Pricing for Virtual Classes

Hi, welcome. This is John Marston, a cofounder of [inaudible] anytime. And my guest today is Leslie Logan. Uh, Leslie fell in love with Peloton after her first hundred, and it's twitched from being a side hustle for her to a full time gig and she's jumped from being apply these teacher to a manager to running multiple studios. She wrote a book, a profitable polarities, which is morphed into her business, profitable, profitable [inaudible] dot com and that's changed into a program which is called agency. And when she's not here in LA, she is everywhere. She is traveling the world. So she's a global gets global. What is the word?

Jet setter. That's that. Yeah, that's in the tree free virus world. Anyway, she was forever on airplanes. We're going to talk for about 30 minutes and when that's finished we'll do about 30 minutes of Q. And. A. I wish we knew the answers to everything. Uh, fade. We don't. Uh, but we'll do the best and we'll share what we can.

So I said this a little bit before we went kind of into the show format. Um, but where are you located? And tell us about your business. Me, I'm in Los Angeles. Yes. Um, so guys, I'm in Los Angeles right now. Pretty grounded for the time being and that's where my studio is. And I have this like lovely little studio that was an old apartment and I have one of everything. But when you come in it feels like you're at a home.

So I love that. What about the color choice, Leslie? Oh, so you know, I have to give a little credit to Brad on that cause I, so you guys, if you haven't seen pictures of my studio, every single piece of equipment is a different color and that is on purpose. And I really wanted to do that, but one it's not done. And I was like, I just can't decide on these colors. And Brad's like much just of course you're just going to do all of them. So, um, I mean if you know anything about this guys, you can also check our wedding.

We work holler and we made everyone else for black and white. So it's just, of course I was going to have all the colors. So my reformer is bright yellow, my window chair's hot pink. You know, it just keeps, it's, it's a lot of fun when you come in here. It is a lot of fun. I've been lucky enough to have a couple of privates with Leslie and her studio. It is fun and you don't really need sunglasses almost, but not really. A Harrison farmer is quite bright.

Tell me about what's happening with the coronavirus in, in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's, you know, it's really interesting. I have been focused so much on how it's going globally and even just nationally. Um, I, I don't know why I wasn't really focusing so much on LA except for this, the different things and it's affected my life. But my husband and I started doing evening walks with the dogs once, once my life changed and I was no longer teaching early the morning. Um, we do this nightly walks with the dog and there was a beautiful park across the street from her house and we live across the street from the federal building in Los Angeles.

And so there was this gorgeous park which has now been completely fenced off and it is a place where there quarantining homeless people and also it looks to be a pair, like almost like a mash style hospital if anyone remembers like mash, there's tents and it's uh, a mash style hospital and I believe it's basically going to be an overflow for the different hospitals that are in the area. Um, so in Los Angeles we've been, uh, on shelter at home since I believe it is the 20th. It was a Thursday after March 15th, so yeah. Mmm. And my studio was shut down in definitely on March 15th. Um, and it the way it sounds, it's like May 3rd, but I think it's going to go longer. I don't think my studio will be open anytime soon.

Yeah. I just got to do a quick poll here is asking people if they know anybody who has the [inaudible] Corona virus or a friend has it or a friend of a friend or themselves. Do you know anybody Leslie at this time? So, personally in my, in my friends and family, I don't have anyone who has it, but, um, I have seen some like coworker friends, I guess coworker, you know, colleagues in the plots world on Facebook have have it. And um, it's, it's really hard because, um, I've also seen different people who've lost multiple people in their family or friendships to the coronavirus already. Um, so it's a, it's an interesting world we're living in and just sharing the results here. About 20% of the people on the webinar do have a friend who has it, 30%, a friend of a friend and half. Not yet. And yeah, I'm in the friend of a friend category. A friend of my daughters has the Corona virus.

It is definitely getting closer. Yeah. How have you been able to, you know, your, your business was a lot about, you know, your privates or your semi-private and your studio and then all the travel that you did teaching things. How are you reconstructing your business in this new world? Yeah. Um, my husband and I had turned our business to mostly being, um, half in studio income.

And then the other half was virtual through the coaching programs or travel. And this year was set to be more from travel and um, and virtual. So the virtual part was like a good bet. But the, um, the travel bit, uh, definitely affected us in immediately. Um, we were on a retreat the week before. Um, studios were closed in Los Angeles and the shelter in place happened. Um, and we had to cancel four of workshops, strips immediately, lots of flights, uh, butterfly credits right now and a lot of refunds to workshops. So it was just really interesting. Um, that first week at home I didn't even have a chance to get that. My business had changed.

We were spending so much time trying to figure out options for these things were canceling. Um, but now we are 100% virtual. My clients have been virtual since March 16th and they love it. Um, some of them didn't switch and that's okay. But that's what we're doing now. Cool. When you say virtual, what sort of, you're focusing on your people who are coming to the studio before teaching them privates or, yeah. Yeah. So everyone who had a private before who wants a virtual sessions doing privates and you know, since you live in LA, you understand it's anyone's lived in LA.

I have clients who, who loved me, but they live on the other side of the four Oh five. And that one mile can be an hour or so. So a lot of them are now actually doing two and three sessions a week because they don't have to cross the four Oh five. Um, so that's been really fun. Um, and we, I used to teach them kind of like I'm talking to you guys and sit here and they do the work and I just talk to them. And then we have been offering more webinars courses, um, for our coaching, uh, clients in the studios we're working with. And um, also offering some like workouts with LL, which people have been enjoying.

So it's been fun to get creative. I think we said right at the beginning, like this is the time to get to experiment and, um, and that's what we're doing. Cool. So talk a little bit about what's a private session with Leslie Logan Lake over the internet. Yeah. So I was lucky. So will years ago to start doing these private sessions, uh, because I'd meet teachers all over, um, like when I went and saw crystal in another lens and people in Poland and so we already had several clients doing that.

