“First you jump off the cliff and you build your wings on the way down”
~Ray Bradbury
When I needed some guidance with my first scoliosis client, I went to Twitter for help (in case you didn’t know, Twitter has a great Pilates community of generous teachers communicating 140 characters at a time). I received a response from Karena Thek (@karenathek) who recommended the book “Three-Dimensional Treatment for Scoliosis” by Christa Lehnert-Schroth. She warned me it might make my brain hurt, but that it would be worth it. She was right. It made my brain hurt. And although it was great information, what I really wanted was hands on experience.
Karena had developed a workshop on applying the Schroth principles to Pilates, so I tweeted to her that she should come to Vegas to do her workshop. She replied “sounds great!”. And so I jumped. I mean how hard could it be to put on a workshop? So what if I had zero experience in organizing and marketing workshops? What I learned along the way is that putting on a Pilates continuing education workshop is a bit like Pilates itself. If done right it looks effortless, but it takes a lot of work to get there!
There were more than a few moments of frantic flapping along the way, when registrations were slow to come in and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cover my expenses. But in the end it all came together. And it was an absolutely incredible experience. Karena was smart and funny and engaging. And I got to spend the weekend learning alongside a fun group of fellow teachers, some of whom came from as far away as San Francisco.
I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to start a little business of hosting continuing education workshops. My teaching persona is the Pilates Mistress but I wanted a different vibe to convey the quest for ultimate understanding, so I called my workshop business Pilates Nirvana.
I love learning at events like the PMA conference, but the workshops are limited to just a few hours. By spending an entire day or two on one subject you can go much more in-depth and that’s part of what I love about Pilates, the real magic is lying in wait when you go deeper.
In our workshop with Ruth Alpert last year on the spine, the room got all abuzz exploring how understanding the movement of the head on the first vertebrae changed our chest lift. I mean forget learning new choreography, we all got excited doing Chest Lift! Those are the Pilates-geek moments that I love.
Most of my workshops happen spontaneously like it did with Karena. I’ll get to talking to a Facebook friend, or I’ll approach a presenter at a conference like the PMA that I particularly liked, and the workshop just seems to come together. Others come about because of a particular need or by special request. I quickly put together a pre-natal Pilates workshop with Leah Stewart when one of my clients got pregnant (instant motivation!). Ultimately it’s my passion about the topic that gets me through the hours of work required to make it happen so I only pick topics I’m passionate about!
If you’d like to host a workshop there’s really only a few things you need. Space. A way to handle registrations and accept payments. A presenter. Oh, and participants (the hard part in my experience). If you own your own studio you probably have the space and the payment part handled. But if you’re an independent like me it can still be doable. I’m lucky to teach in a studio where the space is appropriate for hosting workshops, it’s nicely sized, is fully equipped, and there aren’t many clients on the weekends so it doesn’t cost much lost revenue for the studio to have a weekend workshop. If you don’t have easy access to an appropriate space, don’t be afraid to go check out another studio, you may find an owner who will be happy to accommodate you for a reasonable studio rental fee. Also, some workshops don’t require apparatus, simply space. You might be surprised how cost efficient a small hotel meeting room can be.
I usually market my workshops locally, dropping off postcards at local studios. Online printers make small printing runs cost effective (I happen to like overnightprints.com). If only one person signs up it more than pays for the printing and it’s been a great way to meet other Pilates teachers in town. If you want to market your workshop by email there are plenty of email list management sites to choose from, some are even free for small lists. I happen to like Constant Contact. It’s not free but it has an event manager built in, the email creator is easy to use, and it handles registration and allows people to pay online. But I do have to pay each month whether I’m promoting a workshop or not. The practical elements of registrations and payment can span from low tech (fielding phone calls and asking people to send checks) to taking advantage of workshop features in online studio software like MindBody. PayPal also makes it easy to issue invoices and accept payments online (I use it for the clients I teach in my home studio, very handy). If you plan to accept payments at the time of the workshop sites like ProPay, PayPal and Square offer credit card swipers for your smart phone, and be prepared to make change for people wanting to pay with cash.
There’s no typical payment arrangement for workshop providers. Some providers will want a flat fee for teaching, anywhere from $150 to $250 per teaching hour, plus travel and lodging. They don’t care what you want to charge for the workshop, and want nothing to do with the hassles of the workshop registrations. Other presenters will have a set price for their workshops and will give you a portion of the workshop revenue. Some presenters in high demand even take 100% of the workshop fee but they’ll pay for their travel, will help you market, plus they’ll handle all the registration and payments. In those cases you, as the host, will typically receive complementary attendance. Like Pilates it’s about balance, in this case balancing risk, reward, supply and demand.
Hosting workshops has not only allowed me to bring quality continuing education to Las Vegas, I’ve made some lasting friendships with people I wouldn’t have otherwise met. And I’ve found I enjoy the madness of putting events together.
It’s all a labor of love. It doesn’t really make me any money but as with my Pilates practice it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. It’s fitting that the twitter logo is a bird, because thanks to twitter Pilates Nirvana was able to build wings.
Pilates Nirvana is always looking for ideas. If there is a workshop you would like to attend in Las Vegas please let me know. With enough interest, almost anything is possible.
Learn more about Tracy ad Pilates Nrivana here.
Words by Tacy Maurstad