A Year of Pilates Conversations Changed How I Think About Teaching

Beyond the Reformer turns 1!! 🥳

In this special solo anniversary episode, Nic marks one full year of Beyond the Reformer by sharing her honest reflections on everything she has learned over the past year.

She opens up about nearly quitting the podcast, the challenge of doing too much as a studio owner and educator, and how a year of conversations with some of the most respected Pilates professionals in the world has genuinely changed her perspective.

A huge thank you to every single one of you who has supported the podcast over the past year. The community that has been built is more than anything Nic could have imagined, and she cannot wait to continue bringing you these conversations.

Timestamps:

00:00 Reflecting on one year of the podcast

07:08 The reality of doing too much

10:13 Bringing a journalism mindset into podcasting

14:31 Putting yourself out there and asking for opportunities

18:30 Understanding classical vs contemporary Pilates

22:39 Why your personality is your superpower

24:16 Finding your reason for teaching Pilates

26:01 How to choose the right teacher training

30:28 What presence really means in teaching

35:35 Humility and the importance of continuous learning

41:01 Rethinking failure and challenge in classes

45:07 What’s next for the podcast and community

Make sure to subscribe to continue hearing these conversations every week, and send Nic a DM on the Beyond the Reformer Instagram page with your thoughts on this week’s episode.

Connect with Nic:

• Beyond the Reformer Instagram
• Soul Pilates Instagram
• Soul Pilates Education
• Nic’s Instagram
• Join Soul at Home
• Book a Pilates Class
• Sign up to Our Newsletter

