Cory Sipper’s yoga business was beginning to take off when the coronavirus pandemic forced her to stop having in-person classes. She adjusted by launching an online platform on the fly.
“First, I had to find a platform to be able to share yoga with my students. I tried different things and none of them were working, then someone told me about this platform where I was able to show videos, but I was also able to work with people, you know, live one on one or in my classes,” Ms. Sipper said.
She launched the platform three weeks ago on Yondo, an online service that allows users to create their own website and sell videos online, host webinars, lead online group classes and hold live one-on-one video consultations.
The $20 per month subscription includes access to her growing catalogue of videos on beginners yoga, meditation, back care, stability ball work, core exercises and replays of live class sessions. Live classes cost an extra $7 to attend over video call.
She also teaches a live online “Kids Yoga” class with her daughter once a week. Replays are available with a subscription.
“When I set everything up I realized I needed to record a bunch of videos, kind of quickly, right? My husband (Brad Kaz) does videography so we just started recording videos. I happened to have a friend in Mexico who has not been able to get back over to the states and so we used her apartment and started recording a bunch of videos in every style of yoga that I could think of and everything from beginners yoga to yoga for kids to then more advanced (yoga) and I have some fitness videos,” Ms. Sipper said.
She continued that her next focus was advertising her platform and reaching out to people outside her existing network of friends and clients.
“I think it’s important to have a niche. I do a lot of harder classes but I’m always looking for that person that might not ever try yoga. They think they can’t do yoga or think they can’t get more fit or feel better, so I’m just trying to find those people. I think a lot of people that are joining those big yoga websites, they’ve done it before. So I like to offer myself to people who have never tried it and might be afraid to try it because (yoga) is so beneficial for everybody,” Ms. Sipper said.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, Ms. Sipper was teaching yoga at schools and offering lunchtime classes at businesses in the Goleta area. She also taught at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara and was about to start personal training for some private clientele.
“I’ve been teaching yoga for 17 years and I had just gotten certified as a personal trainer when the social distancing came down and I was at a really amazing place with my business because I was teaching a lot,” Ms. Sipper said.
She added that while her online business is improving every day, she’s making a fraction of what she made before the stay-at-home orders became effective.
“It’s not close right now. I don’t think I’m going to get where I was, but on the other side of the coin every person that subscribes is a little bit of money for them and they get a great product. For me, if I can get a lot of people who are just paying a little bit of money then, you know, it grows because (of) the subscription,” Ms. Sipper said. She added that the loss of business was an emotional shock and she’s been working tirelessly to keep her business afloat.
“Painful, there is no other way to describe it. It’s not what I expected to be doing, but also it’s the way that it is. I’m either going to flow with it or I’m going to be in pain over it. It’s better for me to keep working and I’ll tell you one thing, when I’m teaching those live yoga classes, I’m so happy. I’m so thankful that I have a way to bring my students yoga and to bring other people who might want to watch, who need yoga,” Ms. Sipper said.
For more information visit empoweredhealthclasses.net. New users get a five-day free trial and Ms. Sipper posts some free content on the site. Her Instagram profile is empoweredhealthlife.
email: pgonzalez@newspress.com
