What is Fitmotivation?
In one sentence…
Fitmotivation provides online education, workshops and videos for fitness professionals and pool workouts for aquatic enthusiasts.
How did Fitmotivation get started? (Be sure to also check out my blog posting, My Favorite Kickboxing Combination, for a fun history of how I transitioned from land to water.)
THE PAST
2002
Two years after I started teaching aquatic fitness, my aquatic kickboxing classes in
Rochester, NY were packed and other instructors were starting to attend. With
great angst, I decided to share my class routine with instructors by becoming an
AEA CEC Provider. My first course, Kickboxing Waves, was taught in Buffalo,
Rochester and Syracuse.
2003
The Fitmotivation name was selected and the website was launched. IAFC 2003 in
Sanibel, Florida was the first conference I ever taught at. Talk about being nervous.
And yes, I sucked. Since Fitmotivation was also offering land workshops, I also
became a CEC provider with ACE and AFAA in 2003. That fall I taught the first
Fitmotivation workshop outside of New York State in Randolph, NJ.
2005
Fitmotivation started filming DVDs for every workshop offered. The first aqua DVDs
were filmed in an aerobic studio. I would like to burn all those DVDs filmed in 2005!
This was also the year I became an AEA Training Specialist.
2006
Tara Palmer joins Fitmotivation as an instructor
2007
H20 Choreo to Go & Fluid Strength Combos was filmed and Fitmotivation’s first
home study program was developed to go with this combo DVD. The H2O/Fluid
Combo DVD is still the highest selling DVD of all time for Fitmotivation. This was
also the year I started working closely with AEA as a consultant.
2008
By now I was teaching Fitmotivation workshops all over the USA, mainly through
AEA events, my own workshops and at conferences. The Liquid Hi/Lo and Liquid
Flex & Flow combo DVD was filmed this year.
2009
Fitmotivation was relocated from Rochester, NY to Syracuse, NY. Three DVDs were
filmed this year, Aqua Cardio Blast, Deep Leverage and the combo DVD, Pool
Kickboxing Classics and Pool Muscle Mixers.
2012
Fitmotivation relocates to Florida. No more winter weather for me! Hip hip hooray!
THE PRESENT
2014
As you can see, Fitmotivation has primarily been about teaching CEC workshops on
the road and selling DVDs to fitness professionals – mostly aquatic fitness
professionals. This past spring, three things happened that made me rethink this
business model.
-
For the first time ever, I really LOOKED at my Youtube channel, the videos, the views and the analytics of where these views were coming from. Wow. I had a lot of international viewers and subscribers. I was also sadly aware that many of these international viewers were interested in my videos but that my website was not overly friendly for internationals – and nor was the shipping cost.
-
While doing DVD inventory, I decided to compare 2013 sales with previous years. I was rather dismayed to see that there had been a consistent yearly decline in overall DVD sales every year since 2008.
-
Florida. Simply put, I feel like I live in paradise now. When I lived in New York, I wanted to travel anywhere to get out of the gloom. And travel I did. By 2008, I was averaging 20-25 weekends on the road. While I have felt truly blessed to have such a fun job and to travel all over meeting fun instructors (and I still feel blessed!), I wouldn’t mind traveling a bit less, especially in the winter when the weather is gorgeous in Florida and not so much every where else.
Thinking about these factors, I went back to the laboratory to cook up a new
business model for Fitmotivation.
To Be Continued…