The Real Reason You’re Not Selling Enough

In this episode, Jackie Murphy breaks down the most important concept in business growth: the shift from teacher or employee mindset to Studio CEO identity.

If you’ve ever felt scared to sell, hesitant to market your studio, or unsure about investing in your growth, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership in your business.

Jackie explains why resistance is actually a sign that you’re growing, why waiting to feel “ready” keeps you stuck, and why your thoughts and emotions—not your strategies—determine your results.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

✔️ The difference between teacher mindset vs. Studio CEO mindset
✔️ The real reason studio owners struggle with selling
✔️ The leadership shift that changes how you show up in sales and marketing
✔️ Why successful studio owners stay committed even when results fluctuate

Episode Breakdown

[01:30] The real reason studio owners get stuck when trying to grow
[06:45] The difference between the employee mindset and the CEO mindset
[12:30] Why selling feels uncomfortable—and how to fix it
[15:45] The biggest mistake studio owners make when marketing
[20:30] Why waiting for results before committing will keep you stuck
[23:40] Leadership during revenue fluctuations
[29:30] What actually transforms inside the Studio CEO program

Key Takeaways

✔️ Your identity determines your results. Strategy alone will not grow your studio.

✔️ Resistance is a sign of growth. Fear, doubt, and uncertainty mean you’re stepping into something new.

✔️ Selling is leadership. When you believe in your offer, inviting people into it becomes a privilege—not pressure.

✔️ Your energy matters more than your words in sales. People can feel hesitation and uncertainty.

Quotes from the Episode

“Your actions aren’t what create your results—your thoughts, emotions, and identity do.”
“Selling isn’t about convincing people. It’s about inviting them into a transformation.”
“Leadership means showing up even when the results aren’t there yet.”

FAQ

Why do yoga studio owners struggle with selling?

Many studio owners associate selling with being pushy or manipulative. In reality, effective selling is simply inviting people into a transformation that can help them.

How do I get more members in my yoga studio?

Growing your membership requires consistent marketing, confident selling, and strong leadership. Studio owners who show up daily to promote their offers and invite people into their community see the most growth.

How often should studio owners sell their offers?

Studio owners should be inviting people into their offers consistently—often daily—through marketing, social media, email, and in-person conversations.

What is the Studio CEO program?

The Studio CEO Program is Jackie Murphy’s coaching program designed to help yoga and Pilates studio owners grow their revenue, improve marketing, and step into leadership.

How do I know if I’m thinking like an employee instead of a CEO?

If you wait for results before committing, avoid selling because it feels uncomfortable, or look fo

Work with Jackie Murphy

• Say Hi on Instagram @studioceoofficial
• 3 Marketing Mistakes Yoga & Pilates Business Owners Make:
  https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/3-marketing-mistakes
• Join The Studio CEO Program: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/studioceo

