People everywhere, including yoga students, hate change.  Ever notice how many students come into class and have “their spot”.  And this is an environment where we constantly talk about being “comfortable with ambiguity” and embracing the moment.

This is important to realize because change is truly a way of life—even in your yoga studio.  A successful owner realizes this and works to minimize the effects “change” has on her students.

How?  By Communicating Changes effectively.

Think about the detour sign in this photo.  It’s a simple enough concept—post a bright orange metal sign that prevents drivers from veering into construction of a half completed bridge.  Because of the sign they are able to navigate around the potential obstacle instead of having their car careen off the edge and drop to an unpleasant fiery ending.

What is effective communication?  At its essence it means giving the right message at the right time.  Sometimes it involves sharing the reason behind a decision.  For instance, it’s a good idea to mention when a teacher leaves or stops teaching.  It doesn’t have to be the goodbye that never ends—a simple, “We wish Jewel the best,” will do in many cases.  To not say anything about a teacher’s sudden absence looks like they disappeared in the middle of the night when a black van drove up and took your teacher away.  Hardly the image you want to portray.  People will notice this.  After all, a yoga studio is a community and people notice when part of their community is suddenly missing.

What kinds of things need to be communicated?

Here’s a guide to get you thinking about the kinds of things you want to make sure are known.

New teacher arrival. What a great time to introduce your newest team member to the community.  Recently I was in a studio that actually had 5 or 6 small posters made up introducing their new teacher and posted all around the studio.  What an impact these had on both the teacher and students.

Current teacher departure. While we discussed this earlier, the importance of talking about your teachers is critical.  The “teacher” page of your website is usually in the top 3 pages most visited.  Students want to know about your teachers.

Yoga Workshops and Yoga Teacher Training. Believe it or not, it is quite common for yoga studio owners to spend a lot of time and effort developing a workshop, special class or even a teacher training and then not tell anyone about it.  (Maybe it’s not so unbelievable as owners often forget to tell their communities their new yoga studio is open.)

Schedule Changes. Mind Body Online software is amazing for several reasons, but one of the most important is it gives you the opportunity to keep your schedule updated in real time.  Students often schedule their day, including when they will take class, by looking at who is teaching.  They tend to get, shall we say “miffed” when they arrive and someone else is there instead.

New Classes. It takes some time for a new class to grow, but you can give it a head start by letting everyone know that it’s going to be coming soon.

Maintenance/Construction. If your bathroom is being renovated or repaired, put up a sign thanking students for their patience and explaining when the work is expected to be completed.  Airports and malls are great at this kind of sign.  Albuquerque’s Airport actually invented 2 cartoon characters to guide travelers through the construction process as it was being expanded several years ago.

New Student Information. This is the list of questions your front desk person (often yourself) answers many times a day.  It includes:

• What to bring to yoga class
• Where to park
• Where the bathroom is
• When to arrive
• Where to put your mat
• Where to put your personal belongings
• Is there a shower

If you get the same questions over and over, why not post the answers on your website and create a “quick reference guide” for your front desk.

When and how to communicate something deserves consideration too.  Do you send an e-mail blast, create a flyer, send it out in your yoga studio newsletter or put it up on the studio bulletin/community/message board.  Maybe all.

And when do you do this.  The rule of thumb is when events require larger investments then they require a longer lead-time.  (Think several months for a teacher training costing $2500+.)  However, even when you are hosting a free event, you should spend at least a couple of weeks sharing it otherwise it is likely no one will show up.  (It’s only free monetarily—it still requires an investment of time.)

This basic list will get you started thinking about what, how and when to communicate changes at your yoga studio.  The most important thing to remember is to make your students comfortable.  Giving them relevant information empowers them and gives them that sense of comfort.

As the owner, what would happen to your yoga studio, if you were not there for a month?

One of my clients, “Lisa”, decided to take off 2 months this year to travel to India.  She’s also gone to Mexico, a couple of yoga conferences and taken other vacation time totaling over 3 months away from the studio in the last 365 days.

She’s in her third year of business, and has always been able to take time off, even in the first year.  Know what happens to her studio when she is gone?

It grows!

Classes and revenues grow because new students continue to come in.  The administrative staff continues to make business and operations decisions, bills get paid, new hires are made—in other words, it is business as usual.  And that is because we designed her yoga business that way.

What’s the secret to having a yoga studio that serves students and still serves your life?  Is Lisa merely lucky, gifted, well-connected, well funded, or blessed by the gods themselves?  Not really.  Can you learn to do this too?  Absolutely.

How to take more time off, live an amazing life and still have your yoga studio grow and be incredibly successful.

Here are 6 Guidelines.

1.  Set Your Goal

From the very start Lisa knew she wanted to travel and “have a life” and not be tied to her yoga studio 24/7.  However, she didn’t want the studio to miss a beat so that is included in her goals.  You can say her plan involved not being there.

Though Lisa was not clear on how to articulate it, she had a vision of what her studio was going to offer her students.  One of the things I helped her with, as her yoga business coach, was to refine and clarify her vision.  This became the brand for the studio and guided every decision from how to market her yoga studio to the creation and look of her website and yes, the yoga classes that are taught.

2.  Develop Your Teachers

Instead of relying on her classes—Lisa is a phenomenal teacher—to bring students in, she continually develops and cultivates an amazing teaching team.

She is very clear on what she wants her teachers to give.  When in town she takes classes like crazy from every one of her teachers and she provides detailed feedback.  This is written down and kept in a folder to remind her of what each teacher is working on individually.

The conversation is a dialogue with her checking in with her staff to see what their goals are and what they want to do with their teaching and life.  She supports the bigger ambitions of each of her team members.

3.  Grow Your Own Teachers

When Lisa started her studio, she brought together a team of teachers that were already teaching at other studios.  Each had their own way of doing things.  Because she had a clear vision, though, she was able to express what she wanted the studio’s classes to deliver and made sure everyone was on the same page.

Eventually she knew she’d have to teach brand new teachers to feed the growth of the studio.  Thus she created a yoga teacher-training program.

4.  Give Feedback

Time after time there is no more powerful way to grow than to get feedback.  This is true in all fields and is the mark of someone who is a “continuous learner”.

Lisa’s role as a yoga studio owner is to develop her team.  When she’s in town she takes classes like crazy from every teacher.  It’s a personal commitment she has made to her team, to help them grow.  And to do that, she provides feedback that is clear, specific and helpful.

This sounds easier to do than it is because most people have not received true feedback—they have received “criticism” or “gushing”.  “You suck”.  “I love your class”.  Neither is particularly helpful.

Feedback is a learned skill—the ability to communication in a truthful, yet compassionate manner.

