14. Hit the Pavement. So I had my idea. And now I had to make it happen and I didn't know what to do. I was learning websites, social media marketing and SEO all before this was a thing as I was part of a start up tech company from (2003-2008), but I needed to be face to face with people and this scared the crap out of me. I did 2 charity workouts, the pumpkin workout and turkey workout, but only 2 people expressed interest in becoming members. I was feeling depressed and discouraged.
I called a business coach and he gave me a pep talk. My cousins girlfriend and future wife, designed me some flyers, and I posted them all around Newton. David at the Boys & Girls Club, shared some suggestions of local businesses I could knock on doors at. I wrote a script. Practiced it a bunch of times and then hit the road. I learned that I'm really good with people, especially if I smile and its very easy for me to talk about my craft, so much so that it gets people excited. I got 10 people to try us out and the rest is history.
15. Under Promise & Overdeliver. One thing I learned during that time was to talk less and do more. I had no relationship with the people I was meeting, so I had to prove it to them and win their business. I rode my breaks and thought before I spoke and instead of committing to something verbally, I'd surprise people and provide it. If I did commit to something I delivered it when I said I would if not earlier. Writing this makes me realize how much I've slipped on this one and it doesn't feel very good.
16. Bootstrap. Since I was launching a business and I didn't want to use my financial resources, everything had to be from a boot strapped mindset. Minimalist everything. Everything leveraged. So that's what I did. Members supplied the equipment. I used interval soundtracks to manage the clock. I used PayPal vs. signing up for a merchant account to provide credibility, confidence and a way to accept payment online. I chose to rent space by the hour vs. committing to a lease and the Boys & Girls Club, Newton Community Service Center and later the Mackenzie all agreed to give me a shot with low to no up front commitment to see if it would stick. If it did we'd both have a new revenue stream and at times the gyms weren't being used.
***Also and ironically, now 10.10 years later, the strength & conditioning industry is downsizing equipment to a more minimalist approach so they can upsize the amount of open space for movement. We've had this since the start!
This means (1) my clients have been ahead of the curve for over 10 years (kudos to them) and now all their friends who train at other places are seeing their gyms get rid of equipment to open up more space to run around and more gyms, studios and training facilities are popping up with open space and minimalist set ups as features for freedom of movement, better results and more fun. And (2) all the prospective members and people who didn't see the brilliance of bringing their own equipment or training on a giant, empty and open spaced basketball court missed out.
My coach said, I have to do a better job pulling back the curtain so you can see why I do what I do. This is another clear example that I have't done this well enough over the last 10 years. ***
17. Build systems. No business degree and desiring to deliver the service because I love it, I hit my first bottleneck peak in September 2009 with the launching of the 1st Change Your Body Challenge, Last Meal Kick Off Party and the activation of a (20) person donation package to Cabot School. I missed out on a lot of business because I didn't have systems and didn't deliver my best service. It took some months to get out of my own way, build some systems, set up a Customer Resource Management software, get a merchant account, create membership agreements, get an online registration form and hire my first administrative assistant (hi Susan).
My next bottle next was in May of 2012, I believe, when I was doing a charity boot camp almost every month, supplying gift certificates to every school and charity that asked and participated in different deal of the day programs (Globe Deals, Living Social, Spa Rah Rah and Yelp). Thank fully I had Helen helping, but the program had changed because we were adding stations vs. staying in place, doing team training. Stations mean you rotate from 1 station to the next, (in my program there are 4 stations), whereas team training I stand up front and demo the exercise and everyone does it at their mats until the bell rings to stop.
Anyways, I had my peak attendance of 33 or 34 people in 1 class, and I quickly realized that it was too much for station training by myself. Time to have columns and rows via cones to set order and reduce the size of a class to a maximum of 24 people (6 per station).
18. Build Relationships. I haven't been great at this with everyone, but the people I have been great with are still training today. I remember their name, their story and as much about them as I can. This is helpful when partnering & connecting people because you can match similar interests, professions, roots, stages, personalities and needs. I authentically care. I use the golden rule. Their birthdays, anniversaries & family members / emergency contacts are saved on my phone. I acknowledge their efforts and wins and support them through the good and challenging times.
Relationships are my #2 value in life and when it comes to business, relationships, the ability to make them and grow them is very important if you want to have long term clients and long term client value. Plus you can't get results, sustain results and change family trees if your clients don't like you, trust you and give you the chance to work with them long term.
Also I now do phone interviews with all prospective clients to get to know one another and establish a relationship foundation. Some people love it. Some people don't. The ones who want a coach who cares, awesome people to train with, accountability, air and a community, sign up. And Vanessa suggested I set up office hours so people can make appointments to address concerns that can't be addressed during workouts, so look out for that in 2020.
19. Recycle & Reuse. The first 6 years and 4 months, I used to write every program from scratch. I'd get a new legal pad every year and map out the entire year with the goals I wanted my clients to achieve and then I'd break those down into quarters and then phases. I'd list the common injuries for the sports that we'd be preparing for as well as the life and holiday events and seasons that were coming up. It'd take me 8-16 hours over most of the empowerment week and all night the day before a new phase to write a new program from scratch. Every program had to be the best program I ever wrote and they were. Ironically, now I look back at those programs and they weren't very good. The best program I've ever written is the one I wrote today. Tomorrow's program however will be better than todays, which makes yesterdays program not very good.
Now, I take last years program and update it. It's so simple and so much faster. I copy & paste. Change the dates and update all the latest things happening in the industry and in science and review my notes from last year and make those changes too. I do a little bit every work day and go to sleep early the day before a new phase.
Because I do this, we now have workout cards. There was a lot of resistance to workout cards when they were first introduced. Now most everyone either likes them or loves them.
Workout cards let you track results workout to workout. This provides instant feedback. The best program is the program that gets done. Keep it simple for you and for them.
20. Listen to Your Customers. The great Sydney Dean, from White Men Can't Jump, said "listen to the women" and every smart businessperson knows to "listen to your customers". My customers didn't love all the empowerment weeks. There were too many. 13 was too many and 3 weeks at the end of the year was too long, so after 10 years, because my daughter is in school and because my wife said it was o.k. to do it, I added back 6 weeks of training.
I still believe the old model works and has merit. I mean we did it for 10 years and have measurements' results to prove it works, but I can also see that now that we have workout cards, teaching weeks and station training vs. team training, it is equally easy to reduce overtraining and injury risk, my main reasons for empowerment weeks. Our 2019 training schedule feels much more like a strength & conditioning program than the metabolic group personal training it is because of the long stretches we have. We had 6, 7, 10 and now 16 weeks straight of training this year. The 10 weeks straight was a CYBBC PR until September's 16 weeks straight started. Holiday hotness here we come. We'll have had 4 more private measurements before the end of the year to track our progress and 8 weeks of guest days / teaching weeks, where we reduce the intensity and volume to let our bodies recover and our minds learn new things. We take every major holiday off, (like Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving & Black Friday), so that each month there was still a day of forced recovery. So far so good. We're 7 weeks in and building mmmmmmmomentum!
And that my friends are 20 professional lessons learned in 20 years as a pro.
I'd love to engage with you and read your feedback, so if something resonated with you, please reply.
If you know someone who'd love what we do and would be a great fit for CYBBC and/or you know someone who could benefit from a custom program and/or the support and accountability of private training please reply with an email introduction.
Getting better!
Coach Mike | 
