 Right, I'm happy to be here with Lea Cooper and we're going to talk about some of the things that she's learning as she is building her business. I think that some of the insights and encouragement will be helpful to all of you who are watching this. Lea, thank you so much for being here. Thanks George, it's great to be here with you today. Lea, you're a member of my Master Heart Business Mentoring Group and in fact you even are a facilitator for one of the small groups in there. So I really appreciate your willingness to bring your optimism and your productivity and your passion for self-employment and growing your own business into the group. And actually that's the first thing I want to ask you is, how has it been making connections with others? And you know, whenever I'm doing these kinds of what I call progress and learning videos, it's not, the purpose is not, you know, to get everybody to join my programs, but really to, I'm hoping that people who are watching this can benefit by learning some of the tips and some of the insights that they could apply to their own actions. So really my question is for you is, how has connecting with other self-employed people been beneficial for you? Oh, and please go ahead and introduce yourself. I forgot to mention. Tell us what you do. Yeah, so my business is I'm a yoga teacher, so I teach yoga classes here in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. And yeah, I use that as a way to connect with people in my community to help them improve their wellness, you know, and give them an opportunity to connect with their mind, body and breath through the yoga practice and other workshops and events that I host as well. Yeah, and over the last year or so, I've also been creating YouTube videos, so yoga videos for my YouTube channel, which has also helped not only my clients because, you know, they're feeding back to me saying, you know, they'd be doing them at home, which is great, but also like new people that I can reach in the wider sphere of the world, which is really nice to get feedback from them too. Yeah, so to answer your question about connections. Yeah, no, it's a really lovely place to come and just get momentum from other people who are doing similar things but completely different. Like everyone, I'm always really fascinated by the different niches that people mentioned they're working in and it's things I'd never even thought existed, really. I feel yoga is like pretty common, like everyone knows what yoga is, but hearing what some of the people in the Master Heart group do, it's like, wow, I never actually thought that was a thing and just being able to learn and get some of their energy really helps, you know, boost me along the way as well, you know, because I'm also working full time so this business really requires that extra bit of energy to keep my momentum going and having the other people in Master Heart is a really great way to get that momentum and just being able to share stories and learn from other people sharing their stories in the business realm is really interesting too. Yeah, and for those who are watching and not in Master Heart, you can get this kind of connection by, I mean, you know, since you all are watching this on YouTube or Facebook or you're listening to this on my podcast. You can come into my public pages and find other people who are commenting to connect with and create some accountability with as you connect with other self employed people, what they're working on tends to encourage you in what you're working on as well. Just to go on that George, that's really what got me into Master Heart in the first place, being involved in your community just through YouTube and Facebook already brought that but it's just multiplied so much more being in the Master Heart group. Yeah, totally. And one of the things that helps us to stay connected and to keep momentum is that we work together on FocusMate. You know, you and I see regularly, which is available to everybody who's watching this. Everybody here can join FocusMate and I know we both talk about it a lot but it's really been a game changer for a lot of us. I'm on there multiple hours a day. You probably are as well. But yeah, so everybody watching this go and consider joining FocusMate. It's free if you want to do three sessions up to three sessions a week is free. Otherwise, if you, you know, if you want to unlimited sessions at this time it's only $5 a month. But even if it's 10 $15 $20 a month it would still be so worth it but anyway. So, so one of the things that you have been working on, especially this year is is to get get consistent about creating content. And that's a challenge, right, especially that since you're working full time and you know, it's yeah I mean and you're a mom and and it's, it's a challenge for anybody to stay consistent but what have you been learning about that. And that's helped you to do it. Yeah, it's coming up with a schedule of when you're going to actually create the content I think is really the key and I know that's one of your main teachings as well. So, at the start of the year I sort of drew up this planner and a word table and I've just sort of mapped out each week and each day has a set task and so I know which day I'm going to be recording my yoga video I know which day I'm going to be drafting my post and then the next day I sort of refine it and then publish it so and I'm also using a co-working session to do some of that stuff as well, which has been really helpful to so I think, you know, being really consistent in that way it was funny because I had, I normally co-work with someone on a Thursday afternoon and she took some time off for a couple of weeks to do some other things and I, I missed one week where I didn't actually create content and publish it and I was feeding myself up about it but then I was like just pick it up next week it's not such a big deal so you know we can get a bit caught up I think sometimes I want to have to do this every week, every week, every week but then if you miss a week it's like okay just don't beat yourself up about it just start again next week it's okay so I think that's important, not to force it, it shouldn't be a chore but if you miss a week because of whatever reason you know something else came up your audience will understand and you've got to, you know, be kind to yourself too totally oh yeah absolutely so yes because if you are harsh you know with yourself you'll create this kind of loop I think of the fear of self punishment which creates, you know, not wanting to show up because if you show up and don't do well or you don't show up you'll self punish but if you're more gentle with yourself