by Christine Hawthorne | Nov 13, 2012 | Instructor Tips and Tricks, Instructor Training, iTunes & Spotify Training, Music, Spotify
After some poking around and exploring, I think I have discovered the best way to find and follow other people on Spotify. Finding, following and adding people to your ‘favorites’ will in turn give you more music to explore and ultimately use in your cycling profiles.
Spotify has clearly not made the task of finding other people or cycling instructors to follow an easy one. If you were an iTunes Ping user, you remember how simple it was to find other instructors and to see their playlists and what they were purchasing and listening to. In Spotify you can do most of these things. You just have to work a little harder at it. Once you have found some people with similar musical tastes, you’ll find the process of searching for new music much simpler.
There are a few ways to go about searching for and finding people to follow in Spotify:
- Since Spotify and Facebook are connected, you can follow friends that are already on Facebook. While this one is simple, it’s my least favorite option. First of all, you actually need to be ON Facebook. I realize that most of you probably are, but I’m sure there are some of you that either don’t have a Facebook account, or, like me, use it very sparingly. Another reason I’m not a fan of the Facebook method is because your Facebook friends may not be listening to the kind of music you want to use in your cycling playlists. You’re looking for other instructors with similar musical tastes. I suppose you could ‘friend’ all of the cycling instructors in the world on Facebook, but then you have a bunch of people you don’t even know looking at your personal Facebook page. If that doesn't bother you, then I guess using Facebook is one way to find friends to follow in Spotify.
While the above mentioned techniques will surely work, I think I’ll stick with my highly un-scientific, yet effective (not to mention easy and fast) way to find people to follow on Spotify:
- Find one person that has a playlist you like and head on over to their profile. Let’s use my profile to get you started: http://open.spotify.com/user/chrispins
- Once you have arrived on my profile page, take a look at some of my ‘published’ playlists. Not only will you see my original playlists here, but you will also see playlists that I have subscribed to. These are playlists from other members. Here is a picture of part of one of my original playlists, posted on my profile page:
- In the upper right corner of these profiles, you can click on the ‘subscribers' and a drop down list will appear with the profiles of all of the people that have subscribed to my playlist. There you go! 23 new people (mostly cycling instructors) to follow! Click on their names to go to their profile pages, and check out what they are publishing and subscribing to. If you like what you see, click ‘add’ in the upper right hand corner of their profile. This will allow you to see what they are listening to and publishing in a scrolling list on the side of your profile. Hint: After you click ‘add’, you will have an option to add them to your ‘favorites’. I recommend doing this because it allows you to access their profile even if they are not actively listening to or using Spotify at the same time that you are. Their latest activity will always be available in the upper right side of your profile.
- Now that you have found some other profile pages, you can continue to explore the ‘followers’ of the playlists that they have published or subscribed to. Many people have not published many playlists, but have ‘subscribed’ to other people’s playlists. In this case, you can go directly to the profile of the person that created the original playlist by clicking their user name next to the playlist title as in this example: This is a partial shot of a playlist that I subscribed to by John MacGowan:
- Just click on John's name next to the playlist title to go directly to his profile.
- Here are some links with some basic tutorials that you might find useful:
Can I Add Any Spotify User To My People List?
How To View A Profile From Within Spotify
Spotify Social Basics
So, what are you waiting for? Give yourself a little time and start exploring more music on Spotify. Once you start finding people to follow, you might find it hard to stop!
**Feel free to share your Spotify profile link in the comment section to get the ball rolling!
by John | Oct 27, 2012 | Instructor Tips and Tricks, Latest News, Spotify
So this morning I'm poking around on the internet and checked on what Chris Hawthorne had going on over at her Chrispins Blog. Chris is part of our ICI/PRO team of contributors and has a unique talent for creating excellent Indoor Cycling Class music playlists. She's also an excellent communicator and you'll find her tutorials on using Spotify very helpful.
As I'm reading through her latest post: Anything Could Happen Cycling Mix and I see what looks like a screenshot of her latest playlist. “That's nice” I think… but then I realize it's not a screenshot at all, but an actual Spotify player where someone can listen to each track, the whole way through > even if they aren't a Spotify user. I stand corrected – you need to be a Spotify user for this to work.
“HOW THE H.E. DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS DID I MISS THIS?”
And then I smiled to myself and did a little nod.
That's exactly why I asked her to be part of our team 🙂
Here's the player that Chris had added to her post:
How cool is that?
I'll be adding these Spotify Players to each Audio PROfile this weekend.
P.S. I'm assuming that everyone can see the player above, regardless of where you are located. Please leave me a comment below with your location so we can confirm this.
by John | Aug 9, 2012 | Instructor Training, Promote and Build Your Class
OK, so mid August may be a little bit early to start asking people to come back to your class. But I don't feel that there's any harm in giving some thought (and maybe some preparation) in how you plan to encourage past students to return to class this Fall.
Here is an excellent article from Club Industry contributor Christine Thalwitz that reinforces the need to collect contact info on participants throughout the Indoor Cycling season.
Blame it on the down economy, poor service or a life change. Whatever the reason, most health clubs lose at least 20 percent to 40 percent of their members each year. The good news is that many former members are ready to come back if you just ask them.
At my club, ACAC Fitness and Wellness Centers, referrals from existing members are our top source for new membership sales, but former members who rejoin are a strong second. Many companies do not take any special steps to recapture lost members, but ignoring these individuals constitutes a massive missed opportunity.
