Traci Webb
Jared:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Kajabi Edge Podcast, where we talk to real entrepreneurs to give you an edge on Kajabi. I’m your host Jared Lohman, Vice President of Customer Experience, and today we are joined by Traci Webb, CEO of Ayurvedic Living School. How’s it going Traci?
Traci:
I’m doing really well. And yourself Jared?
Jared:
I’m doing pretty well too. Did I get Ayurvedic right? I got to ask.
Traci:
You did, I'm very impressed!
Jared:
Okay! I practiced a couple of times beforehand so it wasn’t my first try but I like to double check just to make sure I don’t say it wrong, a few more times. Well tell us a little bit more about what the Ayurvedic Living School is...kind of what is your elevator pitch?
Traci:
Yeah well our elevator pitch is essentially we’re helping healers to heal themselves, their families and their communities. And we’re doing that through combining ancient wisdom of India known as Ayurveda with modern life coaching and life skills. And ultimately what our kind of the overarching theme of our trainings is currently on the planet, we really feel that there is a need for a leadership with a heart, with big care. And so healers innately are people with a large heart and big care. So our school really just sees itself as a place to help support and train these healers to hone their healing skills and also to develop their business and coaching skills so that they can launch themselves ultimately online and get their very needed voices and the wisdom that they have to share out there to the people that are needing it. So now more than ever of course so.
Jared:
A little bit of ancient and a little bit of modern.
Traci:
Yes, yes. Well and it’s interesting because on my personal healing journey Jared, I discovered that Ayurveda is this amazing ancient wisdom - science says 5,000 years old, some say older. So it has all of this really time tested healing practices and lifestyle. It’s really, nature-aligned lifestyle and living. But at the same time there were some pieces of the ancient model that were missing for the modern times. And so that’s where the more cutting edge coaching skills, psychology skills and even life skills things like time management skills that our students learn, the business and tax skills, clarification of our purpose, our values, our own personal and professional mission things like that we embed into the trainings.
So it wasn’t...it’s not just you know, we just say it’s not like your average grandmother Ayurveda anymore. It’s not just Ayurveda so we’re really happy to be combining and uniting the best of the east and the west, the ancient and the modern.
Jared:
Very cool, very cool! Well I’d love to go not so ancient but maybe a little bit further back in time just to kind of...where did you get started on this? Like has this been something that you’ve been doing your entire life? What did things look like before this came into existence for you?
Traci:
Oh wow! What a powerful question. Well you know, really, when I was a young child, I knew that I wanted to do something that was helping and of service. I thought it was becoming a veterinarian. So I thought I wanted to help animals because I think many little girls actually have that value - I’m learning as I’m getting older. But as I did get older and then to my college years I discovered that I wanted to do more healing for humans. So I actually went to school to study Biology and eventually to become a Medical Doctor until I found my yoga and meditation class and so... I was having stress and anxiety as most people who graduate high school do, as we’re trying to figure out what we're going to do with our lives and how are we going to make a living and put a roof over our heads.
And so I got introduced to yoga and meditation from one of my highschool friends, her mother actually introduced me to it. And it was there within the first few weeks of my first yoga class that I was like this is so powerful. It was just so deeply putting me into my parasympathetic nerve response you know just like deep, and rest, and digest and bliss mode so I was like I need more of these.
And then eventually what happened was in that yoga class we got guest teachers. Very often once a month a guest teacher would come. There was a guest teacher who was an Ayurvedic practitioner. So as soon as I heard this person talk and share of what Ayurveda was...Ayurveda was really the combination of nutrition and lifestyle medicine, combined with herbs and all of the other therapies - aroma therapy, color therapy, sound therapy, massage therapy, you name it - it all falls under the umbrella of Ayurveda.
So I was super excited! I was like “There is actually science that combines everything I love within one system you know. And I get to do this for a living, you know? People are going to pay me to do what I love!” So as soon as I discovered that Ayurveda even existed - because this was more than 20 years ago. Nobody had heard of that word you know like...you’re like what is that word? Even today, right?
So way back when it was like nobody knew of this but I was like “I just need to do this” you know. So I didn’t understand back then that it was going to be you know it was an uncharted territory especially in the west of like what’s the trajectory of becoming a natural healer of this healing system from ancient India you know.
