Travel Smarter

August 6th, 2010

When people join Fitness Pro Travel and utilize the teaching vacation program brought to the community by Fit Bodies,

Fitness Pro Get-A-Way

Train In The Tropics

Inc., they most often go through the necessary steps in order to save a buck or two on a great vacation. That buck or two is actually is often more than a thousand.

Everyone likes to save money on travel and vacation, fitness professionals are no exception.

I want to point out a couple methods today that will take that all-inclusive vacation for the fit pro and more than double the savings.  These are often overlooked, but are simple, costs little to nothing, and are available to you at all times.

Multi-Week Teaching Vacation Booking - While the weekly fees remain consistent for each resort, the relative expense of the overall trip goes down with multiple weeks booked.  This is likely obvious to most and is done frequently, but worth a mention/reminder.
Airfare for yourself and a guest is often around $1000 round trip. Booking a teaching vacation for one week spreads this expense over the 7 days. That would be about $143 per day.  When you book a second teaching vacation week you not only get what I fill is a full vacation time, but you also still spend only the same amount on travel.  Over 14 days that averages to $71 per day.
If you and your guest are traveling to one of the family resort locations and you are vacationing with a couple of children, this travel expense savings/value is even more dramatic.

Benefits of Joining FPT Groups – Every member account with Fitness Pro Travel is able to join one group. Premium accounts may join many.  The benefits that comes from group membership can vary depending upon the specific group.  When you join one of the Fit Bodies resort location groups you are setting yourself up for potential savings.  Often discounts are offered specifically to group members or potentially access to a special opportunities.  Simply click on the tab at the top of each page to display all group options.
**When you sign up for a group, you are required to remain in that group for 60 days before your account is allowed to leave and join another.
**Members of the Medallion and Enterprise groups receive 5% and 10% discounts on all items separate of travel found within the Fitness Pro Travel site.  (certain trainings that equates to several hundred dollar discount)

I encourage you to get active in the community to take advantage of the many benefits and suggest you take advantage of these two simple steps to ensure you receive the best value when you take your all-inclusive teaching vacation.

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Tags:
Posted in Working Vacations | No Comments »

Teaching Vacations in the Network

July 3rd, 2010

We’ve been spending a bit of time trying to make more clear the Fit Pro Network and all the activities that happen there vs. the Fit Bodies Travel Program which is a stand alone as well as significant member/partner in the Fit Pro Network.

So, as you travel in and out of your FPT account, reviewing events, posting articles, reading articles, searching classifieds, joining or starting groups, networking, blogging, more more more…. You may notice that we are working harder to add distinction to this outstanding travel program.

One step that is now being taken is the weekly video cast being provided by Suzelle, owner of Fit Bodies, Inc.  When you login and go to Suzelle’s account, you can view her blogs which hold these informative video on many of the insider secrets of travel exchange in the Caribbean.

Here is last weeks specifically on travel to the Dominican Republic:

The teaching vacation is a great program that can save you and your family financially and bring you to some of the greatest Caribbean destinations available.  I met Suzelle and her company while on a teacher exchange program back in 2001 and am happy for all members of our Fit Pro Network that her programs are available and offered within the network.

Login to FPT and leave Suzelle a comment so these short informative video continue to roll.

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Tags: , ,
Posted in Working Vacations | 1 Comment »

Fitness in Dominican Republic Resorts

April 30th, 2010

To answer questions about the teaching vacation programs, Lisa Ownes staff at Fit Bodies, is taking a tour through their

Lisa Ownes - Fit Bodies Staff

contracted Dominican Republic Resorts.  While making this tour, teaching at various resorts, and meeting management staff, Lisa is collecting pictures, video and writing a blog to share and answer questions along the way.

This is a guest post of one of those blogs from yesterday… To follow her blog in full, log into your Fitness Pro Travel account and search for Fitness Instructor Lisa Owens.  Her account blog has the full story.

**************

Sanctuary grace to Dreams Punta Cana excitement

Yesterday we moved from Secrets Sanctuary relative solitude and grace to excitement and socialization of Dreams Punta Cana

It’s true; I am traveling just like any of you fitness professionals would be traveling.  Yesterday Secrets Sanctuary went from 30% occupancy to 100% occupancy and my room was needed.  I was Bumped.  Bummer?  Nah.  But I did offer to stay and sleep on my balcony!

