Should Health Coaches Blog?

Today’s episode is about the power of the word, the power of the blog, and the power of advancing your writing: writing as a process of digesting thoughts and ideas into something that gains traction, something that is communicable, something that may save you time in the future.

On today’s show, you’ll hear from a number of Yoga Health Coaches who joined the Yoga Health Coaching group blog, and they’ll tell you why they blog and what it’s done for them in their coaching career.

First you’ll hear from Tracey Duncan, who wrote a great post that really gained her traction on the Yoga Health Coaching blog, called My Stoned, Drunk, Imperfect Journey Toward Thrive. Next, you’ll hear from Andrea Catherine, who talks about being courageous on sharing her story, sharing her journey via blogging, and also about having the support of an editor as a blogger. Rachel Peters talks about developing a writing habit, and how writing allowed people to find her. She also talks about the opportunity to find your voice and share more information to your community via blogging. And stay tuned for Yolanda de Cuevas, who talks about getting more exposure via blogging, how to share materials with more people, more easily, and how the blogging team at Yoga Health Coaching makes it easier to write better.

After this episode, I hope you will be inspired to write, inspired to blog, inspired to process your ideas. Namaste, and have a great day!

What you’ll get out of tuning in

• Why you should blog!
• How to use your blog to develop an online presence and community
• What you need to know about Yoga Health Coach blogging

Links:

• 9 Eye Exercises to Soothe Tired Eyes After a Long Day at the Computer
• My Stoned, Drunk, Imperfect Journey Toward Thrive
• Top 10 Yoga Health Coaching Blogs This Year
• Banyan Botanicals Muscle Balm
• Manduka Yoga Mats
• HANAH ONE Go-Packt
• Email alliance@yogahealer.com to sponsor Yogahealer Retreats
• Apply to be a Yoga Health Coach
• Apply to be a Yoga Health Coach Blogger

Show Highlights:

Tracey Duncan:

• 4:25 – Blogging for Yoga Health Coaching will help you connect to other coaches!
• 7:00 –  If any of your business is online, whether that’s through a website, social media, or an online course, writing is a part of your business, and blogging will help you develop a voice, a message, a mission, an audience, a community, and an online presence.
• 8:30 – The work of writing for your blog can actually help you process your identity evolution into becoming a Yoga Health Coach.
• 12:40 –  Blogging for Yoga Health Coaching is a great way to add your knowledge to Yogahealer’s resource database, and it’s a great way for you to learn about the ways to teach, coach, and do this work.

Andrea Catherine Bachman:

• 15:00 – Blogging can help you become more courageous in speaking your truth!
• 15:10 – The editing support provided in Yoga Health Coach blogging helps to provide feedback, whether you need help streamlining your writing, becoming more clear, or speaking to your audience.
• 17:15 – You don’t have to stick to a specific template for your writing: your blog could be narrative, list-based, how-to, or any other style that will help communicate your point.

Rachel Peters:

• 19:45 – Writing for Yoga Health Coaching can help you dip into an already established community and attract more people to your services as a wellness professional.
• 20:00 – The deadlines in Yoga Health Coaching help keep you accountable to get your writing done on time.
• 20:30 – You can use your blog to encourage people who might be on your email list but not yet enrolled in your courses to invest in themselves with your services.

Yolanda de Cuevas:

• 24:25 – The 6-month blogging experience with Yoga Health Coaching can help you develop a regular writing habit and learn about what makes a good blog post by providing a clear structure and tools for success.
• 25:30 – In YHC blogging, you’ll be paired with another blogger who may be more experienced and able to help grow your writing practice. This partner will help you brainstorm your blog topics ahead of time, and hone in on your message for each post.
• 27:22 – Every time a blog is published, you are guaranteed to have more visibility in the online wellness world!