Transcript

Urgent Reminder: What Matters Most

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. This is a very special episode, urgent message. We decided to release this podcast a day early because I quite literally cannot wait to remind you that this is the thing that matters most in your business, that this is what will determine all of the results that you have. That we release this episode early so that you can have it in your hands. This episode is inspired by a couple different things. Number one, I am currently enrolling and talking to people who are considering joining the studio CEO program. And in these conversations, I am getting questions that we typically normally don't ever get. There is a something in the air, we'll call it, where this launch seems different and something in our industry has shifted that I want to come back to what matters most. And then number two, this is inspired by my clients for my clients. I have had a couple of conversations with clients recently where they've expressed to me, for whatever reason, at this current point in time in their business, they're feeling a little bit scared of selling. They don't want to be salesy, they don't want to be too pushy. They don't want to have to convince people. And anytime that I'm seeing that come up in someone's business, I know for sure we have to go back to what matters most so they really understand how to sell well in their business. So whether you are a current client watching this or you are about to become a client, you're watching this, or you're a listener of the podcast, I am so happy that you're here today. You're going to want to bookmark this one. And honestly, you could listen to it once a week to get yourself back in the game of what really matters in business. Now, let's just start with the basics. We'll get on the same page and we'll dive into the specifics. Anytime that you desire a new outcome, a new result, a new reality in your life or in your business, something happens consistently. Whether it's you want more members or you want to increase your revenue or you want to hire a profit margin or you want a team who actually sells for you, any of the outcomes that you desire, your primitive brain will go, this part of your brain back here, your amygdala, it will go right to, yeah, but how are we gonna make that happen? What's the action? What's the strategy? What's the actual game plan here that's gonna help us get that result? And anytime that you go to action to create a result, you are quite literally gambling on your future outcome. Because here's what's so important for you to know your actions aren't the thing that create results for you. Instead, your emotions, your thought process, your identity influences every single action that you take, how you take it, what you do, what you say, and that is actually what will determine your results. So when people are coming to me and they're curious about the studio CEO program, they're coming to me from a current old identity. Now, I used to refer to this as the employee identity or the teacher identity, where they haven't learned yet how to think like a leader or how to think like a business owner. That is why I created the studio CEO program so that you can transform to become the studio CEO. When you are coming to me and you have the identity of an employee or the identity of a teacher, there's a couple different things that I see happen. Number one, you're coming to me very aware and very stuck in resistance. Resistance is anything that's preventing you from moving forward, taking action on accomplishing the thing that you want to achieve in your business. So resistance can feel like doubt. It can feel like fear, it can feel like anxiety for that matter, it can feel like confusion, even. Anything that's trying to slow you down or stop you. Now, the employee mindset or the teacher mindset, when they are faced with resistance, what they will do is totally different than what a studio CEO or a leader does. The employee does something where they allow the resistance to feel real enough to block them from taking action and from getting the result that they want in their lives and their business. Now, as a yoga or Pilates teacher, you know that feeling resistance in your muscles, in your body as you're doing an exercise is not a bad thing. It is quite literally how you build strength and get the result that you want from your workout. The same thing is true in business. When you start to experience fear, doubt, frustration, overwhelm, resistance of any kind, I want you to know that that is actually a good sign that you are on your way to that new identity, to that growth, to the getting stronger within your leadership skills, within your skills to lead a business well. So I mentioned we're launching the studio CEO right now and we're getting questions. And the questions that we're getting are super, super technical. How many reels per week do I actually get? And how do you write those reels? Um, we're getting when are the calls and can I make the call times? We're getting really specifically like what are the modules? And the thing I want to say is like, nothing is wrong with asking about the specifics or the details of the program. Of course, we want you to have the information that you need to have in order to make a good decision. However, the most common form of resistance that I see are reasonable questions that you are using to tell yourself this is for me, it isn't for me. Let me give you an example. When I decided that I wanted to transition from being in the studio to having this online coaching business, what I didn't say is, in what time can I make this work? Or um, how easy is this for me in my current schedule? Or can I write social media posts and posts each week without feeling too much stress? I didn't consider any of that. All that I did was I'm going to take my skills because I know they're valuable. My expertise is unique, it is specific, and I have so much knowledge to give this industry. I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna start to deliver it to people. I used to wake up super early. It was always dark outside, and that is when I would write my marketing emails, my marketing posts. I used to take coaching clients between one and three because that's when the studio was dead, there were no classes going on. And then I used to work late at night, like I made it work in my schedule. That is the main difference. The teacher and the employee will have resistance come up and questions and doubts and fear, and they will use that as a reason to be like, now's not the right time, or this doesn't quite work in my schedule, or for whatever reason, this isn't going to be the path of least resistance for me, easy for me to use