welcome to class one!€¦ · •document the event on social media and newsletters during and...

Welcome to Class One!Tools for Yoga Teachers and Studios:

How to Host Workshops & Retreats

Copyright 90 Monkeys, LLC 2012

Help Your Students Deepen Their Practice

How to Run

Workshops & RetreatsAn Online Course For Yoga Teachers & Studios

With Amy Ippoliti

TMTM

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http://www.amyippoliti.com/programs-for-yoga-teachers/

http://www.amyippoliti.com/programs-for-yoga-teachers/

The Purpose of this eCourse is:

To learn the key steps to marketing, negotiating, being a professional in business dealings, building community, and maintaining integrity — all while delivering meaningful and successful workshops and retreats.

This course is not: meant to be formulaic or to overly hold your hand through every step of the way; it is meant to give you the framework and understanding of the key steps and details you need to know to offer workshops & retreats to your students.


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The strategy we use is complex yet systemized:

Students spend time & money for what is sometimes their only vacation (in the case of retreats) and precious weekend time (in the case of workshops).

Our aim? To make it worth their sacrifice. To make these events ultra yoga experiences!


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How the two classes will flow:


•In class one we will apply both workshop and retreat production to the “Client Life Cycle”, a key philosophy we work with in 90 Minutes to Change the World.

•In class two, we will break down the A to Z process of each kind of event, getting into the nitty gritty of production.

•The Bonus Materials will help you piece it together, along with this slideshow (which will be made available in PDF format for reference), and the recordings.

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You will learn how to:


•Build your confidence teaching workshops and retreats.

•Be professional when negotiating and handling the business side of working with retreat centers and venues.

•Create comprehensive schedules for retreats plus develop curriculum for workshops ranging from 2-3 hour formats to entire weekends.

•Create the optimal schedule for retreats with consideration of sunrise, sunset, climate, meals and day trips.

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You will learn how to:


•Handle pricing and what to charge,

•Develop marketing plans/approaches,

•Encourage client referrals,

•Create surveys to find out what your students want, and

•a whole lot more, believe me!

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If you don’t get your questions answered

here:


Not to worry, that is one of the many purposes of our Facebook Forum. If you have not yet joined, visit http://ow.ly/chsTV and ask to join.

Just ask any unanswered questions there by posting. Our team will get back to you as well as other “90 Minuters” who will likely chime in!

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http://ow.ly/chsTV

http://ow.ly/chsTV

Are You ‘Ready to Rumba’?


•A solid and sizable student base or “following” leads to successful events.

•Considering that you can bet on 1-out-of-100 names on your e-list attending a retreat and 2-3 per 100 for workshop attendance, the size of your current student base does matter.

•Are you surveying your students to rate your teaching? Higher approval = higher retention = larger e-lists = larger interest in events.

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Are You ‘Ready to Rumba’?


•Have you been teaching well-rounded practices with less talking and more doing, and “nugget dropping” to peak student’s interest in going deeper?

•Remember: trying to make regular classes into workshops does not serve the student. There is not enough time to properly break down certain components safely and it interrupts the flow.

•Have you considered feeding and building your student base from the bottom up by hosting beginner series and basic level classes?

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The Client Cycle


client life cycle

loyalty

identify

reach

acquire

teach

retain

Client Life Cycle

Reach

ac

quire

teach

retain

loyalty

identify

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Identify:Solution vs. Prevention and Fulfilling

Your Student’s Dreams


• It is human nature to be motivated by something that has gone wrong that needs help “fixing.” Luckily most yoga students understand the importance of prevention and how great it is —by itself — to feel good regularly!

•Still, what are the problems or cravings yoga students have that workshops or retreats could satisfy?

“Rule Number One: People won’t spend a nickel or invest time to prevent anything......but once something breaks, they’ll spend everything they have and focus completely on

fixing it.” - John Carlton

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Identify:Solution vs. Prevention and Fulfilling

Your Student’s Dreams


•Desire to go deeper in yoga, flexibility, health/vitality

•The longing to have a yogic lifestyle

•The need to gain perspective on their life

•Depression

•Isolation

•The search for meaning in life

•The desire to meet new and more conscious people in community

•The dream of traveling and seeing new places (as in retreats)

•A break from family obligations

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Identify:Who Can Benefit From Workshops

and Retreats?


•Open level students curious & ready to receive more in-depth teachings.

•Beginners who want to totally immerse themselves as a yoga intro.

•Students going through a difficult time that need inspiration and rest (as in retreats).

•Yoga teachers who want to learn from you in a more comprehensive setting.

•Couples where one is into yoga and the other is not (as in retreats).

•Workshop and retreat “junkies” who just have to “plug in” on a regular basis!

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Reach:Know the Value of What

You’re Offering! (Value Proposition)


•What benefits will they receive from the yoga specifically? Poses, contemplations, parts of the body, etc.

•Why should they study with you or the teacher you are hosting?

•Why is the venue special? Near trails, beach, amazing activities, food, awesome accommodations onsite (retreat) or great deals on hotels (workshops), state of the art building (workshops), great energy?

•Community — is the group coming just a wonderful bunch?

•ACTION STEP: When the time comes, use the brainstorming sheets (one on workshops and one on retreats) to write down all the value propositions you can think of offering to the attendees!

