I read this recently and it cracked me up.

A guy said he had a mentally challenged student in his class who would fart and then say, “Sorry, I’m retarded.”

I can’t think of a better description of how I often feel right after I pitch an idea at work.

And somehow… I don’t think I’m alone

It’s embarrassing to put your ideas and thoughts out in the world. It’s vulnerable.

You could get shot down.

Or laughed at.

Or dismissed.

It’s even scarier when you decide to get some in-depth guidance for your business from experts, opening yourself up for criticism and correction.

But I truly believe this: There are no stupid admissions; only stupid decisions.

An example of a stupid decision would be to keep doing something that’s not working because you’re afraid to face how embarrassing the truth sounds out loud.

It’s easier to keep everything in your head and pretend it’s going better than it is.

But if you do that, then you will certainly continue to get shitty results.

Better be brave.

If you’re lucky enough to get access to a great mentor, I recommend telling the whole truth:

“These are my ideas and and my confessions and my goals… And a lot of it feels completely ridiculous when I say it out loud.”

Because the only way to improve is to invite people who’ve succeeded before you to lead the way.

Personally, I have a lot more respect for that “challenged” student in class who owned his fallibility outright than I do for people who pass up the opportunity to grow because they’re too busy trying to seem perfect.

I’m not going to lie; it takes some balls to use your Lifeline. Jen, Chris, Meghan, Tim, Amy and Burch will all tell you straight up what they think – and their assessments are rarely sugar coated.

For example, Burch recently responded to an affiliate owner who was arguing with him during an on-site this way: “I want all this attitude from you when you’re making 60 thousand dollars a month.”

Ouch… but… good point, right?

The important part of the Burch story is that the affiliate owner he was talking to was crushing it before his on-site. Yet, he still had enough foresight to use his Lifeline to get more feedback from The BIZ on where he could continue to improve.

Because of that, this affiliate owner will be much further ahead of the competition this time next year.

And that’s the decision of a true winner.

Quick – POGO!

One of the most common questions I get when helping a box owner organize their systems is ‘WTF is POGO?’

Well, I think we know what the first 3 letters stand for, you dirty, dirty people.

But POGO? Seriously, what is it? And why is it so important?

Personal.

Organizations.

Goals.

Obstacles.

These are some powerful initial areas that we need to know about EACH of our clients (Yep, ALL of them) to begin to understand what really makes our clients tick.

Who are your clients? What makes them resonate and move? What do they want out of their training with you? And…what has kept them from achieving those goals?

I was helping a box owner build his staff and he just couldn’t get this message across to his coaches as clearly as he felt it. Sure, they each cared a lot about the people in their community…but they didn’t know HOW to connect with them like he did. He was stuck as the bottleneck for real connection.

Some of his more introvert coaches – who were great coaches BTW – were not able to get to the core of what each individual needs from you and your box. It made him feel like he had to ALWAYS be there to help and he couldn’t rest easily away from the gym.

So I made up a game for him – The POGO Game. This was a tool I created to specifically address the importance of connection points for our individual clients inside our ever growing communities. I mean, what good is a big community if we don’t keep the personal touches that made it so strong in the first place? (This becomes even more important as duplication and expansion speed up.)

Here’s how the POGO Game Goes:

When it’s least expected, a staff member yells out a name of a client and “POGO!”

The yeller points to a person on staff, and that staff member has to name their client’s Personal aspects, Organizations, Goals and Obstacles. Then clock starts and it’s time to show how well your staff knows your community. (This can be as in depth as you need…but there’s no excuse for not knowing these important connection points. After all, it’s at the core of our business.)

If the person playing the POGO game gets it right, the person who called them out has to do 20 burpees. If you’re called on to POGO a client and you fail, then YOU do 20 burpees and commit to learning about that client.

Does your skin crawl thinking about this? Or do you get inspired about how well you’ll know the needs and goals of your clients—and how much better you can serve them for a long time?

Are you able to ensure that each client who walks through your doors gets every ounce of the personal attention that they deserve to succeed?

If you deduced by now that I had to POGO my client to figure out this new solution for him and his people, then +5 points for you—because you rock.

Quick – YOU + POGO (post to comments)!

Not so easy, is it?

Grab the Batphone and use your Lifeline…one of the BIZ SMEs will POGO you to help get you and your box there faster than you could alone.

Eventually, as the gym owner, someone will call out: “Jeff, POGO!” and point directly to you.

