These Affiliates have all attended our Raise Your Game! seminar.


View CFLA: The BIZ Seminar Attendees in a larger map

Amway, advocare, monavie, herbal life, avon, tupperware... do any of these companies sound familiar? Are they in YOUR box? Are you risking the future of your business for a "down line" and hawking products that your clients may not really need?

Here's the scenario, if you're not sure how MLM works... you sign up "under" a person and pay a registration fee. This fee could be anywhere from $180 (back when I did Amway - yes I did it for a short period) to $2100 (what I believe Advocare is now). With this fee you may or may not get some products however you probably will spend more on that first day. Then you're coded as part of a down line... meaning every order you place, buying products (we'll talk about them in a second) from the Mother Company gets the person who signed you a bonus every month.

The products touted are amazing and spectacular and cure blindness... and honestly are just ok. They are, from when I researched them, about 15- 25% higher in price than other products that you could buy in a store. Also, when it comes to supplements like herbal life or advocare, who needs that anyway? Advocare promotes a 24 day Paleo Zone challenge... really? When did the early man have any supplements such as ANYTHING in advocare? Have you actually read the ingredients? What happened to you REALLY supporting a Paleo/Zone lifestyle? Do you see how hawking "miracle pills" is JUST like every other BS artist in the fitness industry?

You're lying to your clients by promoting this!

No one, that I know, promotes these exact type/amount of products anyway without the MLM aspect... if so, why not just find comparable products from another distributer at wholesale prices and sell them? Because of that darn "down line" is why. Hooking clients on useless products then telling them they will need those products and while you pad your bank account.

Hey, I'm all for doing a more robust business but if you sell MLM in you box you're stepping over wads of cash to pick up pennies. We've documented at CrossFit LA what a client was worth in a 2 year period which is in our free information linked on this blog page.

If you want to make a lot of money and have a secure business have an amazing product, stop charging $150 per month unlimited and charge what you're REALLY worth, work hard, show up when you're supposed to, train your duplicate and repeat.

A client came into the box a couple of days ago and said "there's always something different here" as he looked around. He's right. Andy's response was it's all in "beta" and so should your business. Your business should always be tweaking the experience, tools and methods to refine the process. Your business requires that nothing is set in stone and you are always innovating.

What are you innovating?

Post thoughts to comments:

This video is a Google training video on innovation and is an hour long and worth it.

Andy found this video on youtube about motivating your team. The video sheds light on the traditional "carrot and stick" motivation compared to news ways of thinking which, to me, resembles
Maslow's Theory of Motivation - Hierarchy of Needs.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

Post thoughts to comments:


Video 11 minutes in length.

If you haven't read the book GOOD TO GREAT by Jim Collins yet (or his follow up WHY THE MIGHT FALL) I suggest you get it tomorrow and start reading. For those of you who have read the book you'll recognize the subject of my post.

(to get a quick understanding CLICK on Jim's name above - THEN go buy the book to really understand it)

B.H.A.G is an acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. The B.H.A.G. for me is to train every affiliate in CrossFit to Raise the Game! of their business. Below is a video of something we do called an On-Site. I go in for 2 1/2 days and examine every inch of the business and tear it apart... for the good of the business. I then create a plan of action to take the business to the next level. I want to thank Jen and Matt Sharp, as well as Lincoln Brown, for inviting me into their great community. I now have friends for life.

Tell me, what's your B.H.A.G.?

Post to comments.

Why do what you do? Not the obvious reason, but deep down inside? While you're thinking about that I'll let you know what my "why" is with running the Raise Your Game! System.

I believe that more people could have more resources to build a better life. That the outcome of a successful business isn't just a large bank account, but a large QL (Quality Lifestyle) account. That more happens within the walls of your business when you learn to lead from the front. The right people will follow you to hell and back if you ask them.

Now. Your turn. Post thoughts to comments after watching this 18 minute video. It's worth 18 minutes of your life to find out your "why" if you haven't already.

In a recent conversation, the topic of hard work came up. As the discussion continued I was reminded of how I was when I first opened my first martial arts school. Obsessed doesn't even come close to describing my focus at the time. For the first 18 months I was all martial arts all the time. If I wasn't teaching, I was reading something about how to coach better. And If I wasn't learning a new way to teach, I was working on my own skills. If I wasn't developing my skills, I worked on doing a local demonstration with a school. If I wasn't working with the school districts, I was training my staff. I would listen to books on tape in my car everywhere I went to sharpen my sword on topics such as communication, dream building, time management, and marketing. My dinner conversation were easy to predict since I chose those times to postulate ideas from what I heard other, more established, schools were achieving and how I could duplicate it. Linda, my wife at the time, even told me I was talking about my business in my sleep. I was perfectly happy with not knowing who was playing in any sporting event... or movie... or even watch TV for months on end. My favorite thing to do was be around people who wanted this excellence in their business as I did. The energy from the people I surrounded myself with was palpable. The result. I had 400 clients in a town on 30,000 within 2 years. My school was voted the 2nd best martial arts location in the country and I was 22 years old.

If anyone has read Malcolm Gladwell's book OUTLIERS you may have heard about the famed 10,000 hours to be an expert. I think I put in my 10k in the first 2 years. It's possible (probably not healthy - let's be honest), I did the math.

I've linked two seemingly different videos at the bottom.

One is Gladwell discussing the Beatles. Awesome. The second is the trailer from the movie FAME. Fame was based on Juilliard in NYC. I remember watching this movie when I was young and what stood out to me is people practicing their craft everywhere. Between classes they're rehearsing lines to a play or writing. Spontaneous improvised dance could break out at any moment. People would jam with anyone who could catch their beat because they wanted to be the best. And if you don't know much about the school EVERYONE DOES EVERYTHING.

To me, your box should look like the hallways of Juilliard. Between classes, your staff and instructors-in-training should be jamming together. The reason I say this is because Juilliard produces the best and so do you.

So.... have you paid your dues?

Post thoughts to comments:

We've just announced that we're holding a special Raise Your Game! Seminar right before the 2010 CrossFit Games in L.A. in July. Seating IS LIMITED and most likely will sell out. To find out more click this link.


Enjoy this 5 minute clip of what we do at our seminars.

Raise Your Game! Teaser clip from CrossFit LA - The BIZ on Vimeo.

This simple home movie has an amazing view count (hence the tile of the post) and I have no idea why. There is no production company behind it like Lonely Girl 15 and the children aren't actors. The only youtube video with more views is a Lady Gaga music video by a mere 8 million views. And Lady Gaga is part of an entertainment machine. She should be ashamed barely beating two children.

Why do you think it's so successful?

Post thoughts to comments.

I believe most CrossFit Affiliates might not know how to define themselves. Some say Coach. Others say Trainer.

I say Leader. Leader defined as eagerness to do something.

Below are some other ways of saying leader. Find one that fits well on you.

Action
Ambition
Drive
Dynamism
Energy
Enterprise
Enthusiasm
Get-up-and-go
Gumption
Innovator
Inventiveness
Moxie
Originality
Punch
Push
Resourcefulness
Spunk
Steam
Vigor

Post to comments with the term you like best that describes you.

This video is worth every moment of the 2:41 it takes to watch.