5.  Nurture New Yoga Teachers

New teachers are a special case because they have no previous experience.  When new talent comes on, Lisa gives special attention to them, knowing this time can determine what path they follow as a teacher.

In year two, her teaching team was over 16 people for two studios.  She decided to partner with her senior teachers to help develop and nurture the other members of the team.  She gave them specific guidance and criteria to make sure everyone continued to deliver on the high standards of the studio.

6.  ACT!  Do Something—anything.

Is Lisa perfect, no, and in fact she’ll be the first to admit she makes a lot of mistakes—some more expensive than others.  But, she is completely unafraid to act—to move forward right or wrong.  She will try anything, keep things that work and discard what doesn’t.

She works extremely hard—work focused on developing her people and taking a bigger and longer view of things.  Bigger means she looks at the studio as a whole instead of a mere collection of classes or individual teachers.  Longer means she plants seeds now for the future.

She operates from a yearlong calendar with every workshop, teacher-training and other special event planned, along with her time off.  Finally, she’s fearless in seeking the advice of people who can help her.

These 6 guidelines are where yoga studios, the successful and the not-so-much, take different paths.  It is not an all-inclusive list because, while these ideas are simple to understand, they are not easy to implement.  It does, though, demonstrate what a big difference your focus can make.

I asked Lisa, recently, how she feels about spending so much time developing teachers and she said, “Initially it was a hit to the ego because I had to let go of being the energy behind the studio.  But then, I got really clear on what I’ve doing here—sharing yoga with as many people as possible to change lives—and I know that I’m doing the right thing.”

And she’s got the success to prove it.

A recent article in the NY Times, “A Yoga Manifesto”, starts off, “ZEN is expensive”.  It then goes on to list the price of Lululemon pants and a monthly membership at Pure Yoga in New York.

But is yoga expensive and should it be free?

Compared to What?

How do you know yoga is expensive unless we have some sort of basis of comparison?  What can yoga be compared to?

Other gyms

Equinox Fitness in New York costs $140 for a monthly membership.  An adult membership to the YMCA in NY costs $93.  (New York was chosen because that’s where Pure Yoga is located.)

Equipment

The cost of a premium yoga mat, such as Jade Yoga’s, costs less than $100.  However you can get a yoga mat at Target for about $20.  (Though that’s kind of like comparing a Porsche to a Pinto—but both will get you where you’re going.)

Nike running shoes will set you back $80-$120 depending on the model, and you’ll need at least a pair or two a year depending on how much mileage you’re running.

Other Fitness Activities

A road bike is a couple of grand, plus the breakfast burritos after the long rides.  That makes a yoga mat seem cheap by comparison.

Getting Comfy on the Couch

$125 would be a bargain for one hour of psychotherapy in New York.  (And the National Institute of Mental Health characterizes a short-term regime as “10 to 20 weeks”.  That’s almost $3000 you can use to go on a yoga retreat.  Or you can go to a psychologist who has a tanning bed couch.

Does Yoga Need to Cost Anything?

Of course not.  You can always practice naked at home on your carpet using poses you find on the internet.  But how much fun is that?  People are drawn to yoga studios for more than just the ZEN state.  They come because they are part of the community.  As anyone who’s been a crowded Sunday yoga class in San Francisco (or any other city for that matter) has witnessed, the pre-class vibe is filled with chatter, laughter, hugs and connection.

People also come for the energy.  From my own experience I’ll tell you my home practice is completely different from the one in the studio.  Many times I’ve been at the edge in a pose and hearing the person next to me breathe carried me through.  It’s as if to say, “We are all one.  We’re in this together.”

Costs and Benefits of Yoga

Another way to look at this is what do you get for your monthly-unlimited membership?

As yogis we seek ecstasy, Samadhi.  We feel self-acceptance and ultimately love.  And that love for ourselves becomes an offering of love to others and can change the world.  Liberated, we are prepared to “do our work”, whatever our unique work is.

How do you put a price on that?

In yoga classes everywhere you’ll find real estate developers, professional athletes, creative types, and a cadre of business owners who have literally shaped the landscape—both literally and social/politically.  These people are making a difference in the lives of millions of people.  For the low, low cost of $125 a month.

This doesn’t even begin to address the costs associated with not doing yoga:

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics tells us that 10 years ago it cost $1800 a month to house one prisoner.

The costs of stress on the economy are over $300 Billion annually according to the “American Institute of Stress”.

Health costs, academic costs, incarceration costs, family costs…yoga has a profound effect on our health, well-being and self-esteem and can dramatically lower all of these costs.  World Peace is also a bonus.

Taking it from the micro to the macro and back, let’s say yoga is a positive thing overall.  The question then becomes, “How much should yoga cost?”  Just like any price question, it helps to know what it costs to provide the service.  In part 2 we’ll discuss some of the costs with being a yoga teacher and the costs of running a yoga studio.

Time after time I run into yoga studio owners who are struggling to fill their classes.  The conversation usually goes like this:

Kate:  Jill, how’s business going for you?

Jill:  To tell you the truth, not as great as I thought it would.

Kate:  Really?  That surprises me.  You have a fabulous location, and I know you’re a great teacher.  What’s going on?

Jill:  I have no idea.  I feel like I’m always at the studio.

Kate:  Well, do you mind if I ask what you’re doing for marketing?

Jill:  Marketing?

Kate:  Yes.  How are you connecting with your students?

Jill:  Oh marketing.  We have a facebook page and we’re putting up flyers around town.  You know that hasn’t been a focus of mine lately because I feel like everyone knows we’re here.  They’re just not coming.  I don’t see the point in spending money trying to do more because I think most people find out about us through their friends.

At this point the conversation tends to feel like the song “There’s a Hole in the Bucket,” as it goes round and round—with the hole never being filled.

The cycle is:

• No students
• No marketing
• No students

Many people who specialize in marketing, such as myself, will tell you you’re not in the yoga business, you’re in the business of marketing yoga.

This is because without marketing you don’t have students or a yoga business—you have four empty walls.  It is the students that come and the energy created within that make it special.

We’ve all been to a yoga studio that was on the dingy, old or even scary side but had a class vibe that was incredible.  And we’ve been to studios that are beautiful but feel hollow.  The difference is energy, which is created by having students (and amazing teachers).

Marketing connects you to your students because at it’s heart marketing means connection.

There are an unlimited number of ways you can market your yoga studio.  The challenge for most owners is figuring how to do it in a manner that is:

• Cost Efficient
• Effective
• Authentic

FREE is Not Always Better

Cost efficient doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest.  There are lots of “cheap” or even “free” ways that can actually work against you and aren’t worth the time it takes to do them.  (Homemade websites come to mind.)  However, expensive marketing, such as TV commercials or print advertising in newspapers, are not necessarily more effective.

