Nicki Violetti

If you’re looking to add to your arsenal of tools and knowledge as a strength and conditioning coach you must check out James Fitzgerald’s OPT Coaching Certification Program. James is one of the classiest, brightest guys in this community and offers a wealth of knowledge and experience. Put this on your Santa list!

We are excited to say that we will not be freezing our fannies this winter at NorCal! Dave Werner of CrossFit Seattle  turned us on to these Dayton heaters when we were visiting his place last March.  Not forced air, but radiant. They are much more efficient and  work beautifully.  Our previous location had a Reznor, a forced air type of industrial heater.  It worked well, but was super loud. These on the other hand barely make a sound!  Super stoked!

Even Kayden approves!

This might seem a right angle post to what I usually talk about on this blog, but bear with me…it actually has much to do with you, your business and CrossFit.

Love means helping. Helping to make someone or something you are a part of better.  Helping people and organizations to reach their highest potential.

Love means constructive criticism.  Carefully pointing out weaknesses in order that work may be done to strengthen those weaknesses.

Love means willingness to look objectively at people and things.  Not turning a blind eye to the ugly spots, but instead looking for ways to make the ugly spots beautiful.

In these circumstances Love is challenging. It is not easy to look at weaknesses and speak about them.  It is uncomfortable to truly assess the points where you are falling down.

Finally, love is telling someone they have spinach in their teeth when they are in the middle of a group of people. 

Fear is in not helping.  Fear is not open to constructive criticism. Fear is unwillingness to look at things objectively. Fear is hiding weaknesses to avoid addressing them. Fear turns your head to avoid looking at the spinach.

The Black Box Summit was born entirely of LOVE. 

We are on Day 2 of the Black Box Summit at CrossFit Central in Austin, TX!  Great presenters and great questions from the attendees.  Check out SicFit for updated videos and content from the weekend!

BTW, if you ever get the chance to learn from James Fitzgerald of OPT, you must do it!  It’s jaw dropping the degree of professionalism with which he operates his box and takes care of his clients.

Here it is folks, the number 1 question I get regarding the On Ramp.  “How do you schedule it?  How can I turn someone away if we are in the middle of an On Ramp and the next one starts in 2 weeks?”

A fellow at a recent CrossFit Nutrition cert mentioned he didn’t want to tell the client “I can’t accommodate you right now.”  I wouldn’t want him to say that either. It really is all in the language you use, how you talk to the client, how you sell it.

Here’s an 8 step scenario:

Step 1: client phones/emails/walks in

Step 2: you determine in pretty quick order if they are a potential client. If they are, proceed to Step 3.  If they are looking for a swimming pool or spa, do not proceed.

Step 3: schedule a time for them to come to your facility for a complimentary ½ hour fitness consult. You get to meet them, they get to meet you, i.e. you get to generate some rapport. They get to see the facility. You ask what they are looking for, you talk about your program and how you can get them the results they want.

Step 4: you mention how folks get started – must complete 12 sessions of private training or the On Ramp class.  You explain the benefits of both.  You listen to what they say. If they are interested in the “beginning group class/On Ramp” proceed to Step 5.  If they are interested in private training find out what they’re schedule looks like and sign them up and schedule them.

Step 5: you say: “Great! Our next On Ramp class begins on (some date in the next 2-3 weeks) at 7pm (or whatever time).  We cap the class at 10 people and have 2 coaches on to ensure a great coach to trainee ratio. We do this to ensure everyone gets great coaching and a solid steeping in the mechanics of the CF movements.  The classes fill up quickly, and we currently only have 4 spots left in the upcoming class. Would you like to sign up and reserve a spot in that class?”

Step 6: Enroll them

Step 7: Wow them in the On Ramp!

Step 8: Sign them up for on going group classes.

Perhaps the most important thing about being in business and staying in business is your ability to deliver.  The ability to deliver on what your clients want, be it performance, health, a slimmer waisteline, or to be able to pass a physical to get into the Army. Whatever your client’s goals, nutrition MUST be addressed if they are to be attained. And when your client’s goals are attained your business grows.  Not linearly, but exponentially.  Each client that has a significant transformation in your gym will refer you numerous others!

Please welcome to the stage one of our NorCal trainers Sarah Fragoso.  Sarah has a resource to help keep you and your clients on track with your daily nutrition! If you have attended the CrossFit Nutrition Cert you have seen Sarah’s before and after photos. You might even recall Robb’s description of her busy life with 3 boys, a chiropractor for a husband (with a super busy practice), finishing her undergrad and being one of our absolute rockstar trainers!  Despite all of this she manages to feed her family Paleo…in fact eating Paleo and training just 2 days a week is how she got her stunning before and after results in just 7 months!

