Achieving Must-Hire Status - Where Interns Routinely Miss Opportunity

Hoping to score that dream coaching job at the conclusion of your internship program?  Stop trying to impress the boss and start trying to make a lasting impact on the influential people who actually hold the keys to your future.

A “short list” resides in my mind as I type this sentence.  This list contains the names of the first five current or former interns I’d approach if a paid coaching position were to open at one of our two Cressey Sports Performance (CSP) facilities.  While the list is continuously evolving, the way to earn a spot on it rarely changes, and is routinely overlooked.

The Most Common Mistake

There is one sure-fire way to blow an opportunity at earning “must-hire” status at CSP, and that is by wasting your time and energy trying to impress myself or Eric.  At this moment in time, we operate two strength & conditioning facilities, manage the CSP brand, have wives who would love to see more of us, and have toddlers wreaking havoc in our homes.  We don’t have the time or attention span to focus on identifying our next great hire without the insight of others.

There are three different types of gatekeepers who influence the ongoing development of our short list here at CSP.  Here’s some insight on how to go about earning their seals of approval during the internship process:

1. Clients

You know what makes my job a whole lot easier…having a client stomp into my office to declare that I am an idiot if I don’t intend to hire intern so and so.  I have never hired a single coach out of our internship program who failed to inspire more than one of our clients to share this type of unsolicited advice.

We’re in the business of customer service, and your ability to inspire our clients to speak up on your behalf is a whole lot more impressive than your attempt at offering a thought provoking question for Eric during staff in-service.  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz articulated this best when he said “The only competitive advantage we have is the relationship we have with our people, and the relationship they have built with our customers.”

If you can’t create raving fans during your time on the training floor, you can’t work for me.  It’s just that simple.

2. Staff members not named Pete or Eric

A coaching position at our Massachusetts location became available on October 1st of this past year.  With our absolute busiest period ahead, we knew that we needed all the competent coaches we could get during the months to come.  So, why did it take us 10 weeks to get a new coach on the training floor?

We actually started and ended our employee selection process during a single meeting.  I explained our need for a new team member and asked for suggestions from the rest of the staff.  All seven of my employees promptly told me that we needed to hire Nancy Newell, a coach who had wrapped her summer internship here at CSP just 5 weeks prior.  I explained that both Eric and myself wholeheartedly agreed, but there would be a catch to making it happen…Nancy was two and a half months away from completing her graduate program at SUNY Cortland.

“Are you guys prepared to pick up the slack that comes with being under-staffed and over-crowded if it means that you get to add the personality of your choice to the team in the long run?”

Yes.  Seven yeses, as it turns out. 

Earlier this week I asked Nancy what she did to set herself apart from her peers as an intern. 

“Nothing complicated.  I vacuumed the office every single night even though the checklist called for alternating days because I believe that there’s no such thing as an office being too clean. I volunteered for the tasks that others went out of their way to avoid. I made a habit of reminding myself that coaching is fun, and it was reflected in my body language.”

In short, Nancy focused on doing the little things well, and she did so with a smile on her face.  Her colleagues took notice, and it ultimately earned her a job.  When 100% of my team vouches for you, there’s a 0% chance I will stray from their advice.

3. Trusted professionals within our network

The last piece of the employee selection puzzle for me is collecting insights from professionals I know and trust who have had the opportunity to observe a candidate in action.  Guys like Matt Blake, Mike Reinold and Eric Schoenberg have accumulated their fair share of hours in the midst of the chaos that is a busy CSP.  They all have an appreciation for the type of personality that thrives as a member of our staff.  Most importantly, they’ve got nothing to gain or lose from us adding a new face to the team.

Before I ever pull the trigger on a job offer, I approach these guys for their unbiased take.  The interns who’ve made an effort to engage with these personalities around the gym during their time with us tend to end up on the fast track to a spot on our short list.

The Takeaway

Roughly 100% of our former interns have the technical skill set and training knowledge necessary to competently perform the job of full time strength coach here at CSP.  Unfortunately, a much smaller percentage of this population will take the steps necessary to position themselves as a can’t-fail candidate to be our next great hire.  If you find yourself participating in an internship at CSP or any other similar fitness facility with the hopes of getting hired out of the program, your to-do list should look a little bit like this:

1. Create raving fans.
2. Earn the trust and respect of your colleagues.
3. Appreciate the fact that someone is always watching how you handle yourself around the gym.

Opportunities are never lost; I can assure you that someone will take the one's you've missed.

Is There A Recipe For Great Gym Culture?

No.  Not exactly.

I can’t hand you a to-do list that will help you to recreate the distinctive atmosphere we’ve created here at Cressey Sports Performance (CSP).  There just isn’t a definitive recipe for constructing a great gym culture.  Peter Thiel once said, “The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative.” This rational can be applied to the idea of recreating an existing culture in a different space; it is simply impossible without all variables being identical.   

The CSP culture recipe question is among the most commonly asked of me these days.  During the first three to four years that we were in business, the culture here at CSP was the brainchild of me, Eric and Tony.  The three of us were working six days a week and interacting with every client who came through the door.  We decided on the music.  We rang the cowbell in advance of any client attempting to hit a deadlift PR (we really did have a PR cowbell).  We were the brand.

As times changed and business grew, we incrementally expanded our staff and introduced a collection of new personalities who would help to shape the training experience for our clients.  Us co-founders eventually managed to find a second day off each week, allowing for the “vibe” of our gym to adapt to the personality of the staff on the training floor, and the collection of athletes inside CSP at any given moment.  Our culture changed; not dramatically, but it did change.

If your goal is to convey a culture that is authentic to your team, the game plan can’t be to standardize the personality of your brand or training environment permanently.  You can maximize the authenticity of your existing culture by making sure that your employees feel free to, for lack of a better term, “let their freak flag fly high.”  If you’ve hired employees who possess the ability to be both flexible and reactive in their coaching style, and give them the autonomy that encourages them to be themselves while engaging with clients, you’ll end up with a gym that has character as opposed to manufactured culture.

If my employees felt obligated to constantly deliver a baseball clubhouse atmosphere, Miguel may not have issued a dance-off challenge to Roger Lawson in the middle of the 2015 CSP Fall Seminar...

If you want a manufactured culture, you need to be upfront about said culture in your hiring process to ensure that you’re hiring the right employees to perpetuate it. There’s nothing wrong with this methodology either, but it will make your hiring process more selective.

The culture at CSP is not entirely driven by the personalities doing the coaching.  Much like there is a seasonal component to our clientele, there is very much a seasonal component to our training environment.  There’s a considerable difference between the busiest time of day in the summer months, and the busiest time of day during the winter.  From May through August, college and high school athletes fill the gym and securing a spot on the Ping-Pong table in the athlete’s lounge can be a problem.  When the professional baseball off-season rolls around, and our college athletes are off at school, suddenly interest shifts from the Ping-Pong table to casually tossing around a football prior to getting a lift in.

We’re happy to adjust our clubhouse atmosphere to accommodate the unique interests of the athletes populating the training space at any moment in time.  Our gym culture changes with the introduction of every new intern, with the hiring of any new full time coach, and at the very moment a new client walks through our doors.  Our culture is adaptable.

Every gym on the planet has its own unique culture.  Instead of highlighting the particular skills and personality traits of those inside the facility, many gym owners are concerning themselves with recreating the current trendy training environment found at someone else’s successful business.  We don’t run CSP that way, and I’m confident that is why people admire the culture we’ve built.

Your clients can tell when you’re trying to fake it, and they’re eventually going to see through your insincerity.

3 Important Lessons Reinforced in 2015

2015 has been the most eventful of the 8+ years I have spent overseeing the day-to-day operations of Cressey Sports Performance (CSP). 

It was our first full calendar year of managing two strength & conditioning facilities.  It was a year in which I launched a website and dabbled in some public speaking at fitness industry events.  It was even a year that saw one of the three CSP Co-Founders move on to a new stage in his fitness career.

Big changes.  All good.

With all of these happenings sitting in my rear-view mirror, I’d like to extend three quick thank you’s and highlight three important lessons that have been reinforced for me in 2015.

3 Thank You's to Deliver

Tony Gentilcore

I want to extend one last public “thank you” to Tony for all that he has done to elevate CSP to the level it sits at today.  As mentioned above, Tony made the decision to move on from CSP earlier this fall with the intention of launching his own smaller-scale fitness business.  He is now a one-man show, delivering exceptional fitness instruction out of a training studio in Brookline, MA.

From our training environment and programming philosophy, to our unique company culture, Tony’s fingerprints can be found all over the CSP brand.  Eric and I cannot thank him enough for all that he’s done to positively impact our careers.  So, one last time: Thank you, Tony.

Nick & David Bromberg

The Bromberg brothers took a chance on me.  These guys are the engines that run the Fitness Summit, a critically acclaimed industry event with a cult-like following of annual attendees.  With a 2015 featured presenter list including names such as Alan Aragon, Brett Contreras, Tony Gentilcore, and many more recognizable names from the fitness industry, I had little business being offered a spot on the expert panel. 

Fortunately for me, hours spent discussing the business of fitness with David during his 2012 CSP Fall Internship paid off.  He convinced his big brother to give me a shot at speaking to the Fitness Summit audience, and it was an experience that slightly altered the direction of my career.  The numerous interactions I had with presenters and attendees before, during, and after my presentation ultimately inspired me to launch this website and begin sharing business-related knowledge with the fitness world.

Again, I thank you, gentlemen. 

Katie Dupuis

My wife is a rock-steady partner in parenting, a voice of reason guiding each and every professional move I make, and my best friend in the world.  She tolerates an unreasonable amount of CSP-related discussion every night when I get home from work, weekly requests for blog editing, and many of my other quirks that I’m likely unaware of.

Katie encourages me to take risks, gives my life perspective, and always stands by my side.  There’s truth in the saying that behind every good man is an even better woman.  Thank you for being that person for me, Katie.

3 Important Lessons Reinforced in '15

Insure Your Ability to Provide

I have a close friend who earns a great living Personal Training at a big box gym.  Coming in to the month of December he was recognized as a top performer for a national brand that employs more than 18,000 individuals.  While he’s very good at what he does, this coach is not invincible.  I say this because he recently took a fall during his free time (non-working hours) and had the misfortune of rupturing his patella tendon, requiring surgery and extensive rehab.

Photo Credit: payload.cargocollective.com

What’s worse than being taken off of your feet for 6-8 weeks as a personal trainer?  The answer, is being taken off your feet just as the majority of your gym’s members are setting new year’s resolutions that involve exercise-related objectives.  If you are a fitness professional who has not yet investigated your options as it relates to short-term disability insurance, I’d strongly encourage you do so.  Your livelihood is tied up in your ability to be upright, and even the healthiest of trainers and coaches are susceptible to freak accidents.

Hire an Accountant

If you’re reading my blog right now, you’ve likely outgrown TurboTax, TaxAct.com, or any other web-based do-it-yourself tax services.  While many of you are experts within the realm of delivering fitness instruction, it is unlikely that you possess similar levels of expertise in accounting, tax or legal issues. 

As I now find myself managing a new business (fitness business consulting) in addition to my CSP responsibilities, I intend to lean heavily on my accountant Tom to outline the implications and opportunities that come with the change.  I may not know my options as it relates to writing off home office expenses at this moment in time, but you can be sure that Tom will hit me with a thorough tutorial between now and April 15th.

I encourage you to read this related blog post Eric published back in 2010.  I may even ask him to revise the title to read “The Single Dumbest Thing Trainers and Fitness Business Owners Do”.

Get Your Reps In

I had sports talk radio playing in my car during a recent commute and was surprised to hear one of the hosts discussing the possibility that Steph Curry could win the title of the NBA’s Most Improved Player during the season following him earning an NBA Title AND a League MVP Award.  Somebody please tell me how the “best player in the world” manages to go out and become the most improved player the following year?  I decided to dig a little deeper.

I soon came to find out that Curry is famous for his practice schedule, work ethic, and pre-game shooting regimen.  In a recent Men’s Health interview, he explained: “You either put the work in and reap the benefits of what you’re doing, or you try to take shortcuts and think you’re going to be alright.” 

