How Ads Became My Lifeline (And Built a Seven-Figure Coaching Business)

You've invested thousands in certifications. Your classes are incredible. Your teaching is top-notch. So why isn't your revenue reflecting that?

Here's the hard truth: being the best teacher won't make you stand out in 2026.

As more yoga and Pilates studios open across the country, studio owners are being told they need better quality teachers to compete. But that advice is costing you time, money, and growth. In this episode, Jackie breaks down why your skills as a teacher have nothing to do with your skills as a business owner—and why the best communicator wins, not the best quality.

If you're relying on referrals and hoping your amazing classes will do the marketing for you, this episode will shift everything. Jackie shares exactly what it takes to stand out among your competition in 2026: refining your message, becoming more visible, and adding paid advertising into your marketing mix. This is the CEO-level thinking that will help you build a profitable, sustainable studio—not another certification.

Timestamped Outline

[00:11] Welcome and episode overview: helping you stand out in 2026
[01:45] The viral reel that sparked this episode—why "best quality teachers" advice is wrong
[03:20] Jackie's story: How a 300-hour certification didn't increase her revenue at all
[05:15] Why being the best teacher doesn't guarantee business growth
[06:40] The truth about referrals as a marketing strategy (it's hope, not strategy)
[07:28] What it actually means to be a great communicator in 2026
[09:45] The litmus test for your messaging—and why generic language is killing your growth
[10:50] Case study: How Mimi Yoga in Miami nails their message
[12:15] Why even established 10-20 year studios need to update their messaging now
[13:50] The visibility problem: How Club Pilates runs 20,000 ads while you run zero
[15:30] Why organic social media and referrals alone won't cut it anymore
[16:45] Where to start with paid advertising (Meta and Google—that's it)
[18:20] What to do if you're not ready to invest in ads yet
[19:15] The equation: Get them in the door first, then quality matters

Key Takeaways

✓ The best communicator wins—not the best quality. Your teaching skills have nothing to do with your business skills. If you're relying on your classes to do the marketing for you, you're relying on hope.

✓ More certifications won't grow your revenue. Quality matters for retention, but it won't bring people through your door. Poor quality will hurt you, but high quality alone won't guarantee success.

✓ Referrals are important—but they're not a strategy. If you're only relying on social media and referrals in 2026, you're going to fall behind your competition.

✓ Your message must be transformation-focused, not schedule-focused. If another studio could write your Instagram caption by just swapping out their name, your messaging isn't specific enough.

✓ The litmus test: Who are your people becoming? Your messaging should communicate the identity your members have, the transformation they experience, and the results you deliver—not just class times and "all levels welcome."

✓ P

Work with Jackie Murphy

• Say Hi on Instagram @studioceoofficial
• 3 Marketing Mistakes Yoga & Pilates Business Owners Make:
  https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/3-marketing-mistakes
• Join The Studio CEO Program: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/studioceo