in my daily life. The leader, the studio CEO who is so committed to their outcome, when resistance comes up, they say, hell yes. That means I'm about to grow. That means we are on the right path. That means we are in the right direction. Nothing is going to get in my way, nothing is going to stop me. I am going to figure out how to get the most of this, how to make this work, how to create the result that I want in my life. And once they're fully committed to I'm in, I want this result, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Once they're fully in, then the logistical questions of like what class do I need to move on my schedule in order to make the coaching call, that just becomes something that you solve versus something that stops you in your tracks. So that's the first thing that we have to talk about. Your identity as a teacher and employee is probably holding you back from saying yes to being willing to do whatever it takes. And the first transformation that you have to experience is going from teacher employee to leader in your business, someone who says, nothing can stop me. I'm willing to do what it takes, I will figure this out. That is why I named this program Studio CEO, because it's not actually about being a studio owner. The Latin word for studio is studium, which means passion, zeal, enthusiasm. And CEO, as you all know, is the leader of a company or business. You don't have to have a brick and mortar studio. But what is possible when you join this program is that you learn how to transform and start to think and become this passionate, enthusiastic leader that goes into resistance, that solves any problem that's in their way, that changes their reality because they are so committed to seeing that happen. This is the thing that matters most. When your identity shifts, when you change how you're thinking on a daily basis, I can and will figure this out. I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I trust myself to figure it out. It changes how you feel. You will have more energy, you will be more enthusiastic, you'll be more passionate about building the business side of things. And that feeling changes what you do and how you do it. It changes how often you show up to sell. It changes how often you market your business. It changes how often you talk to people about what you do. It changes how you solve a problem or you look at a difficult situation in your business. So I want you to really think about where am I making decisions from right now? Am I in the studio CEO identity? Or have I slid back or have I gotten into this identity of the employee where I want someone else to tell me what to do and how to do it so I can get my paycheck? I want you to become this leader that leads their business on their own and solves problems on their own. Let's go through two more ways you can identify what identity you're in and what's creating the results in your business. Now, let's go right into selling because this I think is one of the quickest ways to be like, ooh, I have slid out of studio CEO identity. If you are not showing up to sell your offer, your membership, your teacher training, your online membership, your retreat, your privates, if you are not showing up to invite people to take action and move into your world with you, if you aren't doing that daily, it might be that you are in this employee mindset. When you're in the employee mindset, again, I mentioned this, you are in the place where you're like, I want someone else to tell me what to do, how to do it. And I don't really want it to be that hard because I'm not that invested. I'm just getting a job done. Sales is uncomfortable. Sales can be hard for a lot of us. And there is no like, just show up and say these exact words and the sale will happen. Because all that matters is your energy in the sale and what you're um thinking as you're talking to a person and inviting them in. If you're thinking, I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to convince people, I don't want to seem too overbearing, I don't want to follow up too much. If you're in that energy, you better bet I know you think you can hide it. You better bet it's coming across in that conversation. It comes across when they give you an objection, like, oh, I don't know if I have the time right now, or that looks good, I'll get back to you, or let me check with my husband. And you're like, okay, and you just leave it at that. That is that employee identity. When you step into the studio CEO identity, what happens now is that you go from I don't want to be salesy, I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to be convincy, all the way to it is quite literally my privilege to show up and invite people into a transformation that they already want. You go from selling once a month to every day. You go from selling only when you have a retreat available to always inviting people to the next step with you because you understand that it is quite literally your imperative, your job to get out there and tell people, hey, I have something of value that can transform or change your life in some way. And you are invited, simply invited to say yes or to say no to it. This is not about convincing people to be a yes at all. We're not gonna be unethical, we're not gonna be pushy, we're not gonna be weird. But what we are gonna do is be the leader of our business and be out there on a daily basis, showing up and talking about your offer and inviting people into it and leading your energy. Now that brings me to my third point. But before we go there, I want to tell you a quick story. When I opened Studio Three down here in Charleston, I was leaning into this identity. I was creating a new reality. We had a goal of 350 members before we opened. We opened with a thousand members. Like I was really stepping into my thoughts, my emotions matter. They dictate and drive what I do, what I say, what I don't say, when I say it, how I say it, and that creates the result that I will have in this studio. And so one of the things is I stepped into this identity of like, these people are literally so lucky to hear this offer for membership because it was such a good founding member offer. I was like, this is gonna be amazing. You should absolutely say yes to this. And that is how I talked about it daily, all the time. And for the first time ever in my career of what? I got on stories on Instagram, on the studio's Instagram, and I started selling membership in stories. And I can't tell you how well that worked. Because people got to see my face, my voice, they got to see my passion, my enthusiasm, they got to know me. And at the same time, every single day they were invited to take us up on our offer to become a founding member. Now, if you're like, oh my