The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners

Building a Successful Private Yoga Practice: Francesca Cervero's Journey

• Jackie Murphy • Episode 7

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Discover the transformative journey of Francesca Cervero, a seasoned yoga teacher who turned her passion into a thriving private practice without the crutch of social media. From her roots as a college dancer to finding profound insights through Bikram and Jivamukti yoga, Francesca shares how these experiences shaped her understanding of mindfulness and self-awareness. Her story is an inspiring testament to the power of cultivating genuine connections with students, which not only enhances the teaching experience but also bolsters business success. You’ll learn the secrets behind Francesca's client engagement strategies, emphasizing the personalized approach that led to impressive word-of-mouth growth long before the digital age.

In our conversation, Francesca offers invaluable insights into the art of nurturing long-term student-teacher relationships. Explore her techniques for establishing trust, providing students with what they seek, and gently guiding them into deeper practices. She candidly discusses her work with yoga teachers, focusing on skill enhancement and reducing the marketing frenzy. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for yoga teachers eager to make meaningful impacts and create a sustainable practice, as Francesca illustrates the privilege of supporting students through various life stages. Tune in for an episode filled with practical advice, inspiring narratives, and a roadmap to building a successful private yoga practice.

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Speaker 1:

Imagine having private practice clients who stay with you for over a decade. Did you know that it is not only possible, but it's actually beneficial for your students to continue to work with you for years and years and years? Tune into this episode to learn how to retain clients over a significant period of time with our guest. Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Studio CEO Podcast. I am your business coach, Jackie Murphy, and today I'm bringing you an interview with Francesca Cervero, who has been a full-time yoga teacher since 2005, the host of the Mentor Sessions podcast and a successful business owner. In this episode, she is going to break down how she has built a thriving private practice, teaching a full schedule, retaining clients, and how she really sees the possibility for every single yoga teacher to have long lasting relationships with their students to create meaningful impact in their life. If you were looking to book more private sessions, this is an episode you have to tune into. Enjoy, All right, my friends. Welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. I have a guest for you today. Francesca is here to share her experience and her history with building a thriving business from private, so welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Jackie. I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I'd love to get started If my audience isn't familiar with your story. Just a brief background of how you found yoga. Where did it all begin? And then we'll kind of go from there how you found yoga.

Speaker 2:

Where did it all begin? And then we'll kind of go from there. Sure, yeah. So I was a dancer and I went to a dance conservatory program for college. So I was a very serious dancer in the dance world and began practicing yoga in college quite seriously. I started at a bedroom studio at the suggestion of a physical therapist of mine. Did not last long there, it was just too hot, too hot and too much of the same. But had a few really wonderful teachers in Philadelphia, where I lived at the time, and as I was finishing college as a dancer and planning to move to New York, I was trying to figure out what would be my side gig or my main gig to support myself.

Speaker 2:

As I tried to break into the dance world in New York City and had been very dedicated, kind of in a quiet way, to my yoga practice throughout college, I felt that it had really shifted my relationship with myself in a way that I wasn't expecting. Like so many people, I came to yoga because of the promise of potential physical benefits, which I did experience, but I already had a lot of other movement practices and was in my body in a lot of other ways. And so what was really significant for me about the yoga practice was the mindfulness aspect, the self-study, and that changed so much about how I experienced myself and the world around me, and I was feeling very inspired by that. So I decided to do a yoga teacher training immediately upon graduating college. So I was very young.

Speaker 2:

I was like by far the youngest person in my teacher training program at the time and really probably the least experienced. I'd been a serious yoga practitioner for about four years, which I think now is maybe a little more common for people to do a teacher training earlier on in their journey. But back then I mean this is like 20 years ago it was not as common and so most of the people in my teacher training program were older, they were more experienced, they had a lot more experience with philosophy and meditation than I did. So I kind of felt like the runt of my teacher training program. I was not the most confident, the most experienced, the most calm. I was young and relatively new to the world of yoga, but had a truly profound experience in my teacher training and was excited to go out into the world of teaching after that.

Speaker 1:

Hmm, so I completely agree with you that most people come to yoga for the physical benefits of it and then later find true yoga right, Everything else that makes yoga what it is. How long would you say you started with Bikram? You started for the physical, how long was it until you found the self-study and the other aspects of yoga? Do you have a recollection of that timeline?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was relatively quickly.

Speaker 2:

Once I left the Bikram studio I started studying with teachers from the Jivamukti lineage, which was not going to be the long-term lineage for me, but at the time was a big shift from the Bikram space and there was just a lot of philosophy brought in there and a lot of space for quiet and just for me.

