Have you ever tried to sue someone for their gym fees? I haven’t. And I don’t want to. So I don’t have contracts. “Never make a rule you won’t enforce” is something my first mentor taught me. But he didn’t tell me the harder lesson: that you have to enforce the rules that you make. And you have to enforce them the same way every single time, or they won’t work. When we sold Open Gym memberships at Catalyst, we had a full page of rules: Clear out before group starts Don’t come near the floor while there’s a group going on, even to warm up Put your stuff away Etc. I don’t have to spell it out for you. You know what’s on that list. The problem was that no one really followed the list. So for awhile, members using Open Gym would show up while class was on, and discreetly their warmups in the corner. Sometimes they’d walk through class to get a foam roller. Eventually, their warmups involved a barbell. And then they began to involve the AirDynes…and then a coach snapped on them, and everyone felt awkward and bad, and I had to placate people who were in the wrong. They weren’t bad people, and it wasn’t their fault. It was my fault for not showing them where the lines are. When the rules are gray, there aren’t any rules. If you give people five extra minutes of personal coaching after class for free, you’ll never sell personal training as a service. If one coach starts class late, your clients won’t show up on time. If “Open gym” runs during class time, your students will have a lesser experience. If you aren’t saying “no”–and saying it clearly every time–you’re really saying “yes.” Consistency is greater than everything else. Even when it’s painful. The irony is that upholding your rules consistently and clearly is only painful once. In the long run, it’s far LESS painful. I once had ...
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