Am I own in-person clients would see me teaching people. So a lot of teachers have equipment at home and when you do a private session we use whatever equipment you have. Um, aye, this is the way I teach. I don't do a lot of preplanning for those sessions. I used to watch them walk in the studio and get a vibe for their energy and where their brain space was. Now we have a little check in and chat at the beginning and um, based on what they're kind of feeling in the week, um, and what they had the week before, we take on a session that their body needs.

For me, I like to watch how people are connecting to the equipment. Um, this is just really important cause it actually gives me a lot of feedback on what they need in that session and then also what they should do for homework. And I like to give my clients a lot of homework. I'm sure I call them my two pedestrian clients. The non teachers do none of their homework, but I still like to give it to them. Um, my clients who are disruptive, you know, pedestrian clients who are now doing privates at home, this is very new for them. Just even having any pieces of equipment or props.

Yesterday, um, my client was sick so instead of late canceling, her husband did the session and he, we use the dog toys for a lot of props, which was, which was quite fun to get creative with that people have in their space. Hmm. Most of you, uh, you, you basically doing Matt with whatever props that they can have find around the house. Yeah, a lot of them are doing that three times a week. And I think, you know, I think a lot of teachers underestimate the value of the mat, but that's what was invented first and okay, they have, they have nothing to really support them. Now they're on their own. So they really do find it to be a challenge. And I have a family of three that I would see just like depend on who had walked in the door, whichever person wanted to wake up on a Sunday.

And so the daughter didn't want to get up for her virtual session. So I saw the ha the father. Um, and uh, he hadn't been paralyzed in about a year in the studio. And so he's there and 15 minutes into the session he tried to turn the zoom off. He's like, okay, that's all. Thank you for that workout. He's like, it's too hard. Cause he's the last time he'd been in, he'd been doing mostly reformer and Cadillacs, so he got spoiled. So I've been doing mostly Matt with them. And then whatever props they have, I've sent them links. But it's, you know, Amazon's not actually delivering as much as people think. It's not all, you can't actually send in stuff that's not essential anymore.

So when they run out, it's out. So we've been using dog toys, whatever that they've got around. Very cool. Very cool. Uh, I'm gonna jump ahead to what's your pricing that you have on your sessions? Is it the same as an in person class? Yeah. I haven't changed my prices at all. Not on the classes. Um, duet, semis, even privates, all of it. It's the same even now that the husband and wife are on the same computer screen, they're still paying their normal duet session price. And, um, I think that's really important because when, when this is all over, Mmm. I don't want to have tough conversations like, okay, we're, we're back to the old pricing. And also, you know, I think it's very important for teachers and studio owners too, to know like your, your expertise and value hasn't changed my like, who I am, you know, uh, what does it post Corona, a discount and value. So, um, so I've been charging the same cool. I, how much of your schedule, if you'd been able to fill up about how many hours you're teaching a week.

Yeah. Um, the, the odd thing was, is that come April, I was supposed to reduce my teaching schedule, the 10 hours. We had this as a goal in January. Um, my husband came on time with my business and by April 1st I was going to be 10 hours a week. Um, that's not happening. So I'm, I'm at 20 hours a week of teaching. And the first, the first week back after my retreat, I didn't have as many. Um, I had about 15, but that was okay cause I had so much work just canceling things. Um, but now we're at 20 and I get a waitlist because again, I have clients who only went once a week that now want to and three times a week. Um, so it's been really good. Um, I know a lot of the teachers I'm working with the first couple of weeks are a bit of a struggle cause everybody's schedule got flipped on its head. You know, everybody is like this didn't just happen to you. It happened to the whole world. And so your clients also got this like [inaudible] crazy change in their life and so asked her a couple of weeks, everyone's kind of come back in. That's, that's very cool. G has been kind enough to put in the, um, in the chat here a link to an article that, a blog post that, um, Leslie wrote. Um, yeah, you guys in that blog post, there's a formula.

So some of you might not have been charging enough in the first place and if you just count yourself like I just, it hurts my soul. So in that blog post, I actually put in the formula of how to figure out how much you should be charging and then that you can use it as a jumping off point. Cool. I would be talking about these kinds of things. I'm going to do another poll, which is, um, just about what percentage of income are we people making post, I don't know what we call this. Is this post Corona post Corona? So I guess it's not posted yet. I think it's during Peroni. During Corona. Yeah, it's during Corona. So, um, there's a podcast called staying in and it's with the comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife. And he has, um, he calls it pre Hanks Wilson and post Hanks Wilson. And it's that in the United States, the way we understood the Corona virus there was pre Hinks Wilson life and that as soon as Tom Hanks and reread a Wilson got coronavirus, we all became aware and there were in post in life.

So I'm going to finish the poll here so we can see kind of some of the results. Can I share the results? So we're showing that, um, there's a few people, uh, one person's making more than before. Uh, but the majority of folks are either have no income or less than 25%. Two thirds approximately are there [inaudible] Oh, that's hard. That's hard. Yeah. I, I truly feel for a lot of people because, you know, I know people are watching from all over the world, so there's different laws in different countries. But you know, um, here in the States, the way that the help is out there is only if you were employed or you owned an actual business. If you were doing like sole or self employed, you don't really have the access to a lot of these funds that are out there or the unemployment benefits. And I think, you know, after this is all over, I do hope that a lot of people explore maybe even during this time while you're not teaching, explore like what options you should be doing to set up your teaching business. Even if you're renting space from someone like [inaudible] you can set up your business to be more incorporated so that when things like this happen you could apply for some of these benefits that are out there.

Yeah. What, what's your hope in terms of number of hours a week that you're going to be teaching online? 2030 hours a week. So I want to keep it to 20. Um, mostly for me, you know, it's hard for me to sit for more than a few sessions in a row in a day. Teaching virtually requires way more concentration then teaching someone in real life. Um, because you're getting, you're literally challenging your creative muscle that whole hour. What do I have available to me to make this client understand that they're not twisting from the right place. W do they have a wall? Do we have a fit? Like what do we have? And so, and I'm really wanting to make sure that they get what they are wanting because you know, they're sitting at home all alone, all day, every day.

This is like maybe their winter and action. So it's, uh, I, I put a little bit of extra pressure on myself there cause they don't have the reformer available to them. Um, but the other thing is, is, you know, my goals for our business have always been to be providing more content to support politesse teachers and studio owners. And I can't create that if I'm teaching 30 hours a week and just, I don't have time. Um, so I really try to spend only 20 hours teaching and then, um, you know, if people want more, I have plenty of teachers I can send them to. And I'd rather, you know, them go out [inaudible] someone else if they need more than I can give. Yeah. I think it's a very real thing. I use zoom a lot of meetings and it is a much more exhausting than meeting people in person. It's just harder, you know, you're concentrating on a very narrow part of the screen is kind of uncomfortable to be sitting or I stand for much of the day if I'm not sitting.

But it's just, it's tough. Yeah. I don't, I don't think our brains weren't meant to just be, I mean, I think this week it's been proven. We're not meant to be staring at a screen all the time. And, um, and you know, when I'm not on an interview like this, I have blue, blue blockers, I have pears, like people have reading glasses, all of the house. I have blue blockers everywhere because I, I do notice a big difference when I spent a day teaching and on my computer without them versus with them. I sleep so much better. So, um, I, I just don't think I could do more than 20. It's just a lot. It's a lot. And I think if you are having to do more than 20 to make your income, I would really consider like how can you group people together and make more in an hour. Um, put them in gallery view, they feel like they're with a community. It's more fun. Um, and then you have a little bit more time to yourself cause this is a really special time. Everyone. Like if you are not sick, this is a really special time that you're never going to get a pause like this.

Let's hope again. And so it would be really great if you had a little bit of time to just explore what you like in your business, what you don't like in your business, um, what you want to prioritize in your life. And so I'm trying to keep as much blank space in my calendar as I had before so that I, I [inaudible] waste this opportunity to see how I want our life to be when it's over. Interesting. What is the tech that you use to stream your videos or what not stream your videos but to do a private class with somebody?

Yeah, yeah. We are zoom all the way. I um, for me it's too confusing to give people, like some people are FaceTime, some people are Facebook messenger, some people are Skype. Like, um, having been teaching virtual for a long time, um, that it gets confusing. So I try to keep everyone on zoom. Um, okay. And I just create a special link for every single person. Each time you don't have, you can have like your set link, you guys or you can have, you can generate a new link and new Lincoln password each time is what I use just so that, um, if someone doesn't pay for the next session, I don't want them jumping in on something. I want to keep it easy. Um, we have emails that are prewritten, [inaudible] are sent out to help people get set up when it's their first you. And then after that it's really easy just to text them or email them their link. And uh, it's worked really well for us. So I like it.

It's easy for me to record. Um, for teachers. I do record the session to give to them. It's added value because I don't discount, you know, my sessions and I know teachers are suffering. So one of the things that I do is I give them the recording of their session for clients. I record just as a class as a liability thing. They don't, they're not going to use it, so I don't give it to them, but I, um, I keep it for myself. Cool. Yeah, there's been some push back on to, you know, co you know, how their security works, but I really encourage you not to use the same meeting ID all the time just to say that to everybody and set up an individual meeting each time and you can put a password on it, you know, the more complicated you make it in terms of needing a password, all these things, I don't know, a little bit.

I got to sneak some songs a little bit harder. Oh, I don't want to. Definitely. Okay. The harder it is. Yeah, the harder it is on the tech. And there's more things to go wrong here. So yeah, it is a two thing, but please don't use the same meeting ID every time. And there's some interesting things that zoom published last week about how to make it more secure using their service.

Yeah, I thought that was really cool. They literally said, we've any future meetings you've scheduled, we put a password on so re send the link. Um, and they'll have the new password because I, I thought that was really proactive of them to just help people out. Cause a lot of people who are using their program are not tech savvy, but you really, you really don't have to be as tech savvy as you'd think once you get using it. And Brad and I take yoga classes six days a week now in this, uh, you know, during Corona period. And we didn't have the time to do yoga for the last two years. Our teacher had traveled, traveled, he left his studio and moved to a studio in the Valley. Well, if you know, LA seven miles, that is, you've got to plan a day around that.

So we, we stopped going and we kept saying, dude, when are you going to just stream this? Like, can you just put, just put your phone, just call us all Venmo. You just put the audio on, you know, and um, so now he is streaming, he has classes on zoom. It's, we can now go six days a week. So all of a sudden he went from having just a handful of people coming to his class every week to now his classes are doubled. Uh, roommates and family members are joining in. So just in my household alone, he's getting a couple extra hundred dollars a month that he didn't have. But what I love is we put it in gallery view and I get to feel like I'm in a class with all these people. But he had an 85 year old who, you know, probably it's never used zoom in his life, probably doesn't even know, like those things that he figured it out. He clicked the link.

You looked at it and you left his camera facing the ceiling. That's fine. I mean it's a little, but he wasn't able to join in. And um, his other client who's 93 is using zoom. So you know, people they've had to get tech savvy real quick. I wouldn't doubt your abilities or theirs. Great. Yeah. And there's lots of platforms. Nikki's just put it in the chat that she's using Microsoft teams. Um, that there's a variety of ways of doing a zoom isn't the only only company.

Yeah. It's just a matter. I do agree with what Leslie was saying. It's good to get to really understand the features of whichever platform you're knowing so you don't have to kind of fumble around. Right. How do I do this? How do I mute that person? Just get to the point. You understand it. I've also heard from some of the people on the show that they've talked about, it's FaceTime tends to be what grandparents have talked to their grandchildren on. And so they're very, very familiar with FaceTime and there's pros and cons or FaceTime as well. Um, but it's just a matter of how many of these different platforms can you use that use the buttons. Are there different places, uh, you know, it's not necessarily that straightforward. Yeah. And you can just going back to the FaceTime, you guys can do like multiple people on a FaceTime call.

I believe you started text message chain with everyone and then you can just click face time and um, and then you can have all of them on the same face-time chat if you wanted to stick with it like that. Cool. Yeah, there's lots of lots of ways of doing it. Um, yeah. Just find the thing that works for you. Um, how do you charge for you? How do you keep on top of, you know, people paying you? Yeah, so we are in the middle of switching scheduling programs right now. So it's a little interesting. Mmm. But what I've done is I don't let people buy big packages anymore. It's just, just don't know if they get sick or I get sick. Um, uh, so I've been doing a Venmo and just keeping track of people sessions cause they only getting like five at a time. Um, you know, so that's really helpful.

And then, um, I think Venmo, you could use Google, Google wallet I think is it called Google pay now. Um, and Mmm, Apple pay is free. Cash app is free. So if you don't want to, we, we also use Stripe. Um, it's embedded with all of our platforms and it makes it really easy. But Mmm. I've been keeping people doing less packages and just one offs because while it's not how I used to do things, like I like to have a session, so if they're late cancel, I can discharge them. Um, I find it's a little easier to keep track. You bought it, you get it, you bought it, you get it. Just during this time, I guess I have this like weird thing. Like what if I get sick? I don't want to have all this money of people's, and then I'm like, or what if they're sick after refunding people for all these workshop? I'm like, let's just, you can buy five at a time. That's all you need to do. Keep track of. Thank you Leslie. So it's, it's a little, it's a little old school guys. Um, but a lot of your scheduling software systems are working with you on this and we just happened to be in between too. Um, because the one we're moving to actually isn't charging anyone through July and um, and their payment portal is a lower charge than all the other ones we've been using.

Cool. When you do a group class, do you set a maximum that you can kind of manage? So we have been playing with this and I haven't set a maximum. We've had 30 on before and it didn't feel overwhelming to me. Mmm. I do think it's something you have. It's like each person to their own it. Um, when I used to teach at high end gyms and we'd get 30 or so people, that felt like a lot when I taught at momentum fast, my first class at 85 people, I was like, that's a lot.

But that was a lot. I was like, Oh okay. The a good thing. It's all about flowing and we're not critiquing cause this is, this could be a hot mess actually. Um, but what I find is in also being on the other side of it, a lot of people are just really there for the community. Their dogs are involved. Like everything's kind of happening. So, you know, I wouldn't strive for a hundred. Like that's not a goal of mine, but I'm, I'm not limiting if people want to bring their friends and family to a group class in mind, like let, the more the merrier. I'm just making sure that people are, um, when they sign their online waiver and to, uh, they are, I, they have options to leave an exercise out or sit and, you know, enjoy tea like Julie's client did last week. How are you handling the online waivers?

So we, um, the old platform that I was on would just do it through that platform. So that's kind of why we kept it. It's like a mess guys, but it's E it was easier just to keep that for people to sign online plat through the online platform. But I would use something like DocuSign. I think there's several other platforms out there. And, um, we had already, because I've virtual as a part of my business for years when we got new waivers, virtual sessions were already in our waiver and also in my insurance. So I didn't really have to switch anything over. But if you are just adding that in, you do need to have them resign like an addendum of some kind.

Yeah. Cool. DocuSign's really easy. You know, you just put their email in and you send it, they click on it and it's back and you have it. Yeah. Yeah. You've got to keep that, keep that simple. I mean, and um, and if you, you know, your waivers guys, they probably didn't include this, so if you need a person to help you with your waivers, I gave JIA an awesome link so she could put that up. But, um, I have a girl who used to be a corporate attorney who can like put this into your wafer really quickly. Oh, thank you, Jay, for putting it in the chat. Uh, talk to us a little bit about insurance. You said that your insurance already included online. Did you?

Yeah. So this is, yeah, this is something that I learned very interestingly. So no one teaches you this. Even someone like me who is like going through and studying business for people teaching [inaudible] Mmm. You know, when we opened the studio, my insurance would not cover a studio. So the insurance I had as a teacher wouldn't like, not even a little bit, couldn't change it. We had to go through an actual broker and then tell them what the business was.

I even told them what the vision was. This is really important when you're talking with someone, tell them what you want to grow into. Because I would rather have options with like which insurance package I want. Like, okay, how soon am I growing into this vision? Do I want to pay that big package right now or do I want to just know that that's what it's going to cost when we get there?

And so we had someone build out a plan for us that would cover all of our virtual stuff are in state retreats and workshops, um, and our online content because we do have videos on YouTube and things like that. So, um, so we had to get up someone to actually create something for us and it was definitely the $130 I paid before to be a teacher and insured. It's, it's, it's more expensive. Um, I do know, uh, just some having worked with a lot of teachers, if you can see the client check with your insurance, but if you can see the client you're insured, um, it's that prerecorded stuff that you probably aren't insured for. Yeah, we pay out. So you can imagine plot is anytime's insurance. There's a lot more than $130 a year. I mean, if it was only a hundred, $3, I think we'd all be doing prerecorded stuff. No, I think I just didn't even look, it was definitely more than a thousand dollars a year to insure all of the stuff that we do. And that just covers our instate stuff.

It won't cover anything out of the country. So, you know, we're kind of talking about business stuff here. Do you have any advice for folks here that are transitioning from being, you know, other studio owners with a physical place to, or teachers who maybe we can take those two separately. But if you're a studio owner, what would be your business advice right now if you're a studio owner? First of all, thank you for like putting yourself out there to put a business up for teachers and clients to go to because that is a risk in itself. Um, and what I would really use this time for is just to see how can you provide great value, continuing to ride your great value to your community. You need to stay in touch with the, with all of your clients.

This is the time to write more emails than you ever thought. Um, because remember the people used to see you on a weekly or even sometimes daily basis. So I would definitely do that. Um, if you had renters, you sucks because you can't charge them the rent. Like, I just, this is where it gets really sucky for people who just had a, like the renters coming through on it. Sounds like a really great idea cause you don't have to pay the employment fees and stuff. But, um, I would really just be staying in touch with your renters and just being there to help provide them with options. Um, and you know, it's, it's not easy but if you had people who worked for you, yeah, this was a really good time for you to show like the awesome boss that you are, you know, how can you help them for this time if they were employees, um, and you are not going to be offering online stuff then that's great. Cause luckily they can do the unemployed insurance a thing that's out there. But um, if you are teaching having them teach online, this is a really good way for you guys to stay in contact, the be that family that you are and really show them how you're supporting them through this time. Cause it sucks for them too. Like it's scary for everybody.

Um, so that's what I would say to studio owners and just also consider like when this is over, you know, Mmm. If you are a class based business only you're going to really want to think about some options you could have if that's not an option. Um, because I don't know, I mean, I know for me, I miss my hit studio that I would go to and like my girlfriend, I were talking last night like with PPE gloves on and all, I will be back at that studio, but, but not everyone is like me. Some people might not be excited to be in a group class right away. And so how are you going to have offerings for that so you can like slowly ease people back in and keep them feeling safe and um, and healthy for teachers. You know, this is really interesting. I think a lot of teachers were not seeing themselves as a full on business and if you were an employee for someone, awesome, you work for them and you know, you guys make your goals work together. If you are a renter, you know, hopefully you had already made yourself an LLC or an S Corp and you're an actual bids, then you have options, um, uh, in this time. But this is really a time for you to also consider like how, what do you want to do when you go forward?

Maybe you just want to stick to teaching virtually and not run from anyone. I mean, here's the cool thing. If I wanted to, I probably could just go, you know what? I don't need this studio. Like, why am I paying this rent? All my clients went virtual. That's what we're going to do. You know? Um, you ha like, you can think about that. So I, I would strongly encourage teachers, just make sure one, you made yourself a legit business during this time. So going forward, you are, and to think about like how you want to show up in this world, how many hours a week do you wanna work? What is it that you want? This is a really interesting time. If you make it through this healthy, then you really have this obligation to figure out how you want to have your business be in this world. Because what we do helps people. And so I really think you have to be thinking like, how can I be there?

So when the economy gets to open, back up, my business is part of it and it's helping serve people. Um, so that would be, I hope I answered that question. It's a big question. It's really open ended as you could. You could talk for a while as the, yeah, it's tough. What do you feel about, um, the, the recent governments that was going to talk about the U S stimulus here and there was a particular program called the payroll protection program. The advice on whether or not us business owners should apply for that. Yeah, so Brad and I have been doing a lot of research on this. Um, um, we are, uh, filing for the PPP, um, and also the IDL. Um, and yeah, if I, if you can, I think you should because part of it is completely be forgiven if you use it for payroll. And you know, I said in the beginning of my husband came full time for my business in January, so, um, so trust me, like if I was just having to take care of myself right now, I think I'd be sitting back and being like, we'll get through this, but he's not the only person on my payroll besides myself. Um, we have an assistant who just told me she's pregnant. So that's, you know, that's fun. Um, so we, we are filing for that and I think if you do qualify for that, you should, I will say, you know, the paperwork is complicated.

Talk to your banking institution. And here's the thing, what I have heard is a lot of banking institutions are putting some interesting rules on it. Uh, we have a business credit card with ours so that we can do it, but it's a little complicated. Um, but I, I do think if you want your studio, even if you've got money in the bank, if you want your study to be open, give yourself some runway. Because in LA they say May 3rd, but I just had a girl in DC tell me, ju not DC, but like Maryland area, June 10th. Well, why on earth would they be June 10th then we're all in May 3rd. So I'm, I want as much little runway that I can give myself so that I'm not reactive to this situation. Cause when you're reactive and you're operating a scarcity mindset, you make decisions about your business that will affect you in the long run. And I really want to stick true to like what our mission is, um, and, and not be suaded to just start offering things just to get money flowing in. So I'd rather have those loans if I don't need them, I'll pay them baskets.

I would rather just have it there. So if I were you, that's what I would do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we've talked before, we guessed that most [inaudible] businesses have maybe two months worth of cash. You know, a lot have less than that. And um, my view is I'm not, I'm not expecting to be back on May 3rd. Yeah. I don't see it. You know, the, uh, it'll get it. [inaudible] yeah, I don't see it. We [inaudible] we talked to, um, uh, my landlord here. You know the interesting thing about the States, we have a house in Cambodia where we do our retreats and when we called our landlords, they're instantaneously like, just pay half until this blows over and then we'll put the rent.

We'll talk about what your rent is going up. No, we don't owe them any money. We don't. Oh well, like it doesn't a crew, nothing here in the States. We've talked to our landlords where we live and where we rent the studio and we cannot pay because that's what the law says. Well we have to pay it all back by a certain date. And that, that to me is not as like, I, if I have the money, I'd rather pay the rent now cause I don't want to pay three months worth in October. Um, we did work out with our landlord that we can pay half, um, in may in June, and then if we need longer, so we might just take them up on that offer just to have cash on hand. Cause I think it's, you gotta be able to be nimble right now. So, um, I would be calling anybody you pay money to you and talking to them about what you can do. But the problem is, is that, you know, they have mortgages on this building. So like no one's giving them anything. So I understand why they can't be like my house in Cambodian disco.

You will have and that's all, you know, that'd be nice. But it's not a luxury they have here. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's try and answer some of these questions. And so if you have another question, let's put that into the, um, put a, put them in here. Um, does that, would you allow student teachers to observe your classes to help us continue on with observation hours? Mine personally, um, I, my, my regular clients I don't think would be okay with that to be honest.

Cause now we're in their home, you know, now we're in their private space. Um, the teachers that I teach, I often have them ask if they're friends can observe. Um, and I haven't had a problem with that. To me it's a nice generous thing I can do. What I don't do is stay after to answer questions, which I don't know how helpful that is since I'm not, yeah. Mmm. Doing that. But it's just time. Like I don't, I don't have that kind of time to just sit around and do that. But if you have a teacher who wants to take from me and they're okay with it, then that's fine. But my pedestrian clients, I can't, you know, there, they're not going to let people into their homes besides me.

Uh, another question from Liz that tips on how to start recording short videos for Instagram and still making them informative for all ranges of levels. Oh, fun. Well, Instagram loves video. So good job. They are going to put a high priority on you doing videos, so have fun with it. Um, you know, content doesn't live very long, so just do it like it. Put it up on stories first so it disappears in 24 hours and get the feedback right away about what people like.