Speaker 2:

Having the space held for me to experience myself and my thoughts in a quiet environment was radical and right away from there. It was very, very difficult for me to sit with myself in a quiet way, but I sat with that difficulty and really quickly learned a lot about myself and the world around me and the way I wanted to relate to the world around me. I had sort of an innate desire to be a caretaker and to be a nurturing person and to sort of spread circles of care out into wider and wider circles. And I realized that if I wasn't able to be with myself and my own difficult experiences and emotions, I wouldn't be able to be who I wanted to be in the world for others. So I made, you know, quick work of of maturing in that way. I mean it didn't happen fast but I, like I, got to it, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it sounds like you dove in. I love how you said circles of care. So how, how did this? You started teaching after your teacher training. What? What did that look like? And how did you bring in this aspect of yoga that you've already connected with?

Speaker 2:

Well, what it looked like was a lot of hustle. I was 22 years old, I was living in New York City, I was also working to break into the professional dance world, so I had I don't know a lot of time and space and energy to hustle. You know I talk, I do as you know, I do a lot of mentoring with teachers now and I always think it's important to distinguish. Like, if you want to build a career as a yoga teacher, it's possible at any time and phase and season of life. But if you happen to be doing it in a season of life where you can really hustle, it will happen more quickly. Right, and it happened quickly for me because I had no other responsibilities, nobody else I needed to worry about or take care of. So I had, you know, I was working at 7am, I was working at 9pm, I was working on Saturdays, like.

Speaker 1:

I was.

Speaker 2:

I just went for it. So you know, right away I was going around to lots of yoga studios all over the city and just trying to get jobs and it really didn't go that well, to be honest, you know it. Um, most studios then and I think now too, probably the way they're financially viable is to have their own teacher training program. So it's very rare for a yoga studio to hire someone who hadn't gone through their program. So I really kept running into closed doors and I did my teacher training program at a place that's now closed, but it was called Om Yoga Center. It was founded by Cindy Lee and it was one of the most prestigious, well-respected studios in New York and I had a great training experience there and that was my yoga home for a long time.

Speaker 2:

But when I first graduated from their teacher training program I was not a strong enough teacher to be offered a class on the schedule. So I was not a strong enough teacher to be offered a class on the schedule, so I was not. So that was out for me. But then I got, you know it slowly started building. I got a job at a small boutique gym and then I got a corporate gig and slowly but surely things. You know, I was subbing at a lot of places and then, a few months after I did my teacher training, a mentor of mine passed on one of her private clients to me, and that's when everything really shifted.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I know that there are a lot of new teachers who listen to this podcast and they can probably relate to the position that you were in graduating teacher training and not being fully ready for a studio class on the schedule, and they're like you gave a beautiful example of like I found a local gym and then I started teaching like really anywhere I could, but what do you think made you a stronger teacher so that you could go back and get a class on the schedule? Is there any advice you would give those listeners?

Speaker 2:

Definitely A lot of it is just experience.

Speaker 2:

You know it's like you have to just be in front of students trying to teach yoga to get better at it, and I also always suggest to teachers to take teaching opportunities that are offered to them, especially when they feel challenging.

Speaker 2:

Because it's when you're teaching in situations that are somewhat challenging that you get clear on your priorities as a teacher. Like if you're teaching in a gymnasium with huge echoey space without props and just mats, like you have to get clear about what you care about most, because not everything can be a first priority in a situation like that. So you know, does that mean you're not coming down to the ground at all and you're going to do the whole practice standing and you're going to start with a really gentle joint mobilization? Does that mean you're lying down the whole time and you decide you don't care about standing poses at all? You know you get to decide based on what you value and what you see is important to offer and what is most appropriate and useful for your students. So I think when you're placed in challenging teaching situations it really sharpens your teaching.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, that's the true way we learn right To be in the mix doing it Absolutely yeah. So one of the challenging teaching experiences I think teachers can run to run into is a private. So you had the teacher pass down a private client to you. Do you remember what leading your first private client was like?

Speaker 2:

what leading your first private client was like. Yes, it was like thrilling to me. I was so nervous and immediately found the whole experience super challenging. In a really interesting way it forced me, I felt, to be very creative.

Speaker 2:

What was said to me when this student was passed on was like she's a lovely person, she's super easy to teach, so this won't be like stressful, but she's not that engaged in the practice. She just does it because she like wants to say she does yoga and she's kind of chatty and you'll be like in and out in 45 minutes, like get yourself a coffee at the Starbucks across the street. And I was like, okay, I mean sure I could do that. You know, it was like so much more money. It was like more than double what I was making for any other class that I was teaching. So I was like, yeah, man, I'll do whatever.