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

The 2026 Challenge For Studios

Why “Best Teacher” Doesn’t Equal Growth

Communication Beats Quality Alone

Crafting A Specific, Transformational Message

Example: Identity-Led Branding

Update Messaging For Rising Competition

Visibility As A Non‑Negotiable

What Big Franchises Teach About Reach

Organic Limits And Paid Ads Basics

Why Run Meta And Google Together

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously, and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. Hello and welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. I am Jackie Murphy, and today we're gonna help you stand out in 2026 so that you can thrive this year as more and more yoga and Pilates businesses open. Now, if you have not already, I want to encourage you to get the link in the show notes and take the three marketing mistakes workshop that I have released there because that workshop along with this episode will already give you so much information of what not to do, but also what to do to make sure that you can hit your goals in 2026. So as we dive into this episode, I want to give you kind of the backstory of why I decided to record this episode. I was scrolling Instagram this week and I saw a reel from a very popular creator, not a studio owner, but a creator within the wellness industry. And she said, Hey, if you want to succeed in 2026, like there are Pilates studios opening everywhere. There are just this increased level of businesses in this industry. If you want to succeed, then you need to have the best quality teachers out there. And I wrote a comment back to her post because I actually really, really disagree with that statement. Now I want to give a little caveat here. Nothing that I am saying implies that quality does not matter. If your quality of class is poor, it will become very clear very quickly. You'll get negative reviews, you'll get complaints, you'll get emails, you will get just having a really hard time having people come back to take class with you. If that is the issue in your business, and it can be, it will be obvious. However, for most of the people that I work with, that is not the issue in their business. They are delivering quality classes to their students. Now, when I was first teaching yoga and I wanted to learn how to make more money, I went to a mentor teacher and I asked her, What can I do to be able to make a living doing this? And she said, You're gonna need to teach for 10 years and you'll need to get more certifications. So I said, Okay, great. I went and I signed up for my 300-hour yoga certification. I did it. I was like, this is gonna make every studio pay me more. I'm gonna have way more money in my pocket. No, it did not change my revenue at all. Now, did my classes get better? Probably. Like I had more knowledge and more experience as a teacher, but did it directly reflect in a PL in my profit and loss statement? Absolutely not. And so I learned the hard way that, hey, just because you are a super high quality teacher, that actually does not guarantee that you are going to make any money. It really has nothing to do with your revenue growing, but it will, if your classes are poor quality or low quality, impact your revenue, it will drop it down. So when I saw this reel and I saw this person being like, okay, Pilates teachers, if you want to succeed, what you need to do is get more certification. All the Pilates teachers below the reel were like, yes, so important. I love being certified. I'm gonna take this training or that training. And I just wanted to help them because I I want them, I want you to take all the certifications that you want to take. I want you to take every training that you want to take, but I don't want you to do it thinking that's what is going to create a successful business. So why doesn't being the best teacher, why doesn't having the best quality class result in more revenue or studio growth or standing out between your competition? Because your skills as the teacher have nothing to do with your skills as a business owner. If you are just relying on your teaching, doing the marketing and selling for you, you are literally just relying on referrals. And that is a strategy of hope when it comes to business. It's not a strategy that I would hang my hat on. Now, referrals are important and they're going to be part of your overall strategy. But when you anchor in the business skills, you will automatically see that that just having referrals as your strategy for marketing is not going to cut it. Your business skills, your ability to talk to people, to invite them into your world, to sell them something, to bring them back, those skills are what determines your revenue and your profit at the end of the year and if you stand out in 2026. So I really wanted to record this episode to kind of save some of you that heartache of thinking, oh, if I just have the best class, then I will stand out among my competition. What is true is that the best communicator wins, not the best quality. And while I can tell you I wish that wasn't the case, I I wish the best quality just won every time. The best quality, the most ethical. Like I wish that's the way the world worked. However, it's just not the way it is. What is true is that the best communicator wins. And so, what does it mean to be a really good communicator of your message, your business, what you offer in 2026? Well, number one, I think this has been something I've been talking about for years, but it has to happen now. You cannot be using generic language like posting your class schedule or saying that you're for all levels and uh posting a flyer of your upcoming event in your social media and expect that to be bringing leads in. So this is kind of the litmus test I want you to do with this. If another studio could write it and you just like subbed out your words, then it's probably not spin specific enough to get someone's attention. And so if you are wanting to make it through 2026 stand out among your competition, the number one thing I want you to do is refine your message. And your message to your people should be about the transformation that they're going to experience, the result that you deliver, who you are specifically for, or what identity your people, your members have. And when you can nail that down, any marketing you do will naturally stand out because whatever you end up saying is not gonna be what another studio or business says because it will be entrenched inherently with your values, with what you're about, with your main mission of your business. You may have heard of Mimi Yoga in Miami. I think they do a really good job at this. You can spend a few moments scrolling their Instagram. I went to their website and within a few moments, I was like, this studio is about me becoming my most confident, like most badass self. And then I went to their website and I was like, let me tell, let me see what they say, right? Like, how are they describing the result, the transformation, the identity that they give their people? And it was described as a modern warrior. And I was like, you know what? That actually tracks, right? It gives this strong energy right away. Now, maybe that is similar to what you offer in your business, and maybe it's completely different. That doesn't really matter. What matters is you understand the identity your people have, the transformation that they walk away with after