Favorite Quotes

• “Jacques Derrida said that writing is becoming, and that we do this work of writing in order to become the person that we’re trying to be.” – Tracey Duncan
• “Unless we’re in feedback with our own writing, we’re living in our own head, and that is a very limited place to live.” – Cate Stillman
• “The more of us that contribute to this body of work, the better it is for everyone.” – Tracey Duncan

• “That creative potency can be honed into a few minutes.” – Andrea Catherine Bachman
• “Sometimes our clearest ideas will just jump out of us if we are really focused.” – Andrea Catherine Bachman
• “It’s been a research tool for myself: to see what I like, what I’m good at, and to have a community behind me.” – Andrea Catherine Bachman

• “I just wanted another reason for people to come and find me.” – Rachel Peters
• “It allowed for me to get the kind of feedback that I needed to organize my thoughts.” – Rachel Peters
• “Build that ‘know, like and trust.'” – Rachel Peters

• “Feedback was always very kind and gentle…. I wasn’t criticized for writing messy pieces.” – Yolanda de Cuevas
• “The feedback helped me structure my writing better: whereas initially, I would just kind of do a brain dump…, Elise helped me… [find] the point of the blog post.” – Yolanda de Cuevas
• “Every time there would be a blog post published, I would get more views on my own Facebook page, so it definitely increased my exposure online. And I can directly attribute that to the blog posting because it always happened at the same time.” – Yolanda de Cuevas

Guest BIO

Tracey Duncan

Tracey Duncan is the headmistress of More Yoga, Less Bullshit. Tracey is a straight shooter with a limp wrist. She helps rebellious yogis find their own personal rhythm and connect to cosmic rhythms in unconventional ways.Tracey believes that folks who respect tradition but resist the status quo will be the innovators who can bring yogic and ayurvedic wisdom to the next level. If you are dubious about everything, but dig yoga and want to evolve into your superhero alter ego, Tracey wants to help.

Tracey lives in New Orleans with her dazzling wife and six animal compatriots. She is a yoga teacher, a writer, a health coach, and a recovering party girl. She smokes, drinks, and wakes up before dawn to meditate. She is not a role model.

Andrea Catherine Bachman

Andrea Catherine began practicing yoga in 2008, and teaching in 2011. She completed her 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Ana Hough of A2 Yoga. Later, in 2014, she completed her 500 Hour Professional Level Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training her certification as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor.

Most recently, Andrea was certified as a Yoga Health Coach and regularly offers an online group course, @ home in your body,  for highly responsible women seeking more energy, connection with their intuition, and an overall flourishing life that they love. She currently teaches Yoga in person at various Yoga Hive locations in the Flathead Valley of Montana.

Andrea’s Yoga journey has included teaching in southeast Michigan and northwest Montana, as well as serving as a Faculty Assistant for Integrating Ayurveda into Yoga Teaching at the Kripalu School of Yoga in 2015. Early in her career, she and three other yoga teachers collaborated to consider a Yoga Prison Program, Sila. Serving as a conduit for the practice of Yoga, especially to those who may not have a support system or a burgeoning self-care tool kit, remains at the heart of Andrea’s Yoga teaching & Yoga Health Coaching.

Enjoy Andrea’s reflections of her own yoga practice as well as her deep interest in healing foods and sharing community on her podcast, blog, and on the Yoga Health Coaching Blog.

In her free time, she most enjoys escaping to the mountains, woods and lakes with her dog, Porter.

Rachel Peters

Living in Prescott, Arizona, Rachel recently left an academic administrative position of almost twenty years to help others discover their life’s purpose, align their daily living habits with their own deep wisdom, and tap into a new level of ease while doing both. She is the Coaching Team Manager for Yogahealer & Yoga Health Coaching, which merges her savvy administration skills with her love of conscious business.
She’s a mother, a wife, and a lover of wild places. As a Certified Yoga Health Coach and Yoga Teacher with an MA in Environmental Studies, she loves the conversations that take place at the dynamic intersection of Yoga, Ayurveda and living in alignment with nature that is Yogahealer.

Yolanda de Cuevas

Born in Cape Town, in sight of the mountain, Yolanda de Cuevas spent time living in coastal Spain and Southern England before moving to Western Australia for a change in direction after years in corporate life. Reconnection to my artist nature and the gift of Motherhood came about through living in the pristine and remote physical environment of the Margaret River region.
In the past ten years Art, Yoga and Ayurveda have become companions for my creative life thanks to the guidance of wonderful teachers. I’m excited to share these amazing tools. I focus on small, practical and incremental changes which will have a surprising impact on your life. Connect, Subscribe.