If I asked you to be really honest with yourself right now could you?
Is your day to day activity focused around purpose or finance?
Maybe this sounds like a weird question.
Maybe you answered it quickly in your mind, but are you sure? Are you truly being 100% honest with yourself?
If I’m being honest with you I can say throughout my professional life there’s been many times when I looked really deep I was pretty conflicted about this.
Which I see now isn’t at all that uncommon for anyone who comes from a background of struggle.
If you grew up without money then when money flows in it’s very easy to become temporarily consumed by finance, to do what brings in more money faster.
But what started this cascade may or may not have been your true purpose, it may have been necessity.
In the last week and a half I’ve had no short of 7 former clients, friends and colleagues message me saying they’ve been feeling as though they have lost their passion, they’ve become disinterested in their work or their business.
Nearly all of them had one thing in common, they’d given up their fitness businesses through the course of the pandemic. A couple to shift online, others to have jumped to something entirely different, and one that still has their fitness studio.
One of my favourite authors, Daniel Pink, writes in his book Drive (which you should read before you hire anyone) states, “money is a factor until it isn’t.”
Simply stated we all need a certain amount of money to satisfy our stress survival instinct.
This amount is different for everyone, it can range from the basic amount to attain a sustainable basic lifestyle or it can range to the high value deluxe lifestyle you always thought you wanted.
Either way once this amount is satisfied a subconscious psychological shift occurs.
For employees (and some of us alike) a sense of complacency kicks in, we stop striving, there’s no longer that fight or flight instinct to do so, and as such quality of product, service, work ethic, etc declines.
The second thing that happens is you may either “lose your passion” AKA you weren’t in touch with your true purpose in the first place or you charge ahead to continued and sustained growth (that is until the next “money is a factor until it isn’t” threshold is reached.)
Steve Jobs said, “I always knew when there were too many days in a row that I didn’t enjoy what I was doing that change was necessary.”
Stress, Frustration and Success all have something in common, they all can make it apparent that we may be disconnected from our purpose.
I really seen this in recent years in our industry when a certain promotional offer became all the rage, (I won’t name names, but I am sure you can figure it out, because I actually have total respect for the person that created it), it was genius, it created huge lead and cash surges…but it frustrated consumers and worse it disconnected many business owners from their true purpose.
Many wouldn’t see it because the money kept flowing.
That’s because there’s a lag.
The purpose and struggle that started the process got the rock rolling, and it was fun, but then it became more about the money than the results, the product slipped or failed to deliver. (Compounded by the very effective yet not entirely transparent marketing language.)
Still the money flowed in fast…until it stopped.
And when it did many found themselves in freefall, with no safety net.
For every action there is any equal but opposite reaction, easy come easy go.
More recently the pandemic exacerbated this environment…especially for our industry.
If you left your studio behind you might be finding yourself unhappy.
If you still have your studio you might be finding yourself uncertain.
I can say without fail that some of my highest earning years I was very disconnected from my purpose, wealthier and unhappier.
This last year and a bit has been hard on everyone, radical shifts have happened really fast which created many radical decisions. Sometimes both emotional and irrational.
So many small businesses were destroyed, our industry was hit so hard, and the worst I think is so many heroes, people like yourself whose true purpose is to enrich others have been pushed away, or are jaded and uncertain about what will happen next.
Becoming a father had this effect on me, I am now more self-aware than ever about my own sense of purpose and when my actions have strayed from my purpose.
Maybe this is my way of offering fatherly advice to you, that if you’ve found yourself unhappy, uncertain or unsure of how you feel about your current career situation it’s time to sit down and really get in touch with and identify your purpose.
If your sense of purpose is far from or misaligned with your current day to day career activity then you need to make some decisions about how to shift that (often easier said than done.)
But if there’s one thing that’s for certain…
If the finance is not aligned with your purpose it’s not worth continuing to pursue.
Sure for the short term you may need to out of necessity but I can tell you without fail any time you become too disconnected from your purpose the finance will have a ceiling (and usually a significant decline thereafter.)
