It was the Podcast that launched dozens of new cycling studio startups. Our February 2010 interview with Indoor Cycling Studio consultant Bill Pryor (Podcast #88) presented the idea that a passionate Instructor could open a successful studio. We're aware of dozens who did and Bill has assisted over 200 entrepreneurs around the world plan and operate their new fitness business.
That was three years ago and there's been a lot of changes in our industry as it affects independent studios; all the new indoor cycles with power/watts, MyRide+ big screen virtual ride offerings from ICG and others, rider metrics displayed and captured by Performance IQ & MyZone and the ascension of SoulCycle, Flywheel and the new Peloton studios that have interjected an enormous amount of buzz in our market.
Online payment systems from MindBody Online and others have dramatically reduced both the time and effort required to manage a profitable studio.
Teach to a full house of 50 riders and expect to receive $500.00 for your efforts.This isn't a typo – this outfit is planning to compensate Indoor Cycling Instructors up to $500.00 a class. Teach a regular schedule of 13 packed classes a week and you'll be interviewing stock brokers for ideas where you should invest your $300,000 annual compensation.
Want to work for Peloton Cycling? Check to see if they're hiring here.
To that end, Peloton has borrowed a lot from boutique studios and what riders are addicted to, starting with the charismatic instructor. “Instructors who can command an audience and have great fitness knowledge are arguably like actors, they should be paid as such. We’re tripling what the going rate is to work at a studio,” says Foley, adding that with this platform, Peloton teachers will become “global celebrities, capable of reaching thousands of riders at a time, instead of 50.” (We’re expecting defections any second now.) – I'm assuming they're referring to defections from SoulCycle & Flywheel – John
Peloton's goal here, as I see it, is to recruit the very best 10 Instructors… not just the 10 best Instructors in New York, but the 10 best Instructors from anywhere on the planet. $300k should be enough of an incentive to motivate just about anyone to pack their bags, move to a new gig and start teaching in the Big Apple.
How can they afford to pay Instructors so much?
The financial “Holy Grail” for Peloton is delivering on-demand classes to home users riding their new Peloton Indoor Cycles. This bike looks very cool/well designed and they recently raised over $300,000 using Kick Starter to fund the design and early production.
Created by John Foley, the former president of Barnes & Noble eCommerce, Peloton has built a sexy at-home bike that won’t look out of place in your high-design living room. It comes with a 22-inch tablet-like, touch-screen monitor that allows you to ride along with live classes at Peloton’s 50-bike studio in New York City (opening in Chelsea in the fall), or stream one on-demand.
So your potential class size is limited only by the number of those new cycles they sell.
I'm dying to learn more about all of this; the new Indoor Cycle, the technology, their plans for the Peloton Studio… everything. I'm working on getting a representative on the Podcast ASAP.
Many new businesses are based on creative solutions to identifiable problems. In this earlier post, I discussed entrepreneur Kat Filly Brown and her goal to find a convenient way for employees to exercise midday, while avoiding the hassles of California traffic.
Outburst Mobile Fitness is a self-contained studio that delivers classes to corporate customers in and around the San Francisco Bay area. They pull up in this big fancy rig and hold Indoor Cycling classes right there in the parking lot.
Kat Filley Brown joins me to discuss her new Indoor Cycling business on wheels on the latest episode of the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast to discuss her business model, her choice of Indoor Cycles and the opportunities she has for Indoor Cycling Instructors – especially if you have experience driving a 5th wheel commercial vehicle 🙂
If they won't come to your studio, why not bring your Indoor Cycling Studio to them?
That's the idea of San Francisco Bay Area Outburst Mobile Fitnessâ„¢ which launched a few weeks ago. From their press release that describes the problem they're trying to solve:
Kathryn Filley Brown, Founder and CEO of OUTBURST MOBILE FITNESSâ„¢ was an executive for a large corporation with a demanding schedule that required frequent traveling. She conceived of Outburst Mobile Fitness as a way to more easily incorporate a workout into your day by bringing the workout to you.
“We want to do for exercise what the mobile food truck revolution did for bringing gourmet food right to the people. Our goal is to make exercise fun, easy and accessible for everyone no matter how busy they might be. People want to exercise, but they have very demanding schedules. Outburst Mobile Fitness solves this problem by parking right outside your office front entrance to offer you a burst of energy.” says Kathryn Filley Brown, Founder and CEO of Outburst Mobile Fitness. “Research is showing that companies can increase worker productivity 15% when employees incorporate exercise into their day”
I'm really curious about their business plan. Specifically; who is the customer here who pays the $$$? I'm going to guess they're selling this as a corporate perk for employees and not charging the actual participants. And why not bring the bikes outdoors? It has to get hot inside that trailer and riding for an hour in a double paceline is fine outside… but not so much in a class when you're trying to watch a video.
