How to Create a Sous Chef for your Gym with Mark Fisher

[00:00:00] [00:00:03] 1, 2, 3, 4. [00:00:06] Welcome to The Business for Unicorns podcast, where we [00:00:09] help gym and studio owners create a business and a [00:00:12] life they love. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. [00:00:15] Join me and the business unicorns team each week for [00:00:18] actionable advice, expert insights, and the [00:00:21] inside scoop on what it really takes to level up your gym.[00:00:24]

Get ready to unlock your potential and become a [00:00:27] real unicorn in the fitness industry.[00:00:30] [00:00:33]

Yeah. [00:00:36] Hello, fitness business nerds. What’s [00:00:39] up? Welcome to another episode of the Business Unicorns [00:00:42] podcast. Today I’m here with Mr. Mark Fisher. Mark Fisher, [00:00:45] how’s your Tuesday going? It’s going pretty [00:00:48] good. Pretty good. Full day, but good day. Yeah. It’s also [00:00:51] fall time. I’m gonna see you this weekend. We’re gonna do some, yeah, I’m gonna do some [00:00:54] apple picking and fall.

Shit. Yes. I’m looking forward [00:00:57] to it. This time of year is just so my favorite. Yes. [00:01:00] Let’s dive in because we’re recording this just shortly after [00:01:03] our retreat in Denver, where we got to hang out with our [00:01:06] Leadership Society and Uni Unicorn Society crew for two whole [00:01:09] days, three whole days in some cases. And one of your, the [00:01:12] talks that you gave the retreat I think was really valuable and a topic.

[00:01:15] I don’t think we’ve covered much on this podcast, so I thought it’d be great to [00:01:18] dive in Yeah. And share a little bit of what you shared. And so [00:01:21] maybe I’ll let you give a summary of what your talk was about and we can take it [00:01:24] from there. Yeah, essentially I did essentially like a [00:01:27] onstage q and a after preparing for some content [00:01:30] about how I think about working with a number two.

To run [00:01:33] your gym. So we brought on Alana Bradley, who is our director of [00:01:36] training at the Alloy that I own in New Jersey. And shout out [00:01:39] Alana, who’s the best shout, Alana. Yeah, super, super sharp [00:01:42] cookie. So real, feel real lucky and honored to get to work with her. [00:01:45] And yeah, I want to have a conversation with her to share [00:01:48] from her perspective a little bit how we work together.

And I did [00:01:51] prepare a little bit of content, so the framework that I both [00:01:54] shared in the little bit of time, I had to share some thoughts before [00:01:57] we talked to Lana. Do you mind if I just ask you this Fisher, before we get into all of [00:02:00] the prepared content, which I think is a great direction. Say a little bit [00:02:03] about, define, when we say number two, what the hell do we mean for our [00:02:06] listeners?

Yeah, yeah. Yep. We the, we often use the term sous [00:02:09] chef as a metaphor, which for those not familiar in a restaurant, [00:02:12] essentially is the quote unquote under chef, the person that works at the [00:02:15] executive chef to make sure that things happen. And they’re often the [00:02:18] liaison between the chef and the rest of the.[00:02:21]

The kitchen and most gym [00:02:24] owners are gonna benefit from having one second in [00:02:27] command. Now, what they look like is gonna [00:02:30] vary, and I’ll speak to that maybe in a minute because that was like part of what I wanted to [00:02:33] offer was like, there’s a few different ways this can look, but at a bare minimum, [00:02:36] if you’re gym owner listening and you don’t yet have somebody that’s [00:02:39] able to mine the store for a minute.[00:02:42]

And in the be, that might be all you need depending on where you’re at in your journey. Yeah. You might just need [00:02:45] somebody to occasionally mine the store so you can go to a wedding [00:02:48] or take a day off and trust that somebody [00:02:51] is something of a proxy for your members or clients to talk [00:02:54] to or is willing to unclog an errant [00:02:57] toilet.

