#JTInTheRaw Show 8: KPIs & Responsibilities; Hug Your Haters; Rick Mayo & Fitness Business

Special Shout Out

Karmen & Craig in the US for the potential opportunity to work with your Teams. Thank you.

My Olympic Medals

My highlight this week has been Usain Bolt!  His 100m & 200m dashes were fantastic.  But what made it for me was a video I saw on Facebook where he is being interviewed after the race on Brazilian TV.  The interview was live and he asked the interviewer to stop the interview as the US national anthem was being played in a medal ceremony. He faced the flags and was silent through the playing and then returned to the interview on conclusion of the anthem.  What a class act.

Party Pooper Medal: Kitty Chiller for initially ruining Emma McKeon’s Olympics.

My Sportsmanship Medal has to go to Nikki Hamblin’s touching display of sportsmanship in a women’s 5,000-metre heat on Tuesday showed everyone what the Olympics should be about. After colliding with American Abbey D’ Agostino, Hamblin helped her up and encouraged her to finish the race.

And my ‘It’s Not About Me’ Medal has to go to Cam McEvoy after Kyle Chalmers won the 100m freestyle gold medal.

Every Olympics has stories and I am sure I missed some.  And I hate that!  In the comments below tell me your favourite Olympic moment or story.

You Can Win This Week

Win a 12 month Active Management Silver Membership by sharing this week’s show with a friend.  As a member you receive marketing templates, pre-designed social media mems, access to our Ninjas or world leaders in their fields, professional development videos, tickets to events and a member forum to connect with fitness business owners around the world.

Each person you tag will give you one chance to win.  The more you tag, the more chances you have to win.

#AskJT

A question from Michelle who asked ‘what are the differences between KPI’s and responsibilities when I am managing my team?’

My answer:

• KPI’s or key performance indicators are numbers you have to hit in your job.  These numbers maybe your bare arse minimum numbers, your targets or even stretch goals.  But they are numbers in other words, from an accountability perspective, you can say whether the numbers were hit or not.
• Responsibilities are what is expected of you to do your job.  Often these are a subjective judgment on whether you did or you didn’t.  Sure there are implications if you did or you didn’t, so there can be debate on how well or how timely you completed your responsibilities.

Michelle in my opinion numbers give a more accurate picture of performance. I would manage my Team based on numbers.

Remember fire any questions to me by using the hashtag #AskJT or put your question in the comments below and I’ll answer it in next week’s show.

Hug Your Haters

This week I have been refining my presentation on customer service and gathering material from Jay Baer’s book ‘Hug Your Haters.’

There is so much GOLD in this book and I try to share most of it in my FitnessBiz presentation but here are a few snippets:

When people complain and you solve their issue in a timely manner, they become an advocate for you.  In fact, research indicates this can lead to 20 times more positive word of mouth than advertising.

Not responding to feedback is a response.  A response that says “I don’t care enough about you.”

There are 2 types of complainers or haters:

• Off stage – who generally want a response
• On stage – who generally want an audience

The thrust of the book is that we can differentiate ourselves with superior service.  Which if we consider Tony Hseih the CEO of Zappos perspective is highly possible and profitable.  Hseih says: “We don’t look at customer service as an expense, we look at it as an extension to our marketing budget.  We’ve created a legion of promoters, which saves us dollars in terms of having to market because we let our delighted customers do it for us.”

What I Listened To

I listened to Fitpro Business Podcast with Andy Salazar and he interviewed Rick Mayo.  Rick is one hell of a successful gym owner.  His business is so successful he now licenses his systems to other gyms.

The interview was titled: How To Build A Dream Fitness Business. And Rick’s big insight was ‘systems.’  He said for his business to grow and maintain it’s market position, business systems were critical.

This really resonated for me as I see so many fitness businesses flounder when a key person or for that matter anyone leaves.  I see frustration from business owners on staff not doing their job.  And I’m asked regularly how do I keep my staff accountable?

The answer is systems!  You have to have every aspect of your business systemised.  This means you can focus on strategy not operations.  Systems solve your operational challenges.  Strategy gives you growth.

Next week…

A big week coming up this week, where do I start:

• I have a phone interview with Caroline West.  Caroline is the gatekeeper to the CEO of Soul Cycle, Melanie Whelan.  Please keep your fingers crossed that I can convince Caroline that Melanie should be interviewed for the The Fitness Business Podcast.
• We have FitnessBiz Brunch in Melbourne, where we have had a record number of registrations.  Thanks to all our Melbourne friends.
• Then the Victorian PT Industry Leaders Roundtable on Thursday and the NSW PT ILR on Friday.  At both these meetings we are analysing marketing plans.  In a recent study, it was found that 43% of fitness studios didn’t have a marketing plan.  My personal mission is to ensure 100% of my ILR members and coaching clients have a marketing plan for 2017!  If you would like any help with this, just pop in the comments below: marketing plan.
• And I’m preparing for my first experience at the Anytime Fitness International Conference in September.  I have a 2 day Roundtable meeting with their top 42 franchisees and then am leading 3 panels in the conference.

Hope you pulled some valuable info from today’s show.  Please tag anyone in the comments below who you think would benefit from the show and remember every person you tag will give you an entry in this week’s giveaway: a 12 month Silver Active Management Membership. Every tag is an entry, so everyone has a chance of winning.

Questions?

If you have a question for me, use #Ask JT on any platform and I’ll get it, or put in the comments below.

Quote of the Week . . .

“Business systems focus on smooth operations, allowing you to focus on the business strategy of growth.”