How To Grow A Sustainable Healing Biz Without Overwhelm

Simple Secrets to Wellness Biz Success.

This is really a culmination of what I have discovered along the way in the last few years so I'm looking forward to sharing this with you.

Here's kind of a breakdown of what we're going to be doing today.

We'll talk about why we're here and a little bit about me if you are new to me.

I'm going to talk about some of the most common challenges that are coming up around building and growing a wellness biz and then I have a three step strategic roadmap to share with you that is really something that has transformed my business and kept me on track to where I am today.

We'll go into simple secrets to success.

Those three simple secrets that I have been teasing you about.

These are game changers in what has brought me to where I am and we'll talk about how to take action because I know that that's something that does not come naturally to all of us.

So I want to share just a little bit about my story here because I know that some of you are new to me.

Some of you I've been able to connect with for a while but you may not know who I am or what brought me here.

So I am originally from Vancouver,

Canada.

I'm actually in North Vancouver right now which is fun because the last few years I've been traveling full-time basically in the tropics.

So I've come back for a little bit of a visit this summer and I've been teaching yoga and meditation and other healing techniques for about a decade now.

I've been training and mentoring yoga teachers and other entrepreneurs for at least seven years and for four years I was working at three of the top yoga studios in LA.

I was the lead teacher.

I was the teacher development manager there.

It was really a dream come true for me.

You know a girl from a small town outside Vancouver getting a job opportunity to move to LA and kind of the big leagues of yoga.

So that was an incredible experience and like I said I've now been traveling full-time for about three years.

I've been living primarily in places like Mexico and Bali and Thailand and Vietnam.

So I gotta tell you it was a bit of a culture shock when I came back to North America earlier this summer but I've made it through.

Okay so really let me break down a little bit more.

So that's just the nuts and bolts about me but here is a little bit more information because I want to show you where I kind of where I was starting from and how I've gotten to where I am.

So if we go back just a few years 2019 I was teaching full-time in LA at the three studios.

I was the teacher development manager lead teacher.

I was so burnt out.

I had worked so hard to get to that point to teaching and living in LA that I had zero boundaries.

I was saying yes to everything work related.

I had no control over my own schedule.

I had found myself in this place where I had moved to LA.

You know sunny beach beautiful city so much to offer but I had no time and I had no energy to actually enjoy what I wanted to enjoy for the most part in that city because I was burnt out and drained from running around between studios teaching a bunch of classes and not having any boundaries in place and still barely making ends meet.

Cut to 2020 where we all have our own version of this story but of course the studios I was teaching at closed as they all did and I was kind of just forced to sit in this reflective state.

I had nothing else to do.

I had nowhere else to be.

I sat and I meditated and I reflected on what is going right in my life and what just doesn't make sense what's not working.

So I started to peel back the layers and release the limiting beliefs and really figure out what was holding me back from really standing in my power and that was when toward the end of 2020 where my husband and I decided now seems like a really good time to start traveling full time believe it or not.

So we did start doing that.

We left our home in LA.

We donated most of our belongings put the rest in storage and that was when I first launched my own business and started traveling at the same time and so cut to the next year that first year of travel and business building.

I was in Mexico.

I was in Bali.

I was spending like 12 hours a day on my computer trying to set up my business on my own trying to figure out how to make this a sustainable living through trial and error and again I was burnt out and I was finding myself in these beautiful incredible countries with way too much time not getting to enjoy them and and realizing like why what am I doing all of this for if I can't enjoy myself with this lifestyle.

So I started to then seek support and invest in coaching and programs that would actually move the needle forward for myself and my business and then I started to understand what works and what doesn't work through those investments and through that coaching and I started to set a work-life balance and put some boundaries in place and that was when things started to shift.

I started to launch and sell out retreats.

I got a lot of clarity around who my niche was who I wanted to be serving and what I wanted to be offering them and then cut to now I've just spent a year in Thailand.

I was in Vietnam for a couple of months.

I had not only the strategic part I've I'm in a high-level mastermind.

I am always learning and growing my business but also the energy part which we'll talk about today as well.

This was such an important piece for me where yeah I thought I had dealt with all that mindset stuff back in 2020 but then I realized when I worked with a healer in Thailand this past year for about 100 hours one-on-one,

The most powerful energy healer I've ever come across,

It really started to shift my awareness and open me up to understand what my path was and what I needed to let go of.