So in hindsight, I realized you know now that I’ve been online I discovered this word disruptor right? This kind of quality of people that see things in a different way and they’re like...they’re kind of here to co-create the future really is how I looked at it. I didn’t realize that I was that. I didn’t have a name for that back then but I knew that the medical model...the current medical model was not the whole picture of what healing really involved.
And so when I found Ayurveda, it was just...the light bulbs! It was like, you know, we had you know like fireworks in all directions you know ha-ha-ha. We call this a samadhi moment in our community. It was just a samadhi moment! You know it was like this deep realization. So that’s how I discovered Ayurveda.
Jared:
Alright! Were you still in Med school at that point in time? Have you already pursued a career or where were you at?
Traci:
I was just...I wasn’t in medical school. I was just really early on in my first year, 1st year of undergrad. So I was taking classes but I hadn’t you know actually clarified that Biology was my major or anything like that. I actually ended up studying Psychology which is much more in alignment with yoga and philosophy, and meditation, and studying the mind and things like that.
Jared:
Okay. Isn’t it...you’re kind of were alluding to this earlier but like I know like growing up when you heard about things like yoga and meditation at least living in the west if you will, or even the West Coast for myself, like it was not something that like was very very broadly exposed and available and like. It’s so interesting because like now like I think we're finally getting to the point to where we’re like...I don’t know if this is the right classification but like modern science is starting to recognize like some of these things like mediation and like the brain health and all of the benefits associated with some of these things that for a really long period of time like they may seemed like...they weren’t just common I guest in the west.
Traci:
Yes exactly Jared. Yeah you can really feel it, it’s in the ethos right? Like meditation and yoga, even like the newscasters use the word mantra for god’s sake you know. I remember 20 years ago nobody knew what that was you know. So yes it’s definitely... the time is ripe on the planet and you know probably because you know the stress levels you know if we look at like leading causes of disease the world over, like what leads to autoimmune and heart disease and diabetes and cancer and all. You know a lot of it is actually well rooted in the nervous system and in the stress.
And so I do feel you know Ayurveda is probably very popular right now for a couple of reasons. One is because the planet needs us to live in a more aligned way with Mother Nature. But also because we need a system of healing that isn’t just supporting us to pop more pills to make the pharmaceutical companies more money but really to get to the root of the imbalances which is a lot more at the level of our state of mind or state of happiness. And so...and the stress levels and the effects of that on our immune system and the effects of our immune system on all of our systems just we’re even seeing today with the pandemic.
Jared:
Yeah, yeah. Well I guess... So you were on this journey, you’re in school, you discover Ayurveda...did that like... did that just become your career and where did it start like in this world? Was it... did you start your own Ayurveda? I don't know what kind of… did you start a practice like what is it that you do?
Traci
You know I did, I went to school...I went to school to study massage and I became a Massage Therapist then I became an Ayurvedic Massage Therapist what we call a Panchakarma Therapist, somebody who gives a week long massage retreats receiving like 3 hours of massage a day. It’s amazing!
Jared:
That sounds terrible!
Traci:
I know. Isn't that terrible?
Jared:
Who comes up with this stuff?
Traci:
And isn’t that interesting you know how we do in Ayurveda we support removing imbalances to a lot of deep relaxation practices whether it’s yoga, meditation, massage, you name it. So I did massage and then I went to Ayurveda school. And so that was a 2 ½ year course of study but then, of course, I went on for 12 years and studied with my teacher. Which actually you were saying earlier about how you know modern medicine is starting to understand the deeper causes of disease are much more the mind and the stress levels.
And my teacher always said you know Ayurveda, what we’ve known for thousands of years, the western medical model science is going to be proving - is proving a little more every day these ancient truths that we knew in Ayurveda of how health happens. So it’s interesting to see that you know...that modern medicine really is starting to catch up. And I’m really impressed with that. It’s still got some you know deficits, some challenges, but we are seeing them being much more open minded and as a result of the science proving more and more the impact of the mind and state of the mind, etc. and the hormones and neurotransmitters on our whole health.
