My guest for this episode of the Podcast is Studio Owner Leslie Grosshauser.
Leslie launched S & L Tri-Cycle Fit Studio on the first of the year. I was excited to learn from her about a number of decisions she made, to differentiate her offering from other fitness competitors.
Key among them were the purchase of Schwinn AC Performance cycles and the Performance IQ on-screen display system of each rider's Power and Heart Rate metrics.
Here's more about Leslie Grosshauser
Leslie has been teaching and training in the fitness Industry for over 25 years. Inspiring the world to workout and have fun are the key ingredients in all of Leslie’s program. Leslie has a wide variety of experience ranging from Managing and Directing Group Exercise and Personal Training in Hospital based centers, National Fitness Chains and small Boutique studios.
Leslie loves the world of competition and that is why she is so passionate about S&L Tri-CycleFit studio. Leslie has always had a vision to create a place where people can get a great workout, have fun and fulfill their competitive edge. Leslie has been teaching indoor cycling for over 15 years, loving every minute of the ride, she has created several creative formats to keep people smiling and coming back for more!
Leslie is currently a Master trainer for Polar Electro, The Cardio GX Program, she is also a Master Trainer and Presenter for the Hollywood workout “Piloxing”, Leslie is also a Fitness Educator/Presenter for SCW Fitness Education where she presents several of her own programs and educational seminars around the United States. Leslie has presented at several of the major Fitness industry Tradeshows such as IHRSA, Club Industry, Athletic Business Conferences and several others. Leslie has presented Internationally for FreeMotion Fitness where she launched the Group Free Motion program that she created.
Leslie was the 1999 National Aerobic Champion and also competed in the world of Body Building. Leslie loves the connection that the group classes create and that is why she has dedicated her life to designing fun group exercise programming.
Spinning® studio owner Suzanne Olson, along with her 4 partners, runs Pure Energy in Paoli, PA . Suzanne joins me to discuss how she ensures a quality experience for her participants, in their multi-format fitness studio.
Meet Spinning® Instructor/Personal Trainer and Fitness blogger Darcy Knoblich!
Darcy is doing a fabulous job connecting with participants and other instructors, while promoting herself online through her websitedarcyknoblich.com.
I really enjoyed interviewing Darcy and I hope you enjoy listening to her passion for helping others 🙂
Our goal for this Podcast was to help motivate Instructors (that could be you) to get active online. There are multiple online tools available that are free and easy to use, like the blogging platform WordPress.com or Blogger.com.
UPDATE: A great promotional tool you could should leverage is creating your Instructor profile on indoorcyclinginstructorjobs.com where you can post your resume. Wouldn't it be awesome to get a call from an interested studio owner?
Your website may just include some info about you, your class format and your scheduled classes. Or you could really get into it and post your playlists, training information, feature some of your favorite participants or one of the Instructors on your team!
During our conversation I mentioned that I had started a blog back in 2008 – it was actually Spring of 2007. I checked and it's still there indoorcycletraining.blogspot.com/
Listen to Darcy's interview below or and never miss an episode.
When the world markets were crashing in 1929 and the American economy was in ruins, Angelo Siciliano, an Italian immigrant, saw opportunity in the face of darkness. In the midst of financial despair and against all odds, Siciliano pioneered the fitness revolution as we know it today.
As a young man weighing only 97 pounds, Siciliano was at the beach with his girlfriend when a bully kicked sand in his face. Humiliated, he began doing numerous exercise routines and became obsessed with strength. According to Siciliano’s memoirs, he was at the zoo one day watching a lion stretch when he thought to himself, “Does this old gentleman have any barbells, any exercisers?” Siciliano concluded that lions and tigers became strong by pitting muscle against muscle. He changed his name to Charles Atlas and in the midst of economic turmoil began offering bodybuilding courses through a mail-order fitness program. Advertisements soon appeared in comic books and magazines, and this was the beginning of Charles Atlas Ltd., the fitness industry phenomenon. According to Atlas’s 1982 biography, “Yours in Perfect Manhood,” his company did so well that it emerged from the stock market crash unscathed.