So in the last year and a half I've had three sold-out retreats.

I have over 7,

000 course students on Insight Timer.

I'm investing in high-level support and I'm helping others like you build their dream business because I've figured out this formula that has worked for me and I have the freedom to just set up my lifestyle how I want it.

I know not everyone wants to travel but everyone wants more freedom and flexibility in your lifestyle,

Right?

We want to cut out all of that driving time and preparation time going from class to class and job to job and really figure out what you want and make it work for you.

So that's a little bit about me and what I want to share now is I've had the opportunity to connect with many of you over the last couple of weeks which has been awesome and it's given me a lot of insight and I find this with my one-on-one clients as well and those that I've had in memberships and other programs.

The three most common challenges that are coming up for you are where do you start,

How do you fill your offerings or your classes,

And how can you build a business that is sustainable that will fulfill your financial means and then some that is consistent so that you don't have to be running around town from place to place working for other people.

And this is where I was a few years ago like I was totally overwhelmed.

I was lost.

I was ready to give up and I don't want anyone else to feel that way and that's really why we're here today.

I want to give you a little bit of guidance on where to spend your time and attention.

So before we get into the strategies I want to talk for just a moment on why it's important to grow an online presence because I know that some of you might have no interest in offering anything online.

You might want to only do things in person and that's awesome if that's your choice and it's still important for you to grow an online presence.

So whether you want to offer things online or in person or both,

Which is what I recommend,

Some of the reasons why this is important to grow your following,

Your presence online,

You will have networking and collaboration opportunities.

You are going to reach more people in your own community so even if it's in person only you're just going to reach more people if you have an online presence in your local community.

It's going to give you an opportunity to build your brand and establish credibility so then when you want to make more partnerships or sell higher ticket items you will have that credibility formed online because you can't meet everyone in person,

Right?

And really the most important one I think is to grow a global client base so that for those of you,

And I know many of you out there want to do this or have attempted this already,

Selling out international events and retreats.

I know many of you are out there and I was the same a few years ago and maybe some of you have attempted or tried and it hasn't worked out and there's just so much to build the foundation first before you start to sell these higher ticket offerings and that's what we're going to touch on today.

Really this is why I started growing an online presence.

Yes because I wanted to work remotely but I of course still wanted to have those in-person connections so stick with me because building the foundation and growing an online presence is really the first step to creating these events and actually selling them to your ideal clients.

So let's dive into this three-step roadmap to strategically build your biz foundation and some of this information you might have heard already but let's break it down and share these three steps,

This formula that has taken me to where I am today,

To working completely for myself,

Traveling the world,

Selling out retreats.

The first step is to clarify your niche.

Some of you have heard me talking about this before,

So very important we'll break these down in a moment.

The second step is a strategy for your social media and I know many of us are resistant to showing up consistently on social media and I get it,

There can be good reasons around that but this is a piece that if you want to run a business there's a way that you can set up a strategy that you won't burn out from and that you can set boundaries around to keep your peace and your energy.

And the third step is email marketing which is so important you may have been hearing me talk about this as well on social media.

This is a step that we cannot skip okay and I'm going to talk about why.

So let's start with diving into your niche.

If any of you are not quite sure yet what a niche is then I want you to consider who you are creating your offerings for,

What problem you are solving for them and the more specific the better.

Sometimes we're resistant to getting specific about the problem,

The solution,

The person because we don't want to leave anyone out.

We want yoga or breath work or meditation or energy work for all and that's lovely and there's a place for that in studios and in group programs but if you want to make a bigger impact and find your people you need to niche down.

Okay now I know that some of you have mentioned that you have different modalities that you like to incorporate and you're just not sure how to link them together in one kind of program or in one way and niching down is a great example of how you can do this because like for me for instance I do offer yoga and meditation and I do offer some qigong energy work and on that side of my business I'm focusing on empaths and sensitive people so that is my niche but within that niche I'm creating offerings around all of those modalities that are essentially helping fix the same problem.

So for those of you who want to incorporate both yoga and nutrition or yoga and psychology or reiki and breath work whatever it is you get the idea this is the way you can do that okay by figuring out what your niche is what problem you're solving and what solution you're providing them.