Get 5% off Balanced Body Pilates equipment with the code SOUL PILATES 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Coming up on today's episode of Beyond the Reformer. Welcome to a year of Beyond the Reformer. I really have learned something from all the corners of Pilates that I have spoken to. Your personality is your superpower. You've got to bring your personality across. But rooted in the ethos and the method of the studio or the teacher training that you've done, there's been a 968% increase in the number of Pilates studios opening. What is their ethos? Have they got one? Or is it just, ah, it makes money, well, let's do it. How would you guide people on picking the right teacher training? This is a really tough question. When I ask people on the podcast, what makes a great teacher? Nobody has said. Great cueing, keeping to time, the exercise choices. How do we bring in the gems, the dessert, the sprinkling of magic? Because I think Pilates is magic. Welcome to a year of Beyond the Reformer. I'm Nick Lenny. I am a Pilates studio owner. I've had studios for 11 years now. I'm a Pilates teacher. I trained with Polestar Pilates, and I am your host for these conversations. And I have been for the past year. So I've added a little bonus episode this week. I've got my trusty Soul Pilates notebook, and I have been writing some notes about this past year because I can't even believe it has been a year. Do you find that the older you get, the faster life goes? I don't know if it's my kids both being at school now or what it is, but I do feel like life just whizzes by. So when my team said, Nick, we'd like you to do a bonus episode for a year, I mean, I couldn't even believe that we were a year in. So if you're new here, welcome. Many of you have been with me since the beginning. 7th of May 2025 is when we started, which interestingly was the day 10 years before that I got the keys to my first studio, which I didn't realize until afterwards. So I thought that was quite an interesting piece, really, that you know, these things kind of have full circle moments, don't they? When I started this project, I honestly had no idea where I was going. I am a meticulous planner, but I also am somebody who feels, you know, very much on being guided and listening to your intuition. And I had been guided towards this podcast for such a long time. I mean years, years. In COVID, I even started, recorded a few episodes, and then quit. I was never quite sure what I wanted to talk about, but it was when I did the teacher trainings, I realized I could talk about Pilates forever. I was so passionate about it and I had views on it. Now I am a Libra, so I am not hugely opinionated if I'm honest. Um, I don't like to put myself outside of, you know, the kind of status quo on opinions. But for some reason, when it comes to Pilates, I do have a bit of an opinion and I have a thought. But also, I when I went to university, I trained as a broadcast journalist. And during my university, I did quite a bit of work. I was the traffic and travel girl around Leeds in the north of England. I used to do the news and sport on the radio on Sundays, and I loved it. And I really thought that a career in radio or TV was going to be my life. And when I finished university, a lot of those companies had kind of stopped letting people have long, you know, permanent contracts. And they were six-week contracts. And at that point, when I went to university, my family actually moved back to Ireland. So I didn't really have a choice. All my friends who are now, you know, on news night and famous journalists, they had the opportunity to go back home. And I didn't do that. So I kind of ended up falling into marketing, got very burnt out, got in a lot of pain, had a car accident, and that's really how I found Pilates. And the rest is history, I guess. But sometimes it's nice, isn't it, to kind of go a bit full circle and to kind of bring yourself back. And I think that's probably what it was. I think it started off as a bit of an itch. Okay, I want to prove I can actually do this, but I had no idea it was going to be as good as it is because I listened to all the episodes back. And I think one of the things I can say is I talk to my students about this because we get them to film themselves teaching, and it's the most cringe-worthy thing, isn't it, to watch or listen to yourself back. But I think doing three years at university where I had to do this every single day, I can be really objective. And I have to say, I listen to every single episode. Not only do I listen to the edit when it's been edited, I also listen to them when they go live. And I really enjoy them as much as you do. And it's made me so proud to be able to put this together and to see where it's gone really. And I never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd go beyond maybe 20 episodes at the most. But here we are, more than 52 episodes because we've had a few double weakers, and here we are. And um, yeah, I want to just say thank you to you for being here, for sticking with me, for enjoying these conversations. Many of you have then said, Have you spoken to this person? or we've had guests on who've said, Let me put you in touch with this person. Lots of you are sharing it with your friends and colleagues. I've got lots of clients who love listening. And I think the world of Pilates is fascinating. My story, along with many of people on the pod, has been how Pilates has really transcended a movement practice that they got to know themselves more. I definitely feel like I got to know myself more. My studio is called Soul Pilates. Like it's, I felt like I figured out who I was, who my soul was, what my soul's purpose was here to do. I think I heard Oprah say that phrase once, and I was like, yeah, what is my purpose on this earth? What am I here to do? And it's so great, I think, when you come into this world and then get to do it. And I feel so blessed that I get to teach and run studios and now educate new teachers. And I was in the studio the other day, and one of my new graduates was teaching in our studio for the first time, and she just ooozed confidence. She had the most amazing story herself of how Pilates had transformed her whole life from being in an insane amount of pain. And I just love how much Pilates has made us all feel, and I think that's why we're here, right? And we're here as a community. Before I get into today's episode, where I'm going to talk about the past year and my thoughts on it. I want to say a huge thank you to someone who's behind the scenes. Uh, Emma is my wonderful podcast manager. She's been with me since day one. I found her out of the blue on Instagram. Again, felt very guided. I don't know why. Sort of found her, got on with her so well. She'd created a podcast company pretty much straight out of university or a few years afterwards, and had made a huge success of it. And she has been a pivotal part of what this podcast has been. We send voice messages to each other all the time. Nick, if you thought about this, what about you should