Yoga Biz Champ with Michael Jay

Michael Jay
  • 4.9 (15)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Join Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ studio consultant (@yogabizchamp), on the #1 Podcast  "Yoga Biz Champ" podcast dedicated to community yoga studios, your essential guide to thriving in the yoga business world. With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, and marketing expert, I bring you the insider's perspective on making your yoga studio a resounding success.What You'll Gain:- Insightful Conversations:  Listen in as I chat with dynamic yoga studio owners and top industry experts, sharing their journeys, strategies, and secrets to success.- Practical Advice: Each episode is packed with actionable tips and practical steps tailored to help both budding and seasoned studio owners flourish- Real-World Success Stories: Be inspired by real-life examples of yoga studios that have transformed challenges into triumphs.My Approach:As your host, I blend direct, fair, and humor-infused coaching to demystify the complexities of running a yoga business. My style is about being in the trenches with you, offering guidance that's relatable and effective.Why Listen?- Experience & Expertise: Leverage my 14+ years of experience in running and selling a profitable yoga studio and my proven track record as a yoga business consultant.- Diverse Topics: From branding and marketing to pricing and sustainable growth, we cover the A-Z of yoga business management.- Join a community of like-minded individuals passionate about turning their yoga dreams into profitable realities.By tuning into the Yoga Biz Champ podcast, you'll gain the knowledge, inspiration, and confidence to navigate the yoga business landscape successfully. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, these conversations will be your roadmap to becoming the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  1. 6h ago

    Why Do People Pay $280 for Equinox but Balk at Your Yoga Membership?

    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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  2. Oct 9

    Your January Rush Is Decided in October

    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 revenueHow one November event raised money for charity, sold January and brought in holiday cashIf there’s no event in your town, create your own partyCandlelight yoga, teachers teaching in pairs, and ending the year generouslyBlack Friday annual passes: why the cash is a promise, not profitHow predictable sales train your students to wait (the Squarespace confession)Building a beginner pathway for visits 1, 3 and 6Your October to December Checklist 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?Choose your community event and put it on the calendar this week. The third week of November is a sweet spot.Pick a cause your community cares about, such as a hospice, a food bank or an animal shelter.Have your January schedule finished before your November event. You can’t sell a course with no dates.Plan your gift card push so it’s easy to buy online and at the desk.Warm up your email list in November, before you ask for anything in January.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.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. 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

  3. Sep 21

    The Ultimate Customer Journey: From First Contact to Regular

    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 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  4. Sep 7

    The Note Under the Door: Your Pre-September Studio Audit

    Ask Me Anything? "The parts of your business nobody's actively complaining about are usually the parts quietly telling on you." Years ago, someone slipped a note under my studio door. It wasn't harsh, just honest: they loved the space, and they'd noticed dust bunnies in the corner. It landed during a genuinely hard personal stretch, and instead of wrecking me, it became the start of a ritual I've done every August since. This episode walks through the full pre-September reset I still use with community yoga studio owners today: website, software, automations, and yes, actually steam-cleaning the bolsters and pulling the prop shelves out from the wall. In This Episode: The story behind the note under the door Why a physical studio reset changes how you see everything else The website audit: what a stranger sees that you don't The software audit: what you're paying for and who else knows how it runs Email and SMS automations: are they still sounding like you The physical deep clean checklist, bolsters and prop shelves included Confirming your teacher line-up and your real numbers before launch www.yogabizchamp.link/podlink 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  5. Aug 10

    Your Community Yoga Studio's September Launch Starts in August

    Ask Me Anything? "You cannot launch in September what you haven't built in August." July was data and dreaming, pulling your numbers and deciding what fall looks like for your community yoga studio. August is where that plan either becomes real or quietly dies in a folder you'll reopen in October. In this episode, MJ breaks down the four things every community yoga studio owner needs to build this month, your landing page, your social content rhythm, your signature course promotion, and a real, scrappy, zero-cost marketing push. Pulled straight from real coaching calls, this episode covers what's actually tripping up studio owners right now, from beginner ads that accidentally scare beginners off, to courses that end with no clear next step. If you've got four to five weeks before fall programming hits, this is the playbook to use them well. In This Episode: • Why August is the bridge between July's planning and September's launch • The one landing page fix most community yoga studios are missing • The three-second rule for reels, and the beginner imagery mistake that kills conversions • How to promote your signature course so it doesn't quietly fade out • The scrappy, zero-cost marketing mix, posters, local partnerships, and press • This week's task: your list of 30 free ways to get in front of real eyeballs DOWNLOAD THE 100 SCRAPPY MARKETING IDEAS FOR YOGA STUDIOS 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  6. Jul 27

