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PoleCon presents, IPIA Webinar Recap: Interview with Neola Wilby, Author of “Strength and Conditioning for Pole”

This information is from Neola Wilby’s webinar ”Interview with Neola Wilby, Author of “Strength and Conditioning for Pole” held on April 28, 2022.

IPIA Members can view the entire webinar at this link. If you purchased a ticket to PoleCon 2025 — you are an IPIA member! Check your receipt for details! 

Birth of “The Pole PT”

Back in 2022, we interviewed Neola Wilby, author of Strength and Conditioning for Pole and Pole Anatomy.

Neo didn’t start her journey as a pole dancer, first she was a lawyer who was doing calisthenics and personal training on the side. Neo wanted a way to up her workouts so she tried pole for the first time and found a beautiful world where strength, artistry, creativity, and calisthenics all collided. She was surprised to find she couldn’t invert in her first class.

Because of her background in fitness, Neo was looking for workouts to do off the pole that would target what she was lacking on the pole. The “just keep trying to throw the trick until you get it” mentality wasn’t for her. Neo realized there were no materials out there to help her achieve her goals, so she decided to make one.

Writing Strength and Conditioning for Pole

Neo started to be the answer for her own need, becoming a personal trainer who specialized in bridging the gap between traditional fitness and pole, and maxed out her personal training client list. She had blog posts, prefab programs and other programs up for offer; however, there were still more people asking her for strength and conditioning for pole. Armed with an impressive collection of blogs talking about strength and conditioning, her pre-written programs, and years of fitness knowledge, Neo set out to write her first book: Strength and Conditioning for Pole.

While the book is not a step-by-step guide for how to get stronger for pole, but empowers polers with structure and format to enhance their individual journey. Neo’s goal was to write a fitness book in a way that was digestible for the masses—and she’s done just that. Strength and Conditioning for Pole breaks down a number of common pole moves, gives you benchmarks for strength and mobility to determine if you’re ready and gives you progressions for how to get there. It’s really a choose-your-own-adventure for what you want to work on.

Neo’s Take on Writing

Neo thinks anyone who wants to write a book on pole should do it. There are still only very few books dedicated to pole sport and she encourages people to share their knowledge.

Neo notes that writing takes a lot of self discipline and can be a lonely endeavor. She shared that she gave herself some small, but achievable deadlines, little nuggets of goals she could hit easily to avoid overwhelm at the size of the project (sounds a lot like SMART goals).  She followed this same path for writing her second book, Pole Anatomy, which was a work in progress at the time of the interview.

Some Notes on Self Publishing

Because pole is still a small industry, Neo went down the route of self-publishing for both her books. She spoke with many publishers for her first book who didn’t think the industry was large enough to make it worth it to take on her book. Even a publisher who specialized in fitness books, didn’t think there was enough of a market.

Self-publishing is a lot of work. There are many roles the publishers take on for authors such as distribution, customer service, and administration that all fall on you if you choose to self publish. On the plus side, when you self publish you get to keep 100% of the profits instead of having to pay a percentage of the profits to the publisher.

More on Neo

What you’ve read here only scratches the surface of what Neo talks about in her interview with IPIA, for more information check out the full interview here. You can also learn more about Neo on her website: https://www.thepolept.com/

More on the IPIA

The IPIA, our industry’s first trade association, conducts monthly webinars on topics of interest for people working in the pole industry or looking to start working in the pole industry. Some webinars are interviews, like this one, and others are more “how to” do something related to pole business. Anyone can sign up for a webinar for a small fee, IPIA members get access to the websites for free. Check out the next webinars here.

Cora
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