How This Athlete Built A Yoga Brand From Scratch To $120K/Year

Jason Deutchman

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Published: August 14th, 2022

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Jason Deutchman

Founder, Yoga Strong

$10K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Yoga Strong

shopyogastrong.com

from Los Angeles, CA, USA

started July 2020

$10,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools Jason recommends to grow your business!

Klaviyo

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Instagram

freelance

Upwork

Discover what books Jason recommends to grow your business!

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I’m Jason Deutchman, founder of Yoga Strong.

Catering to your desire for fashion and function, Yoga Strong makes luxe performance fitness accessories for a contemporary lifestyle.

We are building something to celebrate movement. Working out is optional, but movement is mandatory. And movement is all about individual expression. So whether you are an athlete, a mom, a male, an elderly, or anything in between, we want to provide fashionable and functional gear to help you be your best self.

Today, we’re still going strong (no pun intended) with close to $10k in monthly sales, determined to create stylish workout essentials carefully crafted to meet your needs.

And just generally hustle and flow.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

This all started as a family dinner. Well, technically it started when I retired from basketball and I couldn’t get a job interview. Not even one. My only choice was to create my opportunity.

So the discussion over Filipino chicken adobo: how to make yoga more fun.

If at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again. Business is hard! So be persistent!

Why yoga? Well, I had recently retired from playing professional basketball for seven seasons, and yoga had been an integral part of my life and career up to that point.

As an athlete, I endured six knee surgeries, using yoga as a tool to help improve my performance and accelerate my recovery.

But let’s face it, a 6’6 basketball player walking into a yoga class is pretty unusual.

So our idea was simply "really cool yoga mats" because at the time all options were grossly expensive or grossly looking.

And with an idea and concept that felt very personal to my journey, I knew I could craft a vision for this burgeoning brand.

Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.

The first step in our process was sourcing the materials. We set out to create the perfect yoga mat - one that would provide the perfect balance of grip, cushion, and durability.

We tested over 200 yoga mats, and we were still unhappy with the options.

Our goal was clear: to create a yoga mat that would help you achieve your workout goals, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro.

Once we locked in our quality with what we call “Composite Technology”, the next step was designing the patterns. Lucky for us, we are located in Los Angeles, where there is no shortage of fashion designers that are experienced in creating beautiful patterns with attractive color palettes.

After designing, iterating, re-coloring, and finally receiving samples, we were on our way to building our brand.

As most other founders could tell you, the first samples SUCKED. The color was off, the dimensions were off, and the quality control wasn’t up to standard. But we kept trying and trying, and by building a good relationship with our manufacturer, we were able to approve final samples approx. 9 months after the initial inquiry.

1st DIY photoshoot that we shot with iPhone and at an outdoor location to save $$$

Digital Design rendering in Photoshop

Initial color sample, versus final color sample

Describe the process of launching the business.

As a 100% self-funded venture, I wanted to see returns on my investment immediately. So when we launched, we dove head first into Facebook ads and pricey influencers.

And we learned the hard way that we tried to go too fast too soon. COVID had just shut down retail, CPMs on Facebook were skyrocketing, and competition was increasing. Without the necessary funds to compete with rising costs, we were not in a position to succeed. Especially without any brand equity or social currency built yet.

So after a tough few months to start, we scrapped everything and started over. Dove deeper into the trenches to learn what it takes to run an e-com business. After we took that step back, we realized we had a lot of work to do. We needed to build a new site, new creatives, and new initiatives, all on a budget.

When every dollar is coming out of your pocket, you have to be as self-sufficient as possible and cannot be irresponsible. I may have played pro basketball, but I was not in the NBA, so there was no extra capital waiting for a rainy day.

With a better foundation, we could be better built for long-term success.

But what it takes to run an e-com business is often the stuff not talked about. Patience, persistence, consistency, and punctuality, are some of the most important characteristics to help you succeed. It’s not all about media buying and “brand.” Similar to how sports are “90% mental and 10% physical”, ecom business is just as much about unmeasurable things, as it is about the numbers.

