A good friend, Robert Dyer, sent me a link to one of the most important documents that's appeared in our industry recently.  If you haven't seen it, Les Mills International partnered with the Nielsen Company to publish "The Future of Fitness: A White Paper."  It can be found at www.futureoffitnesswhitepaper.com.  If you don't have a copy or haven't registered at the web site, you should do so!  There is a lot in this paper that needs to be digested by our industry.  As I've read over the paper, contemplating the future, I'd like you all to consider a parallel I believe is relevant. 

In the technology development, marketing and adoption life cycle, a standard was introduced in 1991 by author Geoffrey Moore in his book"Crossing The Chasm."  Moore's work defines a technology product adoption model where new products are purchased initially by "innovators"and "visionaries."  This group of enthusiast make up the "early market." As a technology is brought from idea to early market, typically lots of "features" are hung on the product from the advice and feedback of early adopters and are included to create a product that appeals to even more consumers.  The challenge is that in Moore's model, lying between the early adopters and the next group, the early majority, a chasm appears.  The early adopters are consumers who are described as "enthusiasts" and "visionaries."   The next stage, Early Majority are described as "pragmatists. "  Even more daunting, the next groups, Late Majority and Laggeds are described as conservatives and skeptics.  The kind of thinking that appeals to the early adopters WILL NOT appeal to the Early Majority.  But the reward to companies and industries for crossing the chasm is that more than 70% of the market, early and late majority, and laggards,  lie on the other side of the chasm. Companies must change the way they think to effectively move from the enthusiast to the larger majority of the market.

On page 2 of the FOFWP three key challenges are identified from the research: 1. How do we remain relevant among the "converted" consumers(read enthusiasts).  2. Can we improve our offer to those who enjoy fitness but don't like going to the gym (pragmatists?).  3. How do we keep the industry fresh, relevant and competitive in the decades ahead..."  On page 1 the authors point out that "17% of adults belong to health clubs in any single country, and market penetration of10.5% is enough to be among the top ten of all countries."  When you look at this data graphically, our industry is in the "early adopter" stage of the life cycle model.  It seems that we're peering over a chasm at the majority of our potential customers.  Trying to light a rocket under the same thinking that brought us to this point won't be enough to get us across.  Fitness providers have to change the way they think!

What do the following have in common?  Golds Gym and Apple? YMCA and Google?  Personal Trainers and Technology Enthusiasts? Jocks and Geeks?  Until now, they've had very little in common only appearing together as ends of a comparative spectrum.  But our industry is dominated by brands who cater to early adopters like jocks, personal trainers and fitness enthusiast.   To date we've felt progressive stuffing some basic off-the-shelf consumer technology into our current offerings.  I call that putting lipstick on a pig.  As we examine our futures, we need to break away from the mental models that have led us here, just catering to the enthusiast, and begin to build an industry that is more approachable.  I read an article in the Washington Post today that was telling the story of a college that required students with a BMI or over 30 to attend a "Fitness for Life Class" prior to graduation.  That's progressive thinking, send the fat kids to gym class!   We need to prove that our product is stable,(doors stay open, associating with other credible institutions) and our products are reliable and predictable.   We need to see that the pessimistic, conservatives that make up the late majority (we'll probably have a few from that college) can see real return-on-investment.

These are the kinds of things we think about at ViA Performance Systems and you see in action at Lemonade Neighborhood Fitness.   When I opened Lemonade, I wasn't looking for the next big thing that would draw in the enthusiast from the facilities next door.  I asked "what are the basics that most people need in order to more effectively enjoy the life they're given."  I'm proud to say that our clientèle is just that!   We have a new video up on the Lemonade site http://bit.ly/9qpo2m titled People and Programs.  You can also see it athttp://bit.ly/cHuG2Q on YouTube.  I'd love to get you feedback because I know, me and anyone else, is smarter than me!

