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

Why You’re Still Not Hitting $10K Months (And What To Do About It)

• Jackie Murphy

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If $10k months feel like a dream you can’t quite reach, this episode will help you see exactly why.

Spoiler: it’s not that you need to hustle harder, launch a new program, or change everything in your business. It’s that the thoughts running your studio right now are keeping you stuck.

In this honest, no-fluff episode, I’m walking you through the exact beliefs that keep yoga and pilates studio owners under $10k months—and what you need to think, feel, and focus on instead if you want a business that’s consistent, scalable, and actually supports your life.

We’ll talk about:

The “teacher trap” that keeps you busy but broke

Why chasing short-term cash blocks long-term growth

The pricing belief that’s capping your income

How to shift from “just trying to fill classes” to building real revenue

What your business actually needs to hit $10k+ months sustainably

This isn’t just about more money—it’s about more freedom, more clarity, and more peace knowing your studio can support you month after month.

🎟️ Want to go deeper?
Join me for a FREE workshop: Profitable Studio. Thriving CEO.
I’ll teach you the 5 strategic shifts that help you move from scattered teacher to confident CEO.
→ Save your seat here: Profitable Studio. Thriving CEO.

Work with Jackie Murphy

Speaker 1:

Today, we're talking about hitting consistent 10K months and that is possible for you. Not just one month when you sell teacher training, not just from a random bump, a flash sale from your retail or a private client binge. We're talking about creating steady, reoccurring 10K months that sustain your life and your business. Tune into this episode now. 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. Without working more, this is just the beginning. Hello, and welcome back to the Studio CEO Podcast.

Speaker 1:

I am Jackie Murphy and I have the best job in the world. Sometimes I think about what I do now and since it's been five years of this business, I'm just kind of blown away with the fact that this business has this podcast, has reached so many people, but this business has helped so many people. Sometimes I log into our community and I'm just like it's like celebration, celebration, celebration, celebration. I'm taking screenshots and it's just such this feeling of like, oh my gosh, like it is so proven and have worked for so many people at this point that I'm just so grateful that I am able to be a business coach. I want to say thank you and thank you for listening, and I want to also invite you to a new workshop that I am hosting next week. Actually, when this podcast comes out, it'll be tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

Now, we weren't going to do a replay. We've changed our minds when it comes to that, because business is all about pivoting. Yes, so there is a replay available, so you will want to sign up for this free workshop. I haven't done a free workshop in a while and I really look forward to teaching more in depth more in depth than I can on a podcast, definitely more in depth than I can on social media and the workshop is going to be a profitable studio, thriving CEO workshop and we're going to talk about five shifts that you can make in your business and your identity and your everyday so that you can hit those consistent five to 10k months in your business, which is what you want, it's what you tell me, you want all the time and it's what I knew I wanted for so long.

Speaker 1:

I was thinking back to the point, even just in this coaching business, where I was dreaming of making consistent 10K months and how far off and far away it felt and how important it felt and how badly I wanted to get there. And then I remember hitting my first 15k months and being like 15k month, it was just one. And remember being like, oh my god, that was a fluke, I'll never do it again. All the people have dried up and now hindsight is 2020. Being able to look back and say like wow, that was just the beginning and like that is just so much proof that your momentum is going in the right direction. But I know for so many of you, you are exactly where I was and you want to hit 10K months and then consistent 10K months.

Speaker 1:

So I wanted to record a podcast today to kind of let you know about the thoughts that may be keeping you stuck under 10K months and then also tell you that this is exactly what we're talking about in the workshop. So definitely click the link in the show notes and sign up for Profitable Studio Thriving CEO. So one of the first thoughts that can keep you stuck at this is true for any revenue level, but we're going to talk about it in terms of 10K. If you've already at 10K months, sub in 10K for 100K and think about the same thing. But one of the thoughts that can keep you stuck is 10K months sounds nice, but I'm just trying to fill this week's classes. Especially right now in the summertime, it can feel urgent and important to focus on just getting someone into the Friday class. That's not there and when you're thinking this like I'm just trying to fill this week's classes, you're going to probably feel really scattered and you're going to feel really reactive and this will keep you stuck because you'll be stuck in short-term survival mode and not focused on building long-term revenue systems. So let me give you an example of how this shows up in a yoga or Pilates business, especially during the summer, I see this a lot. 10k months sounds nice, but I'm just trying to fill classes this summer.

Speaker 1:

You feel reactive, you feel scattered. You see another studio run a summer three-month membership and you think, oh, that's what I need to do. I need to run a summer three-month membership. So you put together a three-month membership, you get it out there, you sell a couple of them and then you're no longer selling it because the three months of summer have already started and they're underway. And now you're back in the same reactive loop that you were in the first place. And listen, I tell us to clients all the time because everyone asks me about a three month summer membership. Should I, should I not? I see it work beautifully for some studios and for other studios I actually see it take away from their overall membership and not work that well. I think it depends on your location, your target client, your target student. Like it has so many different factors that play into that.

