We live in a world where there are politicians, media outlets, retailers, and service providers that are COUNTING on the ignorance of their constituents, viewers, and consumers.  I’m referring to the politicians who tell bold face lies on hot-button topics that often leave them as complete hypocrites but endear them to those who don’t pay enough attention to the news to realize that they’re selling a load of crap. Or the... 

On August 7th, Athletic Lab celebrated it’s first birthday. While the day went by with no fanfare, I’m glad about where we are as a business. The facility, our training, and clients have been under constant evolution. We’re trying to get better at what we do every day while letting people know along the way. This first year open has been a tremendous learning experience. We’ve learned from our mistakes as well as... 

Last weekend I went to the NC State Fair grounds with my family to go to a Chick-Fil-A sponsored event to promote their new Spicy Chicken sandwich. It was open to anyone who wanted to go. They gave away 10,000 free Chicken sandwiches, had free cotton candy, free Coke products,  free popcorn, free amusement rides, free gift cards for everyone who attended, etc, etc. There were fire trucks there, free temporary tattoos, and even dance exhibitions.... 

Today we rid ourselves of one of the biggest leaches on our business. Not a client per se, but a third party who we had partnered with a while back. Initially the partnership seemed like a good idea because it had the potential to bring new clients to us (which it didn’t…any clients we got from this organization we had before partnering), bring in extra revenue (which it did…albeit marginally), and provide an opportunity... 

My business, Athletic Lab, has been open for almost a year now. Business has picked up slowly but steadily throughout the year. Overall, a little slower than my usual fatally optimistic expectations but growth is good nonetheless and we’ve moved beyond the proverbial tipping point that all businesses must reach before they either fail or succeed (we’re succeeding ). One thing that’s helped with current growth is that I... 

For the past couple months, I’ve been putting in 75 hour weeks at Athletic Lab. Days typically start at 6am (with the first training session at 7) and end around 7 or 8pm. Add to that about 10-12 hours between Saturday and Sunday. And 2-3 speaking engagements a month that take me out of town. The past two days have been 15 hour days and yesterday I didn’t see my daughter other than coming home to find her sleeping. So much for... 

If you don’t market your business who will? This is something I’ve learned over the past two years as I scrape and scramble to make my business thrive. Anyone that’s spent any time with me over the past 4 months would think that I only own shirts embroidered or printed with the company name and website. Likewise, I always have several business cards and brochures handy to give to the next potential customer. This is especially... 

Dolly Parton ain’t got nothin’ on me. Well come to think of it she does have two pretty big things – a beautiful voice and a taste for country music…what did you think I was referring to? For the past 3 months I’ve had at least two days a week where I’ve been starting my day at 5am (for a 5:45 training session at Athletic Lab) and not leaving the training center until 9 (or later). We’re open 7 days... 

In my previous blog post I mentioned some things I do to increase productivity. Of all of them the one that might be most easily picked up by others is making use of what might otherwise seem like wasted time. Just because you’re stuck in line at the DMV or airport, waiting to pick someone up or be picked up, or in grid locked traffic doesn’t mean the time has to be wasted. Find something productive to do. We’ve all got dozens of menial... 

About 10 months ago I moved from Ohio, where I had been living for a couple months to focus on finishing my doctoral dissertation to North Carolina to start on a new business venture. Before I could open my sport training facility there was much to be done with equipment, finding a location, waiting for lease agreements to process, etc. While doing all this I thought it would be wise to start building a client base by offering to train athletes...