SNM, Please Read...
Chris and co. at SNM, and forum posters,
I got my CM/CK DVD today and, like several other forum members, do suggest that more chapters would have been nice on the CM/CK DVD. And I agree with the general consensus that it would be a good idea to initiate a homepage shipping status update for the Cathe buyers who aren't interested in our forum (although I have to point out that, to my knowledge, no other fitness website offers that kind of detailed info on its homepage).
But none of those comments are the main reason for my post. After reading and thinking about this thread, I've gotta say this (sorry this is long, but I do want to get this in print):
I go way back as a forum member and Cathe video fan, to the earliest days of this website. When I first previewed this new DVD my immediate and strongest reaction was not what could be done better, but how good it is. And I was thinking about how amazed I am at how far Cathe's web-fueled business has come, and how fast. I want to tell all of you at SNM that I have the deepest respect and admiration for what you have accomplished in just a couple of years. And y'all, skip this if you don't want to read on, and I don't mean to be preachy, but I would like to share with my forum friends, for what it's worth, my two cents' worth of perspective on Cathe and SNM.
I'm afraid Cathe's created a monster. We maniacal Cathe fans are all sitting out here like greedy, hungry children wanting more to eat all the time, and I'm afraid that we're not always paying a whole lot of attention to where all the good food comes from. I know we all do appreciate Cathe's finished product. But I'm sure that we don't have a BLEEPING clue how many hours she, Chris and their team spend on keeping the hard work of their businesses transparent to all of us. And I say "businesses" because they've got several distinct operations going on at one time: health club staffing and operation, video production, web-based sales, and this interactive web site and forum. Heck, I think any one of these would keep me busy.
Look at how often SNM has upgraded their forum software, their server, the website design and contents. And, not to throw darts, but think about all the problems many of us have experienced at other forum sites.)
Look at all the website innovations they've tried, so that we would have more toys to play with.
Look at Lord knows how many hours Cathe puts into answering our questions, cheering us on, absorbing our suggestions and planning new videos, choreography, sets, music, clothes, shoes, crew, childcare for Eric and crew kids, rehearsal, dinner for neglected spouses and significant others, etc. I mean, good grief, guys, this gal's son isn't even a year old, yet she's recovered from childbirth, she's been up nights with a baby, she's moved her family into a new house this year, and she's successfully completed a video project of amazingly ambitious scope. I am just in awe.
And now SNM is on the cutting edge of fitness DVDs, and for beginners at that process I think they've done a pretty damn nice job (all the while, I might add, keeping us on the forum updated on a pile of problems and headaches in the process).
If there is one thing that Cathe Friedrich and SNM have shown us clearly, it is that they are totally committed to providing us with the best tools we could possibly have for learning from Cathe and from each other. We should all have this work ethic. I admire it deeply.
There is always going to be something that SNM could have done differently, and we all have the right to speak up and make suggestions which, history has shown, Cathe's team takes to heart.
But I think we've gotten a bit spoiled by how responsive these good people are. Let us not lose sight of the fact that behind all this are real people who juggle a lot like we do, and who obviously care very much about their work and how it impacts all of us.
Imperfect or not, Cathe, her staff, her products and this website are flat out wonderful.
So to SNM and Eric's mom, many, many thanks. As my 10-year-old's soccer coach bellows from the sidelines repeatedly, "WELL DONE! WELL DONE! GOOD JOB! WELL DONE!"
I'll be sending in my suggestions for new videos under a separate title... ;-)
Kathy S.
