoga, but the hyper niche is the add on of energy work and transformational coaching.
So what we did is created a signature system. It is her specific way of doing what she does and feeling really joyful about it because now she doesn’t have to segment herself.
When you specialize, you start showing up as an expert, as a credible source.
Public Relations – you can start being featured as the expert on fasting the expert meditation teacher, the expert therapeutics.
Collaborations – you now have a great way of showing up and saying, “Hey, this is how I work. This is my specialty. This is how I do what I do.”
Purpose – your brand now has a message that comes from your core values.
Now I know you might have a hard time figuring out your niche, so I’m gonna give you three easy steps.
Ask yourself, “What brings me the most joy?” and start with that.
Then ask, “What’s closest to the cash? What’s the lowest hanging fruit? Who can I collaborate with right now?”
“How can I show up as my most authentic self?” This is where you think about what your ideal working environment is, what you want your schedule to be like, and what types of clients you want to serve.
Having your niche, having your specialty, creating your specific way of doing what you do will help create the way you market yourself, the way your brand is positioned and the way you show up as the expert, you are so that you can charge a word earth, bring more clients and do it with ease… versus feeling scattered and potentially overwhelmed.
So I want you to take action! I want you to draw this big circle of the world of your niche, and I want you to draw smaller circles, smaller circles, smaller circles until your circle is small enough that you fit in a hyper niche.
For example, power yoga, Aang yoga arm, balance expert fitness fitness for women over 40 fitness for moms over 40.
Because nowadays, people’s searches are hyper focused.
When I search for things for my baby, I don’t just search for baby toys. What do I search for? Montessori style toys for 18 month olds.
And then I get the content that I need for that specific problem. And what comes up? YouTube videos, Instagram accounts and blogs.
Allow yourself to have your big vision picture to have your niche within that. We can always shift and move, but start somewhere with focus and attention because this is where your money lies. They don’t say the richest is in the niches for nothing. So allow yourself to have this moment of clarity!
Today we are going over the eight pillars of a profitable online business and how they work together.
So most of you know, maybe you didn’t, but I’ve been a yoga teacher for almost 20 years. And why is this important? Because yoga means union. So everything in the way that you show up online to the webinar that you create, or sales page that you write, or the email that you send all has to have cohesion. They all need to speak to each other in a way that is very much not only aligned, but in order sequential.
So let’s dive into what these are, and how they can help your business!
Pillar #1: Visibility
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – social media.
Everybody consumes some sort of social media, so this is where we can begin to work on the visibility aspect of your business.
Why is social media gonna help us be profitable? Well, first of all, you are an expert service provider. You are really good at what you do, and probably really enjoy doing it. And this is exactly what we wanna highlight when you’re visible on these channels.
Second of all, it’s free! If I go live today, I can reach hundreds of people, potentially even thousands of people. If I make a reel or TikTok, I can reach thousands of people for free. I also have a group of over 600 people. I have a friend list of 5,000 people. These are all people that know who I am, what I do, and how I do it. Not every single one of these people is a buyer, but they might refer you.
By working on your social media visibility over time, you can show off your credibility, build trust, share your expertise, support people, and connect with them. And the more that we do this, the quicker it’s gonna be to overcome object, objections and obstacles of why people should work with you.
Pillar #2: Lead Generation
If you’re just leaving people on Instagram or on Facebook or on TikTok, and there’s no next steps for them to take, then you are essentially creating content for nothing. So we wanna be able to guide people on their next steps, which means that you wanna have a lead generation strategy in place to successfully move potential customers from visibility to action.
For example, today, I was talking to my client about how we’re gonna be growing her email list. And there’s a rule of thumb that I work with with all my client is grow your email list as often as possible with quality amazing people.
We then have this great opportunity to now collect data, communicating consistently with your potential buyers, which ultimately creates opportunities to grow your business.
So how do we do this? We create lead generation pages which can typically be free resources like a guided meditation, ebook, challenges, a quiz, templates, and so much more.
We’re not giving away the, the, the farm here, but we are giving away enough to create an emotional response to wow them and show off our unique genius!
You might think, “they’re just giving us their email.” But then we’re creating backend strategies to support the growth and connection you need to be able to turn them from an audience member to a paying client.
Pillar #3: Sales Page
A sales page is a way of selling your program, course, product, service, or even retreat. It’s a page that’s designed in a specific way to give people the opportunity to work with you.
There’s very specific ways that we write the sales page, but number one, it’s very heart driven and emotionally centered.
The idea behind this is that if I connect with you on an emotional level through my writing or a video on the sales page, then we are opening up the opportunity for people to be committed to their growth, to their transformation. And we are the vehicle. We have to speak from a place where our program, our course, our coaching is their way to get there faster, and ultimately get there in the most supported way.
Pillar #4: Connection
Number one is what are you selling? What are your services? What are your products? How are you selling them? How are you marketing? And how you’re selling them is related to how you’re connecting with people.
All of these pillars are a part of a beautiful cycle of us working diligently consistently to develop trust, to develop connection, to ultimately generate revenue.
Whether you’re creating a webinar, hosting an info session, giving a live class or presentation – we have to create opportunities for 1:1 engagement where we can help our potential clients connect on a deeper level with us so we can give them a more profound transformation by working with us.
Once we start growing our email list, we email people consistently with content that we’ve created for our social media, our YouTube, you see, this is all turning into a nice, beautiful cycle.
Today we are going to deep dive into hidden myths that honestly, I wish somebody would’ve told me when starting my journey in business.
If you’ve read some of my other blogs, you’ll notice that I really love to talk about foundation since I was a yoga teacher for 20 years. And look, if your feet are wrong on your mat, they’re gonna be wrong in your business. If your foundations aren’t set up correctly, if they’re not set up to support you as you grow, then you’re gonna find yourself frustrated and maybe spin out of your center.
Hidden Myth Number One: you don’t need emotional support.
And look, that word gets used a lot, but literally it’s gonna be grit, self confidence, and support.
Close your eyes and picture all the people around you who are gonna lift you up, who are your cheerleaders and those who are holding you back and aren’t letting you fulfill your dream.
Now, who are the people that lift you up your rocket? Nurture these relationships to keep yourself strong.
Hidden Myth Number Two: you can do it alone.
You’re going to want not just that emotional support, but also somebody that can guide you in the right path so that you avoid thousands of dollars of mistakes. You avoid wasting a ton of time and effort making mistakes because as you know, money is easier to come by, but time is finite.
So find a trusted advisor. The minute I hired a coach, a strategist, that’s what catapulted my business and redirected my life to where I wanted to go.
Hidden Myth Number Three: you don’t need to invest money back into it.
Why do I say this? Because a lot of entrepreneurs, they bootstrap and they don’t invest in systems or softwares that can make their lives so much easier.
For example, I have a client and she’s amazing at what she does. And she just wouldn’t upgrade her email marketing software. She wouldn’t do it. It was like $25 a month. This is like five Starbucks coffees. So she wouldn’t do it.
She was like, “I don’t wanna spend that much money. I don’t wanna invest in this. It’s another expense.”
And I was like, “But everything we’re trying to do, like this software, doesn’t let us on the free version. It’s great that you started with the free version, but just don’t go out to eat for one time a month. And that’s paying for your software.”
Finally, after a bit of arm wrestling, we’re able to upgrade and now we’re getting better open rates. We’re getting data that we need in order to track what marketing efforts are doing. All right? So don’t be cheap when it comes to your business. Be cheap with other excess expenses, but invest in your growth.
Money makes money and you want money to start and grow your business. Invest in to help things be easier, faster and better.
Now also let’s consider what does it take to build a six figure business? Well, a lot of pieces, you need an audience, a good product, time marketing and sales. Once you not only have these skill sets and apply them is when you’re gonna start seeing momentum. And that momentum trust me with consistency is what gets you where you wanna go.
So, set some realistic milestones for yourself, say, okay, the first three months that I’m starting my business, I’m gonna do X amount of revenue profit. I’m gonna invest X amount so that I can get back X amount.
And honestly, if you break even the first three to six months of your business, you are winning. And why do I say that? Because a lot of businesses in the beginning, they invest a ton of money and it takes time to see that money turn into returns into profits.
So be gentle with yourself. Be compassionate with yourself. Things take time and you gotta test things. Not every single marketing initiative that you do is gonna hit the ballpark, right? Not every single Instagram post that you do is gonna get many eyes, not every single YouTube video that you film is gonna get a lot of likes or comments. So be gentle with yourself and don’t compare yourself.
Because it’s SO easy to compare. It’s easy to see somebody else who’s winning or who’s being successful, but you really don’t know what’s below the tip of the iceberg. You don’t know how much they’ve been working. You don’t know how many coaches they’ve hired, how many marketing agencies they’ve invested in. So don’t compare. Honor your journey, honor your movement from where you’re at to where you wanna go and learn from every step.
Hidden Myth Number Four: you don’t need a vision.
I want to invite you to look at the first three myths we’ve discussed and deeply assess where you’re currently at.
What are you standing on right now? What are your goals? What are your visions? What do you wanna see out of your business? Are you aligned in the way that your business is operating the offerings, the services, the products, make sure that they’re aligned to your strengths and that they’re aligned to the vision that you have for the way your lifestyle wants to live.
Are you taking action? Action. Action. Action. Action. Daily action. Daily action.
Even if it’s a little one daily action, who’s holding you accountable, who is making sure that the things that you said that like you were pumped about actually come to fruition and that you didn’t get analysis paralysis. You didn’t get stuck.
At the end of the day, once you undo your limiting beliefs around these four things, you’re gonna see that you’re gonna have a different business quicker than you expected. So please go ahead and comment below and tell me where you’re at in your business.
3 Freebie Ideas To Grow Your Email List (Quicker!)
You might’ve been wondering what are some great ways to not only grow your email list, but connect and show your expertise to your, to your audience, to your existing followers and new followers. And guess what? This can all be done with one simple tool called an opt-in page, or in other words, a freebie.
A freebie is a powerful tool that takes your audience off of social media, and onto your email list so you can engage with them regardless of what happens to social media platforms, and which can stand the test of time.
For example, two of my friends and clients, their Facebook got hacked the other day and they lost so many people from groups they had been building. And the first thing I asked them was, “Hey, have you been getting people onto your email list?”
Because the best thing about an email list is that it’s yours. It’s not owned by a third party and it’s not subject to a specific platform. Basically, all your eggs aren’t in one basket.
So imagine TikTok goes away and you lose a hundred thousand followers, or Instagram goes away and you can’t communicate with your 2,000 followers? How would you sell your products and services? What would happen to your business? It’s time to make business platform proof and also a place where you give your followers exclusive access to your content and offers… meaning, you’re not subject to an algorithm since they are willingly saying: “please have my email and I’ll see you in my inbox.”
And consider this… you’re giving people a valuable GIFT in exchange for their email! To me, this is a win win!
Another super important reason why having an email list is so clutch is because it actually serves as clout and is great when you’re ready to start running Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Briefly I realized you also might have said… “Ari, who reads emails anymore? Everyone is on social media!”. I am here to tell you – I read emails, good emails that is. I buy stuff from those good emails I get sent and most of the time, I actually don’t see those people in my social media, which I spend quite a bit of time on (shame on me for not always working on my business!).
We’ll get into email writing tactics on another blog post, but for now, let’s focus on growing your email because without at least 100 subscribers, creating lengthy and value rich email campaigns won’t be your best ROT (return on time!).
Now here are some freebie ideas to showcase your expertise and truly serve your audience the best way you know how!
Freebie 1: A Checklist
It could be a wellness checklist. It could be a diet checklist. It could be a lifestyle checklist. People love to know about themselves. And they love to know if they’re doing things right.
And remember, since you are the expert, you have all the knowledge. People want to get their sources from a trusted individual and you are that person.
A checklist can be easily created on Canva, or you can even start it in a word document!
So now, how do people get this checklist? Well, number one, you could simply ask people to DM you or leave a comment and then you DM them.
You don’t need a whole opt-in page and a landing page, an email sequence, not in the beginning. I love to say, “how can I run my business on bare bones?“
Well, this is one of those ways you could just say, “Hey, whoever wants this checklist, DM me your email.”
Number two, if you are looking to start your digital marketing portfolio, then you’ll want a simple opt-in page where people can leave their name, email and a phone (optional), then get a very simple automated email sequence that delivers the freebie and follow up emails that help the prospective client to get to know you better and nurture the relationship. You’d use softwares like: Go High Level or Active Campaign which are my personal favorites.
Freebie 2: A Quiz
Do you guys remember when we had the Cosmo magazines or like 17 magazines? And there was always a quiz, like an astrology quiz or the love quiz, and you would take it and tallied up all your points. Then you read the results, super excited! This is the energy that we are building with our potential clients. We are creating excitement based on a quiz.
Like I said, people love to learn about themselves. I do too. I still take quizzes!!!
I recently created an awesome quiz with a client of mine called: “What are your love blocks?” And, so far, she’s been able to grow over 180 people onto her email list, just from organic social media from TikTok and Instagram in 2 weeks.
So what does it take to build a quiz? There are some softwares you can build them with like TryInteract and Typeform.