And then when you start to see what your audience is liking, then you can put it in your feeds. Okay. Here's the thing though about putting tutorials up on social media. You don't own it once it goes up there and um, you have no way of getting there emails. So when Instagram goes down or Facebook changes how they do things, do you know how they do their algorithm can help you or hurt you. So if I were you, I would not put too much effort and putting content where you're actually giving tons of value out there without getting an email in return.

So if you were to follow a lot of things, I do all say I have a tutorial app. You need to request the link below. What does that do? It makes up means I get to DMU, we get to have a conversation. When you go and watch that tutorial, you were told to subscribed X, Y, and Z. So you can watch it for free. You don't have to give me your email, but eventually, um, I hope you do or you can actually request to have them emailed to you so you don't ever have to go check up on them.

So I would actually try to find a way to use your Instagram to feed every back to your website, which is something you do own and then to your email list, which is actually where you can make money. Um, I have a [inaudible] big problem with people trying to get lots of likes and followers because that stuff doesn't matter. It's all about engagement. But again, we don't know what the government's going to do with these social platforms. And so if they decide to break them up or change them, Mmm. You all that work goes out the window. Yeah. That this is a comment from, um, Jacqueline, I'm going to try and answer the chat questions, but I would encourage you to put it in the Q and a because that's the kind of list that I'm working through here. Um, Leslie, can you please speak about studios, instructors and companies teaching free classes online?

I think it was fine at the beginning of the situation, but narrow it has to be hurting our community. How can we get the community clients realize that they can take new classes, but if they don't support their local studios instructors, this could hurt them when they go back to when it is all over. Yeah. Good question. The, um, so here's the thing. It's not just a of studios that did this. Like in the first week, it just seemed like everybody forgot, but they're a business and how to make money. Um, and not one of my clients asked me for a free class or a discount or anything. Right. They didn't even know. They didn't even bat an eye on.

What I've understood from coaching tons of studios during this time is every person who asked me if they should charge less, I asked them, did a client ask this? No, the teacher just thinks this. So here's the thing that the entire fitness industry has to understand. When you do things like that, you actually devalue everything. But also you make people expect it for free. But giving them something for free doesn't make them go, gosh, I can't wait to pay for this. You know, so they just don't, I mean, just think about it.

Also people who get things for free don't put skin in the game and they don't actually join you on the journey as much. Um, I mean I'm similar Sunday nights. It's a free yoga class or my teacher, it's restorative. The only reason why I would take a restorative class is cause it's free, but it's just not my favorite thing. But Brad and I talked the whole time, we're on mute and we're like that the dah, dah, dah. It's like the least restorative thing. So I think you have to remember that if you want to be in business when this is over, you have to be charging. I think if you made the mistake of saying, I'm going to discount things during this time and you're realizing that wasn't, that was an error you to say, Hey guys, we're doing a trial thing and now we're back to these prices. Help you understand. And I also think business owners and teachers, you have to say to them, for us to be in business when this is over, we actually do need your support. Your support comes from you taking class.

You have to put that in words because I had a three early morning clients. Um, not anymore. Um, but I've had them for a long time and I was completely shocked that they wouldn't even attempt to virtual session. Um, it's not like the, this, this virus did not affect them economically. Like they are fine. Um, and they're like, Nope, we'll just see you when this is over. And I'm like, well, this could be several months. And they're like, okay, well let me know when you reopen. And it hurt guys. I'm not going say it didn't hurt somethings people I'm taking for six to eight years weekly. And I just said, you know, to be honest, you will probably not have this spot when this time when I do get to reopen if you're not supporting by taking sessions because I have to teach to make a living and to keep my studio open. So I might be giving these slots away and I hope you can understand that. Um, I still check in on them. They did not respond to that but I, they're human beings. Um, but I think it's actually okay to tell people that your thoughts and well wishes do not pay my bills. And so you just have to say in a nice way in a newsletter to those of you who are taking virtual classes. Thank you. Because of you, we have a chance of being open witnesses over like tell them that. Um, and I do understand empathetic pricing. Um, my yoga teacher does that free class on Sunday so that people who are affected financially can do a class or it can maybe do two classes.

Cause now they're paying for one class and then taking a class for free. So I do understand if you, if you feel being charitable, but I would actually tell people I'm doing this for those who are financially affected, please invite your friends so that you can grow your business. But then the rest of them you have to be charging your regular price. Um, because it has to pay for that one. Right? I get by being charitable, but you know, you are not a charity. Last I checked, most people are not, you know, nonprofit Pilati studios. So to be in business, to pay your rent, you have to do this. And also you will stay more inspired because money is energy, right? You give energy by teaching these virtual sessions and they give you energy back by paying you. So I hope you all hear that.

And if you're doing free things, it's okay. You can stop now and you can charge for them. People will pay you. Thank you. So this is a question from crystal. Do you teach group classes and do you allow new clients that you've never met before into your group classes? Yes and yes. Again, everyone signs a waiver. So there's that. Um, you know, we taught a group class on, on Saturday and we asked like, is there any injuries or anything we need to know about any limitations?

And someone's like, I'm seven and a half months postnatal. Great. That's good to know. This also why, going back to how I teach privates preplan a lot because you just don't know how someone's gonna show up. Um, I don't know who I was talking to, but I was answering this question for someone and I, my first year of teaching, someone showed up with a broken arm in one session, didn't call me ahead of time. And then my, my mentor, um, at the time was like, Hey, can you keep the client for me? And I said, sure, no problem. I said, is there anything, you know, she's like, no, you'll be fine. She had one leg and of course I was fine. Of course she could do a lot of things with one leg. But as a brand new teacher, I think I would have really appreciated having that bit of information. Since then I learned you don't preplan things, you have an idea and then you, you work with what showed up that day.