and you simply stay the course with the intention then it's like okay always begin again I remember yeah like a teacher I had many years ago you know that was his mantra just begin again, just begin again, just begin again and that's true every day I begin again you know every hour sometimes I have to begin again and so I appreciate that you brought that up and just sorry just one more thing on that point just this weekend I did a three day sort of cleanse detox and I normally caught a video on Sunday and I was planning to do it but when I got to my mat I just had no energy for it and I wasn't going to show up in a way that I wanted to show up in the video so I actually ended up recording an audio instead and making it into a video it was like a guided meditation so I showed up in a way where I thought comfortable to where I wasn't going to put myself in front of a camera but I still created something that was you know that I wanted to create as part of that process so adjusting time sometimes according to how you're feeling is also important I think yeah yeah I like that you're you're you're adapting to you know your your commitment for for that period was to create something and it's like oh I was thinking of doing video but now I can do this instead and you still created something of value to your audience and I think that's really the long term system or process that creates so much trust with our audience is that we are showing up consistently in some way to bring you know to bring some encouragement to their life or to bring some some knowledge inspiration etc. And of course we're going to link to your YouTube and other things in the notes below so people can check out your journey. Speaking of YouTube. I know that for the past couple weeks there's been kind of a technical glitch on YouTube. Because it may be for certain accounts because they're they're making some updates and do you want to talk about that experience. I don't know if it's good to talk about or not but but you know you're learning something from it right like you're learning to be good then just to give everyone some context like like Leah tried to upload a YouTube video like she normally does and she couldn't do it for like, you know she tried to one day and the next day she could still can do it etc. So it was something that was quite a quite obviously it's a barrier you can upload YouTube videos to your YouTube channel but talk us through kind of what you learn from that. Patience. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I did get to a point it was quite stressful because the video was actually in YouTube had been uploaded but I couldn't publish it and every time I tried to create it at the description of the video and tags or anything like that or even upload a thumbnail it just would not keep those changes and I just kept getting this error message. And of course I did the Google search you know what's this error message in YouTube which it seems hundreds of thousands of people have had this issue prior, but there was no actual YouTube response as to why or how or how to fix it. And I got to a point. Okay, and I reached out to the Master Heart community and I posted there I said I'm having this trouble. And you know thankfully Shailaja one of the excellent members of Master Heart who's very active she she came up with a couple of strategies for me and I actually the first one she mentioned was to actually down use the creator or the studio app on my phone which I'd never used before so doing it through there and it worked and it would publish the video so I was cheering that that worked and then I just walked away from YouTube I didn't want to look at it again. For a few days because it just was so much stress from that moment and it was frustrating not being able to publish the video because you know I had this deadline I don't like to use that word but I wanted to put the video out there but it wasn't letting me and so sometimes yeah I think walking away is sometimes a good strategy when you try all the avenues that's all you can do really and just take a breather. But I'm really grateful for being able to reach out to other people and get some really useful advice that helped me through that challenge so yeah and I actually uploaded the video that I did the guided meditation on Sunday and it worked fine and it was great. Oh, so so is it working now on the computer working now. Yeah, so isn't that amazing like like I find that to be true with most tech glitches from, you know, including from the big websites like YouTube and Facebook and the service like what's not working today but they're probably just working something out in the back and it probably just takes sometimes it takes a few weeks, unfortunately. But most of the time it takes like 2448 72 hours and then they've got fixed and some and for the things that take a few weeks to sort itself out like right now there's a there's a glitch with Facebook groups where they they they had. They had a new version of groups where they unified the hashtags and the topics. But then, as of a few weeks ago, they went back to the old version. So now the hashtags on top is no longer unified anyway. It's like, I've just learned over time just like, yeah, these glitches just happened and it's like, yeah, it's like, I guess one of the key skills of joy for productivity is to shrug our shoulders ago. That's not working right now. We'll just do something else. And I think that's what you're, I mean, you've given us some examples already you know just that, for example when you weren't feeling wrong to do a video you do, you do an audio and he's like, Oh, well, you know, we'll just try something else. Yeah, really. So, another thing that you did recently that I thought was really, really great that you posted about master heart was that you did some audience research, and maybe you could tell us about that experience like what did you do and what was it helpful, etc. I've been doing two types of audience research I did the one I think I posted about was about my yoga retreat survey so I want to hold a yoga retreat I try and do one every year I usually do it around February when it's summer here in Australia. And because of covert I put things on hold at the start of this year. And so I just wanted to find out from my clients, when they would be interested in going on retreat, you know, what sort of, they would prefer the beach or going bush. How many nights, what types of, you know, how much they'd like to spend on this retreat adventure that they were going to go on. I was looking at a couple of different places, and I wanted to make sure that I was going to book the place that suited the most people. And