Yesterday I received an email from TripAdvisor informing me that I had been awarded a Certificate of Excellence. I had no idea that there was such a thing but now I've got one I'm a big fan. It's the chance to thanks to everyone who's taken the time and trouble to say some kind words about my Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive course.  

Click to see tripadviser reviews

When I embedded TripAdvisor into my site I was hoping for praise but open to the possibility of harsh and unfair criticism, and in fairness I've received a one star review from someone who wasn't on the course and a two star review from someone who enjoyed the class but didn't enjoy the fajitas at lunch! May I just add that fajitas are not compulsory and anyone can eat wherever they wish. Lunch isn't part of the deal so bring a packet of crisps in if you wish but don't blame my course if they didn't have your favourite flavour! (I'm so over it now) .... Anyway, I overcame my fears and gave it a go, realising that feedback is good and TripAdivsor offers a third party review that's useful for the pubic when booking. 

Many months later and I've received mainly five star reviews. 
This tells me that: 

• My presentation is engaging and entertaining. 
• People are way nicer than I deserve. 
• Salsa Rapido is a well formed and mature method that can do well when compared to traditional classes. 
• I'm really good at asking for five star reviews.

On the last point my hobby of stand up comedy led to five shows at the Edinburgh Fringe where at the end of a show we would have a 'bucket speech' to encourage the audience to give a tip (The comedians only source of income) Infamously cliched lines like: "Take some change, fold it and put it in the bucket" are common. One time I got a waif-like act to kneel down holding the bucket while looking as mournful as a Dickensian child. Another time a showed the audience picture of my cats on my phone and asked "which one should I 'economise' first?" Well it works for charities! The result were seldom any different from no bucket speech. It was the show's content that counted. 

You'd never catch me plugging my Intensive course at a comedy gig!

I'm fairly cynical about reviews but third party reviews they are useful  in a world awash with
hyperbole. Another thing that has helped me throughout my career is open honest feedback. I've learnt the tough lesson that criticism stings like a needle but delivers a powerful medicine. I invite anyone who's attended my Salsa Rapido courses or party events to feedback in person or by email. They always get my full attention and steer my development.
Thanks in advance :-)

*****

The launch of Salsa Clasica N8

The launch of Salsa Clasica N8

It’s the morning after the launch of Salsa Clasica.I’m guessing that it’s around the fifty fifth venue I promoted salsa at since 1995 and for Fliss, A.K.A. Dj Felicidad, it was back to our roots. Not long after we started teaching salsa we started a monthly Friday night at the Old Bull Arts centre in High Barnet.

Our aim was simple: To create a friendly local monthly event where local salseros of any level and any style could come and dance and socialise.

I haven't launched a new night in the suburbs for years and to be fair, I was a little nervous.

There was only ever going to be three outcomes: No people, loads of people and somewhere in between. Last night we had enough people to establish the event and create a friendly atmosphere. We had people from several local venues and from our old venues no longer operating i.e The Cuban, Camden and the King Head Crouch End.




My sincere thanks to everyone who supported us and those who send their best wishes for the event.

It was like a house party in a mansion’s funky ball room. Oak panels with Punch and Judy serving hatch and trapease mannequins looking as if their about to jump down and dance with us. I was happy not to charge an admission and delighted that everyone danced with everyone, chatted and enjoyed themselves. For anyone who’s been on our Thames Salsa Cruise (July 28th) is was like that but with a stable dance floor and no queuing!

Fliss played classic salsa which transported me back to the early days of Salsa Fusion in Leicester Square. It was also fun to merge a micro salsa class (10mins) with a Gestalt exercise designed to break barriers and place ‘connection’ at the heart of social dance. Fitting as I found the venue by drinking there after my psychotherapy course across the road.

I was also pleasantly surprised with my energy levels. I’d taught my 1-Day Intensive for five hours on Saturday and the Salsa Rapido i2i Musical Interpretation for four hour on Sunday. Usually that would mean an evening of blobbing on the sofa. After a quick turn around we headed in for a delicious meal at the The Three Compasses. I had the nut roast which was superb and Fliss had a gourmet Cheese burger. Then it was plug in, set up and dance pretty much non stop until about 9.30pm. Thanks be to the air-conditioning and kind wooden floor!

My mission was simple, dance with everyone I could. I also wanted to meet and speak with everyone who came and I’m pleased to say I achieved that too. I believe the atmosphere in any event, big or small, comes from the promoter’s leadership and the way to avoid cliques and sleaze is to chat to everyone.

We now move to the first Sunday of the month so the next Salsa Clasica is Sunday 7th June.
7-11pm See you there :-)
The Three Compasses , 62 High St, Hornsey, London N8 7NX

We got Hacked on Facebook

I got Hacked on Facebook

I wanted to ‘boost’ my post for our new monthly Sunday night event Salsa Clasica (plug plug here’s the link ) I hadn't used it for a year and so wasn’t checking for any activity but found my Facebook advertising account had been hacked last March.

The hackers used my account to advertise and pay for adverts for training shoes, to the tune of £200 per day. Fortunately the ads were suspended “Your ad account has been flagged for ‘policy violations’.” This limited the spend to £1250. OUCH!



I assume anyone who purchased those trainers never received them and their card details would also be sold on to other criminals so what goes around, keeps going around!

Facebook is incredibly hard to contact, no telephone number and no online chat. The ad support contact system isn’t working at the moment (day two and seven attempts). The general help just sends the same “try ad. support” messages. I’ll persist but what a waste of time, let alone the stress.


Why didn’t Facebook contact me? I am a client who spend money with them.

The ads were suspended due to ‘policy violations’ which usually means too much text in an image or something similar but surely a hacker would not want to draw attention or risk failure through a ‘policy violation’. I believe that ‘policy violations’ in this case means Facebook were aware of the hack and did nothing to help other than stop it after four days of taking the business! I was under the impression that ads had to be approved before going live, not four days later! This leads me to conclude that Facebook have no duty of care to is clients. They’re the tech giant who doesn’t care if a few ants get crushed.

So what have I learnt?


Big tech companies are big targets for hackers. That’s no excuse as they have the resources to secure their platforms but choose not to. It’s like car theft. If a law was passed to make car manufacturers replace stolen cars, how good would car security be? Awesome! They have the resources therefore it’s a policy choice.


Is my personal security up to it? No! But it is now!!!


Am I on top of my paperwork admin? No! That needs to change. I had school reports that basically say the same thing from thirty five years ago. (I just got around to reading them!)


Finally a big shout out to First Direct bank. Since I paid with credit card they will reimburse me the full amount as it’s fraud. How do I know? I called someone who explained it to me. Yes, there’s a green button on my phone which actually allows me to speak with people in other locations! Someone please tell Facebook about this magic green button. I would but I can’t get through!