Most leaders think of their work in two categories, working in your business and working on your business. When you are working in your business you are engrossed in the day-to-day operations and are often focused on being a manager. Managers create structure and...

If you’re looking for insight into successfully managing a team, you’re not going to do much better than famed NYC restaurateur Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group. His book Setting the Table is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about what...

Read Time: 12-15 Minutes   If you’re looking to have a successful (and sustainable!) business, education matters. It matters a lot. Continuous and never-ending improvement is not only the key to making continued improvements in the business, it’s necessary to not fall...

One of the great debates in all of personal development and business literature is this: Should you focus your education on shoring up your weaknesses? OR should you ignore your weaknesses and focus on your strengths? In the 70’s and 80’s, personal development gurus...

Here are three things you (and your team) can do today to improve the customer service in your business. They don’t cost any money, they don’t take much time, and you already have all the resources you need to do them. 1. Ask more questions. The more you encourage...

When we look at the skillsets that make up “marketing,” we’re actually talking about many distinct creative and technical facilities; copywriting, building out “funnels,” analyzing FB ad performance, creating landing pages, writing value-building content, creating...

Here is a description of what can be a normal week for me. Does this sound familiar to you? On Sunday I sit down to look at my week ahead. It looks busy, but pretty doable. I have some regularly scheduled meetings, some plans I made with friends, and some dedicated...

Teaching is a great way to learn. Now that I've finally launched a time management course, something has become very clear in the research, creation, and execution of the course. The good news is time management is really only about two things: 1) Setting Boundaries...

  After you watch, please join the conversation in the comments below. How do you like to be asked for help? If someone was going to delegate a task to you, how should they do it? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!...

The To Do List is one of the most tried and true stalwarts of personal productivity. And if poorly implemented, it also has the potential to be the most emotionally destructive. If used well, To Do Lists free up your brain and massively reduce stress while improving...

It was July 16th, 2011, in the living room of Mark Fisher’s apartment in Astoria, Queens. I took the train from Philadelphia, where I had been living at the time, for our first ever face-to-face meeting about how to grow Mark Fisher Fitness. I showed up with an...

In this post, I’m going to give you a run-down of some of my guiding principles in how I approach decision making. When possible, I do my best to attribute, but I’m very confident I have adopted concepts that I’ve read and later forgot. We can assume none of my ideas...

Being a personal trainer is a tough job. I’ve never done it, but I’ve been in the business long enough to see how challenging it is. You have to be energetic but chill. You have to be demanding yet compassionate. You have to be informed but remain curious. Clients...

There are few things that can help you have more success in your business than using your time more effectively. For your reading pleasure, here’s a quick primer on scheduling your day. ********** When you look at a given work day, there are usually a discrete number...

Let’s start with the unfiltered truth. No one at your business likes going to meetings and that’s (probably) because your meetings suck. Your meetings rarely start or end on time, they’re boring, they are mostly filled with people not giving a shit or people talking...

When I zoom out to my most core beliefs about the value of business in society, I think of two tenets about business done well: Business should make you a better human. Better humans are more successful at business. It may not seem that way, because oftentimes raging...

We recently surveyed all of you — our list of Business for Unicorns subscribers — and nearly 100 of you replied. Thank you so much! Y’all are the friggin’ best! Overwhelmingly this was the #1 questioned asked: How do I create systems to help my business grow and run...

“I just feel like the magic is gone.” Since MFF’s birth in 2011, this has been an on-going piece of feedback I hear at least once every couple of months. And admittedly, for someone who is as personally invested in their business as I am, it really used to bum me out....

Tell me if this describes a team that you are part of or manage at work: We just aren’t all on the same page. We seem to be working toward different goals. No one seems to know what’s expected of them. Any of that sound familiar? If so, you are not alone my friend....

Welcome to Part 2 of our lessons learned from 2016. Miss Mark’s Edition? Check it out here. Damn. What a year it’s been. Happy reading!   Michael’s Lesson # 1: Some parts of your business are never done. Get used to it. I used to believe the myth that if you work on...

The end of 2016 marks the end of MFF’s fifth year in business. (What the hell?! Where’d the time go?! Where’d these gray hairs come from?!) In an industry where most businesses don’t survive past year three, we are so proud and humbled and grateful that we’ve made it...

By: Todd Bumgardner Folks that own fitness businesses understand the positive power of systems. We have billing systems, marketing systems, and coaching systems—but what about programming systems? Many gym owners, and their employees, are writing programs from scratch...

3 Exercises to Fine Tune Your Team’s Customer Service Skills   “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do....

Following my recent book post, my pal Dean Somerset reached out wondering if I had ever written a post with recommendations for fitness workshops, fitness business conferences, etc. After trying to convince HIM to write it, we finally decided to cuddle and make one...

For anyone who knows me in real life or follow me on the interwebz, it’s no secret I have a problem. You see… I’m a junkie. Every day I wake up and live a life of servitude to my addiction. It’s all consuming. It’s obsessive. And at times, it’s truly a burden for...

Oh booooy I’m excited for this one. For this week’s episode of Business for Unicorns TV, we have MFF’s “Minister of Belief” Brian “The Manimal” Patrick Murphy. (Yep. He has not one, but TWO unicorn names.) There are few topics more important to master in all of...