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Kelly Smith is a yoga teacher, a yoga teacher teacher, the founder of Yoga for You Online and the host of the Mindful in Minutes podcast!

On this episode of the podcast, Kelly shares how she grew her yoga business by owning a yoga studio in small town Missouri, how she built a following, and how she has transitioned it all online when she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kelly believes that a great yoga class is not simply a class, but a yoga experience, and on this episode, she shares how to create a great yoga experience for your students.

With Mindful in Minutes, Kelly creates weekly meditations that are 20 minutes or less that she shares online with her students. When it comes to creating a great meditation, it comes back to creating an experience and telling a really good story. She walks us through some of the key steps to creating a really great guided meditation experience.

Finally, Kelly and I talk about the power of accepting that as a yoga teacher, you will never be perfect and it’s okay to just be human!

Enjoy! 

Business Lessons from this Episode: 

• Talk to yourself the way other people would talk to you. Never say something to yourself that you wouldn’t say to a friend.
• Be confident in yourself and your offerings
• Make your classes experiences instead of just classes
  • Look at the 5 senses – what is the temperature, what does the room smell like, what do you hear, what is the energy like in the room?
  • Everything in the yoga experience has intention behind it
• Connect with your students
  • Welcome them when they come in
  • Introduce yourself
  • Ask their name
  • Ask them something about yourself
• Keep connecting during the class – get off your mat and interact with your students
• Set your boundaries with your students right off the get go
• Set boundaries around your schedule so you’re not always on your phone or taking a lot of time interacting with students and clients
• Creating a great meditation is like creating a great story
• “Oh, how human of me!” – don’t forget that even as a yoga teacher, you’re not perfect!
• Smiling or laughing can be really powerful if you’re feeling nervous or anxious for a class!
• Stop being so serious when you’re teaching yoga
• Every time that someone rolls out their mat with you, their going on a journey with you
• How to write a great guided meditation
  • A guided meditation is telling a really nice story and you have to use all of the senses
  • Use the 5 senses to describe the topic
  • We don’t need to re-invent the wheel
  • Draw from personal experiences and turn your students inwards
  • Choose imagery and an experience that will be mostly positive for people, and wouldn’t potentially be a trigger
• And much more…here’s the episode!

Connect with Kelly: 

Yoga for You Online
Mindful in Minutes Podcast

Upcoming Retreat with Kelly & I: 

Join Kelly and I for Elevate Your Yoga Biz in Nicaragua at the end of April!  Elevate Your Yoga Biz is a 6 night, 7 day retreat designed for yoga teachers in beautiful Nicaragua. Led by Kelly Smith (E-RYT 500, YACEP and founder of Yoga for You) and Amanda Kingsmith (RYT-200 & founder of Mastering the Business of Yoga), each day you will experience a yoga or meditation class, a masterclass to help you create your dream yoga business, a workshop to help you implement what you’ve learned into your business, and a dharma/community chat to discuss fears and challenges in the yoga industry.

This retreat includes 22 hours of continuing education credits for Yoga Alliance and 1-on-1 time to talk all things yoga biz with both Kelly and Amanda.

Use code ADZENTURE to get 15% off the retreat! Learn more & register here.

This episode of the podcast is also brought to you by FavYogis! FavYogis is the newest yoga app designed specifically with Yogis in mind. It was built out of Santa Monica, CA by a practicing yogi and software engineer from MIT. FavYogis connects yoga students with their favorite teachers through a simple to use app that is free to download. Teachers can post one time events like workshops and retreats as well as regular weekly classes, and students can easily find teachers offerings from anywhere in the world. Use the code “MBOM” when you sign up and make sure they know I sent you! Sign up here!

Photos of Kelly: