Guerrilla Fitness

Business Model and More…

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about business model on the affiliate site about open gym vs. classes vs. private training. I read, thought, read, thought and refrained from comment. Basically, it comes down on how to deliver customer service.

Our business relies on differentiation to be successful. So the more we resemble the "traditional" by a membership and don't come model the more it dilutes the potency of the training. The do it yourself training model of traditional fitness fails because it is at its core, boring. Going to the gym, getting on elliptical or treadmill for an hour of cardio takes the same level of discipline of a penitent monk whipping himself in self flagellation. It sucks. Then get off the gerbil machine and do a circuit of chest, biceps and quads all while worrying about the cardio junkie chick, who eats a carrot a day, thinks about your arms.

Include in the traditional sell the membership and worry about fitness later boiler plate contracts and that is the recipe for businesses that spend a large percentage of revenue on collections and little providing service. You have stiff cocktail for the latest "sales" pitch marketing campaign and low retention of clientele. All the things I want to avoid in my business.

Ok, in 20 plus years of high level training, CrossFit is the best GPP program I have seen. It is going to stay there since its very tenant and existence is assimilation of the best practices of all disciplines. (Is CrossFit the Borg of fitness?) So, if it works, we will copy it. So we stay the best! Simple. Mastering the ability to teach the movements is one component of creating a successful business doing CrossFit. It is the foundation of the business, it is not in dispute. Once someone has a foundation, then what?

The key of differentiation is the experience the customer has when they train. Recently, I was invited to a CEOs connect presentation there it the lead speaker was economist James H. Gilmore, coauthor of the Experience Economy. In a nut shell, as products are commoditized the differentiation of the product goes down the primary factor for purchase is price, the lowest price. To maintain competitive advantage in the market place and command premium prices, requires that not only product be good/great the experience in the value chain of delivery is a key (if not the key) factor in success in the market place. The fitness industry has commoditized itself to the point where only location and price really matter. The business is then driven to rent the space to as many people as possible with little or no thought about servicing or providing fitness. The salient factors of ease of access, good location, locker room amenities and non fitness related items are used to sell the product. (The three year membership)

The opposite of the commodity product is the niche, specialty product or service. It is something that requires special, not easily copied service or features that makes it special. Niche markets are the high margin/narrow focus markets. It is special. So, if it there is something we can do to make out values chain more special, unique and memorable then it is something we should consider for our business.

The Experience of Training: What we sell is the experience of elite training. What is the definition of elite training? Training that is extraordinary. Doing things that are outside the realm of "traditional" fitness and that are focused on a well educated consumer. The training is the primary differentiator of our offering. Beyond the training, what other things go into the experience? Our sales process is the next contributor to the customer experience. Our sales process is simple, direct and no bullshit. Come try a class, if you like it, go to the web site, buy the package that fits your needs, and sign up. No contract, no fine print no being locked in the office until you give me your credit card number. When you need to change your level of commitment or move or whatever, you go online and cancel.

There are more contributors to the experience: the feel of the place, the pictures on the wall, the demeanor of the staff, the lighting, the slogans on the t-shirts, in actuality, everything. Deciding what communicates what your belief system is up to you.

When someone walks into our Compound, we call it the compound to elicit the toughness, the rawness of real fitness. There are no mirrors or the fluffy things you can get from a gym a quarter mile away. People walk in and wonder what the hell we do. They fill out a waiver and we show them. We tell them they will either love it or hate it, either way is okay. We tell them to take it easy their first day and survive. We don't want luke warm experiences. When someone asked what it costs, we tell them to go online and sign up for the package that fits their needs. No sales pitch, no telling them that will look good naked after three weeks of training. Besides, if you tell people the results they get from doing CrossFit, who is going to believe you? People have to experience the results.

The next major experience item is the delivery of the training. After reviewing the new person's waiver, we do try not to kill anyone, and getting to know something about the person taking the class, I pair the newbie with a veteran to show them the ropes. It gives the new person a chance to get to know someone and begin bonding to the class. The mission is to get people to bond to the classmates, NOT the instructor. One major downside of having a strong charismatic class leader is that the size of the business is limited to the ability of personality of the leader. Customers need to bond to the class and business, not the personality. Personality is the biggest limiter in growth of the business. A strong class leader is a blessing and curse. The blessing is they draw people, then they aren't there the people go away; this is not a good business model. IMHO

During the first class, the newbie is encouraged to self pace and take it easy. Their mission during their first class is to decide if they like what we do. The people in the class doing extraordinary training is the major part of the experience a new person has. When a new person sees petite females doing unassisted pull ups next to a man who can't and everyone doing their best, cheering for the slow person and the family that are the classes, the experience is "I can do it!" It is a lot different than a step class where the person who is not getting the routine is ridiculed by the bitchy sorority style classes' common in globo gym. The team feel, camaraderie and communal suffering are what people coming back. The success of doing something the people never though they were capable of is a powerful stimulant.

