In this episode, Michael Jay welcomes back Lisa from Tucson Yoga Pod, who talks about her journey of opening a yoga studio. Lisa retired for the second time and went back to work after traveling extensively and visiting yoga studios all over the world. She developed her vision for the perfect yoga studio, a beautiful spa-like and welcoming environment where yoga is demystified through exceptional instructors who lead students on a journey where yoga is accessible to everyone.
Lisa opened her studio in 2020 as part of a franchise. However, due to some differences, she decided to leave the franchise and become an independent studio with the same name. She focused on redefining the mission, vision, and values of the studio with the help of Michael.
Michael assisted Lisa with pricing changes, which included increasing the intro offer from one week to two weeks. They also focused on the conversion of intro offers to memberships. Lisa's superpower is spreadsheets, which she uses to analyze the KPIs of the studio. They simplified the KPIs for the team to celebrate mini-wins along the way, and they use the KPIs to correct the course.
Lisa mentions that working with Michael helped her to focus on the bigger picture, and his support and guidance were instrumental in the success of her studio. Michael also helped her to delegate roles and responsibilities to the team, which in turn helped Lisa focus on the big picture and team mentorship.
In the end, Lisa bravely shares her journey with mental health and and she encourages others to prioritize their well-being as well.
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Michael Jay - Yoga Biz Champ
Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ, stands as the go-to Yoga Business Consultant, embarked on a mission to elevate yoga studios from mere survival to genuine thriving.
With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, marketing expert, and yoga studio business coach, he possesses the insider knowledge necessary to elevate your yoga venture to new heights.
His passion for yoga, combined with a sharp business acumen and a sincere desire to see studio owners excel, encapsulates his professional ethos. Michael is not one to offer one-size-fits-all advice; instead, he's dedicated to providing tailored guidance, tangible outcomes, and supporting your studio to emerge as the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
________________________________
Subscribe, Rate, and Review:
Don't forget to subscribe to Yoga Biz Champ. Follow us on social media @yogabizchamp, rate, and review the podcast. Your feedback helps us grow our community and reach more yoga enthusiasts like you.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
In this episode, Michael Jay welcomes back Lisa from Tucson Yoga Pod, who talks about her journey of opening a yoga studio. Lisa retired for the second time and went back to work after traveling extensively and visiting yoga studios all over the world. She developed her vision for the perfect yoga studio, a beautiful spa-like and welcoming environment where yoga is demystified through exceptional instructors who lead students on a journey where yoga is accessible to everyone.
Lisa opened her studio in 2020 as part of a franchise. However, due to some differences, she decided to leave the franchise and become an independent studio with the same name. She focused on redefining the mission, vision, and values of the studio with the help of Michael.
Michael assisted Lisa with pricing changes, which included increasing the intro offer from one week to two weeks. They also focused on the conversion of intro offers to memberships. Lisa's superpower is spreadsheets, which she uses to analyze the KPIs of the studio. They simplified the KPIs for the team to celebrate mini-wins along the way, and they use the KPIs to correct the course.
Lisa mentions that working with Michael helped her to focus on the bigger picture, and his support and guidance were instrumental in the success of her studio. Michael also helped her to delegate roles and responsibilities to the team, which in turn helped Lisa focus on the big picture and team mentorship.
In the end, Lisa bravely shares her journey with mental health and and she encourages others to prioritize their well-being as well.
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Michael Jay - Yoga Biz Champ
Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ, stands as the go-to Yoga Business Consultant, embarked on a mission to elevate yoga studios from mere survival to genuine thriving.
With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, marketing expert, and yoga studio business coach, he possesses the insider knowledge necessary to elevate your yoga venture to new heights.
His passion for yoga, combined with a sharp business acumen and a sincere desire to see studio owners excel, encapsulates his professional ethos. Michael is not one to offer one-size-fits-all advice; instead, he's dedicated to providing tailored guidance, tangible outcomes, and supporting your studio to emerge as the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
________________________________
Subscribe, Rate, and Review:
Don't forget to subscribe to Yoga Biz Champ. Follow us on social media @yogabizchamp, rate, and review the podcast. Your feedback helps us grow our community and reach more yoga enthusiasts like you.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
Michael Jay: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Yoga Biz Camp. I have a returning special guest today, and that is Lisa from Tucson Yoga Pod. And in our first, in our first recording in the last season I, very British called it tucson.
Michael Jay: Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa: Oh, thank you, Michael. Thanks for having me back.
