MINDBODY Is Go! (Part 2)

It's great to see so many of you already using MINDBODY to book your classes and appointments. We've heard from a number of you, and I've been working under the hood (bonnet?) tweaking the settings here and there, so the process should be a little more clear and intuitive than it may have been last week!

Booking Yoga and Pilates Classes

Once you log in (including via Facebook if you choose), select the Classes tab and then click the Sign Up Now button for the class you want to attend. The Single Reservation screen is displayed.

The main thing to remember here is to click the Register as unpaid button. This lets you reserve the class you want and then pay for it when you turn up for class, just like we've been doing from the start.

If you click the Make a single reservation button instead, an alert will tell you that you have to pay before you can reserve the class! That is untrue! So stick with the Register as unpaid button and all will be well. (The other button will come in handy in just a wee while: you'll have the option to pay for your classes online, right when you book them. This is one of the great virtues of the system and one of the key reasons we switched in the first place! We'll let you know when this is ready for you!)

Any questions at this point? Send us an email or write a comment below. See you soon!

MINDBODY Is Go! (Part 1)

We're there, gang. Our new online booking system is, well, online! Up and running. Ready to go.

But, to help ease everyone into the transition - including ourselves - we're running both MINDBODY and the "old"system concurrently this week. That means we'll honor your existing bookings in Ezybook, but you can start booking your classes and appointments for next week and beyond in MINDBODY.

Click here for the link to MINDBODY. You'll find several tabs, including Appointments and Classes. Give it a go and let us know how you get on.

If you've been making bookings at Healium prior to 15 October 2012, then your details will already be set up in MINDBODY. If you're newer to Healium, then simply enter your information and you'll be all set.

Then, next week, on Monday the 26th, Healium will move to MINDBODY exclusively. At that point you'll find the MINDBODY link on our website in two places: our Booking page and our About Us page. Or, feel free to bookmark the link and go from there!

Excited? We are. Let us know if you have any questions!

Yoga Evolution: Iteration No. 973

So we started this process wherein we co-created some sequences and transitioned classes to new teachers. And out of this we've received a lot of great feedback from you, and from each other. Here's what we've figured out a lot of things weren't working!

As ever, business is responsive. We want to provide the best possible experience for you - our amazing clients - so you can get what you want out of our classes. It's a value that all of the teachers and practitioners share: that you are getting a high-quality experience whenever you're at Healium!

Thus, it was back to the drawing board to figure a few things out!

Teachers

A lot of new teachers came on board, and it's great having them. Each one is a great teacher. But several of them discovered that commitments to teach every week were a bit much and as such needed to pull back a bit. They want to be able to provide the best experience for you, and a teacher who is feeling burnt to a crisp isn't going to provide that.

As such Jenifer (that's me!) will be returning to teach two evenings a week, alternating Monday/Wednesday one week and Tuesday/Thursday the next. The other teachers are going to go on the alternate days. And, there's a new teacher in town whom we'll introduce to you very soon: Britt!

Classes

We had several sequences. We discovered that some of them were . . . not-great. They weren't bad, but you told us you didn't really care for them; and on our end they just seemed not to work.

So, we've opted to liberate the sequences a bit. Teachers will decide what the sequence will be for their class, but elements of each class will be the same. The OM and opening and closing sequences will be the same. You'll see a lot of familiar postures throughout the teaching, but each teacher is a bit more independent and chooses the order of the postures.

We'll also just call all of the classes "Power Yoga" again, and then Power Yoga Basics, Gentle Yoga and Pilates will be their thing.

As we move forward into this new process, I look forward to your ongoing feedback! This way, we'll always be able to adjust to what you guys are looking for in your classes!

Saturdays

Last month, we started first and third Saturday classes at $18 for the 75-minute class. It was great to see so many of you keen to practice on Saturdays! So, we've opted to provide a class every Saturday at 9.30 am! We're also dropping the class price because, quite honestly, having two pricing schemes was confusing for us! Thus, Saturday classes will run on your class concessions. If you have a concession, you can use it on Saturday, or just add it as as  drop-in at your locked-in rate. And, of course, for anyone not on concession, it's a $12 drop-in!

One pricing scheme to rule them all! Except this one serves good, not Sauron.

Class Schedule

There are a few changes to the class schedule coming up in November - you can see the current timetable on our website. The basics are that the Monday and Wednesday 12.15 classes will now be Group Private.

