Chrissie Wywrot has had 10 years of digital marketing and public relations experience that began with her work in the NFL. She grew up the South of Detroit in a small town and has always been passionate about sports.
Chrissie’s career path is an excellent example of finding your niche, a topic that has been interwoven into many of our episodes. After college, Chrissie pursued her passion for sports by working for the Detroit Lions in guest services. Having an interest in public relations inspired her to work her way to managing their website. Website development included a lot of writing, graphics, photography and social media.
Niching down further, Chrissie left the world of sports in 2014 to focus on guiding service-based businesses toward utilizing social media in the most effective way. Chrissie, a self-proclaimed “social media nerd”, gets to focus on her favourite aspect of public relations. And, as a mother of 3, she appreciates being able to establish a more flexible work schedule by working for herself.
Chrissie emphasizes authenticity, passion, and depth as the key elements needed for a productive online presence.
Today Chrissie is going to give us insight into Linkedin, a professional networking site, used by employers and job seekers, where valuable connections can be made.
Chrissie’s journey into social media 6:20
Define your goal before deciding what social media tools best work for you 13:10
How to use LinkedIn as a social media tool 15:10
Using native content in LinkedIn and gearing your profile to your audience(s) 17:30
Definition of native content 18:40
The biggest mistakes you can make using LinkedIn 19:45
New and updated LinkedIn since purchase by Microsoft and Advantages of LinkedIn vs. Facebook 20:50
Importance of planning out your LinkedIn profile 21:50
Opportunities for yoga teachers in the corporate yoga niche 23:00
Using the sales navigator tool 24:00
Advice to reluctant social media users 25:10
What to expect when working with a social media expert, like Chrissie, to optimize your LinkedIn profile 26:10
Customize shared content toward your business 31:10
Leaving your LinkedIn profile open in all settings to best connect with others 32:45
Third party scheduling tool- Buffer 34:00
How many times a week should you check up on your LinkedIn profile 34:45
Being consistent in your engagement with potential clients 35:30
Specific advice to yoga teachers when engaging in social media “7 touch points” 35:15
Building relevant connections on LinkedIn and consider connecting using personal notes 38:00
Marketing yourself as a yoga teacher 39:45
Shannon’s closing thoughts 41:50
We’ve learned so much from Chrissie Wywrot in this episode including LinkedIn’s ability to gain more traction with your content than Facebook. If you don’t have a website it is a great alternative!
What LinkedIn action are you going to tackle this week? If LinkedIn isn’t your channel is there another platform you can look at? Consider writing an article which can really help bring people to your profile, and also consider scheduling time each week to work on your content.
Links
Article: What to Do on LinkedIn When You Have Little Time for LinkedIn by Chrissie Wywrot
Buffer: Social Media Management Tool
The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
The Connected Yoga Teacher: Home page
Course: The Connected Yoga Teacher: Define Your Yoga Niche (September 2017)
Shannon welcomes Carol Cox, the founder of Speaking Your Brand and who we can safely say is an expert speaker.
Carol engages her audience through various mediums including her podcasts, University classes and as a tv political analyst.
Speaking Your Brand’s services are aimed at women in business who are looking to develop their brand. Carol explains that through authentic engagement and clarifying your purpose you can connect with those who will most benefit from your services.
She shares her insights into successful public speaking, which may be something you have never considered as a yoga teacher.
Carol discusses the benefits of public speaking and graciously provides us with PDF worksheets: Step-By-Step Framework to Persuade Your Audience to Action which take you through the process of preparing a talk. From “Find Your Why” to “Outline Your Persuasive Message” the steps will ensure you’re thoroughly prepared for your public speaking debut.
5:10 Carol’s relationship with yoga
6:35 Mindful practices that she engages before public speaking- it is normal to be nervous!
8:00 Clarifying your Core Message
15:00 Finding your Niche
20:00 Public speaking- often an untapped area in the yoga profession
22:50 Tools to craft a speech- your “signature talk”
24:25 How much self-promotion can or should be included in the talk?
26:50 Storytelling and engaging your audience on a personal level
29:30 Should there be a line between political and personal beliefs and your professional life?
