The Power of Five Adjectives
So, this month I decided to perform a little “exercise” on marketing, company culture, and core values. I asked each of our trainers to describe the “Sweat Life experience” or answer the question “What does it mean to live the Sweat Life” using only 5 adjectives.
I was hoping for some creative and positive feedback (which I received), but I was also hoping for consistency and uniformity among the responses (which I also received). My thought process here was that, if all 8 trainers have similar answers, then we are doing a good job of marketing ourselves, creating a consistent brand/message, and communicating that message in an effective manner. Below are the actual answers given by each trainer.
Trainers:
Kyle: Fun, friendly, positive, family environment, professional
Chris: Fun, family, positive, clean, welcoming
Kourtney: Friendly, personable, private, positive, motivating
Rebekah: Fun, supportive, best-part-of-my-day, challenging, fast-paced
Sally: Passionate, personal, family, innovative, motivating
Art: Personal, friendly, diligent, clean, detailed
Rob: Fun, knowledgeable, caring, clean, personable
As you can see, there was quite a bit of overlap and consistency amongst the entire training staff. Yeah. I was feeling good! But, I was not sure what to do with this new found information. It didn’t really tell me everything that I wanted to know; namely how does this information relate to how our clients view us?
So, my next step was to discover if our clients and community shared the same perception of us as we felt of ourselves. In other words, will they use the same (or similar) 5 adjectives to describe us and our business? So, I sent an email to our entire email list and posed the same question that I had asked the trainers. I was blown away (and humbled) at the number of responses I received – and how quickly I received them. Even more interesting and surprising were the responses themselves.
Whereas the 5 adjectives of me and my training staff focused on base level needs such as a clean studio, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and motivating environment; the majority of the 5 adjectives I received from clients had a different focus; a more intangible and almost spiritual quality. They employed words like exhilarating, fulfilling, exceptional, empowering, freeing, peaceful, balanced, rewarding, fun, and life-changing. WOW! Like I said, I was blown away.
What did all of this mean? These were not the same adjectives that we as owners and staff had used to describe “the Sweat Life experience.” Have we done a terrible job of communicating our culture and our values? At first, this is what I thought. Then it became clear to me.
We (myself and my team) were so focused on providing and maintaining our client’s base needs (think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) that we neglected to realized that we were actually helping to fulfill more important, less tangible needs and desires. Referencing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs once more, we help our clients climb higher up the pyramid toward the peak. WOW again. This is not something that you can put a price on. This is not even something that you can easily measure. It is something that you have to experience.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
This simple “exercise” has made me understand that, although the base needs are a necessity (clean studio, professional staff, nice equipment), our true success as a business and as trainers is more than that. It is our ability to help people fulfill desires that go beyond their base needs. The quest for self-actualization is different for everyone, but it is blatantly obvious that an integral ingredient is having a healthy body and mind. It is true that, we can only go as far as the body and the mind can take us.
If you were to ask me, “what are you in the business of?” Last week I would have said that we were in the business of training people and helping them achieve their fitness goals. Now, I understand we are in the business of helping people obtain and accomplish their dreams.
In Health and Thanks,
Dan
