Leadership – John Mickelson's Soap Box

Taking Back Their Fight against Parkinson’s Disease

Kimberly and The Rose City Rebels- Taking Back Their Fight against Parkinson’s Disease

Meet Kimberly Berg Oregon coach specializing in Parkinson’s disease and injury rehab and owner of the Rebel Fit Club

Kimberly Berg is on a mission to help people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) change the course of their disease through exercise and dance.

Kimberly calls her students and clients with PD “fighters” because they are fighting a huge battle against an unforgiving disease. Everything she does with her fighters is to help them live their best life and give them hope to keep going, to keep fighting.

Today, Kimberly has 200 fighters and 20 very full boxing classes a week offered to 4 levels of fighters. Her fight club “The Rose City Rebels” and her all-female fight club the “Rose City Knock-Outs” bring awareness to the fact that PD is not an old man’s shaking disease, but rather a disease that can also affect women and young people all over the world. Every month they get together for “Fight and Flight” happy hour to show each other support, and go out dancing from time to time because PD is not an excuse to stop living life!

Continue reading “Taking Back Their Fight against Parkinson’s Disease” →

Amenities, FitLife, Leadership

Education To Better Work with Aging Population and Medical Conditions

Medical Fitness Tour 2018

Expand Your Knowledge in Medical Fitness And Active Ageing

The aging population is growing at an unprecedented rate, and those with medical conditions are seeking fitness & allied health professionals with skills to help improve their quality of life and overall health. Education in medical fitness and active aging is more important than ever!

The Medical Fitness Tour is working to educate professionals in these fields, so they can effectively work with these populations. Increased knowledge will not only broaden your toolbox, it will help boost your business.

Registration is open for Tour events in:

Phoenix, AZ, February 3-4, Ability360

Glassboro NJ, April 14-15, Rowan University

Continue reading “Education To Better Work with Aging Population and Medical Conditions” →

Amenities, FitLife, Giving Thanks, Leadership, Success

John’s December Musings

By John’s Musings

December is the month for giving, for making donations at the Salvation Army Red Kettle, for spending time with family and friends and wanting to give back to those less fortunate than ourselves. December is one of my favorite times of the year as it refocus me on what’s really important, helping to make lives better, provide hope and help people achieve a better quality of life. Those of you in the fitness industry are blessed with a bigger than normal heart and your members are often thought of as extended family. As I travel around north America, I’m amazed at the generosity I see in our industry and cherish the friendships I make as so many of you truly do want to make a difference and make the world a better place. In the new year, if there are “Giving Back” experiences you have witnessed or participated in, we would love to hear about them. If there are charitable organizations that need recognition or perhaps a donation, don’t be shy, let us know. We cherish our readership and are looking forward to 2018 as we have some exciting events to share with everyone.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New years

Collaboration, Leadership

Salute to our Soldiers

By Larry Conner

Our Salute our Soldier campaign started in 2013 from an idea sparked by the Bert Jacobs’ keynote speech at the IHRSA Convention in Marc h. Bert is the co-founder and CEO of Life is Good Company and during his talk he spoke about a fundraiser his company did for a children’s charity. This fundraiser was special and raised more than they imagined it could because they took it to the streets and created a visual that inspired and moved people who were not even aware of what was going on until they came upon it. The visual inspired and the message moved more to get involved.

At Stone Creek Club and Spa, we raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for numerous charities. We support a wide variety of causes dealing with Cancer, Parkinson’s, ALS, families with children with disabilities, animal shelters, schools, etc… All of these are great events and worthy charities, but only the people involved with the events are inspired to donate or to get involved. We are not moving people beyond the reach of the event. This talk made us realize that we could do something similar for a charity along the road our club is on. Take it to the streets. That is when we came up with flying Parade Flags along our street to Salute our Troops and to raise money to help injured Veterans. Move people by a strong show of Patriotism in support of our Troops. Our country needs this and so do our Troops. For a $25 donation, people could dedicate a flag with an inspirational message written on an attached yellow ribbon.

Continue reading “Salute to our Soldiers” →

Amenities, FitLife, Leadership, Success

John’s October Musings

By John’s Musings

Greetings from the high mountains of Reno/Tahoe

I’m so blessed with the different people that come into my life. The content for the October Soapbox is provided by people that want to make a difference, that have a “heart” to help others and provide a better membership experience.

Social media is a necessary part of branding an athletic facility and yourself. In today’s fitness industry, you need to distinguish yourself from your competitors and cultivating your brand via social media is one way to do so. Amanda Vogel is a fitness expert and speaker that educates decision makers on group exercise, social media, fitness writing and blogging. In this Soapbox issue she shares with us her latest podcast on “Your Guide to Guest Blogging as a Fitness Expert”. In her podcast she talks about 1)What is guest blogging 2) Does blogging benefit your business 3) How do you know if a blog accepts guest bloggers? 4) How can you make your blog stand out from the crowd 5) Common do’s and don’ts and other topics you should find of interest. Take 30 minutes out of your busy schedule and listen to her blog which I believe will give you insight on burnishing your brand and highlighting your facility and yourself.

