Yesterday I had this great opportunity to drive traffic to the site.  At one of the gyms I teach at one of the managers had sent an email to all th instructors about microphone and stereo volume.  Since I have an article on the site about this topic, I hit 'reply to all' and sent the link to the article.

That article - Microphone Mistakes - talks about balancing the volume of the music with the volume of the mic so you don't hurt people's ears.  But it doesn't really address music volume.  I'm not sure how you all feel about this, but I like it loud.  I feel like it helps the participant get lost in the moment and stop watching the clock.

A little while later I get another 'reply to all' email from another manager at the same gym talking about a complaint she had gotten from an older member.  The lady had said that she would never take a certain instructor's class again because the music was so loud and apparently she didn't care for the content of the music either.  The email said that we need to watch what music we play too.

The thing is, I think that instructor she was talking about might have been me.  I remember an older lady staring at me through a cycle class that I subbed a few weeks ago and just hating my guts every second of it.  And I think it was the music.  Oops.  I hate that someone had that terrible of an experience in my class that they would feel the need to take it to management.  But this person was also very used to (and probably very loyal to) another instructor, and you can't please all the people all the time.

But the most embarrassing part is that I sent that link out, acting like I actually knew something, and then comes the crash.  The manager didn't mention names in the email - so the team in general doesn't know it was me.  But I do.  And the manager does.  Open mouth...you know the deal.

Hey guys - here is a great coupon that Reebok emailed me - it's good for anyone - so use it!

I started a new job this week.  Still - all I really think about is FitClasses.com.  Who can I link to for better information - who wants to write an instructor blog for us - what new choreography can I post.  And the most burning one lately has been - what new t-shirts can I make for my instructors?

This has become an obsession.  I still have a load of choreography to post and research to do for my new job.  And I am online fiddling with that t-shirt shop and writing about my designs.  This is not productive!

OK - so I am going to get it off my chest and maybe I can get to bed before midnight tonight!  I posted 3 new ones - 'Shut Up and work!' - 'I HEART my class' - and 'Thank You!'  I love them all.  I think the 'shut up' one is my best design, but I love what the other 2 say so much.

Anyway - I also designed a new logo for turnstep.com this week.  No word on whether or not they liked it yet.  And I booked one of those working vacations through Caribean Fitness Consultants.  That won't be till June of next year, but I am excited about it!

OK - so the response to some of our new stuff has been so amazing.  Thank you to everyone for your interest in what we are doing here.  The fact that people are out there actually using the site is its own reward (it has to be - there's no $ in running a free resource website!)  :)

That being said, I have so much going on in my mind - I want to do so much to and with the site, and there are just only so many hours in the day!  Have you ever heard someone say that the reward for a job well done is usually more work?  That sums it up.

Let me tell you where I have gotten this week.  I completed my article for American Fitness magazine.  I am super excited about that.  The article is about teaching common group exercise formats to radio play music.  No word on when it will be published.  I will let you know.

I overhauled the t-shirt shop - re-did the 'Trust me, I'm the Instructor' shirt - very cute.  It's got an angel and a devil instructor on it.  I dig it.  I also re-did the instructor character shirt and I am going to add a 'I heart teaching fitness' shirt before the end of the day if it kills me.  Yet, here I am posting in my blog instead of working on it.  Attention Defecit???  yea.

My plan with the instructor character is that I will post a few variations on faces and allow you guys to request new custom ones based on what you look like.  Then, as I get those done, I will add them to the site.  So the library of characters will get bigger, and I will sell a few shirts in the process.  So send me a custom shirt request - let me know what color hair you have, how you usually wear it when you teach, what color eyes you have, what your complection is like, etc.

What I should have worked on this week is the choreography section.  I have like 25 new songs to post - I promise I am going to work on it tomorrow!

I did get a message board going this week.  Very excited about that.  The response has been great.  A lot of people are looking at it - be sure to post!  Let's get it full so it doesn't look like the red-headed step child of the site (no offense to you red heads.)

It looks like we may be adding one or 2 new writers to the site.  I will let you know more when I have it all sewn up.  If you are interested in volunteering to help out with the site with writing, graphics, choreography, or anything else, please send me an email!  This is an exciting time for FitClasses.com and we need all the help we can get!

Thanks for your interest!

Workshops:  I taught DRILLs, LIFT and STEP workshops this weekend at New Life Fitness World in Columbia, SC.  Thanks to all who participated and to New Life for hosting.  We had a lot of fun.  I think everyone walked away with useful information.  Don't forget to email me when you try the new choreography.  I want to hear all about how it goes for you!

Instructor T-shirts:  I wore some of the shirts from our t-shirt shop at the workshops from .  'Certified DRILLs Instructor', 'FitClasses.com' logo with black cap sleeves, and 'instructor' with girl character spaghetti strap tank.  I LOVED the cap sleeve and the spaghetti strap.  The black cap sleeve is just really flattering and the spaghetti strap with the character on it is just too cute.  I really liked all of them, but those 2 are my favorites so far.  And I was pleasantly surprised with the quality.  I am very picky about fabric, and these were very nice, all cotton, just the right thickness for teaching.

I love my 'Certified DRILLs Instructor' design - but I wanted it on a black and only men's sizes are available in black, so I wasn't thrilled.  I don't like wearing men's clothes.  But it was still a nice t-shirt

I also got some great ideas for new designs from some of you.  Email me if you have ideas for t-shirts.  I want to make sure that we are selling the t-shirts that instructors want!  So anything 'instructor' themed that you would love to wear.  Look for 'My Mommy Rocks!' kids shirts and an updated instructor character wearing a head mic coming by the end of this week.

Upcoming Workshops:  I really want to teach some workshops in the following cities - Atlanta, Charlotte, Greenville (SC), Augusta (GA), Charleston (SC), Akron, Cleveland, Detroit - so if you are there and you interested in what we are doing here at FitClasses.com send me an email or give me a call at 877-235-1150.

NEW RESOURCES: I added new choreography to the DRILLS section today - look for about 20 new routines to be uploaded in the next week or so.  They are on my hard drive and getting uploaded throughout the day!

HINT - if you add the choreography page to your favorites list you won't have to sign up every time you want to look at the new choreography.

I uploaded an entire series of articles on teaching DRILLs today also.  Take a look at them!  Thanks for your interest.  More soon...