So, Pam Cauthen was fired from The Firm...

[Kimberly33]

I tend to agree that the chances of there being a non-competing clause in her contract with the Firm is much higher than the chance of GAIAM being afraid of her competition. JMO.

[SharonNYC]

Originally Posted by nycrican

Hi Sophie and Sharon:

I think they may be a little worried since the Firm forum has about 41,000 registered users and they are usually very loyal in following Firm Instructors from one gym to the other and from one video workout to another.

They may fear that Pam will start making up her own Yoga workouts which will then compete with their Yoga workouts. So, therefore keeping Pam on their payroll would create a real conflict of interest.

Nelly from the Block

Still doesn't make sense to me -- I would think that Gaiam's audience is much, much larger than the Firm's. The Firm seems like a cottage industry in comparison so I'm pretty sure that's where the rub happened.

ETA: it would be like BeachBody(national co.) kicking out Teigh and Gillian because of Swerve (their studio).

[lalavanb]

I think this has more to do with studio concerns than video concerns. It seems likely that the studio management is different than the video agreement. It is entirely possible Pam will make and distribute workouts through Gaiam, like so many other instructors do. I'm not saying she will, but it does seem possible since they work with so many different instructors.

The studio, however, has to be concerned that she will draw students away to her new studio, or that she will be too tied up in her new venture to fulfill all her teaching duties, missing classes, cancelling workouts, missing meetings and so on.

[Sophie]

Originally Posted by lalavanb

The studio, however, has to be concerned that she will draw students away to her new studio, or that she will be too tied up in her new venture to fulfill all her teaching duties, missing classes, cancelling workouts, missing meetings and so on.

See, that explanation makes sense to me.

Gaiam has a pretty good lock on the mass-market yoga video, and in terms of shelf presence, it smacks the Firm all to hell, at least up here. I cannot see them threatened by Pam in the least - and in fact, had she remained with the Firm, she would be a potential asset, not competition to them.

But competition for the local studio, as outlined above? That, I can see.

In any case, I hope she and Tamela do well in their new venture. I think they're both fun

[SharonNYC]

Originally Posted by lalavanb

The studio, however, has to be concerned that she will draw students away to her new studio, or that she will be too tied up in her new venture to fulfill all her teaching duties, missing classes, cancelling workouts, missing meetings and so on.

Yes, that's it exactly.