Thanks,

Don

I was driving yesterday, listening to our local public radio station which is in the middle of a pledge drive.  The incentive for contributing that hour was a copy of the book"Younger Next Year" by Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry S. Lodge. The subtitle of the book is "turn back your biological clock." The interview was with Chris Crowley.  This caught my ear for a couple reasons. First, the discussion was nearly entirely about fitness!  And secondly, I spent most of the last decade selling a product called BodyAge. BodyAge is a fitness assessment and programming tool that gives fitness professional  a wonderful opportunity to tell your clients how they can be 5 years younger on their next birthday - rather than just telling them they're fat and out of shape.

But what really got my ear was a statement that Chris made during the interview.  He was talking about habits and said that when someone starts an exercise program, their emotional brain will help them stay motivated for about the first three weeks.  But then, in order to succeed, the person needs to make it part of their routine.   He went on to talk about how - like saving money or investing in retirement - we need exercise to be routine. 

I agree; but routine alone is not enough!  This is where our industry is missing the boat.  In general, we have not invested in credible tracking tools that our clients can use to monitor their progress - a big part of what encourages us to "continue to invest".  Who in their right minds would continue to contribute to a savings account without credible feedback, authentic evidence of getting ahead?  We want to see that the account balance is growing!  Would you accept "Don't you feel better since you've been depositing money in your account" from your banker? I like to anticipate the day that personal trainers no longer use that line to justify the exerciser's investment.  

For the past few years,a lot of us have watched our contributions to retirement funds shrink, but we all understand what is happening.  We may have changed the modality of investment, but we continue to invest.  We invest because we understand how important it is to do so and prepare for retirement.   Progress in fitness is cyclical too!  We need tools to track our progress and make adjustments.  While some of us will exercise because we love it, most of the world knows it needs to invest in health,  they just haven't had the tools to track the value of their fitness investments. "Younger Next Year" is one of the best books I've seen when it comes to explaining the benefits of exercise and all the other tools necessary for a long vigorous life.  I cannot make a strong enough recommendation for this book.  Mr. Crowley has another book “The Younger Next Year Journal,” which by its own description is a “fill-in book with prompts that help you keep meticulous track of your workouts, your heart rate, your diet, how you feel.”  This is essentially a bank book for recording your habits.  No offense intended, but how many of you would continue to do business with a bank today that used a hand written bank book to track your deposits?  I understand that self tracking and self reporting are the number one predictor of change of habit.  But we live in the 21st century!  We need to be using systems and technology that provide immediate feedback of authentic changes in  a client's fitness.  Fitness professionals need to understand that they are competing for the minds and dreams of clients and members.  And you're competing against the spectrum of junk on infomercials and very good books that sell for $9.30 on Amazon.  

The good books and junk on tv are winning.  We need to assess our value as an ally and an asset to our clients and to those who aren't yet our clients.  We also need to avoid the reflex response of the race-to-the-bottom of pricing.  

Your services can be worth what you're profitably charging.  Your clients just need to be able to "see" what their contributions to you, their investments in their own wellness are doing for them.

We live in a time of instant access to precise information.  We retrieve our bank balances and our minute to minute portfolio performance on our cell phones.  These things are nearly universal.  Our fitness account information access needs to get to the same place.  This is a huge missing link in our industry. We're not keeping up with our clients - and therefore we're struggling to add value to their enduring pursuit of wellness on a broader scale. 

It’s important to always ask ourselves, “What is the incentive we provide our clients and members for their contributions to our business?"  We've focused on developing and adding technology based feedback systems at my studio, Lemonade Fitness,and with our ViA Performance Systems products.  This is what I think about all day.  This is where we're going and how we're growing.   Let me know if you have questions and want to know how to get on the wave.

Thanks again for your time,

Don

“Health Care” and “Health Care Reform” is a debate that will affect all of our lives as Americans and one that can provide life changing opportunities for us as fitness professionals.  I have a personal story that has me convinced and serves as a reference for all of us. 

Tostart,  I want to state that I believe the best solution to the current health care finance debate is to have a free market competitive system with apublic option.  As a business owner raised in the American system of free and open competition, I believe this is better than a single payer system. 

I believe in the public option because if and when I’m in the position of needing insurance, I’ll have providers competing for my business.  

Currently,when someone in my situation (Type 2 diabetic) applies for insurance coverage,I answer the diabetic question “yes”, and they raise the cost of the program. No further questions.   I'm grouped into a very high risk group that companies view as expensive to care for. In a competitive environment with a public option, the screening question is asked and answered the same; but there is a next question. "Do you check your sugar levels on a regular basis?" Well Yes, I do!   “Do you exercise?”  Well Yes, I do!  “Can you document these things?”  Well Yes, I can!  My genetics may put me in one group, but my documentable behaviors really mean something far more important.

Regardless of whether diabetes or another chronic or potentially costly personal health issue is part of your equation, we all know the effect of exercise.  This is the where our opportunity to make a difference and benefit professionally from doing so comes in.  With the ability for us to provide evidence of exercise compliance, the ability to document meaningful evidence of"healthier" clients, and the ability to keep them committed to a beneficial fitness “prescription”, we as fitness professionals can be elevated to Wellness Professionals and Preventive Care allies to a growing universe of needy parties – from Uncle Sam to our next door neighbor.

So how’s it feel to be at the center of the solution that represents TRUE "health care reform"?

At this years IHRSA meeting in San Francisco, I decided to spend the first day's early morning workout using the equipment supplied by Technogym.  This Italian company sure knows how to design beauty into exercise equipment.  It's stuff that I could picture in the living room of my imaginary Pacific coast beach house. But what else would you expect from the home of the fashion industry?  The company was running an incentive in the booth to have exercisers "try out" all the different pieces, they would then check off a game piece indicating that you'd used a piece, and you would move to the next piece.  Upon finishing the circuit, you would receive a Nike gift card.  Wow, what a concept.  Reward for completing a task!  Something more than basking in the glory of the size of the sweat puddles under the machine.  The only downside to the whole experience was the distraction I dealt with in the process. 
We have to shift the focus from what we, our clients, and the equipment looks like - fashion ... to what we, our programs and our equipment can do to help more people achieve!

I'd be interested to hear what you think. Feel free to share your comments back.  And if you know of someone you think would be interested in the discussion, send the link, or email me with their contact (email) info and I'll add them to our list.

Thanks

Don

Find "Flow" at Amazon

Learn more about "Flow" at Wikipedia. 

I had an interesting convergence of events this week.  First, I'm trying to get my head around web 2.0 marketing tools and understand exactly how they will potentially shape business in the future.  This blog is part of that process, and now you can follow me on Twitter @donmoxley.  I'll talk more about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in a future blog, but my advice to you is get an account at each, (they're free) and at least start listening.  One of the leaders in social networking technology is Guy Kawasaki.  Guy is best known from his days as the Chief Evangelist at Apple computers.  He now has a site called ALLTOP.COM.  Alltop describes itself as a magazine rack for the web.  A place to go to find out what’s being written about a particular topic.  I went there and started browsing topics of interest to me.  Fitness, Fitness Business, Exercise and Personal Training.  The only topic I found covered was fitness, and when I started to look at what was there, I felt like I was just seeing the same stuff from a lot of different trainers.  A lot of different water hoses with the same water coming out of each.
 
The other event happened when I was watching a Sunday morning program on MSNBC called Your Business.  Your business is a regular for me, I DVR it, and find a lot of very interesting information in the show every week.  What caught my attention were the comments of guest Lynda Resnick, CEO of FIJI Water.  She was discussing unique selling propositions and that Fiji water "fell to the earth 200 years ago, has laid in the aquifer, and has been untouched by man until you drink it."   http://tiny.cc/LkcZr. If you listened to Dr. Mitchelli's "Water. Water, Everywhere" podcast, well, there seems to be a difference in their perception of the product.   One sees it as a high quality, couldn’t be anything wrong with something from somewhere so far away.  And the other questions the quality of what is in the bottle because of the conditions of the water available to the locals.  Very different views.  But that's Ok.  Our different perceptions is the spice of life and ultimately what creates opportunity.  Look what a unique selling position does for water in a plastic bottle!  

