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?
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