Meet the impressive Terra Milo:
Terra Milo teaches coaches and entrepreneurs all the computer skills they need to launch their business and spread their mission in the world. From websites to newsletters to social media, she will empower you with skills and confidence so you can infuse your messages with inspiration. Terra believes that technology runs on energy, so when you’re creating websites and emails, you are literally sending energy to your potential clients. Make sure that energy is confident, positive, and enlightening!
Amanda: How do you like to work with your clients?
Terra: I love working with people one-on-one. I know courses are popular about technology but I log into your systems and we work on your stuff together. We write content and do everything together. So when we’re done working, you have something finished and you also know how to do it yourself. That’s my big mission: to empower to this technology stuff yourself. Otherwise, you have to hire someone and everytime you need an update you have to hire someone new. Instead of all that, I think it’s really important for you to know how your business works. You need to know how your business works, how your systems work so when you do hire a team you know what you’re talking about and you can keep the business moving forward if something happens if something happens to someone on your team.
I was working with a yoga teacher and she was trying to do something online. She was getting really frustrated and really stuck. I could feel how tense and stressed she was. I calmed her down told her, “we can do this” and she kind of relaxed a little bit. I said, “Look you’re a yoga teacher. If somebody comes into your yoga class for the first time. They can’t do everything perfectly. If they have that mindset of being frustrated and feeling stupid — you would never yell at them! You would invite them to be patient with themselves.”
It’s the same with yoga, business and technology. You’ve never run a business, you’ve never built a website before, or sent a newsletter before. Of course you don’t know how to do it perfectly the first time!
Amanda: I can imagine her on the other side of that. Of course she wouldn’t yell or get frustrated with a new yoga student. I love that you brought that in and brought that to her attention because we all need that. I share that I’m frustrated often and you have seen that frustration and I can say first hand that we get on a call and we’re working through something — you tell me to shake it off. That’s when I knew you were perfect for this and perfect for yoga teachers. We know to take a moment and think about what’s going on.
Terra: I started out as a health coach and I noticed that other health coaches were struggling with this technology stuff. That’s what I was doing in my job working with technology at a university. It’s a similar industry to yoga — we’re helping people feel better and have some eas in their life. It’s all so similar and interconnected and I was working with a lot of yoga teachers.
That’s why I love this group. We speak each other’s language and it makes it fun!
Amanda: What are the most common tech roadblocks you see in yoga teachers?
Terra: The big one I see a lot is that there are so many choices that you don’t know what to do. I see people asking all the time “what tools should I use? What website? What email newsletter?”
There are so many choices and that becomes a roadblock. So then you decide not to do any of them! Or you ask others for their opinion and now you have even more ideas.
It stops people in their tracks and makes it difficult. My suggestion in that is to try somethings and see what works for you. Because these tools are built by different people and different thinkers. For example, I use an online calendar where people can schedule an appointment with me. One of these online calendar systems is built is for one type of brand and another type of online calendar is built for another type of brain. I signed up for both of them and one of them works better for my brain and another one works better for my client and that’s what she uses!
My best tip is to sign up for a couple of them and see what works best for you, and your brain and the way you want to work because nothing should be hard. It’s not your job to know the backend of a website, FTP and blah blah. That’s MY job
Your job is to be a yoga teacher. Your job is not to be the IT person for your business.
Amanda: That’s such a good suggestion. Even myself in knowing a little more than a lot of yoga teachers right out of the gate because of my marketing background in the corporate world, I knew a few things. I was still overwhelmed when I started my own business! It’s different systems! I didn't have the corporate budget anymore, I had to pick a different system. I love that you said different people build things differently. That is so fascinating to me. I need to remember that when I share “okay, this works for me” I should also advise on other tools to see what resonates with my students.
Terra: I find this a lot in Facebook groups. When people ask about task management systems, especially. Don’t ask the group — just go try them out yourself! People are going to like different ones from you. That being said, I suggest the least expensive and the easiest ones to use.
For example, I use WordPress for my website. But it’s complicated, it breaks, you can get viruses. Stressful things can happen when you use WordPress! Check out my freebie with a chart about SquareSpace Versus WordPress!
Amanda: I coach yoga teachers and highly encourage blogging and growing their email list. How would you suggest that a yoga teacher who is just starting either one of these to tackle the tech?
Terra: What I love about having an email list is that pretty much every time I send a newsletter, I get a client. Which is so awesome. I am not the best writer — I write well and I have fun with it. What happens is that you are reminding them that you exist.
They’re going through their week and they’re stressed and you pop into their email and they realize “Oh yes, I was meaning to talk to her!”. You slide into their email box and you remind them that you exist and you’re there to help!
I best tip around it is to use the same content everywhere. You write a blog, maybe you record a video and you put that on your website. Then send them the same thing as a newsletter or as my friend says “you’re feeding two birds with one scone”. Then take little pieces of that and share that into your social media such as Instagram. You’re not working all the time and creating content all the time — you’re just repurposing the content you’ve already created.
Amanda: Everyone who follows me knows this is the system I teach because this is the system I follow. Now you’re seeing someone who heavily influenced this system because Terra helped me over a year ago with my email and I follow this system. I come up with one piece of content and it serves everything else.
Terra: I love to batch! Do you batch your content also?
Amanda: Oh, yes! I do. The month this is coming out is all about blogging. One day I’ll sit in my home office or coworking space and change into 4 shirts, maybe change my hair and just film! The content is all related so it keeps me organized and more consistent with the content and it saves time!
Please share any tips you have about blogging! Either on the tech side or the content side because you are so good at both.
Terra: My tip for blogging and getting started with any website is to take it easy. Explore, click around, see what happens when you click on things. Go really slowly. If you try to rush through things you may do something you don’t intend and then you need to fix it! Play with some things for a while.
I write everything off my website. I write everything in Google Docs. I’ll write it there and paste it to my website.
Amanda: Great tip — I also do this! One thing I also want to add is there is no need to write weekly. I do, but I didn’t start off that way. Ease into it! When you write monthly, that’s only 12 topics to write about, sounds easy right?
Terra: I do have a great tip for writing and making videos and I’m sure I’ve shared this with you: speak to just one person. When we make a video and we’re thinking about 100 people and we get a teacher voice, we try to use all these fancy words and it doesn’t come across. It doesn’t make a connection to your reader or your viewer.
One thing I like to do is to give my audience a single name and write to that one person. It’s brought a lot of success and connection to my sales pages!
Amanda: I do this in my Niching Down guide! One of the last few pages in the guide is identifying the person to talk to. You actually give them a name and I write to my person every time I write anything.
Since we’re on content, one of my favorite content tips is that you have to forget everything you learned in school! You have to go back to how your you actually speak. Use contractions, be informal!
Amanda: How can yoga teachers work with you?
Terra: Find me at my website! I like to work with people one-on-one like I said. We can work together for one session, three maybe five if you want to build a whole website. We’d have a short conversation about your goals and I’d suggest the right program for you. You can follow me on Instagram! One of my favorite things to do is an Ask Me Anything Webinar where people can rapid fire questions at me. I’m doing that every other Wednesday on my Facebook page, no need to sign up or anything!
Check out all of Terra’s awesome freebies!
Wordpress or SquareSpace Comparison Guide
See you all next week, friends!