When I read this quote I was reminded of Tony Bonvechio’s strong performance at our 2015 CSP Fall Seminar.  At the conclusion of the event we sent out an electronic questionnaire to gather attendee feedback so that we can improve future events.  With more than half of the 150+ attendees taking the time to provide detailed responses and ratings, Tony came away with the high score of 93% approval on his presentation.  Feedback on his performance consistently featured terms such as “polished” and “clearly articulated.” 

I asked Tony to explain his preparation process to our team during a staff meeting the following week.  He told us that he’d delivered his presentation in it’s entirety four separate times during the days leading up to the event.  “My wife heard it start-to-finish on two occasions. I ran through it once while by myself in an empty room. My dog Eddie even watched me give it once.”

Put quite simply, Tony got his reps in, and it was evident in his smooth and comfortable delivery.  If you are a fitness business owner or even a personal trainer selling fitness instruction services, the best way to sell with conviction is to get your reps in.  Take some time to outline the most difficult questions you’ve encountered while giving the pitch, and become a pro at delivering the appropriate answers to your spouse, an empty room, or even your dog.  Just get your reps in.

We're on to 2016

Here's to a happy, healthy, and productive 2016 for all of my readers!

Books, Blogs & Business – Installment 3

Book Report - Zero to One, by Peter Thiel

There is just a single book that I made time to read more than once this past year, and that is Zero To One.  I recommend this book just about every time I’m asked for a reading suggestion, and routinely revisit the text for inspiration when preparing my blog or assembling a fitness business presentation.

 If asked to boil this book down to a single message, I’d go with the following:

 The best businesses thrive because of their ability to differentiate, as opposed to their ability to compete.

Thankfully, I don’t need to limit myself to a single message.  Here are three quotes from Zero To One that resonated with me as it relates to operating within the business of fitness:

1. "Instead of working tirelessly to make yourself indistinguishable, strive to be great at something substantive -- to be a monopoly of one."

When are aspiring gym owners going to stop assuming that the world wants more fitness facilities instead of different ones?  If you’re going to thrive within this hyper-competitive industry, you should be working hard to capture a specific niche. Thiel effectively described the importance of this concept when he wrote:

 "All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem.  All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition."

This concept also applies to internship and job applicants.  My email account is full of candidates who appear to be indistinguishable in a resume format.  From academic experience to prior employment descriptions, the majority of the coaching candidates I consider appear to be the same person on paper. 

So, why is it that I often end up accepting guys like Roger Lawson to our internship program?  Roger came to CSP with limited coaching experience and an English Literature degree.  The difference between Roger and everyone else was his unmatched charismatic nature, an impressive ability to engage with strangers on the training floor in a moment’s notice, and a televised top-ten finish in the Rock-Paper-Scissors World Championship (true story).

Roger tracked me down to hand-deliver his internship application while in between presentations at a 2009 fitness seminar. He approached me with a firm handshake, looked me in the eye, and told me how his positive attitude and desire to learn would be an asset to our team and our business as a whole.  He was anything but indistinguishable.

Roger was (and continues to be) great at something substantive.  Roger was a master at the art of being an extrovert.

2. "A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator."

Yesterday I found myself in the midst of an extended discussion regarding the design, development, and implementation of an internship program that proves to be beneficial to both the intern and the employer.  One of the questions I was asked related to the risk involved in providing access to 100% of our instructional videos, recorded staff in-services, and other proprietary continuing education materials knowing that an accepted intern could choose to bow out of the program early, or even before getting started. 

I explained that any former CSP intern, including those who were with us for as little as a few weeks, will ultimately become an extension of our brand.  The sooner I can get them “up to speed”, the more likely they are to reflect our business in a positive light moving forward.  I also explained that there’s a big difference between having access to our resources, and fully understanding how to put it all together to create effective programming for an athlete with unique needs.

The great thing about “sharing your secret” is that, when done properly, it demonstrates your unique area of expertise or skill set.  We share free content every week within our “Technique Tuesday” video series featured on Facebook.  These weekly video installments allow Tony Bonvechio to push the powerlifting world in a positive direction by emphasizing proper and safe execution of common movements and exercises.  With over 100,000 views after just 25 instructional videos, Tony is adding “fellow conspirators” on a weekly basis. 

3. "The most valuable businesses of the coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete."

My wife and I recently stopped at a restaurant at JFK International Airport for a meal during a layover.  We sat down at a table equipped with an iPad for every single customer.  Instead of conversing with a server about the intricacies of the menu, we had a flashy collection of stock food photography and a “user-friendly” interface that would theoretically streamline our ordering process and improve our dining experience.  Instead, I found myself wavering on a simple meal decision that would typically be settled by asking my server “which would you recommend?”  By the time I was done eating I felt connected to the internet and disconnected from my wife.

As we inch closer and closer to a world involving cars that drive themselves, it stands to reason that options will continue to pop up allowing fitness enthusiasts to automate just about every aspect of their exercise efforts.  Thankfully, one arena that will never be commandeered entirely by technology is human-to-human interaction.  Much of the value in our services here at CSP is tied up in the interaction an athlete experiences with both our staff and fellow clients while on our training floor.  Apple could ship us a pallet of free iPads for athletes to use as they track their program execution here at CSP, and we’d still return them all in favor of our preferred method of pencil, paper and a clip-board.

For as long as we are in business, the personalities and skills possessed by the coaches on my staff will take precedence over the technology available in the market.

Next on the bookshelf -- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown

Happy holidays to all!

Walking Before You Run - Managing Fitness Facility Growth

I just told a new fitness facility owner that he’s going to need to consider turning away clients if he wants to create something with real staying power.  Why in the world would I give this advice to someone who started his strength and conditioning business less than three months ago?

The Business

For the sake of anonymity, we’ll call this entrepreneur (and former CSP intern) and his business partner Bill & Ted, and their facility can be known as Excellent Fitness Adventure (EFA).  If all goes according to plan, Bill will be to EFA what Eric Cressey is to CSP, while Ted will hold down the Business Director role similar to that which I play in our business.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Fitness Adventure got off to a hot start after partnering with a local youth baseball development program.  In an experience similar to ours here at CSP, Bill was able to show a high school pitcher significant velocity gains and increased athleticism in just two months of solid training.  When a pitcher suddenly finds an additional 6-8 MPH in his fastball, his friends want to know his secret to success.  Word spread quickly, and Ted suddenly found himself giving the sales pitch to dozens of inquiring parents.

Suddenly, an additional opportunity presented itself for Bill to bring the EFA brand to a baseball skill instruction facility where he’d coach young athletes two days per week in an independent contracting format.  He jumped at the idea of having a “second location.”  After all, if some is good, more is better…right? 

At the same time, business was growing at the EFA flagship location so quickly that Bill & Ted had to make not one, but three new full-time coaching hires.  The guys found themselves in the black before wrapping up Q1 of their new entrepreneurial venture.  What could go wrong?

Growing Pains

“A parent I know and trust has informed me that the quality of the training diminishes noticeably on the days I’m coaching off-site.” – Bill

“Sometimes I ask our coaches to execute specific tasks and my request is treated as a casual suggestion as opposed to a formal directive.” – Ted

These guys have identified their issues early on and have decided to take action.  Unfortunately, the ready, shoot, aim approach to managing can lead to cultural incompatibility and mismatched training philosophies.  You can’t just hire on the fly and expect your employees to embrace your values without taking the time to teach them and evaluate them.  Here’s a look at why reactive hiring on a tight time table can compromise your company objectives and ultimately force you to temporarily cap growth in order to right the ship.

Reactive Hiring

We have a policy here at CSP that we will not hire from outside of our internship program.  I often say that I can accept the occasional “miss” on an intern selection, but I’ll never tolerate screwing up a full-time placement because I am selecting from more than 100 individuals who’ve worked 300+ hours of unpaid training shifts in our gyms.  They’ve already demonstrated a fit with our team and culture, and an appreciation for our unique training and business model.  Former interns result in can’t-miss hires. 

At any given moment in time, Eric and I have what we’d call our “short list,” containing the names of the first five former interns we’d like to hire if there was a need for additional coaching at either of our locations.  The problem that Bill & Ted have run into is that they’re making hugely important hiring decisions without having established a unique culture within their business.  In fact, our six fall interns here at CSP Mass have already accumulated more coaching hours since starting their internships than the total hours that EFA has been open for business.

How can you hire the “right” personality type, coaching philosophy, etc. if you haven’t been open for long enough to establish a description of the perfect employee and coach?

Proactive Prospecting is Key 

In thinking about the burden of accommodating demand at a rapidly growing fitness facility, I reached out to my good friend Mark Fisher.  Mark co-founded Mark Fisher Fitness with Michael Keeler back in 2012 and has seen his business thrive in uber-growth mode.  In fact, MFF was recently labeled the 312th fastest growing company in America by Inc. (1,487% growth over a three-year span counts as fast, right?). 

Mark was kind enough to share his best advice regarding hiring in conjunction with rapid growth:

"If someone is planning on growing their gym and hiring trainers, I believe you want to start looking yesterday for potential hires.  I routinely do at least a few interviews per month, even when we haven't been looking.  We've always tried to play the long game and develop relationships with people we love, because we anticipate we'll keep growing.

I am ALWAYS looking for star talent to make sure we don't find ourselves having to cap business because we don't have the proper team to handle demand.  At the end of the day, we're all in the service industry, and the subtle nuances of people skills, emotional management, and a genuine desire to serve can make or break a culture, particularly in the early stages."

The last sentence in Mark’s quote is of particular importance to businesses such as EFA and all service providers in general.  We can’t turn back time and meticulously handle the hiring process of EFA’s first three employees.  Instead, Bill & Ted will need to instill the business operating principles and values they live by in their colleagues. It might have been easier to hire folks who evidently embody those values, or who can at the very least understand what those values are and express a willingness to embody them during their interviews. 

3 Solutions for Managing Growth Without Making Hasty Hires

1. Pump The Breaks – There’s nothing wrong with telling people that you’re not currently accepting new clients.  Every new parent that approaches Matt Blake during the middle of the baseball off-season requesting a prime pitching instruction time slot is turned away due to lack of availability…guess who’s the first to sign up for an on-going slot in his calendar the following fall as the next off-season approaches?  You do not need to apologize for being at or close to capacity.  Nor do you need to compromise the quality of your services by stretching your resources or making shortsighted hires to accommodate demand. 

2. Be The Example – As the owner of a fitness business that has seen its fair share of quick growth, I can understand the need to be in multiple places at once.  I’ve seen Eric pulled in ten different directions with a to-do list stacked high with calls to return, emails to reply to, and business development opportunities to pursue.  During the first couple of years that we were in business, he pushed all of that aside during client training hours.  Regardless of other demands on his time, Eric made sure to be standing alongside Tony Gentilcore on the CSP training floor as clients executed their programming.  The two of them set an example for Brian St. Pierre when we made him our first hire by logging countless hours coaching foam rolling and preaching the importance of proper technique right alongside him.

As the owner of a young fitness facility, it is imperative that you are visible not just to your clients, but also to your employees.  In EFA’s case, the best advice I can give is to walk away from the satellite facility in order to be truly present in the day-to-day development of a business that is finding its identity.  You can’t just explain your coaching expectations to new employees; they need to see it in action.

3. Enjoy The Process – Roughly once each week I make a comment to my wife about how “I can’t wait until he’s old enough to throw a football around the yard with me” in discussing my 21-month old son.  She never hesitates to ask me what the rush is, and she’s right.  In fact, she selected the song You’re Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins for her Father/Daughter Dance on our wedding day; she’s been consistent with the message since just about the day I met her. 

Building a business is very much like raising a child.  There are countless abbreviated nights of sleep.  There are ongoing challenging decisions.  There are extraordinarily high highs, and painfully low lows.  I’d give anything to return to that moment in time and experience a day or two of the exhilaration that comes with being a new business owner.  Growth should always be on your mind, but be smart about it. And don’t forget how to enjoy each and every stage of that growth while it’s happening.

I promise you this: if you are fortunate enough to build a thriving fitness business that stands the test of time, there will inevitably come a moment when running it stops being a hobby, and starts feeling like stressful work.  For me, this realization came right around 2012 as I was dealing with modifications to our employee health insurance offerings, negotiating a new lease for our “dream facility”, and realizing that a lot of people count on me to get my work done to ensure that they can make a living. 

What's the rush to get there?

