This past Friday my nice little family of three made the jump to FOUR! We are proud to bring Owen Matthew Dupuis into the world. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will now definitely need to "hide" me from your newsfeeds because I'm about to double up on the cute baby pics (joking...kind of). Seriously, though, don't block me on there if you enjoy my blog, because that seems to be the primary place where people manage to track down my content!

I've got my hands full with the new addition to my family, and an adorable little tyrant of a 2-year old running our house, so it is hard to say how much blogging I'll be finding time for this week. One solution for this uncertainty is to share some quick reading recommendations. Based on the size of my newsletter list, I get the impression that most of you don't realize I share a weekly list of reading materials called "My Friday Four" on, you guessed it, Fridays.

This information features four pieces of content I've consumed during the previous week that will influence my future blog material and challenge me to think differently about how I manage CSP - as always, I'm looking to bring you some business-specific information from outside of the world of fitness. Here's a look at this past week's shared articles:

1 - Three Lessons Nonprofits Can Teach Businesses About Branding: This was my favorite post of the week because it was an entirely new concept to me. Why aren’t more of us looking at the way that operations such as the Red Cross create urgency, inspire viewers, and create community around a cause? Check this one out and start applying concepts quickly so that you can “connect with consumers’ hearts and their wallets.”

2 - How Under Armour is Outsmarting The Olympics' Strict Advertising Rules: There is ALWAYS a trendy discussion taking place on social networking platforms that you can align your business with. This article points out how effectively Under Armour has leveraged it’s affiliation with athletes instead of the Olympic Games to bypass the big spend that comes with being “an official sponsor.” You could be doing the same thing (on a smaller level) with your own brand right this moment with a little bit of creativity.

3 - SoulCycle Wants You to Join Its Tribe: SoulCycle is a business that is projected to collect $175M in 2016 in just 62 studios. That, my friends, is a business worthy of a spot on your “Fitness Tourism” itinerary. This piece takes you deep into the SoulCycle experience. You may not love this form of exercise, but you’ve got to be impressed by this fast growing operation.

4 - Why Everyone Should Get Fired at Least Once: I once worked a job where I feared my boss; it was awful. Had I come across this article way back then, I wouldn’t have wasted any time moving on to the next step in my professional development process. While the title of this piece is certainly meant to draw significant clicks, the overarching message is that staying in a toxic employment environment is your choice. If your gut is telling you to move on, do so.

I'd love to see you sign up for my newsletter if you enjoyed these pieces and would be interested in receiving a similar "Friday Four" each week. You can do so by clicking here and sharing your information in the left-hand column. You can also see archived copies of all 16 newsletters I've published to date.

Have a great Monday!

- Pete