Instructor Newsletter 11th October

I’m writing today’s newsletter from the beautiful Gural Premier resort in Turkey as I’m teaching on a new Fitness Holiday week with my great friend Henrik Bramsved from Sweden. It’s been 24 – 27 degrees every day and this resort has to be the most lavish I have ever been to. The group, mainly made up of Swedes, Danes and one other Brit, has been a joy to teach. I’ve been presenting Fitness Pilates, Fitness Pilates Flow, HIIT, Kick Start Fat Loss, Aqua Extreme Abs and Functional Training.

 

 

The resort is all inclusive with fine dining 24 hours a day. This morning after I’ve taught FP Flow and Functional Training I’ll be sampling the delights of the Turkish Spa. We offer a daily timetable of 10 classes per day, you have full use of the resort facilities, water sports and Turkish spa.

Looking at the figures and stats across Europe the number of people searching and booking health, fitness and activity holidays is increasing annually. Many resorts, hotels and all inclusive venues are adding in gyms, classes and fitness activities to cater for this growing market.

Henrik takes a Swedish group almost every month overseas for fitness weeks and always has 100+ people booked. Have you thought about creating your own fitness break, holiday or retreat it could be local, in the UK or overseas…….its most definitely food for thought.

For 2013 we will be hosting the event here in Turkey again on 12th May and 6th October 2103. If you are interested and would like come have a read through this page. I’ll be hosting a group from the UK so please contact me for further details.click here for details

Local Kick Start Fat Loss

I’ve been buzzing about and really enjoying all of the local promotion for the new KSFL LIve club starting on 6th November. Because I’ve been teaching community classes in Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire for a million years I’ve got a great list of emails and addresses, but I wanted to really go for the promotion of the KSFL launch in a massive way. My aim is to target a new demographic so have been pulling out all of the stops and exploring every avenue.

Since I started community teaching way back when Adam was a boy there was only me for years and years, but as in every area the local competition has grown massively with 3 main leisure centres all offering full comprehensive timetables of classes at extremely competitive prices. There are Zumba classes everywhere and, of course, the slimming clubs are well established and attract hundreds every week.

BUT, there is still a huge wave of people who are not exercising, completely confused with nutrition, weightloss/fatloss and looking for something that fits their needs.

My Tips for Making a Big Hit in the Community

I’ve had 25,000 leaflets printed. There’s not much difference in price if you have 10k 15k or 25k printed and this means I can get a flyer through every letter box within a 4 mile radius of my venue. Think big with your flyers.
My family are my local PR team, my mum, aunties, cousins with babies who go to every mum and baby group, and friends, all have a stash of flyers and distribute to their immediate networks.

Text message marketing. It’s cheap and people are 95% likely to open a text than an email. The school where I am holding my classes is also texting all parents for me as they also use text messages for important information.
700 flyers are going to all pupils of the secondary school I’m holding KSFL in.

I’ve negotiated a 2 week deal with my local newspapers with press releases and photos in the local paper.

I’ve contacted the local radio and will be going in next week to talk fitness and fatloss.

Networking – Next week I’ve organised to attend various networking meetings which I am really looking forward to attending.

Social Media – I’ve written a 14 day social media campaign including daily vlogs, blogs, Facebook and Twitter that starts on Monday.

When I first started in the community I went round the village sticking up posters for my new “Aerobics” class. I paid for 2 x £50 adverts with money I made from the waitressing job I did whilst at college and away I went. These days there are a so many more avenues to get your message out there.

Get your branding right, your message clear and market the right class/product to the right market in a big way. The general public need fitness, we just need to make fitness the right fit for the right demographic.

It’s so exciting and I wouldn’t want to be in any other industry.

I’ll keep you posted with how the launch goes.

This weeks newsletter has some great articles in from Claire,Jill, Yvonne,Andrew, Vikki, Cori plus Caroline Newman who specialises in teaching in schools.

