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The REAL Path to Success

January 14, 2018 Vision
Friends, this is what the path to success looks like (extend to infinity). You’re going to make progress. Then you’re going to backtrack ALMOST to zero again. Then you’ll make a bit more progress, and then you’ll backtrack ALMOST to the point you were last time. Progress, backtrack; progress; backtrack. But here’s the reason to keep going: Every time you loop back, you won’t go quite as far backward as before. The loops get smaller. And you’ll also start to notice that you’re not backtracking quite as often as before. Some day you’ll look up and think, “Wow, I’ve gone a whole year without any major problems.” And when you have problems, thinking this way will help you keep your perspective. Nikole, a mentoring client,  coined the hashtag #highclassproblems. She’s an expert. And I love the phrase, because it reminds me that, while problems will never go away, they get smaller in magnitude and less frequent over time. Many business owners are stuck in that first loop forever. You’re not. If for no other reason, keep going because today’s problems are slightly less horrible than last year’s problems. I’ve been there. The exercise works.
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What Will You Sacrifice?

January 13, 2018 Gym Operations
When my gym was in trouble, there was one consulting service in the CrossFit world. I watched their videos. Many of their messages made sense. But I couldn’t get past their spokesman: he ranted, he swore at people, he spammed me with sales pitches and “Hurry up! Buy now, or you’re a loser!” emails. A friend–a nearby gym owner–signed up for his service. The best testimonial my friend could give was:   “I figure I don’t have to like the guy for him to help my business.”   I thought, “If this is what I have to do to be successful in the fitness industry, then I’m not sure I want to be part of it.”   Luckily, his manner didn’t seem to fit with the rest of CrossFit’s message, so I hit “SPAM” on the next few emails and looked outside our little world for help.   I found it, and shared what I learned far and wide. And I’ve been doing it since, because knowing that I could succeed in the gym business without feeling like a slime ball was a huge revelation. It still fills me with gratitude every day.   This week, more than ever, I’ve been on the phone with gym owners who have reached a line they refuse to cross. Six out of the last ten entrepreneurs who have signed up for the Incubator have been part of other fitness consulting companies in the past. And while they all unanimously agreed that the knowledge was good, every one also said “I couldn’t do what they were telling me to do anymore.”   Not because the owner wasn’t smart enough. Not because they lacked “hustle” (please.) The gym owner couldn’t continue with their business coach because they weren’t willing to compromise their values to boost their business.   The words “bait and switch” came up a lot. So did “cold calling” and “slimy sales scripts.” So ...
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Is Entrepreneurship Really The Safest Path?

January 12, 2018 Personal Development
Driving to work this morning, I was listening to a call-in show about “the future of jobs.”   Two back-to-back callers grabbed my attention.   The first owned a book store. “What do you do, and whattaya make?” (Say it in a DJ voice)   She said, “I own a book store, and I do everything! I do my books, I do ordering, inventory…I’m the only staff person. I work fifteen-hour days. I make about $22 per hour.”   DJ: “How much per year?”   Store owner: “About 50k, give or take.”   The next caller was a librarian.   DJ: “What do you do, and whattaya make?” (same DJ voice – there’s a reason these guys make 30k per year.)   Librarian: “I’m a librarian. I make seventy-one-thousand-dollars-per-year. I work about 35 hours per week.”   DJ: “Wow! A librarian makes that much money?”   Librarian (scoffing): “Well, it takes a Masters’ Degree to do my job…”   DJ: “That’s a lot of late fees. How many books do you swipe in a day?”   Librarian (mildly offended): “Oh, I don’t do that. We have staff for that.”   To a business owner at the end of a long week, a librarian’s job sounds pretty sweet.   $71,000 per year. 35 hours per week. Staff to handle the book-swiping and late fees. And probably job security (at least for the next five years.) You and I both know libraries are wooly mammoths headed for the cliff, but many small businesses are even closer. So let’s set that aside.   The book store owner has traded security for opportunity. Willingly so. Most people wouldn’t make that trade. You would. So would I.   Because with opportunity comes AGILITY.   Let’s say, by 2020, everyone reads e-books. What happens to the librarian?   The store owner has options: she can sell something else, like e-readers. She can become an Amazon affiliate, ...
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Channel Conflict: Who "Owns" A Client?

January 11, 2018 Member Retention
I have a dentist. She’s been my dentist for a decade.   In those ten years, she’s moved her practice three times. And every time she moves, I follow, because my relationship is with her, not her office.   Obviously, this is great for her. She’ll be my dentist for life. But it’s NOT great for the dental offices she leaves.   I have a financial advisor. He has a “book of business” with my name in it.   If he moves his practice to another brand, I’ll go with him. He knows that I prefer Index Funds over RSPs, and real estate over any paper investment.   Obviously, this is great for him. But it’s NOT great for his office: if he leaves, so do his clients.   In most professions, shifting between dealerships or franchises happens only once or twice in a career. But in the fitness industry, it happens around every three years. Especially with CrossFit, where the barrier to ownership is SO low, trainers move in and out of gyms pretty often. And if you don’t want your clients to follow them down the street, you have to take a different approach.   Your clients need to have a relationship with your BRAND that overrides their relationship with any SPECIFIC coach.   Here are some tips to keep your brand in the forefront of your clients’ mind: Change your lexicon. Avoid using phrases like “coach for life”. Instead, refer to “the excellent coaches at Catalyst” and use “we” in your correspondence. Regularly switch coaches around in group class times. Sub out coaches for personal training clients occasionally. It’s fun for coaches to work with new clients, and better for the clients. Put the best person in each role. If you say “client retention is the coach’s job” then that coach will manage the entire client relationship. If they’re bad at sending birthday cards or congratulating clients, the ...
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Individual Design at Catalyst

January 9, 2018 Personal Development
Most readers of this blog will know that I own Catalyst Fitness (CrossFit Catalyst) and have since 2005.   We started as a Personal Training studio before we found CrossFit. And before opening Catalyst, I was doing 1:1 training as my full-time career since 2002 (and part-time since 1996.)   That’s a lot of 1:1 time.   The way I sell Personal Training (PT) sessions has changed over time. At first, I simply billed clients at the end of the month. I was doing some in-home PT, and collecting was a nightmare (yeah, I can SEE YOU IN THERE!)   Then I relied on the owner of our local PT studio to collect for me. That worked most of the time, but when it didn’t, I was out the money.   When I opened Catalyst, I started selling packages–10 visits and 20 visits. And now I’m moving on to a subscription model, which we call our ID program.   You can see the client-facing landing page here: www.catalystgym.com/id   There are two ways to sell a subscription-based PT model. The first is to simply charge a recurring rate every month, like $199 for four 30-minute sessions per month. That’s what we do. The second way is to sell 150 sessions at a large discount, and then finance the purchase for your client. For example, let’s say I charge $80 per hour, but a client can get a 25% discount for purchasing 100 sessions upfront. Then I offer to finance the purchase for them at 15% interest, and they pay monthly. I could actually make back a lot of the discount on the compounding interest. And the client is committed to 100 sessions in advance–or else your collections agency will get them. Boom, retention!   If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a day, you’ll know the second paragraph is NOT what I recommend. But it’s done every day ...
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Episode 103: Q+A With Coop

January 8, 2018 Gym Operations Podcast
 
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