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A Mentoring Program for CrossFit?

One could argue that our strength as a CrossFit box is retention, not recruitment.  We grow slowly.  But we focus on adherence: keeping the same people coming more often.  We're a small city, and that has terrific advantages.  For instance, I frequently think there's one degree of separation here: if I don't know you, I know one of your friends. 

There's a gap that exists between the end of your OnRamp program and the start of full-on CrossFit.  Other boxes may do better at this (and I'm asking them!) but the segue from 'student' to 'practitioner' has been a rocky road.  It's surprising, because folks who sign up for OnRamp want to get into CrossFit.  And yet.....about 50% of the people who take OnRamp here don't continue for more than a month afterward.

I'm sure it's due in no small part to the OnRamp setting: in a nice, quiet, private location, separate from our CrossFit box.  We've been trying to bring OnRamp students into the Box earlier, and introduce them to other members, mavens and divas alike; it's too early to tell if this idea is working with any certainty.  And so, we're going to try a mentoring program. Here's my idea:

Match an OnRamp grad with a long-time CrossFitter.  This may be tricky:

• Matches should be made on common goals, not just "Meet A FireBreather!"
• The right veteran has to already possess a bit of coaching sense - ie when to encourage, when to cajole
• It seems to me that there should be a reward system for the veteran.

The benefits, besides the obvious smooth transition:

• We may alleviate the 'new kid at school' stress.
• A pre-set meeting time means the newbie is accountable to someone besides us.
• If we're careful choosing a veteran, THEIR adherence rate may improve.  The novelty will certainly help, and some folks learn better when they're teaching.
• The flattery of being chosen as a 'mentor' may help people like us even MORE.

We're going to try this starting in August.  Our Catalyst Games 2010 preparatory season will challenge newcomers, but our adherence during this otherwise-lazy month is terrific.  Please add ideas, pro and con, to comments.

Growth: A Blessing and a Curse

Managing growth via a focus on core competencies.

Guest essay by Michael Cooper 

When we first opened our Box, we were a one man army. At any given moment we wore at least a dozen different hats: business owner, trainer, coach, accountant, maintenance man, to name just a few. Money was tight, revenue was nearly non-existent, and that was the way of it. We worked hard, built our clientele, and in no time at all, we weren’t sitting around staring at the walls, but instead desperately searching for a way to somehow squeeze another thirty minutes out of our day. It was exciting. Our little Box suddenly wasn’t so little. We had grown.

 

Now we found ourselves on dangerous ground. How could we go about managing our way through this growth in such a way that the quality of service didn’t suffer? What’s more, how could we do it without burning ourselves to a crisp, or losing our minds along the way?

 

Managing growth is a very common challenge that faces thousands of companies and organizations every year, yet a surprisingly significant portion of these companies fail to successfully navigate this challenge. The consequences associated with this failure can be severe. I cannot count on my fingers the number of times I have witnessed a solid, promising upstart company reach a critical growth transition point only to be crushed and brought to financial ruin as a result of their inability to effectively manage the challenges that a growth opportunity presented.

 

One of the major keys to successfully managing growth - and, for that matter, a multitude of other business challenges - is clearly identifying and understanding your core competencies. These are the things that make or break your business; the thing(s) that sets you apart. In a Crossfit context this equates to making yourself a better coach, and providing your clients with the best coaching/training possible.

Once you have identified this core, look to identify current activities that you engage in that are not tied to this core. This list might include such things as accounting, facility maintenance, etc. Can these items be performed by someone else without negatively impacting the quality of your clients experience? Yes they can. These are areas that should be explored first. Perhaps there is a client (who wouldn’t come close to being an adequate trainer ) who happens to be a CPA, who would happily take on some light bookkeeping in exchange for membership costs. Or similarly a client who is a carpenter who could help with renovations in the same bartering context. If as many of these peripheral responsibilities have been dialed back to the fullest extent possible and there is still a time shortage, only then should additional staffing be considered.

When you do hire additional staff, how do you compensate them? Compensation structures need to be developed in such a way that individuals are motivated to perform, while at the same time not presented with conflict of interest. We want our staff to maximize performance, not undermine the integrity of our organization in pursuit of another buck.

