Sick of Cosmo’s? Ready for something a little more sophisticated than that same old Lemon Drop? Want to be able to belly up the bar and sound like you actually know what you’re talking about? I recently became acquainted with Jeffrey Shilling of Epic Odyssey, and thought I’d share with you this great upcoming event that is just in time for an awesome pre-Valentine’s Day date night.

Here’s the concept:

Passport 2 Cocktails: Meet up at a hip bar with a great bunch of folks and learn everything you ever wanted to know about cocktails and premium spirit by hanging with the pro’s — Seattle’s best bartenders (and Jeffrey, one of Seattle’s best entertainment event planners).

This Tuesday (Feb 3rd) marks the first in a series of fun classes on libations. Check-in starts at 5:30pm at Rob Roy on 2nd Ave in Seattle. Pre-registration for this event is required. Because this is Passport 2 Cocktails’ first event, Epic Odyssey is offering a pretty fab launch special:

Sign up to be a Passport 2 Cocktails member by February 3rd ($40) & receive free admission to your first event PLUS 50% off your second event ($30 savings). (You pick and chose which events you attend, so even if you can’t make this event, sign up now and get your first event for free!)

For more information, check out this class on TeachStreet: Passport 2 Cocktails

See you at the bar!

One of our TeachStreet instructors, personal trainer and fitness coach, Coach Stacey is one smart cookie. She realizes that while we all want to get healthy in the New Year, some of us are having a hard time balancing time and money spent on fitness with shrinking bank accounts.

I got this e-mail from Coach Stacey today, and thought I’d share her sassy wit (and awesome offer) with the TeachStreet crew.

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“Dear Family and friends,

I’ve heard you: times are tough. Every direction that we turn, people are losing their jobs, searching for jobs, afraid, hopeless, financially strapped, depressed, and stressed.

During these tough economic times, your health and well-being are that much more important.

Beginning Monday, February 2nd, Stacey will offer a special Healthonomic Stimulus Package: 3 workouts, 30 minutes. $35/week. Sign up by this Saturday for this offer!

Fear breeds fear. Here’s to kicking fear’s a** out the door.

Smiling,

Coach Stacey
(206) 728-4243″

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Check out Coach Stacey’s TeachStreet profile and send her a message to sign up for this great offer!

Last Saturday, we partnered with Soleil Hepner of YogaBlaze/YogaBizz to put on a workshop to help educate yoga teachers in the community about the importance of using technology today to help build your business online. Thanks to Soleil and Maya Whole Health for helping put this all together. It was great to meet with over 20+ teachers and we were able to learn more about what the yoga community is all about and what exactly they were looking for.

A big discussion we had during our presentation revolved around teachers being seen and discovered. More importantly, they all had a desire to be in front of students when they are searching for classes and we’re anxious to help them to do that.

Thanks again for everyone who came out!

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SEATTLE, WA – January 26, 2009 – TeachStreet (http://www.teachstreet.com), the website that has connected thousands of local students with local instructors in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, has just expanded to the Denver area.

From Longmont to Littleton, Colorado residents all along the front range are now one click away from discovering more than 17,000 local coaches, experts, classes, and instructors on TeachStreet. Whether one wants to learn Spanish, ashtanga yoga, French cooking, or acoustic guitar, TeachStreet offers classes, instructors, and articles across more than 500 subject areas.

“Two years ago, when I wanted to find a motorcycle safety class, I called local stores and scoured bulletin boards trying to find the best course. It was a painful process and I couldn’t believe the search wasn’t easier,” said Dave Schappell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet. “From this experience came the idea behind TeachStreet, to bridge the gap between great teachers and those looking to learn new things.”

Students can search for classes across hundreds of categories and select results according to map-based location, ratings from other students, teacher availability, pricing, and more. As Denver resident David Franz said, “TeachStreet is amazing. From harmonica to Qigong, I can find instructors who teach anything I’d ever want to learn.”

TeachStreet also provides a simple yet powerful way for teachers and instructors to market their businesses online and find more local students. As Denver yoga instructor Karen Quinn said, “TeachStreet is a great way for me to grow my business. I set up a profile several weeks ago and now I don’t even advertise on Facebook or anywhere else, it’s the best online resource available for me to find new students.”