Weigh the benefits against the expenses to see if something is worth spending your money on.  For instance, if you spend $10,000 on marketing but it brings you an extra $100,000 in revenue, it’s probably worth it.

Effective marketing works.  It helps you reach your students in the fastest, most reliable way.  It is specifically targeted and tailored for your ideal clients based on criteria you define.  Ineffective marketing takes more of a “throw mud on the wall and see what sticks” strategy.  Effective marketing goes hand in hand with cost efficiency because it’s cheaper to do a few specific actions that draw students into your studio instead of trying to do a lot of tactics—each at a cost to you—that may or may not work.

Being authentic is something we teach and strive for in our yoga.  We do this work to bring self-awareness and self-acceptance.  Shouldn’t your marketing be the same?

Marketing has a bad reputation because it’s not well understood and, when done poorly, can seem self-serving, gimmicky and cold.   And who wants that?

Effective marketing couldn’t be further from that place.  It is warm, full of self-expression and focused on serving your target market.

What can you do to change your marketing habits and fill your classes?

1) Market! The average business, including other area yoga studios are not marketing.  Invest the time, energy, and yes money, into marketing and you will grow.

2) Be clear on where you want to go. Set a clear intention and have written goals.  By asking for what you want it focuses your mind and lets the universe help you out.

3) Learn how to market. Take a class.  Read a book.  If you are time pressed or don’t want to go through the trial and error method, hire a professional, such as a yoga business coach who has the experience and know-how.

4) Create a marketing plan. A plan is the map to get you to your destination.  Without it you’re stumbling in the forest trying a hodgepodge of “marketing techniques” instead of taking actions designed to support and work with one another.

5) Be authentic by being you. Take time to reflect, meditate and figure out what you stand for and how you want to be represented in the world.

6) Market for the rest of your life. Ok, only as long as you have your yoga business.  It is the fuel that feeds the fire.

Potential New Students are people who do not currently practice yoga but are “very” or “extremely interested” to check yoga out.  According to the latest Yoga Journal Market Study there are 18.3 million of them—larger than the current total population practicing.

They are not served by any yoga studio, yet, but are ready to try and have the need and desire.  They can help you grow, which in turn helps you bring the practice to a larger community.  Connecting with them though, requires a different thought process and marketing orientation.

Most yoga studio owners have a great deal of knowledge about yoga.  They have taken numerous yoga teacher trainings.  They have gone on yoga retreats, studied Sanskrit and engaged their bandhas.  In short, they know their yoga stuff.

But your target market does not.  I teach classes and workshops for beginners regularly and always ask why new students chose yoga.  What are they looking for?  The most common answers are:

• Flexibility
• Weight-Loss
• Tone and Strengthen
• Stress Relief, Calm
• Mind Body Connection

Having an initial goal of “flexibility” is a long journey from Mukti or Samadhi.  Your job is to explain the route safely and quickly.

Why is that so important?  Because effective “marketing” involves clearly explaining how your product or service, serves the needs of your target market better or differently than anyone else.

Your studio may be the best thing since the iPhone, but if you cannot state how you are unique you are playing the “me too” game which has no winners.  After all, when everyone else is the same then students will go to the cheapest, most convenient yoga studio.

Be “special” and students will drive across town, or even, half way across the state, to come to you.

It’s not enough to be unique, you have to “clearly explain” your difference and how it benefits your students.  This is critical because you start with a challenge.

All Yoga is the Same to New Students

Hard to believe?  To help, let’s take a peek inside the mind of your potential new student.

[For the sake of simplicity, I’m giving the conversation the Twitter Search treatment by putting all yoga thoughts together.  These thoughts might go on for days, months or years.]

“Hmm, yoga, that sounds interesting.  Doesn’t Jill do yoga?  I’ll have to ask her about that.”  “Wait, doesn’t my gym offer yoga, I think it does.  But there’s a spin class that’s at a better time, maybe I’ll do that instead.”  “If I wanted to do yoga I could check out that studio by my house.  I’ve heard they’re kind of expensive though.  I don’t get it, why pay more to go to a yoga studio instead of just doing it at the gym.”

“Actually I’m glad I didn’t take that yoga class, I don’t feel comfortable in tight fitting clothes.  And besides, everyone has a perfect body in there.  I guess I’ll stay with the elliptical machine but I’ll schedule an appointment with a personal trainer to see about toning a little.”

Some of her thoughts are fleeting and all of them compete for attention with other things—work, family, life.  Being clear and having a consistent message will help you reach her.

How To Connect with New Students with Your Yoga Marketing

Here are ways you can reach out to New Students.

Think like a new student or better yet, survey some.  What’s important to her?  Knowing her priorities will help you hone your message in a way that she can relate to.

Have a consistent message. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, tell her what you offer that no one else does.  And repeat your message in your marketing efforts.

Remove yoga jargon. All industries have special terms and languages.  While they mean something to those within the circle they can distance “outsiders”.  This is not a great approach when bringing an inclusive practice to the masses.  Show your written pieces to people who do not practice to see if they understand what you are talking about.

Change “we language”, which sounds like, “we offer 30 classes a week” or, “we have wonderful and amazing teachers”, to “you language” which tells how a student will benefit.  “You have a wide variety of classes to choose from at a time that is convenient for you.”

Speak directly to your New Student target market.  “As someone new to yoga, you probably have many questions.  That’s common.  To help you figure out answers to your most common questions, simply click on the New Student FAQ section.  Of course, you can always click here to send us an e-mail or call our studio at 415-555-1212 if that is easier for you.”

Address the reasons why your students come initially and then go deeper.  A student may arrive with a goal of losing weight, but she’ll stay because of the way she feels.  Address that feeling.  Tell her what the yoga path leads to—more love, self-acceptance and happiness.

Make your website New Student friendly.  Have a section that says “Start Here” or “New to Yoga” or “Beginning Students Click Here”.  Most people scan websites.  A New Student scans for something that will help her out.

Make it Easy.  Easy to sign-up.  Easy to figure out which class to take.  Easy, easy, easy.  In reality, “Easy” can be very hard to do.  The best figure skaters, artists or musicians in the world make it look easy.  Having an easy to navigate website or simple procedures for greeting students and getting them settled takes effort.

Tell Her Everything She Needs to Know.  Your New Student will be more comfortable and more likely to show up if she knows where to park, what time to arrive, what to bring, where to put her stuff, what direction to face to in the room.  The things you take for granted after years of practice are foreign to her.