Speaker 2:

But I right away found it to be like a real creative challenge. Because it's true she wasn't that engaged in the practice. But I could tell that. Because it's true she wasn't that engaged in the practice, but I could tell that, like for most people, the practice had a lot to offer her if she was engaged, if she did care if she was curious. So I made it my mission to figure out how to get her to care about it, how to get her to be curious about her own experience and her body and her mind, how to get her to be engaged. And it was hard to do but it felt very fun. I have a creative background. I was a dancer and did a lot of choreography in my dance career and it just brought out that side of me that was like let me figure out how to reach her and how to use movement and attention and breath to help her wake up to her experience. I was really inspired by the challenge, I'll say so I thought it was fun.

Speaker 1:

So take us on from there. Did you start attracting more private clients? What did that look like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it happened slowly at first, relatively. I think I taught this client for about six months before she recommended a good friend of hers, Because I think what happened ultimately is because she was more engaged in her practice. She saw more change and evolution and positive benefits of the practice and so that made her more excited to tell other people about it and to get this kind of work, this kind of care, this kind of practice to other people that she loved. So she recommended a good friend of hers. Now it's interesting because the friend had a very dedicated yoga practice. She was much more in her body. She was like a D1 college athlete. She had a really active vinyasa practice. She was much more in her body. She was like a D1 college athlete. She had a really active vinyasa practice. But in the same way it was sort of like something she did to exercise and then like went on with her life and it really didn't impact her in any super specific way. And so I because it's what makes it interesting and fun for me and because I think it helps people I tried to figure out a way to get her to be more engaged and to understand the more full breadth of the practice, slowly and in subtle ways at first, and then more explicitly later on, so that the yoga was really coming off the mat with her in a much more significant way than it had before.

Speaker 2:

And so then again she had this profound experience where she said wow, this is really helping me a lot. I really wish that you could teach my husband. And I was like, yeah, I'll teach your husband. Sure, I'm hustling. Like I said, I'm working six days a week, I'm working at 6 am, I'm working at 9 pm, I'm like doing whatever I have to do to pay rent, Of course, like I'll take on another private client. But she was like no, I don't think you'd want to Like. He really doesn't like yoga. He's kind of grumpy. I just don't think it's going to work. And I said I hear you, I understand people like that. Let's just set up one session and if he hates it, then he doesn't have to do it again. But let me just try. And so I had one session with him and was able to get him hooked.

Speaker 2:

He liked to play golf, but he wasn't that good at it. It turned out Because I was able to ask him. He's telling me about it. I asked him. This is one of the things I do in the intake. It's like do you have other movement practices or sports you engage in, Kind of like trying to say, basically, what else do you do with your body? And he liked to play golf. And I have not never played golf, but my dad and brother are golfers and I knew enough about the game to know kind of the questions to ask. So I asked him what his handicap is. It's how they, like you say how good you are. And it was not good Like he. He was not that good.

Speaker 2:

So I was like, oh, yeah, he's like, yeah, I'm working on it. I was like, yeah, Would you like to work on that with me? He was like, what do you mean? And I was like, well, I think that asana could be beneficial and I think yoga in general could actually be helpful as well, because golf is a game of twisting right. The more spinal rotation you have in your backswing, the more power you have as you come through. So that's something we could work on. And also, I know that golf is a game of mindfulness. You know it's a very small ball way down there on the ground. If you're not paying really close attention to it. You're not going to hit it as well as you want.

Speaker 2:

So I think, like some mindfulness techniques might change things for you. So it got him. Like he was totally skeptical. I mean he was not like right away all that excited necessarily, but he was like, okay, let's give this a try. And so we set up to do twice a week for a couple of months and it did help him, like in a lot of ways. I think it's interesting because he started out so skeptical and he connected and engaged with the wider breadth of the practice very quickly. You can never guess like how people will take to it. You know he right away actually loved the mindfulness aspects of it, loved the breathwork, like really felt that managing his stress better helped him be kinder to his family, Like he was like all in pretty quickly. So that was really rewarding and fun. But his golf game got better. And as his golf game got better, then I started hearing from all the other guys that he worked with at his firm.

Speaker 2:

And then like within months probably. At that point I was seeing like I was doing 20 private sessions a week. So it started slow, because everything starts sort of slow, but then it just exploded and all of that happened. This is the early 2000s. Okay, this is like 2005,. And all of that happened. This is the early 2000s. Okay, this is like 2005, 2006, 2007.

