How to Lead a Successful Yoga Retreat with Paul, Byron and Michael

0:00 They had come to my classes many, many times. So many times, I had been announcing this training to them over and over. At the end of my classes, they say namaste. Thanks, everybody. Just so, you know, I'm doing a yoga retreat with my friend Paul in. I forget the month, let's say, February, and if you're interested in just give me, you know, talk to you after class. And after hearing that for six months, yeah, it started to fill up towards towards the, you

0:26 know, closer to the deadline. So I guess what I'm getting at is. I really want to make make it clear to those of you that want to do yoga retreats that? Yes, it's an amazing impactful experience but you have to get people to come. And how, how are you going to get people to come ball? Well, the first one I didn't get it. I got one person to come.

0:50 You brought ever you and Erica brought everybody but I'd only been teaching for a year and a half. So I so again more Testament to what you just said, welcome to the going. Yoga podcast Namaste. My name is Paul chiodo joined here with Michael Henry.

1:07 Most yoga teacher, trainings are becoming watered-down and mediocre. So we've created this podcast to help supplement those of you who graduated from a teacher training and don't feel confident going out into the real world. Michael, and I are lucky to have been trained by some amazing people.

1:27 We've gone out into the world ourselves and had Success. And we want you to feel confident to protect your students and to build your career with integrity and authenticity. Welcome to our podcast. All right, all right, it's Paul again, very excited to be back on the podcast, back in Bali and we have eliminated Michael for the day and it's just going to be Byron.

1:51 And I bromancing about yoga retreats. So this, this subject will actually be very near and dear to our hearts. We're Owing to talk about how to lead a yoga retreat, what yoga retreats have done for me and Byron personally, professionally and common mistakes that new teachers make. And what we've done, that really works well for us. And I like that.

2:17 It sounds like a plan and just so, you know, Michael is here, he's in the room over here, smiling at me and he has a microphone. So if he does talk, it just just know that he didn't magically appear. Awesome. So we were talking about this before and I really believe that the first Yoga Retreat that Byron and I led, we LED in Costa Rica in Vita, that was 7 years ago. Maybe 8 years ago and it was I think to this day one of the most powerful professional

2:53 experiences of my life and it really changed me as a human as a person from somebody who was teaching yoga karna as something that I enjoyed to really being like, oh, this is what I want to do with my life. Mmm, it was just amazing.

3:12 I mean, that was my first Yoga Retreat to actually. So, to be able, I think just to vacation with people that that want to travel with you that love yoga in an atmosphere. Like at one of the happiest places I've ever seen in my life, Costa Rica, and to just experience that with everyone and to have the combination with you.

3:37 And I like a yin and a Yang, we would do again. Good night time, right? You would play guitar and kind of serenade everybody. And we also had my mother there which was a huge part of it. My late mother who have talked about on The Pact podcast. We also had a couple of my Bros from Oklahoma show up. These muscle-bound, dudes ones, like a professional bodybuilder. And yeah, I'm just remembering all that because it seems like so long ago but I can still

4:09 recall those memories. Memories like, it was yesterday. I remember my nervous system, relaxed. So deeply during that week. Yeah. Then when I got back to Los Angeles, I had I couldn't handle the stress of the traffic one day.

4:24 So I parked my car and I just stood outside of my car and just watch the cars and somebody honked at me and I threw up the middle finger. I was like fuck. Yeah, Primal jungle rage. But yeah, it's good to remember that. Yeah, it really I was and I think for you and me it was it was the moment where you and I started becoming much closer in terms of friends and then also recognizing that we work really well together professionally and you know, so I talked about this in the business of yoga course,

4:56 I basically, you know, Byron had been teaching yoga for about two years and and I was a little bit behind him and and I would take his class and I saw that he was a good teacher, but also really hard worker. We're both from the Midwest.

