How To Create Your Dream Retreat In 7 Steps

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The mythical retreat. We see them everywhere! Someone we know is going to Bali, another person a magical Greece retreat, Machu Picchu, Costa Rica just to name a few.

Your dream retreat is not very far away just to let you know. We will visit these 7 steps and get really clear on why, what and how the process is done from beginning to end.

For the last 10 years I have been putting together and selling out yoga retreats to some wonderful destinations worldwide. There are tons of beautiful centers that will cater exactly to what your needs are whether it be an adventure filled retreat or perhaps a more meditative quiet experience. Whichever you choose make sure to follow these steps for a successful and pleasant retreat for your guests and yourself.

Location… It’s SO Important!

Choose a location that inspires you and that makes sense for your audience. Do you want to do it locally, perhaps in another state, or perhaps in a beautiful faraway location. Logistics will always be one of the main tasks in your retreat choosing as the further away you get the more involved you need to be with the students and issues like: travel visas, currency exchange, jetlag etc. To avoid the headache you can always ask for help with Yoga Trail.

Theme

This is one of the most important things that will really attract your crowd. The more specific that you can target your audience the better results you will have. Which also brings the question what is your specialty?

Length of Retreat Time

How long do you want your retreat to be? If you were taking your students and clients to a faraway place and I suggest anything from 5 to 7 days but if it’s close and easily accessible then maybe a weekend retreat will suffice. It also depends the amount of material that you would like to cover so make sure that you plan accordingly to your offerings.

Flying Solo?

Sometimes running a retreat by yourself might be a daunting experience. There are many details, a lot of logistics and you have to be not only the teacher but also take care of the students making sure they’re happy and satisfied. Plan accordingly so that you are well taken care of and not overworked.

Who’s Coming?

How many and what kind of people would you want to take on this trip? Your demographic is probably one of the most important aspects so that your marketing and invites  you have a clear picture of who and how you will be catering to them. Can it be a woman’s rgathering? Or perhaps a family retreat? Always the more clarity you have from the beginning the better. Niches are key to create ease in this process so that you can save money and time.

Logistics

There is a lot of hidden back end work that no one really realizes when putting together a retreat. First of all the agreements with the retreat center need to be clarified from the beginning to see what services they offer, what is and is not included. Are you offering food is part of the package? How many meals are you responsible for supplying? Are you doing any adventures or activities outside the retreat center with your students? If so who will be providing the transportation?

Taking the Bizzy Yogi Quiz might be a great idea to get you clear on your strengths!

Sales

After you have your content logistics, your demographic all set up, you need to sell your offering. This is often missed part of the process. Make sure your marketing and collateral are congruent, you have your pricing set up, method of payment, as well as a clear and concise sales pitch.

Retreats are life-changing experience for many people, so make sure that you follow your check list and know that I am available for consulting or even putting the retreat together for you!

Enjoy your travels and bon voyage!

Receive my tips on making smarter business choices and having retreats that sell out!

Get Your FREE Discovery Session Here >>> http://bit.ly/BizzyYogi

 

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Email Marketing To Make Your Tribe Love You More

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The Power Of The Email

Oh emails. Yes they are alive and real. Email marketing is probably one of the fastest ways to increase revenue to your business because it’s all about relationships. Nowadays with the surge of social media, relationships are really based on value, promises and how to stay connected via a screen.

The Beginning.

Let’s start with the basics. What is email marketing and why do I even need it for my business. First of all, how often do you get information you want to learn more about in your inbox vs the amount of, let’s be real, spam. I long for those emails where I will either learn something, get inspired, get some tips and more.
The world of communication is so valuable because your inbox is like your mailbox in your house (just it’s way cheaper to send an email than a letter). But imagine getting awesome letters from your favorite people once a week?

To start your email list is not hard or expensive. On the other hand, it can be pretty much free and give you access to a wealth of potential customers. There are tons of services out there that provide newsletter deliverability for free or at a low cost. You want to start a list and you want to start it today.

Some questions you might ask are:
How do I start my list?
How often do you send emails?
Will people open them?
What do I write?

Like I said if you don’t have a list, start one today! Create a database of emails of people that gave you permission to email them about your services. It’s not your aunt Bonnie unless she’s a potential client. You can start the email collection process with an opt-in on your website or get business cards and manually add them. We can talk about mechanics of things on another post!

Consistency is key here. Don’t let more than a month lag between you and your tribe. Remember they opt in because they want you to send them good stuff… so hook them up! I’m guilty of not being super consistent but I have a plan and I’m sticking to it. If I don’t will you guys hold me accountable? LOL!

This is the dreaded question. Will people open the emails. What’s worst is will people OPT-OUT of my list! If they opt-out then guess what, they won’t be customers or engaged in what you do and what you are offering. So ADIOS! I used to get all bent out of shape about this… now I see it as a lost opportunity for them to grow and be more amazing humans.

Ok fine a tiny grudge. Very very tiny.

Metrics are key when dealing with your emails. You will get a better idea depending what service provider you use but the key thing is to send your first one. After this you will feel accomplished and you can read your metrics and learn. It’s always an opportunity to grow.

