I have always considered myself to be an entrepreneur. As a longtime freelance writer, I am accustomed to managing deadlines and accounting. I’ve even set up dozens of websites and am studying for a Master’s degree in Business Administration.
So I figured starting a virtual yoga studio, with all of the production done from my home office studio and all the marketing handled by yours truly, couldn’t be that difficult. I was focused on what was most important to me, which was being able to provide an accessible way for people to experience yoga and develop a sustainable home practice. I figured I’d be able to do what was needed on the side while continuing with my regular work.
Boy, was I wrong.
It Was Easy…Until It Wasn’t
Actually, getting set up wasn’t that challenging. I invested in a camera, lighting, and microphone and found a platform that allowed me to easily set up a membership site. I ran a pre-launch email subscription drive through my Instagram and Facebook accounts, hosted a few free virtual classes where I promoted the upcoming release, and recorded my first five videos for the on-demand library.
When I was ready to launch Love Revolution Yoga, I had about 100 email subscribers, 10 of whom signed up for a recurring monthly membership, which I took as interest in what I was offering and a validation of my business model.
The launch was deceptively easy. I was able to keep up the recording and producing of videos for a while and picked up a few more members over the next couple of years. But I eventually hit a plateau, with neither the membership site nor my email list growing and my revenue failing to cover the cost of the membership platform.
The ongoing business administration, video production, and marketing were a lot of work for one person. Between working a demanding full-time job, traveling, and studying for my MBA, I was confronted with the reality that I didn’t have the time or the energy to also run my own online studio. My little online studio needed a lot more attention than I’d expected.
Deciding to Shut It Down Was Harder
It turned out that the ongoing challenge of running a virtual yoga studio from my home office wasn’t sustainable for me.
After two years of trying to make it work, I decided to shut down the membership site and upload my previously created content to my YouTube channel where anyone could access it for free. I don’t consider my online studio experiment a failure. I learned some valuable lessons from the experience. Shutting the studio down enabled me to expand my vision of what is possible for myself, as both a yoga teacher and as an entrepreneur.
But in the end, the business behind my teaching became a barrier to my teaching, which was the thing I loved most.
Our society teaches us that if you start a business and it doesn’t work, for one reason or another, it’s a failure. This approach to business and to life is disempowering. Yoga teaches us to live in balance and alignment with ourselves and those around us. It teaches us not to identify our worth through external achievement and to let go of the things that don’t serve us.
For me, closing down the membership site was a practice in letting go of my small and myopic expectations, and creating space to live my vision in a more aligned way.
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5 Things I Learned From Launching an Online Yoga Studio
1. You can do what you love and it’ll still be work.
When I launched my online yoga studio in 2020, my thoughts were primarily on the creative work of developing classes and courses. I had countless ideas for class themes, meditation workshops, and live virtual events to help facilitate a community despite not having a shared physical space. I even envisioned a chakra series to help students explore yoga philosophy. Those are the things I love to create and share with others.
My mistake was not giving much thought to the time that the business administration, marketing, and video and audio production would take.
In the first year, I built and maintained my own website. I hosted live classes weekly and added two recorded videos for the on-demand library each month. I did all of the copywriting, graphic design, scheduling, and publishing for email and social media marketing. I’d wake up early on Saturdays to record videos and stay up late at night editing. Sometimes, during the editing process, I’d notice there was something wrong with the sound and realize that I couldn’t use the video I had just taken two hours to record.
I wore all of the hats. The business of yoga was starting to suck the joy out of teaching.
2. You can do all the things, just maybe not all at once.
When I was still trying to build Love Revolution Yoga, I took a personal development program and a 300 hour YTT. I started grad school, published a book, and helped facilitate a Freedom Writer Institute where we trained educators in social-emotional learning. I taught yoga at a retreat in New Mexico, traveled to California and Nashville, and spent most of the summer in Ireland—all while working a full-time job. Suffice it to say, by the end of the year I was burnt out and needed to set some boundaries for myself.
I had to confront the limitations of both my time and energy. The first step in establishing boundaries was being honest with myself. I was dropping the ball when it came to the online studio, which was ultimately a huge disservice to the very students I wanted to serve.
Clearly I needed to free myself to find other ways to teach and connect in community.
3. Clarity requires stillness.
The first part of 2023, I dedicated time to step out of the chaos to look within, engage in svadhyaya—or inward reflection—and visualize not just the evolution of my yoga teaching business, but the evolution of myself.
This reflection came with the uncomfortable stillness of being laid off, where I suddenly didn’t have the demands of full-time work. At first I went back into freelance hustle mode, trying to find new digital marketing clients. But I realized I was throwing myself into all of these different trainings and writing projects because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was restless and searching for something, despite having accomplished all of the goals I had set for myself. The truth was, I didn’t know what I wanted next.
I had told myself that I wanted to teach yoga on the side while still having full-time work as a digital marketer. The latter was easy and familiar for me, but it was starting to feel increasingly out of alignment. I had to ask myself what I really valued, which was coaching people and watching them grow.
4. Slow and steady progress is still progress.
I might have known that I didn’t want to make a living as a digital marketer anymore. But I still needed to figure out how to make a living in alignment with my values and my desire to help people.
Normally when I have a new business idea or aspiration that excites me, I set a goal, make a plan, and then I put a lot of pressure on myself to work the plan and achieve the goal. This time, I’m trying something new. I’ve decided not to put pressure on myself. I have a vision and I’m taking my time letting it germinate and grow at its own pace.
Things feel slow going, and while I know what I want to do, the “how” isn’t always clear, which can be frustrating for an achievement-driven person like myself. There’s an internal voice saying I could make more progress if I did more. And part of me wants the path and desired outcome to magically materialize before me.
It’s in moments like this when my yoga practice means doing my best every day and at the same time letting go of my attachment to an outcome I can’t control.
5. Sometimes the thing you think you’ll never do is exactly what you need
I never thought I’d teach in a physical space with regular weekly classes again. Yet I recently started teaching in a yoga studio again—and not without some reticence about the relative lack of accessibility that I believe is inherent in any group class model.
But being able to teach, get paid, and let someone else worry about the business of running a studio makes teaching yoga accessible for me.
Returning to the studio setting also allows me to plug back into my yoga community in a way that I found challenging to accomplish online. Ironically, creating community was why I started Love Revolution Yoga..
One of my teachers used to say, “You don’t do yoga; you become yoga.” The process of inward reflection, letting go of expectations, realigning with my values, and learning to be content with where I am in each moment — that is the integration of yoga into my life. And while I still don’t know what’s next, I’m happy to be living and teaching and becoming yoga.
About Our Contributor
Kimberlee Morrison is an award-winning author, a yoga teacher, self-love advocate, and founder of Love Revolution Yoga. She’s been practicing yoga for more than 20 years and teaching it for more than six years. She’s on a mission to teach people to love themselves through the practice of yoga.
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