do this? She was the one who really encouraged me to do some of these solo episodes, which I wasn't going to do, but actually they are some of our most listened to. Um, but sadly, Emma is doing a bit of a U-turn in her life, and she's decided to step down from her own business and go and work in a company in a startup for a bit, which I absolutely support. And it's really, really sad, but it was just um an interesting moment. She was desperate to stay on until this episode. So this is going to be her last episode. But anyway, I wanted to say thank you, Emma. Without you, we wouldn't be here. So many of the guests know who she is because she is a big part of why everybody sounds amazing. Because we're not all in a studio together. We haven't all got the best equipment, but she's always done a wonderful job of making the sound so, so good. And it's important, isn't it? Because actually, a lot of you have commented on it that it's enjoyable to listen to, which I think unfortunately a lot of podcasts out there aren't. So thank you, Emma. But Emma's resignation did get me thinking about myself about doing too much. And I wondered if you felt a bit like that too. I am really guilty of doing too much. I know that. That's kind of how I got into Pilates. It fundamentally became a practice for me that slowed me down. And when I slowed down, things just started to feel better. My nervous system calmed down. I got to know myself, as I said. And when Emma spoke to me and told me her reasons for wanting to pivot her life, I have to say it was a little bit like a mirror being held up to me. And I'm thinking, should I even continue? And I was away skiing just after she told me this news. And I sat on that holiday and thought, you know, maybe a year is what I'm going to give to this. Maybe a year is enough. And I have scratched that itch, and we do it. And I actually listened to Ryel from Bassi's episode, and I felt like I this was such a good episode. It was my my proudest one to date is those two episodes. And I thought I can't give this up. But I definitely have had to look at how do you manage this life? Because I'm in this insanely privileged position where a business coach sat down with me about a year ago and said, which bits of your job do you not like? We'll figure out someone to do that. I'm like, I love it all. Like, I there is not an aspect of my job, honestly, now I do not love. I have grown to three studios. We've got a team of about 28 people. Every person in the business genuinely is fabulous. One of the things you get about running your own businesses, you get to pick the best people. You don't always get them, and you maybe have to pivot a little bit. We've definitely had to do that, but we're currently in a position where everyone is brilliant. Everyone does such a great job, and I'm doing work that I love. But the more I'm doing, the more opportunities that I'm getting. It's hard sometimes, isn't it, to balance that. So I don't have any answers. I hear myself, do you do this? I hear myself giving clients and students advice. And in my head, I'm saying, Nick, you should listen to this advice. This is very good advice. But sometimes it can be hard to take it yourself. And I'm trying to make sure I'm going back to doing more Pilates. I've recently started doing some weight training at the gym with actually one of my operations manager is a PT, sort of part-time. I've loved that. That's felt like Pilates did for me. Slow, considered, mindful, but it's nice to load my body and challenge it in different ways. So I'd love to hear from you if you're doing too much, how you're finding it, where your pinch points are, because I think this is a challenge for us. We get into this work because we love what we do. We're passionate about helping other people, we're passionate about spreading the word of Pilates, but there is us in there too, right? So I have no answers for this, but I wanted to share that with you because I think it was there was a definite point where I was like, are we going beyond this episode? But for now, we are. When I started the podcast, as I said, I was a journalist. Well, sort of a journalist. I mean, I was never really a journalist. I was a trainee journalist, I suppose. But I went into it with a journalism mindset in that I wanted to tell the story of Pilates, and I wanted to find out more about the story of Pilates. I really am not particularly opinionated. I certainly don't have views on it should be like this or it's like this, or I was trained in this way, so no way. And I give a huge credit to Polestar Pilates and Diane Nye and Liz Busser, who were my teachers, for that, because it was just never in the training. It was far more about movement and what movement can do and what movement was about. And so I think I just went into this project genuinely with a really open mind. And I've had lots of people comment on it that that comes through. And I think that's why. And it's been really interesting because I really have learned something from all the corners of Pilates that I have spoken to. I've definitely sat with would I interview this person or this person? Because I maybe don't feel that what they're offering is Pilates or their training isn't deep enough. But as time's gone on, I think I've lessened my view on that because I have realized that people bring different things to the table. And I hope, a bit like a good documentary, you know, like when I remember being at university, they taught you that a good documentary never tells you the answer, it just sort of sets the scene and you should make up your own mind on what you think. And I hope to kind of do that through these conversations and hopefully in the meantime inspire you on the depth of this work, the breadth of this work, and that keep learning. Go and do more trainings with different people. And I've got Amy Havens coming up in a few weeks, but I'll give you a little tidbit on what she said. She's like, I was really interested in this school, so I went to an event and I just did lots of their trainings. And then I was, you know, a few years later, I was really inf interested in this school. And I went and did that, and I thought, that's a really interesting idea. Why don't we go and do CPD with a different training provider and get a feel for that? I'm definitely gonna do that because I felt like I had spent years and years doing so many CPDs and then got to the point where I was then writing my own trainings, and now it's like, okay, how do we keep being inspired and feeling grounded at the same time? And how do we evolve our practice without losing the essence of what it is? So yeah, I think it's been great to be able to share these conversations with you, and I continue to do that. I'm also so grateful to you all because I'm now getting loads of opportunities. I definitely have felt really frustrated in a lot of my career. And Jenna Sofino said on her episode, you are more than what this industry says you are. And it really resonated with me that quote. And I explained it a little bit, but maybe not in as much