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

How to Sell Your Studio Offers Using Instagram Stories — Without Feeling Salesy

• Jackie Murphy

Share episode

Send Jackie A Message!

 In this episode of Studio CEO, Jackie Murphy dives deep into how to transform your Instagram Stories from passive content into a powerful sales tool for your dance or creative studio.

So many studio owners are stuck reposting reels, resharing student tags, or sharing their class schedule — thinking that’s enough to fill their programs. But that’s just visibility, not conversion.

Jackie breaks down:

  • Why Stories are your warmest, most trust-filled audience
  • The biggest mistakes studio owners make when using Stories
  • The mindset shifts you need to sell confidently
  • A repeatable framework — Hook, Educate, CTA — you can apply today
  • Real client stories showing how intentional Stories actually boosted sign-ups

If you’ve ever felt awkward selling on Stories, or worried about being “too sales-y,” this episode will show you how to sell with clarity, confidence, and authenticity — without feeling pushy.

Tune in now to learn how to make Instagram Stories one of the most valuable selling tools in your studio marketing strategy.

Plus, hear Jackie’s best consistency tips to keep Stories working for you all year long.

Work with Jackie Murphy

Speaker 1:

Most yoga and Pilates business owners are using Instagram stories to only stay visible, but they don't realize that they could be using them to actually sell. So today, I'm going to show you how to shift from passive reposting in your stories to strategically selling so that you can fill your classes and sell out your offers. 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 today we're going to dig into something that is sitting right in front of you on your phone, probably being underused in your business every single day Instagram stories. This came up last week with one of my clients who asked me should I reshare my teacher's post about her classes on the studio's Instagram stories. So that's what we're diving into. But before we get into the meat of the episode, I want to take a moment to make sure that you know you are invited to our upcoming free workshop three marketing mistakes that yoga and Pilates studio owners make. In this workshop, I will be covering insider secrets on how to fix the most important skill marketing that you can have in your business so that you can scale to 10K, 20k, 50k months and put those months on repeat. It's happening live, july 17th at 12 o'clock PM, eastern Standard Time. When you attend live, my friends, I'm going to give away a 30-day content calendar guide. You're going to get the same weekly framework that I teach my private clients, breaking down exactly what to post and when to post it, so that you're not just creating content but you're strategically creating momentum that fills your classes and grow your revenue. This is not something I ever give away, so you can't get it anywhere else. But if you show up live, you're going to get the entire guide for free as a thank you for investing your time in the workshop and taking the first step to market your studio with real strategy. So you can head to the link in the show notes to sign up for the workshop. You have to be registered. There will be a recording if you can't be there live, but I would love to see all of you on July 17th, 12 o'clock PM Eastern for the three marketing mistakes workshop.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's go back to the coaching call I had last week with my grow mastermind clients. One of my clients raised her hand and she said Jackie, I have a teacher who consistently shares her teaching schedule tags us. Should I reshare it? Now? This teacher teaches about like three classes a week. The studio has over 50 classes a week and it actually created a little bit of confusion when she did reshare it. Some people were like wait, are there only three classes this week? So this was such a perfect question because she was really asking is resharing other people's content, even my teacher's content, enough to market my studio? And the answer is it's a start, but it is nowhere near enough if you actually want to sell your memberships, your retreat, your programs, grow your student base and fill your classes.

Speaker 1:

So today I'm going to break down exactly why stories are one of the most powerful, overlooked sales tools that you have, how most business owners misuse them, and how to shift from passively reposting to intentionally selling without feeling pushy, spammy or inauthentic. So if you have ever felt unsure about how to use stories to promote your offer, then this episode is going to be for you. So let's talk about first how you might be using stories. Right now, I see this over and over again. When I log into Instagram, you might be using Instagram stories and at a moment of I should have a story today I should post. You repost your reel to your story. You repost your carousel post to your story. You repost any feed post to your story. You maybe reshare a student that's tagged you in a post. You might post your class schedule or your teacher's schedule. Or maybe you're just doing a quick boomerang of your studio and you kind of like check the box and think, okay, great, I did stories. Today, I am done.

