Business Planning & Growth

Become a Learning Machine

Long time readers know your author REEEEALLY likes education. Books, audiobooks, podcasts, courses, conferences: learning is my hobby and my passion. And it’s been the key to my success. So it’s with great excitement that I bring you the updated version of my personal...

If I Could Go Back in Time [Aging Gym Owners]

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time in the industry, it’s a confirmation of a well-known psychological principle: Humans are bad at anticipating what will actually make us happy. The fancy term for this is “affective forecasting.” Here’s how it shows up with...

Step-by-Step Plan to Immediately Boost Revenue [Easy!]

Keeping today super quick, cuz I’m FLYING TO VEGAS TO HAVE ALL THE FUN AT THE UNICORN SOCIETY RETREAT. (sorry for the caps. just very excited.) But before we dig into today’s content… Remember, for the FIRST TIME EVER, I’m offering a full day of Mentorship with yours...

Spend the Day with MF in NYC?

For the first time ever, I’m offering a full day of personal mentorship at Mark Fisher Fitness for a small handful of gym owners. It will have a hard cap of 4 gyms max to ensure tons of individual attention. This will be a truly game-changing opportunity to spend an...

Is AI taking your job? Maybe…?

Below are some bold predictions about how artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT3 and DALL-E are going to impact your work as a gym owner. You and your staff will still play the most important role. The “human stuff” will be hard and probably impossible to...

3 Tips To Level Up Your Sales Process

,,Today we have a guest email from BFU coach Ben “The Secret Weapon” Pickard. Ben recently had the dreaded “Key Hire Loss.” But because he’s a bad-ass, he leveraged this opportunity to actually improve his sales process before getting a replacement to take the role...

Bad News Coming Down The Pike…

There are some economic headwinds a-blowin’. It would be unwise to completely ignore them. And even sillier to not be prepared if things keep going south. The good news is most training gyms can buffet macroeconomic storms pretty well. If you’ve been doing the right...

Writing Emails People *actually* Want To Read [5 Tips]

This weekend is our Unicorn Society retreat in Portland, OR.  Our team and Unicorn Society members are spending the weekend working on their businesses, drinking amazing coffee and craft beer, and enjoying summer in one of my favorite cities. And I’m not gonna be...

The Only Way You’ll Ever be Free

Today is an exciting day, as I’m heading to Perform Better in Orlando. It’s one of my favorite events, and it feels so good to be back in person for the first time in two years.   I’m giving a talk that covers the 10 Ways To Grow Your Training Business in 2022. If you...

BFU’s #1 Blog Post

First up, I want to share an awesome (free) offer from my pal Sumit at Naamly. I’m speaking at Perform Better in Orlando, FL next week from June 3rd-5th, and thanks to Sumit, you can see me speak for free. We know inflation has made things super expensive and we also...

I’m nervooooous [Help Requested]

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but after a few months of working out the kinks, lots of learning, and getting up the first batch of videos… I’m proud/ nervous to debut the new Mark Fisher YouTube Channel! Your support would mean so much. I’ve been working...

Does Your Facility Look Like sh*t?

Maybe that’s the issue  Now I don’t actually know, of course. I’ve not been to most of your facilities. But some fitness facilities do look like doodoo. As the oft-quoted, possibly made-up, but still reasonable-to- believe stat goes, the number one reason people leave...

How Can I Sell Without Feeling Sleezy?

Today we’re going to cover how to sell your services without feeling sleezy. First point: if you’re concerned about this, you probably don’t need to worry. At the end of the day, those of us that are concerned about turning people off or being too pushy usually don’t...

How To Learn Faster

If you’re a long-time reader you know I’m pretty aggressive about my education.BEHOLD. *Cue the Majestic Trumpets of Angels” In all honesty, I can’t think of anything more fun than learning.  In fact, if there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s this: Mark Growing/...

36 hours Of Pain

One of the hardest parts of running a business is “ripping off band-aids.” The band-aid in question can be any number of situations demanding a change: A pricing model that won’t allow for profitability A long term employee that’s no longer working out A new hire that...

I Messed This One Up…

Let’s discuss something I could have done better during MFF’s first 9+ years. You see, I will forever identify as an artist. I want MFF to be the most human business possible. I don’t want to overly constrict our operations by forcing people into the straight jack of...

