How to Start an Online Yoga Business: Expert Teacher Tips with Gwen Ferreira

 Gwen Ferreira is a longtime yoga teacher who has made the transition from studio teaching to running a profitable digital yoga platform. In this episode, she shares her expertise on building a successful online yoga business.

Gwen opens up about the challenges of moving your yoga instruction online while staying true to your values and teaching authentic yoga. She provides practical tips on:
- Creating high-quality online yoga courses that stand out
- Reaching an international audience through your online offerings
- Generating consistent income from your digital yoga business
- Using authentic marketing strategies to connect with your target students
- Overcoming mental blocks around online teaching and entrepreneurship

Gwen also demystifies the process of developing online courses tailored to today's yoga practitioners. She discusses how to create content that resonates with modern students seeking a balanced yoga practice.

The episode concludes with an overview of Gwen's suite of online training programs designed to help yoga teachers succeed in the digital space, including:
- Building an engaged community through Facebook groups
- Utilizing lead magnets and email marketing
- Monetizing your online presence while upholding yogic principles

Whether you're a studio yoga teacher exploring online options or already establishing a digital teaching platform, this conversation offers a roadmap for entrepreneurial yoga instructors to expand their reach and impact through the online world.

Connect with Gwen!
https://yogacareerwithgwen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/yogacareerwithgwen/

Chapters

• 0:00 Building a Successful Online Yoga Business
• 4:48 Benefits of Online Yoga Teaching
• 11:03 Creating Online Courses
• 23:52 Building an Online Yoga Business
• 32:21 Social Media Impact and Authentic Marketing
• 39:41 Marketing Strategies for Yoga Teachers
• 44:14 Yoga Teacher Online Business Offers

Transcript

Rose: 0:00

If you're a yoga teacher struggling to make ends meet even though you pour your heart into every class, or if you want to leave the four walls of your studio and create more of an online presence and a global impact, then this is the episode for you. Drawing from her own experiences building a successful online yoga business, Gwen Ferreira will share proven strategies for creating exceptional online courses. Will share proven strategies for creating exceptional online courses, growing your audience through authentic marketing and avoiding the common pitfalls that cause most online businesses to fail. Welcome to Chat Off The Mat, the podcast that explores the transformative journey of healing and self-discovery where energy, spirituality, mind and body intersect. Hi, I'm your Rose Wippich, and I invite you to join me and explore ways to invite more holistic practices into your life. I will feature experts and practitioners who provide insights, tips and practical advice. From Reiki to Qigong, Chakra balancing to Shamanism, this podcast will be your guide to understanding how these practices can lead to more harmony and greater energy. Whether you're seeking stress relief, emotional balance or a deeper connection to your authentic self, Chat Off The Mat will provide you with insights and inspiration. Let's start discovering the possibilities that lie within you Today. On Chat Off the Mat.

Rose: 1:35

I welcome Gwen Ferreira, a yoga instructor, turned online course creator, entrepreneur and business coach whose mission is to guide yoga teachers towards profitability and success in the online space. Gwen will share her journey from studio to global impact and how she can help you create exceptional online courses and grow your audience through authentic marketing. Welcome, gwen, hi Rose Hi, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. I know you're very busy creating your courses and you have some coming up, so we're going to dive right in. So I would like to ask you just to tell us about your background and your journey to becoming this business coach that you are. Tell us your why. What inspired you to do this?

Gwen: 2:38

Yeah, so, as you mentioned, I am a business coach for yoga teachers, and so what inspired me was being a yoga teacher, and I'm still teaching yoga classes every week, so I'm still a yoga teacher, and what inspired me is that, to be honest, I really disliked all the other business coaches.

Gwen: 2:59

And so when I when I needed to grow my own business as a yoga teacher, like so I grew a multi six-figure business in person in Bali, in Nusa Lembongan, where I'm based, and another one online, so I also have an online yoga school with, tons of pre-recorded courses, but at our yoga, not business, uh things.

Gwen: 3:21

And so when I was looking at getting help, like, it was never someone that really understood me, as in my yoga business, because I think, like, how we do business as yoga teachers is quite different, because we don't like like icky self strategies and just doing things that don't feel aligned with us, and I think that's normal as yoga teacher, but sometimes it's difficult to find what we want, and so I had a hard time finding someone that was aligned with me, but I still like continued like this, because nothing existed at this time much, and I started offering business advice, tips, marketing stuff when yoga teachers actually asked me because I've been mentoring yoga teachers for eight years and because I train yoga teachers 200 hours and 300 hours like they were asking me, how do I find a job or how do I create an online school, like have Like, wow, oh my God, you have like hundreds of people in your online yoga school.