God, Jackie, I could never show up and sell on stories. That is your sign you are in that employee teacher mindset that fear, resistance, doubt is getting in your way, that you are letting what you think other people may think about you if you do that, determine what results happen in your business. That is literally letting someone else lead you. That is the definition of being an employee. But the the bad news is you're letting your customers lead you. You're letting your sales lead you. You're letting your numbers dictate how you feel. When you are in that place where your results or what people think about you or what people say, when that is dictating how you feel on a daily basis, that means that you are letting other people lead you and lead your business. And it's time for you to step into leadership for yourself where you let yourself lead, where you wake up and you say, you know what? Today I feel so certain that this offer is something that people have to join. It is transformative. I feel so certain that I am the person to deliver this to them. And I feel so certain that they will get the results that they want when they go through this offer. And I'm not gonna let anything change that. I'm not gonna let people's potential thoughts about me change that. I'm not gonna let crickets when I'm marketing change that. And I'm gonna move forward anyway. That is the difference here. Regardless of how people were responding, I was showing up. So I want you to ask yourself when you are going into a period where you're selling something, if you put it out there and you put an email out there or a social media post or you tell people about it and you don't automatically get the results that you want, do you start to make that mean? I guess I didn't want it. I guess it's not the right offer. I guess I need to change the price. I guess I need to just like pull back and stop talking about it because people weren't interested in it. That is the employee mindset. That is letting your results lead your actions, lead how you feel, and lead how you think. The leader, the studio CEO says, wait a second, I'm not getting the result I want here. I'm gonna double down and I'm gonna figure this out. And if I'm not getting the sales that I want to have, well, that means I need to show up more. I need to be more clear, more compelling, more passionate about what I have to offer in order to show people because they're not understanding right now what's available in front of them. Which brings us to our third way that you can kind of know which identity or camp you're living in at this current point in time. I wrote down that the employee is waiting until they feel safe. They are waiting until they see the results to fully commit to creating the thing that they want to have in their life. If you were in the place where you're like, I really am so committed to growing my studio, but I'm just gonna, I really just want 50 more members. I really just want a hundred more members, I really just want 200 more members. And then I will start selling it more. And then I'll start to run ads, or then I'll start to email every single week, or then I'll launch a retreat. If you're in the place where you're waiting for your current results to tell you that it's safe, to give you the belief that you have to have, if you're waiting for your current results to be the reason that you commit to your business, that is the reason why your business isn't working the way you want it to be. Your business requires from you. It requires that you are committed, you are devoted, and you are sure that it's what you want to create. And you cannot wait for your external circumstances or your results to say, okay, now, okay, now you can feel committed. Okay, now you can believe in yourself. Okay, now be devoted. It's kind of like a newborn baby, right? We are pregnant with our third right now. And when that baby comes, if it cries in the night, I'm there. I'm there. I'm there if it's happy, I'm there if it's crying, I'm there if it's sick, I'm there if it's learning to walk. Like I am there no matter what. My devotion is not even up for negotiation. It's already there. Now imagine what kind of parent I would be if I were like, you know what? I just want to wait for this baby to smile at me. And then I'll start showing up for it in the night, a neglectful parent, right? Like I'm laughing because it's so absurd as a mom to even think that. Your devotion comes first. That you say, I want this thing. I want to create this, I want to have this experience in my life and not even just the result. I am committed to the process of who I become when I show up to create this thing in my life. I'm committed to figuring out how to assign more members just for the sake of growth itself. There was a quote. This was in my chiropractor's office. And every time I went to the bathroom, I would read the quote. And it was like, you are either growing or dying, but you cannot do both. And I think it's so true. I don't know who said it. You can message me if you know. Because if you aren't choosing growth in business specifically, if you are like, I'll just maintain or I'm just good for now or uh I'll I'll grow later, you are quite literally going to be losing momentum, losing your runway, and even potentially losing members. We know in a studio, members churn. So if you aren't constantly reaching for growth of membership, eventually your churn will catch up with you and you'll lose more members. And your maintenance that you were doing becomes a whole new low that you don't want to be in. So when you reach for growth for the sake of growth sake, for the sake of, ah, I'm not even committed to the results I create this week, but I am committed to how I show up. I am committed to who I become this week. I'm committed to how I show up every single day. That is when the studio CEO identity is in full swing. When you are there, when you're committed, when you're devoted. Then from there, you choose how you feel on a daily basis. Right? I'm gonna choose love for the newborn. Ahead of anything that the newborn does, I already do, right? Ahead of them doing anything. That feeling is chosen. And from that feeling, I take all of my actions. It creates all of my results. If I'm fully committed to my business, I'm fully devoted, and I'm in it for the process of it, for the love of it, for the practice of who I get to become in this business. I am going to feel so much better on a daily basis. I am going to feel more stable and more secure than if I'm letting my outcomes determine how I feel in my business. I just did a story about this uh today. I don't know if you're watching this live, but there's a story about this. Like February, I looked at my revenue. It was one of our lowest revenue