Write what you are good at. Your passion, why you are in business doing what you love, why you want to see the person on the other side so happy and ready to conquer the world. You are sending that person all your love and heart. It is so beautiful when you can impact one person, make them smile and better improve his/her life one way or another.

Connection.

I’m constantly looking for ways to connect with my audience, my tribe of Bizzy Yogis. How can I serve them better? In addition I want to give them more value than they can even imagine! Probably most of you can say that there are a few emails you receive that you absolutely love. I know I have my top 5 since I open them every time they land in my inbox.

Look at your top 5 and see why you love them. What about them makes you happy, makes you want more. Write down the feelings you get when you read these emails and in addition to this see how you can get the same feeling from your emails while making them totally your voice. No email stealing ok? Promise?

Hope some of your questions are answered, and if you have more, feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks for reading and check out the new and improved section of the website called work with me.

 

Get Your FREE Discovery Session Here >>> http://bit.ly/BizzyYogi

 

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Does the word business scare you?

Does the word business scare you?

The beginning to my story.

2005. Graduation of my YTT. I close my eyes and I remember it all! The excitement to start teaching and help people understand yoga and how much I loved it vibrated all over me. I was like a puppy just wanting to do good for people.

Fast forward to today. That hasn’t changed much.

I fell in love with the word business when I made it make sense for me. When I understood that my passion was as strong as ever, my desire as full as when I started and that I needed a little bit of organization in my brain to make it all make more sense so more people benefited.

When someone explained to me once that being a yoga teacher meant being in business for yourself I had no idea what they meant because it was a part time thing for me. My days were spent in an advertising agency, or a publishing company, or an architecture firm during the day and then running to my class at night to make some extra money.

Does this sound like you? (Just replace the former jobs and insert what you do to make money).

Because I was over working for other people, loved my freedom to travel, loved taking trainings and workshops, I knew I had to move full time into teaching.

And the rat race began!

24 classes a week at one point… totally exhausting and less money in my pocket than before! This made no sense to me because what’s the point of living doing what I loved but having no money to travel, take the trainings I loved, move into my own apartment (vs living in my friend’s living room).

Welcome the world of self-development and actually giving a shit about myself.

Realizing I was playing this weird game of work my butt off, teach so much that I was getting injured and still having no savings sucked.

I knew something had to change just didn’t know how. Diving deep into layers of myself, layers of my desire, and understanding that I could get better at every single aspect of my life is an amazing gift. The trick is it all started with my mindset and believing in myself.

Bring on the reading and learning. 

There is so much information out there readily available for us about business, what it means to actually empower yourself with knowledge about running a smart business, about what it takes to have order and systems in place to afford a lifestyle I wanted.

The more I learned about others (yogis, artists, you name it) who took matters into their own hands and made a shift in their lives, the more I saw it in my future.

Have you ever felt like this?

The NEW me!

Diving deeper and deeper and deeper gave me so much freedom and lightness. The sense of empowerment, strength and resourcefulness introduced me to a whole new way of seeing things.

Saying I hate business and sales only brought less business and sales to my life.

Saying I don’t need money only brought less money to my life.

Don’t lose your power and say I’m not ready yet!

Understanding that everything I said and everything I did mattered changed my life.

Something I don’t know, I learn.

A task I can’t do on my own probably means I should hire someone better than me to get it done and as a result move further quicker.

An idea that needs to come out, I figure out how to do it.

This is why and how I created Bizzy Yogi, because I know this amazing and powerful work will work for you as well as long as you believe. 

It’s all about the mind, the desire of the outcome and how bad you want it. Owning your value is your claim to fame (whatever that word means to you).

How will you manifest your dreams?

I want to have a talk and find out more and move some energy around?

And remember it’s all inside you… jedi mind tricks really do work (oh and a sweet rock solid plan).

Thanks for reading my story.

Namaste!

My first Yoga Studio… the Epic Story

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Yogis Studio Dreams

There comes a point in a yogi’s life where we ask ourselves… what next? The most logical progression is start and open a yoga studio. Of course! Do you want to know how and why this happened? The evolution of it all? In a moment I will share how this all came to be, why the most perfect and imperfect people came into my life during it and how it taught me to shape up or ship out!

 

But first, let me introduce the key players:

  1. The Russian
  2. The Jersey Yogini
  3. The Argentinian
  4. The slumlord

Sounds a bit like a spy drama doesn’t it? Picture the Russian with a mysterious je ne sais quois about him and the Argentinian dancing tango and throwing knives while doing it. Well it’s kinda like that but way way less dramatic!

So about 5 years ago I had coffee with my friend, the Russian and he said – “Hey you want to open a yoga studio with me?”. All this in a thick Russian accent of course. I immediately said “YES!”. You can get an idea of my impulsive nature as I am a gemini, a monkey in my Chinese astrology and Vata/Pitta in my dosha.

Now mind you I had never owned a brick and mortar business. Much less, had never really had a “business” that involved others.  I was a lone wolf in the yogi and freelance world and had never even thought of what owning a business meant. An entrepreneur at heart, but not to this level.