Gwen: 4:29

How did you do that? And so I just started by sharing how I did it and that's kind of like how it started and my why, as you mentioned, is authentic marketing for yoga teachers and things. That feels right.

Rose: 4:45

Yeah that's great. You weren't always a yoga teacher, though. You had another career. I'm assuming, like many of us, that are yoga teachers, right? So how long have you been mentoring and coaching yoga teachers, or how long have you had your own online courses? Did you say about around eight years or so?

Gwen: 5:10

Yeah, around eight years.

Rose: 5:12

So it's almost as if it actually is like you're a pioneer, because a lot of yoga teachers started pivoting to online after COVID because things started to change. You started pivoting to online after COVID because things started to change and you saw a lot more of that that you know. The landscape of yoga courses and yoga teaching changed, but you've been doing it for quite some time already but I did the same for online.

Gwen: 5:35

So I started, I was mentoring yoga teachers, but how to build a business like in person, online, like it didn't really matter. But to me, I started my online yoga school, the same as everyone, 2020, and that's exactly why now I'm so passionate about helping you guys just doing it, because I think for so many, we really realize that when we were sick or when something happened, like for me I live on a very tiny tourist island if there is zero tourists coming, we make zero income, and so that's really like I think it made a lot of people realize that we actually were not building sustainable careers, sustainable business, and and that's not so much about just like COVID. I think it's more about being independent um, as a yoga teacher, you know, and and just being able to not rely on something that is on the outside, like will this yoga studio give me again classes next month, or if I'm sick, or if my kids are sick, or you know like being independent and just on our own person, making our own business, our own offers and our own money.

Rose: 6:56

Yeah, that's. That's inspiring, and I know from personal experience, even because of COVID, the studios that I was teaching at shut down. So there goes that After building a group or a community of students who would come regularly, then that would shut down. So you have to almost start over and you really don't get paid a lot of money as a yoga instructor and there are a lot of yoga instructors out there as well. So I'm not saying it's competitive, I'm just saying that there's a lot. But yeah, to your point, it's really stressful trying to find someone to take your place, and we wanna be entrepreneurs as well, right and independent. What are the benefits of having? I know you mentioned some about being sustainable. What are some of the other benefits of having an online course now you know or courses?

Gwen: 7:48

Yeah, I think the main thing for me that I see is consistent income. Well, with what we talked before, you know, it's just like there are so many things that we can do in person as a yoga teacher, but it's true that it's difficult to know exactly how much money you're going to make every month, because and because, not like a nine to five, where maybe you paid a set amount every month it's not going to happen for most yoga teachers, and so I will say, like, the main benefit is to have consistent income because, especially now, like it's very, it's very simple, I think, once you, once you have a clear messaging with your online business, to make consistent sales every month. And another benefit is also to offer more to your students, because a lot of yoga teachers say, oh, yeah, but my students, they don't want to be online. And yeah, because if you're offering yoga classes, why would they go online? They can go to your class in person, like, of course, they don't want that. You know they want your energy, they want to see you because that's what they're used to. So, if you don't want to build an online business that reach new people and you just want to still help your students that are in person. You can offer them like a specialty course, like something that they can't have access to in person. So it needs to kind of be different. So I think that's a good benefit.

Gwen: 9:18

Also, for example, for me, if I take my things is like when I was teaching in person, person here I don't have prenatal and postnatal classes, but I do have a prenatal and postnatal yoga course and so the women that were coming to class here if they wanted to have support after they left and they wanted to still practice with me in a prenatal, postnatal setup, then they will take the course and, like this, they will have my classes and and more explanation on how to manage their pregnancy. So you can have like different, different level of courses. Another benefit can be, I think, international, international visibility, because we all, even if you don't live, maybe, on a seven kilometer square island like mine, we all live like in a small place, you know, and the next city, the next town, people, they don't know you. So having online offerings make you like it's so much easier because if one day you decide to move like, you will have something that people can recognize as you are an expert, like you're, not a new yoga teacher. You're doing this, this and that.