So I do, I think this is actually a really Epic time for you to grow your business because now people can join in from all over the world, right? So people whose friends lived in New York, um, they could take that group class you're teaching and then when this is all over and you're back in your studio, maybe some of your offerings are still virtual classes that affect that, um, are there for those that you've grown your business to worldwide. So I do think if you want to try a new offering, this is a great place to do it and just have waivers and make sure it maybe have a questionnaire they have to fill out. Again, you can use Google docs or forms and get that information beforehand. Cool. Thank you. Um, do you demonstrate much or mostly sit and talk when teaching virtually does moving cause more freezing of the video? Oh, I don't think it's the moving that causes the freezing. Yeah.

So I think that's just your internet. If your, if your stuff is freezing, I would just, it's probably your internet. A lot of people are probably finding out their Internet's not not up to par. Um, so generally I just sit where I stand and I just talk and move them through it. I try to demonstrate very little. It's not about me. Um, now my workouts with LL, obviously I'm working out with them. Okay. And that's really fun for me. But aye often have like fun.

But also I have a hard time knowing if it's actually translating because when you are demonstrating in real life, you can look around the room and you can see when you're demonstrating through zoom specifically and you're looking at all the people, they're so, they're so small and for you to be seen and you're so far away. So I, I challenge you to get really good with your words and um, and just be like this because also one, you don't want to work out that much in a day anyways. Uh, too. Yeah. Mmm. This may city here providing value to them. It really does up level the, the, the value of what I'm giving them. Cool. And this one's from M, uh, nowadays that everyone has access to every studio in the world. Literally. What would be your opinion on the best way to do marketing and attract more clients to our online live classes?

Yes. Well, this is a great question that it doesn't matter if you're coronavirus pre coronavirus post virus, uh, everyone's about online, you know? Yeah. Marketing is the same in general. You don't need a market who Joseph [inaudible] is and I, I love him. Okay. No one cares. And, um, people don't care what time your classes are, they care how you help them. So whatever, however you marked it in general, the way you stand out is you are authentic and personal. People feel like you're the person who can help them. Right.

So talking about [inaudible] okay, a struggle you had and how [inaudible] helped it and how you teach that in X, Y, andZ classes that helps, um, people really do care about themselves and how they'll feel. So marketing, you know that you have $10 mat Pilates classes is not what people are Googling. People are Googling, you know, workouts from home, their work, they're Googling like, Mmm, okay, body weight workouts, back pain, how do I solve tech neck? Like those are like, think about who your ideal client is and now they're all over the world. So think about the ideal client who could live anywhere now and what are they asking Google, what is the question? And then how do you come up as the answer? Because again, they care about how you can help them. They don't, they're, they're honestly not looking at prices the way you think. They are not Googling for that. They're literally Googling, I have a problem.

How do you solve my problem? That's what people care about. So I could talk for hours on that, but that's where I would start. And then just talk to your client. Don't try to talk to everybody. Think about who you want in your class, front and center, whether it's on zoom or in real life and like what do they need to hear to show up to class that day. That's how you talk to them. Yeah. A little bit of my thoughts on this one is it's very hard to compete for just online policies, videos. There's a, as you say, there's a million people in the world trying to search engine optimize for that particular term.

What you've got a better chance of is that you had an existing relationship with some clients before the virus, so reach out to them, explain what they're offering and win back those clients and like Leslie talked about, you know, she's reached out to most of those clients that she's, they're a little bit disappointed that some of them didn't do it, but I would mind your existing connections before you try and write articles for search engine optimization or those things and just go with those connections that you have. I think that's the lowest hanging fruit. True. That's a, that's a really good point. And you also can tell them, Hey, remember those friends you wanted, they can now come and join. So you can make that email you send sharable. Like say, Hey, can you share this with some friends so they can join on this class, um, that I'm doing. And then look at your clients who like moved away. You know, we all have these clients who we haven't seen in a long time. I've had clients that remind that class is 10 years ago, you know, go, Hey, are you teaching virtually? Because now there it's on the top of their mind.

So low hanging fruit and then people who used to know you, um, also just know how many people you need to actually hear your message. I think it's really important. Okay. I'm only teaching 20 hours a week right now. I don't need a thousand clients to know who my, when my classes are. So yeah. Okay.

Be okay with like having a set amount of people and like work towards that number and use, uh, the people that you know to help you get there. Um, and then, you know, your other stuff will come. Cool. This was a question about leases from Lani. What about the force measure clauses in leases? Um, I don't know a lot about that law, to be honest. My lease is actually the most simplest thing in the entire world. Um, I mean I, I'm really seeing from a grandpa so.

Mmm. So I can't answer that, but, um, but that being said, I have been sent some interesting templates that people are just using to stop paying on their leases. And you know, it just depends on your relationship with your landlord. Like mine, I see his restaurant is below, I'm going to see him every day. I'm not about to like send them, I'm not paying you rent kind of a thing. So yeah, I think when it comes to the legal things around force mature, you know, talk to a lawyer, you know, Leslie and I just really, we think we know a lot of things, but we, I think we both know we're not lawyers. Um, I'd say a lot of them, I'd rather them then than me. Yeah. I'd really encourage you, whatever the relationship with your lawyer, with your landlord is, it's just talk to them and find out what's possible. Keep them informed. I think what, none of us like surprises or shocks. Yeah. Just said, just say that I'm really having problems here.

I've lost all my client base, you know, do the best I, you know, how can we work this thing out? Well, cause they also don't want you to lose you. So like they're going to want to find some happy medium because they're going to lose a lot of businesses. If they can keep any of them, they're going to want to. So I would, I would just have, it's a hard conversation to have, but way easier. Do it in person, do it on the phone. I didn't do mine an email. It was much easier. Mmm. You know, it is hard. I've never had to ask someone for, I don't like, I tell people, don't discount yourself. So trust me, I'm not someone who's like, ask for discounts, but, um, it's, it's the conversation with having, yeah. I, the last question here is from Lindsey. Um, I don't know if you want to ask the answer this one, Leslie, but it just in case, what scheduling software are you switching from and which one are you going to? Oh, I mean I'm not getting any affiliates, although I tried. Um, but um, uh, what I'm switching from it actually wasn't [inaudible] [inaudible] my client.

