2001

For Kyle Aldous '02, Singapore American School was an opportunity to discover his potential and use his teachers' support to lay his foundation for future success.

from Singapore American School http://ift.tt/1XetFFo

2001

For Kyle Aldous '02, Singapore American School was an opportunity to discover his potential and use his teachers' support to lay his foundation for future success.

from Singapore American School http://ift.tt/1XetFFo

Why Every New Entrepreneur Should Travel More

You want to know an insider's secret for growing a business quickly?

Travel more.

It seems counterintuitive, right? For years I've been espousing on the fact that you can maintain a business while on the road, but it's difficult to grow a business on the road.

While generally I believe that to be true, today I'm going to show you why strategic, regular travel can be one of the fastest ways to grow a business.

Let's hop in the Delorean for a second back, to January of 2010.

In January of 2010, I took a leap and I moved to Thailand.

During that time, I was traveling around the country and meeting all sorts of incredible people, who were doing interesting things.

Those were the people who formed the basis for my initial (and sustained) success as an entrepreneur. Because you know what?

As cliche as it sounds, it really is all about who you know.

Don't believe me?

Have you ever noticed how a couple times a year all of a sudden many of the blogs you read, and many of the emails lists you're on are all promoting the same thing?

Take this week for instance. I'm promoting the Paradise Pack, just like dozens of other bloggers.

One of the biggest reasons I promote that is because I like Jason and Travis, the dudes behind it. Both have traveled to Portland, met me in person, and formed that relationship.

Something changes once you meet someone in person. When you can shake their hand, have a beer, and in many cases, create a shared memory or story – it takes things to a different level.

All of a sudden, they're more likely to help you out, promote your stuff, or make an introduction to someone else.

Because of my time in Thailand I got to know Dan Andrews, Adam Baker, Matt Kepnes, Jodi Ettenberg, Derek Johanson the list goes on.

All of those people have allowed me to grow Location 180 in one way or another.

The Right Kind of Travel

Not all travel is created equal though.

Obviously taking a solo backpacking trip through the wilderness probably won't do much to help you build relationships.

Lately, most of my travel has been golf related as I continue my quest to play the top 100 courses in the US and the world. Because of this, I've met and built relationships with tons of influential people in the golf world.

Just this past weekend, I played golf with two editors from Golf Digest, and met with the owners of my favorite golf apparel brand.

Because I continue to build those relationships, Breaking Eighty has been getting more and more recognition, and making more money in the process.

I haven't been doing as much travel specifically for Location 180, and I feel it. Relationships I'd like to build and I would like to make, haven't been coming quite as quickly because I haven't been prioritizing them.

Take a look at some of your favorite lifestyle entrepreneurs. Even if they're brands aren't based around travel, my guess is more than a handful of times a year they are going to conferences, traveling to entrepreneurial hubs, and getting to know people in real life.

There's a reason that all too often your favorite bloggers or business owners are blowing up your Facebook or Instagram feed with photos of them hanging out…together!

So How Can You Strategically Plan More Travel?

Ok, so it's clear: More travel –> More Connections –> More Opportunities –> More Success

But if you haven't been in that mindset, or you aren't someone who usually travels, how do you start planning for something like that?

Here are a few things to consider that should help you not only book more tickets, but make the most of your time when you do go.

1) What are the Two Biggest Events of the Year for Your Crowd?

You don't need to be at everything, but it makes sense to attend to at least a handful of conferences each year.

For years I would attend the World Domination Summit in Portland and SXSW in Austin.

Now I'm branching out to more marketing oriented events. But the fact remains, with every single event I've ever been to – I've met at least one or two people that have had a significant effect on my business.

It's never about meeting everybody, it's about those handful of people you really connect with that will be great relationships moving forward.

I met Nick Reese and Andy Drish at SxSW years ago, and each of them have had a dramatic impact on what Location Rebel has become.

So decide what the two biggest events are for you and your goals and put them on the calendar. Are you a writer? Go to Writers Digest. Lifestyle entrepreneur? DCBKK. Social media expert? SocialPro. Professional blogger? New Media Expo.

2) Why Would Knowing Certain People Make a Difference in Your Life?

