Musings of a Marketing Maven

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From Yoga to Thesis, A Morning’s Work

March 31st, 2010 · Tools & Technology

My friends think I’m a closet geek and tease me for being somewhat technically adept (except when they want tech support). Today I was almost convinced of that myself.

I went off to an early morning class at Yoga Bliss, and then before changing out of my yoga wear, updated my business blog’s framework to the latest version of Thesis, a powerful theme manager for WordPress blogs. From the standpoint of Thesis, all went flawlessly, thanks to following the developer’s instructions meticulously.

The only hang-up occurred because my web hosting service (unbeknownst to me) had decided to beef up security controls: it refused my login  password while attempting to upload the new Thesis theme folder via FTP. It took a while to figure out what was going on, reset my password to something more secure (but eminently forgettable), and then upload the Thesis folder via FTP. So now I’m back in business, running a faster version of Thesis and hoping for speedier page loads as promised.

And maybe one of these days I’ll find the time to play around with the new Thesis controls, and tweak the look and feel of the blog. But for now, I’m glad the upgrade went smoothly.

And maybe one of these days I’ll shift this blog from the Cutline theme to Thesis…

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Creating a Yoga Community

March 18th, 2010 · Marketing, Yoga

Guest author, Brook McCarthy, is a part-time yoga teacher in Sydney, Australia. Brook also runs a marketing consultancy that helps businesses in the health and wellbeing sector improve their communications online.

Cultivating community can be as simple as a friendly yoga class, a shared meal or an inspiring workshop. This can sow seeds towards creating a soul-centered kinship of yogis who take their community “off the mat” and beyond the studio walls.

Community Begins with the Teacher

For almost a year, I attended a yoga studio in the heart of Sydney, Australia. It was a busy school, packed with workers from nearby buildings, and had a “buzz” of the town outside. I attended several classes a week and was often taught by a particular teacher who, time and again, asked for my name. The first dozen times, I didn’t mind.

Another evening after class, I heard a teacher invite several students to the pub for a drink after class. I wasn’t offended by a yoga teacher having a drink with his students (Who knows? They may even have been drinking soda water.), it was the inclusive/exclusive inference that left me feeling on the outside.

My present yoga teacher cultivates community in each and every class he teaches. Not only does he have a gift for remembering names and the physical limitations of each student, he gently uses our names to verbally adjust students, which also works to introduce us to each other.

Creating Community — One Class at a Time

Each class is made up of a collection of individuals who bring with them the emotions and preoccupations of their particular day. I’ve witnessed yoga teachers change students’ differing energies, uniting the class towards common goals such as mindfulness.

Rather than create challenges for the more experienced yogis in the room, try to teach each class as if all your students are beginners — make your instructions accessible, your tone welcoming, and your spirit encouraging. A sense of fun and joyfulness is a powerful teaching tool and helps students lighten up and smile at their neighbors. Ask students to introduce themselves to the people next to them in small classes. And lead students in a Namaste to each other at the end of class.

Humor is most effective at helping students get out of their heads and onto their mats. Crack a joke and see people relax — most effective after a core strength session. One of my favorite teachers has a gift for cracking jokes at opportune moments. Although these jokes can be a bit off-colour at times, they are accompanied by a charming, open smile; my teacher easily disarms new students of their concerns that all yoga teachers are serious and holier-than-thou.

Taking the Classroom Outside

Encouraging students to linger longer can start with a cup of tea, extend to a meal, and end up with people volunteering in their community — it’s all in the spirit of inclusion.

One successful Sydney studio does this with grace as the yoga teacher boils a kettle in the reception room and offers students who linger after class a cup of tea. A meal at a local restaurant after a yoga workshop or the completion of a course also encourages students to relax and get to know one another outside of class. Depending on your locale and the students’ means, either bundle the meal into the price of the workshop or let everyone know it’s “Dutch treat.” Some studios sponsor annual or seasonal group meals, and ask students who want to participate to contribute something, such as a favorite home-cooked dish, to share with their teachers and fellow yogis.

For students who are frequent visitors to your yoga studio, offering a volunteer program can help build a sense of community, and not only among the volunteers. One yoga city studio I have attended has a “karma yoga” program offering free yoga classes in exchange for cleaning duties. I began volunteering at another studio giving adjustments and corrections during Saturday classes. I was already an experienced yoga student at that time and much appreciative of the personal instructions given to me by the yoga teacher. The studio also benefited from having an extra set of eyes and hands during busy classes.

Widening Your Community

Groups tend to be judged by their actions before people listen to their words. Perhaps the single most powerful thing yogis can do to encourage new people to experience the benefits of yoga is to become more involved in community services. This also allows students to experience karma yoga, the yoga of action.

Samadhi Yoga in Sydney has a formal “Yoga in the Community” program, and offers 16 heavily-discounted classes per week to anyone who wishes to attend. This organization also runs programs in conjunction with drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, at-risk child care services, clinics for patients with AID and juvenile justice units. While this type of commitment may be some years off for a fledgling studio, a “clean the park” picnic day, a free weekly class after school to local teenagers, or a visit to an aged care home is more easily manageable.