Second, I had no idea the Russian came with a partner. So I jumped head in to a massive investment.  These were my life savings!!! With someone I had maybe met 3-4 times in my life. This turned out to be the best decision ever.

Meet Michelle. The Jersey Yogini with a heart of gold and the hustle of a pizza bagel (as we lovingly call Italian Jews). She is now my soul sister, a lady who works as heard as I do because without her help nothing of this would be a reality today.

 

So the story begins.

After agreeing that this was a great idea, getting the location, starting the build out, jumping for joy after signing our lease we realized we had no more funds, no more energy and no vision. The “oh shit” happened and reality came crashing down. The Russian is a yogi who traveled and disappeared for weeks in caves or with a swami. Michelle and I had been left to our own devices dealing with the unfriendliest and slimiest cigar smoking, name calling landlord in the universe (enter the slumlord). He made our build out process a nightmare from cheating, delaying, lying – well you get the picture. Know that at the end of the day good always wins and we definitely won because of our grit and hard work!

 

Life of a Yoga Studio Owner During Opening

All I can remember is sitting in my car talking to the permits man crying hysterically on WHY we had gotten denied AGAIN and had to now pay another few thousand dollars. To make the long story short, we were in dire straits. I studied architecture for a year in college so I had some idea of something but not to this degree. When you have a small budget you get creative. You hustle and learn to do things on your own quickly. Michelle took to the city and department of building to expedite our permits. I chose flooring, dealt with engineers and architects. A killer team ready to make it happen.

At the end of the day we had an opening day and were going to stick to it. If you are thinking about opening a studio- do your homework and make sure you have the funds and needs to make one from scratch or invest and buy one already made.

In comes the Argentine to save the day. With help from his ninja business skills we made a studio that would sky rocket to success. All of us made a killer team- business brain, yogis on a mission and lots of good will. We finally opened TRIO Studios the day before a 30 person training we had scheduled months before.

 

NOTEWORTHY TIPS

Top 5 Tips to Success with Your Yoga Studio

So you know anything you are trying to build out will take twice as long, and twice as much. Our classes steadily grew because to have a successful studio you need a few things:

  1. REALLY GOOD TEACHERS
  2. A KILLER SCHEDULE
  3. A GREAT TEAM
  4. A BRAND THAT STANDS OUT
  5. A UNIQUE APPROACH

Good teachers make or break a studio. Because the owners always have a bigger pull if you open a studio, give yourself the top and best time slots furthermore always share some of those slots with your best teachers so when you decide to step out of the teaching the studio is still busy.

The schedule should reflect the people who live near you, your niche clientele, your ideal student. If you live near young professionals know that the might want later classes or really early mornings. Study your neighborhood and cater to what they want.

To mange or not to manage is the question that seems like has an easy answer.  I decided I am a better teacher than a manager. Hiring someone else to take care of the smaller things is a great idea and as a result it created space for me to be creative, to see the bigger picture and to create a lifestyle that I wanted. The hiring process is critical because your manager is the face of your studio in addition to the front desk. Whether yogis turned business owners realize it, sale are number 1. Make your team represent you. Create a family of workers that care and want to grow with you.

Branding. One of my favorite topics. First of all you want a killer logo that represents you. Since you want to be top of mind a name that is easy to remember is KEY therefore helping you stand out more. TRIO is in English & Spanish and short and sweet. Don’t confuse people who don’t speak sanskrit. Make the branding something that appeals to your ideal client and stands out from the others. Because branding is so important, check out this free mini video or my complete course which has a whole section on creating your brand.

aerial yoga - trio yoga studio

Finally, a unique approach which in TRIO’s case, is aerial & acroyoga, and over 65 classes a week. We cater to people who want to expand their horizons with yoga and explore different avenues. We want people to be able to come to class whenever so we make the studio available almost all day so that they have easy access. ALSO owning a studio is about real estate management. If the room is empty, you are losing money. Don’t leave money on the table- ever!

With all this being said and done, TRIO has created a community of yoga lovers, people who’s lives change for the better daily. It created a job for Michelle and I who are the main teachers, lead the trainings and yoga retreats. Our studio is probably one of the best in Miami because we provide a level of service and quality unmatched by others and as a result make a big impact on the lives of many. Our vision and dedication teaches us daily on how to be better business owners and yogis. It’s a fine line but at the end of the day it’s worth seeing the smiles on peoples faces.

 

SUCCESS STORY

A legacy in the making.

In conclusion TRIO is a HUGE hit and continues on its way up. Profitable on year 1, top 10 yoga studio in Miami 3 years in a row. Unique in scheduling, class style and the first in Wynwood Arts District. A team that kicks ass and a legacy of quality.

To learn more how to be a yogi entrepreneur, a creator, a proliferator of goodness then check out Bizzy Yogi Online Business Academy. Most of all you will learn all the ins and outs of being a successful business owner, a top of mind yogi entrepreneur and grow your yogi business mind that surpasses what you think was possible.

Take action today and join the tribe of movers and shakers who want to change the world one om at a time so that yoga grows and continues to impact the world daily.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]