Michael Jay: Welcome back. I'm just gonna quickly go over your quick bio fan, if any, if you haven't listened to the first podcast episode. It was an interview with Lisa. Lisa and I didn't know each other at the time, and so it was me asking how she got started in her beautiful studio in Arizona.
Michael Jay: And it all started back in late 2017 with Brian and Lisa started planning for Lisa to retire for the second time, not one to sit still. Lisa went back to work after 18 months of retirement, once before as a corporate executive in the enterprise software space. I. Lisa traveled extensively and was able to [00:01:00] visit yoga studios all over the world.
Michael Jay: During this time, she developed her vision for the perfect yoga studio, a beautiful spa-like and welcoming environment where yoga is demystified through exceptional instructors who lead students on a journey where yoga is accessible to absolutely everyone. Fast forward finding the perfect location.
Michael Jay: Brian started working with the architects to design a state-of-the-art studio. Excited to finally open our doors in 2020. Covid hit and delayed the trend opening until late May, 2020. After a few weeks, we shut our doors with the rest of Tucson and reopened with limited capacity. September, 2020. It's been a wild ride.
Michael Jay: Yes, and here we are. It's still wild. 23. Yes.
Lisa: We're coming up on our third anniversary.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And folks, their space is amazing. Just a little bit about Lisa and I. So when we first met, we were introduced by our good friend Connie, the amazing web designer [00:02:00] from Pixel Design, who did your website.
Michael Jay: Yes. And a lot of your branding stuff. And so we connected and then for the podcast and then we met in person at Mind Body Bold with one of your staffers, Mallory. And yes, I feel like that was such a great in-person experience. We'd come outta Covid and we're all together again and learning in this environment.
Michael Jay: But I feel like the three of us had a love connection. We
Lisa: did. We did. Yes. It was so fun.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And what's happened is I have been coaching yoga Pod Tucson, not Texan. And and I gotta say it's been one of the most incredible experiences of my coaching career. For a few reasons. And that is, You've hired me for multiple purposes and to work with multiple people.
Michael Jay: Yes. And so if we just go over briefly, I'm working with you. I would say it more on leadership [00:03:00] support. Yes. Yes. And then I'm working with your your studio director on kind of Yes. Operational stuff. Yes. And then I'm working with your marketing person. On touchpoints and funnels and and getting outta comfort zones and things like that.
Lisa: Yes. And I have to say, it's so nice having a multi-pronged approach with you because you see everything that's going on in, you're able to see our blind spots that we're not able to see.
Michael Jay: Thank you cuz be for me. I usually work with a studio owner. And so to be able to be coming your business, see it from multiple points of view.
Michael Jay: Uhhuh has been really fantastic. And I have to say, I feel like we working together your team, there's been results. Like we've really seen results.
Lisa: Oh my goodness sakes. Yes. Yeah. And they're motivated by seeing the results, [00:04:00] so it's, yeah, it's just been
Michael Jay: fabulous. Yeah. So we'll go through that, but first of all the, okay, so you were last on the podcast.
Michael Jay: You've, there's been a. Mega structure change to your business. You were part of a franchise and we're gonna, I'm gonna keep this delicate because, there's legal stuff here and what have you. But basically you are part of a franchise. And you have very nicely separated from the franchise to become independent.
Michael Jay: But I would say, most of those experiences don't go nicely. And I feel, oh, okay. I feel like yours has gone. Quite nicely. And so now you're in a very different place. Can you talk about that kind of?
Lisa: Sure. I, when I went on this journey to open a yoga studio, I thought, okay, I can run a business, but I need some help on how to, structure a yoga business and yoga pod.
Lisa: Was franchising and I went out and met them in Boulder and I love fell in love with them and they're fabulous people. And they were just getting [00:05:00] started on their franchising journey and so signed up with them in 2017, the end of 2017, and started with the build out. Got lots of support from them with the build out and everything.
Lisa: And then, as we all know, COVID hit. And so at the same time they are, they're running their own studios and also trying to run the franchise and yeah. Then when we came out on the other side of Covid, there were some things that I wanted to do with the studio and.
Lisa: They didn't have the infrastructure right to support, we were going beyond. Yeah. What they were able to do. And we had a very friendly conversation. And I like to say it was a friendly divorce. They. We worked out a deal where we kept the name, I was very transparent. I said, I have no desire to [00:06:00] rebrand.
Lisa: Cause the
Michael Jay: yoga, that's not the normal right. To, to to keep the name.
Lisa: Right, yeah. It wasn't known in Arizona, so it wasn't we really made the brand in Arizona and they were very amenable to that. And they just wanted a win-win, a as did I. And we worked on it and then we went off and did our own.
