by John | Jan 20, 2013 | Engage Your Students, Featured Studios, Instructor Training
SoulCycle founders Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice
I'm really curious how you would respond; would you teach for SoulCycle?
But before you answer, imagine you had the following conversation at the end of your last class…
A women approaches while you're collecting your stuff.
“Hi [wlm_firstname].” “My name is Elizabeth Cutler and I really enjoyed your class tonight.”
You respond; “you're welcome Elizabeth.” “I enjoyed seeing your smile there in the back.”
Then she looks you square in the eye and asks a question that could change your life…
“I'm one of the founders of SoulCycle Indoor Cycling and we are opening a new studio near by, later this Spring.”
“Would you consider being one of our Instructors?”
Flabbergasted by her offer, you open your mouth to respond. But before any sounds come out she continues…
“I realize that you have a devoted following here [wlm_firstname] and I'll understand if you say no.
“Before you decide, I'd like to explain that our Instructors earn on average $50,000 per year, many considerably more, teaching 8 classes a week. We really want to keep you once we have you, so we offer a full benefit package that includes excellent health insurance.
“So what do you say [wlm_firstname]?”
“Are you ready to teach at SoulCycle?”
Want to teach at SoulCycle? Find Job Listings for SoulCycle, Flywheel, CycleBar and all other cycling studios.
What prompted this post is a fascinating article; The Carefully Cultivated Soul of SoulCycle in New York Magazine.
Do you have any participants like this person, who sounds like she's traded one unhealthy addiction for another?
“I would do anything that I could to afford these rides,” says 27-year-old Jaime, who often takes thirteen classes a week (estimated cost: $21,632 per year). She’s arranged her schedule to have Mondays off work so that she can always be at her computer the moment classes are released. She counts her instructors among her closest friends. Her social life revolves around people she’s met at SoulCycle. On the anniversary of her father’s death, her instructor had the class ride to “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot, one of Jaime’s father’s favorite operas. “I’m seven years sober. You don’t really get love and acceptance and encouragement and self-gratification from a cocktail,” Jaime says. “I mean, I … this is what I need in my life, and it just so happened it’s an exercise class.”
Interesting how the founders of SoulCycle split along the lines of Indoor Cycling 2.0 – entertainment based vs. results driven classes.
But as much as the performative aspects keep riders coming back, they have also driven more serious athletes away, often into the open arms of Flywheel, where a metrics-based workout is coupled with more self-restraint. Though Ruth Zukerman declines to discuss her exit from SoulCycle, some chalk it up to a difference in instructor style. “It’s a slippery slope, because sometimes when you build these superstars, it kind of goes to their head and they become divas,” she says. “Yes, be entertaining, be inspiring, but at the end of the day, it’s about the rider. It’s not about you.”
Now I realize that there are many who would recoil in horror at the thought of being affiliated with SoulCycle…
But why?
They're clearly offering people a form of exercise they enjoy and are willing to pay big money to attend. Spend a few minutes looking at the Instructor bios and you'll see most have the same (if not better) credentials than many of the Instructors that I know personally.
by John | Oct 1, 2012 | Featured Studios, Latest News, Member Spotlight
I'm a very “random” person – just ask anyone who know's me – in that I'm not one for long term planning. That's why I so enjoy operating ICI/PRO… when I discover or hear something (or someone) that sounds like it would be of interest to you, I post about it or try to schedule an interview.
I find not knowing what tomorrow will bring very invigorating.
Stressful at times to be sure!
But as a whole, watching all the new developments in Indoor Cycling and communicating them to you is very motivating, and the randomness of it all fits my personality.
But I understand that some many of you prefer order – and we are working very hard to bring order to the massive amount of information we have amassed here over the past for years – as of today we have over 1,000 posts published 🙂
Behind the scenes we are developing a new website with our primary goal of making ICI/PRO a better resource for members; i.e. making everything easier to find. Not an easy task to be sure.
For example, this morning I was focused on ensuring that all of our 20+ informative articles about using Spotify were actually findable, if you click on the Spotify category tag in the information at the top of each Post.
They weren't, but are now.
Another part of our planned redesign will be a place to feature Indoor Cycling Instructors and the Studios where they teach. With nearly everyone owning a digital camera, we'd love a short video of you walking us through the place where you teach. Nothing fancy, maybe just a minute or two of you saying hello, telling us the name of your club, where it's located, showing off your studio, introducing us to your boss/manager/club owner, etc…
I'm sending out an email this morning to ICI/PRO members explaining the details.
Stay tuned as we continue to bring order to my randomness.
by Amy Macgowan | Sep 17, 2012 | Your Fitness Business
Brooke Freiborg & Deb Amorde
Moxie Cycling apparel was featured last January on Podcast #195 where a number of ICI/PRO members participated in a focus group, giving feedback about the new cycling jerseys from Moxie.