After class, they get personal contact from the instructor and are warned about being sore. Part of the initiation to training is the soreness after their class. It is the common, "oh my god" experience that everyone has that forges a common bond. Everyone remembers their first class. The first class is the primary self selecting process. People either have the intestinal fortitude to train as hard as we do, or they don't. The sales process demands that people self commit, if you have the "sell" someone, they will not be truly committed and will fail early. We do not want to waste time watering weeds.

There are no contracts, initiation fees or fine print. What you are purchasing is the right to come to class and give your all. If you need to change or cancel, you can do it online anytime. Free people are responsible for their actions or inactions; it is the moral code of HyperFit USA to be responsible for yourself. Out business model reflects our most sacred beliefs. The reflection of our beliefs is part of the experience of training with us.

Are you a “Good” Trainer

What makes a "good" trainer?

This topic has been swirling around my head for several months now. Recently the question was asked on the CrossFit Affiliate Blog and received some pretty great responses. http://www.crossfit.com/cgi-bin/moveabletype/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2436 The reason I have been thinking about is so much is to grow my business and expand in need instructors, great instructors. The one key characteristic of a "good" trainer is that they have clients. End of story.

All of the list of fine aspects and skills distil into one objective measurement of effectiveness: Money. The same way we measure the effectiveness of training, power output, income is the measurement of the effectiveness of at trainer. How good is the food at an empty restaurant?

When all is said and done, the invisible hand of the market determines whether you are good or not. How long you last in the market place, the number of referrals your clients give you, the turnover rate of clients are determining factors whether you are better than your competition or not. Other factors effecting "good" are the soft items above as well as price point, communication of value and social skills will effect whether a trainer is good or not. (The ability to earn)

Let's break this down on a continuum: On one end is the pure charismatic leader type who could have a class do Burpees for an hour every day and people would love them. On the other end is the technically savvy genius types who and tell the origin and insertion of every muscle on the body as well as being able to describe each stage of the Krebs cycle and all the transitional elements but sits along ready an obscure journal.

Balancing personality and technical skill has long been something that has perplexed me. I knew some trainers who earned a great living (Selling close to 100k in training) and were barely able talk about anything but their next contest or stop flexing the mirror long enough to correct poor technique. I have also known trainers with high levels degrees in kinesiology and certifications who had to leave training and go into management (or other careers) because they could not make a living as a trainer. (This is really common in the corporate gym chains, when you can't do, manage. It is also why Globo gyms are in such trouble. When someone uses they managed at Globo gym as a reason they should be listened to, it is time to turn and walk away since they have just demonstrated their incompetence.) I digress.

Okay in more terms simple terms: Personality type vs. Technical Skill. First, they are not mutually exclusive. The question is which is more important? Take an obese client, do you need to have the skill to teach a clean or snatch when what they need is emotional support and help reshaping the body image. How about the Olympic Coach working with the highest level athlete to get a kilo or two more and help them win a gold medal? In either case, there must be technical skill, but in both cases, it takes coaching to what the human being needs and finding what it takes to motivate them to achieve. It is the difference between a teaching and coaching. You teach a dog a trick, you coach your kids to be more than thought they could.

The EXPERIENCE of training: Whether doing personal training or group classes, the EXPERIENCE the customer receives is really what they are purchasing. What goes into the experience? The facility, the other people around, the instructor, the lighting, the workout and many other factors go into the overall human experience of the workout. (I am not going to belabor the workout, chances are they are doing CrossFit, and then the workout is effective.) Who knows trainers that the first and last thing out of their mouths is about the trainer, not the clients. That trainer never keeps clients. The focus of "good" trainers has to be about the client, not the trainer. The overall experience in American day to day life is bad. The latest shooting, bombing, scandal or financial impropriety covers the headlines. The demands of corporate life with the deadlines, asshole bosses, wage cuts, unremitting pressure to do more with less all create people who are under stress and really have some pretty shitty days. Then they come to work out. The trainer is an upbeat, fun, witty and generally not affected by the daily bullshit. The trainer greats them and gets them to physically do more than the client ever thought possible. The trainer listens, relieves stress, teaches, coaches and basically creates an experience that shields the client from the negative world that is the media driven cesspool of 1000 station cable television Jerry Springer bizarre bombardment they are subjected to everyday. It is an hour of achievement that creates a cocoon for an hour from the outside world.

