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

How to Make Your Yoga or Pilates Studio More Productive—Without Working More

• Jackie Murphy • Episode 13

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It’s been five years of this podcast, and after a challenging season, I’m back—reenergized and ready to reconnect with you. To celebrate, I’m kicking off February with an exciting giveaway and diving into something every studio owner needs: how to get your team to be more productive without working more. 

Productivity isn’t about doing more—it’s about leading better. In this episode, I’ll share:
✔️ How self-leadership and mindset shifts can completely change the way you run your studio
✔️ The compounding effect of small, strategic actions in your business
✔️ How to go from reactive to proactive so you and your team can work smarter, not harder
✔️ Why clear communication and expectations are the real keys to a productive, happy team

Whether you’re running a one-person show or leading a full team, these strategies will help you create a culture of trust, efficiency, and ease. Plus, I’ll share how you can dive deeper inside The Business of Yoga Program or Grow Mastermind.

🎉 Don’t forget to share this episode and join our community celebration for a chance to win this month’s giveaways!

Let’s make February a month of connection and momentum—together.

Work with Jackie Murphy
Start with the Thrive in 2025
Learn about The Business of Yoga Program
Apply for the Mastermind

Speaker 1:

Wouldn't your life and your business be so much easier and run so much smoother if the team that you had was working at an incredibly efficient and productive level? That is something that you can intentionally cultivate, and it's not just for team members, it's also for yourself. Tune into this episode to learn how to make your team more productive. 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. 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. Oh, everyone, welcome back to the Studio CEO Podcast. I am your business coach, jackie Murphy and I am beyond grateful to be recording this episode for you today, for many different reasons, the first one being in February, we are going to hit the five-year anniversary of this podcast. What Now? We rebranded last year, so it shifted from the Yoga Boss podcast to the Studio CEO. But if you look at both of those podcasts together, we started around five years ago, which it has just time flies by, and it has been so incredible being able to connect with so many of you who listen to this podcast. You tell me all the time you're like Jackie. I've listened to every single episode. You're in my head all the time. I actually had someone message me on Instagram this week and they were like Jackie. You were in my dream telling me to get out there and make money, and I know so many of you feel the same way and I just want to really show and like communicate to you how much I appreciate you listening to this podcast. So we're going to do a fun little giveaway for February. All right, what I've decided to do is that each week when the podcast releases, if you share the podcast episode on your social media and tag me so I can see it of that week's episode, you're going to be entered to win an a hundred dollar gift card. Okay, so all you have to do is, when you're listening to this episode right now, hit, share on your stories and tag me, and then you'll be entered to win a gift card for that week, and we'll do one every single week of February. Isn't that fun? Let's do it Now.

Speaker 1:

The second reason I'm so excited to be talking to you is because it's been a minute since I've recorded an episode and if you haven't seen on Instagram or if you're not in my email list, then you might not be in the loop. But we went through, personally, an incredibly hard year last year a year and a half, really at this point and that has been really impacting how much I can deliver to you and what I was capable of delivering last year. In the midst of hard times. Personally in business, I always turn to like what has to happen, like let's cut out anything that doesn't. That's not, like priority has to happen for the business to run, and so typically that means your clients. So last year I turned to my clients and I really poured into them and over-delivered for them, and that was quite literally all I had the capacity to do, and so this year, in 2025, it feels like fresh energy. I'm a little bit more healed, I have a little bit of my energy back and I'm now turning my focus to my audience again, because I miss you and I miss being in your ear every single week, and so my intention is to kind of just open back up that relationship and that channel and hear from you more and be here on the podcast more, and so, if you want to chat, you can always send me a message on Instagram. If you have an episode that you want me to record, a question, maybe we'll do some more Q&A episodes. Those are super fun, but if there's a topic that you want me to touch on, please tell us. Tell me so I can put it into our schedule and get it out there for you. So let's go. I'm just so, so happy to be here, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Today, we're going to talk about how to help your team become more productive. Now, the first thing that we have to start with is the definition of productive. What does it mean to be productive? It means that you're getting better results in less time, with less effort. Essentially, this is something that you've probably heard me talk about before, especially if you are a current client.

Speaker 1:

Your results in business compound. They are not transactional. So when you think about transactional results, it's like you put 25 cents into the gumball machine, you get a gumball out. That's a transactional return or a result. Anything that you do in business your marketing, your selling, your hiring, your team like what they do, how you learn to rewire your brain to think more like a business owner All of those results compound over time. So let's say that you put in 25 cents through the gumball machine, you might get one gumball out at first, but then you get another and you get another, and then you get three and then you get four and then you get 10 and then you get 12. It grows over time and that, essentially, is what it means to be more productive. So you might be paying your team, your teachers, the same exact amount as you were the year before, but as a team you've grown and you can produce more, create more and essentially just create better, faster results.