That’s what most of you’re going to need. And again, that [00:03:00] there’s a version of that I think is a trainer that. [00:03:03] Handle some other things. And there’s a version of that on the far extreme I think [00:03:06] is like my relationship with Ilana, where she really runs the whole show on my behalf. [00:03:09] So I think that’s what we mean when we say number [00:03:12] two.

Is there any more context you would add Ke? No, I think that’s useful. I think [00:03:15] it’s just that for many of you, this is a kind of a missing [00:03:18] piece in the operations of your business. ’cause why many of you feel [00:03:21] so stuck in there as you don’t have someone who can [00:03:24] act for a minute. Or a month On your own. Yeah.

On [00:03:27] your behalf. And I think starting for someone who can act for a minute, meaning [00:03:30] like an afternoon, a day, a weekend while you’re gone. Yep. [00:03:33] And really is trained up to think like an owner [00:03:36] and have the decision making authority and power of an [00:03:39] owner. Yeah. Even just for a day is really [00:03:42] valuable. Kind of first step for many of you.

And so I think it’s a. It’s a great [00:03:45] topic for that reason. Yeah, so I think as we [00:03:48] think through this, I think there’s like kind of three [00:03:51] buckets of sous chefs. The first would be, and again, don’t, [00:03:54] as I caution at the retreat, different people use these terms differently. [00:03:57] So there’s not an accepted nomenclature here, so don’t get hung up on the [00:04:00] terms.

But what I would call a facility lead, which [00:04:03] you could think of as somebody that’s predominantly a trainer, [00:04:06] they’re on the floor 15 to maybe 20 to even maybe [00:04:09] 25 hours per week. And they’re mostly trainer, but they [00:04:12] are a first among equals. They’re a first among equals [00:04:15] and they are somebody that you can look to have a little bit more, [00:04:18] maybe some supervisory position over the other trainers, [00:04:21] but there’s somebody again you can trust to [00:04:24] mind the store and help you out and be something of the [00:04:27] hand of the king, if you will, or the hand of the queen.

Then I think. [00:04:30] I would contrast that with a general manager. [00:04:33] Now, a general manager might be on the floor as little as [00:04:36] five to 10 hours per week. Most of our facilities, usually they’re gonna [00:04:39] service some revenue just ’cause there’s not enough meat on the bone. [00:04:42] I think a fitness, a facility lead is [00:04:45] maybe helping with sales or maybe not.

Again, if this is very early [00:04:48] innings, the owner, you might still be doing all the lead follow up and [00:04:51] sales. If you’re dealing with a G gm, they’re almost [00:04:54] certainly doing some of it. Or the most extreme version, in my case, [00:04:57] LAN, is actually. But either doing all of it, or I should say is [00:05:00] responsible for all, but she has some support from some other people on the [00:05:03] team.

So the general manager, the last thing I would say, [00:05:06] and I think to my mind, this is the biggest distinction. If [00:05:09] you have a facility lead. They might even be called the head [00:05:12] trainer, but they have a dotted line [00:05:15] supervisory responsibility to other trainers. At that moment, the owner is [00:05:18] usually still operationally in the business, maybe still on the floor, and is [00:05:21] the primary manager of the humans, right?

So even if the [00:05:24] fitness lead is responsible for overseeing some of the pieces [00:05:27] of the role, the human manager is the gym owner, still the [00:05:30] primary. Direct manager. When you [00:05:33] get to the gm, now the owner is [00:05:36] managing the gm and the GM is in some [00:05:39] cases managing everybody else on the team. And obviously you can do mix and [00:05:42] matches and we’re talking generally.

So those are the two big buckets [00:05:45] that I think of. I would say the third position, which we didn’t cover [00:05:48] and won’t hear as a regional director, so this is a manager [00:05:51] of the managers. It’s only gonna be relevant once you’re scaling up to three [00:05:54] to five or more locations. But anyway, I’ll pull up there before [00:05:57] I think we dig into more in case you had anything you wanted to.

