How to create your yoga brand

How to create your yoga brand - Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to For Yoga Teachers. This podcast has been created to help yoga teachers teach with passion, avoid burnout and earn a fair living.​

This episode is a complete guide to how to create your yoga brand. We'll be looking at everything that you need to know to create your yoga 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 [00:01:00] teach. Now that might sound blindingly obvious to you, or it might be a bit of a light bulb moment. Either way, that's what we're going to work our way through 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 some of the benefits of having a clear structured brand as a yoga teacher and like I say, I think there's so many benefits.

Then we'll look at who's in your space. Now you might call it a competitor review, but I think it's healthy to not think of it in terms of competition and I'll talk about that more when we get there. And finally, we'll look at a step by step process to creating your yoga brand. So let's get cracking.

What is a brand?

[00:02:00] Well, I went through about 800 definitions before I found one that I was happy with, that I thought would be useful for us. This one is from Ignite Brand, a branding agency. They say, a brand is the way a company, product, Or individual is perceived by those who experience it much more than just a name or a logo.

A brand is the recognisable feeling these assets evoke. Let me rephrase that for our purposes. A brand is the way that an individual yoga teacher is perceived by those who experience it. Hold that in mind as we go through the rest of this episode. A brand is what your values are. Who you work with, who you teach, who you work alongside.

And a brand is how you communicate with your yogis. Let's take an example. If you [00:03:00] stand for making yoga accessible to people who think that yoga isn't for them and you make it an option for them by being approachable and friendly but then someone sends you an email to say I've seen your classes. I like the look of them.

Is there any parking and do I need to bring a mat? And you reply to abruptly say, well, all that information is on my website. That's not fitting with what you want to stand for as a yoga teacher. So in summary, a brand is really everything about you as a yoga teacher and your yoga teaching business. It underpins your offerings.

How you communicate, how much you charge, and so, so many other things.

The benefits of having a brand as a yoga teacher.

Having a clear, defined brand keeps you focused. So, no [00:04:00] shiny object syndrome. Shiny object syndrome being, Oh, maybe I should get that piece of equipment. Or maybe I should teach in that style. Or, oh, maybe I should do that training. It really keeps you focused on where you're going and what you're offering.

Having a consistent brand can help you be recognized. People might start to get used to your yoga and your color palette and your fonts. And so they'll recognize your offerings and when that's done correctly, you'll start to attract your ideal yogis. Having a defined yoga brand influences how much you charge for your offerings.

And 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 discounts for block booking? I'm renting out a village hall. I don't know how to cover all of my costs for my classes, etc.

And because all of these benefits add up and they all [00:05:00] complement one another, you'll feel more confident about who you are as a yoga teacher.

Who are you as a yoga teacher?

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

You, as a yoga teacher, also encompasses your mission. Why are you sharing yoga?

Why did you leave your previous job?

Why are you taking time away from your job or other roles in your life?

Why did you make the decision to enroll on a teacher training?

What do you want to achieve?

Who do you want to teach?

Repeat after me. My yogis are out there. I know that lots of yoga teachers hold back because they're worried about stepping on other yoga teachers toes. They're worried about not being good [00:06:00] enough or knowledgeable enough. But 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, and they'll be perfect for your yogis. So your yogis are out there and you playing small doesn't serve anyone. When 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 to be able to run faster, right? Or maybe they wish to be pain free, they've had lower back pain for a while and they just want to get rid of it. So have a think.

Why do your yogis come to you?

Why do they come to your classes?

What are they hoping to gain?

[00:07:00] How are they looking to improve their life?

And so, as a yoga teacher, you're either moving them towards their desires, or you're moving away from their pain points and struggles.

Who is in your space?

I'm specifically not calling this a competitor review, because I really believe, as yoga teachers, we can work together more. And I believe that your background, your passions in yoga and in life, and your knowledge, Is a unique combination that no one else will have. Hopefully, as you've been thinking 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.

You're not teaching yoga in a void. It is a good idea to have a look at the teachers and studios and other yoga offerings that are in your space. Now, my overwhelming recommendation [00:08:00] here is that as you start to research who's in your space, you define your task and you stay focused on that one 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. As soon as you get distracted, Oh my goodness, their photography is so beautiful, or, oh, they're posting blog posts so regularly. That's it. You stop. Close down your laptop or turn off your phone or whatever and go for a walk or do something, anything else.

Then refocus, come back and continue with that specific task. This is really important because as soon as you get distracted, you're going to start comparing. Comparison leads to imposter syndrome and imposter syndrome leads to a lack of confidence. And that just takes us back to square one, struggling to share our yoga again.

So let me summarise that.

Define your task, stick to it [00:09:00] as soon as you become distracted, take a break

The step by step process to creating your yoga brand.

All that groundwork We've been doing up until now is so incredibly important. Once the groundwork 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 that you've 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 notice board on your wall, or maybe you start a Pinterest board. And you pull in colors that you like, fonts that you like, different design styles and anything that resonates [00:10:00] with you, you know, you're flicking through a magazine and you just love that living room. So you grab it and get it on your mood board. As you add to your mood board, 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 by yourself, by playing around and experimenting and trying out different color palettes and fonts, and maybe a logo builder.

Or you'll write a brief for a designer.

Let me be clear here without the groundwork, you'd either just be playing around in an online design tool, making things you like, or you'd write a brief for a designer who wouldn't know where to start. In fact, even 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.

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Step four, testing.

Test your brand with your ideal yogis to find out if your choices reflect your values and your mission. Once you've tested it, return back to the creation of the brand, apply any updates from your testing, and then test it again.

Once you're confident that your brand reflects what you want to communicate, it's time to celebrate.

Step five, creating your brand 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 to Of how to use your brand.

When you're in the thick of the brand creation, you'll be sure, Oh, I'll never forget this color or the name of this font, but believe me, when you're off doing other things and you just need to get the information, the guidelines will [00:12:00] be priceless.

And that's it.

You're done.

To help you out here, we have a how to create your brand workbook, which includes the full process that we've just been through, how to create a The step by step 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.

There's how to create your brand workbook is completely free. You can get yours from yogahero. co. uk forward slash podcast 30. That's podcast three zero. So yogahero. co. uk forward slash podcast 30.

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

If you have a couple of minutes free, we'd be so grateful if you could rate and review this podcast, wherever you're listening to it. And if you can share it with a fellow yoga teacher too, that would just be amazing. And as always [00:13:00] happy.