The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. — Charles Swindoll
Do you do any writing in your work — blogs, website copy, ads, emails, posts, salesletters? Do you have lots to say, but no confidence in your ability to write it?
Writing intimidates many people. As a result, they avoid it or feel a sense of dread whenever they’re stuck writing something. The result could be missed deadlines, or a stilted, awkward article, post, letter, whatever the occasion requires. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Investing in a good developmental editor and/or copywriter is as important for your business as any other expense you see fit to justify as essential.
Writing style, grammar, sentence structure, parallel structure. The very words sound quaint as I write them. Some people couldn’t even define that last phrase. But their absence simply reeks of slovenliness.
As we know, professionalism is a matter of details. Just think of how many details go into the teaching of a single indoor cycling class: room management, music selection and recording, video selection and use, your workout plan, your training concept, any exercise science you plan to teach, any philosophy of training that matches the day’s workout, personal anecdotes that illustrate the point behind the day’s class, creating the right atmosphere, motivational messages, and more.
If you took a class taught by an instructor who neglected these important details, what would you conclude? ‘Professionalism’ wouldn’t be in your description.
So why would written work be any less important? The written word lasts. If only for that reason, the details of written messaging should be given the time and attention they require. William Feather said, “Beware of the person who can’t be bothered by details.”
There are many reasons to pay attention to our writing. Making sure our meaning is clear comes first. That’s made possible by using the appropriate tone, whether it’s formal, academic, or casual and conversational. The first two are not the only ones that matter.
The power of any message also hinges on both clarity and brevity. Avoid rambling. Unless you’re writing your own blog and hunting daily for material, don’t waste time in your posts describing the clouds in the sky as you sip your coffee while thinking about the topic you’re about to cover for Cyclotronic Cecil’s Cyclo-sation website. Get to the content and make it clear.
Another important element is grammar. Sure, I’m dating myself, but I insist that good grammar matters. Don’t kid yourself. Your readers — and not just the old ones like me — are, in fact, cringing as they read those embarrassing mistakes.
My tip on this is to avoid language trends. They always go in the direction of worsening illiteracy. Just because everyone around you says, “I could care less,” doesn’t make it right. If you don’t care, it’s correct to say you “couldn’t care less.” Think about it for a moment.
But I digress.
The point of this post is that a good editor/copywriter is a wise investment. He or she can polish stale prose, make you sound even smarter than you feel(!) when putting your ideas in writing, and leave you with the confidence that you’ve done the job well.
The attention to detail will show in your growing reputation for professionalism. You deserve that. You spend that kind of time on your teaching. Don’t neglect your writing when help is easy to find.
Give attention to the details and excellence will come. — Perry Paxton
I stumbled into this article and wanted to share it with you. This group meets regularly in a garage to ride together on trainers…
It is almost quiet. No loud music, no instructor shouting motivational slogans. A pair of box fans hum, nearly drowning out whirring bicycle drivetrains. Conversations are brief, limited by the exertion.
The workout leader calmly, periodically, issues instructions to the half-dozen or so cyclists laboring in a two-car garage in a west Yakima home.
This is back-to-basics wintertime indoor bicycle training – simple, personal and sweaty.
It began nine years ago, the idea of Yakima’s Donna Smith, as a way for riders to stay in shape through the winter.
“It was fun to get people together during the wintertime when you can’t ride outside very much and actually do a workout and talk about the rides you’ve done in past years – and what you’re going to do this next year,” said Smith, a national- and world-champion cyclist between 2005-07. “It helps the winter pass more quickly for us nonskiers.”
The article included this video.
I'm struck by how simple and unpretentious this all is. Just a bunch of like minded cyclists showing up and pounding out some intervals with friends. Awesome 🙂
Where in America should you go if you want to be “healthy, wealthy and wise”? TODAY's special series looks at top places in the US in each category – and you may be surprised at the winners.
Which city is considered the healthiest, fittest in America? It's not a sunny, bikini-weather spot like Miami Beach or Malibu. It's a city famous for its frequent sub-zero temperatures, where residents need snow coats and ear muffs for months of the year: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minn., according to the American College of Sports Medicine's most recent American Fitness Index.
Minneapolis, St. Paul has more parks per square mile than any major city in the U.S. and is second only to Portland, Ore. for the number of bicyclists per capita. The Twin Cities also get high marks for access to fresh food.
“There are twice as many farmer's markets in that area than in the top 10 percent of [U.S.] cities,” says ACSM's Walter Thompson, Ph.D.
I don't agree with their judging criteria – access to or number of Farmer's Markets? Most are only open during our 4 or 5 weeks of summer and only on Sunday's.
Residents here are fit because we don't have a choice… it's all about survival during our Godforsaken winters. We're thin due to the amount of calories we expend keeping warm. Shoveling snow was the original full-body workout. Move fast enough between passes down & back up the driveway and you add a cardio component + you get the added bonus of staying warm and not freezing to death.
Don't depend on BCC email getting through to your athletes.
“Sure John – I'll email everyone on my list about your up-coming classes.”
My buddy Randy Erwin is a “Connector”. One of those awesome people who makes the effort to plan events (like outdoor rides) and get-togethers. Randy is the team captain of our Subaru MS 150 team and his love/passion for coordinating group rides lead to him being recruited to be the area Life Time Fitness Cycle lead.
Last night I talked to Randy and he told me he was excited for the FTP assessment I had planned for this morning and that he had emailed everyone three times, so he felt that we'd have a bunch of cyclist from his list.
Except most of them didn't show this morning 🙁
A couple of them did show up for the 9:00 am class that follows mine. Confused looks at those of us there who were cooling down; “Wait, was there an earlier class… why wasn't I told?”
I hadn't received (and neither had many others) any emails from Randy this week. Neither did Amy – we're both on his list. So when I got home this morning I checked and found one of Randy's emails in my SPAM folder, which I rarely check on my laptop and never on my iPhone. Note to self to check there more frequently.
I called and asked; Randy…how many names are on your list? . About 200 was his response. Send a BCC email to a large of a list of email addresses must have triggered something in Gmail to think his email was SPAM = very few of us saw it.
So what to do?
It drives me crazy when I receive mass CC emails – typically I see them as sub requests. They are a total violation of email privacy and if one of the recipients have their email hacked, we all get the spam emails.
So if I want to email a list of athletes who take my class, I should use the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) feature… right?
For a few people, sure that's OK. But once you have a large number (20+) of recipients, then No. At least not if you want to be sure your email doesn't end up in a SPAM folder and everyone will receive your latest class/event announcement.
Use a White-Listed Email Provider.
White-Listed just means trusted source… as in we don't allow any SPAM emails sent from our accounts Ms. AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. so you can confidently deliver it to your customer. The two most popular are Constant Contact and my favorite MailChimp for a bunch of reasons. The biggest reason for you is that it's completely free until you go over 2,000 subscribers or send over 12,000 individual emails a month. So if Randy used MailChimp he could send 60 emails a month to is list of 200 subscriber each month at no charge. Fabulous deal – they don't even ask for a credit card.
Click to Subscribe
At one point you subscribed to the ICI/PRO Newsletter, by clicking a link and adding your name and email address. Using MailChimp you'll have the same ability to post a Subscribe Here link on your Facebook or Instructor blog = no manual entries!
You need their permission first
I decided that I would like to have all of Randy's contacts in a MailChimp account so I could email them > and know they are getting through. Except Randy doesn't have permission to give me the list, from the people on it, so he can't just give it to me. The solution is to:
Create a MailChimp account – here's the link.
Create a specific list
Have Randy send out my Subscribe Here link in an email. I'll suggest that he brake up the list into 20-30 address at a time and send the email with the link 2-3 times.
I already have a MailChimp account – so all I needed to was to create a new list. Here's the link to my list if you'd like to see it – http://eepurl.com/LQ_2P The Default in MailChimp is to collect First & Last Name + email address, which is normally plenty to start with. It's beyond the scope of this post, but the signup form can be easily modified to include pretty much anything. Please understand that you can ask for too much and they'll not subscribe.
Class sign-in list
I'm also collected emails at the start of each class using a hand written sign-in legal pad.
Instructor Tip: When adding emails to MailChimp from a sign in sheet, it's not uncommon to end up with a few you can't read. My tip is to do a quick search in Google using what you CAN read and search for the rest.
First and Last + the word “email” will many times display the correct email. You might need to add a state (MN, CA,FL, etc.) or city for common names. Google knows everything.
I will frequently check the domain alone – @XYZcompany.com or the domain + first/last name
Would you like additional info or help with this or other methods of marketing your class?
Many of us get near ZERO help from our club/studio > so it's up to all of us to grow our classes.
Thank You! With the one exception (losing our friend Jim Karanas) 2013 was an awesome year here at ICI/PRO!
I just got back from co-teaching a 90 minute Performance Cycle class with the Senior Group Fitness Instructor Amy. We had a great group of committed Endurance Athletes this AM – I say committed because many of them said they went to bed early (missing the ball-drop), just so they would be rested for class this morning.
Here's the playlist we used – which is a combination of Amy's and my songs selections.
Hotmail, etc. so you can confidently deliver it to your customer. The two most popular are Constant Contact and my favorite MailChimp for a bunch of reasons. The biggest reason for you is that it's completely free until you go over 2,000 subscribers or send over 12,000 individual emails a month. So if Randy used MailChimp he could send 