Make it Safe.  Offer a class specifically for New Students.  Highlight these classes on your schedule.  Make sure you mention them anytime you are addressing New Students.  That could also be a teacher addressing a class or the person at the front desk answering the phone.  Your New Student wants to know she won’t be the only beginner struggling in a class.

Having the intention of serving New Students will bring awareness to the everyday decisions you make in your yoga business.  It will help you to see and connect with prospective students in an authentic manner.  When that happens, your studio will get a reputation for being New Student friendly and your classes will fill up.

What is this yoga marketing stuff?

Great yoga marketing connects and resonates with your target market while poor marketing ends up in some tragic clearance bin.

In the Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly, educates her newest assistant on where fashion, all fashion, comes from.  It starts with a designer’s idea, catches on with other designers, filters down to department stores and finally trickles down to the “discounters” at the very bottom.  At that level it’s hardly recognizable from the “vision” that created it.  It is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.

When trying to figure out how to market a yoga studio, it’s common to look around and see what others are doing.  Consider it a smart move if you are doing this for “research” purposes.  Visit other yoga studio websites.  Pick up their printed brochures, cards, flyers.  Read the tweets, posts and updates they put out.  Then let it go.

A Race to Sameness

The problem comes when a yoga studio owner will see a great idea and then copy it verbatim.  You don’t have to look far to see an example of this.  If you start to read the yoga websites of a local community they start to all sound the same.  The teacher profiles are similar.  The descriptions of the classes sound familiar.  Even the promotions are often–identical.  And if they are the same to you, they are they same to you target audience.

You are uniquely qualified to be you!

How do you break the cycle and stop the insanity?  That’s the best part.

BE YOU

Embrace your beliefs, your yoga, your personality, your sense of style and flair—all of your amazingness.  Your yoga studio and core offerings will automatically be original and will stand out.  Though this advice is only two words, “be you”, the journey to get there can be long.  Questions, reflections, meditation, and your yoga practice are all immensely helpful.  Many also find the act of journaling to be revealing.

• Why do you teach yoga?
• Why did you open your yoga studio?
• What are your core beliefs about yoga?
• What is that you offer?
• How would you describe your personality?

Go to the source

Once you have tapped into your authentic self you can move on to having your message resonate with your prospective students.  If being you is all about, YOU, then going to the source is all about your students.  They will tell you what they need and want.  They’ll tell you the problems they face, their fears, hopes and triumphs.

Here are a few ideas to begin to understand your students.

• Read articles and blog posts written by members of your target market.
• Take surveys.  Ask people why they come to your studio.
• Follow the discussions on the social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Finding a real need people have and filling it in a genuine manner will make your yoga studio grow immensely.  And don’t be surprised when you are the one who is imitated.

Twitter is one of the heavy hitters of the social media genre, along with Facebook and YouTube.  They are all fantastic ways to keep up with your community and what’s important to you in your life.  Many people post what they are doing through “updates”.  These are slice of life type entries that can range from “going to the store to get a spinach salad” to political rants.

So what does salad have to do with your studio?  At the surface nothing, but look beyond the salad and you’ll find a real person posting a real activity, opinion or update, and that is invaluable.  For instance, what if you were to use twitter’s built-in search tool to enter “yoga”.  I just did this and here are the actual “tweets” that came back:

• “im out in the yard learnin yoga so fun omg”
• “What to do today… Hmmm… Healthy, positive, recreation… Hmm… Yoga DVD”
• “yoga is not only good for the caretaker but also the caregiver”
• “MD’s find Yoga a powerful therapy for pain and fatigue”

These were all in the last few minutes.  Right away you can see people are interested in doing yoga in their yard or from a DVD.  Maybe they are cost conscious or enjoy yoga outdoors.  Yoga for the caregiver suggests a possible yoga workshop you can create.  The last entry gives you a link to a bigger article that more fully details yoga as therapy.

Twitter Can Search Your Local Area

Go to http://search.twitter.com/

Click on the “advanced search” option.  You can then choose to search “yoga” from people within 15 miles of “Orlando”, for instance.  Now you have conversations that are happening in the area you are drawing your students from.

This morning I read a twitter post that said, “Tula named best yoga studio in Toronto.”  It had a link on their website to the article that mentioned them (great credibility builder), and so I followed that too.  The article listed a few great yoga studios and in reading it I found why they were named to this “best of” list.

They are:

• Clean (studio and changing rooms)
• Bright, spacious and airy
• No Funky Smell (sweat)
• Friendly and Welcoming Staff
• Heat and humidity limited to the studio itself

The article also spoke about what a few studios are doing such as mat storage, for a fee, and providing shower gel in the showers for students’ convenience.

All of that came from following twitter posts related to yoga.  Knowing this information helps you see how your studio stacks up.

There is truly a lot of yoga marketing information you can get from Twitter.

• Read what’s important to your students
• Find topics for workshops
• Find and follow people in your local marketing area interested in yoga
• Discover studies and articles that can help you in writing your newsletter

This is just the beginning of the research capability of twitter.

Wanted a Great Target Market

“Because that’s where the money is.” Willie Sutton’s, one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, response to the question, “Why do you rob banks?”

Willie Sutton, by any account, was good at what he did.  He showed a great willingness to adapt to various situations and challenges creatively.  Most of all he had focus and a well-chosen target market.

Choose Your Target Market

Think about it.  As a thief there are lots of options.  You can rob trains like Butch Cassidy and Sundance did.  You can rob graves and tombs as in Indiana Jones.  You can even “cat burglar it” by sneaking into mansions and getting out undetected.  Each has it’s own unique set of problems; trains move, tombs have snakes and sneaking in undetected often means working very late at night.

Banks don’t have any of those issues.  On top of that, you know they have money.

What is Your Target Market?

A target market is simply the group of people you serve.  The key word is “target” because it is very specific.  The idea is more “pinpoint” instead of “broad side of the barn”.

Your Target Market is NOT everyone?

This is the most common answer to the question “Who is your target market?”  Part of the reason for this answer is because yoga is an inclusive practice.  It is meant to serve everyone.  If you are breathing you can do yoga.   From a time and money perspective, this makes marketing your yoga business very difficult.

How do you go about connecting with everyone?  If you are a large corporation you spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing it.  Most of the time, though, if you are a yoga studio owner, your marketing department may be you, and your marketing budget, limited.

Serving everyone serves no one?

Even if you could appeal and connect with everyone, are you equipped to serve so many different groups of people?

• Kids
• Seniors
• People recovering from injuries
• People with disabilities
• Athletes
• Pregnant
• Non-English speaking
• Depressed
• Men
• Women
• Type A
• Overweight
• Teenage girls
• People grieving

You can see how serving so many different needs would be overwhelming for most yoga studios.  Having all of those different people in one yoga class would probably be an unsatisfying experience for everyone involved.

By serving a niche market you also get known for what you do.  People within the group will start to refer others to your studio because they know you serve them.

Why You Need A Target Market?

1. You learn the needs of the particular group you serve
2. You provide solutions especially designed for them
3. You know the unique language of the group
4. You get to be really good at what you do
5. You can find them

How does embracing a target market allow you to be good at what you do?  Each of our different thieves needs specialized equipment to meet the unique challenges their chosen target presents.  For instance, a whip and fedora come in handy when breaking into tombs.

Having a yoga teacher who speaks Spanish fluently will help you offer yoga classes for your non-English speaking Latino population.  Having yoga games and fun things for kids to do in their practice serves them.

By choosing a target market, you also know where to look for people.  All groups read certain websites or magazines, look for answers to similar questions and go to certain events.  This makes it easier and less expensive to connect with the people you are meant to serve.  Instead of having to roll out a national advertising campaign, you can show up to the events, write for the publications or even speak directly to the groups.

Be like our famous robber and identify a target market.  You’ll know where to go, “because that’s where your people are.”

Brewster’s Millions was a 1985 comedy featuring Richard Pryor as “Monty” Brewster, a minor league baseball player named as the sole heir to a $300 million fortune—with one caveat.  To get the money, Brewster had to spend $30 million in 30 days to prove he knew the value of money.  The rules are he cannot:

Tell anyone

Waste money

Give any money away

Destroy anything valuable

Have anything to show at the end of the month

It sounds simple enough, get an entourage, buy a lot of expensive lunches, take limos everywhere, hire bands—but $30 million goes surprising far.  Then he hits upon a monumental idea; he’ll run for mayor of New York City.

If you’ve been around for a political cycle or two you know running for office costs a lot of money—mainly on marketing and advertising.  All of those TV spots, campaign buttons, websites, yard signs, will put a dent in the average millionaire’s wallet.

How Much Money Do You Have To Spend?

People often ask me how to create a fabulous, effective marketing plan for their yoga studio.  My response often draws a puzzled look from them because one of my first questions is, “How much money do you have?”  Actually I ask it another way, “What is your marketing budget to promote your yoga business?”

Their quizzical gaze comes because they think the answer is obvious.  “I want the best result for little or no money.”

Meet The Reality Triangle*

Pick any two.

Marketing works like this.  You can have things good and fast, but they are not going to be cheap.  This only makes sense right?  If you want a first-class rush job, whether by your web design firm or marketing agency, it is going to be expensive.  They are going to have to put extra people on the project, postpone other clients, and work around the clock.

At the other end is cheap and fast.  While some choose this option for their yoga studio marketing plan, they don’t often choose it for their car repair work.  After all, who wants the wheels to fall off their car going 60 miles an hour?

Brewster was going for Expensive and Fast because he had 30 days and $30 million.  Unfortunately for him he wound up with Good because that kind of cash will buy you some awareness in any market.  (He didn’t want to win a position that would pay him money.)

The answer for yoga studio owners always comes down to what your particular situation is.  If you have some time and your studio isn’t even open yet then try the cheap options such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.  They are quite effective ways to market provided you have a social media marketing strategy.  Such a strategy helps ensure you are maintaining a consistent message and are targeting your prospective students wisely.  They do take some time to work, though, because you are building a following.

Other cheap marketing options range from creating flyers and posting them around town to literally creating a cardboard sign and standing on the median of a busy intersection.  (The latter has the benefit of making you a few extra bucks too.)

Also on the cheap side of the triangle are homemade websites.  If a website is a “digital storefront” then the do-it-yourself option looks more like a lemonade stand.  There is both an art and science to creating a website that looks beautiful and functions well.  Spend the money to get a professionally designed site.

Be aware!  Just because something is expensive, doesn’t make it good.  It is a known part of our psychology that we attribute greater value to something that costs more money.  I bring this up because if you are going to spend a lot of money hiring a top level PR firm or ad agency, do your homework.

That is, unless you want to have nothing to show for your millions.

*Also called the “Quality” Triangle, “Impossible” Triangle, “Essential Tradeoff” Triangle and my personal favorite the “Triangle of Truth”.

Call me a fanatic, but I love looking at yoga flyers, those little postcards that advertise and market yoga studios.  In their most humble form they might have the name of the yoga studio and an address printed on a colored sheet of paper.

At the other end of the spectrum are elaborate pieces featuring truly beautiful people doing seemingly impossible poses.  They are glossy and colorful but often not worth the pricey paper they are printed on.

I always ask myself one question when I look at flyers, or any other yoga marketing piece, “Why Would I Want To Go Here?”

Your Potential Yoga Students

Sure if I see a beautiful person doing yoga I can appreciate the aesthetic, the lines, and their athleticism.  I’ve seen so many of these types of pieces that there most be an inherent belief in the inspirational value of the image.

Do some yoga studio owners believe that just by looking at such a photo students will come running to their studio?  Yes, the photos might seem to say, “Look at this beautiful body in this beautiful pose, wouldn’t you like to look like this to?  Come and let us show you how.”  Of course they just as readily say, “You are going to be surrounded by perfect bodies like this at this yoga studio,” which to a new student is VERY intimidating, to say the least.

Reality check here.  Your target market is probably female because 70% of the yoga population is.  As women, when we think of scary situations, getting dressed up in tight exercise wear, doing something we know nothing about, in front of amazing looking strangers, would rank right up there with giving birth in front of our co-workers.

If this is the case, why does so much advertising feature scantily clad beautiful women.  That’s easy, most (90%) of ad agency directors are male and their clients are predominantly male.  However, the customers they are trying to reach are overwhelmingly female.  This is not to say there aren’t men who understand women, but for many of them, they aren’t even aware of the difference.

As you evaluate your yoga marketing strategy, decide whom you are marketing to–new or existing students.  With existing students you know they “get yoga”, but most of them already practice at another studio and will need to a compelling reason to switch.

In America, in 2008, 15.8 million people were practicing yoga (according to the survey commissioned by the Yoga Journal).  Another 18.3 million said they are “very or extremely interested” in doing yoga, and 9.4 million of those plan to try yoga in the next year.  In other words, you have more non-practitioners extremely interested in doing yoga, than people who currently practice yoga.  Wow!

So how do you connect with these potential new students?  Here are some tips:

• Speak Directly to New Students If the “beautiful people flyer” might work with existing students, then what’s needed for beginner’s is Dove’s “Real Women” campaign.  Real women practicing yoga.
• Use Testimonials There’s a basic adage that says if you say something about your own business, it’s advertising.  If someone else says something it’s true.
• Inform and Educate This is one of the key purposes of having a great looking website with strong content.  We want to read, study and learn about your studio before we ever get there.  At the very least let students know what to bring, how to get to the studio and when to arrive.
• Make It Safe Ideally as a new, beginning student, I’d like to know there are other people like me in the class.  I also want to ensure I’m going to be able to do the practice somewhat and that I’ll feel welcomed.

As you apply these tips to your current marketing and advertising efforts don’t be surprised when more new students start finding your studio.

Magic to Grow Your Yoga Studio Business

Being able to conjure up customers OVERNIGHT is magical.  Imagine having customers run to your yoga studio because you took one or two supernatural actions.

“Marketing magic” is like another term “get rich quick”, which might not be the most effective route to financial success.  Sure, every once in awhile a yoga studio owner will open her business in just the right place at just the right time and it takes off.  This, though, is like pictures of lottery winners holding up their massive checks—few and far between.

The reality is unless you have a sound strategy (a plan of action) to find and connect with prospective customers, your yoga business probably will be very quiet.  This doesn’t mean that it won’t grow organically by “word of mouth” advertising, but that’s a slow grow, meaning it takes time.  If you have the resources to go for a long stretch (at least a year) with small class sizes, then this might be the plan for you.

There are faster ways to grow but they take resources meaning time, effort and money.  You can expedite things by increasing one or all of them but there is a finite limit to how fast you can grow.

Even if you were to hire a professional marketing firm to help you, they are going to focus on doing the basics first.  And they too would need a lot of help from you to know who your target market is and what you stand for.

This marketing your yoga studio business is hard work.

There’s no way around it.

You do have to clarify your message.  Prospective students have to know what your promise is.  What’s in it for them for coming to your studio and taking classes?

You do need to constantly cultivate connections to people who could benefit from what you have to offer.  A surefire way to do this is:

Take Consistent Actions, Daily, to Grow Your Business

Regardless of the path or advertising medium you use, do it on a regular basis.  If you rely on flyers posted throughout the city—make sure they are always up, fresh and clear.  (And recycle of course.)  If you choose to use twitter, become the tweet guru.  If you offer “yoga in the park” to drum up interest, do it without fail.

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

Believe it or not, where a lot of yoga studio owners fall down is:

Not having any kind of business plan

Not taking consistent actions

Overnight Success

I think we have Hollywood to thank for the idea of overnight success.  You know the story, someone “gets discovered” and makes it big.  They go on American Idol and suddenly they’re famous.

It makes a good story, but that’s all it is.  We love to hear about the “rags to riches” tales because we think, “maybe that could be me.”  In fact, most stars, whether in the yoga business or music industry, work hard.  They are like John Mayer, who is one of the hardest working musicians around—with the success to prove it.

I watched him perform at Red Rocks in Colorado.  He played for 2 hours, and gave it his all.  His show ended about 11:15 pm.  He had a car waiting and a police escort to get him up to Boulder for his next show, at midnight.  At the age of 13 he started playing the guitar and practiced so obsessively his parents took him to be evaluated by a psychiatrist—twice.

While I’m not advocating working so hard people to question your sanity, I do recommend being fully committed to growing your studio.  Like your physical yoga practice, it’s meant to be done daily, with presence and the ability to go beyond your current limits.  When you invest this time and energy, you will grow your yoga studio and won’t need to rely on any sort of hocus pocus.

Travel.  When you think about having a full immersion experience, often it’s time to pack your bag and head out of town.  What could be more exciting and fulfilling than being in a foreign land with new sights and sounds, tastes and smells?  In the last year I have lost count of the number of people I know who have gone to Thailand, Bali, Australia, China and India.  But before I get of myself, what does this have to do with you and growing your yoga studio business?

There are some very helpful websites that track current and future trends.  One I like in particular, called trendwatching.com, stated in its last issue that people are looking for experiences.  Going a step further, women in particular, are looking for experiences.  For them it’s not about the money but about doing something meaningful.

This is an important question to ask about your offerings at your yoga studio.  Are you giving your customers an experience?  Is it consistent—do you deliver it every time they come in?  Do you offer different types of experiences?

Before you can answer that, it’s important to know what qualifies as an experience?

An experience is an event that serves women’s underlying need for empathy, understanding, connection, health, love, security and happiness.

This can be done through a yoga class, a workshop, a teacher training, if that intent is put into it.  For example, if you are mindful about offering the possibility of connection to occur in class, you may have people introduce themselves, have them om or chant together and even have them hold hands.  In a workshop, or teacher training, connection is often made through “opening circles” where participants each share why they are there.

Some of you may ask, “Doesn’t connection simply happen in a yoga class.”  Maybe, but we can all think about classes where we went in and no one talked to us, not even the front desk.  We did our practice, folded up our mat, and left.  I know this occurs because when I say hi to people by name, as they arrive, they are often surprised.  One woman recently said to me, “I went to another studio for 10 months, almost every day and I felt like they had no idea who I was.  I’ve been here 2 weeks and you know my name already.”  How powerful is that?

Being purposeful about the type of experience you are delivering works because it requires you to think about your students. “What’s in it for them?” (My favorite question.)  Why are they coming to your yoga studio, paying their hard earned money and taking your yoga classes?  If you can answer that, in a way that is relevant to your students, you are well on your way to growing your studio.

If you can’t answer it, it’s still happening.  There is a reason why students like one teacher better than another.  That yoga teacher is doing something, maybe without even knowing it, that people connect with.  However that doesn’t have to be accidental.  If a teacher goes in thinking, “I’d like to create a loving, supportive space, where growth and breakthroughs can occur,” then that colors how she approaches her students and teaches her class.

Now imagine that same process for your yoga studio.  As the owner, what experience do you want people to have?  Does everyone know that—teachers and support staff?  Do your students know?  Is it communicated in your marketing, on your website, in your flyers?  This gives your students a language to talk about your studio and helps them be ambassadors of your studio to the public.

Finally, focusing on what experiences you offer clarifies your values and beliefs about why you opened your studio in the first place.  It is life-affirming reminds you of why you are here and gives meaning to what you do.  That is a wonderful reason to do it—for you.

Act Now.  Correct Later.

Perfection.  We obsess about it here in the West yet it leads to many of us not feeling good enough.  How can we, when we start with an impossibly high ideal that doesn’t exist.  It’s a set-up for failure.

The idea of perfection can lead to fear and instead of inspiring us to new heights, can actually stymie us from moving forward at all.  When we focus on being perfect it causes us to be extreme in how we tackle challenges, such as creating a yoga studio, for instance.