Sometimes in order to make the leap and be willing to spend the time and money to travel, you have to have a deeper understanding of why it would be important.

To help with that, answer these questions:

• Who are the influencers at this event I would like to meet? What specifically (and realistically) is my goal in building that relationship.
• Why is it important to me to meet other people at my level, doing similar things in this industry?
• What is the one big takeaway I'm looking to bring home with me from this event?

3) What are you going to say?

I've recently learned that I'm a natural ambivert.

Meaning, in the right social situations where I'm comfortable, I can appear very extroverted. However, my natural tendency often leans towards being more introverted and shy.

For instance if I'm at a conference where I don't know anyone, I get really awkward. That's why thinking this step through before you go to events is so important.

If you have a general game plan for how to introduce yourself, strike up a conversation, and generally just be useful and interesting, you'll have a much better chance of getting more out of the relationships you're hoping to build.

I always try and find some commonality as quickly as I can. The work stuff doesn't matter, rapport does.

So pay attention to everything being said, and look for any bit of personal information you can espouse elaborate on and get excited about.

For instance anytime someone mentions they golf, have lived in Thailand, or like Islay scotch? Game over. Things like that are really easy for me to talk about – so it helps strengthen the relationship quickly.

4) Sign up for a Credit Card

"I can't afford to travel."

How many times have we all heard this? First off, most people can afford to travel – it's just about priorities. This post from Chris Guillebeau I still find to be extraordinarily true.

But if you want some help, frankly, leveraging travel bonuses from credit cards are a great way to make things quite a bit cheaper.

A free round trip plane ticket anywhere in the world, all for signing up for a credit card? No brainer.

Of course this is assuming you can be responsible with it and pay it off in full every month.

Check out One Mile at a Time for some of the latest and best deals.

5) Take a Leap

Bottom line is, if you don't make it a priority and just buy a ticket, it can be really easy just to stay in the same old routine. That routine where you're not meeting the people and having the experiences that can help a new business take off or an old business grow even more.

Every day I see entrepreneurs reaping the benefits of building new relationships, and every day I'm thankful for the ones I've built.

So, think about where you can go that will have the greatest benefit for you personally. Book the ticket, take a leap, and enjoy the memories you'll make regardless of the outcome.

from Location 180 | Build a Business, Live Anywhere, Achieve Freedom http://ift.tt/1O1zDGr

Why Every New Entrepreneur Should Travel More

You want to know an insider’s secret for growing a business quickly?

Travel more.

It seems counterintuitive, right? For years I’ve been espousing on the fact that you can maintain a business while on the road, but it’s difficult to grow a business on the road.

While generally I believe that to be true, today I’m going to show you why strategic, regular travel can be one of the fastest ways to grow a business.

Let’s hop in the Delorean for a second back, to January of 2010.

In January of 2010, I took a leap and I moved to Thailand.

During that time, I was traveling around the country and meeting all sorts of incredible people, who were doing interesting things.

Those were the people who formed the basis for my initial (and sustained) success as an entrepreneur. Because you know what?

As cliche as it sounds, it really is all about who you know.

Don’t believe me?

Have you ever noticed how a couple times a year all of a sudden many of the blogs you read, and many of the emails lists you’re on are all promoting the same thing?

Take this week for instance. I’m promoting the Paradise Pack, just like dozens of other bloggers.

One of the biggest reasons I promote that is because I like Jason and Travis, the dudes behind it. Both have traveled to Portland, met me in person, and formed that relationship.

Something changes once you meet someone in person. When you can shake their hand, have a beer, and in many cases, create a shared memory or story – it takes things to a different level.

All of a sudden, they’re more likely to help you out, promote your stuff, or make an introduction to someone else.

Because of my time in Thailand I got to know Dan Andrews, Adam Baker, Matt Kepnes, Jodi Ettenberg, Derek Johanson the list goes on.

All of those people have allowed me to grow Location 180 in one way or another.

The Right Kind of Travel

Not all travel is created equal though.

Obviously taking a solo backpacking trip through the wilderness probably won’t do much to help you build relationships.

Lately, most of my travel has been golf related as I continue my quest to play the top 100 courses in the US and the world. Because of this, I’ve met and built relationships with tons of influential people in the golf world.

Just this past weekend, I played golf with two editors from Golf Digest, and met with the owners of my favorite golf apparel brand.

Because I continue to build those relationships, Breaking Eighty has been getting more and more recognition, and making more money in the process.

I haven’t been doing as much travel specifically for Location 180, and I feel it. Relationships I’d like to build and I would like to make, haven’t been coming quite as quickly because I haven’t been prioritizing them.

Take a look at some of your favorite lifestyle entrepreneurs. Even if they’re brands aren’t based around travel, my guess is more than a handful of times a year they are going to conferences, traveling to entrepreneurial hubs, and getting to know people in real life.

There’s a reason that all too often your favorite bloggers or business owners are blowing up your Facebook or Instagram feed with photos of them hanging out…together!

So How Can You Strategically Plan More Travel?

Ok, so it’s clear: More travel –> More Connections –> More Opportunities –> More Success

But if you haven’t been in that mindset, or you aren’t someone who usually travels, how do you start planning for something like that?

Here are a few things to consider that should help you not only book more tickets, but make the most of your time when you do go.

1) What are the Two Biggest Events of the Year for Your Crowd?

You don’t need to be at everything, but it makes sense to attend to at least a handful of conferences each year.

For years I would attend the World Domination Summit in Portland and SXSW in Austin.

Now I’m branching out to more marketing oriented events. But the fact remains, with every single event I’ve ever been to – I’ve met at least one or two people that have had a significant effect on my business.

It’s never about meeting everybody, it’s about those handful of people you really connect with that will be great relationships moving forward.

I met Nick Reese and Andy Drish at SxSW years ago, and each of them have had a dramatic impact on what Location Rebel has become.

So decide what the two biggest events are for you and your goals and put them on the calendar. Are you a writer? Go to Writers Digest. Lifestyle entrepreneur? DCBKK. Social media expert? SocialPro. Professional blogger? New Media Expo.

2) Why Would Knowing Certain People Make a Difference in Your Life?

Sometimes in order to make the leap and be willing to spend the time and money to travel, you have to have a deeper understanding of why it would be important.

To help with that, answer these questions:

• Who are the influencers at this event I would like to meet? What specifically (and realistically) is my goal in building that relationship.
• Why is it important to me to meet other people at my level, doing similar things in this industry?
• What is the one big takeaway I’m looking to bring home with me from this event?

3) What are you going to say?

I’ve recently learned that I’m a natural ambivert.

Meaning, in the right social situations where I’m comfortable, I can appear very extroverted. However, my natural tendency often leans towards being more introverted and shy.

For instance if I’m at a conference where I don’t know anyone, I get really awkward. That’s why thinking this step through before you go to events is so important.

If you have a general game plan for how to introduce yourself, strike up a conversation, and generally just be useful and interesting, you’ll have a much better chance of getting more out of the relationships you’re hoping to build.

I always try and find some commonality as quickly as I can. The work stuff doesn’t matter, rapport does.

So pay attention to everything being said, and look for any bit of personal information you can espouse elaborate on and get excited about.

For instance anytime someone mentions they golf, have lived in Thailand, or like Islay scotch? Game over. Things like that are really easy for me to talk about – so it helps strengthen the relationship quickly.

4) Sign up for a Credit Card

“I can’t afford to travel.”

How many times have we all heard this? First off, most people can afford to travel – it’s just about priorities. This post from Chris Guillebeau I still find to be extraordinarily true.

But if you want some help, frankly, leveraging travel bonuses from credit cards are a great way to make things quite a bit cheaper.

A free round trip plane ticket anywhere in the world, all for signing up for a credit card? No brainer.

Of course this is assuming you can be responsible with it and pay it off in full every month.

Check out One Mile at a Time for some of the latest and best deals.

5) Take a Leap

Bottom line is, if you don’t make it a priority and just buy a ticket, it can be really easy just to stay in the same old routine. That routine where you’re not meeting the people and having the experiences that can help a new business take off or an old business grow even more.