Please feedback via Twitter @RachelHolmes or on my Facebook pages.

Fitness Business Hub

Leveraging Facebook ads for your fitness business

Did you know that 51% of people are more likely to buy a product after liking them on Facebook?

Facebook is all about connecting with customers, and then getting those customers to interact with you and to eventually buying your product/service from you. However, be careful with what you post, too many people make the mistake of selling their business from the off instead of engaging with their customers/clients and offering them tons of free content to build trust in your product/business.

Once you have opened a Facebook page you need to build your fan base. This can be done without any costs but there is also the option of Facebook ads.

Lots of people ask me about Facebook ads, are they a good idea, what is the ROI? So when Rachel asked me to write in the newsletter I decided to base it on Facebook Ads.

If your goal of a Facebook ad is to drive people to your Facebook fan page, first of all you need to ensure that your Facebook fan page is:

1. Looking Good

2. Full of great content

3. Has tons of interactions.

If this isn’t the case then hop on over to www.fitnessbusinesshub.com and go into the resources section and find the free ebook on 6 tips to creating a great business page on facebook.

Facebook Ads.

1. Identify Your Market

Facebook has some great targeting options, well they should do, as we provide them with a lot of details about ourselves. What we like, where we live, what pages we like. So your task is to figure out who you want to reach. So sit down with a pen and really focus on your target audience, who do you want to see and click on your ad?

2. Understand Facebook targeting options.

Once you start to create an ad, Facebook have many targeting options.

Geography – you can target by city, town, and post codes. So if you have a fitness class in a specific area, you can target that area plus x amount of miles around it.

Demographics – Age, Gender, education, job title. What are the age ranges of the people likely to attend your class? What gender etc?

Their Likes – Facebook know a lot about peoples likes, Movies, TV shows, Politics, books, religion, hobbies i.e. Zumba, pilates etc. Can you target your customer more specifically based on their hobbies and interests?

What pages they like – so if you have a new Zumba class, you can target people who like the official Zumba page that live in your area.

Once you have decided on your targeting options, Facebook will show you your target reach, so you will know exactly how many people are within your target audience.

3. Creating good Ads.

Use great images, with bold colours. Remember Facebook’s colours are blue so go with colours that won’t blend into the background.

Have a great Call to Action – WHY should they click on your page and like it, give them a great reason, something that is in it for them. Make it clear, show them the benefit that you are providing to the person liking the page.

4. Create More than one Ad.

Create multiple ads, maybe segment them by different ages, or change the ads different pics, different CTA’s and then you can review which ads do best at what demographic by going over the Facebook analytics of your ad’s performance.

5. Track the performance

Use the tools in Facebook to see how each of your ads is performing. You can view here which ad is performing which one isn’t and fine tune them, and discard the ones that aren’t working.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of creating Facebook ads. We have set up a new website which is just specific to Fitness business rather than all small businesses. There is a wealth of information on the page, free downloadable e-books on how to grow your business both online and offline. As we are targeting fitness we have set up a new fb page and twitter account. We would love it if you liked us, for everyone that comes across and says hi with a like or a follow we will send you a free social media scheduling tool to help you with your business!

www.fitnessbusinesshub.com

Ask us your social media or business questions at www.facebook.com/fitnessbusinesshub

Or connect with other fitpro’s like you on Twitter @fitbusinesshub

This is a new sub venture for us, so we are in the same boat as you, come watch us grow our base whilst which share with you the nuggets of information on how to grow your base too!

Writing A Press Release by Yvonne Radley

My coaching clients have been writing press releases for the local papers this week and it’s fair to say most of them struggled with the strict rules I laid out. But those strict rules are there for a reason and will give them a shot at getting published.

Journalists get hundreds of press releases every day and if it’s not even set out right it has very little chance of getting in.

So I’m going to give you my top 5 tips of what to do AND probably more importantly my top 5 tips of what NOT to do.

