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

Rebuilding, Reconnecting, and Being Seen: A Real-Time Business Update

• Jackie Murphy

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Eighteen months ago, my world turned upside-down. 

I discovered my husband’s addiction, and despite running a successful seven-figure business, I retreated. I pulled back on marketing, stopped podcasting, and focused on serving my existing clients while I navigated the hardest season of my life.

When I finally emerged from my healing cocoon this January, everything had changed. The business landscape looked different, my audience needed to reconnect with me, and my old marketing strategies no longer felt aligned. This pushed me to rethink how I show up—shifting from business-focused content to sharing my personal journey and building deeper, more authentic connections with my audience.

In this episode, I share:

🔹 How I kept my business running while moving through personal crisis
🔹 Why stepping back doesn’t mean starting over
🔹 How I pivoted my approach to rebuild audience trust
🔹 The “vulnerability hangover” and why deep connection is worth it
🔹 Embracing reinvention as a natural (and necessary) part of business

If you're going through something similar or navigating a phase of reinvention, I'm here for you. Send me a message on Instagram @thebusinessofyoga.

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Speaker 1:

Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on what's really been happening behind the scenes in my life and in my business. After navigating the discovery of addiction in my personal life over a year ago, I've been in a season of healing, rebuilding and redefining what success and impact really mean. If you've ever felt like this, maybe you're reinventing yourself or your business. This one is for you. Listen in to understand why reinvention is not a failure. It's a path to something greater. 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.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Studio CEO Podcast. I am Jackie Murphy and I have got that spring energy. How are y'all doing? I hope that you are in the same vibe somewhat as me. It is a Monday when I'm recording this and I just feel the fresh energy of spring rolling around and I can feel it in my business as well. So in this episode we are going to do something more personal and more reflective. I'm really just going to pull back the curtain and share a little bit about where I am in life and where I am in business and kind of let you know what's been happening behind the scenes and how it's impacting the business and kind of what's next. This is something that I really believe in being honest and being really transparent about the behind the scenes of running a business, and today I want to bring you into my real time process of rebuilding, of healing and of innovating. So one thing that I will say is I think oftentimes and this happens both if you have the idea that you want to open a Pilates studio and also happens if you decide that you want to shift from your studio to a course, like I did but I think oftentimes we can imagine that some other type of business would be easier than what we are currently operating. And one thing that I think gets perpetuated online is that, just like online money course sales, digital education, like that's the easy way. And I want to show you and always be really transparent that I think every business takes work and investment and being all in and being willing to figure out what you know really people will pay for, and being able to innovate and adapt and continue to meet the consumers where they are so that your business can continue to grow.

Speaker 1:

So, without all the fancy words, I just mean life, no matter what stage of life you're in, brings complications, and business, no matter what stage of business you're in, can also bring complications. So this business, this coaching business, I've had now for this will be my sixth year this December, but for five years and I've had some really great success within this business and again, like I'm not saying this to brag, but I just want to share, to show you what's possible I have scaled the business to over a million dollars in revenue and last year we ended in the deep six figure revenue mark and it was probably the hardest year in business so far, and I think sometimes we think the longer we're in business, the easier it'll be, you'll have everything figured out, and it just kind of runs. And there is an element to that. That is true, like systems and processes and repeating what you know works does get a little bit easier.

Speaker 1:

But what I was met with was discovering my husband's addictions about a year and six, seven months ago, and to me that totally shook my entire world. This was something that you know as a woman. I had this intuition that something wasn't right and I got us into therapy together and then from that therapist, who was really able to validate like hey, like this seems like an addiction, I then went and discovered everything via our credit card statement. So that moment, that week in time, my life just felt like it kind of crumbled and I remember sitting on the steps outside of my house being like my world just flipped upside down, like knowing it just happened but also trying to process what was happening. And so over the last year and six months I have really been in a deep, deep healing process, both personally but also professionally, because it all impacts each other.

