59: Bounce Back Strong - 5 Tips For Resilience in Group X

Had a class that just didn't land? Equipment malfunction? Participants who wouldn't engage? In this essential episode of Group X Appeal, Kimberly and Terry share the resilience strategies that have helped them bounce back from countless tough classes and professional setbacks throughout their 25+ year careers. 

Learn why even the best instructors have off days and discover how to transform every setback into a powerful opportunity for growth and deeper connection with your participants.

Key Takeaways:

• Acknowledge Without Dwelling 
• Evaluate with Curiosity, Not Criticism 
• Seek Valuable Feedback 
• Prioritize Connection Over Perfection 
• Rebuild Through Action 

This episode is essential viewing for group exercise instructors and yoga teachers who can use a little support - or even permission - for being human as well as strategies to transform tough moments into teaching breakthroughs. Remember: your next class could be your best class yet.

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Questions or topic ideas? Email us @ groupxappeal@gmail.com

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Stay Connected with Kimberly:
- @kimberlyspreenglick on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
- email: kimberly@theinspiredlifeuniversity.com
- website: www.theinspiredlifeuniversity.com

Stay Connected with Terry:
- @terryshorter on Instagram & Facebook
- email: terry@rippedplanet.com
- website: www.rippedplanet.com

Transcript

We've all had that class, the one that flopped, felt off or made you want to crawl under your mat and disappear. Yup. Music glitches, choreography, brain fog, empty rooms. It happens to everyone. And today we're talking about how to bounce back stronger than ever after a tough class or professional setback.

Kimberly/terry (00:54)
Welcome back to GroupX Appeal. I am Kimberly Spreen Glick here with Terry Shorter. Hey, we're so glad you're here with us. Yeah. Listen, even the best instructors have off days. I've had off days. you had off days? You've had off days? I've had so many Impossible. It is true. It is true. know, classes that maybe don't land in moments when the energy is low or times when maybe the attendance drops and that throws things off.

But what separates great leaders from everyone else is how they respond. Absolutely. So this episode is all about resilience, about how to recover, learn and reignite your confidence, even when things don't go as planned. So we've got five strategies for you. want to ⁓ tip us? Tip them off. Tip who off? Terry the tipper. Terry the big tipper. Here we go. We're going to tip them off. With five strategies.

Five solid strategy. Let's do that. meant to say, do you want to kick them off? I'll kick them off. I'll tip them off. I'll punch. I'll do whatever needs to be done. That's my job. That's what I do here at group X appeal. And I'm here to serve. You ready for this? So yeah. So comebacks are really easy. Actually. I think the very first tip would be to feel it. Don't dwell on it. Right. Have you ever had that instructor who comes up like,

be there before class or after class. They might have a class right after yours and just unloads everything that's gone wrong in their day and their week and their month and their life. Right. As a matter of fact. Yeah. So, ⁓ you know, the thing is, is we can acknowledge the frustration first, right? I would call, I like to call it align and redirect. Okay. So acknowledge the frustration, is aligning, but

don't let it define you, right? Reflect, don't replay, you know, the mishaps over and over and over again. ⁓ That's just not productive. That's not going to be helpful at all. You know, there's a, there's a saying that Jim Rohn said, he said, you know, the winds of circumstance is always going to, it's always going to blow, but it's really how you set your sails. And so you have to make that decision to set your sails in the direction that you want to go and not the direction that's throwing you off course. And,

That in itself allows you to ⁓ reflect yes, but stay on course, stay focused, stay purpose driven and focused. That's such a great tip. I think we have such a tendency to ruminate over the things that don't go well. And what's funny is that

things could have gone maybe 90 % well, but then that like 10 % that's we focus on is what we kind of come on to call it the self beaters club. Don't be part of the self beaters club. Don't beat yourself. Why am I picturing like a white tank top? Do you remember those? A beater. Don't be part of that club for clothing. Yeah. Especially nowadays. Right. Not okay. Don't do it.

So another tip we have for you is to evaluate with curiosity, not criticism. mean, it's really easy for us to fall into the trap of criticizing ourselves. We are our own worst critic. often say, right? So instead just, you know, take a step back, take a couple of breaths and ask some honest questions. Like what did work? Like focus there first, because I guarantee you even in the class that felt like the worst class ever, the worst experience ever, you could find things that worked, be it the music or certain exercises, certain patterns, certain queuing.

