Movements Afoot’s Blog

by Lesley Powell

This past weekend I taught Level 3 Apparatus for Balanced Body University. We had an amazing cross section of teachers, new and teachers bridging over to BBU. We had wonderful conversations about being a Pilates teacher and its demands. It was so great to share how the bridging group of teachers how they got started, their successes and failures, burnout and dealing with difficult clients and marketing oneself.

Great ideas/stories presented:

A lot of beginning burnout starts with taking clients at all different times, morning and evening. I know. I did the same in the beginning of my career.

Determine when you want to teach.

Are you a morning person or night person? Once you mapped out when you want to train, this will give you structure to your life.

Dealing with difficult Clients

Most of all, creating professional standards of behavior is very important. If you are scheduled for an hour, teach an hour. More does not mean more. I see many teachers overteaching beyond their time frame. If they want more, let them schedule other privates or attend your classes/workshops.

If you overteach, the client may expect that all the time. This will be a problem as you get more booked. Some clients may need to be somewhere.

For clients wanting to overstep the boundaries of client to friendship, be very professional and create boundaries. If the client wants to take too much of your time, cut them off and say that you need to take care of professional duties of answering emails/phones to schedule clients. Email is great to schedule clients if the client is using you as a therapist.

Marketing oneself

When you first start your career, you will be teaching many different clients. Evenually you will become to know your forte. My forte was with injured clients. I did work in Upper eastside and fancy clubs. I did not particularly enjoy that kind of work for myself. Particular niches are working with doctors, pre & post-natal, mothers, sports/dance conditioning. Sending out flyers to particular groups can be helpful.

Many teachers developed clients through teaching group classes. One teacher with a gym had his teachers teach free classes in community centers. At Movements Afoot, we started some free community classes which are bringing new people into the studio. Most times, students of classes rarely become privates. Their recommendations to others looking for private Pilates sessions is extremely helpful.

Forum for you

I would love to hear from other teachers about their ideas/frustrations. It was so wonderful this weekend to have a place to share about ourselves and get support for staying fresh in our teaching and ideas to stay successful.