Dear Rebecca,
Whenever the course content is finalized for York, please let me know as I am resident in Sweden so it’s a lot easier for me to get to York rather than Seattle. I am a studio owner who thankfully is not suffering any loss of demand despite the recession. However I am in desperate need of some inspiration and have taken some of your workshops and courses in New York and England and even bought your DVD, all of which have been absolutely fabulous. I also log on to Pilates nun on a regular basis and thank you dearly for all the hours of writing and your dedication – you have no idea how one of your stories can mean that I have can have a clear focus each week for what I want to achieve with my clientele. YOU KEEP ME GOING. I thought it was important for you to hear that you are making a difference by yet another disciple 
I have my own little theory on what makes a successful Pilates studio which I hope you don’t mind me sharing.
My studio is run by me, cleaned by me, scheduled by me, financed by me – you get the picture. The studio is like my 3rd baby (4th if we include my husband but that’s another story!). All my clients have my mobile number and when they have a life crisis (sick kids, changed work meetings etc) they text/ring and I try to juggle the schedule around so that they all seem to manage regular training despite all the challenges life throws at them. I have reams and reams of notes written about each client, original case history, one liners week to week about extra niggles they may be coping with, details of what exercises they have/haven’t done, what does/doesn’t work. In this way, it means that I can just about cope with running the studio at a level I want. I reckon I have about 45 clients. I take a maximum of 3 in a session. They all work at their own pace, with me guiding each one through their program, giving extra personalized exercises to deal with their individual issues. In this way, the classes become affordable enough for most of them to be able to train twice a week in the studio (equipment and mat work combined within the session) and more importantly they all receive the benefit of the work.
Here’s the crunch point. I work 20-25 scheduled hours per week (which becomes a lot more when I include admin, note writing, planning, invoicing etc ) but I know that I can’t cope with one hour more. Not for the physical energy it takes but for the mental. The clients only choice of instructor is me (no I can’t have a sick day L). This means that if they don’t like or work well with me, they have already left. I haven’t had room to taken on a new client in 3 years (well apart from some people who I couldn’t resist – a bad scoliosis, a recovering breast cancer patient – you get the picture!). So my theory is that small and intimate will always win over large as in a big place it is easy for a client to disappear in a crowd rather than being seen as a whole (knowing their lifestyles, what’s going on with them etc) and surely when we are teaching Pilates and Pilates for every day, we need to see the’ whole’ client, not just notice what exercises she/he can/can’t do.
Well anyway, I need to know more and be inspired as my clients only have me, so please keep on writing and also please keep me informed of your workshops as I am determined to come to something before October this year so hope to see you soon.
Dear Leana,
You are just about the most soulful Pilates teacher I know! Thank you so much for writing, and I read your email today to the teachers who are in my Seattle studio this week for my Open Studio Week - you embody the success, satisfaction and dedication that I strive to help teachers achieve. I fear you don't need me at all!
Dear Rebecca,
I DO need you – in London you corrected my 15 years of less than perfect roll down!