So what worked, celebrate that. And then what didn't by all means acknowledge the things that caused the frustration that maybe impacted the experience in a way that you didn't want it to play out. And instead of thinking about what's wrong with me as like the instructor, the person who's in charge of the experience, recognize that if you can ask more healthy questions, then you get to grow from that. You know, we often talk about in the realm of leadership,

that action creates clarity. And the reason action creates clarity is because when you take an action and teaching a class is action, one of two things is going to happen. Either everything unfolds exactly as you hoped. And we call that a win. And isn't it lovely when we have a win, we get to celebrate that. It's awesome. Like the ones where it's like best class ever and I should ask for a raise. I'm so glad. best teacher. need more classes on schedule. Prime time.

where you feel all kind of boosted because it went really well, whatever it was, and it like all kind of fell into place and it worked. Win, awesome, celebrate it. Go to Cheesecake Factory. That's my thing. let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. But the only other thing that can happen is an opportunity to learn and grow. So maybe things don't unfold exactly as you planned or hoped that they would, but there are still things to learn in that experience. In fact, that's tends to be when we learn the most. Yeah.

And learning is also something to be celebrated. So every time you teach, it's either going to be a win or a lesson to be learned. And those are both wins. And the more you learn as you teach, the more clarity it creates. And the more you can dive into continuing to grow and become the best version of who you are as an instructor. So ⁓ love it. not criticism. There you go. There you go. It's a yeah.

A lot of times there's nothing wrong with you. You're perfect. You're a perfect instructor. Yes, you are as you are. Yes, we, yes we do. So number three is, ⁓ seek some feedback, reach out for feedback, right? Trusted peers or your mentor mentors can help you see what you missed and kind of offer some perspective. ⁓ you know, I love, love, love when instructors, fellow instructors come and take classes.

And I'll ask them for their honest feedback. What did you love most? What would you like to see different, perhaps? ⁓ How can I improve the experience next time, in your opinion? Because maybe you've never been to the class before. But ⁓ I love to get that constructive feedbacks and criticism. I guess you can say constructive criticism. So ⁓ we can use that as a learning tool. And I would just.

Piggyback onto that for those who I know listen, if you're listening and you're not an instructor per se, but you take classes, just know that we as instructors are always looking for opportunities to receive constructive criticism to continue to get better at what we do. And so if there are things that went really well for you and you're in a class that we've taught, whether it be the music or the pattern that we use, the exercise, the choreography, et cetera.

share that with us. And if there are things that didn't go well for you, that didn't feel right for some reason, like we'd love to hear that too, so that we have opportunity to grow. Because it's a different perspective. Yeah. And it helps. A lot of times we're in the, you you can't see the forest through the trees, right? And so it's nice to get that outside perspective because we look at it, like I said, we are in the game and committed. So your feedback is super, super valuable and appreciated. Yeah. When we're in the game teaching, like we can't.

We have blind spots because we're just, we're focused on the class and providing great experience. So yeah, that's a really great point. So another one for you would be to focus on connection, not perfection. There's no instructor, no fitness professional on the planet who is perfect. Right. Present company most definitely included. I'll take it. We are, we, we have made so many mistakes in the moment and along the way.

But that's okay because Group X is not about connecting. ⁓ One of our dear friends, Petra Colbert, once said in a class, a workshop she was giving on happiness, that we don't connect as human beings through perfection. We're hard-wired to connect. But we don't connect through perfection. We kind of connect through our cracks.

That's what the light shines through. did talk about this before, cause he made fun of me. let me move on before. wasn't making fun of you. remember. So I bring that up again to be able to say, if you make mistakes while you're teaching, like that's okay, because it humanizes you. And we are humans. We want to be able to connect authentic authentically. So you don't have to remember every cue perfectly. You don't have to worry about if things go wrong here and there. ⁓ you know,

bring heart back into the room and remember what Maya Angelou said. She said that people will not remember what you said, people will not remember what you did, but people will always remember how you made them feel. So this is about creating connections, building relationships, and then nurturing those relationships. How do you want people to feel when they're taking your class? How do you want people to feel when they're taking your

I want them to feel empowered, accomplished, happy. I them to feel happy, joyful, and just grateful that they showed up. They didn't miss the opportunity. Love that. I'm with you on the empowered. think that's the first one for me. the beautiful word about the beautiful word, the beautiful thing about empowered as a word, the definition is that it means that you're giving someone the tools and resources, but then they're doing the work. We get to empower people, but they have to show up and...

