What Judge-y Yoga Taught Me About Marketing

When you judge another, you do not define them. You define yourself. Dr. Wayne Dyer

I was right in the middle of a three-legged down dog in yoga class when I heard it.

Ding!

What? I hopped to the front of the mat. Forward fold.

Ding!

Holy cow! Somebody brought their phone to yoga class, and they are getting a text notification. How incredibly rude!

Plank pose.

Ding!

The audacity! Can’t people unplug for just one hour? Who could be so important that they had to bring their phone to class.

Ding!

By the time I got to shavasana I was stewing. No letting it all go. I held on tight to my righteous indignation. I was justified. My peace had been disturbed.

The class ended and I rolled up my yoga mat, reaching for my yoga bag. That’s when I felt something hard in the side pocket of the bag. Frowning, I unzipped it and stared incredulously at the text message on my phone.

I was the person who had the audacity to intrude on my yoga space. How could that have happened?

Easy. I was in a rush to leave my house, and I had shoved the phone into the pocket without even thinking about it.

I felt like an idiot, and I was tremendously embarrassed. I had made false assumptions based on a story I told myself about the people in my class.

Don’t Make My Yoga Snafu Your Marketing Problem

I find marketing is a lot like my yoga snafu. We spend so much time in our own heads, making up stories we know for certain are true about our audience, only to hear crickets.

I met with a woman recently who wanted me to review her website. I commented that the home page was done in reverse type (black background with white type).

She said she and her friends laugh at websites that aren’t designed this way. When I told her there was 60 years of research proving that long form reverse copy reduces readership, she ended the call to put on some makeup.

It’s easy to get angry and blame someone else for being the problem. It’s easy to become entitled, judgmental, and brittle in your attitude toward growing a business.

I know. I’ve done it many times.

The problem isn’t your audience. It’s you. You missed something. That’s all. And that is fixable!

• Are you using the same pain words on your website that your audience uses?
• Are you talking about the transformations your audience wants?
• Is the copy punchy and easy to read?
• Does your audience feel heard by what you’ve written?

None of this is easy to communicate, especially if you’re passionate about your work.

Sometimes it helps to have someone else evaluate what’s been written. Or, to brainstorm what you’re trying to accomplish but missing the mark.

I’ve been doing more of this kind of coaching work lately, and it really lights me up! I’m honored to hold space for these women and guide them to grow to new heights.

If you’d like some help with that, shoot me an email and let’s set something up.

In the meantime, I’m back in yoga class and somebody’s phone goes off (mine’s in the car). I smile and settle into shavasana.

 

Content provided by Women Belong member Susan Vincent