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 8, 2012 | Instructor Training, Latest News
Our mission here at ICI/PRO, is to act as a platform to elevate talented people in a way that benefits both them and our members.
We have a number* of new contributors climbing on and joining the ICI/PRO team this Fall.
Let's start by introducing you to Instructor Christine Hawthorne!
I met Chris Chrispins over at Pedal-On… or better put, I discovered Chris by followed a link to her website – chrispins1.wordpress.com and then proceeded to steal a bunch of her music suggestions and use them in my classes 🙂
Pretty soon I was trading emails with Chris and then had the privileged to talk with her about the possibility of joining our team. Beyond Instructing she's a Kindergarten teacher, wife and mother of two boys!
There's a real magic to organizing music in a way that will communicate your passion, while engaging your students. If you are on Spotify you can experience Chris' talents – and understand why I'm so excited to have her on board.
ICI/PRO members can look forward to Chris' first post this week about her earlier experiences with using the Spotify Premium version with her iPhone App.
*Legend to John speak: I tend to use; “a couple” when I mean two, “a few” to describe 3 and “a number” when there's four or more.
by Christine Nielsen | Sep 4, 2012 | Engage Your Students, Instructor Training
John –
Here's a short report. They did so well and were giddy with their achievement. I will try to distill my thoughts about the whole project over the next couple of weeks. I really hope I can inspire other instructors to try something similar (but maybe not so ambitious – I couldn't believe how hard I crashed in the couple of hours after it was all over.)
Toss Out Your Elephants
Here's a brief update on our trip. It was marked by laughter, tears, breathtaking views and amazing personal achievement. Everyone made it safely around the Trail. One person had a bike failure that we couldn't resolve so only got to ride for the first day and a half. Two people rode every centimeter of the way. Others found that they eventually had to walk part of a 6 km 11% grade and many of them opted to walk down the 12-13% grade descent. They successfully conquered the other two major climbs.
I rode sweep on the two most challenging days. That allowed me to stay with and support the back markers. It was incredibly affirming to hear them talking about and see them using material they had learned in my classes. It got even better when they started chanting the catchphrases I use to crystallize some of the most important concepts.
Here's my favorite story from the trip. One of our late spring training sessions was structured as a warm-up, a 6% hill (the most they had done to that point), skill development on other hills and a return to the 6% hill to put into practice what they had learned. On both times up the biggest hill one rider really struggled and complained that “A herd of elephants is sitting on my chest.” I know her capacity for work because I see her in my classes 2-3 times per week so doubted that she was experiencing true physical difficulty. We spent the next few weeks talking about the source of the elephants and she finally seemed to accept that they were “in her head”.
On the last day of the Cabot Trail trip I was riding with her on an 8 km section of 7% grade. She and other riders chatted all the way up and were suitably impressed by their ability to do so. When we neared the top I asked her “Do you have any elephants today?” She replied that she had packed up the elephants and put them away. We rode in silence for about a minute. Then she added “No, that's wrong. I didn't pack up the elephants. I tossed them out. I don't need them any more.”
I will write much more after I have had a chance to let the events of the trip and our entire training journey settle into perspective. But I know now that I will treasure forever the opportunity to help toss out some elephants.
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 28, 2012 | Latest News
We recently completed a survey of ICI/PRO members and got a huge amount of feedback that will help us better meet your needs, as we roll along here in year 4 of ICI/PRO.
One standout was the 82% positive response to the question “would you be interested in a full transcription of the Podcasts?” We received a number of additional comments the said you felt you retained more by reading along with the recording of the Instructor's presentation.
You're the Boss and your wish is our command 🙂
So now I need to know how you would like them delivered to you.
I've used this recent Podcast, featuring Larry “Link” Russell as a test. Have I mentioned that he's presenting for ICI/PRO at the SCW Boston Mania conference this Fall? More on that soon.
I'm not sure which you'd prefer, so I've included both a PDF transcription you can download and print along with including the copy at the end of the post. Please let me know if you prefer one or the other or both, by leaving a comment below or on the Podcast post.
by John | Aug 28, 2012 | Latest News
Love the Pink Gear Box and multi-color tire levels – typically only two are required… but I maybe wrong 🙂
As I've discussed before, we fight a daily battle with Spammers attempting to post links for “male enhancement” products and other nonsense.
This has lead to us needing to approve any post that includes a link, before it displays.
Feel free add link away to anything you feel will be of value (this link was hilarious even if you don't speak German) but please understand that your comment will be held for moderation before it shows with the other comments. We'll try to approve it ASAP, but at time there maybe a short delay.