Speaker 1:

So that reactive cycle of like that 10K month sounds nice, but I just need to do something quickly right now to get more cash in the door. It is so hard to break. This will be like quitting caffeine. This will be like stopping eating sugar, like your brain quite literally gets a dopamine hit when you get that cash, and so it can be so tempting to always just prioritize the quick cash in the door instead of a long-term revenue system, which we're going to talk about, and I really want you to think about that. If you're in that loop, in the fall you'll need another quick cash thing, in the winter you'll need another quick cash thing, and it just never, never ends, and you never have time, energy or effort spent on building your long-term revenue system. So that is one thought that can keep you stuck.

Speaker 1:

Another thought that can keep you stuck under 10K is I can only make 10K when I launch something big or run a teacher training. So this thought specifically comes in. If you're thinking like I have a higher ticket offer over $1,000, over $2,000, but I only sell it a couple of times a year, and so I can only hit 10K months a couple of times a year, and when you're thinking this way, you are going to probably feel reliant on those offers and selling them a couple of times a year, which is maybe codependent, but then also really, really insecure, and so if you don't have a way to always be selling a higher ticket offer. That's something that you actually want to figure out so that your income isn't inconsistent and unpredictable. Now, this may mean that, like you don't have to run a teacher training every single month Obviously, that doesn't work logistically, you can't host it that way but you actually can be selling it and making sales every single month.

Speaker 1:

So I did a little bit of math before this podcast, because I was like I want to give them an example of what 10K months could look like. Let's say that your membership and your lower ticket offer is like $135 a month. You want that to make up 60% of your revenue, which means you need 44 members, and for you, 44 members may seem like a lot and may not seem like a lot Everyone's going to be on a different place with that number but I want you to think about knowing exactly how many members you need at your membership price. And then let's say that you have a teacher training that is $3,200 and you need your teacher training revenue, your higher ticket revenue, to make up 40% of your monthly revenue, and so you need to sell 1.25 every single month. That means that even though your training starts in fall, you could absolutely be giving the offer to the person in June who's already asking and they could pay in full and you could have someone else do a payment plan because they're early. It doesn't mean that you always have to be publicly announcing it, but it does mean that you're going to be consistently making the offer, even if quote unquote enrollment isn't open. I don't want you to open, shut it or turn it off and on, because that is exactly when you start to be in this feast or famine in your business and it gets super stressful. The next thought that can keep you stuck under 10K months is I need so many members or clients to hit 10K and again, I just did the math for you it could be 44 people at 135 if you're trying to get 60% of your revenue from membership and that may put you into overwhelm, that may spin you right into doubt, but it doesn't have to. You don't have to effort more in order to get more clients, but you do need to be taught the skill of scaling one offer.

Speaker 1:

Now, this is something that I see almost every single person that I work with struggle with, and I think it is because of this. We are creative beings, like I know. Raise your hand if you've ever said, but I'm just a creative person. My manifestors in human design. I'm a manifester, like I'm supposed to be doing all this different stuff, and that can be true. Like I want to validate that you are creative. You may be a manifester. You are supposed to follow what you're interested in and your business needs to be built and scaled strategically around one offer or a few offers, not just whatever you feel like doing in the moment, and this can be super hard.

Speaker 1:

But what I tell people is like you don't have to lose your creativity. You don't have to tell yourself that you can't be creative quote unquote but what you do want to do is funnel that creativity in the most effective way. So, rather than spending all your time thinking about, well, I could do this offer this month, or this offer this month, or now I want to do this offer, instead, your business wants you to scale one offer really well, so it's efficient, so it saves you time and your creativity can be poured into what kind of reel you want to make or how you want to market it or what's a new campaign. You can run for it, but it doesn't have to be in building the new offer every single month. So that's another thought that can keep you stuck. I see that a lot.

Speaker 1:

Another thought that I wrote down that can keep you stuck is people in my area can't afford premium pricing. And now I don't know where you live. Obviously, this is a podcast. You may be in the middle of the country, you may be in New York City, you may be in Miami right now popping off, but wherever you are, people can pay for wellness. Wherever you are Now. Are people in rural Idaho going to pay the same as someone in New York City? Probably not. That's reality. That's okay. One thing that I love to do is look at the price of a Starbucks drink in New York versus rural Idaho, and Starbucks will change their pricing based on the location, and that's due to expenses and what they have to pay their employees and all these different factors. But it gives you a way to compare. Huh, if going memberships right now in New York are $200 or $300, what is the equivalent of that for my area and can I make it match my current demographic, which the average household income is, so I can know that they can pay for wellness?

Speaker 1:

This doesn't mean that you need to stay in low ticket pricing. I think the draw of low ticket pricing can be tempting because you're thinking that if it's just not expensive and cheaper, that people will automatically say yes to it. And a lot of times, the people who have the low ticket offer don't actually see the value of what it is that you're offering. And so when you stay in low ticket pricing, you're trying to make it accessible to everyone. Serve everyone pricing you're trying to make it accessible to everyone, serve everyone, teach everyone. It's going to keep your margins and your business so tight and your energy so drained, because you're not going to be giving yourself enough profit and enough money to pay yourself and not feel stress month after month after month. So, really, your pricing strategy listen to me when I say this it has to come from data, and the data is not what other people charge around you. Right, do not look at other studios around you and be like, well, they charge this, I'm going to charge this because most likely they could also benefit from this podcast and they, unless they've worked with someone specifically to help set their pricing, I would not trust. And how could you know if they've done that or not?