detail as is the truth. I have definitely been one of those people I think that's always been capable of a lot. And yet I would work in companies where it always felt like this is your place, Nick. And I would see people around me being promoted into roles where I mean, I felt like they were just bullshitting their way through, if I'm really honest. And I'm not that kind of person, like I don't do that. I don't have hyperbole, I don't try and make things up. I'm quite grounded and level, and I'm the first to say my inadequacy is probably like many of us are. And you realize, don't you, that so much of this life is a bit of a hustle. And I think that's something that I've had to learn a little bit. And I think one of the joys about opening your own studio is that you get to do things on your own terms. There's a lot of challenges running your own studio for sure, and a lot of risk. But I don't have anybody telling me anymore what time I need to be there, or that I can't have this day off, or that you can't make up your work. I remember once, I mean, it's bonkers now, COVID times have changes, but I remember once a company saying, We're not a work-from-home company. You can't work from home. I needed to be home for something for a couple of hours. And I found that really hard, and I found the lack of being elevated hard. However, I think when you become an entrepreneur, you get the opportunity to elevate yourself, and that's really powerful. But I think still in our industry, you then get into an industry where there's also a hierarchy, maybe not in your own studio if you own it, but there is in the industry, right? There's the people out there speaking and presenting and big online presences. And I think it's quite easy to feel inadequate again. And it's funny because I had felt a little bit like that. Why isn't this company that I've worked with asking me to be a trainer for them or be a mentor for them? Or why, you know, can't I speak at this? Or why am I not being invited on podcasts? But I never really put myself forward. I just felt like I'm doing a really good job. And that's always been my ethos. Do a really good job and you'll get picked up. I'm not sure that maybe is the best ethos sometimes. I think you have to be a bit more front and center. And one of the things I've learned from some of the, you know, the big names on the podcast, the guests that we've had, have been they put themselves out there. A lot of them have even shared that, you know, now what they're known for, their speciality. They had a lot of people trying to take them down, whether that's pelvic health is a speciality or hypermobility or chronic pain, you know, their views were a bit different. And so the community was like, no, no, no. And I've also seen people, you know, like Tracy Mallet and the like who are not afraid to ask, can I come and do this? Can you go and do this? And kind of put themselves forward. And you realize that there is definitely an essence of people that can put themselves out there. And I'm trying to do a bit more of that because I am now getting opportunities because I'm kind of asking for them a little bit, or at least making myself known, or doing a project like this podcast. And that's been really exciting because I've wanted this for a long, long time. Like, yes, 10 years of 11 years now of running the studios, but even before that. So I'm excited that on the 3rd of June I'm gonna be presenting alongside Michael King, which is, I mean, an absolute honor. Ava Rodriguez as well, who's been on the podcast. We're gonna be talking about elevating Reformer Pilates studios. Um, I'm in particular gonna be talking about education and how studios I think can do a better job. Because I think as studio owners, we've got to take some responsibility for this. How can we do a better job at elevating our industry? So it's amazing to be getting these opportunities. And I'd love to know what more you would like from this community. Because I just looked at the stats this morning. We were like on a hundred, we were like on 70 countries, then we were on 90 countries, and then we're on 100 countries, and we're gonna get to 100. This morning we're on 118 countries. I mean, can you even name 118 countries? Because I I definitely can't. I think I ran out a long time ago. So it's amazing. And this community that we're doing, and I'd love to know what are the challenges that you're seeing out there? Drop me a DM on the Beyond the Reformer Instagram page. What are you seeing as a challenge and what support do you need? Is it conversations like this? I keep being asked, what else are you gonna do? Are you gonna create an online platform to go alongside this? And I'm like, well, I could do, but what would you want on there? Is it classes from me, mentorship from me? Is it, you know, I sometimes think, you know, do we need a Pilates anytime for Europe? Is that something that we need? Or where we bring, you know, different teachers in. I don't know. I sit with this and I'm never sure. I'd love to hear your ideas. What support are you needing out there? And how do you think we could bring this community together? Because there are so many of you, lots of you are messaging me, and I think we could do something powerful together to try and elevate this industry between us. Because that's the big piece I've learned this year. Collaboration is so important, and I think we can all be a little bit guilty of being siloed. So give me some ideas and how you think we can collaborate. Okay, I've titled this section What I thought I knew versus what I learned. So come along with me and let's see what I thought I knew and what I've learned since doing Beyond the Reformer. Classical versus contemporary. This was the first thing that came to mind. I felt that I understood that classical was a set order in a set routine done in a set way, which is kind of true. I then discovered that classical can mean lots of things because a lot of classical can mean romana's classical, but there are other classical teachers. Then I think the way that classical was explained to me when I did my teacher training was that now I go to studios today, and they're maybe a bit more athletic or dynamic, and they'll say we're not a classical studio just to manage your expectations. Meaning that what I'm teaching at my studios in their mind is classical, but I wouldn't consider myself classical, and I think this is quite confusing now, actually. And I heard Brent Anderson say we're contemporary in approach, classical in ethos. And I thought that was really interesting. The studios that are very much rooted in a method. The method was also a phrase that Michael King used, which I have absolutely borrowed from him now, because I think that explains it. There is a method that existed. But then, of course, there's so many different elders, you know, from the Pilates lineage who brought it to life in different ways and continue to bring it life as it's gone down the chain. So I think that changed what I truly understood. I feel like I understand it a little bit more, and I