Will you be ready?

Click here for more creative solutions to staff issues at your box.

When’s the last time you thought to yourself, “Oh my God I cannot wait to watch my friend’s two hour wedding video!”

Yeah, me neither.

Here’s a cool idea I never would have thought of:

Wedding video trailers.

Check out this photographer’s pitch for his three to six minute wedding highlight reels:

How freakin’ smart is that?

Because everyone who gets married wants to show off their big day, right?

And everyone who has a friend or family member who gets married wants to share in celebrating their big day too…but…

The problem is, nobody wants to actually WATCH your boring ass wedding.

So here is a perfect solution: You make your wedding video entertaining for me and then I enjoy watching it when you post it on Facebook and everyone is happy.

There’s a lesson here that applies to business owners:

If you want to get someone to do something that’s important to you, you have to make doing it entertaining for them.

We’ve all heard of, “thinking outside the box.” Well, when it comes to promoting your business, what you really want to do is, think outside your own wants.

Look at the situation from your customer’s perspective. Because if you give them an experience that’s fast, easy, fun and shareable, they’ll not only be more likely to participate, they’ll actually spread the word for you.

Here’s another example of the power of a perspective shift when it comes to marketing:

Smart baristas and bartenders everywhere are turning their tip jars into either a “game” or a “laugh” for their customers.

Personally, I want to weigh in on Iron Man vs. Batman (Iron Man!).

And I’m happy to be psychologically manipulated into giving you my change in order to participate in your poll, no matter how silly it is.

Because sometimes life is boring.

And so is another person behind a counter asking for a dollar.

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It’s easy to say, just shift your perspective! But the fact is, it’s hard to train your brain to think differently.

You don’t have to bang your head against the wall brainstorming alone -

Pick up the phone any time and use your Lifeline to get real time ideas, advice, feedback, inspiration and tools from our BIZ masters of creative business strategy.

Now that you have digested Part One of Exhaustypants, worry no more; the answers are here!

Below are the T3T’s (Top 3 Tools – so keep ‘em sharp!) that have helped me understand and navigate my role as a busy mom with success, and tackle that ever elusive balancing act that comes with the our title, “mom” :

As a little girl, my very favorite thing to do was play dress up.

I would wear my mom’s clothes and shoes and purses and carry my favorite babydoll around and pretend to be my mom.

That babydoll was very special to me because I got to go to the local Target and pick her out all by myself—as a reward for good behavior or something like that. She was a Cabbage Patch Doll and I named her Marlena.

Marlena was also special to me for another reason: she had brown skin with long brown hair. When my mom asked me why I picked this particular little doll, I boldly told her that it was because she was so different than me, who rocked fair skin, green eyes and bleach blonde hair.

Our differences made it so special; I was meant to be her mommy.

Yes, I was Oprah even at age 3

The real mommy game, however, is quite different than my play days. I remember growing up thinking that my mom always made everything look so easy: cooking, cleaning, decorating, planning trips, organizing birthday parties, arranging tennis lessons, helping me understand why some things hurt, showing me how to be a good friend… You know, mom stuff.

But the reality is, being a mom challenges me in every area of my life. It holds me accountable to things that I didn’t even think were important until having children. It requires me to live a life of integrity in order to lead by example. It has changed me in the best ways and given me love like I have never known. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Some days, though, I am just straight up exhausted.

This is where being a mom challenges me. Think about what you’re like when you’re super tired: cranky, irritable, short tempered, a little out of it, maybe even fussy? How, as busy moms, do we manage these byproducts of exhaustion when we have so much responsibility that rests on our shoulders?

As moms, we rarely have the luxuries of things like sleeping in, long hours on the couch reading  a book, quiet uninterrupted time with your spouse. (And, as I re-read this, I see a theme with all my longings; they all have to do with quiet time, sleep or rest.  I’m laughing to myself a little… Coincidence?  I say NO!).

SO WHAT TO DO??

I meet with a lot of moms at my affiliate—whether during their intro session or for some off the floor coaching sessions. One of the things we talk about the most is BALANCE.  (It is, after all, one of our 10 general physical skills.)

Learning balance has helped me tremendously in my own life, as my husband is constantly away with his job in the military, I own and operate my own CrossFit affiliate and I have two beautiful children who need ME to make their lives meaningful and seamless— just like my mom did for me.

