Back to the phone lines.
Because I run a relatively high-tech business office in support of the studio, I have a 2 person IT staff and it was one of them who suggested I drop Qwest and go VOIP for my phone system. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and it means that as long as you have an internet connection, you’ll have phone lines. Because it runs off the internet, you can pretty much call anywhere and not pay what the land line providers call long distance charges. My current VOIP system is with Teleblend (Teleblend.com) and includes worldwide calling for less than $35 a month. London Calling? Geneva, can you hear me? Fabio in Venezia, I’ll be there for dinner on Tuesday! The world is mine with every lift of the cordless handset.
Compare that to the average $320 a month I used to spend for Qwest and you’ll see that greeting the online world of telephone communication can save you a boat load of money.
But back to my IT guys.
First, there’s Jason who handles all our in-studio and my on-the-road technology, support, development, training of me (perhaps his biggest challenge) and his mission in support of my mission, which is to fulfill Joe Pilates’ mission, is to find a way to accomplish what I imagine Joe would have wanted as far as easy and global access to information about his method.
In case you didn’t realize it, Joe Pilates was multimedia before there was multimedia! Film, thousands of photos of Joe and of his clients, books, flyers; Joe covered all the marketing and educational bases that existed during his time and I use his example in helping me guide the sharing of my interpretation of his work. Thinking of the many quotes from Joe about how positive he was that his method could help everyone and his stated frustration in reaching everyone, I’m certain he’d absolutely love the internet. The reason I began this website, PilatesNun.com, was to help me reach anyone who would reach back, joined in cyberspace by the power of Joe, the draw of his work and the desire of most enlightened teachers who are always interested in hearing another way to do it, a different perspective and to catch a glimpse into someone else’s use of the work.
So Jason and I work together in person when he needs to come in and fix something and we work together in person when he has to teach me how to use some new software or hardware he’s bought for us. I’ve got all our computers set up so that he can have remote access to them and because of that nifty feature, he can take over my system no matter where I am in the world and fix whatever it is I’ve done wrong. And I’m always doing something wrong.
When I first met with Jason to see if we thought we could work together, I told him I’m a heavy user, not a thorough understander. With the inauguration 2 days away, Since I don’t understand how all these software programs work, I’m not good at fixing them when they break.
Jason has keys to the studio and he knows our building, a 100 year old industrial loft conversion, inside and out. He rolls with ladders, tool boxes and a host of software and electronic diagnostics and although we’ve never timed him, my most frustrating problems are routinely solved within 5 minutes of him setting down his Red Bull, taking off his shades and unshouldering his nifty carry-alls (which, as someone with a lifelong bag fetish, I covet and which he sometimes sells to me when he’s done with them, which is quite often because of the few things Jason and I have in common, he also has a bag fetish so he churns through them faster than I do. I digress. Again.)
I consider Jason a stakeholder in my business because not only have I kept him involved in the development of my long range planning, goals and accomplishment protocols, he’s guided me all along the way. His IQ is 155 so he’s very used to going slowly and being really patient with his clients. What is my IQ? I wonder. Is that something I should know? Do you know yours? What’s yours?
Jason has a photographic memory and can remember the wiring on every system he’s installed. He just sees it, even years after having designed it. He’s designed networks for large businesses, assisted living facilities, churches, you name it. About the only imperfect thing about him is that he’s afraid of heights and occasionally I have to go up the ladder, me with one eye, lousy balance and a different kind of fear, not of falling but of wanting to jump – with Jason in the studio it’s never a dull moment! There’s just nothing about him that isn’t fantastic and really fun. We work great together and you should hear how crazy it sounds when he gets on the phone with Sean, my other IT guy.
It’s like they’re not speaking English. Jibberish, lots of letters and numbers, fast, really fast, and whenever they get together, it takes about 2 minutes to fix my worst problems.
I found Sean through my work with the Lakewood Winter Club, a figure skating club based in Lakewood, Washington. I was their in-rink Pilates teacher for over 3 years, driving in truly horrible traffic that I had to allow 2-1/2 hours one way to get through those 67 miles south on I5, to get to the rink for twice weekly classes. One of the skaters, Erin, had an older brother who was in the Seattle Art Institute studying graphic design and web development. She gave me his number and the rest is history.
I’ve only met Sean once. He’s worked for me since 2002. If I could find a man to marry using this same frequency-of-contact format, I’d happily relinquish my habit and retire from being a Nun! I digress!
Sean is my web developer and my graphic artist and the first project he worked on for me was the redesign of my studio logo from the one I sketched and had polished by another graphics guy and used when I first opened. That original logo lasted about a year and then I realized I didn’t like some of the right angles of it and instead of sketching out another version, I talked to Sean about it, telling him stories about me, our clients, our studio and what I’m trying to accomplish and when he sent me drafts of what he’d come up with, the first round contained a keeper. We still use it today and I love it more every year.
Sean revamped my studio website, the text of which has been only slightly updated with our educational qualifications since I first launched it in 2001. This proves, without a doubt, that you can have a monstrous quantity of information on your site and if you do it right the first time, you won’t have to touch it substantively for, well, years at a time. Of course, it helps that we haven’t discovered a second spine or a 3rd hip socket; my site content has to do with static subjects so it’s easy to leave it be. Yours can too, so don’t think having a site requires frequent maintenance.
Before asking Sean to design the Nun logo, we once again talked at length about what I was trying to accomplish by creating her. The story of the birth of the Pilates Nun is one I’m often asked to tell, and I’ll eventually get around to putting that up on the site (on the to-do list for the flight to York in March?) but until then, just know (Mary Bowen, are you hearing me?) that the Pilates Nun doesn’t have anything to do with Joe & Clara’s religious views or with mine, she has to do with offering assistance to all, regardless of lineage, level of education, status in the industry or any other factor that some choose to use to separate us. The Pilates Nun unites all those wishing to be joined.
I adore the Pilates Nun logo Sean designed. And here’s something that, upon first glance, I realized was proof positive he was on target. It’s her feet. They’re my feet. But they’re not my feet.
Although Sean has never seen my feet, the Getty image he chose for the Nun body has feet so similar to mine that when Sister Sidekick Heidi, who has seen my feet about a million times, first saw it, she yelled “he Photoshopped your feet, too!” thinking he must have because her feet are my feet. But they’re not.
Several times I’ve called Sean, who lives in Bellingham, Washington, just about 90 minutes north of Seattle up on the Canadian border, and told him we have to add a tool belt to the Nun or give her a broom and dust-bin-on-a-stick because I feel like I’m helping to clean things up for people using all sorts of tools that would easily slip into a carpenter’s tool belt. I usually call Sean with these suggestions soon after I’ve talked with Ron Fletcher, who I adore and admire and respect beyond all reason, and who I repeatedly assure that he must not worry about the future of the industry because I’m out there with a whole bunch of others dedicated to cleaning up the confusion, fixing the problems and helping the masses. After talking to Ron, I get all worked up about my mission and especially the Nun site, and I start to think it would be a good idea to tweak the Nun logo
Sean always listens patiently and Sean always says he understands why I think we should add a tool belt but Sean always ends up saying that Nuns don’t wear tool belts, carpenters do. And Sean always listens patiently about why I think we should add a broom and dust bin but Sean always ends up saying that Nuns don’t sweep up, janitors do. Sean gently reminds me that I’m not a carpenter. Sean gently reminds me that I’m not a janitor. Sean gently reminds me that the Nun is perfect just like she is and I always end up agreeing.
I was the Pen Sponsor at the Pilates Method Alliance educational conference last year and when I called Sean with the Pilates Nun pen design project, we had so much fun talking about it that I knew the pen was going to be fantastic. And it is. Here’s a blow up of the design that appears in the barrel of the pen.
The Nun image floats in clear fluid, gently rising and falling (just as I do) from the bottom to the top and back down again. Our conversation lasted about 30 minutes and I told Sean I wanted a church theme with Joe in the stained glass window and the center aisle to look like my studio. He had to jam all that into the tiniest of vertical space and he did a rock star job. We also sell them for $6 each; they’re from Denmark and in addition to the design and production costs, I had to pay for shipping. There’s less than 25 cents profit in that price, people. You just can’t make any money on pens. Especially Nun pens.
The great news is they’re a huge hit, I hear from people every week or so about how much they love their pens and people even asked if I would have posters of the Nun image and the Pen image made up so they could put them up in their studios. What fun!
Sidenote: I had originally wanted a Nun stripper pen, you know the ones where the girl in the bikini turns into the naked girl when you turn the pen upside down? Well, I wanted the Nun to go from full habit to old fashioned underwear but it turns out the graphic requirements in the layout of it were way too difficult with the outline of the bodies having to match perfectly. Hopefully one day I’ll get my stripper Nun pen. For now, it’s on Sean’s list of problems to solve.
But, I do think I’ve prevailed on one design element. Sean should be working on an over the top bling necklace for the Nun, like the huge crosses the priests and rappers wear, only for the Nun, hers is going to be a huge bling’d out necklace with a huge bling’d out pendant that’s a silhouette of Joe doing a Teaser. I’d like that in blood red rubies with tons of diamond baguettes all around, and I’d also like a blood red collar on my habit. I’ve asked for these things for years and I still do not have them. Sean did give me red lips but no red collar, no bling Joe Teaser.
I just bought Photoshop and God help us all if I actually find the time to learn how to use it. That’s all I have to say on this matter.
Sean is a sponsored snowboarder, he’s a kite sailor and he spends months a year in Hawaii riding waves and on Mt. Baker boarding. But he’s still available to me almost every day. He crashed his mountain bike into a tree a couple of years ago and spent a week in intensive care, several more weeks in the hospital and he had to take several months off of all his superman sports. He had internal injuries in addition to the usual external ones but he’s young, super strong and fit and everything has healed beautifully and he’s back to full activity, thank the good Lord.
Sean keeps my 5 websites running and he developed every aspect of the WorldWidePilatesMat.com video site which still confounds me, has cost many thousands of dollars on the front end but which runs with virtually no glitches on the back end in spite of it being a hot bed of screw-up potential. Sean’s currently in the process of replacing the back end on the Nun site, switching me over to an admin program that will make it easier for me to post photos and will make it possible for me to post video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a film worth? We’ll find out.
To pay these guys, I give them a bunch of money at a time and they just work through it, sending me invoices every month or so in Jason’s case and twice a year in Sean’s case. Sean bids by the design project and his site maintenance rate is about $25 an hour. Jason charges $35 an hour because he’s unbelievably kind; his larger business clients pay far more. Working with them both couldn’t be easier. Both believe in my mission and are hugely responsible for my online presence and success.
Without them, there is no me!
And without you, there is no them!
Jason was the one who, 2 years ago, encouraged me to get away from Qwest and the VOIP provider he was using then was Sunrocket. Within days of making the switch, Sunrocket closed, without warning, without any information on their website, without any explanation on their outgoing phone messages. Their lines rang unanswered. Their site was down without explanation. Jason freaked out and so did I, for just a little while.
A post on this site, Our Phones Are Down, Her Cancer is Back, tells about how I was able to keep perspective during that stressful time. Two years later, it hardly seems like it was worth the fuss.
For the past 2 years, we’ve continued to be listed in the paper phone books that come thudding onto our doorsteps, relics of a time gone by, stubbornly clinging to ways and tools almost obsolete. Who uses them anymore? Nobody we know.
But every 6 months or so, when Dex or the Verizon book would come crashing onto our front step, I’d check the Pilates listing in the yellow pages to see if we still survived on paper. And we did right up until the brand new January 2009 Verizon book.
We now, finally and officially, do not exist. At least according to the Verizon phone book.
Last Tuesday night after mat, we had a small class of exactly 2 extraordinary clients who I immediately put on Reformer and, in addition to a well rounded intermediate routine, taught them a lovely sampling of advanced exercises ending in a brisk Jump Board. Chelsey, our fabulous Google Girl and video producer/technician, was in for her weekly private which happens at the same time I’m teaching mat, so after class and Chelsea’s private, and as usual, we were all gabbing and laughing and squealing and before we knew it, as Heidi did the day’s dishes (full kitchen in the studio, which is one big room with no dividing walls) we ended up opening a couple bottles of white, poured heavy into our powder pink crystal Franciscan wine glasses and settled into the leather couches and zebra chair for some après’ Pilates, Rebecca-style.
Chelsea asked Jennifer how she found our studio and Jennifer said that she'd found us online. Jennifer said, in addition to our site, she’d found studio sites that were full of misspellings, insufficient content, information about old classes (cob website!) and some that were just so difficult to navigate or displeasing to her masters-in-design aesthetic, that she discounted them, out of hand, or should I say, out of mouse.
I took the opportunity to tell them that we had finally dropped out of the phone book and I was surprised by their immediate and vigorous response . . . they congratulated me and even applauded!
So we’re out of the book but we’re doing fine.
We just got a wonderful new client who found us online, during our initial phone conversation I told her the difference between my studio and she’d been working her way through a long list of studios, having already called a bunch of them, and her search not only ended with us but she’s booked for 2 privates with Heidi a week for the next 3 months and she even gave me a ride home the other night in her fabulous Mini Cooper when I had to take a cab to the studio because some idiot had parked across my driveway and I had a huge heavy cardboard box full of Pilates Excel materials I had to take home from the studio to my apartment so I could shove them into my 2 overweight checked bags and it took over 3 hours for the tow truck to arrive to tow that idiot away and when I just happened to walk out onto my front door landing to gaze onto Dexter Avenue as if by waiting there I could somehow pull the tow truck to me, there it was, cruising by with the driver looking up at me wondering if he was in fact at the right place and I waved and he nodded, went on by, turned around and came back and hauled that idiot’s Audi away and just as he was pinching the tires with his huge mechanical claws I yelled for Jimmy who was over to help me pack to come out onto the landing and the tow truck driver yelled up to Jimmy and I that people either love him or hate him and we yelled “we love you!” And we do, we did, and I cannot tell you the immense satisfaction I feel when I see those idiots’ cars towed away. Living on a busy street, this scenario plays out several times a month. I hate living on Dexter. I’m moving at the end of January. I hugely digress!
Back to the advantages of VOIP.
I still have family and friends in Florida and when the big storms roll through and their power goes out and all manner of calamity breaks forth, almost all of them maintain internet service. If you go VOIP and live in an area that experiences frequent power outages, you probably already have a generator and if you don’t, you need one so get one. Chances are your VOIP will work when your land line company will be sending union workers to repair downed lines. How 1980s.
The future is now so get ahead of yourself and then let me know how it’s going.
And can someone, anyone, please tell me how, exactly, it's possible that I've written over 3400 words about phone lines and IT guys. How? I ask you.
And finally, here's a shot of Jennifer as she jumped into the belly jiggler, in spite of the fact that she has no belly, no belly at all, and she flipped the on switch which caused a brown out in Burien but provided us all with wild delight. This was Tuesday night after our advanced Reformer mat class, white wine and great conversation. It was another fantastic day in my studio life.
