Instructor Newletter 26th September 2013

It’s Thursday already, how fast did this week go?  I’m preparing for the Big One South Event taking place in Reading. I’ll be presenting KSFL Tone, Abs, KSFL Workout, plus a fatloss talk, so it will be a busy one.  If you are heading there do come over and say HI. I’ve added 2 new downloads this week, including a Step & HiLo for all you freestylers, and I’ve been busy filming new Aqua, Conditioning and Active Seniors, which should be up on the site next week.  If there are any other downloads you would like me to do for you just email, Facebook or Tweet me on the usual pages.

Future Freestyle Lifestyle Day – 9th November in Nottingham

I am so very excited to let you know about a new project Jayne Nicholls and I will be holding in Nottingham on 9th November. We will be teaching a series of our new Future HiLo, Step, Dance & Yoga choreography masterclasses in a new venture designed to put the creativity back into Group X, the day will include healthy food,talks as well as brand new masterclasses packed with new class ideas that you can take away and teach and it’s open to Instructors and Enthusiasts alike. The afternoon will be a celebration of all the amazing things Group X offers and we are both so excited to be working together again which is how we first started over 15 years presenting our Athletes in Action masterclass days.
Booking will be up and online tomorrow so pop this date in your diaries if you LOVE your freestyle and want to come and experience something that we both feel is missing in the industry right now. Tweet me if you are @RachelHolmes

Freestyle…..Could You Add it back in?

Most of the original C2GO members and Instructors who have been with me since the beginning (In the prehistoric times) are freestylers at heart. But, trends have swept into the industry and to stay current and in work many Instructors have had to commit to branded and pre choreographed formats.  However, as the industry comes full circle, more and more of my members are asking for Aerobics and Step to return. 2 years ago I took out a morning HiLo due to falling numbers; the class didn’t seem to have a market, new comers couldn’t pick it up and the older participants were finding it all a bit hard on the joints. So, I was losing regulars and without newbies coming in class numbers disintegrated. HIIT, Tabatta, Circuits and Bootcamps started dominating timetables, along with the usual branded programmes.  But, as I post lots of my video clips of me teaching freestyle on my social media channels, participa nts started saying “Will you bring it back” and “I used to so enjoy………”

Like all of us, my class times are so precious and I couldn’t afford to launch a class that would be a non starter. So I began finding out exactly who would be up for it and get a vague idea of numbers. Facebook and Twitter really helped me ramp up the interest and it looked like I’d got a core of about 15 people, not huge but a great number to start and build with.

3 weeks ago I relaunched it to a class of 30 and every week the numbers are growing. It’s gaining a cult like status and everyone seems to want to give it a go. I’ve changed the way I teach it. At the beginning I do a quick 10minute tutorial going over steps, moves and progressions. I keep the learning curves so minimal and very simple and so far the group are picking it all up and really, really enjoying it.  It is the only freestyle HiLo class on the timetable so it’s become a premium class. My 45minute session contains a 5/10minute tutorial that I use as the warm up, then straight into 3 x 32 combinations. If a combos not working I’ll switch off the music and walk though the steps till it’s mastered, then do a full on 10 minutes at the end putting it all together. It’s a great format and lots of non aerobic people have now discovered they actually don’t have 2 left feet. I’m loving really “teaching& rdquo; and the joy of mastering the steps is the real high.

So many classes these days don’t challenge the brain or coordination and I think that’s the buzz, it’s a mental challenge and the feel good factor is second to non.

There’s also so much great music around at the moment.  Pure Energy’s Club Classics 2 is totally awesome and the class is attracting a huge age range from 17 to ladies well into their 60’s.

Let me know if you think you could reintroduce it back. Chat to your coordinators if you work in a club or set something up yourself.  Rethink the format a bit and make the whole class achievable and buzzy and I know we can put great freestyle classes back onto the timetables.

Instructor’s Tool Kit

As progressive Instructors, expanding your business empire, no matter how large or small,  is important to ensure you are earning a healthy living from your fitness business. Unless you want to teach 30 classes and PT 30 clients it is quite hard to earn a substantial income from teaching alone, so what are the next steps to creating that illusive passive income steam we all yearn for.

This is the first in my series of Creating additional upsells for your fitness business and the email I get so often is how to create a DVD.