33:45 Carol’s last words of wisdom
35:40 Shannon’s closing thoughts
Carol’s Website: Speaking Your Brand
PDF: Step-By-Step Framework to Persuade Your Audience to Action by Carol Cox
Podcast: Speaking Your Brand or search and subscribe on iTunes
PDF: The Hero’s Journey
The Hero's Journey Outline by Storytech Literary Consulting
Course: Define Your Yoga Niche Workshop with Shannon Crow
Join The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
“If your message is for everyone it really is for no one”- Carol Cox
It’s been quite a journey so far for The Connected Yoga Teacher community. Shannon’s goal to create a community for yoga teachers to share ideas, build knowledge, and support one another has grown into something really beautiful. She has been touched by all of your contributions.
On today’s episode Shannon shares her tools for keeping herself on track as her consulting work and The Connected Yoga Teacher community grows.
From online tools that help her organize her Facebook posts, design graphics, manage her business finances to writing in a bullet journal, Shannon uses these 6 resources every day.
Each online tool has a free version.
5:15 Bullet Journal
7:40 Schedulicity
8:55 Canva
10:55 Pixabay
12:25 Trello
16:50 Wave
Tools:
- no need to get a fancy one
- index component is helpful to find sections quickly
- helpful to have everything in one spot
- this company has progressed quickly, adding more features often
- great customer service
- this online resource has recently added the option of
accepting automatic payments from your clients
3.Canva
- online, easy to use, beginner friendly
- a number of graphic design projects like posters, social
media graphics, banners and more
- tutorials and lots of templates
Article: 6 TIps to Create a Great Poster by Shannon Crow
- new images added often
- can make boards, lists, save images, even design posts away from the distraction of social media
- professional looking invoices that can be sent out via email
- helps with the financial goals, helps prevent you from “burying your head in the sand” so you can see the progression of your endeavor so you can feel confident and empowered
- helps separate personal expenses from business expenses and income
There are lots of resources that can help you in your yoga businesses. Start with just one to avoid feeling overwhelmed and see how it can be tailored to work for you.
Join the conversation in our supportive The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook Group.
Share any tools you find helpful in the comments section below or let us know if you’ve tried one of these tools and how it worked for you.
Thank you to Laura for creating the show notes each week and to Rob for editing the audio.
Andrea Peloso asks us to delve a little deeper into the meaning and benefits of Restorative Yoga. As an experienced yoga teacher who practices and teaches from a variety of disciplines, it is Restorative Yoga that she holds close to her heart.
Andrea’s passion for Restorative Yoga and its innumerous benefits, along with lifelong learning and a desire to create an inclusive yoga environment shines through in her discussion with Shannon.
Andrea has been teaching for 15 years. She has over 1700 hours of yoga teacher training, including studies with respected elder yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasatar.
Andrea met with Judith at a time when Andrea was experiencing back pain and fatigue.
It didn’t take Andrea long to focus on sharing with others the incredible benefits of yoga. She has taught across Canada, The United States, and Japan.
Andrea holds a honours degree in Philosophy and Women’s Studies and has studied Eastern and Indian Philosophy.
5:00 Andrea’s perspective on fostering community in the yoga world
8:50 Importance and definition of Restorative Yoga
9:10 Effect on parasympathetic nervous system
10:25 Andrea’s yoga journey
13:40 The difference between Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga
17:50 Are props necessary for Restorative Yoga?
21:15 Creating a safe space for our yoga students- before, during and after class
28:00 Music or no music for a restorative class?
35:00 Verbal cues in Restorative Yoga
38:30 How to study with Andrea
39:10 How Restorative Yoga has helped Andrea in her own life.
40:45 Practicing kindness to self
Links
40-Hour Restorative Training with Andrea
Andrea's Know Thy Hips Workshop at Tone Studio in Owen Sound, Ontario
Youtube Video: All is Love by Bjork
The Connected Teacher Facebook Group
Quotes
“Restorative Yoga is the use of props to support the body in such a way that elicits a healing response. The response should be a deep relaxation- the deeper the better so we are actually stimulating our deep parasympathetic nervous system when we do this practice. The parasympathetic nervous system is in charge of everything that makes life wonderful and long: fertility, digestion, immunity, relaxed diaphragmatic breathing, the body healing itself internally, lower blood pressure, etc. etc.” ~ Andrea Peloso
"Safety is about physical space, also a relational space where we can be ourselves, disagree, and say no in the company of our teachers. It is also a space where we will not have to experience once again prejudice or negative stereotyping that we may experience it in the world at large. Needless to say to be a yoga teacher who creates safer spaces is to be one who continues to educate themselves about what it is like to be human being with different sets of life circumstances than their own.” ~ Andrea Peloso