working with you for however long, six months, 12 months, the results that they end up having, who they end up becoming, and where do they feel like they belong. If that's what you're communicating, you will stand out. Now, does that take effort? I will say yes. It literally needs you. It means that you need to sit down with your pen and paper and be like, what are my people thinking? Where are they going? Who are they becoming? This is the work that we do in the studio CEO. I literally help you map it out step by step by step. Now, even if you've been a studio operating for 10 or 20 years and you've kind of run on the old messaging of here's our class schedule and upcoming events, and we're for all levels, and everyone can come here. If that is old, if your messaging is from 10 years ago, it is time that you update it. One of the things that I'm seeing happen a lot right now, we're getting a lot of emails and messages of studios that are like, I've been around for 10 years, I've been around for 20 years, we have a solid membership base, but last year we saw a drop in the number of people coming in, or we saw a drop in our membership. What do we do? And I think that is the direct result of more competition rising within the industry, which in hate innately requires you to get better at marketing. It requires you to be more advanced in your skill set. And so I'm saying that to say, even if you're a well-established, existing studio, it is time to look at your messaging and say, does it match 2026? Is it helping us stand out in 2026? What do we need to update? What do we need to tweak? Which brings me to my second point. The other thing that you will have to do in 2026 is that you will have to become the best communicator by becoming more visible. So we've already talked about how the best communicator has a really clear message and knows who they're talking to. But the best communicator also communicates the most frequently to the most people. And let's use Club Pilates as the example. Now, this is not a dig at Club Pilates, but Club Pilates didn't have its massive franchise growth because every single class that you go to is the highest quality class ever. That's really hard to do when you're having that number of studios and that number of classes at scale. So if the quality isn't what drove their growth, what else drove their growth? Well, you can actually go and look at what other ads your competitors are running. It's a really easy thing to go see. And so when you go look at what ads Club Pilates is running, you'll find that at any given time they're running around 20,000 different ads. And that might be the different franchises running those ads. I don't know the ins and outs of how that works, but what matters is that you understand that Club Pilates is being seen, their message is being heard. They are 20,000 times more visible than you if you're not running paid ads. And so I would say prior to 2026, most businesses can get away with organic social media bringing in leads. But hey, even if your messaging isn't updated and you're on organic social media, it's really not bringing leads in for you. And so I definitely want to encourage you to watch that three marketing mistakes workshop or get into the studio CEO program to make sure that at least 30% of your leads are coming from social media. Okay, let me go back to what I was talking about. So prior to 2026, we're using social media to bring in leads and we're using referrals to bring in leads. And now you have this rise of the affiliate link and the influencer, and I really think all of that is shifting and changing. But I would say that referrals are happening less frequently. I'm not saying that they're not important in your business. They're still gonna play a key, key, key role. And you still wanna make sure you have a referral system set up. However, I think if you're relying just on social media and referrals alone, you are going to fall behind your competition. Because at this point in time, most businesses understand or know that running some sort of ad is key of increasing your message, getting it out there more often, paying for that traffic, paying for cold audience traffic, paying to be seen more often. And so I really want to encourage you to think about am I ready? Can I start to run paid advertising in my business? And where do I want to do that? Now, I teach inside of the girl mastermind that you should start on Meta and you should start on Google and really only start with those two. I'm not saying that you can't run TikTok ads or YouTube ads or who knows, eventually Chat GPT ads. That might be helpful too. However, right now, with the information that we have for yoga and Pilates businesses, what I see is most successful is the combination of meta and Google ads running at the same time. Now, why does this matter? Because when you start to run a meta ad, you are able to get in front of more people that would never come to your website, that maybe never have seen your Instagram, that have never driven by your studio. So you're giving the opportunity to realize that, oh my gosh, this business is just on the street, or this business is doing exactly what I've been looking for. I can't believe I didn't know that they would they existed. And when you're running Google ads, then you're showing up the moment that someone is literally looking for the service that you offer. And that's a really good time to show up if you're a business owner. That's a really good time to be seen. And do you know what that has nothing to do with your quality of class? It has everything to do with your message being in the right place at the right time, seen by more people. So if you want to stand out in your competition in 2026, I think it is a non-negotiable to add some sort of paid advertising into your structure. Now, some of you might be like, Jackie, I'm just not there. I don't have the revenue. I don't want to spend on paid advertising. That is totally fine. I'm not saying this means the downfall of your business. I would double down on making sure your organic message and your organic social media traffic is bringing in at least 30% of new leads. And there are ways that you can set up your Instagram or your Facebook to make sure that is happening. But if you are ready to spend like$5 a day, it doesn't have to be much, then I would absolutely look into paid advertising so that you can stand out. You are going to add this lever in your business that makes it easier for you to get to the right people at the right moment to welcome them into the studio. And then once they're there, once they're in, that is when the quality of the experience matters. But if you just focus on the quality of the experience, you are missing the first half of the equation, which is getting people to know who you are, what you're about, and getting them to walk into your business if it's a physical studio, or log in if it's online. And so if you really want to stand out in 2026, if you really want to be the one that even though you have all this different competition opening, most people know about you, don't take another teacher training. Don't take another certification. Or you can, but do it for fun, do it for education. And instead double down on your marketing skills and make sure that you become the best communicator of what you offer, not just the best teacher of what you offer. All right, my friends. I will talk to you in the next episode.