Metamorphosis During COVID19

I welcome everybody today. My guest is Madeline black and Madeline has an amazing resume. It's really hard to kind of describe Madeline is, but she's one of the industry's long time teachers. She's a mentor. She's written a great book, which I can kind of see in the background. They're called centers, which we partnered with Madeline.

We supported her and handspring and we made some videos to compliment it, so recommend that. And uh, she is known as a teacher's teacher. She travels all over the world. Well, she did travel all over the world and sharing her knowledge and expertise. And right now I believe Madeline, you're busy. You're on the second edition of your book. I am amongst other things with this life change that we're all going through.

I'm going to start today off with a quick poll question of, um, do you know anybody who has the Corona virus? So just put that up and if you can answer that, it'd be great. So you have a choice of, you've caught it or a friend's got it, or a friend of a friend or you don't know anybody. Kind of the very unscientific kind of poll just to see how the Corona virus is traveling around the world here. And uh, let me just end that and share the results. So a third of people have a friend who has it or had it, but another third is a friend of a friend.

And 40% though they don't know anybody. Every time we do this, those numbers go up. It's spreading around the world. Ooh. Tell me about about your life before the virus. So I want to go back into olden times, you know, Corona, BC. Um, what was a typical month like for you, Madeline? A typical month would be packing.

I have a table back here and I would spread all my clothes out for days because I always tried to minimize, I wish they'd carry on small suitcase and then traveling overseas. Uh, and then I would usually go to a location, sometimes two locations. If I go to Asia for instance, you know, I might go, I would go sit some traveling that far to two different cities. So that's a two week period. Usually Julie, about two weeks, 10 days where I'm in, uh, someone's studio. I usually teach at studios and you know, do my, uh, immersive training, which developed out of the book, so, and, uh, come home and husband loves you so much because you've been away and he misses you. So the coming home, it's just wonderful, uh, unpack laundry and recover and do it again. So when we were chatting before last week, you were saying you were flying nearly quarter of a million miles a year.

That's a lot of mileage and typically a way somewhere between a one and two weeks a month. Is that about right? Yeah, the summer I would try, you know, so beautiful here in Sonoma, you know, especially in a, you know, June, July and August. So, you know, the popular times for courses are fall and spring. Yeah. So I try to stay home in the summer, a couple of months. It's just so nice here. So what's happened? Where were you when, uh, you know, the quarantine hit you?

Well, I was in the middle of a training, so in San Francisco though, so I wasn't far away. Thank God. Uh, I was supposed to go to London that next week, but of course it didn't happen. But I'm grateful that I actually was in San Francisco. I was teaching at a body of work in San Francisco doing my third phase of my, uh, immersive training called constellation. And, uh, it was kinda, it was a stressful weekend cause we kept plugging along, but there was always conversation around, are you going to close? What are you going to do with, are we going to be forced to club? It was so, it was a lot of angst over that weekend. I said, we all just tried to pretend we were being normal, you know, but that ended on Sunday and that Monday everything's shut down. So I just squeaked in, you know, one last training.

And since then I've had a clean slate. My calendar is completely wiped out. Massive change, massive change. It's similar, you know, so many people have experienced that same, you know, shock, if you know what I mean? Like, Oh my God, everything's just changed here. Yeah. Yeah. I believe, you know, it's been here. We're in our seventh week.

I think it's about seven, seven or eight weeks now. Mmm. So I think I'm at four 54 days, but my quantity started on the 12th couple of days. Yeah. You know, and yeah, it's, and I think all of us have been through the shock, the scramble, the stress, the fear. I mean, there's still some of that underlying, you know, happening, but we've, what I'm amazed at our community, what's happened is how quickly and creative people got and how instantly they got their work out there. And then it's been also a lot of sharing, you know, of, uh, you know, like on Facebook and people saying, how are you doing this? And you know, all of this. So I think people are at a place right now where, okay, uh, still survival. Uh, I've got it kind of going, but now what am I going to do? What's going to happen now? We're going to reopen maybe or not, you know? So I think we're in a, you know, obviously a different phase.

Yeah. What, what has happened to your teaching? Are you doing it online? Um, I'm doing some clients online. Uh, not a lot. A few. Um, I had a very interesting session recently with a teacher who had contacted me and we did it for client and herself and, but three way where I, she observed me working with a client and doing some problem solving for her. Um, but I did three, some of the people watching, probably saw that I did three zoom free one hour workshops. I just felt like I wanted to try this, this environment of zoom and see how it would work. Uh, and, uh, quite frankly, I, I felt it went very well and I enjoyed it. So, so right now I've only done those three and I've been now processing, you know, and really coming from a place of, you know, what do I want to do, you know, from my heart. Like how, I mean, I'm a teacher, I love to teach people. And of course, the way that I work, uh, has been very hands on and, um, and now I'm discovering a new way of working online.

So that's where it's taking me. Yeah. Do you think you'll be doing another free workshop who, uh, probably not. It's so much work. Um, I haven't really, most, I think a lot of us were doing that at first cause we needed to learn how to do it. And we had a lot of mistakes. I mean, I, the first one I did, you know, is one, I discovered a thing called bomber, you know, so my first zoom, you know, got bombed. And I shared that on Facebook. It's embarrassing as it was, uh, because I felt like, alright, I didn't know enough how to put the safeguards and you know, and by putting that out, a lot of people were like, Oh no, this could happen to me, you know. And then the other thing is people started sending me information, which was an incredible, you know, how to protect yourself in this zoom world that we were just entering.

So each one got better and better, you know, as I did them. But it's a lot of work, John. I mean, I, when I plan something, it's, um, it's a top, not just, it's one hour workshop preparing is the same as doing a whole day workshop in a sense of how much material, you know, not just, it's not about a lot of material. It's really more about, you know, the thought process. And what's interesting that I found about this process is before in the live training I had five days. It was very expansive and we really, and the people can be, you know, I see them get it by like day two or three. Like all of a sudden all the light bulbs go out and then things go great. But on this one hour, um, because I chose to do a very narrow focus and I made it very deep in terms of the information but very narrow. Uh, and the one hour time slot I felt, the feedback I got from the teachers were that, Oh my God, I learned so much.

That was so helpful. Uh, so I'm learning how to, uh, convey my work in a different way. Yeah. Online. Yeah. I think it's a whole new set of skills that we're developing to like, how do I do this online with this medium because we get so little back compared to what we get in, in person, in real life communication. It is so tricky. I'm going to transition on to the question around another poll here. Um, can we just asking people how are you feeling today?

And I put it in some different groups of emotions here. Um, th th set this up that you can do multiple choice, that you can click more than one thing, but the idea of what I'm asking really is, um, how do you feel today? You know, what are the emotions you feel? And I, I have woken up some days personally with all kinds of things. You know, I felt good and then a few minutes later I felt anxious and then stressed and Oh, it is, it's been a real emotional roller coaster for me. Um, yeah, I think for many people, you know, this is a huge rupture that happened, you know, and, and through the rupture we really, it brings up all those emotions. And I think it's really important that we really feel them and really, uh, process with those because once we can kind of, I dunno about resolving them but actually face those emotions, I think it can actually help us direct where we want to go in, where we want to go after this. What your decision is going to be on how you're going to see your work. Yeah. Let me share the results here. Um, half of the folks here feel anxious. You know, I didn't click this survey, but me too. Um, it's great to see some 40% of people are feeling relaxed, confident, stressed. Yeah. Um, I'm like that, um, you know, the anger, they're not there. Many people reported that, but there's been times when I have seen in myself a shortness of temper. Like, Oh, this is so hard to do. Right. Um, yeah, yeah. We're all feeling different things.

And I agree with what Madeline was saying that it's really important to begin this process of, you know, hearing those emotions. And how do you think your emotions of, you know, we talked about the shock and the trauma or whatever it is now. I think this is week eight. Yeah, yeah. How have you been feeling through this time? You know, each day is different. Sometimes I get super excited, you know, because I, um, ideas are coming to me and flowing, you know? And, and that's that creative part that I really draw, you know, the energy comes and all of that's very exciting.

And then the anxiety hits because then it's like, Oh my God, can I really do this? You know? It's like, you know, and that whole anxiety and that even right before coming on here, there's some stress in a little, you know, it's, everything's set. Am I going to make a technology snafu? Like I forgot the earbuds. I always forget that your buds, I don't know why, but you know, it's all those little things that can, you know, start to stress you out. You know, and then there's kind of that, you know, I don't know if it would say it's depression, but that, that feeling of like, I'm just going to give up. Like, you know, how am I going to do this? I've kind of defeated, you know, it's kind of, you know, and I'm the age that I'm like, Hmm, maybe I should just retire.

I don't know. What does retirement mean? That could be a whole conversation too to me. Retirement's not sitting around doing nothing. I still have to do something but still work in some way. But, um, I dunno that, that's that feeling of can I, can I step up to this? It's a new environment for me.

Yeah. We've talked a little bit in the past. One of our shared interests is chip Connolly's work around the elder Academy. Um, you know, we're both about the same age and we're kind of realizing where maybe halfway through our working careers here, if you take out that first 20 years, we're about halfway into it. Your fingers crossed that we're going to have a long, healthy life. Um, but it kinda like, so what is this opportunity to kind of reinvent ourselves? So this new thing and our conversations are in the fall when we were talking about doing something together and now suddenly the world's changed.

And I'm now even more of the opinion that, um, you know, it's changed permanently. This isn't like, Oh, it'll all be back to normal by September. I just don't see that a toll. So it's a kind of an opportunity to kind of reinvent how we do things. And um, you know, the customers aren't going to be the same as they were, you know, three, two months ago. Right. I dunno. Just so everybody else can get to see this.

This is the book that Madeline and I both kind of enjoy and I think I saw Catherine Murakami there in the chat and she has been lucky enough to go. It was on one of my to do lists. Um, my, my desires was to go this year and of course, as soon as I was getting around to booking it, you know, the Corona virus happened and it didn't. Um, maybe that's another discussion with Kathleen on a different day and theme or economy. Um, but you know, thinking about this, you know, are you enjoying the online teaching? Do you think it's something that's going to become just a regular part of your life now? Oh, it's definitely going to be part of my life. Yeah. I actually surprised after I did those three and it got better and better that after, you know, as I was teaching, because it's live streaming, you know, I mean I have workshops on polities anytime, you know, and uh, classes, but people can go to Pilates anytime and watch the recorded workshop.