Speaker 1:

Now, most of you listening you might have teachers that are on your team, you might have a social media person, maybe you have a CPA, hopefully you have a business coach. You have a team of people supporting you in your business, and so we're specifically going to talk about what you need to do to help your team be more productive. But if you don't have a team, if you are solopreneur, or maybe you just have a VA, I still think this applies. But solopreneur, this still applies to you because you have to make yourself more productive. Right, it's all about self-leadership, whether you have a team or not. This is my first point written down in my notes is that you it starts with you. It starts with you leading by example.

Speaker 1:

So if you're sitting there wishing, oh, I wish my team was more productive, I wish I didn't have to spend as much time with them getting this done, or it took less effort to get this task accomplished, you have to start with you internally and say, all right, I'm going to embody self-leadership, I'm going to show up and get better results in my work in less time, with less effort, and that is going to ripple out not just to your team, but to your clients, to the community and further than you can probably imagine. So, whether you're listening to this podcast to help your team be more productive, or you're listening to this podcast so that you can be more productive. I think it's going to apply no matter what. So the first thing that you are going to do to help your team become more productive is move from your limbic brain to your prefrontal cortex. It all comes back to this all of the time.

Speaker 1:

Your limbic brain is also I call your primitive brain. This is your reactive brain. It's what will automatically fire right away. Actually, I just heard recently that your primitive brain takes in like a million bits of information, like so much information, and your prefrontal cortex, in the same exact amount of time, takes in like five pieces of information. So your limbic brain is incredibly fast. It's reactive. It's what puts you into usually fight, flight, fawn or freeze your automatic response. But when it comes to productivity and working, when you're in your limbic brain, you're going to notice that you are more negative, maybe focused on the past, and you'll speak more about what you don't like, ie you'll complain more. Why? Because your limbic brain is literally designed to look out for the negative, to watch where the past was dangerous, so that you can avoid that same situation in the future.

Speaker 1:

So, with your team, this often sounds like my clients come to me and they're like oh Jackie, my teachers aren't posting on social media, they aren't marketing, and they are using their limbic brain to describe to me what's happening within their team. And their limbic brain sees what's wrong, what's not working, what has happened in the past. Now, if this is you like, if I just called you out, I'm not calling you out ever, I'm always calling you in. I also just want to normalize that like this is your brain doing the brain thing. Nothing has gone wrong. You're not a bad leader, you're not a bad manager, it's just the brain thing. So the brain thing is happening where you can look at your team and know exactly what they did wrong very quickly and how they've done it wrong a million times. That's your limbic brain.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing that you have to do is shift from your limbic brain to your prefrontal cortex and when I say shift, I mean literally wired neural pathways so that you can access your prefrontal cortex faster and easier. Your prefrontal cortex is going to be positive, it's going to be focused on the future and it's going to be focused on the affirmative. So, rather than focusing on what's wrong, the complaint, what's not happening, your prefrontal cortex is going to be focusing on what's wrong, the complaint what's not happening. Your prefrontal cortex is going to be focused on what is happening, the affirmative, what you want to see. You're going to be thinking about the future of how can we build, what can we do from here, and you will find that you are more positive. Now this feels counterintuitive and it's going to feel like I'm asking you to celebrate the team that you may not think is productive enough in order to make them productive. That kind of is what I'm telling you to do. But when that feels like that, you're like, jackie, this is never going to work. I want you to just trust me for a little bit. I want you to trust me because once you see how effective your prefrontal cortex is over your limbic brain, you're almost going to get addicted to using that prefrontal cortex instead of going to your limbic brain.

Speaker 1:

So let's give an example. If you're doing this for yourself, if you sat down and you had a list of things that you wanted to do in the day and at the end of the day you didn't do as many follow-ups as you were planning, your limbic brain is like oh, you didn't follow up. You should have followed up, we're missing out. We didn't text that we should have blah, blah, blah, blah. It starts to kind of go off and complain you never follow up, the follow-ups are always missing, the followups are not consistent. The followups should be automatic. Like it's just kind of rambling, at this point You're going to stop your your limbic brain and you're going to say, okay, I have access to my prefrontal cortex. What does that version of me see? That version of you is going to be like. You know, maybe that followup didn't happen, but here's what did happen today, here's how you did move forward, here's what worked really well and here's what we can do in the future. So you're automatically in the way that you're going to treat yourself, going to feel more motivated and inclined to then do the thing, to keep showing up in your business, all right. So step number two after you've moved to your prefrontal cortex and you've gotten to a positive, future, focused place, step number two is that you have to say very clearly what you want to happen. This is how your team will be more successful. This is how your team will be more productive.