Yeah, no, I think it’s [00:06:00] really useful. I think if I was to summarize for our listeners, in [00:06:03] thinking through what your kind of sous chef or number two [00:06:06] does, the most important thing to think through is that have a [00:06:09] really clear job description of what their [00:06:12] roles are on the floor. Mm-hmm. In your case, in some cases, facility [00:06:15] leads gonna be on the floor, maybe a lot more, a GM might be on the floor a lot [00:06:18] less.

And then exactly what their tasks are off the floor, [00:06:21] if they have roles, responsibilities related to marketing, related to [00:06:24] sales, related to management, related to actual facility. [00:06:27] Stuff like clogging toilets and ordering [00:06:30] supplies. Yeah, and I think that everything else we’re gonna say next [00:06:33] really hinges on our listeners.

Getting clear about [00:06:36] what do you need as an owner? Yeah, what is the stuff you want the [00:06:39] support with? What is the stuff you want them to learn on your behalf? [00:06:42] Because then if you find the right person who can [00:06:45] do all of that, then everything else we’re about to share gets easier. [00:06:48] But having a vague J job description leads to [00:06:51] hiring someone who may or may not be the right fit.

Leads [00:06:54] to a really confusing. Confusing kind of [00:06:57] working relationship, and so defining the role first is like [00:07:00] just so critical on that. Yeah. The theme throughout our whole rich [00:07:03] recent retreat in Denver where we talked about people systems, was just [00:07:06] high. Defining that role and getting really clear about what you [00:07:09] want as an owner is just critical in many [00:07:12] ways.

Yep. Yeah, I think that’s all right, because the next [00:07:15] thing that I covered in the talk. And I might not be, [00:07:18] remember all of these buckets offhand, which just I, again, just there’s a [00:07:21] lot of different ways you could slice up the pie and you might, and I thought [00:07:24] maybe one day I’ll do this too. I bet I can make a list of there’s 50 things need [00:07:27] to happen in a gym.

Yeah. Yes. But for the purpose of conversation, [00:07:30] I put them into, I think it was actually 11 slightly larger [00:07:33] buckets. And these are things like facilities management, [00:07:36] things like overseeing cleaning, putting up the holiday [00:07:39] decorations, stocking inventory. You have member [00:07:42] admin stuff, which is mostly digital stuff, which is [00:07:45] largely dealing with things in the booking building plan.

Platform and [00:07:48] maybe either answering member emails or maybe [00:07:51] answering member questions if you have a front desk. Yeah. I shall also note [00:07:54] before you go forward too, remember we’re talking about who owns the thing, [00:07:57] which is different than who does the thing. So for instance, you [00:08:00] might have a facility lead or general manager that is [00:08:03] responsible for the bucket of membership admin, but that’s [00:08:06] not to say that your trainers can’t change a class if necessary.

You just [00:08:09] wanna be clear like who is it that owns a thing that’s [00:08:12] responsible for the results to make sure the thing gets done. So [00:08:15] facilities. Membership admin. I could [00:08:18] make the case for a client services manager, and this [00:08:21] is someone that’s most responsible for the retention initiatives, the various [00:08:24] retention systems, both in and out of the sessions that are [00:08:27] gonna help clients move forward to their goals.

[00:08:30] You could make the case that there is a bucket [00:08:33] of. Trainer management. [00:08:36] Now that’s the one, to be honest, is the one that might get split [00:08:39] up very differently if you have a facility lead or it can be a big bucket if you [00:08:42] have a big team. Yeah, in in part two, because the other thing too [00:08:45] that I’ve seen, and this happens a lot, one of the questions that came [00:08:48] up is a very good one is.

Can you have more [00:08:51] than one facility lead or stated differently? [00:08:54] Can you split these buckets out among other people? And the answer is like, [00:08:57] listen. And there’s gonna be pros and cons, right? You could maybe have one [00:09:00] person that you really have them as your go-to, but there [00:09:03] in a smaller facility, and also sometimes if you have multiple [00:09:06] people that have different competencies that want to grow, you might take [00:09:09] these, let’s call it 11 ish buckets and sprinkle them out.[00:09:12]

Differently among one to two to three different [00:09:15] people. One of our bi unicorns coaches Chris Travis, [00:09:18] that’s exactly the way he does it. His facilities have, I think, [00:09:21] three facility level teams and [00:09:24] they each have different specialties and they have a corporate level team [00:09:27] that also owns various pieces of this.