Rose: 10:36

Yeah, that's that's interesting. When you said that about moving, you know all I you don't, you're not impacting your students because you're moving and they're just there virtually and and that's a great way to be. Yeah, that's, that's that's interesting, that's that's a great way of looking at it. Yeah, making that global impact and not staying in a small space. But, you know, expanding outside of where you are, that's great, great. I know there's a, there's a big time commitment, you know, to creating online courses. I, I, I want to mention that I look at all your courses. You have like a treasure chest of courses out there. It's amazing and I all I can think about is, wow, like where do you find the time to do that? So, yeah, so it's a lot of time commitment, right.

Gwen: 11:27

Yeah, I don't feel like it, you know, I think it just depends really on what you're creating. So, first of all, like, for me, the way I teach yoga teachers to sell and create courses is to not create the course before you sell it. And so that's very important because, if not, like, a lot of yoga teachers end up create like spending six months creating a course, and then they're like I'm not very good at marketing, so they put one post, they do one email, maybe no one even buy, just because of something you know silly, like messaging or, and they just spend like six months and feel like, and it can feel so frustrating, like I see it so many times, and so I teach the other way. Like you sell your course, you you say to your, to your clients you know that the course is only going to be available when, like when you will do it, and this really helps you to avoid procrastination because you are going to do it, really help you to avoid procrastination because you are going to do it.

Gwen: 12:29

And if you don't have the time to record a course that is 60 videos long, then you don't make your course 60 videos long. You know, like people, they don't want more. They don't want to have to watch hundreds of videos to be able to solve their problem. So if you wanted to teach someone let's say we're talking about prenatal like like a new mom to recover pelvic floor strength. She doesn't have like two hours a day, you know, to recover her pelvic floor strength, so you don't have yeah, so you don't have to make your videos like two hours.

Gwen: 13:02

You know, so to me, like I have a lot of courses because, like, for example, now I'm recording a course that is called Passive Income Academy, so I've sold it and it's still like on pre-sale at the moment until I finish recording it and I'm actually creating the slides, you know at the moment, and then I usually create the slide of one module in the week and then I record one module and then I put it out and it's not. There are four modules, I think four or five modules. So it's going to take me four or five weeks it's not the only thing I do in my week. Like it's not going to take me five hours a day to create slides.

Gwen: 13:42

You, right right so that's why it's so important also to create courses that are like, really in your zone of genius. Like for me, I don't have to do research to create the content of my courses. It's just stuff that I already do, I already know. So it's that's why, like it's really, your offerings are an extension of your current knowledge, your current belief, your current practices. It's not something you have to invent research.

Rose: 14:13

It doesn't have to be overwhelming, just like you said. It doesn't have to be 60 hours, and that's important, important message to to people who are considering that, because it could be a very small uh course and a way for them to wet their feet, so to speak, uh and and make it more manageable. Right? Yes, yeah, um, yeah. So so what do you see as some of the obstacles, or maybe not obstacles? What are the reasons that people don't start something like this, don't put an online course? What are some of the things that your students have told you, like is it because they're afraid that it's going to fail, or is it time or money? What is it that is preventing them?

Gwen: 15:05

Yeah, a bit of all of this. To be honest, I think, like there are some people it will depends, like, on your personality mainly, like of the, the person. Sometimes they think they are not going to be able to do it because they so they feel themselves like, um, they don't have the time, or they don't have the knowledge, or they don't have X, y, z, and so this is really about like limiting belief and making the decision that I don't have the time. Who told you how many hours it is to do it? No one told you yet. So you don't even know if you have the time or not, because you don't even know how long it takes.

Gwen: 15:48

Maybe you have ideas in your mind, because you don't even know how long it takes. Maybe you have ideas in your mind, but no one told you it's going to take you this number of hours to do it, so you have no idea. You just probably feel like I have so much on my plate right now I can't add more. And who can add more? You know everyone is like up above their head, being like I can't work more. I can't work more, and it's why it's such a question of priority, because between, like social media, netflix, like all of this stuff. I'm sure I can look at anyone's schedule and find like two, three hours a week, you know or a day.

Gwen: 16:28

Yeah, all day that they're spending I agree.