And when you are aligned with your true purpose the finance will flow freely (and matter less ironically) and continue to grow until you reach the next threshold where you must again decide, am I aligned with my true purpose?
If you’ve read this far and you left your studio and feeling very underwhelmed in your current career choice, maybe it’s time to revisit that. It’s clear that the barrier to entry of starting a new business is now currently lower than any time I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Over this coming “peak season” (September to May) I see massive demand incoming…that is as long as the headlines aren’t overwhelmed by more fear mongering.
If you’ve jumped online and are or aren’t having some success you may find yourself questioning. The relationships aren’t the same, for many it doesn’t satisfy what your brick and mortar community did.
Or you may be realizing that being a ripple amongst the waves of the likes of Peleton, Mirror, Apple Fitness, Noom and every other corporate fitness brand is a scary place to be, it requires a different skill set entirely.
Or maybe you still have your studio, you’ve held on, but you’re exhausted from navigating an unprecedented climate and finding it hard to know where to apply your focus and if you’re still on the right path. To you I would say you made it this far, it’s time to reflect back to business year 1, why did you do what you did then and do you still feel that way deep down underneath all the unprecedented and unfair stress?
Or maybe none of this applies to you…that in the midst of so much change you’ve just found yourself in a place where you are not certain what your purpose is. (Weirdly this is where I found myself before my first son was born, that drastic and unexpected change to life really made me begin to question everything and ask the big question of what do I really want?)
Age is wonderful thing in the wisdom it provides, and I’m still convinced the fitness industry is the best industry in the world, if it weren’t for my young sons and my deep desire to flexible and present for them I would be re-opening a studio this fall.
I see massive demand for small scale private (very small group or one-on-one) training. I miss the small close knit community bubble we created.
But alas my purpose has grown from that which our studios instilled, I’m as determined as ever to enrich lives but only in ways that allows me to first be present for my boys always.
I do this now in 2 ways:
By creating, sourcing and distributing chemical free products for families, the very reason my boys exist.
Using the wisdom of my experience to help business owners use data and systems to create strategic decision making, and create rock solid sustainability no matter the world circumstances.
Just writing that brings a smile to my face, but this is about you, so what is your purpose?
Thanks for sharing this time, I hope it leaves you thinking, if so mission accomplished.
You know it’s been more than 20 years now that I have been “self-employed.”
A lot has changed, for instance when I first started there was no Facebook or Twitter, in fact it was amazing if as a small company or solopreneur you had any kind of a functional website.
I had no idea what I was doing, so I did like everyone else, I put up posters in the gym, I printed brochures and business cards.
And I had no customers, in fact over the first few years I’d bounce between jobs trying to make ends meet in hopes that sometimes I could take up personal training full time.
I didn’t know anything about email marketing, I guess that existed back then but it wasn’t something I knew about.
But somehow, I still stumbled upon the importance of content.
Soon my brochures became articles that I’d leave at coffee shops, etc.
From there someone put it in my head to reach out to the paper and see if they’d give me a column, I did so relentlessly until they finally said yes.
That lead to a couple random contacts from people asking if I’d come present to small groups in their offices, which low and behold lead to customers.
From there I began to try to speak more, and over time my website became more and more cluttered with articles and resources I developed and posted for people.
Kind of by accident for a long time in my city of then 70,000+ people I was “the fitness guy” if you wanted to get in shape or learn how to you sought me out.
As time has went on this hasn’t changed, except that it’s easier to reach more people faster and harder to keep up.
In fact it’s almost too easy to reach people now, so easy that we are inundated with more content than ever before.
And there are more places to post and deliver your message than ever before (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Email, Website, etc.)
Just thinking about it is exhausting and a daunting task, and I’ll be the first to admit I find it easy to burn out.
And with that has come some hard lessons.
Content truly is king, when you lose your focus, burnout or become inconsistent with your content your business will suffer, whether that’s a little or a lot only you will know but it happens…without fail.
Truly that should be obvious, I mean there’s just so much now, so many businesses, services like yours, people doing basically what you’re doing.