But anyway, to continue [00:09:30] on the trainer, like trainer management and quotes that [00:09:33] bucket. You might have a fitness [00:09:36] lead that is overseeing program design and the [00:09:39] coaching, but maybe you still have, these individuals are [00:09:42] being managed directly by either a general manager, even by the [00:09:45] owner who’s managing them as the human that becomes their point person if [00:09:48] they have a concern about the business or if there’s an HR [00:09:51] issue or the person’s primary responsible for [00:09:54] giving them their feedback.

And I’d say the thing that, [00:09:57] yeah, I mean, I’m curious for your thoughts is, my sense is you do need to have. [00:10:00] Leaving aside the fact that maybe multiple people can have [00:10:03] a hand in ensuring excellence of different departments. [00:10:06] My intuition is you really need one person who’s [00:10:09] responsible for managing the person that’s their manager.

Yeah. The person I go [00:10:12] to, they’re responsible for my performance evaluations. [00:10:15] Am I correct about that? Would there be like another No. 100 [00:10:18] what they say in the academy? Yeah. All the [00:10:21] research points to everyone who works anywhere needs to have one [00:10:24] person that’s their kind of go-to advocat. The person who [00:10:27] they go to when they have questions, when they have concerns, that’s really [00:10:30] fighting with them.

For them on their own, on their [00:10:33] behalf. Yeah. That they, and I think the minute you get into a role where [00:10:36] someone is duly managed by two or more people, [00:10:39] it’s really confusing. They might be getting different instructions from different [00:10:42] people. Those two people might have different ideas for where your career or [00:10:45] job heads next.

Those people won’t be giving you. Feedback [00:10:48] that conflicts. And so I think you really wanna have one person [00:10:51] to be the kind of go-to manager for each person on your team. [00:10:54] And that goes for your GM too. If you have a gm, [00:10:57] we see this in Unicorn society. If you have a GM or someone, a [00:11:00] facility lead and you have more than one owner.

Hmm. [00:11:03] They should report to one of the owners. Mm-hmm. Yes. And so I think [00:11:06] it’s the same reason even your facility leader GM needs [00:11:09] one person to go to. Yeah. To be their manager. And, and [00:11:12] I know we, we in the past had tried to have people just come to both of [00:11:15] us for, depends on what they need. And it was a little messy [00:11:18] from time to time.

Yeah. Even with the best intentions. But the minute it [00:11:21] became clear, at least at the end of Mark Fisher Fitness, that they just come to [00:11:24] you and I don’t really matter to them anymore. Yeah. It became. [00:11:27] More streamlined. Yeah. But, but I think, yeah, [00:11:30] that’s, it’s interesting bucket. I just wanna go back to one thing you said, which is when [00:11:33] it comes to managing the trainers, I do think that on smaller [00:11:36] teams, one person can do all the things related to managing [00:11:39] trainers.

And I think as your team grows, [00:11:42] I think it’s useful to divide that up, right? To really have [00:11:45] someone who is their manager, but other people who, who maybe [00:11:48] do continuing education. Yeah. Or program [00:11:51] design or things like that. If there’s a specialty, [00:11:54] I think that if there’s gonna be a specialty under that.

[00:11:57] Bucket. It’s because there’s a lot of layers to what the trainers do. [00:12:00] Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s true, and it’s speaking [00:12:03] generally, there is this. Kind of [00:12:06] trope that I think is largely true, that there tends to not always don’t get [00:12:09] offended. There tends to be like an inverse correlation [00:12:12] between the people that are great at the people think.