I don't know whether the people who completed the survey will actually come on a treat but it just gave me some good information to base my judgment on so you know I discovered they didn't want to spend more than $500. I did a third September as the best month out of all the months I gave them. Most people wanted to go to the beach so they were some good parameters that I could work with and then make that that reservation for the for the retreat venue. And the other types of audience research I've been doing is just some one on one conversations with some of my yoga students. I've done one coming up in a couple of weeks time so and I've done, I've only done three this year so far but I think three is pretty good considering I've done zero before that so yeah it's really nice to just sit down and have a chat with these people that come to my classes regularly and see what learn about you know how they're enjoying what I do you know what other you know health and well being things they might be struggling with or want some assistance with or what are the products of versus they're using in this sphere and possibly some ideas for some new videos or courses or classes or workshops that I can then look at creating for them to. I love that you're doing that and thank you for explaining what you know both types you and this is something that I often try to encourage people to do this audience research or market research. Really there are essentially what there's two of the main things that I often talk about you know, surveying and then one on one conversations and you know with the surveying you learned about the parameters of the ideal, the more ideal retreat for them. By the way, you mentioned the beach or the bush. And, you know, in Australia you say you all say bush in North America bush is literally a bush. When you say go into the bush I'm like go into the bush how can I do a bush. I guess you mean forest I guess. Yeah, Carla forest. Yeah, the forest. Yeah, I was like everyone fit into one bush. Yeah, but that's really, really prickly. No. So, so surveying and then one on one conversations is also something that I encourage a lot of clients to do it's like, it's like if you don't really sit down with your audience members like, and when I say audience like, you know people might have, people don't have a big following yet I think most of the people watching this don't have a big following but even if you have a few people who comment regularly or, or you have a few clients like you're doing it with your clients and your students. You know it's like it's so helpful, like, you know all the things people can rewind this and to hear what kind of things you asked them. So, did that, like before you did these one on one conversations. It's going to change I guess your product development from before you've done these two going forward. Now that you've done this. Well, I think I need to do a few more. I guess what I've learned is just getting some insights you know I have one one student she's a classically trained singer and she. She's a instructor of a local choir group and she really likes some of the lung classes that I've done and have online as well and she likes to do them to improve her lung capacity and her ability to sing and you know that sort of gave me the idea when I had this conversation with her about that. I thought oh you know yoga to singers you know maybe that's something I could explore as a workshop or even a series that I could you know course that I could sell perhaps. I could sing and myself but you know just get some tips from her perhaps that I could incorporate into the class or even just do a quick you know YouTube kind of video as a one off just to see what the response rate is first. You know another student was says you know she's got stiff ankle so that prompted me to create a couple of yoga for ankles videos as well so it's really just getting some ideas at this point to to create some more videos for my YouTube channel. And think about some potential courses or workshops that I could run. There's a lot to juggle so I'm just you know little bits and pieces is good just to keep things going in the background. Yeah but I really want to do a lot more and speak to a lot more people and find out what what their needs are and what they enjoy. And you basically just named a third method of audience research which is to create content and see among the things you create. What gets the best response because what gets best response is probably going to be great for product or service as well. So I love that you're you're doing all of that. So one one maybe final topic that we should talk about is how are you juggling. All of it like like you've got you know you're you're a parent. You have a job. You know other things I'm sure in life and you are grow you know developing a business which you have been actually for years. And you know you're teachers you have students to work so any anything you want to share in terms of how you balance all of that right. Well I have a pretty set morning routine that really gets me grounded for the day. Do you want to share a bit about it like what what is part of your morning routine. Of course you know morning. The first thing I do actually when I wake up is in bed I have a book next to my bed which is like it's like every day of the year and it's like a morning affirmation or something like that. And so every morning I'll open that up and I'll read whatever the days affirmation is I usually read a couple of times. And that's kind of like you know a good sort of start to the day. But I get up and I do a combination depends on the time and on the weeks I have my daughter with me compared to the weeks I don't think does change. So but I'll do about 45 minutes to an hour of yoga I'll go from half an hour walk. I'll do 10 minutes of meditation. Usually after my walk I have a cold shower as well. So and then I also do some journaling for about five or 10 minutes. So that's all I do all that before before breakfast before looking at my calendar before looking at social media that all happens prior to. So you wake up at 2am. Actually about quarter to six. Okay, still pretty early pretty early. I'm trying to get earlier but. Yeah, and it does take a couple hours I admit that it's a long process but I don't have to travel for work I work from home. So that's a real joy and benefit to all that. And what else you know I think the journaling for me specifically because I started that on Christmas Day last year actually in 2020. And I've been journaling twice a day morning evening since that day and that's been a real. And for me since I've started that I've had this sense of abundance