Speaker 1:

And so, while this discovery of what was going on. It really heightened my brain's like hyper vigilant state and it heightened, like, my awareness of, like what should I trust others? Should I not trust others? It brought me to a place where I was really just unsure of what was, and so I had to take time to pause and reflect and really think about, like, what is going to work for me in my business in this season of my life. And I had to make some changes and I've done it a couple times within the last year and six months, because changes is not just a one time thing. So I made the changes that worked for me.

Speaker 1:

Back last May you maybe were around for that podcast I stopped podcasting and then I just recently made some pretty significant changes in the way that my mastermind was being delivered and that was this year and those changes are really about building something that is stronger, it's rooted in trust and it really is there to grow with me and no matter what season of life that I'm in. But I felt like I went into this like healing cocoon and I really kind of just pulled back to what was necessary. I delivered really well to my clients, like I did what I needed to do to still stay ethical and be in service for them, and I I think they would tell you they feel that from me but I did pull back in terms of marketing, in terms of scaling, in terms of recording the podcast, and I went into this little cocoon. And then this January, I feel like I finally came out of that cocoon and I'm looking around and I'm like, okay, I feel better.

Speaker 1:

But, holy moly, the landscape of business and social media like that has shifted and changed, and so what I thought would be like this quick bounce back wasn't necessarily as fast as I thought it was going to happen and we didn't need to bounce back from anything, right. But as I thought I'd just be able to get back in the rhythm and keep posting the way I'd been posting in 2020 and quickly realized that in 2025, the main thing that I had to shift my focus to was rebuilding trust with my audience, and this has totally redirected my marketing strategy from a place of more value-based content to really connecting and serving my audience and no longer being afraid to show them. Everything that's been going on. I think I had to go into this cocoon and heal for a little bit and then eventually, I felt safe enough to come out and say, hey, like it's time for me to tell my story and in that, it's allowed me to have more freedom and opening up that marketing. So why does this matter for you? Why do I feel like I have to record a podcast on it? Because I talk about this a lot. I talked about it in thrive in 2025. I talked about it in Thrive in 2025. I talk about it in the Pack your Classes Challenge.

Speaker 1:

But your people, who will buy from you, do actually care about you. They want to know the person behind the business, they want to know the CEO behind the brand and I think for a lot of yoga and Pilates business owners, we are really comfortable saying here's our class schedule or here's the time and dates of the retreat, but we're not as comfortable saying like, here's my story, here's why I started this business, here's what I'm doing this business, here's my big mission that I'm up to, partly because we don't want to center around ourselves which is a beautiful thing Like we deeply care about our students, but I think also partly because it's really uncomfortable to show up and be that honest and vulnerable and authentic. But I'm here to tell you. Once you do it. It feels so freeing, just kind of rip that bandaid off and get real with your audience and get them engaged with not just the business, but also you and your mission and what you're up to. And so this is changing how I show up online.

Speaker 1:

I think we're only going to see more and more of this as the industry grows over the next few years, because how else can you really stand out and differentiate yourself and show your people that you're not just wanting them to come in so that you can make a buck, but you're wanting them to come in because they're a part of something so much bigger. So this isn't just for me. This is a shift that I've noticed that most people are moving to that are really trying to focus on storytelling and being authentic and relatable and sharing their challenges a little bit less. Away from like here's how you can modify this pose to here's how I modify this pose so that my X, y and Z back I don't know knee pain doesn't flare up, make it connected and relatable. And one of the things that I have kind of come into as I'm really stepping out and being more seen and being more real with my audience is that it is so uncomfortable, it's so much easier for me to be like here's. I can tell you what to do, step by step, to grow a business, but what I'm really working to do is embrace, being seen, especially after healing and reinvention.