About TeachStreet
Founded in June 2007, TeachStreet is dedicated to helping students find great local teachers, and empowering teachers with robust online tools to manage their teaching businesses.  Featuring more than 100,000 classes and instructors in Seattle, Portland, the Bay Area and Denver, the free site provides the information that students need to make informed decisions about their learning experiences, including student reviews, teacher recommendations, pricing information, location, teacher training, and more. TeachStreet is headquartered in Seattle, WA and backed by Madrona Venture Group. For more information, visit www.TeachStreet.com.

Contact:
Sam Niccolls | TeachStreet
Cell: (303) 249-3900
Email: sam@teachstreet.com

We’ve been hearing from students and the community that the sticking point in taking a yoga class is getting a better understanding on the different types of yoga and which one best suits them as students. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a workshop for students to learn more about the yoga styles?

Photo via Footfun

Luckily, we have a community of yoga teachers interested in putting together a FREE workshop which will do exactly that. We have three great teachers/studios from around the Seattle area to present different types of yoga: Hatha, Kundalini, and Power Vinyasa. Also, 5Focus will be lending their space for the workshop.

Come join us for this FREE Yoga Workshop to learn a variety of yoga styles and meet the teachers that teach them. Not only will you able to learn more about yoga, you’ll also get a chance to win a yoga kit too! Don’t forget to RSVP on the signup below.

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Participating Teachers:

Kitty Wittkower (Hatha)
http://www.templeparlor.com
templeparlor@hotmail.com
(206) 380-0290

Jean Massimo, VIllage Green Yoga (Anusara)
http://www.villagegreenyoga.com
info@villagegreenyoga.com
425-657-0411

Lisa Black, Shakti Vinyasa Yoga (Power Vinyasa)
http://www.shaktivinyasa.com/
info@shaktivinyasa.com
(206) 831-3648

Participating Studio:

Beth Cline, 5Focus
http://www.5focus.com/
info@5focus.com
(206) 631-2818

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To start the year off, we kicked it off and had Teacher Meetups in 3 different locations during the past weekend. Over 45 teachers in the Seattle metro area spanning subjects from dog training to ballroom dancing. It’s always a pleasure for us to meet our teachers in the community, and hopefully we were able to help more and more teachers with their experiences on TeachStreet.com.

Again, the whole goal for TeachStreet is to help local experts connect with eager learners within the community and the more and more we can help folks position themselves as experts, the easier we can help them connect. Currently, there are several easy tips you can follow to help better position yourself as an expert. Here are the three easy tips of how teachers can easily boost their profiles.

1. Add photos to your profile / classes to get on the TeachStreet homepage (Click here)
2. Request Reviews from your past students to rank higher (Click here)
3. Utilize the Craigslist Tool to promote your classes to a wider community (Click here)

For everyone who was able to make it out for coffee, thanks a lot for taking the time to meet with us. If you have any colleagues who would benefit from our service, please help us and suggest a teacher. Here is a visual recap of what happened:

Seattle Teacher Meetup – January ‘09 (Slideshow)

Seattle Teacher Meetup Attendees – January ‘09

Life, Home & Hobby

• Carol Dearth – Sizzleworks
  
• Kathi Ogawa – Clicking Dog Style
  
• Kim Estes – PEACE of Mind
  
• Kimberly McDonald – Parent Map
  
• Patricia Eslave Vessey – Integrity Coaching and Training Systems
• Pritamo Kertala – FunQuest Dog Agility Training
  

Music

• Donn Bennett – Drum classes
• Doug Zangar – Guitar instruction
  
• Glenn Ledbetter – Trumpet and cornet lessons
  
• Heidi Sewall – The Singing Lady
• Janet Rayor – Voice lessons
  
• Jill Jacques – French horn lessons
  
• Lisa Kay Deeter – Private guitar lessons
  
• Marc Smason – Trombone lessons
• Marjorie Parkington – Cello instruction
  
• Neil Hubbard – Bagpipe lessons
  
• Olga Dolgaya – Cello classes
  
• Vic Peters – Private piano lessons
  
• Warren Murray – Blues Harmonica Workshop
  

Sports, Health & Recreation

• Amy Bouska – Girls soccer personal training
  
• Brandee Laird – Beginner Parkour classes
  
• Jennifer Mesler – Federal Way Masters
  
• Julie Colassmoyer – Synergy Wellness Center
  
• Pam Cooper – Aikido of West Seattle
  
• Sara Storm – Qigong private classes
  
• Shane Belan – Pilates lessons
  
• Susan Snyder – Qigong private lessons
  
• Wendy Neely – Tri Time
  

Creative & Performing Arts

• Amy Horn – Beginning Belly Dance
  
• Deborah Speulveda – Frye Art Museum
  
• Janet Lia – AWE Studio
  
• Linda Townsend – Ballroom Dance Lessons
  
• Nancy Mattheiss – Core Matter
  
• Robert Wade – Photography with Photoshop and Lightroom
  

Language

• Arturo Arabitg – Living Spanish
  
• Nell Gross – Washington Academy of Languages
  

Computers / Internet / Technology

• Leslie Stewart – Adobe Certified Instructor
  

Academics

• Tamara Sellman – Writers Rainbow
  

Business / Professional

• Elys Brewda – Roadmap to my future
  
• Jess Salazar – Business and personal development
  
• Steven Matsumoto – Business development
  

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If you were unable to make it to one of the Meetups this time around to get tips, join us for a TeachStreet Webinar covering topics of how to build your business online. The information is below, please RSVP since space is limited.

TeachStreet Webinar
January 30, 2009 – 12:00
Click here to RSVP (space is limited)

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Wow. What a year. It’s hard to believe that the TeachStreet website didn’t exist this time last year. In fact, we didn’t launch the Seattle site until late April and since then we’ve been working non-stop to not only add additional geographies, but also improve the user experience based on your feedback. For that, thank you — your input (and patience) has been overwhelmingly positive and appreciated by our team.

We thought we’d take this chance to share some our 2008 Accomplishments, both to remind the team all that we’ve pulled off, but also to share these changes with you. We look forward to the next 12 months — please continue to tell us what’s working (and even moreso, what’s driving you crazy, so we can fix it!).

2008 Macro Accomplishments

Launches:

• Seattle metro/US support on April 22
• Portland metro on August 1
• San Francisco/Bay Area metro on November 18

Traffic/Activity:

• Monthly Site traffic grew 550% from 14k visits (April) to 89k visits (Dec)
• Monthly PVs grew 350% from 64k to 295k

Interactions:

• >5,000 Teacher contacts from potential Students
• >1,000 Reviews Written for Teachers

Product Development

• 9 Sprint/Software Releases
• Revised Add Class/Listing process increased completion rates
• SEO improvements increased base Organic Traffic (on SEA & future)
  • Improved our Google PageRank to PR6, which led to more traffic for our teachers and classes
  • Added more robust Category and Subcategory pages
• Search improvements:
  • Subject/Class Search improved with priorities for Claim, Rating, Active Classes
  • Expanded to include People Search
  • Nearby City search
  • Map-powered search replaced city-bounded search
  • Featured Teacher algorithm/widgets introduced
  • Recommended Classes algorithm/widgets
  • Null search results improvements
• Craigslist tool/templates launched
• New Homepage designs for clearer customer messaging (we hope!)
• Lighter-weight e-mail templates and Activity Feed e-mails reduced mail burden for users
• Class-cloning tools for teachers
• Admin panel — better tracking, ability to delete/impersonate for better, more prompt CS

Community Development

• Multiple real-world events held with Teachers/Students in Seattle and Portland
• Outreach to VIP Teachers increased claim/active rates

Refined Data Collection process to:

• Accelerate data collection process by 3x
• Improve record quality from ~70% to >90%
• Identified more than 120,000 teacher and class records across our metros

Customer Service

• Processed >3,500 CS e-mail inquiries
• All CS replies within 48-hours (great majority same-day)

Marketing/PR Wins

• ReadWriteWeb – TeachStreet named Top 10 Real World Web App of 2008
• LifeHacker
• DailyCandy (Seattle)
• TechCrunch covered 3 times!
• Financial Times (with School of Everything)
• TV Coverage:
  • KGO-TV and View from the Bay in San Francisco
  • AM Northwest/KATU/KXL-AM in Portland
  • King5/Kong6 in Seattle
• Seattle Times, P-I, TechFlash/PSBJ, Seattle Magazine, xConomy, NW Innovation
• SpringWise/Trendwatching
• Mashable – 100 Great Places to find a Job
• CNET/Rafe Needleman, The Deal/TechConfidential, ZDNet/Mitch Ratcliffe, US News

by Ivory Howard who is a pilates instructor who teaches pilates classes in Alexandria, Va.

Recognize the following? You’ve promised yourself you’ll keep up your fitness regime, but you don’t get around to going to the gym or you find other things taking priority.

Setbacks are common in any practice. A difficult pregnancy, an injury or illness, or an emotional upset can take the steam out of a once-joyful practice. There are times, too, when life just gets in the way. With all that you have to do (i.e. children to raise, aging parents to care for, jobs and chores to do), committing to Pilates practice isn’t always easy. But even those of us with lapses of months or even years can make a successful return to the mat.

Ivory Howard of FlatBellyPilates

By taking time to examine the reasons you stopped and your motivations for returning, you can ensure that this time around, your practice remain a permanent part of your life. Why not resolve to do something different about your resolutions to get fit and/or lose weight?

If it’s been a while since you’ve seen your mat, try the following:

• Identify and address your reasons for having left Pilates, so those same issues won’t thwart your attempts to return.

• Make adjustments. If a major life change precipitated the end of your Pilates routine, you may have to make significant alterations to succeed at a new start.

• Do not skip a scheduled workout. It’s a slippery slope. You skip one and soon you begin to miss two or three. Then, you’re not working out at all. Even when I don’t feel like it, I get in the car, go to the gym and change into my workout clothes. Once I’m there, I know that I will begin working out. Sometimes, just changing into my workout clothes changes my mood. Silly but true.

• Plan your workouts in advance. At the beginning of each month, schedule all of your workouts at once. Then, cross them off as you complete them. If any are left undone at the end of the month, tack them on to the following month. Make sure you have a contingency plan for bad weather and unscheduled meetings. You’re more likely to work out if you have strategies to overcome obstacles.

• Jot down the details of your workouts. Note what works for you and what doesn’t, modify accordingly so that you will continue to work out consistently. Use the positive results as motivation.

• Set goals. Once you’ve explored your history, you can begin to specify your present intentions.

These are just a few ways to practice to successfully return to your exercise. For other great tips and exercises, be sure to purchase the Flat Belly Pilates: Beginner Pilates Guide and Practice Journal and visit the Flat Belly Pilates Blog.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to give me a ring or drop me a line. Visit the Flat Belly Pilates website and blog for more about me, the company, practice exercises, health news, weight loss tips, special events and upcoming publications.
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Folks who use TeachStreet to find new classes have been pretty clear: They LOVE yoga! They love learning it, teaching it, and talking about it.

Since yoga is one of most popular subjects, we’ve decided to make it our focus for the month of January. And, because we think the New Year is a great time to focus on your health, we’re including pilates, personal training and fitness teachers and classes as part of our January focus as well.

With that in mind, we’ve partnered with yoga teacher and business coach Soleil Hepner (also creator of YogaBlaze/YogaBizz) to give a workshop that’s focused on helping Seattle’s yoga and fitness instructors build their businesses.

In the workshop, we’ll go over: blogging, using e-newsletters to maintain student relationships, building your online reputation, SEO optimization, and how to create a great web site. We’ll also talk about specific resources to help you make your business a success. This is a FREE event, and we’d love for you to join us!

Space is limited, so please RSVP by clicking on the link below:

Technology for Teachers! (Sponsored by TeachStreet and YogaBlaze)
January 24, 2009 – 2-5pm

Maya Whole Health
701 N 36th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
Space is limited, please click here to RSVP.

Workshops:
2:00 – 2:30 – Mingle, Meet, & Circle
2:30 – 3:15 – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by TeachStreet.com
3:30 – 4:15 – Email Marketing by Constant Contact
4:15 – 5:00 – Q&A + Blogging/Websites w/ Soleil + Give-aways and Networking

We look forward to meeting teachers in the Yoga / Fitness community so please come by. Don’t forget to RSVP for the event.

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