Special Guest - Keisha Brown

The wonderful Keisha Brown joins me on the show today! Keisha is a Master Trainer for Club Pilates, and a Pilates teacher at several Club Pilates studios in Chicago. She shares her journey from watching Mari Winsor DVDs in the early 2000s to healing her body through movement, and now leading teacher trainings in the Midwest United States. She offers valuable advice and insights to what really makes a great teacher and how to improve your teaching. Tune in! 

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Show Notes:   

Check out what Keisha is up to on Instagram @kbrownfit and take class with her in Chicago at Club Pilates River North, West Loop, and South Loop locations! 

Support the podcast:   

Get your copy of Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book at https://book.oliviabioni.com/pilatesteachersmanual (and convert to a Kindle friendly file here: https://amazon.com/sendtokindle if you want)

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Episode Music:

Workout Dance Day EDM by Diamond_Tunes, in compliance with Pixabay's Content License (https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/)

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

Transcript

Olivia: Hello. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited to have a special guest on the podcast today. I'm here with Keisha Brown. She is a master trainer for Club Pilates, and she has been teaching Pilates for a long and wonderful time. I'm so excited to have her on because as always, I love hearing about Pilates teachers, how they got into what they do, how they found their niche, and how their teaching has grown and changed. So Keisha, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your journey.

Keisha: Thank you. It's so good to be here with you, Olivia.

Olivia: Yahoo. So always diving right in. What was your first Pilates experience?

Keisha: Well, my first experience with Pilates was way back in the early two thousands. I was watching TV late at night and saw one of Mari Winsor's infomercials that [00:01:00] came on. As you know, Mari was an instructor who learned Pilates directly under Romana, and Romana learned Pilates directly under Joe himself, and she was also a dancer.

So I was really intrigued by the movements and the exercises that I saw her doing. And I didn't know anything about mat Pilates or Pilates period at the time. I had seen a few reformers at the gym that I was going to, but I never saw anyone using them. So I was really clueless as to what this. You know, mode of exercise was, so I did dive right in and I ordered her set of tv.

Tv. So when I received the videos and started doing the exercises, I noticed that my body felt a lot different than when I did a typical treadmill or weight workout. I felt more elongated. You know, of course we know that Pilates works on our posture, so I felt much more taller and lengthened. I was sore, but the soreness that I felt was a little different and, and I felt calmness in my [00:02:00] body and just a, a sense of overall wellbeing. So I thought, wow, this is truly a great thing to do a wonderful workout to kind of just add in there.

Olivia: You are definitely not alone. Several teachers, especially teachers who have been teaching for several, several years, talk about finding a DVD set or depending like a VHS set. But like Mari Winsor is a legend and what a great introduction to

Keisha: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: to like learn from an icon like her. So you, so you get started, you've got your recorded things that you're working on.

What made you wanna be a teacher? What was the jump from enjoying it and feeling so great in your body to then saying, I'm gonna share this with others.

Keisha: Yeah, so it was really a long journey from that time to actually becoming a Pilates instructor. So after having my second child, my body just didn't feel good at all. I felt a lot different after delivering her from when I had my first child and [00:03:00] they are eight years apart. So there, you know, there was quite a bit of a difference there.

I did have some complications with both pregnancies. With both of them, I felt like the issues that I suffered during pregnancy kind of lingered on a little bit longer than what they should. And so then I did start seeing some health issues in myself, you know, just the typical weight gain that happens when, you know, we are pregnant and have children, but then there was the low energy. My mental state was not quite where it should be. My wellbeing was just off.

And you know, at that time I was a little ignorant between the thought of healing effects from movement and how movement can heal a body, and how exercise can play a significant role in just making the body well overall. You know, with reducing inflammation and improving circulation and helping with managed chronic diseases. At that time, I just didn't make that direct correlation between the two. So then of course, a light bulb went off in my brain and I'm like, I have to get [00:04:00] moving, right? I have to start getting back to some of the things that I know that I had did before in the past.