understand now maybe why studios are referring to what I teach as classical. I'm not sure I would still use that myself. But I got thinking about even the words that we use on the website because one of the things I'm going to be talking about, I hope anyway, at this event is that I think studio owners need to do a better job of explaining what their studio is about. Because everyone just says reformer Pilates or Pilates. And of course, we know there's a big difference. So, how do we do that? And I was debating with my team do we put the word classical in our description? I don't know. I I'm not sure. So I'm not sure if I'm more confused now than I was before, but I definitely feel more enlightened, and it makes me understand. Why there is this feeling of a bit of confusion out there. You've got classical and contemporary almost feel like they can still be very much in the ethos and the grounding of Pilates versus fitness type Pilates that maybe is more like a fitness class on a piece of Pilates equipment. I don't know. I feel like there would be a piece out there, and I talked to Brent Anderson about this in our episode, about coming up with names for the different styles that we all agree on. I mean, whether we could all agree on it, I don't know. But yoga's done a decent job. I mean, if I go to a yin yoga class, I know it's not going to be like an Ashtanga yoga class. I know that up front. I know what I'm going in for. There might be different personalities brought through in those different classes, but I know I'm not going for a nice little sleepy time with some gongs maybe playing. You know, I know that. So drop me a DM and let me know what names come up with like four names that you think. Maybe it's four enough that you think Pilates could be sectioned into. I think that would be a really interesting piece for us to look at. What could we call ourselves? Because I talked to Rayal from Bassi, and we were talking about how Bassi is quite athletic, but athleticism taught with depth and foundations and a flow and a thread. So you can't really put everything in that sense either. So I think it would be interesting to see what you think about what we could call three, four, five stars of Pilates. How many stars do you think that we need? Do you think that would make it easier for people to understand? The other thing I've learned really is that your story and your beliefs really matter in this world because Michael King said it in his episode that the teacher training that you do is a part of the teacher you become, but only actually a small part. It's much more about the teacher that you are that goes into that course. And on the podcast, I ask every guest about their story. And there hasn't been a time where their story hasn't influenced how you understand them today. It's almost like I can't, I can't talk to them about who they are today and their beliefs and their ethos and their vision for the future if I don't understand where they've come from. And I think that goes for you too. I certainly believe I've got a, I'm running a teacher training at the time of recording. I'm gonna be running a training for my team, my own team, around the soul ethos, the soul way of teaching. And I've written a line in there that says, your personality is your superpower. You gotta bring your personality across. But rooted in the ethos and the method of the studio or the teacher training that you've done, of course. And you need some structure for your personality and your creativity to really fly. But I think sometimes we can feel like, back to my point about maybe feeling inadequate, you feel like you need to be somebody else. You need to mold yourself to somebody else. You don't. You need to be you. And I think I really have learned that because everyone I've spoken to, and especially the people who've really inspired me, you can feel where their story comes from. And clients will feel where your story comes from. Because I feel passionate that being a Pilates teacher is not being a Pilates instructor. An instructor just instructs what you want to do. A teacher embodies, enlightens, inspires. And you need to be living and breathing this work. You need to have a reason for doing this. I'm gonna start my session with my team with why are you a Pilates teacher? Why? Why do you do this? Because the people who have a deep why versus it's a flexible job and it suits me. I mean, that's fine. But the people have a reason. Like I do this because it changed my life and I want to change other people's lives. I do this because I can see the shift we make in people. I do this because you see people walk out in a more positive way than they walked in. And I believe that they will bring that positivity into the world. They are such deep reasons, and that energy transcends and transforms. And being unashamed of the why will also then lean into the kind of teacher that you are, the way that you cue, the kind of exercises that you pick, the kind of studios that you work for, or the kind of studio you would create. I just saw a stat this morning. I don't know how true this stat is, but there's been a 968% increase, I think the stat was, in the number of Pilates studios opening. What is their ethos? Have they got one? Or is it just that it makes money? Well, let's do it. I don't think that's gonna fly. And I don't think that's gonna fly for you as a teacher. So I think being clear on your reason, I've definitely seen that from the people we've had on the pod. They have a deep why. And you can feel it and see it, and it's infectious. Ava Rodriguez in her episode talked about the wild, wild west of teacher training. And then I actually saw the Pilates Journal put a post up about the wild, wild west of teacher training. So I feel like it's becoming a little phrase. Ava sent me a voice message and said, Nick, how would you guide people on picking the right teacher training? This is a really tough question. And I'm not sure there is a very easy and clear answer, which is really hard for anyone out there looking. I think you have to look at the number of hours that are in there. You want a teacher training that's got time in it. It has both the time of the in-person hours, and it has time to do your hours and hours that have some support in the mentoring. I'm realizing that a huge part of the success of teachers qualifying is how much mentoring they did. And whether you include that or you put it on extra and maybe there's a small charge, but you know, you make it aware because I think that was one of my frustrations with my teacher training, is sometimes people don't talk about how much it's gonna cost. But I think if you want good teachers at the end of it, that's what we have to be doing. You want to look at who's running the courses. Are they comprehensively trained? How long have they been working in this industry for? Are they teaching? What kind of studios are they running or do they work at? Can you go to their classes or go to classes at their studios? I encourage people on my trainings, come and spend some time at my studios, get