Have you thought about what your customers' perceptions are of their experience in your fitness center, or how they perceive your professional fitness staff?  The bad news may be that most of our fitness center members say that the equipment feels complex and makes them "feel stupid" and personal trainers are "intimidating."  Looking at the product from the shoes of the consumer rather than the shoes of the seller or expert might be a good change of perspective for our industry.

Dr. Michelli identifies 4 factors that when combined give the plastic bottle and what comes naturally out of your spigot, an opportunity to create a unique selling proposition.  Convenience, portability, transformational experience, and a sense of mystery.  I started looking at these and feel that we as fitness professionals have the opportunity to use technology at our disposal to create the same factors and create unique selling propositions. 

Let’s start with convenience and portability.  I've always felt that comprehensive fitness won't work if it's only available in one place.  If clients' only opportunity to be active and measure the impact is at the gym, they're trapped.  We have to help our clients be more active at home, at work, and while away on work or vacation.  This is why anyone who calls themself a fitness professional should make sure and have a heart rate monitor on the wrist of every client.  It's not there to simply tell the heart rate; it does much more.  The modern heart rate monitor is a "fitness computer."  It not only tells you how hard you're training, it can tell you how much you've been training, if you need more, and more importantly to the user, when it's ok to stop.  It's a tool that can guide not only exercise but recovery and eating habits as well.  It can tell you when you should probably rest instead of workout.  I remember seeing Oprah talking about when she was traveling in Africa, her treadmill wasn't there so she didn't work out.  With a monitor on my wrist, my best workouts come when I'm away from home and able to experience new places while I get my workout in!

Sense of mystery.  A lot of the modern tools of assessment give us a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the mysteries of fitness.  BodyAge "helps our clients be 5 years younger on their next birthday!"  Isn’t that better than just saying your fat and out of shape?  The portable fitness analyzers like that available from New Leaf help us define a starting point and "fine tune" a program.  These concepts are big hits with our clients and are valuable tools to us as professionals.  Tools like Polar OwnZone help me personalize day-to-day training programs.  When we can combine technologies, assessment, program design, and execution, making the fitness process as easy as "put the key in the machine and hit start,"  well that's the ticket isn't it?   Many manufacturers are embracing a more integrated and sophisticated approach.  SCIFIT takes flexibility and fine tuning to the next level by giving you the ability to do both strength and cardiovascular training on a single piece of equipment, while keeping the trainer in the middle of a process that provides “authentic evidence” of improvement to the exerciser.

Helping people transform themselves by setting goals and achieving them.  Helping them become "different people" by defining themselves through what they have done, what they can do, and what they want to do.  Not by a number on a scale.  And helping them do it on their terms.   Now there's the ultimate unique selling proposition that will get more customers into our industry and keep our clients coming back for more.   If we do it right, there are a lot of people out there that will gladly pay "4 times the equivalent cost of a gallon of gas, for what comes free from out of the tap."

 

I’d love to hear how you make your “transactions” with your clients more memorable.  Feel free to comment!

 

Don

 

What Business Are We In?

 

I was in Chicago last week meeting with a couple of customers. As I walked through the airport, I caught a glimpse of a local Chicago "style" magazine with the title "Meet Chicago's Hottest Trainers."  I stopped, grabbed it, and stowed it in my pack for the trip home.  What was going through my mind when I grabbed it was, "Hey if these are the hottest trainers in Chicago, this might be a good list for the early introduction of ViA Performance System products."   "The hottest trainers would undoubtedly be interested in the state-of-the-art when it comes to fitness technology"  As I started to read the article on the way home, the realities of our industry gave me a big slap in the face.

 

The first featured trainer, under the banner of "Flex Symbols," is a young lady whose featured class list included: "Sexy Sculpt, Bikini Boot Camp, Hottie Body Boxing" and "Rear Attitude."  The trainer featured on page 16 listed her classes as: "Pole Dancing, Video Vixen, Chair Striptease and House Music Honey's."  Really, this was the list of classes.  This is what is being featured as leadership  in our industry.  Hello, when the list of classes taught by our "hottest trainers" can be confused with this season lineup of the HBO series Cat House, I believe we have a problem!  (Cat House is a series on HBO about a house of prostitution)

 

I'm not saying we need to have work environments and workouts that resemble doctors offices and prescriptions.   I actually think that’s as big a mistake as clubs featuring "Chair Striptease."  But I do think we need to recalibrate as fitness consumers, professionals and as an industry.  What exactly are we offering our customers and what is it that they can walk away from the experience we provide that can be referred back to as an authentic measure of our expertise?  As we develop as professionals, this authentic difference is the ability to provide evidence to our clients.  Evidence that our customers can use to measure the difference in fitness progress they make training with us versus someone who's masking fitness as pole dancing.