Gwen: 16:33

So it's really more like a way of being, like, am I ready or am I not ready? Do I want this? Because, for me, I don't move into a place of convincing, like I'm not here to convince yoga teachers like, oh, online is so good, like, go for it, or yes, you have the time, like the person needs to be, this is what I want. I'm going to find the time. You know, I'm this type of person that when I put something in my mind, I make it happen.

Rose: 17:03

yeah, and and that's a choice, true, and like you said, it's it's a question of priorities. Well, can I tell you what prevents me? Like I put a little course on online, but it's perfection, my desire, or my like I want everything to be perfect and it's never good enough. It's never good enough. So then I think, well, it's just, you know, the room is not good enough, the light is not good enough, this, the content. So that is preventing me, that is one of my blocks and I'm sure there are other people out there too that may say I'm not good enough.

Rose: 17:48

There's a, there's a term for that, like an imposter syndrome type term term.

Gwen: 17:50

Right, yeah, and imposter syndrome is like will your battles who not believing that your skills are enough to give the results to people? Like, a lot of the time, and also like for videos or like, if you look at my content, actually you don't see me moving that much. You know, being like on on actual camera maybe once a week when I do a live, you know, but I don't think you have to show your space all the time and people sometimes get a bit biased with that because, let's say, I live on a tropical Island, so for sure I'm going to show you around, you know, because why not? But you don't have to.

Gwen: 18:30

And I think, like there's so many ways to actually make your content perfect, like, and that's why, for me, when I work with my clients, like they feel their content is perfect because the words that they are saying is perfect, what they are writing is perfect, it's not so much about what is the background, because if you do a carousel you have zero background, so it's about really making it happen now. And it doesn't have to be like, you know, because sometimes we say, oh, yeah, just like, post it. You know, just do the post yeah, but at the same time, if it looks shitty, it looks shitty, you know so. So it's also so good. I think, like for me, what helped me was to have someone actually looking at my content, like having my mentor, like when I was building up my content. You know, being like this is perfect, change this word, make it like this yeah, this is so good, you know.

Gwen: 19:27

Or like this is not good yeah so if you are just like alone and you have no idea how to do it, you will still have no idea how to do it you need a coach honestly, and I'm not saying like you know, it has to be me, it has to be someone that you feel like this person can help me, so much like, and I'm ready to move. Yeah, and alone, it is so hard it's so hard.

Rose: 19:56

It is hard because there's a lot of moving parts and you know it's it's. It's also a once you create a system and understand the system, the methodology. So in your courses, um, you have a methodology, you have a system in place and once you understand the system and you follow that system, that is a road to success or that map to success. Because if you're doing this alone, you're, you don't understand all of the parts yet because you haven't done it like you have and that where you get value.

Gwen: 20:31

Yeah, and also like you start if you don't have one mentor, and I think that's the thing also. If you start listening to everyone, everyone at one point is going to give you like a piece of their own strategy, but it's not like they don't use all the same strategy. It's not like there is one strategy that is going to blow up your business, you know. If not like there is one strategy that is going to blow up your business, you know, if not like everyone would have a blown up business, but it's. It's having just one person, and I think that's really what is important is just to like stop listening to like 20 coach or 20 business coaches or marketing or guru whatever, and just having one person giving you input and just like follow through this one strategy from this one person yeah, that's good.

Rose: 21:22

That's actually good advice, because there are so many coaches and marketers and and and. It can be overwhelming and it can prevent someone from even moving forward doing anything. And also, you know it's possible that a person who puts a course out there may not be. You know they may be successful, but it may not sell a million dollars the first time out. And don't get discouraged, right, Because you just put it out there and somebody will find it and you just keep trying. It's consistency and having the right message. So you mentioned messaging before. Can you tell us a little bit of what you mean by messaging? Is it the same as marketing or is there a difference?

Gwen: 22:17

No. So messaging is kind of like so you have your, your business and whatever you're doing, like you should have, um, a brand messaging. So, for example, um, let's say, for me, my business is about helping yoga teachers create online offers and make over 50k per year. Let's say this is my brand message. Not, I can't say it was one offer, this is what you do, yeah, so, because there are many components on on on doing this, and so each of your offer needs to have a different messaging. So messaging is what you will use in your marketing. It's the words, yeah, the message, and that's why you need, like, each offer to have a very clear message. So people know like, oh, am I at this, is this for me or is this not for me? Which just like one sentence.

