Justin Taylor | How to Find, Hire, Train, Retain, and Fire Coaches and Staff →

Published July 1, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 1

On Castbox.fm — Justin Taylor | How to Find, Hire, Train, Retain, and Fire Coaches and Staff

How can a growing gym effectively hire, train, retain, and manage staff to sustain long-term success and positive culture?

Developing a team culture strong enough to survive rapid growth requires meticulous planning and personal leadership.

[L]ead by example. Right? So that’s number one. I cannot ask somebody on my staff to do something that I’m not willing to do.

~ Justin Taylor (8:18)

The conversation covers the journey of expanding a gym business from a small operation into multiple locations with large staff. Topics include managing rapid growth, hiring processes, and establishing standard operating procedures to ensure consistency.

Cultural development is emphasized as key to long-term staff retention and gym atmosphere. The importance of leading by example and fostering a sense of community within the staff is highlighted. Personal experiences with hiring missteps and lessons from managing team dynamics illustrate the complexities of gym leadership.

Takeaways

Hiring process — A structured hiring process with standardized steps is essential to avoid legal issues and ensure consistent results.

Staff retention — Retaining staff requires creating a positive culture and treating employees as part of a community or family.

Cultural leadership — Leaders must lead by example, modeling the behavior they expect from their staff.

Scaling challenges — Rapid expansion introduces difficulties in maintaining organizational culture, requiring careful management and strategic onboarding.

Training systems — Developing standard operating procedures helps ensure new staff are trained consistently and effectively.

Personal responsibility — Business owners are ultimately responsible for the livelihood and well-being of their staff, reinforcing the need for careful leadership decisions.

Resources

Parkour Professor — A resource created by Justin Taylor offering mentorship and resources for gym owners.

Firestorm Freerunning — Justin Taylor’s gym brand encompassing multiple locations.

Movement United Gym — A gym in Michigan partnered with Justin Taylor for mentorship and operational support.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Rabbit holes →

Published June 30, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 30

Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and don’t waste time.

~ Michelangelo

Yes, I do spend a lot of time chasing white rabbits down rabbit holes.

I cannot tell if that’s because diversity of experience and exploration is central to what it means to flourish as a human being, or if I’m simply the type of person for which that is true. Which case it is doesn’t really matter since I can only deeply relate to my personal experience of being. (Recall, I’m not trying to accomplish ‘change the world’ with this blog; Rather, I’m working on self-reflection here.)

Today, an example of a rabbit hole: I have a way of reading entire web sites, one page at a time—software that keeps track of an entire web site and feeds me “the next thing” to read each day. (Aside: If you want to pay to make this a commercial product, let me know.) Today a post from some author (I’m ommiting names) came up that referenced another author’s book which quotes Michelangelo… and it only took me a few minutes to dig around the internet to figure out the quote is correct (albeit translated from Italian) and the original source is in the British Museum. Note to self: See if I can find it next time I’m there. Along the way I found a few interesting things which I shared with some friends. Along the way I learned several new things.

Along the way.

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All of humanity’s accrued knowledge →

Published June 29, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 29  ·  

As I elaborated in last week’s episode of my podcast, Neil Postman argues that it was the introduction of mass-produced longform writing that really unleashed human potential — ushering in the modes of critical, analytical understanding that birthed both the enlightenment and the scientific revolution, the foundations of modernity. It allowed us to efficiently capture complex thought in all its nuance, then build on it, layer after layer, nudging forward human intellectual endeavor.

~ Cal Newport from, On the Exceptionalism of Books in an Age of Tweets – Cal Newport

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I’ve often ranted against lack of attention-span, and wasted time. But Newport, and in particular some things he’s quoting and talking about from another article, make the point that all of human history is encoded in written form. Why is that so? Because it works, and it works really well.

There is a place for visual and auditory information, of course. Those tools of communication are power tools compared to writing—well, almost all writing. As I’ve said many times here though: One can have the power tools after demonstrating mastery with the manual hand-tools.

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Anti-productive →

Published June 28, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 28

These distractions aren’t just unproductive, they’re anti-productive. They create more work than they replace.

~ Mark Manson from, The Attention Diet

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I wish I had learned much sooner the idea that distractions aren’t just wasting the time spent on the distraction, but are in fact decreasing the value of the time I do try to spend on anything focused and productive. Alas, it took me decades of experimenting to deeply understand it for myself before I could truly learn the lesson. Manson’s article is, as usual, irreverent and explicit—but it has some terrific points in it about how to go about crafting an attention “diet” to take back your mind.

My mind does need a lot of down-time and relaxation. But none of that looks like distraction. I deeply love sitting down to some great science-fiction movie with popcorn. I also deeply love me some burly physical work where my mind can press the “body: do things” button and then wander out of the control room for a snooze on the terrace. (I imagine Homer Simpson’s sipping-bird left in the control room; but mine’s pressing the, “continue hard labor,” button rather than his nuclear reactor alarm reset.)

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Butterflies →

Published June 27, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 27

Photos from a visit to a Butterfly Conservatory near Niagara Falls, Canada.

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Some thoughts on file organization →

Published June 26, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 26  ·  ,

Within the team that creates the Movers Mindset podcast, we assign numbers to our projects. We use “R42” for our 42nd recording project, then R43, and so on. This enables us to start naming things from day one, in a way that we don’t have to change later. If you’re putting your files in a folder, what would you name it, that you could be sure wouldn’t change?

We also use our podcast’s initials on file names, “MM.” When we see files whose name contains, MM-R42… we know what it belongs too. It’s part of the Recording-42 project for Movers Mindset.

We also exclusively use people’s family names on files. So a raw WAV file from an interview is 20200423-MM-SMITH-TR1.wav … April 23, 2020 recording for Movers Mindset, of someone named “Smith”, and this is track one [a recording from one microphone.] 20200423-MM-SMITH-TR2.wav is track two, and so on. No matter where you toss that file, it’s going to make sense.

Eventually, a recording project might lead to one (or more!) episodes of our podcast. They get assigned episode numbers, EP56, EP57, etc. Then we have filenames like MM-EP57… and it’s always clear what that is.

Sometimes we have a dozen files to keep track of in a podcast episode and we end up with
20200423-MM-SMITH-TR1.wav
20200423-MM-SMITH-TR2.wav
MM-EP56-INTRO.wav (introduction recorded after interview)
MM-EP56-OUTRO.wav (outro recorded in post production)
MM-GCORD.wav (a little music ‘button’ used when joining bits of interview)
…the final episode is then MM-EP56-SMITH.mp3

Since I’ve typed this much, here’s another thing we do: We use consistently numbered folders to store the files. Every project has a folder, 2020.04.23 Bob Smith R42/EP56 — we create 2020.04.23 Bob Smith R42 in our archives when we do the raw recording, and at the very end we add the /EP56 to make it easier to find things. In side each project we create five folders 1 assets, 2 recording, 3 episode, 4 publication, and 5 social — the leading number ensure they sort in nice order in various displays. 1 contains anything the guest gives us (photos, writing) or any photos we take during recording. 2 is the raw original recordings, 3 is everything to make a podcast episode (intro, outro, whatever we have to assemble, AND the finished MP3), 4 is anything we create as part of publishing the episode (transcript, articles, highlights ) and 5 is anything that’s ok for social media and sharing. And then we have a multi-terabyte file server with a “few” files on it:

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Difficulties will arise →

Published June 26, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 26  ·  ,

It is not so much what you are doing as how you are doing it. When we properly understand and live by this principle, while difficulties will arise—for they are part of the divine order too—inner peace will still be possible.

~ Epictetus

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I am the elephant →

Published June 25, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 25

Ever since I first read these words, they stuck with me as useful for understanding the working world in particular. The whole edifice that we now call “productivity advice” distills, I realized, to instructions for cajoling the elephant. If you’re not firm, it’ll do what it wants to do.

