by John | Nov 24, 2011 | Latest News
Two of the three things I'm most thankful for!
Today is our day of Thanksgiving here in the US… only problem is the whole concept of being “thankful” tends to be forgotten – overshadowed by food, football and the anticipation of Black Friday sales.*
Not in the Macgowan family 🙂
Amy won't allow us to forget. She has insisted, beginning on our very first Thanksgiving together, that we focus on who we are truly thankful for. Late this afternoon we'll all sit down for dinner and before we eat, Amy has us pass around a burning candle. We each take a turn where we tell everyone who we are thankful for and why.
Notice that I said “who” and not “what” we each are thankful for. It took me a while before I really understood the distinction of what Amy was insisting…
While we all can agree that being thankful for what we have is important, Amy's point has been that beyond our own efforts, it's the actions of the people in our lives who we should be most thankful for.
So, for example, being thankful for your job (a “what”) changes to being thankful for the person(s) who are actually responsible for providing you with a place to teach…
Maybe its your GF department head, who saw some initial talent in you and was willing to look past the fact that you had no certification and still hired you, all those years ago – thanks Kym. Or there's a good chance the reason you have a job at all is because of the enormous personal and financial risks the owner of your studio has taken. As I write this I'm struck with this question; does this mean I should be thankful for someone like Bahram Akradi who started LifeTime fitness? Yes, I think it does.
So while I was up early getting the “bird” prepped, I started to think through my list of people for whom I'm most thankful this year – which motivated me to create this post so I could express my thanks for them publicly. I don't have time for details but please know that I'm truly thankful for each person on this list – which beyond the obvious is not in any particular order – and if someone is missing please forgive the oversight:
- Amy Macgowan
- Abby Macgowan
- Carly Macgowan
- Don and Jo Paton
- All of our ICI/PRO members
- Bill Prior
- Barbara Hoots
- Chuck Cali
- Tom Scotto
- Gene Nacey
- Jim Karanas
- Laurel Mylin
- Cameron Chinatti
- Darrin Pelkey
- Sally Edwards
- Rick Goodchild
- Allen Jones
- Craig Andrews
- Angela Anderson
- Heather Sawdey
- Nina Israel
- Andrea Flaherty
- Doug Rusho
- Leslie Mueller
- Kym Jolstad
- Joe Ducosin
- Randy Erwin
- Dan Macgowan
- Steve Dimmick
- Colleen Mathews
- Christine Nielsen
- Bahram Akradi
- And none of us can forget Johnny G!
So who are you thankful for?
by John | Nov 22, 2011 | Instructor Training, Spinning Class
Josh Taylor showing off their new Foot!
Spinner PRO/NXT/Blade feet that is.
While I was at Club Industry last month Josh Taylor walked me through a number of the improvements Star Trac has made to the new Spinner bikes/cycles. I'm never sure which word to use… they only have one wheel so technically they are “cycles” but I'm guessing you understand either way.
Providing a stable, secure platform for the riders in our classes is part of them actually enjoying the class. So if the cycle feels a bit tipsy because the floor isn't perfectly level, most manufactures offer adjustable “feet” on the bottom of each corner where you can make adjustments for an uneven surface. It sounds good in theory; put a rubber “foot” on a steel bolt, which is then screwed into the frame rail. Turning the “foot” changes it's length/height and you can easily adjust the bike to set flat on the floor.
But in real life that steel bolt tends to be corroded from sweat and nearly impossible to turn after a few years of use.
Enter Star Trac's very elegant solution; don't use steel, manufacture the bolt/foot adjuster from high-strength plastic. As you can see in this picture of Josh holding their new adjuster bolt/foot. Looking at the diameter of this thing makes me think it will support any giant who shows up at your studio.