Jared:
Yeah. Well, what's the next stage? You’re a masseuse...you’re an Ayurvedic masseuse, like when did this become something that like...when did this transition online if you will?
Traci:
I know, yeah. So...so I went from you know being a Massage Therapist to an Ayurvedic Massage Therapist to an Ayurvedic Practitioner to somebody who hosted small courses and Ayurveda and the brick and mortar actually out of my home and out of my small center I had down in Orange County in Southern California. And I actually...how it happened was on accident. I was hosting a teacher from India and he decided two classes into this 10-week training. I think it was 10 weeks that I was hosting him out in my house to teach. He discovered that he didn’t feel his English was good enough so he didn't want to teach so I had to take over and step in.
That’s where I really began teaching Ayurveda myself for the first time and I went on to do that for another...more than a decade. So that was about somewhere between 2000-2002. But I kept teaching out of my home and out of various yoga studios - yoga classes, Ayurveda classes, aroma therapy, massage classes - all of these things.
Then my husband and I, we had this big dream to move to Northern California and offer Ayurvedic retreats here, those Panchakarma retreats. And I actually did that for several years. It was an incredible experience at such a beautiful location, we're here in the Redwoods so people loved coming here, Jared. But at some point, I realized my local community didn’t really understand or know what Ayurveda was, that the wave of Ayurveda had not washed over the shores of Northern California at that point.
So I realized we’ve got to open a school and I had my first class with 2 students. My very first class I only had 2 students in Northern California and I’m saying that for the listeners of like “You’ve got to start somewhere.” And sometimes we have very incredibly humble beginnings that it was from that 2 students class, the next year we have 5 students, the following year we have 12 students, the following year we had 22 students. And at that point I was then hiring teachers to come in from out of the area and we did that for several years. And it wasn’t until 2018 when I actually started getting online...actually it wasn’t until 2015. And what I did is I was just researching what are the different systems and how do they integrate to create this online model that I wanted to be.
I knew that my community was online and I was starting to discover “Oh these are change makers” because these are people that really want to have a big impact and really want to heal the planet right? My tribe is a lot online and this kind of innovators like pushing the envelope, pulling us forward into the future and the potential that we can be on this planet. So I sensed that in myself, I sensed I was a part of that but I had no idea how to make it happen.
So I did a lot of research for several years and I was learning about the LMS the Learning Management Systems, comparing all of your Kajabi’s competitors with Kajabi, talking to people about it. And then I finally discovered just go for...go with your intuition Traci, which I could’ve done a year or two earlier. So I did, I put it off a few years even though I kept knowing Kajabi, Kajabi. And I finally said “Okay Kajabi I’m signing up” you know.
And there was a lot of fear because you know it was an investment...all I did though honestly was to compare it to my brick and mortar that I was paying every month and over the course of the year. And that actually made it much more easy of a decision for me in hindsight that things can be even maybe a little more affordable online - to have the whole school online. Actually that was new to me to discover that.
But essentially once I...we went online in 2018 and I did it very piece-mealed. So we have the videos online and actually at that point I did not do it on Kajabi, I think it was the following year. But the first year I just had him hosted actually in YouTube and a private channel to be honest with you but the following year I think on the backend of that year I was working on building up the Kajabi school side.
So in 2019 is when I think we actually started using Kajabi - was until 2019. And I’m here to just like tell the community like your dreams and visions like Kajabi really does make them possible. I’m not just saying that because I’m here on the Kajabi Podcast but I really wholeheartedly believe in Kajabi for healers. And for people that we call them techphobes, that they are afraid of tech and they don’t even like to get on the computer necessarily. If I can do Kajabi as a techphobic healer trust me you can do Kajabi.
So that’s basically how it got started and it was within the next you know...I think it was that year again our students grew beyond our local economy out across like the northwest. Next year we were in Mexico and I think in Canada and now we’re across this country and then to other countries, over in Europe and Australia.
So it’s just like if you have that dream and you have that vision just...hopefully this is a good model of like you don’t need the tech skills you just need the passion. And you put a little time in especially at the beginning and your dreams really can come true. You can be experiencing that connection helping to support the world at large to be healing, to be whatever your unique skill that you want to...your unique gifts that you want to share that you can be reaching such a wider audience and having such a bigger impact. And it is so profound.
