progress means change

Hello friends.
After months of neglect, I'm posting to say farewell.

Life has gotten bigger and faster.  I have an exciting job and a beautiful five-year-old.

I've hung up my instructor shoes (a couple of years ago actually) and miss it still today, but progress means change.  

I'm on Google and FB and LinkedIn as Angela Broderick Bedell.

Here's a letter I just sent friends:

Dear Friends,

The holidays are when you usually get those sweet update letters telling you what friends have been up to all year.  2013 has been big for me, so I’m sharing news a little early.

Name Change                  

After 14 years with my husband, I am changing my name to Angela Bedell.   I am envious of the generation growing up with LinkedIn and Facebook – they can go online and change their email, their employer or even their name and everyone is updated. 

But I grew my career by exchanging business cards at conferences, writing articles, making presentations at IDEA conferences and working with committees.  Years of handshakes upon “I’m Angela Broderick.”  Those connections are very valuable to me, and they are why I did not change my name when I married.  

But then, the giant life change:  I had a daughter.  And when I take her to school I really prefer to use our family name.  And more and more I have been using Angela Bedell. It has gotten to the point that when I pick up the dry cleaning, I can’t remember which name I gave them.

Talk about a personal branding nightmare -- embarrassing for someone with two marketing degrees.  The barber’s kid always needs a haircut, as the cliché goes.   This barber’s kid is taking the plunge and becoming Angela Bedell.

Game Change

MarketingWell.com – the project I started last year –became a thriving online community.   

“What a turnaround in my income, Angela!  I am opening my second location, and if I hadn’t met you, I’d still be struggling to pay rent.”

“My classes have a waiting list!”

“I didn’t believe you when you said I could make six-figures this year.  But you were right.”

It was awesome.  The game change?  In 2014 our best selling product, the Marketing Boot Camp, will be accessible online, all the time at IDEAfit.com.  

In 2013, I’ve had the pleasure to work with Medscape and several local bar associations (as in law, not drinks J).  I’ve written business plans and reams of marketing copy. And I built a wonderful community of thousands of wellness professionals on MarketingWell.com .

And then, on May 29^th, I became the new Executive Director of the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City.   After only a few weeks, we have grown membership and launched many new programs (including a wellness initiative for patients – ha! – no surprise there).  J   I’m so excited about this thriving physician community!    

I would love to stay in touch. You can always find me (and social media connections) at AngelaBedell.com or angelabedell.blogspot.com.

All the best to you,

Angela

My fave 2012 posts

And my favorite of the entire year:  this 93 year old yoga teacher in Central Park.

The only way to eat lobster

I have fallen in love with Ruth Reichel's cookbooks, books and blog.  Here is a post I had to share steal.

A Perfect Meal

Saturday, March 24, 2012

 

“I also stubbornly maintain that the only real way to cook lobsters is in three or four inches of sea water, in a covered kettle, for about twelve minutes (pound and a quarter lobsters being the ideal size). You then drape these dazzling creatures over the rocks until they cool off a bit, tear them apart with the bare hands, dip each piece in melted butter and guzzle. There should be from two to six lobsters per person. While the lobsters cook and cool off, two dry martinis should be served. Nothing whatever else should be served- we are eating all the lobster we want, we are not fooling around with salad, or strawberry shortcake or even coffee. All you need are the martinis, plenty of lobsters, millions of paper napkins and a view.”
                                                                                Avis DeVoto to Julia Child, 1952

Do you lack ambition?

must have cookbooks

Now on my Amazon wishlist:

"Cook Yourself Sexy" by Candice Kumai

"Crazy Sexy Kitchen" by Kris Carr

Wheels around the world

Alaska, Chicago, New Orleans.
All in 2007.

My "wheel" isn't quite as high since my C-section at the young age of 43, but I can still {barely} do one. 

funny but life-saving

http://youtu.be/t7wmPWTnDbE

big spending on small clothes

JCrew, you are so unfair.

I finally build a resistance to spending a fortune everytime your catalog arrives.   Then you introduce Crew Cuts.   Not good on my budget.

And btw, why isn't this available in my size?

Angela Broderick Bedell

Facebook Business Page - Yes or No?

One of my favorite instructor-of-instructors, Lawrence Biscontini, recently asked me a very good question:

 

Should I have a business page on Facebook, or is my personal Facebook page good enough?

It's a good question for every fitness instructor, and a bit more complex when YOU are your business.

My Answer: Yes, you need a business page. Absolutely.

Why:

1) Because you won’t lose anything by creating one. Prior to FB making the changes they did earlier this year (Timeline, etc), you had to “migrate” your friends when you created a business page and basically start your fan base from zero. You don’t have to “lose” anyone when you create a business page now.