 

Authentic evidence is evidence of what's important!  In the fitness business, evidence is the measurement of progress.  We have to do more than just measure what's easy, our client’s weight on the scale or the size of their jeans.  Weight can be lowered and the size of your jeans can shrink through doing unhealthy things.  Those things won't make you stronger.  Those things won't give you more energy.  They won't put more "life" in your clients’ lives.  I'm talking about and challenging the professionals in our busines to start measuring the things that are important.  The things that make a difference in what your clients can do, what they aspire to do.  The measures that motivate them to live more – to continue enjoying fitness and achieving!

 

Don

au⋅then⋅tic [aw-then-tik] 

–adjective

1.	not false or copied; genuine; real.
2.	having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified
3.	entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy:

 

ev⋅i⋅dence [ev-i-duhns] 

noun, verb, -denced, -denc⋅ing. –noun

1.	that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof.
2.	something that makes plain or clear; an indication or sign.

 

–verb

4.	to make evident or clear; show clearly; manifest.

 

 

Giving credit where credit is due!

 

The first (and only other to date) person that I’ve heard use the term of authentic evidence is Beth Kirkpatrick.  Beth is a legendary physical education teacher from Grundy Center Iowa and she is truly a special person.  I worked with Beth at Polar and if there was anyone who should have the title of “Evangelist” it’s Beth.  Beth’s passionate and relentless advocacy for quality daily physical education is what we built our education strategy on at Polar.  Her vision of what physical education could be through the integration of technology into her phys ed classes out in the middle of Iowa was amazing.  I really appreciated all she did for me and if you’re ever looking for a true educational hero, stop in Grundy Center and just ask for Beth.

Well, hello and welcome to my blog!

This is really pretty weird for me. I'm pushing myself here just a bit, anyone who knows me well knows that writing is not a place I like to spend much time.  But this is important!  I think new discussions need to be started in the fitness industry.  From my perspective the industry is incredibly stale, and it doesn't need to be.  At a time when the grounds for growth in the industry are as fertile as ever, we are standing in a field looking in all direction at miles and miles of sameness.  I've been working as a supplier/provider in the fitness industry now since 1986 and was a consumer of it many years prior to that as an athlete.  In 1984 in grad school at Ohio State I remember making the decision to spend the rest of my life enjoying what I do, studying and teaching the physiology of exercise.  The last 10 years have been increasingly interesting with the meteoric rise in the capabilities of technology and now with my recent decision to create a company that would be a supplier in that space. But when I sit back and look at the industry I live in, it became obvious to me that the issues that need addressed will need more than just a single paper or article.   We need a new conversation.  My objective is to simply provide a different look at our industry and provide an opportunity for an on-going dialog at an industry that is becoming even more important to the lives of all of us.

We all hike!  Some of us hike in the canyons of 5th Avenue in Manhattan or Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Some of us like the pine forests of the Appalachians others the aspens of the Rockies.  Some of us choose to make our livings hiking through the cow pastures of Ohio or walking the wheat fields of the Midwest. While I think back fondly now of the many hikes across our beef cattle farm in southeastern Ohio,  one of my favorite hikes is on the La Luz Trail just outside of Albuquerque New Mexico.  It's 7 miles and 3500 ft of vertical.  When I'm going out to ABQ, I think about, it motivates me, I enjoy it.  The reasons we hike may be different, but we all hike! And even more today than ever, we have to be ready, physically, for the challenges in life. This became spectacularly clear to me in August of 2003. I was teaching a group of physical education teachers in Portage, Michigan. We were discussing the importance of the 1 mile run as a test in phys ed, and I'd said to them that one of my biggest lessons from the events of 9/11 was that we all need to be able to run a mile, if not to save our own lives. Then the next day, the power supply to the northeast corner of the United States failed. When that happened, if you were on the 50th floor of an office building, you needed to be prepared to descend 100 flight of stairs, and walk a mile or three to where someone could pick you up and take you home. That's the kind of hike that made alot of people sick, because they wern't ready for it.  This is why we all need to exercise. To enjoy, to thrive and to survive!