Lisa: Now we are our own independent studio. Yeah. Running our own programs and it was very friendly. I still talk with them. It's, yep. Very
Michael Jay: friendly. Yeah, that, that's, that's such a nice encouraging, to know that it can be done well with support and respect and all of that stuff.
Lisa: Oh, and I give them a lot of credit as well.
Lisa: When I went into this, I said, it's important that we both feel that we got value out of this relationship. Yeah. So I, it had to be a win-win.
Michael Jay: Yeah. I think that's a big congratulations, right? [00:07:00] It's did that feel scary being so low? Or did it be feel freeing?
Lisa: It was scary to think about it because it was okay, I have a, a security blanket.
Lisa: Yeah. And then I thought, okay, oh, we'll really be on our own. But, so it was scary and it was freeing, and part of it was at the same time I engaged you and you really helped the team say, okay, we have a. We're in a new chapter now. Let's get these things defined that are unique and important to Yoga Pad Tucson.
Lisa: I dunno if you remember, one of the first things we did was redefine our mission, vision, and values. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Jay: And how was that process? Cause I talk about that a lot, right? So how how was after the
Lisa: team. It was good. It was a long process because you don't just sit down in a meeting and flip it out.
Lisa: You have to sit with [00:08:00] a think about what is it that you stand for, and all the words matter.
Michael Jay: Yeah, it's a few, it that's such an interest, interesting one because it is, it's a few words, but they do matter because, can you hire and fire based on, yes. These things. And is it meaningful to you and the team?
Michael Jay: Really? Has to ring true.
Lisa: It does. And we've been able to use this now when we make decisions about the business, why are we doing this? Does it fall in line with our mission and what yeah, we're trying to accomplish? And if not, then we just, yep.
Michael Jay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Jay: It's a great one for making decisions on your business. It is, yeah. Yeah. I'm so proud of that one with anybody that does mission, visions and values. It's it's one of those ones I can't really do for my clients. Yeah. I can guide them and point them in the direction. I can read it and see if it's [00:09:00] true, but really you have to do
Lisa: the work.
Lisa: Yes. And remember it was exhausting. It was emotionally draining and exhausting. You never knew what Lisa, you were gonna get week to week.
Michael Jay: So one of the, after that, I think the next thing you, we really looked at together was the. Pricing and how that works with the goals. Yes. Can we, can you talk about your pricing structure pre changing and how it changed? Yes. And what effects that might have had.
Lisa: Yes. So we had a one week intro offer and we.
Lisa: Mallory and I went too bold, and we met with Michael. Sat down with Michael quite a bit, and it really, it took a while for my brain to get around and I know for people who've been in the industry a long time, it should be a no-brainer. But for me, it was hard to get my brain around a longer and more expensive intro [00:10:00] offer.
Lisa: But you did such a great job of explaining why. And so we increased our intro offer and then really focused on the conversions there, as and so we went to a two week intro offer and it's been phenomenal. Yeah, it's, it has made a world of difference.
Michael Jay: Can you talk a little bit about the difference between the intro of what the one week and the two week and Yes.
Michael Jay: Makes a difference to people?
Lisa: Yes. We made a couple changes and the first change was the intro offer starts as soon as you purchase it, not on your first visit, because prior you could buy a $29 intro offer and then not use it for a year, and it was still valid.
Michael Jay: Yeah so in people's mind that could be, ah, it's just 30
Lisa: bucks.
Lisa: Exactly. Now it's 49 and it starts when you sign up and you get [00:11:00] a we have a full on marketing campaign behind it where you mentioned Mallory, that Mallory runs, and then the team follows up on these intro offers. Everyone's assigned a day with. They follow up and. We were worried that also by raising the price of our unlimited membership, that would drive people away, but it hasn't because they're able to see and experience the value that is everything in the studio during two weeks versus one week.
Lisa: And the front desk is also trained on, Hey, how is your class? Are you signed up for your next one? What are your goals? That sort of thing. So there's much more connection with the new folks.
Michael Jay: Yeah. What would you say would happen before, like if someone just came, was it, was there a structure to that?
Lisa: There was a little not much structure. It was a little dependent upon how busy everybody was at the front [00:12:00] desk, whether or not they paid attention to it. We had much more structured training around it too. Like you helped us with, here are the conversations. That should be happening. Yeah. And just really paying attention.
Lisa: So paying,
Michael Jay: paying attention, so folks paying attention to because quite often we, people sell a pass and then that's it. They yeah. But you are paying attention to did they purchase and
Lisa: did they purchase, did they come?