Why Your Marketing Sucks (And How to Fix It)

It’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up! Not all of us had the good fortune to receive a BFA in musical theater, the widely accepted gold standard for education in fitness business excellence. *Mark humbly bows to you with a flourish of his top hat* Furthermore, the confusion...

Fitness Business Coaches [The Truth]

Here’s a common point of debate in the Fitness Business Guru Industrial Complex: Do fitness business coaches need to be running their own training gym? (Longer one today… get a cup o’ joe to sip on…) One side of the issue says:  “Yes. If you’re not (currently) running...

Why Should You Start a Business?

My dearest, please indulge me as today we’re getting semi-philosophical. There are lots of reasons to start a business. To help more people. To be the captain of your professional fate. To have fun. To increase your earning potential. To learn and grow as a human...

240 Words on Building a Business

Building a business is not for everyone. It takes guts, vision, and persistence.    If you want to build a business...   You’ve got to have a vision for the value you can bring to the world and be willing to fight like hell to make it happen.    You...

What Can You Learn From 2019?

We’d all like to believe that we’re the kind of person who learns from our past to improve our future. That is exactly what my article will help you do today. As 2019 comes to a close, give yourself the gift of self-reflection to consider all the highs and lows of the...

The New Must-Have Skillset for Business Leaders

(Disclaimer: Hey Fitness People! To avoid any confusion, when I use the word coach in this context I’m talking about the umbrella term for any professional who guides and instructs and not specifically a personal trainer or fitness coach. Cool? Disclaimer over.)...

5 Quick(ish) Thoughts On Luck, Survival, and Success

Behold! Some useful and provocative business musings to make your life and business better. ************************ Beware Of Advice From Successful, Lucky Idiots A strong operator can handle a crappy market. An amazing market can prop up a sloppy operator. The right...

What’s Cash Flow And Why Should You Give A Sh*t?

You have heard the expression cash is king, right? Well, in business that couldn't be more true. Let's start with the basics.   What is cash flow?   Cash flow is the total amount of money being transferred into and out of your business on a regular basis....

Our Free System for Managing Customer Experience

At Mark Fisher Fitness (MFF) feedback is our greatest currency. When we foster an open dialogue between our team and our Ninjas (aka clients) our culture and community thrive as a result. With the currency of feedback, you can buy what we all seek in our relationships...

How to Onboard New Clients for Long Term Relationships

The beginning of any relationship is always a delicate thing. You’re setting the tone for how things are going to go. Your actions and behaviors are telling the story of how you’ll be showing up for the other party. And understandably, the other party makes a lot of...

3 Questions to Ask When Hiring Your First Team Member

One of the most important decisions you will make when you are starting or growing your business is who to hire as your first team member. While hiring the right people for your team is always important, making your first hire as a new business is uniquely critical....

How to Define Your Company’s Values and Make Them Stick

Let’s start at the very beginning. (I hear it’s a very good place to start. #musicaljokes) What the heck are values? Values are our standards of behavior, our judgment of what is important in life. If I were to ask you about the things you value most in your personal...

The 5 Minute Mission Statement

Your company’s mission statement answers the simple question, why do you exist? Having a good answer to that question isn’t trivial. Having a good answer to that question will influence every decision you make about your business. It defines your purpose. Without a...

10 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR BUILDING A BUSINESS

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...

DEAR FITNESS INDUSTRY

[Originally Posted October 2016, Updated June 2018]   Dear Fitness Industry, Am I invisible? Every day I see your ads online, on TV, and in the street, but none of them seem to be for me. I can see you, can you see me? I know you are a big industry with lots of...

YOUR SECRET WEAPON FOR BUILDING TEAM MORALE

It’s Wednesday afternoon at your fitness facility, 4:30 pm. Your evening trainers are just shuffling in to prepare for the tidal wave of clients that will be pouring through the door in the next few hours. Let’s take a closer look at your training team to see how...

THE ONE THING YOU MUST KNOW FOR UNREASONABLE BUSINESS SUCCESS

Sorry for the linkbaity title. But there really is one thing you must know. First, let’s think about your death. You’re gonna die one day. So am I. What type of impact do you want to make on the world while you’re here? Whether you own a business or work for a...