So a friend and I decided to make a commitment of working out with each other three times a week at 5:00 AM in the morning. We both had jobs, we both had other responsibilities. So the only way this would work is if we did it at the crack of dawn, and we did. So we met at her house. Sometimes we would meet at my house. You know, we had weights and we had things that we could use, and then we had other friends join us. And then eventually we did get a gym membership together and we started taking these early morning group fitness classes. We did this for about six months, maybe even a little longer, and the changes that I experienced in my body at that time were remarkable.

So like all of the health issues that I was experiencing disappeared and I completely changed the physique of my body. And I felt like this was a bonus, you know, with having this new movement lifestyle, because my goal was just to feel good and to [00:05:00] get healthy. And even when she and I couldn't meet together anymore, I continued to work out consistently in the early mornings incorporating those weights and cardio classes and going back to those Mari Winsor DVDs that, you know, I talked about here in the beginning. And this just, it completely changed my life for the better.

It changed and healed me so much that I decided to study movement. So I got a certification as a personal trainer. I became a group fitness instructor and also a cycle instructor. So I started apprenticing at the gym that my friend and I had joined, and of course later I was hired there. I would work with clients one-on-one, teach them several formats of group fitness classes, and that gym had a reformer. I never saw anyone use it. I never saw any instructors teach on it. I would walk past it every day and I would always think to myself, okay, what I, what do you do with this big piece of equipment? And at that time, I [00:06:00] knew it was Pilates, the piece of equipment, but I didn't understand how the mat exercises that I knew and practiced in my body went along with this big piece of equipment. You know, I didn't understand like the relationship there.

So I continued to work in gyms, really enjoying the work that I was doing, but I knew that I wanted to learn more about movement. I wanted to learn more about biomechanics of the body, and I just wanted a better understanding. So I enrolled in a two year college. I got an associate's degree in exercise science, and then I transferred over to the local university from me at the time, which was NIU, Northern Illinois, and I enrolled in their kinesiology program. And thoroughly enjoyed my studies, thoroughly enjoyed what I was learning, still working as a personal trainer, but at that point I decided to work for myself. So instead of working in a gym, I purchased equipment and I had clients come to my in-home studio, about 20 clients a week, I had coming through. I was [00:07:00] doing boot camps at a local park in the summertime, and it was just, it was great. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed, you know, the work that I was doing at that time, helping others feel the benefit that I felt in my body.

I was still attending NIU and doing all of that, and one of my personal training clients asked me, have I ever thought about teaching Pilates? And I said, well, of course, because when you're in the fitness world, you know it's, it's what you do. You seek different certifications to become more knowledgeable and more marketable for yourself. So she said that she and her husband were looking to buy into a franchise and they came across a company called Club Pilates. And I told her that I was very familiar with Mat Pilates and that I had incorporated some of those mat exercises in my teaching when I was doing my personal training, but would love to learn more about what Pilates really was.

So she came to me about a week later and then asked, well, do you think that you would [00:08:00] like to manage if we brought a studio to Rockford and at that time I was living there in Rockford, and I told her, I don't know, I'm not sure about managing because, you know, I had my schoolwork, I had my clients at home. I didn't know if that would work out with what I had going on with my life at the time. But we continued to talk over the course of the next few weeks, and I really thought hard about what she asked and the opportunity that she was presenting to me. So I did decide to take her up on it. Yeah, so she and I flew to the beautiful Club Pilates corporate offices in Southern California, and we did some general manager training there.

And when I got back to the studio, we had eventually opened the studio. So we went through that whole, you know, process of getting the studio up and running. You know, I realized that we were really short of instructors, so I had the [00:09:00] opportunity to hire instructors from California to come out and support our studio to get, get our studio going. And so that's when I realized I had to go through this Pilates training sooner than later to help support the studios and of course, to just add on to what my original goals were were to continue to learn with different movement and different movement modalities. So yeah, that's, that's the long version of how I got to starting to teaching Pilates.

Olivia: Well, first of all, so much of what you said resonated that I'm gonna ask about it, but you're amazing. That's what an incredible journey and I've definitely been in that fitness space, like I came from yoga where it really is like, Ooh, what's this new thing that I can add that I can share with this client? So I totally see that. And like amazing on you going back to school and getting a degree, like Keisha. That's not easy to do after, well, it's not easy to do at all, but especially when [00:10:00] you have like a whole life is happening at the same time.