Every day I see entrepreneurs reaping the benefits of building new relationships, and every day I’m thankful for the ones I’ve built.

So, think about where you can go that will have the greatest benefit for you personally. Book the ticket, take a leap, and enjoy the memories you’ll make regardless of the outcome.

from Location 180 | Build a Business, Live Anywhere, Achieve Freedom http://ift.tt/1O1zDGr

Why a Facebook Page is a Waste of Time for Yoga Teachers

After teaching yoga for some time, you've decided to get a little more "pro" about things. Great! So you set up a Facebook business page, spend a good hour on the cover image, "about" description, and add some amazing photos… until everything's just perfect. Then, after asking all your students, friends, fellow yoga teachers, and pretty much everyone you know to 'like' your new Facebook page, you collect a few hundred fans.

"Awesome!", you tell yourself, "the people are hungry for my updates, and Facebook will let me keep everyone in the loop about classes, upcoming events, and maybe the occasional morsel of wisdom." Not so fast.

If you're a yoga provider who's trying to use Facebook to grow your business, you're not alone. Most Yoga Teachers don't have a website, and instead maintain a Facebook Page in hopes that it will attract scores of eager yogis looking for a new experience. And virtually every studio out there, even when they have a website, also manages a Facebook page.

Teachers and studios both expect that the Facebook platform will allow them to communicate with their students and clients. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to what you might have been told, maintaining a Facebook page to build a following and grow your yoga business is a waste of time. Here's why:

1) You won't attract new clients on Facebook

Even if people did try to search for a new yoga teacher or studio on Facebook (which they don't), Facebook doesn't work for finding something you're not already connected with.

Don't believe it? Try searching for "yoga teacher + your city". The default results will be random posts in random order, almost all of them from your own time line. A weird picture from 3 years ago will appear before something more relevant from last week, because it got more "likes".

Click on "Pages" or "People" for your search results, and you'll be shocked at how useless Facebook search actually is. And the "Events" category? It shows you mostly broken things that happened years ago.

Facebook is dysfunctional for searching anything other than a person or business that you already know, or stories in your own timeline or those of your friends.

Try searching for "yoga events" on Facebook in your city… the results are just things that happened a long, long time ago, in no particular order. The chances that new yogis will discover your upcoming event on Facebook? Not very high.

But here's some consolation: the fact that Facebook search is dysfunctional doesn't really matter. Because nobody searches for anything on Facebook anyway. Do you? Didn't think so.

2) Your people don't see what you post on Facebook

In the past few years, Facebook has become pretty useless for small businesses in general — but for yoga teachers, it's a real disaster. Why? Because most instructors teach at several different locations, with frequently changing schedules… and they really need a reliable way to reach their students and let them know what's happening. But that's where Facebook fails.

Here's a very typical scenario (maybe a familiar one?): you cancel class and post an announcement about it on Facebook, many days in advance. But the next time you see your students, you're greeted with:  "What happened? Where were you? We all showed up for class but the doors were locked!" Hm. Apparently, nobody saw anything in their Facebook feed about class being cancelled!

Just a few years ago, you could be reasonably sure that some appreciable fraction of your "fans" would see what you're posting. Well, that was then. This is now.

Gernot is one one the greatest yoga teachers in town, and his Facebook page has over 1000 fans. But a post about his return after some travels gets 2 "likes"?! Hmmmm… how many people actually saw this post?

Today, very few members of your community will see anything you share on your page. According to studies, only about 2% of page fans actually get any page posts. Yep, you read that correctly: just two people in every hundred who've 'liked' your page even have a chance to see anything from you. There are good reasons for this:

Facebook wants you to pay

Since Facebook went public, they've been scrambling to provide "value to their shareholders". In English, that means they've been aggressively doing things to generate revenue, mainly by choking off the organic reach of all business pages. If you want your fans to see a post, you'll have to pay for it.

For large companies with huge advertising budgets, this might be fine. But for small businesses, and especially for independent yoga teachers, paying to 'boost' posts on Facebook makes no financial sense. Not only can you not afford to do that — the "return on investment" isn't there either, and even after spending some money you still can't be sure everyone will see your big announcement.