Half the battle is showing up and trying to improve every single day. And there have been times when I felt like quitting, but as an athlete, I possess an innate trait to persevere even when my back is against the wall. It’s certainly not an easy road, as it has pushed both my mental and physical health to the limit, but you keep moving forward, inch by inch.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

While Facebook and Instagram ads have not given us the return we would’ve hoped for, we have found Youtube to be a very valuable channel for us, as well as affiliate partnerships.

Being able to invest in real people that can make a real difference with their authority and exposure effect, has allowed us to hone in on our demographics and buyer personas. Coupling those channels with a strong push into SEO content we began to cover several touchpoints that impact a potential buyer.

Our SEO strategy encompasses one main goal - authority. And we work on achieving that with two methods - strong backlinking from high domain authority sites, and pushing out strong and consistent blog content that makes us a thought leader in the fitness/wellness space. Investing in these 2 areas has allowed us to show high on SERP, and give us credibility and build TOF awareness.

Once we can get users into our funnel, we work on retaining them with our limited drop model. Since every pattern we produce is in limited quantities and based on seasonality, trends, etc., and once it is sold out it never gets re-printed, we can tap into FOMO to push users into deeper involvement with our brand.

With Youtube, fitness videos are one of the most commonly searched terms, and popular channels can get hundreds of thousands of views regularly. So I embarked on a cold e-mail campaign, reaching out to these fitness instructors offering product partnerships that are a seamless fit to what they’re already doing - working out.

Since our products are a natural extension, these Youtube channels can incorporate the product authentically without harming their credibility. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that Yoga Strong products stand out aesthetically.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

As a one-man show, it is integral we stay lean and profitable in the near term as we continue to scale to bigger goals.

This means negotiating good payment terms with suppliers to help with the cash conversion cycle and closely monitoring customer acquisition costs.

In addition, continuing to develop partnerships with key individuals and corporate partners that eliminate any risk by offering a CPA model. Since we’re able to drive revenue in certain channels without risk, we can make more risky propositions elsewhere without worry.

We also stopped using a 3PL and now ship everything on our own. While that requires more time commitment, the cost savings allows us to invest in other scaleable efforts that can increase our bottom line revenue.

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Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I would’ve never learned as much as I have without making so many mistakes along the way. While I wish I had some of the crazy amounts of money I wasted on expensive influencers and agencies back, it taught us how to be smart and disciplined with our money.

Most of us don’t have angel investors or VCs at our doorstep, so you have to be your own CEO/COO/CMO/CFO and everything in between.

This is especially true when everything in business is relative. There are no absolutes. What worked for one person, may not work for you.

And it’s a roller coaster ride. There will be ups and downs, and long days in front of you, but trusting the process and staying the course is imperative to finding success.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

One of the best investments you could make for your e-com site is an overseas developer that can quickly iterate changes and or perform A/B testing on your site to improve your conversion rate. It’s hard enough to get traffic onto your website, you have to make sure the UX/UI is great to get users to stay. There are great ones on Upwork.

Email marketing with Klaviyo has also been a valuable resource, as we can continue to market to our “owned” audience without “paying” for it. The automation behind the flows for abandoned carts, welcome series, etc. is super useful and once you set it up, it runs automatically.

Investing in affiliate marketing has also been huge for us. Using the Social Snowball app on Shopify has increased our affiliate acquisition and retention abilities tenfold, and amped up our efforts to generate positive word of mouth. Offering affiliates a generous commission structure to refer their friends incentivizes them greatly.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

My favorite podcasts are How I Built This with Guy Raz and Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais. Educational but entertaining and inspiring at the same time.

Some of my favorite books are Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Burn Rate by Andy Dunn, and Little Stretchy Black Pants by Chip Wilson.

Little Stretchy Black Pants is the story of Lululemon and I loved the insights into how they were a trailblazer in an entire industry. Burn Rate was fascinating because it combined a start-up story with a mental health struggle, and the significance of mental health in this environment is important.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

The best advice is to keep turning over every rock. If at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again. Business is hard! So be persistent!

I knew ZERO when we launched. At 31 years old, my only job had ever been basketball player. And when we launched, I had a full-time day job and was working for extra cash on weekend mornings. I am probably the least likely person to succeed but I clawed and found my way.

Keep learning, keep iterating and you’ll always be making progress. It’s a grind! So if you want it, get after it!

Where can we go to learn more?

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!