Now the cool part about the quizzes is that then you show up as the one who gives them the results. You create the results based on the questions that they answered. And it gives you a chance to show off again, your expertise and be able to really connect with that person and help them out and give them those initial suggestions on how to be a better lover, how to be healthier, how to sleep better, how to detox their bodies, etc.
Freebie 3: A How to Guide or Mistakes to Avoid
I love my really easy to follow guides that help me avoid blunders and that help me learn something. These guides can be PDF’s or even videos. To me, videos are quicker to make but this is not the case for all. Also, you have to know your audience well- will they consume a video or rather read… OMG you can maybe even do BOTH!
We’ll talk about content repurposing later down the line.
But for real, a good guide that shows me the way to achieve a micro win and how to potentially not make some crazy mistakes is extremely valuable and honestly for you as the expert, might even be easy to make since you’ve worked with clients before and know how you’ve helped them avoid things and at the same time reach certain goals or milestones.
So go back into your client rolodex and start putting together some good ideas!
Freebie 4: A Challenge
Now there’s paid challenges and there’s free challenges. Free challenges are a great way to indoctrinate and work with people. These could be prerecorded or these could be live.
When you look at a challenge because it’s a more of a time investment and it’s a longer build out of the project. And at the end of the challenge, you are selling a higher level offering or service. Whether it’s a physical product, an online course, coaching, retained services, or an experience – all of it can be sold in a challenge.
Think about the challenge as a very invested experience. It’s a wonderful way to generate leads and to have them experience a transformation over a series of days so that they get a result, they get quick wins and gives you the opportunity to really show up as the expert that you are and offer your services
Freebie 5: A Video Series
A video series creates education and solution-awareness. It could perhaps be three training videos, or a recording from a recent talk you gave. It’s very easy to reach out to your audience and say, “Hey, put your name and email here and get these three training videos to help you XYZ.”
I always tell people to give the transformation, the benefit of what’s going to happen when they watch these videos. And you could once again, let the videos come via email, or you give them access to a little online course or membership site, and they can experience the videos, maybe have a question or two that they answer and then see what the next steps are
Remember, it’s your responsibility and opportunity as the entrepreneur to keep the connections with your audience alive, strong, and really meaningful.
Here’s your call to action: what can you be doing to grow your email list? What are the steps you can take to create a meaningful relationship with your audience via their inbox?
Today, we’re talking about something super important called offers and being a marketer. That’s right. Why is this so important? Because it’s the foundation of your entire business.
What ends up happening with a lot of us who are holistic entrepreneurs, yogis, and service providers is that we get so caught up in inconsistent one-on-one services or an occasional group, but not really having a stack of offers that work together strategically. I do want you to think about how you can get more clients with your time, but also while working smart.
As a business coach, I love to talk about offers, also known as offerings, because they are the foundation of you being able to show up as a credible expert, who gets paid well to do what they love to do all day every day.
The 2 steps to making more money as a wellness entrepreneur…
Step 1: Play to your strengths!
Ask yourself…
Do you like to work one-on-one with people?
Do you like to be in group settings?
Do you like to speak in front of big crowds?
How do you like to show up?
It’s important to determine how you like to work so that we can make sure you are comfortable, that you are going to shine, and that it is going to be fun for you. That’s it!
So once we understand how you want to show up, now we can start creating your magical business layer cake!
Step 2: Examine all of the different revenue streams available to you
1. Trade Time For Money
Although a lot of people say that you shouldn’t trade time for money, this is still a fabulous way to generate an income. And it’s an essential part of every offer ladder.
Plus, guess what? As wellness entrepreneurs, I am guessing that you love to work with your clients. You love to interact with them. You love to treat them. Are you an acupuncturist, massage therapist, yoga teacher? There’s still such value in working one-on-one with clients or in a group setting. It’s okay to still trade time for money.
What’s not okay is relying on that being your wealth strategy. One-on-one, small group classes, large classes, being a speaker. This is still trading time for money, and some are scalable, and some are not.
So let’s go over the ones that are limited, and also the ones that you can also charge premium prices for.
So, for example, if I want to get fit, or I want to get flexible quickly. Instead of going to group classes or going to the gym on my own, I might hire a private teacher that way we can address my needs, my concerns, and my body. That’s going to cost me money. If I hire a trainer, if I hire a private teacher, I’m going to pay premium because it’s 100% of their attention on me.
So when you are positioning yourself as a one-on-one teacher, please make sure you charge accordingly.
