35: “Commercializing” Yoga Is A Good Thing

What Is This Episode About…

In this episode, Chris will combat the false belief that “commercializing” yoga is a bad thing and outline why it’s actually a good thing. From his interactions on different online communities based in the yoga space, he has been noticing a growing sentiment that the commercialization of yoga is destroying the spiritual practice of it. While yoga is very much tied to spirituality, Chris feels that its commercialization is actually more of a solution than a problem, because when it’s done right, those with the gift of teaching it can impart that gift onto others and help people achieve the best version of themselves.

The fact that a yogi has a yoga studio (in whatever form) and they are always spreading the word of its existence, so they can attract potential students, means that they are in a way commercializing yoga. Supporting the art of yoga actively through marketing and advertising is a beautiful thing because it’s the only way of getting the message out to the masses, and so yogis demonizing the art is not only Ludacris but also a self-betrayal of sorts since they are a part of it.

Whatever form or fashion of marketing one uses in promoting their yoga studio is the only way they can be successful in truly impacting people in a positive way, and so Chris encourages every yogi to own their role, spread the good of yoga, and be a voice for what they believe in. If you’re an existing or aspiring yoga entrepreneur, this message is for you.

Key Points Discussed:

• The spiritual experience of recognizing your true self and realizing that you are not separate from source (01:01)
• Demonizing the commercialization is the problem (02:56)
• Don’t demonize the process by which you’re helping people (03:48)
• Promoting what you love is not wrong (07:48)

Learn More About The Content Discussed…

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When Was It Released…

This episode was released February 19, 2020

Episode Transcript…

Disclaimer:‌ ‌The‌ ‌Transcript‌ ‌Is‌ ‌Auto-Generated‌ ‌And‌ ‌May‌ ‌Contain‌ ‌Spelling‌ ‌And‌ ‌Grammar‌ ‌Errors‌ ‌

(00:00):

Don’t demonize the process by which you’re helping people. Marketing is… it’s just like finding a right message and creating a right offer, and then delivering that to the people, your who, your avatar, your ideal customer, the ideal student, that you want to work with, to attract them into your orbit, so that you can help them. There is nothing evil about that.

(00:30):

What’s up, everyone? You are listening to Yoga Entrepreneur Secrets. I am Chris Yax, and I’m John Yax. We are part of a small group of yoga entrepreneurs who are committed to making a living, doing what we love, without feeling guilty about making money, or ashamed of being successful, because we know the real value of yoga and how the world needs it now more than ever. This podcast is here to teach the strategies and tactics, so we can thrive financially as yoga entrepreneurs. We are the Yax brothers and welcome to Yoga Entrepreneur Secrets.

(01:01):

Alright. So this is probably gonna be a short one today. This is Chris again rolling solo. John is still in Mexico. I believe at the time of this dropping out. Yeah, I’m pretty sure. So, I’m a part of like different communities online, and I see like our fellow yoga entrepreneurs, a lot of them are like bitching and moaning about the commercialization of yoga, and it’s destroying the spiritual practice. And I’m like, “What? What are you talking about?” And I… okay, so I get the fact that like yoga… when you take it back, it’s like, it doesn’t have anything to do with like, up dogs and down dogs, and warrior twos and warrior threes, and all like, what people think yoga is in this day and age. And if you trace it back far enough, it is this spiritual experience of recognizing your true self and realizing that you are not separate from source. And, it is very tied to spirituality, which is you waking up feeling comfortable within your skin, because you realize your connectedness to all things around you. Right? But, like the commercialization of this, meaning the buying and selling of yoga isn’t the problem. In fact, it’s the solution if you’re doing it right. You have a gift and that gift is to teach yoga, or you’re opening up a yoga studio.

(02:27):

How do you plan on spreading that message? Like, you’ve got to market it. Right? There was a post just recently, and this person was like, “I’ve never done this or done that.” He was like, “I’ve never like, done a social post. I’ve never done a hashtag. Like, I’ve never swiped someone’s credit card, we don’t do online check-ins, you know, I don’t even have a computer, and I’ve been operating for these many years.”

(02:56):

And then it goes on to say like, it’s… you know, “Don’t allow like the commercialization of the practice, dah dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah… to like, maybe doing less is the answer.” I’m like, “Whoa! No. Wait, wait. Whoa!” You’re in business. You have a business. You are… if you are like, demonizing the commercialization, you are part of the demon. Right? You’re part of the problem. But my point is, it’s not a problem. Own it. Own your role in it. Spread the good. Like take a stand, and be like, be a voice for what you believe in and, but guess what? You can stand in your yoga room, and not try to be successful, and maybe you have over the years for whatever reason, but on some level you are commercializing, meaning, you’re sending messages to the marketplace, to the people who you want to attract into your yoga studio.