Fast-forward nine months and business is so good that Moxie Cycling's founder Brooke Freiborg with tells me they are ready to expand – and that means they need help… from some very special people 🙂
Who we’re looking for:
An established, motivated rep who understands the with women’s cycling. Generous commission potential.
Who we are:
Moxie Cycling is a women’s specific cycling apparel company leading the evolution to bring a woman’s unique needs to the forefront of cycling apparel. Ultra comfortable, performance oriented, and stylish women’s cycling apparel by and for women with moxie.
Quick stats:
– Fast growing company with distribution in 15 states in first year of business
– Differentiated premium product with strong sell-through
– 100% retention with 2012 dealer base
– Established distribution with mass retailers: REI, Team Estrogen, and Scheels
– Founders committed to innovation, exceptional customer service with “people before profits,” involvement in cycling community
Learn more about us at moxiecycling.com
Contact our sales manager, leslie@moxiecycling.com, 866-88-MOXIE
ICI/PRO is devoted to providing a platform to elevate talented people. So if you're talented and looking or are looking for talented people, please contact us.
by John | Sep 1, 2012 | Instructor Training, Your Fitness Business
Pretending not to hear this won't make it go away 🙁
What would happen if someone were to get hurt in your class tomorrow?
It could be something as simple as a student slipping on a sweat soaked floor and twisting their knee, as they were climbing off at the end of class.
One moment everything is fine. It was a great class, the cool down music is playing and everyone is getting ready to stretch… then everything goes to s**t!
The next moment you have a student yelling in pain, her knee twisted at a very odd angle. Blood is running down their jersey from the gash in their head – she had struck the frame of the bike next to her, as she went down.
What's your personal liability if this happened in your class?
Or someone has an accident on the road during a group ride you are leading?
Are you covered by the club's or studio's insurance?
Does your club or studio even have insurance?
Do you know for sure?
September is back to school month and that means that Amy starts her weekly Pilates class at a local Catholic School. She's looking forward to seeing all of her student's again after the Summer break. But before she can teach her first class she needs to give the school administer a certificate of liability insurance, specifically naming Saint Huberts Community School as an additional insured. If you're curious about what this certificate looks like, you can see one here.
The school asks for a copy from Amy each year for a bunch of reasons; they want to be sure she really has coverage, it will be in force for the duration of the school year and the policy has acceptably high limits.
I'm not an insurance expert, but my understanding is that the reason for wanting to listed as an additional insured is to prevent disputes between Amy's insurance company and the school's. Being listed as an additional insured protects the school in the case where the school's insurance refuses to pay a claim, because Amy isn't an employee.
“Oh sure, we have insurance”, is right up there with “the checks in the mail”. I spent a lot of years selling and renting construction equipment and could tell you stories about contractors who insisted they have coverage, only to find out that the policy had lapsed two years ago and wasn't renewed. More often than not they thought they had insurance that covered rental equipment… when they didn't. Quite a few didn't have any insurance at all, which is why we always insisted on seeing a certificate of liability insurance that listed my company as an additional insured, before any equipment left the yard.
It's easy not to pay your insurance premiums. Companies struggling financially are famous for not keeping up their insurance. I'm aware of a studio who hasn't been paying their instructors (not any mentioned here) and it's an easy bet they aren't maintaining their insurance coverage either.
So what would happen if someone got hurt in your class, but there was no insurance policy in effect to cover the claim? It's hard to say exactly… but rest assured it could be a nightmare for you and your family.
With no insurance company to file a claim against for medical bills and lost earnings, the injured student hires a lawyer on contingency. They agree to split any settlement 70% for them and 30% for the attorney. Next the attorney starts looking for any “deep pockets”, anyone involved with assets that she can sue. That would be the studio owner and, unfortunately, you.
After a few years of depositions and court appearances (where you are accused of negligence), you may get off easy, only spending thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Or you could loose most of everything you own 🙁
Protect yourself and your family – do this ASAP:
- Confirm with your club or studio that you are, or are not covered by their insurance.
- Ask to see a copy of the current policy.
- I wouldn't be afraid to ask to be listed as an additional insured, especially if you teach at a small studio or are leading group rides outside the studio.
- Call your homeowner's insurance agent to understand what liability coverage you have and get their advice if you have enough. Be sure to tell them exactly what activities you are involved in and if you are paid.
- Act on the information – raise your limits, purchase an Instructor policy or consider adding an umbrella policy on top of your homeowners.
The policy we bought from trainerinsurance.com for Amy was only $175 for $1,000,000 of coverage. If you are an IDEA member they also offer discounted insurance – but I think it's the same $175.
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by John | Aug 12, 2012 | Featured Studios
Forgive the rant here. I have no patience for the vandalism of property, for any reason.