Speaker 1:

And when you do this, here's what's actually happening you are keeping your audience aware of you. You are maintaining visibility. However, you are not giving them a clear reason to move, to move their feet into class or to move their feet into your membership. Essentially, you're not giving them a clear reason to buy. And if you do that, day after day after day, you're teaching your audience to watch what's going on but not act on what you're offering. And that is a huge missed opportunity, because consistency without intention can just turn into busyness. So let's talk about why this exists. Let's get into why this happens.

Speaker 1:

A lot of us, especially as business owners and teachers, we were never taught to sell. We were taught how to serve, how to teach and how to create or hold space for a community. And we think if we keep showing up, keep posting, people will quote, unquote, figure it out, they will love the behind the scenes thing that you just posted, click the link and they'll DM. They will be like oh, the teacher posted their schedule, I'll go to that class and they'll book your new student offer. But what actually happens is that they see you, they admire you, they maybe feel inspired, but they scroll right past. They admire you, they maybe feel inspired, but they scroll right past, and a lot of the times, it's simply because you haven't told them exactly what to do next. And usually we don't tell them because we feel some kind of fear, doubt, confusion, anxiety. We are scared to feel salesy or scared to look desperate or scared to just repeat yourself and say the same thing again and again and again. But if you believe in your program, if you believe in your classes, if you believe that you're genuinely helping your students grow, then why would you not talk about that confidently? And that mindset shift can change everything.

Speaker 1:

This happened to me. I remember it so clearly. This was between Studio 2 that I helped open and Studio 3. And we had eight months of pre-opening for Studio 3, which I'm happy to go more in depth in an episode if you'd love to hear what we did for the eight months of our opening strategy. But we had eight months of pre-opening and it got down towards the last few months and we were selling our founding membership and things were kind of picking up in terms of all right, the studio is about to open and for the first time ever in like the decade that I had been in the industry, I got on Instagram stories and I actually did a walkthrough of the space in construction.

Speaker 1:

I got in trouble by the construction company. They were like, hey, don't do that. But I did a walkthrough of the space and I talked to the camera the whole time and I made an offer for them to join membership. And I started to do this again and again, and again and again. And then I remember opening weekend like I had been at the studio all day, I taught class, I was with my teachers, I was with my team, and then I got home and we had people covering other sales channels but we hadn't covered the DMs because it was a new thing, but because I kept showing up on stories and making the offer and stories.

Speaker 1:

We were selling membership in the DMs. And it was so simple. I was sitting on my couch overlooking the Ashley River down in Charleston and I was just having DM conversations with people that had come from the stories and were wanting to buy membership. So I want to tell you that because, one, I used to be terrified of showing my face on stories. Two, I would have thrown up if you had said sell membership on stories. And three, I was able to do what felt uncomfortable because of coaching and I saw the result from it. Ie story led to sales conversation in the DMs, and so my stories led to more members and it was just one part of our sales funnel. Right, there were many different ways that they could have bought in studio, via an ad, from Instagram stories, from the website, but that is how you build a really strong sales funnel when you add in selling and stories, when you have maybe an ad running, when you have SEO on your website for people to buy that way, when you have all of these elements put together, that is how we added up to over a thousand members opening weekend. Okay, so let's get really clear about why stories worked for me and can also work for you, why they are so powerful.

Speaker 1:

Number one your story audience is warm. The algorithm shows your story to people who have already interacted or engaged with you in some way, and you're also engaging with them, so it's literally a reflection of who you are in community with on Instagram. So if your story is showing up for people, these are your people who care about what you're posting, who are visiting your profile, seeing what you're putting out there, who want to be in community with you online. These people already trust you, they already follow you and they want to see what you're up to. Second stories get daily eyeballs If you are showing up right at the top of their story feed right Every single day. It is easier to be in that position than to get your feed post up on their feed and hope they scroll long enough to see it. Your main goal of building a yoga or Pilates business is to be an everyday interaction with your students, meaning that I think one of the best places that you can open a brick and mortar studio is literally next to the grocery store that your students go to, so that when they go to the grocery store some people go every day they're seeing the studio and you're part of their daily habit. Now you also want to be a part of their daily habit online, meaning that your presence is felt the moment that they open Instagram and they see that you have a story up.