Facebook can't show your updates to your followers

The real reason your posts don't reach anyone is that there are just way too many people and pages on Facebook, as paradoxical as that sounds. With everyone posting all the time, the success of Facebook has created conditions where the items that make it onto your newsfeed are severely restricted. They have to be. Otherwise, the average Facebook user would have several thousand new stories to scroll through — every single day. Holy Yoga!

So, Facebook uses a complicated algorithm to decide what stories it will show to whom. One of the most important factors is whether or not a user liked, shared, or commented on one of your posts in the last week. If not, it's extremely likely they'll never see a post from you again. That's the reason you never see anything from your aunt Clara in Toledo… although she's posting all the time, Facebook has decided that you're "unengaged".

A second huge factor in the filtering algorithm is the "virality" of an individual post. The more a story gets liked, shared, or commented on, the more Facebook thinks it's a post that other people might enjoy, too… so the thing starts creeping into more people's newsfeed, where of course it collects more likes, shares and comments.

Ever wonder why you see so many babies in your newsfeed? It's not because more baby pictures get shared — it's because people feel guilty about not liking a friend's baby, so these pictures get more likes… and the Facebook algorithm treats them as more interesting (even though the opposite may be true).

That brings us to the third big reason Facebook is wrong for yoga teachers:

3) Facebook drains you of your time and energy

There's a lot of well-meaning (but usually outdated) advice out there that purports you can still achieve a decent amount of reach on Facebook by playing the Facebook algorithm. You might have been told to "post frequently, at least twice per day", or to post things that will "engage your audience". Things like 'yoga cat' GIFs, videos of rabbits hopping between yoga mats, inspirational quotes and memes of all sorts.

But finding and sharing such "engaging" content, and worrying about attribution…. every week… it takes a ton of time. And are these really the sorts of things you want to communicate about with your students and clients? Wouldn't you much rather be planning lessons, respond to enquiries from students, take a walk or (gasp!) keep up your own practice a little bit?

Many yoga teachers (and studios) feel like they have to spend way too much time on Facebook and post things they're not very proud of. Well, good news: they don't! Because no matter how much they post (cluttering up the Facebook universe even more), no matter what they post (even if there are babies involved): without spending money on paid advertising on Facebook, a Facebook page will not reach even a small fraction of its fans. That's just the reality.

So, unless you really do like hunting for yoga cats (or dogs) or you believe your yogis are the kind of people who appreciate Rumi quotes, you can relax. Breathe a big sigh of relief. Stop wasting your time. Accept it. Facebook is not helping your business, and it's not a suitable platform for you to connect with your students.

4) There's a Better Way

YogaTrail is built specifically for the yoga community. It's a platform that connects yogis with yoga providers, where teachers and studios can effectively communicate with their students and clients. Best of all, thousands of yogis visit YogaTrail every day in search of the right instructor (maybe you?), new local classes and other yoga happenings. And it doesn't cost anything, either.

YogaTrail lets you keep all your students and clients in the loop with your classes, updates, and announcements — reliably. Send your yogis custom messages, or trigger auto-notifications when you cancel class, start teaching a new class, go on holiday, organize a workshop… and there's also a mobile app where your yogis can get your classes and updates on their phone.

There are two kinds of yoga teachers. If you're reading this, you're probably one of them:

A) Not on YogaTrail yet?

Set up your profile here and join thousands of other clued-up teachers and studios around the world who use YogaTrail to keep their yogis in the know. Add your classes, connect with other teachers and studios, post upcoming events, even advertise your retreats or teacher trainings.

And then leave Facebook for what's it's for: staying in touch with friends, consuming cute videos, seeing inspirational quotes and getting healthy recipes.

B) Already on YogaTrail?

Your challenge is: how to get your Facebook fans to follow you on YogaTrail. Of course you could post something on your Facebook page, urging your people to follow you on YogaTrail… but then nobody will see your post.

The best way to get your people to connect is to send them an invite — easily done here, or you can also add your students to your students center (where you can simply import a list).

