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The two most-discussed podcast guests I hosted this year were Greg Glassman (of course) and James Fitzgerald, founder of OPEX.   James was my first CrossFit hero. Greg is my business hero.   What I didn’t anticipate was that gym owners would perceive such a wide rift between 1:1 training (or individual program design) and CrossFit, because I don’t.   I found CrossFit after spending 9 years as a personal trainer. That was 2007, the same year Fitzgerald won the Games. I owned a 1750sqft personal training studio, with beautiful natural light and a good location. We ran noon classes, but that was the only one. Everything else was 1:1. We sent clients to globogyms to do their homework.   I opened our CrossFit gym as our second location. Unfortunately, it suffered mightily (I was trying to sell a ton of group memberships, using free intros and discounts.) But I survived on the revenue from the PT gym. And soon realized that the best path for the client was NOT the group-only model. In early 2008, the idea of just selling group memberships was popular but not the default. Now it is.   We combined the two gyms, switched our OnRamp back to 1:1 from group, and sold fitness delivered two ways: individually, or in a group. The group classes followed CrossFit programming overtly; the individuals did constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity. They came to our gym to do their homework. Some people did both groups and 1:1 training, depending on their preference and budget.   CrossFit has always been the “budget option”, because I believe that 1:1 training is still the fast-track for client success.   We have 220 clients. Around $240k of our annual revenue comes from 1:1 training.   At intake, we ask people, “would you be more comfortable exercising 1:1 or in a group?”   Sometimes, at goal reviews, we’ll ask people “Are ...

I remember when I was young enough to know everything.   I was 100% sure that my way was the ONLY way. I thought that MY experience should be the same as everyone else. I knew that what I liked was what others would like, too.   I opened my gym thinking dozens of local powerlifters would want coaching. They did not. My first website was dark and scary. I thought all the hardcore athletes in town would want to do CrossFit. They did not. I tried to attract local firefighters by criticizing P90X–which they were all doing at the firehouse. I thought they’d see the light because of my infallible logic and science. They did not.   Eventually, I got tired of making bad guesses about what other people wanted, and started asking them. I’ve refined the technique now, and we teach it in the Incubator: which questions to ask your coaches, clients and spouse to find out what they REALLY want from you.   Most of us opened a gym because we wanted to coach. A year later, we might have wanted something else. But we made guesses about our clients based mostly on what WE wanted, or what worked for US.   I like training in a group. Many of my clients don’t. That’s fine.   Some people prefer a private introduction to CrossFit. Some people do not. That’s fine.   The answer depends on the client. And that’s why so many real experts in ANY field, when asked a question, will answer with, “That depends…”   The only ones who are ever absolutely sure that their opinion is correct to the exclusion of everything else are the newcomers. The evangelists for one training style, or one business “best practice” are usually the newcomers. They’re also usually the loudest, because they’re so assured of their conviction that they’re comfortable shouting it from the rooftops. Data? Not necessary. ...