Online Booking System

We're currently still working to get MINDBODY set up. We're really excited about this system because it provides us with a lot of great information and it provides you with a lot more ease in making payments.

This system will include an online credit card system as well as an auto-debit system. So in addition to cash and EFTPOS, you'll now have the option to use your credit card. You'll also be able to pay for your new concessions, workshops and private lessons all online in your underpants at 2 am if you want!

I'm (Jenifer, you know) particularly psyched that the system will manage our concessions. When you book for your last class, it will tell you! And, then you - clothed or not - could get your next concession right then if you wanted! The system will tell us that you've paid. No more weird paper thing on the desk! No more weird confusions about start and end dates. We'll be able to hold concessions for sickness and whatnot, suspend payments if you're on an auto-debit, and everyone will get reminders about everything. (Well, maybe not everything.)

I never knew that I could be so excited about a booking system. It's like having ice cream AND cake AND fireworks during a concert by Eivør in Denmark when the temperature is perfect and your hair looks super-awesome! Yeah, I'm that excited about it.

We are a week, possibly two, from the arrival of this super-awesomeness. We're kind of slow learning to use it - which we need to do before we have you using it or it would be more like falling down in a big pile of goose poop in your best jeans on your way to your high school reunion where you're going to show all those popular girls how amazing you turned out and aren't they sorry now, but NO because you are covered in goose poop and the rain made your hair frizzy and you got food poisoning.

So, we'll learn it first, and let you know when it launches.

See you in class.

Woohoo! More Yoga Evolution News!

Teacher Transition Nearly Complete! This week is the last week of the transition, with Jenifer leading most of the evening classes; and then next week the new teachers take over! But, because everyone is so busy, Jenifer will remain in the rotation to teach these classes.

Mondays will be Elissa and Elaine, with Jenifer jumping in once a month.

Tuesdays will be Trudi and Val, with Jenifer jumping in once a month.

Wednesdays will be Neva, with Jenifer jumping in - and who knows if another teacher will join us? Maybe! We'll let you know!

Thursdays will be Alanna and Elissa, with Jenifer (of course) jumping in.

Jenifer's jumping in might be because people want help, or it might be because Jenifer is a control freak, or it might be a combination of both. You decide!

Little Private Lessons. We now offer miniature, 30-minute private lessons to answer your specific questions about postures, cover a particular area of the body, or go over just about anything you want to work on specifically. This is great for developing your home practice as well as gaining a bit more insight into what, specifically, you need to do in classes to get the results you want! These lessons cost $65 each for the half hour.

Personalized Sequences! Jenifer has just started this process of creating personalized sequences for clients. It starts with a single, hour-long private lesson to discuss your interests and special needs. Jenifer then makes a video of your customized sequence, complete with the proper modifications and prop use, and delivers it to you digitally via Drop Box (a super-easy Internet cloud thingy). You then return once a month to fine-tine your practice (ask questions, get alignment tips, etc.). If you want more videos to progress from those, then we'll make one!

Initial cost is $255, which includes:

• One 1-hour private lesson to get started;
• two half-hour private lessons to continue your process;
• 20 minutes of personalized yoga sequencing (just for you - which could be two 10-minute sequences, one 20-minute sequence, four 5-minute sequences . . . anything that adds up to 20 total minutes
• Email consultations: ask Jenifer questions at any time!

If you want more videos after that initial series, then it's $30 for the new video (to cover filming, editing, and distributing), and then $65 for ongoing private lessons. Each video requires at least three months of half-hour private lessons so we can work together on the progressive nature of yoga!

Housekeeping! We have four work-study spaces available. All you have to do is help tidy the room after the 1.15 pm or 5.30 pm classes. This involves straightening and spraying out mats and vacuuming the floor. It takes about 10-15 minutes, and you get that class for FREE! Holler if you're interested!

New Booking System! We have just started the transition to MINDBODY! It should take about a month to complete the transition, and we'll notify you when the new system is ready to roll. Most of you will have your information transferred (securely) to this new system. Click the link above to see how easy it is to use.

Our class concessions will be managed through the booking system, with reminders of when your last class is up - *and* we are also looking into online payment and auto-debit payment for a totally new membership option. We will keep you completely updated in our progress in this area . . . it's just like yoga: slow and steady!

That's pretty much everything until Jenifer thinks of something else to tell you! Here's a song by Kermit just because it's enjoyable: