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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 ...

I was Yogi Bear.   In my last summer of college, I took a job in Wisconsin. I thought I would be teaching kids to play sports. Instead, I was running Hanna-Barbera-themed activities and birthday parties. And twice every day, I was zipping up a giant fur suit, slipping into rubber boots that were too large, and walking five miles. I lost ten pounds, despite the ice vest we wore underneath.   When you put on a Yogi Bear costume, you don’t take on the full character. You’re not allowed to steal pic-a-nic baskets or swat beehives. And you’re not allowed to do the Yogi Bear voice. You have to stay silent, because while the giant costume sure makes you LOOK like Yogi, no one actually SOUNDS like Yogi. Little kids will run from their cabins and tents to hug Yogi’s legs; but if you speak, the illusion is shattered. You’re only authentically Yogi until you’re obviously not.   “Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.” – Einstein   Being a genius made Einstein good at his job. But being relatable made him popular.   Authenticity, in business, means that you have skin in the game. It means that you identify with your audience because you are them.   You know all about their accounting problems, because you have trouble balancing your own books.   You know all about their weight loss problems, because after working a 14-hour day at the gym, the last thing you want to do is cook dinner. So, donuts.   You know all about their bad hair day because you have them, too. Remember that time the blinkers wouldn’t turn off in your truck? That was annoying. And it happens to your customers, too.   Sharing these stories with your clients tells them, “We’re the same.” It says, “You can believe me when I tell you ...