Issue #424 – Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Boost Your Pilates Business with AI: Engage More Clients, Save Time, Get Creative
Part 2
In the last article, we discussed ideas for how you might use generative AI in marketing. Now, let’s dig into how generative AI can increase efficiency, improve creativity and lead to innovation.
Optimizing Your Schedule
Use generative AI to offer general suggestions for your schedule that will meet your needs and your clients, or learn scheduling best practices e.g. general trends, class type by time, seasonality.
“What are the most popular times of day for people to attend a group Pilates class?”
Or more specifically, “Design a schedule for a Pilates instructor to teach 32 hours per week, with no more than 6 hours in a row, Sunday and Monday off, and taking into consideration the most popular fitness times for customers. If I earn $35 per hour, how much money can I estimate as gross income?”
It also could quickly generate a calendar for days you might want to be closed based on local and National holidays or events.
“Based on National holidays for the United States in 2024, what days do you think my Pilates business located in San Francisco, California should be closed?”
Managing Your Business Efficiently
AI can streamline workflows and help you build efficient systems for your business. For example, help you create an open/closing checklist, general operating procedures, or even customer communication touchpoints.
• Produce operating documents
• Chatbots and virtual assistants offer 24/7 scheduling
• Upsell to customers related or items of interest
Here’s an excerpt of Google Geminis breakdown of a Standard Operating Procedure document:
Navigating Tax, Legal & Financial Matters
You should not take tax, legal or business advice from a chatbot however, its response to questions around taxes for example, may give you a better understanding and clarity around questions you would like to ask your tax professional.
• Optimize business decision-making
• Gain understanding of a standard business
• Plan ahead to cover tax liability
• Identify questions to ask your attorney or CPA etc.
Prompts might include:
• “How much do I need to charge per hour to earn $60,000 USD after taxes working 30 hours per week in California as a Pilates instructor?”
• “How much should I save for taxes if I earn X per month gross revenue?”
• “How many people do I need to have per class to cover the overhead?”
• “Is teaching Pilates in people’s homes considered a business and would I need to register it as a business?”
• “In San Francisco, California, what are all the documents I need to register to operate a business?”
Creating Engaging Presentations
Perhaps you need to prepare to present at a conference or lead a workshop or pitch to a potential investor in your business. You can use the topic of your presentation to ask the GPT to write the content for your presentation. From there you likely will rewrite the entire response but, that’s the point — instead of starting from a blank page, start from a first draft you can edit to make your own.
• Create presentations outlines and scripts
• Generating research e.g. “Can you find scientific research documents on Pilates for chronic low back pain?”
You might start with a prompt like, “Create an outline for a 5 minute presentation about my Pilates business, Blue Sparrow Pilates, to a business networking group.” Then, refine from there.
Generating Innovative Ideas
Even as an expert in your field, it can be difficult to come up with the starting point for a blog article, newsletter or social post. And, as a business owner or Pilates teacher you may feel starved for a collaborator to inspire and bounce ideas off.
• AI offers you a brainstorming partner
• Fuel your business with powerful new ideas
Prompts might include:
• “If I self-publish my book on Amazon, what is the competitive landscape like and how can I choose a unique topic?”
• “Are there alot of Pilates mobile apps on the market? And what are ways I can set myself apart?”
• “What colors would be most pleasing to Pilates studio customers and connect with my brand Blue Sparrow Pilates?”
• “How does smell affect the way people perceive a room for Pilates group classes?”
• “How can I increase awareness about my business using social media?”
Your Partnership with Generative AI
The price of having this kind of ease is that you have to:
1. Check the responses for accuracy
2. Add your style, personality, brand and unique view point
I asked Google Gemini a series of human anatomy prompts and found this image of the ribs to be hilariously inaccurate.
Additionally, there were muscles that the response stated performed internal rotators of the femur but they actually are external rotators. These kinds of errors can be difficult to identify especially if you are not an expert in the subject matter.
Generative AI may have all the answers but they may not all be right. So, as users of this tool we will need to use it cautiously and review any content generated.
It’s important to remember that it is our unique voices folks want to hear. And, it would be incredibly bland if we all just used chatbot responses verbatim. So, be sure to find ways to imbue responses with your experience, knowledge and personal style. Think of chat responses as a way to generate ideas vs. a final product. The more you explore each response, the more opportunities you’ll find to think innovatively and solve problems in new ways.
(As I write this it makes me wonder how this article would be different if it were written by GPT? But I’m not going to ask for that prompt.)
I believe there are a multitude of emergent use cases that apply to Pilates, and the potential of generative AI is open for our exploration.
Holly Furgason is the founder of the Blue Sparrow Pilates in San Francisco, California (2007) and has trained everyone from Olympic athletes to cancer patients.
Holly is driven to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with other teachers. She wrote a book on how to turn a Pilates passion into a career, Finding Your Center. She has presented educational courses and taught pedagogy, or the “art” of teaching at numerous training facilities around the world.
Holly is a Nationally Certified Pilates Instructor and Merrithew Lead Instructor Trainer, specializing in STOTT PILATES, Fascial Movement, CORE and Total Barre. Holly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from the University of Michigan, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance from Mills College in Oakland, California.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounded by technology, Holly is excited about the intersection of technology + Pilates, pivoting to digital delivery, Pilates as a Product, and program development.
Free classes with Holly: https://www.youtube.com/@Blue-Sparrow-Pilates
Instagram: @bluesparrowpilates