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In 2001, CrossFit.com launched. Greg faced a market that many of us believed was already overcrowded. All the new innovation came in the form of gadgets: BOSU balls and tornado balls and DVDs. But CrossFit blew it all apart. Instead of arguing against each little invention, Greg Glassman released an innovation that simply made every toy irrelevant. Each new innovation passes through four stages of market adoption. First, the “early adopters” jump on board because they’re attracted to novelty. They try things because no one else is doing it yet, or they’re simply the first to discover the idea. Amundson and Nicole Carroll adopted the methodology, and others like OPT adopted it when it came online. Second, the “Early Majority” follows the early adopters. Less likely to take social or financial risks, the EM group dresses like the cool kids and listens to their music. They’re quick to jump on a new trend, but only after it’s been “cool-approved” by the real risk takers. With CFFMHI, I’d fall into this group. Many of the gym owners who affiliated between 2007 and 2012 would fall here. The brand hadn’t yet reached the majority of the population, and we liked the “counterculture” element. Today, I believe we’re entering the third phase: the “Late Majority.” Brand awareness is high: anyone interested in exercise has heard of CFFMHI. This is the largest group by FAR, but also the least motivated to self-educate. Hallmarks of the Late Majority include price-shopping, less loyalty and less pre qualification (they haven’t researched what you’re selling, and rely on you to tell them how you’re going to solve their problem.) If I wasn’t speaking one on one to dozens of gym owners every week, I probably would have missed this shift. It’s a huge change–it will affect how you spend your time as a gym owner–but it’s also not cut-and-dried. No obvious switch has been flipped, but gyms who embrace strategies ...