I have worked up a tiered compensation system, but have yet to put it to the test. It looks something like this: Client interest indicates that a new class time needs to be added. The new coach (following adequate training) gets assigned to the new time slot with an agreed-upon base pay. As part of the agreement it’s laid out that he has a certain amount of time to establish a stable minimum average number of attending clients for the class to continue. If he performs above this minimum required level he has the opportunity to increase his compensation.

Let’s say that he is given 3 months to achieve an average attendance of 3 clients. If he gets 3, then the class stays open and he keeps his job and gets $20/per class. Your coaching cost per client is now just under $7 (20/3 = $6.67). However for clients 4 through 7 that begin attending the class he gets an incremental bump, say $2/per additional head, and for clients 8 through 10 he gets yet another incremental bump of $3/ per additional head. You cap a class at 10 given your facility size (you’re still small).

Fast forward six months; Now the average class attendance is 8 clients instead of 3. The table below gives a brief summary.

Then	Now
Average Attendance = 3	Average Attendance = 8
Coaching compensation per class = 20	Coaching compensation per class = 20 + 8 + 3 = 31
Coaching cost per client = 20 / 3 = $ 6.67	Coaching cost per client = 31/ 8 = 3.87

 

As you can see, with every additional client attending his class, your coaching cost per client is going down, and his compensation per class is going up. Everybody wins. Of course this requires a box where attendance is tracked etc. but I think it would work really well. If his class reaches a point where it is consistently near max levels, perhaps it is time to set him up in yet another time slot and the process begins anew.

 

The Formula

In my fourteenth year as a Personal Trainer, I know there's no formula for guaranteed success.  There are Trainers all over the social skills / education graph.  Sometimes, a terrific personality like Richard Simmons can get by on exuberance and a great haircut.  Sometimes, though, a genius like Mel Siff isn't heard - or can't capitalize on his life's work - because he's not out there enough. 

There should be a third dimension, of course: coaching skills.  Knowledge and charisma are both important, but if you can't translate your knowledge into action on the part of your client, it's useless.  If all that charm - practiced or natural - can't motivate a bar off the floor, it's not enough.

When I started, I'd argue on discussion forums and in chat rooms that education trumped experience, because I had a lot of one and very little of the other.  "But you could be teaching the wrong stuff for years!" I'd argue.  That was 1996.  Now I recognize the necessity of both. 

The curve above represents my path, I believe, toward my current position: owner of two facilities, with an expanding client base and a valuable brand asset.  Three other Trainers make at least a big part of their living here, and a physiotherapist and RMT are both on staff, too, as well as gym staff and interns.  As far as I've figured it, here's my mental checklist for every client appointment:

1. A great greeting.
2. Banter during the warmup to include a personal detail mentioned at the last meeting (hey, how was your daughter's play?)  Let the client know that you care about what happens in their life.
3. Ask how the homework assigned at the last meeting played out.
4. Brief outline of the goals of the workout.
5. Skills and reinforcement.  Keep it positive and corrective. This is where you want 100% perfection on technique.  I also try to keep the client smiling during this portion - this is the frustrating part, where people can get down on themselves.
6. Break out at least one scientific explanation, but keep it short.  This isn't just good salesmanship ("look what I know!") it's also building a more knowledgeable clientele. 
7. Outline the 'challenge' portion of the workout (or the WOD)
8. Outline the goals of the WOD - ie anaerobic capacity - and your rationale for the weight chosen ("I know you can do more, but I'm concerned that grip strength will limit your performance, instead of work capacity.  I want you to keep moving, so I've chosen a lighter weight."
9. 3-2-1 go!  Voice and inflection change, posture changes. Shorter sentences, exclamation points, no more technical instructions.  Commanding tone.
10. Collapse.  Sharing of water.  Now's the time to tell a story.  "Last year, we had this tournament called 'FranFest.'  One lady lost a tooth.  She kept going anyway. Hahaha...." 
11. Stretch and review homework challenges for the week.  Encourage contact by phone or logging workout results.
12. Any questions?
13. Book the next appointment, if not already scheduled. 
14. Mention something coming up in the client's life ("Enjoy painting that fence this weekend!")