A lot of times I'll say that I had the easiest time with my yoga training and then my Pilates training because I didn't have a family or a job or other responsibilities 'cause I was a lot younger. But like that is so much work and like huge props to you for juggling all of those things.

And even bigger props is like, I know how hard it can be to start a movement journey when your body hurts and brain is not really helping you out and just like everything is tough. So like. I wanna like give you and your friend a hug because that accountability and having someone who's like doing it with you can be so hugely mo motivating. I mean, that's also part of group classes is that, hey, I'm gonna be here and you're gonna be here with 11 other people or 20 other people. Just keeping you accountable and kind of encouraging you and all going through it together. But what, what a wild journey. And [00:11:00] also I didn't know that you ever were general managing. Look at you like, how many hats can you wear, Keisha?

Keisha: I know, right? I figure the more you can fit underneath your belt, you know, the more experience you'll have, the more you'll be able to navigate everything in life a little bit better.

Olivia: I am like, oh my gosh. Like that's, that's incredible. So you became a teacher and like, how cool is it to, I've never been to the corporate offices of Club Pilates, so I'm a little bit jealous of you in more ways than one, but how cool.

So now you talk about putting more skills under your belt. Like not only are you managing the studio now, you're also able to teach in the studio. How long were you a teacher before you said, you know, I bet I could help teachers be teachers also?

Keisha: Yeah. So if I can touch on just a little bit about like, being in the studio and then what my teacher training was like. So we had, when we were opening the studio and we had these instructors from California come out and help support us. We also had a [00:12:00] master trainer from California come to Illinois and she facilitated a teacher training at our studio.

She came to teach an accelerated program. So typically our Club Pilates comprehensive training programs are, you have 12 in studio days, and with those 12 in studio days they would normally be on weekends and you would do about one or two weekends a month. So the training could span over two to three months.

But this training was accelerated, so we did all of the in studio days, in two weeks because she was traveling far. Yeah, so it was very intense. It was very overwhelming. I think what partially saved me with that, with you can relate to this, was the fitness background that I had. And also being a studio manager at the time and being in the studio, being present and listening to these amazing instructors at flew in from California, they were so knowledgeable. They were very well seasoned. It was [00:13:00] kind of like a support for me to kind of get through this training that I had to get through. And so along with those two weeks, I also had readings, of course, in our online program on Canvas to complete. There were assignments, there were class flows to create, quizzes online. It was just a lot of work to do. And, and then also I had to do like this little exercise library where I had to take a picture of myself doing an exercise or another person and writing down the description or everything that had to do with that exercise. You know, what's the starting position? What is the name of the exercise? What's the focus of the movement? What's the breath pattern with the movement? It was very time consuming, but very beneficial. And, and this is how I kind of learned. All of this in a short period of time. And so I got through everything in four months, which I don't [00:14:00] recommend to students today. They have a year to complete training, so I recommend that they take a while. If it takes 'em that year, that's good. But again, I think the fitness background that I had kind of saved me a little bit. And yeah, so that's kind of how I got to become a Pilates instructor and then just started teaching in that studio and I stayed there for about two years teaching.

Olivia: First of all, to do all your in studio days, which is like a hundred hours in two weeks. My brain would be leaking out of my ears. And I completely hear what you're saying because even though Pilates has its own nuances and its own intricacies, and especially the fact that when you're dealing with equipment, it's got equipment settings that you've gotta remember on top of all of that, but nice thing is that you had already been teaching movement, so like you already knew how to give people directions and get them to follow along with what you're saying. I've taken your classes, I've observed your classes, like you have such a great presence. So I [00:15:00] know that wasn't what you would need to focus on in your Pilates teacher training, but still that is a long time.

And when you say four months, like it, we all know that Pilates teacher training, there's in studio portions, but like you said, there's all of this outside assignments that you have to do and quizzes and anatomy, and then you have to do observation hours and practice teaching hours and self-practice hours and to do all of those. And every program's hour lengths are different, but it's usually somewhere between like 50 and a hundred of each of those hours in four months on top of managing studios. On top of like also being a human in the world and having, were you still training private clients private in your

Keisha: I,

Olivia: or did you shift to No. You were still doing that? Of course. You were course

Keisha: yeah, I, yeah, I had a, I had a few clients at the time. I did, you know, so I don't know. I guess I get my energy from being busy and I don't know if that's always a great thing, you know? And especially now that I'm getting older, I'm finding that I do [00:16:00] have to rest a little bit more than I did in the past. But I do kind of.