But live for me is wonderful. You know, we have bodies, we have people, you know, were present. Uh, you can be in real time in terms of how you're working with someone, you know, and I found that, um, really exciting and also showed me that yes, I'm actually will be able to transfer my teaching into this in a different way, you know, into this format. Um, so I'm developing actually a pilot program. That's all right to talk about it now. Yeah. So what I, what I'm working on is this idea of five topics over five weeks. Uh, and it's a week long process. So in five weeks, so the first day, uh, day one or the first week, each week I should say, has a two hour workshop live streaming similar to what I did on the one hour ones, but more, more, much deeper because it's two hours. Uh, and again I'm going for that narrow topic and making it very rich and deep information. And then I'll be giving each of the teachers, uh, like a homework, a takeout practice, which they'll do on their own. And then we re reconvene again on the same week, another day. And we have breakout groups, small groups together where we answer, I answer questions or mentor them work on things. And so each week's going to have a different topic and it's similar to, um, it's going to have some material that I did in my course called gather, but it's going to have some newer insights.

I'm doing research cause the second edition. Then I'm coming up with some different information that I have to change in the book. So I'm going to have some new information and then also new movements and techniques in it. So it's a pilot program because I need to feel comfortable doing it cause I really want to do, I want to be relaxed in it, I want it to work. I want the teachers to feel good about what they're getting from me. Cause that's super, you know, I'm always that way. Super important.

I really want to make sure people get it. It's almost a problem for me when I teach because I'm like, what do you mean you don't get it? And the people I've studied with men are probably laughing. Yes she does that. But that's really important to me. So this pilot program is going to be seeing how that works.

If they want to be the first people to join in. I actually have a link. It's um, on black.com you know my website slash I am in if they want to be in on the pilot program. So yeah. So that's what I'm developing right now. So it's new. Um, and we'll see how it goes. And from there I'm going to grow and learn. You know, what, what works well and teachers can contribute by telling me what their experiences and what works for them. And, um, so I'm very excited about that. So I go to question on that kind of subject from Kathleen con Conklin. Hope I'm saying that right Kathleen. Um, can Madeline sophisticated work translate into non-digital digital pun intended?

She has brilliant hands, electronic platform and I guess the answer is we hope so. Yeah. Well hope so come to the pilot program Kathleen, and you'll see, um, because of my experience in the three one hours that I did, actually I did it more than I did three, but I did it about six times cause I kept repeating it because things were going wrong or I had my Asia group, you know, the time changed. So I did it later in the day for them. So I did do it six times or so. So I feel like I have a good handle on that and now I'm going to have help. So it's not just going to be me and my husband. He was here trying to help me.

So I actually have some tech help now, so it's actually going to be, uh, even better. I think the way it's run. Um, but working with clients in this environment, and I have done it before, but also on site, you know, how to really, uh, talk people through like where to put your hands, you know, and what to feel, you know, watch how your hands move when they're moving. You know, it's coaching the teacher, you know, without my hands touching their hands. Then of course you can see if I'm telling you to place your hand in a certain place, you know, you'll be able to see it and tell you how to move it, you know, this type of thing. So, so to answer Kathleen's question I think, and I'm hoping it's going to be brilliant. Cool. I'm going to ask another quick poll question here about whether other people like working online. Um, that's just my question here is do you enjoy working online? And my, my suspicion is that most of the people on this thing have, I've begun that experience of trying to be a learning how to be polite. Is teachers online.

What do you think about the telehealth that's going on? You know, physical therapists are doing it online. We have about two thirds that are enjoying it. And one third that's not, Oh, sorry, I didn't share the results that hit the button. Two thirds that do and one third that don't. Interesting. What have you really enjoyed most during the stay at home period? Cooking, actually cooking at home.

I love to cook and our farmer's market in Sonoma has continued to run. Uh, and they have done an amazing job on how they were handling the situation and making it very safe. So our farmer's market never closed. Uh, and uh, and we're, you know, Sonoma is not a huge city, so, you know, but, uh, I've been loving cooking. I've had a few wine tastings with my friends, my friend Deborah, who's here, she and I, we, we, uh, we had cocktail hour together. Do you manage? Well, Deborah was too far away to do this, but my friend in town here, Shelly, uh, we would take two bottles of wine that were the same and we would drop one bottle at their house with a note saying, meet us at six o'clock and we'd give them a zoom invitation and the four of us would taste the same wine and we would talk about it and have a pairing the wine with some food. So it'd be interesting to see what they pair with the wine and what we paired with the wine and then we discuss the wine. It sounds fantastic. Well you always Sonoma, so like a wine wine conversation. That was really funny. No, I'm doing this with friends who I barely see, you know, because I'm babbling. What's traveling so much? And when I am hall, I'm kind of trashed. It's nice to wake up every day and have a practice.

I work out every day, you know, it don't, you know, and when I'm traveling sometimes I can't do anything for like five days, you know? And I don't feel so good. And then I'm tired. So I'm not so tired. I have more energy. Um, my body's feeling good. So all those things. What about your personal practice, your movement practice, how's that going? Oh great. It's going really great stuff. I have no equipment at my house and I haven't the studios, you know, she's busy filming over at studio M and uh, you know, they're trying to keep it clean too.

So what I have here at home are all my props. So, uh, you know, a lot of yoga. Uh, I have, you know, lot of blocks and little hand weights and there are bands and magic circles and you know, rollers. I mean that's what I have here. So that's what I've been doing. And uh, I get out every day. Um, I have a bike, I love to bike, so, and biking straight, cause you're not, even if you were hiking, you know, or walking, you are still passing people on my bike. I can just move, you know, go around people and stuff so, and I do something every day. Yeah, it feels really good. Oh and I love taking classes with some of my friends too. Who have you been in classes with? Well, my dear friend that, um, I'm going to say she kind of is very in the closet. She doesn't, she has, she's not out there so much. Uh, Kwan Kwan who choo, she's a friend in New York. Uh, she and I teach, well, very similar. Uh, comes she comes from the back, uh, dance background, came to the cane school and has gone on to study, uh, lots of other body trigger, trigger work and trigger points. She's just super knowledgeable and she's just delightful.

So I've been enjoying her classes. Um, so yeah. Cool. I'll just say, uh, we're going to wrap up our conversation with a couple of minutes. If you have questions for Madeline, please add them to the Q and a and we'll do our best to get through them. But we will finish within the hour. Very. I am very much determined to do that.

I'm going to ask a question in another poll here about how do people feel about the future. You know, this is another one where Madeline and I were hoping we get a sense of what people's emotions are at the moment about, you know, the world is definitely changing. It's not a temporary change. I think it's, you know, the new normal is going to be different to the old normal. Um, I, I'm struggling with it myself. I spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, my own life. I put in a excited as great a third of the people were excited, you know, fearful, 10% saddened, 10 nervous, a third submitting that as many people are nervous as excited. A lot of people picked. It's complicated. It's a good, it's a good answer. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I think it's very common.

I think the sad, and I know that was a, not very many people, but you know, it is sad that your life before that you were enjoying, you know, doing well at having, you know, satisfied or helping people move and you know, all of that. And, and now it just was like pulled out, you know, from under your feet. And so, you know, we have to honor that sadness of the loss of that. Um, what do you think your new normal, I don't know what to describe it. What's it going to be like the new normal for you? What do you think will, okay, a lot of writing right now. I'm sitting an awful lot. It's, it's killing me, but I'm a lot of writing and then I want to develop the, uh, the online teaching as, as part of my immersive training. So it's part of the bigger, so I still will, um, once the online and things free up and we can travel again, I'm still planning on doing live trainings in addition to the online, so it would be an adjunct to the whole program. So it's actually helping me write and develop my program in a different way.

So I need to spend more time writing and defense strategizing what I'm doing. Yeah, I actually saw a question, I don't know, then there and said, will you have a live body? Um, I the way I've worked before as I've had a live body with me in, in the space here, um, that would be my husband who actually has some very interesting complicated patterns to look at. Um, but then also I've had other teachers be like a cohost and then there are the body. Uh, the other possibility is, you know, uh, somebody can bring a body and so yes, there will be like another body. I have to work that out in terms of planning. Oh, I'm going to start May 18th, by the way. Fantastic. Yeah. Have you used any brainstorming tools to try and organize your thoughts when it's come to like you know, this next phase of life?

Oh yeah. I have a very high way of getting my thoughts organized and that is these giant post-it nuts. These are my notes here in case I wanted to reference something here, but I, what I like to do is sometimes I can't think, I don't want to sit down and spend time just making myself think. So I have them up in my other room with a marker and then I might think of something and I'll walk in, write it down, walk away, you know, until I can, and then I look at it later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a really big fan of the notebook.

I am forever, you know, keep it by my bed. It helps me sleep at night. Oh shit. I got to do that in the morning. I'll try and write it down and then that helps calm my brain and do that. I'll show you one share one thing with you, John, if you want it, want your brain to calm down when you can't sleep. Okay? It's called neural fascial processing. All right?

So you can put your hand on your frontal bone. Okay. That's your, what are your thinking? And actually if you get the bridge of your nose to be kind of go like that, you're, you're, you're getting your limpic system and then you can put your other hand on your heart like that. And then you're in bed. I do this in bed and then you just relax and things calm down. My husband last night, he woke up four 30 woke me up. He was getting all like I got, I don't want to get up but I'm all, you know, the brain is going crazy and I told him to do this and he told me this morning he was shocked because he wasn't going to do it. I fell asleep.

Then he decided to do it and he was doing this and he said he woke up two hours later and his hand was over here, but he had slept for two more hours and didn't even realize that. Wow. It's a great way it works. A notebook is nice too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had James Craig crater on the, on the webinar, I think it was last week. I'm losing track of, I don't even know what day of the week it is, but we lost track anyway and he was talking about some of these type things. His self mastery, self care things. Yeah. Cool. Let me flip over here to start at the top of the questions. So first question is from Josie.

How do you see teaching in the studio environment in the future? I E masks social distance places will be opening. Any ideas how this will be done? Ooh, that's a tough question, Josie. Well, you know, we don't have anyone, um, giving us guidelines, right. What you should have a hand washing machine, you know, station and you know, yeah. Gloves and masks. I mean, uh, I know a few people have gotten massages, not in California but elsewhere from people from massage service who were wearing that seems a little odd to me, but you know, but yeah, there is a, maybe that should be a blog post, John, about how to reopen and what the steps should be taken in terms of making, cause the clients need to feel confident that your studio is clean. No, and that you're, you're being conscious about that. Yeah. I think, um, you know, this, this whole area of this, I think what's going to happen is that there are going to be a certain population that is going to be really, really keen to come back.