(03:48):

I don’t care if it’s word of mouth. I don’t care if you just go to parties. I don’t care if you go to the library and he’s just like a whisper to people about the yoga studio that you have. You’re actively supporting through marketing and advertising this art, which is beautiful. How else are you going to get the message out there? This is what’s crazy. I’m like, wait, like don’t demonize. The process by which you’re helping people. Marketing is, it’s just like finding the right message and creating the right offer and then delivering that to the people. Your who, your avatar, your ideal customer, the ideal student that you want to work with to attract them into your orbit so that you can help them. There is nothing evil about that. There’s nothing wrong about that and someone’s willingness to partake in the modern way of marketing and advertising doesn’t make them more or less subject to commercialization.

(04:50):

Again, it’s not even bad, but like it doesn’t make them worse than someone who’s not trying to be successful by using the modern methods of marketing and advertising. My whole point is that the premise, the belief system is broken because throwing stones and demonizing something that first of all you’re a part of, right? You’re doing on whatever old fashion or like the old way, new way level, but to, it’s the only way to be successful and by success I mean to really help impact people in a positive way. Like, face it. Like there are people in this world who are struggling like physically, they feel horrible. They wake up with low energy, they’re in pain, right? The stressors of daily life are crushing their minds and like dampening their light and their spirits. Right. Do yoga is the process by which we help people get out of that physical pain to regain lost youth.

(05:50):

It’s the process by which we get them focused on moving their bodies. Maybe even getting to sit on a meditation cushion and focus their minds so that they can re-establish a perspective that helps them see and deal, like see the truth that like there’s no mistakes. We’re just learning, right? Like there’s whatever problem you’re dealing with now it’s going to end at some point and then she’s going to be replaced by a new problem, right? We’re allowing them through this practice of seeing and re recognizing what’s permanent and what’s impermanent, right? If I’m attaching my identity to something that’s impermanent, of course I’m going to suffer. But what is it that I can do like my, the permanent practices that helped me create an, uh, view my life and myself through, uh, through a lens of truth of knowing that man, regardless of what happens, regardless of pain and healing and gain and loss and praise and blame and all of these ups and downs of life, I can tether myself on a daily practice as something that allows me to feel my own truth, right?

(06:57):

And then to help them remember that like, what’s happening in life isn’t happening to them. It’s happening for them, right? If this is the practices, what we’re offering, how could that, like how could that ever be wrong and bad? Like I will stand on the mountain and preach this message of yoga until I die and I will do it through whatever means necessary, whether it’s social, whether it’s through a podcast, whether it’s through YouTube, whether I’ve got to go back to old school like newspaper, radio and like put myself in magazines, what like television, whatever it is. I am committed to communicating the value of this art to helping people be like relieve of those problems and given this timeless solution so that they can live better lives. How is that like hurting this art? That is the way in which we promote this beautiful experience of the promise of yoga.

(07:48):

So like please, if you’re out there and you’re demonizing like seeing ads about yoga and like, and the commercialization of it and somehow marketing it, like cheapens it and dirties the whole process. Like just check your belief cause it’s this false. And, and if you’re a yoga entrepreneur, meaning whether you teach classes or you have a yoga studio, you’re involved in the business of it anyway. So just own it. Take a stand for it and like promote what you believe to be the best practice in this world, which I know if you’re listening to this, you do, but I, but there you gotta see, you gotta see the belief system that’s broken that somehow promoting what you love is somehow wrong in any way. It’s not, that’s all I got. That’s a short one. But man, I was fired up about that. I was like, man, this is just crazy. I just like, I’m like, no, I’m going to just keep preaching what I do and, and helping people live better lives. And if that is like hurting the sacred art, then I’m going to keep hurting you. And as not as helping people live better lives. We’ve had it for 15 years. If we,

(08:56):

if this thing was not right, people would know after 15 years it’s not working. You should try something else. I’m going to tell you scars. Oh my God. All right. That’s it. Everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching. If you’re watching this on YouTube, if you did find value in this, please rate, review and subscribe like when you do that, we are able to reach more people with this message that we believe so hard wholeheartedly and so I appreciate you just taking a few moments to rate review and subscribe this to this podcast. Uh, anyway, thank you so much. Doing the work. Honor the struggle and make this world a better place to live.

(09:35):

Yes, thanks so much for listening to Yoga Entrepreneur Secrets. Do you have a question that you’d like us to answer raw and uncut on the podcast? If you want your questions answered, all you need to do is head over to Apple Podcasts, and do three simple things. One; rate and review telling us what you think of the podcast. Two; in that review, ask anything you want related to yoga, and three; if you want to shout out, leave your Instagram handle or name and that’s it. Then listen in to hear your question answered Live, raw and uncut. Join us next time on Yoga Entrepreneur Secrets Podcast. Thanks.