What a good trainer should earn: The plain vanilla personal trainer working in Any Gym USA should be able to command a premium wage since the value they supply, good health, mobility and increase people's work capacity. Here is the math.

Basic Training Math: If you charge $65 per hour you train 30 hours per week (A truly full time trainers) and you work an average of 50 weeks per year, your revenue is $97,500. (I am not going to try and apply overhead here. How many clients is that? 15! You only need 15 clients to make as nearly 100k per year! The average client trains twice per week, so you need 15 clients to make 30 hours. More simple math, about 6 hours per day. Positively affect 15 people's lives and you can make 100k.

The net result of being a good trainer is reflected in the bank account. When people decide the service you provide is worth more than the dollars in their pocket, then you are a good trainer.

070410 CrossFit

070410 CrossFit Class

Warm Up:

Row 1K

GHD: 10/10 x 3

Equipment Requirements: None

Skills: None

WOD:

Push Up: 5

Pull Up: 5

Begin a new round every minute on the minute for 30 minutes. If a person misses a beginning of a round, they will row for the remainder of the workout.

Warm Down: Hand Stand Skills

 

Gods of the Copybook Headings

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn.
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn;
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its ice field, or the lights had gone out in
Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
They denied that the moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, they promised perpetual peace.
They swore if we gave them our weapons that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed they sold us and delivered us bound to our Foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peters to pay for collective Paul;
But though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true,
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four --
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man --
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began --
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins,
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

– R. Kipling

The Paper route...

Who has seen the movie Dragnet? The scene where Friday is cornered by thugs looking for money and suggests they get a paper route to build character. It makes me laugh every time. Partially since it is Dan Akroyd and partially since it is so true.

I learned everything I needed to know to be a trainer (and any other business) when I had my first paper route. Since then, I have wasted time learning about balance sheets, stochastic charts and relative market share. The basic human element of relating to a customer is lost in business school and when it was eloquently taught on the back of a bicycle carrying a load of papers. These are some observations as I remember them.

What does it take to be a successful paper boy?

1. Be reliable – Before the internet, people got their news from the morning paper. Getting people their paper was important and many people depended on it. When you were late with the paper, tips suffered.
2. Be consistent – When you are consistent, people can make plans based on your performance. When you are inconsistent, people stop being customers. (Less tips)
3. Make it a game – Seeing how fast I could deliver my route became a quest. The faster and more effective my delivery the more customers I could handle. Better service meant more customers. (More tips or more fun time)
4. When it is time to collect, collect. Ask for the money. Be direct, you have to pay for the papers you deliver and they have to pay for the papers they read. Collect when it is time, you provide a valuable service and it is worth paying for. (If you don’t collect, mom is going to have to pay for the papers and boy will she be pissed)
5. Have a goal – Sign up for every contest there is. Turn growing your route into a game. Knock on doors. Talk to people, be yourself. Be interested in others. Some people will like you, some people won’t. Just keep being out there. Achieve what you set out to do, no matter what. (More tips)
6. When you don’t like the customer, don’t do business with them. I thing everyone had a little old lady who bitched about everything from the cover of the paper to the time you come to collect to the stories IN the paper. It made me so uncomfortable I wanted to pay for her subscription so I didn’t have to talk to her. Cancel her subscription. As nicely a possible, but don’t do business with assholes. (No change to tips, she didn’t tip you anyway)
7. Reward performance- Once you make your goal, do something nice for yourself or someone you care about. Buy the new streamers for the handle bars.
8. Know your customer- Don’t try and sell a paper to a blind man. If your potential customer can’t or won’t use your product, find someone who will. If someone can’t afford it, then save them the embarrassment and stop bugging them.
9. Sometimes it sucks- The tips and new bike and model airplanes are cool until it is January and you still have to deliver. On time, no questions. Doing the hard things will make the good times better. It is cool to have 100 subscriptions in June, not so in January. Suck it up and power through. Life is hard, be harder.

