Cabel

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been doing much writing, but it’s time, and what better time but Thanksgiving weekend.

A lot has transpired these last few month, new opportunities seen me take on the COO role of the Fit Body Franchise, a new home purchase in sunny Southern California, a lot of flying, and all kinds of new challenges and responsibilities.

It’s like over night I went from owning my two locations and coaching a few dozen other fitness pros to acquiring a few hundred new clients overnight.

It really puts in perspective the idea of “systems” and “working on the business.”

Fast forward I’ve now been away from my Red Deer location for nearly four months, and to this day I’ve still only been to my Edmonton location physically six times since we opened last March (and only twice while we were actually open for business.)

What many of you don’t know is in the last month and a half I’ve had a wholesale staff change at that location…while I was in a different country.

My Red Deer location has continued to perform on par without me, what an amazing feeling that is. My Edmonton location, well massive momentum is stalled for a moment as the team is rebuilt and stabilized but it wouldn’t have been that long ago that I think this recent experience (like it would for many young entrepreneurs) have caused me a nervous breakdown.

There’s two things that have really seen me through this transition, they’ve each provided valuable lessons and I’m convinced they will both be the top elements of future and yet to come much greater success.

Read on; give it some thought I wonder will you agree when you consider each in relation to your own business.

Did I mention that Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday? One that’s not fully consumerized, but about family and reflection of thanks.

It’s this first one that I am truly so thankful for.

TEAM

I now find myself part of 3 very dynamic teams. Two of the three communicate regularly and assist one another, the third is charged with the mission to shape this whole industry under the brand of Fit Body.

Being part of a team, and not being able to be in the trenches with them every day changes things. Further trying to develop a team that you haven’t spent any face-to-face time with is a really big challenge.

But how do you build an effective team? I’ve certainly learned a few do’s and don’ts.

Team Don’ts

Steer performance by making hard demands.

Don’t mistake as a leader who your first responsibility is to, your employees.

Make assumptions without hearing both sides first.

Let emotion lead to rash decisions that cause more harm than good.

Assume that everyone has the same vision or views your vision the same as you do.

Team Do’s

Have multiple lines of communication, the closer to how we communicate commonly the better.

Team Facebook groups can be highly productive, I suspect mass texts will work very well as well.

Ensure there are measureable means of performance and review and discuss them at regular intervals. (ex. Testimonials and completed assessments.)

Be sure to find ways to try spend time together on a non-work activities.

Foster growth by facilitating and encouraging opportunity to professional development (ie. Send them to learning opportunities and regularly set action plans.) This is a much for skills development as it is to reignite the inspiration of loving what you do.

Create as much flexibility and autonomy as possible.

Consider your team to be a family and treat them the same.

Be willing to give selflessly, but demand loyalty to one another at all costs.

Make time to spend with your team even if it requires travel, see them face-to-face and be present as often as you can. (Ideally at least once per week.)

And finally (which is the second thing) repeatedly ask “why?”

“It Begins with Why”

I was recently selected for something I consider an honour, to give an 18 minute speech to a small audience of a few hundred people at a locally organized TED event.

In my research and review of a few TED Talks considering just how my presentation might go I cam across a TEDx talk by Simon Sinek.

Here’s the link and I highly recommend you watch it.

This has become one of the most profound career points in every aspect of my business. I can look back and reflect that every single success I’ve had has always been when I pursued opportunity for no other reason than why it was important to me.

For example my personal training career actual began a few years before I ever made my first dollar personal training; truly it began when I began helping people at the local gym and I didn’t take their money because “It was stuff that I just thought everyone should know.”

When offered my latest position the negotiation didn’t start with discussion of compensation, it began with discussing the role and it’s responsibilities because I wanted to know if it matched up to my why. I wanted to know that if I took the role could I steer the business in the way I wished for what I believe will best help more people than I could have ever helped before, not much else really mattered to be honest.

We now make a point to begin our team meetings with questions surrounding “why.”

Why do we exist?

Why are we doing what we are doing?

Why do “you” want to be a part of this?

Why is it important we succeed?

Why is it important that we grow?

There’s no sense talking about anything else until this is understood by all, as how and what to do come pretty naturally after (you’ll see that I mean if you watch Simon’s video.)

Hopefully you’ve found this helpful, I leave you with this final question, what’s your why?

Cabel

“I want my business to grow, but I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day…”

Man! That statement strikes a nerve in me (and perhaps you too). I spent years gripping the reins so fiercely that I found the business I’d been working so hard to build was just stagnating – I’d have 30 clients one month, then 34 the next… then I’d have a few cancel and I’d be down to 27. Not what you’d call steady growth.

I genuinely love helping people. But by the end of the day, I barely had time to finish all of my client follow up. Then I still had to clean my equipment, review food journals, respond to all of my emails, Facebook messages and voicemails, write the program for the following days’ workout and… You know the drill. I barely had enough time to accomplish anything else – which left out the important stuff like fitness assessment days, putting together fitness challenges with points for prizes and calculation formulas + systems to keep track of those points. And then there’s the really important stuff like, um… Marketing… Sales… Sheesh. I really felt like I was in over my head.

Procrastinating on marketing and not thinking I had enough time for sales was the biggest bottleneck. Not to say it can’t be done, but it’s tough to grow a fitness business quickly with just referrals. My clients made the effort to bring in their friends and many of them would stick with it, but it just wasn’t enough for the business to really gain momentum.

Eventually I got fed up with the constant struggle and I decided to apply myself toward a new path of action to improve that mess. That’s when I went to my first fitness “mastermind” meeting down in Southern California. I met people who had businesses similar to mine. Everyone had different ideas and ways of doing things. I got feedback and I created a to-do list to make the changes that I needed to make to grow my business. It was such a relief to be in a group where everyone was focused on finding solutions to problems like the ones we were experiencing. I gained a whole lot of perspective at that meeting and I decided to join as a member.

I got home and I took massive action. I started on my list and transformed my business. I trained a replacement trainer so I no longer had to be there for every session. I hired an assistant to answer phones, book my appointments and follow up with my clients. I dialed in my sales skills and I developed a marketing plan. I delegated my daily to-do’s and handled the big-picture items myself.

I had the support of other business owners to share their experiences with me. I heard what worked for them and what didn’t and learned how they were growing and advancing their businesses.

Surrounding yourself with the right crowd is necessary to keep momentum and initiate big progress. If I could pass along one piece of advice, it would be to make friends with fitness pros who have excelled past the point you are in your business and pay attention to the way they do business. In other words, emulate the type of success you want for yourself and your business. Continue on your mission to make your business better and better. And never stop learning.

Cheers – Dallas

Growing up I had it in my head, that being a cage fighter would be the coolest thing ever.

I found the closest kickboxing/MMA gym I could find. This was just before MMA was really mainstream so these gyms where dimly lit, lined with carpet covered with blood and sweat.

It was intimidating, and I was scared, especially when the first time I sparred I got the snot kicked out of me by someone that was 10 years my senior.

But even with the bruises and blood I was dumb enough to continue.

Eventually I got good, good enough that when a newbie came in, I could beat the snot out of them too.

If they didn’t put there hands up, I would keep punching them in the face until they did. If they didn’t learn to check kicks, I would turn their leg into hamburger meat until they did.

Hey, this is how I learned you should too!

Looking back, this has everything to do with a scarcity mindset.

See, when we think in scarcity, we’re afraid to show our stuff to the competition because they will eventually take it and use it against you.

If you teach someone exactly how to block your punches then you won’t be able to hit them anymore. And they might actually be able to hit you back.

That’s why Chinese Martial Arts was so secretive, they were afraid that it would be used against them. Until someone by the name of Bruce Lee came along and started teaching it to the world. He started blending the styles, and may arguably be the first MMA fighter.

And look at how far the sport has come now.

That is what abundance mindset is.

If I had the abundance mindset earlier, I would teach and nurture a new fighter so they could block punches and kicks early on and maybe even hit me. This in turn forces me to “UP” my game to prevent it from happening.

Think about your competition in business now. Imagine if you were to share your best stuff, training methodology, and business practices. So what if they got a hold of it, that would just mean you would have to deliver more in value to compete.

Your clients would love you even more and you would really be world class.

That is what having the abundance mindset is about, knowing that there is plenty to go around and because you were the first to share, you’ll be seen as an authority.

So 3 things to help develop an abundance mindset:

1. Treat everything you do as an investment.

2. Contribute to other peoples growth.

3. Be a leader and authority to help others see bigger futures.

And being the authority is a whole other post.