Asking for a friend, how does one go about approaching someone they know and asking them to come to class? Is this a taboo subject among friends/coworkers/neighbors and relatives? Should we treat it like politics and just leave all talk of fitness classes and voting preferences under the table?
We’re being serious here!
As instructors - we can tell you this is pert near impossible to do without sounding abrasive or rude or like we are just trying to get more people. But here’s the actuality, if all we were concerned about was numbers in our classes or names in the attendance sheets, we would stand in the lobby a solid 10 to 15 minutes before class and heckle any patron who walked through the door, pleading with them to give our class a try. And even if they only came once, it would be one more X on the attendance sheet so YAHOO!
When reality is, if you approach someone to do anything with you; go for a walk, go out for cocktails, come to dinner, join game night - literally anything, you are likely doing so because you’ve found some spark of commonality. Maybe it seems you laugh at the same things, you have common interests, your kids are the same age so you bond over the challenges of raising sassy 10-year olds - whatever it is - there’s usually something there to provoke the invitation.
So if knowing we don’t stand in the lobby and invite randos to our classes just to have more people in our classes, does it help soften it if we invite you? Can you look at it as someone who we think might have fun in our class setting rather than some outspoken meaner-head who is trying to tell you to lose weight in some roundabout way?? Because we’re not. We promise.
There’s not one of us - from Bootcamp to Rise and Splash who thinks that if we can get you to come to class that will be a magic button for your life and you’ll instantly be on the path to better health. We’re real. We’re us. We’re humans. We know that coming to class DOES THINGS (like serious things) for our own minds and mental clarity and pent-up aggression, and also, gives us a built-in workout for that one day. But we’re not disillusioned nor are we so full of ourselves that we think our classes are IT. Like you just need our class and that’s all you need.
Nooooooo - if we thought that was the case we wouldn’t attend one another’s classes, would we? We wouldn’t need to. We would too full of our own dopamine droplets to think that another class led by another instructor would give us what we need. But that also, is false. We do attend one another’s classes. We do realize that other instructors have things to teach us that we can gain from - things that have nothing to do with instructing and more to do with learning a different way of working out.
We try to play it very safe when it comes to inviting people to class. We hesitate and approach people the way one might approach an unfamiliar animal. Slowly, cautiously, talking softly like we JUST WANT YOU TO LIKE US AND NOT THINK WE’RE A BIG MEANIE. Most of us are pretty darn fun and likeable!
Basically, if you’ve made it to this point and you ever find yourself in this scenario where someone you know is an instructor asks you if you would ever want to come to ________ class - maybe don’t call her a mean name in your head and find an excuse. Maybe give it just a second or two of thought as to why she asked you. Likely, it has nothing to do with your pant size, your weight or any other number she actually doesn’t know and more about something the two of you might have in common.
And who knows, maybe she thinks it might be fun?? You could always give it a try and see…