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What is a community? What is a culture? Can you define them in one paragraph? How about one word? Chances are, like most business owners, you define community either with a collection of ideas or with the word itself. Neither are acceptable. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective client. You are looking for a way to lose weight and get fit. You stumble across a gym on Google and want to learn more about it. So you go to the gym’s website and the first thing you see is a picture of some sweaty person with a pain face, the word “community” emblazoned at the top. Confused? I’d be surprised if you weren’t. This is what we do to our prospects every day. We shove the idea of community in their faces without defining it. So what is community? A community is relationships—a collection of relationships. A community is made of people who build each other up because they care about each other. And because they care about each other—and they know that you and your coaches care, too—people in your community stick around. So how do we build community? You must first be genuine and authentic: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care,” or so goes the saying attributed to former President Theodore Roosevelt. By showing, through action, that you genuinely care about your people and their results, you build strong relationships. What about your staff? Your staff should be a genuine extension of you, and therefore just as authentic and caring. If they are not, your community falls apart. If they don’t take the time to work with a client in class, run a goal-setting session, reach out to a missing member, show up to a social event or comment on a Bright Spot Friday post, your community will fall apart. Where do we go from here? Instead of throwing ...

Ashley’s first visit to a CrossFit gym was long overdue.   I’ve known Ashley for a LONG time. She’s the ideal client for a CrossFit gym: interested in trying new things; a high-earning professional; and she has a long history in fitness.   It took me months to get Ashley to try CrossFit. I even drug her to a Regional event to show her how supportive the community can be. So she signed up for a free trial class.   My feelings on “free trial classes” notwithstanding, I thought, “She’ll be hooked right away.”   She wasn’t.   The class started on time, but one client was a few minutes late. The coach stopped the class, and everyone turned to watch the latecomer tie their shoes.   Then the coach said, “Bill is six minutes late. So we’re all going to do sixty burpees while Bill watches us.”   I’m sure that taught Bill a lesson. And it taught Ashley one too: “CrossFit treats you like a preschooler.” She never returned.   Ashley’s case is an extreme example. But every day, I see gym owners asking, “How do you punish clients who are late?”   The answer: you don’t.   We’re all adults here. We have good jobs. We have responsibilities outside the pursuit of fitness, and options outside our gyms.   We don’t need to visit a place where we feel embarrassed to arrive late. Or punished when we forget our shoes once or twice.   Imagine this: you’re a busy professional, and you attend the noon class to reduce stress and clear your head before a crazy afternoon. When class is over, you’re already thinking about your 2pm client meeting. You leave your lifting shoes behind.   The next day, your coach says, “It will cost you 25 burpees to get your shoes back. You can start now.”   I’d leave. But let’s say I didn’t: who, in ...

When I was a personal trainer, I worked with a lot of financial planners and wealth managers.   Our first “gym” was in the financial district in town–three banks and a couple of financial offices. I didn’t get much free advice, but I heard a LOT of gloom and doom.   In 2007, as the stock market was on the brink of disaster, we were all still blissfully unaware. But I remember one of my clients telling me:   “You’re selling a luxury, buddy. If the steel mill goes down in this town, you’re done.”   Another said:   “You should be paying close attention to the market, because when people start losing money, you’ll be the first thing they cut.”   Obviously, they were wrong: my stock portfolio–basically, my shares in OTHER people’s companies–took a vicious beating in 2008. But Catalyst started to grow. I’ll share the reason WHY in one moment.   First, though, a quick definition: antifragility. Nassim Taleb’s book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder is a fantastic lesson on building a resilient business. The key takeaway for the service industry: hold tightly to your values but loosely to their delivery. In other words, be plastic: change the service, not the price; and recruit clients who are also immune to market forces.   In a stock market crisis, who is least affected?   Government workers, like teachers (in Canada, at least, they can’t be downsized) Entrepreneurs with the same anti fragile policies Financial planners (ironically, with fixed fees, they’re among the safest; they make their 3% even if you lose money) Doctors, lawyers and professionals. Kids Cab drivers In other words, generalists.   Who is MOST affected?   Middle managers Salaried workers in collapsable positions (including steelworkers, unfortunately) In other words, skilled specialists.   The market DID collapse in 2008, of course. And our city’s major industries–pulp, paper and steel–took a massive beating. One of the ...