Jared:
I love it. Yeah I mean and I also...I think it’s so cool how actually scrappy you were prior to Kajabi. Like just getting straight on YouTube, private channel and finding a way to like get your content out there.
Traci:
Thanks!
Jared:
It’s so cool. Well, I’d love to like zoom in a little bit more on like what’s some of those challenges, or worries you were getting up and running like maybe you run into them before and Kajabi was the answer to the challenge. But like I assumed you continued to you know run into the situations because this stuff is not easy, there’s no question. You just talked about like...you said it like it was coming out like really quickly but like you went over it through 4 or 5 years.
Traci:
Yeah, yeah.
Jared:
You’re like “Oh we had 2 students - year one, 5 on year two” that’s a lot of time. And that’s a lot of persistence.
Traci:
Yeah. That’s a lot of time.
Jared:
And that’s a lot of persistence!
Traci:
Well, you know the truth is like do you want to do something you love and you’re passionate about and you feel purposeful about or do you not. So I think I’ve really believed like most of the people that are drawn to Kajabi and the online learning system into coaching in general like we are people that cannot stand to just to do any old thing for a living like we want to feel whatever. Even if we’re working on the computer as we’re typing you know at the papers whatever it is we want to feel like we’re making a bigger contribution. It’s not just about us right?
So I definitely think that that’s a part of being an entrepreneur especially in this day and age and online it’s like that passion - the passion is the fuel for the business right? The passion of being of greater service is probably really the launching pad for being a really powerful entrepreneur. And it really is the fuel for all things you do whether it’s you being out there and talking on podcast like this. Whether it’s you in the shadows putting out the courses or creating the videos or doing the tech you know whatever or building your team. It really is the deeper why, right? We all need that deeper why. The fuel for the fire. Or business it’s a fire. It’s the business of transformation and I really like...whether the coaches know it or not and I’m sure they sensed it, business is a spiritual path.
In my world, like I never understood that I was really a businesswoman because I love the spiritual growth that comes from it. And the business model I happen to be projecting into the world was healing but really at the heart of who I am, I’m a businesswoman. I want to actually transform the planet through business and I really believe that’s possible. And the path of business for me, it is my primary spiritual path at this time.
People who’ve known me for 20,30 years would be shocked to hear that. They know me as a meditator and a yoginian, all of these things but it really is the path of service. In the yogic world we call it The Path of Seva or you know it really is the path of service through business. So things like during Covid we were able to get up and running and putting out you know a small...it was like $27 downloadable course on Covid from the lense of Ayurveda right within the first week of the announcement of what was going on on the planet with Covid. So it was like you know the business person with the passion combined with a modern day tech to me really is like the saving grace for the future. I mean it really...I know that sounds really far out but business people have so much passion and we’re actually literally whether we know it or not, we’re channelling information that’s basically in service for the masses. And if we allow ourselves like I did to follow the calling to go with Kajabi, amazing things will happen.
Kind of like down in South America with the hurricanes and all of the sudden these entrepreneurs were able to get down there and build water machines pulling molecules out of the air to create water...clean water so that people weren’t dying from the sicknesses. So it’s that level that I don’t know...you know I’m sure Kajabi folks realized that but I really...and from my lens I feel that Kajabi and the online platforms that are coming together, they’re actually a unifying field for all of the healers.
And healers doesn’t mean literally like they’re acupuncturists or massage therapists but they’re coaches right? They’re teaching people how to heal from food addiction or parents to be better parents or whatever it might be right? To be better spouses and have healthy relationships. So we actually...we need the tech. The tech is part in parcel for the future of this planet in my humble opinion. So I really appreciate Kajabi, I appreciate all of the systems it integrates with. It allows me to be able to fulfill my purpose on this planet and not me but hundreds and thousands and millions of others like me.
Jared:
Well as you moved into this online world and as your expanding kind of your audience, what did the process look like? Where you...did you just pull from people who were like taking your physical classes or how did you begin to like develop a following outside of your region.
Traci:
Excellent question Jared. I love it! Yes you know we start with where we’re at. So where I was at was brick and mortar. And what I would do I would show up to teach small courses in various yoga studios or health centers because that was my you know genre - my niche. And I would go and I would take a little sign up sheet at the end to join my newsletter and when I would come home I would back then we manually just like put everybody you know in into the system.
