Great news!
Mike Boyle is joining us for the virtual Unicorn Society retreat in early December. His talk is on “Finding Trainers, Hiring Trainers, and Training Trainers.” You better believe my ass is going to be watching and taking notes!
I’m prrrretty sure you know who Mike Boyle is, but if not, he’s arguably the single most influential living strength coach. It’s hard to put into words how much Mike has shaped my approach to both training AND life.
And as someone who’s had the pleasure to know many of his staff over the years, I can say they’re the best of the best.
This talk will be awesome.
(While we’re talking about Coach Boyle: if you want to find the “best of the best” technical training for your coaches, you’ll want to check out Certified Functional Strength Coach. I brought them into MFF to train our whole team this past April. It’s some of the best money I’ve ever spent. If you want to have a kick-ass gym, don’t forget, you have to be kick-ass at training!)
Anyhoo, it’s going to be an awesome day.
This one is ONLY for Unicorn Society members. So if this tickles your fancy, learn more HERE.
Now let’s talk about…
MONEY.
Money is complicated.
Most gym owners want it.
Many gym owners fear it.
Some gym owners say they don’t want it, or at the least, don’t care about it.
You know you need money to function in the world. But it can be confusing and intimidating, especially if you’ve never seemed to have enough of it.
And most people weren’t raised with healthy messages around money. That can add to the “ick” factor.
But here’s real talk:
If you want to be successful in running a gym, you’re going to need to explore your relationship with money.
Because if you’ve always got your head stuck in the sand, you’re not doing your clients or your team any favors. They’re counting on you to understand the numbers and be a steward for your business’s financial well-being. And part of that means making an appropriate wage. In other words, not drowning in gym owner poverty and living paycheck to paycheck.
I’m not saying you need to be Daddy Warbucks. It’s ok to not want to make zillions.
It’s NOT ok to not understand the basics of personal and business finance. Not when people are counting on you.
Getting sweaty with all this direct money talk?
Listen, I get it.
I definitely never went hungry as a kid, but money was clearly a source of stress for my parents because six f*cking kids.
I’ll spare you the details, but there was more than one moment where the stress was directed at me as a child in a way that made me feel anxious and unsafe.
I then went to college at Syracuse University. Most of the other students ranged from the merely affluent to the scions of industry. Meanwhile, I moved into my freshman dorm with my clothes packed in garbage bags and a work study job to pay bills.
Post-graduation, I moved to NYC right after 9/11. Employment was scarce; at least outside of the occasional cater waitering gig serving hot dogs in a blanket to the Masters of the Universe at various NYC banks. I lived in a large closet in a six bedroom walk-up. The rent was $500 crippling dollars per month. I used to budget $10 for the Papa John’s thin crust pizza walk-in special because I could eat half for lunch and half for dinner.
In fact, I never made more than $40k/year for most of my 20’s. While living in NEW YORK CITY.
Then I started to focus on my training career, one thing led to another, and, well, as you know, Keeler and I accidentally opened up a weird glittery unicorn gym cult place.
MFF had an unusual amount of success out of the gate. But I still had to learn what I was doing to not drive the place into the ground. I’m usually a pretty quick study, but a deep understanding of the money side of my business took me years. If I’m being real, it took me too long.
Anyone who’s followed my work for a long time knows I’m the last guy to talk you out of focusing on your gym’s mission.
But it’s not an either/or proposition.
Too many of the “good humans” try to opt out of the money piece because it feels scary/icky/intimidating.
But I promise you two things.
1) You CAN get your arms around the skillset of finance.
Even if you despise math and you get dizzy when someone brings up money. In the grand scheme of things, gym finances really aren’t that complicated. It may FEEL complicated. But you can learn what you need to know. And if you get help, you can learn it faster than most other gym owners. And this can save you years and have a major impact on your family’s quality of life.
This is one of the key things we focus on with Unicorn Society members.
You can go from being intimidated, overwhelmed, and/or disinterested to crystal clear and excited about winning at the game of business.
2) You also have to get serious about the mindset of money.
I don’t have a one-size-fits-all prescription here. Everyone has different baggage. But if you’ve got weird beliefs about money, they are almost certainly holding you back personally and professionally.
And if you want help understanding the mechanics of analyzing your numbers…
While also addressing your feelings about said numbers…
Welp, I know a coaching program that will do both with one-on-one guidance.
Check dat PS dawg ;-),
Mark
PS: This is one of the ONLY times of year that you can enroll in the Unicorn Society.
That means this is your final chance to apply for personal coaching with Keeler, Pete, Ben, and yours truly until July 2024. We’re closing applications on Sunday November 19th.
In addition to coaching for you (and your team!) US Members get access to our library of on-demand courses, exclusive retreats in super cool places, bi-weekly group coaching calls, free admittance to Business for Unicorns live courses, and more.
Learn more HERE.