Speaker 1:

I was not on social media. I did not have a website Like. It was 100% word of mouth. What's really beautiful this is something I teach my clients is that every single person has a different dominant buying motive, and what you were able to do was connect his dominant buying motive to yoga and a private with you and get him specifically interested. And I think that's something where a lot of my newer clients come in. They're like you should try yoga, but you have to tell them why. You have to get them specifically engaged, and it sounds like you do a really beautiful job of that. Have you found in your process of building out your clients and getting them all engaged, is there a similar process to that or is it different for every single person?

Speaker 2:

It's completely different. It's so different for every person Just the way you have to teach and apply parts of the practice so differently to each person if you really want to meet them where you are. It's the same for getting them engaged and you don't always know right away what is going to get people engaged. Sometimes it takes time. So you have to do what you can for them to enjoy it enough in the beginning that you can learn what will get them engaged, what they care about. I tell people a client is a new client for a full year, because I think it takes that long to develop a shared language, to really understand their deeper needs and goals and desires and to figure out how to tailor the practice to them. So you just have to do the best you can for them to enjoy it and feel better for that first year.

Speaker 2:

But you have to give yourself a year, because I hear this a lot, where a teacher will say I'm really struggling with this student. I've been teaching them for a while now and I, like, can't quite figure them out.

Speaker 1:

And then I'll say I hear you.

Speaker 2:

That's a hard, it's a hard thing to do. How long have you been teaching them? And they'll say four months and I'll say that's not a long time. They're a brand new student still. It just takes time. So you have to be patient and you have to do what you can to get them to be patient while still like meeting their needs. You know what I talk about. Teachers need to give the student what they need, like what you think they really need on a deep level, what will get them engaged, packaged inside of something that they want.

Speaker 2:

So if they're telling you they want a workout, regardless of whether you have a sense that, like, some of the slower practices would be good for them or you really think that they would eventually connect to some of the philosophy. Like, you have to give that to them at the beginning, inside of a workout, because they have to trust you that they're going to get what they want. And then, once you have a shared language and really close trust, then the possibilities for where you can take them in their yoga practice and where they can go and what they can learn and who they can be are endless. But the trust and the relationship has to be there, so they have to like it enough to keep coming for a year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's amazing, do you? And now you work with teachers who want to learn how to run privates? Is that correct?

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, I have a teacher training called the science of the private lesson and then a membership community where we kind of talk through all this stuff as well. So cause the thing is like I have a lot of teachers who are in my community who've been teaching for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, just like me, and they're still like, oh man, I don't know what happened with this client, like I thought they were engaged, but they just kind of quit out of nowhere and it's like let's dissect that and figure out what we could do differently so that doesn't happen again. Because I've, you know, I was very quickly teaching 20 sessions a week back in those days and I have rebuilt my practice a couple of times since then. But I am not like always on the hunt for new clients.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I think like I don't want other teachers to have to do that either. It's a lot of work and it's, I don't think, the fun part. I think to me the fun part is teaching yoga, so that's what I want to spend my time doing. And I just need enough clients for like the salary to be livable, but I'm I don't want to be like marketing all the time.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm, yeah, I find that.

Speaker 2:

Or ever frankly yeah.

Speaker 1:

Or at all yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I want teachers. So, like even people who are experienced and have a handful of private clients, there's still always work we can do to grow and evolve and deepen our teaching, to help our students in an even more like, committed and supportive way so that they really are committed to their practice for the long haul. I mean like the people that I taught in new york. I taught for 10 years until I moved, but I would definitely still be teaching them now if I hadn't.

Speaker 1:

Yeah that's beautiful. I teach people for a long time. It's the longevity of it. Yeah, it truly is where, like, transformation happens and it becomes a practice, a lifestyle and more than just a workout. That's absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2:

So it's such an honor. I just want to say it's such an honor to like hold people through all these seasons of their life. You know, I'm just coming up on my 10 year anniversary with the first student I started teaching in Washington DC when I moved here and, like we have been through she's been through a lot, we've been through a lot together and it's I'm like one of the only people in her life that's been there really for all of it and it's it's an incredible privilege to like help someone's yoga practice, hold them through so much. I love it so much. That's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, thank you so much for sharing all of this. Can you share where teachers can find you if they want to join your membership? You said if that's open, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so my website will have everything. It's just Francesca Cerverocom, and there we have the teacher training, the science of the private lesson, and the membership community is the mentor sessions, sangha, and I have a podcast too, if people want to just kind of get to know me and, you know, hear from my guests a little bit more. It's it's called the mentor sessions support and strategy for yoga teachers. So those are all the places people can find me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you and we'll link all that in the show notes, but thank you so much for being here and sharing your story and just being a testament that you can build a fabulous career from teaching privates and really serving people. It's very cool to hear so. Thank you, yeah, thank you, Jackie. All right, you guys, I'll talk to you in the next episode.