DON’T
1:Tell your life story
2: Write your class timetable
3: Send pictures or logos in
4: Use big words or abbreviations no one will understand
5: Send it straight away, leave it for 24 hours and re-read it to make sure it makes sense, (it won’t)
DO
1: Limit it to six paragraphs
2: Use a similar language to the publication you are pitching to
3: Add an editor’s notes section for things like contact details, website address, brief history about you or your company
4: Make your story relevant to the reader
5: Offer to send pictures in or be photographed
Yvonne Radley
Yvonne Radley Media.com
My next coaching course starts on November 5th and I only have 5 spaces available.

How can we survive the recession and come out fighting fit? by Alice Ramcharran

We all know things have been tough in 2012 – you only need to look on Facebook or on many Fitpro forums to see that everyone is suffering with falling class numbers. We all hoped that the Olympics would have a positive effect – that a sudden surge of people would be clambering to get to classes and get fit – but sadly this doesn’t seem to have happened and the continued downturn looks set to continue well in to 2013.

The recession is really starting to bite -the cost of living (fuel, food, energy) keeps on going up as does the cost of doing business – venue hire charges are increasing along with the cost of permits, courses, training and insurance.
But hang on a minute, the purpose of this post wasn’t to depress us all further it was to provide some tips on how to survive and succeed in these tough times.

Here are my top five tips:
1) Go and find your audience – don’t wait for them to come to you.
You can do this in a number of ways but by far the easiest, cheapest and best way of getting out there and engaging with your existing and potential audience is by using Social Media.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert – but I’m sold on the opportunities. I’ve been using Facebook for years and have over 1,300 friends on my page and I have recently discovered Twitter (@Pyramidfit) which offers even greater potential to get your messages out there to a much wider audience. #fitness #exercise

2) Ask people what they want and give it to them.
We can all sit back and think we are giving our clients the latest, most exciting exercise classes but that might not be what they really want. I recently asked my clients to complete a survey to help me find out what they wanted from Pyramid and I was surprised with the results – especially the fact that of all the classes past and present, people really missed ‘Legs, Bums & Tums’ and wanted it back! If I hadn’t asked, I would never have known! Legs, Bums & Tums is now firmly reinstated for the New Year along with some new classes along similar lines.

3) Become the ‘go-to’ classes for your area
Easier said than done, but with a little thought and careful planning you can do it. Think about the service that you offer – if transport is a problem for people, why not use your Facebook page or website to offer car share options? Introduce an incentive scheme for people to bring a friend to class; give away prizes and reward existing clients for their loyalty.

4) Become part of your clients’ life
Position yourself as more than just a fitness provider – become a source of advice, a support network, even a friend. Use your website or Facebook page to post recipes, give exercise tips or provide more general advice on health and well-being. By providing this added value, people will start building a stronger relationship with you.

5) Become part of the community

At Pyramid, I work hard to support local charities and become part of the local community. If I put on events, I offer local businesses an opportunity to take a stall and I speak to my members about causes close to their hearts and how we can help. I’ve set up a Facebook group called Fabulous Wycombe Women in Business bringing together a group of like-minded women, who may or may not be clients but who are all active in the local area.

These are just a few ideas but I for one realise that I’m going to have to work hard next year to keep things going and I am sure that by providing the best possible value and service I’ll give myself a fighting chance to survive.

If you are struggling for ideas, then me and fellow fitpro, Bridget Hughes, will be running a half day workshop on ‘How to make your business sizzle and not fizzle in 2013’ on Saturday 15th December 10am – 2pm in Maidenhead, Berkshire. If you would like some more information then please email me alice@pyramidfitness.co.uk We’ll be sharing top tips of the day, as well as having a guest speaker who will be giving you the top tips on how to get in the press and on the radio.

