54: We Are Going On Tour Across The USA! Exclusive Peek At What’s To Come This Year

A couple months ago I woke up with an overwhelming feeling to grab my notebook and write down the words, “United States Posing Clinic Tour.” Tune in to find out how this idea all came about, where we will be heading this year, who has endorsed the tour, and all the things you will learn when you attend a clinic.

Want to chat about everything I discussed in this episode? Search for the group called “The ‘Everything Else’ in Bodybuilding Podcast Insiders!” And come join the conversation.

Additional Resources:
-2024 USA In Person & Virtual Posing Clinic Tour Dates, Info, & Registration: http://www.learntopose.com
-Want to feel fully prepared on stage at your competition? Join my weekly posing classes at http://www.weeklyposing.com
-NEW Class for new people beginning to learn how to pose (Posing Mechanics)! http://www.weeklyposing.com
-FREE posing tutorials for Figure, Bikini, Wellness, and Men's Physique competitors at www.learntopose.com
-FREE ebook “5 Things Every Bodybuilding and Fitness Competitor Needs To Know Before Preparing For A Show” at www.eeinbb.com
-Grab your “My Own Motivation” tank top at shop.killitwithdrive.com
-Want to WIN your next competition? I can help! Learn more at: www.posingwinsshows.com

Key Takeaways:
*The moment I knew I was going to be a bodybuilder (2:43)
*Why posing and stage presence became my focus (4:07)
*The challenges of being a posing coach today (6:08)
*How I discovered my virtual posing clinics and classes for all divisions and federations (7:55)
*The birth of my collaboration with the OCB (10:33)
*What you learn when you attend a clinic (13:02)
*2024 USA posing clinic tour dates and locations (13:48)

---TRANSCRIPT---

There have been many times in my life when an idea pops in my head followed by a strong feeling to do something with this idea.  It becomes overwhelming.  I can’t stop thinking of this idea and what I can create with it.  An outpouring of thoughts and feelings keep coming and coming as if a dam just broke loose.  When this happens you can tell me all kinds of reasons why the idea isn’t going to work and I will still feel the strong need to pursue it.  Often I do not have a clue how it’s all going to work out, but I just know I have to keep the faith and put things in motion.  My latest idea that I have an overwhelming need to pursue is my United States Posing Clinic Tour this year.  But first, let me give you some background on how it all came about.

It first started over 20 years ago when I went to my first bodybuilding competition to support my friend Shelley at her first show. At the time the only divisions were fitness and bodybuilding and Shelley was a bodybuilder. I remember that overwhelming feeling coming over me while in the audience watching her on stage. The feeling told me that I absolutely was going to be a bodybuilder starting right then. I was 20 years young and bodybuilding at the time didn’t have the appeal to as many people as it does today because there weren’t all the different categories that there are today.

In fact, after my first show I brought a picture of me with a thank you note written on it to the gym I worked out at and gave it to the staff at the front desk who always seemed so supportive of me while I was there training for my show. The next day, I noticed the picture was missing, so I asked the people at the front desk what happened to it. They said they were told to remove my picture because they didn’t want to promote “that type of stuff” here at this gym. 

I’ll never forget how that made me feel. But I had that overwhelming feeling that told me to keep going regardless of how other people thought or treated me. There will be judgement by others for anything you want to do, no matter what it is.  But, we wake up with our thoughts and live with ourselves all day long.  I’d rather be inspired by myself than repressed to please others. And now today over 20 years later bodybuilding is still a major part of my life, including here with this podcast, where I talk to you guys about all things bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding is also a major part of my life with my posing business too, which also came about from a strong, overwhelming feeling that I needed to create products and services all about posing and stage presence.  I started this business 11 years ago at the gym I owned by hosting weekly posing classes and booking private 1 on 1 lessons. When I sold the gym and focused primarily on posing and stage presence I definitely received a lot of backlash. People thought I was crazy to not want to focus on the nutrition and training component of bodybuilding in addition to the posing.

To others, posing was this thing over here that didn’t need its own focus. But I knew differently. After my experience with people literally traveling 4 hours each direction to come and learn how to pose and perform from me (before there was ever something called a posing coach), I knew 100% there was a market for what I do. I knew that there are people out there that have never been on stage before and will spend money to learn how to perform their best on stage in their underwear. I knew from experience there are people who do care how they present themselves and would pay for the right help. I also know as a bodybuilder myself that at the end of the day we want to win and will leave no stone unturned in order to give it our best shot. I don’t need the world to agree with me.  In fact, if you don’t value what I can do for you, then you aren’t my customer anyways, and that’s ok.

Even today with the popularity of everyone wanting to be a posing coach, it’s risky to focus on just posing because you still have coaches who do the nutrition and training component and want to control their clients in every way. I don’t blame them because they want their clients to look their best on stage, and with the amount of terrible posing instruction out there, how do they know who to trust to send their clients to that is actually going to elevate their client’s posing and stage presence skills? 

But on the flip side some coaches are holding their clients back from looking their best by not outsourcing the posing component to a true specialist.  100% of what you do on stage on show day is nonverbal. And when you are on stage with a ton of people, every little detail counts in order to stand out. Those details need to be isolated and refined by a specialist. 

Today everyone is a posing coach. It’s challenging to separate the quality of instruction out there and find a true specialist.  If you want to know if someone is decent posing coach, ask him or her to show their client transformations. If someone can take a person from hot mess to show stopper then you have my attention. If you are seeing transformations of customers who were already decent at posing and they show just a small tweak in the transformation, I’m not impressed. It’s like advertising an Olympian as your best student. They are an Olympian because they are already above average versus people just starting out are often awkward at posing.

I’ve had clients go from placing 4th and 5th in their contests to winning their shows. I know with every ounce of my being that posing wins shows.  But to those who don’t know me, I’m just another person showing people how to pose.  I have students that are always so supportive and posting about me in the groups on Facebook that they are a part of, but their comments are overwhelmed by tons and tons more comments of other posing coaches too. It’s not easy to stand out in a saturated market and some think that what I do won’t survive, but the overwhelming feeling inside me tells me otherwise.   

I’ve also had a lot of naysayers tell me that people want in person posing instruction and I’ll never be successful with an online posing business. I know with every part of my being that my virtual classes are not only effective, countless students have become really phenomenal with my 100% virtual class method.  So I don’t need the world to approve of what I do.  I know differently.  Plus, there are students in my weekly group virtual posing classes that have been a part of them for a year, so I know there are people who enjoy what I teach in my classes, because I teach more than just how to pose.

The way I see it, I’d rather have a smaller pool of people who are driven to succeed, and happy to be there, than a large pool of people who don’t care as much as I do.  My husband always says I care too much. He is right, so I’d rather have people want to be a part of what I do and care about it too.

A few years ago I created a program that included a bunch of posing courses and digital products I made for bodybuilding.  These products were designed to make people better at posing. The students that bought my program were willing to spend good money for all the things I made.  They were excited to have all of my tools.  But there was one major problem.  The people that bought my program weren’t who I thought they would be. The people who bought my program were either brand new to bodybuilding and had no clue how to pose, or they had some experience with competing, but their posing skills needed a lot of improvement. 

I remember waking up with this overwhelming feeling that I needed to do something about their lack of basic posing knowledge. I couldn’t in good conscience allow people to spend good money on the products that are meant to *elevate* their skills without them having a foundation of skills to build off of.  It wasn’t right. I felt the overwhelming need to help them.

So for no extra charge I added 16 weeks of weekly live virtual calls to the program where we met as a group online so I could teach them the foundation skills on how to pose properly for their divisions and federations.  16 weeks was excessive, but I cared about their success, and I wanted to help them.  The classes HAD to be virtual because the people in the program were worldwide and not local to me. I had men and women students getting ready for shows in different divisions and federations too, and since I have experience first hand in all of them, I discovered I had no issue switching hats between divisions and federations with my posing instruction right on the fly on every call. 

Over the 16 weeks each and every student not only learned the foundation skills they needed to pose correctly, they utilized the additional tools they bought from the program to elevate their skills. It was 100% group virtual instruction and 100% digital products, and the combination worked. It worked incredibly well. They all became really good at posing.  I learned from this experience that not only could I teach a group of people how to pose at once, I could instantly switch between men and women divisions and federations on the fly. And I could do this 100% virtual. And every one of my students had great results.

And from this experience, my virtual posing clinics and weekly virtual classes for all men and women federations and divisions were birthed.

I started hosting one-time virtual posing clinics to teach people how to pose for all divisions and federations followed by an invitation to join my weekly virtual classes. My clinics went from being generalized for all federations to growing to the point where there was enough demand for me to separate the clinics by federation.  So far I have hosted virtual clinics for OCB, NPC, WNBF, and USBF.  At first none of the organizations promoted my clinics. I simply promoted them myself and through word of mouth referrals.