I just saw an email from ICI/PRO member and studio owner Charles “Spook” Hilgartner that includes this picture from outside his InSync Cycling Studio.
Some idiot tore down his sign – pathetic.
Spook has poured his heart, sole and a bunch of money into his studio. If you have a minute please go over to his site and Like is Facebook banner on the right hand sidebar to show your support.
While you are there you may want to check out the app he's providing for his members – pretty cool 🙂
by John | May 5, 2012 | Big Box Instructor, Instructor Training, Your Fitness Business
Photo courtesy E Entertainment
“So Joel, how do you know who to listen to and who to shut out?”
“I try to only listen to those whom I’m confident are on my crew…”
My question came during a conversation I was having during coffee with Joel Johnson, the pastor of my church. Joel had recently officiated the wedding between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries- the Humphries family are long time members of the church and his parents were at one time frequent participants in my Indoor Cycling Classes, until switching locations.
If you follow the tabloid’s you know that the marriage was dissolved, almost before Kim’s bouquet of flowers had wilted, with Kim profiting to the tune of $17.9 million. As you can imagine, the drama surrounding the whole event within our church was immense and the criticisms of Joel were brutal. Lots of “I told you so”, “you should have never done the wedding” plus no shortage of destructive gossip going on between church members.
“We were getting so many calls and emails that I had to seclude myself and only engage with the people who continued to demonstrate that they were on my crew.”
“I’m not sure exactly what you mean by; on my crew?” I told him.
“Let me show you…”
Joel grabbed a napkin and drew this simple diagram.
And then he explained to me that you can assign the people in your life/church/business/community/etc… into one of the four quadrants, each being similar to the roles of the people you would find on a seagoing ship.
- Your Crew
- Your Passengers
- Pirates
- Stow Aways
Joel then described his drawing (which he told me he learned from someone else, but I can’t remember who) and how it identifies:
- Involvement — is the person directly involved in your enterprise, Yes or No?
- Vision — does the person believe in your vision for the enterprise, Yes or No?
Placed in the context of your Fitness Business:
Your Crew – Involved and believe in your Vision. The loyal Instructors, employees and vendors who work for you. Ever faithful, the people on your Crew are actively (and selflessly) involved in helping you create and maintain a successful business. As the term “Crew” conveys, these people are Team Players, the “life blood” of your business, embracing your Vision and demonstrating it toward your customers and the other members of your Crew. They are the people you can count on. The person who jumps in when something needs to be done or when an emergency sub is needed. Crew members put the needs of the team ahead of their own, working continuously to promote the studio and other Instructor's classes.
Your Passengers — Not Involved, but believe in your Vision. Satisfied, regular customers who believe in your Vision and participate in fair exchange with your business*. They bring their friends and speak positively about you to others — while communicating concerns directly to you. Passengers add value to your business both financially and through the positive energy they bring to class. *Fair Exchange is a concept I learned from Dr Shannon years ago, where two people exchange value for something. As long as each feels the exchange is “Fair” then it's all good 🙂
Pirates — Involved, but don't believe in your Vision. Trouble makers who use the word “ME”, instead of “WE”, demonstrating a belief that it’s “all about them”, instead of your Team. Pirates can be Involved in your business as Instructors or employees. They contribute to your business, while promoting their own agendas, instead of (or at the expense of) your Vision. They may try to encourage your customer's to attend classes they teach at other locations and may be heard cutting down another Instructor's class. They may be so bold as to sell merchandise out of the trunk of their car. Pirates think nothing of showing up late, being unprepared or calling in sick on short notice. Pirates are very selective of which classes they would consider subbing and will use the opportunity to promote themselves.
Stow Aways — Not Involved nor believe in your Vision. The customers who take advantage of your good will. They insist on free/discounted classes and complain frequently. Stow Aways are the participants who show up late, do their own thing (complete with iPod/earbuds), disrupt class or may even be disrespectful to your Instructors.
“Joel, what do you do with the Pirates and Stow Aways once you identify them?”
“You need to decide if they are worth keeping around. And if not, I bless them, thank them and say good bye.”
He is after all a Pastor.
____________________________________
What prompted me to write this post was an episode of Kitchen Nightmares , a show I love and feel teaches some valuable lessons that you can apply to your Indoor Cycling Class and/or Fitness Business. The story line had the head chef (a Pirate) ruining the restaurant's reputation and yet the owners felt powerless to fire him, because they didn't think they could survive without him. I've seen (and heard of) similar situations at studios with a prima donna Instructor. Very popular with clients, the Pirate's destructive behavior may have you questioning whether or not you should keep them on your Instructor team.
Have you experienced Pirates or Stow Aways at your studio?
This article is also posted over at cyclingstudio.org