Let's face it, most people don't exercise. Those of us that do, well we're the outliers. But this is no different than other segments of the population. Most of us enjoy a good meal, only some of us enjoy cooking it. , We're all happy when our taxes are done, or our check book is balanced, but only a few of us enjoy the accounting. Exercise is important, but only a few of us enjoy it enough to engage in the process proactively. What we need to understand though is that just because someone doesn't like to exercise, it doesn't mean they can't enjoy it!  Think about that, it's possible to enjoy something you don't like.  I believe the reason most people fail to maintain an adequate exercise program is that when they're training, they're thinking of what this work is taking away from them, weight, fat, stress, and not focusing on what the work is giving them, what the are earning.

There are a couple things I think we as fitness professional have to take responsibility for in our industry. First, our opportunities to help people change their lives are growing stronger every day. Unfortunately, the "fitness facility" business that are the hottest right now are the 24 hour access facilities who have business plans built on elimination of the fitness staff. That doesn't say much about us as professionals and we need to address it.  Secondly, we are not doing a very good job of bringing new users into our fitness systems. Data shows us that the percentage of the general public that has a fitness membership has remained largely the same. Organizationally we're just exchanging memberships, not bringing new people into our facilities as a whole. We love what we do! We need to do a better job of bringing more people into our world. We must expand beyond our current pool of fitness enthusiasts.  We can do this but we have to change, progress, improve.  We can start by not just measuring what is easy, and start measuring what is important.  I think the important things relate to the hikes we all take.  And when we're focused on that, a process many may not like, will start to enjoy!

Why what we're doing at ViA is different

One of the issues that makes us different goes straight to our mission statement, Professionals, making fitness enjoyable, so people will do it, and achieve!  ViA is an organization built around creating successful exercisers.  Our business plan is built around it. This is how we will measure our success.  We believe the industry needs this perspective.  Most of the fitness industry measures it's success by the number of pieces of equipment sold, memberships sold, personal training session sold.  The drive to sell the next big thing in equipment has manufacturers driving features designed to distract the user from the task at hand   I believe we're missing the point.  There is virtually nothing today pushing these companies and membership mills to go back to their customers and ensure their success.  Having been part of these organizations, I understand their need to constantly look for the next customer.  In building ViA though, I've chosen a different path!

In the coming weeks I will write and video blog about issues like Work: What is it and why should you care, A different look at strength, Is your facility a fitness factory, warehouse, or boutique. The psychology of enjoyment and the difference between enjoyment, happiness and pleasure. I'll spend some time talking about our fitness pyramid and how this model presents a very democratic model for those who aren't in our market yet, to find a process that can fit their lives.

My hope is that we can connect, and through the power we have together, lead the fitness business to show the answers to the questions of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness.

Don

PS

I read/listen to several blogs and podcasts on a weekly basis and have always wanted to support them and spread the word.  I  really enjoy a blog I've subscribed to for quite a while now and really look forward to seeing it in my email on Sunday mornings.  Bob Tschannen-Moran publishes www.lifetrekcoaching.com and it's there where we found our definition of fitness, the physical capacity to enjoy the life we're given.  I get two great pod casts, one from Dr. Joesph Mitchelli and one from Dr. Monte Ladner.  Mitchelli's the author of The Starbucks Experience and The New Gold Standard.  You can find his podcast on itunes or at his web site www.josephmichelli.com/.  Dr. Mitchelli is a must listen for me and if your passionate about customer experience, you should drink everything he pours.  Dr. Ladner has a site called fitnessrocks.org and his tag line is "A podcast that what's to change the health of the world."  Who can't get excited about that!