Michael Jay: Or did they purchase and not come? Did they purchase and come, and then there's a connection after the first visit.
Lisa: Did they return right? Yeah. Yeah. And so there are all those touch points. And in our system too we keep track of all of the text messages in our c r m, and so whoever comes on, say, On Wednesday knows where the Tuesday person left off. Yeah. Because there's a record of everything.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael Jay: So let's just stop there. Just so [00:13:00] people understand this because they have a system, so there's multiple things they use mind their mind, body. Yeah. And then there are multiple companies out there that do similar things to this, but you are working with Axl. Correct. So Axl is your customer relationship manager that connects to mindbody and it mind body triggers off automations in the c r m.
Michael Jay: What's great about these systems and there's Loop, spark and Brak, there's multiple ones out there, but one of the one good things about yours, it has a great to-do bucket. Kind of thing. It has. Yes. So therefore now we can set up these things like did they come and not come? And so we've got these triggers in this where no matter who's working on the front desk that day, they can they can, people can be reached out in a easy manner.
Lisa: Beautiful, isn't it? It is beautiful. It is beautiful. And I would say with this, no matter what system folks [00:14:00] use, just make sure you understand it and use it. Yeah. It takes a lot of upfront time and effort to put into it, to use it, and I found that I.
Lisa: I just didn't have the bandwidth. Yeah. I selected it. I didn't have the bandwidth to implement it, and so that's why Mallory now does all of
Michael Jay: that. Yeah. And I actually say between Mallory and Michelle, what I see in there that they are killing it at which I see a lot of my clients failing at, and I'm trying to change that. But it is, you send a great. Great automated text message saying, Hey, this is such and such from yoga pod how was your first class? And then people come back and they say, it was fantastic. It was a great experience. And then silence, like the studio doesn't reply back.
Michael Jay: And so what is, yes, great job of what your team is really doing is having conversations on there, and directing people to the next. [00:15:00] Class and booking them into the next class, and they do a great job killing it on that. So yeah. What I want listeners to know that is this can sound overwhelming if you're not doing these things right, but it really, it's just a step by step process and these paying attention to these points where manual or automations it's, that's the game changer, right?
Lisa: Exactly, and you said something there, and it can be overwhelming, and I remember you saying to me, okay, let's. Let's step back. Let's do it one step at a time.
Lisa: You don't have to boil the ocean. Let's just do one step at a time. Whereas I was like,
Michael Jay: but you helped me. We get to your soon. Just why? We're still on the pricing changes. That then also affected your KPIs and goals and shifted the focus shifted with us on what the goals were and yes, we [00:16:00] have to say that I sent you a t-shirt.
Michael Jay: That's oh my gosh. What does your T-shirt say that they sent you? Yes.
Lisa: My t-shirt says I'm very proud of my T-shirt and it says spreadsheets are my superpower and. Spreadsheets are my safe haven. I can go down deep dark rabbit holes in my spreadsheets, like
Michael Jay: I'm talking folks spreadsheets that connect to other spreadsheets, that connect to other spreadsheets, and they all talk to each other beautifully.
Michael Jay: Shes it's beyond my capabilities, but I always say, no matter to every studio owner I work with, I'm like, Double, triple upon your superpower. Higher for your, yeah, higher for your weaknesses. Yes. And or higher for the areas you don't have the expertise in and and so your superpower spreadsheets, which, in a pricing model and a goal model and then a leadership position.
Michael Jay: It's a great superpower.
Lisa: It's [00:17:00] been really fantastic and you helped me harness that by saying, I remember you looked at one of my spreadsheets once and you said, and to me it was plain as day what I was looking at, and you looked at it and said, what is this? And so that made me, and my team hadn't said that to me yet, so that made me realize, oh my goodness, I'm sending these spreadsheets.
Lisa: Without any narrative, without any back, any explanation. And my team is just going. I, you've helped me narrow in on how to use the spreadsheets as the superpower. How do just because I'm good at them, right? Doesn't mean I was using them as a superpower. So I
Michael Jay: think we changed the goal to more membership goal, right?
Michael Jay: We
Lisa: did. Yeah, we did. and we did leading indicators to memberships. Which was great. Which was number of intro offers sold. Yep. Number of intro [00:18:00] offers converted. Yeah. As well as paying attention to the. The overall membership number. So that helps us with net new acquisition and retention.