Now this is often a challenge that you yourself have overcome in the last few years so you can start to consider how maybe yoga or another healing modality has brought has helped you with a physical challenge has helped you emotionally mentally has helped you through sports anything that you've overcome and that's probably why you want to be sharing it with someone in the first place right that could be the first indication of what your niche should be so that's something you can reflect on and I want to make it clear that you don't need to be a total expert on the topic that you choose you don't need to know everything you only need to know a little bit more than the people that you're teaching okay take a moment and let that sink in because we're all running around to all of these trainings thinking the more we know the more money we're going to make or the more we know then we're going to be ready to start creating the offerings or launching the business but really you need to have the confidence and the courage to share in what you've already learned and the people who want to learn what you know are already out there they want to learn from you they just need to be able to find you and one more note on your niche is that this is a living and breathing topic it's going to evolve over time just as you do so when I started a few years ago I was trying all kinds of different yoga niches I was trying a yoga for sleep essential oils I've done kids yoga in the past I've done yoga for burnout you know different things and I want you to know that you don't have to get pigeonholed in one thing you try it see what happens if it doesn't work you can always change it as you grow over time okay so the next one social media are you resistant or are you afraid or are you ignoring the opportunity you have on social media and I get that too because I know you know when I first moved to LA many years ago I said I'm not going to be one of those Instagram yoga teachers you know I don't need Instagram in order to teach yoga and I was right in order to teach in a studio you don't need Instagram but who I don't know many yoga teachers in my life and I've known hundreds and hundreds of yoga teachers that I've trained and otherwise that are burnt out because they're not making ends meet and they're scraping by teaching a bunch of different classes and giving all their energy to the studios so let's talk about how social media can be your friend so first of all here is a little formula for you social media minus a strategy is a recipe for burnout okay and I've been there we've probably all been there at one point it's just how it is it's true we need a strategy for social media you need to be consistent and clear and congruent with your social media how you're showing up in your bio in your link in your content and you really need to focus on your niche and create content for your niche who are you creating creating the content for so you posing pretty photos on Instagram of Natarajasana or whatever it is or you on vacation or eating delicious food is that speaking to your ideal student or client who you want to come on retreat with you in the future are they feeling connected to that content consider that where are your ideal students and clients hanging out which platform are they hanging out at so if you are spending all your time on Instagram which I've had clients here that are doing this if they're spending all their time on Instagram creating this beautiful awesome content there but it turns out that most of their clientele are over spending their time on Facebook does that make sense even if they prefer Instagram to Facebook they're not going to reach their ideal clients because their clients aren't seeing what they're posting so that's something important to remember as you get clear on your niche you're going to start to understand where your ideal clients are hanging out and that's where you should be hanging out now it's really important when you are creating content to show up on video and I'm not only talking about beautiful time lapse yoga flows here those actually can be great once in a while for reels for engagement and wonderful but especially if you want to grow an online presence which we should all be doing we talked about that already you need to authentically be able to talk on video and I will tell you that this is not something that came natural to me so for those of you who are like it's just not something I'm naturally good at or I just feel too uncomfortable there's a little thing called doing it anyway and it will get easier as you go I am a total introvert I am a total empath I'm very sensitive when I start showing up on video a few years ago I was terrified I'm still uncomfortable doing it I did it anyway because this is what is helping me push the needle forward so that I can connect to all of you and I have sold out retreats from just having an online presence like I don't even teach in studios anymore so the people that are signing up for my retreats are finding me online and connecting to me that way and you need to build that trust so video is really important so that was what I wanted to share on social media now let's talk about the final strategy here email marketing and I know many of us haven't really dove into this yet so I know that just like me a few years ago many of you don't have this set up yet this is a missed opportunity and something that is important to learn and I can't break down all the tips with you today because I don't want to take up your entire day but start to wrap your head around this plan because this is so important and let me tell you why most of your followers on Instagram and on social media are not even seeing what you are posting okay there's just a small percentage of them that are actually seeing what you are sharing with them and when you send an email there are statistics around this where people are more likely to sign up for your offerings through email rather than through social media invites and when you sign up with an email service provider you can actually start to track the statistics the numbers you can look at who's opening your emails and who's reading your emails who's really interested in what you have to say you can also personalize these emails when you use an email service provider once you have that all set up it's like this is how you can start to grow your email list while you're asleep because you've got your lead magnet working for you and if you have not heard of a lead magnet yet essentially this is just a free thing that you are offering in order to capture someone's email so if you are offering them maybe a free ebook or a video series or meditation something like that you set it up in your email service provider so that they automatically sign up they receive it and they're on your email list now one thing I want to note when you do start sending emails this is not a list where you are only selling them your offerings you want to build trust and connect with your email subscribers so that they can get to know you they can understand what you might be selling them down the road and you start to spend time nurturing them and there are different ways to do that called a nurture sequence which I can share more about at another time so that is so important and honestly this is one of the biggest gaps that I see with a lot of my one-on-one clients and those I've worked with in the past that they don't have this set up so this is something for you to consider because it makes a difference so there's a quote or you know what a saying I mentioned that I'm in a mastermind right now because I'm still working towards my big goals and dreams I'm always investing in myself self and my business now one of my business coaches very recently said this in a training and it really resonated with me and this is that strategy gets you to the door and energy gets you through the door okay and this is so important because you can have all of the strategy in place and if you don't believe in yourself and if you don't have the energetics right then you probably won't see the results that you're after and it's vice versa as well you know you can have all of the incredible energy but if you don't have this strategy in place you're probably not going to get to the door in the first place so they work hand in hand together which is why as I move into our next section three simple secrets to wellness biz success we are going to shift gears and focus a little bit more on the energetics and the mindset piece because this is so so important and this is something that really changed the growth of my business over time so the these are your three secrets okay and I'm sharing these because I feel like these are not always talked about when it comes to building your business and this like I said this is what helped me get to where I am personal connection we'll break these down in a moment having grit and being adaptable so let's break each of these down for a moment and let me share a little bit more with you here so personal connection I've talked a little bit about this and if you take nothing else I think that this might be something that I want you to take with you today people want to feel connected to you before they buy from you and it's not all about selling but if you want to run a sustainable business you do need to sell things that's kind of how businesses work right and we want to create more peace in the world and you want to bring your purpose to more people around the world and they need to feel connected to you in order to initially stick around and see what you have to say so social media specifically I am seeing this so much where you are posting about your classes or things that are coming up or about your personal trips or yoga poses things like that don't just post something and then disappear or as I like to call it post and ghost okay it's so important on social media to actually spend time engaging with your followers sending dms leaving comments absolutely I'm not saying be sleazy or or fake about it be authentic be you but do reach out and make that connection just like you would in person like if you're teaching a session a yoga session or anything else in a studio or in a workspace you are going to make connections with people you're going to talk to them right so if you want to grow your online presence it works that way too you can't just talk towards people you need to have conversations and show that you're making the effort to personally reach out and again this is why being on video is key right because it just doesn't it's not the same when you create a beautiful canva post with you know branded whatever versus you just hopping on video and talking and I know that that part's scarier but it works trust me and when you are making these connections be relatable so when you're choosing what to write in your posts on social media or in your emails use the same language as your ideal students and clients in your messaging keep that consistent so think about this especially the yoga teachers out there are your clients using words like asana or are they instead calling it a yoga pose like I know we we learned some of these awesome words in our ytts and we can speak like that with our friends who are yoga teachers but if you are reaching out to say beginners who are just starting their yoga practice they don't know about asana they don't probably know about shavasana you know be relatable so that they can understand what you're talking about and then share your story as it relates to your niche the struggles the challenges that you've overcome that's a really great way to push through and connect with your ideal students and clients let's talk about grit and resiliency running your own business and being an entrepreneur is not easy it's just not easy and it's not always going to be simple it's not always going to go your way I know that I've had many challenges in the last few years of doing this myself and this is why I want to share it with you because it's so important for you to make sure that you show up and keep going so challenges that come up or things that make you feel like it was a failure or it didn't work like if you offered a class and it's not filling up or a workshop you want to get more people into your membership or you want to fill a retreat and it's just not happening think of these as opportunities for you to gather information so that you can better understand where to focus next because we all know that we are our biggest critic right and it's so much easier to just be hard on yourself and to give up and to quit or take a long break and disappear versus actually just seeing it as what it is if you offered something that didn't work out maybe that means it wasn't to the right niche or it wasn't niched down enough maybe you need some support with the promotional piece or to grow your audience and build trust with them more first before selling to them so when something doesn't go your way it's not a setback it's think of it more like a redirection closer towards that vision of yours that you have we thought about our vision at the beginning you want to keep that vision close to you and come back to it in the moments that feel challenging or overwhelming and i don't want you to disappear or give up because i see this happen a lot especially on social media we post things or share things and we put everything into it and then if you don't get the outcome that you were hoping for you just disappear and leave people hanging and it's okay to take a break but i want you to make sure that you are still taking time to reflect to reassess and to keep at it and really important here as an entrepreneur and a business owner you've got to find a support system that's going to stick with you it's going to be different for everyone maybe it's going to be family or friends other yoga teachers or entrepreneurs in your wheelhouse whether it's a coach a mentor a community you have to find other people to help support you because we just simply can't do this on our own it's too much of an undertaking all right let's talk about the final secret here and this is adaptability this one's so important and i talked about this with your niche your business will evolve it will grow it will change just as you do we all know that we should always be constantly evolving and growing your business is no different so you need to know that whatever your vision is now or whatever your business looks like now it's going to change over time so the more you can open yourself up to pivoting and changing when something does feel stuck or stagnant the more you're going to flow with your business so when those stories do come up the self-doubt the imposter syndrome anything that's holding you back from taking action or from being authentic and showing your true self this is when it's time for you to deal with those mindset blocks and move through them if you don't feel like your business will succeed then guess what you're probably right so it's really important listen to yourself talk listen to the stories that you are creating around what's possible for you because you know i know that you all are attuned to energy and understand or believe this to some degree that there is this energetic peace with us as and as an entrepreneur you get this so much it's so much about who you are it's so much about being vulnerable especially in the wellness space and the yoga space we need to bring so much of ourselves and if we're not doing the inner work to build our own inner will and our strength then we're not going to be able to keep up with the demands of building a business so pay attention to what works as you start to create offerings as you start to create content or emails or whatever it is when you are creating something notice if it's kind of like if it feels like it's flowing or if it feels like forced when something is flowing try to keep going in that direction that's the adaptability piece sometimes you'll find things are just working for you and you're definitely going to also find when things don't work maybe it's a niche maybe it's an offering a class something else just consider that an opportunity to redirect and to shift out of that feeling of trying to force it and just shift your attention somewhere else because the the harder we try to push through something that isn't working the more resistance we're going to create and come up against.