---

What's been Your Facebook Experience? Maybe it's working for you? Please share in the comments

from YogaTrail http://ift.tt/1U9LC0Y

Why a Facebook Page is a Waste of Time for Yoga Teachers

After teaching yoga for some time, you’ve decided to get a little more “pro” about things. Great! So you set up a Facebook business page, spend a good hour on the cover image, “about” description, and add some amazing photos… until everything’s just perfect. Then, after asking all your students, friends, fellow yoga teachers, and pretty much everyone you know to ‘like’ your new Facebook page, you collect a few hundred fans.

“Awesome!”, you tell yourself, “the people are hungry for my updates, and Facebook will let me keep everyone in the loop about classes, upcoming events, and maybe the occasional morsel of wisdom.” Not so fast.

If you’re a yoga provider who’s trying to use Facebook to grow your business, you’re not alone. Most Yoga Teachers don’t have a website, and instead maintain a Facebook Page in hopes that it will attract scores of eager yogis looking for a new experience. And virtually every studio out there, even when they have a website, also manages a Facebook page.

Teachers and studios both expect that the Facebook platform will allow them to communicate with their students and clients. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to what you might have been told, maintaining a Facebook page to build a following and grow your yoga business is a waste of time. Here’s why:

1) You won’t attract new clients on Facebook

Even if people did try to search for a new yoga teacher or studio on Facebook (which they don’t), Facebook doesn’t work for finding something you’re not already connected with.

Don’t believe it? Try searching for “yoga teacher + your city”. The default results will be random posts in random order, almost all of them from your own time line. A weird picture from 3 years ago will appear before something more relevant from last week, because it got more “likes”.

Click on “Pages” or “People” for your search results, and you’ll be shocked at how useless Facebook search actually is. And the “Events” category? It shows you mostly broken things that happened years ago.

Facebook is dysfunctional for searching anything other than a person or business that you already know, or stories in your own timeline or those of your friends.

Try searching for “yoga events” on Facebook in your city… the results are just things that happened a long, long time ago, in no particular order. The chances that new yogis will discover your upcoming event on Facebook? Not very high.

But here’s some consolation: the fact that Facebook search is dysfunctional doesn’t really matter. Because nobody searches for anything on Facebook anyway. Do you? Didn’t think so.

2) Your people don’t see what you post on Facebook

In the past few years, Facebook has become pretty useless for small businesses in general — but for yoga teachers, it’s a real disaster. Why? Because most instructors teach at several different locations, with frequently changing schedules… and they really need a reliable way to reach their students and let them know what’s happening. But that’s where Facebook fails.

Here’s a very typical scenario (maybe a familiar one?): you cancel class and post an announcement about it on Facebook, many days in advance. But the next time you see your students, you’re greeted with:  “What happened? Where were you? We all showed up for class but the doors were locked!” Hm. Apparently, nobody saw anything in their Facebook feed about class being cancelled!

Just a few years ago, you could be reasonably sure that some appreciable fraction of your “fans” would see what you’re posting. Well, that was then. This is now.

Gernot is one one the greatest yoga teachers in town, and his Facebook page has over 1000 fans. But a post about his return after some travels gets 2 “likes”?! Hmmmm… how many people actually saw this post?

Today, very few members of your community will see anything you share on your page. According to studies, only about 2% of page fans actually get any page posts. Yep, you read that correctly: just two people in every hundred who’ve ‘liked’ your page even have a chance to see anything from you. There are good reasons for this:

Facebook wants you to pay

Since Facebook went public, they’ve been scrambling to provide “value to their shareholders”. In English, that means they’ve been aggressively doing things to generate revenue, mainly by choking off the organic reach of all business pages. If you want your fans to see a post, you’ll have to pay for it.

For large companies with huge advertising budgets, this might be fine. But for small businesses, and especially for independent yoga teachers, paying to ‘boost’ posts on Facebook makes no financial sense. Not only can you not afford to do that — the “return on investment” isn’t there either, and even after spending some money you still can’t be sure everyone will see your big announcement.

Facebook can’t show your updates to your followers

The real reason your posts don’t reach anyone is that there are just way too many people and pages on Facebook, as paradoxical as that sounds. With everyone posting all the time, the success of Facebook has created conditions where the items that make it onto your newsfeed are severely restricted. They have to be. Otherwise, the average Facebook user would have several thousand new stories to scroll through — every single day. Holy Yoga!