I've reached out to them to be a guest on the Podcast and you can listen to my interview with Kat Filly Brown who's the owner of Outburst Mobile Fitness and learn more about this interesting concept of an Indoor Cycling Studio on wheels.
I'm really surprised that an Indoor Cycle manufacture hasn't done something like this to promote a new model of IC. A few years ago I remember talking with Gene Nacey about doing something similar. His idea was to pack a semi with a sponsor's bikes and travel to selected locations as a sort of traveling road show. His crew* would set up in the parking lot, hang a big screen on the side of the trailer and conduct virtual ride classes featuring his Global Ride videos.
*In a past life I was required to have a commercial driver's license (CDL) so I could drive the company's semi to deliver construction equipment – that I still maintain. So if you're thinking this would be a good idea to promote your latest IC product, and need a driver/demonstrator/Instructor, let me know. A road trip could be fun 🙂
Recently, I wrote about a friend and mentor of John's not wanting to group ride anymore. Andrew can no longer lead A level rides, due to an illness, and would rather not ride in a group if he cannot lead it. You can read about Andrew here:
I initially suspected that Andrew's decision to no longer ride in a group primarily came from a place of pride. I think that pride is definitely part of his decision, but there is probably more to it. I am sad for him and even more sad for all the new and underdeveloped riders that desperately need his mentoring/leadership and training. He helped mentor and train John to become an excellent road rider and leader.
John and I just completed our 14th MS 150 on our tandem. We have the honor and privilege of pulling our team 150 miles on paved trail and road each year. Our team likes riding behind ‘the bus' – as our tandem is referred to, because we ride a straight line, a consistent pace and we ride with our team's safety as top priority. I like riding in front because………it's the safest! I trust John implicitly and he respects my need for more caution than he would normally ride with when he is on his own.
Last Saturday we experienced our first life threatening crash on our team. Thankfully, our teammate will recovery fully from a fractured skull, broken collarbone, broken ribs and burst eardrum. The two riders that were behind him will also recover fully from their broken collarbones. As is often the case, our teammates devastating crash has caused me to reflect on group riding and ask the following questions: how much do I trust and respect my fellow teammates? With my life? Am I willing to ride anywhere other than the front of the team? If not, why? What can we do to build more trust and respect? Where do pride and safety intersect on the road?
Are you a veteran leader out there, or a newer rider that needs to learn the safe ways of the road? Either way, our riding stature and position comes with a responsibility to ourselves and fellow riders.
I fully admit it feels great to lead our team and be able to hold a line and decent speed for 150 miles, so there is some pride involved…no doubt about it. I hope and pray I will know when I can no longer ride effectively for my group and bow out- either to lead a slower group, or to ride in back of a team I trust and respect with my life and John's.
Ride safely everyone!
John adds:
This was really scary. Hearing the sounds of bicycles and bodies hitting the ground, just a few dozen feet behind us, was really unnerving. Now that I know our team member is OK (he's home recovering) I'm still struggling with understanding what happened.
We were JRA (Just Riding Along) about 70 miles into the first day's 75 mile ride. This section is an old railroad bed paved trail. Amy, me and “The Bus” were in our normal position up front, with eight of our team and an unknown number of “opportunists” strung out behind us at ~ 22mph. We crossed a shallow depression that crossed the trail (felt like a bump) that had been spray-painted white to highlight it – one of hundreds we had experienced that day. There were multiple callouts; “BUMP”, as we rode across it… and then the sounds of chaos & crashing.
Amy is the person you want with you in a situation like this; cool, calm and instantly in control. She ran back after we'd stopped and had 911 dialed before she reached the three riders on the ground. “IT'S ONE OF OURS!!!” she yelled back to us. Our team mate was on his back, unconscious, his helmet shattered. Two others were sitting, moaning, holding their arms – both with broken collarbones.
Julie was the girl friend (I think she was, not sure exactly) of broken collarbone #2. She must have had a bunch of first responder experience. After seeing her boyfriend was in pain, but not in need of her attention, she quickly attended to our team mate. She directed us to hold him still when he regained consciousness. She sat and stabilized his head until the first responders arrived 30 minutes after Amy's call.
Once the paramedics arrived and took over, the thought occurred to me that he's going to want to know what happened. It's very common to lose some or all of your memory of the time that precedes a head injury. I asked the two other riders if they could tell what happened. The one directly behind thought he had tried to bunny hop the bump and just flipped over the bars, the other saw nothing. Once our team mate went down there was nothing either could do. Both hit him, flipping over and landed on their shoulders. Broken collarbones are very typical in a fast, group ride crash – you may remember Tyler Hamilton winning a stage of the 2003 TDF after breaking his in a crash.