The very fact that it's a checklist makes it imperfect.  You have to be able to touch on all of these without seeming to refer to a spreadsheet-in-the-sky.  If you can't do anything else:

1) make them laugh

2) remember things that are important to the client

3) impress upon them your technical knowledge in a non-academic way.  One more example: after I explain rotational torque, in 30 seconds or less, with a chalk stick-man on the gym floor, I usually say something self-demeaning, like, "...or maybe I'm just making this all up."  They usually laugh.  They won't remember any of the content, but they will remember that I know, and that's enough.

Got a formula? Please add it below.

The Theft of CrossFit?

Last week, I had a parent email me a 'crossfit' workout given to her daughter at high school.  Now, we've partnered with many high schools in the area, but this particular high school has resisted our advances.  There were three workouts, all featuring four or five exercises.  Each exercise was performed for fourty to fifty repetitions.  For five rounds.  That's a lot of volume.

The real kicker: the kids did all three workouts in a day.  That's a thousand reps per workout, times three, thank-you-may-I-have-another?

CrossFit has been working hard to overcome the "dangerous" label for years.  Information has been our slow weapon; knowledge has finally trickled down to the lower levels of gym culture.  Unfortunately, there now seems to be a more ominous consensus: instead of CrossFit isn't dangerous when coaches properly, it's now believed that CrossFit Is Dangerous And That's Okay.  Any workout that kills a kid is, by definition, CrossFit.  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

If you take the example of the gym teacher who does a little personal training on the side, has read one or two textbooks and has a silly certification or two, you'll see the potential issue.  Where once the 'trainer' prescribed the same bodybuilding-style workouts for every exerciser, athlete or otherwise, he's now prescribing his idea of CrossFit.  What was once "Chest and Tris" day for his hockey players is now "bucket day" - kill them by any means possible.  Functional?  Meh.  Core-to-extremity?  What's that?  Pukie?  Awesome.

This looming threat isn't the theft of our methods, because none of it is truly "ours" to begin with.  You can't patent 21-15-9, or the name "Fran," or doing workouts for time.  The real threat is the entry of the word, "CrossFit," into the common lexicon, like "zipper" or "Kleenex." 

So what's our choice of action?  This was answered succinctly by Pat Sherwood at a recent cert in Ann Arbor. One word: community.  Your affiliate community is what drives new members; what pays the rent; what makes CrossFit powerful.  What makes them a community?  The common glue is education.  It's your job to make your community the most informed group of exercisers on the planet.

Writing essays, referring people to CrossFit Journal is a great start.  The main site is a massive chest of great information.  But you have to get your own face on it, or risk leaving HQ's message open to local interpretation.

"You coach CrossFit?  Well, my gym teacher does, too, and he says something different....."  Establish yourself as an expert.  Video is better than text, and most of us speak better than we write.

Video is also easier to watch, and setting up a series of short, one-point videos is a great way to build a reference library locally.  Correct naming will help Google find you easier, and you'll find you're explaining basic concepts less frequently to members.  New members considering which gym is best will gravitate to you, because you've already demonstrated knowledge.

Don't worry, you won't run out of information to put out there.  Information is already available to everyone; you're just the frame.

The best way to avoid theft?  Make it available for free.

Cowboys vs. Shepherds

Coaches differ in personality, but that doesn't mean that one style is better than another.  Different styles attract (and keep) different clients.

