Many of my spiritual entrepreneur clients get nervous when we start talking about implementing a high-end program in their business.  But honestly, incorporating a program like this into your offerings is the easiest way to greatly increase your income.  These types of programs are a lot easier to pull together than you might think.  And the best part about them is that your clients are ready for them!  I assure you, if you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll have a certain percentage of clients and students who are ready to learn from you on a deeper level, and are ready to invest in themselves through you.  Higher-end programs mean higher value to your clients, and that in turn means making a difference on a broader scale.

(For my yoga entrepreneurs, a higher-end program can be a teacher training – which focuses on the big result of getting certified as a yoga teacher.  But you can do all sorts of other non-teacher related programs too.  You teach poses, but what else? Health, diet, philosophy, confidence, stress-relief?  There are many different results-oriented programs you can develop, so start brain-storming!)

So what do you need to get started with a higher-end program?  Here are a few tips:

1.  Focus on results, first and foremost.  Often, we get caught up in explaining the minute details of all the things we will be doing for and providing to our clients.  But really what they want is results.  Concrete ones.  And that’s the other dilemma with spirit-rich entrepreneurs.  So many of our so-called results are a little too ethereal to put your finger on.  So focus on how your clients will feel, work, communicate, or function as a result of your program.  And lay it all out there in your marketing.

2.  Use your step-by-step Signature System.  There is a time and place to actually describe your program, and that’s after you’ve gotten your audience sufficiently excited about their results!  Here is where you break down your entire program into an easy to follow, step-by-step plan of attack.  Start by thinking of the end results.  Then, from the beginning, list each important milestone or step your client would need to take to get there.  Americans especially love a plan.  Let them know that you know exactly how to get from point A to point B, and they will surely want to follow.

3.  Add done-for-you elements.   These would include checklists, instructions, templates, and scripts.   People love anything that saves them time and/or a learning curve.  Your clients will find immense value in these add-ons because they help to get started and successful more quickly.

4.  Remember what people really pay for in high-end programs.  Clients want personal, one-on-one guidance and attention from you.  That’s usually a given.  But if you dig down a little deeper, why is it that they want that?  It’s because they desire accountability above all else.  (I learned this from my mentor Elizabeth Purvis – what a great lesson.) They want to know that by investing in your program, you will help them get to where they want to be.  You will be the one to help them overcome all the big and small obstacles that lie in their path to success, and you will stand by them as a pillar of support when they are ready to crumble.

So pulling it all together is where it gets fun.  It’s even better when you realize that you don’t have to be the person with the longest list of credentials, or the one with the most experience, to be able to make a big difference in your clients’ lives (and improve your own bottom line in a big way too. )

I’ll be sharing more on how to create bigger and better programs, and starting earning what you’re worth, over the coming weeks.  So stay tuned!

Do you ever have one of those months?  You know, where you had your calendar all planned out, but then it’s thrown for a loop for all the things you DIDN’T plan for?  That was my January.   Surprise visit from my mom and sis.  Back to back colds for me and le bebe which gave us many sleepless nights.  And then to top it all off (in a good way!) I discover bebe #2 is making its way into my world!  Whew.

It is a time like this where you need to know that your business is running efficiently.  And one of the best ways to ensure that is to charge what you are worth to clients who are committed to making progress.  There is nothing motivating about working with people who question your fees, look for discounts, cancel appointments, and don’t take you or themselves seriously.  I don’t know about you, but for me, taking time away from my family to mess around with people who don’t value me makes me really peeved!

So how do you get yourself to a point of true professionalism, where you and your work are valued and you are earning what you deserve?  Here are a few tips.

1.  Forget about what other people are charging.  Now, I know this will throw some people up in arms.  And yes, there are certain things that are fairly dictated by the market.  Like class prices for instance.  But if you’ve been following me for any length of time you know that classes are only the beginning of your income earning potential.  Private sessions, workshops, series, and retreats are where you will be making more of your money, and providing a lot more of your value.  So how do you figure how to charge for those?

2.  Uncover your value.  You do this foremost for yourself, so that you know exactly what you bring to the table.  And then you use this information to discuss with clients and students what value they will receive by working with you.  One of the best ways I’ve learned to do this in an industry that can be somewhat esoteric is by pretending to follow around one of your best students for a day or week.  What does their everyday life look like now that they’ve been working with you? What is their stress level?  What can they do now that they couldn’t do before?  What do their relationships look like now?  How is work going for them now?  Also, pick one or two students who would be open to talking to you about these things and ask them yourself.