One other thing: I'm aware of a club here in Minneapolis where they use the adjusters to tilt the cycle upwards slightly. I'm aware that cyclists on trainers will do something similar and the Tour de France bike you've seen advertised on Versus touts how their cycle tilts for and aft. Does it make sense to do this [wlm_firstname]?
by John | Nov 20, 2011 | Featured Studios, Member Spotlight
Have I told you how proud I am of all the ICI/PRO members who have taken the leap and started their own Indoor Cycling Studios? Well I am, and it's so awesome to see when the local media recognizes them!
Kathy Ehrlich-Scheffer opened Cycledelic Indoor Cycling Studio this fall in Rochester, NY. Her studio features FreeMotion s11.9 indoor cycles with power. I see that Kathy is offering Winter Training from Cycling Fusion, which should be a big boost to the cyclists in her area.
She lost everything, then she got back on the bike
Kathy Ehrlich-Scheffer and her husband bought a modest ranch house in San Diego in 2006, expecting to settle there for a long time. But when they grew disenchanted with the area and decided to move back to the Rochester region, they couldn't sell their home and ultimately lost everything in the 2008 Southern California housing crisis.
“It was humiliating, it was humbling and it was definitely game-changing to go through something like that,” she said.
But in three years, Ehrlich-Scheffer went from being down on her luck to the owner of the Cycledelic Indoor Cycling Studio in Brighton, which features state-of-the-art equipment with special effects, a club-style lounge area, towel service and showers.
“I figured I'd use my failure to fuel my fire instead of having a pity party,” she said. Read the rest here.
by John | Nov 20, 2011 | Instructor Tips and Tricks
With over 8,000 instructors receiving our weekly newsletter, my email address ends up in 8,000 contact lists. On occasion, I would receive random SPAM emails (see below) from people who's email account had been compromised in some way. Typically one, maybe two a month… this week alone I have received 10! This tells me there is something going on and all of us need to be careful clicking links in strangely worded emails.
Your email privacy here is as secure as humanly possible 🙂 We use the premium version of Mail Chimp to manage the distribution of our newsletter lists. I've found that Mail Chimp's service has many more security features than Aweber, who we used in the past.
What would I suggest you do if you receive an like this? Reply to it with a note saying you believe the account has been compromised.
Why? Because the owner of the account may have no idea of the problem. By replying back you are helping whomever correct the problem. (often as simple as changing their password) Then they can look in their Sent Email folder and contact everyone, asking them to ignore the message and know that the problem has been corrected.
by John | Nov 17, 2011 | Google Music, Latest News, Music
More stuff to learn
The Google Music Store/Service just launched. As you would expect, I'm already anticipating your questions so I'm all over this.
Nov 16 2013 update: I have an article posted about the new Google Music All Access iPhone App
I already know that many of you would enjoy an option to iTunes or Spotify. So I started this morning at 5:30am and set about learning everything I can about Google Music. I want to be able to help you decide whether or not this new music service from Google is a good option for you as a Spinning/Indoor Cycling Instructor. I'm particularly interested to see if Android Phone users will finally have a service equal to iTunes.
You can learn more about Google Music here and get started if you are adventurous 🙂
Google Music, what I know so far:
- The primary service is “Cloud” based, which means the music files are stored on a remote file server up in the clouds. Google want's all your computer files; music, pictures, software, etc… everything on their servers, not on your computer. If you use any online email service; Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hot Mail – those are all Cloud based services. iTunes and Amazon both offer a similar Cloud based system. Why should you care? I'll be explaining that in a future post.
- Google Music's files are MP3's – already for MixMeiser
- The first file I downloaded was at a very high quality bit rate of 320kbps. I normally don't pay attention to bit rate but this got me looking to see how this compares to iTunes. See the screen shots below for comparison.
- Yes, you could probably dump iTunes and convert over to the Google Music Player – but don't do anything drastic just yet.
- Google Music free tracks! You can find here– but like iTunes, you need to set up your credit card for future purchases.
When I saw Google Music had opened my first thought was; “oh great, more new software to learn” 🙁 If you felt something similar while reading this, my advise to wait and see what happens. I will be creating a number of tutorials for our ICI/PRO members that will explain everything you need to know about using Google Music. Stay tuned…
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