lift the weights or do the pushups or do the mambo or whatever it is. The mambo. can't. You got to do that. You got, you got to bring the mambo back. ⁓ Mambo number five. He's trying to pretend like he doesn't mambo, but he mambo's trust me. But it's, ⁓ it's, it's a big thing for us to be able to empower and to inspire. I always want people to know that they're a part of a community that cares about them. Not being judged. Yeah, for sure. Well, ⁓

Yeah. Perfection is like, it's not gonna, not gonna happen. And when you do, yeah, it's not good luck with that. ⁓ you know, there's a saying when you make mistakes, my, my mentor always said to one of my teachers, my, one of my voice teachers back in the day when I was a kid, she said, if you're going to make a mistake, make it big. Because at the end of the day in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

which means nobody knows that you even made the mistake for them. Nine chance out of 10. Except in my scenario where I usually call it out so I can. I do the same thing. I'm like, Oh, did you just say that? Did you see it? Did you hear what I just said? Who teach me how to spoke? Yeah. So. I think it was the last week I went to start the class and the music wasn't playing. I'm like, what the heck is going on? And I go back to the stereo and on the mic, I turned around. like, did you all know that music plays more better? Mo better. More better.

If you hit play, play helps playing helps that'll usually do the trick.

I love it. Well, ⁓ great tip. tip number five, rebuild with intention. Yeah, you may have faltered, you may have tripped, you may have fallen, but guess what? You get another chance to come back with some, like you said earlier, some small wins, those small wins they do add up and small wins could consist of several things. can nail one section at a time. ⁓ maybe a certain cue, maybe connect with one person.

basically share their name. People love it when you share their names in class, right? That just really strengthens that connection with your participants. Or perhaps deliver an inspiring message. Maybe share a quote, one of your favorite quotes, inspirational or motivational quotes. That is not necessarily starting from scratch, but it kind of gets you back on the rebound, gets you back on top Rebuilds the confidence. Yeah, for sure.

So little by little bit by bit, but first you gotta push play. Yes. I mean, I guess you don't have to. No, you don't have to. can Acapulco, acapella. Yeah. I did offer to beatbox, but no one took me up on it. No one took you up on it. Cause they didn't have tip money. That's the only reason why they didn't have their dollar bills. Yo. They pretty much looked at me and said, yeah, you don't know how to beatbox. And guess what? They were right. ⁓ snap. We're to have to get you beatboxing on this mic one of these days. Wait a minute. I'll wrap.

How about you beatbox and I'll rap? Let's do it. Deal. All right. Let's do it. That'll be a full episode. We're just going to beatbox and wrap our entire episode. I'm not kidding. I know every word to salt and pepper is my mic sound nice. All right. We're going do it. If you're wanting to hear that, if you want to hear Kimberly rap, my mic sounds nice. Leave a comment below. Thumbs up or raising of the roof. Raising of the roof. You like that? Indeed.

That sounds so like so current. now so hip. He's so hip. You are so hip. You're so with it. really is. So back to the episode. yeah. What are we talking about again? We're filming an episode. yeah. All right. We're trying to come in back. Let's bring him back. So we're to come back from that little derailing of me talking about rapping because you know, it could go well and it could not, but anyway.

Here's what you need to remember. A bad class does not mean you're a bad instructor. It means you are human. It doesn't. It doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't. It means you're human. We all have those moments. We have those classes. We have those days. Just remember that every stumble is just a setup for you to make a comeback. Yeah. So let us know your comeback story. Drop in the comments, tag us on social.

and inspire us and inspire someone else to keep showing up and doing what they love most. And remember your next class could be your best class. So we're rooting for you. We're in your corner always. We are so rooting for you. We are so in your corner. That said, if you have a funny story to share about a time when it went wrong, like maybe you forgot to press play. don't know. We'd love to hear about it when you see a clip of this.

And you know, on maybe Instagram or Facebook or something, share in the comments, or if you're on YouTube, share in the comments. would love, we would love to hear any kind of funny stories and maybe we'll share some more of ours down the road too. For sure. few. Yeah, we do. So, that is it for today. Yeah. Thank you so much for watching by all means, please.

Do all the things, subscribe and follow and like and download and all that fun stuff. And if you feel like this episode and this message, these tips could help someone, then please forward it to them. We appreciate it. We would love that. So that's it for us today. Bouncing back. That's what it's all about today. I'm Terry Shorter. I'm Kimberly Spreen Glick. And as always, we encourage you to make it a great day. And why? Because it's a great day to It sure is. Much love. Peace out.