3.  Use this information to form packages of value-based, results-oriented programs…instead of charging by the hour or weekend.  Boy, I would love it if more businesses did this. I would not hesitate if instead of buying a series of 5 massages, my therapist offered a 6-week comprehensive program that got my neck and shoulders mobile and pain-free. Yes please!   Or if my attorney offered me a full LLC building package with all the tax info and forms I could ever need…instead of charging me $250 an hour for eternity to put this together.  So what big problems do your clients want solved, or big goals do they want to accomplish?  Put together a program that couples results with a time-frame, show them the value that they receive by doing the program (as opposed to private sessions that have no aim or direction) and illustrate for them what they will get for participating, or lose for not joining you.

4.  Now you have basis for charging more – because you are providing more value in accomplishable goals.  A good place to start is consider what you charge by the hour, up this by 50%, and consider how many hours you may put in working.  Now remember, I said this could be the place to start.  Once you get comfortable charging more, don’t stay here for long.  You get your confidence in this new way of thinking, and then you increase by 20% after just a little while.

One of the closely held secrets that people who make good money know is this: when there is perceived value, people commit harder and stronger.  Think about it this way – who would you rather see, the doctor that charges $50 an hour or the one that charges $250?  My guess is that the perceived value of the doctor that charges more is that this is a better doctor, one that maybe gets more results and is worth the extra money.  You may even be more inclined to follow the instructions closely of this doctor, because surely they wouldn’t charge that much if they didn’t know what they were doing…right?

It is a wonderful paradox that when you charge more, you get clients that are more committed to you, which means that they tend to get better results, which ups your perceived value even more. So stop discounting, and consider that as you begin to value yourself more highly, so will your clients!

Welcome to the new year, 2012!  It’s nice to have a fresh start, a clean slate, and to get excited for all the possibilities that a new year can hold.  So let’s capitalize on this feeling, since this wonderful euphoria can be so fleeting.

This year I’ll be talking a lot about how yoga teachers and studio owners (and other holistic entrepreneurs – this works for you too) can really earn what they’re worth while changing the world.  A part of my step by step system to building your business is my program – How To Charge What You Are Worth…And Get It.   I’m super excited about this program because it brings together so many facets that not only help you in business but in every area of your life.  It’s all about recognizing your own value, gaining the confidence to overcome fear and get out there in the world with your gift, and then effectively communicating what you offer to others.

With this post I want to talk about getting out there in the world.  To grow any business, you have to have an audience to speak to.  To be really successful, you need more than an audience, you need loyal followers and cheerleaders.   One of the most important jobs you have in your teaching career is to turn brand spankin’ new students into loyal followers and cheerleaders.

But one of the biggest mistakes I see teachers and studio owners make is not paying attention to (or sometimes completely ignoring, yikes!) the brand new student in class.  DON’T do this!  Your brand new student is your clean-slate (new year and all) chance to make a big and lasting impression on someone and turn them into a fan for life.  Not only is this very rewarding from a teaching perspective, but financially could be worth thousands of dollars to you over time.  So how do we keep these awesome newbies coming back?

1. Make sure they feel comfortable in the first class.  Newbies need to know where the bathroom is, where to put their mat, where to put their things.  Beginners also need to know that its ok to have a sip of water, or rest if they are pushing too hard.  Try to see each class you teach from a beginner’s mind and know that these new students are thanking you inside.

2.  Take an idea from the online marketing crowd and offer a free gift in exchange for your new student’s email address.  So few teachers do this, but the one’s I work with who do think it’s the best idea since sticky yoga mats.  You need to be collecting email addresses to keep in touch with your students.  Did you hear that?  YOU MUST collect email addresses.  In exchange, offer them something truly valuable.  This gift can include an ‘invite a friend free’ pass, a short audio meditation, a discount coupon to the retail of your studio ($10 off said mat!),  a 10 minute video of a relaxing yoga sequence, etc etc.  Get creative and watch your return numbers (and referrals) rise.

3.  Stay in touch regularly through your newsletter or blog.  By regularly I mean at least twice a month.  By stay in touch I don’t mean just sending your upcoming schedule changes and workshops.  Continue to offer value in the form of information that your audience finds relevant.  Blog about how you use your yoga off the mat.  Tell a funny yoga story.  Let them see your personality shine through.  Be interesting!

This group that you grow is your most important asset.  Treat it as such.  If you want to change the world and make great money doing it, focus on building a relationship with your audience by taking care of them and interacting with them with respect and compassion…and fun!

Xoxo,

Valerie

P.S. Remember that the awesome and amazing Vibrant Yoga Entrepreneur Speaker Series kicks off this Thursday, January 12th!  And this series is completely free for you to join in.  Every week my friend Rebecca Snowball of Yoga Soul will be interviewing some top names in the yoga industry on how they authentically grow their businesses.  Do not miss this incredible opportunity to listen to the entire teleseries at no cost!

Click here to go to the Vibrant Yoga Entrepreneur Speaker Series website and register. 