Rose: 23:10

Yeah, and how important is having a niche you hear a lot about. You have to know who your niche is and they even ask you know even for me as a podcaster who's your niche? You know, and how important is that when you're creating a course, do you have to have if you're a yoga teacher and you are creating courses online or want to, do you have to have one niche or can you have multiple niches and create courses for them?

Gwen: 23:36

I kind of hate this word niche sometimes I also need to use it. Honestly, I think we're all traumatized by it (laughing). Something I like to use is 'Transformation'. I think, like your offers, they need to follow and give a specific transformation and when I was talking about messaging, you know you need to have that your business give one big transformation from A to B and each of the offers that you have are going to be a step onto this A to B. So one offer for the first step, one offer for the second step, one offer for the other step. So for me it's not seeing so much like different niches, it's more seeing different step on the journey of having the same student.

Gwen: 24:29

So if I was talking about the prenatal lady, let's say like before I could take the example that then at the beginning of her journey, maybe she just learned that she's pregnant, she doesn't know what movement she can do. Someone told her yoga is good, you know, during pregnancy, and she's like, okay, I'm just going to do yoga with this specialist that knows how to do yoga during prenatal and she does this and that's kind of like your first step on the journey. And then maybe you have other offers that are online courses to help with childbirth preparation, maybe the breath, breath work, maybe specific relaxation, maybe strengthening her pelvic floor and her core, uh, before, after birth, postpartum stuff, like, and so you could have all of these courses there, which are one step and then you can have, like, maybe the last step is, um, maybe a membership where she has access to a community of new mothers like her and she can continue to practice, because now you have yoga classes that are there and that are for, let's say, all levels, especially women that have already given birth. So you see, like now, from my overarching transformation, from this pregnant woman that doesn't really know how to move while being pregnant and at the end she's a new mom, she's super confident in her body, she has herself yoga practice, she has this community of amazing women.

Gwen: 25:59

I cannot sell the same thing, like the membership. Let's say that was at the end. I cannot sell that straight away to her.

Rose: 26:06

So it's kind of like a journey, it's yes, like a progression, right, like you said, a journey. I like the word journey. Yeah, that was a great example, a perfect example, and that doesn't have to be, you know, your only niche. You can work with people who are pregnant and prenatal, and then you have other groups that filter into this larger community that you may have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that Just one thing.

Gwen: 26:33

One thing of that is that, personally, if I was building a business around Prenatal and kind of like those offers, I'm not going to say, okay, I'm launching a new course, this is a handstand course for bodybuilder, right, yeah, yeah, it's bodybuilder.

Rose: 26:51

Right, yeah, yeah, it's almost the opposite.

Gwen: 26:54

Yeah. So we kind of like still want to say like stay on the same target audience, like the same group of people.

Rose: 27:02

Yeah, right, yeah, yes, how important is it for oh, this is important, Technology there's all kinds of things we can Zoom, we can have fancy cameras, we can have special lighting. You know this goes back to I guess everything has to be perfect for me, but how important is having like the right technology and investing like a whole lot of money into something at the beginning, before you're even making a lot of money not?

Gwen: 27:37

important. So, for I recorded all of my online courses with this, with your iphone. Yeah, like the yoga courses Now, because it's more like talking stuff, like the business, I record them like this, you know, with my computer. But, like for yoga, I didn't have a ring light at the beginning, like that was not a thing, I just used natural lights because, also, I have natural light here. But I mean, like now with the phone technology, like like the camera, you're not going to like have your course in a cinema on like a 10 meter wide screen, you know. So it's fine, like with your phone, it's, it's going to be fine if you have a good lighting and, like now, you can buy a ring light for 10 bucks.

Gwen: 28:31

You don't need to have a website. This is really the first thing that I would say to all the yoga teachers please don't spend any time working on a website, especially if you're not making a bunch of money yet. Like this is such a waste of time and of money, because, well, well, if you're not making money, it means that your messaging, the marketing, is not clear and the messaging that you use in your marketing is not. That's why you're not making really good money, and so what you're going to put the words on your website is not going to convert people neither, because you haven't mastered that yet. So you have to first master how to sell your offers even without your website, because the website is not something that's out. So no website, no fancy camera. Um, what else?

Gwen: 29:26

you can buy, like if you are recording like um videos like that are with yoga classes, like you can have maybe a Rode, you know, like that you can just like click, plug here. Um, now there's so many like one that costs like less than 100 bucks, and and then you have it for years. Like for me, what I have used years ago. I still have exactly the same oh wow.