Speaker 1:

My one more thought on pricing before I go on this pops in my head. The other thing about pricing is it's a test, it's a game, and so you can set the price that is going to help your business grow, help you have profit and you think your area is aligned with. And then you go out and test it and your people will give you feedback and you'll learn how to sell it better. And then you'll know but really you will get paid what you tell people to pay you, and that is such a hard lesson to learn. But if you tell people to pay you 50 bucks for a private, they will. If you tell people that your privates are 200 bucks, they will pay you. Trust me, I've seen it time and time again.

Speaker 1:

Okay, next thought is I'm just a teacher and I don't know how to run a business like this. Hello, my friends, if there's one that's most important, it is this thought I am just a dot, dot, dot dot. It doesn't even have to be just a teacher Like I'm just trying to serve people, I'm just trying to make an impact, I'm just trying to give back. I don't know how to run a business like that, and this thought alone will keep you small. And if you tell me that impact is your goal and that serving students is your goal, I'm going to tell you that you should be bolder about learning the business skills that you need to attract more people for the impact if that is why you're doing it Because when you have those business skills, more people are reached, more people get better results and you get to create a community that thrives for the long run but if you're telling yourself, oh, I'm just doing this on the side, I'm just doing it for the impact, blah, blah, blah, blah, you are going to avoid planning, you're going to avoid selling because it can be uncomfortable for our brains, you're going to avoid showing up like a leader and you're going to stay stuck and like well, this is just kind of, I'm just going to do it and see what happens and I'll just be teaching.

Speaker 1:

If people like it, they'll come. If they want it, they'll buy, and you'll kind of be this like at at cause, like you'll not at cause, cause and effect. What am I trying to say? You'll just be at the effect of natural, unintentional action, instead of saying like this is my intentional goal, this is the intentional strategy and skills that I'm going to learn in order to hit that goal, and this is why I'm intentionally doing this, and when you can get intentional about your business, you can shift everything.

Speaker 1:

So the workshop that I'm leading tomorrow if you're listening to this podcast live is specifically diving into this the five shifts that you have to make to really understand how to quote unquote run a business so that consistent 10K months are not only possible for you, but it's just such a no brainer that you don't even think about it anymore. What I can tell you is that 10K months come from strategy and structure, not just you trying stuff. They come from one well built offer that can scale. They come from you understanding your business model and then optimizing it. 10k months comes from your pricing reflecting the value and the transformation you offer, not just the hour that you've taught for. And, most importantly, they come from thinking like a CEO and unlocking skills that create consistent income. And it's okay if you don't have those skill sets. I don't think most of us go into this industry with that skill set, but it's something you learn as you go throughout.

Speaker 1:

I was thinking about this so much because I recently saw a post from this woman who is opening her third Pilates studio or something, and she was like here's my opening strategy. And I was like, yeah, that opening strategy is solid, I actually agree with this post, a lot of this I really really like. That opening strategy is solid. I actually agree with this post, a lot of this I really really like. However, from my personal experience, I have used the exact same strategy, one without the identity of a CEO and a businesswoman, and then again exact same strategy with the identity intentionally that I'm a good businesswoman, I know how to sell, I am a CEO, intentionally that I'm a good businesswoman, I know how to sell, I am a CEO. And I got two very, very different results. So I say that to tell you this last thing, like thinking like that CEO. That's why I've built this entire workshop, because it quite literally could be the difference between a strategy working and not working. And I don't want you to walk away being like, oh well, I did the strategy that they said would work and it didn't work for me. That must mean this isn't for me, it's not the right town, I can't do this. That is not true. It probably just means that there's some gaps in your identity, some shifts that we have to make so that the strategy that has been proven and tested also works for you. And not every strategy is cookie cutter right. There might also be some strategy tweaks you need to make, but those are small. That pales in comparison to you having the right identity and then moving from that identity. So that's what we're covering in the workshop.

Speaker 1:

Again, click the link in the show notes to join us for Profitable Studio Thriving CEO. There will be a bonus. If you attend live. I'm giving you a 30-day content calendar. If you don't know this already, I create four reels a week for my clients inside of my Studio CEO program and they can just use the audio, the hook, the caption and put their reels out into the world. So it makes social media very easy and done by someone who knows how to use social media to convert people, not necessarily to become an influencer.

Speaker 1:

Let me say that Now that is what I'm using to build this content calendar. So if you do have the time and space the workshop is Wednesday at 2 pm on June 18th and if you come live, you do get that content calendar given to you for free. So I will see you all there and if you've listened to this podcast once you're at the workshop, let me know. Say I came from the podcast. I love to know how you all find me and your journey to working with me. I will see you inside of Profitable Studio Thriving CEO and talk to you all in the next episode.