Serve the One You’re With

Recently, several of the yoga coaches I’ve trained were talking about how their class and client numbers are down. I shared a few tips with them about how to bring those numbers back up coming from a dharmic place of service. If that’s also been a challenge for you, this might help.

I invite you to come into this inquiry from a heart felt place of service. That’s a good place to start.

Remember how much you love yoga? Remember how much you love to share it? Get there inside yourself. Access that state. Got it? Great. No? Bring to mind one of your favorite students – they show up on time, ready to go, they sometimes bring a friend, they cheerfully pay you and thank you, they come to the special events you offer, they teach you as much about being a teacher as you teach them. Now, you got it?

ONE: Review your menu of services. Do you just offer classes? Or do you also offer private sessions, yoga therapy, yoga coaching, yoga practice assessment, setting up a home practice, special reports on different aspects of living yoga, etc? What else could you offer them? How else can you serve them?

TWO: Often, marketing gets focused so much on finding new students you might be neglecting your most valuable marketing tool, you class lists. This list could be the foundation of your “tribe.” What keeps a tribe together is, a base a feeling that their needs are being met. Take a look at your class lists. Revisit old class and client lists. Really get in touch with the folks on this list, heart to heart. Look it over and notice whom you feel intuitively drawn to reconnect.

THREE: Ask yourself, “How can I best serve this person?” Identify what you might want to offer each person. Perhaps it’s just to check in and see how they are doing. Perhaps you want to tell them about an upcoming event in the community you think they would enjoy. Check in with these students via email or phone whatever you think is going to best serve them. Make these contacts with the intention of serving them — offer them a discounted private session to re-invigorate their practice if they’ve been away or an assessment to help lead them to their next step with their practice. If you don’t have a yoga assessment, it’s easy to create one or just email me and I’ll send you one.

FOUR: Review who has had birthdays in the last month or who has a birthday coming up, offer them a discount or free session as gift. Invite them to come with a friend for a semi-private session with you. You might want to reserve these sessions for regular students.

FIVE: Consider what milestones you OR they might be celebrating. A local teacher is celebrating her 10 years of teaching in this community and offering discounts, freebies, etc. as a way of thanking the community. You can also reach out to acknowledge the change of seasons. The point is to reach out with the intention to serve and celebrate. Perhaps this celebration could be a special event, a workshop focusing on some aspect of what you are celebrating. Reach out and invite folks specifically, not through a fancy email program but let them know you are writing specifically to THEM, even including a line or two about THEM.

SIX: Create an add-on service for your class series. For instance, for the folks who sign up for a series, offer a “yoga club” where the members receive a weekly PDF of the sequence you use in each class along with a recommended home practice for that sequence or series. The home practice might include one short and one longer sequence of poses. Include tips and information about the poses. Some of you might think that “well, why would they come back to class?” Because YOU are such a good teacher and you helping THEM grow ever deeper into their practice. My asana teacher does this and I love it. Make sure the PDF looks professional, branding you. Most computers have templates for such documents or you can get a template designed for you at fivrr.com.

SEVEN: Record your shavasana instructions and put it up for sale on your website and/or make it available in class. Better yet, create a “Shavasana of the Month Club.” Record a new one each month and then you will have a library of recordings that you can offer to people as gifts from time to time. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Remember, this is for your tribe. You can use Garageband on the Mac and record. If that feels too complicated, you can use one of the tele-conference recording lines. Don’t let technology stop you. If you don’t know how to do this, team up with a teacher friend and create a joint library or learn the technology!

Please share your successes and your ideas. Together, we can all make this world a better paradise.