Instructor Newsletter 29th august 2013

The nights are slowly drawing in as the last few days of August are here. Are you all ready for September and the road into Christmas?   Can’t believe I even wrote that word…If you  can make it to South London on Sunday I’ll be doing a FREE KSFL Taster Talk and Masterclass with Chris Tuck, who is launching her book. We are both very excited about the day and you are all so welcome.  To book your place, please go to WestWickhamfitness.co.uk.  It would be fab to see you if you are in the area.

This week I am discussing marketing, and social media marketing in particular. Kelly shares her Top 5 Fitness Pilates tips.  I have my all time Top 10 Pure Energy Mixes that I use weekly in class and Cori chats about YOU,Jayne chats about Fitness and Jo de Rosa writes about a new retreat  plus Marv is back with more Top Tips.

Please come and check out the C2GO Facebook page.  I’m posting loads of information, chat, videos and session ideas, so do pop over and  like the page and say HI.  Id love to get your feedback on the newsletter over there as well.

Big One North

Are you coming to join us?  It’s going to be a wonderful day at Barnsley.  I’m presenting loads of new stuff and there are some great sessions. For all of the information and booking go to Chrysalis Promotions.

My All Time Top 5 Pure Energy Mixes

I have these 10 Pure Energy mixes on my phone, ipad and CD and carry them to every class. Some of them are older, but still rock the house in class. You can find them all on the new look PureEnergymusic.com website.

1.Mind/Body 20 – I use these for UNITE and Fitness Pilates as I prefer vocal for FP. Beautiful ballads and top tunes.

2.Mash Up MIx 1 – I LOVE mixes that have lots of shorter tracks all mixed together. One side is a constant BPM and the other is wicked for Hi/LO

3.Funky House – This mix always does  it for me. It has all of my old favorite clubbing tracks from the last 10 years.

4.Aerobics 20 – An old Aerobics CD tons of cheesy charty hits, but I love it and so do my classes

5.STEP 76 – Again another one from the vaults, but it certainly stands the test of time. I often have it on in the car as I love this brilliant mash up mix. It really is brilliant.

Are you Marketing your classes like it’s 1995 or 2005?

Last week I took a week away for teaching and sat down every day at the pc from 6am and closed it down at 10/11pm. I took a long, cold look at everything. I had a lot of deadlines and was starting to feel the stress. Usually I’m not a stressful person, in fact I thrive on deadlines and adrenalin and moving at the speed of light. But I had to make myself sit down everyday and examine everything and with so many new classes, programs and initiatives launching in September marketing is on top of the agenda.

Marketing and promoting your classes has changed unrecognizably over the last 10 years with  Social media, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube so WHY  are so many Fitpros marketing classes and services like its 2005 or even 1995????

We have to grab those modes, leverage them and run with them as fast as we can because the competition is getting hot out there, and I don’t mean from other classes and Instructors but from some serious players.

In 2005 there would be a group of community Instructors teaching similar classes to a loyal group of followers. There was a distinct  difference of consumer who joined a gym and those that came along once a week to a community class. Community classes were thriving.

NOW look at the local landscape we all are competing with.  There is Herbalife, Body by V, Bootcamps, Independent gyms & studios,  Budget Gyms, CrossFit Boxes, Zumba, Fitsteps, KSFL and everything in between. There are some serious major players out there who are doing some serious marketing to similar markets as  community Instructors. In order to keep your community business thriving you HAVE to really embrace social media and have a strong strategy. You really can’t afford to just play around on Facebook any longer. It’s not enough to say “well my people aren’t on Facebook or Twitter”.  Well guess what, over a billion people are using social media every day and if you don’t get a plan together soon your prospective customers could be going to the local pub and buying into Body by V.

The eyeballs are on social media and the internet. Newspaper & magazines sales are dropping every month. You have to deliver even more flyers than ever before to even get a 1% return. Less people are going into the local post office and looking at postcards. If you are running community classes you HAVE to shout above the noise on social media.  I predict the whole community fitness  landscape is changing hugely as we speak.  It may not even have hit your area as yet but it is coming.

Here’s a Marketing comparison in 2005 and a Marketing in 2013 comparison

2005                    2013

Word of Mouth        All social media
Flyers                    Digital posters
Taster Sessions      Filmed on Youtube and used on your website
Going to see Local businesses    Making contact on Twitter and Linkedin
Press Releases        Facebook notes and BLOG regularly
Magazines              Free Digital magazines

Of course flyers, posters and newspaper ads do have a place, but the reality  now is social media is the place in 2013 to build up your followers and potential customers.

How to Use Social Media Effectively

The game is changing on SM. As a fitness entrepreneur you  need to get people from your personal profile and onto a “PAGE”. Build up as many good quality “likes” as you can. Post great useful information, tips, pictures, videos, competitions and useful information that will help your followers and get as much interaction on your page. Build up the numbers by using Facebook ads. Boost your posts so more people can see what you post about and use sponsored stories. You really need to trial and track your adverts, but you can effectively target who the ads are shown to, which is brilliant when you know exactly who your potential customer is. This is not a quick fix nor will it happen over night you have to build loyality and trust over time. Consistency is key along with great content. Id love your thoughts…Tweet me or Facebook me on the C2Go Page.

Proud to be Fitness by Jayne Nicholls

What a month and pretty much carrying on in the theme of last week. We can all get carried away in trying to confirm, keep up or pretty much be the person we think we should be. Often this makes us overlook who we are as individuals, what we have achieved and what we really believe at our core. Having been pretty much rejected by YAUK for not being pure, had a barrage of advice from Yoga instructors who have the strongest opinions why only Yoga instructors should be allowed to teach Hot Yoga ( but unfortunately none of them have the funds to commit to a course or the time to up-skill their A&P), I have learned that I am 100% committed to fitness based everything. Fitness Yoga, Fitness Pilates, Fitness Fitness for God’s sake because at the end of a very long day, the outcomes are very much the same and in 2013 there is no better journey towards self actualisation than being fit and being open minded.

Read this lovely blog and tell me how many of you do not feel exactly the same after a life of teaching fitness. The more we integrate the 2 for the best possible results the healthier our clients will become.

The intersection of yoga and life

When I first starting practicing yoga I had no idea how much it would influence my life. After a few months of regular practice you start to realize that yoga affects your life off the mat in a positive way. When you create a space in your schedule and add yoga to your daily or weekly routine you are saying, “This is important and I need this.”

What happens on the mat is amazing, but what happens on the mat is just the tip of the iceberg and ripples outwardly. As your body gets stronger and your ability to concentrate increases, the mirror of the practice reveals our patterns. Do we treat ourselves well on and off the mat? Do we prepare ourselves for success? Do we have behaviours that sabotage our life? Do our relationships support our continued growth and development?
tune in to your body’s rhythm

At the intersection of yoga and life you’ll find that your practice informs you and unites you to your inner wisdom and guidance. In short “yoga happens” or “union happens,” we become more connected to our body’s rhythm and our mind’s cycles. When you reach these intersections you realize that you have lots of choices and freedom in your life. You can change the direction of your physical, emotional and spiritual path with every choice you make. With regular practice you will see how your sleeping patterns, diet, and lifestyle affect your body, and how your stress levels, relationships, spiritual path affects your ability to concentrate and well-being.

As we tune into your deepest sense of self we begin to see each day as an adventure and each breath as a new opportunity. “By the practice of the limbs of Yoga, the impurities dwindle away and there dawns the light of wisdom, leading to discriminative discernment.” Book Two – Sadhana Pada 28 The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Translation by Sri Swami Satchidananda.
life can you throw you a curveball

Without warning sometimes life will throw us a curveball it might even feel like we are jumping off a cliff. This is where the stability of your practice anchors you. Then there are times when we realize that we are the source of our own problems and the solution. The self-realization that you can control the way you think and steer your thoughts toward healthier ways of thinking is empowering. Gradually you will want to surround yourself with people that bring out the best in you, eating foods that nourish you, expressing gratitude instead of criticism. When you reach this intersection in your life as a yogi you will find life it is all about balance. Once you see that Balancing on one leg on the mat is similar to balancing your energy and time off the mat you will enjoy life’s incredible road trip.
Namaste

Marvin Burton – Tip #19 Don’t run before you can walk

Daily when I’m driving I drive past runners. I always look to see if I recognise them and check out their running posture. It’s a habit but I often see it as a self test and in my pea sized brain I’m thinking “what would I do to improve their performance”. (I realise I’m a geek!) One of the big give ways to posture is how much movement I can see at the Thoracic spine, hips and ankles. My ideal observation is an upright tall posture with a smooth rhythm and natural rotation of the spine as their arms swing. The hips should seem strong and stable and the foot strike, heel raise and knee position should be consistent and powerful.
The likelihood of seeing this is very low. I often see lots of carrying bottles, hunched over posture and excessive movement that is uncontrolled and looks painful.
My recommendations is learning to squat with weight in a squat rack (not a fixed bar smith machine) A squat is fundamental for trunk extension and core strength, hip control and range of movement and good ankle Dorsi flexion. The chain reaction of this mechanics have been successful and proven in all sports for generations. It’s one of the only exercises that have a carry over to just about fitness related target (when programmed successfully)
It might be worth contacting a local athletics club or university in your area and having some strength and conditioning coaching lessons. Especially if you teach resistance conditioning classes to music or want to use Olympic lifting as part of your training programme. Please note. It is impossible to correct your own technique in a mirror.
www.marvinburtonfitness.com

My top 5 Fitness Pilates exercises from Kelly Reed-Banks

Hello C2GOers hope you are all well and enjoyed the beautiful bank holiday we have just had. Now it is all guns ready for September, which is essentially the new January with regard to people wanting to get fit, get active and lose weight. This is fantastic for us as instructors BUT you’ve got to be ready!!! We need to up our marketing, contact with our participants and make our classes as fun packed, informative and exciting as possible so that we tap into all those participants who are looking to start at new regime in September and let’s make sure they start it with us!!

So with that in mind I wanted to give you my top 5 Fitness Pilates exercises to ignite your classes with, ready for September!!

Exercise 1 – One of my favourite Fitness Pilates exercises at the min is Thread Like a Needle but lifting the opposite leg out behind you, so you are combining a mobility move like Thread Like a Needle which is fantastic for Thoracic spine mobility with a stability move by lifting the opposite leg and holding it up. Its super challenging!!

Exercise 2 – Knee Rolling for back mobility. This is a MUST in all classes, rather than using this move for just torso training, use it for a great Lumbar back mobility exercise. Pull the knees in as close as possible whilst laying supine and rotate them side to side. Take your arms out at shoulder height and just enjoy this brilliant back release!

Exercise 3 – Clock Superman. We all love the superman exercise on all fours but rather than just taking it out straight or onto a diagonal, stay on one side and go round in a clock formation – like clock lunges in conditioning classes. You are still using opposite arm to leg and still come back to centre each time but challenge your group by getting them to take it round a little further each time they extend the arm and leg. WOW – It’s a goodie!!

Exercise 4 – Table Top Tap downs with a curtsey. This is really effective and a nice twist to your normal tap downs! So rather than taking the foot down to centre when laying supine, get them to curtsey the leg underneath the other – remember nothing changes in the back between your ribs and your hips when you do this exercise.

Exercise 5 – Standing squat with V W arms – This is one of my favourite standing Fitness Pilates moves. It’s great to get the whole body warm but also really effective at training the muscles in the upper back to get them ready for further work later. So you perform a normal squat but taking the arms out in a V position when you stand and then pull them back into a W position when you squat.

Hope you have enjoyed them, give them a go in your classes next week and get some feedback – I’d love to hear from you. Kelly@choreographytogo.com

Much Love Kelly xx

What about YOU? Cori Withell

Do you practice what you preach?
Do you walk the walk?
Do you talk the talk?
Do you take your own advice?
Do you listen to your own advice?
Do you hear yourself advising clients and think, ‘hey, I should give that a try’.
Do you eat clean?
Do you drink enough water?
Do you get to bed early enough?
Do you sleep well?
Do you really ‘work’ all day?
Is the image you project to your clients really you?
Do you feel ashamed?
Do you feel embarrassed of you?
Do you wish it were different?
Are you struggling?
Do you not know which way to turn or what to do?

I have no idea if this is you or not but what I do know is that at some point over the last 6 years I have pretty much felt all of those, although maybe not at the same time.
My gut tells me that some of you probably have to but have you ever actually spoken out about it?
Have you ever really had the brutally honest conversation with yourself that leaves you feeling open and vulnerable because maybe that conversation has left you feeling like a fake?
I have and I have several times.
Where does this come from?
For me, it was mainly self doubt and I could hear myself coaching others but totally unable to take my own advice.
Herein, lies my little gem of info, well I think it is a gem anyway!

We are incredible instructors/coaches/trainers/whatever you want to call yourself.
We support, encourage, motivate, friend, counsel, therapise, coach, listen, talk etc etc etc to hundreds of people over our careers.
Some affect us more than others.
Where in any of that does someone look out for us?
Yes, you may have friends and great support but when do you ever actually ask for support?
When do you tell those people that actually you need someone to look out for you?

The way I figure it is this.
We are quite often seen as these amazingly strong people who can put up with anything and still have a smile on our face, teach a fun class, listen to everyone else’s problems with a kind face and a listening ear, we are seen as pretty awesome individuals and for the most part we are 🙂

The problem with that assumption is that it can be incredibly difficult for us to ask for help.
We may not want to malign that image.
We don’t want people to think ill of us, we want to keep projecting that ‘perfect’ image.
So, we struggle on, purporting that image to the detriment of ourselves – is that not being a fraud?

Would we not be better connecting with clients, family, friends and everyone we met if we were actually honest with everyone.
If we stopped pretending, would that not enable us to help more?

This is a lesson I have learnt and learnt very well.
Being true to yourself IS scary, there is no doubt about that.
BUT, that fear empowers you to a much stronger state.
A stronger state that enables you to have so much more compassion, empathy and support to all those that seek it from you.
To be able to show people that you have feelings too, that you need support too – shows a softer side to you.
It reassures those around you that there is nothing wrong with needing support, you need it too, just like them.

So, don’t be afraid to be you.
Put down ‘Cori Withell – Progressive Mind Coach hat, put on ‘Cori Withell – person with feelings, thoughts, emotions, good days, bad days hat’
See what changes and enjoy the ride 🙂

If you need extra support in a safe and non judgmental environment then you are more than welcome to join my support group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulhealthandwellness/

Never, ever be scared to be YOU – it’s the best feeling ever.

Ta-Dah! The Perfect Venue For Your Fitness Retreat
By Jo De Rosa

I am a huge fan of Rachel’s newsletter and avidly read it each week, even contributing to it last year when I met Rachel at the Yoga Show. So when I read Katie Bulmer-Cooke’s article in last weeks edition I simply had to connect with Rachel again.
You see I am opening a retreat centre, with the opening retreat and party happening this weekend!
Inner Guidance Retreat Centre is set to be the UK’s new leading holistic venue for thought leaders and fit pros, to bring their groups for a truly life changing experience.

Our 16th Century Grade Two listed Tudor house sits atop a hill and commands breathtaking views across unspoilt countryside. We are situated one mile outside of Lavenham, Suffolk which in itself attracts tourists from all over the world. The majority of our 6 customer bedrooms have beams and tons of character, with luxurious bedding and natural organic toiletries. The house has had some pretty interesting guests including Gandhi and Sir Winston Churchill, so you are in very good company!??On the ground floor our treatment room doubles up as the facilitators sleeping quarters, and we have beauty therapists, masseurs and other therapists on hand should your customers require some extra attention.

The big plus here is that I have been teaching yoga for nearly 15 years, and run retreats for the past 4, so have bags of experience if you have not done this before. My husband and I live on site and are available to guide and support you throughout your retreat weekend. We can also cook and do the shopping for you, if you would like to spend more time with your customers, and not have to worry about this aspect.
If you would like a yoga or meditation session then I am sure we can organise it, or I can give a motivational talk about how I have overcome addictions, bankruptcy, and an abusive relationship to create the life of my dreams (and manifest a retreat centre!).
However, it is your retreat and you can structure it as you want, with us there to help all through the planning and delivery process.

We are offering C2GO readers an incredible deal for your first retreat to get things going and give you confidence in running a weekend for your clients. ?£1,200 includes everything other than catering?4pm Friday to 4pm Sunday?You can then bring your own chef or do the cooking yourself, or we can do all of that for you for an additional £50 per person (for the whole weekend).
We can sit down and discuss meal options, and are totally geared up for healthy menus. Personally my diet consists of 50% raw foods and I make some very delicious and ‘clean’ puddings!
This is the total cost you will have to pay to us. It is then up to you what you will charge your customers (we can guide you on this also).

So far we have 2 bootcamps booked in along with yoga, pilates, painting, photography, book writing and life-coaching groups. Our amazing 38’x22’ studio is triple aspect with wooden floors, open fireplace and doors leading out to the gardens. With 3 acres of grounds there is plenty of space to take workouts outside, and we even have a tennis court and lake!

Do get in touch if you would like some advice or to discuss details further, or maybe you’d just like to come on a retreat and be a customer for once!

I am running a ‘How To Run a Retreat’ weekend for anyone wanting to experience a retreat, gain experience and knowledge, and to feel totally confident in setting up your first weekend. Friday 29th November to Sunday 1st December.
www.innerguidance.co.uk/teachersretreat

Please do connect with me…..

Website: www.innerguidance.co.uk
Email:  jo@innerguidance.co.uk

Have a Wonderful Week
Love and happiness always

Rachel xx