Lisa: Right? And
Michael Jay: There was a lot of focus on lost clients. Yeah. Yes. And I think we've, that's super important, but we have shifted to the wins. Yes,
Lisa: yes.
Lisa: With the team. It was a subtle shift because we were focusing on loss, so we were focused on net new memberships each week. And Michael and I were having an a discussion and he said, why don't we focus on conversions? Because that's what they're really doing. So just making that little switch to focusing on.
Lisa: What were the new memberships? How many did you actually convert? But also keeping the eye on the overall memberships that takes into account the churn. Yeah. [00:19:00] The team just went, whoa. Because they saw what all of their hard work was doing was a direct the KPIs were direct reflection Yeah. Of what they were doing.
Michael Jay: And we'll get to roles, but it just changed the front desk everything. Because So folks, basically, Lisa's got these amazing spreadsheets that go from months out projections, but what we found was that's too much for the, that's too much for the staff, right? Like that works in your brain.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And it, it works the way your superpower works. Yeah. But it didn't really convert to understanding on the staff level and so Correct. So we simplified it. And it's, I believe it was, I'm not sure if it still is, but we were like, It was a goal of breaking it down to five conversions a week or something like that?
Michael Jay: That I believe. Yes. Yeah.
Lisa: Yes. Yeah. We broke it down to the, from, [00:20:00] not from to a weekly perspective. Here are the number of intro offers and here are the mon number of conversions. And then we're also looking at here are the number of occupied maths. Yeah. Just to make sure that. We're getting the people in the door,
Michael Jay: and I think it made makes it easier for the team to celebrate mini wins along the way.
Michael Jay: Oh my gosh, yes. It's like we're on target, like I've heard your, your, some of your people say such a, this is attendance is down a little bit, but we're still hitting our goals. Yep. That's nice sounding.
Lisa: Yes. The other thing they're doing, which has been fabulous is they're, say they're looking at it now and they're saying, okay, our conversions were lower this week.
Lisa: Because two weeks ago we didn't meet our inter offer sales goal. Yeah. So they're seeing. The [00:21:00] dependencies. But
Michael Jay: You have to sell a lot of intro office to make anything work.
Lisa: Yeah. So they understand the cause and effect of how everything fits together and how, and what, and they use the KPIs to correct course along the way.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael Jay: Yeah. It's such a positive feeling with your team. It really is. Oh,
Lisa: they're they're, I'm so lucky. They're just fabulous. They really are shout out to, and so are you. Hey, Mallory and Michelle? Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Jay: Leadership roles all right, we're gonna get a little vulnerable here. When we first met you were pulling your hair out a lot as far as having to deal with lots of tiny, little details of your business.
Michael Jay: Yes. And so that's what I saw was that your time was spent, you were doing a lot of things in my body. You're doing a lot of fixing of accounts and a lot of just small things that were pulling your [00:22:00] attention away from. Big picture. Yes. So I had a statement to you or a question.
Michael Jay: I said, are you hiding in your spreadsheets? Yes.
Lisa: You did. And it was kinda an aha moment for me. I was like, oh, wow. Oh yeah. I think I am and this is not productive.
Michael Jay: So I think, so folks, I think Lisa took a lot of stuff on. And I think let's talk about the journey. W what we've come from that from kind of those conversations and changing the structure was to the reason that you were having to deal with nitty gritty things were probably because they weren't delegated
Lisa: properly. Correct. I was not being clear in delegation and I wasn't.[00:23:00] Yeah. I was expecting people to read my mind, and that's not fair to them.
Michael Jay: Yeah. So we had some big stuff around this, right?
Michael Jay: And we
Lisa: did, we went around this for a while.
Michael Jay: Yeah. Yeah. And so what we found Was that the staff were all doing a fantastic, the leaders were all doing a fantastic job, but they weren't given clarity in what their roles were. Yes. Which was then coming onto your shoulders. And so a lot of your time was spent doing a lot of these little things. So Yes. So the, this was a big job, but we, yeah, you went, not we, you. Went to everybody, including yourself and said can you document what you are working on? Yes. Can you talk that a little bit?
Lisa: Yes. I asked everybody I thought, okay. Given what I'm doing and what Michael's bringing to the surface for me is [00:24:00] we have got to have, there's duplicate work going on, and so we are not efficient and there's frustration going on because I'm not being clear.
Lisa: So I asked everybody document what your day looks like, and I gave them based on their role, some buckets like leadership. Systems, customer service, document where you spend your time and what you're doing. And that was including myself and most of my stuff was hiding in spreadsheets.
