“What ended up being really helpful in getting more comfortable marketing myself and my business was finding a way to make the yoga practice part of the marketing or the marketing part of the yoga practice.” - Ashley Zuberi
If you struggle with the idea of marketing your yoga business this episode is definitely going to help you! My guest, Ashley Zuberi is a yoga teacher who specializes in yoga philosophy and she has a way of connecting this with marketing her yoga business. She touches on specific areas of the yoga sutra that help her (and now you!) promote her yoga business.
“My marketing activities became an extension of my yoga practice.” - Ashley Zuberi
How To Promote Yourself As A Yoga Teacher When You Don’t Want To
“The first thing we can tie this conversation back to is the tapas.” - Ashley Zuberi
There are things in life we need to do but don’t love doing them. From laundry, to cleaning, to paying bills and sometimes this includes stepping onto our yoga mat. We all know there are days when it’s harder to get on the mat than others but if we give it enough thought, we know that it will benefit our day overall if we do it.
When we know something is important, or will pay off in the long-run, we will take that action. And this is the case once we understand the importance of marketing our yoga business too.
“You’re never going to magically grow your email list to thousands of people after posting one thing on social media.” - Ashley Zuberi
“Commitment and consistency. If you can do these things, I can promise you will grow your business.” - Amanda McKinney
Yoga Sutra And How It Helps You Promote Your Yoga Business
I talk about marketing and share tools often but this is the first time that yoga philosophy has made an appearance on the podcast and that’s because I’m not an expert in the topic. But Ashley broke down now the Yoga Sutra can help you learn how to promote your yoga business in a way that will feel great for you.
Step 1: Show up (Tapas)
Show up every day and take the action. Just like stepping onto your yoga mat each day because you know the benefits will come, the same goes for marketing.
Step 2: Reflect (Niyamas)
The concept of reflecting to understand what’s working and what’s not. If you’re trying to learn or achieve a new pose in your yoga practice you will reflect on how to activate certain muscles. The same will work for marketing. Show up and do the work and then look back to see what works and what doesn’t and then make adjustments.
Step 3: Surrender (Ishvara Pranidhana)
At the end of the day you have to try and then let go. Let go of the worry about how your students or audience online will receive a message you put out there. It’s up to them to take in the message when and how it resonates with them. It’s your responsibility to show up and share your message.
How To Interpret Marketing Data
*** Check out the next episode to learn how to reflect on your marketing data to make adjustments along the way.
Tips For Tapping Into Your Unique Message As A Yoga Teacher
“One thing that I pay attention to a lot is responses, the direct responses that I get to my weekly newsletter. Some weeks I send out a newsletter and nobody responds directly. That’s fine. Some weeks I send out a newsletter and I get a ton of responses back.” - Ashley Zuberi
As you share messages in your marketing, pay attention to what type of content actually gets more responses from your audience. Maybe that’s likes or comments or maybe it’s replies to your emails. The idea is to pay attention to what topics are resonating with your audience as you’re sharing. This will help you figure out what your core message is and where your niche, your specialty really is as a yoga teacher.
Then talk more about that topic! It helps you when you run into the “blinking cursor syndrome” too. If you find yourself wondering what to talk about, go back to what messages have done well and talk about it again!
Test Out Your BIG Dream In Your Marketing
If you have a big dream, like writing a book one day, start by testing ideas through your marketing content.
Ashley started in the yoga classroom first, then took it to one of her marketing channels (email) to further explore this idea. She began by incorporating yoga philosophy into her classroom teaching and it actually helped her grow her classes too!
“The classroom became my laboratory where I was experimenting with this.” - Ashley Zuberi
“My class sizes skyrocketed...I was going from teaching classes with maybe 10 people in them every week and by the time I ended up moving away from that area, I had 30 people in my class regularly.” - Ashley Zuberi
From there she started to expand on these ideas and share it in her weekly emails and took notice of what topics got more traction than others. She started a spreadsheet (yep, it can be that simple) and that spreadsheet helps her know what to talk about with her audience AND it’s helping her write a book!
“Marketing is all about testing things to see what works and what doesn’t.” - Amanda McKinney
Your next step
Take some time to reflect on the questions that Ashley mentioned to help you figure out what’s stopping you from promoting your yoga business. Once you know this, you can make adjustments and grow your yoga business like you want to.
Questions For Reflection
What is it about marketing that’s holding you back?
Why are you not excited about sharing your message?
Until next time, give yourself permission to show up and do marketing your way and grace along the way. I’ll talk to you soon!
***Special note about Ashley's freebie on her website! A book club is such a great idea on how to grow your email list! Here's what it looks like on her site! ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
About Ashley
Ashley Josephine Zuberi is a writer, yoga teacher, and founder of Inhale Thrive, a yoga platform dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable continuing education for yoga teachers and practitioners. She has trained yoga teachers across the country and writes extensively about how to apply and embody ancient yogic wisdom in our modern lives. Ashley is currently working on her first book — a modern, thematic interpretation and teaching guide of the Yoga Sutra. She combines many different tools, styles, and practices to create spaces for her students to experience and choose to live from their True Self on and off the mat. Ashley is a military spouse, mama, Ohio native, and has lived in 7 states in the past 8 years.
Ashley's Links:
Website - https://www.inhalethrive.com/
Teacher Training - https://www.inhalethrive.com/courses/teaching-yoga-sutra/
Ashley’s Personal Website - https://ashleyjosephine.com/
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