And so...and I don’t know if I can say this but I used Mailchimp you know. And so I would manually input them in there and over the years that list grew. So when I went online it was a no brainer that “Oh this is now our tribe.” And it wasn’t until several years ago, just a few years, maybe three years ago, that I got into the other social media like Facebook was maybe 3 years ago, I think Instagram was just this year so I have not really used a lot of the other platforms.
But I will say and I think it’s really in alignment with coaches and the kind of the tribe that we’re talking about is that...what I think of it is like the lightworkers on the planet which is the tech people may not see themselves as that but I do. But basically getting the people in the online system was one part up to me but the other part I was going to say is partnership. Because the other thing that you know we love to do as humans is do things together right?
We get sick alone, we heal together. That’s true for our bodies, that’s true for our businesses, right? We get sick alone, we heal together. So when I went online I realized I can’t do this alone, I need an actual team for the first time. So now you know we have our graduates that are working behind the scenes and their supervisors for our school but we also have affiliate marketers you know.
And so...and that’s been a huge way to build our list or being on podcasts like this on occasion, there’s all multiple ways to do that. But start with where you’re at and start simple. You might start in the physical world with a physical list you know or get a page going from Kajabi a form apps so people can start joining your list there. Kajabi makes it very simple to do that.
Jared:
Very nice! So as you...as you kind of I guess went into this launched phase, I don’t know if launch is the right term for you...maybe a lot of people do this like one big push, get people in like what did that process look like for you?
Traci:
The one big push. There was never one big push per se but we have our annual trainings. We have 2 annual trainings and it’s really just in the early... it’s from January to March each year, which is our push. And so what that push looks like was like we just said was basically reaching out to my affiliate marketers that are helping to market me. I might have gone on a...done a webinar for them, I might have shown up on their newsletter and we definitely marketed through our own newsletter and through our own social media.
And through those simple... and through just word of mouth. Honestly, like to this day, a decent portion of our business still comes from our local community and I think in part because we’ve just been known here for so long, we’re in a small area there’s not a lot of other options. So if anybody wants Ayurveda they tend to think of the school since we’ve been here for so long. So it’s all of those factors, the online system and I think also having your...you know your website up over time just through general SEO, that’s a decent amount of stream of incoming students as well.
Jared:
Okay. You’ve got this running, how many years have you been in this phase of like this has been rolling online like you... where that’s been like a primary portion of your business?
Traci:
Yeah, since 2018 and then 2019 with Kajabi. So 2021, just those 3 years really.
Jared:
And you know this is I think just it’s always relevant at this time like so you kind of...I kind of have to cover this. Like how did the pandemic impact like what you were doing in your business?
Traci:
Yes! It has been the single most powerful motivator for people to get involved in Ayurveda that I’ve ever seen in my life and that I’m likely to see in my life right? Like for the 30 years prior in my humble experience I’ve never seen anything like this to fuel people to get interested in Ayurveda. And really it’s been health and I’ve read you know studies where tech and personal development, those are the number 1 and number 2 growing industries on the planet. I don’t know if that’s currently still the case and those are...but that I think that they go together right? That we all want to heal and the tech is helping us.
So yes! So it took those, you know those 3 years so that was you know not much time and in that time Covid happened. So that would have been in 2020 last year. And our community did grow and I know all of the Ayurveda schools grew like coaching itself at large grew. All the different you know genres of coaching. So it’s just...it’s been phenomenal to be honest with you.
And having people oriented around their health and at home where they can actually start to educate themselves and empower themselves to improve their immune system, to understand how to, you know, self care techniques, and food and herbs and things if they were to get sick. I mean it’s literally been just phenomenal for the growth of our business and our community. And we only see exponential growth expected into the future in the years to come. Like this is not likely going...that very stark reality that this is likely not going away and as a result, in my humble opinion, every human on the planet will benefit from knowing Ayurveda.