Before the Great Depression lifted, Jack LaLanne, often called the Godfather of Fitness, also influenced millions of lives by teaching people to eat right and exercise regularly. LaLanne, who died last January at the age of 96, opened the first American health club in Oakland, California in 1936. LaLanne spent decades spreading the physical and mental benefits of exercise and designed the world's first leg-extension machine which is now standard in the industry.
Neither Atlas nor Lalanne were personal trainers but rather shrewd businessmen. Both saw a hunger for people wanting to escape their financial woes and feel good about themselves. While others laughed at the notion of opening a business during an economic meltdown, Atlas and LaLanne created a multi-million dollar fitness empire.
Is something similar brewing? Despite the sagging economy and rising unemployment, several recent polls indicate that tough financial times actually encourage people to redirect their expenses toward health-conscious pursuits while traveling and dining out less often. While some may suggest that dropping your health club membership along with cable television is the right thing to do in a troubled economy, you should never give up your membership in ANY economy. Your gym membership is an incredible value for these 5 reasons:
1. On average, a single meal out costs well over half what your gym membership costs you.
2. Working out regularly keeps you mentally and physically balanced. Enough said.
3. No matter what gym you belong to, it’s a community. Enjoying like-minded individuals is good for the soul.
4. Your health club is a safe harbor. No matter how hectic your life becomes with interruptions, knowing you have a bike waiting in the 6:00 cycling class provides a constant in your daily schedule.
5. Exercise boosts self-confidence, and this is important if you’re dealing with the negative effects of a recession or your confidence is down due to a job loss.
Just like Atlas and LaLanne, studio owners have an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive by promoting fitness as a way to survive financial hardships. While it’s true that money can’t bring happiness, good health most definitely can.
Barbara Hoots is a long time contributor at www.indoorcycleinstructor.com and you can read her other articles here. Considering a new studio? Visit spinroomdesign.com to learn more about designing the perfect Spinning Studio.
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You’re passionate about fitness, you love indoor cycling and you may even be an outstanding instructor yourself. You recognize the amazing energy in a great class, and you’ve also seen a lot of poor or mediocre classes that frustrate you. Maybe you’ve wondered if a dedicated studio can make money?
Should you start your own studio? Great questions.
While not nearly as common as yoga studios, there are in fact a good many successful, dedicated cycling studios (and Spin® studios) around the country. We have worked extensively with a number of them, and in the right community, with the right model, these can be tremendous small businesses.
There is nothing more thrilling than waking every day knowing your decisions and actions are building a business, developing a community, making people healthy…….and generating a stream of profits!
Here is the first question we ALWAYS get asked. There is plenty of indoor cycling and Spinning® at gyms and health clubs in my area — why would people go to a new dedicated
studio?
4 reasons cycling studios are successful! – Free Registration Required – Click Here. Opens in a new tab.
[wlm_ismember]
Dedication.For the same reason there are thousands of successful Yoga studios, despite ample yoga classes at gyms and health clubs — a dedicated studio focuses
on one thing. It pays attention to the details and delivers a more consistently excellent product.
Atmosphere.
Many people, for a variety of reasons, prefer a small intimate studio
to the feeling of a big gym or health club. As evidence, look at the vast number of Yoga, Pilates and personal training studios — despite the availability of those services at gyms.
Pricing flexibility.
Studios typically offer a variety of programs including “unlimited classes” or “pay-per-visit”. This variety and flexibility appeals to a broad range of potential clients. This service makes it easy to set up online payments.
Community.
There is a community spirit in a small studio attended by dedicated cyclists with a common passion.
The notion of a successful, dedicated cycling studio is not just a concept — it is a reality in dozens of instances around the country. That being said, the number is miniscule compared to the opportunity, and there is very likely a need near you.
Are you annoying some of your current (or potential) participants? You know, rubbing those folks who are of a different/opposite personality type than yours the wrong way?
I recently came to the conclusions that there's a good chance that I do at times – please let me know if any of this makes sense to you…
Yesterday I gave a presentation to our sold-out group of studio owners and Instructors at the Full Psycle/PRO PIQ workshop entitled:
Selling Power – The success of your studio depends on it!
We've got all of this fancy technology in our studios; bikes with consoles, display training systems, results emails and online user profiles that record all of your previous class data. So (to me) it should follow that persuading (Selling) participants that Training with Power is worthwhile becomes supercritical to building a loyal following = a profitable fitness business.
