7 Ways to Fill Your Yoga Retreat

I've seen it far too many times, I've done it a few times myself, getting enough people to sign up for a retreat isn't as easy as it seems. We have this dream to lead a yoga retreat and end up with only a couple people who submit a deposit. So many of our lovely students, friends and family express interest and have intentions of going but that's not enough to make this dream a reality.

Here are my top 7 suggestions to help build interest and increase guest registration:

1. Talk about it all the time

Make it known that you offering this amazing trip by mentioning in all your classes, people you meet, connecting with old friends, new friends etc. Be descriptive, be excited! Make sure to mention any discounts such as early bird pricing as well as the end date to that promo. The majority of people that will sign up will be people that know you and want to travel with you, focus on these personal connections.

2. Send out a monthly newsletter

Begin by collecting names/emails of all students that attend your classes, friends, family etc and send them an invitation to receive these newsletters. MailChimp is a great program that has easy-to-use templates and offer a variety of very clean and professional emails. 

3. Make it known your legit

Sign up with Mindful Balance Retreats and have a professional plan your trip for you, allowing them to handle all the logistics, financial transactions, legal documents, AND provide your own website where your guests can find all information about the retreat. Not to mention, make a profit! 

4. Create promotional material

Having some sort of flyer to hand out with the website address and a great photo is a nice reminder to embrace this amazing opportunity. Inexpensive printed options can be found on Vistaprint or choose a digital version and use an app such as WordSwag to post on Social Media and send as a text. 

5. Internet Marketing

Post a couple times a week with a captivating photo of the retreat, including the website link, tag friends and anyone that’s coming or has expressed interest (ask friends if they can share it on their page too). Boosting your post will get you more exposure outside your circle. If you have a website consider using google ad words to direct more traffic to your site. You can also create an event on Facebook, invite everyone and anyone, you never know who will say yes or tell someone else about it. At the very least it's a friendly reminder. 

7. Write as a guest blogger on Mindful Balance Retreats website or other relevant sites

Opportunities are endless here but a few ideas are: share the type of experience one would have on your retreat, a sample day, yoga practice or any other specific happenings that you will offer. Providing pictures, links to sign up and easy ways to direct them back to your site.

4 Reasons to Manifest Going on a Yoga Retreat

 

1. Travel nourishes the soul: I’ve never felt so inspired and alive as I have traveling around the world. Whether it’s Europe, Japan, Costa Rica or Australia, seeing how others live and taking in completely new environments has a way exciting my spirit. If you like to travel and are interested in yoga, why NOT bridge the two? Nourish your body/mind with a daily yoga practice and explore a new city to enliven your soul. 

2. Set the studio aside: I love the safety of a homey studio as much as the next yogi, but there’s something really special about practicing in a place that is unfamiliar and exotic. When embarking on a yoga retreat, we get gently nudged outside of our comfort zone as we take our practice somewhere foreign and seek a way to wholeheartedly embrace the unknown.

3. Meditation might happen: Retreats have a way of permitting meditation to become a whole lot more accessible, even easier. While detoxing digitally and briefly putting the “real” world on pause, we can drop in to a deeper state of awareness. One that is unaltered by stress, screens, or the ever-flowing stream of messages into your work inbox. 

4. Intimacy is awesome: Not only do you receive more direct attention from your teacher while on retreat with him or her, but also there typically remains plenty of down time to intimately connect with your Self. I have found that some of my most profound reflections and meditations have surfaced during quiet time on retreat. It’s in these moments of thoughtful seclusion where I’ve received a clearer understanding of who and how I really am.

Join Kellie on her Yoga and Meditation Retreat to Bali in July 2017

Not all who wander are lost

I'm going to share a little history of how I got to be the proud owner of Mindful Balance Retreats.... it all started with my fun loving parents. They were young when we started our family, but they worked hard and played even harder and my sister and I got to benefit from it all. My love for travel, adventure, and nature started early, I was surrounded by beauty growing up in Colorado and I was a very fortunate child to have both loving parents together and willing to take their kids anywhere. Whether we were camping in our home state or snorkeling in Belize, our family adventures were the best, they still are!  

Belize with the Fam

In high school, I planned the infamous "Senior Trip" and got to go for free since I got enough people to sign up. In college, I worked for the company as a tour leader for the summer down in Cancun, both crazy but educational experiences. In college I chose to study what I loved and earned a Bachelor of Science in Recreation Management and Tourism from Arizona State University. I did my internship in San Diego, I was ready to live by the sea. I was an intern for a yacht charter company as a cruise director. Shortly thereafter, I began to travel, first I did a 3 month trip solo to the South Pacific. Next up was Central America, where I fell in love with Costa Rica and ended up staying for over 3 months. Then my sister and I went to Europe for five weeks and explored London, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. South America was a trip of a lifetime with a climb up to Machu Picchu and cruise down the Amazon River to spend time in a nature jungle lodge. I spent about a month in both Thailand and Indonesia where I learned about the culture, foods, massage and of course myself.

Interlaken, Switzerland with my sis

At the beginning of all these journeys I found yoga when I was 23 years old. It was before it was popular and I had no idea what it was, someone I worked with had talked me into going to this class she thought I'd like. It was in the back of martial arts studio in a partitioned space, with a space heater and the Dave Matthews CD playing. Weird but cool I'll give it a try and I walked out of the class feeling better than I ever had. Something happened...physically and mentally, It was a natural high and I knew I was hooked.

pure joy

I love to travel, I love to plan travel, and I love yoga. So naturally I dreamt of leading a yoga retreat and so I planned it and it happened. Well not that easily but I did it over and over again, all of which provided many lessons. I didn't make any money at first as there was quite a learning curve, even with all my experience and training, it took doing it a few times to really get it. Now that I've got it down, I lead amazing yoga retreats and I want to help other yoga instructors that have these same dreams. I'd like to give them this opportunity to teach in exotic locations, make money and to avoid having to go through the years of learning that it takes to make these retreats profitable and stress-free. 

Inaugural retreat, Kauai