Sarah’s new blog Everydaypaleo demonstrates how truly possible it is to feed your family healthfully and with no excuses! She features recipes and videos of her and the kids prepping and cooking.  Check it out…half of our gym now follows her blog to see what’s for dinner

The need for a system and expectations

There is a common saying regarding the hiring and firing practices of small businesses… “Quick to hire, slow to fire.”

In our early days we made the mistake of giving folks the opportunity to be trainers in our gym too readily and without clearly defined expectations. There’s been some needless headache and there’s no reason for you to do that. With proper expectations and a system or process for making additions to your team you can save yourself and others a bunch of grief.

Developing clients into trainers

The reality is that most of your trainers will come from within your clientele. They may or may not be your best athletes, but they will typically be folks you really like and would consider friends. (BTW…it may sound obvious, but if you don’t like someone, don’t hire them!)

Bringing trainers up from within your clientele has its pros and cons.  The pros are fairly obvious:

• these folks have learned from you
• they know your style and how you run things
• you like them and trust them, so you know they’ll be easy to work with
• they already know your clients
• your clients like them!

The cons are possibly a bit more obscure:

• Making assumptions about people you think you know
• Failure to set clear boundaries and expectations. 

Since most of us entering into a CrossFit business had little to no experience hiring and firing individuals we likewise have little experience laying out expectations for performance.  We assume, wrongly, that the folks we bring on will think like us with regards to what work needs to be done and how things should be handled (they’re cool people and they get it, right?)  WRONG! 

It is absolutely critical to have clear expectations and measurements for performance.  Not only does this ensure that your needs and the needs of your business are being met, but it ensures that your team members know whether or not they are doing a good job.  As I mentioned earlier, small businesses are notorious for being quick to hire and slow to fire (we’ve been there). This is primarily due to the lack of expectations and lack of experience in these matters (especially avoidance of confrontation necessary to fire someone). If the expectations are clear folks will know whether they are performing or not. If for some reason they aren’t performing to the clear standards you have set out, they will already know it. They will already expect to be fired. There will be no awkward conversations or weird feelings. Both parties have agreed on performance standards and if they aren’t being met the trainer knows that you aren’t going to hate them for it, and they also know they aren’t going to stay on as a trainer for your facility.  There’s nothing to take personally and feelings don’t need to get hurt.  It becomes cut and dry, either you are performing or you are not.

Now obviously, you have a lot of latitude here.  As the owner, if you need to take some slack with one of your team members for one reason or another you can obviously do that.  The point is that you WILL have some folks that you bring on that won’t work out.  Having clear policy and expectations will help you navigate this.

 Back to the newly certed “green” coach on the doorstep.  How it would go down at NorCal:

If you show up off the street (and you’re not Dutch Lowy or some other established trainer that I already know) and wanted to train at our gym I would expect you to first become a client.  I want to get to know you and see how you fit with our community.  Are you nice? Do you go out of your way to introduce yourself to the other clients? Do you have good movement? Are you a team player? You being a client first allows me to see you in action and gives me time to decide if you would make a good addition to our team. If you navigate this initial step with flying colors we then move on to expectations and the probationary period.

To be continued…

I’m at the Portland airport heading home after attending Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership 1 Day seminar! What a great, focused day on leadership and essential principles of running a successful small business. It’s always inspiring to listen to a great speaker, someone who has built a company from the ground up and who provides a tremendous service to millions of people.

If you haven’t heard of Dave, he runs a nationally syndicated radio show on personal finance and is a bestselling author of the Total Money Makeover. Great information! I’ve found that every time I attend a seminar, no matter what the topic I take something home. I recommend this seminar for all of you getting your businesses off the ground as well as those of you who’ve been around the block a few times. Whether it’s first time information or reinforcing principles and actions you already implement it is sure to inspire and infuse some fresh perspective on your business and your team.

I’ve said it here before…I firmly believe that you’ve got to do some sort of active, consistent networking!

I’ve mentioned networking and my involvement in our local Le Tip chapter in earlier blog posts. Regardless of whether you join a similar lead generation oriented group, a service organization like Rotary, or even a church, networking with other professionals is an absolute must for the success of your business.