I was told we are going to be moved to another resort just before my 9:30am yoga class.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Working Vacations | 3 Comments »

I -LIKE- FaceBook Social Plugins

April 22nd, 2010

FaceBook has come out with a new initiative that any website owner should be aware of.  Any time one of the top two visited sites on the entire internet comes out with a new initiative, everybody should pay attention.

LONDON - FEBRUARY 03: (FILE PHOTO) In this ph...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Our own social media community at Fitness Pro Travel certainly keeps an eye on what this big boy, with hundreds of programmers and a near infinite budge is up to.

As an independent fitness professional or fitness business of any type (or again, any

business of any type) with a web presence, the Social Plugins via FaceBook can go a long ways in keeping your offering near the front of peoples interests.  And, more importantly it places your offering/website in front of the friends & connections of those who “Like” your stuff.

Not necessarily a sales pitch, but an invitation to your front door which they may follow if the interest in more is tweaked.

I’m just beginning to experiment with some of these tools beginning with the “Like” button.  I’ll have one added somewhere on the right border of this site before I post this if you want to take a look… feel free to click away as well.

I’ve also already begun to add these small like buttons to the individual resort pages for those sites Fit Bodies contracts with and offers for teaching vacation opportunities at Fitness Pro Travel.

Check those out by going to the “Travel Spots” area of the site, clicking on the details page for the resorts you’ve been to.  Then click the “like” button for the particular resort to automatically let the next visitor to the page know that you thought that resort rocked.

…From the business stand point –

  • The visual list of people who “like” the content on the page (in the above case, the resort) now have a visual social proof via a personal “like” endorsement.
  • You also have the benefit of an automatic status update being placed on the Wall of the person who just stated that they “liked” your stuff.  Now their friends and connections are also seeing that endorsement with a link right back to your page.

The “like” clickers will have to be or have to become FaceBook members.  This is a continuation of an overwhelming title wave toward FaceBook being the online social connections & interests leader.  I’m ok with that endorsement as it does bring some sense of order around the individual to the internet and provides a great opportunity to gain endorsements, testimonials, and social proof for that which makes up my online presence.

Don’t be late on being part of the Face Book Interest Barometer initiative.  Utilize a FaceBook Social Plugin soon.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , ,
Posted in Fitness Business | No Comments »

Fit Pro Network Activities

April 19th, 2010

Been busy not only transitioning kids into all their Spring sports, but also settling fffeverything into place with the changes at the Fit Pro Network Site.

While the kids are settled, FPT is a ever evolving project… Love IT.

So, there are several new things going on. None big enough to necessarily warrant a catch up notice to the entire community. But, they are worthwhile and I figured I’d offer the information out to those of you who have joined this “Biz Mailing List” and visit this blog.

New FPT Twitter Account:

@FitProTravel now exists on Twitter. If you play with the birds on that site I encourage you to connect to that account as there are bits and pieces that are mentioned there often that will keep you up to date on travel information and opportunities.

Zoetry @ $300 SALE – Opportunity for additional 10% off:

Fit Bodies is having an insane special in an attempt to get our Mind/Body professionals to give these highend resorts a try. This is a nice savings that can be put toward airfare and on top of that…

When you join the Zoetry Group at FPT you are provided a 10% purchase discount that can be used on top of the sale price. A great reason to join this and other Groups… see below.

New Tennis Instructor Position at NOW RESORT:

Just today was added a new opportunity to the Fitness Pro Travel community. The NOW Resort, which was described by Suzelle simply as WOW! has added this tennis instructor position to the existing Group Fitness OR Yoga OR Pilates position.

Check out the NOW Travel Spots page for more info on this awesome resort.

FPT Network Membership (COUPON):

I have been working hard to make the case that there is great value in upgrading to premium membership for any fitness professional. There are several benefits that come with the premium accounts, the best of which will be different for many of us.

Having jumped in the Free Tutorial or not, Module 3 provides several of the top reasons for an upgrade (In my view)… It also contains a discount that’s good for those going through the tutorial.

I am making that discount available to those of you viewing this until the end of the month (last of April). That’s 20% off the price of any account level.

==> View Module 3 <==

There you have it…

Several small updates that are going on. I hope they find you well and enjoying a healthy fitness business/career. Connect with us, enjoy a discount trip, and check out Module 3 of the training.

The network is nearing very quickly the 10,000 Fit Pro mark.

The value of our connections grows daily and I encourage you to join in and participate using the many features beyond the travel opportunities. My goal is that your career/business runs efficiently and effectively, so you can enjoy more of those awesome teaching vacations…. Upgrade to Enterprise and 30 minutes of my time, dedicated to your optimal use of the network is part of the deal.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , ,
Posted in Working Vacations | No Comments »

Grow My Fitness Business

April 1st, 2010
Personal trainer showing a client how to exerc...
Image via Wikipedia

Early this morning I sent out an email to 8000+ fitness professionals highlighting a friend of mine who teaches fit pros how to “Grow My Fitness Business”.

It was a relatively long email compared to what I like to burden our Member Fit Pros with normally ;-) , but I did want to spend some time expressing why I felt this program would be worth a good look.

The program is called “System 5” and was developed by Chris Fernandez. http://tinyurl.com/System5-FitProTravel

I’ve personally spent time speaking with Chris by phone and going through multiple webinars from his program.  I’ve also been through similar programs and am very comfortable suggesting Chris’ as one of the best.  Organized, accurate, and related to the fitness industry.

Chris also is tweaking his program as well as customizing it just for our fitness professional community.  Special content is being generated just for our network along with key additions and angles that make System 5 appropriate for more than just the personal trainer.

Group Instructors, Yoga Instructors, Tennis Coaches, Dietitians, or Chiropractors… System 5 can provide you the edge if you want to grow my fitness business.

Besides the tweaking to meet the needs of all our members he also agreed to provide a couple sample webinars that could be viewed without obligation (at least the first one).

This is what I had primarily emailed to the group about.  A free webinar for those who want to learn a few keys that will help them grow their fitness business.  Even without a business but within a fitness career, there are elements that will help you excel.

BTW – I’ve talked to you previously about Affiliate Marketing.  I have set up with Chris an affiliate relationship. To get the last 2 (still free) webinars you’ll have to register, and yes I do get a commission if you ever decide to purchase System 5, but this product is one of the best of it’s kind for the Fitness Pro so I had to share.

Definitely worth a free check.  AND definitely something I hope to hear back on from those of you who check it out.  I know Chris will provide any feedback/answers from that webinar page.  I will do the same from here if you have something for me.

Check it out Here ===>  http://tinyurl.com/System5-FitProTravel

Besides the fact that I know the quality and work ethic Chris is putting into his program and how that can equate to financial benefit to you, I do have a slightly skewed reasoning for encouraging you to run the program.

I believe it will only continue to benefit our network as the membership becomes aware and then proficient in the many activities you can do there as well as outside on your own.  Blogging, use of Forums, and Networking in a fitness industry only community alone can bring great benefit.

When you also learn how to leverage the authority of being an “International Presenter” for gaining students, athletes or clients… Well, I believe you’ll have just one more reason to enjoy the travel program.

As you better understand affiliate marketing and how simple it is to utilize across the internet you’ll find the ease to use your Fit Pro Travel account affiliate referral program and we’ll grow the network even faster.

And, as you put the many skills locally, on-line, and internationally together… you will generate more income… and ultimately want to spend more time traveling to more of the luxurious properties offered by Fit Bodies within the Fitness Pro Travel site.

Are you ready to “Grow My Fitness Business?“

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Posted in Fitness Marketing | 1 Comment »

Travel Based Marketing – Celebrity Retreat

March 13th, 2010

I recently came across a short blog post “Sailing the Seven Seas with your favorite rock star on a fan appreciation cruise” highlighting the joys of cruising and hanging out with your favorite rock stars.  That’s rock stars or substitute with celebrity of your choice doing some similar travel based marketing event.

Be The Fit Pro For Celeb Retreat

Be The Fit Pro For Celeb Retreat

It reminded me of a new feature we offer our member fitness professionals.

The new feature hasn’t been highlighted much as our collaborating partners are still working out final details with the all-inclusive resorts they contract with.  But, ultimately it will be an opportunity to participate as part of a rock star celebrity entourage when they do one of these travel based marketing events or even more often when they seek a celebrity retreat get away for themselves and family or friends.

Playing the role of celebrity can be difficult to turn off and get away from.  This is the reason some of the higher end Caribbean hospitality settings we send our fitness professionals to are requesting we work with them to provide private celebrity group fit pros while they enjoy their time out of the spot light. A bit of a celebrity retreat.

This will be very exciting and prestigious for the Fit Pro…. So how do we sort to the right Fit Pro?

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in FitPro Opportunities | 1 Comment »

Where are the Fitness Presenters

March 12th, 2010
Personal trainer assessing a client's goals an...
Image via Wikipedia

The elite Fitness Presenters used to be so easy to spot. Take a look at any IDEA Journal and the fitness industry leaders were always there promoting. Maybe they were more obvious because most everything came by postal mail forcing me to at least pay attention between the mail box and my front door.

Today our attention, and likely even more so mine, are spread very thing.  Finding the target audience at the economical price can be tough. Finding them with tools to most effectively spread the message and allow you to personalize the event message is also not easy.

Today I am sending a notice to all members designating themselves as Fitness Education Presenters at FitnessProTravel.com  Most I believe do it old school providing workshops at local fitness facilities. Others provide their fitness presentations online or at large conferences.

Either way I simply wanted to let them know of the tremendous resources available to them with their membership to the Fit Pro Travel Network.

What I’d like to make available here is the case for why I suggest all fitness presenters do not pass up the opportunity to utilize the fitness events calendar as well as other resources for the promotion of their programs…. So here it goes.

The Biggest Issues We Ran Into as Fitness Presenters:

  • Economically reaching the correct target audience was never easy.
  • Having the ability to list the event with the freedom for full descriptions, logo, and delivered to outside web links; we could rarely do all that.
  • Rarely was there an opportunity to send with a click of a button my posted event to all connections

How Fitness Pro Travel Network Solves These Issues:

  • With more than 8000 North American fitness professionals registered in the network a targeted audience is available.
  • Additionally, connecting directly with fitness pros via networking, operating your own education based group, contributing articles providing you even more of an authority position… each of these continues to extend your reach.
  • More than 300 registered Fit Pros are accessing the network daily. When they do visit more than 45% stay for more than 5 minutes exploring various areas (that puts us in the top 2% of the internet). In the past year the number of new accounts each week has doubled.
  • The audience is there and available to view and benefit from information on educational opportunities happening, online, offline, and throughout North America. What we need is for our Continuing Education Providers (YOU) to begin championing your own cause and at a minimum list your own fitness education events.

What do you think? A Fitness Industry Only Professional Network a good location for a fitness education presenter to promote their fitness educational offerings?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , ,
Posted in FitPro Education | No Comments »

Supporting A Fit Pro Network

February 22nd, 2010

We are a couple days into the launch period of v2.0 platform upgrade at the Fitness Pro Travel website.  I always find launch periods interesting as they generally contain special offerings for short periods of time. Incentives like that tend to have prospective buyers quite a bit more active during the specified time.

It hasn’t been any different the past three days at FPT and I’m guessing the activity will stay high over the next three while the launch period continues.  Our 50% discount offer for upgraded membership (discount ended) seems to be appreciated and has had many visitors visiting their accounts and doing what we’d hoped, upgrading… All Good.

In addition to seeing the statistics of the many fitness professionals accessing their accounts during this time, my mailbox has definitely been filled with many more questions.  My account blog is where i try to publish most so all can see, but I’ll share the following as it seems to be on everyone’s mind to some extent.

It’s understandable. The website changes will have some small affect upon all accounts.

So, lets see if I can take a quick crack at answering the question, “Which Fit Pro Membership Level is right for me?” (or variations of that questions anyways)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,
Posted in Fitness Business | 1 Comment »

Cycling Instructor ICI-PRO

January 5th, 2010

CYCLING FIT PRO – YOU NEED REGULAR CARE AND FEEDING.

That’s where ICI/PRO comes in. They deliver the steady, nutritious diet of ici-adInformation, Motivation and Entertainment Instructors need to stay Fresh and Informed.

Reading a profile can be enjoyable, but sometimes not practical, so much of what we deliver comes in the form of Audio PROfiles. Exclusive to ICI/PRO Members, Audio PROfiles are a short Podcast mp3 that explain the inner workings of a class taught by Master Instructor Jennifer Sage or other experienced Instructor. Many ICI/PRO Members access the Audio Profiles via a Super Secret iTunes Feed. Their online training videos show you exactly how to do it.

Each Audio PROfiles is a complete class. Not just the ride profile, but also queuing, presentation ideas, motivating language and a suggested playlist you can use to bring a fresh perspective and maybe some much needed excitement to your next class.

