ICI/PRO Member Bill Roach joins me to discuss his "Four Reasons Why You Should Consider a Newsletter for Your Spinning® Indoor Cycling Students.
Bill Roach is a Star 3 Certified Spinning Instructor and NASM certified Personal Trainer in Des Moines, Iowa. He served thirty years as a communications expert in the Iowa Attorney General”™s Office before he took early retirement this year to devote more time to his fitness career. He has also been a long distance competitive cyclist competing in 24-hour and cross-state races.
Do you ever feel that you just can”™t say everything you want during the course of teaching your indoor cycling class? Would you like an additional opportunity to teach, communicate, and bond with your students to keep them coming back? You might consider a newsletter for your students as a “value added” benefit. It”™s easier than you may think. This is the first of two Podcasts covering the basics of writing a newsletter. In this episode, you'll learn the benefits of providing a newsletter for your students.
- Retention. The most tangible benefit of a newsletter is that it builds student
loyalty and retention. If you are paid on the basis of class attendance, retention is
your lifeblood. Even if you aren”™t, retention is one measure of your success as an
instructor for your management. And bigger classes are just more fun to teach.
- Authority. The use of a newsletter distinguishes you as an instructor that will go
the extra mile. It also establishes you as someone who is knowledgeable about
health and fitness. This credibility makes your students more confident in your
knowledge and your teaching.
- Teaching. A newsletter offers the opportunity to explain training concepts in
detail, a conversation not possible while riding during class time. You can
address periodization, threshold training, and contraindications while your
students can give these important concepts their full attention. And you can
coordinate the newsletters to your class plans to further encourage learning.
- Bonding. Most important for me, a newsletter is a way to further the remarkable
bond between indoor cycling students and their instructor. A newsletter should be
personal in style - but not too much about the author. It should make readers and
students feel a part of an important “club” - which is exactly true! By promoting
the value and identity of that club, classes take on a more cohesive feel making
them more fun to teach!
Does a newsletter sound like something you might like to try? Bill walks us through the process of what you might say in your newsletter and how to deliver it, in an upcoming ICI/PRO Member Podcast.
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John is a member on the AFS (Association of Fitness Studios) Advisory Council.
Holding certifications from; Schwinn, Heart Zones, Team ICG and Life Time Fitness, John's held regularly scheduled cycling classes between 1998 and 2015 when he moved to Florida.
When the weather permits, you'll find him riding and leading outdoor groups by himself or with his Tandem partner (wife) Amy.
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Take it from me everyone….I am on Bill’s mailing list for his newsletters and never fail to be impressed when they arrive in my inbox! His students are so very lucky to learn from him.
Creating your own newsletter is not as difficult as it might seem. He’s going to walk you through how to do it!
Hello,
Enjoyed the podcast. Is there a possibility of seeing a sample of Bill’s newsletter?
Pat
How do you do it ? Email, web-site, paper note that you let in the gym, … ?
I see the benefices and advantage on it but how do you deal after with other instructors ? There is a possibility, important I think, that doing it you are the professional, have knowledge so as you say you are the “expert” …
Pascal the next podcast will give more details as to the nuts and bolts of how to do it.
Every club will be different regarding relationships with other instructors or management. You’ll have to decide – do YOU do it with just your students? Does the club do it? Do you get together with a few instructors and share duties?
I don’t have a newsletter per se, but I have a mailing list of my students who I send info and tips to. I hope to develop a quick little newsletter this coming year. But my club is small, and there aren’t many instructors. Bill can describe how that works at his club(s).
If I ask the question it is because I am really starting to have problems, in one facility I work, because I am really working on “keeping it real” and educate my people.
You could not imagine how dirty can be some instructors or members to interfere with your job. That is the “beauty” of teaching in facility with a LOT of instructors and a lot of peoeple … and it is not by having my direct manager GEx one’s with me, that would make it easier, because there are always some over …
I keep teaching there because I like my riders, a perfect room to teach and if I leave my GEx manager will be fire and put responsable !
Thanks for this useful discussion.
The more recent editions of my newsletter are posted on a blog in addition to being sent out as a simple email. The blog address is
http://billroachblog.blogspot.com/
So feel free to take a look there.
I hope that in looking at them you will note that putting together a newsletter is not rocket science. But it does need to be balanced between specific, useful content and more personal comments in your own voice that speak to your students in a personal way.
Please keep adding your comments about your interest in having a newsletter, and what you see as the obstacles to you trying one.
Thanks everyone.
bill
Hello,
Bill, thanks for the link to your newsletter. Nice job!
Pat
Thank you Pat. Please chime in if you have any suggestions or ideas after having thumbed through them. Thanks for caring enough to look them up.
Bill
Yes a link to your blog, in the actual article, would of been a good idea 🙁
I’m adding it now.
This will be really helpful! I have an email list and update our riders on Spinning happenings throughout the year, but a newsletter would really make an impact.