Now, this is going to vary on your town, your city, your state, your country. Every time I’ve gone to Peru to teach whether it was yoga or Acro Yoga, or even Thai massage. I had to lower my prices a little bit because the currency there is very different, and I wanted to be of service for the people.
What I would charge here in Miami, where prices are a little bit higher, we have premium rates I wouldn’t do down there. So be smart about where you are and how you create your prices.
Next, determine how much value you’re delivering to decide on your price. This makes sure that your one-on-one prices can become up-leveled, and make it easier to charge a premium because you’re delivering more value.
Maybe your one-on-one work comes with a membership to your online yoga studio, or essential oils, a beautiful treatment, a tote bag, something that is going to allow you to raise your prices a little bit without also feeling icky because I know we’re of service and I don’t want to ever make you not feel like you’re showing up fully as a holistic entrepreneur.
So that summarizes one-on-one work. Pros? You give 120% of your attention on your client. Cons? There’s only one of you, which makes it very limiting. Typically, you could only take five clients a day.
2. Group Classes
I love group classes! I love people. I’m a group person. If you could just hug me. That’d be great. Why? Because I feed off people’s energy. So for me, group classes is one of my favorite ways of working. Now, pro. Lots of people, lots and lots and lots of people can mean lots and lots and lots of money.
But depending on the situation, for example, when I used to own my yoga studio, yes, there was be lots and lots of people for my teachers, but their pay rate was not all the money. Why? Because the model of being an employee isn’t the most fruitful.
Now, if you’re going to do group classes, always get people onto your email list and always, always, always have an upsell.
Cons of group classes is that obviously, you’re not giving 100% of your attention to one person. So maybe people won’t feel that 100% focus on them. But if you’re a good instructor or you’re a good service provider, guess what? You can still have great outcome.
In my yoga conferences, the Global Yoga Conference, and my Yoga Expo, sometimes the teacher teaches to a hundred people. Obviously, there’s no way to personalize that, but there’s still a great way to cue, message, give information that can serve somebody at each part of their experience, their practice, or their journey.
But again, be sure to always have an upsell and always show up as inclusive as possible.
3. Small Group Private
Why do I love this one? Because it has a blend. You can still charge a high amount, and provide your clients the attention they need, but the difference is that it is scalable.
For example, I run two types of consulting and coaching. I do one-on-one work, and I do group work.
Now, when you’re doing group work, this means you have scalability. You are you to many. It’s going to give you a lot of potential, not only to connect but to also make great change. You can have a deep impact on people because you’re solving lots of problems, and there’s also a sense of comradery and union that gets formed for your members
4. Info Products
This is where your knowledge is shared to many people. So now this becomes a product consumed by groups of people. This is where the most scalability and leverage lies.
I get this done through my online courses where people are consuming the material in a way that doesn’t take any additional time. When you create an online course, you complete it once and don’t have to add more work as more people join. There’s so much maximization potential.
So think about you positioning yourself out there in these four different ways so that you have a variety. You want to be able to help people in different ways so that you’re also supporting yourself, your self-care, connection to others, and your bottom line, which is your revenue.
Pick the one that’s going to give you the most money right away. Why? Because if you’re looking to grow your financial side of your business, then pick the one that gives you the highest revenue. That might not be your one-on-one. That might be a group. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean teaching classes for low amounts of money. It could be a program. It could be a retreat. It could be a training. Now, this is what I love to teach! The potential to have scalable business through a group setting with also a nice price point. Teacher trainings, retreats, transformative programs, or group plus one-on-one. These all can have price points of a thousand and up. And it’s the best way to change your financial outcome without needing a ton of people.
If we look at the concept of pricing, we’ve got to see that if you’re like a Ferrari, or you’re a Louboutin, Louis Vuitton. You don’t need to sell a lot. You might only need five clients a month to double your income.
Now, if you need a ton of people to meet your baseline. It might take longer. When you’re creating your products, have a variety and think of it like a menu. When you go to a restaurant, there are lots of things for you to choose from. And in the middle part of the menu is going to be chefs’ choices. So I want you to make your chefs’ choices for the day and see what product you want to promote. What do you want to create that makes sense for you? And you probably want to start at a higher price point.
So what can you put out there that’s worth $200 to $1,000? Is it a certification that’s specific?
For example, chair yoga or Reiki atunement. Maybe it’s a modality of massage. Again, this is where you also start showing up as an expert. So your confidence level, your credibility, your professionalism gets to shine through even more.