Alice Ramcharran
Add me as a friend on Facebook – – http://www.facebook.com/alice.ramcharran
Follow me on twitter – Pyramidfit
www.thebootcampcookbook.com

Want sponsorship, book deals or free stuff? by Jill Gardner

Networking isn’t just about selling your stuff or getting more business. Sometimes networking is about finding key people that can help you grow your business and your network. Networking doesn’t just happen at arranged times. Great networking can happen anywhere at anytime. Social media, networking events, parties, events, meetings………

Examples of great relationships you can form from networking:
Someone who can build your website for free
Someone to do your book keeping or accounts
Someone to help with your graphic design
Someone to help with your PR
Someone to help with SEO
Someone who is very connected and knows many more people that are also well connected
Someone to help find you venues and gigs
A circle of friends that can help you brainstorm ideas and generate leads
Someone who needs you to help grow their brand

My business started from networking with a local group who supported me, encouraged me and helped me promote it. I found key people with key skills to help me hit the ground running!

Networking with the right people has landed me radio interviews, a book deal, tons of free advice, my website, amazing graphic design and branding (which you can see on my website and social media), sponsorship for my first DVD, no end of freebies and a feature in a daily national. The list is growing daily and the latest success with the help of Yvonne Radley, is my own ‘healthy show’ on a radio station.

Look at the bigger picture. What people can you network with that can help you in your business? What key people or businesses can you form relationships with that can take you and your brand forwards.

Get out their and network and tweet me your networking success!

Big love, big #networks!

Jill – The Fat Controller www.hateitchangeit.co.uk www.facebook.com/hateitchangeit @itsjillgardner

Getting my stall ready

By Claire Mockridge
Ante/Postnatal Fitness Expert

Hi there,

This weekend, I’m off to the East Midlands Baby & Toddler Show here in Nottingham. It’s truly one of my favourite events to attend annually.

I deal with a very niche client group, pre and postnatal, as you know, and it’s vital that when an Event like this one comes to town, that I’m there. My target market is right there, under one roof, for the best part of 5 hours, so it’s a stupid opportunity not to miss, isn’t it?

Although the fee for the stand is quite high (you’ve probably done some research in your area for something similar), and thought “There’s no way I could make that kind of money.”, and think nothing of it. I, on the other hand, have a fairly successful business, and yes, whilst I don’t necessarily make a profit on the day of attending, I generally exceed the cost on after-show sales. Have I got your attention now?

So, a prospective pregnant client who’s in her third trimester chats to me about my classes. I take her email address, add her to my mailing list, and a few months later, once she’s had her baby and been given the all clear from her Doctor, she enquires about my postnatal classes. Result.

I actually only need 4 prospective clients to buy from me and make one Fitness DVDs sale to break even, so, you know, the next time you think “It’s not worth it.”, I’d suggest you re-consider.

Prospective clients are expecting me to be there, along with a whole host of other (rather) weird products and services, geared to anyone who is either: a) thinking of getting pregnant, b) is pregnant, or c) had a baby/has children.

I discuss this, and many other missed marketing opportunities at length in my “Bridging the Gap” Pre/Postnatal Exercise & Marketing Workshops. To find out how to book your space, click www.clairemockridge.com/workshops, or connect with me here:

Closed Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/clairemockridge/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/clairemockridge1
Twitter: www.twitter.com/clairemockridge
Blog: http://clairemockridge.wordpress.com/

Claire Mockridge
Ante/Postnatal Fitness Expert

Getting down with the kids by Caroline Newman The Dance Lady

I often hear instructors comment that “they couldn’t work with kids “and too be fair it’s not for everyone BUT! If you haven’t tried it, or you haven’t done it in a while take a moment to consider it. We as fitness professionals have the power to effect the next generation. Yes that is a sweeping statement and there are so many other factors to consider but it only takes one small action to effect or change a pattern for the rest of their lives.

By the age 11 33% of children will be overweight costing the NHS millions and effecting employment, lifestyle, environment.

