Last
night, while casually skimming through Business Insider in search of material for this week's Friday Four, a familiar face popped up on my screen.
Right there in front of me, on a website I frequent for business information, was an image of my college roommate and close friend, Kevin Colleran. As
you'll see by clicking on the link, he's accomplished a thing or two professionally since we graduated back in 2003.
While it wasn't the first time I've seen him pop up on my newsfeed in this manner, it was an important reminder of a cliche I hear all the time: If you are the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
I count guys like Kevin and my business partner Eric as part of my inner circle. These two routinely make me
feel like the dumbest guy in the room, and I'm okay with that. The takeaway: we should all make more of an effort to surround ourselves with top-performers.
On to this week's content! Let's start with a look at the material I've published on my own site:
- This Was More Fun When I Was Poor: I've been reflecting on how my relationship with work has evolved as our business has changed in a ten year span. On occasion, I find myself longing for the early days of our operations, back when we were too naive to realize the odds that were stacked up against us as
entrepreneurs. This week's post is a call to new and gym owners - the most enjoyable part of the process is taking place right in this very moment. Enjoy it.
My Friday FOUR
Four pieces of content I've consumed this past week that will influence my future blog material and challenge me to think differently about how I manage CSP - as always, I'm looking to bring you some
business-specific information from outside of the world of fitness. Enjoy:
- 30 Days of Arm-Care: My business partner Eric has established himself as a forward-thinker in the realm of managing the overhead throwing athlete, with a specific emphasis on the baseball community. He
recently launched a month-long series of tutorials featured on his Instagram account using the #30DaysOfArmCare hashtag. There are a couple of reasons why I encourage you to check this out: #1) Eric is demonstrating that when it comes to building your audience on a social networking platform, consistency is key. A day will not pass over the next 3+ weeks where he fails to bring 60-seconds of arm-care insights. Just showing up is the first step in the process.
#2) There is no substitute for bringing valuable content to the table. You'll see here that he isn't leaning on flashy video editing or gimmicks; it's nothing but rock-solid insights for his audience.
- Forget The Pecking Order At Work: (TED Talk): This 15-minute recording will all but guarantee you rethink your intention of identifying or creating a superstar employee. In fact, you'll want to run from the idea of doing so after Margaret Heffernan explains "the super-chicken model" during the first 2-minutes. I'm not going to
pretend that we don't have a "superstar" on our team after having put one individual's name on our business, but I can say that our organizational structure is essentially flat here at CSP. We're not wandering aimlessly during the 6+ months of the year that my business partner Eric spends in Florida. Instead, we are a team of ten that works to accumulate the social capital we need to create a forward thinking business and positive training experience. In short, we're free of a pecking
order.
- Why Your Key Belief About Market Research is Wrong: This piece serves as a nice reminder that market research
will always help you make safe decisions, but innovation is rarely the result of taking a conservative approach. Back in 2007, if you were to survey the off-season training habits of all MLB-affiliated athletes, you'd likely learn that 99% relied on the generic training material provided by their organizations. Instead of concluding that this market was undesirable because the guys "had it covered," we identified the population as underserved, and deserving of an individualized approach. If we
hadn't listened to the handful of guys who complained about the outdated approach their organization took, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to work with 500+ pro ballplayers in the past decade.
- How To Calculate Gross Profit: I know better than to think that all gym owners have taken basic accounting courses, so I think this piece will bring some value to the average gym owner who is intimidated by the task of managing the books. You can go ahead and breeze past this one if you can already tell me the difference between fixed and variable costs.
Make sure to let me know if you come across any material that you think I'd enjoy. More
importantly, have a great weekend!
- Pete