But then it changed in late 2022 after interviewing Sean Sully Sullivan from the OCB organization here on on my podcast.  Sully and I hit it off so well that when I asked Sully and his organization The OCB if they would endorse my virtual posing clinics, they agreed to promote them to their athletes starting January 29th, 2023. For all of 2023 I hosted my virtual posing clinics every single month for the OCB with the OCB’s blessing and the incredible promotion skills of OCB powerhouse Marjorie Thrash. The clinics proved to be a success for the organization, the athlete, and me. The relationship worked because the OCB and I together believed that the service I offer for athletes is valuable to the athletes and actually helps them, so it is a win win for all involved. 

Then, a couple months ago, I woke up with a new idea that I couldn’t shake. I had to pull out my purple notebook and a pen so I could physically write down my thoughts as they poured out of me.

The first thing I wrote was…United States Posing Clinic Tour.

I am so passionate about my method of instruction in my posing clinics and how quickly I can help people get up to speed with their posing skills, that I woke up with an overwhelming desire to take my clinics on the road to get the word out as much as possible. The goal is to continue to host my monthly virtual posing clinics and weekly virtual posing classes to reach people globally, but during 2024 I mapped out in my notebook a coast to coast posing clinic tour across the United States.

The #1 thing I wrote in my notebook on why I want to do this USA tour is because I thought it would be a lot of fun. And the #2 thing is that I truly believe that what I do helps people learn things the right way from the start on becoming their best on show day.

But there is a lot of noise out there and I want to reach as many people as possible.

So my goal is to pound the pavement and get the word out that my method of instruction is the starting place to becoming a champion poser.  Pounding the pavement means reaching people anywhere and everywhere both in person and virtual.

And to my surprise, when I asked the OCB if they would endorse this in person posing tour, in addition to my monthly virtual posing clinics, I got the full blessing not just from the organization, but the promoters in every single location you will see on my tour.  These promoters are stand out promoters in my eyes. They truly believe in what I am doing and how it helps the athletes so much, that they, too, gave their full blessing and cooperation to host a live in person clinic in their region of the country. 

These clinics are not giant expos that showcase the most famous athletes in the organization.  They are not celebrity showcases that make you feel intimidated for being new or newer to the sport. They are not events that say you are going to learn how to pose, only for you to be SHOWN how to pose by the pros with no actual method of instruction to take home with. 

My clinics are about you the athlete.  When you come to my posing clinics whether they are virtual or in person, you will learn how to pose for your category, whether it’s men’s bodybuilding or women’s bikini, I teach all the divisions. You will learn what you really need to focus on for your stage walks and posing routines so you feel your best and not awkward on stage.  You will learn strategy so you score your highest on show day.  You learn everything you need to know so you can look and feel like a champion.  They are the starting place to becoming your best on show day.

My United States posing tour starts March 2nd in Daytona Beach Florida followed by March 9th in Nashville Tennessee.  March 16th I’ll be in Columbus Ohio, followed by April 13th in Rochester NY. In June we head west starting in Dallas, TX June 29th, Orange County California July 20th, and then Las Vegas NV on July 27th. There are a couple of mystery locations that will be added in May and June too since a few more additional promoters are reaching out wanting us to add their location to the tour! I also have virtual clinics planned for March 23rd, April 20th, and ongoing every month during the entire year. 

My virtual NPC clinics will continue during the year as along with all of the virtual posing classes that I teach every single week for all divisions and federations.  In fact, after a clinic, you should totally join my virtual classes so you can take what you learn at a clinic and elevate your skills. 

Even if you know how to pose, come to a clinic and join me live in person or online! This year is going to be a lot of fun and you can never know enough when it comes to posing and stage skills.

For details on each of my posing clinic locations and to register for one, head on over to learntopose.com! Click on the tour tab and it will take you to all the in person locations this year. If you keep scrolling the page you’ll also find information on my virtual OCB and NPC clinics as well. It’s all there at learntopose.com!

I hope to meet many of you either in person or online this year! If you are a podcast listener, be sure to tell me. I love hearing from you guys. I’ll keep you posted on the behind the scenes details of our tour here on the podcast this year. I also have some cool interviews planned this year too.  Plus, stay tuned as I finish the series I’ve been working on these past few months with my top 10 tips for your first prep.  Ok guys, signing off. See you soon!