Books, Blogs & Business - Installment 2

“Oh man, that book looks legit. I love the cover. ”

— CSP Intern, Frank Duffy

Isn’t it funny how easily we can be sucked in to a bad book decision thanks to a decent cover design?  Well I’ve got to raise my hand and acknowledge that I’ve done just that.  I made a mediocre book selection when I pulled Daniel Goleman’s FOCUS off the shelves of my local Barnes & Noble simply because I’d heard his previous book Emotional Intelligence was good, and I thought the cover was pretty. 

Book Report – FOCUS, by Daniel Goleman

Had I taken a few moments to read the reviews of this text, I would have quickly realized the irony in that the critical component that FOCUS is missing, is actually, focus.  The author states in the introduction that his objective is “to spotlight this elusive and under appreciated mental faculty in the mind’s operations and its role in living a fulfilling life.”  Sounds interesting, right?

Unfortunately, the material bounced in unpredictable directions from one chapter to the next, much like publishing a series of arbitrary blog posts in succession and calling it a book. In the end, I found myself with a collection of interesting but disjointed takeaways. 

This being said, you can always find useful tidbits from a book if you look closely enough.  Here are three quotes from FOCUS that inspired me to pull out the highlighter:

1. “What information consumes is the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Goleman is specifically speaking to the obvious and dramatic attention deficit issues which are resulting from the constant introduction of new technology, apps, social networking platforms, etc.  I’d imagine that most of my readers would agree that this is a problem, but few of us are doing much about fixing it.  I am as guilty as the next person, as I have a tendency of losing myself in an endless Facebook newsfeed.

This is EXACTLY why I don’t “follow” anyone while managing our CSP Instagram account; I don’t trust myself to avoid giving hours of my time and attention to funny memes each day.

A poverty of attention is a dangerous thing when you’re teaching athletes how to lift appreciable weights.  We got ahead of this issue by posting a sign above the door to our gym from 2007 through the summer of 2012.  It read:

Attention CP Athletes:  Please be advised that by passing through this doorway with a cell phone in hand, you are hereby authorizing Eric, Tony, Brian, and/or Pete to beat you beyond recognition with the cell phone in question. Thank you for your cooperation, and have a nice day!  - The CP Team

The only reason this sign is no longer on display is that our cubby area for client belongings transitioned into the training space when we moved to our current location here in Massachusetts.  I’d encourage gym owners to post something similar, as it sends a clear message and inevitably becomes an entertaining talking point with parents.

2. “Rapport between doctor and patient greatly increases diagnostic accuracy and how the patients comply with their doctor's instructions, and enhances patient's satisfaction and loyalty.”

In this case, Goleman is discussing the factors that impact the likelihood of a physician being sued for malpractice.  The quote applies to CSP, and fitness professionals in general, because we are all fighting an uphill battle when trying to make an impact on a client’s decision-making process while NOT inside of our gyms.

A considerable chunk of the CSP athlete community is provided with “at home” training material which is executed without the supervision of our team of strength coaches.  In every scenario, the athlete is taken through a thorough walk-through of proper technique and execution prior to returning home.  Our coaches’ efforts to build rapport with our athletes while learning our programming material is intentional because it directly affects our athletes’ compliance with the intricacies of the programming. This keeps our clients happy, and keeps our athletes injury-free.

A coach can absolutely do a bad job of introducing content despite demonstrating flawless technique and execution.  Your ability to imprint the material in the mind of your client is entirely dependent upon your ability to engage with them during the coaching process.  Going through the motions leads to a lack of program adherence upon returning to a home gym.  Be engaging.  Enjoy the interaction component of the coaching process.

3. “A mini-industry of consultants stands ready to guide companies through a standard playbook of strategic choices. But those off-the-shelf strategies fine-tune an organization's tactics--they don't change the game.”

This quote is two things to me:

1.     A reflection of the fact that I took a lot of very random information away from a book about focusing more effectively.

2.     Awesome.

I do a fair amount of business consulting these days and this quote is apropos because it perfectly encapsulates the primary issue I currently observe.  There is an abundant source of individuals and companies advocating that their systems work for everyone’s business.   

Instead of instructing my clients to “do what CSP did”, I take the CSP training approach which emphasizes individualization.  My first call with every consulting client is an initial evaluation of his or her business to understand what makes that business unique.  Uniqueness, or differentiation, sells. Differentiation is what Seth Godin would refer to as “the beauty and greatness of what you’ve set out to build.” Awesome blog post on Godin's two-review technique

If you want to run a fitness business that positively impacts the direction of the industry as a whole, you need to stop worrying about that standard playbook of strategic choices.  CSP’s offering of individualized training materials to every single athlete who comes through our door is neither efficient nor scalable, but it is what allows us to deliver unique results.  It is anything but standard playbook material.

If you’re going to seek advice on business development, make sure that the person delivering the ideas starts by asking you questions about yourself and your company before outlining their system.  If they can’t ask questions and listen from the start, (1) they’re not good at business development and therefore they aren’t good at their job, and (2) they don’t care enough to get to know your business and why would you pay them?

An article from outside the fitness industry that made me think…

Chef Marcus Samuelsson on When Real Leadership Means Getting out of the Way

Article Link

I came upon this piece while reading a segment of the November edition of Fast Company Magazine titled “Secrets of the Most Productive People.”  What caught my eye was Samuelsson’s answer to a question of whether or not he works on weekends:

“I don’t have weekends. I don’t have vacations. When you’re a chef, you give everything to your work. My work is personal. That’s the point.”

This quote jumped off the paper at me because Chef Samuelsson’s complete immersion in his work reminds me of the way that Eric Cressey runs his business.  The difference between Eric and the thousands of strength coaches who are trying to emulate him is always going to be work ethic and the willingness to put in the extra hours.  His gym identity is closely tied with that which people see outside of CSP.  His work is personal, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Seeing as how the word “personal” is the main component of Chef Samuelsson’s message, it is certainly applicable to the fitness industry.  If you’re a personal trainer, your work is personal. That’s the point.  Throw yourself into the work now and earn yourself the right to achieve work-life balance a little later down the road.

10 Hidden Expenses in Opening Your Own Strength & Conditioning Facility

As you see this post, I will be with my wife beside a pool in St. Thomas celebrating our third wedding anniversary.  Most importantly, we're baby-free this weekend thanks to grandparents on both sides of the family!

As I prepared to leave town for a few days my CSP-related to-do list took priority over pulling together a new blog.  Instead, I am sharing a throw-back guest post I wrote for Eric's site back in 2012.  All ten of these "hidden expenses" hold true today for anyone looking to start their own gym.  Give it a read here!

Where I'll be brainstorming blog material for the next few days...

Prepare For Opportunity - My Take On "Follow Your Passion"

Follow your passion. 

Is this a piece of advice that will lead to a fulfilling life? Or, is it a reckless use of your time, energy and resources?

I’ve been presented with the opportunity to address a room full of high school seniors interested in entrepreneurship.  I’ll have a 45-minute block, and the choice to head in any direction I’d like with the discussion.  As I brainstorm the valuable wisdom I intend to impart, I find myself continuously circling back to the passion question.

In his time, Steve Jobs would routinely argue that the only way to be successful is to follow your passion.  His attitude was that the trials and tribulations that come with being an entrepreneur are only tolerable if you truly love what you do.  Steve hit this topic repeatedly during his commencement address to the Stanford University Class of 2005.  In it, he explained:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

On the flip side of the coin, you have Cal Newport’s take on what he refers to as the passion hypothesis.  According to Cal, “the more emphasis you place on finding work you love, the more unhappy you become when you don’t love every minute of the work you have.”

In his book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Newport explains that the appropriate course of action is to become a craftsman.  More specifically, you should focus on developing a specific skill or trade that is both rare and valuable.  Once you’ve done so, he argues, you’ll find it easier to achieve autonomy, create a financially viable career, and find a sense of purpose in your work. 

So, Who’s Right?

Like most, I am conflicted as to the answer to this question.  I can appreciate both sides of the argument.  I’ve managed to blur the lines between the two in my life as an entrepreneur. 

I could argue that I’ve turned my passion for sports into a career that focuses heavily on engaging with athletes ranging from the amateur to professional levels.  On the other hand my extensive education in business, along with three years of cubicle-based employment in “the real world”, has led me to fine-tune my business administration acumen.  This undeniably equates to developing a skill the way that Newport proposes.

If you ask me, the appropriate approach is not so black and white that you can only embrace one of these two mentalities.  My advice for this classroom full of young minds will be to prepare as if following your passion is not an option…and then pounce when the opportunity to do so presents itself. 

My Dad Was Right

Back in the spring of 1999 my dad carted me all over New England looking at colleges and universities.  Like many of my classmates, I’d picked up a copy of The Princeton Review and allowed their ranking system to dictate the direction I’d head with my list of targeted schools.  All I wanted at the time was to be able to tell my peers that I was attending a highly ranked academic institution. 

Liberal arts? Business school? Maybe a degree in communications? Didn’t matter to me…I just wanted the ranking. 

Thankfully, this is where my dad stepped in.  He reviewed my list and agreed to bring me to look at any campus I’d like, under one stipulation: every school is fair game, as long as you agree to visit Babson College and Bentley University. 

Babson and Bentley were two of the best known business schools in our area, and he was insistent that he would attend one of these two programs if given the chance to do it all again.  I distinctly remember pulling on to the Babson campus as he told me: “You have no idea what you want to do with your life, so the least I can do is make sure that you walk away from college with a degree that will make you instantly employable. Take this school seriously as an option.”

I ultimately chose to attend Babson College, and walked away with a working knowledge of marketing, financial & managerial accounting and business strategy.  I also discovered the importance of networking, and created an inner circle of ambitious young business professionals, including a gentleman named Eric Cressey.

From the fall of 1999, until the summer of 2007, I gathered useful skills, accumulated hours working as a marketing manager at a publicly traded company, and made practical career and employment decisions that would put me in the position to “take the jump” when a unique opportunity to follow my passion presented itself.  Cressey Sports Performance officially opened for business on July 13th of 2007.

Photo Credit: ideagirlmedia.com

The Takeaway

Chasing your dream someday will be considerably less risky if you focus on accumulating functional skills in the here and now.  The optimist in me says that if you do so, the opportunity to follow your passion will eventually present itself, and you’ll be prepared to capture it.

If you’re currently a personal trainer with the dream of opening your own gym, don’t quit your job to launch a business where you’ll “learn accounting by doing”.  Take a night class on the subject and fine-tune your skills BEFORE taking the risk and dumping your savings into your passion.

If you’re training soccer moms at the local Planet Fitness but aspire to work primarily with professional athletes, simply announcing your desire to do so isn’t going to cut it.  Step far outside of your comfort zone and master physiology so that you can differentiate yourself from the other thousand strength coaches with the same dream.  Make calculated decisions that will all but ensure a high return on your investment. 

Gyms fail every day of the week, and it isn’t for lack of passion.  Gyms fail because the owners decided to attack the process without the right set of tools in the shed.

Books, Blogs & Business – Installment 1

The best thing about working at Cressey Sports Performance is my daily interaction with ambitious professionals who are hell-bent on mastering their craft. 

One of the ways that I take advantage of this environment is by consuming as much knowledge as I can from Mike Reinold.  Mike treats patients at CSP on Monday afternoons and has recently come to be a good friend of mine.  This past week I asked him for some advice relating to my personal website and blog, and he proceeded to hit me with a brain-dump of epic proportion.

During our conversation, Mike emphasized the importance of maintaining a predictable and consistent editorial calendar.  In my professional career, I’ve made a habit of identifying and emulating the habits of extremely successful individuals, so I’m not about to ignore this valuable advice from Mike.

Moving forward, I’ll plan on rolling out material every Thursday, including a bi-weekly segment titled Books, Blogs & Business.  Welcome to the first edition!

In each issue of BB&B, I’ll hit you with a book-report of sorts, outlining a few things I’ve learned and how I’m applying it to my strategic endeavors at CSP.  I’ll also share some of my favorite business-specific content from around the web.  Hopefully you’ll find that I help to expose you to some entirely foreign material and a refreshing new way of processing it.

Book Report - All Marketers Tell Stories, by Seth Godin

I realize that the majority of my readers have already identified and consumed Tribes, or Purple Cow, so I decided to get my hands on one of the lesser-known pieces by Seth Godin: All Marketers Tell Stories.  In hindsight, the entire text can be summarized in a single sentence found on page 13. Seth states, “The best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.”