Olivia: oh.

Keisha: Yeah, I just kind of feed on being busy, so.

Olivia: And I think also when you're passionate about what you're doing, and you can tell from the second that you found those DVDs that like movement was important to,

Keisha: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: the benefits of movement is important to you. So I know that that can also fill your cup, even though you are incredible, Keisha.

So you've been teaching, now you're teaching Pilates, you're teaching in the studios. You've been doing it for a couple years. What was the jump? What was the nudge that said, you know what? I bet you could be a master trainer here and you could teach teachers to do the thing that you're doing.

Keisha: Yeah. So I think the point of me going to school and getting the degree was I knew that I wanted to do more than just be an instructor. I wanted to do more on like the [00:17:00] educational side, if you will. And so when our master trainer came from California, I was really influenced by her and the way that she conducted the trainings and all of her knowledge. She had a very similar background to what I had as a personal trainer. And so I saw how she conducted everything and how she was like, you know, grading our assignments in Canvas. And I was thinking to myself, oh wow, this would be something, you know, that I would like to do. So in my mind, 'cause that was my first few months of teaching after I graduated from the program. At that point, in the very beginning, I knew that this was something that I, I wanted to do. But I also knew that you had to have years of experience underneath your belt to do that. And so I, you know, I had a long journey from there to now with teaching at different studios, becoming more of like a travel [00:18:00] instructor.

I felt like where I lived was kind of centrally located. I was in Rockford at the time, so I was like an hour away from Madison, Wisconsin. And then I was 45 minutes or an hour away from many of the northwest suburbs, and then like an hour and 10 to 20 minutes from the city. So I, you know, was able to kind of, I, I made sure that everything made sense on paper and I was able to go ahead and commute and, and do teaching.

I did that for, you know, quite a few years, for about five years or so. And then when I was given the opportunity to come on to Chicago and work mainly at those studios, the studio owner that you and I work for presently now we kind of had a few chats about master training, and I know the one that was there, the master trainer that was at those studios before me had moved away.

So my journey was up to that point, I was nominated to become a master trainer, so I had to have that nomination from a [00:19:00] studio owner and then I had to fill out an application. And on the application, one of the questions asked, why do you wanna do this role? Why do you wanna become a master trainer? And my main reason for becoming a master trainer was to become a better instructor. That was really the only reason. And then the secondary reason was because I did want a little bit more admin work with my day-to-day duties as an instructor. So with that question, I thought to myself, if I become a master trainer, this is only gonna help me become a better instructor and this is gonna help me just perform my job better. It's gonna help me understand the body better and how different bodies move differently and just help me become more seasoned and, and really become the teacher that I, you know, really set out to be. So that was the main reason for becoming a, a master trainer.

Olivia: What the master trainer does is they're the ones who are delivering the teacher training to all of the people who've signed up to teacher [00:20:00] training. I know that you also travel when you do that. Like you said, you are going to Wisconsin, you are going, you are hanging out in parts of Illinois in the burbs and in the city. How do you, what is the process of becoming a master trainer outside of being nominated and then filling out your application? How does that work?

Keisha: Yeah, so you have to be teaching for five years or more. So you have to have five years of experience. And within that five years of experience, I believe it's about 4,700 hours of teaching that they want you to have. So that's, it's quite a bit. And so then after you're nominated, after you fill out an application, then you have to submit a video. And the video is not you teaching a class like we do in our everyday work, but it's you putting on that master trainer hat and teaching a group of people how to become teachers. And that in the very beginning is very hard to do. It's very hard to differentiate between me walking into a [00:21:00] studio and teaching a class and me walking into a studio with a bunch of students and showing them how they should be teaching a class.

So that video I think it, they wanted it to be about, if I can remember, about 10 or 15 minutes. And so I filmed that video like four or five times 'cause I wanted to get it just correct. And then after submitting the video, it is reviewed and they give you an evaluation form on things that you did well, you know, some glows and grows and things that you could improve on.