Near as I could reconstruct; after talking to the other two involved and examining his bicycle (nothing failed), the best explanation was that he had one hand off the bars when he hit the bump – and probably a light grip with the other. We'd already ridden 70 miles and (although very fit) he has lower back pain that causes him to sit up and stretch frequently by reaching back with one arm. The bump caused the remaining hand to slip off the bar and the momentum carried him over the front of his bike.
His helmet saved his life. It shattered, absorbing the energy from the impact that would have surely killed him. His was the third broken collarbone that day and his three broken ribs were no doubt caused by the impacts of the two riders who hit him.
Now that we know he'll be OK, our team leader is framing a chunk of his helmet, along with our group picture, as a memento of the ride.
Early adopters of any new product or service are important in the fitness industry. They’re adventurous, even brave, individuals who put their business reputation on the line to promote something new before anyone else. They do this to differentiate from traditional fitness offerings and stay cutting edge.
Body By X Skill Development & Training Center in Corte Madera, California (www.getfitmarin.com) was the third location in North America to offer indoor cycling classes featuring Myride+, allowing instructors to enhance their classes with video. It was also one of the first clubs in the U.S. to provide a virtual class schedule.
Body By X members learn to become comfortable with the uncomfortable, which Nadia and X feel is key to achieving fitness goals. They focus on mind as well as body, and their philosophy is teamwork.
What impressed me most about the Body by X cycling program was how quickly and effectively they implemented forward-motion video. They have scripted hundreds of IC workouts. Each features a specific ride, audio AND video profile, using Myride+ Destinations on Demand. They’ve even written scripts for each ride, giving detailed information about the video content.
The time spent developing their indoor cycling program has paid off in packed classes and happy members. I asked Nadia and X to describe it in their own words. Nadia replied:
“Our motive was to create a unique, safe fitness environment where we could help people reach their fitness goals and have fun. Our fitness center is for people of all ages. We have clients 7 years old and clients over 70.
“Xavier has been a personal trainer for over 25 years. I’m new to the fitness world and always felt intimidated by gyms. We combined our experiences to create a welcoming environment with fun classes that you can’t find everywhere.
“Indoor cycling is a safe and enjoyable way to get in cardiovascular condition. It’s an option for many people because it’s low impact, and you can do it regardless of your level of conditioning. Xavier’s knowledge of all kinds of music made it a logical offering at Body By X.”
When I asked what makes their indoor-cycling classes so successful and how video supports that, Nadia said, “Xavier’s dynamic, exuberant and optimistic personality makes his classes exhilarating. He motivates people to work harder than they think they can! The videos add the visual element. Xavier’s classes include lots of climbs, and the videos make participants feel they’re really climbing a hill. The intensity of his classes varies, but there are always points — often many — when participants are breathless. The videos keep people going. If they haven’t reached the top of the hill in the video, how can they stop?”
Nadia wanted to reach people new to cycling. She felt she could use her anxiety about the gym to make others feel at ease: “I fell in love with indoor cycling immediately. I had never experienced that endorphin rush and wanted to share it, to have people see that indoor cycling didn’t have to be about LOUD music and tons of sweat!”
Although there’s not a ton of what Nadia calls “sweat energy” in her classes, videos bring their own energy. “I’ve created a unique experience by using the videos to tell a story,” Nadia says. For each video, she creates a script with history or facts about the location. “My clients love the stories so much that if I don’t tell them where we’re riding soon enough, they’ll ask, Where are we? What’s this place about?”
Nadia continues, “At Body By X, we educate people about heart rate zone training. We use metabolic assessments to create custom cardio programs. Our clients learn that you don’t always have to do cardio at 110%. We tell them to use a combination of workouts, alternating easy, moderate and difficult.
“MyRide+ allows clients to ride to video on their own. Clients on 12-week custom cardio programs ask for flat rides to help them stay at zone 1 heart rates, or for mixed rides or climbs if the program requires them to raise their heart rates that day. Helping people stick to a challenging program this way is phenomenal.”
I asked how they decided to dedicate such an enormous effort to creating so many classes.
“Our personalities have played a role! We realized early on that our clients appreciate our differences. Yet, ultimately, our goals are the same: to create a state-of-the-art fitness center that is welcoming, safe and fun.
“We believe you shouldn’t do the same cardio every day, so we offer alternatives. Music has always been a vital motivational tool in indoor cycling classes, so we invested in a spectacular theater-like environment that includes a movie screen to show the videos.
“We want to immerse our cycling students in the experience, and creating stories about the videos does this. Videos are the next step in indoor cycling evolution, and we always want to be on the cutting edge. It separates us from other fitness centers. By offering unique classes that differ from anything else out there, we provide our clients with the tools to reach their fitness goals.”
Classes at Body by X certainly are unique, providing specific training, exciting music, the perfect video, and a wealth of information about where each video takes the students. What a ride!