5:10 West. And I knew that he was going to be successful, because he was really nice guy who worked hard and his classes kept getting better and better and his glasses kept getting bigger and bigger. And, and you invited me to be the the co-teacher with you on the Costa Rica experience. And I was so flattered and I kind of didn't know what to expect and I wasn't sure like this is going to be a good experience and I quite, you know, our friend Erica who we worked with for a while who was

5:38 wonderful and helping us get our Our careers going. And and once we got there, it was just such a magical experience and we had, I think 22, 23 people. It was a, it was yeah, good number, something like that. And we had all ranges like old like as old as 70 and there was even a baby on the retreat. Yeah, it was like a newborn like one less than 1. Yeah.

6:04 And and it was a good mixture. We had men and women. And I just I want to just reiterate like, yeah, that was definitely to Second what you said, like when we grew closer, when I think I was actually living in your apartment at that point. As and that second bedroom I was living with you and but you know Lifestyles and stuff.

6:25 It's like we were friends. But something about spending time with people like intimately in a yoga retreat or a training you. It doesn't even matter if it's yoga. I think if you just get people, Around each other. Even if you don't do yoga, it's like, all of a sudden, you're around these people more than some of the people. You call your best friends.

6:46 Yeah. I and I added up, I'm like, oh my gosh, I know these people so well. Yeah. So I, that's really opened my eyes to the potential, the potential to really have a positive impact on people's lives because I couldn't, it was our first rich. I couldn't believe like you said how quickly people became so close.

7:08 How many people were crying tears of joy or tears of release? The beautiful memories that were being created? And just, I just felt like, I was like, finally, like really making the level of impact positively on the world that I wanted to make, and it was so rewarding and then to be able to share that with you and to know that we were good at it too. Like there is a part of me that like new like, okay, this is we're both talented.

7:33 Mmm and and it felt just so good. Yeah. And for our listeners, the level of impact, let's let's kind of go into like how, why was it? Such an impactful experience and I know you said we want to get into three different things and one of them is kind of, it's about the experience of a new yoga teacher.

7:56 Yeah. And one of the things that I've I've seen, and I've heard people will reach out to me because of somebody will say, hey, reach out to Byron. He might know the answer to this question. I've had this question a few times.

8:07 Times from random yoga teachers. Hey, I'm a new yoga teacher, I just graduated my, ytt 2:00, and I want to do yoga retreats at, where do I, how do I get started? And the impactful experience that we were able to give wasn't because of I met a bunch of random strangers on a retreat.

8:30 Yeah. I knew these people, I knew their yoga practice. They had come to my classes, many, many times. So many times, I had been announcing this training to them over and over. At the end of my classes, they say namaste. Thanks, everybody. Just so you know, I'm doing a yoga retreat with my friend Paul in.

8:48 I forget the month let's say, February, and if you're interested in, just give me, you know, talk to me after class and after hearing that for six months, yeah, it started to fill up towards towards the, you know, closer to the deadline.

9:02 So I guess what I'm getting at is I really want to make make it clear to those of you that want to do yoga retreats that? Yes, it's an amazing impactful experience, but you have to get people to come. And how are you going to get people to come Paul? Well, the first one I didn't get it. I got one person to come, you brought ever you and Erica brought everybody, but I'd only been teaching for a year and a half.

9:29 So I so again more Testament to what you just said, like I'd only been teaching for a year and a half. I didn't have the relationship yet that on a deeper level with a lot of my students. And as a result of that, I only brought one or maybe two people and but it was a great step for me because I was I was the assistant teacher.

9:50 On that training. It was your retreat and I was the assistant teacher and, and you brought me on, but it was you and Erica that brought everyone. And they came, like you said, because you had already been teaching for three years, you were teaching, 1517 classes, a week. People were coming to your classes all the time. You would stay after class and talk to them and answer questions and they would get to know you. So there was an intimacy that was already been created and it takes, it takes some trust for

10:18 people to be able to To sign up to come in and retreat with, with you or with me or with any yoga teacher, wouldn't you agree? Like I would say more, trust person? Yeah, more trust for a retreat than it is even a teacher training 100% and that's exactly what I was about to mention the teacher trainings as well, because there's, there's what happened in.