Lisa: Full disclosure. And so then taking that and saying, okay, yes, we have some duplication, and Lisa, you're doing a lot of crap you don't need to do. And so then, Putting out a matrix of, okay, here are the things that we need to do to make this place run and hum. And here are the, here's what needs to be done and here's the role, what each role is responsible Yeah.
Lisa: For in each one. And the team [00:25:00]
Michael Jay: loved it. Yeah. It's such a, so now she has a spreadsheet. She, now she has spreadsheets for roles. Yes. Yeah. But all the roles are in a spreadsheet and then assigned to somebody, right? Yes. Yes. So what has happened is the staff now know what their exact functions are.
Michael Jay: Yes. You've also, through this, we've also recreated job descriptions. Yes. Had conversations about expectations. Yes. So what, okay. Right now you are at the beginning of a six week trip away from the studio. Yes, I am. And what did you say to your staff when you were leaving?
Lisa: They said, they asked me What, how often do you wanna check in with us?
Lisa: What would you like us to report to you? I said, You got it. I am fully confident that this place is going to run [00:26:00] without me unless it's burning down. I don't need to hear from you. And they were like, oh my gosh. They, and I'm really, I feel so. Grateful to be able to step away for six weeks, and I really don't have any angst about it.
Lisa: Yeah.
Michael Jay: This is a first, right? Like that you can step away. Everybody knows their lane. Every know one knows what to do. And if someone goes down, there's a system in place. And people in place that can step in. Yeah. So folks, what. If you are a studio owner and you don't have that in place at least like that freedom, the freedom that you can take a vacation, that you can go help aging parents and all those things that are going on in life. It, it is possible with some work put into the structure. Yeah. And your staff. Your staff is [00:27:00] in sync with what they, their job roles are.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And can we just, I just wanna back up a little bit. Yeah. One of your things was it got so much that you would go into shutdown mode and they wouldn't hear back from you. Oh, yeah. Period. And there was a little bit of a cycle with that going on, and that's not existent now
Lisa: that, so it was, you brought it out in me, he said, what's your response time when you're. When your team, when should your team hear back from you? And I was like, I don't know. I know. And doesn't that sounds so terrible. But I was just in this survival mode and the more that came at me, the more I shut down.
Lisa: And it became a vicious cycle that it just got worse and. So then you showed me one day how you block your calendar. And so I did that and I said, okay, here's how I'm gonna spend my days. If you don't hear from me the prior day, I'm [00:28:00] responding during these times. And so they knew when I was going to be responding to issues.
Lisa: They knew when I was going to be in the studio. And it's been.
Michael Jay: They also have a list of your responsibilities
Lisa: too. Oh, yes. Yes, they do. They know what I'm doing. Yeah. Which I'm accountable.
Michael Jay: Yeah.
Lisa: You're accountable to. And I'm accountable to them and I will fully own it if I did not complete what I was supposed to do.
Lisa: I fully own it. I don't sugarcoat it. I fully own it.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And now they're all, they're not waiting for things now, they're, it's, no, it is just, it's not big stuff that, this is small tweaks, right? That make big differences, and so now that through that process we have clear leadership roles, like really Yes.
Michael Jay: Super clear. Can you just go through that structure and we've also added in a new position as well. You just go through that structure of your business. And again, I don't want people that are solo studio owners to feel overwhelmed by that. Cuz I [00:29:00] work with studio owners that are the sole person of their business.
Michael Jay: And that works too. But the structure. And people in place can help. And just, I just wanna be clear that you are at a bigger scale. You're a studio. That's 75, 80 classes a week. It's, so a studio of this size needs a bigger structure.
Lisa: If I could back up for a moment, if you don't mind. I, before I went into this I had a. An executive coach and she had said to me, Lisa you will need to, don't try to do everything yourself. And so I knew I had to have support. So our structure, we have our front of house team, we have our back of house team, and we have our teacher.
Lisa: Teaching team. And then our leadership is so front of house is front desk. We have a childcare area so when someone comes to class, they can drop their child off. So play pod and just [00:30:00] taking care of the entire customer experience when they walk in the door. And there are expectations there.
Lisa: And
Michael Jay: so that's a studio director role.
Lisa: Yes. That's Michelle Studio director. She's in charge of all of the operations. And then we have Shay, who, she is our program director, and she's in charge of leading all of our teachers. We have about 40 teachers. She manages the schedule, she manages all the programs.