Mm-hmm. And the people that are great at [00:12:15] the training things. So you might have somebody that’s very adept at like [00:12:18] program design, technical coaching, but maybe [00:12:21] isn’t. The first person you would think like this person really can manage and [00:12:24] develop the human. Yeah. And then you might have somebody that’s great at managing, developing [00:12:27] the human, but maybe lacks confidence and skill in [00:12:30] actually overseeing the program.

Resign. Now, to your point, I think if it’s a [00:12:33] small staff, at a certain point it might get like a little bit silly. If there’s like three [00:12:36] trainers, it’s like totally, there’s three trainers and one is gonna manage [00:12:39] the training and then the other is gonna totally manage the other [00:12:42] two is the people. I think that it gets, that gets, I think, maybe a [00:12:45] little more useful if you’re dealing with a slightly larger facility [00:12:48] with the larger staff.

Yeah, I think, yeah, that bucket. Sometimes [00:12:51] can be split. Yeah. Let me just zoom out and ask some [00:12:54] questions I think might be on the mind of some of our listeners. Let’s just say that I do [00:12:57] start to develop this role for number two. Uh, where do I [00:13:00] find someone like that? It’s clearly you are looking for someone who has some [00:13:03] skills.

You’re not looking for an entry level trainer. And in as [00:13:06] gym owners, mostly we’re hiring as entry level trainers. Yeah. But if you’re [00:13:09] looking for someone who can come in and really start to take my place as a [00:13:12] manager Yeah. Of the people and someone who’s responsible for the [00:13:15] business. Yeah. How do you find someone like that?

Is the hiring process any [00:13:18] different for you? Yeah. I, I, I think it really. Pens, right? [00:13:21] In a situation of something like Alloy, again, that’s unusual. [00:13:24] That’s not the way most people do it. Like I need to hire someone from day [00:13:27] one that was gonna be boots on the ground, really run the facility. And that’s something [00:13:30] I caution there too.

Like it’s good to talk to Alana, [00:13:33] but that’s not gonna map to what most of you are doing. Where [00:13:36] I work on that business an hour to two hours a week maybe. [00:13:39] Alana mostly handles it. That I’m available to flex [00:13:42] up and minimum we’ll come back to some of the buckets. I think owners will more [00:13:45] typically own, even in my situation where I’m doing it mostly [00:13:48] remotely.

But yeah, I think if you’re looking for somebody [00:13:51] coming in with the chops, then yeah, you’re probably gonna look for a more [00:13:54] senior person. You’re probably gonna need to have the most [00:13:57] obvious dumb things. Your compensation’s gonna need to be higher. Yeah, you’re [00:14:00] gonna need to require a little bit more experience so you’re not training [00:14:03] from the ground up.

Now I will say. I don’t, not sure. That’s [00:14:06] not as typical for most of the gyms. We work. Again, a [00:14:09] franchise is a little bit of a different animal. Gyms more typically [00:14:12] you will hire trainers and then you’ll look to develop [00:14:15] someone with promise, maybe up to a [00:14:18] facility lead, and then as you pull yourself back piece by [00:14:21] piece, all of these buckets are like modular.

So we [00:14:24] talked about there’s like a facilities bucket. There is a, and again, you can define [00:14:27] these differently, but just for the sake of argument, facilities, [00:14:30] membership, service admin, client experience manager [00:14:33] or success manager, trainer, manager, and the other three that [00:14:36] I talk about. Leaving aside, what I think the owner should continue to [00:14:39] own are gonna be lead follow up sales [00:14:42] conversations and marketing support, which is to say you’re helping fulfill a lot [00:14:45] of the strategy, which is typically gonna be run by the owner.[00:14:48]

So. Oftentimes you’re gonna [00:14:51] want to develop something. Now here’s the mini challenge. You [00:14:54] might be in a challenging situation where the, you don’t [00:14:57] have the individuals that, as they would say, in traction, [00:15:00] get it want and have the capacity to do it. Yeah. And [00:15:03] that can be a hard thing too, where you might have somebody that like really wants the next [00:15:06] opportunity, but they’re not really qualified.

