Seeding for 2008

Practicing with Marc Holzman and the Guerilla Yoga in LA. Photo by Martin Herrera

I hope this email finds you fully enjoying the Holiday season. I have decided to make year-end resolutions for a change. Here they are: I am celebrating life and love with food that is good for me, I am enjoying parties and gatherings or I am not attending them at all, I am planting trees on people's behalf rather than buying gifts, I am turning off my computer after 8pm and I am staying healthy throughtout the season. Amen!

Aren't those great seeds for 2008?

And talking about 2008, I am very excited to share that in February I will be teaching The Business of Yoga at the Loyola Marymount University Yoga extension program.

Last but not least, get ready for the new year with our last free teleclass on creating a vision for 2008.

With heartfelt gratitude for the many opportunities you give me to share and serve you. I look forward to another year of growth, joy and light in your company.


Warmly,
Clara

Marketing for Yoga Teachers - as featured on Yogi Times Business

We are on the press again!

YOGI TIMES BUSINESS | OCT 2007
THE TEACHER’S EDGE
Marketing for Yoga Teachers
By Clara Hori

Empowering Steps That Will Launch You to the Next Level

Eighteen million Americans do yoga and spend $2.95 billion on classes and yoga-related products and services. With stress reaching epidemic levels and an aging baby boomer population, these numbers will inevitably grow. There’s no question that all teachers have an opportunity to thrive and have a fulfilling life. Empowering yourself with marketing and business skills is allowing the tide to take you to sea.
In this article, I’ll share three fundamental steps, some more practical than others, to infuse you with the clarity and determination this journey requires.

1. Embracing Growth as Part of Your Spiritual Path
If you want to grow as a teacher and get to the next level, the very first step takes place right where you are—it’s a reflection on your mindset. Are you aspiring to grow or are you overemphasizing contentment? True or false: Yoga says that happiness happens when we renounce the material universe, as our desires and impulses to “be in the world” are the cause of our suffering. The answer is both true and false. In one path of yoga, called nirvritti, or contemplation, this is true. That’s the path of the ascetics. But if you are a householder, your path is pravritti, the path of action. In this path, you don’t renounce your obligations and relationships—you embrace and honor them. You find happiness when you live and act in accordance with your purpose in life. Most modern yogis are householders. We may have very dedicated practices, but we also have families, credit cards and a preference for organic food, among other things. The understanding that expansion is the nature of the path we are threading allows us to embrace growth and overcome our own resistances, fears and limiting behaviors.

2. Redefine Marketing
Is teaching yoga today easier than it was 15 years ago? It’s certainly different.
Yoga’s increasing popularity is fact, but unless you are able to be at the right place and at the right time, conveying a unique message that resonates with people, you will not be benefited by the tide. The set of processes that allow you to leverage, or sometimes create, such a tide is marketing. Here’s a simple yet powerful exercise: Quickly write down what you usually experience when you engage in marketing activities as a yoga teacher. If things such as “I feel exposed,” “I feel like I am selling myself,” or “I sound
desperate” come up, take a step back and reflect. Is my perception tinted or clear? Is this helping me? If marketing is not your comfort zone, it’s very likely that it will trigger fears and insecurities. On top of that, we cannot deny there is bad marketing that is empty of meaning and encourages people to buy what they don’t really need. But if we can isolate what we experience as consumers for a second, and process our self-confidence issues, marketing is naturally released from its negative charge. It evolves from a necessary evil to an authentic expression of who you are and how you serve the world, in which we take price and rejoice.

3. Taking Action—Baby Steps
Let’s get practical. The right action confirms and completes the inner work. There are four things that are beneficial for every teacher. Although they are practical and relatively simple steps, they can be indefinitely procrastinated if we are unaware of our resistances. I encourage you to keep it simple and approach it as your version 1.0, one that you will have plenty of opportunity to refine and improve on as you moving forward. It’s a better way of managing your energy, as only after completion we can start reaping the benefits and free up energy to apply elsewhere. Leave long and complex projects for later in the journey, when such a commitment of energy will not be overwhelming. How you do things is as important as what you do. Establishing a deep connection with the task at hand and infusing it with meaning is a key part of the process. Let your marketing embody the qualities you cultivate in your practice and teaching. Let it be graceful, whole and established in awareness. And before you know it, it will empower you to grow and expand, for the highest good.

Basic Tools for Marketing

Auto signature. This turns every email you send out into a way of presenting
yourself. Why not tell everyone you’re a certified yoga teacher and teach groups and privates? Make your contact information easy to find. You can keep it subtle or make it bold, depending on where you are in your teaching career. You can include a quote to add
personality and elegance. It’s easy to do and costs nothing.

Business cards. If you already have them, make sure you carry them everywhere—and most importantly— give them to everyone you meet. Every touch counts and helps you build your image and your network. If you are on class building mode, consistently
pinning cards in bulletin boards of places you like is a great habit that costs you almost nothing. Web sites such as overnightprints.com offer quality cards ranging from $15 to several hundred dollars.

Mailing list. To build it you need a subscription scheme that is permission based and complies with a strong privacy policy. The simplest way to start a mailing list is to take a clipboard to every class and invite your students to join. Give people a reason to join it, because if you don’t, your list will not grow. Beyond the standard of sharing news, class schedule, workshops and retreats and, what else can you offer? You can start with your own email account and then upgrade to a newsletter. Some good newsletter engines are constantcontact.com and namasteinteractive.com (costs start at $15/month).