WARNING: When you Google “FB business page” or anything close to this, you’ll find hundreds of well-written, credible blog posts telling you how to do this in the OLD Facebook formats. You’ll also see warnings about losing friends. That was prior to the winter of 2012 – old news now and no longer accurate. I had to go to the 3^rd page of Google results to find current info on this topic!

You won’t “lose” your friends because you can set up your business page within your personal page. Notice the graphic below: this is my personal Facebook page and my business page is posting to it.
So all my personal friends always see my Marketing Well posts – I didn’t have to ask them to “Like” another page. You can do that, and there are good reasons to, but the point here is that you will NOT lose any exposure by setting up a business page.

That was the "old days" – six months ago.  :)



2) The second reason to create a business page is that you can promote posts. This is a more authentic means of marketing than just advertising your page. I’ve done both, and promoting the posts has worked well for me in building audiences. It is more strategic than just hoping your friends share or comment and it feels less intrusive than advertising.
Advertising on Facebook offers remarkable targeting though. You can target 30 – 35 year old readers of Shape magazine in Tennessee -- it’s that specific and personal. Great potential for workshops and your retreats in Puerto Rico! And you can spend as little as $5 to advertise.

3) Even if you don’t want to use the paid promotion and advertising options that FB offers business pages, you can get terrific promotional mileage out of the “Events” and other buttons and tabs in the views and apps toolbar. You can put free things, student “case studies,” photos and even create a “Training” button. You can also highlight “Milestones” on your business page, which is a terrific way to create custom brand for yourself with new friends.

4) Ok, even if you aren’t going to use the free marketing tools on FB business pages, the “Insights” are really helpful to know how many people viewed different posts. I don’t go to the trouble of tracking statistics in any scientific way, but I can get an immediate sense of what my “Friends” are interested in. For example, I find many more trainers read posts that I put up late at night or early in the morning than in mid-day.

5) The most important reason – at the end of the day, Facebook owns this page, not you. Facebook can change it’s formats or options anytime (and have proven that they will). So you want them thinking of your page as a business, even if you are your business.
Most people will tell you that you should have a business page because they offer the chance to have more Friends, etc, but the reasons above are why I believe health and wellness professionals should have a business page on Facebook.

cross-posted from Marketing Well

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Facebook marketing
Angela Broderick Bedell
Personal training marketing. Angela Broderick Bedell

Gospel of Sweat

Praising fitness, I guess.  This photo is of Lululemon’s Gospel of Sweat on Friday at Riverside Church on the Upper West Side in NYC.   
Gospel of Sweat is a series of events - "a movement" (get it?) -- that Lululemon is putting together in New York. 


Photo:  Agent of Change via WellandGoodNYC

Money and Power

"Yoga with Nadine" had a really interesting post today about money & power.

Nadine says that she always felt the need to get rid of money as quickly as she got it, because she associated money with power.  Her history of knowing people who misuse power (money) made her want to avoid having any.  

I seem to be running into lessons everywhere lately about money and power.   Awhile back I was in bed with the flu and looking for an HGTV fix.  I literally tripped on an episode of Suze Orman (who I should watch more). 

On this particular show, Suze was counseling a woman about loaning money to her sister.   The hard-working woman on the show was constantly loaning money (which was never repaid) to her sister.

The working woman claimed that she felt like she should share, since she earned more than her job-less sister.  It was what a "good girl" was supposed to do; it was what you are supposed to do if you value family.

Suze's advice has stuck with me.  

"You aren't sharing the money.  You are sharing the powerless-ness."

Wow.  So when I'm sharing, or loaning money, I'm creating TWO people who are without.  I'm subconsciously putting myself in a position just like the borrower - a position of powerless-ness. 

Because I'm afraid of power?  Or because I've been taught that this is the right thing to do?  The nice thing to do??  

And the same thing goes for over-spending.  Nothing feels worse than lacking financial security (I've lived that).  So why do we try to justify it with "retail therapy" and "rewarding myself" excuses?

I'm going to try to hold on tighter to my power.  It can't be all bad.

Phit Inspiration - Ruth Zukerman

Ruth Zukerman, founder of Flywheel Sports, is a Phit inspiration.  I saw this photo of the 54-year old and immediately dusted off my Spinning shoes.

My bias about fitness instructors is obvious, and Flywheel won my heart early on for the way they promote their instructors.  They don't pretend that it's a gym or a membership that makes the difference, they know it's the instructor and they put a spotlight on their teachers.

That is impressive.  So is the fact that Flywheel has multiple locations including Dubai.  Dubai, for crying out loud!  

But back to Zukerman.  Impressive businesswoman, impressive motivator - I certainly want to acknowledge that first.  Kudos Ms. Zukerman, you are a true inspiration.

And then the piece of this I am clearly blown away by... that body, that skin -- at 54 years old?   Wow.

images via Flywheel.com