Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind Workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is coming to a close on 5/15, so act quickly if you want to take advantage!
For more details (including itinerary and registration) goHERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
We’ll be taking a deep dive into assessment, PRI, program design, and coaching up common strength movements such as squats, deadlifts, and shoulder friendly light saber tactics.
What’s more, the event will be taking place at the brand spankin new Third Space location in the city (HERE). This event is breaking the place in before it actually opens to the public.
If you’re a personal trainer, coach, or just someone who likes to nerd out on scapular upward rotation, Zones of Apposition, and/or how to deadlift a castle you won’t want to miss this.
A few spots are still available…..go HERE for more info.
4) Tully
My movie watching prowess has taken a steady nose dive in the past year for obvious reasons.
I miss it.
Excited to head to my snobby, local, independent theater tonight to go see this latest one from director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody.
As someone who also uses profanity in my prose – and who often receives backlash from people who live PG lives – I appreciated this piece by Erica Suter.
He has built and runs the most successful gym in Maine which generates over seven-figures and provides full health benefits and 401k’s for all his employees. In addition he also dabbles in real estate, writing, and does a ton of charity work.
I think it’s fantastic more and more women are seeing (and reaping) the benefits of traditional strength training. But much like we’d chastise dudes for always training their pecs or biceps, the same can be said for the bulk of women who feel training their glutes and only their glutes is the key to a desirable derriere.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
I wish there was a way to bottle up patience & consistency. Those are the two “supplements” most people need the most of.
It must be “gym ownership week” on TG.com this week.
Yesterday’s post on the effect social media has on the perception of gym ownership – everything is seen through rose colored glasses – was a huge hit.
Today I have guest post by another gym owner, Doug Spurling of Spurling Fitness located in Kennebunk, ME, discussing how to best build a team to help your business thrive.
Doug’s done an amazing job building a successful fitness business and he’s someone I respect a ton. Read what he has to say. He’s smart.
NOTE: Next month I’ll speaking alongside Doug (along with his staff, and my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis) at the Spurling Spring Seminar. It’s going to be a great event and tonight (3/14) at midnight is your last chance to take advantage of the early bird registration of $50 off.
Getting good at marketing, financial statement analysis, strategic planning, holding good meetings, putting out fires, and that you’ll never be able to actually shut it “off.
I’m sure the list could go on and on, but today I want to focus on one particular aspect that I don’t think we spend enough time on as an industry.
HUMAN RESOURCES.
More leads, more clients, and more growth usually means….
More team members.
They are our biggest asset, but can also be our biggest headaches if you don’t know how to lead them.
We thought we got into this business to train people, change some lives, and do it all hanging out in comfy gym clothes.
Now I’m telling you if you want long-term success you need to get really good at human resources.
Today I spend the majority of my time on human resources, team development, holding meetings, and making sure our margins are strong as I run a payroll that exceeds a half a million dollars a year.
I love it, but it’s not what I expected as a gym owner.
I now have seven families I am responsible for, only one of which is mine.
With six full-time team members, that means six people that look up to me, six people that count on me running a successful business so they can get a paycheck next week, six people who live their life mission through my business, and six people who support their families with my business.
That’s a big responsibility when we think about it.
That being said, I’ve made some major mistakes as a leader, but I also feel that I have one of the strongest teams around.
Here are six lessons I’ve learned so far…
1. Hire for Personality, Train for Skill
I want driven, hard-working, value-focused people, I don’t really care if you can coach a squat.
I can’t train a smile, I can train you how to coach a squat.
We aim to hire people that fit our core values, and then have a strong onboarding system that teaches them the technical stuff like how to coach.
2. Have Clear Systems
We have a master folder called “The Spurling Way.”
Every process in our business is documented under that folder.
There’s no questioning how to do things.
We get feedback when we create a new process, but once it’s put into this folder the team has agreed that this is the way we do things.
We don’t want people that want to do it “their way.”
Follow the system.
Run the play.
3. Hold Good Meetings
I think good meetings are totally underutilized.
Every day we have a meeting.
It starts each day with a daily huddle-a quick 5-minute accountability meeting about what each team member is doing that day and what that needs help with.
We have a leadership meeting every Monday, a coaches meeting every Tuesday, individual meetings every Wednesday, and a team meeting every Thursday.
Now, notice above I said, “good meetings are underutilized.”
Read a book like “Death by Meeting” and learn how to hold good meetings.
They can be some of the most productive hours of the week, or if done wrong, they can be the biggest waste of time.
4. Balance Multiple Personalities
We can’t have a universal leadership approach.
Each team member is different.
How you talk to one team member is different than how you talk to another.
One may be motivated by public praise, one may want a small note left on their desk.
We use things like the DISC profiles and the 5 Languages of Appreciation to understand how each of us functions and how each of us gives and receives appreciation.