And then there's another population tend to be older, perhaps more frail, maybe with asthma or something like that. And they are going to be very hesitant where they go and you know, shopping for them is still going to be a traumatic experience, stressful things. So I think it kind of depends a little bit how your studio caters to folks and the kind of, I think a younger audience is going to be able to accept greater risks than an older audience. I think there will be social distancing, you know, here in California under Cal OSHA, so California occupational health, I don't know what does OSHA state, whatever it stands for. And they are the people that kind of set the rules and they're going to give us guidance. I think there will be a social distancing. So if before you had 10 reformers in your studio, you may unfortunately only be able to operate maybe six of those in the future.

So just to have more spacing. Um, yeah, I think, you know, we're busy working, we're gonna interview, um, somebody next week who's up in Montana who is probably one of the first communities to, so this is Delia but master and we're going to have her on the show and she's going to talk about the procedures that she is busy developing to try and put in place. Um, having trouble registering online for my course. So I'm not sure it says not private. I mean we just literally put that link up like an hour before. So, um, maybe try again later when we work that bug out. Just answer that question. Yeah. Just to help everybody. There'll be comment when we publish this video, which we hopefully will get out by the end of the week, depends on our editing backlog and we will put all the links that we've talked about in the description of the video. What you feel locked down, lift, lifting will involve for small, large, independent employed studios will look like. Um, so it's the same kind of question about what's it going to be like when places open. Um, I think it's, I think it's going to be a lot of people are going to make decisions that are just a little bit different. It seems to be country by country, state by state is different. I think it's trying to find something that makes you and your clients comfortable.

Yeah. I see my friend Carol lapel wrote big uncertainty of how the traditional studio or club business models will change. I mean if that's pretty much it, you know, big uncertainty. I agree with her. I think that, I'm just about Joe's question here, but what this is going to be like, I think it's going to be tough because the margins in Pilates studios were pretty thin before this all began, so now at your peak times you're not going to be able to take as many people. It makes it even harder. So you know, is the result you put the prices up or can people afford that?

An awful lot of people have lost their jobs. Right. I think it's going to be really tricky and I think you know much the same for things like gyms. I think for yoga studios, Pilates studios, all of these areas, it's going to be tough. I don't know if you saw that. I'm going on Facebook. The, I'm trying to make the smaller boutique studios, not part of the big chain clubs. The uh, what is that going on? The petition. I don't know if you've seen that. Yeah. So I, I think it's really interesting cause it's not the same as you think that 24 hour fitness or whatever big, big brand you have. Uh, Christine, uh, asked the question, what would you suggest to Pilates instructors to overcome the self consciousness of teaching online? Huh?

How did you get over it, Madeline? You know, um, I've done some, so much work for you anytime and I've gotten used to being, you know, on that camera. And then also teaching is like a performance, you know, and I did have a dance background. I was in a professional dance company for many years with a lot of performing and videoing, so I kind of had the experience of that. Um, but I would say probably not watching yourself if there was a way to like hide your video and just, well I know you can't do that cause the clients have to watch you move, but just don't watch yourself. Just move. Just be yourself and move. Yeah. I'm taking online parties from the teacher that used to give me privates and she's doing it online and we've may have been doing it for whatever this is, seven, eight weeks and she gets better and better every week.

So my tip to this would be practice. Yeah. And also, you know, she asked for my feedback. Like, did you understand this cue? Did you know? And how did we get over that? And we're get, we're getting, I'm getting better at being her client as well as she's getting better at being a teacher. I like Victoria suggestion here, practice with your mom, your best friend. Um, ask them for tips. Yeah, totally agree. I don't know. I guess my mother, how do you deal with the fact that your clients that are now online do not have access to equipment and they miss their equipment? I don't really have that situation, that missing equipment, it hasn't come up. I think we think we're going to get back in, you know, and I, I still have clients who texts me there.

They're still not ready to do this and they've just, they're just waiting for the studio to open. Um, and there's a question here about, you know, do you think people are gonna start buying equipment for the home more? I mean, it's another possibility. So you know, if they miss the equipment, just say, hang in there, you know, we're going to be opening up again and just be positive, you know, or suggest they buy something. Yeah. I had a conversation with Maria Leoni, um, a couple of weeks ago and she was just saying, I presented this as, it's a reformer class, but it's on the mat to do the same exercises on the mat. So, you know, they're getting them different, but a very similar, and I think a lot of them at work is even harder than the reform. Uh, Carolyn had a comment. One of my clients is partially deaf, so it was found online. Class is hard. And he thought, Ooh, do they wear a headset? I mean, does that work? I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if there's a way of connecting, you know, the hearing aid to the computer.

Yeah, there is. My husband's pretty, pretty deaf. I mean, he's got very poor hearing. He can hear, but that's what he does is he puts his, and it's wireless and connects to it and he can hear very well. Yeah. Deb said here, she's had her clients by the props and that she's teaching and creating a lot of fun just by using all the props. You know, magic circles. Yeah. It's different. Yeah. Studio. I'm here in Sonoma. She set up like a library the very first week and put together, uh, you know, in loaned out products. Yeah, yeah, I've heard that. Um, who do we talk to? We talked to Joanne Grasso and she said that she had rented out nearly every reformer in her studio.

And then I think her husband has a pickup truck and they delivered it and she made a careful note of where everything was. Uh, it depends how big people's houses are. I'd love to be able to get it for her in my apartment, but anytime soon. This is from Alison, what do you suggest for students training to be parties, teachers at this time? What Jesse as opportunities for us in the future? Hmm, that's a really good question. Well, you know, there are a lot of, uh, online courses already before coven, you know, for at least four plies teacher training as come, assuming she's talking about, right. Yeah. Yeah. So for someone who's, let's say entry level teacher training as opposed to someone who's done a course already, right. So I think there are a lot online already, you know, just search who's doing that? Um, the boulders, you know, up in Boulder, Colorado, you know, Amy and them, they do that online and there's a number of programs that existed before code, you know, um, but you know, for continuing education, um, same as everyone's experiencing all the Pilates teachers for their clients. Jumping online, you know, to give classes. Um, the st you, I'm starting to see, even though I'm doing it and I'm starting to see more emails of other teachers who do what I do and education also doing the same thing.

So stay tuned because I think you going to start seeing some of your favorite educators doing this more. I don't know exactly Allison's question here, but let me turn it the other way. With the opportunities for you see as a career in polarities as a teacher. Um, my guess, and this is that it's going to be the studio owners I think are going to be in the toughest place in this whole industry because they can't cover their rent as easily as they could when they could get their, to the reformer example, if you have 10 reformers in that room and you can make a profit on it, if you're only able to operate five of them or six it, the margins just aren't there to be able to do that. I think for a teacher in our industry, I think that they're going to join this industry and immediately have to be developing online teaching skills because they won't be able to get to every type of client. You know, the young healthy people are probably really going to enjoy that group performer class much the same as before.

That older client is going to expect you to do that private or group class to them at home. So I think those are the kind of opportunities that are gonna come up, you know, um, also for teachers is to also steer towards more private training and away from classes. Really. I mean, uh, because a, you can charge more because it's a personal, you know, one-on-one course, you know, with the clients. So, um, so I could see opportunities in a career. If you're only teaching classes, it might be time to start saying, you know, I want to do some classes, but I really want to get into doing the one on one teacher and teacher training. I mean, clients. Yeah. Uh, this is Deborah. So kind of a related question.

What do you suggest for practitioners who work with seniors that are not very tech savvy? I think you can answer that one, John. I think you start off with an, I see there's lots of Cox comments here, but I think you start off with, you just find the technology that that person is familiar with. So they may have learned how to do face time with their grandchildren because they're really motivated to learn that. So they might be comfortable in face time, but they may not be comfortable, you know, doing zoom, which is what we're using today. So find the medium that works with them.

I think in terms of how do you connect with them? Go old school, you pick up that phone and talk to them. And I think I saw somewhere there's so many comments and questions. I'm sorry I'm not, can't keep up. But somebody who was just saying, you know, you just start off, we'll just do 20 minutes and just see how it goes. And just trust me. All I'm gonna ask you to do is have somewhere where you can lie, lie safely.

Uh, you've got a map that you've put down and we'll just do 20 minutes of stretching. And what I think you'll find after that is, wow, that wasn't as scary as I thought and they were going to enjoy doing that and then there's going to be more. So that would be my approach on how to try and get through the tech savviness. But yeah. You know, I think all of us are spending a lot of time, uh, with our older friends helping them. Like yes, the button is at the bottom. Yeah. And um, yeah, someone asked a, I just reading the chat, they would like information on how to protect yourself using zoom and I could get you that article. I mean it's, yeah, but they will certainly publish something on, um, since that happened with Madeline, you know, it's not just Madeline in the world, it happened with many people that the zoom bombing happened. So now the defaults on zoom are a lot more strict.

They've also added new features or they're going to force everybody to upload to their 5.0 version of the software at the end of may. And so that really, really has, is changing. It's the zoom is getting to be a much safer technology to use. Um, we did a webinar on Thursday with Louise Johns about how to use all of this tech and how to charge for classes that should be up in a couple of days. You're very welcome to look at that. We also did a blog article and perhaps, and Noel can link to that.

So do you think, uh, cause I saw a question in there. Um, at first I know I did it for free because there was a learning curve on how to do it and I, and I know that people are struggling with, um, finances. So there's still a lot of free classes out there and people have shifted now to donation, you know, five to 15 or so. I mean I think teachers, if this is going to be a longterm process as part of your work, I think the price point should come closer to what you're charging in the studio and not undersell yourself as a community. I think we all need to, um, really be aligned with that. So totally. You know, our view on this is charged the same process you charged before your costs are the same. Your skills are just as amazing and if anything online teaching is harder, it's more exhausting, you know, being really focused just one way. It's harder to move around. So yeah, totally endorse that. I'm sorry, I'm just reading the next question here. This is from Sharon.

I'm concerned about so many online offerings. I think people were tired of them, especially with nice weather. Maybe we need to learn how to do outdoor online offerings. Interesting. It's always tricky to film outside cause you don't control the light, you don't control the noise. But what I have heard from other people is that they are talking to their local parks and recreation authority and seeing if they can get permission to use part of that park to do a group class.

So I think that in person group classes I think is going to be really popular. That's a question for you, Madeline from Pam. Are you going to download your free shoulder workshop from a few weeks ago onto your website? I know people have been asking me that. That was a good one too. Um, I'm trying to figure out the tech on how to do that well. So, uh, you know, just stay connected and I'll, I'll let you know. I don't really have an answer right now. I'm not sure how to, to do that.

I think your question, Fran, is how do you market to get people to use your services here? I think that's the heart of this. Um, marketing your online classes. Um, the usual, right? The emailers, um, Facebook. I have a group on Facebook. Uh, so it's uh, Madeline Black's centered virtual workshops. Uh, and in that group it's a free group and um, in the group is where I'll post the free videos. Um, I have a link in there to place anytime for those workshops. Um, and then I'll be posting, I also going to be posting some dialogues. So once I start the, if you don't sign up for the five week course, I'll have some activity going on in there in terms of what the questions and the homeworks are so you can get a sense of uh, what it's like, you know, if you're, if you're not ready to sign up for something like that.

So I'm going to really focus on that group. Yeah. Yeah. And the advice we've had from other guests on this show has been when it comes to marketing, you know, start off with your own email list. Who are the people that were in your studio in faculty, um, reach out to them, you know, emails not getting through then call them up that old fashion. You know, getting on the phone thing has really worked very well for a lot of people cause a lot of people are really, really lonely.

Um, so if you are struggling with not filling your, your, your sheet or week, you know, your calendar, then I would get that phone book out. Dial for dollars. Yeah. I mean definitely starting with the people who support you. Uh, there's a comment here from Joe, I'm finding a lot of my clients can afford to pay me the same as they played before. Um, so she's encouraging no price reductions because yes, there's at least, I dunno, 10 to 20% of our community that is really hit badly by this, but that other 70 to 80% is probably making about the same money as before. Right. So if that was your client base before, they're really, you know, they want to support you. They don't want to see you go out of business. Oh, this is great. Someone's been doing patio Pilates. Is that Monica where she's been filming on her patio?

Yeah. And that's asked the question about pricing again. Um, again, our view on this, my view anyway is charged the same as you did before. So you may have like, um, we talked a little about this with Louis John's on Thursday, but that private, I would charge the same as you did before for the private, even though there was no equipment there, it's still your time and your expertise. Um, if you're doing a group class that, that you're able to see everybody, so like a small group where you really can give feedback to everybody that's in there. I think that that's probably very similar to your group classes before. If you're lucky enough to get, you know, a hundred people on your map class, you're not going to be able to give feedback to them. And so probably that case it's a slightly lower price. Again, if you're not capping the number of people that are there. Do you have any thoughts on pricing Madeline?

Oh, I think, I think that's a perfect way you said it. You know what's, what's happening. I know with some of my yoga friends is all of a sudden their classes are becoming a hundred people and more so if they charge, you know, $10 and they had a hundred people and they teach a yoga class for an hour, they're making a thousand dollars in and out. But that's basically you're performing, right? You're just talking and you're doing and you're moving and you know, and the people are following along, but you're not doing what you said. If it's a smaller group where you're actually like looking and saying, you know, Mary, you need to move your pelvis. So you know, whatever, you know, if you're doing corrective work, you know, and you giving them attention, um, I think you could charge more for that. But I think, you know, it depends on where you are demographically. You know, like a New York city or San Francisco, you know, a yoga class or a mat class is usually around $30.

Some of them are 40 in the metropolitan areas, you know. Um, so, but if you're in Montana or in the Midwest, you know, those classes might be more like 15, 10 to 15, so you have to go with your market. But, but I think I would encourage people, if you feel that you can do a movement practice where you, you're fine just doing it and having people follow you. I say go for the big numbers. Once in awhile you could make a killing in a, I mean, you have to get a hundred people, but um, yeah, keep on working. And I think, you know, the good old fashion, you know, people, you know, you know email lists that you have, um, partnerships with people, those things where, um, there's a couple of people that have been challenged in registering for Madeline's mind. Stuff that I see from one person is refresh the page and it works. Fingers crossed and if you do have problems you can always contact us at Pilates anytime which support at Pilates, anytime.com and we'll do our best to connect you with Madeline's website. Yeah. Thank you. Someone said it works now.

I have so many questions here and I'm trying to find ones from each little group here. Um, Joe, I don't know why there aren't any guidelines in the U S for how are we going to operate our party studios? I think it will come about. I, I kind of think that what we're going to do is here in Los Angeles, you know, restaurants are given A's, B's and C's passed certain hygiene kind of levels. And I think that it's quite possible that we're going to end up with some kind of similar rules that will be governed by that same government body that will go through cloudy studios and make sure they have the right operating procedures. I know we've been really off the radar, you know, in terms of being, um, monitored by the government, you know, in terms of our business. So, you know, and if they lump us with, you know, 24 hour fitness, you know, you might get some guidelines that doesn't match our space. Yeah. Yeah. I think the, you know, being proactive here and like thinking through what is good practice here. Jan asked the question, do you think that private studio, one-on-one reformer practices with 6:00 PM six feet distancing is doable in the new environment?

I do. You have to. Uh, you have to clean everything. You have to have time in between to, to really sanitize. Um, and then you have, uh, your straps, you know, any surface that anybody touches. So we have to get, um, some different kinds of straps or a covers, you know, like the dentist, you know, when you go to the dentist and they have the light all covered, you know, with that plastic, you know, if you could cover it somehow and then change the covering. Um, that, that's the tricky part. Yeah. I think my feeling on this one Jan, is yes, I think that a private one-on-one was just you and your client in that party studio is going to work. Yeah. I know that studio M Sue's already setting up the studio. I didn't know.

