This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome friends, listeners, community. Welcome to a new week. This is "Sidus Will School." I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. Excited to bring you a whole new batch of stories of people creating freedom for themselves, celebrating the achievement of self-reliance. Whether you ultimately want to work for yourself full-time or not, being self-reliant or having the ability to be self-reliant is tremendously valuable.
Now, over here, I am recovering from our, our WDS team did our tough mutter yesterday, first time I've ever done that. And presumably since I'm here and hopefully on social media, that means I survived, I guess. We'll look and you can see more stories there on my Instagram if you care. And if you don't, that's okay because you're here to hear some stories. So what if you are a yoga teacher who wants to travel and create passive income?
Not be tied to teaching in-person classes all the time. Is such a thing possible? Isn't the whole point that yoga has to be taught in-person? Well, the copywriter I'll tell you about in today's feature develops online yoga courses, specifically for people with chronic illnesses. So a really clear target market, something that makes a big difference in people's lives while also creating some of that freedom, independence, and self-reliance for her.
So lots of good stuff here also includes a lesson in copywriting with empathy. So stay tuned for a mobile friendly yoga biz right after this shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
At age 12, Kayla Curran was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. She got passed around from doctor to doctor, but no one knew how to help. As she grew up, she had dreams of traveling the world and starting her own business, but her illness was getting in the way.
At her lowest point, Kayla didn't think she'd be able to graduate university or hold a normal job. World travel seemed impossible, but in the past seven years, she's done all of those things and more. She's traveled to over 40 countries, completed three triathlons, and started two businesses. The two most important things that helped her get to that point were yoga and meditation. Kayla found yoga sequences to be challenging without setting her back like other forms of exercise did.
When she tried searching out yoga and mindfulness courses, specifically geared toward those living with illness, there wasn't much out there. So that's when she decided to become a yoga teacher herself. After completing the training, Kayla taught in-person yoga courses, at least at first. Knowing that yoga could be a key tool in managing a chronic illness, she wanted to share resources for people to be able to practice in a therapeutic way. She began catering her classes for people with chronic illness.
The challenge was that her students, who struggled with fatigue and other health setbacks, often missed class due to these very health issues. So she also began sharing some initial resources online. After her first year teaching yoga on the side, Kayla transitioned her full-time job to become location independent. She started working as a copywriter, which also began as a side hustle, by the way, we'll save that story for another time, and she was able to take her work on the road. The passion for teaching yoga came along with her as well.
She moved her courses and workshops online, allowing her to reach more people no matter where in the world they might be. So how does this work? Well, her website, erogayoga.com, that's just fun to say, erogayoga, just practice it, erogayoga, this website became her hub. First, Kayla developed a signature six-week online course called Chronically Kind Yoga. It includes weekly video classes, daily emails, and assignments that dive deeper into managing chronic illness and improving your health.
Apart from the live support calls she hosts periodically for her students, the rest of the course is prerecorded and automated, so it can run while she travels. She typically opens Chronically Kind Yoga once a year, charging $150 per person. Eventually, she also wrote a book and launched that alongside a mini course of 10-minute classes for 10 days. That website, once again erogayoga.com, and social media are the main ways she attracts students. She provides free video classes as an opt-in on her site.
In other words, if someone wants to access the free video, they must enter their email address. Then Kayla promotes her paid courses to that list of subscribers. She runs paid Facebook ads promoting the free videos in order to grow her audience. She found that this was more effective than Facebook ads directly promoting her paid courses. This is probably because she builds trust with new students through the free offerings, so they're more likely to make a purchase than if they didn't know her at all.
The books are sold through online retailers like Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble. Most of the sales come through Amazon, and she does a bit of advertising there as well. This gets her resources out to a wider audience with minimal effort on her part. While exploring the world as a digital nomad, Kayla continues to teach private classes on a weekly basis, as well as leading workshops a few times a year. Another bonus of taking this business on the road is that Kayla can film her course videos against new backdrops around the world.
In a typical week, she dedicates three to seven hours on a roga yoga. This includes writing, planning, or scheduling blog posts, scheduling social media content, working on a product, like her next book or course, filming a new yoga video for YouTube, and teaching classes. The month leading up to a course launch requires closer to 10 hours per week, as she ramps up with extra posts and emails. So what kind of challenges has she run into? Well, in addition to her own chronic illness, traveling presents some obstacles as well.
Most notably, a freak snowstorm in Greece knocked out the wifi the night before Kayla launched her first online course. But she persisted and the reward has outweighed the obstacles. Positive feedback from her students is its own reward, but the business also helps keep Kayla accountable to her own fitness goals. And she's happy to have an extra cushion of roughly $10,000 a year on top of her primary income. Her goal is to keep producing more books, blog posts, and many courses.
In other words, she'll continue to keep it flexible. [Music]
All right, for anybody out there who is interested in learning more about copywriting, I don't have a course to sell. I'm just gonna give you a couple of tips here. Actually, one tip is just to go and look at her website, because she's done a really good job here writing empathetic copy. Now, what do I mean by empathetic copy?
I'm just gonna give you a couple of lines here. You can go and see it for yourself if you wanna read more. It's no surprise she's a copywriter herself. So right on the homepage, main benefit, main headline, you can feel better with yoga. Now, remember who she's trying to reach, okay?
She's trying to reach people who have chronic illness, all right? And it goes on from there and says, I know because I've been there. What if I never get better? What if my friends and family can't or won't support me anymore? How will I deal with the physical pain, the loneliness?
What do I do if no one believes me? Everyone seems to think it's my fault I'm ill or it's all in my head. So right from the beginning, she is identifying with her target market. She's identifying with her ideal customer, somebody who's in that situation. They have all those fears.
They have those thoughts all the time. And then she goes on to say, are these thoughts familiar? They are to me because they used to plague me every day. Having a chronic illness is really incredibly hard. The emotional turmoil that comes along with it can make life almost unbearable.
And that's where yoga comes in. I found hope in my future by learning to live in the present. And by creating the right environment for growth, I watched my body slowly begin to heal. I just thought that was all really well done. I thought like if I'm that person in that situation, I'm like, oh my gosh, you are my person.
How do I sign up? What's this all about? Because you understand me. And it also carries over to the about page, which I often mention is the second most important page on your website after the homepage. And right at the top of the about page, it's like I work with people who are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.
Great line, like you immediately understand what it's all about. And she goes on, I know what it's like to spend all day in bed, barely able to get up to go to the bathroom. I know what it's like to have your friends, family, and even doctors have no idea what you're going through, et cetera, et cetera. It goes on for a couple more lines and then says, I know what it's like to be together with your illness for the long haul, but that doesn't mean you can't live a full and meaningful life. So this is empathetic copy because she is saying, I understand you, you know, you, my ideal customer, I understand what you're going through and I understand the problem.
I clearly understand what's wrong. And then also I'm going to present you with a solution. I'm going to present you with hope. Now, no matter what you're going through in this situation, this symptom, this symptom, this emotional challenge on top of the physical one, but that doesn't mean you can't live a full and meaningful life. I think this kind of approach is really important.
And for something like, you know, yoga for chronic illness, I mean, it's very overt and deliberate, but I think this kind of style or this just kind of perspective can be applied to lots of different stuff. So I could go on and on, but I won't. I'm going to leave you with that today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you want to find the show notes for today's episode, including links to, what is it again?
A Roga Yoga. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/828. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world. I'll be back again tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