Case in point: I joined Le Tip in March of 2006. We had been in business for 2 years with a failed business model (inadequate pricing, no entry points aka the come one come all approach, and no system to progress people through our business among other mistakes that are all too obvious in hindsight.) In December of 2005 we literally fired 65 group clients and moved to a private training only model (again in hindsight we would have handled that differently…but at that point we were fairly burned out and not making any money, and apparently not thinking as clearly as we could have). Hindsight reverie aside, within 1 month of moving to a private training gym we were grossing more than we had with the 65 group clients (That should seriously highlight the veracity of my statement that our pricing was indeed inadequate!)

I knew that if we were going to turn our business around I needed to do something. Joining Le Tip was a way for me to get our business name in front of a group of professionals week after week and utilize the power of networking.

It took about 3 months for me to get my first lead or “tip”. It was from the President at the time, Lou Maraschiello aka “Lou Mars“. Lou trained with me for about 2 months as a private client and in doing so singlehandedly gave our business a great gift. First, he is a dynamic and charismatic speaker. As president he would make various comments at the meeting about his training with me. He would tell the waitress that “I’d better order the salad, my personal trainer is watching” and other similar comments. Essentially he endorsed me each and every meeting. He came to our warehouse of a gym to train with me and he shared stories with the meeting at large each and every week. His endorsement ultimately led to subsequent “tips” and clients from the group, folks that are still training with us to this day.

Fast forward 3 and a half years to the present. Lou was a professional drummer in his former life and toured with bands that opened for Social Distortion among others. He recently decided to attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records “drumming marathon by an individual,” a record currently set at 120 hours! And guess what? We are doing his training! And guess what else? The event will take place in our gym beginning January 14th! Local media crews are coming out to our location on Monday to interview us and we will likely see much more of this closer to and during the event! In fact the Guinness Book folks are likely to be filming the event for their media resources.

So, my point: you never know what opportunities will come of relationships you make today.

You can read more about Lou Mars and the event at our norcal blog here and here.

So you’ve made the decision to bring on a trainer or two. However, you’re a bit nervous. You want to bring on folks that will strengthen your existing team (you solo/or you plus partner(s)). You want them to understand the methodology, be able to implement it safely as well as have the character and personality that will compliment your affiliate. You also want to pay them well such that they can earn a great living doing work they love. And you understand that the likelihood of finding the perfect, experienced coach who will fit seamlessly into your affiliate right out of the gate is not high. What to do?

FINDING Trainers

From what I have seen the “finding” component is almost becoming a non-issue as CrossFit continues to grow at exponential rates. There was a time when you had to travel across state lines to find another CF trainer. Today there are more than 150 trainers getting their Level 1 cert each weekend. If you live in a dense urban environment there is likely no shortage of folks with a Level 1 cert. This definitely helps the growing awareness and recognition of the CrossFit movement, but there are some interesting issues that arise.

I had a conversation recently with someone who was conveying frustration that his friend who was newly Level 1 certified was having a hell of a time getting a job at any of the Southern California CrossFit affiliates. He claimed his friend was a great CrossFitter and he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t get hired. We chatted for quite a while and while I don’t personally know the reasons the particular affiliates he approached turned him down, I was happy to share my own opinions

Here’s the deal. Being a great CrossFitter is awesome. Getting your level 1 is a start. Neither would automatically merit you a job in my gym. Being a great CrossFitter does not mean you are a great coach. Being newly level 1 certified does not mean you are a great coach. Really loving CrossFit does not make you a great coach.

Experience makes you a great coach, and there’s really no way to fast track that fact. Hours and hours of training people is what makes a great coach. Experience working with clients and getting them results. Experience generating rapport with people and getting them to positively change their behavior. Surrounding yourself with more experienced coaches than yourself helps make a great coach. Being humble and aware of your strengths and weaknesses and the desire to continually learn are all components of a great coach.

Am I saying that unless you show up on my doorstep already a “great coach” that I won’t give you a shot? Absolutely not. None of our trainers were great coaches when they began their journey with us. All of them were clients first and were passionate, excited and eager to learn. Here’s the thing, not one of them showed up off the street, Level 1 cert in hand expecting us to give them classes to teach and a paycheck.

An established affiliate who takes on a newly certed “green” coach is investing heavily in that individual. Even if the person is an unpaid apprentice, there is significant investment on the part of the affiliate. Time, commitment, sharing of knowledge and business systems, and a huge amount of trust. So the question becomes, do you give this green trainer who just showed up on your doorstep an opportunity? How do you develop him? What do you pay him? Do you pay him at all? What if you give him a shot and then decide he’s not a good fit for your program?

To be continued….