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Reach:Know the Value of What

You’re Offering! (Value Proposition)


•What benefits will they receive from the yoga specifically? Poses, contemplations, parts of the body, etc.

•Why should they study with you or the teacher you are hosting?

•Why is the venue special? Near trails, beach, amazing activities, food, awesome accommodations onsite (retreat) or great deals on hotels (workshops), state of the art building (workshops), great energy?

•Community — is the group coming just a wonderful bunch?

•ACTION STEP: When the time comes, use the brainstorming sheets (one on workshops and one on retreats) to write down all the value propositions you can think of!

•Refer to General Value Propositions in your bonus materials for more great ideas on both workshops and retreats!

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Reach:Gorgeous, classy marketing!


•Announcements in class

•Word of mouth

•Post Cards or brochures

•Website

•Travel Logistics PDF (which doubles as a brochure) ready at launch of marketing.

•Encourage client referrals.

•Posts on social media

•Create a video.

•Incorporate announcements and updates into your eNewsletters.

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Reach:Advertising


•Remember the “Rule of Three.”

•Print and online publication advertising (Yoga Journal, Origin Magazine, Elephant Journal).

•Online advertising (Facebook Ads, Promoting FB posts).

•Online listings (eg. Mindbody Green’s Retreat/workshop promotion service, YogaRetreatsOnline.net/).

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Acquire:


•Know your online registration options (refer to Bonus Materials).

•Always require pre-registration to save spots in events.

•Set clear payment deadlines for retreat balances due.

•Have a clear return policy (refer to Bonus Materials).

•For retreats, encourage the purchase of Travel Insurance.

•If you are not skilled in bookkeeping, hire someone good!

•Make sure you have quality customer care set up when registration opens. (Qualities: timely responses, friendly, positive, up beat, helpful and generous.)

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Teach:


•For retreats, have health forms to fill out so you can help serve more specifically during the week.

•For retreats, remember to time yoga sessions with what is happening in nature so you don’t conflict with the good stuff like sunsets, cooler temps, or prime craft store hours (in places like Europe).

•Pace the yoga! Start slow, gradually ramp it up, and end on a high note. Be conscious of not exhausting the students.

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Teach:


•Remember, on retreats —you’re on 24/7 —not just teaching, but being there for your students. Leading retreats is not a vacation!

•Teaching for extended periods can be intense. If you get frazzled, have a centering practice ready to rock that brings you back.

•See sample curriculums in your Bonus Materials to design a great weekend or retreat week.

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TeachWhen Hosting a Different Teacher

or Visiting Teacher:


•Do what you can to make the teacher feel welcome and taken care of.

•Ask them for their food/drink preferences and what time they’d like to eat.

•Ask them what kind of accommodations they prefer.

•Make sure they have the items they need for class (props, mic, iPod hook-up, whiteboard, skeleton, etc.).

•Have friends or staff ready to take care of them as soon as class is over so they don’t need to wait around for whoever is closing the studio or doing admin.

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Retain:


•For retreats: send a gift upon registration that is themed well for the location.

•For retreats: when guests arrive, have a sweet note or quote with flowers waiting in their room.

•During the weekend workshop or retreat, talk and get to know your attendees and build rapport.

•For weekend workshops: re-print travel, lodging and restaurant sheets to have handy at registration. (See Bonus Materials)

•Send out encouraging email reminders as the event approaches. (see Bonus Materials.)

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Loyalty:


•For retreats: send a gift upon registration that is themed well for the location.

•For retreats: When guests arrive, have a sweet note or quote with flowers waiting in their room.

•During the weekend workshop or retreat, talk and get to know your attendees and build rapport.

•For weekend workshops: re-print travel, lodging and restaurant sheets to have handy at registration.

•Send out encouraging email reminders as the event approaches. (see Bonus Materials.)

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Loyalty:


•Document the event on social media and newsletters during and after.

•Create a slide show during the event to show at the end (great for retreats), using a card reader so you can gather attendee photos.

•For retreats: offer attendees $100 off if they re-book right away for next year and be ready to take deposits too!

•Organize event follow up ahead of time.

•Shoot a group photo.

•For retreats: pass around a printout of the contact sheet to check for edits and then make the changes so it’s ready to send out.

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LoyaltyEvent Follow-Up:


•Send a follow-up email to the group as soon as possible with a thank you note, the group photo attached, and for retreats, the contact sheet so they can stay in touch.

•Add the survey link to this email asking the participants to help you refine and improve the event offering for next time.

•See Sample emails in Bonus Materials.

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Bonus Material Key


Retreat Related:

Workshop Related:

If it relates to both:

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That’s a wrap for class one. Thank you

for joining us!


•Going over the bonus materials will help to make everything we did today complete.

•If you have any further questions, join our group on Facebook, dedicated solely to this webinar topic! Whenever you are up against a challenge, or want to clarify any of the content, reach out. We are here to help, and so are your fellow teachers. http://ow.ly/

chsTV

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http://ow.ly/chsTV

http://ow.ly/chsTV

http://ow.ly/chsTV

http://ow.ly/chsTV

welcome to class one!€¦ · •document the event on social media and newsletters during and...

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