a feel for what we're about. I also try and be really transparent with people to say there's different styles. Back to my point earlier, there's different styles. And this is what I believe, and this is my feeling on it. I truly believe if you teach someone depth, they can teach to any style of class if that's what they want to do. I think sometimes this idea, well, I want to be more dynamic or I want to be more clinical, like let's just teach people with depth. But I think it's a really tricky one for students. I remember it being tricky for me 15 years ago when I did my training. I can only imagine how difficult that is now. But I think a definite good place to start is being able to be taught by people, either who were running the course, people who've been graduated. I get potential students to come and chat to teachers here and say, you know, these are teachers at my studio, these are teachers at other studios, so they've got no affiliation with me anymore. Ask them. Ask them how they found it. Diane Nye also said on her episode, think about the kind of teacher that you want to be. You know, are you a teacher who just wants to teach two group classes a week as a side hustle alongside your job? Then maybe a short course is going to be the right one for you. You can find out enough, you'll know 10 class plans, and you can bang them out. Or are you the kind of teacher that wants to be able to rehabilitate people, to work with athletes, to be able to understand the ethos of this work and what it's about and how you adapt it. Because Joseph Pilates was the king of adapting. We've sort of learned this from lots of the conversations I've been so lucky to have with people who knew him. I think it's great to be able to do that. But I think you have to be able to decide yourself as to what kind of teacher training you want to be and not being afraid to ask questions and look at what's out there and to know that it is the wild, wild west. I definitely think the courses that allow you to have plenty of teaching practice with real people is powerful. We offer that in our studio. I think one of the benefits of being with a studio like mine, as such, is that it might be in your city or close to your city, and you often then get a really nice camaraderie of people who live pretty local. We've had people who've done our courses who don't live local, but they'll often come and do like one weekend a month, stay with some friends locally, and then maybe spend time with the other students. I definitely felt when I did my training, because if you do a London training, nothing wrong with that, they're brilliant, and you get access to these amazing educators, but you can feel quite on your own with the logbook completion and you're kind of teaching on your own and you're trying to figure out what studio do you rent and how do you do this. So I think that's just something to consider. So there's no easy answer, but I think the wild, wild west of teacher trainings is definitely something that we, and I hope through this podcast, I'm educating people with so we can make better choices. Because I see people coming on my courses who have diligently gone and done a course and realized this does not equip me at all for what they want to teach. The next section I wanted to talk about was patterns I keep hearing from the best teachers. When I ask people on the podcast, what makes a great teacher? Nobody has said great cueing, keeping to time, the exercise choices. Like nobody. Okay, and I think they are important by the way, but everyone has talked about some energetic stuff, which again I think is so important. It gets you to realize that this is more than just choreography. The word that's come up the most has been teachers need to have a presence in their teaching. Presence. And we've talked a bit, we had Christy Idavoy who talked a lot about this on her episode. About what is presence? What do you mean by presence? And I kind of know what I mean by presence, but then when you sit and think, well, how do I talk to somebody about what do I mean by presence? I think it's a really interesting point. The ability to have presence is to truly be present in the room. You know, it's a mindful practice to actually be focused. And Christy Idevoy talked about if you struggle with this, practice the art of presence or mindfulness in other parts of your life. So you can learn the skill of when I'm here, like I'm here with you right now, and I'm just talking about this and I'm just thinking about this. My brain hasn't gone somewhere else. That is a big part of presence. The ability to be in the studio, whether it's a group class or a private, and look and see and watch and adapt as you see and notice. That is a skill. And you need to have a few things, I think, to be able to do that. You need to not be distracted. So you need to give yourself a good lead up to your class. Being on your phone as people walking in is not present. Being on your phone even a couple of minutes before people walking in is not present. You need to kind of down tools, focus in, take a couple of breaths, feel your feet. Okay, I'm here. And then what's your intention? What's the energy, the unsaid energy that you want to bring into your class? Mine is always pretty much the same. I just want you to feel amazing in your body. Or it's the only time I use the American word awesome. I'm like, I want you to feel awesome in your body. And I don't really mind what you do. I'll often try and run through the exercises in my head, or if I can get on the equipment and do them. That's really nice if you can do that. And get a feel. What am I feeling today? So I think the way people come in, greeting them by name, knowing a bit about them, getting to know them, building up that relationship, big part of it. Then they come in. There needs to be a clear start, some breath work, some unraveling, some calming down. In order to stay present during your teaching, now this is hard when you start off, and I accept that you can't consistently be going back to notes. Now, we all do it at the beginning, 100%. But as soon as you can, you need to get rid of your notes because it stops you being present. And how do you get rid of your notes? By having repetition in what you're teaching. Repetition is good for the clients. They honestly get a lot out of it. It's really good for you because you go, okay, if I'm teaching this exercise, I kind of know in my own little flow, da-da-da-da- tends to come next typically. And then I, you know, and you're almost just remembering it more in sections. If you literally are planning every class completely new, I mean, I couldn't do that. Like you're not going to remember it and you're going to be like, oh God, I forgot to put that bit in. So I think getting rid of your notes by feeling more comfortable with repetition is really going to help you stay present. Helping your clients, like I said, have a beginning, a middle, and an end to the class also helps. That beginning class where I get them sometimes standing, often lying down, breath work, a bit of