All About Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book

Today's episode dives into my newly released book! Tune in to learn who this book is for, what's included in the book, some fun behind the scenes info and where to get your copy!

I want to hear from you! Share your thoughts and follow the podcast on Instagram and Facebook @pilatesteachersmanual. Full show notes, episode transcription, and chapter markers can be found on the podcast website here: http://bit.ly/pilatesteachersmanual. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast for updates, and rate and review wherever you listen!  Episodes now available on YouTube: *https://bit.ly/YouTubePTM*

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Show Notes:   

You can purchase the EPUB or PDF version of the book here and convert to a Kindle friendly file here: https://amazon.com/sendtokindle

Support the podcast:   

Get your copy of Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book at https://book.oliviabioni.com/pilatesteachersmanual

Visit https://shop.oliviabioni.com for podcast merch! 

Visit https://links.oliviabioni.com/affiliates to take advantage of some sweet savings!

Episode Music:

Workout Dance Day EDM by Diamond_Tunes, in compliance with Pixabay's Content License

Listen/download: https://pixabay.com/music/dance-workout-dance-day-edm-123377/ 

Transcript

[00:00:07] Olivia: Hello, hello everybody. Welcome, and welcome back, to Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to Becoming a Great Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia! You can get the latest updates and join my community at buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts or follow along on Instagram at @PilatesTeachersManual 

[00:00:28] Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book is now available! You can purchase it and other podcast merch at shop.OliviaBioni.com.

[00:00:38] You may have noticed that the intro music is a little bit different, and this is really exciting. I have hit the subscriber and view threshold on YouTube, and I am now officially a YouTube partner. While I love the original music intros and outros for Pilates teachers and Pilates students [00:01:00] manual. Those songs do not allow me to monetize my videos on YouTube.

[00:01:06] And while I'm not trying to make a living as a content creator, I do wanna take advantage of the opportunity to monetize my episodes on YouTube. So I've found some new music courtesy of PixaBay, which is like an amazing online music warehouse, and a very prolific music producer named Oleksii Holubiev, who uh, is from the Ukraine and makes a lot of EDM music that I really enjoy. 

[00:01:33] So we've got new songs for both podcasts and they will be using these songs going forward. Not sure if I am going to go back, redo all of the episodes on YouTube. I might, I might not. I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. But the internet is so cool and the fact that you can just like find super cool music from someone halfway around the world and use it [00:02:00] in your podcast that reaches people halfway around the world, like, that's wild to me. The internet is so cool. 

[00:02:07] So we've got new music on the podcast. I'm officially a YouTube partner. That's very neat. And there's even more to be excited about. Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book is officially available for purchase, and that is what today's episode is all about. As always, supporters on Buy Me a Coffee, get first dibs, and exclusive first access to the book, and already over 30 people have gotten a copy, which is crazy.

[00:02:39] It makes me feel so many feelings, gratitude, and joy, and some nervousness. I've already found a typo. But that is the first edition for you. If you have purchased the book, you get it with the first edition typo, and then in later editions, I'll definitely take that out. But that's how it goes. 

[00:02:58] You can get your own copy [00:03:00] of the book at book.OliviaBioni.com/Pilates Teachers' Manual. My partner designed a very cool landing page for the book, and you can see some nice things that my colleagues have said about the book, see what topics the book covers, as well as some sample chapters so you can kind of get a feel for my writing style. My hope for the book is that it feels very much like this podcast, like you're chatting with a Pilates teacher or mentor or friend of yours and just brainstorming solutions for common problems that show up while you're teaching Pilates. And also helps to guide you so you don't get stuck in very common pitfalls as well. 

[00:03:44] Because I started this podcast and then by extension the book, because my first few years of teaching Pilates were really hectic and chaotic, and I was destined for burnout. Honestly. I had this, you know, [00:04:00] strong desire to like, pave my own way and carve out my own little space in the Pilates world, and that desire came at a pretty high personal sacrifice. And it took almost running myself into the ground to realize that this was not a sustainable way to do what I wanted to do. And that there is definitely a better way to make a living and do what you love and teach Pilates. 

[00:04:25] So I want teachers who come after me to learn from my mistakes to do better than I did to be a better Pilates teacher faster than I was. And just recognizing that trial and error works. Like there's a reason why we trial and error things, but it just takes a lot of time. And if you can just avoid some of those potholes on your journey, I think that everyone wins. I definitely want you to hit the ground running as a teacher and know what you want going into [00:05:00] it and have just like some superstar skills under your belt that even as a brand new teacher, you're just ready for action, ready for anything.

[00:05:08] So my book covers a really entire journey of teaching Pilates. It's not perfect and it's not all inclusive, but it covers like several touch points on your Pilates teaching career, starting with becoming a Pilates teacher. Like, is it right for you? What should you look for in training programs? What should you expect from your training program? How can you be successful? Do you wanna become a nationally certified Pilates teacher? I talk about that exam, how all that works. So I've got a whole section of just like becoming a Pilates teacher. 

[00:05:47] Then I've got a part that is specifically for brand new teachers. That's like, okay, you got your certification, now what? So what's your scope of practice? You know, where do you wanna [00:06:00] teach? How much do you wanna teach? How do you keep growing and improving as a new teacher? How do you create a schedule that's sustainable and build a Pilates network of colleagues who can support you and help you to grow? Some employment considerations when you're looking at places to teach and also navigating the world of being your own business 'cause you're an independent contractor or a teacher like you are your own business, so there's some considerations that come with that. And then, you know, just getting more confident teaching. So I've got a whole section about that. 

[00:06:34] I've got several sections where I'm looking at different types of teaching. So looking at virtual teaching, looking at teaching group classes, looking at teaching private sessions or one-on-one sessions. And just some tips, tricks, and strategies for those different types of classes you might find yourself teaching. 

[00:06:56] Then I've got some theory, [00:07:00] which I love also. So I talk about OPTIMAL theory and ways to teach movement based on motor learning strategies. I talk about creating flowing programs and classes that really seamlessly offer progressions and modifications. I share my personal theory about the dimensions of difficulty in Pilates exercises, which is really cool. As well as, you know, planning your class around a theme, which can be like another theoretical thing to think about in terms of how you program. 

[00:07:33] Then I've got a section about working with people and like, all kinds of people, like building relationships with people so that they win and you win, as well as working with clients who you might find to be a little bit more difficult, or people who are brand new to Pilates. How do you work with them? Working with pregnant clients with the most up-to-date guidelines, and working with people in chronic low back pain, because those are just people you're gonna see in the [00:08:00] studio. So I've got little tricks for working with all kinds of people. 

[00:08:04] And then looking forward, so like, what do you wanna do as a Pilates teacher? Do you wanna teach forever? Do you wanna lead workshops? Do you want to, you know, work up into studio management? Do you wanna train teachers? Like, what do you wanna do? So we kind of explore the different paths that you might take as a Pilates teacher 'cause the world is really your oyster.

[00:08:30] So that book is- that book, my book I wrote that- is 50 chapters and over 300 pages long in like regular letter, eight and a half by 11 paper. You could read it straight through if that's the vibe. You could flip to the section that interests you or something you have a question about. It can really be used lots of ways to support you in your journey.

[00:08:54] Right now, I have it available as a PDF and EPUB format, and you [00:09:00] can buy it at book.OliviaBioni.com/PilatesTeachersManual. I am working on getting it listed on Amazon. That is a multi-step process. And not so fun fact, if you list a book on Amazon, Amazon takes 65% of whatever your list price is for it, and you make 35% in royalties. And then of that 35% that you make in royalties, Amazon takes additional fees and taxes out of it. So, like not a huge fan of that. And even with the Kindle version being twice as expensive as just buying the EPUB and the PDF, like, I still like make less on each book, which kind of blows. 

[00:09:45] But I wanna support you if you use a Kindle and you love that Kindle Unlimited game. Hope is not lost. Especially as a lucky listener of this episode of the podcast, there is a shortcut that is endorsed by Amazon [00:10:00] and is actually done through Amazon to convert the EPUB version. -And I think it could actually convert a PDF as well, but the UB has a little bit more formatting, so I'm gonna like go with that.-

[00:10:10] But you could buy the EPUB version from me and then you could convert that EPUB to a Kindle friendly format so that you can read it nicely on your Kindle. So to do that, you have the EPUB you can go to amazon.com/send to Kindle and I've linked that in the show notes. They also have apps if you wanna do it like on your Kindle, but that's like the webpage for it. And then you upload your epub, it converts it for you and it makes it readable for your Kindle and saves you $15 us. So like look at that.

[00:10:51] So I don't want to charge you more for the book for using Kindle, so please buy the epub and convert it. And we don't need to give Amazon more money. [00:11:00] So, wow, that is a lot of information and I'm gonna be doing like a little mini press tour and talking on some Instagrams and talking on YouTube, doing some interviews and things, just talking more about the book.

[00:11:12] But geez Louise, like I cannot believe that it's like here and that people are reading it. I feel like I've been talking about it for so long, but it still feels like wild that it's happened even though I've been working on it for a really long time. Fun fact, I actually wrote it in Google Docs and then my editor was like leaving comments and stuff in the Google Doc.

[00:11:33] I do not recommend using Google Docs if you're gonna write a project that's that big because the lag is like insane. Like you have to be really patient, really careful. I also keep a thousand tabs open and I don't think that that was helping either. But this project, both the podcast that you're listening to and the book, if you're reading it really took a team effort.

[00:11:55] So my editor, which is my sister, who's also a very talented editor really worked [00:12:00] with me in terms of big picture stuff and readability. I. My partner, who's a web developer genius, helped me with formatting and setting up the merch shop and setting up the landing page, which is really nice. I think you should check it out.

[00:12:15] And all of the topics that are covered, you know, it didn't come from a vacuum, it came from conversations that I had with listeners and dms or emails from coffee chats with buy me a coffee members

[00:12:31] and. You know, my own movement practice, like I'm so grateful to all of my teachers to the yoga and the Pilates classes that I've taken that have inspired so much curiosity in me that I wanted to get into this in the first place. Like all of this is made possible. Because of our thriving, incredible community of Pilates and movement enthusiasts.

[00:12:56] And I am grateful to be part [00:13:00] of such an amazing company of folks.

[00:13:07] So thank you for listening to the podcast and thank you for being part of this project in all the ways that you are. Huge thank you to my supporters on buy me a coffee. I am so looking forward to this month's chats. So much has happened. We've got so much to chat about. But I'm here for your questions for brainstorming and just bouncing ideas off of each other.

[00:13:32] And I wanna hear where you are in the journey. And if you're reading the book, I wanna hear about your experience with the book as well. 

[00:13:39] I hope you have a great couple weeks and I'll talk to you again soon. [00:14:00]