effective communication | Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast

Are you teaching to the squeaky wheels?

by Cameron Chinatti | Mar 10, 2026 | Best Practices, Boutique Instructor, Master Instructor Blog

Howdy Fit Folk!

John Macgowan has so graciously invited me to contribute to the vast wealth of knowledge that is the ICI/PRO community-- woohoo!! Lucky me. 🙂 To those of you that I had the great pleasure of meeting at the 2011 ICI/PRO conference, hello again! To those of you that I have yet to meet, I look forward to many opportunities to open a dialog, discuss new concepts and create amazing ideas.

Speaking of ideas, I love good ones! I know it's been a good day if I've had at least --what I consider-- one good idea. Generally speaking, my best ideas come from thought-provoking conversations with others. With all the wonderful discussions I'm reading on the posts and forums, I'm bound to have a lot of good days moving forward.

So pull up a chair (if you dare!) and enter the head-space of Cam... I wish you the best of luck!

Happy reading,

Cameron Chinatti

Director of Education for Stages Indoor Cycling

Cameron Chinatti Director of Education Stagesâ„¢ Indoor Cycling

Do you ever find yourself spending a disproportionate amount of your mental and perhaps physical energy trying to please or quell the “squeaky wheels”? Typically the squeaky wheels are your most loyal attendees. They sit in the front row, they have "their" special bike, they enjoy filling out lengthy complaint cards, and they dislike any of your substitute instructors. These are the squeaky wheels, always generating a low-level disturbance. More on these folks in a moment!

Recently, a friend of mine shared a link to a blog post titled "Don't Tell Me I'm Wasting My Time!"

Intrigued, I decided to check it out. The author of the post, Marjorie Clayman, is an expert in the field of enhancing the use of Social Media as it applies to the marketing world. Her frustration, as she puts it, "...is the selfishness that exists in the online world when it comes to covering topics that relate to beginners." As you'll see in her article there is a perfect parallel to the challenges that we all face as teachers of indoor cycling.

Now, back to those squeaky wheels!

We tend to teach specifically to please these individuals because we become acutely aware of their verbal tendencies. This makes it very challenging to recognize the needs of the 29 other individuals in the room. More importantly, we fail to see the hundreds if not thousands of potential participants that have never set foot in our classes.

As Marjorie puts it, "If you approach content on occasion from the perspective of someone who is brand spanking new to this space, you will get to meet people and help people whom you may not have met in any other way. What can be more valuable than that?"

So, are your squeaky wheels unconsciously (hopefully not consciously!) creating a "secret society" that makes the newcomer feel uninvited? How do we please them both? In the words of the great Bob Marley, "You can't please all the people all the time." Quite the conundrum, I know.

When you feel the pressures of oiling the squeaky wheels or as my friend and Schwinn Master Trainer Shannon Fable calls it, "teaching to the front-row frowners," take a personal inventory moment. Are you trying to please them to keep an angry person off your back or are you considering the needs of all?

In my time as a Co-Director of a group exercise schedule consisting of 120 classes per week, I fielded many squeaky wheel complaints.

Here are my Top 5 takeaways from my time spent with the dreaded comment cards box:

1. Never throw your team under the bus! It may be tempting to tell the class to fill out a comment card and cast a vote for you to have more classes on the schedule, but a) that's a bit self-serving and b) there are so many reasons why the schedule is created the way it is. Cost per head per instructor, school schedules, child care schedules, maintenance, special programming, weekly class balance, etc. Likewise, if you have a personal gripe about something at your facility, telling your participants to fill out a comment card in order to achieve your goal accomplishes one thing: The squeaky wheels learn that if they are loud enough, they'll get their way, even if it is not in the best interest of the program. This leads to my 2nd mantra...

2. Think big picture. Contrary to popular belief, the individuals that attend your classes are not actually your members. They belong to the facility and you belong to the program or programs that the facility offers. You represent a piece of a puzzle. The more you think of yourself and your fellow instructors in this manner, the more the participants will view you all as a cohesive unit. Amazingly, participant complaints become positive shout-outs when the instructors have a sense of solidarity amongst the team.

