Ask Me Anything?

“You don’t need to be the cheapest studio in town. You need to be the one people can’t imagine leaving.”

At my annual Planning Party, a conversation about offers turned into a bigger question. Why will people happily pay around $280 a month for Equinox or CrossFit, while community yoga studio owners reach for a discount the moment things go quiet? In this episode, Michael Jay breaks down why yoga studios keep racing to the bottom and what that habit really costs.

Drawing on 24 years of teaching and 13 years running a community yoga studio, Michael shares real examples from studio owners who added value instead of cutting prices. They include a Christmas in July campaign that brought in $50,000 with 96% retention, a summer buddy pass, and an eight-week beginner course. You’ll walk away with practical ways to bundle value, price for every type of student, and talk about money without apologizing.

In This Episode
• Why community yoga studio owners default to discounting
• The discount math: why 20% off means you need 25% more sales
• What Equinox and CrossFit actually sell (hint: it’s not the equipment)
• Real value-first offers from the Planning Party
• Five ways to add or bundle value instead of discounting
• Bundles for Practice Dabblers, Consistent Practitioners and Community Anchors
• How your front desk and teachers should talk about price
• Answers to “my town is too price sensitive” and other objections
• How to keep yoga accessible without discounting your whole business


Resources
• Free planning calendar and event download: https://www.yogabizchamp.com

• Book a free call: yogabizchamp.com/book
• 2027 Planning Party early bird list: DM “PARTY” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yogabizchamp

Get 50% off your first three months of Offering Tree, OR 15% off an entire year with my Exclusive Discount Link. SIGN UP ON THE STUDIO PLAN AND GET A FREE 1-1 CONSULTING SESSION WITH ME Offeringtree.com/yogabizchamppodcast.

FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

Ask Me Anything?

Most community yoga studio owners treat January like weather, something that just happens to them. In this episode, Michael Jay explains why the studios with a great January planned it months earlier, and how the October to December stretch decides whether your new year is busy or actually profitable.

Michael shares the yearly rhythm he used at Open Space Yoga. October was for getting ready. A November community event raised money for hospice, sold the January courses and launched gift cards. Three nights of candlelight yoga in December raised donations for the food bank. He also gives an honest look at Black Friday annual passes, and explains why the “week-3 cliff” is where your January profit is won or lost.

In This Episode

• Why January is busy for attendance but often flat for revenue
• How one November event raised money for charity, sold January and brought in holiday cash
• If there’s no event in your town, create your own party
• Candlelight yoga, teachers teaching in pairs, and ending the year generously
• Black Friday annual passes: why the cash is a promise, not profit
• How predictable sales train your students to wait (the Squarespace confession)
• Building a beginner pathway for visits 1, 3 and 6

Your October to December Checklist

1. Build your January courses and intro offer now. What are they, what do they cost, when do they start, and what do they lead into?
2. Choose your community event and put it on the calendar this week. The third week of November is a sweet spot.
3. Pick a cause your community cares about, such as a hospice, a food bank or an animal shelter.
4. Have your January schedule finished before your November event. You can’t sell a course with no dates.
5. Plan your gift card push so it’s easy to buy online and at the desk.
6. Warm up your email list in November, before you ask for anything in January.
7. If you run a Black Friday annual pass, cap it, spread the cash across the year, and change it up so it isn’t predictable.
8. Map out your beginner pathway for visits 1, 3 and 6 to get students past the week-3 cliff.

Plan it with Michael
Join the Annual Planning Party on October 14 at 10am Pacific. JOIN HERE

Listening later? DM Michael on Instagram to join the early bird list for the next one. For one-on-one help with your community yoga studio, book a chat at yogabizchamp.com/book.

OCTOBER 14 YOGA STUDIO PLANNING PARTY - 2027

Early Bird Ends Oct 9. Only $47 www.YogaBizChamp.link/plan27

Get 50% off your first three months of Offering Tree, OR 15% off an entire year with my Exclusive Discount Link. SIGN UP ON THE STUDIO PLAN AND GET A FREE 1-1 CONSULTING SESSION WITH ME Offeringtree.com/yogabizchamppodcast.

FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

Ask Me Anything?

"You are not just selling a great first class. You are managing the ninety days after it, on purpose, with a system, not just good vibes and hoping they remember how nice everyone was."

Getting someone through the door was never the hard part. What happens between their first phone call and their fiftieth class is where community yoga studios actually win or lose students for good. This episode walks the entire journey start to finish, first contact, intake, the welcome email, the front desk, the mat, the follow-up, all the way to conversion and beyond.

Every touchpoint gets its own close look, including a few most studios skip entirely, like the front desk handoff and the daily habit of actually checking whether someone's being quietly ignored. If your fall push brought in new faces, this is the system that decides whether they're still around at Christmas.

In This Episode

• Why the first ninety days decide almost everything, and the frequency numbers behind it
• The four questions to ask before you ever mention pricing
• Why a short video walkthrough can take the intimidation out of someone's first visit
• The front desk handoff that turns a booking into a real connection
• Why a mediocre class undoes every good thing that happened before it
• "Daily detective work," the habit of manually checking a student's actual experience, not just the automated triggers
• How to build a milestone and win-back system that catches drift before it becomes a cancellation

Michael's Annual Planning Party is open to the public for the first time! Build your entire 2027 studio calendar live on Oct 14 with real numbers from your own booking software. Early Bird pricing is $47 for a limited number of spots before it jumps to $67. For existing brick-and-mortar community yoga studios only. Grab your seat: yogabizchamp.link/plan27

Get 50% off your first three months of Offering Tree, OR 15% off an entire year with my Exclusive Discount Link. SIGN UP ON THE STUDIO PLAN AND GET A FREE 1-1 CONSULTING SESSION WITH ME Offeringtree.com/yogabizchamppodcast.

FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink