355. Great instructors DO fill classes - here's why

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Welcome to Pilates Elephants. Is it really true that if your classes are full

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and your clients are getting results, that means you're a good instructor?

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Is there really like no more to it than that?

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I think yes and no, but mainly yes.

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Let's think a bit more deeply about it. All right, so full classes,

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clients getting results, aka clients working hard.

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These are what I call lagging indicators.

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These are the result there's the outcome of the

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behaviors that you do in the class in order to achieve

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those things so the behaviors that you do in the class are what i call the leading indicators they

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happen before you know they lead the result and those are things like your queuing

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your programming your corrections the way you connect with people all of those

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skills they're the mechanical things that you do in order to achieve the lagging

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indicator full classes happy clients getting results, working hard.

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And so, you know, are those things important? You know, can we say,

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okay, if your class is full and your clients are working hard,

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that makes you a good instructor.

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You know, it doesn't matter how you queue or program or connect or any of that.

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Well, of course it matters how you queue and program because if you do all of

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those things badly, you're not going to have a class full of clients who are really strong.

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So of course those things matter. If you stand in the corner facing the wall

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and mumble the whole class, like, of course, you're not going to have a full

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class of happy clients with, you know, really strong bodies. Thank you.

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If you do have a full class of happy clients with strong bodies,

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well, that means you weren't standing in the corner mumbling the whole time.

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That means you were doing the things you needed to do.

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So is there a situation where you could have a full class of strong,

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flexible, happy clients who bring their friends and still be a bad instructor?

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I would argue, no, not if it's over a long, long enough period of time.

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Like, you know, one time you put a bad instructor in front of a great room, sure.

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You could be a bad instructor in front of a class that was previously full for

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months with a good instructor, but then pretty soon that class will be empty.

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So if you teach a class for several months and, you know, overall your numbers

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at the studio are such that the classes are half full, I would say no.

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By definition, empirically, objectively, that makes you a bad instructor.

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It doesn't make you a bad person, just not a great instructor at this point.

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Because those lagging indicators, the class being full, the clients being strong,

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then And we have the leading indicators, you know, the way you queue,

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program, connect, adjust, et cetera.

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You know, so just say, you know, which of those is more important?

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Well, I would say that is always the lagging indicators are more important.

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Why are the lagging indicators more important? Well-

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Because that's the result. That's the result we want. Like as a studio owner,

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what, I mean, do you want an empty class of unhappy clients who aren't getting stronger?

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No, you want a full class of happy clients who are getting stronger and telling

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everybody about their life-changing benefits that I've experienced from the class.

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And presumably that's what you want as an instructor as well.

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So if that's the result, that's the outcome, well, and you're doing things that

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you think are the right things, i.e.

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You're doing, you know, you're queuing according to the way you've been taught,

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you're programming, you're doing all the other things, and you're not getting

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the results, well, that says, you know, that the, if you're not getting the

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results you want, it means the things that you're doing are not the right things.

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You know, if you have a recipe to bake a cake and you follow the recipe exactly, and the.

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Is the recipe right? No, the recipe is wrong.

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If you follow the recipe exactly and the cake doesn't taste,

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doesn't work out, the recipe is wrong.

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If you follow your, quote, teaching skills correctly and precisely,

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and your class is empty and your clients aren't getting stronger,

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well, your list of teaching skills is either incomplete or incorrect.

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And so if you think you're doing the right things, but you're not getting the

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results you want, well, you're not doing the right things.

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And so therefore, when we compare the lagging indicators and the leading indicators,

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you know, class full versus queuing, programming, etc.

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Well, if the class is half empty, it always trumps, it always trumps the skills.

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Like the lagging indicators are more important because that's the result we're

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going for. We want the cake to come out of the oven looking,

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smelling, and tasting delicious.

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And if it doesn't, then the whole thing was for nothing.

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That's the whole point. Now, there's a fundamental philosophical divide here.

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And I believe that there are people in the Pilates world who see it the opposite way,

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that the leading indicators are what make you a good instructor,

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that, you know, queuing a certain way, programming a certain way,

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correcting a certain way, progressing people a certain way, that's what makes you a good instructor.

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And if clients can't appreciate that and your classes are half empty,

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well, that doesn't mean you're not a good instructor.

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You can be a good instructor and have half empty classes.

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And I'm entirely sympathetic to the idea that you as an instructor are not for

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everyone. I'm not for everyone.

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You're not for everyone. I don't think you should be for everyone.

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You should piss some people off. Now, you shouldn't go out of your way to antagonize

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people, but just by standing up for something.

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There will be people who disagree with you.

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And if no one disagrees with you, that means you don't stand for anything.

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And so when you stand for something, people who also stand for that thing will be attracted to you.

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And when your classes have a particular style, approach, flavor,

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level of intensity, you will attract people who want that thing.

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However, if you don't have people coming to your class, it's not just that you

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pissed off a couple of people, but your classes are full.

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Rather that your classes are half empty because no one appreciates your quote

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great art I think that's just essentially masturbation like the musician who

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makes music just for themselves and doesn't care if anyone likes it well that's

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fine if you do it at home but.

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Noodle around all you want on your instrument at home.

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But if you give a performance in public and charge money for it,

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you're giving a performance. It's for the people. It's not for you as the musician.

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So if the people don't like it, it's not good. It's not fulfilling its purpose.

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It's for the people. And if the people don't like it, well, it's not fulfilling its purpose.

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In the same way, that's exactly the way I see Pilates.

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If you think Pilates is a certain thing, a certain way of queuing.

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And if your classes are half empty, well, that's great.

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I mean, if you just do that with your friends and the small handful of people

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who agree with you on that and for yourself, and that's all you want,

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fantastic. All more power to you.

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But if you're at the same time thinking, oh, it's not fair. Why aren't I making

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any money? My classes are half empty.

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You know, those people whose classes are full, they've all sold out.

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You know, they're not doing real Pilates.

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Well, you're entirely missing the point in that case.

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I think those people entirely miss the point, because if no one's coming to

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the classes, it really is missing the point of being for the people that come to the classes.

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That's what it's for. It's not for you as the teacher.

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And so if you think it's great and the clients don't think it's great,

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like the clients are right. The clients are always right.

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All right. So I think, you know, that's pretty much all I wanted to say on this topic.

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Actually, no, there is one more thing. that what i've

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you know my position here actually the reason i

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wanted to record this episode was that i recorded a little uh reel

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on instagram the other day uh giving my

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takeaways from the most recent american american college of sports medicine

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position stand on resistance training and they said essentially that for the

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vast majority of people the vast majority of benefits and health benefits and

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strength benefits of resistance training come from going from doing nothing

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to doing a little bit. And because of that,

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any form of resistance training works equally well, whether it's body weight,

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bands, free weights, machines, you know, whatever it might be.

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And the vast majority of the benefits for the vast majority of people from resistance

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training are not going to come from optimizing our perfect program, cue, exercise choice.

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They're going to come from getting people to get started and getting them to

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exert a relatively high level of effort and then getting them to keep,

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to stick with it and keep doing it.

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And so getting started, working hard and sticking with it, that is what is,

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according to the ACSM, going to result in the greatest benefit to the greatest

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number of people in terms of health and strength.

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And so if we want to benefit the largest number of people as much as possible,

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we need to focus as Pilates instructors on making Pilates fun so that people

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stick around and also making it effective so that they actually work hard and

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get some health benefits.

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Now, effective just literally means they exert a relatively high level of effort

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for each major muscle group at some point in the session, right?

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Doesn't mean perfect programming, perfect cueing, perfect progressions, any of that.

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Those things are all the cherry on top. But here's the thing.

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If we get obsessed with the cherry and forget the actual main point of the whole

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exercise, which is to get people in and get them working hard and keep them

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there, then we're missing the entire point.

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It's the tail wagging the dog. It's the cart before the horse.

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So dear listener, I think that concludes everything I want to say on this topic for now.

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And I have convinced myself and hopefully I've convinced at least a few of you

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that if your classes are relatively full and if your clients are working hard

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and they keep coming back, then you are a good instructor.

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Now, sure, there are dud time slots in the week and there are new classes on

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the schedule and stuff and that might take a bit of time to build up.

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But over a long enough time horizon if your classes are full and your clients are working hard,

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you're a good instructor. And to the extent that that's not true,

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well, there's an opportunity for you to improve.

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And when you look at how can I improve, then we look at those leading indicators.

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We look at the way you cue, the way you program, the way you connect,

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the way you adjust, all of those things.

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But how effective you are at those things should be measured by how full your

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clients are and the results that your clients attain.

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All right. Much love and I'll see you in the next one.