Takeaways From a PSIA YouTube Binge

YouTube and the PSIA website continue to be a valuable resource for me. They have been uploading presentations and training videos for 15 years now and I've yet to find one that is outdated. Want to know how PSIA communicates the unique challenges of a relatively high diversity snowsports environment? There is a 13 year old presentation by PSIA Alpine Team Member Michael Rogan, AASI Team Member Josh Spoelstra, PSIA Adaptive Team Coach Bill Bowness, and PSIA Nordic Team Member Ross Matlock. Want to watch a video on teaching balancing versus bracing? You will fall in love with Debbie Armstrong's style. Want to re-watch the 2013 members recap? It's all there, for free! There are almost 400 videos on this channel alone and many other organizations have instructor-focused channels covering a wide range of topics. Rookie Academy, ISASKI, CARV, Instructor Grindset, EA Ski and Snowboard Training are just a couple of them.

One video that stood out in my most recent YouTube binge was a National Academy 2018 opening general session presented by Jeff Johnson. He mostly mentioned little things we know we can improve on but don't get judged on harshly enough to prioritize: not remembering names, talking too much, lack of instructor-guest connection on topics outside of skiing. Smoothly enough these solutions are packaged as one-liners to be easily broadcast at your local ski school. Jeff Johnson filled the room to the ceiling with his energy and got us engaged with his first point.

Be Assertively Friendly

We have all heard of the infamous ski instructor huddle — managers have been cracking down on it for as long as any of us remember. There are two common reactions by instructors once their unapproachable huddle gets broken up by a supervisor: most open the circle up to a line and go on with their conversation, while the more talented and attentive ones break from the formation and head straight for the nearest yet-to-be-greeted guest. Which one are you? And which do you think is more effective at delivering a warm welcome to tourists on the most stressful and busy vacation of their lives? Helping guests with their dropped poles and scissoring skis as they walk up to lesson check-ins is an easy way to put yourself on the supervisor's radar for the next private lesson, and a sure way to make guests feel welcome.

Being assertively friendly should extend outside of lineup and lesson checkout. If you are in uniform you must help people out on the hill — dropped poles, making sure guests know where to get warm by engaging in conversation on the gondola, letting them know their sock is untied or they dropped their pocket — all sure ways to score some karma. By actively seeking contact with the guests instead of waiting to be asked for directions, you make the guest feel important. That's what makes them want to come back.

Listen to Remember

Jeff had the crowd participate in a simple experiment: meet as many people as you can in two minutes. The whole room stood up with a mission to gather as many handshakes and names as possible. At the end of two minutes, Jeff asked how many people everyone had met — answers ranged from five to fifteen — but no one remembered all those names, only two or three. When we listen to respond, we are already thinking of what we will say long before our interlocutor is done talking. It's not real listening.

In the second phase of the experiment, Jeff asked the crowd to meet people and listen to remember. People met fewer people but tried to find something to remember each other by — a connection. Once the two minutes were up, Jeff had a hard time getting everyone's attention again. When asked how many people they met, they said two or three — the same number as before — but everyone could remember the names. When Jeff asked why, they couldn't stop talking about what they had learned about the other person. Listening to respond is helpful in a few situations, but ski instructors need to listen to remember if they want to build a genuine connection with the guest.

Two Ears and One Mouth

I can recall a really embarrassing chairlift ride I had with a private lesson client that fits this perfectly. This was a middle-aged mom who wanted to ski so she could ski with her kids. I taught her from day one until she was ready for upper mountain green runs in Vail. On the second day we were riding the chair and she interrupted to say, "I just love the silence and peace of the mountain." It may not have been a hint to shut up already but I sure took it as one. As I sat awkwardly on the second half of the chair I reflected and realized I had been talking nonstop for a total of fourteen hours, and most of it wasn't necessary, helpful, or constructive of a connection. I had failed to use my ears and mouth proportionally. She knew where I was from, what I did in the summer, everything — and I just knew she wanted to ski with her kids.

Jeff formalized the solution perfectly with a trick — spoiler alert, it's rizz. Ask more questions than you divulge information; 80% of the talking should be done by the conversation partner. Jeff describes trying this on his wife and redirecting all her questions with a short answer and another question back. When you ask more questions and speak less, your conversation partner doesn't really notice — it's just a conversation to them and they love it. By using your ears more than your mouth you give yourself the chance to engage the guest early on and learn what actually matters to them.

Feel, Felt, Found

It's a rainy Saturday. She could sleep in but wakes up at 5am. Gets in the car not even awake. There's traffic. Trying to find a parking spot. It's snowing and it's all slippery. She's out of her element. She has like 10 layers of clothing on. Comes into the rental shop — whoomf — it's 80 degrees in there. Sweating, stinky helmet on her head, they give her the skis. She doesn't know how to carry them, walking in awkward boots. And then there's you.

There is a method for helping the guest turn the mood around so they can quickly get to the part where they are grateful they came. First: feel — empathize with the guest and let them know you understand how they feel. Second: felt — tell them about somebody who felt the same way. Third: found — tell them how that other person found that things aren't so bad, and that when they did what you want them to do, they found it was actually a very good thing. Jeff nailed what to say. Being assertively friendly is the piece that ties this plan together. You can tell Jane Doe how to feel better about what's coming up all you want — and you should — but helping her carry her gear and generally making her feel important is what gets her to come back.

Remembering names right from the get-go is a great way to move the conversation forward quickly. You should still play name games to help kids remember each other's names — hopefully now you have a couple of tools to add creative twists to the all-too-boring "Let's go around and say our names" task. Guests are spending more and more time, money and energy planning their next ski vacation. It's only fair that their expectations of a personalized experience should be high. Being assertively friendly helps guests feel welcome in a sport where first-timers only come back 18% of the time. Remembering meaningful details about guests helps personalize a lesson, and you can gather a lot more useful information by listening more and asking more questions. Communicating empathy is an important part of helping guests transition from an emotional roller coaster to carefree cruising. We instructors can't get by without doing these things — skiing is a slippery slope, and its people are the only thing helping people stick to the sport.

Watch Jeff Johnson's National Academy 2018 session on YouTube →