The last thing that’s really important is that I want you to do a goal. How much money do you want to make a month? So let’s say it’s about $5,000. Maybe it’s $10,000. If you are trying to fill your calendar with 40, $50 an hour average, you’re going to need a lot of those hours. But if you can do a few that are $30, $40, $50 an hour, and a few that are $200 an hour.
Now you also want to make sure that when you’re creating your menu of services, that as you figure out what your monthly revenue goal is that we create the price points accordingly.
And then all we have to do is fill in the amount of students that we need per thing.
So let’s say you’re leading a certification. You are an amazing massage therapist, like my husband, and specialize in lower back. And you’re going to lead a certification training or give educational credits. Now, perhaps you do a one-day seminar. You charged $85 per person, and you get 10 people. That’s an $850 a day. Pretty cool, right?
Or let’s say that you are a yoga teacher and you have your E-RYT 500. You can give workshops and you do a weekend that is for yoga teachers, all about adjustments, cueing, how to become a better teacher. And you charge $250 for this because it’s only a couple hours a day. 20 people, you’ve got a $4,000 weekend.
So start looking at the possibilities of growing your offerings in a way that feels good to you, to where you’re at in your career. So when you’re doing your menu of services, see where you show up. Are you showing up as a credible professional that can give more value? Are you using your knowledge and turning it into a product?
Are you creating opportunities for people to really get an immersive learning experience from you, maybe through a retreat?
So this is your opportunity to shine in the way that you create your offers that match your goals, that provide the results. At the end of the day, we want everyone to look good, to feel good, and to be good. I’m so excited to see what you put out there!
Drop a comment below if you have any questions, and please share if you think somebody can benefit from this blog.
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.
Today, we’re talking about something super important called a Wealth Strategy. That’s right. Why is this so important? Because it’s the foundation of your entire business.
What ends up happening with a lot of us who are holistic entrepreneurs, yogis, and service
providers is that we get so caught up in inconsistent one-on-one services or an occasional group, but not really having a stack of offers that work together strategically. I do want you to think about how you can get more clients with your time, but also while working smart.
As a business coach, I love to talk about offers, also known as offerings, because they are the foundation of you being able to show up as credible expert, who gets paid well to do what they love to do all day every day.
The 2 steps to making more money as a wellness entrepreneur…
Step 1: Play to your strengths!
Ask yourself…
Do you like to work one-on-one with people?
Do you like to be in group settings?
Do you like to speak in front of big crowds?
How do you like to show up?
It’s important to determine how you like to work so that we can makes sure you are comfortable, that you are going to shine, and that it is going to be fun for you. That’s it!
So once we understand how you want to show up, now we can start creating your magical business layer cake!
Step 2: Examine different revenue streams
Trade Time For Money
Although a lot of people say that you shouldn’t trade time for money, this is still a fabulous way to generate an income. And it’s an essential part of every offer ladder.
Plus, guess what? As wellness entrepreneurs, I am guessing that you love to work with your clients. You love to interact with them. You love to treat them. Are you acupuncturist, massage therapist, yoga teacher? There’s still such value in working one-on-one with clients or in a group setting. It’s okay to still trade time for money.
What’s not okay is relying on that being your wealth strategy. One-on-one, small group
classes, large classes, being a speaker. This is still trading time for money, and some are scalable, and some are not.
So let’s go over the ones that are limited, and also the ones that you can also charge premium
prices for.
So, for example, if I want to get fit, or I want to get flexible quickly. Instead of going to group
classes or going to the gym on my own, I might hire a private teacher that way we can address my needs, my concerns, and my body. That’s going to cost me money. If I hire a trainer, if I hire a private teacher, I’m going to pay premium because it’s 100% of their attention on me.
So when you are positioning yourself as a one-on-one teacher, please make sure you charge accordingly.
Now, this is going to vary on your town, your city, your state, your country. Every time I’ve gone to Peru to teach whether it was yoga or Acro Yoga, or even Thai massage. I had to lower my prices a little bit because the currency there is very different, and I wanted to be of service for the people.
What I would charge here in Miami, where prices are a little bit higher, we have premium rates I wouldn’t do down there. So be smart on where you are and how you create your prices.
Next, determine how much value you’re delivering to decide on your price. This makes sure that your one-on-one prices can become up-leveled, and make it easier to charge a premium because you’re delivering more value.
