That was the extent of my business plan when I first started.
“Serve well, who is directly in front of you.
That was the extent of my ‘business plan’ when I first started.
It was missing A LOT, but come to find out, it didn’t matter.
‘A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.’ -George S. Patton
-Ray Zingler on X
The greatest “review” I’ve ever received came from a man, now deceased after a battle with cancer was this:
“Despite Ray being as busy as he is, and having as many clients as he does, he somehow finds a way to make your kid feel like he/she are his only client.”
And while this review is one I’ll forever hold dear to my heart, what makes it even more special to me is that Jeff Salyer had not 1, but 2 of his kids in our program.
When I first started, I wasn’t focused on cool #entreprenuer hashtags, my income, or really even growing the gym.
I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.
I was focused on one thing and one thing only.
Serving who was directly in front of me.
It did not matter to me how many clients I had, who was paying what per hour, how long they were going to be members of the gym, their potential or lacktherof of growing my brand with referrals, none of it.
If there was a soul in front of me, black, white, short, tall, athletic, unathletic, rich, or poor, I was going to serve them with everything I had inside of me.
I was determined to share my passion for the iron game with them and at the very least, ensure their time spent with me was the best hour of their day.
And now looking back I know that the explosive growth I experienced in the first 2 years of business was a byproduct of NOT trying hard to market.
I didn’t even have a sign (still don’t). I didn’t have the address posted publicly (still don’t). You couldn’t have found the gym if you tried. Great strategy for growing a business, huh!?
The ONLY way anyone could discover me was through word of mouth.
And I never asked for a single referral, not one (yes, you should ask for referrals).
I have come to find out that what I experienced was the law of indirect effort (towards what every business guru will tell you to focus on) because all of my bandwidth was focused on serving people.
What I lacked in business acumen, I made up for in deeply giving a shit about people.
