Creating Space...
I've dedicated my life to creating spaces for others to flourish...
I've poured my heart and soul into our community, it's clients, and our amazing team.
Our average team member has been with us 4.87 years.
Our average client has been with us 29.92 months.
Although those both don't sound like much, the fitness industry has an 80% annual trainer turnover, 4 out of 5 employees leave each year, and the average client keeps a gym membership for about 12 months.
When I'm not pouring my heart and soul into that endeavor, I dedicate any "free time" I have to other gyms to help organize their operations, run better teams, and create a better space for them to flourish.
My vision has and always will be how can I continue to create space for them (clients and team) to grow and succeed.
Whether that means investing back into the gym for our clients, for example, in the second half of this year we'll have spent thousands of dollars and hours building out our new app for clients to use, as well as spent over $20,000 in creating a dedicated outdoor workout space for clients to enjoy.
I don’t take our clients support lightly, and I hope that by reinvesting back into the team, the gym, and the community as a whole, you see it goes to good use.
I sometimes feel I need to defend some of this (50% my internal battles/50% what I hear), hence today's post, but I also write this to share there is always a "we" in front of "me."
Every year our team sits down together to update the company vision, to create one that serves the greater good, and allows each team member to flourish.
Then we get to work and make it happen. The projects, to dos, and milestones we hit are 100% credited to their hard work and the action they take on our vision.
That doesn't come without enormous sacrifice from me and our team.
One of my favorite terms of 2020 is "blindspots."
We all have them.
I have them, you have them, we all do.
I think it's a huge blindspot for people to look at someone and think how good they have it, they see the green grass, but they don't see all the crap underneath that keeps the grass green.
Although I'm enormously grateful for the life I've worked so hard to create, and the impact we continue to create within the community, creating "spaces" for others doesn't come without sacrifice.
My marriage suffers because of it, I don't give my kids the attention they truly deserve, I have probably taken years off my life from the stress, my weight fluctuates like the stock market, and I had years where I wasn't sure how I was going to keep a positive balance in the checking account, let alone take an above minimum wage paycheck because every penny went back into the business.
Risk.
But they don't see that. They just see the green grass.
Many people on social media saw that we recently purchased a lakehouse, yes as space for my family to create memories at, and maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to shut things off a few times a year when I'm up there, but here's what a lot of people don't know...
It's been a part of our community vision for five years to have that property, a vision to have a place for team members to get away to with their families, to host retreats and events at, something that members of our team are truly passionate about and it will allow them to grow both in their passion and monetarily.
Which brings me to the Infinity Center, a 5,300 square foot addition to Spurling Fitness that I announced on Friday.
It's more space for others to flourish, whether that be to have space for additional programs so our long-tenured team members can grow, or space for clients, and future clients, to succeed and have an even better experience.
Again, years ago the team and I sat in a conference room to create the space of this vision. This space will allow us to change more lives, and also allow our team to grow, expand, and continue to showcase their unique abilities.
For example, Trent building out a great nutrition program or Kim building out her personal development programs. We'll now have dedicated space for those programs, to allow not only the programs to grow, but for the directors of each program to grow, again, with passion, and also financially.
I firmly believe in and try to live and practice what's called Servant Leadership.
I'm here to serve, help people win, and I know the more people I help the more I help myself.
Unfortunately, I'm continually learning, there will always be people who don't see that.
They just see the green grass and not the crap underneath it.
Growth is scary and risky.
We just happened to put scary growth and risk on top of one of the craziest years in history.
However, with authenticity integrity, humility, and kindness (four out of our six values we live at Spurling), I'm proud today to showcase what my team and I are doing.
1% Better.
Dedicated To Your Success,
Doug Spurling
PS: If you missed the announcement about the Infinity Center on Friday you can read more about it here: https://spurlingfitness.com/blog/infinitycenter
PPS: If you missed what's "on deck" at Spurling for the rest of 2020 click here: https://spurlingfitness.com/blog/ondeckatspurling