~ Cal Newport from, Deep Habits: Never Plan to “Get Some Work Done” – Cal Newport

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Plan? Do? Chaos? I get so swept up in systems that sometimes I just bridle and rebel. I think the problem comes up when I have too many systems that don’t have an end goal. My systems are supposed to make the space for me to get real things done. But if all I have is ongoing systems of the busy-work that’s supposed to make space, then I rebel. Because I also need real projects. I want to spend as much of my time as possible getting real things done. Real things for which I have real reasons for wanting to do them. And those real things require real planning.

Generally, I don’t have a problem with over-planning; I can do a tremendous amount of planning, but experience shows that I always do better if I resist the urge to begin… start now! Take action! It’s always better if I resist action, instead doing a brain-dump session and then setting the whole thing aside. When I return later, more ideas flow and more planning ensues. Maybe a third session. Maybe even a fourth.

Meanwhile, the elephant dozes as I plan surreptitiously.

Ever notice that the “doze” in bulldozer is the exact opposite of the elephant’s? Eventually, the planning reveals a beautiful domino setup, and it’s time to awaken the elephant who easily bulldozes them one by one.

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Adam McClellan | Know Your Numbers →

Published June 24, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 24

On Castbox.fm — Adam McClellan | Know Your Numbers

Adam McClellan | Know Your Numbers

How can Parkour business owners use financial data to better understand and grow their businesses?

Many business owners are unaware of their financial health until they see the gaps in their numbers.

Businesses want to be successful, but you don’t know what success is, if you didn’t set some kind of goal in the first place.

~ Adam McClellan (7:31)

The conversation focuses on the importance of understanding and tracking financial data for running and growing a Parkour business. It emphasizes that many business owners overlook key financial indicators, which leads to uncertainty and poor decision-making. A major theme is that budgeting, like the rules of a game, provides structure and clarity, enabling better goal-setting and resource allocation.

The discussion explores practical steps such as tracking income and expenses, creating performance indicators, and comparing data year-over-year to identify trends. The value of making assumptions, trusting them, and consistently testing them against actual data is highlighted as essential for success. The conversation also underscores the psychological benefit of financial clarity, helping owners make confident decisions about hiring, marketing, and expanding.

Takeaways

Budgeting as structure — A budget is necessary to define goals and measure progress in business.

Tracking key indicators — Key performance indicators help measure and improve critical business processes.

Assumptions in decision-making — Assumptions, when tracked and adjusted regularly, are essential for planning.

Growth as a challenge — Businesses should set achievable but slightly challenging growth goals to stay competitive.

Confidence through clarity — Knowing financial numbers provides confidence when making hiring and expansion decisions.

Empty space for growth — Unstructured time at events can lead to organic, valuable connections and ideas.

Resources

Lehigh Valley Parkour — Adam McClellan’s Parkour business website.

Parkour Generations Americas — Organization involved in Parkour education and leadership.

Art of Retreat — Event for Parkour professionals focused on leadership and education.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Bias to action →

Published June 24, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 24

The full definition of leadership that Badaracco gradually unfolds through literature in the course is: “Leadership is a struggle by flawed human beings to make some important human values real and effective in the world as it is.”

~ Martha Lagace from, Machiavelli, Morals, and You | Working Knowledge

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I’ve mentioned bias to action previously, but I don’t recall having every connected it to one of Machiavelli’s best-known quotes, that fortune favors the bold. (Click through for more context.) Here I’m struck by Badaracco’s choice of, “effective,” as a critical feature of leadership. Certainly without action, there can be no efficacy. (And, yes, using my words totally counts as action, thank you.) Leaders are by definition out in front. That means acting first, and that presumes being capable of acting. If my bias is towards inaction, (gather more data, think about it more, however you want to mince those words,) I cannot be a good leader.

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