So why work with children? Because you can! , you already have the enthusiasm, the knowledge and skills you just have to be prepared to move like a Robot, or dance the Cha Cha slide. You have to be prepared to change your lesson plan instantly and have a box of tricks at the ready for changing circumstances.
You have to be able to answer typical children questions, like one I had the other day.
“So kids are you all happy with the dance movement you are doing for your Olympic Circle? Are there any questions? Hand goes up. … Miss. “Why is your hair so high up on your head? ”

You have to be able to communicate at many different levels and have different communication skills for younger children and teenagers.
You must have some understanding of learning needs and perhaps circumstances such ADH. But perhaps most off all it’s your job too, have the skills, the knowledge, the enthusiasm and the passion to be able to make an impact on young people’s lives. The simple Dance session or Fitness circuit you deliver may be the only thing that child has enjoyed or excelled at during that day or week. I have been told frequently that a certain child has had a really good learning experience via an active session. I was one of those kids, the only times I excelled in school was during PE sessions if you identify with that, then you may be the best person to be delivering to children.

So how about offering?

Cheer Fit, Hulacise, Skip Fit, Strictly Come Dancing, and Boys Boot camp, Dads &Lads Circuits, Dancercise, and Mum & Me. Relaxation/Pilates Class for teens offer this around exam times How about recycling some of the old fitness equipment, that we all have lurking in the attic/garden shed! Steps, Rebounder, small hand weights or bands and even Slides?! All of which if put together could be an Olympic Circuit.

So where is Kids Fitness going in the future?

My personal opinions are that Kids Fitness is a growing market. It wouldn’t surprise me if the next “Zumba “is marketed towards kids I hope I invent it!
I think Family Fitness will take a step forward .I am following with interest Ronnie Heaths Create Development and Family Funs programme.
Increase in demand and industry reorganisation of fundamental under 5 programmes such as Movin Monkezzs
Virtual Interactive school fitness programmes will develop
Boot camps and Children’s Obesity programmes will increase. With specific nutrition and healthy eating programmes expanding.

Existing schemes such as The Walking Train (groups of children all walking together to school ) Forest Schools (learning outside ) and pre School Breakfast clubs are all sessions that can be marketed and evolve.
Emotional management programmes using relaxation techniques from Yoga and Pilates.
The good old no frills activities such as Cheer, Hooping, Dance and skipping will always be there as long as you the instructor have the creativity to keep them fresh.
My pet hates are:
Instructors delivering ineffective activity sessions with no outcomes or learning result.
Session designed for adults and then being delivered to children. Grrrrrrr !
The use of BBC Lets moves to music audio cassettes! Yes you still see these lurking in some Primary schools .These tapes were good in their day, but we have moved on now!
Teachers delivery PE sessions whilst wearing regular clothes and not really making an effort to engage in physical activity.

School and Fitness professionals will create stronger links as schools and teachers will want to use the professional expertise of our services. Increasing evidence of fitness activates, impacting and effecting on the learning day and learning ability of pupils will encourage these links. Schools have to achieve Dance and Physical activity quotas, many teachers are reluctant to teach Dance type activities as they don’t feel they have the skills, that is where you ,as the professional steps in.
So is it your job to look after the health of the next generation?

Caroline DanceLady

Exposed
By Andrew Crawford

Here we go again…..

The rail franchise blunder ….Sir Richard Branson already exposed the bidding process as “flawed” and “insane”.

Who has to foot the £40m bill? You and me. The final bill will be even higher.

“……..another government screw up another government mistake, another case of them blaming someone else….”

I’m not surprised with the announcement that a new Police Standards Authority was promised because of the exposure of the scandals over Hillsborough, the death of news vendor Ian Tomlinson and the exposure of the phone hacking saga.

When will these cover ups ever stop|?

Don’t even get me started on Sir Jimmy Saville…the cover up of antics within his dressing room along with Gary Glitter. Would you wanna be in their gang?

Their extracurricular activities have now been exposed.

And what will be done about it|?……..Your absolutely right….AB (Absolutely B*ll*x).

