[00:00:00] Welcome to Pilates Teachers' Manual, a podcast for Pilates teachers by a Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia, and I'll be your host. Jump in the conversation on Instagram @pilatesteachersmanual. Today's chapter starts now.

Hello, hello. Welcome to the next chapter of Pilates Teachers' Manual. This is a not regularly scheduled episode. This wasn't something I was planning on doing, but the world is changing and my world is changing really rapidly. So I just wanted to share sort of a Pilates teacher perspective on what's happening with [00:01:00] COVID-19 and what life is like in social distancing land when you are usually teaching Pilates and currently you are not. 

So first thing I want to say is this is definitely difficult, but I also understand that it's not forever. This is out of our control and by self isolating, by self exiling, ourselves, it really is doing the best to protect our most vulnerable population and we really are slowing the spread of the disease and saving people's lives by limiting exposure. 

So if you are a Pilates teacher and you are currently not teaching Pilates, because you are in your apartment, what can we do? I'm going to touch on some things that I'm doing, some things that I'm recommending, and things that are just working for me, and then also addressing the lost income problem. 

Because as a fitness instructor, you only make money when you're working. And if you're not working, you aren't making [00:02:00] money, which is why, you know, taking vacations can be really difficult because you're not only spending money while you're on vacation. You're also not making money because you aren't working while you're on vacation. And I'm looking at self isolation as like a mandatory staycation and that's making me happy, but there are financial implications to that. Of course. 

Yeah, just sharing with you my experience what's going on in Olivia's world in the time of social distancing, things that I am doing, things that I recommend. You could also try doing is really taking care of yourself and that's as much as possible keeping your mental and physical body and a happy place.

For me, that means I have lots of time to take care of my plants. I just did a big repotting because it's pretty much spring. I'm going to tell them that it's spring. So I got to repot all my plants and start fertilizing and getting them into new pots. And that's really fun for me. 

[00:03:00] I also have been working on some creative projects. I love to cross stitch. I love to crochet. So I'm working on some of those things as well. In terms of my physical body, I'm making sure that I make time to move and that could be, you know, I practice the primary series of  ashtanga. So I'm doing that on my mat. I'm doing some mat Pilates. It is still March Matness on Instagram. I wish that I had a little bit more photogenic space in my apartment to do my March Matness, but if you're still participating in that, I am cheering for you and I am going through and liking and engaging with your posts. But I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish it out for myself. 

I'm having dance parties in my living room and that's always fun and I don't always have time to do that, so that makes me happy. I'm doing my best to support local businesses. A lot of restaurants are still open for takeout orders or doing delivery. So [00:04:00] I am trying to really put my money where my mouth is and support local businesses, because that is another industry that's really being hit hard by the isolation.

It's also really nice to connect with friends and family members. If that makes you happy, that sort of connection like phones are still working. The internet is still working. Call your mom, say hi, tell her you love her. As a teacher, this is also a great time to really prep for your classes in the coming weeks. And just thinking about. You know, in addition to new choreography, new ways of thinking about things like you have lots of time to experiment with things, not on the equipment, unless you have a reformer, in which case I am super jealous of you, but just thinking about exercises and ways to teach those exercises.

I rely a lot when I teach Pilates on touch cues and really being with a person, you know, same thing with like privates that's part of that private experiences that there's that [00:05:00] sense of touch and that connection, and this is not a great time to be exploring touch cues, you know, just so that everyone's comfortable. So, how will you cue these new exercises or these old exercises really verbally? 

Another thing I see a lot of teachers doing, and I have not yet hopped on that wagon and I may not, I don't know, is playing with a Facebook live videos with Instagram videos with TikTok, with Periscope is another one. But just this idea of making your content available online. I see studios offering classes online, where you can use, you know, a package you may already have to the studio, and if you already have the infrastructure and you can do that, like that's awesome. I don't think that this. Is a time for me to jump into video. Like I just jumped into audio, like let's slow our roll there, team.

But a lot of my friends who are teachers are offering classes on Facebook and Instagram and through Zoom. And [00:06:00] I think it's amazing. Momentum Fest also has a link to free classes that are being offered online that teachers are just out of the goodness of their heart offering. And I will share the link with you so that you can also participate as well. Some amazing teachers, like a great teachers are doing this. I Highly recommend that you check it out. 

Oh, another one that I just saw this morning is Headspace is a meditation app that I use. It's on my phone. They have everything from sleep music to help you fall asleep, to guided meditations on a variety of topics. I really enjoy using that app. And they've just released a set of free meditations called weathering the storm. So if your mind is having a mind time when you don't have other things necessarily to occupy you, I really do recommend checking out the Headspace app's free weathering the storm meditations. They are awesome. And that app is awesome as well. 

Because it is difficult, you know, it is tough, not [00:07:00] only in a way that I really define myself as someone who teaches Pilates and teaches yoga and is a teacher. So to not be able to do that, even though it's like, yay, mini vacation, it's also kind of tough. Like the first day of not teaching was like, all right, not teaching. And the second day is like, okay, well, Yeah, I guess. All right, we'll not teach. And then day three is like, but I would actually like to teach this, I enjoy it and I want to keep doing it. And it's, it's tough to not be able to do that, but at the same time you're getting this like really awesome reset.

For me mentally that, you know, I don't have to wake up to an alarm. I can really have a schedule where, you know, I wake up and I have some coffee and then, you know, what do I want to do? Do I want to watch Netflix? Cool. And then, Oh, I want to plan for a podcast episode. Great. And, Oh, I'm going to go do some yoga. Fabulous. So all of those things are nice as well. 