They don’t actually have the skill. They [00:15:09] can’t, they’re not good at it. They wanna do it, but. They want [00:15:12] the next thing, but they’re not really right to do this kind of different [00:15:15] position. Sometimes in four two, you also have somebody that could do it [00:15:18] and for any number of reason they’re not interested in it.

Yeah. Which might be because of [00:15:21] the third reason that maybe they would wanna do it and they could do [00:15:24] it, but just not the right time. They don’t have the capacity. Maybe there’s like a [00:15:27] personal life capacity thing, just not the, they don’t have the bandwidth [00:15:30] for it. So usually I think you’ll want to [00:15:33] develop someone, and I would say a lot of the buckets, again, these are [00:15:36] not.

That hard in the grand scheme of things. And of course, the better you [00:15:39] are at onboarding having systems, the easier it is to [00:15:42] get better performance for somebody that’s less batteries included [00:15:45] because they have a lot of support and understanding, okay, what [00:15:48] exactly do I do in this facility role? Because the [00:15:51] exercise you could do is I gave you.

Seven [00:15:54] buckets of things that a non-owner might do that a [00:15:57] GM or fitness lead might do. You still have to, first of all, [00:16:00] you could do different buckets, but even if you use those, you still have to [00:16:03] identify, okay, what are the subtasks of those? We gave you some [00:16:06] examples, and then each of those subtasks in theory [00:16:09] need to have a clear set of SOPs and a clear set of [00:16:12] probably numbers, the track with performance, or at least [00:16:15] yes or no.

Did this happen this day or this week? To make [00:16:18] sure that those things are happening, that everything’s getting done. [00:16:21] Yeah. Yeah, 100%. [00:16:24] And I think in, when I look over, when I kind of survey in my mind [00:16:27] all of our Unicorn society members, I think it’s a good mixture of [00:16:30] people who’ve created a GM role from within [00:16:33] and really groom someone and develop someone and mentored someone to be [00:16:36] ready for that role.

And I see that work out sometimes I [00:16:39] see that not work out. Sometimes. I think there’s what we also have a healthy mix of [00:16:42] people who. I found people from the outside. For [00:16:45] example, on this podcast I had Ben and his GM at at Lean [00:16:48] Strong on the podcast talking about he found her [00:16:51] as a manager of a local McDonald’s.

So she [00:16:54] came with all this management experience. Yeah, zero fitness [00:16:57] experience. And that seemed to map really well for them. ’cause what he [00:17:00] wanted was someone with strong management skills to really [00:17:03] take the people management office plate immediately. And so I would I [00:17:06] say all that to say. That there’s no one way.

I think hiring [00:17:09] from within, yeah. I think is a good ethos for a company, right? Always [00:17:12] trying to develop your people and give them a ladder to climb, I think is [00:17:15] great. And when the role fits the people that you have, [00:17:18] great. But if the role doesn’t fit the people that you have, you gotta [00:17:21] look outside and you gotta look outside the gym and really [00:17:24] look for someone who has maybe some experience.

Yeah. Managing [00:17:27] people or doing at least some of the buckets. Mark mentioned, and [00:17:30] at least from my experience, I dunno if you agree with this, some of the buckets I think are [00:17:33] hardest to teach. Or managing [00:17:36] people. Yeah, marketing and sales. Those. I think that’s [00:17:39] right. I think that’s right. Those are the buckets that if I’m gonna try and look for people with [00:17:42] stacked resumes in one direction or another, they have some [00:17:45] experience really being a manager.

Yeah. Some experience helping or supporting [00:17:48] marketing and or sales. That’s the stuff that I [00:17:51] find takes the longest for people to learn. I, I think that’s really right. [00:17:54] Particularly, again, if we keep playing this model, the first four [00:17:57] facilities member, admin, client, service manager. Or first three I should [00:18:00] say.

Yeah, that’s not that hard and people might be great [00:18:03] at it. Yeah, but that’s not that hard. I might even say like [00:18:06] marketing support, which like I Lucy define as overseas [00:18:09] Instagram stuff. I think that’s maybe. Medium, [00:18:12] depending on what it is you’re having them do, because there might be some variance there.