Each yoga studio has the potential to become a hub of activity for the community beyond its walls. When we gather together with the hope of reaching self-realization, we are working toward recognizing the universality of all beings, and achieving peace and freedom not only for ourselves, but also our worldwide community. Taking our yoga practice “off the mat” and into the world.

— Brook McCarthy, YogaReach, Sydney, Australia

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Non-scientific Indicators of Consumer Confidence

March 15th, 2010 · Marketing, Yoga

Last Friday afternoon I was in a Seattle area Lululemon store checking out some spring-season tank tops, and was pleasantly shocked at how crowded the store was. It was hard to maneuver around all the shoppers, and at times, you had to wait for people to move away before you could check out merchandise hanging on the rack or stored in size-specific bins.

Yoga, a source of economic stimulus?

Sadly for shoppers (but not the store), all 4 of the dressing rooms were in constant use, resulting in at least a 15-minute wait to try on apparel for size and fit. As a testament to Lululemon brand loyalty, almost everyone waited patiently in line for a dressing room rather than go elsewhere. (There is at least one other yoga apparel store at this location, so people have other options within a 5-minute walk.)

Most of the bins for pants and crops in my size were empty, and the same was true for tops and tanks. I overhead one sales person tell a shopper that they replenish their merchandise on a weekly basis. 

Another positive sign, the cashiers’ lines were busy; lots of people were buying. Clearly this store doesn’t suffer from shoppers muttering, “Sorry, just looking…” And as everyone knows, yoga wear with Lululemon’s brand is definitely not inexpensive.

As another indicator of consumer confidence and this brand’s appeal, the shop was loaded with men and women across a surprisingly broad range of ages and body types. Yes, the store was packed with teenage girls checking out the latest hoodies, but also with boomer women trying on yoga crops or tops, guys looking at running gear, and men buying gifts for wives and daughters.

There was a lovely buzz in the store. It made me hopeful that this region is starting to rebound from its long slump.

On the other hand, one of my more cynical friends said that people aren’t shopping generally; they just find it easier to rationalize investments in “wellness lifestyle” aids. And if that’s the case Lululemon is certainly benefiting, at least here in the Seattle area.

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The Sound of Her Voice

March 15th, 2010 · Creativity, Marketing, Yoga

If you’re a yoga student who lives in an area blessed with lots of studios and talented teachers, you can be more discriminating when choosing where to take classes or which teachers to follow. Now that I’m no longer a rank beginner, I’ve started to pay closer attention to the factors that cause me to prefer some teachers over others. And one of those factors is, I confess, the sound of her voice.

yoga-class

Why the Voice Matters in Yoga

The sound of a teacher’s voice is an important aspect of a class: what she says and how she says it. It’s a matter of personal taste, but some voices are — to my ear at least— more pleasing than others. In any given class I spend a lot of time listening with either eyes closed or attention focused elsewhere (the drishti gaze). When I’m not actively watching the teacher, the sound of her voice helps me focus my practice or identify where a micro-adjustment might be required. What she says and how she says it can make all the difference between yoga-as-gym-activity and yoga as something more meaningful or uplifting.

Does the teacher’s voice direct your attention to the key focal point(s) for your pose? Does it help you crystallize your intention or improve your ability to shift into your meditation space?

Yes, of course, the content of what the teacher says and how she delivers her instructions are hugely important. That’s the starting point, the sine qua non. If the teacher’s instructional style or her ability to guide you is out of whack with your needs and capabilities, nothing else matters: you need to find a teacher better suited to what you need to learn, or unlearn. Solve that problem first.

Once you’ve found a set of talented teachers whose instruction style and yoga tradition match your preferences, then you can start to pay attention to other factors, like class size, the nature of the invocations or readings, etc. The spiritual content (or lack thereof). The smell of the studio. Its decor. The props on offer.

Ideally, I prefer classes that are small enough to offer semi-individualized attention on how to improve your pose, alignment, action, drishti focal point — whatever. But it’s rare to find a high quality, uncrowded class. In this particular urban area crowded classes are the norm, unless you’ve found a new teacher, a new studio just developing its following, or can take classes at unpopular hours.

In large or crowded classes, it can be difficult to see the teacher when your mat is not up in the front, except for those moments when she stops the class to demonstrate a new or challenging pose. In classes like this the voice matters more than ever. It’s the carrier for good instruction.

Implications for Teachers

If you’re trying to attract more students, think about ways to offer a trial experience of your voice, the quality of your instruction. What about offering some sample podcasts or an online video clip to showcase how you teach and interact with students? Pick a pose or two, find a willing student or two, and get someone’s help to record/video the instructional moment.

Then look for appropriate places online where you can publish or offer your sample of how you teach your students. Facebook, YouTube, your studio’s website, iTunes, online yoga communities — you now have lots of relatively inexpensive opportunities to showcase what makes you such an inspiring teacher. And if this is all technically beyond your skillset, perhaps you can barter some free classes in exchange for technical or professional help with your podcast or sample video.