Maybe your one-on-one work comes with a membership to your online yoga studio, or essential oils, a beautiful treatment, a tote bag, something that is going to allow you to raise your prices a little bit without also feeling icky because I know we’re of service and I don’t want to ever make you not feel like you’re showing up fully as a holistic entrepreneur.
So that summarizes one-on-one work. Pros? You give 120% of your attention on your client. Cons? There’s only one of you, which makes it very limiting. Typically, you could only take five clients a day.
Group Classes
I love group classes! I love people. I’m a group person. If you could just hug me. That’d be
great. Why? Because I feed off people’s energy. So for me, group classes is one of my favorite ways of working. Now, pro. Lots of people, lots and lots and lots of people can mean lots and lots and lots of
money.
But depending on the situation, for example, when I used to own my yoga studio, yes, there was be lots
and lots of people for my teachers, but their pay rate was not all the money. Why? Because the model of being an employee isn’t the most fruitful.
Now, if you’re going to do group classes, always get people onto your email list and always, always, always have an upsell.
Cons of group classes is that obviously, you’re not giving 100% of your attention to one person. So maybe people won’t feel that 100% focus on them. But if you’re a good instructor or you’re a good service provider, guess what? You can still have great outcome.
In my yoga conferences, the Global Yoga Conference, and my Yoga Expo, sometimes the
teacher teaches to a hundred people. Obviously, there’s no way to personalize that, but there’s still a great way to cue, message, give information that can serve somebody at each part of their experience, their practice, or their journey.
But again, be sure to always have an upsell and always show up as inclusive as possible.
Small Group Private
Why do I love this one? Because it has a blend. You can still charge a high amount, and provide your clients the attention they need, but the difference is that it is scalable.
For example, I run two types of consulting and coaching. I do one-on-one work, and I do group work.
Now, when you’re doing group work, this means you have scalability. You are you to many. It’s going to give you a lot of potential, not only to connect but to also make great change. You can have a deep impact on people because you’re solving lots of problems, and there’s also a sense of comradery and union that gets formed for your members
Info Products
This is where your knowledge is shared to many people. So now this becomes a product consumed by groups of people. This is where the most scalability and leverage lies.
I get this done through my online courses where people are consuming the material in a way that doesn’t take any additional time. When you create an online course, you complete it once and don’t have to add more work as more people join. There’s so much maximization potential.
So think about you positioning yourself out there in these four different ways so that you have a variety. You want to be able to help people in different ways so that you’re also supporting yourself, your self-care, connection to others, and your bottom line, which is your revenue.
Pick the one that’s going to give you the most money right away. Why? Because if you’re looking to grow your financial side of your business, then pick the one that gives you the highest revenue. That might not be your one-on-one. That might be a group. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean teaching classes for low amounts of money. It could be a program. It could be a retreat. It could be a training. Now, this is what I love to teach! The potential to have scalable business through a group setting with also a nice price point. Teacher trainings, retreats, transformative programs, or group plus one-on-one. These all can have price points of a thousand and up. And it’s the best way to change your financial outcome without needing a ton of people.
If we look at the concept of pricing, we’ve got to see that if you’re like a Ferrari, or you’re a Louboutin, Louis Vuitton. You don’t need to sell a lot. You might only need five clients a month to double your income.
Now, if you need a ton of people to meet your baseline. It might take longer. When you’re creating your products, have a variety and think of it like a menu. When you go
to a restaurant, there are lots of things for you to choose from. And in the middle part of the menu is going to be chefs’ choices. So I want you to make your chefs’ choices for the day and see what product you want to promote. What do you want to create that makes sense for you? And you probably want to start at a higher price point.
So what can you put out there that’s worth $200 to $1,000? Is it a certification that’s specific?
For example, chair yoga or Reiki attunement. Maybe it’s a modality of massage. Again, this is where you also start showing up as an expert. So your confidence level, your credibility, your professionalism gets to shine through even more.
The last thing that’s really important is that I want you to do a goal. How much money do you want to make a month? So let’s say it’s about $5,000. Maybe it’s $10,000. If you are
trying to fill your calendar with 40, $50 an hour average, you’re going to need a lot of those hours. But if you can do a few that are $30, $40, $50 an hour, and a few that are $200 an hour.
Now you also want to make sure that when you’re creating your menu of services, that as you figure out what your monthly revenue goal is that we create the price points accordingly.
And then all we have to do is fill in the amount of students that we need per thing.
So let’s say you’re leading a certification. You are an amazing massage therapist, like my husband, and specialize in lower back. And you’re going to lead a certification training or give educational credits. Now, perhaps you do a one-day seminar. You charged $85 per person, and you get 10 people. That’s an $850 a day. Pretty cool, right?