Therefore there’s literally never going to be a lack in my lifetime for all the students we could ever graduate from our school to be you know at the deficit of having enough clients like we almost can’t keep up with the needs. It’s kind of like the hospitals in the emergency rooms where the physicians and nurses, they can’t keep...they literally can’t keep up. So it’s been at that level of growth within the healing industry - natural healing industry - of my friends and colleagues that I know that have schools.
Jared:
Okay, tell me a little bit more about like what has...what’s changed for you since like making the move? I don’t want to say like making the move offline to online is not entirely true in this situation because it sounds like it’s still like a blend of both maybe. But like what’s changed for you since like...I’ll just say I don’t like saying this often but since finding Kajabi or since bringing this kind of into the mix.
Traci:
Kajabi, I mean just at the heart of it all, I mean on a very personal... like Kajabi has have helped me to literally fulfill my dreams. Where, when I had my brick and mortar Jared, I felt like I was always 3 steps in the past of who I was. Kajabi has enabled me in an instant at my fingertips to be able to launch and to put out into the world my ideas, my thoughts, the courses, the offerings to connect to our community, to unite with the community the world over.
It’s literally been beyond my wildest dreams, both personally being able to fulfill my dreams and live the life that I always knew existed for myself but I’m really living the dream, right? And then on that you know dharmic - what we call dharmic on the purpose level of just like the level of impact and being able to witness the impact of Ayurveda, and in our Ayurveda community of the students that have been in clustering Covid like “We’re not getting sick, and we’re not feeling isolated, we’re not feeling alone.”
Like Kajabi has helped us to be connected in ways that we never would have you know. To be getting the knowledge that we needed to heal ourselves, to heal our families, and support our communities at this time. So it’s been game-changing. And then you know like on the financial level like as a result of all that growth it’s like it’s forcing me to consider parts of my life that were never you know conceivable before. Like you know, where to channelize the new income to you know what organizations do we want to support, where do I want to channel the money to support my personal retirement for my husband. How do I want to guide this community so that when I do retire that you know there are folks that can take over the community like...there’s many layers there.
So it’s been really profound, the impact. I know I keep saying that but I’m really...I’m like the perfect salesperson, spokesperson for Kajabi. And I’m actually, I’m proud of that. They’re fulfilling such a beautiful role on the planet at this time so.
Jared:
Yeah well I mean I think even just the Kajabi absent. Like moving online, it removes constraints like you know. At one point you needed someone to be in your same physical location to teach something, now the world is your audience.
Traci:
Yes!
Jared:
Which is so cool!
Traci:
Exactly!
Jared:
Well I guess if anyone is interested in learning a little more about you, ike what do you have like coming up next? What’s coming down the pipeline?
Traci:
Thank you for asking Jared. So we actually, we have our 2022 programs - are going to be launching in January. We’ve got our Ayurveda Health and Life Coach Training that starts January 12th, completely online and then we got our Ayurveda Herbalist/Practitioner Training which is starting in March also 100% online. So that’s what our offerings are typically every year and when our courses start and the doors are open as of this week actually. The doors just opened so feel free to visit us and to check them out and schedule even a clarity call if you like.
Jared:
Very cool. So if someone’s interested in finding you, where’s the best place to kind of start that process out?
Traci:
Just through our website which is ayurvedicliving.com that’s W-W-W-A-Y-U-R-V-E-D-I-C that’s Ayurvedic and then the world living L-I-V-I-N-G-.-C-O-M. And so you can go there and you’ll see our live trainings, our downloadable courses and you can schedule a discovery and Q & A call as well to learn more.
Jared:
Very cool. Well, thank you so much Traci for joining me today. It has been a blast hearing this journey. And I can’t think of any other word other than journey! Like you...like I don’t want to say you fell into this because that’s never the case. I don’t know there is a certain like natural path in progression for how this all came together which is really cool to hear, really cool to hear.
Traci:
Thank you, thank you Jared. Thank you so much and thank you for taking time out of your day to spend time with me, get to know me, and I enjoyed it.
Jared:
Awesome! Well for any listeners as always we appreciate you tuning in to us. We’d love it if you left us a review on any of your favorite podcast channels as well as share this content with your friends so we can get more and more of this inspirational content out to more and more aspiring entrepreneurs. So with that said we will see everyone next time on the Kajabi Edge Podcast.
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