Wow!  The year flies by, doesn’t it?  I’m in the midst of doing my planning for 2012, and I’m really excited for what the year holds.  As I look back on 2011, I realize that the pretty obvious theme for me this year was BIRTH.  Most notable was the birth of the Bean: Noah Dean on Easter Sunday (no more perfect day than that one for birth!)  But 2011 also was the year of rebirth for my business.  And interestingly these two are pretty intertwined.

Motherhood this year changed me in profound ways, and reorganized my priorities very quickly.  What was so interesting for me though was my strong desire to get back to my work helping people grow their dream businesses.  I was pretty unsure, to be honest, that I’d want to go back to work.  Toward the end of my pregnancy and those first few months, I thought that the only thing I’d want to do is snuggle my little bundle of joy for the next few years.  Some of my friends went that route, and they convinced me that it was THE way to go.  But as time passed, I realized that the Universe had a lot of diverse paths for me, and that it was OK for me to follow ALL of those paths that brought me joy.

One of my favorite books is called The How of Happiness.  In it the author, a psychologist, describes 12 “happiness” activities to pursue for sustainable long-term happiness.  Activity #10 is committed pursuit of goals.  Studies have shown that those that have meaningful goals that they are on the path to pursuing have a much higher happiness quota.  One of my goals is and has been to help people turn what they love into a thriving, abundant business.  I have been blessed with gifts of the abilities to communicate and teach and I get a lot of pleasure out of helping people succeed.  So this makes sense then, this idea of pursuing my goals.  I’d bet you also get a lot of pleasure out of reaching the goals that you set for your business.  This kind of stuff is made to make humans happy!

I’ve also read a lot about the ways mothers around the world cope with motherhood, work, and the pursuit of passion.  One group that fascinates me are the French.  (Alas, another France reference.  I’m obsessed.)  Many French women return to work, and the government makes it extremely easy to do so (6-month paid maternity leave, subsidized child care, 4 day work weeks! They pay for it in other ways, but still.)  In Judith Warner’s essay “Towards a Politics of Quality of Life” in the book, Paris Was Ours, she states that her French working mother friends never ever spoke about the “mommy guilt” of returning to work like American women do.  She says “work was seen as an essential component of modern motherhood, a component of good motherhood, in fact, beacuse it was something that helped women feel happy and whole.”

I absolutely agree now that having passions and pursuits outside of your children keep women vibrant…and yes, happy.

Not everyone gets this.  When I told several friends that I was really ready to start my work up again, I could feel them slowly look me up and down as if to say, “You’re choosing to go back?”  But I saw also that these same women devoted their entire waking (and sleeping) hours to their children, to the detriment of their own sanity and their other relationships sometimes.

Of course, the choice is such a personal one to each and every person.  No matter what you do you have to ensure that you keep a few things for yourself, and it doesn’t have to neccessarily be work.  But for me, my “work” is not really much work at all.  It’s frankly a helluva lot of fun.

So, that leads me right back up to 2012 and the awesome things I have in store.  I’ve got big goals this year, because I want to reach a lot more people with the message that you CAN earn a beautiful living as a yoga entrepreneur.  (Yes, I know how, and I can’t wait to teach you!)  In 2012 I’ll be investing more money than ever before in my own business, with mentors that will in turn stretch me to reach for what I want.  I’ll be offering classes, workshops, and a very special opportunity later on for a select few to join me in a Platinum mastery group – just for those fierce feminine warriors of my tribe that are ready to make big things happen in their own businesses.

I’m gonna start off the year as a guest speaker on a brilliant Yoga Business speaker series…details soon to follow on how you can listen to all the awesome speakers (some really big yoga peeps will be in this series) and it’s all free to you!

So as I sign off for what is most likely my last post for this year, I have a request.  I’d love to hear what big things you have in store, or what big decisions you made or conclusions you came to this past year.  Are you ready to join me in a really big 2012?  Yay!  Let’s DO this.

xoxoxo and happy happy holidays to everyone.

With so much love,

Valerie

One of the major components I spend a lot of time with my coaching clients on is creating awesome marketing copy for workshops, classes and programs.   Because I’ll tell you that spending hours and hours creating a program to which not a soul shows up really will make you question your business. (So often it’s not hitting the target with your copy that causes this problemo.)  And who wants to be hiding under their bed during the holidays because of a failed launch? (Well, maybe if you’ve got a stash of Vosges Exotic Truffles down there…but still.)

The key to creating programs that basically market themselves is to focus on RESULTS.  Most Westerners want to spend their money only if the know that at the end of a class or workshop they will have accomplished something.  As spiritual entrepreneurs, however, we often throw very esoteric words around that really don’t describe anything tangible to your clients.