Consider two styles of animal control, the Cowboy and the Shepherd:

The Cowboy:

• Guides the animals by herding from the rear, or the middle, of the group
• Is loud
• Slaps leather fearlessly
• Throws himself in the way of the charging animal
• Prefers confrontation to provoke immediate action
• Uses the tools available, including voice, but also whip and heel;
• 'Breaks' animals, and then builds them back up better
• Uses a one-on-one approach most often

The Shepherd:

• Changes a stubborn animal's direction a little at a time, not head-on
• Leads from the front, usually with bait, or a promise
• Avoids direct confrontation, because blocking a sheep from grain will only create more desire
• Creates safety in numbers
• 'Teaches' the animals with the carrot instead of the stick
• Uses the group dynamic most often

Both:

• Love the animals
• Can coexist in the same barnyard
• Use the same tools (hay, water, grain)

Of note: though the 'cowboy' figure is more romanticized,  it's no coincidence that the largest grassroots-driven movement of all time refers to its Messiah as "The Good Shepherd."  If people can relate to you as one of them, part of The Resistance, a leader in name and action, they're more likely to follow.  It's sometimes easier to convince the flock to move in a single direction than one single wild stallion.  So says me, but hey - I come from generations of shepherds.

Paying Staff

When we started out in 2005, I received some great advice from our bookkeeper: don't have employees. Instead, have subcontractors. 

These tips are legal and relevant in Ontario; it would be a logical extension to include the rest of Canada.  However, if you're in the States or Europe or Australia or Africa, you'd be wise to check first.

How it works: every staff member registers themselves as a business (about $60.)  Weekly, they submit an invoice for hours worked, which I pay immediately.  Some, who make over $30,000 per year, have to charge me GST (Goods and Services Tax,) which flows right from the GST we charge members.  There are benefits to the business owner, more benefits to the subcontractor, and even a few for your client.

For the subcontractor:

• They can deduct expenses that they'd normally incur for work - like some mileage, gas, car repairs, work-related 'toys' - and pay for them with pre-tax dollars.  Given that our income and other taxes add up to over 40% of our gross income, that's a significant savings.
• They own their own company, creating one more layer of liability protection.
• Even though their company has only one 'client' - your business, they still control their own destiny work-wise.  They also get to own something instead of just showing up for your sake.
• They can minimize their income tax burden by paying themselves an actual wage only if and when they feel like it.
• They can set their own schedule without being hamstrung by the legalities of the 3-hour pay minimum.

For you, the business owner:

• You're not making source deductions for the subcontractors, so you save a little bit on your EI (Employent Insurance) and CPP (Canada Pension Plan) contributions.
• Some of the rules of termination no longer apply; you can cancel a contract instead of going through the legal hoops of firing someone. Be careful, though; protect yourself.
• You can let subcontractors take a client here and there (nearly an industry necessity) instead of having to pay for a minimum 3 hours of work each time they show up. While I can understand the value of this rule in the retail world ("Can you come in for an hour?") it really hurts a Trainer's potential revenue stream.  If you're charging $50/hour for personal training, and the Trainer makes $20, and you have to pay them for two extra hours after the session's over, you don't have much reason to give them the client, do you?
• It's easier to manage payroll and track performance.
• You'll also enjoy an extra layer of protection from liability.  In fact, though I choose to insure our subcontractors, you can require that they have their own insurance.
• Either way, you don't have to pay WSIB (Workplace Safety Insurance Board) for a subcontractor, which in our case would be over $300/month.
• If they (or you) don't work, they don't eat. 
• The old, "whose clients ARE they?" problem is largely solved, making it easier to switch 1-on-1 clients between trainers during vacation times or in the event of one trainer's exit.

For the Client/Member:

• Being accountable to someone other than the Signor Of Cheques gives the Trainers a greater interest in your progress.
• You want your Trainer well-fed, rested, happy, and making lots of money.  It's in your best interest.
• They'll never know the difference, but they WILL know that their Trainer is among the highest-paid (read: best) around.  They can feel good about supporting a professional, instead of hiring a kid.

This has been a big boon to us, personally, as well:

• It's much easier to share income with my wife;
• Some household space (around 10%,) and the proportional share of utilities and consumables are paid with pre-tax income;
• I was able to 'sell' some personal sporting assets to the business, reducing its tax burden;
• Maintenance of one family vehicle (up to 50 cents per kilometre) is payable with before-tax income;
• Retirement plans and health care are paid by our Holdings company; again, pre-tax income.  That means a 40% savings in some instances.

We got lucky, at the beginning, to have shareholders who knew the difference, and Trainers who saw the light.  It may help you, too.