Your Yoga Business. An Interview with Ava Taylor
Have you mapped out Your Yoga Business?
This week we talk to Ava Taylor, founder of Yama Talent, creator of so many things within this industry, and author of the new book Your Yoga Business—which tells you how she did it and you can to.
My favorite part is that she is the true Queen of real talk about the yoga industry. She talks about how long it takes to make yoga a full-time gig, how to market your retreat, and how to build the life you want as a yoga professional.
And there is no shame here. We deserve to make sustainable incomes. Ava tells us how.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: (there are lots in this episode)
*Our brains tell us garbage about our businesses sometimes. Running numbers and making spreadsheets (or downloading them from online) is a great way to manage your emotions, and understand how to achieve your goals as a pro.
*No one skips the groundwork for being a yoga professional. There is truly some wisdom in understanding that having a room of only a few people, having a workshop or retreat that doesn’t go forward, and putting lots of work into a small outcome is normal. Nobody skips this stage.
*Now is the time to build the business of your dreams. If you have a plan in place, then run. Don’t walk towards your goals.
*The landscape of yoga changed so dramatically from COVID, and it is important that we acknowledge and grieve, but also plan. If not us, there is no doubt that chains will move to take up the slack that we aren’t taking.
*In your community there are opportunities to capitalize on based on the loss the yoga industry experienced. If not you, then who? Can you identify those opportunities? Can you create collaborations and build something new in your area? These are conversations worth having, especially now as we plan for the new year.
*Radical wealth redistribution. That is the name of my game and the game of all of us who are looking to take the money of the few and redistribute it to the many. As I have said a thousand times, nothing bad happens when good people have more money. Don’t believe me? Go looking for good people doing good with their money. You won’t have to search far.
*Conflating your fear of growth and change with yoga philosophy is a huge challenge we have as an industry. I used to do this too. Your fear of failure, of success, of trying something that might not work out–that can be hidden by our yoga philosophy. Be careful to make sure you know your core values as a person, as a yoga practitioner, and as a human, and then identify when fear is getting in your way vs. when something doesn’t line up with your values. Honestly, this is one of the best things you can do for your heart, your nervous system, and your bottom line.
*If you don’t need to hustle, don’t hustle unless you want to. But please don’t knock those of us who need to make a living at this job. We need your help to lift all of us up.
*And finally, Please don’t price based on what other people price. You need to gauge your own expenses and financial goals and then price based on that. Not what other people charge.
RESOURCES
AVA’S LINKS:
Her damn good book, Your Yoga Business
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