Speaker 1:

Number three stories feel personal. They feel human. If you have listened to any of my talks, workshops this year about marketing in 2025. If you were there for Thrive in 2025, you know that authenticity being really human, being really personal is literally a non-negotiable community non-negotiable this year and so stories are such an easy way for your people to feel that level of connection and trust that maybe a static or feed post or a reel can't match at all. People buy from people they trust, and that's just happening more and more and more People buy from businesses that they trust. Stories build that trust faster than anything else on Instagram if you use them intentionally and consistently. Okay, so let's talk about three mistakes you're going to avoid when it comes to your stories.

Speaker 1:

Now, number one only resharing. I'm not saying that resharing is wrong, but only resharing other people's posts is not going to be enough. Resharing the post that show people are buying, people are coming to class, your teachers love teaching there. That is resharing strategically for social proof, and the more that you can show people that people are buying, the more people are going to buy. Okay, run that back if you need to catch it again. But you can use the resharing element to show social proof, but that is a passive element and it can't be the only thing that you're doing, because in that strategy, you are literally letting someone else tell the story.

Speaker 1:

You aren't owning the brand narrative and what do you want to feel like? You aren't owning the invitation and what do you want it to feel like? You aren't owning the invitation. This is example of the teacher sharing their classes. Right, if you are using your Instagram to invite people to only a specific teacher's three classes and you have 50 classes on the schedule, that's probably not the invitation that you would make as the owner of the business. It is the invitation that the teacher would make and that's okay for the teacher to put it on their social media. But, as the business, what is the invitation that you want to be making that week? Is it an invitation to your new student offer? Maybe you're running a promo? Maybe you have something special going on? You get to make that call of what the invitation is and when you reshare, essentially you delegate that to whatever the other person has decided the invitation or the call to action should be.

Speaker 1:

Mistake number two is never talking to the camera, and I get it y'all. It can be a let's call it a habit that you need to build. Let's call it a skill that you can build. It can feel strange and weird at first, or for months or for many years, to talk to your camera, but when you bring your face and your voice to your camera, it is so much easier to build trust with the people who are watching and what I want to tell you have you? You probably have seen this hook Like here's what I would tell you if I wasn't worried about hurting your feelings. What I want to tell you is that you are the face of your business, you are the face of your studio and your energy is your biggest asset. Don't hide behind Canva graphics when you have this huge asset that you could be leaning into to create the revenue, the profit, the team that you want to have. Now. This doesn't mean that you always have to be the face of your business, but I do stand by that. You need to have some sort of clear brand face leader that your people, when they see that person, can think of your business.

Speaker 1:

Mistake number three is zero call to action, zero CTA. No. Clear next step no, like here's the link to get your new student trial. There's no send me a DM. When you don't tell people explicitly what to do, they won't. Now you know this when you teach class, because you have to be so crystal clear with your cues, right, you have to be so streamlined and focused that you say the words that are going to literally move people from one exercise to another or from one pose to another. You have to explicitly tell them what to do. I want you to use cuing that same mindset in your marketing that you're explicitly telling them. Okay, right after you read this post, use your thumb, press that call to action link and book your new student offer. Or you could be more clear than that. Whatever you want to do, but you have to have a call to action.

Speaker 1:

Mistake number four is that you're inconsistently selling on stories. Maybe you get brave enough one day to do stories and you talk about your membership, and then you go silent for a week, and I am so guilty of this. So none of this comes from judgment, but I want you to know that inconsistency breaks trust and breaks momentum. People need reminders, repetition and consistency to take action. So let's talk about why this is hard, because you maybe have told yourself at some point if they'd want it, they'd reach out. I don't want to annoy people on my stories. People will get tired of me talking about my classes, my membership, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

I hear this all of the time, but the truth is, your clients are busy and if they're anything like me, they're scrolling while they are blow drying their hair. That was me this like me, they're scrolling while they are blow drying their hair that was me this morning or they're scrolling while they're making dinner, answering a text, walking their dog. They are not sitting there focused and aware and connecting every single dot that you think is obvious. They need you to guide them. They need you to tell them clearly, confidently and repeatedly what to do next. That's not being salesy, that is leading. So if you believe your offer is valuable, you have a responsibility to talk about it, not just once, but every single day, until it lands for them. So let's talk a little bit about what to do next.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you a framework that you can think of when it comes to stories. You can use this today. You can write it down if you need to. This framework is going to be the action, the strategy that you're going to take. Number one you have to still use a hook when it comes to your stories, because, if you're anything like me, I can click through stories watching, watching, watching, watching and I'm literally looking for what seems most interesting to stop on, and so you have to have a hook in your stories to stop them in their tracks and get their attention. You can do this with a question, a statistic, a pain point. You could do this with a poll, you could do this with a Q&A box. You have to stop them somehow in their tracks. So step one is a hook.