If you find yourself using these words in your marketing material when describing your programs, we need to go back to the drawing board.

Enlightenment, Happiness, Relaxation, Better Health, Abundance, Bliss (my fave!), Life Force, Reduce Stress, Inner Guidance, Inspiration, Energy, Flexibility, Centering…there are a lot more that I could list but I hope you catch my drift.

I’m not saying that you can’t ever use any of these words, but you really have to be careful that you get past the superficial layer of meaning that each of these overused words carries.  Spiritual peeps can easily get carried away on a fluffy cloud (leaving our clients on earth throwing their hands up) when we get too wrapped up in our jargon.

The goal is to nail down specific results our clients can expect when they participate fully in our programs.  Because we know we can deliver spectacularly (you DO know this!) when our clients give their all to our programs.  When you talk to them with the expectation that they will give you total commitment, what will they achieve?

Here are a few tips to get to the nitty gritty…and get your programs filled in no time.

Know your clients wants needs, and desires.  How do you help them reach these goals?  You have to know this inside and out so that you can speak directly to them on how you solve their problems.

Be descriptive. Enlightenment is nice, but would your client relate more to, say,  gaining the clarity to detach from outcomes during their day so that decisions and obstacles become less stressful, which keeps them off the emotional roller coaster for good?  Yes, I want that!

Get specific.  If you’ve been doing what you do for any length of time, by now you will have heard from a few of your clients on how you changed their lives.  Don’t be afraid to use this information in your descriptions!  If you do yoga therapy and one of your clients was able to walk again after working with you, tell people they can have a similar experience – again, as long as they commit.  If you practice acupuncture fertility treatments and you have clients that have gotten pregnant within two months, say that!  (This is also an ideal place to put testimonials – third party credibility can truly take your business to the next level.)

Don’t shy away from shouting from the rooftops the type of success people can have by working with you.  Too many spiritual entrepreneurs I know are afraid to really tell their clients how awesome a job they can do in helping them accomplish what they want.  Whether they don’t want to appear too hyperbolic, (hype is different from ENTHUSIASM about true results – remember that), or are afraid to make “promises” they don’t think they can deliver on, the result in marketing material is the same – boring, blasè descriptions that are about as exciting as water to a fish.

Take a look at your descriptions and see if you can give them a boost.  The more time you spend creating descriptive, enthusiastic, results-oriented marketing material, the less time you’ll have to spend “selling” people on joining your programs, and the greater success you’ll have filling them up quickly!

If you listen to The Secret and other attraction theories, you hear them say, “change your beliefs, change your world!” And “As soon as you set your mind to a different vibrational frequency, you will begin to attract wealth!”  Well that’s great.  Have you ever tried to do just that?  You tell yourself over and over, “I am rich in material and spiritual wealth!”  Or “I have unshakeable confidence!” And so on.  But you still seem at a loss, and the clients don’t come rolling in, and you wonder if you are doing this attraction stuff right.  The problem is that when you try to change your beliefs with affirmations that don’t ring true to you, what you’re really repeating is your disbelief.  ”I am rich!” you say to yourself.  ”Yeah, right,” you say to yourself right after.  And on goes the cycle of not really getting anywhere in aligning your mindset with your big goals.

In a previous post, I talked about how three things need to be in alignment with your largest goals for you to be able to make progress with them.  Your Spirit, or ‘WHY,’  your Identity, and your Beliefs that support your identity.   Beliefs about yourself are by far the biggest saboteur in this equation.  It’s time to get them in check, so I’ve developed a 4 step process to tackle self-defeating beliefs and bring them to a higher standard that is in alignment with your bigger purpose.

Step One:  Forget affirmations and start using Afformations.  This is a tip that my mentor gave me, and it has been really incredible to actually feel a physical change in my body as I’ve worked with these, like a weight lifted.  Noah St. John developed this process of reframing the way we state affirmations so that instead of an unbelievable statement, they become interesting questions that our mind searches for answers to.  For example, instead of saying, “I have incredible success in my business,” you ask, “Why do I have such incredible success in my business?”  The theory is that you mind is naturally programmed to search for answers to questions you pose to it.

The other aspect of this is an interesting one.  Do you ever find yourself saying things like, “Why does this crap always happen to me?”  Or “Why can’t I ever get things right?” Or “When am I finally going to stop struggling?”  We ask ourselves self-defeating questions all the time, and so we often are in a near constant state of negative thinking.  Instead of all this negative self-talk, or self-ask, the goal is to start asking different questions.  ”Why do good things always happen to me?” “Why am I so great at accomplishing tasks?” “Why does a successful business come to me with such ease?”  You don’t have to have the answers, your brain will work on these questions subconsciously for you until they come true.   Try it for a week and I promise you will feel so differently!

