IAM214- International Yoga Teacher Helps Clients Destress With Yoga

Sarah Highfield is an international Yoga Teacher, based in London, UK and is the founder of Yogagise Yoga. Sarah is one of London's most sought after yoga teachers with a formidable private client list and has taught at some of London's best studios including Form and Bodyism. Sarah is a certified Nutrition Coach, she works with exclusive international fitness retreats including Helios Retreats, and has appeared on the pages of Om Yoga Magazine, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, BBC and Marie Claire.

• CEO Hack: (1) Breaking down the goals (2) Looking back at the successful habits
• CEO Nugget: Strong relationships and growing your network is key to long-term business
• CEO Defined: Owning your business and listening to what people want

Website: https://yogagise.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogagise/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Sarah Highfield of Yogagise. Sarah, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Sarah Highfield 0:36

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm very proud to be on the show.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Sarah so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Sarah Highfield is an International Yoga Teacher based in London, UK, and is the founder of Yogagise Yoga. Sarah is one of London's most sought-after yoga teachers with a formidable private client list and has taught at some of London's best studios including Form and Bodyism. Sarah is a certified nutrition coach. She works with exclusive international fitness retreats including Helios Retreats and has appeared on the pages of Om Yoga Magazine, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, BBC, and Marie Claire. Sarah, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Sarah Highfield 1:19

Yeah. I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:20

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Sarah Highfield 1:27

Sure. So up until four years ago, I used to work in public relations here in London. And I used to manage the international PR activity for clients such as British Airways, Starwood Hotels, really big clients, and I was working in quite well-known agencies, including Edelman and Grayling. So this probably won't mean much to you. You're not in the world of PR, but they're really reputable agencies, I had a great job. But I think I always wanted something more.

So the way I got into my business and then became a yoga teacher is four years ago, I was actually sitting at my computer in the office. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in May 2015. And I was actually gazing out of the window, admiring the sunshine, thinking, You know what, it's hardly ever that sunny in London. And when the sun does come out, you gotta be out in the sunshine. It's really funny. Because in London, when the sun comes out, like, in the spring or the summer, everybody just runs out to the park and starts sunbathing. Anyway, going out the window, realizing that I wasn't gonna get to see any of the sunshine, I should go into the sunshine, sorry. Because then you have to work until like, 8 pm, at night, so much work to do.

And it's not because of the electrician, I was simply overworked, and probably underpaid, too. So it was sort of at this point. And literally, like, in the space of a day, it all sort of came about I realized, you know, at this point, in May 2015, I was 32 years old, even good years of my life. Some people might even say the best years of your life, you know, you're young, you're healthy. And I just thought, this is not how I want to be living, I don't want to be sitting behind a computer for the rest of my life, you know, just working away until I retired, eventually died. Like there has to be something more.

And I had always been into yoga, I think, you know, with in my early 20s as a hobby, I always loved it. And I actually thought about becoming a yoga teacher in my 20s. But I was thinking, you know, how can I make money? And how will I find work and it's the work even consistent, you had a lot of questions about it. Now I was thinking of putting it out there. So you know what, like, just try it. If you always wanted to be a yoga teacher, just do it. Like, it's better to try and fail, do not try it on. It's about me quitting my job pretty much that day, and changing everything in my life.

Gresham Harkless 3:57

Was definitely courageous of you. Because I know there are a lot of people that might be listening to this and even sitting and looking at the sunshine and wanting to go outside and sunbathe. You know, just like as you saw, but there's just so many, you know, opportunities, sometimes people are afraid to take that leap of faith, but it's been awesome that you've been able to do that. And, you know, by being able to tell your story and do that you're definitely empowering others to do that as well.

Sarah Highfield 4:17

Good, good. And, I almost feel like there are a lot of stories like this out, which do empower people, but at the time, I just wasn't hearing them. And I feel like if I had more of that, you know, I wouldn't make that decision. Yeah!

Gresham Harkless 4:31

Exactly, exactly. But better well, at any time. It's always good. I would say I was about to say better late than never. But anytime, you know, sometimes don't think that you know we're too young too old, you know, too whatever to take that leap and to go after your dreams to go after what your which were quote unquote put on this earth for but it's always the right time to do that. And I appreciate you for doing that as well. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and I know you touched on a little bit. Could you tell us what you do to kind of help support the clients that you're working with?

Sarah Highfield 4:58

So yeah, I have a yoga teacher first and foremost, I teach group classes. So in a studio, for example, those are group classes, I also do a lot of private classes, a lot of one on one classes. And in fact, that's probably my main source of income. And in London, you know, there's just such a big pool of people who want private yoga classes. And you know, I was dead of being able to get those classes, but there are plenty of people who need classes, I also do yoga events.

So I run my own events, Yogagise events, and I will collaborate with different brands on their events, because brands are getting into one, sufficiently like a chamber event. paired up with that brand, find some kind of link, you know, always gonna be popular. I've worked on pop up, like pop-up classes, even if, for example, I did a London Fashion Week pop-up yoga class model, which was quite fun. I work on yoga retreats. As you mentioned in the intro, I've been working with headless retreats, and they do stuff in economics in Greece, I work on yoga teacher training.

So I'm actually helping students to become teachers now, with a company called InSphero Yoga. And I'm not the main teacher, I mean, I don't even have as much experience as I need for that. But I worked alongside two other teachers who are sort of the lead teachers on the training. And I write journal articles, I've contributed to magazines, and yoga websites, and so on, I'm also getting into giving motivational talks, which is quite fun.

And I got a big talk in Barcelona in September last year, so like, five, five months ago, and I was talking at an international shell conference, they were having a big marketing conference, and they were getting people in from lots of different countries on to this all into one meeting, and I did a talk on wellness and how to d-stress. That was kind of fun. Now, it's pretty scary, actually. But that's what I do. And while I am London based, I do teach yoga in other places as well. So I've taught in Hong Kong, I've taught in Antigua I've taught in Greece, I really love to travel with my wife, if I can,

Gresham Harkless 6:59

Yeah, sounds like you're touching all parts of the glow, which is definitely awesome. So everybody can appreciate you and know that and benefit from you knowing all the awesome things that you're doing. And, and you might have touched on this a little bit, but I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization that sets you guys apart.

Sarah Highfield 7:15

Okay, so I would say and I feel like a lot of people, company CEOs will say this, but I'm big on investing time in and cultivating relationships. So you know, relationships, for me a key, and the type of people who I work with, they're not simply looking for just a yoga class, they're looking for a much more rounded experience. So not only do I teach yoga, which is the thing that I really do best, but I'm always very present with my students. And I might hand off a lot of yoga advice. And often I end up having coffee with my students after the class to talk more about their own yoga and well-being. So you know, because of this, I have really loyal students, and you have been teaching for three years, you know, since 2016. And I feel like there's a really good amount of mutual respect between us.

Gresham Harkless 8:05

Yeah, and definitely, you know, because sometimes, you know, people when people realize that you actually care and that you're taking us an extra step, or taking it to another level where you're having coffee with them after class definitely shows that you're caring. And then it definitely shows that you know, you're looking out for not just, you know, they're able to do X and Y pose the perfect way, but also that they're reaching their health and wellness goals as well.

Sarah Highfield 8:26

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 8:27

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient.

Sarah Highfield 8:39

Okay, so this one is quite specific to me as a yoga teacher, I don't have a game plan for other CEOs. But if there are people listening who were like me four or five years ago, were sort of having these thoughts, I think this one will help. So it's about shooting my business seriously from day one. And that's why I'm saying this doesn't apply to everyone, because people should do this anyway, in any business. But when it comes to yoga, I really wasn't sure where to begin or how to start.

And when I did my yoga teacher training, like I don't love yoga, teacher training, and kind of how you like there'll be like a lecture on the business of yoga and how to sort of dive, but they don't really give you that much practical advice or information. So I was a little bit lost. And I was wondering, like, what do I do? How do I start, I just turn around yoga studios, like put an advert out, like what do I do and how so I was coming out of when the training finished. I was thinking like, How can I like this was nice. Should I go back into PR because I was quite confused? But part of me was like, if I don't try now, I'm never going to know.

And then I was thinking sort of financially so this was all sort of end of summer when I finished my yoga teacher training in 2016. Financially I think okay, I have enough savings to live quite comfortably so why don't I try now because obviously, you know, really a waste of time doing what they do at yoga teacher training. Anyway, I'm not going to leave from the door I'm not going to try. And I would much rather try and fail than not try at all. And then I was telling my boyfriend I said to him, you know, these are my thoughts. What do you think he's like, okay, that's fine. Like, if you want to be a yoga teacher, do it properly, and treat your business seriously. You know, like, back to when you were working in PR, what did you do? I was like, Why is it that they cheat everything?

So but you know what, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do the same for my yoga teaching. So I had to create a spreadsheet and start putting out timelines and deadlines, you know, thinking that is quite practical, like, what do I need to do, and when do I need to do it by, especially if I want to be up and running and making enough money by Easter to sort of sustain myself and continue, I don't want to pack it all in by Easter. But that's sort of my deadline.