We start to compile information, take yoga training after yoga training, invest in the best space and props, (if we can afford it), and on and on.  All of this happens before we even open the door.  In fact it can delay the door opening because we get caught up in everything being perfect before we feel ready to begin.

At the other extreme we throw up our hands, instead of giving a good effort because why both if we can’t be perfect.  If I can’t be the best then why try?

There is a level of being unaware of where we are on this path.  However, whether we are caught at one end or the other there is a solution to both and that’s the path of imperfection.

Be Imperfect???

Already I can see the questioning looks.  “Who tries to be imperfect?”  The Japanese do, in a practice called Wabi-Sabi, which celebrates and recognizes the imperfection all around us.  Instead of perfection, practitioners see the world for what it is.  And the reality is it’s imperfect.  (This is still in line with the yogic idea of everyone being perfect as they are right now.  We are perfect—perfect in our imperfection.)

Even if perfection did exist the cost would be exorbitant in time, money, relationships, health.  It’s why many work 60, 70, 80 hours a week trying to get that last little bit of juice from the squeeze of the orange.  With a decent squeeze or two you’ll get 90% of the juice out.  Yet inventions have been created to extract every drop.  Why not grab a new orange, compost the old peel and get on with it?

There’s good and there’s good enough and the latter is the way out of focusing on perfection.  Does the thing you’re doing need to be “perfect” anyway.  I’d settle for the pretty good toaster that browns my bread or the pretty soft pillow to rest on at night.

I felt so excited and empowered when I first connected with this idea.  Suddenly I was able to let go of a lot of things I didn’t need to be doing.  With my focus on making things “pretty good” instead of “perfect” I was able to take more action with more confidence because I can do pretty good any day of the week.  And because of that I can get more pretty goods done instead of very few perfects.  Once something is created, such as a teacher training, workshop or even your yoga business plan, it becomes much easier to go back, refine and improve on it.  Multiple revisions, adjustments, and corrections will get us much closer to being great than attempts at perfection that never see the light of day.

Once you start moving toward imperfection you’ll see how it can be very practical and very powerful.  So ask yourself, what can you get done on your list today in a pretty good manner and be done with it?

It’s about 10:15p and I just got in from grocery shopping after teaching a yoga class this evening.  I just found out about this iphone app Pepsi put out which helps “guys score chicks”.

Now as you know one of my areas of focus is marketing to women.  There are many reasons for it, but the highlights are 1)  marketing to women is different than marketing to men, 2) women are the primary consumers in the U.S. and the rest of the world for that matter and 3) most creative decisions regarding marketing campaigns, (phone applications) are made by male creative directors.

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by the complete lack of ignorance, and seeming irrelevance, of female consumers by businesses.  I mean we’re only half of the population.  But in this case, we’re talking about Pepsi, a $13 billion company.  They have whole departments dedicated to marketing, including social media.

The later point can be proven with their quick response and apology to the “score” app.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

“Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback.”

The fact this thing got the green light is amazing.  I can imagine the conversation, “Bob, check out this app for picking up chicks.”  ”Cool, let’s run with it”.  Even the apology sounds like that, though in the manner that people use when they are trying to sound educated and not-guilty.  ”Well your Honor, you see, my clients are just yucksters who enjoy the joviality and humorous nature of applications involving picking up the fairer sex.”  Never mind that guys are not the people doing most of the grocery shopping and by extension buying energy drinks for their male partners.

So is this a rant?  Absolutely not.  It’s a check-in with what’s going on in the marketing sphere in the big companies.  And darling, we have a long way to go.  Still, it brings attention to the fact there are women in the world and yes we do impact the sales and revenues of companies in a very real manner.

We’ve all been there–in a meeting that seems to be going nowhere–and we’re the person who called it.

Here are a few tips to make things better:

Define a purpose for your meeting–before you get into the meeting.

Know that you don’t have to have all of the answers.  Ask questions and listen to what the participants have to say.

Define what the next action is before leaving the meeting.  Check for understanding and that everyone is on the same page.  Also, set a time and date when follow-up will occur, when necessary.

10)Fail to plan, plan to fail.

9) There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.  To make this Gaelic proverb yogic, I’d change it to “There are those with awareness who act, those with awareness, and those without.”  Guess which group plans?

Many people spend more time planning what to wear for an evening out than for the success of their yoga studio.

7) The act of creating a business plan will help you clarify your intention and offering.

6) A plan asks you to look at the bigger picture and consider the longer view.

5) Many new yoga studio owners think once they fling open their doors students will come.  In case that doesn’t come to pass, think about having a Plan A.

4) It’s not always preferable to base financial decisions on what your magic 8-ball says.

3) Taking full accountability for your business means seeing things as they truly are.

2) For every person you know who “made it without a plan” there are a hundred who lost a lot of money—unnecessarily.

1) Business plans work, greatly increase your odds of success and accelerate how fast you grow.

P.S.  Planning doesn’t have to be painful.

Howard Moskowitz.  Spaghetti luminary, psychophysicist.

In the 1970s and 1980s there existed only one kind of spaghetti sauce, Ragu being the most popular example, and one kind of mustard, French’s. That all changed with Howard’s insight into what people really want in a spaghetti sauce.

You see prior to Howard the thinking about spaghetti sauce, and indeed the entire food industry, was that was there was really only one best way to create a spaghetti sauce. And this one way, or “universal”, is what companies were looking to create. They thought that if they created the perfect sauce then that would be what people would want and would buy. However Howard realized this thinking is flawed.  There is no such thing as great sauce, only great sauces.

Americans can be broken into one of three groups regarding sauces. Some of us like sweet sauce. Some like it spicy. And the other third likes chunky spaghetti sauce. Prior to Howard’s involvement there was no such thing as chunky spaghetti sauce on the grocery shelves. Because of his insight, Prego, his client, produced chunky spaghetti sauce and it was an immediate hit generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Kate Saal is more of a spicy sauce kind of gal

What does this have to do with yoga studios?

A lot of yoga studio owners and the yogis I encounter believe that there is one best way to do yoga. If you do anusara, that’s what you practice, teach and as a yoga studio owner, it’s the style you offer. The same is true for Bikram, Iyengar, etc.

When looking at other studios in your town the question isn’t how can I be more like them, or even wanting to serve the same student base.  The question is how can you be more true to yourself. You see the general population is looking for different kinds of yoga. I’ve known yogis who go from one studio to another during the week. They go to the first because that studio offers a slower practice and sometimes that’s what they need.  Other times, they enjoy a vigorous practice so they seek out perhaps a Vinyasa class to get their need met.