How does this relate to being a trainer? Start and end on time. People make their schedule based on getting a work out. Their time is valuable, treat it that way. Make the quality of the training worth paying for. Ask for the money. Make the training fun, turn hard fitness into a game (For the client). Have clients test themselves, see how fast they can do something. Keep score. Basically have them do CrossFit. Be truly interested in the lives of your people. As Coach says, know everything about your client.

If you don’t like people, don’t be a trainer.

Update

First of all, I want to say sorry for updating this so sporatically. Here are the topics I would like to cover in here. If I can find time and someone to straighten our my horrible english and spasmatic idea I will be adding some content here.

Topics

A CrossFit Journey

There is so much information on the web right now. People communicate instantly all around the globe. It is possible to search and find out useable data on anything, literally anything. I spend time watching and listing to the dialogs that go in at various message boards where people meet to discuss fitness theory and practice. Everything from CrossFit, T-Nation, Dragon Door and most recently one of Ryan Lee’s web site. I am thoroughly CrossFit, but I also watch and listen in other places too.

People make interesting claims. If someone said they had a 2:00 Fran on the CF message board, there will be countless posts crying bullshit! They would ask to see video or something else to substantiate the claim. Chances are, that person would be ridiculed and harassed until they swore in blood they would never post again.

Why is the standard not kept for business? There is a great deal of claims as to who is doing what, who is successful and how many clients they have. I was in a Golden Colorado certification with Jenn Cornell, my public relations person good friend and CrossFit trainer and badass PR chick and feminist. (She pretty cool too). I was with a group of people talking about business. The discussion turned, as it always does, to numbers. When I walked away, one of the new trainers asked Jenn if I was full of shit (He was much nicer than that but basically was what he said). Jenn replied no and my classes and business was the size we discussed and my background was what it is. She relayed that conversation to me and it started me thinking. (A very dangerous thing indeed.)

On the flight home, I decided to start a blog. Here is the first entry: http://hyperfitusa.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-blog-for-hyperfit-usa.html. (Complete with cheese dick promotional photo) I was horrified that what I was saying and talking about made me look like an idiot. So, I put up. I could not take the thought I sounding like one of those drunk fat guys in the bar bragging about all the women that call him just trying to impress someone. Part of the reason, I posted the blog was to prove the things I said were true. It still makes my stomach hurt to think about. I try and make my self laugh thing saying I invented the questions mark (Austin Powers reference) to help with the pain.

The law of unintended consequences: No matter how hard you try, plan and prepare for something, an unexpected outcome happens. My clients loved the blog. I started posting interesting information, funny pictures and people working out and having fun doing it. The real snowball started. Before I started blogging, I thought the other affiliates were to cheap to take the time for have a “good” web site. This was another one of those occasions I was wrong. Dead wrong. It happens more often than I can admit.

The next thing that happened was the active personal voice that was communication on the blog. The personal touch of taking the time to edit a photo, post it and spoke more to my clients about my sincerity about my clients well being than any other service arrangements. When I took time to post about someone, not only did they see it, everyone else did. And they told their friends. I didn’t know what that was until Coach, calling me first thing in the morning New Years day 2007, recommended I read the ClueTrain Manifesto. Having long learned to listen and ACT when coach tells me something, I ordered it from Amazon.com and started reading. It explained not only why what he recommended was right, but what the next step is going to be and why. It also reinforced my view on marketing CrossFit that the people who really know will find you. That no matter how good you’re “marketing” is you can no longer fool the customer into buying the magic pill or ab blaster or whatever the flavor of the day is. My experience in marketing is that it attracts the wrong folks.  So, the budget is zero. Doing traditional marketing for a CrossFit affiliate is the same as using the constructions techniques of building wood houses when you are using steel. CrossFit training is steel, regular fitness is wood. Huh, he said wood.

Needless to say, the blog transformed my business in November of 2005. Each evolution that past, each development is chronicled there. Each good idea, bad idea and brain fart is there. It is weird to watch and write your own history and then go back and read it. If you were to take a look at a class in 2005 and look at the people, a couple of astonishing things will become apparent. First, how many people are still with us. The average “fitness” industry gym loses over a third of there membership every year! So in order to grow, they need to replace the people they lose and attract more. The required financial demand to bring in new people takes away valuable dollars from service related activities. They employ slick gimmicks, promotional campaigns saying “Lose it at the Club,” every year to drive resolutionaries into contract and extract long term cash flow from impulse purchases. (That was why I closed enrollment in January not only to be different but to actually BE different and concerned about the well being of my existing customers.) The “right” people stay with it, the wrong people don’t. It is that simple. I don’t let people sign up until they have taken a class, after that they can join or not, that is basically our whole sales process. I send a follow up email letting them know where the link is and they can sign up if they want. It is like crack: First hit is free, you are either hooked or not. Here is the latest iteration of the blog: http://hyperfitusa.typepad.com/ Good, bad, ugly it is all there. In the open, for everyone to see, it is one of the most valuable lessons I have learned from CrossFit. It is a lesson, taught by example, not credentials. The pictures, the videos, the equipment have nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with CrossFit and other affiliates.