Or let’s say that you are a yoga teacher and you have your E-RYT 500. You can give [inaudible
00:11:56], and you do a weekend that is for yoga teachers, all about adjustments, cueing, how to
become a better teacher. And you charge $250 for this because it’s only a couple hours a day. 20 people, you’ve got a $4,000 weekend.
So start looking at the possibilities of growing your offerings in a way that feels good to you, to where you’re at in your career. So when you’re doing your menu of services, see where you show up. Are you showing up as a credible professional that can give more value? Are you using your knowledge and turning it into a product?
Are you creating opportunities for people to really get an immersive learning experience from you, maybe through a retreat?
So this is your opportunity to shine in the way that you create your offers that match your goals, that provide the results. At the end of the day, we want everyone to look good, to feel good,
and to be good. I’m so excited to see what you put out there!
Deop a comment below if you have any questions, and please share if you think somebody can benefit from this blog.
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 had a great convo yesterday with a potential client and she asked me – Ari I’m seeing so much of your stuff lately and wondering what you’re doing exactly. I’d like to tell you a story so you get to know me… and here’s the cool thing – I’m going to ask you the same! Let me know how you started your journey into doing what you do and why you do it.
I loved this question and it made me giggle in a great way. I’ve worn so many hats in this small human experience that I can see how one can ask this question. Not only that but I feel it’s important to share our story as it helps us see clearly once again where we are in life!
Reinventions are part of life. Transform into your next vision of you and how you want to lead your life. That’s exactly how this story begins
2 years ago there was an AHA moment when I was the owner of Trio Yoga when I realized I wasn’t playing to my own strengths or life goals. I was stuck inside a studio almost 7 days a week and feeling a bit miserable amongst the amazing community… no one really knew this but it was so. Depressed. Lonely. Un-Inspired.
What did happen (my aha moment) is that I re-kindled my entrepreneurial bug I was born with. It sparked the I WANT MORE LEADERSHIP! It was a bit shocking because I had been this laissez faire yogi traveling the world teaching, doing what I wanted, when I wanted and never had huge responsibilities other than making sure I was on time and taught a damn good class. I wanted to leave a mark that was bigger than 4 walls.
Have you ever felt that?
2 years ago Bizzy Yogi was born. My life changed forever. I finally allowed my brain to expand where it had never gone before as I had set limits and a useless story around WHO I was. It was how I could step up and create waves and make ripples that played in a larger way. By the way, this was some scary shit!
Fast forward to now.
What do I do?
Give ideas to you who are stuck in HOW.
Create a plan to you who love to follow a path.
Provide a color by number book of your business and brand.
Align your ideas to execution, hold you accountable for doing them and keep bringing clarity and truth to the foreground while slicing doubt away like a ninja.
And Yes, This Story Also Deals With Yoga.
YOGA = UNION.
AcroYoga = HIGH UNION
Samkya Philosophy for example. It’s a duality that can’t exist without the essence of working together. You have the witness and the doer. Consciousness with nature.
This is life and business. It’s the story I’ve written for how I work with my clients and really the basis for life. Why I created Yogi Hearts, Business Minds group on Facebook. Because it’s ALL ONE to me.
So see what’s really cool is I teach business and yoga with this ancient philosophy. After teaching Yoga & AcroYoga for close to 15 years I realize that it’s all the foundations you need to create and build your new iteration of you. I said to a student yesterday to change the position of her foot in triangle pose, she asked why… I said cause it affects the ENTIRE pose.
Yoga is the foundation of life. Asana is the seat. Poses are how you maintain strength and stability. Breath keeps you alive and fluid. Meditation provides clarity and space.
In business it’s the exact same process. Desire of your life is yoga. The idea is the foundation mixed in with values is the seat. The strategy is the asana which leads to action to keep the business alive (breath) and the meditation is being in flow connected to your higher vision.
I help you re-write your story according to this formula which keeps things so simple and yet can go so deep!
So whether you’re looking to re-align your business or your life, follow the steps above!
It’s almost as easy as 1-2-3. I’m so glad my client asked what I do! I help formulate how the above makes sense in your life and in your business. I see the truth and clarity behind it all with love and spirit as the basis for a new version of your desires turned into actions, sustained by a clear path.
Always if you need anything… I’m a click away HERE 🙂
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.
What happens when you loose freedom and independence? How do you feel?
The main point behind this post.