Yeah. [00:18:15] Lead and sales, interesting enough, lead, lead follow up and sales [00:18:18] follow up I think are, they’re such a discreet, it’s such a [00:18:21] discreet SOP, like that you don’t have like massive numbers of things that [00:18:24] would even go under those buckets. So in theory, [00:18:27] I think one could train with minimal experience. [00:18:30] My, my experience is you just have to really have somebody [00:18:33] with a natural interest in.

Aptitude for it like they wanna have. So they have be [00:18:36] good at it. Yeah. So if they don’t, if they don’t like [00:18:39] it, you’re gonna have some issues. It’s painful. And even if they don’t and if they [00:18:42] don’t have experience, but they have a natural aptitude for it. We’ve had some [00:18:45] great express over the years with people that, like even Brian Patrick Murphy [00:18:48] Tech, we didn’t have sales experience beforehand, or like Emily Feld, who’s now a Jim [00:18:51] member machine.

So we definitely had some people that [00:18:54] didn’t have experience but really took to it and really flew. And it [00:18:57] is pulling teeth if somebody doesn’t have a. Doesn’t [00:19:00] have the interest in that. Maybe just to finish up this model, just [00:19:03] to to finish it, the final few buckets I tend to think of [00:19:06] are, and these are ones that are usually owned by the owner.

When I [00:19:09] think of the three roles of the CEO. I’m thinking [00:19:12] strategy, right? So what is like the big picture? How are [00:19:15] we looking at like the numbers, the KPIs, the [00:19:18] finances? How are we have a what? How does that relate to [00:19:21] where we want to go, our vision, the goals we wanna hit? And then what is the [00:19:24] plan? Second, the growth [00:19:27] strategy.

So if we have a marketing support role, that’s [00:19:30] important. You can have somebody doing sales, doing lead follow up, [00:19:33] but ultimately it’s the own responsibility to make it rain. [00:19:36] And admittedly, this is probably where the model, if you squint too hard, can fall [00:19:39] apart, because ultimately it’s all on you. It’s. All the owner’s responsibility, [00:19:42] but I think mostly lead generation, it’s gonna be, [00:19:45] it’s not.

Impossible, but although the [00:19:48] owner will always own that, you’re usually not even gonna be outsourcing the actual [00:19:51] lead generation. You might work with a vendor, but probably you’re the one talking [00:19:54] to them. Though again, I could see a world where potentially yes, you have a [00:19:57] GM that’s managed that. I just see a lot, I see a lot of using their GMs [00:20:00] to manage real like business partnerships, to manage like the [00:20:03] real referral offers and campaigns, getting [00:20:06] past members to, to come back.

There’s pieces of lead generation [00:20:09] I see them really put on the, on GM’s plate. [00:20:12] But when it comes to things like. Paid ads, you’re probably not gonna get your [00:20:15] GM to become a master of paid advertising. You’re [00:20:18] probably gonna source that out to a vendor. Fun enough? Of course Ben did. [00:20:21] Yeah. Think that is one Ben Course you can.

That’s an option. And [00:20:24] from what I’ve seen so far that he seems to be the [00:20:27] exception, I think that’s true. Yeah. I don’t think I know of anybody offhand. And [00:20:30] yeah, and ultimately you need to. Be overseeing [00:20:33] the, I think the marketing strategy because a lot of [00:20:36] those two, I would put under the bucket of like support.

So another one too. [00:20:39] That’s very rare that Iana can do that I don’t see as often. [00:20:42] Again, you have a higher level gm, they might be able to do some business [00:20:45] partnerships. That’s not impossible. That’s like hard for a lot of [00:20:48] people to really have the. Wherewithal and the [00:20:51] fortitude to really go in with confidence and [00:20:54] glad hand and shake hands, not as the owner of a small [00:20:57] business, to get the other owner of the small business.

[00:21:00] Obviously there’s ways to do it. We have playbooks in the unicorn society. I have a lot of like [00:21:03] very like tactical, operational suggestions, these [00:21:06] dates to do that. Well, the last thing, the last two things I’ll say brief of [00:21:09] course, is leadership. Even if the GM is doing most of it. The [00:21:12] buck still stops you.

You have to. You’re responsible to. The team is loved, [00:21:15] cared for, feel supported, developed, [00:21:18] and then the least sexiest bucket. The 11th one I contacted on, [00:21:21] and I would note those three, and this are the ones I own at Emma, at [00:21:24] Alloy, is like the hr, [00:21:27] payroll, legal, dealing with leases. [00:21:30] Usually as the owner, you’re usually gonna be dealing with that stuff.

Now, again, you [00:21:33] might use proxies like I have oftentimes. [00:21:36] Virtual help that does a lot of those things for me. I’m not the one that’s [00:21:39] necessarily running and paying payroll, but I’m the one responsible for [00:21:42] that. And again, these are all up for debate, right? I know we’re running short on time here, so I [00:21:45] guess maybe as we come to an end, you can split this up different.

I [00:21:48] wouldn’t be wrong for me to be like, all right, Alana, you’re gonna run payroll and you send me a [00:21:51] report. So I look at ever you. You are the king of the [00:21:54] queen, right? You decide who’s gonna do what. I hope. The [00:21:57] clear takeaway here is just you have to have it written [00:22:00] down and clear. Clear, clear. Who is owning what?

Who’s [00:22:03] responsible for the outcomes? Who’s responsible for doing [00:22:06] the thing, and then what are the numbers? What are the results you’re [00:22:09] tracking to make that we’re succeeding at a given bucket? [00:22:12] Yeah. Yeah, I agree. You said, lemme just give some closing thoughts here. [00:22:15] The thing I’m, I think, I’m feeling compelled to say is that [00:22:18] for many of you out there going from [00:22:21] no GM or no, number two, to having all [00:22:24] these buckets taken care of for you is probably not gonna happen in [00:22:27] one sw.

You’re not gonna like, probably go from, I don’t have anyone to do this [00:22:30] to. I have someone covering all of this stuff for me in, in a [00:22:33] very short period of time. My invitation to many of you listening [00:22:36] is to start experimenting with getting this stuff [00:22:39] off your plate as an owner by starting to just delegate.[00:22:42]

More. Yeah. Start playing around with what can you get off your [00:22:45] plate, not just once for someone to help you, but get off, [00:22:48] get real categories of things. Yep. Off your plate [00:22:51] for good. And that process of learning to create an SOP [00:22:54] for the work you do, teach someone of the SOP [00:22:57] how hold ’em accountable to following through with that SOP, to having [00:23:00] them get to the place where they’re reporting back to you.

[00:23:03] Proactively, and it’s not no longer your [00:23:06] responsibility. I think that’s a pattern that you, I think it, you gotta start [00:23:09] to, it’s a muscle. You wanna learn how to build. Yeah. Before you can [00:23:12] fully let go of all this stuff. Yeah. And truly have [00:23:15] someone, for example, running the business on your behalf like Alana [00:23:18] does for Mark.

That’s not gonna happen overnight for most of you. [00:23:21] I’d say, I just wanna invite you to start practicing [00:23:24] delegating now, so when, if you wanna get to the point where you have [00:23:27] someone running the business for you, you can, you’ll know how to do that. [00:23:30] Yeah. Any other parting thoughts here, Fisher? [00:23:33] No, that’s great for today.

Great. We nailed [00:23:36] it. Plenty, plenty, plenty. Chew on. Plenty to chew on. Awesome, great [00:23:39] conversation. To always fisher and dear listeners, we hope you found value in [00:23:42] this and you can see a path to your future freedom as an owner, if that’s [00:23:45] what you want, and we’re here to help you come keep listening. We have [00:23:48] more tidbits coming your way.

Thanks, Fisher. I’ll talk to you soon. [00:23:51] [00:23:54] [00:23:57] [00:24:00] [00:24:03] [00:24:06] [00:24:09] [00:24:12] Bye.