The second thing that becomes apparent is how much stronger they look, and are. Only a hand full people could do a pull up prior to getting our new place. Now we have complete classes that do WODs unmodified. There no limitations for how I can train my clients. I recently, four months ago, added video to our site and even more happened. (By the way, I got this idea from looking at CrossFit Vancouver’s site and figured out how Patty did it.) People are not only watching what they are doing and correcting form, they are talking about it, sending it their friends and generally, getting closer to our clients. They also know the time and dedication it takes to shoot, edit, and produce a video for nearly every class. If also demonstrates my commitment to my client. When I post something, I mean it and can prove it.

I said traditional marketing attracts the wrong folks. Who are the right folks? People who are intelligent enough to find something on the internet, recognize bullshit when they see it. It is someone just like you. The training we provide is hard, very hard. The traditional, “I want to look good naked, South Beach, elliptical cardio junkies” will not survive. It is okay. I don’t want everyone as a client. The person who has the character to do more, go the extra mile and truly want to be fit, and as a byproduct get the appearance boost is who I want. That is in a nutshell my client base. Look at the pictures. They are 30-60 years old, professional, 60% women, 40% men (estimate only) and have tried EVERYTHING in fitness and found a home with us.  They usually have membership they can’t get out of which they complain about since they never go there anymore.

Why Guerrilla Fitness? The American Revolution was fought and won in large part by guerilla tactics. Hit and run, non conventional warfare. Imagine the audacity to hide behind a wall and shoot rather that stand in an open field? We were the little guys trying to get out from the repression of the man. Our forefather threw convention to the wind and defeated the greatest power on earth at the time. (I know there is a lot more to it than that but you get my point) Plus I didn’t want to use the more recent uses of tactic as an example in my writing. Changing the way business is traditionally done, exploiting systematic weaknesses and challenging all assumptions are the ways of the guerilla. My place is within a two mile radius of my business, is a Bally, Gold’s (Brand New and very nice and the owner is actually pretty cool), an athletic club, a brand new YMCA and two county recreation centers as well as a bevy of training, Pilates and yoga studios. Is it too much competition? Absolutely not! If I had my way, I would put a facility in the parking lot of every Bally around the county. I believe the average CrossFitter revels in competition and has a strong desire to win and be the best. Why else would we die for points?  Globo gym doesn’t know it, by the war is on. The more dissatisfied under appreciated clients globo gym produces, the better our business will be.

You will find, and I will try and give credit for the source of the ideas I use to run my business. There are very few ideas that are truly self spawned. It is hard to site so many people and ideas I have received. For instance, Bill Henniger for CrossFit Toledo and Columbus told me about Dragon Door Kettlebells on ebay.com. I forgot he told me, and started telling him about the idea he gave me. He still bought lunch and couldn’t take the sushi quantity Needless to say, memory only goes so far.

Agree, disagree, send money (right) or ignore what goes not here. It is okay. If you don’t like it, don’t complain, it won’t be heard. Go away if you don’t like what I say, no one if forcing you to come here. If you get a chuckle and maybe an idea or two, then cool. If it is a dumb rant, navigate away.

My next post will be “I learned everything I needed to know about business I learned in 1976…on my paper route and the Crucible of Truth.” Like the Harry Potter parody?

Garage Gym

You are approaching your time when to leave globo gym. You would like to begin setting up your own training space. There are many options, Crossfit.com has it's unique perspective on establishing a gym. CrossFit Garage Gym

This represents one method of training.

The underlying factor for success in this approach is to mimimize equipment cost and keep overhead to a minimum.

Guerrilla Fitness

This is the first post of Guerrilla Fitness. The goal is to provide alternative to the traditional training ususually found in gyms. The task is to provide legitimate fitness, not simply the appearance based fitness that is found at globo gym.