The core concept of my talk was how you need to understand how the four different personality types; Director, Socializer, Relater and Thinker need to be “Sold” to differently.
The personality matrix is constructed like this:[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Then I went on to describe the common personality traits of each type.
Teach an early AM class? I'll bet it's filled with “A” type Directors.
I am a Director > my kids will attest to me sometimes being a bit harsh 🙁
These social folks will pay your overhead if you can attract and retain them.
I explained how it was my belief that attracting Socializers is the key to a successful/profitable Indoor Cycling Studio. Everything I observed at SoulCycle appeared to be designed to attract this type of people and who can argue with their success?
You're a Relater if you include the word “safe” in your class description.
When we first began promoting Performance IQ there was some initial pushback from Instructors; “we need to keep competition out of our classes!” > which I realize now came from Relaters who were concerned about weaker riders not being able to keep up. NOTE: that's been fix… now you can run PIQ competitions between riders that are handicapped for weight/gender or Team based challenges are awesome for including everyone.
Thinkers spend a lot of time discussing the “Science” of training with anyone who will listen.
At the risk of sounding harsh (I'm a Director… we do stuff like that!)…
I feel we are wasting our time, when we focus our attention on Thinkers.
Many (maybe most) dedicated endurance athletes/cyclists fall into the Thinker group. Don't get me wrong – I know hundreds of them and they're a bunch of nice people. If I had a technical product or service to sell I would devote nearly all of my attention on these data junkies. But Thinkers are very individualistic* (loners) ≠the type of people who add value to a group fitness class. Not to mention they disappear from your class on the first nice spring day.
While typing this I remembered an article from Stages Indoor Cycling's Cameron Chinatti about not focusing on the Squeaky Wheels in your classes. Cameron doesn't call out Thinkers directly, but I see it all the time where Instructors get sucked into esoteric debates about the science of training on Facebook or with the guy in a full kit, who sat in the front row, doing his own thing.
Little, if any, of the “science” of training is of interest to Socializers. So while you're caught up with the wannabe pro cyclist/Thinker, debating the pro's and con's of Training Zone 5B > the Socializer (who has many hundreds of friends) who wanted to thank you for recognizing them during class, leaves feeling like you don't really care… and never comes back.
So Who annoys Who?
I got a lot of heads nodding “YES” when we discussed who annoys who during my presentation.
All of this is strictly anecdotal > just my 53 years of observation and my own personal feelings.
Thinkers and Socialisers can get under each other's skin.
As a Director, Relaters can bug the crap out of me and they see me a uncaring 🙁
We discussed a number of examples of how we need first need to identify our “type” and then be careful not to annoy our opposites, during the presentation of our classes.
Directors need to recognise a Relater's concerns for the safety of others – even if we think it's unfounded.
Relaters need to understand that not everyone shares their concerns and encourage the Directors in class to take a risk.
Thinkers need to minimize the “science lessons” or they'll quickly lose Socializers.
Socializers – it can't be all passion and cheerleading. Throw your Thinkers a few technical “bones” to satiate their need for concrete data.
[/wlm_private]I'm kicking myself for not recording this complete session. There was a lot of excellent comments and feedback. We're planning more of these Full Psycle/PRO workshops and I won't make the same mistake twice.
*Yes, cyclists go on group rides, with other cyclists. But these rides are rarely social events – especially for men. More like a group of individuals riding near each other, all going in the same direction and using each other's draft.
As a young man weighing only 97 pounds, Siciliano was at the beach with his girlfriend when a bully kicked sand in his face. Humiliated, he began doing numerous exercise routines and became obsessed with strength. According to Siciliano’s memoirs, he was at the zoo one day watching a lion stretch when he thought to himself, “Does this old gentleman have any barbells, any exercisers?” Siciliano concluded that lions and tigers became strong by pitting muscle against muscle. He changed his name to Charles Atlas and in the midst of economic turmoil began offering bodybuilding courses through a mail-order fitness program. Advertisements soon appeared in comic books and magazines, and this was the beginning of Charles Atlas Ltd., the fitness industry phenomenon. According to Atlas’s 1982 biography, “Yours in Perfect Manhood,” his company did so well that it emerged from the stock market crash unscathed.
The personality matrix is constructed like this:[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
