Traveling Guest Instructors

My dearest friend and brilliant Pilates instructor, Brian Creaill, has been traveling as a guest Pilates instructor to some incredible places around this world. Recently teaching in Hong Kong and gearing up to go back to Dublin and Amsterdam, he has been able to take his love of traveling and mesh it into his teaching at his home base of Barcelona, Spain. There is a chapter in my book Profitable Pilates: Everything but the Exercises called, “Oh The Places You’ll Go!” My hope with this chapter was to inspire new instructors (and those researching) with all the different avenues they could take as an instructor. One that I didn’t explore much in the book was being a guest teacher.

As I am gearing up to teach in the UK, Cambodia, and Maui, I wanted to share some great reasons why you should bring in a guest teacher and/or be a guest teacher! After a couple of conversations with Brian, I am ready to share with you two points on guest teaching. The first will be for studio owners interested in guest teachers. The second will be for instructors interested in guest teaching. Here we go!

Two Points on Guest Teaching

1) For my studio owners out there, hiring a guest teacher to present a workshop can bring in teachers from all over your area to your space. This not only is great for advertising but it also helps you connect more with the instructors in your area. A guest teacher also gives your team easy access to continuing education. As teachers, we should continue to seek out a deeper understanding. A guest teacher can reignite some teaching flames.

A guest teacher also is a great way to help you and/or your staff take vacations. Often when an instructor goes on vacation, they may teach a little extra before and after to get their clients some Pilates. But, when they go, their clients often take a vacation too. By having a guest teacher come in, you don’t have to take on all the extra teaching, and the clients get excited. The studio also does not lose any sessions for the time the instructor is out.

You may be sitting there reading this and thinking “LL, that sounds great in theory, but my clients will never work with anyone else.” Well, let’s talk about that! Contact me, and we can create a way to get your clients who come in multiple times a week to work with a couple of instructors. In addition to being best for your studio client retention, it’s also best for the client. If clients are consistent, they see results. If they see results, they keep doing Pilates. Having your studio clients see a couple of instructors each week makes it easy to substitute a teacher should their instructor become sick or have an emergency. It also means you can bring in a guest instructor and take time off or bring in new fresh energy and teaching eyes.

Studio owners when choosing a guest teacher keep in mind the tips from my “hiring” blog post a few weeks ago. Also, think about why you are bringing this guest instructor in. Is it to educate your team or to sub for you or another instructor out on leave? This will determine whom you should bring in.

2) Instructors, if you’re looking to guest teach, Brian has some amazing tips for you. If you are wondering where to start,  he suggests you contact those you went to your Pilates training with. They are part of your tribe! If they have a studio, would they be interested in having you do some guest teaching? If not, Brian recommends you ask them if they know anyone who owns a studio. It’s all in the networking.

Brian has learned from his many guest appearances that being organized and doing things the way you normally would make for a great experience. For example, when at his home in Spain, he wakes up and gets his own workout in before going out for coffee at a cafe. He makes sure to do this same routine while guest teaching. After all, while you are a guest teacher, you still need to take care of yourself first.

To ensure that you can balance traveling as a teacher and still have your clients at home, you’ll want to encourage your clients to see one of your colleagues regularly. Even while you are in town. If a client comes in three times a week have one of those sessions be with someone else. This way when you travel, they still get their Pilates in, and when you return, they’ll be right back in your schedule.

Brian has another Dublin trip and some amazing trips to the Middle East to guest teach coming up. He is creating amazing teaching content for a company in Spain and so much more. You can follow Brian here on his site. I know I am very excited to continue traveling as a guest instructor, retreat teacher, and workshop presenter. For more on guest teaching, stay tuned daily to this week’s FaceBook “Live” events. I will be going over more on how and why to have guest teachers and be a guest teacher.

xx~LL