unraveling, a bit of noticing. It's for me too. It's for you too. Breathe with them. Ground yourself. You know, I say to my clients, for this hour, this is an hour just for you. Whatever is going on in your life, if it's not helpful for Pilates, I invite you to leave it outside the building. And when I say that, I do that myself. And you know, there isn't a class I don't teach where I don't feel invigorated afterwards. And I know why, because I have spent an hour doing mindfulness despite the fact I've been teaching. Whatever is going on in my life, and I have a lot of business stuff going on. I have a small family. It's really easy for me to arrive at class teaching, very busy in my mind. But I think that is how you do presence. And I think it's a practice and it takes practice. But I think having your own intention of I am going to be present for this class, and this is how I want people to feel, that's going to really help shape your experience. It's also going to help stop you burning out because I definitely feel more energized at the end of a class than I do at the start of a class. That's what we want, right? Because we can't keep going otherwise. Another word I've heard quite a lot of is humility, a quality of humility. Letting people know where you got stuff from, whether that's another teacher in your studio, a teacher somewhere else, a course that you were on. I did something recently. I've done a few courses with Tracy Mallet. Obviously, she's been a guest on the podcast. She's been a huge support to me since. I was teaching something the other day, and I was like, Tracy Mallet would be so proud of how you're all doing this amazing little sequence that she taught me. Why not share that? Ryel said this in a lot of detail in his episode, and it really resonated with me. We shouldn't be just copying other people and passing it off as our own work. It doesn't undermine you to say, oh, I did this in Katie's class and I loved it, or I went on this course and I loved it. I think clients also love hearing your journey and your story, so don't be afraid of that. Another quality I've heard lots of people talk about is never stop learning. There is so much in this world, and I'm not sure we're ever going to know it all. So I think just being open to the fact that you should be doing one or two CPD days a year. Minimum. You should be doing movement four or five times a week. Minimum. You should be going to other people's classes. You should be learning, learning, learning like a sponge. I always think it's, as I said before, it's the humility. You can be influenced by other people. It doesn't mean you're copying them. You're just being a sponge and picking up different bits and pieces from different people and becoming your own version with your own personality, with your own beliefs and your own aims for people. And I think that makes a really special teacher. And it's amazing hearing the greats, the people who are writing all this material, still talking about their learning, not afraid of change, changing their viewpoints on things. And I think that's something that I've really learned and heard from the greatest out there. And as I said before, really understanding the need of being a teacher, not an instructor. Lots of our guests have talked about that. A teacher, it's it's a different thing, isn't it? How do we inspire people? How do we walk the walk to showcase, you know, be the change you want to see? I think that's attributed to Gandhi, but I believe he didn't actually say it. But how do we do that? And are you doing that? We definitely, and I'm really sitting with this, we have got to be doing more practice in our lives, above and beyond just practicing our class plans. Like, what do our bodies need? What do we need? How are we refilling our cups? What energetic practices are we doing? What are we doing that is leaning into the ethos of the teacher that we want to be so that we can, you know, invigorate our clients by them seeing what we're doing? What do I think Pilates teachers need more of? I ask guests this all the time. And I was thinking, well, how would I answer that? I think they need more grounding. So I just sort of shared a little bit about being present, but I think more grounding and not feeling like I mean, I was realizing recently that I was actually really lucky that when I graduated as a teacher, there was barely any online Pilates. There was Pilates anytime had only just started. There wasn't videos on Instagram. So really all I had was my manuals. And I think that was really good. I think it was really good to be like, look, I've I've spent a lot of money on this course, both the course, the mentoring, the privates to get my body to do stuff. Like I had learned this work inside out, back to front. I had embodied this work. And it taken me years. How long's it like it's years to do this work, years, and I'm still learning some things. Why are we then trying to be influenced by the, you know, the overt creativity and athleticism and advanced work that's often out there? And feeling like we need to bring that in too quickly. I did an episode on creativity where I talk about this in more detail. But I think that's what I'm hearing. Teachers need more grounding, more understanding of, you know, the method is brilliant. It works. There's a reason why it's this successful, why we're all here, why we're doing it. And I'm not saying we can't be playful and creative with it, but I think lots of us are getting there too quickly because we think clients are bored. They're not bored. They're really not bored. I'll always remember a client called Vicky who came in and I ran an equipment circuit type class in this first studio that I opened. And I felt like every time I needed to come up with a new circuit kind of thing, new things. And one day she said to me, Nick, you know, I love learning all this new stuff, but it'd be really nice to come in another time and a time again and practice what you taught me because otherwise I feel like I'm learning all the time. And this is a practice. So I think that's such a good point to just stay grounded and not be so distracted by all the noise. I also think, as I mentioned before, that I think studios need more clarity on who they are and what they are. And we in our teacher training actually get our teachers to write a bio and we kind of go a bit deep on this about like, who are you? What are you? What are you about? What's your ethos? And I think that really helps you get clear as well on the kind of studios you want to work for, the kind of studio you want to open. So I do think, you know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, as I said earlier, about how do you think we should define ourselves? How do you define yourself? What has changed in my role over the past year? I feel like in the 11 years now I've run Soul Pilates, my studio in Bristol in the southwest of the UK. I've got three studios. My role has had to change so much. It went from me teaching about 40 hours a week in a room to then bringing in a few teachers, then