Rose: 29:58

Yeah, I've seen people use earbuds. I mean, you know, as long as you can hear there's some sound. It doesn't have to be, like I said, fancy equipment, because it can be very. It can be an expensive investment, so what? What is more important is having that right messaging and understanding who your target audience is, so that the content is appropriate for them.

Gwen: 30:18

Yeah, and also, yeah, something to realize is that and I'm not saying that that's why it needs to be low quality, your course, but people are not buying, your course, because of how the video is inside. They have no idea. They have no idea. How does it look inside?

Rose: 30:59

True, that's selling, You're selling. You know, the yoga teacher. Do people have you come across the feeling that some people feel like, oh, it's too late, there's just way too many people online? You know there's a lot of free stuff out there. You know, I've heard people say that. Do you get that? Do you hear that from people?

Gwen: 31:26

Not really, but I, I get it. You know um, it's not too, late it's, it's not too late, it's not never. It's definitely not too late is, um, I think, like the prediction that they they did put on the yoga community and how much they practice online is so gigantic that you can be a few, uh, more hundred thousands of yoga teachers going online in the next six months.

Rose: 31:57

It would still be fine, yeah, and there's a lot of people who are practicing yoga, so we need more, more teachers and in different voices and yeah yeah, and over 65 percent of people who practice yoga practice online.

Gwen: 32:11

So it's uh, it's a lot, you know oh, that's a.

Rose: 32:14

That's a good statistic to know. I wasn't aware of that. Well, I I realize that there's a lot more now than ever before. I want to ask you about your opinion about social media, and what platforms do you see as having the most impact for someone? Because there's a lot of social media. I'm not a fan of TikTok. I don't dance around and post. I don't think you are either, right.

Gwen: 32:38

No, I've heard you say that I am not, and so the first thing to know is that you do not have to be on social media to have an online yoga business. Yeah, so social media for me, like you have to see things as amazing, you know. Like if you want to be somewhere, you have to be. Like, oh, this is so amazing, it is a free tool. Like, for me, I found like platform like, let's say, instagram it's amazing, it's free. Like it's free, you can put something and people see it and maybe they resonate with your message and they buy your offers. Like, how amazing is this? Like it's it's free. So, for me, I found that it is amazing to have platform like this.

Gwen: 33:30

I, because I I lead mainly with authentic marketing. Right, I am a very authentic person, authentic person, and so I don't pretend to be anything else that I am anywhere. So, no, I don't really dance on social media because it's just not my vibe. You know the same, that I will not be crying and then record myself while I cry to then put it on social media. You know, because it's just not my vibe, you know, and for some other people it is, and I completely respect a hundred percent of whatever people are doing. You know, because it is this like you can be you, and that's the most authentic thing you can do for your business is to actually show up as you, and this is what is so difficult for many yoga teachers is to actually be like. That's me. I am going to show up as myself, because once you show up as yourself, you might start to think what if they don't like me? Yeah, and not everyone is going to like you Do you like everyone that you meet? Most probably not, you know, and it's fine, it's fine and I think, um, so, yeah, the first thing is that you don't have to be on social media.

Gwen: 34:53

If you don't want to, you could have a podcast, a blog, like you don't even have to show your face. You know, you don't even have to show your face. If you have a podcast, no one will see you. You can have different ways of promoting your podcast without social media. Some people choose blogs. Some people are more into newsletters, so they will have more ways to draft traffic into their newsletter.

Gwen: 35:17

If you are on social media, you don't have to post five times a week if it is not your main channel of communication. There's so many different ways of using social media. If you're more into Facebook, like for me, I have a Facebook group and that's the first social media platform I went with because I wasn't like an Instagram fan you know so much at this time and I did find content very overwhelming. So Facebook building a Facebook group for me was so easy, like because it's a small group Well, small, it just depends at the beginning at least it was and you can do poll and you don't have to like share so much video content. You know you can just like ask question. It's more like building a community than on social media like Instagram or TikTok. It's more video content or content that has a visual part and you don't know who you're.

Rose: 36:18

You, you don't really know who your audience is because you, you really can't communicate like you would in a Facebook group like you said it's more of a community where Instagram is not. But you're just, you know, posting and hoping somebody sees it at some point but that's why that's the word.