Last week one of my clients had a VAT inspection, I used this opportunity to expose the shortcomings of the department and how in reality they are STILL two separate operations (VAT and Inland Revenue).

During our conversations, he exposed the fact that MP’s were not happy because they had to supply receipts for expenditure exceeding £500.00…!!!

You, me and every hard working self- employed tax payer have to ensure we have receipts for each and every expenditure items we claim through the Tax Return even as low as £1.50. This is the reason I told the mofo that the Government boys ruled HMRC….demonstrated and exposed last week when that MP got off with blatantly cursing the hard working Police Officer…me and you would have been arrested and slapped with a section 5 public disorder.
So Andrew,
What is interesting about being exposed and what has Saville and Glitter got to do with Accountancy and Tax?

Well…it’s about exposure as if you didn’t guess….I exposed the subject many times above. Just like the HMRC will try and expose that a worker should be classified as being employed rather than self-employed.
Let me list a few questions that will be asked by the HMRC to determine the status of your worker. (From emails I received, there are a lot of you who ‘hire’ in workers). True..??
Is there a contract of service? If no, indicates self- employment
Is there a contract for services? If yes, indicates self-employment
Is the person in business on their own account? If yes, indicates self-employed
Does the person decide when to take their holidays? If yes, self employed
Does the person supply their own tools? If yes, indicates self-employed
Does the person give an invoice for work? If yes, indicates self-employed
Can the person work for anyone else? If yes, indicates self-employment
Can the person send a substitute? If yes, indicates self-employment
If the person is sick do they get paid? If no, indicates self-employment
Is self-employment the intention of both parties? If yes, indicates self-employment
Does the person working advertise? If yes, indicates self-employment
Is the work carried out regularly? If no, indicates self-employment
There are many other little tests that would be carried out …if you are interested please let me know….I didn’t want to bore the pants off you!!……on the other hand….tee hee

Finally

Last week I was engaged in a few conversations relating to you setting up of your own “Commercial Bank”.
Ideally you need instant access to it, no computer mistakes, no ID recognition system, no book from which the cashier can say the account does not exist, no stroppy cows behind glass of reinforced perspex plastic, no queues!!!

What is the definition of a bank? I found this definition.
“…A bank is a financial organization where people deposit their money to keep it safe…”

I can think of a few other ‘safe’ places including a shoe box, mattress, knicker draw, bottom of wardrobe, dog house, potatoe patch, loft, fireplace, under the machete…any place where you can keep your money ‘safe’.

Where do you keep your stash of cash?….come on …schh…we both know you have some…..lol
Lord have mercy…shall I tell my friend whose account “does not exist” even though he did not withdraw his funds and the balance is still printed in the book??
The program “Rip Off Britain” clearly made their point….the failings of our banking system was evidently exposed.
Keep safe.
Andrew Crawford
www.fitnessindustryaccountants.com
www.fitnessindustrygossip.com
www.facebook.com/andrewjamescrawford
www.twitter.com/tax4fitness

Is this you? Cori Withell

Your clients stop coming to your classes and the first thing you ask yourself is what did you do wrong?
You find out your lapsed clients are going to the competitor down the road and you wonder what you did to upset them?
Other instructors start setting up in your area and you start to doubt your ability as an instructor despite the fact that you have a good and loyal client base?
A client injures themselves in class and you take the responsibility and blame yourself?

I could go on and on but how many of these statements resonate with you? As fitness instructors we do a really tough job. Why then, do we make that tough job even harder by constantly berating, critiquing, judging and worrying about OUR own ability in OUR own job in OUR own business????

If a client stops coming to you, yes, it may be that they don’t like your teaching style, or your music or even you as a person. There is NOTHING you can do about this and everyone is ENTITLED to their own opinion. So let them. If they have been coming for a while and then stop, then yes it may be pertinent to ask yourself and them why. Has the class format changed, more competition, have you changed due to factors in your life? However, looking at the why does not mean you are at fault. It does not mean that you have done anything wrong. Are you really going to change your entire class format, music, choreography and change your personality to suit one person? See? It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? But that is what you have been contemplating. If you want to know their reasons, then ask them!