Here are three of my favorite messages from the text, and what they mean to my business and me:

1. Niches are waiting to be identified

Godin explained that there are certain small markets that are being completely ignored at any given point in time.  These small pockets of the population can often have immense value.  “They can turn a small market into a cult, into a movement and then a trend, and finally into a mass market.”

During the fall of 2007 we (CSP) identified an under-served population of the athletic community when we began targeting baseball players in particular.  If Godin were to review the competitive landscape at that moment in time, he likely would have categorized baseball players, and pitchers in particular, as an “ignored” population. 

In just over 8 years of operation, CSP has played a significant role in turning this small market into a cult of strength training enthusiasts, into a movement of pitchers who have decided to question the efficacy of “running poles”, and ultimately into mass market status.  There was a time when embracing strength training during an off-season would qualify as a distinct competitive advantage for a ballplayer.  It is far more mainstream to do so today.

2. “Authenticity is more important than getting noticed.”

What’s worse than booking a vacation at a resort featuring a website full of exceptional visuals of tropical landscapes and impressive nightlife, only to arrive and find an overpriced dump with a trash-covered beach?  This is where the “Traveler Photos” section of trip advisor comes in handy in exposing disingenuous visuals available in the “Management Photos” portion of the site. 

Unfortunately, fitness consumers can’t always track down client photos of the gym their considering visiting.  This is exactly why it is extremely easy to generate leads and bring someone through the door of your gym once.  Retaining those clients for the long-haul, however, is far easier when you’ve presented yourself in an authentic manner on your website and social networking platforms.  Assemble a team and a training space that you’re proud of…not one that requires stock photography to bring leads through the door.

3. "If I knew what you know, would I choose to buy what you sell?"

This is the question Godin says ALL consumers should ask themselves.  As I read this, I can’t help but ask myself, am I prepared to answer this question with a definitive YES?  I most certainly am.

All fitness facility owners and personal trainers in commercial gyms should make a habit of preparing themselves for consumers to actually hit them with Godin’s very important question.  Someday a potential client is going to ask me if I’d pay for my own son to acquire our services to ensure that he is less at risk for injury and increasingly athletic over time.  I’ll be able to say yes, and mean it.

An article from outside the fitness industry that made me think...

Smaller Craft Breweries Are Drinking Up Sam Adams’ Market Share

Article Link

Photo Credit - http://opendoorrestaurant.com

This one struck a little close to home because it reminded me of the pitfalls that come with creating a niche and growing it beyond “small business” status.  The first sentence of the article says it all:

“One of the original craft beer pioneers is in trouble from the movement he helped create.”

We helped to create the baseball-specific strength & conditioning movement, and competition is popping up at a rapid rate.  In some cases, we’re even assisting the competition by preparing CSP interns to enter the market with a comprehensive understanding of the unique services and training methodologies we offer.  If we don’t have a paid position available on our team for a rock-star coach with aspirations of working within this niche, we have to accept the idea that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot on some level.

This is not to say that I would ever like to see a former intern falter, or be anything other than successful and influential within the fitness industry.  The lesson for me is that we need to focus on staying at the cutting edge of our field.  This is why I wrote $2,000 worth of continuing education reimbursement checks to my employees over the past week.  You've got to spend money to make money, and I'm spending some of mine on keeping my employees ahead of the curve.

We Waited 7 Years to Open a 2nd Location…Here’s Why

Have you ever experienced one of those moments where someone says or writes something and you think to yourself, I wish I said that?

Kip Tindell (Co-Founder of the Container Store) perfectly summarized my hesitance to rapidly scale our business to multiple locations in just four sentences:

“Business has a super abundance of opportunities. The most important thing is to judiciously select them based on the finite supply of human and financial resources you have. Good management is the wise allocation of those resources. I’m glad we had the discipline and the courage to say no.”

By my count, we’ve received roughly 50 offers to place CSP satellite facilities in locations situated all over the United States.  More often than not, the owners of a hitting and/or pitching instruction business realized that they had a few thousand square feet of unused space, and our brand came to mind as a potential tenant or partner.  We’ve been pitched everything from discounted rent, to entirely free-of-charge scenarios over the years.

I’m not going to lie; the idea of adding gyms is enticing.  Thankfully, we’ve had the discipline to say no.

We finally decided to pull the trigger on a second location this past year.  We opened the doors for business at CSP-Florida in November of 2014.  We had been in business for 7 years, 3 months, and 17 days when that time arrived.  It took me just a shade longer than that to begin publishing fitness business material because I felt it was important to accrue enough career capital to justify declaring myself “an expert” of sorts.  Similarly, during the early years of our business, we felt that Cressey Sports Performance needed to accrue some career capital before the time was right for expansion.

Here’s a look at three reasons why we passed on so many opportunities before deciding to take the jump:

1. We are fiercely protective of our brand

With each passing day, month and year, I become a little bit more attached to our brand.  We’ve given thousands of hours of our lives to the development of this business.  The idea of handing “the keys” over to anyone else is tough to stomach.  With this in mind, it will be a long time before you see franchised CSP locations popping up in your area.

I often say that the CSP brand is not just a logo or a training program.  Instead, it is the combination of the personalities and skill-sets that make up our unique team.  When people are your true differentiator, expansion becomes a slow and deliberate process.  With Eric overseeing the day-to-day operation of our Florida location, and me being the eyes and ears of operations here in Massachusetts, we are able to ensure that the core values and mission of the CSP brand as a whole continue to stay on track. 

A single dysfunctional or inefficient CSP location would be enough to severely damage a brand we’ve worked so hard to create.

2. Human resources are our ultimate bottleneck

To effectively scale your business, you need to be able to duplicate the product or service.  In our case, the product is individualized program design based on the findings of a thorough initial assessment.  The skillset and intuition needed to effectively screen our athletes and prepare appropriate programming isn’t acquired by reading a manual or being walked through an orientation.  It comes from hundreds, if not thousands of ours spent coaching within the walls of CSP. 

Our business here in Massachusetts has grown at a pace that has required us to hire all of the interns who have demonstrated the capacity to potentially implement our model elsewhere.  It takes more than an exceptional strength coach to operate a profitable strength & conditioning facility.  When the time comes for us to open a third location, I am certain the opportunity will be given to an existing member of our team with several years of experience functioning within our business model.

3. No business should expand unless they’re operating at or close to capacity

You know how they say that it’s more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain existing ones?  Well I think it is much easier to generate revenue by increasing efficiencies of an existing business than it is to create a new one. 

They key to arriving “at capacity” is establishing systems that could be easily implemented at another location sometime down the road.  If you advertise semi-private training services with a 5:1 client-to-coach ratio, and you employ 5 coaches, your systems are the tool that will help you put 25 athletes in your gym during a given training slot in your schedule.  Why would you bother allocating your time, energy and focus toward opening a second location if you’ve got 15 athletes scheduled at a time when you could handle 25?  

Before you pull the trigger on that next location…

Ask yourself what you really love about running your business.  I recently had a conversation with an established (and profitable) gym owner who owns and operates three different locations in his respective state.  His “flagship location” is a beautifully equipped and designed 10,000+ square foot space that most aspiring gym owners can only dream about operating.  When I asked him what he’d do differently if he could snap his fingers and turn it all into a specific scenario, he told me this:

“I’d own a single 5,000 square foot space with four awesome coaches.  I’d focus on filling every single slot in our schedule.  Then I’d coach the shit out of each of those training sessions and get back to doing what I love…doing what I do best.”

Do you really need a dozen gyms with your logo on the front door?  I don't.

How to Stand Out in a Crowded Fitness Industry

* Guest post for EricCressey.com

I’ve decided it is time to add an additional component to our internship program. As it turns out, Cressey Sports Performance (CSP) has been doing a disservice to its interns for a while. We’ve been sending extremely prepared coaches out into the world with a lot to offer and no idea how to sell it!

A former intern currently coaching at a commercial gym recently admitted that he had regrets about how he’d approached his time with us. He explained that he’d like to go back in time and spend more hours in my office during his internship at CSP. In his words:

“I learned the hard way that being the best coach in your gym is irrelevant if you’re unable to convincingly sell your personal training services. I walked through the door thinking that my superior coaching skill-set would translate to a full client roster and ended up watching meat-head trainers pack their schedules and even turn away clients as I scrambled ineffectively trying to fill my book of business.”

It’s officially time for me to put some thought into preparing our interns for the realities of the personal training world beyond the basis of coaching.  Read complete post here.

Embracing More than One Training Model - A Lesson in Opportunity Cost

Our 4th annual CSP Fall Seminar came and went just over a week ago and the event was a success.  In my presentation, I spoke about the importance of empowering your fitness team if you are looking to retain quality staff and improve the overall client training experience.  Following the presentation, I had the opportunity to engage with dozens of attendees, discussing a variety of business-related topics. 

One question which I was asked on multiple occasions was what I would do differently if given the chance to start over as a business owner. 

What was the biggest mistake you guys made?  Tell me about your worst hire.  What kind of errors did you make during the lease negotiation process?

I’m not sure why, but the “mistake” questions tend to pop up far more often than the “best decision” questions do.  In most cases, mistakes can be fixed, and ultimately fall into the category of missed opportunities.  Here’s a look at one of our bigger missed opportunities from the first five years we were in business.

CSP – Not JUST an Individualized Training Model

We offer a bootcamp service at our facility that we’ve recently re-branded as “CSP Strength Camps”.  In a sea of bootcamp options, we decided that we were in need of a little something to differentiate our services, so bootcamps suddenly became strength camps. 

As I watch our strength camp figures grow at a promising pace, I can’t help but look back on the early years of our business.  This was a time when I was closed-minded to the idea of integrating a large group training component to our service offering.   I thought it would dilute the message we were trying to send as the “individualized programming guys”.

From 2007 through late-2012, I was of the mentality that semi-private group training with an emphasis on individualized programming was the end-all-be-all of quality fitness instruction.  As far as I was concerned, bootcamps were lazy, and well outside the scope of our unique skill-set.  My ignorance was costing me money…a lot of money.

Embracing Flexibility in our Training Philosophy

There wasn’t just a single reason for my change of tune on the matter.  In fact, the decision to begin integrating a bootcamp service offering here at CSP was the result of three factors:

1.     Parents were routinely mentioning their desire to train with us, but were hesitant because they anticipated push-back from their kids who would be protective of their training space.  The solution, in our eyes, was to open our doors during “off-hours” while kids were in school to allow for parents to take advantage of our facility.

2.     We moved in to a considerably larger space (from 7,500+ sq. feet to 15,000+ sq. feet) in late-August of 2012, and the increased rent figure was a little daunting.  If we were going to be paying rent on a space that routinely sat dormant until late-morning, we might as well think of ways to put it to use.

3.     We stopped thinking we knew everything, and started acknowledging the fitness needs of the community in which we were doing business.  Eric had been on my case for a while to introduce this service by the time it finally happened.  However, he also needed time to come around to the idea of generic training material for anyone who calls himself (or herself) a CSP client.

The Realities of the Market

In his book Jab- Jab- Jab-Right-Hook, social networking guru Gary Vaynarchuck states:

“Ignoring platforms that have gained critical mass is a great way to look slow and out-of-touch.  Do not cling to nostalgia.  Do not put your principals above the reality of the market.  Do not be a snob.”

While he was specifically speaking of a hesitance to embrace new social networking platforms, the quote relates directly to my ongoing hesitance to embrace bootcamps.  There was no arguing that the platform (group training) had officially gained critical mass.  CrossFit boxes were popping up everywhere you looked at the time.  While it is a stretch to say that we were coming across as slow and out of touch, there is no denying that I had put our principals above the reality of the market.  I was being a snob. 

I wish I’d come across this quote long before the fall of 2012, as it turns out that the opportunity cost of not embracing strength camps earlier might be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues.

CSP Strength Camps Today

CSP Strength Camps are on track to account for as much as 10% of our revenues during 2015.  The service offering is profitable, efficient, and has zero impact on the public’s perception of our standard training model.  Since Strength Camps take place during the early morning hours, and baseball players don’t like getting out of bed early enough to train before noon, many of our clients on either end of the spectrum are completely unaware of what happens at CSP during the other half of the day.

In addition to being a profitable business component, our group training services are the primary reason why Greg Robins was initially hired to join the team here at CSP.  Greg’s prior track record of establishing and maintaining a successful bootcamp product in the greater Boston area, along with his military experience, made him a desirable piece to add to our roster of strength coaches as we began the process of introducing group training during the fall of 2012.   He took a client roster of ZERO and turned it into roughly thirty regulars in just under two year’s time.

Greg has since transitioned away from the group training to coach our athletes in a full-time format on weekday afternoons and evenings.  George Kalantzis has assumed the role of CSP Strength Camp Coordinator and has single-handedly nearly doubled the size of the program in a calendar year.  

Open Your Mind to New Opportunity

A single perfect fitness business training model does not exist.  It took me a few years to come to this conclusion, but I’m a big proponent of the “better late than never” mentality.

If you don’t offer them already, I encourage embracing the concept of group fitness offerings.  The trend isn’t going to be leaving us anytime soon, so the faster you can jump in to the competitive landscape of this segment of the fitness world, the more likely you are to grab a decent piece of market share in your area.  Otherwise, your complacency is your competition's gain.

The Most Important Decision You’ll Make for your Fitness Business

“You and Eric seem to have an efficient system in place.  How do I go about finding a business partner so that I can distribute responsibilities the way you guys do?”

This right here is among the most commonly asked questions asked during my weekly business consulting interactions.  While there are times when I wish a recipe existed for identifying the perfect business partner, the existence of such a tool would actually take away one of our biggest competitive advantages here at CSP.  Our cohesive decision-making processes and clearly defined ownership roles have proven to be true differentiators for us in relation to many of the fitness facilities we compete with.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’ve yet to figure out a structured way to identify the right person to start a business with.  Instead, I can tell you how Eric and I stumbled into this scenario, and why I think it works for us.

It all started when…

During the summer of 1999 I received a packet in the mail from Babson College: 

Congratulations on your acceptance to the class of 2003! As an on-campus student, you have been assigned to live in room 201 of Forest Hall.  Your roommates will be Eric M. Cressey, and Jean-Pierre Mondalek.

So, there you have it…you can find the perfect business partner by sitting back and allowing your college or university to arbitrarily make that call for you.  (I should note that JP is also still a friend and currently doing big things in the U.A.E. working for UBER)

In all seriousness, this random room assignment for my freshman year of college has had an immeasurable impact on the direction of my career and life as a whole.  Several of the guys from my floor in Forest Hall continue to be among my close friends today.  Eric and I managed to survive a year of living in tight quarters.  We went on to have rooms just doors apart the following year before he made the decision to transfer to another program and pursue an exercise science education.

Though we didn’t realize it at the time, we’d spent months working surprisingly well in a collaborative format.  Nothing says compatibility quite like walking into a forced-triple as strangers and emerging as friends eight grueling months later. 

We shared an interest in local sports.  We dabbled in the club sports scene on campus.  We routinely made the trip to the dining hall together.  We even teamed up in the classroom to successfully complete a project for our Statistical Analysis course.  Long story short, we demonstrated a propensity to function effectively as a team.

Eric eventually moved on to a different university and started the long process of becoming an educated and influential contributor to the fitness industry.  I stayed the course in pursuit of a business degree and then began to accumulate professional experience in a 9-to-5 workplace setting.  It was during the spring of 2007 that the two of us reconnected and began the discussion of opening a strength & conditioning business.  We haven’t looked back since.

Here’s why it works for us…

There are a couple of reasons why I believe we’ve proven to be compatible business owners to this point in time.  For starters, we were friends going in to the process, but not best friends.  I mentioned in my most recent post that my dad taught me life-lessons relating to lending money, and he had similarly impactful words on the dangers of going into business with friends or family.  In his words, “the personal relationships are far more valuable than any business will ever be”.

For me and Eric, the occasional email exchange and ongoing AOL Instant Messenger banter (his username was EricMC10 – hit him up on there) was enough to keep a friendship in tact between 2001 and 2006, but surely not enough for us to lay claim to best-friend status at that point in time.

The second reason why our business partnership has thrived is that our mutual interest in owning a successful business is just about the only place where our interests overlap here at CSP.  Eric enjoys assessing athletes and designing training materials.  I have an odd interest in tracking our performance metrics so closely that I can tell you how many dollars we need to collect today in order to be on track to outperform our September of 2014 number.  We’re both aware of our strengths, and focus on doing what we do best. 

If you were ever to ask Eric his keys to success in building a great team of strength coaches, he’d tell you that he focuses on hiring complimentary parts, as opposed to clones of himself.  This rationale holds true in searching for your potential business partner. 

My close friend Kevin Colleran is a co-founder of Slow Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early stage technology companies.  The vast majority of Slow Ventures’ 200+ investments involve multiple co-founder scenarios.  I reached out to him discuss their evaluation protocols for potential investments and he shared a similar attitude relating to co-founder compatibility.  He explained, “I usually avoid scenarios pairing two Type-A personalities who are going to compete over who is effectively the CEO.  I’d prefer a “divide and conquer” approach based on split responsibilities.”

Some important questions to ask yourself…

If you can comfortably say that your potential business partner has a personality type and management style which will compliment your own, and you are not putting yourself in a position to possibly compromise a lifelong friendship, I’d encourage you to consider these five important questions:

Am I prepared to trust another individual with my credit? 

Starting a business isn’t cheap and owners are going to be accountable to any investments made on its behalf. 

Do I know someone I’d be comfortable allowing to spend my life savings? 

Big money decisions will be made on a daily basis during the early stages of building your fitness business, and micro-management of every call will only serve to slow you down.

Is there a person out there that I’d be okay with seeing 6+ days/week for the next couple of years? 

If 7+ was an option in the last sentence, I would have used it.

Do I get along with their significant other? 

When you go into business with someone else, you’re effectively going into business with his or her spouse.  Thankfully, Eric and I get along with each other's wives, and they happen to be friends as well.  I urge you not to overlook this piece of the puzzle, as it is likely to influence major decisions during the lifespan of your business.

What are their long-term career goals? 

If this is going to be your livelihood, it is best that your business partner share the same long-term vision you possess. 

How can I help?

Let me know if I can be of assistance during the business building process!  I can be reached at pdgymsolutions@gmail.com to discuss consulting opportunities.  Good luck!

5 Ways to Dominate your Fitness Sales Pitch

I am the person who outlines services available at Cressey Sports Performance here in Massachusetts.  Be it in an email, telephone, or in-person format, the responsibility is mine.  With over 3,500 athletes currently in our client database, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to fine-tune my pitch.

I take a great deal of pride in being able to effectively overcome the most common hurdles encountered during the selling process.  What makes this particularly challenging for me is that fact that I am selling fitness instruction without a history of actually having instructed fitness.  The success of our business is largely dependent on my skill-set in this realm, so I am continuously modifying and improving my approach.

“You can make the best cup of coffee in the world, but if you can’t sell it, you’re out of luck. Cash is oxygen. Money is what will take you to the next level, so if you can’t get it, you won’t move on.”

— Gary Varnerchuck

Here is a look at five of the most useful tools currently sitting in my “selling toolbox”.  Hopefully other fitness facility owners will find one or two of these tips to be of assistance as they work to increase their conversion rates during the sales process.

1.  Ask a bunch of questions…and then ask some more

If there is one lesson I’ve learned during 8+ years of customer service here at CSP, it is that people enjoy talking about themselves.  What they appear to enjoy even more is talking about their kids.

How’d you hear about us?  What inspired you to get in touch?  How old is your son?  What sports does he play?  Does he have any type of unique injury history we should be aware of?  Has he been exposed to any strength training up until this point? Is he planning on playing a fall sport?  How’s his diet?  Does he typically do a good job of balancing academics and athletics?  Is he hoping to play sports in college?  Have you put any thought into possibly training with us while your son is here?

There really is no such thing as too many questions during the initial stages of a phone call with a prospective client.  At CSP, we embrace the idea that they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and this mentality kicks in beginning as early as an initial phone call.

2. Identify your key words and use them often

I often joke that I could step on to the CSP training floor and be perceived as a competent coach by simply screaming the most common cues at arbitrary moments.  If you’ve spent any time training under the supervision of a decent strength coach, you know exactly what I am talking about.

“Tuck your chin!  Chest tall!  Hips through!  Drive through your heels! Get your air!”

Much like these cues can serve as a crutch during the coaching process, I have a handful of “go-to terms” which I use in each and every sales pitch.  Parents can’t get enough of terms such as: suggested corrective exercise, faulty movement patterns, and flexibility limitations.  Every time I say to a dad that we’re going to “place a heavy emphasis on the importance of adhering to our arm-care protocols”, I can almost hear him taking out his wallet to find his credit card on the other end of the telephone.

Parents want to know that their kids are in the hands of professionals whose primary focus is injury prevention first, and performance enhancement second.  Each and every one of the descriptive terms I’ve outlined above helps me to convey this message effectively.

3. Establish areas of expertise to differentiate staff members

Whenever asked the “what would you do differently if you could start over” question, I am quick to say that we wouldn’t have put Eric’s name on the business.  The biggest problem that comes with the name “Cressey” being on our tee shirts and business cards is that every other staff member is perceived to be wildly inferior by comparison to Eric.  This presents a serious problem since Eric can’t handle assessment, programming, and coaching responsibilities for every athlete to step through our door (spread over 2 facilities). 

The most effective adjustment I’ve made to counter this problem is to focus on individual areas of expertise for each staff member.  If you come to us with a history of low back or hip-related injury issues, you can expect to be evaluated by Greg Robins.  If you inform us that you’ve been dealing with lower-extremity ailments, you should prepare for a consultation with Tony Gentilcore.  Are you fresh off of a Tommy-John procedure?  You get to meet with Eric Cressey or Chris Howard. 

If you employ multiple coaches at your fitness facility, I’d encourage you to identify their interests and unique skill-sets in an effort to differentiate their areas of expertise.  Your coaches will instantaneously receive a bump in perceived credibility beginning the moment you begin to label them “your shoulder guy”, or something along these lines.

4. Consider publishing the answers to your most commonly asked questions

I am regularly asked what kind of agility work or foot-speed drills we integrate into our programming to ensure that a young athlete gets faster by working with us.  Rather than respond with a diatribe on our programming philosophy and declare that “ladder drills are stupid”, I let Eric do so for me.

“My business partner Eric has actually published some great information relating to this subject.  Could I possibly have your email address so that I can send you a link to a relevant blog post?  He does a great job of articulating our training philosophy on this front.”

There are a couple of reasons why I find this approach to be effective.  For starters, Eric has taken the time to thoughtfully outline the answer to a question that is actually fairly complex, and is considerably better prepared to provide a concise answer.  Secondly, by capturing an email address and forwarding a link to an article, I am in complete control of the message.  I can easily incorporate links to other relevant blog posts, draw attention to Eric’s baseball-specific content archive, and more.

Whether it is justified or not, material that has been published on the internet is extremely effective in positioning yourself as an industry leader.  Parents of clients are often put at ease when they can see your comprehensive knowledge base laid out in front of them in an electronic format.

5. Don’t be afraid to tell someone you are not a good fit

 Anyone who has had the opportunity to pitch their fitness instruction services for an extended period of time has likely encountered the type of potential client who would rather dictate their programming needs than listen to your informed opinion.  It is surprising to see how many people seek your services only to tell you exactly how they’d like you to train them.  I know better than to compromise our training philosophy and allow an athlete or client to decide on their exact programming needs simply so that I can collect their money.  Instead, I’ve unintentionally stumbled upon my most effective selling technique yet: politely declining business.

As it turns out, the people who are convinced they already know how to do our job do not take too kindly to me telling them we are probably not a right fit for what they’re seeking.  Maybe they’re testing me to see if I have the wherewithal to stand by our training model and philosophies.  Maybe they’re not used to being told “no”.  Either way, they all seem to change their tune and suddenly open their minds to embracing our system by booking an initial assessment.

My dad always told me that I shouldn’t lend money that I can’t afford to lose permanently.  I’d apply this logic to applying the “we’re probably not a good fit” response.  Never tell someone you’re not what he or she is looking for if you can’t come to terms with the idea that they’ll agree and walk away.  This being said, based on my experience, they rarely will.

Teach me

As I mentioned earlier, I am constantly revising my approach to the selling process to improve effectiveness.  I’d be eager to learn more about my reader’s “can’t fail” selling strategies.  Feel free to post a comment below or send me an email at dupuisp@gmail.com in the future!