STAY TUNED as I will share the top 3 tips and tricks for creating balance that I have learned along the way…

In the meantime, what tips and tricks do you recommend to help achieve balance?

Please share any thoughts or comments you have with us below, we’re always listening!

Every Mother, Father, Coach, Affiliate Owner, also needs a Lifeline, which is why The BIZ is proud to be yours. Reach out for support  today.

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With Mother’s Day this Sunday, The BIZ would like to acknowledge all the moms out there and everything they do.
Thanks for making those “exhaustypants” look so good! 

Watch as Nathan takes you back to basics in this week’s SuperSystem video. Learn what you need to do make progress toward your goals and discover a surprisingly easy weight loss technique you can use every time you eat.

Please share with us your thoughts and comments below. How has SuperSystem been helping you reach your goals and the goals of your clients?

“I’m pushing you to your absolute limit as a favor. Because when you get to graduate school you’re going to be so overwhelmed by your workload that you’ll feel like you fell down an elevator shaft.”

I was reminded of this recently while watching a fascinating documentary on Netflix about the making of South Park called 6 Days to Air.

This doc is about how—despite their astronomical success already in tv, film and theater—Trey Parker and Matt Stone still create South Park episodes from conception to broadcast at the unheard of, breakneck speed of 6 days per episode.

What that means for their staff is that Parker and Stone’s work culture is not one for the feint of heart. There is not the luxury of specialities; everybody does a little bit of every job, and in a 10th of the time it would take at a normal animation studio. So employees work crazy hours, often sleeping under their desks during deadlines.

This results in some serious emotional highs and lows for everyone, from the top down. Trey confesses to bouts of despair every Sunday (“I’m embarrassed putting this piece of shit on the air.”) And Matt bottoms out on Tuesdays, fearing every week that the episode simply won’t get done on time. By day 6 when the episode finally gets turned in at the last possible second…nobody on the staff can see or think straight.

Then, a day later, they start all over coming up with a new idea for a new episode (!)

Madness, right?

The show’s producer puts it this way: “The Simpsons and Family Guy take 8-10 months [to produce an episode] …and we’re doing it in 6 days.” Which perfectly encapsulates two very different approaches to running any business:

South Park Companies get work done in less time for a small tradeoff in quality (South Park estimates it as a 5% compromise).

Family Guy Companies uses a slower, steadier system (probably one that balances quality of life in other areas better) but each episode is near perfect at completion—with plenty of time to spare.

What about your box?

Are you a Family Guy Company or a South Park Company?

Do I even have to ask which kind of company you think The BIZ is?

I remember a recent launch where Jen called me at 6:30 pm on a Friday and asked, “Are you so slammed with work that you don’t remember the last time you saw daylight? Because I’m buried by my workload here.”

Me, slightly dazed: “I am so buried I have no idea how I’m going to get through even a 10th of what I’m responsible for. This is total and complete insanity.”

Ah, Friday nights at The BIZ during a launch!

And Saturday mornings…

And Sunday afternoons…

The most baffling thing is that every launch, by some miracle, everything gets done.

We may look back and have no idea how we survived (much less got all your deliverables executed), but, once again, somehow, some way, we’ve always pulled it off.

My point, though, is not that everyone should embrace the lifestyle of Parker and Stone.

The Family Guy vs. South Park question is actually kind of a trick. Because—as sexy as South Park Companies seem with their kamikaze attitude—theirs is not necessarily a better business model than that of Family Guy Companies.

As Burch will be the first to tell you, the important thing is not to be the most “badass,” but to know your own company culture and never try to be something you’re not. We all have to embrace the work culture that best suits our own vision and values. At the end of the day, the success of a slow and steady company is just as real and valid as the success of a fast and hard company.

No matter what your answer, this is a distinction worth thinking about.

The choice is yours:

You can take a long time and get your product perfect before sending it out. Or you can knock it out in 6 days and abandon it as soon as it’s 95% there.

Just know which kind of company you are and OWN IT.

Looking back now at my history-professor-from-hell, I can recognize just how much of an invaluable favor he did for us students whose asses he repeatedly kicked for four years.

He taught us that, should we chose to embrace a hard and fast lifestyle, we can do it with the confidence of knowing that we will be able to handle whatever challenges are thrown at us.

Even if that means foregoing sunlight for a few days because we’re sleeping under our desks.

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Need your professional ass kicked so you can finally reach the goals you have for your box?