Speaker 1:

And I have started working with a wonderful business coach. Her name is Lacey Seitz and I'll tell you about that in just a second, but she has really influenced my thinking here on how visibility is uncomfortable, but it is the thing that's going to rebuild trust, and that trust is what helps people buy into themselves with you, buy into your mission and buy into your offer. So one thing that I've decided to do is be a guest on Lacey's podcast for six months of coaching, but that coaching is aired to the world, and there were a couple of reasons I wanted to do this. One, I love her coaching style. I think that she's very grounded and lives in the nuance of business, which is all of business. And second, I really wanted to be able to tell my story and be an example of you know, using the tools that I deliver to the world.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I teach my students is always be a product of your product, and this is my way to show like, hey, it doesn't matter what level quote unquote you're at in business, I believe that you should still have a business advisor, a business coach, helping you get to where you want to go. And what other way than to do that, than to air it publicly. So if you're interested in that link to that podcast, you can email support at JackieGMurphycom and we'll get it to you. But I want you to also really take this into account Like, are you showing up and being seen, are you building trust with your people by allowing them to really get to know you, and not just the business and the brand? And you keep to show up in perfectly and you just focus on service over perfection.

Speaker 1:

And I will tell you that I think the hardest part of this is just the vulnerability hangover that happens right after you put up the reel, or right after you record the story, or right after you record the podcast. Like, I will probably feel this after this podcast. Right now, the vulnerability hangover is just this discomfort in your body of was that safe? Am I safe? How will people receive it? What will they think? You know, x, y and Z fill in the blank with whatever flavor of that fear comes into your brain, but that vulnerability hangover it's just there for a few seconds, a few minutes, maybe an hour if it's bad, but that feeling will go and what you've done is really opened up to create something that will be in service of your people. And here's the final thing I want to say I have built a successful business and I think if I kept doing what I've always done and being like, okay, I'll keep just the same level of success.

Speaker 1:

If I just keep repeating, I would actually fall behind, and I really, really talked about this in Thrive in 2025, but innovation is so, so key to business. I think it's very scary to get to a point where you say to yourself and now I know it all and I can do it all by myself. Because if I wasn't constantly innovating, if I wasn't currently tweaking how I show up and what reels I record and how I talk to my audience and what I say and what I tell you guys about what's going on, I can tell you I was starting to see it in my business. I was starting to see it in, specifically, conversions. I usually have a lot of people come to me who really already understand my message, are super bought in and are really ready to go. And I was starting to see a lot more people come to me with hesitation and doubt and being timid simply because they weren't getting enough marketing resources from me to really buy in quite yet.

Speaker 1:

So I started to see this affect the business and I was like, oh, like this needs to shift right now. This thing, we have to innovate what we've already been doing in terms of marketing and we have to figure out how to make it work right now. And so I want you to think about that. Like you're not who you were a year ago, the market is not who they were a year ago. The industry as a whole is not where it was a year ago. Like things are rapidly shifting, changing and growing for the better. So you get to ask yourself this is a really beautiful thing, it's good to change, it's good to rebuild. Is there something that I need to adapt to meet me where I am now, or is there something I need to innovate to continue to grow where I want to go?

Speaker 1:

So I think all of us are always in a stage of reinvention, of figuring out how do we deal with this life thing, with our business, like I was. Or how do we deal with this new baby in our business? I've been there before, or it could be a host of other things. It could be a diagnosis in a business. How do been there before? Or it could be a host of other things. It could be a diagnosis in a business. How do you deal with that? But no matter where you are in terms of your reinvention, in terms of your healing, in terms of innovating, I want you to know that, as long as you can pivot and adapt and be really humble and grounded in learning what you need to learn now in order to create a business that really serves you, that it is possible that you can absolutely build, grow, scale your business where you want it to go, with X, y and Z thing happening in your life, no matter how hard that thing that's happening in your life is, and I want to validate that and I see that and I've been there and I understand it and I also see you and I see what's possible for you.

Speaker 1:

So, if you're going through something that you want to chat about, if you're navigating this kind of phase of reinvention, send me a message on Instagram. I'd love to hear you. It's the business of yoga. I'm here, I get it, I'm doing it with you. If you aren't following me on Instagram, make sure that you are so you can kind of see how I am tweaking my marketing right now. And it's, it's a journey, you guys. One reel I put up has almost 40,000 views and the other one has 800. And that's Instagram right now, because I'm still learning. Okay, what works, what's gonna? You know, people want to share, what are people going to want to save? What are people going to want to save? What are people going to want to engage with? And sometimes I try something and it doesn't work. And then we try again and it does work. And so if you want to be along for that journey, just make sure you're following there. I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Bye, y'all.