bringing in some more, then I have my babies. And it changes, doesn't it? Because one of the things that's kind of interesting about this world that we're in is well, I don't know, in my marketing world, every two years you would change your job. And it feels like in this less so, or if you have your own studio, kind of never. But I do think you get to evolve. And doing the podcast takes up quite a bit of my time. The education has been a huge part of it. So that takes up a bit of my time. So I've really had to shift some stuff at the studio, brought in or actually promoted some of my team members to run things a bit more. But I think it's impossible to step away completely. I'm still working on that bit. I know people can do it, but it's not worked for me yet. But I think the evolution of my role has been stepping more into an educator piece. Looking at this work again has been so interesting for me. I'm thinking, okay, well, what is this? What are these exercises about? And what are the key points that we're trying to teach with them? And I've loved that. That's been so fun for me. I've had to, though, challenge myself around how much teaching I'm doing because, like I said at the beginning of this talk or the beginning of this episode, I had to give up some stuff. So I've cut my teaching back. It's still there. You've got to keep your hand in. I feel passionate about that. Uh, I love mentoring and I love educating and I love running those. So I'm teaching in that way. But that's definitely been a big evolution of my role. And then hopefully, give me the freedom to do more of this kind of work with you. Maybe building some sort of online community together. Hopefully, doing, you know, I'm getting invited to more speaking gigs. I'd love to do some teaching presenting. So, you know, it's it's interesting, but you you kind of have to point the satellite in the right direction, or the sat nav, should I say, in the right direction, and then make some space. I'm a big believer of if it's meant to happen, it will do. Another thing that shifted as well was from Brent Anderson's conversation. We talked a bit about are we overloading or underloading our clients in Pilates? I thought was a really interesting question. And I think I did think, yeah, maybe I am underloading. Equally, I feel passionate about this unraveling, making people feel at ease. I think there is a whole swathe of studios that are overloading too quickly. But he really educated me on this idea that there should be a point of failure, and that should be a positive point of failure in your class. And that's shifted how I've taught a little bit. And I have been less afraid to go, okay, I've set this up, I've put this in place, let's do it. And you kind of want to take them to a bit where you're like, this is the edge of where you're at. And that's been fun for me, and I've enjoyed that because I now teach, I'm privileged to really teach decent groups. So I can be quite playful with them. And I think that was really interesting to sort of think of failure actually in a positive way. So I definitely shifted my thinking on that. Ryel also mentioned about how you wouldn't want to go for dinner and have a dinner full of dessert. You would have a bit of dessert, but you want to have the dinner, and then the dessert feels really nice. I thought it was a great analogy for Pilates classes in that we want to sprinkle some gems in. Back to my point of failure, like sprinkle some gems in, some wisdom in. But the foundations are so important. And that I really I've always believed in that, but it was interesting hearing it said like that, and then thinking about okay, how do we bring in the gems, the dessert, the sprinkling of magic? Because I think Pilates is magic. I hear the most amazing stories from people and how their lives have been transformed, and lots of them have talked about that on the podcast. So I think it isn't just the exercises, it's definitely the gems that come from that. So, what does the future look like for Beyond the Reformer? Well, I have no idea because I did not come into this with a plan. And that's not like me. As I said, I am a planner, and I have currently funded this podcast. I don't really want to tell my accountant, but it is in the tens of thousands now that I've spent on this with the editing and our trip to America. But I think we're about to hopefully get some brands wanting to work with us, brands that I work with, I enjoy, I think would work with our community. So that feels really positive. Big next step. And like I said, I'd love to hear from you. What is it that you need more of so that we can build this community together? Because I feel like that is what we have done. We have built a community, and I'm keen to see where it will go. I really didn't have that much of a clue of quite how wide the world of Pilates was. I thought I did. It definitely is wider than I thought. I have really enjoyed hearing differing opinions, different thoughts, different beliefs, all rooted pretty much in the same thing. It's like religion, isn't it? All religion's basically the same. I feel like that's the same with Pilates. But I think that's been really interesting. And it's been interesting for me. I mean, when I started, I mean, I don't know if I could have named even 20 people, but it turns out there is loads of people we could be chatting to on the podcast. So yeah, I'm keen to sort of keep casting the net wide, mixing in studio owners. I'm keen to do some travels with this. I think there's an opportunity to go to the East and look at where Pilates is really starting to grow over there. I obviously would love to go to Australia. I know there's so many great people who I could interview, which is difficult to do with time zones here in the UK. So I'm gonna have to try and factor that in with my husband and kids at some point. But I really want to be a voice that educates on Pilates, not just one way, but a way that hopefully enlightens people, that opens people up, that makes people feel good, that makes people understand their bodies more, want to do more with their bodies, and see what's possible. And I think that kind of idea, depending on where you're starting from, then lends itself to different styles and energy levels in the Pilates work that we do. So I had no idea I was going to talk for 50 minutes. I mean, I always think my husband, right, is an amazing writer and illustrator and doesn't really do very much with it. And I say to him all the time, I say, you know, if God gives you a gift, you have to use it. My only gift is talking. And here I am, I suppose I did use my gift. I love talking to you and I love chatting to you. And I hope just me just ad libbing about the past year of this podcast has given you some ideas. I'd love to involve you more in the next year. I thank you for being part of this, whether you just started, whether you've been with this beginning, and I hope that we can continue to grow this platform together. I will see you next week for another episode with a guest on Beyond the Reformer. See you then.