Step Two: Capture your Aha! moment, and keep it close for when you need it.  Your Aha! moment is that time, or times, when you overcame a huge obstacle or had an amazing success and you thought to yourself…WOW!  Impressive!  My most recent Aha! moment didn’t have to do with business, but it has profoundly affected how I approach business and everything else in my life.  I gave birth to my son Noah at home naturally with the help of a midwife.  Going through that visceral experience; walking through the fire and actually feeling my body being turned inside out; edging the limit of my pain threshold; connecting with the Source as I turned into a wild woman so that I could bring my child into the world…and then in the next moment jumping to the task of caring for this brand new, desperate, needy person…well, it changed the way I view myself forever.  I am stronger and more resilient than I ever thought possible.  I feel like I can do anything.  And I’ll tell you,  I don’t take sh** from anyone!  I believe in the creative, feminine power of women to do things that many men couldn’t do.  That moment reshaped everything.

So what is your Aha moment?  Maybe when you beat cancer, or ran a marathon, or left a relationship that sucked the life out of you.  Maybe it was when you got your first client, or were given center stage at a workshop, or graduated college against the odds.  Whatever it is, remember the fine details of it.  How did you look?  How did you feel?  How did people around you praise you or admire you?  What did it mean to you to do this thing?  Keep this experience close to you.  When things get challenging and you need a boost of morale, or when you start doubting yourself, remember the fierce feminine warrior you are.  The person who, in that special moment, brought her game to the court and could not be beat.  Use this to fuel the heat of your desires.

Step Three: Surround yourself with support.  We all have people in our lives that poo poo on our successes.  To stay with my example of my Aha! moment, a good friend said when she found out I had a natural childbirth – “well, my mom’s group was talking about this and unfortunately, you don’t get a medal for going natural…”  Of course, the only people I’ve ever heard say that are people who have not had a natural childbirth! But I digress.  The point is, there is always someone who wants to downplay what you are doing.  They may be jealous of your gumption.  But they also may be genuinely concerned about your well-being and don’t want to see you fall.  (My father, a life-long hardworking employee now retired with a nice pension, was so worried about me working for myself that he nearly staged an intervention.) Whatever their reasoning, these people – whether it’s your mom, your “best” friend, your sister-in-law – stay on the outside of the circle.  The people who get to be inside the circle are the cheerleaders.  The ones who have unwavering confidence in you even when you sometimes don’t.  For me, this includes my husband, my coaches and mentors, and my mother.  These folks see my brilliance and also see clearly when I start to sabotage myself, and they lovingly call me on it.  When you are feeling down, call on your support circle to lift you back up.

Step Four:  Collect praise and relish in it.  I encourage all of my clients to get testimonials, and the more the better!  Every single client of mine has told me of a time when one of their people pulled them aside to tell them how their life had changed for the better.  It happens all the time.  So start having people write down their praise for you.  This is so beneficial for building credibility.  But I think even more importantly, it is a constant reminder to you that the work you are doing is making a big difference in the lives of your clients and students.  When you know you are getting results for the people that pay you for your brilliance, you start to understand deeply your worth and the value you bring.  And understanding ultimately leads to believing in yourself and your greatness.

Each of these steps tackles self-defeating beliefs in a different way.  But each is important on its own as well.  You have to change your internal conversations, but you also have to have external support to remind you that what you think is really true.  Try these steps and let me know what you think.  I believe you will be experience a true shift into greatness!

I wanted to pass along some of my absolute favorite vegan recipes that have been tried and tested in my very particular kitchen (a 6-year old and a committed meat-eater can attest to the yum factor.)

Pecan Mushroom Burgers

Every time I make these everyone has seconds.  Good on a bun or by itself, this veggie burger sticks together and tastes delish.  Thanks to Dreena Burton for perfecting this recipe!

Mushroom Burger Recipe

 Brownies

Who doesn’t love brownies?!  When you go vegan you are always looking for ways to bake without the usual eggs, butter, etc.  I found these brownies and they are amazing.  Dense, chewy, chocolately, moist.  Caveat:  they are finicky.  The baking time is very touch and go.  (Definitely NOT the 25-30 the recipe says.) A minute too long and these turn dry yet sticky like taffy.  Not good.  Better to cook less than more.  I replaced some sugar with Truvia, and if you’ve ever baked with stevia you know that you also have to reduce cooking time.  So try them out, and keep a close watch on them.  You will not regret the effort! Thanks to Cari at Foodbuzz.

Chewy Brownies Recipe

Flour Tortillas

As a born and raised AZ girl, I heart Mexican food.  If you’ve ever had an ultra fresh, just off the griddle tortilla from a true Mexican bakery, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  I’ve been distraught since moving to PA, as the only “Mexican” food joint there is anywhere nearby is On The Border.  Blech.   So I bought a tortilla press (they’re only like $20 on Amazon) and found a great recipe and make these babies from scratch once a week.  They really are super easy and so much better tasting than the preservative-laden packaged grossness found at the grocery store.   My daughter salivates at these.  Thank you Chef John at the Food Wishes blog!

Flour Tortilla Recipe

I read an interesting article in Psychology Today called The Case of the Disappearing Self.   (I find it so fascinating that when an idea is percolating in

No more "I'm Sorry!"

my head, I attract all sorts of information about it!)   I had been stewing about how as women, and especially as spirit-centered women, we tend to self-deprecate to the point of reducing our value in others eyes.  We say “I’m sorry,” way to often, to our detriment.

Obviously there is a time and a place for an apology, and it takes a big person to make that step.  That’s not what I’m talking about here.  As just a basic example, I was in the grocery store the other day with my big stroller, and I accidentally rammed into another woman and her child.  I didn’t see her, and I was mortified.  I turn to her to excuse myself, and before I can even open my mouth she said, “Oh! I am so sorry!  I’m right in the way, aren’t I!  I’ll move over…sorry!”  Wow.  She kept apologizing to me as I rolled around, and it turned into an ‘I’m sorry’ competition between me, the clumsy one and her, the innocent bystander.

After that incident I started paying attention to how often I say sorry for no good reason.  I do it often while shopping even if I’m not in the way.  But I also did it on the phone with a potential business partner: “Sorry to bother you…”  And in a meeting with a colleague: “Oh, sorry, did I interrupt..?”  Yikes.  That was just over three days.  I am an apologizing fool.

The article explains how bright women especially fall prey to this distinct form of self-sabotage.  They often have “erroneous beliefs about their own abilities.”  And so to deflect attention, their modesty often goes above and beyond and becomes self-effacement.

Can you think of any man you know that does this?  It’s quite distinctly a feminine quirk. And it completely devalues us in other’s eyes and in our own.  We believe modesty is a likable quality, and research shows that it is.   But the article goes on to say that while self-effacing individuals are better-liked, they also are viewed as less confident and less competent than those that exhibit self-enhancing behavior.

So my coach’s request for you is this:  ladies, fierce feminine warriors that we are,  let’s stop the ‘I’m sorries’ for no good reason.  We don’t need to apologize when someone bumps into us.  We don’t need to apologize when we need to speak with our employer.  We deserve time set aside for us in conversations with business partners and clients.  We have a right to have our voice. We deserve the spotlight on our unique brilliance without apology or modesty.  So let’s stand in our power, shine light on our gift, and not let anyone diminish it, even and especially our own selves.

Stay tuned to the blog; next week I’ll get down and dirty on how to shore up our beliefs about our awesome selves once and for all.  Once your beliefs are in alignment with your Spirit and Identity, you are unstoppable!

I had an excellent workshop with an amazing client recently.  This studio owner has it together.  She is a fabulous teacher who cares about her students; she’s not very “woo woo,” yet she holds people to the power that she sees within them.  As we worked on her vision together, one large sticking point surfaced – FEAR.  We came to the conclusion that she needed to let go of a private client whose place in her life had fulfilled its purpose and was starting to become a burden.  It was definitely time to move on, to open up a space that had become stifling so that she could allow greater abundance in.

She held fear around various aspects of this needed step.  One of the biggest places fear had got its hold was around change.   The stable income was nice…and needed.  She enjoyed making a difference in this person’s life.  But she needed this space so that she could concentrate on the next exciting phase of her business.

Enter FEAR.  In my mind, fear is a Mean Girl.  You know, the cute but nasty girl in high school that always sat at the head of the cool table.  The Mean Girl is the fear that keeps you from fully stepping into your powerful gift.  She’s the one holding back your brilliance, keeping it close to the vest instead of shining for the world to see.  ”But why change anything at all?” asks this little saboteur on your shoulder.  ”This place is nice and safe.  It’s warm, comfortable, and seems to have worked for you so far.  No need to stir things up…”  This was the conversation that was playing out in our session.  I knew she needed to do this.  She knew it too.  But it was a tough sell to the Mean Girl inside.

What’s interesting about the Mean Girl is that she’s a charmer.  She starts off innocently, as if she’s really thinking about your best interests when she wants to keep you at the lowly table in the corner.  ”But you already know how the status quo works,” she purrs at you.  ”If you stay here, you won’t have to do anything differently, and everyone likes you here!”  She begins this dance easy on you, and if you back off now you won’t have to face her again.

If you continue your pursuit of success, however, she starts giving you backhanded insults.  ”You know, it really is nice here.  And think about it, if you stay, you won’t have to face any embarrassment when things start to fall apart,” she says through her smile at you.  ”Because they always do, and I just don’t want to see this happen to you again!”