Speaker 1:

One of the very first things that I work with my clients on once they come into the mastermind is job descriptions for their entire team, even if their team has been around for 11 years. I'm like we're writing new job descriptions, and the reason being is that most studio owners don't have a job description at all for their teachers or their job description quite literally lacks what they want their teacher to do. So let's go back to the social media example. If you're a studio owner and you want your teachers to post on social media, is it in their job description? Have you spelled it out clearly what you want them to do? Are you just hoping that they come in to teach and then they post on social media and help you market your business? So this is a very small example, but it's a really, really common example.

Speaker 1:

You want to be able to spell out exactly what you want to happen. So the way that you can do this is take all of the don't statements that are coming from your limbic brain and take a beat and then turn them into I want statements or do this statements? So you're going to look at all these don't statements and then you're going to turn them into I want statements or do this statements? So you're going to look at all these adult statements and then you're going to turn them into. I want statements. So, for example, my teachers don't post on social media the affirmative that would be teachers post on social media using the business of yoga content prompts four times a week. Right, do you see how clear it is?

Speaker 1:

Let's do another example. My teachers don't sell membership after class. What do you want? Teachers use the script outline at the front desk to have a sales conversation with every new student after class. They check off the box when they've done it. Right? Do you see how we're making it actually possible for them to do their job? If you haven't outlined exactly what you want and very detailed, clear statements, they can't do their job. They can't be as productive as you want them to be. So you're going to use do this statements. I want to see this. I want to see that You're going to move away from don't statements and then listen to this. If you drifted off, come back. Tone trumps content, tone trumps content.

Speaker 1:

I know that your limbic brain is going to try and convince you that, even though you feel like a ball of stress, your team has no idea. Or even though you're like really frustrated with them not moving faster, your team has no idea, and I'm here to tell you that they know. They know we are so intelligent as human beings. When you walk into a room, you can immediately sense if someone is having an off day, you're like whoa, what's up with them, right? Or if you walk up to the bank teller and they're just not in a good mood, you know, you know, before they even open their mouth. Your team is just as smart as you are. They can also tell that as well. And, just to prove this to you, 93% of your communication is nonverbal. So what this means? It means that, like your tone, your cadence, how fast you're talking, the rhythm of, like your speech, all of that, your body language, how you're sitting where you're sitting, what you're wearing. Like all of that, your body language, how you're sitting where you're sitting, what you're wearing, like all of that communicates to your team what you're genuinely saying, without saying it out loud.

Speaker 1:

I want you to think about a dog. We have a new puppy who is just the sweetest thing in the entire world and we're training her. Right and something that I'm reminded training the dog is your tone matters. So if I'm over here, like, come here, millie, come here, millie, come back inside. She's not listening to me. She's like that woman sounds mad and scary. I'm not going over there, but if I'm like, come on, millie, come inside and my tone, the dog responds.

Speaker 1:

Now your team is not dogs and I'm not comparing them to dogs, but I am saying that your tone does matter. Tone trumps content. So if you have to take a beat and emotionally regulate and make sure that there is no stress going to come out of your tone, there is no frustration going to come out there, there is no anger or resentment built up or I see a lot of like overwhelm If none of that is there, if you can regulate all of that and then talk to your team, it's going to work so much better. Now, regulating yourself and your emotions as a leader on your own is really hard. This is why I really think that being in a group of people who can help you co-regulate and have these conversations with you is just going to be so much easier for you to be a part of a team. So that's my little like you have to be in a group. We are wired to co-regulate from day one of being born, so there's no reason for you to try and do this on your own.

Speaker 1:

The third thing. So so far we've moved from our limbic brain to our prefrontal cortex and then we're shifting from don't statements or the negative to saying exactly clearly what we want to happen. The third thing is that you are going to reward. You are going to appreciate, you are going to celebrate way more than you are right now. So let's say that you've asked your teachers to post on social media four times a week and one of your teachers post one time. Now your Olympic brand is like they didn't post all four times. They're missing three posts and the one post it wasn't even that good. I know, because I'm human with you guys.