So I had to list out all the sorts of potential revenue streams, which were open to me as a teacher, and then work out how I was going to make it happen. I had put together a big email, database, budgeting, creating business cards, and flyers, and put together a yoga CV, which was quite fun. Like, at that point, I was like, what I put on this yoga TV, I have no experience, and here's a picture. But you know, like some studios do ask about this, sort of, like what stars you teach, and they do some pictures, and, and, and so on. So I also had to do yoga and teacher insurance. And like, this whole list of things that I sort of created.

And I also people would like to set up as a yoga teacher and local things came up, and I had to put all of those into my spreadsheet. So that was basically my hacks I started very long-winded way, but taking my business seriously is, is what sort of made it happen. I know a lot of people come out of the yoga teacher training, and they do try to become teachers, they sort of, you know, sit around, not really sure what to do, and then it doesn't work out. So that's how I think I made it happen.

Gresham Harkless 11:49

Yeah, I absolutely love that. Because you know, you have a goal. Sometimes when you have a passion for something that you're doing, and whether you're trying to make it a side hustle to a full-time hustle or you are going through training and wanting to figure out how to grow the business, sometimes you have to break it down to those specific steps that you have to do to achieve that goal. So it's great to see that you were able to do that. And the way you did it was going back to look at you know, things that you did you know, in your job and those principles that sound like and habits that you had you translated it over to your business, and were able to reach your goal. So I definitely appreciate you for sharing that. And I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Sarah Highfield 12:30

I think that and I said this already strong relationships are key, I really do. And I know that there are plenty of yoga teachers in London, trust me, there is no shortage. I mean, I say between you and I, but between everyone is becoming a yoga teacher, it's not rocket science, you don't need to be super, super smart or, and it's not hard. The minimum, sort of minimum requirement that most students will ask for is a 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate, usually accredited by either Yoga Lines or Punishment of Yoga one of those governing bodies that are very well known. So there are plenty of yoga teachers in London. And competition is really fierce. But not all yoga teachers are creating relationships with our audience that generate consistent sales. And I really feel like you know, because it's something that I've worked on, it's something that sort of come back to me in the long term. And, you know, I would tell my younger business stuff, you know, the best time people invest time into networking, go into yoga events, go to different yoga studios, talking to the people there, and so on. Because this is how your network will grow and offer you many different opportunities. That's my CEO nugget.

Gresham Harkless 13:38

I love that. And because relationships are key, it helps you to build a long-term business as well, too. Because you're not just doing transactional things. You're not just having somebody sign up for your class, you're creating long-term relationships. And that's how you create the following that you've been able to create, which I think is admirable, and very important for everybody to remember and understand. So appreciate you for that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. But Sarah, I want to ask you what being a CEO mean to you.

Sarah Highfield 14:05

Okay, so to me, it means owning your business, I really own it. And no matter how big or smaller, as you know, my business at the moment is just me. But I listened to what people wanted. And I own what I do. And I provide yoga classes, which my students enjoy. And because of that, they feel less stressed, more confident, more balanced, and more content in themselves, you know, that makes me feel good. So, you know, offering my students the service they really want and owning what I do. I think that's, for me my CEO definition.

Gresham Harkless 14:39

I love that definition. And I feel like that's something that resonates with someone, no matter how big or small the business is, because a lot of times you have to put your clients first and you have to build those relationships that you mentioned as well too. And if you have that mentality, you will always be able to be in business and be developing relationships and you can create something awesome, which I think you're doing as well. So I truly appreciate you Sarah for taking some time out with that. What I wanted to do was the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then of course, how best they can find you and get ahold of you.

Sarah Highfield 15:06
No, I think so pretty much everything. I don't think I could have talked about cultivating relationships. But I really, you know, not only do I sort of really invest in I really believe in it, and because of that I have a job that I really, really enjoy. So people can contact me via my website, which is www.yogagise.com, or you can find me on Facebook. I think it's on facebook.com:/yogagise or on Instagram and Twitter. I'm @sarahhighfield, or I'm @yogagise. I'm across all the different social media platforms.

Gresham Harkless 15:53

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I truly appreciate you, Sarah. And what we'll do is we'll have all those links in the show notes just so that they can follow you and hear and see all the awesome things that you're doing. But again, I truly appreciate you for following that light and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Sarah Highfield 16:08

Thank you so much.

Outro 16:10

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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