3. Stick to your guns. You and your fellow instructors are the resident experts at your facility and you are there to guide your entire class in a safe and effective workout. The squeaky wheels may think that it's cool when Jane Doe instructor takes their saddles away, but you as the professional have to step up sometimes and say what needs to be said. Of course, you must keep in mind that your position is really that of a customer service specialist. So, how can you easily stick to your guns and provide a top-notch customer-first experience? Enter the Bad News Sandwich.

4. Bad News Sandwich. Here's an example of a bad news sandwich.

"Hey Sally, I totally understand where you're coming from and I hear you. You're right. Riding an entire class without the seat is very challenging and it does make you "feel the burn." However, there are actually more effective ways to achieve the same end result and in an environment that is safe for everyone. Can you imagine how terrible it would be if someone were to fall on the seat post during our class?! I'm sure I would lose my job and I would feel awful. After all, my job is to help people achieve optimal health, not promote injury. I know you understand the predicament I'm in; I have to look after everyone's well being -- including yours. Let's discuss a plan that will work around your fitness goals. I'm sure we can come up with something that will challenge you even more."

Okay, so that was a bit on the cheesy role-play side of things, but I'm sure you've had similar conversations before. Just remember: Bad News Sandwich = Recognition of issue or compliment (Good News) + Addressing the issue (Bad News) + Recognition of issue (Good News). You can't go wrong with the Bad News Sandwich. Or ending emails with a smiley. 🙂

5. Equal attention for all. Some people may disagree with me on this one, but no one at your facility should be valued higher than anyone else. This goes for members and instructors! Even if a member has been paying dues for 20 years, the new person that just joined or just attended class for the first time should get the same kind of attention and treatment. Likewise, an instructor that packs the room and has been teaching for years is as much a part of the team as the newer instructor that supports a different set of participants (and thus increasing the number of unique users). The minute a hierarchy starts to form, problems arise. Suffice it to say, everyone plays an equally important role in developing a top-notch indoor cycling program.

Think about your classes this week whether indoor cycling, group strength, step, etc. Ask yourself: Am I teaching to the person that looks miserable or am I teaching to everyone? Am I dividing my attention equally amongst my attendees? Don't overdo it when it comes to greasing that squeaky wheel-- you never know when the chain might fall off.[/wlm_private]

Please share with the ICI/Pro community: How have you been addressing the "squeaky wheel" situations? Any good stories or ideas to share?

Originally posted 2011-11-10 13:22:22.

National Eagle Day

by John | Nov 20, 2019 | Instructor Training

The picture of confidence in her ability.

It's National Eagle Day here in the USA and I thought I should share an experience I had with the bald eagle one morning before class. I actually had this post sitting as a draft from a few weeks ago. As often happens, I got distracted and never finished it. Learning that today is our day to celebrate these majestic birds has me back at the keyboard.

A great metaphor flew over me this morning!

And when I say flew over me this morning, I mean flew right over me! This bald eagle flew directly over my head, and swooped down on one of the many fat rabbits we have around here, quickly dispatching it.

I was walking into the club this morning (it was a Saturday and I was subbing for my partner who doesn't like to wake up in the morning), thinking through my profile when I heard (and felt) this loud swoosh before seeing this massive bird dive in on his breakfast. If you haven't seen one of these strong, majestic birds up close and personal you are missing a great treat. They stand nearly 3 feet tall and with a wingspan of over 6 feet, the sudden presence directly over my head was quite startling and I'll admit a bit frightening.

Side note: this particular Lifetime Fitness sits on the edge of a large swamp/wetlands and only a few blocks from a major shopping mall. Seeing a bald eagle isn't all that surprising around here. It was always very common to see these beautiful birds perched in trees as you drive through northern Minnesota. Now it seems that wildlife of a every sort is moving back to the suburbs to reclaim their place in what was once farms and prairies.