Competition is NOT the enemy. We are all entitled to set up classes where we see fit. Yes, it may seem unfair if someone sets up the same class as you in the same venue as you on the same night as you, but if the hall lets them then that is their right. They are not doing this as a personal dig at you. They are trying to earn a living like the rest of us! Maybe that is the only slot they have? See it from THEIR perspective. Define the line between business and personal. This is something that I really struggled with in the beginning and it made it very difficult, so the sooner you can define that line, the better. For example, one Zumba class I ran had Zumba classes six days a week with different instructors every night but this actually worked in the instructors favour. People tried the classes at the times that suited them and went with the instructor that they connected with best. Surely that is the best outcome for both client and instructor? There is nothing harder (in my opinion) than teaching a group of clients who look miserable and like they don’t really want to be there!

Then there are the injuries. We are in a claim, claim, claim society – some would say courtesy of the USA! It is awful when a client hurts themselves but if YOU are at fault, then why are the rest of the class not injured? How many times do clients come to classes, you ask if they are all fit and well and if you are lucky you will a garbled yes. You may go on to say ‘if anyone isn’t please come and talk to me’ – do any of them ever do that? I have lost count of the number of times I have taught a class and then at the end, a client will come up to you and say something along the lines of, ‘surprised I managed that, fell down the stairs this morning’ – or something similar. You take a sharp intake of breath thinking, why the hell didn’t you tell me, I would have given you alternatives for whichever section of the class was relevant, or, you shouldn’t have been doing that. STOP. There is nothing you could have done. If they don’t tell you, you are not a mind reader. W hat about if you suspect an injury? You go over and ask if they are ok, if they say they are, you have done your job. It ends there. There is nothing more you can do. Walk away. If they try to blame you after the event you have done everything you could have done. You can only work with what you know, what you see and what they say.

How many of you get those texts claiming that you could claim x number of thousands of pounds for an accident you never even had!? This is fuelling people to make claims where previously they would not have bothered. This is NOT a personal attack on you. This is an opportunistic punt to try and get some extra money through a tough recession – remember to see it for what it is.

As instructors, it is all too easy for us to see our clients as friends, they tell us pretty much everything about their life, their troubles, stress, kids etc. BUT we are not friends. (ok, maybe some are!) They pay you for a service. If Joe Bloggs down the road suits better then that is where they are going to go. If they lose their job, they are going to stop coming to your classes, they are not going to phone you and tell you, this is not personal. If they hurt themselves and see it as a way to make a bit of extra cash then they will probably do it – we are, as an economy, going through a tough time. Tough times, make people do strange things – it is NOT personal. Yes, it is HARD, really hard, if you are the one in the firing line surround yourself with people who can support you from your roots and keep you up. If you need extra support feel free to ask to join my members only support group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulhealthandwellness/

All in all, our behaviour (if it is as I said it is for some of us!) stems from low self esteem and low self confidence, doubting our abilities despite the fact that we have evidence though a loyal database and loyal repeat customers. I discuss this at length in The FitPro Mind and attack it again in The FitPro Mind 2 (although in a slightly different way 😉 which is due for release shortly. We are brilliant instructors doing a brilliant job, we just need to remind ourselves of that from time to time 🙂

Health and happiness x
Cori x

www.cwfitness.co.uk
www.facebook.com/cori.withell
www.twitter.com/CWFitness

Vikki Scovell

Last weekend was my 40th (a most horrible number). And I have been dreading it for the last 10 (my favorite number). There it was, like someone I don’t want to bump into, squeezing through the crowd, looking feverishly in my direction, waving and shouting- Yoo hoo, Vikki, it’s meee, NO, over HERE; HELLO! I tried not to make eye contact, to look as though I was rushing for a bus, but there was no avoiding this unwanted friend; 40. It is strange the way we give significance to numbers. As someone who is basically innumerate, numbers hold little meaning, and have always been confusing and bothersome: none more so than the number 40 applied to ME. I cannot tell you how many occasions numbers have scuppered me.

