24 March 2011

Hello and welcome to the Choreographytogo Instructor Newsletter. This is a free weekly resource that I designed 8 years ago years ago to provide support, ideas and back up for all Instructors and Personal Trainers. I love to receive your feedback, so if you do have any comments or would like to contribute in any way please email lesley@choreographytogo.com or please use the very lively forum.

For website/membership/course bookings and general admin email Lesley@choreographytogo.com or call the C2Go office 07854 739285. We aim to answer your emails within 24 hours. Please add Lesley@choreographytogo.com to your address book as mail sometimes can go to your junk/spam mail box. You can also find the answers to many of your questions in the FAQ section and Help section of the site click here for FAQs and Terms & Conditions

News and Updates by Rachel Holmes

This week’s newsletter contains a real wide range of articles and different topics from our contributors. I am focusing this week on Text message marketing, what to put in your local newsletters and steps to creating your own DVD to sell to your clients and lists. Jayne has written a great piece on feedback and how well or not we take it and Lewis Wheeler has written an interesting article on mental health, which is an often overlooked segment of health, fitness and wellness. I have also uploaded 2 brand new video downloads: A brand new HiLo Intermediate and Active Seniors 18 with more new downloads coming next week. So, lots to go at this week.

As this newsletter hits your inbox I am in Blackpool for the IFS feeling super nervous and very excited as I will be teaching the Fitness First Pre Convention this morning at 10am and then Friday looking forward to teaching the Menage a Tois Workout with my 2 best friends Jo Parry and Steve Watson. Plus, a lecture on Maximising your Money in Group Exercise and Chair Dance Burlesque, plus Body Shock. So, it’s going to be a crazy, full on weekend and, of course, I will be blogging and videoing the event as we go, so please add me on Facebook and Twitter for all the weekend updates. If you are in Blackpool this weekend then please come and say Hi!

http://www.facebook.com/RachelLHolmes

http://twitter.com/RachelHolmes

Fitness Mobile Marketing using Text Messages by Rachel Holmes

Did you know that with text messages you get about a 97% open rate?

Text message marketing is combining the best of mobile marketing and local marketing all at the same time.

Everyone has a mobile phone and text messages marketing has been overshadowed recently with the gains in social media. But a simple text message to remind clients you have a class that evening or a new Fitness Pilates course, or Bootcamp, or whatever can really boost attendance and help get old or lapsed clients back to class.

1.Ensure you have everyone’s mobile phone number on your database system.

2.Check your mobile phone provider for group text messages deals. You can send the text from your pc and if you have a business phone contract you may be eligible for a deal

I’ve been experimenting with prices and deals from the following companies

http://www.txtlocal.co.uk/

http://www.sms4pc.com/

http://www.texttank.co.uk

Jayne Nicholls – How are you with Feedback

It’s convention time with IFS this week and Fit Pro very close, are you going?

A note on feedback, I have been on the receiving end of some pretty direct feedback over the past few weeks as I break into a new market and try to forge a place for myself as the very best that I can be.

My feedback is honest, direct and constructive, it focuses on the things that I need to change and improve. I in turn take it on the chin and decide to run with it or turn against it.

With this in mind here are 2 reactions to feedback given in my FFY courses, the feedback FYI was almost identical but the reactions are so different.

Positive: It was really good for me to have my technique and teaching analysed and I am sure that my clients will benefit (as well as me personally!).
I feel that I have a new challenge to ‘upskill’ my teaching of yoga and can see how that will help me with every client regardless of which type of training they are doing.

Negative: I had bad news the night before, I realise you hate body balance, I thought you were not constructive, I thought you were unfair, I thought ……..when do I get my certificate?

In 15 years of teaching these courses I have pretty much seen and heard all reactions to feedback, criticism and praise but I am still shocked when I have negativity projected back on to my intention when we are working in such a positive way.

Here’s the thing, it is my job to make you good and if you are good then make you better, if you are not good then it is not my fault. If you come on my courses to stay the same then what is the point?

I have been sourcing feedback for some time and continually self assess how GXT can make do things better.

How do you receive feedback?

Jayne@JayneNicholls.com

What to write in your newsletters by Rachel

I have written a zillion articles here on Choreographytogo about how to use newsletters to create a bond with your clients, inform them about the services you offer, educate and help clients, but it can still be a task every week to continually come up with new articles so here are some ideas:

1.Newsletters are usually scan read so lists are a brilliant way of creating a short, informative article eg 5 ways to cut calories in your diet, or, 5 core exercises to do at home, The 5 best fatburning exercises, The 5 best Tracks for Zumba, The 5 best all round Pilates exercises…that kind of thing

2.Guest contributors – Can you get other people to contribute on a regular basis? Network with other fitness professionals via Facebook and see if you can swap articles with other people. Use the Choreographytogo forum and ask if anyone would like to trade articles. Post on Facebook as well and Join professional Fitness groups on Facebook and post in theirs.