months in business since 2024. So, like way back, we took a drop in revenue. The employee version of me would be like, oh my God, what's happening? Is the world's freaking out? Things have changed. No one wants my offer. And that is all still there. Like I can still all hear that chatter there. It's not like I've, you know, become the only human on the planet who doesn't feel doubt. I can hear it all. It's there, but I don't choose it. Instead, I look at the data, I say, that makes sense. It was first trimester for me. I was super nauseous. What dropped? What are we doing to solve it? What's our plan? What needs to be tweaked? And it feels so steady and stable because I'm not committed to the business if I hit certain revenue. I'm committed to the business. And so the revenue fluctuations are natural. They're a part of business. They happen. There's high months, there's low months. Your job is to be the leader throughout any fluctuation that you have in your business. Which, hey, by the way, for my yogis, is Yoga Sutra 1.1, right? Or 1.3. Cease the fluctuations of your mind. You are becoming the person who is that steady place as you grow your business. But you can't wait for the outcome. You can't wait to feel confident. You can't wait for enough people to buy for you to really believe in your growth. Because I promise you, I've seen it time and time again, that number of enough people to buy, it just keeps changing. I just need 50 members. I just need 100. No, Jackie, it's just 150. No, Jackie, it's just 200. And then all the bar will just continue to move if you don't come from leadership first. Now, to wrap all of this up, I just want to say when you are selecting a new identity, it is not supposed to feel comfortable. We live in a society where it's very comfortable. You can order something and it comes to your doorstep. You can get whatever you want to get. You really don't have to wait. You can talk to AI instantly and have your answer delivered to you. Ease is so available to us. Comfort is so available to us that I think when we experience a little bit of resistance or we experience a little bit of pushback on that discomfort, we're like, something's wrong. This must not be right. But in reality, you experiencing discomfort in your life is the only way that you're going to grow. This is the first day that I am in our brand new office, brand new headquarters for Jackie Murphy coaching. We have moved as a family. And I will tell you that this upgrade to where we were living, this upgrade to our identity, this move was not comfortable, nor was it easy, nor what didn't like, nor is it um, what's the word I'm looking for? It required a lot of work, it required a lot of effort, required a lot of decisions, it requires feeling doubt and uncomfortable and scared. The process of buying a house is not easy. The process of moving with two toddl is not easy. And at the same time, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have moved. It doesn't mean that this upgrade to our lives wasn't meant for us. So if you're thinking about, I want to get to the next level, I want to keep growing, I want to join the studio CEO program, I want to become a leader in my business. And you are met with some discomfort, fear, doubt, anxiety, frustration, worry. It's coming up in the forms of logical questions. When are the calls? Can I make it? The calls rotate, by the way. When are the calls? Can I make it? What are the reels like? That can just be your sign to move with that discomfort to your place of growth, to your new identity. And listen, I am not saying that the studio CEO program is for everyone. I am really not. Because if something like figuring out how to submit for written coaching daily, or something like a call schedule is gonna stop you from showing up in your business, it's probably not the right fit. We are really looking for people who are ready to transform, who are willing to do the uncomfortable, who are willing to figure it out. So it's totally okay to say that's not for me right now. I'm gonna start with listening to the podcast. I'm gonna start with a free offer on my time. And that is valid because what I want for you is to want that upgrade, to want the new identity, to want the growth in your business. And I can't want it for you more than you want it for yourself. And when you really want it for yourself, you are able to move with doubt, fear, uncertainty, any sort of resistance that may come up to a get to the other side of where you want to be, of where you want to go. So to wrap this whole thing up, come back to this week in your business, come back to the energy that I show up in matters. If I am feeling salesy, pushy, convincey, when I show up and invite people to my offer, it's time to shift. It's time to get back into the studio CEO mindset. If I am in the place where I'm waiting for results to determine how I feel, how I show up, what I do, what I think, it's time to get back in the driver's seat and really be the leader of your business instead of being the employee of your business. All right, my friends, you are, of course, invited to join the studio CEO program. There are four weekly trending reels that you can use each week. There are coaching calls that rotate on a calendar because we have clients all over the world. And so we make sure that most people can attend a coaching call, get them on their calendar early. We offer written coaching daily. So if you can't attend a call, you can get written coaching. We make it so easy for you to take the strategies, the how, the action, and put it into place. But most importantly, what really matters in this program is that you become the studio CEO. And I have seen it time and time again where transformation happens. People think they're coming in to get four reels, and they are. And by the end of their year in the studio CEO program, they have been transformed in the way that they think about business, themselves, their clients investing, because that is what this is really about. You can't outstrategy an employee mindset. And when you act as the leader in the business, you can implement any strategy and it can work for you. So I would love to have you join us inside the studio CEO program. If you have questions, send me a message on Instagram at the Studio CEO official. I will respond back to you. And again, I am not afraid to say, hey, this doesn't seem like the right fit right now. I'd start with this, or this program is not for you. I will help you make a decision that serves you, but I am not here to convince you. I'm not here to force you or push you to say yes. I am only here to help you see the leader that you can be and the growth that you can have in your business. So I will talk to y'all in the next episode. Bye, y'all.