5 Reasons Why Experiencing Your Business Can Improve Your Business

Eric and I have never formally scheduled a meeting to discuss business strategy.  Instead, we lean heavily on spontaneous discussion around the office and the occasional shared car ride to “talk business”.  It just isn’t in our nature to sit down to formally outline our short or long-term goals on a sheet of paper. 

A couple of weeks back Eric popped into my office unannounced and closed the door behind him.  “I think we should try to get back to our roots a little bit as it relates to training environment.”  He asked how I think the client experience is different here at CSP today in relation to our early years of operation when we were finding our identity as a business and a brand.  I had some ideas, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my opinions were not founded on experience accrued by time spent on the training floor.

For our first five years of operation, I spent most of my time working in the business, as opposed to on it.  I knew the name of every athlete who walked through the door and exactly when they were due to make another payment.  I knew their injury history and sport of choice.  I knew when they were going to train next, and even if they had a family vacation scheduled in the coming weeks.  I was locked-in on the meet and greet component of our client experience. 

We hit a tipping point in 2012 upon realizing that my day-to-day administrative tasks related to keeping this place moving were hindering my ability to guide the direction of our brand and the growth potential of the business.  We decided to hire an office manager and I instantly began to fall a little bit out of touch with the overall client experience.

As much as it stung to lose the daily face-to-face client experience here at CSP, this was the right decision for our company.  Since that time, we’ve managed to achieve growth that far exceeds our initial vision.  I now spend my days tucked away in a corner office giving the sales pitch on the phone and via email.  I also craft the CSP content the internet sees populating a variety of different social networking platforms on a day-to-day basis.  In short, I manage the way that the public engages with our brand. 

During our previously mentioned conversation, Eric and I touched on a number of strategic initiatives geared toward training environment modifications moving forward.  One of these initiatives was a shift in my own strength training and client interaction habits.  We decided it would be a good idea for me to opt out of our traditional staff training schedule (typically weekdays during the 90-120 minutes prior to clients arriving) and begin executing my own programming during the busiest part of our work day here at CSP.  The idea was that I get back to my own roots of customer service by interacting with our clients right in the midst of our training floor. 

I wish I’d done this sooner, as the benefits that have come with the new training environment have led me to be better at my job.  Here are 5 ways that I am improving at running my business after having made a commitment to experiencing it from the eyes of our clients:

1. I’ve gained a better understanding of my coach’s unique skill-sets

I have a great feel for each of my employee’s unique skill-sets as it relates to assessment and program design, but I now have a more complete understanding of how to leverage their coaching abilities.  My time in the gym has given me an appreciation for the fact that they also have their own unique style while on the training floor.  Some coaches thrive while working with female athletes, while others feel right at home instructing young baseball players. 

Every CSP staff member has a specific type of client that they excel at instructing, so it is my job to appropriately pair them with these scenarios moving forward.  While our training format does not allow for full-time one-on-one instruction for each athlete, it is important that they feel as if they’ve got a primary point of contact within the gym, and I now have an opportunity to improve my ability to pair personalities appropriately in this context.

2. Improved Rapport with Clientele

One of our most effective means of creating brand awareness is through social networking platforms.  Many of our clients were first exposed to CSP when they came across our Facebook page, Instagram, or Twitter account.  The key to converting these brand exposures from a “view” to a “client” is creating content that entices the athlete to engage with us.  This can be as simple as hitting the “like” button, or actually exchanging some friendly banter.

The best way to do this is by creating a rapport that can transition from training floor, to electronic forum, and then back again.  CSP athletes are more likely to align themselves with our brand if we are effective in expanding the “CSP Experience” beyond the confines of our gym.  They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and nothing says “I care” more than a little friendly ribbing on Twitter, right?

3. Identification of Opinion Leaders leads to Referrals

One of the perks to improving my rapport with clients is that it also improves my ability to ask for referrals.  Assuming we are delivering a quality training experience, our clients are typically excited to spread the word about their time with us. 

“Did you know we offer training discounts to those who refer new clients? You must have a couple of buddies who would be a good fit around here.”

The only client I’ve ever seen say no to this question was a professional pitcher who was concerned about sharing his “secret weapon” with other guys in his organization.  He didn’t want to give up his competitive advantage going in to spring training, which I can understand.  Other than this specific professional athlete scenario, I can’t think of a single moment where this type of discussion was not positively received. 

It has been my experience that the Pareto Principle applies directly to our referral sources.  The Pareto Principle states that, in many scenarios, roughly 80% of the effects are the result of 20% of the causes.  Historically, roughly 80% of our new client referrals came from the same handful of truly loyal (and vocal) clients.  My next big referral source just may be training on that gym floor right along side me at any given moment, and I am now on a mission to identify that individual.

4. Comprehensive understanding of the current state of our business

There are certain aspects of our business that I’m rarely exposed to when sheltered in my office.  It is important that I experience the training environment to answer questions such as:

·      Have we staffed the gym with an appropriate number of coaches to meet athlete needs?

·      Is our equipment selection extensive enough to accommodate our daily foot traffic?

·      Could we better layout the training space to allow for more efficient flow in the gym?

·      Do we have a current intern that is too good not to hire at the conclusion of their program?

You may think you know exactly how things are functioning within your space during peak hours, but until you immerse yourself in the environment, you likely have no idea.

5. I improved my own efficiency

Have you ever heard the saying that every hour of sleep you can get before midnight is the equivalent to two after?  Well I am of the belief that every hour of work that I complete prior to noon is as productive as two completed after. 

Our “work day” begins at 12:00pm when clients begin walking through the door.  Once parents are in the office, the phone is consistently ringing, and questions are being directed toward me, the to-do list can be quickly put on the back burner.  The 90+ minutes prior to the start of client training sessions, once specifically set aside for my training, are now the most productive work-related minutes of my day.  The way I see it, if I am going to allocate a specific chunk of my day toward my own training, why not overlap it with an opportunity to engage with our loyal clients?

Have you experienced your own service model?

Though I am not a completely anonymous face within our gym, I am still able to connect with athletes on the training floor who have no idea who I am.  I have this opportunity because the bulk of my selling efforts involve corresponding with parents of young athletes.  As a result, the clients often begin their training with us without any appreciation for the process leading up to their arrival. 

The beauty of this situation is that I have the opportunity to ask questions and receive unfiltered feedback from clients on a daily basis.  I can ask an athlete who their favorite coach is and learn why.  I can find out what kind of music they would play if given the opportunity to be guest DJ for the day.  I can get inside the heads of our athletes in a way I was previously unable to accomplish.

By subtly immersing myself in the client experience, I am working smarter, and not harder.

Peer Leadership: 8 Thoughts On How To Make The Most Of An Opportunity, Others, and Yourself

This week’s post comes to you in the form of a guest submission from CSP Strength Coach, Greg Robins.  Greg is the creator of The Strength House and also a guy who practices what he preaches in everything from strength training to leadership style.  

I asked Greg to pull together his thoughts on a concept I came across while reading a book titled Speaking as a Leader, by Judith Humphrey.  In the text, Humphrey mentions the idea of “leading from the side”, which I thought perfectly encapsulated the way Greg went about grasping an even greater leadership role here in our Massachusetts facility upon Eric’s departure to sunny Florida.

This is his take on leading from the side.  As you’ll see, he prefers to call it Peer Leadership. 

Recently, Pete was kind enough to not only pay me a compliment, but also ask me to elaborate on one of my strengths as an employee of Cressey Sports Performance.

Oddly enough, what he asked me to write about isn’t something I do via calculated moves, or even 100% consciously, I suppose. 

My understanding is that Pete was reading a book about leadership that prompted him to consider my unique style of leading.  In said book, the author talked about leadership coming from different levels of an organization.  In short, there are three scenarios:

1.     Top Down

2.     Bottom Up

3.     Side

Leadership from the top would be an example of managerial leadership.  Bottom-up leadership requires that employees think critically to influence the decisions of their superiors through suggestion and example.  Leadership from the side is a tricky one, and happens to be the focus of this article.

Leadership from the side means gaining the respect of both the top and bottom, while being a voice that represents everyone.  I personally define this as “Peer Leadership.”

Pete was kind enough to acknowledge my efforts at CSP as those of quality peer leadership.  Allow me to explain how I cultivated my leadership style, and continue to adjust my approach today.

The first question to ask yourself is “Am I a leader?” I believe we all have the potential to be great leaders. For some of us it could require more work than for others, as we may need to make great changes in who we are and how we operate.

Assuming a leadership role is something I truly enjoy, and is also something I can’t help but do. I have always been drawn to wanting to help, and wanting to step up. There are, in fact, a few resume-worthy items in my past that qualify me to lead others.

For starters, I completed Officer Candidate School (OCS) in the ARMY National Guard.  This was essentially a yearlong course in learning to be a leader.  My military experience is where I learned the greatest lessons in becoming a leader. However, OCS is not where THE greatest lesson was learned.

My greatest challenge in life, to this point, was ARMY basic training.  The physical aspect was tough at times, but the greatest challenge was entering Basic Training as an enlisted Officer Candidate.  This meant that in the second week of an eighteen-week program my drill sergeants placed me in a leadership position, which I would hold for the remainder of training.

As I was told: “If you want to be an officer, you may as well start learning how to lead now.”

Serving, as a new Second Lieutenant is a significant challenge, as you have to earn the respect of your peers.  However, you do have rank, and it must be acknowledged.  In basic training, I had no rank at all.  It was my job to influence 40 men, ages 18 to 42, to listen to me.  I learned quickly that a leader is effective only when the people he leads want to follow him.  In that eighteen-week period I learned what it takes to make that happen.

I went on to be the distinguished honor graduate of my OCS class, and I owe that to the lessons learned in basic training.  During the two-year period between Basic Training and OCS I formed my own definition of leadership that I stick to today:

Leadership is being willing and able to do what you ask of others.

Below are 8 thoughts on how I did it then, and how I have strived to be a leader since that time.

1. Discipline

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.”

— Robert E. Lee

If you want to lead others, you need to have the discipline to carry yourself as you want your peers to.  This starts with learning to follow.  When you follow well, you understand a few very important things:

• You know your role - You honor the fact you are not in charge, and you understand where you fit into an organization as a whole.
• Listen and accept - A great follower listens to direction, accepts criticism without rebuttal, and acts on these items to be the person his team needs him to be.
• Serve the overall goal - An effective follower acts in a way to always serve what the team’s goal is. Each move they make is done so selflessly.
• Stay humble - Following is the first step in learning humility.  You don’t look for accolades, or the spotlight.  Instead, you learn to do what is right and you find happiness in knowing that you’ve played a pivotal role, regardless of whether or not you are acknowledged for it.
• Loyalty - Following well is a lesson in loyalty.  Stay committed to the people who give you an opportunity to be a part of something greater. 

2. Character

“What you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders are people of tremendous character.  While each leader may be comprised of different characteristics, who they are and what they stand for makes them someone people want to listen to and respect.  There are a few characteristics I can identify in both myself, and the people I have looked up to:

• Humility -  In order to lead, one must accept responsibility for the outcomes in which they have been of great influence.  A leader is willing to take the blame, and willing to admit their faults.
• Compassion -  "The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." This is a Colin Powell quote that I was introduced to by my cadre in OCS.  It is the framework for peer leadership.  You want to be someone that cares.  Your peers should see you as a safe place to bring their troubles, ideas, and even successes.
• Courage -  Courage comes in many forms, and is a common quality found in effective leaders.  Have the courage to volunteer for the tough jobs.  Have the courage to be candid, and say what needs to be said.  Have the courage to accept failure as a possible outcome, and the responsibility that accompanies it.

3. Communicate Effectively

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”

— Colin Powell

If you want to lead, you need to be able to communicate effectively.  Communication is crucial in getting a group of people to achieve a singular task.  In order to communicate effectively, one must understand a few principles:

• Be clear and concise -  Practice what I call calculated communication.  Weigh the options, understand the issue, and then offer direction in an easily understood format.  Words can leave a lot of room for interpretation if you let them.
• Words matter - Abraham Lincoln once said that "tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."  I believe this to mean that, in order to lead, one must have a high level of emotional intelligence.  Who am I talking to?  Where are they coming from?  How will they interpret what I say?  Having “tact” becomes the difference-maker.  What you say, if often less important than how you say it. 