And then, I had an interview with corporate master trainers, so there's also master trainers that work for corporate in California and they, I guess, pretty much oversee all of the master trainers around the United States. Well, the world now, right? Because we know Club Pilates is global now.

So after that interview then you start, if, if you're accepted, you start the process by auditing in studio days. So those 12 in studio [00:22:00] days that I mentioned before, that master teachers host you have to go to one and you have to audit it. You have to audit all 12, four have to be in person. So of course I was just in Chicago and I audited the four in person. And then the remainder of the ones have to be audited by a master corporate master trainer. So you would just do that online on Zoom.

Now as far as the testing out process, that has changed quite a bit from when I became a master trainer. So I can only speak on what my testing out process was. But we had what we called a summit. It was a whole day that we spent and we tested out on Zoom. Because it used to be in person, but since COVID happened, summit went to more of an online format on Zoom, and I had a list of exercises on every piece of apparatus that I had to teach to my test body on [00:23:00] Zoom. So that was quite intimidating, right? I had to talk about everything about the exercise. I had to prove that I knew the movement, I knew the exercise, I knew the breath pattern, and that I knew what I was doing. And so after that test out process and after a person passes, it's real strenuous. It's a lot of work. It's not for everybody. You have to really focus on what you're doing and really make sure that this is what you wanna do, because the process to get there can be quite arduous, if you will. And so after you pass that, then you're onboarded. And once you're onboarded, then you can start facilitating programs. So that's pretty much how I started the whole process.

Olivia: That it sounds like a really tough and demanding process, but also I'm glad that it is because, you know, you are shaping the next generation of Pilates teachers [00:24:00] and so I know that, like you said, it takes a very specific person and a very detail oriented person to stay on top of all of that stuff. But I know we're very lucky to have you in Chicago and we're very glad that you went through that. Because I love working with trainees that you have trained where I'm teaching at CP.

Keisha: Well, thank you.

Olivia: So you went through lots of evolutions in your teaching. Where you started and you came from personal training and group fitness, and then you added onto Pilates, and then you really doubled down and Pilates became your game. How have you seen your teaching change from when you were just like baby Keisha? Oh, what I would pay to see you teaching some of like your early Pilates classes, you know, and like, how has that changed, maybe leading up to becoming a master trainer and even after becoming a master trainer? How does your teaching evolve?

Keisha: Yeah, so rewinding back to when I was going through my teacher training [00:25:00] program at that time I had to complete a video to become an apprentice. So I was an apprentice for a very short time before I was actually certified as an instructor. I still have that video and I go back and I watch it often, but of course it's very cringey and I just, I'm like, oh my goodness, you know, I can't believe I said that. I can't believe I cued that. I can't believe I did that. But watching that, I, I force myself to watch it because it teaches me a lot about myself. One thing that I noticed that I have progressed in is I started taking the focus off of myself and taking the focus off of my anxiety and my feelings when I'm teaching and putting that energy into the people that I'm teaching. So not getting too caught up on when I, you know, made mistakes or get caught up when I cued the exercise incorrectly, but paying more attention to just the bodies in front of me and making [00:26:00] sure they were moving correctly. So taking myself out of the equation and putting myself in their shoes and realizing that if I was taking a class. I would want the instructor to just focus on me. I see how I've evolved over time by just focusing on other people and taking the focus off of myself.

And then two, Pilates is a language, as we know. It's a language in itself. And in order to be a good instructor, we have to learn that language and, and be fluent in it. But because it's a language, others may not understand it. Right. Especially those who are new to the movement. So I thought to myself that I wanna make it a universal language. I wanna make it in a way where anyone who comes to my class for the first time and have never been on a reformer before or the mat before can hear my cues and follow along with 'em.

I look back on that first video and I look to see and listen to how I said things that just really didn't make sense at the time. But now I feel like I've [00:27:00] evolved into a better instructor by just taking this Pilates language and making it very simple for everyone to understand.