The Tribe is currently closed, but if you call Jen at 310.526.2246, she’ll make time in her insane schedule to figure something out for you. That’s why we call her Ms. Awesome.

No, not that Oprah.

Sure, Oprah Winfrey is an inspiration to a lot of people. She’s great at encouraging people to follow a path of constant self-improvement and development. And she always got guests to break down on her show.

That’s why BIZ SME Meghan Megho/ Meghatron/ OPRAH Russell has earned herself yet another nickname.

It’s tough being a female business owner, especially in the male-dominated fitness industry. But Meghan is a great role model to show us it’s okay to stand up for ourselves and our business and be called a b-i-t-c-h every once in awhile.

She doles out the tough love when needed (that. bitch.), as well as encouraging words and advice from similar situations she’s been in.

I hate to cry. And at the recent BIZ seminar in Dallas, Meghan had me in tears discussing my hot mess of a dating life. A mini-bar raid and several tiny bottles of Ketel One may also have influenced this outburst. I bet the real Oprah provided vodka to guests before her show.

Many of us put our social lives and training schedules on hold to open a box. Since opening CrossFit Midtown last May, I haven’t made training myself much of a priority. Then I get mad at myself when I do poorly on the Open WODs that I shouldn’t do well at anyway, based on my training (in)frequency.

Meghan reminds me that I need to make peace with my job versus my training versus the expectations I have for myself: “It’s super tough, dude. But you are doing and choosing the right thing for now. For this year.”

There was an emergency over the weekend at CFM, and Meghan even picked up the phone when I called on a Saturday afternoon, to talk me through it.

I’m fortunate to have amazing Lifelines to call on, whether I’m bitching about my love life, complaining that I haven’t performed as well in the Open WODs as I’d like, or panicking about something else that the BIZ team has dealt with before.

Use your Lifelines. The BIZ knows their stuff. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when we have the knowledgeable BIZ team to call on, and a community of other affiliate owners who have been in our shoes. Just don’t get mad if they make you cry.

Please share any thoughts and comments with us below, and reach out for a Lifeline by following the link.

So, a thought popped into my mind the other day about branding…  I seem to know a lot about Starbucks- I recognize their logo design and color from afar, can recall some brief company history, could educate you on what a barista does, and I can even rattle off a few menu items verbatim!

Here’s the surprising part and reason for my rambling… You see, I don’t drink coffee, ever…  I know- I’m a freak, but how do I know so much about a company I don’t buy products from regularly and visit less than 5 times a year?  BRANDING!

Before you disown me for my lifelong coffee revolt, we can learn something here…

First, what is a brand and why is it important to your Affiliate?  In short, it’s how we make our connection with our clients, and build trust so they believe in our service!  This is important for small businesses like you and I, because we need our clients to understand our passion for fitness and trust that we can deliver them results better than anyone else.

What stands out for me about Starbucks is that they can remember their loyal customers’ orders before they reach the counter, how they treat their staff, how clean their facility is, that they give back to the needy, and that people carrying Starbucks coffee cups are way too excited about it…

All of the above make me feel good about picking up a Starbucks gift card for a friend, setting up a meeting at my local Starbucks, and pitching in on coffee duty for my team…

3 Lessons we can learn from Starbucks to become a household name:

Lesson 1- Share what you believe in (as a company that is… Keep your personal baggage outta the business).  Help your clients take stock in inspiring others, what makes you unique, and why you’re worth your value.

Ex.- Company profile on your website, brag about your clients’ successes on Facebook, and write personal notes of appreciation often.

Lesson 2- Get to know your clients.  Talk to them!  Learn their interests, struggles, goals, kid’s names, favorite WODs.  The tighter your connection, the more trust and willingness to believe in your company’s brand of changing lives.

Ex.- Make a game out of learning new names before you start class, introduce members with similar interests, and train alongside your clients in class regularly…

Lesson 3-  Stick to what you do best.  Starbucks makes coffee.  We teach and educate our communities about strength and conditioning.  Build a strong core program before re-inventing what works or investing your time outside your core strengths.  The BIZ Systems make this easier and less stressful when building your auto pay memberships.

Keep in mind, branding is not the same as marketing!  Look to make a personal connection and impact on your clients through your business… Invite your members to believe in what you believe in and you’ll find raving fans that will gladly champion your brand!

Share how you’re creating a personal connection between your members and your business that supports your brand?