3.Home workouts – Simple Workouts and programmes to do at home are always popular or better still get yourself a FLIP Video camera (£109.00) and film some 5 minute workouts and post them onto your youtube channel. Paste this link into your newsletter and BINGO a simple home workout for your people to follow

2011 Goals – Do you want to make Workout DVD to sell to your clients

If one of your goals this year was to make a workout DVD to sell to your clients, what steps have you taken to getting this project up and running??? Here are my Top Tips

1.Start by Planning and rehearse your workout content now

2..Write the workout and practice.3. Find a studio or location to film where you will not be disturbed. Have a practice with a video camera, check that air cons doesn’t get picked up by a camera or there are any other noises that could ruin your DVD

4. Get a price from local video companies. Ring all of the local video companies in your area. To keep costs down use 1 camera and aim to do it in one take so no editing costs.

5.Buy music from a PPL free source. Google PPL free or licence free original music and buy 30minutes worth to keep costs down.

6. Rehearse your DVD Intro and Outro. Use cue cards or read from a script to get it word perfect. Speak slowly and carefully remembering to smile and look happy!

7.. For your DVD if you use back up babes make sure they are rehearsed and perfect or film it alone.

8..Design your front cover using a good graphic designer, market yourself and services on the front and the back of the DVD with contact info.What are you waiting for!!!

Lewis Wheeler – Mental Health and Fitness

Being the life and soul of the party when all you want to do is hide under the duvet and cry

As instructors we talk constantly about fitness and health to our classes and clients but mostly this is on a purely physical basis. These Pilates exercises will strengthen your core. Drop a Dress size with this nutritional plan. Get a bottom like J-Lo at Legs, Bums and Tums. How often do we think about our customer’s mental health and incorporate this into planning our sessions? We may mention that exercise releases ‘happy hormone’ Endorphins but this is only one aspect of the mental health benefits that can be gained from a class.

How well do you look after your own mental health? It’s not just people with mental illnesses that need to be aware of what is going on in their minds. Are you stressed? Juggling too many lives at once? Are you self-employed with responsibility for every aspect of your business plus your family? Do you actually take any time for yourself just to chill out and relax and enjoy life or are you always thinking about your next project, class, client, ever growing mountain of paperwork? I suspect not for many of you and I’m as guilty as anyone else for doing that.

This issue is very important and personal to me because I suffer from Bi-Polar disorder. The new term for “manic depression”. This means my mood will swing very quickly from being extremely excited and euphoric to the most crushing of depressions. Try standing up in front of forty people all expecting you to jump around and entertain them for an hour while you are struggling to bring yourself to look them in the eye. I’ve even found myself crying in the middle of Zumba tracks before – so much for ‘ditch the workout – join the party’. Luckily I am on medication that takes the edges off the mood swings and does mean that I can function normally most of the time.

Yesterday wasn’t a good day though. I’d spent the morning feeling completely demotivated. Taught Fitness Pilates in the afternoon hoping that my encouragement and cues to the class weren’t resonating with my own feelings. By the time I had got to the leisure centre to teach my final class I just wanted to hide in a dark room and let myself sink into the negative feelings. I have coping strategies and started downing coffee hoping to spark some life into my mind. Playing with your brain chemistry when it is already off kilter is not the best of ideas though. Right up until a couple of minutes before the class I was convinced the whole thing was going to be torture.

Then one of my regulars arrived and just smiled at me. A real, genuine, pleased to see me smile. That me is really important. When you are feeling down and useless and wished you didn’t exist having someone value your presence can help turn things around completely. Then more people arrived and my mood started to change direction. New faces were appearing in the class and even a guy I found quite attractive so I’d have to now be on top form with my teaching! By the end of the warm up the melancholy of the day didn’t seem real anymore. Exercising, telling jokes, having a laugh with the class was all that mattered.

What I’m trying to say is take time over the little things that make up the class. Don’t arrive late and faff about with your music and microphone while the class gets itself sorted. Greet people into the space – look them in the eye and smile. Not just a fake stick-on I’m the bubbly instructor smile but one that reflects your relationship with that person. If they’ve come to your class for years treat them like an old friend. If it’s their first time put them at ease and help to relax them. Make jokes when you teach – you don’t need to be Michael McIntyre. Simply being self-deprecating about how tough you yourself are finding the workout will work. Don’t just rush through the stretches at the end either. Put on some good music and encourage them to relax their minds as much as their muscles. Stress and anger can all be sweated out through the class. The last 5 minutes need to used for recovery and making peace with themselves. Remind them to feel proud of their bodies and what they have achieved in that hour. How many of them sit at home looking at those stupid photoshopped magazines and hating their own healthy figures? You can help break that cycle.

You may never know it but a simple act of friendliness from yourself to someone in your class may be the highlight of their week.

Lewis Wheeler

Hope you have an amazing week!

Love Rachel xxx

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24 March 2011

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