It becomes harder and harder to differentiate yourself except that only you can be you, and people want to buy “you,” I want to buy you.
What you have to say is important, what you have to give is golden.
Only first, define who is the ideal person for your message. Know their age, what they like, the clothes they wear, the places the hang out, the things they like to do, the products they buy and more.
Craft an image of that person that you can “speak to” every time you step in front of a camera, add text to a page or through whatever means of deliver.
My challenge to you is from today forward try to post something every single day, but don’t get spread to thin trying to service all the mediums.
Focus on your blog (which also goes to your email list), your Instagram account (which also goes to your Facebook page) and if you have a private group for your clients that rounds out the third.
If you can commit to this every day, even 2 posts a week in each of those places (take Sunday’s off or give one channel bonus attention) in time will have a significant impact.
Total truth, I find generating new content very tough to do each day, and I prefer to write which seems to take the most time for me, but what I see from my mentors is like anything else this is a muscle, work it out and it will get stronger.
In time try to increase your frequency to each channel once per day, I can do it, you can do it.
Here’s some tips and tools I use to help you get started:
Spend 30 minutes brainstorming topics you could talk about confidently with no preparation for 10 minutes. Set a goal for 10, trust me you will easily come up with 20. Use this list each day you’re stuck for an idea what to write on/talk about, even using the same ideas over you’ll share new things.
A great little app I’ve found I like for generating Memes for blog post images and social media posts is called “Typorama.”
For Instagram I always use the “Hashtagger” app for my hashtags posted in the first comment and have had good success with this.
Finally remember, and this is the tough one for me, your content doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be you, authentic and come from the heart. If you really find yourself stuck for a day, take the day off instead take those 30 minutes to go read your current professional development read I find this helps me get back to creativity sooner.
Oh and maybe one last weird suggestion that truly does help me, I’ve fallen in love with a supplement from Perfect Sports called Onset, a blend of Agmatine Sulfate and NAC etc that helps with focus, I find it has a tremendous impact for me when it comes to creative tasks.
Below is a weekly email I sent to my team to explain the idea of reverse engineering any goal, I thought you might find value in it’s application personally or even to your team so I thought I’d repost for you here!
Enjoy!
Do you use reverse engineering in your life?
If not you should, and it’s a great concept to understand and be able to teach friends, family and especially our clients.
Reverse engineering is just as Stephen Covey (author of the 7 Habits books) would put it, “beginning with the end in mind.”
Most commonly people might think of this in terms of money or finances, and certainly in my crazy entrepreneurial world it’s a way I use reverse engineering frequently; but it’s so much more than that.
It can and should be used for any goal.
Why?
Simple, what’s the only thing that stops us from reaching any goal? (Finances, fitness, personal, any goal.)
FEAR.
Yup that’s it. We can be too intimidated to start, too stressed out about the work or how hard it will be, or fearful because we fail one or more times along the way (or have previously failed in our attempts to reach the goal.)
Reverse engineering helps absolve fear by shoring up another thing I’m a big fan of talking about with you and hour clients; and that’s confidence.
You know what I’m talking about, that when the step or next task is so small or easy that we’re not afraid motivation or action comes easy because well it appears easy.
Now what feels easy to you may not to me and vice versa, which is where reverse engineering comes in.
Step 1: What’s the big outcome you want? (ex. Buy a new car/lose 30 lbs)
Step 2: What time frame do you want this to happen in? (ex. 6 months/12 weeks)
Step 3: Break down to next increment. (ex. each month I need to earn an additional $500/each week I need to lose 2.5lbs)
Step 4: Break it down to next smaller increment until it feels easy.
Ex.
I need to earn and additional $125/week, I work an average of 30 hours so I’d need to earn about $4.25 an hour more or increase my working hours by 5-8 / I need to lose only 0.35lbs/day)
Does it feel small enough to you yet, if not break it down further or begin creating a plan.
Ex.
Earnings
Could I talk to my teammates and offer to take some extra shifts?
Do I have a skill or hobby that I’m good at and could pick up a freelance project on the side?