 

4. Lead from the front

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.”

— Albert Einstein

I have always been a lead-by-example type of person.  I believe that actions will always speak louder than words.  You need to BE THE EXAMPLE.  

This process starts by having a commanding presence.  You must carry yourself with confidence, always.  When it’s time to speak, be heard.  Acknowledge that, as a leader, you set the precedence for your peers.  Body language, composure, and appearance have the ability to keep order amongst a group of people without a single word being said.  

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, "The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

5. Inspire

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

As a leader, you are in the unique position to make others better.  I think that is AWESOME.  When we inspire people, leading isn’t all that difficult.  Everyone shares a common goal and wants to help accomplish it.  So, how’s that done?

• Empower -  General George Patton once said "Never tell people how to do things.  Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."  Empowering others, in short, means trusting them.  As a leader, your peers believe in you.  By giving them responsibility, and the trust to carry out a task without micro-management, you are showing the same belief in them.  A sign of quality leadership is when other leaders are born from their systems and encouraged to emerge. 
• Champion individuality -  One of the key ingredients to empowerment is embracing individuality.  Many people think the military strives to brainwash its members with the intention of creating a clone of the ideal follower.  This is a false assumption.  In fact, freethinking is what gets people ahead in the military and in life.  As a leader, you should show that you are human, and encourage others to embrace who they are by leveraging their strengths.
• Find the bright spots and cut critics loose, fast - Critics are like a cancer to an organization.  You know the people I’m talking about.  These are the individuals who first find fault in every situation.  A leader is not a critic, and it is the job of a leader to elevate the opinions of those who are not critical.  Leaders find solutions.  If you want to lead, you must find the people around you who do the same and make it readily apparent that their outlook is valuable.

6. "We" not "Me"

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

— Lao Tzu

Personally, I do not seek the spot light. I do not ask for it, or feel my actions are calculated in such a way to be appointed a title or accolades.  In fact, I struggle to accept praise, which is something to work on.

This mindset has helped me become a better peer leader.  I’d much rather be able to say: “we did something”, as opposed to “I did something”.  In fact, I didn’t know how I felt about writing this article.  Because it made me uncomfortable in some ways, I felt it was worth trying.

Narcissism is not a quality of a great leader.  Empower the team, and make as little as possible about YOU.

I am often impressed in the way that true leaders make ME feel great after being around them.  However, I have walked away from many experiences with people in “leadership roles” feeling like I could have said just about anything and they still would have found a way to make it about THEM.

I like the phrase “lead from the front”.  Remember that selflessness is one of the examples that should be set.

7. Make the choice

“Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”

— Harold S. Geneen

As we come to the last two thoughts, I would encourage you to make the choice to lead.  You could positively impact many lives by simply making this choice.  This starts by raising your hand.  I have shared many thoughts and experiences with you, but I can’t teach you to lead.  Nor can any book, or speaker.

The first step is in stepping up.

Once you have tried and failed, try again.  Success takes time.  Sure, read the books.  Listen to the motivators.  In their experiences, you can find affirmation, much like I have demonstrated by inserting quotes throughout this article. This is only possible when having your own experiences to draw from, first.

There are no pre-requisites to being a leader.  Leading amongst your peers is where great leadership is born.

8. Peer leadership is leadership

“A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.”

— M.D. Arnold

I am lucky enough to work for a guy like Pete who considers all of us his peers.  He treats us like peers, and that’s because he is a quality leader.

Leadership means having the respect of everyone from the top to the bottom, and from side to side.

Let me leave you with a few last points to get you started in earning that kind of respect:

• Listen -  Listen to your peers.  Listen completely, and actively.  If you do, your role as a leader will shape itself.
• Do you, stay you -  Be yourself.  When people look up to you and empower you, remember why that began and don’t lose sight of it, ever.
• Own your role - Always keep the “I’ll do it” mentality.  You must empower others, but you must also be willing and able to do it yourself.  Have the confidence to be the guy or girl who praises others, teaches others, and constructively challenges others, all while understanding that nobody may do that for you moving forward. You must possess the wherewithal to do it to yourself.
• Respect - You have to give it, to get it.

Now that you have a feel for how Greg leads from within the CSP-Mass team, I'd encourage you to continue following his work at The Strength House.  You should also consider joining us at our 4th Annual CSP Fall Seminar, scheduled for Sunday, September 13th here in Hudson, MA.  Greg will be a featured presenter and intends to be available throughout the day to chat with attendees.  Additional seminar information can be found here.

Tips for Avoiding the Intern Applicant "Declined" Pile

800. 

That’s the number of internship applications I have reviewed since starting our business in 2007.  Of these 800 applicants, over 100 have been accepted for a position with Cressey Sports Performance.  As you might imagine, some of these applications were fantastic, while others were less than impressive.  I will spend a solid chunk of my next two weeks interviewing candidates for our Semester 2 Internship Program, so I am fresh off of yet another application review process.  My wife thinks I am overly expressive about my frustration with the intern application habits on social media, so in an effort to get it all on paper and call it a day, here's the key to my application review process.

This past spring I had the pleasure of reading 150+ applications for just 10 spots in our summer internship program (spread over our two facilities).  With an applicant pool this large, I often find myself looking for easy ways to slide a candidate into the “no” pile as quickly as possible.  The best way to avoid this fate is to pay attention to detail and apply some common sense.

In 2010 Eric outlined 10 examples of mistakes intern applicants make in a two-part series on his website (Part 1 & Part 2).  Each point is of great importance to this day, so I’d encourage you to give it a read.  Here’s a look at five more of the most common reasons I choose to dismiss candidates:

Tony Bonvecchio's attitude and approach made him too good not to hire.

 

You Don’t Read Instructions

The ability to follow basic instructions is becoming a lost art. I have built a couple of simple hurdles in to the application process to ensure that people can demonstrate a baseline level of attention to detail and also convey a certain level of professionalism.

You’d be surprised how many applicants fail to submit their application in a single file despite having seen the instruction highlighted in red font to emphasize its importance.  The actual number of candidates who committed this error from the summer applicant pool was 38.  While it is disappointing to see more than 25% of the intern candidates make the same mistake, it is extremely helpful in streamlining my review process!

Your Application Implies that You’re Only Interested in Learning from Eric

I love the fact that you’ve read 100% of the material Eric has ever published.  I think it is great that you follow him on Twitter and Instagram.  I completely agree that Eric’s post covering 21 Reasons You’re Not Tim Collins was hilarious.  This being said, there is more to the internship experience here at CSP than following Eric around the gym.  As a matter of fact, Eric can only be in one place at a time, so some interns are going to find themselves coaching 1,500 miles away from him.

It is important to remember that you are applying to be part of a team, as opposed to being Eric’s protégé.  Here in Massachusetts alone, we’ve got 6 fantastic full-time strength coaches to learn from.  The last time that Eric thoroughly reviewed an application or handled an interview was right around 2011, so addressing your cover letters (and every email you send us) specifically to him isn’t sending the right message.  

You Use Acronyms and Fail To Concern Yourself With Formal Greetings and/or Punctuation

We no longer allow for people to download our internship application directly from our website.  I made this change because like to see how the candidates handle themselves in an email format when requesting an application.  You’d be surprised how many applicants fail to simply say “Hello” at the start of their application request.

“please send me an internship application for semester 2. TTYS”

While use of acronyms and a failure to embrace proper grammar or punctuation don’t necessarily reflect your ability to coach athletes, they absolutely represent your attention to detail and your motivation to professionally represent yourself from initial impression.  The margin of difference between the top half of our typical applicant pool is so thin that this demonstration of laziness will cost you my eyes.

“If you can’t pay attention to detail while sitting down to write a basic email, good luck with supervising full-speed athletic movements while on our training floor…”

— Tony Bonvecchio

Your Resume is Far Too Long

We host a number of continuing education events here at CSP each year.  In order to offer Continuing Education Units (commonly known as CEU’s) issued by the National Strength & Conditioning Association at these seminars and mentorships, I need to submit an application that includes an event description and resumes for each of the featured presenters.  I rarely come across a resume from our presenters that are more than a single page long.

Eric Cressey has managed to assemble a one-page resume.  Mike Reinold figured out how to keep it under a page of relevant professional material.  Why is it that your professional background heading in to an unpaid internship is so jam-packed that it needs to span 5-pages?  As a potential employer, I’m not meticulously scanning a resume to be sure that you’ve been gainfully employed for each and every day dating back to a part-time job you had back in high school.  What matters to me is relevant employment experience, so you can leave the Dairy Queen job description off the list.

Andrew Zomberg's unparalleled professionalism earned him a job following his internship.

 

Your Intent is Only to Obtain Credits

One of my biggest pet peeves is a candidate who requests an application by saying “my school requires that I complete a 300 hour internship to graduate so I’m emailing you for an application.”  How am I supposed to conclude that you’ll have a great work ethic and bring a positive attitude to the gym every day when you articulate your reasoning for applying as “because my school said so”?

Remember the Importance of Customer Service Above All Else

The most common question I am asked regarding our internship program is what I look for in the ideal candidate.  While most assume that my answer is going to cover a combination of academic credentials and training-specific certifications, the reality is that my best interns are simply extroverts with a good work ethic.  I’d much rather accept a candidate with an eternally positive attitude and desire to learn than I would one with a graduate degree in kinesiology and no personality.  If you can reflect a great attitude and good intentions beginning as early as the moment you request an application, you’re already off to a good start.

Hopefully this will reduce the number of future urges I have to publicly shame a candidate's misstep moving forward!

Celebrating 8 Years of CSP with some Recommended Reading

This week marks 8 years of business operations here at Cressey Sports Performance – MA.  As I reflect on what feels like a lifetime of amazing learning experiences accrued thus far, I feel truly fortunate to have the opportunity to assist in guiding the growth and development of this business. 

Much like coaches preach “tape don’t lie” as they review game footage with their athletes, CSP’s performance numbers don’t lie:

• 10,000+ sessions coached

• 3,500+ athletes through the door

• 100+ fantastic interns

• Dozens of MLB debuts

• 8 consecutive years of double-digit growth

I’m happy to say that the system is working.  The numbers don’t lie.

Beyond the numbers, we’ve learned a whole bunch of lessons along the way.  It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to publish an annual “lessons learned” post in recognition of our anniversary.  Here are my three favorite examples thus far:

Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way - Eric wrapped up our third year of business by explaining how important it is that our work at CSP be fulfilling on a day to day basis.  He also discussed his thought process as he made the decision to make this business a reality.

6 Years and 6 Proud Moments for Cressey Performance - I was tasked with the responsibility of preparing a guest post for Eric's site back in 2013.  In it, I covered where we were at that moment in time, and where I believed we were headed.  We appear to be on the right track two years later!

Reflecting on Eight Years of Cressey Sports Performance - Tony took the reigns this year and touched on the energy that goes into getting a business off the ground and building a great team.  He also went into a little detail on the importance of creating manageable goals and expectations as you map out your long-term objectives for your business.

Here's to another good year of CSP!

10 Conversations to Have Before Signing your Gym Lease

In my most recent blog, I discussed some important factors to take into consideration during your search for a new gym location.  Once you’ve identified the dream location, the hard work is just beginning.  It’s now time to talk lease terms. 

Since many of us are not fond of confrontation, it can be difficult to ask probing questions and know when to push back if it is in the best interest of your business.  As in any buying or selling process, you need to identify your ceiling coming in, and be prepared to walk away from the table.

The best way to prepare for this type of interaction is to outline your questions in advance of the discussion.  I’ve accumulated extensive experience on this front after having negotiated new leases, signed lease extensions, and even created handshake agreements as a subletting tenant.  Here is a list of ten considerations to keep in mind as you discuss the terms of your lease.

1.  Protocol for requesting maintenance

Things are going to break.  The roof will spring an occasional leak.  The lock on your door may suddenly malfunction.

Wear and tear happens, and your landlord will likely be happy to take care of the repairs.  You need to ask how you will go about requesting assistance with maintenance and/or upkeep, and what you can expect for a typical response time. 

Can I send a quick text message to the building super?  Do I need to directly email the landlord?  Is there an on-line project request form?

If you don’t ask the landlord to set expectations from the start, you are likely to receive inconsistent service throughout the duration of your lease.