So, Facebook uses a complicated algorithm to decide what stories it will show to whom. One of the most important factors is whether or not a user liked, shared, or commented on one of your posts in the last week. If not, it’s extremely likely they’ll never see a post from you again. That’s the reason you never see anything from your aunt Clara in Toledo… although she’s posting all the time, Facebook has decided that you’re “unengaged”.

A second huge factor in the filtering algorithm is the “virality” of an individual post. The more a story gets liked, shared, or commented on, the more Facebook thinks it’s a post that other people might enjoy, too… so the thing starts creeping into more people’s newsfeed, where of course it collects more likes, shares and comments.

Ever wonder why you see so many babies in your newsfeed? It’s not because more baby pictures get shared — it’s because people feel guilty about not liking a friend’s baby, so these pictures get more likes… and the Facebook algorithm treats them as more interesting (even though the opposite may be true).

That brings us to the third big reason Facebook is wrong for yoga teachers:

3) Facebook drains you of your time and energy

There’s a lot of well-meaning (but usually outdated) advice out there that purports you can still achieve a decent amount of reach on Facebook by playing the Facebook algorithm. You might have been told to “post frequently, at least twice per day”, or to post things that will “engage your audience”. Things like ‘yoga cat’ GIFs, videos of rabbits hopping between yoga mats, inspirational quotes and memes of all sorts.

But finding and sharing such “engaging” content, and worrying about attribution…. every week… it takes a ton of time. And are these really the sorts of things you want to communicate about with your students and clients? Wouldn’t you much rather be planning lessons, respond to enquiries from students, take a walk or (gasp!) keep up your own practice a little bit?

Many yoga teachers (and studios) feel like they have to spend way too much time on Facebook and post things they’re not very proud of. Well, good news: they don’t! Because no matter how much they post (cluttering up the Facebook universe even more), no matter what they post (even if there are babies involved): without spending money on paid advertising on Facebook, a Facebook page will not reach even a small fraction of its fans. That’s just the reality.

So, unless you really do like hunting for yoga cats (or dogs) or you believe your yogis are the kind of people who appreciate Rumi quotes, you can relax. Breathe a big sigh of relief. Stop wasting your time. Accept it. Facebook is not helping your business, and it’s not a suitable platform for you to connect with your students.

4) There’s a Better Way

YogaTrail is built specifically for the yoga community. It’s a platform that connects yogis with yoga providers, where teachers and studios can effectively communicate with their students and clients. Best of all, thousands of yogis visit YogaTrail every day in search of the right instructor (maybe you?), new local classes and other yoga happenings. And it doesn’t cost anything, either.

YogaTrail lets you keep all your students and clients in the loop with your classes, updates, and announcements — reliably. Send your yogis custom messages, or trigger auto-notifications when you cancel class, start teaching a new class, go on holiday, organize a workshop… and there’s also a mobile app where your yogis can get your classes and updates on their phone.

There are two kinds of yoga teachers. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them:

A) Not on YogaTrail yet?

Set up your profile here and join thousands of other clued-up teachers and studios around the world who use YogaTrail to keep their yogis in the know. Add your classes, connect with other teachers and studios, post upcoming events, even advertise your retreats or teacher trainings.

And then leave Facebook for what’s it’s for: staying in touch with friends, consuming cute videos, seeing inspirational quotes and getting healthy recipes.

B) Already on YogaTrail?

Your challenge is: how to get your Facebook fans to follow you on YogaTrail. Of course you could post something on your Facebook page, urging your people to follow you on YogaTrail… but then nobody will see your post.

The best way to get your people to connect is to send them an invite — easily done here, or you can also add your students to your students center (where you can simply import a list).

---

What’s been Your Facebook Experience? Maybe it’s working for you? Please share in the comments

from YogaTrail http://ift.tt/1U9LC0Y

1983

For Dr. Vicki Rogers, Singapore American School and her family are one in the same. Dr. Rogers attended SAS as a student and now teaches at SAS. Her son is now a student at SAS as well!

from Singapore American School http://ift.tt/1OZR2dw