In my head, they are made up of different coloured shapes and inhabit a curious Rubik’s cube world of their own; I know what 40 looks like (it is pink) and what shape it is (it is a rectangle). (If you are completely confused at this point Google SYNESTHESIA, and you will realize that I am quite lucky that it isn’t beef-flavoured and in the key of F minor). I arrive places an hour before, or an hour after I am supposed to be there: one of which is irritating, one potentially disastrous.

ALL of my clients know that I will either short-change them, or give them change from a twenty pound note when they have given me a fiver (lucky for me they are HONEST). Every number (including dates) that I am told I forget IMMEDIATELY, so please don’t be upset when I NEVER remember your birthday. I have probably spent MONTHS of my life on the phone to banks/tax office etc.; “All we need Madam, is your 4 digit security code” yes but you see I have a problem with numbers, so I won’t EVER be able to tell you that- I told you that when you asked me to create it, and I BEGGED you not to make me. “Can you tell us the date of your eldest daughter’s birthday?” Err NO, it’s the number thang again. “Which year did you move to your present address?” Ok, not sure you understood that numbers are a bit tricky for me: absolutely NO IDEA. “What was your income last year? (Silence) “Can you tell me to the nearest 1000?” (Silence) “Near est 10,000?” ARRRGGGHHH! When I filed for divorce, I was completely unable to tell my solicitor either what year I got married in, or the date of my wedding anniversary. This doesn’t create a picture of a caring and wronged wife; more like one who never gave a Sh(1)t. I gave up a promising future in chemistry because despite my passion for science, the mathematics involved turned my brain inside out, stamped on it, and kicked it under the sofa to go moldy. Sudoku sends me into a desolate meltdown. Me and numbers are not great buddies, and the number 40 is my least favorite one at the moment, although uncharacteristically for me, I don’t seem to be able to forget it, in all its pink rectangle-ness.

Our lives are separated into chunks by numbers; child, teen, adult, middle-aged, old-aged. We may define ourselves by numbers; amount of children, income, how many houses we own, how many pence we have left on our overdraft, friends on FB, people attending classes, whether we are a size Zero, ‘perfect’ 10 or 34DD. Numbers ARE important; class numbers, tax returns (the horror), income, expenditure, age, and they all have to be dealt with. I NEED to get my head around numbers; I have deadlines, budgeting, short, medium and long term plans to implement.

I may not wish to be categorized as being in my 40’s but I hope to have at least another 40 years ahead of me, and somehow, I need to do some planning to make sure they are healthy, happy, and not-too-stressy. This means getting my head around numbers now; how much do I need to help kids though university, what should I be earning to pay my rent now that I don’t have a home of my own, how many more years can I teach on a hip with a best-before date? It all comes down to my usual thing; plan, plan, plan; separate the hours, days, weeks, months and years into understandable and profitable chunks. You may be 20 or 50, but if you are teaching, you need to think numbers; to plan for the time when things have to slow down, for illness or injury, how to stay independent when you are older. I know: I don’t want to believe that it will ever happen EITHER, but I NEVER thought I would nearly kill myself in an accident which would leave me permanently injured, never believed I would hit 40 (I nearly didn’t). And I have. But despite feeling 28, behaving like I’m 15, and having the sense of humor of an immature 10-year-old, I need to be canny with my numbers. I have to make sure my time will be well-prepared, and well-invested, because one day my number will be up, and so my friends will yours (pauses dramatically with a meaningful/sorrowful expression on face). So let’s ROCK IT while we can!
And by the way, the number 10 looks like a long green ribbon rippling in the breeze; lovely……..
Until we meet again……….. Vikki Scovell @fitbite

Have a wonderful Thursday
Love
Rachel x