2. Expectations regarding day-to-day noise

Daily operation of a strength & conditioning facility is noisy.  We play loud music.  We drop heavy weights.  We cater to a population of boisterous athletes.  As long as you are up-front about this during the lease negotiation process, you should be good to go.  Make sure that your potential landlord is 100% aware of this reality because he or she will likely receive the occasional call or email from another tenant regarding your noise.  It’s best that they not feel that they’ve been misled when that time comes.

If your business currently operates in a space which you’re looking to move out of, consider inviting the landlord or property manager to visit during your hours of operation.  This will give him/her an opportunity to understand the nature of the training environment you intend to create in their space.

3. Restriction of competing businesses

Request the right to refuse the introduction of a business which will negatively impact your earning potential.  Your landlord’s primary objective is going to be achieving 100% occupancy, and not all of them are going to be terribly concerned with your ability to thrive.  What is keeping them from allowing a big-box gym to sign a 10-year lease occupying 5-times as much space as your business?

Take this step before signing a lease and you can ensure that a competing gym will never open their doors on the premises.

4. HVAC (air conditioning unit) maintenance responsibilities

Our first gym didn’t have air conditioning, and we suffered.  With this in mind, my first recommendation is to find a space with central air.  My second, is that you have a clear understanding of your responsibilities relating to its maintenance.

There are important questions to ask the landlord:  If it breaks, am I responsible for the cost of fixing it?  Do you mandate that we hire a specific HVAC contractor who is already approved to work on your property?  Do you require documentation of annual maintenance?  Who pays for air filter replacements?

Without a clear understanding of this aspect of your lease, you could find yourself blindsided by large expenses.

5. Understanding of CAM (common area maintenance) charges

Common Area Maintenance charges consist of landscaping, snowplowing, common area electric and gas, and management of the property (including salaries and health insurance). You can think of this as the cost of operating the property as a whole, including building insurance, cleaning, toilet paper, repairs and maintenance.

CAM charges are a much easier pill to swallow when you fully understand the spectrum of expenses they cover.  Our CAM charges are just a shade under $4.00 per square foot in both Massachusetts and Florida.

6. Understand the difference between Rentable and Usable space

Is the proposed square footage Rentable or Usable that you are paying for?  Usable is the actual square footage that you occupy; while rentable is the square footage you are in, plus the shared space such as common hallways, conference rooms, and bathrooms.  

The landlord will tell you what percentage of the property is made up of common area space and increase your usable number accordingly to determine your rentable figure.  Let’s say you’d like to rent a 5,000 square foot (usable) unit and common area space accounts for 10% of the square footage of the property.  You can expect your lease to state that your rentable space is 5,500 square feet.  

7. Dumpster policy

Are dumpsters shared, or individually assigned to units?  Are you free to work with the trash removal vendor of your choice?  Are dumpsters situated conveniently in relation to your proposed unit?  Are you responsible for clearing any snow which may accumulate around your dumpster?  Is there an opportunity to recycle on-site?  Does your town require that a permit be issued to keep a dumpster on the property?

These questions may seem trivial, but hauling your trash from one end of a large property to another in snow or rain could be a deterrent during your space selection process.

8. Insurance requirements

Most landlords will ask you to provide a certificate of insurance coverage.  Each property owner has their own minimum level of required coverage.  This will impact the amount you need to spend on a policy.   The minimum required coverage figure is typically negotiable.

 You can accelerate the process of securing a policy (or modifying an existing one) by having answers to important questions regarding total number of fire extinguishers on the premises, number of exits, and accessibility to an AED defibrillator.  You can also expect your policy provider to request access to your space soon after signing a contract, as they typically protect their investment by auditing your preparedness for potential dangerous situations.

9. Policy on subletting

Inquire about the policy on subletting if you intend to add complimentary services in the future.  It would be a hassle to fine-tune the details of a partnership with a physical therapist or yoga practitioner only to later find out that your landlord has a policy stating that subletting to new tenants is not permitted.

10. Introduction to other tenants?

Depending on the size of the property/building you are considering, there may be an abundance of potential clients already working under the same roof.  Don’t hesitate to ask for an introduction to your fellow tenants.  We operate within a building which hosts more than 100 working professionals.  All of them are potential morning strength camp participants or semi-private training candidates during the afternoons and evenings.  Consider offering a “building discount” to entice the neighbors and drive revenues.

One nice thing about being a fitness service provider is that your existence within the building can be positioned as a selling point for the landlord when giving tours to potential tenants.  You have the opportunity to earn goodwill by extending the offer for your space to be viewed under these circumstances.  Remember, if you can maintain an amicable relationship with the landlord, you’ll find day-to-day and month-to-month operations will run smoothly.

Honorable mention

Real estate taxes should be expected, and qualify as the bonus point on this list.  These figures are not negotiable.  They are dictated by the town you are operating in and are also available via public record.  With this in mind, it is a good idea to ask to see the last five years of real estate tax numbers to understand the potential increases or fluctuations which could be expected moving forward.

My last and best piece of advice

If I could give one great piece of advice going into this process, it would be to treat your potential landlord as a business partner.  Your rent dollars make it possible for the building employees to earn a living and keep the property presentable, while their space is the key to your being able to provide an exceptional service.  Establish a relationship which is mutually beneficial and you are likely to enjoy your time as a tenant for the duration of your lease.

10 Considerations as you Search for the Perfect Gym Location

We’re about two weeks away from officially hitting eight years of operation here at Cressey Sports Performance.  With close to a decade of gym design and maintenance under my belt, I've assembled a comprehensive list of “must-have” attributes that Eric and I recommend you look for while in the process of designing a fitness facility.  Whether you are looking to open your first facility, relocating an existing space, or introducing new locations to your expanding empire, this list should guide you as you hunt for real estate.

Please note: this list is in no particular order, as each point is of equal importance to us.

1. High Ceilings & Natural Light

I regularly preach the importance of starting small as you search for and select the space for your first gym.  The idea of having an expansive space with state-of-the-art equipment is obviously enticing, but will expose you to considerable risk before generating sufficient revenues to counter the costs.

Finding a space with high ceilings and plenty of natural light can make all the difference in making a small unit feel larger than it is.  Should your training or business model change in a way that might require some unique usage (like deciding to install a pitching cage), high ceilings will give you flexibility. 

Our second facility had a fantastic footprint and adequate dimensions, but limited natural light. Limited to a pair of small skylights, 3-4 inches of snow would completely eliminate any available daylight.  While we rarely complained about the lack of natural light while paying rent on this space, it would be difficult to go back to that setting now that we’ve discovered the positive influence natural light has on the overall mood of our staff during long days on a training floor.

2. “Relatively New” Construction

One portion of the building in which CSP-Mass sits was built roughly 50 years ago.  The other was an addition constructed in the 90’s.  Other than a slight increase in ceiling height from old to new, there is minimal indication that one part of the building is roughly 30 years newer than the other.  However, upon relocating in 2012, we learned that newer construction could be considerably more efficient than the old when it comes to utility expenses.  

When we doubled our square footage in 2012 (7,600 square-feet to 15,100 square-feet), I anticipated a proportionate increase in utility expenditures; what I saw was about a 20% increase.  I'm chalking this up to better-insulated exterior framework and more efficient heating units and overhead lights in the newer part of the building. 

3. Clean Sight-lines

In facility design and layout, Eric has two firm rules: The first is quite simple: no mirrors.  The second? Enable a clear line of sight from CSP Coach to CSP Athlete from any location on the training floor. In theory, any coach should be able to provide coaching instruction on the fly from across the room thanks to clean sightlines from one end of the space to the other.   

In order to comply with this mandate, the location you choose will need to be laid out in a square or rectangular format. Stray, and dimensional limitations will make this rule nearly impossible to follow. 

4. Ample Waiting Space for Parents

We once operated a gym without a waiting area for parents…and it didn’t go so well.  We were happy with our training space, but the lack of a place for parents to kill time ultimately led to their habit of wandering the gym floor.  The presence of a parent within the gym alters the experience for both the athlete and the coach.  This being said, we are also cognizant of the fact that parents pay the bills.  We owe it to them to provide some room to read a book, check email, or even fall asleep on our couch (which happens more often than you’d think).

The convenient thing about waiting space is that it doesn’t necessarily need to be located within your gym.  If you secure a location that has access to ample common area space, you may be able to direct parents there.  All that matters is that you give them an option that isn't waiting in their own car.

5. Sufficient Parking

The appropriate amount of parking at your location will depend on foot traffic, and the demographic of your clients.  Are your clients driving themselves, or getting dropped off? Do these parents linger, or leave only to return for pick up?  Your setting will impact who drives (urban versus suburban), among a variety of other factors. 

I have seen as little as a single parking spot per 1,000 square feet of gym, to the opposite scenario of unlimited parking.  There is no standard number of parking spots I’d recommend.  Instead, I’d suggest that you think long and hard about the best-case scenario as it relates to cars visiting your business and use this figure to determine your needs.

With tons of fitness alternatives available to your current and prospective clients, the last thing you need is to lose them due to avoidable parking limitations.  Make it easy to train with you.

6. Community Restrooms

You know what isn’t fun at the end of a long day?  Cleaning toilets.  One of the best decisions we have made as a business has been selecting a location that has access to community restroom space.  Rather than hire a cleaning crew of my own, or putting my staff to work on restroom maintenance, I happily pay my CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges each month and let the landlord worry about keeping toilet paper stocked.

I should note that the property layout we access here in Massachusetts is not universally available.  After months of searching, Eric was unable to identify similar options during the location search in Southern Florida.  He ended up converting an office environment into a training space, which required the installation of showers.  His most useful advice:

“Don’t sign off on securing a space that will require you to pull building permits.  Extend your search as far as you have to in order to avoid the hassle.”

7. Building Super/Property Manager?

Our greatest ally here in Massachusetts is the Property Manager, Bill.  He constantly has his finger on the pulse of the building and is the guy who gets things done.  Need an additional key for a new employee?  Bill’s your guy.  Looking for someone to help you get up on a ladder to change a light in the middle of the gym?  Bill’s got you covered. 

The best part? This is Bill's only property. He isn’t bouncing from one location to the next.  My concern with outsourcing your property maintenance is that you will never find someone with the same loyalty and dedication to craftsmanship.  Find yourself a location that comes with a Property Manager like Bill and make sure to throw him a gift during the holidays and a new tee shirt whenever your gym gets a fresh shipment.

8. Availability of Signage

Not every gym can be a destination training facility, so it is important that you have some level of street-front visibility.  We are very fortunate at CSP in that we generate nearly all of our leads through word of mouth and inquiries resulting from our web presence.  However, if our livelihood were dependent on generating a large volume of walk-in inquiries, you can be sure that we’d identify a spot that is easily seen from the street and our signage would be memorable.

As you look at your options, make note of how and where the tenant’s business names and logos are displayed.  Are they all simply listed in alphabetical order on a huge sign?  Do they all have their unique logo and branding competing with one another resulting in a chaotic mess of colors, fonts and images?  Is every tenant allotted equal real estate on the sign out front?  Are there opportunities to expand your visibility?

The general public’s initial impression of your business usually results from your signage. Whenever possible, make sure that your company name or logo is presented in a professional manner.  You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

9. Minimal Local Competition

Just because you think your coaches and programming are better than those available at the local CrossFit, doesn’t mean that it is a good idea to set up shop in the same plaza.  The closer you are to alternative training options, the more likely they are to find their way on to your clients' radars.  It’s a good idea to do a thorough market analysis. Understand the age of competing businesses and their foothold within the community.  “We’re just better than they are” is no excuse for negligence, and it will cost you.

10. Appropriate Adjacent Tenants

Much like it is best to avoid options that are geographically close to competing businesses, it is important to avoid setting up shop adjacent to businesses that will conflict with your message.  More specifically, your gym doesn’t need to operate alongside a liquor store or cigar shop.  You don’t need fast-food options staring your clients in the eye each and every time they leave the gym.

Your “perfect gym” is more than just a great layout or any single one of the points listed above.  It is a combination of factors that will result in one particular location being the right fit for you and your business.  It will be difficult to check off each of these points during the search process, but I'd encourage you to strive for as many as possible to ensure a positive outcome.

Next time…

In my next post, you've theoretically found your ideal gym location, and you need to begin the rent negotiation. I’ve worked with my landlord to outline the critical (and often overlooked) questions to ask as a prospective tenant.