Speaker 1:

Step two is to educate. And I don't mean teach them something. What I do mean is explain to them what the problem is that they don't have awareness of what does that problem do in their life. Why does it matter? What transformation is possible for them? So you're not going to go into like teaching them how to modify plank pose, but what you are going to go into is why is it a problem that they don't know how to modify plank pose? What is potentially going to be created from that? Why does it matter for them? How do they know if they have that problem? How do they know if they need this? You're going to educate them and give them value that way. And then step three is to give a call to action.

Speaker 1:

If you use mini chat, which is the software that many people use, to say reply with this code word, dm with this code word, and then you can send them information from there, then the CTA might be reply with this or this emoji or whatever you want it to be. If you're not using a software like that, you can say, just put the link and say, click the link below and send them where you want to send them. But you're always thinking what is my CTA, what is the main focus of my business right now? And it won't always be the same. Sometimes your CTA will be your new student special and sometimes your CTA will be your membership, and it's okay that it doesn't have to be both at the same time and you can, you can switch right. Maybe sometimes you have a retreat or a teacher training or something else that you're selling and you're just clear that right now, for the next week, for the next two weeks, for the next month, this is the call to action. This is what the, what our business wants people to do. This is the action that we want people to take.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's go back to my client who asked about resharing her teacher's post, and instead of reposting, here is what I would encourage her to do. I would encourage her to think of a hook that stops people. That relates to do. They have their classes booked for the week, and so this could be a Q&A box what class are you taking this week? Or it could be a poll have you booked your class yet this week? Or she has new classes coming on her schedule. So it could be like have you tried out one of our new class formats and she could list the class formats? So we're stopping people with that, okay.

Speaker 1:

So step two I'm going to have her educate her students, and we've just posted a slide about them booking their classes out for the week or if they have their class book, and so in this next part of the story, I would encourage her to expand on why it's a problem to not go ahead and schedule your classes, to not have your classes booked out. And specifically, she could speak to when you leave it up to the last minute. You are leaving it up to how you feel in the moment, to whether or not you decide to come to class. You decide to work out and chances are, in the moment you're not going to feel like it. What I want you to do instead is plan ahead of time how you want to feel at the end of the week and schedule your classes to make it easier for yourself to become that person by the end of the week, the version of you that takes three classes this week is very different than the version of you who skipped two classes because they were tired and only rolled in once over the weekend, right.

Speaker 1:

So I'm painting the vision and I could expand this even more about the problem, quote, unquote of not having my classes scheduled, and then on the next slide, it would be a call to action to the booking link, to book classes. That is how people who are watching are going to go from. I'm mindlessly scrolling Instagram to oh yeah, she's right, I do want to book my classes. I do want to feel better by the end of the week. I need to go ahead and book right now. So it's the same exact thing. We're sharing the class schedule, we're trying to get people to book classes, but it's done in a much more strategic way that it's actually going to motivate people to move into class, to buy a class, to book a class.

Speaker 1:

If you are feeling resistance around this, let me remind you that, number one you are not only allowed to sell, but it is in service of your students to sell, because it will help them get the result that they are already interested in. You are allowed to repeat yourself, and not only are you allowed but it is good for you to repeat yourself. Your people need to hear your offer 17 times before they're likely to buy. You are allowed to talk about your offer multiple times a week and in reality, that's going to help someone who is on the fence decide that you are safe enough, consistent enough, trustworthy enough to say yes to.

Speaker 1:

This is not desperation, this is leadership. You don't have to be perfect in stories, but stories are the perfect place to build trust and invite your people into action. So here's what I want you to do this week I want you to go to your stories and, instead of just reposting, use the hook, educate and CTA framework. Show up as the marketer of your business and not just a passive content sharer, and I promise you this one little element of your marketing will start to show up and you'll see a difference. All right, my friends, now it is time for you to take what you've just heard and implement it, because we know that when you take action, that's when you build confidence, that's when you create new neural pathways in your brain, and that is when the skill starts to become so ingrained that you can't help but build a no-transcript.