Crossfit Gym Growth: Focus on Your Core Four

If there were only 4 major moves to make your goal happen, what are they and how would you find them?

This is a key question in the coaching model. With our 1:1 coaching clients they have no shortage of goals, and even worse, distractions. Helping them be successful is not a practice of telling them what or how to do things, it is simply the practice of defining what their goals are, and then closing the gap. That gap is the distance from here, to where they want to be. We have found great success in defining the core 4.

Goals

Goals are big, and when set correctly they are audacious and scary. These types of goals we call stretch goals, and they are the most effective at producing results. By setting big, exciting goals we subsequently produce motivation that mundane goals do not inherently seem to produce. This blog is not truly about those types of goals though. Instead, it's about how to bring those goals to life, and more importantly, how to use those goals to create laser-like clarity and alignment.

The act of setting goals is a fantastic and imperative tool for success, this is no ground breaking paradigm shift. People have been setting goals for millennia, but despite their prevalence, we all know few ever come to life. The hard facts here are that goals are typically you as the goal setter, leaving where you are now, a place you know very well, and are comfortable in[ish], and arriving in foreign future place you know nothing about. Its only logical that this then will impede action. Mainly because we only have an idea whats important to get to that goal, and we try everything.

Humans are masterful jugglers. We have a circus like gift of keeping many many spinning plates in the air. Worst of all we wear this gift like a badge of honor. “Im a multi-tasker”. Multitasking is not a gift, its not a talent, it is purely the act of being distracted. In that rather being focused in your effort and attention. You are doing a little bit of a lot of things, and thats never going to go as well as intentional action.

Most of us however, have experienced a fair amount of at least early success by being a multitasker. Its in many cases a necessity. Take your business for example. When you launched this thing into the unknown, all the tasks came at you fast. You likely thought you would open the gym, and just become the best coach you could possibly be, and life would be perfect. Fast forward even a few weeks and you realize, coaching looks like the smallest part of what you are going to be doing. Now you are the accountant, the janitor, the salesperson, the maintenance guy, the retail clerk, the list goes on. This is usually where we find most of our new clients, in this phase.

In many cases, they, you, experience some success. They despite wearing many hats, often produce great results for their clients, and the gym starts growing. 10-20-50-75 clients. These tasks become routine and they are quite gifted at juggling this all, and doing it with a smile. But theres a reason in my example I stopped at 75. In all of our consults with gym owners, there's an uncanny trend that emerges. Most startup affiliates, as in the one’s who open the gym, not bought it, they are adept at getting to and maintaining about 75 clients. Even more interesting is the ones who buy a gym they seem to level at 150, exactly double the original owner.

This is not some unique correlative coincidence. The owner, the juggler who gets the 75 humans in, does so with a lot of plates in the air. Rather than considering that what got them to here, will not get them to there, they become distracted with opportunities and ideas, more plates as thats what worked in the past. They will tell you that the business is their priority but if I looked at their schedule, I wouldnt be able to see what they were actually working on at all in a day, let alone in the business. 

The advantage that's realized by the buyer is the ability to step back from all the plates, and look objectively at the business needs, and step in with some clarity right there. No plates in the air. However what do you think happens next? You guessed it, they put their own plates in the air and now they are stuck at 150. I suppose perhaps the third owner in respect to exponents would in theory get to 300, but Ive never seen that to be true yet.

Sure, we all know a few outliers that got beyond 75 on their own, with their scout badge of multitasking. Yet, imagine how much faster they would or could have without it? Regardless, I would also wager that in the outlying cases (of which I have seen few) if I was to review their schedule, those “lucky few” would actually have obtained this luck by a larger clarity of focus. 

Looking Forward

Which brings us back to the point of this post. What got you here, won't get you there, and that will be true of all of life. So, looking to the past for answers is not going to solve your goals, we must look forward. To do this, and do it well we have to leave behind the belief you are going to do it alone for one, and that you are going to do it by multitasking. Instead, we must drill down on these tasks, and then apply all your focus to them.

