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This week on the podcast I am joined by Nate Guadagni from BoYoga. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while now, you’ll remember Nate from a few months ago. We did an awesome episode on growing your business through your email list and how to get an email list of 1,000 people!

In this episode, Nate and I talk about how to grow your yoga business through serving baby boomers or people in an older population. He shares how he’s grown his business this way, ways that you can start diving into this market, how teaching an older population is different than a younger market, and much more.

Enjoy!

Business Lessons from this Episode:

• Listen to Nate’s past Episode #96 on email newsletters and lists here.
• The benefits for teachers on providing classes to the “boomer” age range (50-72 years old).
  • The 50+ age group is the fastest growing segment with more than 14 million practitioners
  • The ageing population is the largest
  • They have the most disposable income
• Often “boomers” don’t start yoga because of the perception that yoga is for young people, flexible people or women only
• Change your marketing to appeal to the older population by changing the images you’re using
• Remember that “boomers” are looking at yoga for practical reasons and to improve the longevity of their lives
• Teachers need to educate themselves on what their older students need:
  • by speaking or observation their students
  • by speaking to other yoga teachers
  • Take gentle yoga classes
• Be aware of older students’ past injuries or whether they have osteoporosis or other conditions
• Their top health issues are: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, depression, arthritis, stress and obesity. Yoga has been shown to help manage symptoms of these and perhaps prevent them
• Classes need to adapt to seniors’ needs and getting them to tune in with their bodies
• The community aspect of yoga is very important to “boomers”
• When teaching older people, focus on these 5 things:
  • Modification. Find ways to modify poses and offer alternatives. Demonstrate the easiest version first, then work your way to more challenging (not the other way around).
  • Props. Using props is the default setting, not the extra option. Make props normal not remedial.
  • Pace. Look at how you might modify pacing and the breath.
  • Perceived Effort. You can still challenge students without straining them. Let students measure perceived effort rather than pose performance.
• • Goals and motivation. They are less motivated to do the pose for the pose’s sake and they have more realistic and practical goals.
• When teaching a range of people in your class, free yourself up to move around the room
• Older clients are more loyal clients
• If you haven’t developed a 1/3 of your lessons to private lessons, you’ll burn out. “Boomers” are perfect private session candidates as they can generally afford it and they can fill class times when most people can’t attend
• If you’re looking to fill your private classes, look to “boomers”
• “Boomers” want and appreciate the relationship more than you may realize
• You can begin teaching “boomers” by including them in your regular class or by running classes just for them
• Market to “boomers” via:
  • Email (they have the time to read it)
  • Referrals from friends
  • Facebook
  • Face to face connections through community events.
• Your marketing message should include realistic and diverse photos, to be more inviting and accessible
• Design a sequence, class or blog article that will appeal to them
• Resources and gifts for M.B.Om listeners:
  • Text: BOOMERS to 44222 to get a gift pack including free stock photos for Boomers doing yoga, 3 book recommendations, 5 Elements Qi Gong – Online Course and a special gift, Bo Yoga Exercise Guide.
• And much more… Here’s the episode!

Connect with Nate:

Nate Guadagni: www.boyoga.com

Buy Nate’s balance bar: www.boyoga.com/shop

Photos of Nate: