The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast
262: Run a Successful Yoga Membership with Allie Van Fossen
Description:
How can yoga teachers successfully leverage the membership model in their business? In this episode, Shannon chats with Allie Van Fossen about how she built and grew her membership to 1000 members, and what it really takes to manage a membership fo that size.
Allie leads the Body Mind Soul Studio, an online yoga studio that helps people leverage a holistic yoga practice to create transformation in their lives, both on & off the mat. Her mission is to empower yoga students with on-the-mat tools so they can confidently lead an off-the-mat wholesome, fulfilling life. At Body Mind Soul Studio, Allisson offers quarterly courses, weekly live events, and a variety of yoga classes and teachings, all via a yoga membership program.
Allie shares the nitty-gritty details about what it really means to run a yoga membership. She candidly shares about the challenges in her latest launch and how she dealt with them, as well as her strategy to retain members. Allie explains how she uses YouTube as her main marketing platform, and gives us some great tips on what elements to include in our membership program, and how to decide what to charge.
If you've been thinking about starting a membership or if you have a membership and are thinking about how to improve it, this interview with Allie Van Fossen is going to help you along this journey.
Key Takeaways:
[3:17] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Allie Van Fossen.
[6:20] Did you know that OfferingTree makes it really easy to set up membership sites? Shannon gives a shout out to sponsor OfferingTree.
[9:11] What does Allie do and who does she do it for?
[10:20] Allie has a large following on YouTube, as well as a large membership. What was the process like building these platforms?
[14:15] Allie shares some of the things she loves about YouTube.
[17:08] For many yoga teachers, YouTube may feel like more of a challenge than Instagram. For Allie, it's the opposite.
[18:51] What is Allie's membership like?
[21:34] What do Allie's members have access to within the membership?
[25:35] For many yoga teachers teaching online right now, sign ups are lower than they have been for the past couple of years.
[27:07] The Yoga Teacher Conf is coming up soon, 22-24 April in Denver, Colorado. Shannon shares some details about the event.
[29:07] Allie recently had a launch that didn't go as planned. What happened and what was that like?
[33:48] What were some of the reasons why Allie's most recent launch saw only 50% of the usual rates?
[35:32] From a different perspective, people are also in an in-between zone and may not be emotionally in the right place.
[38:46] The third thing that contributed to Allie's disappointing launch was a collection of smaller factors.
[41:02] Allie's next launch is coming up in spring, and she's prepared for it.
[44:27] What does Allie's team do to help retention in the membership?
[51:39] Allie shares some of her tips for starting a membership.
[54:00] What is Allie's advice for people who are new to the idea of having a membership?
[59:34] Find out more about Allie and the work she does by visiting her website.
[62:41] Shannon shares her key takeaway from this interview with Allie.
Links:
Gratitude to our Sponsors, OfferingTree and Yoga Teacher Conf.
Quotes from this episode:
“YouTube is the primary traffic source that feeds our other revenue streams and I love it."
"It's been a massive learning lesson and ... being an entrepreneur, just putting yourself out there, letting yourself be seen and heard and be so visible, really requires you to go through your own metamorphosis."
"I started the membership really out of that desire to go deeper with my community."
"You can spend a lot of money getting people in the door, but then if they all leave just as quickly, you've got this really broken, leaky system."
"People say they want one thing, but they actually need something else."
"I'm finally embracing that entrepreneurship is experimentation and it can be joyous and fun, even when you've got tens of thousands of dollars invested."
"Go inward, connect with what has worked for you and been most moving for your own yoga journey as a student and let that be your springboard for creativity."