We don't know when we'll be open, but she's talking about doing little stations and only having, you know, two people in the room at a time, you know. Um, but that's, that's a big cut when there used to be four trainers working in the room at the same time and the same power, you know, it's like a restaurant and I mean the restaurant can have 20 tables anymore cause they're right next to one another. They're going to have 10 tables or less. So it's a very similar situation. Yeah. And the margins in the restaurant industry are just as slim as they are on the parties industry, so it was really is going to be tricky to do this, but I do think that with that right, social distancing, but I think it's also, it may not be the same that you had your client at 11 and 12 and one o'clock I think you're going to need five or 10 minutes in between there just to clean all the equipment and get everything ready and it could well be that that client feels that she wants to come in and clean the equipment before she uses it. Even though you've told her that you've used it.

I think there's some aspects of the equipment are going to be trickier than others. Like how do you really wash the ropes? You know, if you're choked up on the rope, you know that that is a tricky one. Yeah. Someone said people can bring their own straps. Yeah. Someone wrote that balanced body is offering a vinyl strap covers at affordable price, but it'd be a great idea to get the clients to purchase their own streps. That's a very good idea. Oh, I've got so many questions here. Madeline. How did we have to do this again?

Well, what do you think about encouraging clients to get inexpensive equipment? Um, things like, you know, arcs. I think you're a fan of encouraging people to get the yeah, absolutely. Cause you know, what's happening now is people then learn to have their home program. They'll have their arc at home. I love the arc. You know, you can do a lot. I'll let small barrel work, you know.

Mmm, okay. You can get a wonder chair. Yeah. I think it depends what he does. Have Pilates wanted that chair in every room and every house and every hotel. Right. So wonder chair is fantastic. Yeah. You know, and there are different ones on the market, you know, I know you want to make sure it's a safe product, you know? Yeah. Andrea, um, your question about, I hope that answers yes.

I think it'd be great for people to get props for small pieces of equipment and Missoni has pointed out that she has been able to get a referral program with balanced body. I don't know the details of that, but I assume it's like if she refers clients that she gets 5% back or the client gets a discount, that's fantastic. Last time I checked with balanced body, they'd sold out of the ICU. I don't know if it's back on the market, but a, you know, so it's indicating a lot of people are buying the less expensive a reformer. Right? Oh, there's always eBay and there is always a, yeah, I have some of, yeah. So yeah, the combo chair and someone's saying that, uh, Larry asked the question of pricing for online parties here. How do we compete with others that are giving away fitness online for free? I'd say on that one, Larry, that people have been giving online fitness away since the invention of YouTube.

So I think that the, the way that you compete is you can't compete with price. You can't go cheaper than free and stay in business. So I would encourage you to, you know, you have that relationship with those clients already and I would just reach out to them. They like working with you. They've been doing it in the past and just gently explain, you know, I'm in a position where I have the same bills as I had before, the Corona virus and that's why I'm charging the same. If you can't afford it, then maybe you go from my private to my group class to my big group class.

Do you have any other thoughts on that Madeline? Well, I try to position our are teaching, you know, completely different than fitness, you know, uh, we were, we had our education is much greater. I think that they could argue with that one. There are some personal trainers who've done a lot of studying, but in general, um, the ones doing it for free, I kind of have to look at their credentials, you know, their education, what they're doing, you know, and we're not fitness, we're more than fitness. We do develop strong bodies and everything, but it's, it's about, you know, the whole body, you know, and it's about movement and moving well and feeling good. And the approach to our training is completely different than fitness training.

So I don't like to feel like I'm in the same bubble as they are, so I'm completely different. Apple oranges, Katie asks, she shared this at her local chamber of commerce is offering safety interviews to help people know what to do before they reopened. That's incredible. Um, so if your local chamber of commerce does that, I would reach out and see what they have. I would definitely ask them. Yeah. Um, you know, as I said earlier, we're going to be chatting next week with people opening a studio up in Montana and we're going to see how that goes and what she's learned in that process. Um, I think there's, we're going to share all the resources that we can find. The party's method Alliance has a really good hub that's available for everybody. You don't have to be a member and they have links, all kinds of other resources. Um, I'm feel terrible. We have 28 answered questions and there was other ones in the chat that neither of us could get to.

I am going to try and honor everybody's time and just say, you know, we'll be back on Tuesday on, sorry, Thursday I told you I didn't know what day of the week it was on Thursday. Um, with Kara, Risa, uh, ask Cara anything you want. So we're going to spend the whole hour answering questions. We're trying to do our book. Uh, Madeline was kind enough to share a discount code on her book if you haven't ever read it. And I think it's great. And as we said right at the beginning, it's something that we supported Madeline words with some videos that help illustrate the book better and there's a discount code for that. And any final advice? I do have a quote that I'm going to share right at the end, Madeline, but do you have any final advice for everybody?

Yeah. Breathe. Take your time. And what I'm starting to do is actually feel that if I feel the least bit kind of stressed or irritated about something that I have to do, then the answer is no and that I want to do what I wanted. My heart says yes to. So sit with that and stay with that and say no. Cool. Thank you Madeline.

I'm going to share my screen here with everybody with this final quote. Um, is wonderful that everybody came. Um, it's just we are in this amazing global community and uh, thank you for joining us and see folks on Thursday, but I'm going to end with a screen share here. Okay, thank you. I'm just going to read the quote. Your vision will become clear only when you look at your heart, who looks outside dreams, who looks inside, awakens Carl Young. So I encourage everybody to look inside and as Madeline just said, follow your heart in this time of great turbulence. Thank you everybody. Thank you Madeline.

I really hope to see you in person soon. Thank you everybody. Bye.