Building an Online Business from Your In-Person Work

If you're a yoga teacher, coach, or wellness practitioner who knows there's more you're here to offer — this episode is for you.

I'm sharing the exact path I walked to move from teaching outdoor yoga in Sydney (weather-dependent, capped income, zero scalability) to building a business around freedom, consistent income, and doing the deeper work I was always called to do.

We talk about:
✔️ Why in-person work hits a ceiling
✔️ Getting clear on your gifts and what you're most called to offer
✔️ Building systems that connect your community to you automatically
✔️ Making your next offer the most obvious, logical step for your clients

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello,

Why In-Person Work Hits Limits

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welcome back to the Born to Be Her podcast. In this series, we are talking about all things business. You may or may not know that I work as a business coach for incredible humans in the wellness space. So whether you are a coach or a yoga teacher or a breath work facilitator, or you have some kind of modality where you potentially work in person right now, or you are beginning to wish to expand your offerings in some way, this episode is going to be really supportive for you. So my work began as a yoga teacher. And when my work began as a yoga teacher, I was primarily teaching outdoors in Sydney, and I had built a really beautiful community. We were obviously in the early stages of being connected together, but I had this beautiful group of women who were coming pretty consistently to my classes. And the real challenge with that particular business model, whilst it was really successful for the season that I was in, and I'm not making it wrong in any way, is that it was completely dependent on the weather. And thank God we have pretty good weather in Sydney. But I kind of knew that I needed to do something in my business in order to make it sustainable. And also I had this like deep desire to begin to support my clients in a deeper way. I knew that there was more that I could offer to the humans who were coming to my classes. So if you have a modality where you potentially teach in person right now, you may experience this as well, where you have people coming up to you at the end of classes and sharing, you know, the things that your classes are supporting them with, and the ways in which the modality that you're sharing with them is really helping them. And so I knew that there were more ways that I could be supporting the humans who were coming to my classes. And I had also already did a coaching qualification. So I'd already trained as a life coach at the same time that I trained as a yoga teacher. But like many of us, I felt like that was like a bigger leap inside of myself, inside of my own leadership, to step into that role as a coach versus teaching yoga classes. And so I was at this point inside of myself and inside of my business where I knew something needed to shift and change. And so if you're in that spot right now, I want to share with you some of the things that I did to support myself in that season. And what ultimately allowed me to create a sustainable business, one that generates consistent five-figure months now, and has allowed me to, you know, build my business around this season of motherhood that has allowed me to live a life of freedom, that has also allowed me to obviously do what I just shared, which is support my clients in a much deeper way than I was able to when I was solely teaching yoga. And so let's dive into this episode together.

Investing In A Business Coach

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The first thing that I did in this season was I invested in support. So I invested in a business coach. I had no idea what I was doing. I was really winging it. And I think this can be true in all seasons of business to some extent. But investing in a business coach was fundamentally the biggest and best investment I made inside of my work to support me to bring myself to the next level inside of my business. So I invested in six months mastermind with an incredible human who really helped me to implement all of the things that I'm about to share with you. And I share this as the first thing because I think that it supported me with a couple of things. It really helped me to get out of my head in feeling like I wasn't ready to move to the next level inside of my work or feeling like I needed to do lots more things before I could step into doing the things that were also calling me inside of my business. It also allowed me to be surrounded by people who were already doing the thing that I wanted to do, which is so incredibly powerful for our brain and our nervous system because it gives us the evidence that what we desire is actually possible and also that it is safe for us to step into it. Something that I was talking to a client about this week is, you know, how we all have that innate desire within us to have tribe, to have community, and to not stick out too much in terms of our success or what we're doing in the world because we're afraid of what that will mean for our relationships and the people around us. And so when we can carve that out for ourselves and when we can create that for ourselves, it really gives us that soft landing to be able to hold all of the desires that we have and to actually move forwards with them. So that investment that I made was incredible for a number of reasons. That being the first one, and then obviously the fact that my coach had walked the path that I was about to walk and knew the things that I could implement practically that would really support me as well as holding me in the identity piece and the mindset piece and all of the things that were going to help me on that more practical level. Okay,

Finding Your Gifts And Focus

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so let's talk about the starting point with all of this. The first thing that is going to be an exploration for you and something for you to begin to get curious about is what it is that you feel really passionate about supporting your clients with, what it is that you know you are innately gifted at, where it is that you're being called to inside of your work to dive a little deeper with your community. And this does not need to be something that you put a lot of pressure around in terms of I need to know exactly what my niche is, I need to know exactly how it is that I help my clients. But it does get to be an exploration where you begin to think about, okay, what are my gifts you might think about? What are the conversations that I am having with my clients at the end of classes? What are they telling me that I am supporting them with? What are the things that I really enjoy teaching about? What are the subjects that are always calling me back to in some way? And just allow yourself to begin to then use all of that information, use all of that exploration to cultivate the offerings that you want to bring forth in your business. And this is something that can, of course, shift and change as you continue to evolve. But as you move from group classes or in-person experiences, we're going to want to become a little more refined about how it is that you wish to support your clients. It could even be as simple as, okay, what are the things that I really love to share in yoga? What are the things that I'm really passionate about? Like, are you a teacher who really loves to share about alignment, for example, or giving people a really specific journey into particular postures? Or are you a teacher who absolutely loves meditation and the benefits of meditation? And perhaps you really want to support people with their mind and the busyness of their mind. And that might be something that then guides you into how you want to support your clients one-to-one or on retreat as well. So it doesn't have to be something that means that you know what age your clients are, or what they do for work, or those kinds of things, but just to start to become curious about okay, what are the things that I could like talk about all day that I feel really passionate about, that I would love to be able to do a deep dive on or begin to support my clients with in a new way. This is something that will then allow you to create the offerings, also bring your marketing and messaging into alignment with who it is that you wish to call in in your online experiences. So, this is perhaps something that you can spend a little bit of time around after this episode today to begin to think about when you're moving into this next level, how it is that you wish to support your community. That's the first thing that is going to be important as you expand.

Systems That Create Consistent Touchpoints

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Now, let's talk a little bit more about creating some more structure in your business. So, when we begin to talk about structure, we're going to start to implement systems in our business. This is what is going to allow your business to run more smoothly, to allow for there to be touch points with people that happen automatically as they come in and are connected with your work. This is something that is really important as you are building out an online component to your business. And we want to begin to think about the ways in which we can start to do that. Hopefully, you will already have started to create an email list. If you haven't done that already, this is definitely something that you're going to want to create from the beginning in your business or right now, if you're listening to this and you haven't did so already. Because your email list is firstly something that exists outside of social media. So, you know, if the platform was to close down in the morning or the algorithm was to change in a way that wasn't going to support your business, you will always have an access point to your clients and your community. And often this is a way where you can connect in more deeply with your clients as well. I always think about um almost like I'm sitting down having a cup of tea with my client whenever I write them an email. It's like a really beautiful way to connect that feels so different from social media. So building your email list is something that is really important, but I digress from my point. What we want to think about is creating more touch points with our community. We want to start to create ways for them to experience our work once they are connected to us in some way, whether that's on social media or on your email list. So we want to think about how I can start to allow someone to experience maybe what it is that you do already in your in-person classes, or if it is something that you're now going to refine your work around. Maybe this looks like creating some little free events or challenges or master classes, experiences for someone to come and explore what it is that you do to be supported by you in some way. These can be free connection points or offerings that are a smaller price point than perhaps your one-to-one or a retreat or a group program, ways in which someone can build trust with you, ways in which someone can decide whether your work is for them, which is often a consideration for someone before they go and pay for something and decide to step into it. So thinking about the ways in which you can allow someone to experience your gifts, experience your work to begin to, yeah, be connected with you in a deeper way. So when we set that up, we can have that automated. So it could be that you, of course, you know, guide people into a free offering and it's on a specific date and you um run that as an event, but then that also is a piece of content that you can share over and over and over again to support someone to be connected to you. So you'll record it and you'll save it and you'll have it sitting somewhere on your website or through an email funnel that guides someone to experience what it is that you do. So, how can you begin to think about creating more touch points, more ways for your community to begin to experience your work online? And this may guide you directly into perhaps one-to-one work. This may be the way in which you start to allow your clients to be in connection with you one-to-one. Maybe it's the way in which you guide someone into an online program. Maybe it's the way in which you start to guide someone into a retreat with you. And this means that you can expand your community beyond the people who come to your classes into anyone in the world being able to experience what it is that you do, how it is that you do it, and the ways in which you support your clients. So perhaps after this episode, as you sit and think about how do I want to refine my work, what are the things that I want to be known for, what are the gifts that I want to bring through, you can also think about how I could bring those into little different touch points and ways in which my community can experience my work. And something that is really incredible about beginning to explore this for yourself is that, you know, social media posts, for example, they only have a very short lifespan where when you create this type of content, it can be with you and sit inside of your business for years and years. So it is so worth taking the time out to begin to create whatever they are and to allow yourself to expand and to be seen and witnessed in that way.

Making The Next Offer Obvious

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So let's just say now that you have implemented these two things, you have gone away and refined how it is that you support your clients, what it is that you wish to bring online. You have started to create new touch points, new ways for your community to connect in with you and your divine work. And now you're in that spot where you're about to invite someone to make a bigger investment with you, whether that looks like your one-to-one work or a group program or a retreat. There is, of course, identity work in this. There is, of course, the inner work that we have to do, which is 95% of the work that I do with my clients. We, of course, implement these strategical steps, and also we have to look at what it takes to allow ourselves to actually go forth and do and implement these things. But we've got to this point now, we've worked on our identity, we have implemented these things around giving someone different touch points around how they can work with us, and now we just make the next thing that they're going to step into, the most logical step. So when we are thinking about those touch points, those ways in which they are going to be supported by us, we want our deeper investment, the thing that they're about to step into to just make absolute sense to them. So the offerings that come before it are almost like a little stepping stone into like the full experience of what is going to help them to create that transformation, that change that they desire within themselves. So you've given them like lots of little snippets, lots of little stepping stones into the full journey of what it is that you do. You've planted enough seeds and created little mini wins for them to then want to do the deeper work, the bigger work that is calling them forth and into your world, into your space. And this is what makes an investment like a retreat or coaching the most logical next step. So you can even work back from here and think about if that's the end goal, how am I going to create little mini ways in which someone can begin to step into that work in a deeper way? Where are the little ways and spots in my business that I can start to allow someone to see how I could deeply support them with creating that shift, that change within themselves? And this is what then allows your business to become like this ecosystem of ways in which someone can be supported, ways in which someone can step into creating change. Whether it's that they start at that beginning spot and they maybe do a smaller offering that you have to begin that journey and they might step back into your work years and years later, or whether it's that they are on that beginning journey and they just move through each little step of your work to call them into that deeper piece of work that they're here to do with you. It doesn't matter. Everything that you do in each stage of this process will support the whole ecosystem of your business. And so it's so incredible to create these different ways in which someone can be held by you and supported by you inside of your work that is outside of those in-person classes, which of course only allows our business to go so far, reach a certain amount of people.

Key Takeaways And Invitation To Reach Out

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So I hope this episode has been supportive for you today. I hope it has given you some little nuggets and things to think about inside of your business, inside of your work, things that you can go away and begin to explore and implement for yourself. If this episode has given you any wisdom or nuggets that you are going to go away and do, please come let me know. I just love having conversations off the back end of these little episodes. And if you are feeling called to get support in your business, if you're feeling called to step into this next level of your work, of your divine gifts, of the magic of what it is that you're here to create. And you know that getting support is going to be the thing that allows you to step into this next level, please reach out. I would absolutely love to support you. I have a couple of spaces open right now for coaching work, and it would be an absolute joy to work with you and to support you with all of the things that I have just shared with you inside of this episode. I hope you have the most incredible rest of your day, and I will chat to you really, really soon.