ICI is a great group of fitness professionals dedicated to the specialty of cycling.  I suggest you take a look at their opportunities as there is likely benefit via membership – Take a look at what their membership consists of.

Did I mention 7 Days free?

7 days membership free is what got me out here to blog… That’s a nice deal, but it’s only available until the 15th of January. Interested – Hurry!

Tags: , ,
Posted in FitPro Opportunities | No Comments »

Energy-Enthusiasm-Empathy

January 3rd, 2010
Basic overview of energy and human life (See a...
Image via Wikipedia

So many different view points, advisories, and lists of what to do for the new year and decade have bombarded my email and RSS feeds over the past several days.  It’s expected and for the good or bad of it, I generally superficially scan most, choose not to pass on, and drop into the deleted folder.

The following came to me, ultimately by accident I believe, but caught my eye to read through.  Lists are great that way, just doesn’t seem that long or as much work to get through.

Anyways, I like this nearly top to bottom and hope that you enjoy it as well.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured (processed)
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009 .
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10.Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Scheduling Group Training

January 1st, 2010

One of the cool things with having multiple health & fitness programs within our larger company is that we have several opportunities to check out other related companies for potential partnerships. One thing I like to do in order to get to know those companies and or their personality is to visit their blog.

Promotional content tends to get more conversational in a Blog.

I’m just starting to check out MyClassPro now and while jumping into their blog I found an interesting video quiz that might be fun for those who travel through the Diet Grader site.

I’m not so certain that the quiz result is the “perfect” way to start each day, but of the choices it seems to be making sense.

MIAMI BEACH, FL - JUNE 11: (L-R) Hector Garci...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

After further review and discussions to ideally bring some added benefit to our membership in the Fitness Pro Travel Network, I look forward to providing further opinions on how this program may assist you as a Fitness Professional.

You can begin your own research now by following the links above.  Pete and Kelly were both pleasant to talk with and would be happy to ensure you get set up with a free trial.

Scheduling group trainings can be a pain. MyClassPro is  primarily geared to the Fit Pro who independently provides community fitness camps and is designed to make scheduling, payment, and communication simple. But, it can be used for other group training scheduling functions appropriate to the yoga instructor, group fitness instructor, or even certain club settings as well.

Give me a couple weeks and I’ll see if we can dig up a bit more and if appropriate secure specific benefits for the FPT community members…. If you’ve used it or have specific questions you’d like me to check into be sure to post them to this blog entry.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: ,
Posted in Fitness Business | 2 Comments »

Fit Pro FaceBook Fan

December 29th, 2009

We love your referrals to our FaceBook Fan Page and Fitness Pro Travel website.  When you are referring other fitness & sport pros to Fitness Pro Travel we encourage you to use your affiliate link and ideally be compensated for it.  (affiliate terms - affiliate help)

We also hope that you’ll encourage others to join in on this FB fan page.  An easy way to do that is to create your own member badge…
badge: http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/fanbadges.php

I did

Facebook

Have you created a Face Book Fan Page for your own fitness services?

 

Tags:
Posted in Fitness Marketing | 1 Comment »

True North Fitness Writing

December 23rd, 2009

An interview by two of my fitness industry associates, friends and members of our Fitness Pro Travel Network.

Finding Your True North in Business and Beyond empowers small business owners, especially health and wellness practitioners, to improve the “business side” of their business.

Cynthia Pasciuto of True North Business Consulting interviews Amanda Vogel of Active Voice on the profession of fitness writing, digital & print.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Fitness Marketing | No Comments »

Are You A Rude Airline Traveler?

December 17th, 2009

I’m certain we all have it in our mind that we must represent Fit Bodies, ourselves, and our profession well while providing an exchange for services with a working vacation.  Do you have this same thing in mind during the travel portion of your trip?

This topic is not coming up because of issues with any of the Fit Pro Travelers.  It happens to be on my mind because I caught a radio interview with a Travelocity representative this morning.  They spent some time talking through a 2009 traveler rudeness report, which I think we might all find rather interesting.

1600 travelers took part in the rudeness survey.

Here is a the take from the Hipster Travel Guide: Overall, people hate sitting next to smelly passengers (No. 1 answer at 40 percent) and people with the Swine Flu or at least exhibiting coughing, sneezing and hacking, 30 percent.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Fitness Business | No Comments »

« Older Entries