Lisa: And shout out to Shea. Our 300 hour program starts in a couple weeks. So she handles all of that. So she has everything, yoga, Michelle has everything business. And now we just created a marketing manager, Mallory. And Mallory is working on our marketing. And we're getting that going with Michael cuz we were just word of mouth
Michael Jay: before.
Michael Jay: Yeah. And let's go there. Yes. [00:31:00]
Lisa: Okay.
Michael Jay: Lisa does not want to go on camera, and Ed has taken me months and months of prodding her to say I'm like Lisa. I want you to show off your studio and show your pride. And the only reason I've been doing this, because I know it's been a thing, you don't wanna put yourself out there.
Michael Jay: It's not comfortable for you. It's and that is not just your story. Oh my goodness. So many people are the same thing. And we have this thing where we compare ourselves to everybody else online and all of this stuff. Yeah. Finally I cornered Lisa and I'm like, I want you to do a video of a walkthrough of your space.
Michael Jay: I just, I want a video. Just you showing off it. You don't have to have talking what have you. And it took a long time and. I bullied her a little bit into saying, okay, tomorrow, on Thursday you're going to do it cuz you'll be at the studio. [00:32:00] And then, because I also work with other members of her team, the marketing person, Mallory, I'm like, Mallory, Lisa's coming to the studio tomorrow.
Michael Jay: Don't let her get out of this. But you have to record a video.
Lisa: Yes. Yes,
Michael Jay: we did it. It was a little fascia Fair project, right? And it turned out so beautifully. It is such a good video. Mallory did such a good job. You did such a good job. Over the weekend, you got. Over 1800 views of this reel.
Michael Jay: It, it's amazing. It hun so many comments of love and tagging you. Yeah. And it was just a such a great thing. I was like, I was going through the whole weekend going. It's not all about the damn KPIs. It's not all about the goals and the damn KPIs. Yes, this moment is more meaningful to me than meeting the five people goal on the, of the week.
Michael Jay: It was like, yeah, before weekend, I'm texting her [00:33:00] 1400 views.
Lisa: Yes, he did. Yes. Yes. And it did, it got me out of my my comfort zone and and it was fun. It was fun. Yeah.
Michael Jay: And it's a, anyway, it's a great it's a great video and I'm honestly, I'm super proud of that. But I'm super proud of also of your team and you it feels like it's just been, it's such a lovely experience that all of us working together and again, coming from different angles and what's it been like for you working with a coach?
Lisa: It has been transformational for me because it's, what you've done for me is you have put a very gentle mirror in front of me and asked me questions, and you'll say Lisa, this is what you want to do, but how do you're doing this? It's been our, we have had [00:34:00] phenomenal growth since I've started working with you, and it all goes back to being able to see our blind spots holistically because it, you're not just hearing from me.
Lisa: You're hearing from Yeah. Michelle and Mallory, you know where, and you're able to put the pieces together. And there's no way for me to bullshit you because you talk to everybody else.
Lisa: And you've, although you don't work with Shay you've met Shay and you've heard Yeah. Yeah. Enough about her. She's. Often doing other stuff, but yeah. Yeah.
Michael Jay: One of the things that you guys did was brought me in to meet with the whole team. Yes. Yeah. And to talk about those front desk experiences and how it all comes from every angle from the teachers and and so the sort, a mini training and get together with the whole team. Yep. And yes. Yeah. It's and the growth is, we're not going into the numbers, but It's rocking. It's it's [00:35:00] just a rocking business. And if you wanna see the studio folks go to what's your Instagram?
Michael Jay: Tucson Yoga Pod. Yoga pod Tucson. Yoga pod. Yoga pod. And look at the walkthrough video because it's such an amazing And your, in your bio you said it's a spa-like experience. Yeah. The details of your place is just, beautiful. I wanted to end on a different note here, Lisa, and that is Sure.
Michael Jay: It's Mental Health month and we've been talking about this a little bit with your team as well and what that means. And I also say that people come to yoga. F we don't sell a product. We sell an experience and we we're selling really how. A feeling of how how leave. So can you tell me about your reason, and the change Yeah. Made for
Lisa: you? Yeah. So I had dabbled in yoga here and there [00:36:00] throughout my life, but back in. 2009 I got very sick. It was and I ended up in I C U for a couple weeks. I had basically worked myself sick and hadn't realized at the time the mind bo body connection.
Lisa: Yeah. It was real. And so after that I said What am I gonna do? And I, my daughters actually took me to a yoga studio and it was a hot yoga studio in town, and I instantly fell in love because I felt like, oh my gosh, I can do this. And I feel great and my monkey mind is slowing down. And then I started paying attention to this, and still at that point I was still very.