Olivia: I think that's a powerful shift that you described because especially when you're a new teacher. There is so much in your brain like you're thinking about all of the things that you know about the exercise and the breath and the equipment settings and the choreography what comes next and what already happened, and didn't that person say they had a shoulder thing that you have to like keep an eye on. There's so much that you're working on, it can be really easy to get stuck in yourself. And, and also if you're the type of person who beats yourself up when you make a mistake or you slip up or you say the wrong spring, like it can become like a little tornado of self doubt and you're always looking in. And to be able to, I don't know if loosening the reins is the right analogy, but be able to like let go of that so that you can focus on your [00:28:00] goal, which is the people in the room and them doing their best and guiding them to be, know, the best, strongest, even if it's just 1% better than the last time you saw them. Like, that is not an easy thing to do, but I think an important step that you have to take as a teacher. Because the connection that we have with the people we're teaching is really paramount.

And that as someone who is also a bit more of an anxious person, like that was a big wrestling match for myself as well too, and also to realize that it's not about you. And like it that became my mantra was like, no one cares about you. No one cares if you stumbled over this thing. Like you course correct as soon as possible and you keep the class going forward. We are often our hardest critics as well.

Keisha: Yeah, absolutely we are. But yeah, we have to get out of that. Right? And, and just empathy is the word, right? Empathy, put ourselves in [00:29:00] other people's shoes and, and just realize we will get better with time. If you're a new instructor, it just takes time and it takes being patient with yourself and just taking one day at a time.

Olivia: Definitely. And there was something else that you said about making the language of Pilates clear for everyone because that can be a really high barrier to entry for some people. If you go in real hard on the muscle names or real hard on the anatomical terminology, which is very accurate, not wrong to say it, but to someone who doesn't know where their hamstrings are- and to us, we're like, of course. Hamstrings. Everyone knows where their hamstrings are, but everyone does not in fact know where they are or what they do.

So to take Pilates, which is already very, can be very complicated with all of the equipment and all of the choreography and all of the breath, to demystify it so that someone who is brand new can enjoy [00:30:00] it enough to wanna do it again. Like I think especially when you're teaching new people, like you want them to feel challenged, but you don't want them to feel like, oh my gosh, I'm never gonna be able to do this. We want them to be able to do it. We want them to be able to come back and improve and try again. So I love demystifying it and making it clear to everyone.

Keisha: Yeah. To add with that, I just remember one of my mentor master trainers always said that if you speak baby talk, everyone will be able to understand you. So it doesn't have to be, you know, this, like you mentioned, a lot of anatomical cues. It could just be simple cues, stand up, sit down, turn around, reach your arm to the right.

You know, of course we do wanna use some anatomical terms so that people know that we, you know, know that information. But when we do use those terms, we should always be explaining them. You know, like if we're gonna tell someone to lay down, we could say [00:31:00] something like, let's lay supine on the mat on our back.

You know, just making that language very simple for everyone to understand. And when I started taking Pilates in a studio I, and it was more of a classical studio that I had went to, there were a lot of terms that I didn't quite understand, you know, and I said to myself, when I start teaching or get better experience, I wanna make sure that I'm talking in a way where everyone can understand.

Olivia: I think that also speaks to your passion for the education side as well, is that like we're Pilates teachers, like the goal is that we're teaching what we're doing. We're not just robotically taking people through this exercise. Like we're really helping them deepen their understanding with the movement, with their body, with how, you know, these things work together. so finding a way to, to balance, because you know also when you're teaching group classes, especially, there are people who are [00:32:00] total anatomy nerds and they're like, yes, tell me every single muscle that has ever existed and is ever part of this exercise. And then there's people who are like, I don't care about the muscles. I'm just here to work out.

Keisha: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: Someone who's like, I just need to breathe and move really slow. Like we're dealing with so many people. So having the skill to get everyone on the same page, even when people have different things that interest them is a real talent.

Keisha: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Olivia: So you see new teachers all the time. That is like, I mean, you also have set classes, which we love. But what is your biggest advice when you're dealing with new instructors? Like what if, what little tidbits of gold wisdom do you share with them when they go off into the Pilates teaching world?

Keisha: Yeah. Well, it will sound a little cliche, but I think the first thing that comes to mind is just to be yourself and don't try to be anyone else. Of course, we have our favorite instructors who we adore. I know I [00:33:00] have mine. When I was teaching in my first studio, there was an amazing instructor that I would listen to all the time, and I thought to myself, if only I could teach like her. And I do feel like I picked up a lot of cuing and patterns and ways on how she would teach. And that's good because that's kind of what we want to do, but we don't want to try to be exactly like them because we're not that person, right? So take what we like from our favorite instructors and implement that into our style, and definitely show our personality.

I was listening in on one of your classes, Olivia, that you were teaching. This was probably a, a while back, maybe a year or so ago, and I think I was in the private room with maybe, another instructor, and I was listening to the way you taught, and it was just, I was like, oh my goodness, I love how she's delivering this. I [00:34:00] loved the little bit of sense of humor that I, you know, heard come outta you and how engaging you were. And I just was like, oh my goodness. So you pick up on themes from other people, but you still have to show your own personality.

And then another piece of advice is focus on the basics. Everything to me comes down to just like the very basics, the foundations of movement and not getting caught up on what's trending or even getting caught up on, oh, I taught this last week. The members are gonna know and they're gonna think that I'm always repeating. No, members don't always know. They don't memorize the class plan that you have. And so sometimes it's us that's getting a little bit bored with our class plans. But the pitfall to that is trying to come up with new things that are, that could be a little risky. Right. Or things that we think are exciting to teach and to show other people. [00:35:00] So just make sure we're sticking with the foundation with the basics and not doing anything that we haven't tried in our own bodies or doing anything that you know, potentially could be harmful to someone just because we want to make it more creative.

Another piece of advice is just clear and concise cuing, you know, just make sure that we're, we're speaking in a way where everyone can understand what we're saying. But more important I think, is practice, practice, practice. Cue in front of the mirror, even though I know that can be painful. Cue by hitting your voice recording recorder on your phone and hear yourself say these cues. Cue yourself when you're practicing these movements in your bodies, it's important to feel these movements so that you know how to cue someone, where to engage, how to breathe so they can get the most, the maximum out of that movement. You can never do too much practice because you know, practice will get you where you really wanna be.[00:36:00] 

Olivia: And I think to your first point that you know, the more you practice, the more automatic the equipment settings are like. Even the way, like I have written out, my class plans has changed dramatically. When I first started, I was writing literally every word I was going to say, like a script, and now I could shorthand it or you know, I don't write down the spring settings of things. I just know that this is the springs for the things, and that comes through practice. And because the more you practice, the more that stuff becomes automatic, the easier it is to be yourself because you're not panicked about all of the information that you're trying to deliver. You'd know that like the back of your hand so your personality can come through.

Sense of humor is huge for me. And I love always clear, concise cues and focusing on basics because that's where it all comes from. Like my personal thoughts about Pilates as an exercise system is that every exercise is a big spectrum. That for a plank, it's everything from a wall plank [00:37:00] to doing a handstand and doing pushups in your plank. You know, like it's all on this spectrum. And so getting really comfortable with someone isn't getting what you're doing, that you see where you can go in either direction, because you'll also have people in class who are rock stars and you're like, great, let's keep going in that case. But then you'll have people who are like, Ooh, we call it our audition plank, where it's like the first plank that you do in class that if that's looking a little wackadoo, then we're probably not gonna take that into single leg, single arm bird dog plank pushups. Like, that's probably not what's happening in this class, and that's fine. So getting comfortable with. Well, what is the important thing? If this whole big picture isn't working, what pieces can I focus on? How can I break this down and build this up so that everyone gets to be successful?

That's great advice. This is like gold. I have to have like a podcast episode that's just like, here's all of everyone's wonderful advice put

Keisha: Yeah.

Olivia: It's not cliche at all. Like it is practice. It [00:38:00] is not trying to be other people. Like I loved that. I think we all have instructors that we look up to that we want to emulate, but we can never be them. They're already being them. Like there's a great role for you and it's just you. 'cause you're the only one who can be you.

Keisha: Yeah. And people come to your class because of who you are. You know, they, they do enjoy your workouts, they enjoy your personality. And also remembering that there may be people who don't enjoy us, and that's okay too, right? Not that we're a bad instructor in any way, but just because, you know, personalities or styles, they may enjoy someone else.