Create a DVD to Sell to your Class members – Action Steps

Find a camera man – You HAVE to film a DVD that your class members can buy. This is A NO brainer and it has never been easier to do. Find a cheap camera person and it’s as easy as asking your friends on Facebook – I guarantee one of your friend’s sons/husbands/mates will be a budding amateur or bonafide professional. Ask to see examples of their work and go from there. At the beginning of the year I tweeted I needed someone to film my fitness videos and I got local responses. I interviewed each candidate and found a brilliant film student who now takes care of all my DVD filming.

What do you want it to look like – Show them copies of DVD’s you have so they can see exactly what you want and explain you only need 1 camera and very little editing as you will film it all in one take! (Hopefully!) It doesn’t have to be an MTV production! 1 Camera is totally adequate as all the viewers need to see is YOU demonstrating and teaching.

Payment – Expect to pay about £250 for a day’s filming and editing, then agree a price per copy for duplication. It shouldn’t be any more costly than that, as it is a very simple shoot for someone.

Location – Choose a location that has a nice, well lit back drop. It could be a studio, outdoors, anywhere that would make a nice situation, and do a quick test with your camera man. He will be able to advise you and supply a mic and you will probably need to sort out a sound system. Some producers will have the music feeding straight into the camera others will dub the music over the top, it depends on their equipment.

Music – You have to use license free music that you will need to purchase. Contact Pure Energy who will be able to sell you the correct legal music for the project. You can’t use any music, it has to be special license and royalty free music. Don’t expect the music to be full on chart music.  If you notice, music for DVDS is always a bit on the pedestrian side but that’s just how it is to stay legal. Don’t let this be a barrier to your project.

Rehearse – Know your material inside out. Rehearse an intro and outro and rehearse the different sections. For example, your video will need chapters. So, my DVDs have an Intro, Warm Up,  followed by the different workout sections, Cool down and Outro. Your DVD needs to be in chapters so viewers can skip to the sections they want to view without having to watch from the total beginning. Again this is a no brainer for an experienced producer.

Cover and Graphics – I use one graphic designer who designs everything for me, including all of my logos, flyers, website, headings, magazines.  He designs my DVD covers and I send them to my DVD producer who prints them and adds them to the cases. I encourage you to spend time on creating cool branding and covers for the DVDs as when you take them into class that’s what will sell them. Make sure you have good quality promotional photos of yourself that can be used for your cover.

DVD Trailer – Get your producer to create 60 second clips of the DVD that you can share on your social media channels. Create a launch date and then do build promotion 7 days up to launch day.

Purchasing – Get your DVD up on your website with payment links so you can sell mail order.

Pricing – Around £15 is a good retail price and will give you a good return on your investment. A good DVD will sell for years, so plan your content and look to filming a series of DVDS regularly to keep your selection updated.

DVDS sales make a massive % of my own business and although many people love online workouts, your class members will LOVE to purchase your DVD to do at home and this trend just looks set to continue. So don’t miss out on this lucrative income stream.

Your first DVD will be the hardest, but once you have done one the follow ups will be so much easier and you can sell them to all of your class members and online.

Good luck and Happy Filming Tweet me @RachelHolmes

Jayne Nicholls

So what  are your thoughts on ‘’Virtual Fitness?’’ Are we really to be replaced by  a Screen and pre choreographed, pre filmed instruction?

It is rumoured that this is a product for the budget clubs who simply cannot afford an instructor BUT in the words of the people who positively championed the ‘’live’’ instructor when there was money (lots of money) to be made out of their quarterly payments and club licenses, these are the benefits:

·       Drive a powerful positive effect on retention and acquisition by offering existing and prospective members more of what they want, when they want it.
·       Give members unlimited access to world leading, highly motivating and effective workouts anytime – 24/7 if you like!
·       Maximize the use of studio space at off-peak times, extending your timetable and offering more classes at a very low cost.
·       Provide an attractive way for newcomers to learn the moves and gain confidence – driving more people to plug into the motivational power of group fitness.
·       Secure an alternative for instructor subbing and future-proof instructor dependency.
The headline testimonial states: “We can now put on different classes each lunchtime without any extra cost or stress. I give it a definite thumbs up.”
Here’s some great news that clubs all around the world may find interesting. If you find an instructor who thinks for themselves and has complete control of their own content, you can do this all day long. The fact is up until now you have been led to believe that this is not what the client wants!
Jayne Nicholls
Group X Training Ltd
www.groupxtraining.com
0116 239 6802

Obstacles or Solutions? Cori Withell

This week I was forced to make the decision to ditch Zumba and I am gutted.  Basically, I had a car accident a few weeks ago and merrily carried on teaching (carefully or so I thought) only to be told this week that in no way can I carry on teaching Zumba, and even with aerobics and step I am going to have to take things gently with no high impact.  To say my jaw hit the floor was an understatement.

Me?  Not teach?  They had to be kidding right?  Wrong!

Now, I have been busy concentrating on the coaching side of my business for several months now so I decided that I am going to take this opportunity to really push the coaching.  This is no bad thing.  I love doing it and it places no physical stress on my body whatsoever.

We all have obstacles thrown at us from various angles throughout life and how we respond to those obstacles really determines the kind of life that we lead.  You can lay there and mourn that your life isn’t going the way that you planned it OR you can use it as an opportunity to take a different path and see where it takes you.

After all, life isn’t a pre-written timetable, life is for living and the best lives are those where we don’t know what is around every corner.

No matter what life throws up, good or bad, you have the choice to make it positive or to let it grind you down, I know which I choose 😉

Health and happiness x
Best wishes
Cori x

Are you setting yourself and your clients up to fail? Jill Gardner

All around we are surrounded by seemingly perfect people and lives.

Does it ever annoy you when you see images of airbrushed bodies that look amazing?

Or Facebook updates full of persistent positivity?

Adverts and movies that project a perfect world?

So how do your clients feel about you? What’s there perception of you and your world?

So my question…….are you confined by trying to be perfect? And expecting your clients to be too?

Often we feel we have to have the perfect business, body, health, busiest classes, perfect products…. The perfect fitness business to get the perfect clients. Is this you?

But do we really?

When we focus on trying to be perfect we miss the journey, miss the progress we make and mostly we miss the enjoyment of what we do. And ultimately we can turn people off or scare them away.

Focussing on perfection is exhausting and self defeating.

People like to see reality from time to time. AND It gives them a break from trying to reach perfection too! And they will LOVE you for that.

So instead of try to constantly sell a perfect product, body or service try shaping a story or experience based on something you’ve witnessed or had. Something that people can relate to. Like a struggle, a blip, a break, anything that allows your clients to understand that there is no perfect destination on this journey to health and fitness, but instead find their way to enjoy learning it.. Even when they or you get it wrong or life throws a curve ball.

I was guilty of this for many years and ultimately it led to exhaustion and disconnection from my clients.

Now I use my own struggles, my clients struggles and curve balls as a reality check and I’m not afraid to show or share it either. My clients connect with me more.

Are you able to let go of this thing called ‘perfection’?

Big love, small tummies

Jill – The Fat Controller

Goodbye to the Fitness Industry Sally Ghafoor

For six months I have thought about getting out of the fitness industry after nearly 20 years of working in it. I have layed awake at night, pondering what to do.

You see its not about my classes, its about other instructors, other fitpros selling their mentoring and their “make six figures in a month”. The narcissitic status updates, the belittling of other instructors, and the whole egos of some in the industry has completely drained me.

I don’t want to work in this type of environment anymore.

I dont want to have to go out every night and teach classes, I want to put my kids to bed.

I dont want to listen to how if you just think positive you will make six figures in a month.

I dont want to read another nasty comment from one instructor about another.

I dont want to read how great self proclaimed fitness gurus think they are.

I am really done with the fitness industry.

Working for yourself can be tough, there are highs and there are lows but what you arent prepared for is how nasty others can be. You have to have a tough skin and for those whom a little bit more sensitive it can drag you down. So I have got myself out and have changed my whole career. I will teach a couple of classes but these will be as a hobby, nothing more.

I have a whole new career and I am loving it

I thought when I wrote this I would tell you a load of stuff about certain people in the industry and what I thought of it all but you know what I no longer care!!! The passion is gone.

So I will say goodbye and bow out, I wont be back in 6 months time, its a real proper retirement xx

Where Does My Tax Money Go??

By Andrew Crawford

Do you really want to know?

OK……Here’s what they tell you.

Housing
Transport
Education
Policing
Health
Sport & Culture
Running the Government
The Arts
Oh………and Weapons of Mass Destruction…..oopppss ….I mean DEFENCE…!!

In addition

Running the Government
Our Streets
The Environment
Helping Others

Here’s what I read last night……

“………The UK is to give another £100m to Syria to help tackle the war-torn country’s humanitarian crisis.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the pledge – which takes the total from the government to £500m – showed the UK was “leading the charge” to help………….”

The £100m will go to agencies providing food, clean water and shelter to four million people displaced by fighting.

Agencies..!!  So how much of that £100m do you think will actually reach it’s intended destination? 20 percent? 15 percent?

Remember, there’s some minor deductions to be applied BEFORE any mofo gets anything. Like…..

Administration costs
Salaries
Marketing
Promotions

Just like charities.

Wasn’t that the same country we were debating on bombing and accidently massacring innocent people not even a few weeks ago? Ooopps….I meant…liberating the insurgents…!!!?

In reality the taxes collected are rolled up into Her Majesty’s coffers known as the Treasury then distributed to Government departments.

So …..tell us Andrew, why would we be interested in where and how the government uses our hard earned tax money?

I have used an article I wrote over 2 years ago to answer this. It is tongue in cheek with a serious slant.

I receive endless complaints from people about the amount of tax they have to pay to the Government. Therefore, it is worth remembering just what our taxes are for……….

Who ensures that this country has a strong and mighty army to defend itself and ‘protect’ other countries from what they believe to be unruly dictators or war on terror? Vast amounts of money are pumped into it, without your consent, to ensure details are kept secure and totally secret.
You will only know the true facts some 100 years after some operations have occurred and that is if they want you to know.

Who organises the construction of buildings and monuments, at great expense, visited by tourists and local interest groups? Some constructions being part of our national heritage built and established for years, whilst other vastly over budgeted constructions, which still requires your money, even though empty, last for only 12 months or a few weeks to host games?

Who gives power to the police to enforce law & order in a country that is riddled with fraud, corruption and violence? Some of the most serious corruption cases being exposed only by so called ‘Whistleblowers’ and other disgruntled MP’s.

Who lends money to developing and Third world countries, charges them large amounts of interest and uses the excess to support our economy and bolster the consolidating fund we never see?

Who has provided a free health service renowned the world over? People are queuing hours possibly months to use this free service, especially in emergencies.?

Who helps other misfortunate and homeless people who come to these shores for their own protection?  Uses your money to provide accommodation, clothing and food sometimes cash money to enable them to stay here?

Who ensures that you are furnished with what they believe to be factual news and information by censoring and monitoring everything that you watch, listen to and read? You may even be bugged, photographed and movements monitored to ensure total accuracy!

Who imposes local council tax, road tax, TV licence tax, rod licence tax, value added tax, stamp duty tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, national insurance tax, income tax, congestion charge tax, tax on petrol, cigarettes, beers, wines & spirits, and other taxes termed ‘licences’?

They are so good at introducing new taxes you cannot escape them, even at death. Yes, you sometimes get to pay the death tax.

Who makes decisions on where your money is spent without consultation with you but always in your best interests?

Resistance to this ‘well oiled’ machine results in imprisonment, possible confiscation of your purchased goods and hefty fines.

The answer to every one of these questions is our own UK Government.

But our Government could not possibly do all these things without your support.

That is the reason why we have to pay taxes.

So, if you or your friends ever feel like moaning about the ever increasing taxes you have to pay just remember how important they are to our country that relies on you to provide them.

Finally

Shoppers will soon be able to order selected goods from eBay and pick them up from an Argos store.
The “click-and-collect” scheme is being piloted by the e-commerce giant in about 150 shops belonging to the high street chain, which is part of Home Retail Group.
At least 50 eBay merchants are taking part in the scheme but have not been named yet.
The move may help eBay challenge Amazon’s Locker delivery.
The Amazon scheme lets people order online then pick up their package from a growing number of secure passcode-protected lockers situated in local shops or other public venues.
Both Amazon, eBay and other online retailers are also involved in the separate Collect+ scheme, which allows parcels to be collected from participating corner shops, avoiding the risk of missing a delivery.

Once you paid your tax, you can treat yourself…..Have a great week..!!

www.fitnessindustryaccountants.com

Have a Wonderful Thursday

Love Rachel x

Tweet me @RachelHolmes
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Facebook.com/Choreographytogo