Designing an Intentional Life with brb Yoga Founder Catherine Middlebrooks-EP051

Some of us are attracted to online entrepreneurship because of the freedom it affords us to travel, living the digital nomad lifestyle. Others of us choose web-based businesses because we want to get off the hamster wheel and spend real quality time with our kids and partners. Today’s guest is combining both of those perks and embarking on an RV adventure with her husband and two small children, traveling the country to visit family while maintaining her online venture, brb Yoga.

Catherine Middlebrooks began a yoga practice in college. Ten years ago, she earned a certification to teach and began a successful corporate yoga business. After a move to Nashville, Catherine transitioned into a ‘regular job,’ using her master’s in experimental psychology to work in market research. But when her daughter was born in 2012, Catherine and her husband made the decision to be more intentional about their lives and start their own online business.

At the same time, Catherine was struggling to find time for yoga. As a new mom, she didn’t have 75 minutes to spend at a studio, but she knew she needed the mindfulness and calm a yoga practice provides. So Catherine developed a program of shorter, precisely designed classes to pull her out of the overwhelm and help her embrace her new life and body. She created brb Yoga to help other moms make time for self-care and restore their core strength. Today she discusses how she niched down to serve a very specific population of new moms, the challenge of maintaining her relationship with her husband as they build a business together, and her upcoming family RV adventure! Listen and learn how to employ Facebook ads to generate traffic and apply a project management system to make the best use of your time.

 

Key Takeaways

Why Catherine’s digital format works for new moms interested in Yoga

• Struggle to find time to attend class
• Looking for program that serves post-partum body

 

The value of identifying a need in the marketplace

• Women with abdominal separation not served by traditional fitness industry
• Catherine created Heal Your Core program for niche audience

 

Catherine’s struggle to attract ideal clients

• Started w/ ‘quick, efficient online yoga for busy moms’
• Realized not specific enough
• Gained traction after designing specific products (i.e.: Beginners Bundle)
• Landed on serving women with diastasis recti
• Relies on Facebook ads, targeting companies that serve same population
• Alludes to pain points of ideal client in marketing

 

Catherine’s tips for employing Facebook ads

• Invest in course early on
• Don’t drive traffic to sales page
• Give value first (e.g.: blog post)

 

Catherine’s biggest challenge as entrepreneur

• Maintain relationship with husband while building business together
• Make sure work brings family closer together

 

Catherine’s upcoming RV adventure

• Decided freedom and family were priority
• Started online venture with travel in mind
• Designing trip so both have daily time to work, spend time with family
• Obtaining booster for RV (internet connection)
• Will continue to blog, nurture Facebook group, email

 

Catherine’s best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

• Create structure
• Consider Scrum project management process
• Establish weekly objectives
• Ensure that time/energy driven by you, your goals

 

Resources

RV Entrepreneurs Facebook Group

Scrum Project Management

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

 

Connect with Catherine Middlebrooks

Website