So I want you to know [00:08:00] that we're all going through it. So if you can reach out to a friend or a family member and just chat we're in isolation physically, but we know anything about just like seeing what's happening with March Matness on Instagram, there is a beautiful community of Pilates professionals who are in the same boat as you, who we are uniquely in the same boat. You've got a lot of support there. You can always reach out to me in DMS or we'll start a conversation on Instagram or shoot me an email. I would love to talk to you. And I've got a lot of time, right? We all do. 

Coming up after the break. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the financial repercussions of what's happening out in the world and some things that we might be able to do about that as well.

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I mentioned it briefly in the first part of the episode, but the financial consequences of not working for a couple of weeks are pretty large when you are a person who needs money to live, which is I think all of us. So it can be tough to go from an income that you've budgeted for, to like surprise and zero income. 

For me, I thought that I had a very diverse portfolio of different types of classes, but the [00:10:00] tricky business is those were all in person interactions. It's happening at a gym or it's happening in a studio or it's happening in someone's house, but I'm there. And when you take out the being there from that equation, that is not so diverse of a work portfolio, right?

So right now I'm not seeing any private clients. We are all in quarantine mode. All of the studios that I work at are closed and all the gyms that I work at are also closed. Definitely it's the right thing to do. I'm glad that all of those things are not happening because as we are working to flatten the curve and not spread germs, this is the right move a hundred percent, but it's also a difficult move when that is your job, right? Keeping everyone healthy is most important, especially with all of the unknowns with this Corona virus. It is very important to keep everyone healthy. So I am more than [00:11:00] happy to take this personal hit to make sure that everyone stays well. 

I am in a super lucky position that my partner is a computer programmer and can work remotely. His income is stable, whether he's working in the office or is working at home. I'm also very lucky in that the studio that I work for are also providing a form of compensation for the time that I'm not working. It's not the same as teaching the class, but it's definitely taking some of the sting out of it.

For some of my private clients. I have developed exercise plans for them a remote teaching, almost a kind of set up. And so I'm still receiving income from that as well. I'm probably in the best possible situation that you could be in with everything that's going on. Even with that being said, [00:12:00] you're still making less money and your rent is the same and your bills are largely the same.

If you were looking for something to fill in the gaps. My partner and I were working on putting something together for my siblings actually, who are looking for kind of like side hustle adventures. And that's this world of supplemental income and like, what can you do in addition to what you're already doing. In this case, instead of what you're already doing, because what you're already doing is not happening at the moment.

I do have a nice resource for you. There are a bunch of work from home jobs or work at home jobs, which I will definitely link you guys to in the description. These are resources. They are not the law. They're just kind of a jumping off point. So if you were someone who was like, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do right now? Just here are a few things that you could do. There is a spectrum of work that is available through these resources from, you know, less than $1 a task. If you're doing [00:13:00] something like filling out paid surveys Or doing like a product test or like a website test, something like that. And there are also options that are several hour commitments where it could be something like copywriting or data entry or things like that, where you might need to set aside a few hours, but you will probably be compensated at a little bit higher rate.

So these resources were compiled, I think at the end of last year. So these are definitely not all social distancing friendly. When you look at some of the websites, 32 ways to make money from home. Some of those things, you're going to be like, Hmm, that's probably not what I want to do. So like definitely don't do those, but there are a lot of things that you can do and will, again, probably not replace the income and like same thing. Like you're not looking for a full time job here, but just something that you might be able to do for a couple hours and just offset some of your expenses. It [00:14:00] is going to lessen the blow, but it won't fill your entire income void unless you're looking at making a career change. In which case, you could definitely do that as well.

Another thing that some people are doing, whether it's through Eventbrite or through the studio is sort of offering their classes online. My studios aren't doing that. I'm looking at doing, I'm not sorry. I am not looking at doing that. Freudian slip, maybe later, team. There's a lot going on right now, but making the jump to creating online content and offering classes online.

I know yoga teachers and Pilates teachers who have, you know, workshops available for a price that could be fantastic to have in the long run because. Just in case something like this ever happened, or just as again, a supplement to what you're already making. Like if you filmed a "how to do teaser" workshop or whatever, you could sell that over and [00:15:00] over again, while you're doing other things. That's the sort of like smart, passive income dealio.

While you may not have all of the supplies to jump into that at the moment, with all of the time that you have, you might be able to think about making that jump or take steps towards making that jump. If that's something that's kind of calling your name. We do know that workouts on YouTube and Instagram are hugely popular, so it's not a bad thing to think about. So maybe it's a time to explore that as well. 

Overall, I'm optimistic. I know that this is a strange moment in time, but I'm very happy with where I am. I love my apartment and I am happy to be inside of it. I did see a funny meme that was like, when you realize that social distancing is mostly what you do in your own life anyway, and that's a little bit me, I'm definitely an indoor person. Big fan of the indoors. 

Take care of [00:16:00] yourself, whatever that means to you, whether that's, you know, hopping off of social media, whether that's having a dance party in your pajamas, both of those things are amazing. I've shared some self care tips, and I will also share some resources with you in terms of classes and meditations that you can do for free, as well as a jumping off point for expanding maybe some supplemental income options in your life.

I really hope that those things help. Do you have any questions or if there's anything else that you'd like to know, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or on email. I am happy to chat with you. But we're going to get through this, and I'm really happy to be part of such an amazing community of both listeners and Pilates instructors and Chicagoans and world being at large. Thank you so much for listening. Now, please go wash your hands for at least 20 seconds.

[00:17:00] Thank you for listening to this chapter of Pilates Teachers' Manual. Be sure to visit the Instagram link in the description for the post on today's episode. There, you can leave your comments, ask questions, and join the conversation. Also be sure to support the podcast and take advantage of the great affiliate links in the description.

The adventure continues. Until next time.