John, you absolutely need to interview this new customer of our's in Boston… she's only 25 years old and it sounds like her Indoor Cycling Studio is really doing well!
I was talking with Gina Perrault from MINDBODY Online last month, at their conference in LA. I had asked her if she knew of a studio owner with an interesting story to tell.
A few days later Gina connected me with Jessica Bashelor (now 26 – she had a birthday last week) and her Handle Bar Cycling Studio in South Boston.
Jess is The Handle Bar's owner and manager. She grew up a competitive swimmer and developed a love for fitness at an early age. Attending college at Northeastern University, Jess discovered her love for group exercise, specifically indoor cycling classes. Now, 7 years later, Boston is Jess' home and cycling is her passion. An avid music lover and listener, Jess is motivated by rhythm, calmed by acoustics, and touched by the lyrics of songwriters old and new. She opened The Handle Bar to offer classes with the intensity she craves, set to playlists composed with care. Jess rides to house music, hip hop, and heavy rock… Her classes are crafted to challenge riders physically, and inspire them to achieve greatness both on and off the bike.
If you're running or contemplating opening a new studio, Jessica shares some excellent ideas about understanding your customer demographic and connecting with them. Her studio's blog regularly features participants > a great way to make people feel valued and appreciated – not to mention they share these with all of their friends 🙂
Studio owner Paul Harmeling joins me to discuss Full Psycle Indoor Cycling Studio that he owns with his two other partners (Shelly Scott & Kris Pennell) in Orange County, CA.
I observed two classes when I visited and was very impressed by the diversity of the participants in attendance; from a bunch of teenage girls to professional athletes. Fantastic!
Paul Harmeling is a Co-Founder, Instructor and the President of FULL PSYCLE. If the number of fights breaking out at front desks over admission to classes is correlated with popularity, Paul is one of Orange County’s most popular cycling instructors. With a genetic predisposition for group exercise gained from his mom Kathy, a prodigious aerobics and step instructor, and a life-long love of exercise and coaching, Paul made the move from the back of the cycling studio to the front in 2008. The upbeat, motivating music and intense, endless energy in Paul's class most resemble those commonly encountered at a Vegas pool party, with bikes and sports bras supplanting bottle service and bikinis. His class will take you to the brink of collapse and leave you in a state of euphoria. Paul has taught previously at Equinox and 24 Hour Fitness, and in 2012 was one of six instructors in Southern California selected to instruct at the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s Tour de Cove. Paul has a degree in Biology from UCSD and Masters Degrees in Engineering and Business from MIT and UC Irvine, respectively.
Studio details:
FULL PSYCLEÂ 230 E 17th St., #100Â Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Phone: (949) 631-2222Â Email:Â info@fullpsycle.com
Indoor Cycles: Spinner® Blade Ion
In class display system of rider performance metrics: Performance IQÂ
Listen to Paul's interview below (Free or ICI/PRO Registration Required) — Click Here. Opens in a new tab.
Peloton Cycle recently raised $307,332 through a Kickstarter project to help fund the design and manufacture their new Peloton Indoor Cycle. Awesome on its own, but they also have plans to live-stream digital classes directly to the user's home from the new Peloton Cycling Studio they're building in New York City.
And not just your garden variety Indoor Cycling classes. Nope. Their plans are to employee the very best Instructors on the planet and to recruit them, they're willing to pay these Rock Star Instructors up to $500.00 for each class they teach.
Sound interesting? You can visit their Instructor's Wanted page to learn more.
Here's the promo video they did for their Kickstarter project that explains everything.
Now that StarTrac is shipping Spinner® Blade Ion Indoor Cycles with Power, there's a bunch of Instructors who need to be educated on how to effectively use this new training “tool” in their classes.
Spinning's new education program is called the SpinPowerâ„¢ program. It was developed by well known Power Training expert Angie Sturtevant who's the Director of Power-Based Training.
When ICI/PRO member Dennis Mellon told me that his club in Greenwood Village Colorado would be hosting a SpinPower training, I asked if he would be willing to share his experiences with our listeners.
Dennis Mellon is one of those smart, talented people we love to have on the Podcast. Here's his bio…
Dennis Mellon has been working in the Fitness Industry since 1992. He's a Certified Personal Trainer/Performance Enhancement Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine as well as being a certified Spinning, Energy Zone and Indo-Row Instructor. He has a Bachelors Degree in Physical Education and a Minor in Coaching from the State University of New York College at Cortland. He spends most of his time at Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club in Greenwood Village Colorado where he is a Personal Trainer, Masters Swim Team Coach, Indoor Cycling and CardioVascular Intervals instructor. Dennis was voted the Mountain West's top Spinning Instructor by Competitor Magazine in 2012. He has completed 8 Ironman distance triathlons, ultra distance mountain bike events, marathons and numerous shorter distance events.
Listen to the Podcast below or click here to subscribe to the free show in iTunes.
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If you're anything like me, good ideas are easy to come by – especially when it comes to “ideas” about how to improve my class, changes (desperately) needed at our studio and new formats / programming we should be introducing as new classes.
But unfortunately many of those fabulous ideas of mine are never realized… and it's typically my fault.
Why?
Because I hadn't invested the effort to really think through everything and then formally present my “idea” as an actual “plan” to management. In the past I've figured that my “idea” was so good, that I could just throw it at my Dept Head and she'd run with it. Doesn't work that way.
The person you report to (Manager/Dept Head/Owner) also has a boss, or at the very least a partner. They need to be well armed with the details of your plan, before they will even consider discussing your “idea” with upper management.
ICI/PRO member and Zoning Specialist Kay Mamo successfully worked through this process and was rewarded with her very-own new class on the schedule. Kay and I discuss the steps she took in this episode of the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast.
Kay has provided a template you can use to bring detail to your idea. You can download it here.NOTE: Kay's plan is specific to the introduction of a Boot Camp that include a Zoning 30 minute cardio session. Feel free to change it up to reflect your dream class 🙂
It was the Podcast that launched dozens of new cycling studio startups. Our February 2010 interview with Indoor Cycling Studio consultant Bill Pryor (Podcast #88) presented the idea that a passionate Instructor could open a successful studio. We're aware of dozens who did and Bill has assisted over 200 entrepreneurs around the world plan and operate their new fitness business.
That was three years ago and there's been a lot of changes in our industry as it affects independent studios; all the new indoor cycles with power/watts, MyRide+ big screen virtual ride offerings from ICG and others, rider metrics displayed and captured by Performance IQ & MyZone and the ascension of SoulCycle, Flywheel and the new Peloton studios that have interjected an enormous amount of buzz in our market.
Online payment systems from MindBody Online and others have dramatically reduced both the time and effort required to manage a profitable studio.
John, you absolutely need to interview this new customer of our's in Boston… she's only 25 years old and it sounds like her Indoor Cycling Studio is really doing well!