Gwen: 36:37

You know, like hoping for me, personally, I don't hope like people will see it, because I don't put all my eggs in one basket, like for me. It's not going to change that. If you look at my icon, I probably have like 10 20 likes per post, you know, and I make very good money, so it has absolutely nothing to do how many likes comments you have, but you need then to have other platforms like a podcast or a blog or like something else. Then, if you don't want to just be like, oh, I need to be visible on social media, how do I have more likes? And this is to me that's so too stressful. That's putting too much stress on yourself.

Rose: 37:20

It is stressful and I'm glad you said that I have to rethink my approach to marketing my podcast, because it is it does get very it's a lot of work. You're like, oh my God, I missed the post today, I didn't post yesterday. Or today's post is very similar to yesterday. It's like, oh my gosh, yes, this is what I wake up in the middle of the night thinking You're talking about newsletters and blogs, but you need to build that email list right? So in order to have the people to send those to, or people to market to, you have to build and have an email list. I know you have something for you offer about generating lead magnets for offerings. Generating lead magnets for offerings is that a a nice approach or a good, good advice for people who want to build?

Gwen: 38:09

an email list. Yeah, definitely like having a lead magnet, or like a freebie, a free resource, is something that is super good to do. Uh, to then build the email list and then you just want to regularly talk to them and be very clear on how this is going to look, like Like, is it something they would receive every week or every month, and put it also so for you it's not too much. And I think, like when we start talking about having different platforms, it might feel like, oh my gosh, like this is so much, I already have so much to do. Or even when you were talking about like, oh, my content, what am I going to post? Is this the same?

Gwen: 38:48

Or this is often when we're not clear in our content strategy and then, because you don't have a clear document with all of your messaging, every time you post you have to reinvent the words that you're going to talk about. That, for me, it takes me not like a few minutes to create a content for the day, because it's the same message you know, like the message that is behind, like what you're doing, it's the same. So it doesn't take you a lot of the time because you also have all of these words somewhere in a document, so you don't have to reinvent all the time how to say the same thing differently.

Rose: 39:29

Right, that's true. You have clarity and you have your clear message. So you know what you want to say, right, yes, wow, yeah. And for those people that don't know what a lead magnet is, gwen clarified that it's a freebie or something that you give away to people who to entice them to sign up for your newsletter, so that you have that audience to market to.

Gwen: 40:00

And just on that, rose, a good freebie is not a free yoga class, just so for the yoga teachers that we are, Because often we're like, yeah, okay, here's a free yoga class, but no, we want to give them something that we don't give them when they pay us. It's like if I was doing awful. My freebie is a free coaching session, that's no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rose: 40:24

Well, that's time consuming to a free coaching session, because then if you everybody wants a free coaching session, you, you, you won't have any time. But, yeah, but something valuable, something that you think you feel that they, your target audience, can find valuable, right, yeah, a target audience can find valuable, right, yeah? Um, I know you did an episode on this on one of your podcasts, but I I want to ask you what your predictions are. Um, what predictions do you have or what do you see as potential changes or shifts in teaching or even social media environment that can influence the way teachers market themselves or just the teaching environment?

Gwen: 41:08

Yeah, I think at the well now, like it's, it's really important to learn how to, how to have a clear messaging and how to market your offerings more than ever because, honestly, even studios they tend to start really struggling themselves on filling up their classes, like most of the studios everywhere, and so if you're not doing it and learning how to market your own offerings, what is going to happen is that you're going to always be very dependent on on the studios, and if they decide to not give you any more classes, or maybe they hire another teacher, you have less class, or something is going to impact you so much, and this impact is going to create more stress and more financial insecurity, most probably. So what is important is wait, not wait, that ou actually need the income from the online offerings to start creating that, you know, and the best moment to create your online business is when, financially, you don't need the result today, because if you need the result today, you're going to put so much pressure on yourself and you're going to be like every week I didn't make a sale. I didn't make a sale, oh my God. You're going to have no fun in it, and I can tell you that it's a lot about energetic and if you show up like you need everyone to sign up to your thing, they're most probably not going to sign up.

Gwen: 42:48

So it's important to be in like a place where you feel like you, abundant with your own energy, and when you are giving even if, of course, there is a monetary exchange, you know it is from a place of service. It's because, not because you need to make the money, but because you really want to have those people. Yeah, and that needs to be the force. Driving here is like being of service. Okay, you're going to make some income from it, but your driving force is serving.