Lisa: Much very private about my own personal life and my work life. And then when I [00:37:00] decided that, okay, I need to retire again I said, what is it that I wanna do? And I thought yoga changed my life, helped me. Slow down my mind helped me realize I'm not alone in this journey and it's okay to have a mental illness and still be successful.
Lisa: They're not mutually exclusive. And so I was able, in my job to travel the world and visit yoga studios around the world and I curated what is the perfect. Yoga experience and it's one where someone comes in and they immediately feel welcome. They don't have to worry about a thing if they forgot their mat, we've got the mat.
Lisa: If they forgot their deodorant, we've got deodorant. Yeah. We have everything. And it's a [00:38:00] just a beautiful, clean spa-like experience so they can just focus on themselves and It's also opened up in me the courage to talk about mental illness and how I struggled with it for so long. I was ashamed, felt I would be viewed as less than or weak.
Lisa: And as we have. Brought this studio to life. There's so many people who have come to us with similar stories. Yeah. And so I feel this is way outside my comfort zone to even talk about this with, in such a public forum. Those close to me. No I will talk about it, but I feel like I have a story to share that we don't have to hide in, just because you can't.[00:39:00]
Lisa: Fee an illness doesn't mean it's not there and it's not real.
Michael Jay: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And can you tell me that feeling that it like, like that the, I imagine, I mean you haven't said exactly, but I imagine you had anxieties and and a lot of built up stress and yeah. And the feeling that you left with must have been because I people come to.
Michael Jay: Yoga for either physical change or mental change. I don't any other reason really.
Lisa: Yeah. Mine was, so my particular is anxiety and clinical depression. So it's that feeling of hopelessness and you're not enough and you're not going to be able to dig yourself out, but you have to put on a face.
Lisa: And make it okay. For everybody else around you. Yeah. And people who worked with me in the past will probably be shocked to hear that [00:40:00] cuz I always had a face on.
Michael Jay: Yeah. Oh yeah. The guard
Lisa: and yeah, the guard is up and So that was me. And I still deal with it every day.
Lisa: It's not something for me that goes away. So I have to manage it yeah. All the time. And, but finding that being, making people feel like they're not alone is a huge part of our community. Yeah. And it's okay. To talk about it. Yeah. Don't you think? Did
Michael Jay: I answer your question? Yes, absolutely.
Michael Jay: And more. And don't you think that we're able to speak a little bit more freely since Covid
Lisa: Ye yes. Since Covid. And it just happened to coincide with my change in career too. Yeah. Yeah, people are much. More aware of the importance of taking care of your mental health. Yeah. [00:41:00] Because it has such a huge impact on your physical health and, yeah.
Lisa: When I got sick back in 2009 I hadn't put those dots together. Yeah.
Michael Jay: But it's, and it sounds like it just all got accumulated in you. And
Lisa: it did built up all kinds of pressure. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And I just went, my body just went, okay, girl, slow the heck down. Yeah. And I worked for a wonderful company and they were just lovely when this happened to me.
Lisa: They took such good care of me. And but I was, I did not share at that time, what was Yeah. Really happening because, It felt so
Michael Jay: personal. Yeah. You're in a world now, I think in the yoga world and it's softer right. Than, yeah. Than the corporate world. And I think it it fits you well. Yeah. Thank you. Lisa, thank you. I adore you. I adore you. You're a entire team. You're a very precious client to me. Every single Wednesday. [00:42:00] Yes. It's my longest day of the week, but I wake up super excited cause I know my day is starting with you.
Lisa: No, I know. I get to start with you and and can I just put a shout out to you?
Lisa: You don't know this is coming. Friends, if you are thinking about working with a business coach, I highly recommend it. And don't hide anything. Be transparent and let your coach see multiple areas of your business. And it sounds like Michael and I have been working together for years. But it's been six months Yeah.
Lisa: That we've done this entire trans. Six months meeting every single week and meeting with other people on my team. So I highly recommend
Michael Jay: it. Thank you. I'm gonna be repurposing that comment on, so yes,
Michael Jay: get ready for a real e everybody. Yes. Thank you. Where do, where does everybody find you, [00:43:00] Lisa?
Lisa: Oh you, our website's, tucson yoga pod.com. You can find us on social media, yoga Pod Tucson. That's it. Drop
Michael Jay: by. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna be dropping by sometime. I need to go and see your studio. In person, in
Lisa: person.
Michael Jay: Yes. Thank you so much, Lisa.
Lisa: Thanks, Michael. Bye. Bye.