As your team continues to grow the possible communication flaws, the potential drama, and headaches can quickly multiply if you don’t stay on top of it.
Understanding each team member, what they value, how they tick, treating them as an individual, and not have a universal leadership approach is key.
5. Communication Is Key
Communication is not what’s said, but what is understood.
Nothing drives us crazier than when we tell someone something and they don’t do it or don’t follow through with it the way you wanted it to be done.
Or you tell Coach A how to do something, they nod their head, and then don’t go it the way you taught them.
Or you come in and hear the Coach A hates Coach B but isn’t doing anything about it.
Or Coach A is annoyed because they feel they’re working so much harder than Coach B.
Or Coach A is complaining about something but then isn’t doing anything about it.
I’m sure you can think of a million scenarios that cause you to pull your hair out as the leader.
However, as the leader, you have to take extreme ownership (good book, btw), and take charge of the situation.
Quite often if you hire good people (see number one), most situations come down to poor communication and/or assumptions.
Someone makes an assumption that someone else took care of it.
Someone makes an assumption that the person understood what they just told them.
We need to over-communicate with our team, never make assumptions, and make sure that we understand each personality (see number four) and how they like to receive communication.
6. Treat Them the Way You’d Want To Be Treated
Seriously.
Seems like common sense, but as they say, sometimes common sense is not so common.
I get a lot of questions on why I have an all full-time staff, all salaried, all fully benefited, have unlimited time off, and they all work a “normal” 40ish hour work week.
It’s the culture I’m trying to build.
I don’t want people that want to train “their clients.”
I don’t want people that are just here for a paycheck.
I want people that are going to devote their lives to our mission.
I want people that are here for more than just a job.
In order to do that, I need to treat them really well.
That means a good salary, a good schedule, good benefits, constant leadership, constant appreciation, and a constant pitch of why we’re doing this.
Is it easy?
No.
Most months I shed a few tears when the payroll gets withdrawn.
It’s my biggest expense, but I also know it’s my biggest ROI.
The most common message we get from client always comes back to something along the lines of…
“You have the most cohesive team I’ve ever met. You can tell they are here for the right reasons.”
It all comes back to driving the mission, communicating clearly, leading them, and treating them the way you want to be treated.
We all got into this business to change lives, and depending on what kind of impact you want to make, if you want to change the lives of hundreds of people, you’re going to need a team to support you in your mission.
Hope this helps.
Want More?
Next month Doug will be hosting the Spurling Spring Seminar in Kennebunk, ME alongside myself, my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, and the entire Spurling Fitness staff.
There aren’t many events outside Boston that cater to the fitness community, so this will be an awesome opportunity for any personal trainers, strength coaches, gym owners, or anyone interested in assessment, program design, business, and mindset skills to enjoy a day of learning.
I’ve been laying low on the writing front lately recovering from last week’s launch, and realized I never took the time to say those two words.
Thank you to everyone who purchased the Complete Shoulder and Hip Blueprint last week. It was a surreal experience on my end to have so many people lend their support and say such kind things about the resource.
As first product launches go I’d say it was a splendid success. I’d rank it somewhere between Miracle Mop and iPhone territory. Give or take a few dozen million units sold.
I may write something about my experience with the whole shebang down the road. I’ll discuss things like why I waited so long, why I chose this particular product, how Dean and I went about setting everything up for the launch, things I learned, mistakes I made, and whether or not I drank enough caffeine to kill a T-rex.1
Would that be something people would be interested in checking out and reading?
PS: psst, if you missed the party you can go HERE.
Stuff to Check Out Before You Read Stuff
1) No big deal…A Tribe Called Quest released their first album in 18 years today.
I was a junior in college the last time they released an album. Well, shit.
I grew up listening to 90s rap (and Tribe in particular) and remember the first time I listened to The Low End Theory…which I still feel is the best hip-hop album of all time and is still in heavy rotation for me. I can’t express how excited I am for this. I have a feeling that today’s squat sesh will be a good one.
2) I Am Not Afraid to Lift Retreat
Artemis Scantalides, Julia Ladewski, and my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis just announced this amazing event.
It’s designed by women for women.
If you’re a woman and interested in being surrounded by other like-minded women in learning anything and everything with regards to kettlebell training, the barbell lifts, nutrition, and mindset strategies…this event is going to be right up your alley.
If it’s any consolation I’ll be there too, but I’ll be on baby-watching duty. By the time this event happens Lisa and I will have a 4-month old, and I figure he and I can hit up the pool area or maybe head out to the Glute Lab and chill with Bret Contreras. My little guy has gotta learn about glutes sooner or later….;O)
3) Advanced Kettlebell Ballistic Workshop at CORE
Also, speaking of Artemis: she’ll also be hosting an Advanced KB Ballistic Workshop at my gym in Boston on Sunday, December 11th.
You can go HERE for more details and to sign-up (under EVENTS).
