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I used to keep a picture of myself over my desk. In the picture, I’m deadlifting 500lbs at the Wolverine Open, an APF meet.   After one client meeting, I took the picture down and put it in my drawer. I haven’t looked at it since. Here’s how it went:   Client: Is that YOU in that picture? Me: Yes. Last year. Client: How much WEIGHT is that?!? Me: five-oh-five. Client: Can you teach me how to deadlift five hundred pounds? Me: Probably. What can you deadlift now? Client: As a guess, I’d say three hundo. (Yeah, people said “hundo” back then.) Me: Okay, well, I think a good short-term goal is to get to 315lbs–that’s a big milestone for a lot of lifters. It’s three plates a side, and… Client: Nah, I don’t want to lift 315. I want to lift five hundred. Me: Well, you have to go up in small increments. It’s not really a trick you learn. You have to build up– Client: If you can really teach 500 pounds, why can’t you just show me that?!   This is a true story, except for the deadlift part. I really did pull over 500 in several meets. But no client would ever think, “Let’s just start at 500 pounds.”   In the REAL story, a new client calls me for their free call and asks,   “Can you teach me how to reach more people with my Facebook ads?”   Me: Sure. Who are your best clients right now? Client: Married parents who earn over $100,00 per year and don’t want to waste their time in a Globo-gym. Me: Great. Let’s start with your email list. Let’s upload a list of all emails from people who have ever come in and not signed up, or signed up for awhile and then quit because– Client: Nah, I don’t care about my current clients. I only want NEW ...

On Sunday, I posted “What’s In Your Note?“.   I asked readers of this blog to send me a short reply. I wanted to know what short message they’d send to a struggling gym owner–or to themselves in five years. Over 50 responses came back in the first 50 hours. Without opinion, correction or embellishment, here they are:   Love yourself first Feel fear and face it Be early Make happiness Big vision, Golden Rule, Relentless pursuit of excellence, Embrace failure “You are a business owner, humble yourself, never stop learning, remember your why.”   Trust your instincts more its your vision, your dream and your ass on the line!   Never forgot to keep smiling. It will be fun, hard, beautiful, tough, outstanding, rewarding, stressful at times but you get to change lives. Set up rules right away. Stick to your values & please pay your self.   Be real about the brutal facts of your current situation but be optimistic about what the future holds.   Look inward to know why you are doing this and stop there. Don’t try to instill your values on everyone else. Help them improve their best values they already have.   “Finding the right staff that shares your vision and is hungry for more.  But more importantly communicating with them better and more often!” “Get paid what you are worth. But provide the same back.”   Stay in the fight. Find solutions.   Understand your why   Client shoes Consistency Increase client value everyday Innovate Differentiate It’s okay to ask for help. Charge what you’re worth. Never forsake your happiness. Start for the right reasons, hire 2BB, profit first, stay grounded “It’s easier to do things right the first time. Choose wisely” ‘Hire someone smarter than you’ 35-50 professionals is better niche than Games athletes. Give more charge more. Start small and outgrow your box. When deciding to take on a partner, ...

On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into The Pentagon. All 64 passengers–including six hijackers–were killed. Another 125 people in the building were killed with them. The victims’ bodies are memorialized at the Pentagon Memorial, and they live on in the hearts and minds of a nation.   But one of them left something more.   The victims of the Pentagon attack were taken to Dover Air Force Base. This is where all CIA operatives (spies) are brought before burial. Astronauts from the space shuttle Columbia, victims of the bombing of the USS Cole–they’re prepared for their final rest by the morticians at Dover.   While performing autopsies on the passengers of Flight 77, one of the morticians found the ultimate “message in a bottle”: a short note, hurriedly written, in the stomach of a passenger.   The passenger wrote a note and ate it. Stomach acids protected the note while the plane burned.   What was on the note? That’s confidential. What’s important is that the message was received.   The passenger wasn’t sure whether they’d live or die. But they wrote the note anyway, and ate it, on the very slim chance it would be discovered.   Let’s turn to your business.   It’s no secret that not every gym survives.   I’ve seen the numbers. There are over 14,000 CrossFit gyms in the world now–but there have been more. The open-source model of entrepreneurship is a massive opportunity. But it’s also a challenge: everyone kinda has to figure it out as they go. Programs like the Incubator didn’t exist until the last few years, and some of the first affiliates simply didn’t make it. Some of those in the tidal wave of growth from 2012-2014 decided not to continue at the end of their first leases.   ALL of those box owners tried hard. The survivors didn’t outwork the rest. No one ...