But if you keep walking toward the cool table, things take a turn fast.  You see, so many people start off with amazing intentions.  They actually take those first steps, and face those fears.  They haven’t listened to the Mean Girl…yet.  Sometimes the hardest part is not the beginning, when you are just getting started in your business, but it’s when you are ready to take that next quantum leap, and really crank things up.  That’s when she gets nasty.

“I guess you didn’t hear me.  My table is not for losers.  Your table, the loser table, is over there.  You aren’t meant to sit at this table, you don’t have what it takes.  You are making a fool of yourself in front of all these people, you look like an idiot now and they can see right through you.”  And then…you start to believe her.  You falter, you lose your footing, you trip, and your Coke goes splattering all over the front of your new shirt.   “She’s right,” you say to yourself.  ”Look at me.  I’m a mess.  I’m clumsy.  I’m an idiot.  All these people are laughing at me, they see I’m a fraud.  I don’t have what it takes.  I’ll never be meant for the cool table.”  And as you turn back to the corner, Mean Girl smiles.  She won this one again.

So the question is, how do we stop the Mean Girl in our heads?  Because she’s the one keeping you from succeeding.  I’ll tell you what won’t work.  You don’t need another training retreat to gain one more skill or certification to make that difference.  (However, business training is always a great idea.  You should be spending as much on your business training as you do in training in your field if you want to be wildly successful!)  In fact, more training in your field is usually NOT what makes most successful people make quantum leaps in their businesses.  What makes the absolute biggest difference, proven time and time again, is changing the conversation that’s going on in your head.  

As a Certified Money, Marketing and Soul Coach, I use a method of coaching that works with levels of alignment.  Certain things need to be in alignment before a breakthrough can happen.  And the three levels at the top of the list that MUST be in alignment include your Spirit, your Mindset/Identity and your Beliefs.    When these three things line up nice and neat with your goal, the Mean Girl doesn’t have a comeback.

• Your Spirit is your sense of purpose and passion.  Why is what you do important to you?
• Your Mindset/Identity is how you perceive yourself.  As a leader?  As a teacher making a difference?
• Your Beliefs support your sense of identity.  Do you doubt or believe that what you want to achieve is possible?

There is a caveat to all of this.  In the last paragraph I said that these three have to align with YOUR GOAL.  Often these three are in alignment, but they support a goal that is no longer serving your purpose.  For instance, you may have a goal of teaching international workshops.  But the trio is aligned with your previous goal of teaching one local workshop.  As a local workshop teacher, your Spirit or purpose might have been to help your local community.  Your Mindset/Identity is that you are a good teacher with enough of a following to teach locally.  And your Beliefs support that Identity, and you do believe in yourself as a local community teacher working on a small scale.  Do you see how the trio is in alignment with each other, but not with your new big goal?

The Mean Girl may seem like an enemy, but really she is your greatest teacher.  She is just showing you all this.  She’s saying, look, hotshot.  You got this far, but who do you think you are trying to go bigger?  What’s she’s doing in essence is urging you to reexamine beliefs that aren’t serving you anymore.

To get where you now want to get, you need to look deeper.  And you start with Spirit.  What is your larger purpose now? Why is it important to you to touch an international audience?  Why do you connect deeply with this purpose?  Your Identity then lines up, as you ask yourself, ‘as a leader of international retreats, how would I act?  What decisions would I make?’  And you Beliefs confirm it, as you ask yourself, ‘What do I have to believe to make this possible?’  And so on and on you dig through each of these three levels to get them in deeper and deeper alignment with your Quantum goal.

Once you have your Spirit, Identity and Beliefs aligned on a greater scale, the Mean Girl cannot have a say over something that powerful.  Your belief in yourself as someone who can touch and affect a large audience will have a profound affect.  As you start to sink into to this stronger alignment, Mean Girl actually becomes impressed!  She asked you “Who do you think you are?” and you told her straight up exactly who you are.  This newfound respect turns Mean Girl into your greatest ally.  You’ve proven your mettle, and her voice now becomes one of support, as she invites you to sit with her at the cool table, and experience success for yourself.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again many times.  Being an entrepreneur is the greatest self-growth and self-help project imaginable.  It’s really flippin’ hard sometimes.  But you can work through the fear that’s holding you back.  There’s no better time than now to become that fierce feminine warrior for good you were meant to be.

Next time I’ll talk about how to actually start changing your beliefs.  It’s easy to say – Change Your Mind, Change the World! – but how do we actually do that?  I’ll tell you soon, so stay tuned!

Okay, so we covered the absolute basics in last week’s post – 6 Traits of Successful Yoga Entrpreneurs.  If you need to review, go do it now.  Those traits are non-negotiable, and you must have them down before anything else I talk about here will grow your yoga business.