Rose: 43:19

Yeah, that intention to want to help people. Yeah exactly, and that's beautiful. Yes, well said, thank you. So tell us about some of your offerings that you have and where we can find you. We're going to start talking more about what you offer.

Gwen: 43:40

A bunch of things. So, yeah, and for me me like really everything that I'm building is exactly this like what do I see yoga teachers needing? And and that's the offers that I, that I create. Um, so my main thing is that you can find me on social media, so on Instagram, at yogacareerwithgwen. I also have a Facebook group and a podcast called Elevate your Yoga Career. So that's the main places where you can find me, and my website is yogacareerwithgwen. com.

Gwen: 44:14

So, very, very simple, and I have different offerings depending on what yoga teachers make, and I have two different offers that are with like support, which is one that is for yoga teachers that don't already have an online offer or even if they have one, they're not making like one to $2,000 a month from it. Then I have a program is called Elevate that is six months with coaching, and then I have another one that is a mastermind, which is called Elevate, that is six months with coaching. And then I have another one that is a mastermind, which is for you get shows that already make one to two thousand per month from their teaching online and want to make five to ten. So it's kind of like my big offers that I have. So either to make one to two thousand, to make five to 10, depending on where you are at. And I have a lot of other self-paced courses that are more as specialties, like depending on things that you might need as a yoga teacher, like how to build a passive income funnel, or a high ticket offer, like more one-one personalized program, personalized program so, or how to build a podcast and and have a podcast as a yoga teacher. So very different offerings, but always to use online to have some income.

Gwen: 45:36

And that's for me, like I don't believe you have to go 100% online or you have to have something in person. It can really depend on what you want to go 100% online or you have to have something in person. It can really depend on what you want to do. Like myself, I have a hybrid business. Like I have a business in person, a business online for yoga and then the coaching business.

Gwen: 45:54

But really what I think is that it's important to start doing something now if you want it in the future, so you don't put pressure now in having results and you can take a bit of time, like um, to build your first offer, because in elevate, for example, people do you get just that join, like after two months. Usually, you uh launch your first offer and, um, they all make a bunch of sales and uh, yeah, it's um, I don't find that the principles and it's. I don't find it complicated. They don't find it complicated. I think it's just about taking the decision for yoga teachers on, like, what do you really want to do? I also have a mini offer that is called the 50K Method and that explains how to build the transformation that I was explaining at the beginning, with having different offers that serve the same person, and how, with this system of building a suite of offers, you can make 50K plus.

Rose: 46:58

Wow, that's great. I will put all the show links, of course, for you so that people find you. And yes, you are truly an inspiration. I'm amazed at all the content that you've put out there, and there is something for everyone. You even have 200 hour yoga teachers. You have yin yoga courses out there that you've done. So, even if you're not looking to, you know, use an online platform for your business. There's courses that you can take from Gwen and just you know, follow the show notes and everything. Is there anything else you wanted to add before we say goodbye?

Gwen: 47:44

No, what could I add? Yeah, if you are a yoga teacher, I think that you want that this is your life, you know. I think it's just it's really about taking the time to think about it. Like do I want to have another job on the side? I just want yoga to be on the side for me. Like, I don't want that. This is my main career, you know, it's fine, Like, give yourself the permission of your life just looking like like whatever you want it to look like, you know. But if you want also that this is your full-time career, that you dedicate your entire day to your own practice and to teaching people yoga, you can like now, there are really solutions to help you do that.

Rose: 48:29

Yeah you could be. You could be an entrepreneur and have the life, the career that you want with yoga yeah well. Thank you so much for your beautiful energy and your wonderful advice, and thank you for being here chatting with us or with me.

Gwen: 48:50

Thanks Rose, thanks for having me.

Rose: 48:58

Thank you for joining me here on Chat Off the Mat. I hope these stories have inspired you. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with those who might benefit. Your support helps me spread awareness about the power of transformative healing. Stay connected with me on social media. Reach out with your own healing stories or topics you'd like me to explore in future episodes. Your voice is an essential part of this community. I hope that your healing journey is filled with self-discovery, curiosity, resilience and the unwavering belief in the power that resides within you. Until next time, I'm Rose Whippage, wishing you a journey filled with love, laughter and endless possibilities.