How to create your yoga brand

How to create your yoga brand - Transcript

This episode is a complete guide to how to create yoga yoga brand. We'll be looking everything that you need to know to create your your brand, including why you need one in the first place, how it helps you with every aspect of being a yoga teacher - because I really do truly believe that it does - and how it helps to boost your confidence as a yoga teacher.

Your yoga brand comes from having a defined, clear picture of who you are as a yoga teacher, what you offer, and who you want to teach. Now, that might sound blindingly obvious to you, or it might be a bit of a lightbulb moment. Either way. We're going to work our way through that in this episode.

So this is where we're going!

We'll start off with a quick look at what a brand actually is. When you're creating something it does help to know what it is.

Then I'll run you through the benefits of having a clear, structured brand as a yoga teacher. And like I say - I think they're vast - I really do.

Then we'll look at who is in your space, which if we were in a business meeting, I would call that a competitor review, but I think it's quite healthy to not think of it in terms of competition, and I'll talk about that when we get there.

And finally, we'll look at a step by step process to creating your yoga brand.

Let's get cracking!

What is a brand?

Well, I went through about 800 definitions before I found one that I was happy with. And here is one from Ignite Brand - a branding agency. They say "A brand is the way a product, company or individual is perceived by those who experience it much more than just a name or logo. A brand is the recognisable feeling these assets evoke."

Let me rephrase that for our use - a brand is the way that an individual a yoga teacher is perceived by those who experience it - hold that in mind as we go through the rest of this episode.

I often find that people launch straight into thinking about a logo and a colour palette and a font, but really a brand is what you stand for as a yoga teacher.

A brand is what your values are.

A brand is who you work with, who you teach and who you work alongside.

And a brand is how you communicate with your yogis. For example, if you stand for making yoga accessible to people who think that yoga really isn't for them, and you make yoga an option for them by being approachable and friendly. And then somebody sends you an email to say "I've seen your class, I really like the look of it. Is there any parking and do I need to bring a mat?" and you reply to say, abruptly "Well, all that information is on my website." That's not fitting with what you want to stand for as a yoga teacher.

A brand influences how much you charge for your offerings - this is easily the question I get asked the most by yoga teachers -

"How much should I charge for this workplace class?”

“How much should I charge for a one to one?”

“Should I offer a discount for block booking?”

“I'm renting out a village hall. I don't know what to charge for my classes - where do I start?!”

The benefits of having an established brand as a yoga teacher

Having a clear, defined brand keeps you focused; so no shiny object syndrome - shiny object syndrome is "Ooh maybe I should get that piece of equipment or maybe I should teach in that kind of style. Or maybe I should do that training."

It really keeps you focused on on where you're going and what you're offering.

Having a consistent brand helps you be recognised; people will start to get used to your yoga and your colour palette and your fonts and so they'll recognise your offerings and when it's done correctly will attract your ideal yogis.

Like I said before, it can help guide you with price-setting. So all of that "How much do I charge? Is that too expensive? Am I underselling myself?" You can put all of that down and free your brain up for other things, which I'm sure sounds good.

And because of all of these benefits add up and compliment each other; you'll feel more confident about who you are as a yoga teacher.

Who are you as a yoga teacher?

Who you are as a yoga teacher encompasses your values. And I would imagine your values as a yoga teacher are going to be pretty similar to your values that you have as a person.

Who you are as a yoga teacher also encompasses your mission. Why is it that you're sharing yoga? Why did you leave your previous job or why are you taking time away from your previous job? Why did you make the decision to enrol on a teacher training? What are you hoping to achieve?

Who do you want to teach?

Repeat after me.

My yogis are out there!

I know that there is a lot of holding back in yoga teachers because of being worried about stepping on other people's toes, and worrying about not being good enough or knowledgable enough.

So once again - repeat after me!

My yogis are out there!

Your style of teaching won't be for everyone and that is okay. But your style of teaching, your unique offerings, will be for someone, for many people - they will be right for your yogis. So your yogis are out there, and you playing small doesn't serve anyone.

When you're thinking about your ideal yogis, I think it's really useful to think about them in terms of their desires, their pain points and their struggles. Maybe their desire is to be a more present parent. Or to cope with stress better. Or be able to run faster, right? Or maybe they simply wish to be pain free. They've got lower back pain that they've had for quite a while.

Think: why do your yogis come to you? Why do they come to your classes? What are they hoping to gain? How are they looking to improve their life? And so, as a yoga teacher, you're either moving them towards that desire, or you're moving them away from that pain point and struggle.

Who is in your space?

So the reason that I am specifically not calling this a competitor review is because I really believe that as yoga teachers we can work together more, and that your background, your passions in yoga and in life, and your knowledge, is a really unique combination that no one else will have.

As you think about your values, what you stand for as a yoga teacher, your background, your passions, you will see that your offering can be quite unique.

But let's be sensible, it really is a good idea to have a look at the teachers and the studios and the other yoga offerings that are in your space.

Now my overwhelming recommendation here is that as you start to research who is in your space, define your task and stay focused on that specific task. Let's say you want to research how much other people in your space charge, you'll look at their websites and their offerings in order to find that out. But as soon as you get distracted, "Oh my goodness, their is photography so beautiful. Oh my goodness, their blog posts are so regular." That's it, you stop, close the laptop down or turn your phone off or whatever, and go for a walk, or just do something - anything - else.

Then, you come back and continue with with your specific task.

This is really important, because as soon as you get distracted, you're going to start comparing. Comparison leads to impostor syndrome, and impostor syndrome leads to lack of confidence - and that just takes us back to square one, struggling to share our yoga again! So, to summarise; define your task, stick to it, as soon as you become distracted, take a break.

The step by step process to create your brand

All the ground work that we've been looking at up until now, is so so so incredibly important. Once that ground work is in place, we can start the brand creation!

Step one - Define

Define your values and your mission as a yoga teacher

Define the desires and pain points of the yogis that you want to work with

Define the opportunities you have found in your space.

Step two - Get inspired

I think that for most of us, this is a really enjoyable, fun part of creating a brand. Maybe you use a noticeboard on your wall. Or maybe start a Pinterest board on your computer, and you pull in colours that you like, fonts that you like, different design styles and anything that resonates with you. Maybe you're flicking through a magazine and you just really love that living room. So, you grab it and get it on your mood board. As you add to this, you might start to notice themes and commonalities that really resonate with you - great - this is all really important.

Step three - Create your brand

You'll create your brand either yourself, by playing around and experimenting with different colour palettes, fonts and maybe a logo builder, or, you will write a brief for a designer.

Without the groundwork, either you'd just be playing around in an online design tool making things that you like, or, you'd write a brief for a designer who wouldn't know where to start, in fact, what would you even put in the brief!

Hopefully - you agree - the groundwork makes the creation of the brand way more relevant, and hopefully fun too!

Step four - Testing

Test your brand with your ideal yogis to find out if your choices reflect your values and mission. Once you've tested, return back to the creation of the brand, apply any updates from your testing, and then test it again. Once you're confident your brand reflects what you want to communicate, it’s time to celebrate!!

Step five - Creating your branding guidelines document

Once your branding resonates with your ideal yogis, it's time to get it into a guidelines document, which is quite simply a guide for you and others of how to use your brand. When you're in the thick of the brand creation, you'll be sure you'll never forget this colour or the name of your font. But believe me, when you're off doing other things and you just need to get the information, your guidelines will prove priceless!

And that's it, you're done!

And finally, to help out, we have a “How to create your brand” workbook, which includes the full process that we've just been through, the step-by-step guide to creating your brand, and a checklist of what you'll need for your brand, that you can review against, to ensure you have everything ready.

Well wonderful yoga teachers, I really hope that that's helped, and you feel inspired and really ready to get started!

If you have a couple of minutes free, we'd be so so so so grateful if you could rate and review this podcast wherever you're listening to it, and if you can share with a trainee, new or experienced yoga teacher too, well that would be just amazing.

And, as always, happy teaching.