Speaker 1:

Your prefrontal cortex is going to pause and be like you know they got 25% right. Like I am going to take a beat and be regulated and I am going to celebrate the hell out of them for getting that 25% right this first week. Right, they did it. You are going to celebrate. You're going to reward. You're going to be like oh my God, I see you trying, I see you showing up. I know that was uncomfortable. You did it. Here's what was awesome about it. Here's why I appreciate it so much. Here's what it did for our business. Like you made such an effort and it made an impact for the business and the community and the students. You are going to celebrate the hell out of them. And then you are going to use this word and, and here is how you continue, and the next step is this or and next week, let's try three more.

Speaker 1:

Now, when it comes to your and this is normally where most of us would say, but like, oh, that was a great post, but you didn't get all three, and it completely negates all of the rewarding and appreciation you just did, and it will like disempower them and make them feel not motivated, and so it's just a simple flip to be like and the next step is posting four. Can you do three more next week? What do you need from me in order to make that happen? Oh, do you need to be a part of the reels that Jackie Murphy posts every single week so that you can just use those content prompts? Great, I'll sign you up Right. Like I really want you to be willing to celebrate, appreciate and then support.

Speaker 1:

And it's going to feel counterintuitive because your limbic brain is going to be screaming at you like they're not doing enough and they're not productive. But if you were to do this again and again and again and again. One, your entire team is going to feel so safe. They are going to start to just love coming to work because they know you're not going to berate them, you're not going to belittle them, you're not going to come across frustrated with them, but you're going to be clear, you're going to be kind and appreciative and you're going to help them grow. And if you've ever worked for a great leader, if you've ever worked for a great boss or manager, that is what they do. They create the space so that you can trust them. Like I didn't nail this, but I know they're not going to berate me, or I really need feedback on this and I need their help on this, and I know they're not going to berate me, or I really need feedback on this and I need their help on this, and I know they're going to respond with patience and kindness.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going to say a little caveat here. I'm not telling you to allow your employees to not get their jobs done, like there are boundaries to be had in business. And if this were a consistent thing after you've done all this work and you've communicated clearly, there is a process that you can learn inside the mastermind for how you kind of coach someone out if they're just not fit for the role. So this is not saying like, let your employees do whatever they want and praise them. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is start with praise and appreciation, clearly identify what you want and then show them the next step and help them grow, support them into that growth and you will start to see your team bloom Like, they will feel safe and they will just want to learn from you.

Speaker 1:

Now I want to bring it back to self-leadership at the end of this podcast, because can you imagine doing this for yourself? I know our internal self-talk based on. I've worked with thousands of people at this point and it's very common for your internal self-talk to be like you didn't do enough, it's not good enough, we need more people, we're missing something, we are behind. We should have made more by now. We should have more students by now. The students don't like us, like it's just a berating constantly.

Speaker 1:

So I want you to imagine managing and leading yourself this way, focusing on the 15 or the 25% that you excelled at, taking the time to congratulate yourself so that that neural pathway actually gets wired in your brain, gently coaching yourself clearly on the next step. You would feel so much more ease showing up to your own business every day, showing up to your own work every single day. So test this. You don't have to take all of what I've said as Bible. Do people still say that you don't have to take this and be like, okay, I agree with Jackie, but what I would encourage you to do is test it. Be like all right, jackie, you say this, you know appreciation thing and clearly identifying what I want thing and working for my prefrontal cortex thing. You say that's going to work. So I'm going to test it for a week or 30 days and then report back and tell me how it was and tell me what happened.

Speaker 1:

I think this is the thing where, as you develop as a leader, you'll start to see that there may be other ways to lead um, strict ways, ways with fear, but this way is going to feel so much more fulfilling for you and it's going to create a team that really wants to be there and really, really cherishes their role with you.

Speaker 1:

So let's go make productive teams If you need help with this. And you were like, oh shoot, she just called me out on this, this, this and this. Then I do want to invite you to join us, either inside the Business of Yoga program or the Grow Mastermind If you're, you know, unsure about which one is for you. You can always send me a message, either on Instagram, at thebusinessofyoga, or you can email support at JackieGMurphycom, and we can answer you there and we can help find the right support for you, because you really aren't meant to do this alone. There's just no need Give yourself that support Again. Share the podcast. Share tag me and I'll. I'll enter you for the weekly drawing and we will have just a really fun February celebrating where we are with this podcast. All right, my friends, I'll talk to you in the next episode.