The Practice with Clara online platform and apps were launched at the end of 2019. In the past year, there have been many challenges and steep learning curves with the company as we got to know each other as a team and tried various creative projects to build a community online. I joined the team in January of 2020, and Clara and I launched the #PracticeWithClara Podcast at the end of March when the world went into lockdown for COVID-19.
Creating a virtual yoga community has shown us what can occur when people come together over a shared intention; 2020 has been quite the journey, and we are so grateful for all those who’ve joined us and contributed to the sangha online.
Looking ahead to what we can do in 2021, we want to focus our efforts on the areas where we feel the most feedback from our community members. This past year, we had many different incentives for people to join us in the practice and contemplation of what it means to live yoga. In the coming months, we want to create more structure around the company’s bigger vision to deliver content that resonates in areas where we’ve seen the most engagement.
“The biggest thing is to create and brainstorm to make the next step awesome and exciting. Not only for our community but us—our team. I want our team to feel like a family and for that to spill out into our community so that even though we’re online, we feel like a family.” – Clara Roberts Oss.
To harness our ideas and get an outsider’s perspective on how we can optimize our time and efforts at Practice with Clara, Andrea Freeman joined us on the podcast to provide insight into how the Practice with Clara team can grow the community and business in 2021.
“When we have a big vision, it’s constructive to reverse engineer so that we can make it measurable. When our goals are measurable, it takes a lot of the emotion out of it, and that will help you determine whether you’re hitting your goals or not.” – Andrea Freeman.
Watch or listen to the full episode. Highlights from our talk are provided below.
Interview with Andrea Freeman
AF—I’m super excited to be here with you. I love helping female entrepreneurs build mindful businesses that work for all parts of their lives so that they can thrive in their business and their life.
I want to start with an intention for the session and hear what you have going on in your business. Can you tell me what’s going on business-wise and what you’re hoping to look at to shift or evolve?
CRO—About a year ago, we launched our online platform, where we have yoga classes and meditation and mantra. I’ve been running my own business for about 16 years but hadn’t put it online; I’d been teaching all live events. My husband and I launched Practice with Clara in 2019, and then Stephanie came on board to help us with copy and pretty much everything as startups go.
Stephanie joined us in January and then later became a full-time employee. Now we’re looking to build and grow our community; we’re essentially trying to take it to the next level.
AF—What’s the goal of growing the community? What does that make available for you guys personally and your businesses?
CRO—We want to grow, but a roadblock we’re hitting is that I’m a new mom, and it’s also on me to create all of the content. It’s me on the site. One of our learning curves is finding the right balance between me shooting content and taking care of the baby.
My husband, Alejandro, and Steph do a lot of the backend to maintain operations and keep everything moving forward. We want to grow, but in a way that honors sustainability and our lifestyle because there are only so many hours in a day.
AF—Before we started recording, you were saying time management, sales, and delegation seem to be the three areas that you want to focus on, is that correct?
CRO—Yes. The biggest thing for me is delegation. I’ve been running my own business for sixteen years, and I would work seven days a week for long hours. I have a very good work ethic, but now the issue is that I don’t have that much time because I’m taking care of my little one. I need to get better at delegating and handing off what needs to be done. My initial response is that I’ll take care of it, but the tasks don’t get done because I don’t have time.
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Just Be: Restorative Yoga
The class you’ve been craving to unwind, a 70-minute restorative session with Clara to hit reset in different shapes. Move through five simple postures with props and hold each pose for 8-10 minutes to restore and drop into your body. Supported twists and heart-opening extend and release the spine to create more space for your breath.
AF—If you look at delegation, your efforts in delegating will spill over into the other two areas you want to focus on and affect everything in your business.
If you’re empowered in your delegation house, then you’re going to see growth, and you’re going to see movement in all the other spaces.
When you think about delegating in your business, what is there for you? What, how does that feel for you, and what does it look like right now?
CRO—It’s hard for me because I’m a control freak. Also, because I’m the brand and because it is the thing that I’ve been doing myself for so long that I feel like I have a hard time letting go. The biggest thing is I have a hard time letting go of all the tasks that need to be done when it comes to branding and the specific look and feel of how things are presented.
What I’ve been working with is learning how to trust and to soften into it. I don’t want to let my community down; I would feel very disappointed if I let anyone down or didn’t feel like I was offering my fullest potential and expressing myself.
AF—I think it’s beneficial for your business to have some structure around delegation to look at how it will work in the day-to-day tasks that need to get done. This might be where you and Stephanie can look at how you work together. What would that look like?
What are you most excited to accept support about?
CRO—The biggest thing is to create and brainstorm to make the next step awesome and exciting. Not only for our community but us—our team. I want our team to feel like a family and for that to spill out into our community so that even though we’re online, we feel like a family.
AF—When we have a big vision, it’s constructive to reverse engineer so that we can make it measurable. When our goals are measurable, it takes a lot of the emotion out of it, and that will help you determine whether you’re hitting your goals or not.
How you would know that you were successful in brainstorming and creating this big vision that you have for your business?
CRO— It would be more on like the day-to-day things. The biggest ways of being actionable that Steph supports us with are writing most of the copy, the social media schedule, and keeping me on track. I’m the visionary, and I can go off and lose track of what needs to be done and when things are due. Steph keeps me on track and tethers me to the day-to-day, which is helpful.
The biggest way to support me is to hold me accountable, which Steph has been good at, and help me stay on track because I’m so used to working alone, and I just kind of do things when I remember to do them.
AF—You would benefit from a structured schedule for micro and macro projects, like a calendar essentially, where you have dates or appointments to check in on.
I would do a session each morning as a 10-minute check-in to your promises for the day. This task asks that every person on the team lives in the space of accountability. This task will keep you on track with the day-to-day list of things that need to get done, and it will help Steph because she’ll be more involved in the big picture and the running of the day-to-day. It will be more of a partnership, and it’s going to build trust.
Now, once you know how you feel about all the things that you’re doing and how you’ll support each other, next you look at the data, you look at the engagement, you look at where your audience is growing. From these numbers, you will see where you should focus.
The decision is always in the data, and you use the data to align with your intuition and what’s feeling right for you and your business at that moment. When those two things come together, you show up in your most authentic form. Your most creative self-expression is where people will resonate with you most.
I love working with entrepreneurs who are trying to scale and trying to build a bigger vision because you want to go deep. That’s the thing when you’re concerned with building community; when that’s your passion, it’s because you like going deep with people. So you have to focus on that space where the data shows engagement, and you feel the most traction.
CRO— This is something that Steph, Alejandro, and I are always talking about. Your actions don’t ever affect just one aspect of your life; it ripples out into all aspects of your life. In terms of using the word mindful in your coaching title, this is what we do; our whole thing is to be mindful and to ask the bigger questions of ourselves so that we can show up as the best humans for our community.
I’d love you to share a bit of your journey and how the mindful business coach showed up for you.
AF—When you’re fully yourself, it’s exactly how your ideal customer or client recognizes that you’re for them. It’s all about having a business that feels as good as it looks. I like to say, let your personal evolution fuel your business revolution.
More About Andrea Freeman
Hello there! I’m Andrea and I believe that transforming your life is the access to transforming your business. As a mindful business coach and peak performance planner, I work with creative entrepreneurs to support them in their evolution. I operate from the foundational principle that businesses develop alongside the individuals who run them. Meaning the higher your consciousness the greater the impact you make in the world. It’s my personal joy to work with business owners to help them align with who they are at their core – with their unique personal gifts and unstoppable power.
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