But this beautiful bird had a problem. Despite their reputed incredible eyesight, she (?) (how do you tell the difference?) appeared to have completely overreached, miss judging it's weight and wasn't strong enough to carry away her breakfast. With a firm grasp on her rabbit, she leaped off the ground with wings powerfully flapping. But try as she might, she was only able to get three or four feet off the ground before stalling, dropping the rabbit before she herself crashed back to earth. I watched from about 20 feet away as she circled repeatedly, each time swooping over my head, attempting to grasp the rabbit and fly off. Each time with the same results… and then I realized she had a plan.

With every attempt to carry off the rabbit, she moved it 10 or 15 feet. It became obvious that she wasn't going to sit and consume her catch right there in the middle of a parking lot, but rather her plan was to move it to a stand of trees, which were across the road from the club – across four busy lanes of traffic, I should add.

It was a climbing day, per our class schedule and my plan was to show Epic Beartooth Pass. As I was getting dressed for class, I realized what a fantastic metaphor I just observed. So during the warm-up I told the story of what I had just witnessed. I talked about how impressed I was with the Eagle. How I watched her develop a plan – improvising a strategy, so as not to lose what she was fighting to accomplish.

I asked the class; do you have the confidence to overreach today on this climb?

I mean really overreach… to the point where you're forced to resort to Plan B?

A common strategy out long climbs as to alternate between seated and standing. As you ride along you'll add an extra gear or two, which has the effect of forcing you out of the saddle. Then you remove those gears and returned to the seat. Because we're riding Freemotion cycles with power, I'm able to coach everyone how they find their two, individual, climbing gears. After we're warmed up I have everyone work through a five-minute effort at or very near threshold HR. this gives us a baseline power average to work with. Maintaining a steady 80-ish cadence, seated efforts are just below this wattage number and the standing number just above. There's no break in this climb. The effort is continuous. Over and over we alternate position – adding for standing, remove slightly and back to the saddle.

After class I hurried out to see if the eagle had been successful. It wasn't difficult to figure out where she was. A swarm of angry blackbirds were taking turns diving at her, as she sat perched in the tree looking down at her catch. I walked over and this is where I had the chance to take her picture. Complete confidence 🙂

Originally posted 2012-06-20 07:39:59.

In your haste to educate, are you completely missing the question?

by John | Aug 10, 2017 | Best Practices, Engage Your Students, Instructor Training

As Instructors, our riders will often asked us questions about: insert topic here.

Where we can get into trouble is by launching into a short/long/epic dissertation on the subject, often without fully understanding the whole question.

My first sales job out of school was selling motorcycles. For someone like me, who at 22 couldn't be around them enough, it was the perfect job. Being the new guy, I asked a bunch of questions to the other salespeople (there wasn't any real training) and I was told to study up on all the different models. That year Honda had 52 different bikes – we had decks of playing cards with a different model on each card. I was very familiar with many of the models – I had put myself through school working as a motorcycle mechanic, so I felt like I could answer just about any question anyone would ask. I was ready to hit the sales floor and show everyone I was a born salesman.

Does this bike have a really powerful engine?
I've forgotten many of the details, but I'll never forget the gentleman's question or my response. He was looking over a new model Honda and after our introductions he asked; Does this bike have a really powerful engine? I couldn't believe my luck. I knew every conceivable specification and had nearly memorized the latest magazine test results.

Sir, you're looking at the most powerful motorcycle in its category. I told him proudly. Then (I'm sure I was trying to impress him with all my product knowledge) I launched into what had to be a 10 minute explanation of the 0-100 mph times, rev limits, performance tires, how it will smoke any other bike on a race track, etc… The man stood and listened politely until I came up for air. He then thanked me and walked out the door.

I saw the man later in the week. He was taking delivery of his new motorcycle – a much less powerful model than I had shown him. After he drove out I grabbed the other salesman and asked what had happened. I showed him a new Interceptor, what's he doing with that low powered bike? You idiot, you completely missed his question! Was his response. We're lucky he came back here at all… he bought that bike for his 17 year old son. He didn't want anything with too much power. Lesson learned.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? You're considering making a major purchase (or need personal advise) and were at first a bit nervous, anxious or guarded? So the question you asked was an abbreviated version, one that didn't exactly communicate your specific question?

What would you want to hear next?

Let me see if I understand your question…

Each of the The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People can be applied to our fitness profession. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood rings the loudest for me.

Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving.

It doesn't matter if you're selling motorcycles, toasters or advising members about fitness, people want to feel like they've been heard & understood before communicating openly. The simple act of reflecting a question back conveys empathy and will go a long way to build trust.

Imagine if I had reflected back the question in the opening example; Are you looking for a very powerful motorcycle? My potential customer would have instantly responded; NO! This is for my 17 year old son. Then we would have been communicating and I could have made the sale.

Who knows. Maybe some day you'll be asked a question where you resist the temptation to educating and instead reflect back to them in the form of a question. Can you see how you might gain their trust and gather a better understanding of what's being asked? Wouldn't you be surprised to hear the unguarded response; I'm really hoping this class will build up my skinny chicken legs 🙂

Let me know if this helps.

Don’t be too quick to “educate” members

by John | Oct 19, 2013 | Best Practices, Instructor Tips and Tricks, Instructor Training

If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to listen to our latest Podcast that features 26 year old Cycling Studio owner Jessica Bashelor. If you're short on time, you really only need to hear the lead in where she describes her vision for her studio.

I knew that I wanted to have a really strong brand, that was based on; work and fun and music. And those are things that I sort of live by myself as a 26 year old.

Something about this interview has been bugging me until this morning. While riding in Amy's class it hit me. Jessica's brand doesn't include anything about education – zero. Just work/fun/music. Oh, and she throws in; taking life a little less seriously 🙂

Aren't studios supposed to be all about; coaching and purpose and threshold heart rate training and power training and weight loss and healthful living and fitness knowledge and, and, and?

Obviously not for Jessica or the rider's (I'd guess she'd never consider calling them “Students”) who pack her studio.

My generation wasn't any different.

I was 18 years old in 1979 when Pink Floyd — The Wall dominated the the charts and captivated me and many of my friends. The album's most popular track Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 spoke to me as a teenager; we don't need no education… we don't want no thought control…

http://youtu.be/zcevYuG3j7M

I didn't want anyone, telling me anything… I wanted to be heard and understood at 18, and this hasn't changed much now that I'm 52.

The Wall is a story about how we build metaphorical/emotional walls around ourselves. As a young person, or old for that matter, one way we build walls is we learn to tune-out people like our parents/spouses/bosses or teachers, when they talk at us, instead of communicate with us. As the father of two daughters, I know all about how ineffective it can be to try and “educate” them about what I wanted them to know and accept. It almost never worked. Often it had the opposite reaction and it wasn't hard to see them constructing their own wall to shut me out.

Sometimes the walls we create are small.

Have you ever had someone tell you; “I just answered that ten minutes ago” ? Chances are you created your own “wall” and it prevented you from hearing what could be plainly heard by others.

I was in a class last week where the Instructor talked nearly nonstop. While he rattled on about mitochondria and slow twitch muscle fibers, I found myself in my own little world – missing many of his cues. I'd come back to reality and find myself down when everyone was up or surprised when he announced the end of an interval, that I hadn't even realized we were doing. As I watched the rest of the class in the mirror it was obvious I wasn't the only one with a wall around me and my bike 🙁

Here's the second part to this; In your haste to educate, are you completely missing the question?

Here's a great remix of Another Brick In The Wall that you can download for your music library.

https://soundcloud.com/narek-davtyan/proper-education-radio-edit

Are you teaching to the squeaky wheels?

National Eagle Day

A great metaphor flew over me this morning!

In your haste to educate, are you completely missing the question?

Don’t be too quick to “educate” members

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