Continue reading “John’s October Musings” →

Leadership, Wellness

A recap of Club Industries with Bill McBride

By: Bill McBride

Club Industry was an amazing event. Marty McCallen and Pam Kufahl did an incredible job with Penton Media in producing a spectacular conference and trade show. I was honored to be inducted as a Faculty Member of the Medical Wellness Association and to be able to deliver the Leadership Mastery Track with Brent Darden, Allison Flatley and Myself. We had very good attendance throughout the five session Certificate Program. Leadership – Management – People – Sales Management – The Product. Attendees came to learn and were engaging and inspiring. The entire Club Industry event was full of energy and a who’s who in the industry. This show is back in full force and firing on all cylinders. The venue of all events under one roof (The Hilton & Towers, Chicago) was perfect. No one will want to miss the education, vendor exhibits, connection and networking next year – if they do, it will definitely be their loss. The CEO Summit was also amazing with the leading CEOs in our Industry. The feedback has been great. I highly recommend everyone in our industry consider attending next year. It is very worthwhile. And for those of you that are budget conscious: “It’s better to train someone and have them leave, then not to train them and have them stay” – just saying 🙂

-Bill McBride

President & CEO, Active Wellness & BMC3

Amenities, Leadership

Hurricane Harvey Update with Brent Darden

By: Brent Darden

As of October 12^th, 2017, Brent Darden’s Campaign Raised $37,860! This is an amazing testament to how generous and supportive the fitness community is and we want to share one such example of that generosity:

Luke Carlson has done the best job of involving his club, staff, and members. See below what he did …It would be nice to share this example and acknowledge Luke’s leadership.

Here is what we did:

Our facilities are small personal training studios that focus on 1-on-1 and semi-private training. When Brent reached out to us, we decided to organize what we call a “Large Group Variety Workout.” We had trainers from all three of our locations donate their time and we planned a workout for late Saturday afternoon (after our normal closing time). We marketed to our clients that if they came in for that workout, all revenue would go to relief for this group of Houston clubs. Our trainers loved donating their time and talent, our clients received awesome workouts, and all of the revenue went to this important cause. Discover Strength then matched this revenue generated from the workout as well.

Leadership, Rex Roundtable

The Future Workers Are Here

by Will Phillips, the founder of REX Roundtables

Just when you’re getting your hands around millennial generation: how to sell to it; how to market to it; and how to work with millennial employees, here comes generation Z. Gen Z by David and Jonah Stillman looks at workers born between 1995 and 2012. That means the oldest are in their early 20s. You may even have some working for you right now!
Product Details Continue reading “The Future Workers Are Here” →

Leadership, Success, Wellness

Fitness Business Podcast #1 podcast globally for fitness business owners and managers.

by Chantal Brodrick

With 98,000 downloads across 100 shows to date, the podcast features our industries most awarded, recognised and experienced fitness leaders in addition to experts and authors from outside the industry.Guests include Casey Conrad, Todd Durkin, Bill McBride, Luke Carlson and Chuck Runyon.

The Fitness Business Podcast is a free weekly show, available to listen to through Itunes or directly from www.fitnessbusinesspodcast.com.

During April, The Fitness Business Podcast took a bird’s eye view into LA’s boutique studios from Soul Cycle to Barrys Bootcamp. We talked about: Continue reading “Fitness Business Podcast #1 podcast globally for fitness business owners and managers.” →

IHRSA, Leadership, Phit Act, Wellness

Join Thunderclap to #PassPhit

by Meredith Poppler

What is Thunderclap?
In our digital age, it is hard to be heard and capture people’s attention above all the noise. One person tweeting, calling or emailing can be the same as a person yelling across a full stadium to get the attention of someone on the other side. It is simply drowned out. But when the entire stadium yells the same message at the same time, not only is it heard, but it reverberates for miles. Thunderclap is a digital version of the entire stadium yelling the same message at the same time.

How Does Thunderclap Work? Continue reading “Join Thunderclap to #PassPhit” →

Industry Leaders, Leadership

Leadership Lessons

by Bill McBride

Sometimes business feels metaphorically like war. I say metaphorically because nothing in business compares to the pain, suffering and sacrifice our dedicated soldiers defending our great nation provide. But strategically and from a leadership perspective, there are so many lessons us civilians can learn from the great military leaders like Retired Secretary of State Colin Powell.

With strategic “battle” planning, one must take into account:

One’s Army – Team condition and capabilities. Competency, Readiness, Morale, & Confidence in leadership
The Enemy – Population Inactivity, “Substitutes” to our product offerings, and our Competition (although this makes us better and is not our core threat it is an adversary in talent and member acquisition)
The Geography & Climate – Local, state & federal economic factors, local & federal regulations, weather, workforce talent, population density and consumer demographics
Leadership & Strategy – Leadership & Strategy

Continue reading “Leadership Lessons” →

Leadership, Success

2017- The Year of Empowerment

by Latoya Bullard-Franklin – CEO, The Bulsard Group, LLC

Happy YOU Year!

This is your year, the year to focus on YOU! Your dreams, your goals, your aspirations! Every year for the past few years, I have noticed a central theme to manifest itself in my life throughout that year. This same theme manifested itself in the lives of many women in my circle as well. For 2017 it will be the year of YOU-the year of Empowerment!!!

What is this thing called empowerment? Empowerment is defined as the state of giving power or authority to someone or something officially. So, let’s officially give the power over our lives to ourselves, control our own destiny, and not let others control us. When we ask ourselves the following: “What will they think of me? What if they don’t like…? Who will support…? When will they…?”; we are enabling others to control who we are and what we do in our own lives. The energy spent on these statements should be put towards those that affirm like “Wait until they see me now!”, “Wait until I…!”, “What will I do to achieve…?!” Continue reading “2017- The Year of Empowerment” →