Hi Friend!
20 Years ago I got permission from the Red Sox to miss a few days of work and fly home for the weekend from Ft. Myers, FL to Springfield, MA to graduate college. It felt like a doubly big deal to get permission to leave my internship and get to close a chapter of my life.
Now in honor of those 20 years here are the first 8 of 20 lessons I've learned as a professional that I thought I'd share with you.
1. Never Forget Anything. Chris Correnti, the Minor Lead Athletic Training Coordinator when I was with the Sox, told me to "never forget anything" when we went on road trips. You can't get any more clear than that. Guess what. I never forgot anything during our road trips. I wish I could say I don't forget things now, when I travel, but then my mom calls and tells me everything we forgot when we visited her, so I don't know how good the lesson was, but here's the take home point. If you make a thoughtful list in advance and follow it both before and after travel, you won't forget anything (at least on the list).
2. Plan the Night Before. Correnti practiced this lesson daily, but didn't directly teach it to me. He'd leave a note for himself on his desk at the end of the day with his to do's for tomorrow. Me being the hungry intern (attempting to be first to arrive and last to leave), noticed these daily notes on his desk and drew great inspiration as I watched him show up, glance at his list and start taking action.
3. Don't Be Bullied! Remember September 11? How could you not. Well on Sept 12, I was fired because I wouldn't sign a non-compete clause as my boss was joining the Fitness Together franchise. I could see his point of view then and now, but I wasn't going to be intimidated, even if I didn't have a plan B. When you stand up for yourself life usually works out for you if not immediately, certainly down the road.
4. Design Your Life On Purpose. As luck would have it, BSC opened up right next door and I got to work there. I decided during my interview that I wanted to work 8-4pm so I could get home at the same time as my friends. The interviewers didn't think I'd be successful because those weren't peak demand times, but I told them I was good and people would want to train with me (gosh, that was ballsy). I was right.
5. Help EVERYONE! When you start a new business, unless you bring in old business, you're starting from scratch. I didn't poach any of my old clients, because I figured they would find me eventually, so what do you do as a new trainer in a new club. You help everyone. I took that 8-4 schedule, blocked off an hour for lunch and scheduled every member that wanted help and trained them for free. Young, old, athlete, non-athlete, injured, fit, you name it. I helped them. This instantly made me stand out because I was busy and I became the go to person for everyone: members, peers, management & corporate. I quickly filled my schedule became the top trainer in West Newton and top 10 in Boston.
6. Never Get Sick. I learned this lesson as a youth because when you're sick you can't go to school, practice or games, play with your friends or do much of anything fun, so I've learned to live in a way that has minimal costs, especially to my immune system. When you're working on commission as trainers do, you absolutely can't be sick if you want to make a living. So, I don't get sick & miss work (maybe a handful of times in 20 years have I missed work because of being sick). I get sick a lot more often now that I'm a parent, so I do a lot less when I start to feel symptoms coming on and I shut things down. I don't care. I'm not missing work.
7. Track Data and Use It. BSC used to have all kinds of data on the trainers and they would share it with us. I loved this stuff and found it super motivating. I won most every contest they had and got lots of cool cash and gift prizes. My hands down favorite though was when they would share Boston and company wide stats with us (CT, NY, NJ, PA, DC, Switzerland).
Seeing your name on the top 40 list of 2000 trainers, seeing what kind of volume the top performers were putting up, getting invited to NYC for an awards dinner, getting a cash prize and travel expenses covered, getting to network with your peers and go out on the town with the VP's and their corporate cards was AWESOME and motivating. You need to know if you're moving forwards, standing still or moving backwards and to do that you need to record data, track it and use it.
8. Set Big Goals and Tell Everyone. After that first awards trip, I learned that I could be top 10 if I tried a little harder, so being young and bold, I wrote hand written letters to my fitness manager, general manager, district manager, area fitness manager, regional vice president as well as every person (most) on the corporate food chain that I met and that I didn't meet including the CEO, COO, etc... and told them who I was and that I was going to be the #1 trainer in the whole company next year. I didn't do it. I got #6 out of 2000, but I was the only one who worked a max of 35 hours a week. #1-5 worked all hours of the day, 7 days a week. Aim for the stars and be o.k. with the moon.
So that's it for now. Thursday I'll continue this list. Until then enjoy and reflect on what professional lessons you've learned the last 20 years.
Grateful for life lessons,
Coach Mike
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