I know many of you are curious on how to build a sustainable business and these are just a few hot tips for you as we start to wind down here and this is really about taking breaks and setting boundaries just like how I talked about my story you need to be able to set those boundaries around social media around your work hours so that you can still prioritize of course those of you who have families and other responsibilities you need to figure out what a work-life balance is for you and stick with that so learning your limits prioritizing your time but make sure you are always leaving time for fun and I say this because I learned this the hard way when I was first in Mexico spending all my time on my computer I was not leaving time for fun and that mentality of working all the time yeah there's a lot of hard work you need to put into this but if you are draining yourself and your resources then that energetic balance is going to be off and you're not going to see the positive shift forward so pay attention to that and this is really how this becomes a sustainable business for you so thank you for bearing with me through all of that information and I've got a little bit more to share with you I want you to ask yourself am I resisting taking action because this is something that many of us have been up against there's that resistance and what is it it's probably a mindset block you want to address and release the mindset blocks around either not being good enough not being ready or not being worthy of making money this is a big one that so many of us go up against so really again do the inner work here and get clear on what you want for your life that vision what kind of business do you want to build what kind of lifestyle do you want to create for yourself the more clear you are on what that vision is the more you'll start to understand what small steps you can start to take and it will keep you going as well so write it down like I know I'm sure many of you have journals maybe you've already written it down write that vision down somewhere and come back to it often maybe you just put it in your phone notes or somewhere where you'll see it often keep coming back to it I would love for everyone to just let me know how you're feeling let me know what's coming up for you if you found this helpful what you found to be valuable please do reach out and send me your thoughts thank you all so much for being here I do feel that it's that formula of strategy and energy that is how I got to where I am now and that's where I see my clients have the most success when they're able to target both of those areas all right loves let's leave it at that take care everyone lots of love