There are quite a few facets that go into making a truly successful, long-term yoga career.  I’ll detail what all of those facets are in a later post, so make sure you keep up with the blog so you don’t miss it.  Each facet is a piece of your Success Puzzle.  Every single piece is important; if you leave even one out the picture is incomplete.  But each piece is very different.  Some pieces have to do with mindset.  Some have to do with long-term planning.  Some have to do with structuring your offerings.  It’s the synergy of those pieces that really creates a whole that is much more significant than it’s parts.

In the next few weeks I’ll write more about this.  Each piece takes brainstorming, planning, and consistent intention to step more  fully and powerfully into who you are meant to be, so that you can serve those you need to serve.   I’ve been meditating on a phrase for this process of stepping unapologetically into your power, and what I came up with was this: going from Fear to Fierce.  You are going to be hearing a lot more about my concept – Fierce Feminine – in the future.  It’s all about a no-excuses, no apologies approach to tapping into your authentic sacred feminine power and making a true mark on this world.

But back to this post. What I’ll be covering here are the very simple things you can do right now to start getting more people in the door.  The Success Puzzle takes time – and you’ll  need to set aside that time if you want the people who you get in the door to stick around.  But sometimes you just need some concrete action items to attract warm bodies.  Here they are!

Warm Body Attraction Magnets

1.  When someone asks what you do, instead of saying “I’m a yoga teacher….um,  nice sweater!” say “I’m a yoga teacher at this awesome studio, I would love for you to take a class to try it out!” The personal invite is the absolute easiest AND most effective thing you can do to get people in the door.  And when said with authentic passion, your energy is contagious. What’s great about this is that there is no lying, no trickery, no twisting someone’s arm getting them to do something they don’t want to do.  It’s quick and simple, and you are telling the truth – you love yoga, so you teach it, and you think most people need it and would love it too.

2.  Change the name of your class from Vinyasa Yoga or Therapeutic Yoga or Pre-natal Yoga to Quittin’ Time, Melt’n Stress Yoga or Get the Boss Off Your Back Yoga if it’s at 5 or 6 pm.  Kick the Pain Yoga.  Mommy Needs a Break Yoga.  You get the picture – get creative with your class names and make them more descriptive and catchy.  That alone will prompt people looking at your schedule to want to try different classes.  If you wanna get really crazy, after the name change send a press release to your local news station or paper.  You just may get some coverage out of it – and a third party endorsement from the press will give you a blast of new students.

3.  Get Wired.  For real, people, it is the 21st century.  A large percentage of your new students will find you through a Google search.  That is a fact.  A template website that lists your schedule and an About Me page with all of your certifications is the most boring flippin’ thing on the planet.   An e-newsletter that reads like a grocery list of your upcoming classes and workshops will give you nearly zero return on time investment and does not cut it.  A Facebook account that is only used to tell me about your next Beginner Yoga Workshop makes me yawn uncontrollably.   I don’t have time to get down and dirty on all the ways that you can and MUST use the web to your advantage, but I do have time to use a cliché – this is the wave of the future and it is here to stay.  Build relationships with your tribe through informative content and interesting conversations, not your  boring, half ass sales-pitch-disguised-as-announcement-so-no-one-will-think-I’m-trying-to-sell-something.  It’s harsh but needs saying.

4.  Ask for referrals.  From students in your classes, from your next door business neighbors, from other healers you trust like chiropractors or local doctors.   Again, it’s about being honest about your love for yoga and your confidence that you are the teacher for them, their friends, and their clients.  You won’t receive unless you ask, and do it genuinely.  Why not make it fun and turn it into a contest with a fabulous prize for the most referrals?

5.  Create a special offer for nearby businesses.  Maybe you are next to a rockin’ hair salon where stylists are on their feet all day long.  Make a flier touting the specific benefits of yoga for hairstylists and invite them to try a class.  This idea worked for one of my coaching clients, whose studio was next to a busy building full of dentists.  People who work hunched over somebody’s mouth all day really need yoga! Get creative here and have fun.  Invite these folks for a specific day, and tailor that class to address their needs.

6.  Throw a party!  Have a relevant and timely theme, do fun things, have music and drinks, and invite everyone you know.  Co-host it with the restaurant next door and have them provide the food and invite their guest list too.  Create a special package just for guests at the party, have a raffle for charity, give gift bags with free stuff, get creative.  Oh, and tell the press!  :)

Marketing your passion should not feel like a chore, though I think so often we build it up in our minds to be.  Just remember why you choose this career path, and think of all of the people you have helped and WILL help once they know about you.  And get excited about it.  Your authentic, in-person excitement does so much more to get people in the door than your snazzy ad in the paper ever will!