10:44 I learned all this, first of all, like, the retreat came to me. I didn't actually be like, I want to do. A yoga retreat. I just love teaching yoga and I was in a rhythm taught teaching, like you said, 15, 20 classes, a week subbing classes for big teachers. Before you know it, my classes were getting busy before, you know it, Erica from daily bliss.

11:04 Now, called blissed yoga retreats. She approaches me she reaches out, she said, hey, I heard you're popular yoga teacher, are you ready to do Retreats? You think, because I have a destination in mind Costa Rica. This is how it took place. So I didn't, I was, I was just what's the word when you're naive.

11:23 I didn't know any better. I just love teaching yoga. So fast, forward some time. And now we're experienced. We've been around the block. We know a lot about this business and what what has happened to just give some of our listeners. Like Insight is that two different ways of making money? Has started to really become obvious to entrepreneurs in the yoga.

11:46 World one is yoga retreats. And one is yoga teacher trainings. Yeah, the yoga retreats failed miserably. And the reason is, because the entrepreneurs thought, that, by advertising alone, you could get people to come on, Retreats. Yeah, wrong.

12:03 It was, they realized quickly, if you recruit a really good yoga teacher with personal connections to their students, then you can have a successful yoga retreat, but it's not about the destination. It's not about the accommodations. It's about the teacher and the connection and the yoga teacher training is a booming business that we talked about before that doesn't require the same connection with your teacher. Although it should I think, absolutely, but you're totally right.

12:34 Because people people would sign up for a teacher training because they want, they want to learn something. They want to get a certificate, a piece of paper. There's like an end goal and the yoga retreat. There's not necessarily A tangible, it's not at Tangible and goal. It's I want to take a vacation with somebody that I want to have, you know, have dinner with her. I want to, you know, this is this is all about creating. They can at least expect to know

13:00 what know what to expect in the yoga class. Yes. And they like that enough to go. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I totally agree in order to have a successful Retreat business. You there's more intimacy involved, there's more building relationships involved and Takes time and at the same time, it's incredible and and what I would recommend to a new teachers to do what I did, find a teacher that you really like, that's a couple of years ahead of you and and be the assistant on their training or on their Retreat,

13:33 excuse me. You, maybe you get a free Retreat out of it. Maybe you get a free retreat in a few thousand dollars if it's if it's a busier Retreat, you know, that's that's a successful experience you know, if you get to go to Costa Rica for me, I got to go to Costa Rica and I think I made about 1800. Dollars, I was so happy, you know. I remember that.

13:52 Yeah, it was like, it was I got a free trip to Costa Rica and 1,800 bucks, and that to me, was incredible. So that's a win-win. Now on my Retreats, I say aim much higher because I've done 13 of them but but I think we stumbled upon the right way to do it which was just teach a lot of classes before. Super nice to your students.

14:17 Talk about it. It post about it. Yeah, create a beautiful flyer, create a beautiful website, but overall, it's really just developing personal relationships with people. And you can do that online to like you can, you can become friends with your students on Facebook or Instagram and you know, genuinely be interested in what's going on in their lives and that will help a lot.

14:44 Yeah, and then another thing that I noticed and this is one of my tips that I always tell new teachers is, if you want to lead yoga retreats, you have to teach yoga during times. When successful people, practice, yoga, and people who have the money to go on a vacation to Costa Rica or to Greece or to Italy. So, I noticed that on my second Retreat, that I led or that that you and I led together.

15:14 I had these classes that were seven a.m. classes and I only had eight or ten people in the classes. Hmm. My after my evening classes, I had 40, 50 people in class, but it was 8:30 at night. The 8:30 at night classes were a bunch of like, starving artist as a bunch of musicians and donation yoga donation, yoga.

