[quote]I start my day by doing affirmations and incantations. It’s easy to throw yourself a pity party every day, so I refuse to indulge in this.[/quote]
Jasmine Kaloudis has a background in movement, bodywork and spiritual inquiry that lends itself to fostering an atmosphere of dynamic play, nurturing and growth. She has lived all over the globe, and her multicultural perspective is beneficial with working with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Throughout her 15-year practice and teachings, Kaloudis has experienced how yoga is a tool which allows us to experience ourselves more fully and more richly. She specializes in working with yoga beginners, the stiff and inflexible, pregnant women and couples. She also has grassroots and social media marketing skills and is a dynamic leader with the proven ability to create value by cultivating strong client relationships, leading and training sales teams and creating effective marketing/sales strategies.
What are you working on right now?
Offering yoga lifestyle products online, as well as teaching yoga sessions for individuals, couples, groups and companies in the metro Philadelphia area. I also do grassroots marketing and internet marketing for small holistic businesses.
Where did the idea for Synergy By Jasmine come from?
I was liberated from working for a big international company making almost six figures with a grueling workload. I used to fantasize about teaching and doing yoga for a living. With my exit package, I was able to study yoga in-depth.
What does your typical day look like?
I wake up and make out with my puggle (pug/beagle) for 15 minutes before I get out of bed. I do my own yoga practice to stay centered. I then get on the computer and start working on marketing our online yoga lifestyle products, the yoga classes I teach, as well as marketing projects for my other holistic clients. I usually teach a yoga class at night.
How do you bring ideas to life?
We do a lot of research as to what people are searching for online for yoga lifestyle products. We then start marketing them through a combo of social media, SEM, SEO and PPC. I usually write about products that I am using or have tried out, such as a gluten-free, dairy-free recipe book, and so I get to cook and eat stuff like brownies, breads, cookies, cakes and cheesecakes. (For example, see here.)
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Seeing yoga being embraced as a healthy lifestyle practice instead of just a counterculture fringe practice.
What was the worst job you ever had, and what did you learn from it?
I used to knock on doors for a foreclosure company. People were angry, mean, sad, and doors were slammed in my face and my life was threatened. I didn’t have any real estate knowledge and didn’t have any sales skills at the time. I was determined to be successful, so started to work on getting knowledgeable and gaining more skills and ended up becoming their top rep within one year and even started to train other reps. I learned that with persistence and determination, I can excel at anything.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I would have taken more courses on SEO, SEM and interned at a company that specializes in this such as SEER interactive.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I start my day by doing affirmations and incantations. It’s easy to throw yourself a pity party every day, so I refuse to indulge in this.
Also, networking and being out in the community. In this digital age, nothing can replace face-to-face meetings. When I meet people, I focus on how I can offer them more value or help them instead of just selling or promoting my own stuff.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
In SEO, you are constantly testing and refining campaigns, so you don’t view it as failure, just how to not do something. “Failure” is a charged word, so I stay away from labels and terms that don’t empower me. We’re constantly monitoring the results of everything we do—campaigns for ourselves, clients, classes, and when something is not working, we either tweak or or chuck it. When it is working, we invest more resources into it or refine it.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?
If everyone was required to meditate at the beginning and end of their days for 15 minutes, there would be more peace, calm, agreement, compassion and less wars, rage, irritibility, anger, sadness, depression, fear, mass shootings, plus more consensus in goverment and less stress.
Tell us a secret.
If my dog ever became a person, I would end up cheating on my husband.
What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?
It changes every month, but this month it would be Raven Tools, Onlywire and Twilerts.
Raven is more for SEO agencies but has all kinds of analytics tools. Onlywire is great for submitting and blasting out content to a bunch of networks all at once. Twilerts lets me monitor mentions of terms on Twitter such as ” yoga philadelphia” without having to log in every day and do this. Twitter is like text messaging on steroids and tends to overwhelm me.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting by Lyn Grabhorn. About refocusing yourself so that you start to attract the life you want instead of the life you feel you got stuck with.
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?
I follow a lot of holistic folks, so @yogadork posts entertaining stuff for yogis. @Kris_Carr posts about having a vibrant lifestyle. Be Well Philly posts about all things wellness in the Philly area.
When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?
I just watched the movie Friends with Kids. It’s not going to win any awards, but I still got some laughs from it.
Who is your hero?
I don’t have just one. In the yoga world, probably Sadie Nardini. She is an ambitious yoga rock star YouTube queeen who combines her media-savvy self-promotion with a grueling yoga workout that will refine your body and transform your life off the mat. She also is a great model of someone who makes well over six figures by doing something she is passionate about that is making a difference for so many people.
What is one habit people can do to improve themselves professionally?
Take a look at the people you surround yourself with. Do they encourage, honor and support you or tear you down? People rise to the expectations of their peer group, so consciously surround yourself with people that inspire you and expect the best from you and limit people that are toxic.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Do or do not. There is no ‘try.'” -Yoda.
Connect:
Jasmine Kaloudis on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasminekaloudis
Synergy By Jasmine on Twitter:
Synergy By Jasmine on Facebook:
Synergy By Jasmine’s Website: www.SynergybyJasmine.com
Synergy By Jasmine on YouTube:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.