is growing abundance in my life just by writing things down that I'm grateful for writing things down that I appreciate. And how I'm going to show up by the morning I talk about how I'm going to show up in the day, you know what I'm excited about in the day. And even if it's sometimes it's things I'm not even excited about it's just things that I have to do but I may as well be excited about them because I have to do them anyway. And that's actually really shifted my mindset a lot. And that helps me get through all the stuff that I need to do. I use focus mate like you mentioned, you know several times a day. And use that for my work and for my business. So two different purposes. And I think because I work from home for my work full time job that enables me to also spend a little bit more time on my business because I don't have to commute. My kitchen's right there if I, you know, to cook something it's easy to get to I can hang out the washing in my lunch break it's it's all those little bits that you know when you have to work outside of your home they're the things that take up your time when you come back from work so taking a 10 minute break in between you know focus mate session excuse me the opportunity to just get those little tasks done and it doesn't feel like a big chore at the end of the day. And I think one of the challenges is distractions. So there, maybe I'll talk briefly three types like one is your balancing your work and your business. How do you stay focused on business things if like, I don't know work emails you or, or need you for some reason like is there how do you set a boundary for that. Will I try to do all my business stuff out of ours. So, so your work is very, they're very set like okay after this hour. Yeah, oh yeah I don't, I don't work after you know, I work between set hours for my work and shall never. So as Barry is, I'm pretty strict about that I'm pretty strict about that. And what about what about a second distraction which is well at home home life so like, you know, your, your daughter needs something or how does that how do you set boundaries there. Yeah, so on the weeks when I have her with me. And I put less, less effort into the business on those weeks and then weeks she's not around that's why I sort of gear things up a little bit more and try to get some things done. But you know she's 12 now so she's fairly self sufficient. So on the weekend I will sit down and do some work and you know she's, she's a big Minecraft and you know she'll spend time my doing Minecraft or doing something on her computer as well or even arch does a lot of art on her phone at the moment on an app so I know she's not sort of going astray there but it's also gives me an opportunity to to to show up for my work. And she knows I do focus mate with you sometimes on a Sunday so. She's like, she knows that that's her time to do what she wants as well. Nice. And final distractions, how do you deal with social media so. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one well like I said I don't I try not to go on social media until after I've done all my morning stuff. Okay. And I try not I don't go on it after dinner either so once I've had dinner, that's all shut off. I do find it sometimes at work, I'll be maybe checking Facebook here and there and I was really strict at one point I was only checking in Facebook at once in the morning and once in the afternoon but sometimes I get distracted and I want to check it more. So I've just got to be really disciplined there. And I don't, I don't check my emails that often either like maybe twice a day. So they're not distracting me but I recently have been getting into clubhouse and joining some interesting discussions on there about the topics I'm interested in so that's been a little bit distracting. But it's all about setting boundaries so I just need to make sure that I set some more healthy boundaries around that so I don't get off of derailed but that's actually been a really interesting experience just connecting with people there in niches that I'm interested in as well so yeah it's been an interesting process. Nice, nice. And clubhouse is not yet available on Android as of this recording so I haven't even been able to get in there yet, but soon soon I'm sure it'll be everywhere. So, as we finish up like maybe you could tell us tell the those who are watching this what you, what kind of services you offer. So I obviously yoga teaching. And you do this via zoom as well. Yeah, yeah, so I have the moment I've gone back to teaching three classes a week and I also offer those classes as a zoom option to students who want to join via zoom. So there's two evening classes and a morning class I'm not sure how that would work in other time zones, but you're more than welcome to check them out. I am considering how I can do a couple of maybe online purely online classes for a wider audience so I've got that on the back burner and looking into how I can do that. So that it's at times that people, you know in other places the world could join in. Like I mentioned I've got my YouTube channel so that's, that's a really I really like to share that because even people I work with now I've shared it with people I work with and I had a chat with someone the other day and she's like I did your I did your first I did my first yoga video with you the other day and she was really excited and I was, I was like, oh that's really, you know I felt really, you know, I'm reaching more people and that's that feels really good so that's a sort of a great place for people to start if they're interested in doing some yoga with me and I have a few online courses that I've created. They're seasonal so I've got a spring, summer, autumn and winter yoga series so they sell on my website. And I also do workshops occasionally seasonal workshops cooking workshops, but they're again mostly in person type workshops and retreat as well. Yeah, that's, that's mainly what I do. Great, well I'm going to, of course put all the links in the notes below. Leah, thank you so much. Thanks for being a really, really wonderful member of Master Heart. And for the work that you do for your students for your clients and for your fellow focus mate partners. Thanks for all that you do. It's been a real pleasure to finally, you know, to have met you so you know a year or two ago and to be part of this group and just learn so much from you and all the people in Master Heart. It's, it's, it's really changed my life in a way I wouldn't be where I am now without without all the stuff that I've gotten from you. I'm grateful, grateful. All right, well folks check out the links below and enjoy Leah's videos and courses.