15:36 So they didn't have, I only had one person sign up from my 8:30 classes, but my 7 a.m. class I had seven people sign up because they were all people who had really high paying jobs. They were successful. They were, they were busy, they have money to spend. So, you know, I there's a saying that one of the few one of the things that a lot of really successful people have in common is they wake up early.

16:04 Hmm. So this is yeah, this is a tip that I usually offer to new yoga teachers. If you want to start leading retreats, Sign up and start teaching early morning, yoga classes because you're going to be in front of people who have high, paying jobs and busy careers, and people that can meet that need and can afford a vacation curious. Where was that second Retreat?

16:28 That you're talking about destination, that was are retreating. While the second we had to, I had to retreat in Sayulita, that was really small. That was just me, but then you and I did Zihuatanejo right. That's right. It's packed.

16:39 Mmm. And the and I brought like half the people That are not really that. Yeah. And I did Sedona on my own. Yeah. And that was cool like Halloween Retreat? Yeah. Yeah. And then eventually yeah I guess we did. Fiji Bali, I don't remember the order but somewhere on there and yeah man it's been cool going around the world with you. Yeah I've been watching Michael over here. Patiently and he's writing things down and I'm wondering if he's writing love notes or what

17:09 are you doing over there? The things you're saying and getting ideas for other podcast. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah. I mean, where else do we even take this conversation? I think you give give to a newer teacher somebody who's two or three years into their career, give two or three tips on how to lead a successful Yoga Retreat from you and then, I'll give two or three chips for me and then we'll call it a day. Well, I think also like an important thing is Besides just getting to things is for a new

17:44 yoga, teachers decide if you want to run the retreat yourself or if you want to hire somebody to do that, yes the huge deal because I and you both of us we're not the types of people to organize our own Retreats, usually Paul.

17:58 You might be like that now because Leia is involved in and you guys together, it can happen. Yes. But before that you were definitely not that person. No, absolutely not. Yeah, so yeah, my first 647 Retreats I Not. Now I do them on my own with Leia, right?

18:15 But yeah, you're absolutely right. Yeah. And I would say, Okay, number one, consider your demographic. Are you young? Are you in your 20s? Like who's your crowd, you know, are you trying to attract people the same age to go on these Retreats? Well, consider.

18:31 You know how much money they might be able to afford pick a destination, that's more affordable. If you're in the United States. Mexico's, pretty close Costa Rica's like Not too far. But you know, if you start going any further than that, the plane tickets go way up.

18:46 Yeah. And obviously can do the same kind of thing for Europe. So, you know, if you're an older teacher, like in your 30s and you're attracting an audience, that's older, they have more money, there's more possibilities. The price points can go higher.

18:58 So I would say, choose your demographic wisely like a lot. Make sure there's alignment with that and then like we already said, think about the business of your classes like, put your intention behind. What are you, what is your purpose here? Is it to travel the world?

19:18 Or is it to help other people to be of service to other people? Because you can do both. Yeah, but if it's just a travel the world then you might not attract people to come because they'll feel that When they're having an experience with you, whether it's in a yoga class or just communicating as far as asking them for money for this Retreat.

19:37 Yeah. And like you said we kind of fell into it organically and then we kind of learned it by on accident the right way. Yeah. And we're lucky in that way and so I'm happy to share this information to people in hopes that.

19:51 Yeah maybe you can you know kind of not I do what I don't want is for people to be frustrated like if you're I'm gonna do a yoga retreat and then Nobody's interested. Nobody signs up because I do see this a lot. Yeah, that's not your fault. It's just bad strategy and that's it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

20:11 Yeah, I would say, I Echo all of that. And and what I would say, a few tips just from me is first off, if you want to have six months, I would say marketing time. So, if your retreat is in September, you start marketing it in March, give people a full Six months.

20:31 I would say it could be a little bit shorter if it's in the same country that you're living in or if it's a minimum of like a two-hour flight, then it could be shorter. But if you're asking someone would fly halfway across the world like our Retreat to Bali or Retreat, to Fiji, or even my retreat now that we're doing to Greece.