A plan. [gasp] A lot of well-intentioned people spend a lot of energy trying to find a reason why they don't need a plan, but the data will always solve for the whole. The most successful people have a plan. However, it doesn't need to be a dissertation. Just clarity of focus. When humans start making a lot of things happen with no clear trajectory, they begin losing their power and their passion; you achieve things, but the meaningfulness wanes. This is the problem of not having a plan. We lose sight of what matters, the why, for what.

Now, before you freak out and think I'm telling you that you need to have it all figured out before you start, I'm not. The entire story of FitFilliate was anything but having it all figured out. In almost every objective way, those on the outside would have thought we were winging it. And in many cases and many days, we were. However, we had a clear goal: to protect the affiliate model by creating an entirely new service offering. We would operate as coaches in an information industry, and we would be the defiant few, the disruptors.

Naturally, we couldn't have known what exactly needed to be done, as it had never been done before. There was no rule book of success for us, and we wouldn't want one, as that's what we set out to help you understand that you wouldn't want either. Along the way, the temptations were endless to abandon our model of coaching and do the easy thing, which is just start giving advice. But because we were clear on our goal and our why, we were able to avoid most of those distractions. This is how we grew from 2 dudes in a pandemic to a team of 15 in just two years. We definitely had no idea what we were doing, we only ever knew why we were.

So in our story, we knew we wanted to be the answer to the real problem. Affiliates need help, but they dont need distractions, they have the answers, they lack the inspiration to take action. So the rule was clear, if we were to be a success, it would not be a metric of growth or revenue, it would be a measure of how much we helped, without giving advice. So our core four solutions started to become clear. To help as many as possible, we needed to have four key focuses: our coaching platform to make an individual impact and break belief.

Our growth program helps gyms grow and retain their identity. Our online assets are information designed to inspire, not instruct. Lastly, our media, which is where you are reading this, also includes our Podcast, our social media, and your YouTube. Everything we do is in support of these core four. As we know, these are the most important to our goal. Save the affiliate model.

So back to you, what are your four major moves to make your goal happen?

Its ok if you do not know what these core four are, and yes there can be more. Its just that our experience is less is more, so dont willingly distract yourself. Also, you likely have more than one goal, and yes each goal has their own core four. In the above example of our core four, each of those four have their own four. But dont get overwhelmed just yet.

The Four-Step Process

There is a system, and it has worked well for all of our clients, It looks like this:

1. Decide what you want. It doesnt matter what it is, just decide on it. Dont care if its a new car, if you want it, make it clear.
2. Determine your core four. The four major moves that will make that car possible.
3. Do the deep work on each of those core four. Allocating 60% of your time and schedule to these efforts till completion.
4. Designate all else as distraction; tasks to delegate, or things to do in blocks of time you have allocated the remaining 40% of your schedule.

Which brings us to the last and most important part. Now that you know the goal and the core four. Show me your calendar, and Ill tell you your future.

Once you have defined your four, they must be protected, and by protected, I mean the time needed to advance them. We call this time blocking with our clients. Setting aside protected time for things like this. Time blocks are not detailed itineraries but just set-asides for these things. In the above example of our Core 4, I ensure that each morning I have two hours set aside to write. This includes blogs, social media, and long-form creation every day. On Wednesdays, I record podcasts and YouTubes during the time protected for it; what or how I will do it each Wednesday doesn't matter, just that this time is set aside for it. Tues-Thurs I coach individual clients in the time set aside to advance that.

On weekends I create online assets. What I will do in those times is never planned, just that during these times I don't do other things, other distractions. This has allowed me to write over 300 pages, 500 posts, and countless emails and sales letters. It has allowed us to create almost 50 podcasts in a few short weeks, and as many videos. It allows us to advance the product at a rapid rate. It also allowed us to create dozens of online courses. All of which has nothing to do with me being super productive, in fact I am the most productively lazy person you will ever meet. I call it my superpower, and because of this laziness, I'm unwilling to waste time on anything I don't want to do.

This is my hope for you. Use the four-step process listed above. Define any goal worth pursuing. Create its core four, protect the asset, and achieve success.

If you want help, the door is always open, schedule your call with us. We will help define your goals, and your core four, you protect the time.

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