This is great news for you because no matter what style you ultimately offer, there is going to be a market that connects with that. Now it is important to stand for a certain type of class. Your students and prospective students have to be able to know what they’re getting when they come to your studio.

Many times I see studios that offer many different types of yoga. The thinking is perhaps I can satisfy 100% of the people by offering a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But the old adage, “If you try to satisfy everybody you ultimately satisfy nobody,” is very true in these situations.

Stand for something. If that runs completely counter to what you perceive to be the most “popular” studio in town, that much the better, because you are going to be able to serve a different population than that studio does. You can be chunky sauce and be successful.

By the way, if you want to read more about Howard, here is a link to The New Yorker Article by Malcom Gladwell.

Gratitude, appreciation, an expression of thanks.

It’s a topic that keeps coming up for me the last couple of days. I received an e-mail from a yoga studio owner today who is throwing a celebration at her studio for her students. Her e-mail gave me a rundown of her plan including refreshments and a boutique discount for the day. At the end she asked one question — what do you think? My answer, predictably, was another question — what are you trying to do?

The art of thanking people is exactly that, an art.

One of my favorite books on this subject is by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton called, How full is your bucket? In it they cite 65% of Americans received no recognition in their workplace last year. While astounding it ties into the next way gratitude showed up for me this week.

I was driving to, surprise, a yoga class, and listening to NPR. The commentator was talking about a survey done recently of Americans in the workplace. The researchers were trying to determine the effects of the long recession on workers. They thought they would discover people working harder than ever, trying to do a great job because of all of the layoffs and the very real possibility of losing their positions at any time. What they found was quite the opposite — people doing just enough to get by, calling in frequently, etc. When they delved a little deeper they found people were unmotivated by three things, one of which was the need to feel appreciated.  (Having challenging assignments and feeling your work matters were the other two.)

Then yesterday, I was talking to a client, Heidi (not her real name) about an employee review she just gave. Heidi said the review went very well but her team member, let’s call her Jennifer, had expressed the need for more recognition. This puzzled Heidi because she feels she is constantly saying thank you to Jennifer for all of the hard work she does.

Here’s a key to appreciation, it must be in the form that people value.

Some people like verbal recognition; some like public recognition.   Many people enjoy a trophy, plaque or other physical sign of your thanks. As we were talking Heidi remembered the card Jennifer had given her several months ago.  It was a beautiful, handmade creation with a special note that took some time to write.  Heidi realized this was probably the way Jennifer liked to be thanked as well.

A lot of times we express gratitude in ways that we like to receive it.  This may or may not be how a person enjoys being thanked.  The one way to be sure is to ask how they would like to receive recognition. Recognizing people in the manner they need honors them as an individual and shows you care enough to take the time to figure out what is important to them.  This can be as powerful as the thank you itself.

Thanking people, including our customers and clients, is something we don’t do nearly enough of.  If you have a large female client base, which most studios do, it can be a way to differentiate yourself because women notice such things.  (It’s another way how marketing to women is different than men.)

This makes sense because it’s one of the ways that we women build and nurture relationships, such as buying gifts for friends who have done a special favor for us.

Remembering to take the time to say thank you is critical to strengthening your relationships with your customers, your employees, your friends and yourself.

Yourself?  Absolutely.  Try this tonight, take two minutes, maybe after you’ve brushed your teeth, as you look in the bathroom mirror, tell yourself the great things we’ve done today. While it may feel a little self-conscious at first, keep it up for a week and you’ll begin to notice a boost in your self-confidence and self-esteem.

That’s the magic of thanks.

Make versus Buy isn’t a topic I see addressed very often but it’s important, especially when it comes to the people you hire—such as yoga teachers, a front desk person, or a manager for your business.

The concept is this:  Some traits you “make” or develop and some you “buy” right off the shelf.  Simple enough.  How does it apply to your yoga studio and more importantly growing it, because isn’t that what a yoga business coach helps you with anyway?

Say you need a cake.  Mmm, chocolate cake.  You’ve decided you need a chocolate cake to receive infinite bliss on this planet.  How to get it?

You can go to the store and get your cake.  You decide to buy a beautiful 3-tier cake.  It has a chocolate ganache center and beautiful raspberries circling the base.  It was custom crafted by an artisan who flew to Columbia to harvest the beans in a remote part of the mountains…beans that would eventually become the cocoa powder, used to create this one of a kind confection that is joy itself.  And it only cost $600.

Regrouping, you decide to scale it back a bit.  Well in essence, isn’t a Hostess cupcake a chocolate cake?  Maybe it’s not as tasty, but it’s cheap, there’s no baking involved and it even has the cute white frosting design on top.  But what’s this, it has “beef fat” in it (true story)?  Shudder.  And what is Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate?  This doesn’t seem so blissful.

So like a lot of us, you go to the store, decide on the Betty Crocker cake mix, add the egg, water–bake and viola, one chocolate cake.  Not as expensive as the gourmet treat but not as hazardous as something you’re not sure has any natural ingredients in it.

Oh there is one more option.  You could fly Columbia.  You could make your own cocoa.  You could learn the fine art of pastry design.  That sounds like a lot of time and money and effort.  You could also pick and chose what you can buy, such as the handpicked beans that someone already went down to get, and what you can make, like a simple ganache with chocolate and cream.

And so it is hiring people.

Imagine your dream team member.  For a teacher, this might be a person who can fill up your studio every time—but costs $200 per class.  Or you might choose a person who is almost willing to pay you to teach, but alienates students, or worse, risks their safety because they don’t know what they don’t know.

It is a money, time equation.  But there are some things, no matter what the money or the time, that you should be looking to “buy” because they are difficult to “make”.

• Motivated to Achieve You simply cannot want something for someone—they have to want to go after it themselves.
• Attention to Detail The details matter, but it’s very hard to teach someone to focus on the little things that make a difference.
• Initiative Related to achievement, this is the “get up and go” aspect of a person.
• Interpersonal or Social Skills and Understanding Treating people with respect, communicating, picking up on the tones and nuances of an upset customer’s voice—these you need to “buy”.
• Self-confidence Praise is important, but as yogis, we know you can’t make someone feel one way or another.  It comes from within.

Those are the big traits, though thinking, especially analytic and strategic is also something that needs to be bought.

In looking at this list, it’s easy to see why your star teacher has oodles of self-confidence, is sensitive to the needs of others, does a wonderful job communicating with you and takes the initiative to seek you out when she needs your help.  She came that way.  Now this doesn’t mean you can’t support her, but she’ll be like this most everywhere she goes.

Now putting this into action?  That’s another topic for another post.