What could I do to add enough value to increase my earnings by an additional $4.25 an hour?
Every testimonial/before and after we publish helps increase our reputation, every new Google/Facebook review we get helps someone on the fence make a decision, every new person that has a great workout has a chance to sign up, every new person you get to come workout the first time has a 50/50 chance of deciding to stay.
Every person you talk to about staying longer has a better than 50% chance of deciding to stay. Have a look at the “Levels in your job description” for ideas on how you can quickly achieve this. Could I speak to 3 people per day about continuing and basically “1-2” memberships per week? Or find 1-2 new people per week to try a workout by asking daily on my personal social media? Does that seem easy and sustainable?
(Now boys and girls, full transparency, I mention this because I want you to choose this one, as selfishly it’s the one that can help me the most, but there’s also a bigger reason. This is the one where if we all work together the results/potential are limitless so selfishly it should appeal to you too!)
Could I learn about something new and start building a passive or additional income?
Last year I became curious about Amazon, in September I sold $184 on Amazon all things I bought in clearance bins with less than $100 of starting capital, in October that was $1994 with a profit of $330, last month we sold nearly $40,000 on Amazon! Now I wish I could say you could grow like that with $100 to invest but that isn’t true. But my point is that anyone could easily generate $300-500/month on Amazon with 5-10 hours/month worth of effort and I will even teach you how.)
Could you dedicate 1 hour/day Monday-Friday to learn about how to sell on Amazon and another 3-4 hours/week to go and shop for things to sell? Does that seem easy and sustainable?
Fitness
0.35lbs of fat = 1430 calories of energy.
30 minutes of boot camp = approx. 400 calories
Reducing daily calorie consumption by 10% = approx. 180 calories
Reducing starchy carbohydrates and replacing with fibrous to increase energy utilization during digestion = approx. 150 calories
To me this is about the maximum that seems “easy” and might be overwhelming already for many, so we must re-evaluate the goal, if it took 16-18 weeks to lose 30lbs would you still be satisfied? Does the above seem simple? Only works if you can answer yes to both!
Anyways, that’s my attempt to teach you the power of reverse engineering, it can work for anything like: setting dedicated working hours or working less, like improving your relationships with others, like accomplishing any big milestone in your financial life, and even spirituality or emotional growth.
Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!
We all know by now if you’re going to own your own business and be an entrepreneur chaos is nothing new.
In fact we must always work to embrace the chaos as the only time to worry is when chaos is enveloped by calm.
When all is “calm” that’s a clear indication you’re not pushing, reaching, stretching or evolving fast enough as a company or team and will be the time you’re entrepreneurship is at real risk.
So this week’s topic is “Chaos Management.”
How do we handle and embrace chaos so that we don’t become overly stressed or burnt out?
Let me share with you the concept of the 3C’s of Chaos Management.
If you’re striving and pushing as hard as you can life will always be chaotic.
Chaos attempts to break us, burn us out, or leave us paralyzed due to stress, this is the paradox of achievement.
In order to reach a new level of success or achievement we must face and avoid, or overcome burnout, mitigate stress, and still find time for joy and happiness in the midst of continually urgent demands.
Now success can be many things: helping more people become the best versions of themselves, finding more time to do things you love, establish more and more meaningful relationships and so on.
No matter how you define success to reach a higher level of success we must increase our level of output or expenditure to that activity. Make sense? (ex. Even reducing stress requires greater output; just the output might be different such as allocating more time for meditation and reflection.)
So what are the 3C’s of Chaos Management?
First is Control.
With all the demands upon us inevitably some of that burden is within your “wheelhouse” the things that seem easier than the rest.
Usually we focus on these things first, they bother us less because we’re comfortable with what we’re facing, control is the easy part (but still make it a habit to deal with these items first because they increase confidence which will help with the remaining 2Cs.)
Next is Change.
What skills can you learn this week? How can you become more competent in what you already know? What things are you doing that you can do better at? What systems do we have that you see we could make more efficient? Is there a better way of doing something?
The real mark of embracing change is to take ownership and lead from the front; but as leaders we must really strive for our team to act in the same way.