    The Community Yoga Studio Tech Stack Hit List

    Ask Me Anything? Hey champs — this one’s a rapid-fire episode for any community yoga studio owner who’s overwhelmed by every new AI tool, app, and platform update landing in their feed this year. As a community yoga studio coach, Michael Jay spends his time testing this stuff so you don’t have to — and in this episode, he hands you the full list. No twenty-minute deep dives, just tool, what it does, and a real scenario for how you’d actually use it in your own community yoga studio. You’ll learn: •The one non-negotiable your booking platform needs — integrated SMS and email automation triggered by real member data, not a monthly guess-and-blast newsletter. •The free AI booking bots now available across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, regardless of what booking software you’re on. •How to brand every AI-generated design automatically using Canva’s Magic Brand Engine — set it once, never touch it again. •Real options for camera-shy studio owners, with an honest take on when to use them and when real-you content still wins. •The Instagram, Meta, and WhatsApp features built specifically for capturing leads. •Michael’s own “Role + Outcome” framework for using ChatGPT or Claude properly. Key quote: “It was never really about which tool you pick. It’s about how you talk to it.” Get the full tool list + every link mentioned in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i9w3_bd9vgDAMOY1WsIWuPrGoEfodhgVrhss-nSoTSU/edit Want help building this out for your own community yoga studio? Book your free strategy chat at YogaBizChamp.com/book. 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  7. Jul 20

    Fall Is Not a Vibe: 7 Things Every Community Yoga Studio Should Assess First

    Ask Me Anything? "The Community Yoga Studios that grow every fall aren't the ones with the flashiest launch graphic — they're the ones who did the unglamorous looking-backward work in August, so September wasn't a guess." Everybody treats fall like the Super Bowl of the Community Yoga Studio year, and most owners respond by doing what they did last year, just a little louder. In this solo episode, I walk through the seven things I have every Community Yoga Studio client assess before we build a fall plan — backed by real 2026 industry benchmark data, so you've got actual numbers to check yourself against, not just a gut feeling. In this episode: • The numbers every Community Yoga Studio owner should pull before planning fall — and the benchmark for a healthy retention rate • The 90-day cliff: the window where roughly half of new clients are at risk, and why it matters more than new sign-ups • Why your fall schedule needs to match the team you actually have, not the one you wish you had • The healthy payroll-to-revenue range for a Community Yoga Studio, and where it tips into a real problem • Why referred members outperform every other acquisition channel — and how to build that into your fall plan • Free tools I hand you directly in this episode: a schedule template, a marketing/event guide, a retention planner, and my 2026 Studio Planner "Belonging isn't just a nice value to have — it's measurably your cheapest and most effective growth channel for a Community Yoga Studio." Free Community Yoga Studio resources: https://www.yogabizchamp.com/resources Book a free strategy call: https://www.yogabizchamp.com/book 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

  8. Jun 27

    Ask Me Anything: Community Yoga Studios, Business & Life

    Ask Me Anything? “You don’t build a successful community yoga studio by making perfect decisions. You build one by making the next right decision, over and over again.” For the first time on the Yoga Biz Champ Podcast, we’re turning the microphone around. In this Ask Me Anything episode, I’m answering some of the questions I get asked most—about coaching, running a community yoga studio, business, and a little about the person behind Yoga Biz Champ. We talk about the biggest mistakes I see new yoga studio owners make, why leadership and marketing are investments rather than expenses, what makes my coaching style different, and a few personal stories that have shaped the way I work with community yoga studio owners today. In This Episode * The biggest mistakes I see when opening a Yoga Studio. * Why leadership is one of the best investments you can make. * Where I think Yoga Studio owners overspend. * The one budget I’d never cut. * What makes my coaching approach different. * My favourite text message to receive from clients. * My most unpopular opinion about the yoga industry. * The one business rule I’ll never break. * Stories about my first job, confidence, family and growing up. * A few things you probably didn’t know about me. 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. The Number Nobody Talks About: How to Prepare, Price, and Sell Your Boutique Fitness Studio - by Mitch McGinley. Grab Your copy on Amazon US Here FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

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4.9
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Join Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ studio consultant (@yogabizchamp), on the #1 Podcast  "Yoga Biz Champ" podcast dedicated to community yoga studios, your essential guide to thriving in the yoga business world. With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, and marketing expert, I bring you the insider's perspective on making your yoga studio a resounding success.What You'll Gain:- Insightful Conversations:  Listen in as I chat with dynamic yoga studio owners and top industry experts, sharing their journeys, strategies, and secrets to success.- Practical Advice: Each episode is packed with actionable tips and practical steps tailored to help both budding and seasoned studio owners flourish- Real-World Success Stories: Be inspired by real-life examples of yoga studios that have transformed challenges into triumphs.My Approach:As your host, I blend direct, fair, and humor-infused coaching to demystify the complexities of running a yoga business. My style is about being in the trenches with you, offering guidance that's relatable and effective.Why Listen?- Experience & Expertise: Leverage my 14+ years of experience in running and selling a profitable yoga studio and my proven track record as a yoga business consultant.- Diverse Topics: From branding and marketing to pricing and sustainable growth, we cover the A-Z of yoga business management.- Join a community of like-minded individuals passionate about turning their yoga dreams into profitable realities.By tuning into the Yoga Biz Champ podcast, you'll gain the knowledge, inspiration, and confidence to navigate the yoga business landscape successfully. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, these conversations will be your roadmap to becoming the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Jay
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    96
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Yoga Biz Champ with Michael Jay
  • Show Website
    Yoga Biz Champ with Michael Jay

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