I was fortunate to have the pleasure of bringing my first-grade son to work with me three days a week for a six-month period when a pandemic changed the trajectory of his elementary school education. While the stress of home-schooling my child while simultaneously running a business was very real, this was also an experience that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.
Collin got to see me work. Not the kind of “go to work with dad” experience where we pull out all of the office supplies, fire up the photocopier for messing around, and just hope to survive the day, either. I’m talking about him keeping his own desk in my office and figuratively punching the clock with me for months on end.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we commuted to work together. Rarely did a ride pass where he chose not to ask me a question about work.
Why does Julie sometimes tell people you’re not in the office when the phone rings, even though you are actually in the office?
Why are you the person who has to talk to angry clients?
Why do the coaches have to ask you if they can have a day off?
The especially cool thing about this experience, outside of tons of additional time with my son, was watching him familiarize himself with “what dad does.”
One morning, while deep into hours of teacher-guided Zoom calls, he was asked a question:
“Collin, I see you are in your dad’s office again…what does he do for work?”
“My dad owns a gym where baseball players go to get stronger and learn how to throw harder. People like my mom are allowed to go too, but the gym is known for baseball.”
Collin had spent so much time in my professional world that he’d become an expert in explaining what we do. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face after hearing his response. A seven year old effectively understood our value proposition, and was capable of explaining it.
Your ability to explain the service you provide in simple terms is the key to business success. If you can’t explain it to a first-grader, you’re not ready to begin explaining it to an adult on social media.
-Pete
PS: Here are four ways to get more BFU in your life:
- Learn more about our coaching group The Unicorn Society HERE.
- Subscribe to our Business for Unicorns podcast HERE.
- Subscribe to Mark’s YouTube channel HERE.
- Pick up a copy of Mark’s book HERE.
PPS: Want another awesome FREE resource?
Mark is doing a free training where he covers all kinds of benchmarks that gym owners need to know. To help as many gym owners as possible attend, we’ll be holding the training twice. So you can pick from one of the following two options:
- Friday October 13th @ 12pm est
- Saturday October 14th @ 12pm est
He’ll share with you the exact numbers used when analyzing a gym’s performance, as well as give you direction on how to fix underperforming numbers.
Attendees will also receive a dead simple plug-and-play spreadsheet to input their numbers and see how they fare, as well as a PDF with the slides for further review.
And it’s totally FREE.
All you need to do is sign up at the link below and choose which time works best.