We want them to feel comfortable and confident to vocalize ideas for improvements, ask for permission or take action to make improvements and then share their successes with their direct reports and team members.
Make it a safe place to fail and affirm that the only real failure is to fail to act or tray. (In our organization the only caveats being if there is a risk of someone getting hurt or a significant financial risk you must clear it with your direct report first.)
This is one of the purposes of the frequent reviews in an effort to increase collaboration and support change as a whole.
Finally is Cope with what you can’t Control or Change.
Like I said above the paradox of success is we must embrace the chaos that comes with stretching in any area but with that there will always be things that there’s nothing you can do about right now.
Do your best to embrace, accept and move on, not everything will work, it’s certainly not going to be easy, you will let people or yourself down from time to time.
In the end coping is a part of striving and it’s just a matter of asking yourself these two questions for all important affirmation:
Did I/Have I done the best I possibly could?
Has my positive impact/feedback outweighed that which I can’t control/negative feedback?
Remember without chaos you are at risk for extinction.
Don’t dread being busy, the unknown or the stress of responsibility for if you do you’re in dreadful danger of adding to the statistic of entrepreneurial failure!
You’ve got this!
P.S. The image in the meme above is one of my own taken on a trip to Iceland last February at an amazing place called “Diamond Beach” I highly recommend checking it out if you ever get a chance!
This weekend I got to explore my creative side in the Canadian Rockies. To me Banff National Park is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Jon was an amazing still model for this sunrise long exposure in Banff National Park.
My wife was so kind to book me this four-day photo excursion with three amazing and well-known landscape and wildlife photographers. I knew I was going to experience the perfect stress relief before our new baby arrives in December (and after opening a new boot camp location just 3 weeks ago with the next set to open in 2 more weeks from today;) but what I didn’t expect was interesting validation to the entrepreneurial concepts that I teach so many of you.
In Saturday night’s fireside chat I was shocked to hear that so many of the 29 other participants had many questions about the business of photography and what these three individuals did that allowed them to attain a high level of success in their beloved field.
I think you will find the key takeaways both familiar and highly applicable to your fitness business so I wanted to share.
1) Services comprise the largest portion of their earnings.
This was and wasn’t a shock to me. In my own aspirations as a hobbyist fine art photographer I’ve been very focused on working through how to achieve greater distribution of my art through prints. In the fitness business I’ve seen so many people try to focus on selling products at the expense of energy that could be applied to ramping up the value of their service. The bottom line is; when you are good at something people want to buy YOU, they want to live vicariously through you; they want to learn from you. This is your greatest commodity, don’t undervalue it and be sure to embrace it.
2) Fear will hold you back in the beginning (and then in the middle, and then again later and throughout.)
This was such an amazing validation and affirmation of one of life’s greatest career lessons. When you start anything, the thing that will hold you back the most is your own fear. Don’t be afraid to just put it out to the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s art, boot camp or personal training services, the point is some people may not like it and that’s just ok because there will be enough that will; as long as you have the courage to keep sharing it.
3) Consistency
Decide on a schedule and commit to it! In this case they were discussing the importance of nurturing your audience both on and offline with consistent content. People fall into patterns, consistency creates expectation, and expectation creates reciprocity and opportunity. Their suggestion for photography was to decide on a schedule you can commit to, maybe that’s just once a week to release an image that you feel reflects the best of your current ability and then commit to that.
This advice is directly transferable to your fitness training business (or likely almost any business.) We are in a content driven world, people consume more content faster than ever, and more and more people are producing great content. In order to be heard amidst the noise you need to solidify your voice. Don’t worry if you don’t immediately have a large subscriber base just continue to be consistent. Make sure your voice and opinions are consistent (take the time to prepare your best work, without delaying for perfection,) continue to convey a similar message and give people an opportunity to connect and feel something which leads me to the next point.
4) It doesn’t work without passion and drive.
I’m sorry but if you don’t care more about “what” or “why” you are doing something then “how much” you’ll make from it you’ll never experience what it’s like to be the most successful at anything.
