If you’re a yoga teacher thinking about starting a Skool community, but you’re worried about setting up yet another platform, I have good news for you.
Skool is one of the simplest platforms I’ve used in more than 10 years of running an online business, and you can get the basics of your community set up surprisingly quickly.
In the video below, I’m taking you behind the scenes and showing you exactly how I would start a Skool community from scratch, including the actual setup of a new community and how I use Skool inside my own Blissful Biz Hive.
Why Skool for yoga teachers?
I believe Skool is one of the biggest opportunities for yoga teachers and wellness entrepreneurs who want to build an online business right now.
Instead of trying to piece together a course platform, Facebook group, Zoom, payment processor and community space, you can bring most of it together in one place.
But what excites me even more is the business model.
You can build a community around one specific problem your ideal students want help with, give them ongoing support and content, and create recurring monthly income instead of constantly having to launch the next course.
And you don’t need to have everything ready before you start.
Step 1: Create your Skool community
When you create a new community on Skool, you’ll first choose your plan and give your group a name.
Don’t overthink the name because you can change it later. But I would already start thinking about your positioning here.
Instead of something generic like “Susanne’s Yoga Community,” think about what someone actually wants help with.
For example: Yoga for Better Sleep
That immediately gives me an idea of who the community is for and why I might want to join.
Step 2: Set up your Skool community branding
Next, you’ll need a small community icon and a cover image.
You can create both in Canva using the dimensions Skool gives you.
One important thing to remember with your icon is that it appears very small in Skool, so don’t try to squeeze lots of text into it. Keep it simple and make sure it’s still recognizable at a tiny size.
Your cover image gives you more space to communicate what your community is about.
Step 3: Write a specific Skool group description
You only have a small amount of space for your group description, so this is not the place for vague language.
Instead of:
Helping you reconnect with your higher self.
I would write something much more specific, such as:
Practical yoga for restless nights, racing thoughts and those frustrating 3 AM wakeups.
Now I immediately know what problem this community helps me solve.
This is one of the most important parts of creating a successful Skool community. The platform is easy to set up. Coming up with a strong positioning and promise takes more thought.
Step 4: Choose your Skool pricing model
Skool gives you several ways to structure your community. You can create a free community, charge a monthly or annual subscription, offer different tiers or use a one-time payment.
If you’re starting from scratch, I really like the idea of beginning with a free community and using a free event or challenge to bring in your first members.
Once you have people inside and you know what they want from you, you can introduce a paid membership or different tiers.
You don’t need to have your entire business model figured out on day one.
Step 5: Create your Skool About page
Your About page is essentially the sales page for your Skool community.
This is the page people see when you send them a link to your group, so it needs to quickly answer:
Who is this for? What problem are you helping them solve? What will they get inside? Why should they join?
You can add images and video as well as your written description.
I also recommend adding real results or testimonials as soon as you have them. And if you already have testimonials from working with students or clients outside this particular community, you can start with those.
Step 6: Set up your Skool Classroom
The Classroom is where your courses, trainings and other resources live.
And this is where I see people making things much harder than they need to be.
You do not need to create 25 trainings before you invite your first member.
Start with a simple welcome section that tells new members what to do first.
Then add the content they actually need.
You could even launch your community with nothing more than a seven-day challenge and add new resources as you go.
Your community can grow with your members.
Step 7: Set up your Calendar and community features
If you’re planning live classes, coaching calls, workshops or other events, you can add those directly to your Skool Calendar.
You can host your calls through Zoom, Google Meet or Skool itself, make events recurring and control which members or plans have access.
Skool also has features like leaderboards and levels that allow you to reward people for participating in the community.
But again, you don’t need any of this to get started.
Keep it simple.
The most important part of starting a Skool community
Setting up your Skool community might take you an afternoon.
Figuring out why someone would want to join it is where I would spend more of my time.
What specific person are you helping?
What problem are they already trying to solve?
Why would they want ongoing support around that problem?
And can they understand what your community is about within a few seconds?
That’s the foundation I would get right before worrying about courses, gamification or having a perfectly polished community.
Want help building your Skool community?
If you’re a yoga teacher and want my help figuring out your community idea, positioning, offer and setup, come join me inside the Blissful Biz Hive.
This is exactly the kind of work we’re doing inside the community, and you can bring your idea and get my feedback as you build.