Web site. This should include: bio, photo, class/events schedule, contact info, and a way for interested people to subscribe or unsubscribe from your mailing list. You can start with a free basic blog site at blogger.com and move on to a more professional (and expensive) site when your business is ready. Web site templates are affordable and easy to implement on your own. The downside is that your look and feel won’t be unique and customization will be very limited. Webflexor-yoga.com has an interesting package for yoga teachers, including a logo, Web site, business card design, domain, email addresses,and a newsletter service for a one-time fee of $479 + $24.99/month. You’ll have to invest more for a professional web designer—about $500 to $1000.

Is it time to upgrade to a newsletter system?

If you are sending emails to your students, congratulations. This is one of the most powerful tools to establish, grow and keep a strong connection with your community.

How are you sending those emails? If you are using your email program (i.e. Outlook, Entourage and web based .Mac, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc...), I always say that it's a great way to start, but probably not be the best way to stay.

Here's how you know if you have outgrown improvised newsletters and should consider upgrading the way you currently communicate with your students to a newsletter service such as Constant Contact:

1 - Your list of contacts has grown. You now have to break it down into multiple emails, which is not fun. Also, you want to make it easier for people to subscribe and unsubscribe, so that you don't have to spend time doing. Did you know that if you don't offer a simple way for people to unsubscribe your email can be considered spam? Did you know that if you ever forget to put names in the bcc line you are violating people's privacy rights?

2 - You want your newsletter to look nice! In the beginning it was the word, and the word was out. Ok, now you want the word to look as beautiful as you are. You want pictures of you, you want inspiring images, you want formatting, you want links. Right?

3 - You have lots of things going on and you want to promote them - new classes, new schedule, workshops, retreats, downloadable classes. If you are not there yet but want to get there, then this class is for you as well. A newsletter is the most affordable and most effective tool available to yoga teachers. Period!
If you are interested in trying out Constant Contact, we hold regular teleclasses to help you get started. If you are ready to try it on your own, there short tutorials on the basic functions as well as a 1800 technical support that is fairly decent.

You can sign up for a 60 day trial with Constant Contact for up to 100 contacts/names. If you would like to get a $30 credit, email us before signing up to the trial and we'll send you a special link.

Full disclosure: we are not affiliated with Constant Contact but we do get a referral fee of $30 for every person that signs up to the program after the trial period.

New Offering: The Business of Yoga Module for 200 hr Yoga Alliance Teachers Trainings

At the request of yoga studios offering Yoga Alliance Teachers Trainings we have developed a 5 hour workshop on the business aspects of teaching yoga.
It fits right into the Teaching Methodology category of the Yoga Alliance standards. Our goal is to encourage teachers to embrace the business side of their teaching and offer superlative tools and strategies to help them thrive, from day 1.
The program explores different ways to get started and gain experience. It emphasizes the importance of aligning action and purpose and it supports students in getting clarity on their unique talents and aspirations.

Here's the program outline.

1) Setting up the context: Purpose and Vision

• Teaching as dharma, teaching as business.
• Creating your own definition of success.
• Spontaneous specialization: What’s unique about you?
• Teaching Continuum – start where you are: Getting started -> Part-time teaching -> Full-time teaching -> Beyond full-time teaching.

2) Getting Started and Navigating choices

• Phase 1: the whatever, whenever and wherever period.
• Phase 2: becoming the teacher you are meant to be.

3) Practical Aspects: Getting the word out

• “True to self-promotion”. New ways of looking at marketing.
• Great beginnings: first business card, website and newsletter.
• Networking and “guerilla” marketing.

4) Practical Aspects: Finances

• Safety net: Liability insurance, health insurance, emergency fund.
• Taxes and Bookkeeping basics.
• The Yoga of Wealth.
• Support Network: Who needs a CPA and attorney?

5) Preventing burn-out

• Self-care: practicing, recharging, community.
• Mentorship and continuous education.
• Prioritizing and creating boundaries.

Yogi Incubator Teaches at the Loyola Marymount University Yoga extension program

I could not be more excited to share that in February I will be teaching The Business of Yoga at the Loyola Marymount University Yoga extension program. It will be a 5 hour workshop, offered as part of Srivatsa Ramaswami's 200 hr Vinyasa Krama teachers training. Ramaswami was the longest standing student of the legendary T. Krishnamacharya outside the Master’s family. It's a great priviledge to co-teach with such a luminary, in one of the best schools in the country.

The program is open to anyone, so if you are a beginner teacher or have students that just completed their teachers training, this can be a great way to start the year cultivating the business aspect of your teaching.

The Business of Yoga – 5 hour workshop

When: Feb 9th, Saturday, 10am – 3:30pm

Where: Loyola Marymount University*

Costs: $370 for the entire weekend (includes Sunday 5 hour module on Teaching Methodology, taught by Ramaswami). Registration for the Business of Yoga only is available upon request.

To register: email yoga@lmu.edu or call Stephanie at (310) 338-2358

*Module within Srivatsa Ramaswami’s 200 Hour Vinyasa Krama Yoga Teacher Training Program

Click here for Program Outline