So that's another piece of advice. Don't get offended, you know, if you have members who you know, don't necessarily like your style of teaching, and that's the beautiful thing about where we teach at Olivia, is that we have so many different instructors with different backgrounds and different styles.

I enjoy everyone because I try to take classes as much as I can, and so I'll pop in a class [00:39:00] and I absolutely love everyone's style. It's just kind of who I am. I feel like I can learn from everyone, and I also don't feel like Pilates should be a certain way. I feel like it should be several different ways.

So I like taking classes from several different people and just kind of feeling and, and experiencing what they have to offer.

Olivia: We're all teaching Pilates, but in some ways it's also deeply personal because the journeys that we've had, whether we've come from injuries or we've come from other movement modalities, those are superpowers that we can connect with the people in our class. So I know that whenever I have someone in class, or like when I teach the intro class, like that first time introductory class that people might take to try out the studio. If I see that someone else does yoga, I'm like, oh my gosh, I also do yoga. Like that's a point of connection. It's not like, well this is Pilates and we can only talk about Pilates. Pilates is for life, whether it's picking up your grandkids or improving your golf swing, like there's a way that Pilates can support you.

[00:40:00] I love that you said you can learn from everyone because you really can. Like there could be a cue or a little, you know, around the world series or sometimes, you know, instructors have different focuses. Some people are like really into the breathing or really into, you know, this muscle group or whatever, and they just show you different ways. And everything that we learn, we can turn around and share. That, I think is so important, especially like when you have a community of teachers, because we all have teaching superpowers.

Keisha: Yeah, exactly. And just, I just thought about my master trainer. Her background was personal training, just like mine was. And so because of that, I felt like our styles were similar. You know, she kind of taught with more of a little bit of an athletic fling, and so I just think it's just so nice to be able to be an environment where you can just learn from everyone and everyone is trained differently and you can pick up on those different things to help you become a better instructor.[00:41:00] 

Olivia: It's like we get to be the best of everyone. You know, we get to share and share the things that resonate with us and the things that really, helped us experience it sometimes, because we'll be teaching someone and it feels like they're just hitting a wall. Maybe it's an exercise like the rollup or teaser and it's just not coming. And having all of these different tricks and ways to approach an exercise that you've heard from other teachers or that you felt in your own body is so fabulous and wonderful.

Is there anything else that you wanna share or anything that you're working on or what's next for you? Ways that people can hang out with you? I'll definitely link to your Instagram so people can hang out, out your classes as well. But anything else you wanna share?

Keisha: Yeah, I mean, just on a personal note, I'm newer to the city here, so I'm hoping to spend the summer really like enjoying the city and finding my way around. But also as far as [00:42:00] work is concerned I. I'm wanting to start creating different workshops, and I think one of the workshops that I wanna start working on is imposter syndrome and feeling inadequate when it comes to the work that we do. I think that would be helpful for newer instructors because there's a lot that happens when you're a new instructor. You're not only learning the exercises, but you also sometimes, unfortunately, are comparing yourself to instructors that have been teaching for a long time and that's not always fair to do, but it is just something I know that I did and something that I hear some of my students talk about as well. So just kind of creating some type of workshop series for them to help them understand that, you know, these are some feelings that you might go through, you might deal with, and here are some ways and some avenues that we can kind of get around that. And some practical things that you can do to, you know, just try [00:43:00] to make yourself feel good as you're learning, as, as you're continuing to improve as an instructor. So that's one of the workshops that I'm thinking about diving into.

Olivia: I think that's gonna be fantastic because it is, and a lot of times it's in your own head and you are the one who's holding yourself back. But I think I that's gonna be such a great support to everyone who gets to take that workshop. I'm excited. I wanna take your workshop just 'cause I wanna hang out with you. No, that sounds fantastic.

And Keisha, thank you so much for sharing your experience and your journey. I think it's so important on the podcast to show that there is no one way that people become a Pilates teacher or how they exist in the Pilates industry and the little niche that everyone gets to carve out for themselves.

So thank you so, so much for taking the time and for sharing your journey and we'll definitely be on the lookout for your workshop. It's on the podcast now. It's written in stone. I'm so excited.

Keisha: Well, thanks Olivia. It's so fun being here with you today.

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