Last week, while I was riding a century, the course took me past a restaurant that Amy and I used to eat at occasionally – but haven't for years. Why haven't we gone back there? I thought. I really liked it, but I've completely forgotten about this place. Had they sent me an occasional letter or email there's a good chance we would have returned. But they didn't – so we didn't return.
Back in September of 2008 I recorded ICI Podcast #5 — ten steps to building up your class numbers. In it I share my strategies for class promotion. These steps have worked for me and I hope, if you haven't heard them before, that they help you fill your class this fall!
One note: In the Podcast I encourage you to start your own Blog, which obviously dates when I published this. Now my recommendation is to start a Facebook group where you can communicate what's happening in your class.
by John | May 2, 2012 | Engage Your Students, Instructor Tips and Tricks
Amy makes her TV Debut this afternoon on ShopNBC! She starts her new role as the product spokesperson for Bay Area facial cosmetic surgeon, Stanley Jacobs M.D.
And get this… Dr. Jacobs offered her the position after first meeting Amy and taking her Indoor Cycling Class at CycleQuest Studio, which is just a few blocks away from the ShopNBC production studios 🙂
style=”display:inline-block;width:468px;height:60px”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-6759595744910697″
data-ad-slot=”2020416932″>
I'll let her tell the whole story, but what happened is this. Dr. Jacobs was here in Minneapolis to promote his Visco-Elastic Transforming Serum, appearing on a number of live segments shown on ShopNBC throughout the day. With a number of hours in between segments, he came to my Monday noon class at CycleQuest – except I wasn't there. Amy was subbing for me that day.
I can easily imagine what happened next…
Amy did, what Amy normally does, which leads to a whole lot of people leaving her class feeling celebrated and valued.
This really ties into Dr. Shannon's article about being grateful:
They may be miles away, and not even know that you are there. They may find their way to your class, or maybe they will not. Regardless, YOU will be there with your best performance when they do! They need YOU to show up! Why?
Because you are one who is celebrated. You are the one they have literally been dying to meet because you celebrate people (this includes YOU). And they know that if they can just get near you, they too will feel significant.
So you may be thinking, “Yeah, right…if I were a celebrity…it would be easy to have a packed class every week, but I am NOT!”
If you go back to the definition of celebrity, you will see that in fact, you can be. Celebrate you and you will be celebrated. Celebrate others and they will celebrate you!
So go out and teach some great classes this week… you never know who'll be there 🙂
And if you're one of the approximately 75 million cable and satellite households that have ShopNBC, Amy is scheduled to appear in the 5:00 and 6:00 hours – Central Time.
by John | Nov 26, 2011 | Engage Your Students, Instructor Tips and Tricks
Have you have ever faced this dichotomy in your class?
Two riders, call them Bob and Susan (not their real names) are sitting front, center, smiling at you. You know them both and what you know about them causes you to almost freeze with indecision about how you will coach the class.
Here's some background on the two:
Bob is 40 years old and a somewhat competitive cyclist. Bob comes to your class to get stronger/fitter/faster (which is what he wants) so he needs to Train ~ 80% of his time in ZONE 1 to develop aerobically and the remaining 20% in ZONE 3 – above AT/LT. From a Training perspective, Bob should spend as little time in ZONE 2 as possible (junk miles). But the upper part of ZONE 2 is exactly where Bob performs during (long/fast club ride, RR or TT) so Bob's training in ZONEs 1 & 3 is to make him stronger in ZONE 2 when he is competing. Bob also understands that the hard work in ZONE 3 will leave him a bit trashed – which he accepts as the cost of getting stronger.
Susan is a 40 year old Mother of three kids who isn't training for anything, unless you count her continuous battle maintaining her body composition at an acceptable level. She's in your class to burn calories…specifically body fat if at all possible. She wants to leave your class with the energy she needs for the rest of her day while also not having her sugar stores depleted to the point where her low blood sugar level has her stopping at the doughnut shop. I would argue that Susan needs to spend the majority of the class in ZONE 2. There is where she can maintain the highest level of intensity for the longest period of time, without feeling exhausted, needing to recover and eating everything she sees after class.
With few exceptions, the majority of our classes are made of students are more like Susan than Bob… and arguably the #1 reason people come to class is for weight management.
Does it then make sense that we design classes much more for Susan?
Are we boring/alienating Susan when we sit there and proudly explain how our class is scientifically designed to help Bob?
In her post about not teaching to the squeaky wheel, Cameron Chinatti lays out some excellent points on how no one at your facility should be valued higher than anyone else. Easier said then done. I find myself wanting to teach to a class of Bob's, even while smiling back at Susan.
What do you do in this situation [wlm_firstname]?
by John | Nov 20, 2011 | Instructor Tips and Tricks
With over 8,000 instructors receiving our weekly newsletter, my email address ends up in 8,000 contact lists. On occasion, I would receive random SPAM emails (see below) from people who's email account had been compromised in some way. Typically one, maybe two a month… this week alone I have received 10! This tells me there is something going on and all of us need to be careful clicking links in strangely worded emails.
Your email privacy here is as secure as humanly possible 🙂 We use the premium version of Mail Chimp to manage the distribution of our newsletter lists. I've found that Mail Chimp's service has many more security features than Aweber, who we used in the past.
What would I suggest you do if you receive an like this? Reply to it with a note saying you believe the account has been compromised.
Why? Because the owner of the account may have no idea of the problem. By replying back you are helping whomever correct the problem. (often as simple as changing their password) Then they can look in their Sent Email folder and contact everyone, asking them to ignore the message and know that the problem has been corrected.