If you contribute to a blog, think about ways to offer a brief podcast or audio clip in which you share your voice, your values, or what you’re all about as a teacher and yoga practitioner.

Share your voice.

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Information Junkies Wanna Know… More

February 5th, 2010 · Marketing, Yoga

Interesting factoids, like how many Americans practice yoga, spread like wildfire across the Web and blogosphere. But getting any perspective on those factoids can be much harder to find, and in some cases, impossible.

This morning I uncovered a web-based information vortex when I tried to find out how many Americans currently practice yoga. I fell into a circular spiral, [Read more →]

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SoHo Charms

February 4th, 2010 · Back to Basics

If you like diversity during your day, operating a small business out of your home can have its charms. Today has been one of those days that mixes business and pleasure in delightful ways.

While awaiting replies to outstanding client proposals, I’ve been able to juggle a variety of tasks:

Birds, bread making, Bootcamp and TCP/IP

  • reaching out to former colleagues (and testing a new USB headset with Skype while doing so)
  • answering questions of the loan processing agent who is helping with our refi
  • updating LinkedIn contacts and some project wikis
  • successfully installing Bootcamp to run Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro
  • playing fetch with 2 kitties
  • preparing Anadama bread so the smell of fresh-baked bread will greet my husband when he arrives home from work
  • catching up on blogging, replying to comments, etc.

I also spent 45 minutes on the phone with a Mac specialist who’s a network geek. He was able to reconfigure my Apple Server to fix some DNS issues, and thanks to remote access, was able to do from his home office. Hooray!

So while I await follow-up on biz dev, I sit here at my office window enjoying the birds in the maple tree, the promise of spring flowers, and the purring kitty by my mouse pad. (There must be a reason they call it a “mouse.”)

It’s a lovely work-life balance.

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“Open Table” for Yoga Bookings?

February 3rd, 2010 · Tools & Technology, Yoga

As a busy yoga enthusiast, I sometimes wonder what would happen if yoga studios within a given metro area agreed to an “Open Table” model for class bookings. (Open Table is a centralized reservation service for restaurants that operates in major cities, including iPhone and other smartphone apps.)

In an ideal world I’d take 6-8 weekly classes in succession from the same teacher at the same studio, to benefit from her careful class planning and sequencing. But in 2 years of taking classes I’ve never been able to attend all 8 classes due to family or work-related schedule conflicts. As a result I’ve joined a second local studio to have an alternate place where I can take classes when I face a conflict with my primary studio. Each one uses MindBody for booking purposes, so I have two separate accounts now.

From a busy student’s perspective, it would be really great if I could book classes using a centralized reservation system that showed me all the classes available today (or at later dates) within, say, a 20-mile radius. For each class on offer I’d want to see information about the yoga style or tradition, the teacher, the relative difficulty of the class, prerequisites (if any), time, location, pricing, etc. Like the Open Table restaurant model it would be nice to see something comparable to menus and photographs of the venue, if it’s a studio I’m unfamiliar with. I’d also want to be able to filter the class listings by teacher name, yoga tradition (such as Anusara), difficulty level, etc.

This raises a larger question of the business model. Would I pay the central booking service, and have it disburse funds to the studio? (My personal preference as a student.) Would there be a finder’s fee paid by the booking service to the studio, with students paying for the class directly to the studio? I don’t know. Certainly from the student’s perspective, being able to book and pay online in a single transaction is the most convenient approach.

What I do know is, I’d take more classes if such a booking system were available, one that allowed me to book and take classes on the spur of the moment, as time permits. Such an approach could be financially beneficial to the studio owners, if they could fill up more classes… They might even offer specials on classes that are generally sparsely attended.

Perhaps this is something that Mindbody could explore.

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Mortgage Refinancing: A Brave New World

February 3rd, 2010 · Back to Basics, Tools & Technology

We’re in the midst of refinancing our home, to take advantage of the current attractive rates. It’s been an eye-opening experience to see how the process has evolved since we last refinanced 5-8 years ago.

The lenders’ reliance upon web-based data collection services has certainly eased our burden, [Read more →]

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My Phone Company Is Stupid and Wasteful

January 13th, 2010 · Brand Matters, Marketing

I wish some agency that specializes in intelligent database mining and direct marketing would help my local phone company stop wasting trees on fruitless direct mail pieces.

Here’s the deal: my recycle bin now contains somewhere between 5 and 10 pieces of unopened direct mail offers from Qwest, [Read more →]

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Know Your Audience

January 12th, 2010 · Bookshelf, Marketing

Seattle is well known for lots of things. Besides the rainy climate, dead rock stars, environmental activists, micro-brews and mediocre sports teams, we’re home to more than our share of global brands — Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft and Boeing among others. Innovation and creativity thrive here. Perhaps fueled by all those lattes we drink. Not to mention [Read more →]

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