Um, yes, right. The client used to own a, it's called simple practice. It's actually a scheduling software for therapists. So it actually was never for fitness instructors, but it was HIPAA compliant. It had all the options for the forms and he was my client, so I got it for free to use cause he wanted to make it for Pilates instructors and other fitness instructors. But, uh, they, okay. Investors came along and they didn't do those changes and their fees on the transaction. Um, because it's striped. So it's, it's almost a 3% trend, 2.9 transaction fee. I'm switching to Schedulicity. Uh, and they're not charging till July. The CEO seems to be awesome human, their help desk is Epic, very easy to talk to. And um, their monthly fees are great. When I have to pay them. Their transaction fee I believe is 1.9% so that's why I'm switching.

So yeah. But I wish I could tell you I was going to affiliate wrap up with a couple of questions around mental health. We talked about this when we were briefing on this last week. Um, tell me about what you feel we can all do to just help ourselves through this period. It's a tough period. You know, I woke up feeling really quite depressed today. W what's your advice on dealing with mental health issues? Yeah, I, I think every day is a different day. Uh, first of all I think like recognizing that I energized to be talking to you guys right now. This is making me really happy this morning. Waking up to the rain. That was, that sucked because the one thing I've been doing every day just to start my day off, like a routine is going for a run with my dog and then just that, that runner's high, you get help start the day. So, okay.

I think it's really important to remember a couple of things. And this is easy and free to do. Do not scroll through your social media and compare yourself to what other people are doing that will instantly make you feel like crap. So you know, trick the algorithms to show you only positive stuff by like seeking out the [inaudible] profiles that make you feel good about yourself and then they'll put that stuff in your feet or better yet, don't, you don't need to scroll, right? You don't need to compare yourself to what's happening. Um, when it comes to the news, I stay informed. Brad and I listened to a couple podcasts in the morning that are very news-related and that's it. The rest of the day, I do not check in on it.

I wait until the end of the day and see if there's anything new that I need to know about my immediate life. And that's it. Because if you leave that team, I don't even have a TV, but if you leave that TV on all day with the news, it's going to make this feel like the longest several months of your life. And also depressing. Okay. Two other things. Don't be afraid to get therapist at this time. There is an app called better help and they have deals all over the planet on internet to like give you like three month or a discounted month.

I have a therapist that I now see weekly. It wasn't like that before. I was like, Oh, we'll just do it like every couple of weeks. I want our weekly right now because every hour is a different hour. The okay. The week that I was in Cambodia, the week after every plan did it happen? Every plan was changed three or four different times.

I felt like a crazy person. I felt like I just wanted something to work the way I planned it. Mmm. And it was really hard for me mentally. And so it also sucks to just be, feel like you're disappointing people because you're not able to show up the way you want. Um, and for some people I know teaching online just does it make you feel like an awesome person. Like you want to be around people.

I don't even know how the extroverts are doing it right now. Like, it's got to be really hard. So don't be afraid to reach out and get a therapist. Be careful with about the friends that you talk to on a daily basis. Um, I love my folks, they get a call a week right now because they're, they're in this like the world is crashing mindset and I can't, I can't show up every day and do the work that I do for people. If I think the world's gonna end tomorrow, like what's the point? So I would just be really careful with the friends that you talk to regularly and it might be the time that you put some friendships on pause and all may talk to people who want to talk about positive things. You have to keep your vibrations at a high careful at the things you're watching on TV. If they make you feel like crap, like just make sure you have a choice while you're healthy.

You have plenty of choices you can make. And um, I just can't stress enough. I'm grateful for the therapists that I have. Um, because she is someone who is not in my family. My husband, I worked together and we live together. I need someone else to talk to. So that's, that's what I would say. And also if you, if you're feeling really sad right now, please reach out to someone and let them know, like tell people, um, so that they can check on you. Um, if you are living alone during this time, like maybe have some friends that just say, Hey, I may not reach out, but if you could check on me once a week, that'd be really awesome cause I'm living by myself and this really sucks. You know, just tell people you need, it's okay to say that right now. People get it.

Thank you Leslie. Yeah, we've got a lot more I feel for people I could talk to you for literally hours. I need you to stay healthy though. Oh, I am saying how wealthy I am. Gonna I, so some of the things I do is I get into a routine. So I start work at a same time every day.

I work till the same time and then I try and stop because I actually have enough work that I can work 24 hours a day and never kind of catch up here. So I try and set that. I take my lunch breaks, I have a daily meditation, I go for a walk and that's probably one of my biggest therapeutics and trying to do my cardio and I still take my pill out of these privates because that teacher needs my money. Um, even though I miss seeing her in person. Monica, shout out to you here, but I really, really appreciate you giving me that time to do it there. Yeah, I love that. I'm going to thank everybody that came on the cool and came on the webinar. I gotta say one very quick thing here to Lizette. Um, if you don't have a website, does that, this is an opportunity to learn a new skill and I really encourage you to learn how to make. And you can make like a really, really simple one. And, uh, if you want to send me an email is that, um, john@plotisanytime.com, and I'm happy to just answer that same for anybody else who you want to send me an email, please do. Uh, if I get the reason won't have a answer, the moment I get thousands, I don't want to have to [inaudible] I don't know. I know you might be, Oh, just a second that you need a website guys. If you're not on the, if you're not on the internet don't exist.

That doesn't mean you have to offer virtual. It just means people need to be able to find you. This is the time, I would never say build your own site, but now you've got it. So go for it. Yeah, I have some fun with that. It's a new skill. Something else that you can learn how to do. And it feels good to have that purpose of getting up every day. And I get up, I'm the beginning of the day and work out what I'm going to try and achieve that day and I'm excited about it. And I'm also really grateful, Leslie, to you.

Thank you for sharing your, your expertise. I really hope that we helped all the people that are on this webinar both live and recorded, and thank you and I look forward to seeing you in real life real soon. Oh my God. As soon as they tell us we can hang out, we're having dinner. I'm going to get on my bike. Come on over. Um, but you guys, thank you for being here. It means so much to me that you guys spent time out of your day to listen to us.

And if you need anything, just ask. Thank you. Bye everybody.