You have to be in touch with your why; everything you do relating to your business (or your hobbies for the matter) should be intentional. It should create deep emotional connection and leave you with a greater sense of fulfillment. We all need money to be able to buy freedom to do more of what we want, but why not do what you want to make the money you need?
If you question your passion from time to time that’s normal (see #2) and it’s in those moments that you are often about take your greatest steps; my advice to you is when that happens sit down for 15 minutes and write out your “why” in a notebook and then attack the problem that has made you afraid. (For me this is actually a daily activity, the first 10 minutes of every day.)
What an amazing night celebrating 11 years and last anniversary as a family of two!
5) Commitment and success out of necessity.
If you truly love something, if you truly want to be successful there’s no greater truth than: a part time commitment will generate part time results.
I think the best example of this is network marketing. The 99% become enamoured with the 1% that make 99% of the money. They buy in to the idea that they can “do it one the side.” The never acknowledge that doing it on the side means they just fit it in when they feel like and as such never really overcome their fears. Never doing anything with consistent effort and activity, and as such become more fearful and frustrated as to why their results are not as good as others.
At some point, if this is your passion, you have to “burn the ships” and make success a necessity. When your only option is to succeed you will always rise to the occasion and find a way, and this is truly the lesson that earns you a masters degree in entrepreneurship. Don’t take haphazard chances, do your due diligence but then commit fully and make success your only option.
Over more than 22 years in fitness these lessons have become guiding principles for me.
Sure there are all kinds of technical things to learn but without the above I can tell you they just don’t matter.
It was truly heart warming to see these rules apply in the business of photography as well; in fact I bet they are somewhat universal truths.
If I might add just one more before I wrap up.
Do what you love but make time to love new things.
I love being an entrepreneur, I care more about helping people than making money, but not all days are rosy. Many have required more work, frustration and suffering than I would ever have liked, and the balance comes in being able to step away from it for a time.
Moving locations on a snowy hillside near Peyto Lake
Photography has become one of those outlets for me, my guiding principles are still they same, but the medium is different. I can apply my same focus to helping people by creating something of beauty, allowing them to see the world in a way they’d otherwise miss, giving them an opportunity to feel something and tell a story, and the best part is my entrepreneurship has given me the freedom to explore and separate myself from the fears, frustrations and challenges that I know we all feel. Enrich your life, pour your heart into your business but when you can, save a little bit for something else, you won’t be disappointed.
Oh and if you ever want to take an amazing photo workshop be sure to check these guys out:
November 2014 I was honoured with the opportunity to speak at the local TEDx event. I was super excited to share this short equation which has been a big part of my life for more than 20 years (though I didn’t realize that until just a couple years ago.)
You see I kind of always had this philosophy with my training clients who always said they, “struggled to stay motivated.”
Imagine that, difficulty staying motivated dieting and working out?
I learned early in my career that my training success with clients was only partially (and the smaller part) due to my training and nutrition knowledge, my ability to “motivate” them was the true difference maker.
Years later as I grew as a trainer and ultimately became a fitness entrepreneur my reputation for some consistent success in the industry lead me to new clients, eager fitness professionals struggling to figure out how to connect with their clients.
So my equation was born, though it was just simply “EAS.”
This short acronym has since helped many fitness professionals use natural conversation strategies to create deeper connections with their clients, ultimately allowing them to help many more people.
As I explained it to many more people I began to realize that I had used this same strategy in my own life for many many years, and in fact I had begun to apply this principle to many relationships.
With this realization I became more aware, and that awareness has only made it more effective.
We’re human we can’t help they way we think, and our behaviours are in many ways pre-programmed, to understand the methodology of your own behaviour is empowering.
I just want you and all the people you care about to live the best life they can, whether that’s because the finally conquered the battle of the bulge or because the achieved all of their dreams.
If you are openminded to consider I know i=EAS can help you!
Please I’d love to hear your comments or experiences as a result of applying i=EAS.
was pretty conflicted about this.
We all know by now if you’re going to own your own business and be an entrepreneur chaos is nothing new.