20:49 Like we give six to eight months of marketing time because people need time to plan their vacation, especially Americans Americans. Don't get a lot of Vacation time so it's they really need time to plan and I've noticed that for those Retreats from asking, somebody to take a flight where my market is people that are going to take a flight, that's a minimum of six, eight or eight or eight hour flight.

21:15 Give them lots of time to plan ahead and that that really helps and find a destination. That's exciting for people. And I think, you know, See, the resort yourself or get feedback from somebody who's actually physically been there, because we had that one experience in Fiji where the resort was not of the quality that that we would have wanted and that was like, one of the few times where I think we could have done better.

21:48 There was definitely like a disconnect between the price of the retreat center and the quality of the resort, but that's Fiji. Fiji basically is like Two, and three star hotels or five star hotels, that are ridiculously expensive. There's not a lot in between so Fiji was like, more of a, it was a difficult place to like nail the right place. Where is in Bali or in Tuscany or in Greece. There's lots of options, Mexico.

22:16 There's lots of options at different price points and just being able to say, okay? Like you said, who am I marketing to what type of money do they have? What type of an experience do they want? How much money do I want to make?

22:31 And and can I all? Can I fit all of that in within like a price point that is relative to what other people are charging. So that's another thing too is to is to look around and see the other yoga teachers in your hometown or at least in your country that are offering yoga retreats and see how they're priced.

22:51 Because I've noticed that like in America the Retreats are priced a little bit higher because Americans don't get as much of a case. Time. So they're willing to pay a little bit more for it versus if it's like Italy or Spain, they're priced lower because there's more vacation time. Same thing with like if you're in Australia or England or Switzerland, they're priced higher, Germany. They're priced a little bit higher and just knowing that just just doing your market

23:22 research, giving yourself the time, maybe partnering up with another teacher, or partnering up with somebody who could help. Run the business side of it. Yes. And and just remembering like you said, like the idea here is to create a one week-long experience where yoga meditation cultural experiences travel changes, someone's life, and it can and it will absolutely awesome and you have a retreat in Greece. Am I that here to say that I do?

23:51 I have a retreat in Santorini, it's actually the first place we've ever gone back to because it So amazing in September that we wanted to go back and just so you know I've been to nine different countries in the last seven months, travel is not that difficult. So if I know people are nervous about traveling it's easy, it's simple.

24:13 It's still very affordable if to flight flights are affordable and the airline's want you back. So I really think traveling is is it's a great thing to do this summer. Our Retreat is May 28th through June 3rd in Santorini Greece.

24:30 And if you're interested, you can visit Leia, Santa Cruz, Ellie. Aah, Santa Cruz.com on Retreats. That's my wife's website. Or you can just find me on Instagram and message me directly. But yeah, it's going to be incredible.

24:46 Boom, I just want to say one more thing, please. Just because I just keeps on nagging at me and I remember Corey, Zorn's who lives in Bali. Yeah, and she was basically, Erica's assistant list yoga, retreats assistant. She so Erica got to the point where her company grew and she would send somebody to do what she used to do which is organized and be highly responsible to do, all the ins and outs and he problems all the organization of our Retreats for

25:17 us. Then she started her own company called revamp Retreats. Yeah. Now she actually leads trainings on how to become a yogi. Retreat company. Yeah. So what I'm getting at is if your intention isn't necessarily just to be of service and you do just want to travel the world and you love yoga. You can do this through doing what she did. Just recruit.

25:44 Highly skilled at connecting with others teachers. Yep. And then you'll your company will flourish but you have to sort of your highly responsible. Yes, absolutely good point. Yeah, just wanted to make that clear well I think we've got covered it all What do you think? I think we got it.

26:00 Come to Greece. Yeah, and maybe next year Byron and I will do something. We'll do something again. Yeah, yeah. Be cool. To do another one again. Yeah. In the meantime, I'll just be in Bali because this is like a retreat destination anyway, exactly.

26:15 Alright, much love everybody have a beautiful day.